If You Wanna Get Out Alive || Rosella

[Aaralyn Archman .]

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[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, background: #2e2e2e; width:430px; height:550px; padding:0px;] It's all in my head Save me, I'm buried alive this time TAGGED: Rosella WORDS: 712 Aaralyn couldn’t help but feel relaxed. Much of her life was the feeling of discomfort. Despite those around her probably never knowing, she found it challenging to be around the constant hustle and bustle of a town, even one that was in the corner of Skyrim, tucked away there. Sometimes it felt like she was only truly free when she was alone with her thoughts and her dagger to gather items she needed for Alchemy. She was in her element here, without having to put up any show or deal with the everyday conversations that she had with those from Riften and surrounding areas. Those that came to buy the meat from Alek’s hunting business, or potions and dishes from her alchemy practice. Not that she disliked those that she met up with, but it could be hard to talk to them sometimes, though she was forcing herself to get better about it, learning from her elder brothers example of…freedom. She envied how happy he usually seemed to be, and strove to be like him. Something was holding her back though, from being the happy, talkative young Elf she had been growing up. Was it the nightmares? She wasn’t honestly sure about that, though they continued to bother her, even years later, sometimes making her stay awake for a large percent of the night, replaying the memory in her mind. While she moved down the slope that she had been gathering flowers by, Aaralyn moved as if she was part of the ground beneath her feet. Soundlessly and effortlessly. It only took her a few minutes to find the second type of flowers that she had been searching for. When she did find them, Aaralyn dropped to her knees and started to pick the blossoms, inspecting each one that she placed in her basket. As she worked, her dark eyes turned over to look at the dog that was resting on his haunches beside her. For a second she paused to stroke his head, before returning to her work that was at hand. It was hours later that she finally decided she should make her way back toward Riften, the setting sun spurring her to action. Lifting her basket, dagger, bow and quiver, she spoke a word to her dog for him to follow and started back toward home. It didn’t take her long to realize just how far she had wandered away from the city. It would be at least an hour before she got back, hopefully Alek wasn’t worrying about her. A few minutes later she wished he was worrying about her. From her spot on the trail heading toward Riften, she easily detected the noise, swiveling her head to look over her shoulder in curiosity. A second later she heard her dog growl low in the back of his throat. Instantly her vision swung back in front of her, startled into stopping and taking a step back when she saw the two figures there in front of her. Big, brawny men. “Going somewhere?” Instantly her dog stiffened, and upon glancing down at him, she noticed that he looked ready to strike. To try and ward off trouble, she caught him by his collar and didn’t speak for a moment. This whole situation just looked bad. “I’m meeting my brother here in a few minutes.”, she lied. In the few moments she was saying that, she heard a noise behind her. Without glancing back she knew it was more of these men, bullies, if not bandits. And…she realized, that she was going to have to get away herself if she wanted to do so. “Let me pass.”, she said as firmly as she could, giving him a firm glare. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to want to deter him. “What’cha got in that basket Honey?” Though she cringed a bit inside, Aaralyn didn’t give him the satisfaction of allowing him to see her do so and simply stood for a moment to gather herself. She didn’t have to be told that she was in a very bad situation. NOTES: This is at some random pathway about half an hour outside of Riften, but I wasn't sure where to place the thread xD.

this lovely template was made by Arro from Caution 2.0.

[ROSELLA DURANTE .]

you got me tossing and turning .

She much preferred the woods to the cities. The woods were quiet. Unlike in the city where the constant noise drowned out everything in her senses, in the woods she could hear everything around her. She was far less afraid for her safety when she was  out amongst the trees and the mountains and the brooks. She had no desire to head in to Riften quickly. Her leather boots traveled over the ground lightly, making almost no sound. Ella rarely traveled on the roads, that was the first place that bandits would think to look for a traveler. No one expected them to stray as far off the roads as she did. She occasionally had trouble with rogue mages and wild animals, but  the mages could usually be avoided and animal furs sold well to blacksmiths who desired the skins for leather. No staying off the roads was safest. It always had been. If you wanted to stay alive in Skyrim, you avoided the roads at all costs. Unless you were going through the mountains. It was much harder to cross anywhere else except the roads then, but only for a long as they were necessary. Once the terrain got remotely manageable, she truck back away from the road. Speaking of hide, she spotted a few dear just ahead of her in the woods. She crouched low to avoid being seen by the animals. She took her glass bow in one hand and the matching arrow in the other she set to notch her arrow when the deer looked up as if hearing something off in the distance. She turned herself to look, holding her breath as she listened. There was a male voice. She  recognised the tone. Allimir had saved her from one such tone not terribly long ago. She stood a bit and moved as quietly and quickly as she could towards the voice. As she approached she heard the quiet female voice. The attempt to make her attackers believe that he was not afraid. She recognised the whole thing and it made her feel sick. She stood drawing back her bow. With a sharp twang the glass arrow found it’s mark in the bandit's knee. She had fit a second arrow to her bow before, keeping it trained on the first bandit. “Let the girl go, or I aim  higher.” She demanded, from the woods, trying to make her voice sound bigger than she was. Her hand did not tremble as the second arrow caught the man in the thigh when he hesitated. She did not have a desire to kill anyone. Ella always avoided killing, especially not in front of a child. The girl could be no more than sixteen by Rosella’s best guess. This was why she stayed off the roads. Exactly this. Nord and Orcs who were larger than everyone else thought that they were allowed to bully little Bosmer girls. The fact that the girl was one of her own made it that much worse. She watched the two men, the second one was moving to find the shooter. Her bow drew back, but her arrow shot high above where she had aimed, piercing the man through the chest. She watched him fall backwards. There was a sick feeling in her stomach as she worried that the man was dead. He had been hurting a little girl, and she still felt guilty for killing him. Maybe there was something wrong with her. She felt like retching as she stared at the second man on the ground. “Now. Leave her alone.” She said again, her own voice surprised her. The strong tone did not match the turning of her stomach in the least.

