• When I regained my senses, I could feel that I was sitting on something hard, and whatever it was seemed to be moving. I slowly opened my eyes with a soft groan from the headache I had, and the Nord across from me spoke.

    "Hey, you," he said. "You're finally awake."

    I could only nod through the pounding pain in my skull. Another man sat diagonally across from me, while a third was sitting next to me. I reached up to rub my eyes, but when I did so, both my paws came up, and I could see that they were bound. What in the world is going on? I thought, looking at the men in the wagon with me. Why are my paws bound? Why are we all bound? And why is the man beside me gagged? Looking to my left, I could see a wagon in front of ours, and a single rider before that wagon. Lorik, the man sitting diagonally across from me and a Nord from Rorikstead, mentioned that Skyrim was fine until the "Stormcloaks" came along, that the Empire was nice and lazy. Apparently, Lorik was trying to steal a horse to get to Hammerfell, which I knew from reading was the homeland of the Redguards. Lorik asked what was wrong with the man next to me, and Ralof, the first Nord that had spoken, immediately raised his voice a bit, telling Lorik to watch his tongue, that he was speaking to "Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak." Being a newcomer to Skyrim, I had no idea what a "Jarl" was, though I figured that I would eventually find out what it meant.

    Lorik seemed surprised by this news, saying that Ulfric was the leader of the "rebellion," but again, I didn't know what he meant. As we neared our destination, Ralof said that we were in Helgen, and that he'd once been sweet on a girl from there. When he mentioned that Imperial walls used to make him feel so safe, I wondered just what was going on. Lorik asked why the wagon was stopping, and Ralof replied, "Why do you think? End of the line." When the wagon finally stopped, the four of us got to our feet-- or in my case, paws-- and jumped to the ground.

    When an armored woman, another Imperial by the look of her, told the Nord next to her-- Hadvar-- to read off the names, I could hear Ralof muttering something about how the Empire loved their lists. Hadvar nodded, then began to read off the names of the men that were in the same wagon as me: Ralof, Lorik, and Ulfric. Lorik was adamant that him being there was all just a mistake, and he even went so far as to try and escape by running. I would likely have done the same, were it not for the Captain calling for the archers and the familiar twang of bowstrings, followed by Lorik falling, dead, to the ground, just seconds later. When the Captain looked at me, Hadvar asked who I was.

    "I am Reeko Snowfur, of Elsweyr," I said, holding my head high.

    "Are you with one of the trade caravans, Khajiit?" Hadvar asked. "Your kind always seems to find trouble." He then asked the Captain what to do, since I wasn't on the list.

    "Forget the list, he goes to the block," the Captain said, and Hadvar nodded again.

    When I followed the Captain to where this "block" was, I could see a man standing there, a rather large, two-handed axe in his hand. If I hadn't known what was happening before, I most certainly did now: this was a public execution. How in the world had I gotten mixed up in this mess? I could see a man in what looked like leather armor talking to Ulfric, saying something about a war, killing the king and usurping his throne. I had know idea what any of that meant, but I did know one thing: I would likely never see my homeland, alive, again.