[this is unedited and horrible don't read it unless you want to i guess]
Chill air breezed among the leaves of trees on that cold, Morndas night. A young woman ushered her whining children into a building to escape from the cold, and a beggar rubbed his arms and breathed out a puff of smoke from the cold. A man darted away from a guard, his hood pulled suspiciously over his face. The branches of spindly trees swayed in the wind, but oddly enough, a single branch of a tree remaining still, with a figure perched on top of it.
Ava hummed along to the angelic tune of the lute as she sat on a branch of a tree outside of the inn in Solitude. It was a strange sight to see; a wood elf sitting in a tree, her deft fingers plucking at the lute propped on her lap loosely, and her hair forming a chaotic halo around her head, draping down to meet her shoulders. Her head was swinging in tune with the strums, and she gently leaned left to right, her mouth moving in sync with what she was thinking. It was also a strange sound to hear; the expert notes wafting from the instrument seemed to echo, the leaves of the trees shivered as if getting chills down their leafy spines from her music.
Hadvar was in awe as he watched the rather beautiful woman from his hidden position by a stone opening in the towering walls of Solitude that led down a long flight of stairs if one felt obliged to exit the city, which he was planning on doing. He, however, suddenly felt like as if he wouldn't mind staying in the harsh city, as long as that elf and her instrument would stay, too. Before he had heard the woman and the lute, he was about to escape to Dawnstar to possibly begin a new life. It was hard in the Imperial Army; General Tullius never noticed his obvious desire for a higher rank in the army or simply didn't care, most of his brothers-in-arms were drunk on mead every night, and since he was scrawny and not as muscled as the other men, he was picked on constantly. This was definitely not the life he was planning on leading when he had taken the oath.
Maybe his uncle was right. Maybe the army life wasn't right for him. He should've remained with Alvor in Riverwood, chopping down trees until he permanently stank of their evergreen scent. His faith in the Empire was sinking; if their military leader couldn't stop to care about one of his soldiers, how could the Empire care for the people of Skyrim?
But all of his problems seemed to vanish as the simple yet complex tune filled his ears. Complete bliss drowned his senses, and he smelled the scent of a million roses after being sprayed with water, and what sounded like the singing of hundreds of tiny voices in his ears. Hadvar never wanted this feeling to end, but he was yanked, rather unhappily, away from his reverie when he realized no one was pausing and looking joyful or even curious like he was; they seemed to go on with their lives as if she wasn't even there, sitting in the spindly tree next to The Winking Skeever.
He couldn't place his finger on how the citizens could just ignore the wood elf and the lute. The haunting melody wasn't something that you could just bypass without a second thought. Maybe they're just too distracted to process the sound of the instrument, or maybe it's a composition that they don't particularly enjoy......
....or maybe he was the only one who could hear it.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*
Ava played the last few notes of the song, then let the last, prolonged note fill the air before silencing it with her finger. She let the silence hang, before grabbing the lute rather noisily, opening the latches of the case she'd constructed one dreary day, slid the lute into the makeshift protector, and placed it on one of the higher branches of the tree for safe-keeping. She always put it there, for she was certain no one could reach it, or even think to look there. Most people ignored her, the current gossip of the town, the girl who sat in the tree and played the instrument.
She then carefully positioned her knees so she could carefully slip upside-down. As her vision suddenly reversed so that people were walking on the ceiling, she heard a leaf crumble. And then another. And another. She tensed. No one ever came to visit her in her tree. And again, another leaf. And then, the scraping of wood. The scraping of wood on the tree she was hanging on. She could feel it, even if she wasn't touching the trunk of tree where it was occurring.
And then she heard a profanity and another leaf crumbling, and then a branch creaking...and then she saw a man. A rather attractive man, she had to admit, but he carried a depressed air that seemed to thicken her joyous atmosphere. His brown hair was slightly ruffled, as if he had been running hand through his hair as a habit, his brown eyes seemed to be in a trance, even a bit crossed, and his lips were chapped and reddened. Not that she was looking at them or anything.
He didn't acknowledge her presence for such a long while that she began to wonder if he even knew she was there. By that point, the scene was quite comical: a woman with pointy ears and leather armor hanging from a tree and a man sitting on that same tree branch, looking depressed and exhausted. Yet no one was laughing.
Ava was beginning to feel a bit nauseated, both from hanging upside-down and from the strangeness of the stranger next to her, and swung backwards and quickly gripped onto the tree branch that was starting to sag from the considerably more weight being supplied from the mystery man. Once she was in her upright position, she scooted a bit closer to him. He didn't object or even look her way, which made her a bit irritated, but she was curious. How a person could zone out and be so lost in their thoughts that they could just forget about the world? What could be so interesting that he could just seem to forget about another human?