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word count - 618 . tag - aaralyn . outfit - leather armor

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[Aaralyn Archman .]

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[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, background: #2e2e2e; width:430px; height:550px; padding:0px;] It's all in my head Save me, I'm buried alive this time TAGGED: Rosella WORDS: 687 Aaralyn took a step back while the man advanced toward her. Despite her fear and the thundering of her heart though, she managed to look controlled on the outside, her cold nearly black eyes staring at the worst offender as if searching his soul. Obviously he wasn’t comfortable with her staring at him in such a searching way, and snapped at her to stop. She didn’t answer, but simply continued to watch him. When he made a grab for her once again, she ducked under his arm and skirted around another man, putting distance between herself and the man that was obviously trying to harm her. She desperately wanted to pull the bow from her shoulder, or the dagger from her waist, but instead simply tried to put more distance between them. She would be the first to admit that she was nowhere near as powerful as these men were. If it was a fight, which it could quickly turn into for her, they would have the upper hand – her abilities with a bow wouldn’t matter. Before anything else could happen, the arrow came flying from nowhere. Aaralyn’s quick eyes caught the arrow protruding from that knee, and took the opportunity to put even more of a distance between the men and herself. The voice belonging to her rescuer was obviously female, and when she caught sight of her, Aaralyn realized right away that it was another Bosmer. Almost instantly she felt a little bit more relief. Whoever this girl was, she obviously didn’t like these men either. Quickly dropping the basket she’d held in her grip, Aaralyn snatched her bow from off her back and settled it in her hands, an arrow notched quickly. Fortunately for her, the bosmer had taken care of it, and she watched while the second man fell to the ground, an arrow from his chest. Horrible images flashed through her head, which she tried to suppress down just as quickly as she possibly could. She had seen death in her life of course, but as always, it hit her hard. She hated to see anyone or anything suffer, no matter how bad of a person they truly were. This was no exception. What if he had a wife or a family holed up somewhere? Hands shook slightly on her bow even as she turned her head away from the scene. No matter how bad they really were, she hated watching it. But it couldn’t be helped, and Aaralyn was extremely thankful for the intervention that had perhaps saved her life. If not her life, it had saved her from an extremely bad situation, where she might have wished to rather have died. Somehow the first, still yowling in pain, managed to catch up his horse and turned to flee. Aaralyn felt weak in the knees, dizzy even. Though she had seen death before, she didn’t think she would ever be truly used to it. Dark eyes watched the man flee on horseback, but instead she turned her attention toward the fallen man. How could someone abandon their partner in such a way without knowing their fate? As if in a trance she walked toward the man, dropping to her knees beside him when she got near. A gentle hand reached out to try and check for a pulse. If she was honest with herself, she would realize that she didn’t need to check. He was already gone. “He’s dead.”, she said softly, pushing herself back and retreating from the figure. Why she felt like crying, she had no idea. With a deep breath, she tried to steady her nerves and had to look away, eyes closed. “Thank you.”, she whispered out, retreating back toward the Bosmer that had helped her. Despite her thanks, Aaralyn was still attempting to digest the scene she had just witnessed. NOTES: :3

this lovely template was made by Arro from Caution 2.0.

[ROSELLA DURANTE .]

you got me tossing and turning .

