A Skyrim Story

Chapter 4

"What!" Legate Rikke shouted.

"How did she get out? I haven't seen anyone walk by this room and out the door," General Tullius questioned. He glanced over at the two soldiers that just greeted him.

"We were just down there. She was just sitting in her cell. It was locked solid, I checked," The Whiterun Knight tried to explain. He looked around a little helplessly.

"When you both left, I went over to a side chamber to get the prisoners their meals, and there was this crash. I sprinted over to see what happened, and there was a hole in her wall. We don't know where the tunnel leads," the soldier that just came in told everyone.

"Damn it all. We just can't get a break," General Tullius sighed as he put his fist on the table. "You, go find her. She now has another crime on top of thief and trespassing. You two, go down and fix the cell. Make sure that none of the other prisoners can escape." As he was saying this, he motioned to The Whiterun Knight first, then the other two guards standing by.

"Yes, Sir," they all said before they left to complete their orders.

The Whiterun Knight threw open the doors of Castle Dour, running over to where the blacksmith is to see if he can catch sight of the runaway prisoner. Sure enough, she was dashing across the marketplace, a few guards were yelling after her to halt. He ran down the path, into the town, and down to the door that lead outside of Solitude. He thought that surely he could catch her on the bridge, but she took off and jumped into the river. This caused The Whiterun Knight to pause for a bit, just to revel in the absurdity of a Khajiit swimming to get away, but decided to follow her anyway. He was given an order to bring her back after all.

As soon as he jumped in the water, the bandages that were around his torso became waterlogged and weighed him down. He figured that the health potion was enough to prevent any sever damage he had, and the water would help clean any of the wounds that were still open. So as he was swimming along, he unwrapped the cloth from under his shirt and let it be pushed downstream by the current. Once he was lighter, he continued swimming after the prisoner.

It only took a few minutes to reach the other side. Pulling himself out of the water, he scanned his surroundings to try and figure out where the Khajiit could have gone. He caught sight of something moving in the distance, and darted after it. The fog was heavy in the swamp between the two North-Western holds, but some areas were less dense than others, and The Whiterun Knight used that to his advantage.

Moli-anj looked over her shoulder when she heard a splash. Sure enough, that soldier she saw wearing that beaten up guard's helmet was following her. Her only hope was that he would get lost in the swamp or that the fog would be too heavy for him to follow her all the way. Since there was no way to turn around without other guards catching her, and going directly to Morthal would also seal her fate, she decided to change her direction and head up towards the sea. There were a lot of ruins in the swamp, which meant a bunch of creatures. She was praying to any of the divines that would listen that something would come out and slow him down.

Even though years of training as a thief had made her fast, years of practice as a guard had allowed for The Whiterun Knight to be just as quick. When she changed directions, he was able to keep up. They ran past a shack the look abandoned. The Whiterun Knight had no idea how long it had been there, but he had never noticed it before. They both kept on running, splashing the water and disturbing any mudcrabs that had been nestled just below the sand.

Eventually, Moli-anj saw another house. This one was much grander the area would suggest. It had two towers, one on the right side and one on the back. The left side, where they were approaching from, was slanted. There were a few animals around the property, and some necessary smithing machinery was strewn around the yard. None of this mattered to her, except for the fact that it looked mostly abandoned. She saw it as an opportunity to escape her tracker. Even though her legs were tired, and her lungs were screaming at her to slow down, she pressed on trying desperately to get into this house.

The Whiterun Knight also saw this mansion in the middle of nowhere. He was starting to wonder how many other buildings existed in the area that he never knew about. Understanding how the pace of the chase picked up, his chasee must have seen the house as an opportunity. Moli-anj reached the house and jumped up all the steps to try the door. To both of their surprise, it was unlocked. She bolted inside and tried to close the door behind her, but The Whiterun Knight caught up just in time. He wrenched the door open, causing Moli-anj to lose her balance. She fell onto her back, knocking the wind out of her. The Whiterun Knight was moving too fast to avoid her, causing him to also fall on the ground. Both of them laid there for a moment, trying to catch their breath. Eventually, the sound of footsteps alerted them of someone else's presences.

"Brick?"