Hello, and thank you for taking a look at my FF of skyrim.

I hope you enjoy what i've thought up here =] I'm looking for a beta reader, if anybody is interested i'd appreciate one.

The chilling, night winds bit at the elf's bones. The pine trees were nearly barren, save for a few bristles near the top that lent a howl to the air. The darkness wrapped it's cold arms around her body and eyes, preventing even her elven eyes from seeing almost anything. The scant luminescence given by the stars was only able to outline the tree tops and occasional large rock. Listening closely, Neona could hear the night come to life over the gusting winds. Deer were foraging in a near by clearing, a fox or two were hiding in a bush watching her intently, and a nightingale trilled its seemingly random song a fair distance away. Neona lay on her side, the rocks and rough ground cut into her ribs, but it was the most comfortable spot she could find. She was hiding under a large tree that was partially uprooted ages ago. The large, gnarled roots hid her from view. Her belly grumbled angrily with hunger and whole body ached with pains. Scratched and bruised from pushing her body to run at its limits for days on end, she was also wore a deep gash down her side that would bleed should she move too much. That particular gash was awarded to her not a day before by one of the werewolf hunters who had been tailing her since she left Cyrodiil.

How could this have happened...

shivering in the bitter cold, Neona's mind wandered off as she drifted the to warm lands of dreams and fond memories. And nightmares.

- ~ o ~ - ~ o ~ - ~ o ~ -

"Where are you, Pup? It's time for dinner!"

"Coming, MaMa!" Neona said, popping her head out of a pile of wrestling wolf pups. After wriggling out of the pile, the little Neona nearly flew over the uneven, root riddled ground and through the shrubs and trees back to the solitairy little cottage her small family lived in. After seeing her father out front chopping wood for the evening fire, Neona prepared her sneak attack. Crouching low amongst some shrubs, Neona stood silently, planning her attack. She moved with the sound of her father splitting the wood, and went straight for the knees.

Neona yelled out her war cry a second before she made her mark, "Daddy!" she was able to make the man loose his balance, and ultimately fall on his rear, clutching the little bosmer child to his chest. A perfect take down.

"Hey, sweety!" the bosmer said after getting the little elf in a choke hold, noogy-ing her over the head before blowing air into her cheek. The little Neona squirmed and let out high pitched squeals of glee. After a few moments of fruitlessly trying to free herself, The little elf went limp in the bosmer's grasp.

"Oh no!" the man feigned a surprised gasp, laying the limp, bosmer child on the ground and put his head to her chest to check a heart beat "what have I done!"

"You've fallen into my trap!" she said, clinging to his head, placing her small hands over his eyes, and wrapping her tiny legs around the mans neck.

"Argh!" he said, standing up with her on his shoulders and waving his arms in front of him blindly.

"What am I going to do with you two?" a beautiful, female bosmer chuckled. She stood in the doorway to the small house, watching the entire scene.

"keep us and hope for the best!" the little bosmer child piped in enthusiastically. Her parents laughed.

"Come, it's time to eat." the woman said. The man walked inside the little house after placing a kiss on his wife's cheek. Neona was still on his shoulders, he and placed her down in one of the chairs around the small dining table.

it was a simple life, but the only one Neona knew. She didn't give it a second thought that she could play with wolves, or that her parents would transform when the moon was full. Although she had yet to make her first transformation, Neona thought that it was perfectly natural. She had lived a very secluded life when she was young, so she did not question a thing. After dinner was done and bellies were filled, Neona's energy was out and she went to bed in a small balcony upstairs. Her parents sat by the fire. A tense silence lingered in the room, offset only by the cackle of the flames and distant howls of wolves.

"She has to know, Love. We can't keep the truth from her, what if something happens?"

"She is too young, dear... She wouldn't understand what it means."

"She understands more than you know, she is getting smarter every day. She can't transform until she reaches maturity, but there are things that people are bound to notice. If we are not there to protect her..."

"Alright, alright. We will have to do it slowly, I don't want to scare her. Tomorrow well show her, alright darling?"

"Alright." a few moments passed. The man sat smoking a pipe, and the woman sat fletching arrows nervously.

"Honey?"

"Yes dear?"

"What would you say to giving our Neona a little sibling to play with?" she said, putting the arrow down and looking nervously at her feet.

"I was actually thinking the same thing, lately. Neona needs a friend to play with other than wolves and trees." the man spoke, pulling one last drag from his pipe. He looked over to his wife and locked gazes, when she stayed looking lovingly to her husband, he knew.

"No. You're...?" she nodded. The man smiled from ear to ear, picking his wife up lovingly, leading her to their bedroom.

After an evening of heated passion, the man woke with a start. He had heard something outside. His wife heard it as well, for she also stirred. After putting on a pair of pants, the father bosmer walked silently down the stairs, picking up a steep sword on his way down. His wife followed closely in a robe and held a notched long bow in her hands. The chilled night air greeted them outside as both listened for where the noises originated. At first there was nothing. Moments later an arrow whistled passed the mans ear, without hesitation, the female bosmer sent her arrow in the same direction, a satisfying thud followed by a scream of agony followed as she made her mark. She smiled and elbowed her husband in satisfaction. It was then that dozens of torches lit in from of their cottage. Her smile faded into terror.

"Get Neona! Run!" he screamed.

"But-"

"Run!" his voice growled as the transformation began, he dropped his sword. His form distorted. The night was filled with pops and cracks as the mans bones and muscles warped and contorted and white hair manifested all over his body. The werewolf hunters closed in on the cottage, throwing their torches on the house and brandishing silver weapons.

The woman rushed upstairs and grabbed her daughter out from her bed and rushed to the rear entrance. The ceiling collapsed over the exit just a second after she made it out. Sprinting through the forest, the woman clutched her dreamy eyed child to her chest, tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn't even make it through the thick of the forest before an arrow found its way to the back of her heart. She fell, and Neona tumbled a short ways in front of her, now fully awake.

"Mam-"

"Run, Neona! Dont look back, just run!" her mom yelled at her. Neona obediently did as her mother commanded.

All she remembered of that day were flames and tears and trees. Lots and lots of trees.

- ~ o ~ -~ o ~ -~ o ~ -

Neona woke with a start. She's had that nightmare over and over again, lately. Probably because she was in the same situation. Again. Running for her life through the forest, to a land she knew nothing of. Yup, same situation. She sighed. The sun was just beginning to rise, it was time to move again.

Grabbing what little gear she had, Neona made her way in the direction of the rising sun towards the town of Riften. Little did she know she was walking towards the town of Thieves.

Thank you for reading the first chapter of The Nord and the Nightingale,

In the next chapter, Neona arrives wounded at the town of Riften after a brief encounter with the werewolf hunters tracking her. Its there that she first encounters the thief Brynjolf.