On My Own ....

Allysian Liore - Imperial

(Apologies in advance of the perspective switch, this was brought on by the posting styles of others in the roleplay, I complied with them.)

Bolting out of Beggar's Row, the blood still fresh on her clothing, Allysian sprinted up the steps connecting Riften's waterway to their city proper. She considered diving into the stagnant, foul smelling water, but thought better of it. As she made her way under the cover of darkness she noticed another Argonian take sight of her. Was this a friend of the one she had just killed? Fearful, she sprinted for the city gate.

Surprisingly, the area was unguarded. After closing the heavy city gate behind her, she heard a town guard whistling in the bushes, the obvious sounds of a man urinating accompanying his tune. Allysian made her way down the road stopping for a moment before passing the three guard towers that loomed over her path. She snuck up against the tower and waited for a moment, planning her next move. Dawn was quickly approaching, they'd spot her soon if she didn't get moving. She crawled among the bushes until she was out of sight of the towers.

The blood on her clothes was starting to dry, no doubt that they would be forever stained at this point. Figuring she may have to spend an extended amount of time outside the walls, Ally began foraging for alchemical supplies. Flowers, mushrooms, were all extremely useful. Ally had a particular knack for catching butterflies. She deftly caught several as well as luckily stumbling upon a valuable Luna Moth. She tucked all of the valuable ingredients carefully into her satchel when a noise startled her. A howl. Then another.

The howls were fairly loud, the wolves must be close. Ally crouched down and scanned her surroundings. Being an alchemist by trade, she was oftentimes out in the wild, defending herself against animal attacks was nothing new. Snarling erupted from the clearing just in front of her. There were two wolves chasing a deer. One wolf leapt onto the back of the deer as the deer swung around and smashed its hard antlers into the side of the other wolf. The impact jarred the leaping wolf off and the deer escaped into the forest with the wolf giving chase.

The injured wolf appeared dazed as Ally spied it from across the clearing. Wolf pelts can be useful, perhaps she could sell the pelt back in town she thought. Ally charged at the wolf dagger at the ready. The wolf, in one last desperate attempt for survival leapt at her catching the rusty dagger in its throat and slumped to the ground. Ally knelt next to the fallen animal and removed some of its hide. She left it on a nearby rock to dry, it would take up too much space in her satchel to take it with her now. She hoped that the smell wouldn't attract more predators.

Feeling a bit more adventurous and confident, Ally set off deeper into Riften's surrounding woodlands. She came across the strange corpse of a Nordic man. By the looks of him, he appeared to be a farmer and by the smell of him had been dead for days. Strange to see a farmer so far from town, but then again, no less strange than herself being out there, she thought. The farmer was badly torn up. It looked to be the work of animals rather than by a bandit's blade. She inspected the Farmer's pack and found some clothes that at a glance were petite enough to fit her and a dozen septims. There was nothing else of value he carried. Throwing modesty out the door, Ally took off her stained garments and rolled them up and shoved them into her satchel. The clothing she recovered from the Farmer fit well enough. It'll do, she thought, and set off again.

Eventually she made her way up to what appeared to be an abandoned mine. The carving above the entrance said "Lost Prospect Mine". The undisturbed cobwebs near the entrance made her feel a bit safer that she wouldn't find anybody or anything inside.

She closed the doors behind her and made her way into the mine. Thankfully the early morning sunlight shone brightly through the small windows carved into the doors. There was enough light that she could navigate the shallower areas of the mine without much trouble. She scavenged some mushrooms, picked up a pickaxe, and was fortunate enough to find an Iron Helm that fit her well enough. She thought she probably looked ridiculous wearing it, but at least it provided some measure of safety. Without a torch, and with the sunlight waning as the sun crested into the sky, she thought better of delving deeper into the mine. It was as she assumed anyway, abandoned. There was little of use in there aside from the helm, a single health potion, and an abundance of Blisterwort mushrooms. Sadly, not a single usable ore vein.

Around midday, Ally sat for a bit after gathering more ingredients from the local fauna. Figuring she would get dirty again, Allysian once again put on her old, stained clothes. Her dirty tunic was a red and brown crusty mess. The mud from her foraging covered up the blood nicely, she thought. As she sat, she noticed some deer just ahead of her, without a bow it was pointless to think of hunting the quick footed animals. The deer never noticed her, but took off all the same. Allysian heard the familiar clang of steel on steel.

