Night Of The Hunter

At the Mercy of Darkness

The wind was cold and the rain had drenched my clothes. I felt cold all the way to my bones. I do wonder how people of Skyrim are able to live like this. The warmth of Cyrodil, it felt more like a dream than a distant memory. As I dragged my heavy feet towards the tall walls of Whiterun I suddenly remembered the weird jester. It looked like he was gone from the road. No wonder, I had been away for many days. It almost felt like years, but no matter, I just hope that that farmer, what was his name? Loreius? Anyway, I hope he helped him.

I reached the front gates of Whiterun, it was a different soldier this time, maybe that other guy got too scared to return to work? "Ah an' adventurer I see. What is your business here?" The guard asked. I was way too tired to discuss why I don't have to tell him my business, so I simply answered "I'm looking for a place to stay the night" the guard looked me up and down and decided I didn't look that threatening. "An Imperial I see. You may enter but no lollygaggin'!" I don't even know what that means, some weird Nord saying? The guard stepped out of my way and continued with his own business. I entered the city of Whiterun, it was somehow nice to be back to a place I know.
I walked straight to the Bannered Mare.

It was warm and the light from the fire casted a nice warm glow. I walked up to the innkeeper and asked for a room, some food and direction to Falkreath. She nodded and came back with some bread, some beef stew and a map. She told me I could keep the map, I thanked her and began eating. The beef stew tasted okay, but I would have killed for a shepherd's pie. I haven't had one since I left Cyrodil many years ago.

As I was eating a stranger came up to me, I couldn't see his face cause he was hiding it under his cloak. "What are a pretty little Imperial like yourself doing here, alone." He asked, with a thick accent and may I say rather sultry and slight raspy voice. The accent seemed familiar, but the way he talked and the attitude, sadly wasn't. I tried to lean forward just a little to try and see some of his face. He simply turned his head a little and the cloak covered everything again.
"Nothing of your business!" I said and returned to my stew. "Well well, feisty aren't we" he said. I simply rolled my eyes and kept eating.
He suddenly moved closer to me. He was around my height, maybe a few centimeters higher, so definitely not a Nord. "Good luck tonight" He whispered. Before I could ask him what he meant he left. That was weird, but I chose to ignore it.
The inn was getting crowded and people were getting drunk.

I was about to leave for my room til a drunk Nord in guard uniform, stopped me. "Hey adventurer! I was once like you, but then it took an arrow to the knee. If you know what I mean, sadly she got eaten by the horker she is today!" The Nord man smelled horrendous and I felt sick. His comrades were laughing their asses off "so what do you say little lady? Wanna go for a ride on this horse? I definitely wanna' explore that cave of ya'll." I was tired and really pissed off to say it lightly.
I pushed the Nord aside, I knew I couldn't kill him here, even if I wanted to. There were too many witnesses.
I left the main hall and found my room. I went to bed as soon as I opened the door. I was tired and I needed some hours of sleep before I went out to find that Adrianne Avenicci.

I woke up, thankfully it was still nighttime. It was completely silent, only the faint sound of crickets from outside. I opened the door to see the main hall in complete darkness. I guess all the drunks went home to sleep. I closed the door again and went over to the window. I opened it carefully and got out.

The streets were completely empty. I immediately went for the blacksmith. When I saw a guard walking around with some light.
I hid behind some of the bushes and waited for him to continue out of sight. I crawled out of the bush again and continued towards the blacksmith.

As I reached the front door and the guard was still nowhere to be seen. I picked the lock easily and quickly entered the house. I closed the door silently behind me.
Looking around, I was in some kind of living room area with the kitchen at the end. On the right were the stairs that led to the second floor. I sneaked my way upstairs. And it was as I thought, the bed chamber was on the second floor. I went over to the door. I took one deep breath and opened the door slowly.

There indeed was a woman in the bed, but also a man. I guess it must have been her husband.
This was gonna be harder than I thought. Suddenly there came a loud bang from the kitchen and I went straight for the closet. Thankfully I was able to hide in it and of course the couple awoke from the sound. I cursed under my breath, who was sneaking around downstairs and doing such a horrible job. "What was that?" The woman jumped out of the bed, she sounded terrified. "Don't worry honey, I'll go see what it is." I could hear the man getting out of bed too. I looked out from a small crack in the closet and could se the woman following the man to the door. Maybe this would be easier than I thought. But I didn't have much time and now there were others who were awake, who could potentially alarm the guards. The man left the room and the woman stayed by the door. I took out my dagger and quietly opened the closet door. Slowly I approached the woman from behind.
3 more steps and I was there. 1... the man was getting down the stairs. 2... there were some rustling from downstairs, it sounded like the man was searching. 3 I quickly grabbed the womans mouth and slith her throat. She was heavier than I had imagined and so she fell to the floor with a loud thud. "Adrianne?!" I could hear the man call from downstairs. Time to leave! I quickly searched the room and the only way out was through the window. Oh how I hope it's grass down there. I opened the window, the man was already running up the stairs calling his wife's name. There was no time I simply had to jump.

I did land on some grass. But the ground underneath was hard from the cold. My feet were hurting but that didn't matter now. The gates were almost right in front of me and I simply ran for it. I could hear the scream of despair from the man when he found his dead wife. The guards were running towards the blacksmith's house.

I got out of Whiterun and right outside were the stables. I knew I was gonna have to travel far again, so I quickly saddled up one of the horses and rode off towards Falkreath.
I was really thankful for the map, it made things so much easier.

I was starting to wonder why the blacksmith had a contract on her, she didn't seem like the type that people wanted dead?
But who am I to question the will of the Night Mother. I kept riding towards Falkreath. Hopefully I would be able to get there in just a day.