Rosella did not say anything to the girl. Instead she turned from her, took two steps before she fell to her knees, vomiting. She had known he was dead. But the girl’s words made it so much worse. She had killed a man. True, she had killed a man to save a bosmer girl, but still the man was dead. And it was her fault. She had tried for so long not to kill anyone. Everyone else in Skyrim seemed so intent on taking life. Those who could not handle taking the life themselves hired assassins to do so for them. Rosella could not imagine how people could feel like this constantly. How did Allimir sleep at night?Though, as he would have been quick to tell her, Allimir was made of a tougher material than Rosella. She could not imagine being what he was, vampire or assassin. The feeling of taking a life was literally making her sick. She struggled to catch her breath, and force back to tears. She was not going to cry in front of the younger girl. She was going to be just fine. Rosella Durante, Murderer, was going to have to adjust to this. Everyone else in Skyrim seemed to be okay with the constant death that surrounded the nordic lands. Why could she not stomach it? ”I’m sorry.” she apologised to the girl, once her stomach had settled a bit. She could still feel her hands shaking as she forced herself back onto her feet. She brushed off her knees, wiped her eyes, and reached down to pick up her glass bow.”I’m fine... I just... I’m not an adventurer. I make arrows and bows, and I don’t run around through the woods killing people. Or other places.” She paused in her rambling to take a deep breath. She glanced at the dead bandit, her finely crafted glass arrow protruding from her chest seemed like a beacon of guilt. She crossed to him, and carefully pulled it out. The tip was a horrible shade of red now, though it complemented the green of the metal she’d used to craft the arrow, that did not make her feel better. She wiped it on the grass before returning the arrow to her quiver. After a few moment’s pause she searched through the pouch the bandit carried. There were some gold pieces and a few lock picks. She kept most of the gold and the lock picks, but left him a few coins. Someone else would steal them off the body later. At this point, she had already taken his life, she couldn’t bring herself to steal all his gold either. When she had finished, she turned to the girl again. ”Are you alright?” They did not hurt you did they?” She did not seem to have any physical marks on her, but Rosella did not doubt that she was terrified out of her mind. ”We should move on before he returns with some of his friends.” She had no doubt that he would do just that. Rosella was far too shaken up to have a successful fight with bandits and she had no idea if the girl she was with had any skills. ”We should head back to Riften.” They were only half an hour away, and if the guards weren’t enough to protect them, the thieves there certainly would be. Thieves disliked bandits as much as anyone else. The rogue bandits stealing from travelers on the road gave thieves a bad name, well a worse name than the thieves gave themselves at any rate. ”I’m Rosella Durante. You can call me, Ella. Or you don’t have to call me anything, if you prefer. But we really should get moving.” She had no desire to face any more bandits today than she already had.

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word count - 650 . tag - aaralyn. outfit - leather armor

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[Aaralyn Archman .]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, background: #477963; width:15px; height:550px; padding:0px;]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=style, background: #2e2e2e; width:430px; height:550px; padding:0px;] It's all in my head Save me, I'm buried alive this time TAGGED: Rosella WORDS: 765 Kneeling beside the dead man, Aaralyn simply fixed her eyes on his chest while she checked for a pulse. Behind her impassive face was a heart full of turmoil. Despite knowing that they would have harmed her, even perhaps with something worse than just death, it brought her no pleasure to see his body lying on the ground. Yet she held that back and simply focused on the here and now. When she did actually tell that they were dead, Aaralyn slowly straightened up and retreated a few steps from the body. When she once more looked at his blood stained body, she felt sick as well. Aaralyn was used to death, having grown up with a hunter for a father and brother. Human death though…she would never be fully used to that. However, when she saw the state of the second girl, Aaralyn managed to pull it together somewhat. Instead of hyperventilating like she wanted to, she snapped out of her distress and laid a hand gently on that of the other girl, concern for her well-being dissipating her dismay at seeing the dead man at their feet. “It’s okay.”, she murmured softly. It didn’t take too long for the girl to recover, and Aaralyn was relieved to see that she didn’t look quite so ready to throw up all over her right now. That was indeed a relief. The girls apology was unexpected. For a moment, she furrowed her brow and tried to understand what the girl was apologizing for. The explanation caused Aaralyn to shake her head to deny it. Perhaps she should feel sorry as well. Aaralyn glanced once more at the fallen man, forgotten already by his comrade. As if on cue her mind took her back to the day that her parents had been taken from Aleks and her. Biting her lip softly, Aaralyn finally nodded instead of the shaking she had done a moment before. “I’m sorry he had to die.”, she agreed softly. Death was never something that should happen. Unfortunately, it seemed there would never be an end to it in Skyrim. Despite not being an adventurer herself, Aaralyn had always envied those with the freedom that they had. “Skyrim seems to be full of death.”, she commented. She slowly shook her head back and forth. “No, you showed up before they could hurt me.” But if she hadn’t come… Aaralyn knew she wasn’t a strong girl, and though she could hold her own in terms of a bow and arrow, that wasn’t usually a match when it came to thugs. At least not in close range. Quickly she agreed to going back to Riften. “I hope not. There’s been enough death today.” Despite their being bad men, Aaralyn couldn’t help but wonder if they had a wife or children waiting for them. She hoped that they hadn’t caused anyone to go hungry by killing this man. Quickly she picked back up her basket and patted her dog on the head, before making her way down the trail. “Ella is a pretty name.”, she said shyly.“My name is Aaralyn Archman, I have a small Alchemy business.” Aaralyn wasn’t sure why she had added that little bit at the end, but she figured that it had some credit to her name. NOTES: None!.

this lovely template was made by Arro from Caution 2.0.