I hated sneaking. Half of the time it failed and the other half it’s just plain boring. Who wants to creep around in the darkness when you could crack some skulls? Well that’s how I feel anyways. Our boss Jartod however must differnely seeing as how we are sitting in a bush waiting for the cart to get nearer. Its occupants were a Nord man (probably the hired muscle for protection against bandits like us), an Imperial man and a Breton woman. I looked closer at the Imperial. Had I seen him before? As the cart neared I saw Chaluree the Argonian thief nod at me. The Argonian had a horrible scar going across his left eye. He was signalling for me to be ready. I grabbed my war hammer from my back. I turned to Jartod who was unsheathing his two scimitars, typical Redguard. They can never get enough scimitars. Jartod and I were close friends. We had each other’s back in any fight. Behind Jartod stood the Nord woman Heddvild. She was readying her hunting bow, the arrows tip already laced with some sort of debilitating poison. That woman was deadly with her bow. She did learn from the best, the Dark Brotherhood have quite the reputation for archers. We were a small group of misfit bandits, but a damn good one. We lived in a house at the end of a cave. It was called Engar’s Hide. It was a nice enough little home. The cart was very close now. The mood was silent and tense.
“Victory or death!”
With those three words from Jartod, Heddvild let loose her arrow. It hit the Nord in the cart straight in between the eyes. I jumped out of the bush. I was happy to get some air. The Breton reacted first. She jumped at me with brandishing a dagger. She was scared. I could see it in her eyes. It meant that she miss timed her jump. She missed by a few inches. I almost feel sorry for her. Almost. She moaned in agony as I swung my war hammer into her chest. The Imperial jumped off the cart the other way. I started to chase him. Suddenly out of the bush jumped Chaluree who stabbed the Imperial in the neck. He left the Imperial lying in a pool of his own blood. There was a moment of silence. We all thought about how easy that was. There was an eruption of cheering as we made our way to the cart to see what loot we had acquired. The cart held only a chest. After a quick search of the bodies we found the key. Jartod opened the chest. I couldn’t see what was inside the chest but I could see Jartod’s eyes widen in amazement. I took a look inside the chest. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The chest was filled to the top with jewels, rubies and gold coins. Who in Oblivion were these people? With this amount of riches you’d expect them to be Kings! That’s when the Septim dropped. We had just killed Zenori Dellius. A very high ranking official in the Imperial army. They would have our heads for this. I turned to Jartod. I told him the bad news.
“No matter. We go back to Engar’s Hide, split the treasure and then we lay low for a while.”
“Lay low for a while! We can’t hide! Every man and woman in Skyrim will be searching for us! The Imperial’s would have put such a large bounty on our heads that we wouldn’t be able to go to a civilised area ever again!”
“They haven’t seen us though have they? Anyways, if what you say is true then we can go to Hammerfell. I have a cousin who there who would be happy to help.”
I hadn’t thought of that. I suppose if we stayed in hiding for some time, all the leads to us would turn cold. This could work. Jartod seems to always have a way out of any situation. We put the treasures into a bag and walked home. It was an uneventful trip home. For the most part it was silent. Probalby because we were all thinking about what we would do with our share of the money.
Months passed. We did a few raids every now and then but they were always small things. It was to be honest quite boring. I was sat in a chair counting some gold next to Jartod. Heddvild went out for a walk and Chaluree was on lookout duty. Then the door burst open. In came Chaluree. He had a pained expression on his face. He fell to his knees.
“Heddvild… she… she betrayed us. She ratted us to the… guards.”
With that he fell to the ground. In his back lay 5 arrows. I stood up and went to the chest. This was our weapons chest. In it we had two scimitars, an iron war hammer, some arrows and 3 steel daggers. I picked the two scimitars and threw them at Jartod who sheathed them into his belt. I pick up my iron war hammer placing it on my back. Together we walked out of the house and into the cave. Outside we could see about 20 guards. Standing in front of them was Heddvild.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Jartod, really I am sorry!”
“So why’d you betray us!”
“Come now! You know we were all in it for the money!”
“True. But at least some of us hold some honour and dignity!”
“Enough of this!” I shouted. I unsheathed my war hammer. I turned to Jartod who had done the same with his scimitars.
“Shall we go out with a fight, Jartod?”
He nodded. “Brothers ‘till the end!”
Heddvild let loose two arrows by the time we reached her. They both missed. My swing however did not. Her body fell to the floor like a ragdoll. We charged towards the 20 guards while they did the same. Jartod took out about 4 or 5 guards (it’s hard to keep count while fighting) before a sword penetrated his chest. He fell to his knees. I went into a blood rage. 5 more guards fell to my war hammer. Suddenly I felt a searing pain course through my body. I looked down to see a sword protruding through my chest. I turned around and kicked the guard sending him flying. I started to walk forward. My life slowly draining out of my body. I dropped my weapon. The remaining guards surrounded me and my dying friend. Then there was darkness.
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