That's Madness (a Skyrim fanfiction)

Chapter Two - Innocence Lost

The next few days passed uneventfully. I had no more run-ins with strange jesters and I had instead focused on hand-to-hand combat and had practiced the fighting with Njada. I think mother and Njada used to have some problems with one another in the past, but they seem to be over it now. There is still some tension between them but, aside from that, everyone in The Companions likes each other. 

"We've been called to investigate Honourhall Orphanage," I overhear my mother mention to father as I watch Blaise and Lucia spar in the courtyard, a few days after my encounter with Cicero. Lucia is by far the superior fighter and Blaise is looking increasingly fed up. Blaise is certainly not a warrior, much to father's disappointment. He had always hoped for strong sons and he instead got two daughters and a son who hates sword fighting. 

While they fight, Torvar and Uncle Farkas practice with heavy two-handed battleaxes and Aela, one of my mother's best friends, shoots arrows while being blindfolded. That's the kind of archery skill I aspire to have. She doesn't hit the centre every time but she's almost always close to it. Aela is something else when it comes to archery and hunting. 

"Oh? Orphans running wild in the streets?" father sounds amused.

"Rumours of child abuse and exploitation," mother murmurs.

"Can I come?" I ask. "I mean, if you go to Riften,"

"You shouldn't be listening to this," mother snaps. "Go shoot some arrows,"

"Please? You know I love The Rift. We could make it a family holiday!" I try to persuade her. "We haven't been anywhere in a long time. And you haven't seen Mjoll in a long time either! I miss Mjoll-"

"This is official Companion business and I thought you didn't want to be part of us," father raises his eyebrows.

"Whatever," I mutter and I go up to where Aela is. I pick up a practice bow and a few arrows and I test out shooting with my eyes closed. I don't get the bullseye but I do manage to hit the targets. I hate it when people say being good at using a bow is all about focusing and really, really believing in you and your abilities. It is a load of dung, it's honestly about how good you are not about how you believe you're good. I'm not a good archer because I believe I am. I'm a good archer because I practice hard every day, just like Aela. 

There's quite a few warriors in Jorrvaskr. There's my mother, the Harbinger, and my father who's kind of like a master-at-arms/in charge of recruitment. The Circle are the elite group of warriors who train the others. There are five Circle members and they include: my father, Aela, my Uncle Farkas, Njada and Athis. There was a sixth, Ria, but she passed away a few weeks ago. I liked her, but I didn't know her very well as she specialised in two-handed weapons so she trained with Torvar, father, Uncle Farkas and sometimes Lucia.

After the Circle, there's just the usual warriors. There's four of them: Torvar, Helga, Sven and Nadia. Torvar, Helga and Sven are all Nords and Nadia is a Redguard. Nadia and Helga specialise in one-handed weapons and Sven relies on a shield and magic. He's the first ever magic-only user we've had and Blaise is absolutely fascinated by him.

After twenty minutes of archery practice, I hang the practice bow up and I head up to where Eorlund is smithing. His son, Avulstein, is working on some swords and repairing armour for the Guards. Tensions within Skyrim are increasing everyday and there's rumours of Ulfric planning to actually attack Whiterun...hopefully, we'll never allow that to happen.

Ulfric used to control all of Skyrim after kicking out the Empire and the Thalmor but after a few years they came back and after a quick war, Lady Elenwen was restored as Ambassador of the Thalmor, Ulfric was arrested and kicked off the throne and Jarl Elisif was crowned as High Queen. Ulfric was released from imprisonment and he's been trying to rally the Holds again, and is somewhat succeeding.