"For the Stormcloaks!" she heard someone shout. The battle was over in seconds. Blaming a lapse in judgement, Ally headed off to see what the commotion was about. Four dead soldiers lay on the ground, three in all too familiar Imperial issue garb, the other in a blue-gray uniform. The survivors were two more of the blue-grays. They spotted her in the bushes and called out to her, she was obviously not hostile.

"You there, this is none of your concern citizen. Its best you move along," said the bigger of the two soldiers, the one holding the warhammer. Ally emerged from the bushes and walked over to the two soldiers. "What are you doing out here? It's not safe for a woman with no escort. Is everything okay?"

"Yes I am fine sirs, thank you. I'm a bit down on my luck, would it be too much to ask if I might take one of the Imperial's unused steel? I don't think he has any use for it," she inquired. The shield-bearing soldier knelt down and grabbed two steel daggers off the dead Imperials' belts.

"Here that should do. Better than that rusty iron at your hip eh?"

"Definitely, thank you sir," she remarked, embarrassed.

"You look a bit peaked, lass. Here take some of my bread and salted beef. You look like you could use a meal," the soldier fumbled around in his satchel and handed the food to Ally. "Here, take this too, wouldn't want you blind at night," the soldier then handed her a torch. "If you know of anybody wanting to join the rebellion, you ought steer them to Windhelm. We need all the decent blades we can find. Be safe now." The two soldiers picked up their fallen comrade and hauled him off.

Ally decided maybe it was time to start heading back to Riften. She figured to backtrack to where she had left the wolf pelt out to dry and pick it up, but couldn't remember exactly where it was. Obviously not in the right place, she ended up at the ruin of an old guard turret. She noticed a chest half buried in the brush and opened it up revealing a piece of armor, a red gemstone, and four lockpicks. Ally held the gemstone up to the sun, unable to tell whether it was a ruby or a garnet. She quickly put the lockpicks and gemstone into her satchel and inspected the armor. It was iron and heavy, but looked to be in decent enough shape. Thankfully, there was no blood on it. She slid her arms into the chest piece and pulled it over her head. Although it was heavy, it didn't feel so ungainly once it was on. Easier to wear it than carry it, she concluded. She felt a little better about the silly helmet now. Ally threw her old dirty tunic into the chest and slammed the lid shut. A light snowfall began as Ally tried to remember her way back to the wolf pelt.

As she was making her way up the road, she heard the clip-clopping of a horse coming up behind her. As she turned around, she saw what appeared to be an Orc hopping off the horse. Figuring he was friendly, she started walking over to him. The Orc charged at her weaponless and armorless, armed with just his fists and his attitude. The Orc slammed a fist into Ally's helmet, knocking the ill fitting hat sideways. With his opponent unable to see, the Orc continued raining blows down on Ally, his fists mostly just finding armor. Helmeted or not, the blows to her head were starting to take their toll. The inside of the helmet began cutting into Ally's skull, deeper and wider with every successive blow the Orc landed.

Finally Ally was able to roll out of his grasp and straighten out her helmet. She unsheathed her new steel dagger and stabbed at the ferocious green-skinned Orc. She sliced at him, cutting him in his belly and gashing his arm. The unarmored Orc was reeling.

Ally mounted another assault and plunged her dagger into the Orc's unprotected left breast. The Orc fell to the ground gasping, his death knell coming a few seconds later. Ally slumped to the ground next to her fallen opponent, her head still spinning from the melee. After resting for a few minutes, Ally got to her feet and made her way over to the Orc's horse. She inspected the saddlebags and found a few things of value, some Iron Ingots, a bit of leather, quite a bit of septims and some food and drink. She consumed the Orc's cache of food and ripped a few strips of cloth off of the Orc and bandaged her head the best she could. While the bleeding had stopped, her dizziness had not. Darkness would be upon her soon, she had to get back to town.

Allysian mounted the Orc's horse and followed the way-finding signs back to Riften. At least she had enough money in her pocket to rent a room this time.