Keolah woke slowly, jostled awake by the shaking of the cart and blinking blurrily up at the sky. She tried to brush her auburn hair out of her face, but found her hands bound. Frowning in confusion, she looked to the others in the cart with her. Three blond men, Nords most likely.

"Finally awake, are you?" said one of the Nords. "Trying to cross the border, were you?"

"Was I?" Keolah wondered. "Where am I?"

"They must've hit you good on the head when they captured you. You walked right into that ambush, just like we did. Well, my name's Ralof, and you're in Skyrim. Not sure where they're taking us or where exactly on the road we are, though."

"What am I doing in Skyrim?" Keolah said, frowning again. "Was I supposed to meet someone here? Do something? Or did I just get lost?"

"You'd know that better than me," Ralof said. "Doesn't matter now, though. They're probably going to execute the lot of us."

"Oh, well, that's not very pleasant," Keolah said. "Who is they, anyway?"

"The Imperials, of course," Ralof explained.

"Why would the Imperials want to execute us?"

"You really don't know? We're rebels. Stormcloaks, they call us. You are in the presence of Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak himself." He inclined his head toward the man at Keolah's right, the only one of them who was gagged.

"Who?" Keolah said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'd have thought even down south they've have heard of the war going on up here," Ralof said.

"I'm not with these rebels," said the other Nord who wasn't gagged. "I was just trying to steal a horse and get to Hammerfell."

Keolah leaned back, and said absently, "The sky is lovely today. Although the cart is awfully uncomfortable, and I wish my hands weren't tied. I have an itch."

The carts pulled into a town, and she could hear voices. Women, children, watching as they came through. Keolah shifted to get a better look at her surroundings. Squat, drab buildings made of rough wood and stone.

"The architecture around here has no style to it," Keolah commented. "Everything just looks like boxes, thrown together with no art. And it's all gray and brown!"

"We're probably going to die, and you're complaining about the buildings?" Ralof said.

"I don't want to die somewhere that's so brown!"

"That wouldn't be my biggest worry," the horse thief said.

She tried to get a fire spell off to burn these ropes away, but she couldn't make the proper gestures with her hands bound, and no magic came forth.

The cart stopped, and they got off, their names being called one by one. The soldier reading the list stopped and looked at her strangely when she came forth last. "Wait. Who are you?"

"Keolah," she replied.

"Are you with the Thalmor embassy?" the soldier asked. "No, that can't be right." He turned to the captain and asked, "What should we do? She's not on the list."

"Forget the list. She goes to the block."

"I'm afraid that I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere," Keolah said. "I meant to stop and ask directions, I think. I shouldn't even be here."

"She goes to the block!" the captain insisted, ignoring her.

Keolah sighed and turned away, looking at her fellow prisoners, Nords all of them. Wasn't it obvious that she didn't belong here? That she wasn't with them?

An unearthly wail could be heard in the distance, and Keolah peered off, frowning thoughtfully. Was that the cry of some indigenous Skyrim wildlife? No, the others here didn't seem to know what it was, either.

As the first of the rebels went to his execution, Keolah turned away, unable to watch as they cut off his head. She swayed on her feet and felt like she was going to be sick.

"Next, the high elf!" the captain called.

Were they calling for her? They must be. There weren't any other high elf prisoners here. She was so nervous and distracted that she hardly noticed that sound come again. Keolah stepped forward reluctantly, at the prodding of the soldiers behind her. As they pushed her to her knees toward the block, Keolah found herself looking at the severed head of the last man they'd executed. In disgust, she turned her head to look away. Staring at the headsman and his bloody axe wasn't much of an improvement, however.

A shriek split the sky a third time, much closer this time, and from above the tower behind the executioner, a figure emerged silhouetted against the sky. Not a bird, but a great reptilian creature with enormous wings. It flew forward and landed on the tower, raining fire down upon the courtyard. The headsman stumbles, and she rolled away, clenching her eyes shut against the stinging flames.

"Hey, high elf!" called a voice. "Get up! This may be the only chance we get!"

Who was yelling? She blinked for a moment, her vision blurry, and saw the vague shape of a man before her.

"Come on! This way!"

Right, he was the man on the cart with her. She stumbled to her feet and scrambled after him. It's not like she had anywhere better to go under the circumstances. He led her off into a nearby stone tower and shut the door behind her. Good thinking, at least it wasn't going to burn down.

"That's a magnificent dragon," Keolah commented thoughtfully. "I never thought I'd actually get to see one..."

"I'm not feeling quite so privileged about that at the moment," Ralof said.

