Skyrim: Dark Firewood

From Helgen to Riverwood

Kerev awoke with a start, the sun blotching his vision. He hissed a small bit and let his eyes adjust, fading from black to see the trees surrounding him clearly as they passed by in the cart. He sat up amongst the various goods and wood carvings in the making that he and his friend had made, pulling his hair back and starting to tie it up.

"You're finally awake."

The voice of the high elf made Kerev perk up, shuffling his legs under the blankets and poking his head out of the small tarp roof of his makeshift shelter.

Hondil was smiling lazily, gently holding the reigns of their horse and keeping a soft eye on the road. He slowly turned to face Kerev, skin near glowing in the sun's light.

"You missed it, we've crossed into Skyrim. This is the start of a new life, brother." The high elf's voice was low and soft, but held just enough emotion to express the pure joy and excitement that buzzed through his bones.

Kerev smacked his teeth and scowled at Hondil, the gesture holding next to no weight. He crawled out of the back of their cart and sat next to Hondil, dragging his bow and arrows behind him.

Kerev bumped Hondil hard with an elbow, though the high elf seemed unbothered.

"You should've woken me up. What if someone tried to steal from us?" Kerev kept a careful eye out for anyone who might want to go for their cart, ready to protect what they owned.

Hondil kept his mouth closed around a deep, low chuckle. He rolled his shoulders back and lightly patted Kerev in the shoulder. The force made the smaller elf jolt forward.

"Kerev, you've done nothing but protect me and lose sleep. You deserved a nice rest."

Kerev rolled his eyes but didn't argue, merely glancing at Hondil's blind right eye. The wound was ugly, jagged, and yet Hondil still wore a crooked smile each and every day.

The cart rolled on and on, the sun rising high. When Kerev calmed down his stiff patrol of the roads, he began to scribble in a journal. It was worn from use over the years, the pages yellowish and curling up. Kerev only had a few pages left, but he didn't seem to notice.

'We're on the road to Skyrim--wait, no, I suppose we've been in Skyrim for quite some time. Either way, Hondil didn't let me see when we crossed the border. Tonight I'll let him sleep, and I won't wake him up. See how HE likes sleeping the day away, while I get to buy and sell our wares! It'll be such fun, I can't wait to see the look on his face.'

Kerev waited for the ink to dry before closing the book with a SNAP. He stuffed it in his shirt and looked around at the approaching walls of Helgen, holding his knees and kicking his feet.

Helgen itself wasn't too special for either elf, yet both felt like everything and everyone was a sight to behold. Skyrim was new, Skyrim could be fun. Skyrim could be home.

As Kerev thought of where they could set up, maybe even stay a bit longer than planned, a loud booming voice made his spine go rigid.

"Halt!"

Hondil straightened his back, glancing over at Kerev, his supposed protector. He bit his lip and moved his head away, eyes trained on the younger elf.

"Archers!!"

Kerev flinched as he felt Hondil's hand grip his wrist, stopping him from drawing his bowstring back. He shook a bit and slowly put the arrow away.

Hondil made sure most of his body hid the theif's corpse as it hit the stone road. He stopped the cart and watched, now noticing the large group of Stormcloaks standing beside the chopping block.