Luna walked the field just outside of Whiterun looking for her prey. Today it was deer. She quietly walked by a mammoth not one hundred feet away, knowing that trying for it was still beyond her level. She saw its giant gaurdians just inside the limits of vision. They watched her as she watched them. She slowly moved on with her bow at the ready, an arrow slightly drawn back. Finally, after another ten minutes of walking, she spotted her first prize. The deer wasn't as big as the largest one she had slain the day before, but this one wasn't something to be sneezed at, either. Luna drew her arrow all the way back and crouched as low as she could. Just as she was about to take the shot and claim her prize, the deer looked up. Its ears turned quickly in all directions and then the animal took off. Luna was upset, as she was sure she hadn't made a sound loud enough to spook the deer... and then she heard it:
"Help! Somebody help us!"
Luna knew that cry would go unheard by everyone but her. They were too far out for the city guards to hear and far enough off the road that a traveler would not venture to investigate. She liked it out here, there was good hunting and very little noise from other hunters.
She pinpointed the location of the cry from just over a nearby hill. She ran towards the hill and climbed it quickly. When she reached the top, she looked for the source of the distress call. She didn't have to look hard because she soon spotted two men standing back to back at the bottom of the hill. They were surrounded by wolves, ten of them by her count. The men didn't appear to have any weapons and she briefly wondered why they were out so far. She didn't have time to mull it over as the alpha wolf stepped up towards the men, ready to strike. One of the men screamed in terror and Luna readied her bow again. The shot would be easy, she had made trickier shots in the past. She aimed carefully and then let the arrow fly.
The arrow struck directly into the alpha's eye and straight into its brain. The alpha wolf remained standing for a moment before its dead body collasped to the ground. The men looked around at that and so did the wolves. Just as they spotted her, Luna let loose another arrow. This one found its way into the top of a wolf's skull, piercing it all the way through so that it came out the bottom of its chin.
Luna quickly switched from her bow to her sword and shield as the remaining eight wolves advanced quicker and quicker toward her. The first wolf to make it to her lunged with all its might. She held up her shield in front of her face just in time that the wolf bounced off of it and she brought her sword down hard. The sword sliced right through the wolf, cutting it in half. The two halves of her attacker fell to the ground and she faced the other six wolves standing in front of her. It took her a beat too long to assess the situation.
"Watch out!"
The warning came too late. Luna felt the searing pain as the wolf bit into her upper left arm. She screamed and her shield dropped to the ground. Quickly she turned and jabbed her sword up through the wolf's neck. She closed her eyes instintively as the blood sprayed from the animal and some got on her face. The wolf died which caused it to release her arm. The carcass fell to the earth. She left her shield on the ground, knowing her arm was in too much pain to pick it up again. Instead, she readied a fire spell in her left hand and pointed it at the remaining wolves. With a flick of her wrist she sent a torrent of flames toward her attackers. Before they could react, the wolves were on fire. A few started to run around in circles, but the rest ran up to her.
The first one lunged for her and she artfully dodged to the right. She brought her sword down as the wolf was passing her and stabbed through its back, until the sword came poked out of its belly. The next wolf that came for her received another hefty dose of fire and she watched as it burned to ashes in front of her. The last wolf to make it's way towards her jumped and aimed straight for her head. With all the skill she could muster she waited a moment before the wolf was in the perfect position strike. Then she deftly sliced the head from its body in midair. She ducked as the carcass went flying over her.
Luna turned to the remaining wolves. She watched in amazement as two of them fled in opposite directions. The last wolf had apparently rolled around on the ground long enough to exinguish the flames. It stood and growled at Luna, who smirked as she readied a new spell she had been hoping to try out. Before the wolf could lunge, she sent freezing cold air out towards the lone adversary and within seconds the wolf was frozen soild. Luna slowly put away her sword and went to collect her sheild. As she was picking it up off the ground the two men she had just saved from certain death walked over to her.
"By the Eight, that was amazing! Thank you for the rescue," one of the two men said, gratefully.
"I'm sure if someone else had heard you they would have helped, too," Luna replied with a shrug as she palced her shield on her back.
The men were both nords and farmers from the look of them. The other man stepped forward and shook his head. "Most people would have left us to the wolves... but you saved us," he said.
"What are you doing out here anyway?"
The men looked at each other and then sighed. "We were looking for a mystic sword that is said to be in this area, but it's really not worth all of this trouble," one of the two responded. "Here." The man handed Luna a rolled up piece of paper. Curious, Luna unrolled it to find a map of the area, with a large 'X' marked on it. "And take this as well," he continued, handing her a health potion and a small bag of gold.
"Oh no, I couldn't take these," Luna said, trying to hand back the items. The men refused to take them.
"We insist. You saved our lives. It's the least we can do! In fact, is there anything else you need?"
Luna eyed the men and then her focus changed to the alpha wolf's carcass. It was a fairly large wolf and the pelt would fetch a nice price, not to mention what she could get in return for any pelts she could salvage from the rest of the pack.
"Well, if you could let me have the wolf pelts that would be nice. I'm trying to get in good with the local hunter so that he'll teach me some of his advanced skills."
The men looked at each other and then at the wolf carcasses all around them. "Be our guests, we were never planning to take the wolf pelts, so you are free to them," they agreed.
"Thank you," Luna said with a smile at the men. She uncorked the healing potion and drank it down quickly, ignoring the bitter aftertaste as she always did. After a moment she looked down at her arm and watched as it slowly started to heal. She looked up at the men and then back in the direction of Whiterun. "If you wait I can escort you both to Whiterun."
"That would be very kind, I think we'll take you up on that offer," the first man said as he looked to his partner to ensure that the other man nodded in approval.