"We must get moving," said another Nord. Ah, he was the other man who had been on the cart, the one who had been gagged.

There were a few more rebels laying wounded on the floor in the tower. The Nord tending to them said, "Another moment out with that dragon and they'd be dead."

"I'm a mage," Keolah said, turning to Ulfric. "I can heal them if you release my bonds."

Ulfric looked to her distrustfully for a moment, then nodded and cut the ropes from her hands. Keolah bowed her head to him in thanks, and turned to the wounded Nords. She channeled forth healing magic into them, restoring their bodies and getting them back on their feet again.

"You have my gratitude, high elf," Ulfric said, visibly relaxing a bit. "But we must go. Up the tower, now!"

"Yes, sir!" Keolah said, turning to scramble up the stairs.

The dragon knocked out a section of the wall ahead of her from outside, sending stones tumbling. Keolah got a very close look at the dragon's face as it sent a gout of flame directly in at her.

"By all the gods, I'm on fire!" Keolah shrieked, stumbling back and falling down the stairs. She frantically waved her hands and channeled healing magic to abate the stinging pain as one of the Stormcloaks smothered the fire on her.

"You alright, high elf?" Ulfric asked.

Keolah nodded shakily. For once, she was glad to be wearing these rags. She would hate for a nice dress to have been ruined like that.

"We've got to get moving," Ulfric said. "We can't stay here."

"There's an inn just across," Ralof said from above her, looking out at the hole the dragon made. "Jump across, and we'll follow as we can."

Keolah wasn't too keen on the idea of going first, or even of running out into the open with a dragon on the loose, but it clearly wasn't safe to hide in here, either. She just nodded and ran up the stairs, and took a leap out onto the inn. Her landing could have been better, however, as she stumbled and very nearly fell off of the inn. She grabbed onto the broken building with her hands desperately, slipped and went tumbling to the ground anyway.

"Oh, bother," Keolah muttered, and circled around back into the tower.

"What are you doing back in here?" Ulfric asked.

"Sorry, I missed the jump," Keolah explained, then climbed up the stairs to try it again.

She didn't quite make it that time, either, so she came around to make a third attempt. The Stormcloaks were looking at her strangely by that point, but at least she managed a solid landing that time. Keolah ran across the ruined upper storey of the inn and fell through a hole in the floor.

Keolah wasn't quite certain just where she was at that point, and so proceeded to run around wildly, attempting to escape from the dragon. She didn't really care which direction she was going, so long as it was away from the dragon. Unfortunately, it was a lot faster than it looked for something that big, and seemed to be everywhere she tried to go.

Somebody was yelling to her, "With me, prisoner!" She didn't think she cared to go with anyone who called her "prisoner", however, as he was probably one of those who had been trying to execute her when the dragon showed up. Still, beggars can't be choosers, and at least he seemed to have the same idea of getting away from the dragon.

Not that that stopped her from getting lost in the wreckage of the village anyway. She must have backtracked at least five times because the dragon had appeared directly in front of her. Where was Ulfric in all of this? And the other Stormcloaks? Ah! There was one of them, ahead of her. She ran over toward him.

"Ralof, you traitor!" shouted an Imperial soldier. Probably the one who had been failing to get her to follow him around, she thought.

"We're escaping, Hadvar," Ralof said. "You can't stop us this time."

"Yeah!" Keolah agreed. "Yeah, we're escaping. How in Oblivion do we get out of here?"

"You really are with them, high elf?" Hadvar asked. "Fine, I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde!"

"Come on, this way," Ralof said, gesturing to her and heading toward a door leading into the keep. At least that seemed somewhat safer than running around blindly up here. Keolah followed after him, sticking her tongue out at Hadvar on the way.

"What happened to the others?" Keolah asked. "Where's Ulfric?"

Ralof shook his head. "We got separated. I'm sure he'll make it out alright, though. It'll take more than a dragon to stop Ulfric Stormcloak." He went over to the body of another Stormcloak laying on the floor. "Ah, poor Gunjar. We'll meet again in Sovngarde, brother." He turned to Keolah. "You should grab his equipment. He doesn't need it any longer."

"Ew! No!" Keolah protested. "I'm not wearing anything that somebody died in!"

"Suit yourself," Ralof said. "Let's see if we can find a way out of here." He examined one of the barred doors leading out of the room. "Bah, it's locked." There came the sound of voices and footsteps from the opposite corridor. "Imperials! Take cover!"

A pair of Imperial soldiers came into the room. "Look, it's the prisoners! They're trying to escape! Get them!"

"Oh, come on!" Keolah said. "There's a dragon attacking the village! Don't you have other things to worry about than us?"

They didn't listen to her, however, and slashed at Ralof with their swords.

"Don't you dare hurt him! He's my friend!" Keolah lifted her hands and channeled healing magic at him.

Ralof hacked the Imperial soldiers apart with his war axe. "Thanks for the help," he said once they were dead. "I guess you're not much of a combatant, are you. Well, I certainly couldn't complain about having a healer around, though."

"You killed them," Keolah said a little numbly, staring at the bloody bodies on the floor. "I... guess it serves them right, though. They were trying to kill us, after all."

Ralof bent over to search the bodies. "Never killed anyone before, I take it?"

"No! Of course not. I mean, I don't think so. Well, I didn't mean to at any rate."

"Uh-huh," Ralof said.

Having found a key on one of the Imperial soldiers, he went over to unlock the door leading further into the keep. Keolah followed after him as they headed down into the dungeons.

"By Talos, a torture room..." Ralof murmured.

"TORTURE BAD!" Keolah yelled.

She charged in and cast a flame spell, setting the Imperial torturer on fire. Once he was dead, she set about to healing the Stormcloaks who had been fighting him and his assistant.

"I meant to do that," Keolah said.

"I'm... glad to hear that," Ralof said uncertainly. "I think."

They continued on further. Past the dungeon, they came to a series of caves with a stream trickling through it. Unfortunately, the caves were also occupied by giant spiders. One of them jumped down from the ceiling directly in front of Keolah. She shrieked and leaped back, raising her hands to send a gout of flame at the monsters.

"Eek! Spiders!"

"I hate those things, too," Ralof agreed, sinking his sword into one of them.

"Die, die, die!" Keolah cried, sending fire flying everywhere. "Are they dead yet?"

Ralof batted out his cloak. "Um. Yeah. They're dead."

"Oh, sorry, did I hit you?" Keolah cast healing magic at him.

"I'm alright now, thanks."

"Hmm," Keolah said, turning away and taking a closer look around the cavern. Amidst the moss and lichen, there were a number of spider egg sacs. Those were kind of neat. She'd heard about things that could be done with them. She'd never actually done any alchemy before, but she'd always wanted to try it out. For some reason, however, people hadn't wanted her messing around with things that could potentially explode. She had no idea why.

"What are you doing?" Ralof asked.

"Collecting spider eggs," Keolah replied, tucking another away in her pouch.

"We really should get out of here," Ralof said. "That dragon is still out there. Although I suppose the alchemical ingredients might be helpful later..."

Further on down the cave, Ralof put a hand on Keolah's shoulder to stop her.

"There's a bear just ahead," Ralof whispered. "See her?"

"I don't see anything," Keolah said, perhaps a little too loudly. She peered about in the general direction that he was pointing in.

"She's right there!" Ralof insisted.

"All I see are some boulders," Keolah said, frowning.

Ralof sighed. "What, are you blind? There's a bear, right there!"

The bear, disturbed by their arguing, slowly stood up and could not ignore them any longer. Now Keolah saw it, a massive wall of fur and fangs charging at them. Keolah shrieked and ran headlong down the tunnel, Ralof keeping pace right beside her.

"I really hope this isn't a dead-end," Ralof said, panting and not looking back at the snarling bear. "Look! Light up ahead! Thank Talos, this must be the way out!"

Fortunately, the bear didn't seem inclined to follow them out of the cave, although the two of them continued on for a fair stretch into the sunlight before they stopped running.

Ralof rested his hands on his knees and paused to catch his breath. "Well. We made it. We're free! And still alive."

"Does everything in Skyrim try to kill you?" Keolah wondered.

"Well, not everything," Ralof said. "The rabbits are pretty docile. Usually."

"Usually?" Keolah wondered, eyes widening, and he grinned back at her.

Ralof started going on about how his sister ran a mill in a nearby village, but Keolah wasn't really paying attention. They were on a dirt path leading down a hill, and the sun was streaming down all around them. Flowers of various colors adorned the shrubbery nearby, and Keolah went over to collect some. They were such a lovely bit of color in the sea of brown.

"You're picking flowers now?" Ralof said incredulously. "We need to keep moving. This place will be swarming with Imperials soon."

"Oh," Keolah said, glancing up absently. "Is that a problem?"

"You know, the Imperials?" Ralof said, raising an eyebrow. "The ones who were about to execute you, and have been trying to kill us?"

"Oh. Right. Them."

"Yeah. Them," Ralof said. "So we'd best get moving, or they might attack us again."

"Look!" Keolah exclaimed, holding up her cupped hands. "I caught a butterfly!"