"Very well. Let me just get the alpha's pelt then." Luna placed the map in her bag and the gold in her money pouch. She walked over to the alpha and analyzed the other wolves. It looked like only the alpha and the second wolf she killed would fetch any gold at market. The second wolf was fairly small though, probably out on it's first hunt with the pack. She fished out her dagger and went about skinning the alpha. It didn't take long for her pratciced hand to complete the job, and she placed the pelt in her pack. She walked over to where the men were now sitting as they waited for her. They both looked up as she came nearer.
"All done?" asked the first man.
Luna nodded and looked back to the wolves. "Yes. It seems only the alpha will get me any gold."
"That's too bad."
"The alpha is fairly big and the arrow piecred its eye, so there isn't any torn fur. The pelt buyer ought to be fairly pleased with this," she explained. "It's not really about the gold, anyway."
The man nodded and he stood up. He walked over and helped his buddy to his feet. The three began to trek quietly towards Whiterun, but the silence didn't last long.
"Might we know our savior's name?"
"It's Luna," she responded, smiling at the men. "What about you two?"
"I'm Thaak and this is Aevdnar."
"It's nice to meet you both, even though we could have met under better circumstances. Are you two farmers?"
Thaak nodded but it was Aevdnar that spoke up. "From the same farm, in fact. It's just outside of Riften."
"Well, you're quite a long way from home," Luna commented. "Where did you find this map?"
"One day we came outside and found a dead adventurer in our field," Aevdnar explained. "Before we hauled him off we checked his stuff and found the map. We had it for a year before we finally decided to actually look into it, but it seems we didn't prepare well enough."
"You don't even have weapons."
"We couldn't afford them. We thought the cave might be abadoned and we could just walk in and take the sword. Then if we got into any trouble we would have the sword to protect us."
Luna shook her head and looked down at her arm. It was fully healed on the outside and she flexed it to make certain that it was fully healed internally as well. When she looked up she saw that they had finally made it back to Whiterun. She walked up to the gates, the two farmers with her, and then turned to them.
"I guess this is where we say goodbye. If you need a place to stay, I would suggest the Bannered Mare," Luna said. Thaak walked up and shook her hand.
"Thank you so much! We really appreciate what you did for us. We can never repay you." With that Thaak and Aevdnar walked through the gates towards the Bannered Mare. Luna walked straight to the Drunken Huntsmen. Inside she walked up to the counter and Elrindir looked up.
"Luna! How have you been? Got something for me today?" Elrindir asked.
"I do! I have a alpha wolf's pelt for you." Luna fished the pelt out of her pack and laid it on the counter. Elrindir looked it over and let out a low whistle.
"This is nice... very clean and just the right amount of skin. You know, you have really impressed me with everything you have brought in these past few days. I will teach you what I know."
Luna could barely contain her excitement. She had finally won him over. Elrindir closed the Drunken Huntsmen for the afternoon and spent the rest of the day teaching Luna everyhing he knew about hunting. By the time she had finished her training it was dark out, so Luna headed back to her home in Whiterun where she quickly fell asleep.
The next morning Luna awoke and looked at the map which she had placed on the table the night before. She examined it closely as she ate breakfast and realized she knew the location of the cave. Gleefully, Luna packed up her pack with all the suppiles she would need and then walked back upstairs. She put on her light armor and collected her weapons. She walked back downstairs and picked up the map. She headed out her door and towards the Whiterun gates. It was quite early morning so all of the shops were still closed and most of Whiterun was still asleep.
The sun wasn't even up as Luna made her way towards the cave. Soon though, the sun rose just over the horizon and lit the sky above her. The sun was still halfway below the horizon when she finally made it to the cave. From three sides it looked like nothing more than a pile of rocks but from one side it became clear that it was a cave. There were even torches flanking the opening. When Luna arrived at the cave she could see that the torches outside were lit. Realizing that she probably wasn't alone, instead of approaching the cave she laid down on the hill and watched the cave from a slight distance.
After ten minutes Luna observed two bandits heading towards the cave. She figured bandits would be easy to deal with and she could easily dispatch them so she moved closer to the cave. Very quietly she followed the bandits inside. She drew her sword silently as she closed in on them. Quick as a flash Luna swung her sword, chopping off the head of the one nearest her. The other bandit heard the sound of his partner's body hitting the ground and turned around. When he saw Luna he went to draw his sword but wasn't quite quick enough. She brought her blade down swiftly and cut off his arm. The bandit started to scream bloody murder and it echoed off the cave walls. Finally, Luna stabbed him through the heart to stop his screaming but it was too late: the bandit's cries had already done their job and Luna heard people running toward her. When they came out into the open area, she could see that there were six of them. She knew she was outmatched--she couldn't take down all six--so she gathered all the strength she had in her, and she let it all out at once.
"Fus...Ro...Dah!" The shockwave blasted all six bandits into the air and slammed them off the cave walls.
Luna started to back away, preparing to run, when she realized there was something behind her. She heard a light chuckle in her ear and then intense pain as a sword was shoved into her back. The blade was rammed up through her ribcage and Luna let out an earsplitting scream. Her eyes began to close slowly as she bled out around the hilt. Finally, the sword was pulled from her body and she collasped to the floor. The last she saw was a bandit's smiling face as everything faded to black.
In another world, a Ps3 controller was magically hurled across a room where it slammed into the wall. A dark blue alicorn stood up from a bean bag chair and stared at the screen in front of her.
"THOU HATH ANGERED ME!" The alicorn's booming voice filled the room.
In another room a pure white alicorn shook her head upon hearing the scream. A smile graced her beautiful face and she turned towards the direction of the shout.
"Just go back to Dragon Age--you liked that better!" She chuckled softly as she returned to the letter she was writing. "And you were better at it, too."