Maybe he was a renegade and just escaped from prison, and was trying to start over and become a part of the Imperial Army. It seemed to fit the facts: he had the apparel of a common soldier, and she practically the image of their armor etched into her head, for Solitude was their home. He seemed to be fighting a battle with himself; one thing Ava was exceptional at was telling when someone was going through a stressful time, but even a blind person could read him like a book. She already liked that about him.
Yet it also seemed to disprove the facts. He seemed like a contradicted man. Maybe he was just having a hard time in the army. Most soldiers were old and experienced, and he had the look of a newbie; a young look in his eyes, a skinny figure, and there were no callouses on his hands from holding a weapon just yet. That probably was the answer. She observed this problem a lot for only living in the city for a few months. A man was losing his faith in the Empire.
Hadvar suddenly snapped into reality again. He couldn't just lose his concentration next to a woman like her! She'd probably think you're a freak show. He peeked at her through his peripherals, but she looked as if she was in her own world like he was. The thing is, she was staring directly at him, to be exact, his eyes. He felt extremely uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, a nervous habit, and broke the silence with a groundbreaking question.
"So, uh, you come here often?"
He wanted to slap his self across the face, but he knew he would look like a bigger idiot than he already did, and possibly a bit insane, but he was relieved when she answered.
"Everyday."
Hadvar loved the sound of her voice. It was quiet, as if she was embarrassed by the sounds coming from her mouth, and it sounded so innocent. But somehow, he could tell that she had gone through more than an average Skyrim citizen. He could hear the tears in her voice, how her voice would crack, even with that little three syllable word. Hadvar almost laughed at what she said next:
"So, do you come here often?"
Ava smiled at the stranger. She could tell he was intimidated by her appearance, most men were. It wasn't a boast like most women would treat it, it was fact. She hated how she looked. She wished she wasn't pretty like Talos had made her, she wished she was average looking so she didn't stand out in a crowd. Once, it became so bad that she had to wear a fake wedding ring so men would stop proposing to her. For once, she wished the men would look beyond her face.
For some reason, she felt like he would be different.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*
Six days, four hours, twelve minutes, and six and a half seconds. That's how long it's been since Hadvar spoke to the curious woman with the lute and the nice voice. It's also how long he's been longing to meet her again, her and her understanding demeanor, how she would nod her head and gave him advice as he spilled out his whole damn life story to him.
It isn't like he isn't searching for her, he's checking that tree branch every second he could, whether day or night, and he hasn't caught one sight of her. He's asked around, he's checked every nook and crevice, heck, he'd even rode to Dragon Bridge to look for her. It was as if she was purposefully gone into hiding just so he would go insane looking for her.
He's also been slacking on his Imperial Army duties trying to find her. He hasn't showed up for work in about a week. He feels guilty for not being there for his fellow soldiers, but that wasn't the worst part of his emotions. What really stabbed him in the heart was that, well, no one's noticed he's gone. No one was searching for him. No one was riding to Dragon Bridge looking for him. No one was pulling their hair out trying to find him. He seemed to be the least of the army's worries.
Hadvar groaned as he went over the new crease in his worries again. He even started making a checklist of them, sadly. Currently, he has to; get noticed in the army, get a promotion, find the woman, be important, get the courage to stand up to his 'comrades', work out more often, find the woman, practice using a weapon, marry the woman....the list went on.
Hadvar stared down the neck of the mead bottle, scrunching up his nose in disgust. How could the other men guzzle down the putrid drink as if it was clear, clean water bubbling down a stream? Never mind the buzzing feeling in his chest from the liquid: it was so terrible that he didn't even want to think about it. The pain didn't seem to relieve him from his predicaments like his friend once told him when he was a few years younger; it only added to them. He knew without a doubt he would have an excruciating headache in the morning. Alcohol and him definitely didn't mix very well.
He was reminded of the surrounding people in the inn when a bard started playing a song after the bar's inhabitants had ceased their claps and cheers. His head snapped upwards, and he inhaled sharply. How long had he been here? He swore he was going to leave after trying a taste of mead, but surely it had been longer than the ten minutes he initially thought he was going to take. It was almost noon, he predicted. When had he arrived?
He remembered a couple conversing next to the entrance of the inn. One had said that it was about 11:30. He shot up from his seat and rushed to the counter next to the bartender who was struggling to clean out a flagon with a dirty rag, and threw a bag with exactly ten septims on the counter. "I'll be here in a couple of hours, save me a room." he explained, and the bartender cocked her eyebrow. Hadvar sighed. "If you give me this room when I come back, I'll throw in an extra ten septims." he persuaded desperately.
The bartender's eyes sparkled with the prospect of more septims to add to her ledgers. "Deal." she confirmed as she snatched the leathery bag from the wooden counter. Hadvar nodded and practically ran to the exit - nearly bumping into a few drunken women stumbling around -, forcing the door open with his shoulders. If he made it to Dragon Bridge before 12:00, he might be able to catch the woman.
You see, he had caught the sight of her exquisite beauty as he had been passing through Dragon's Bridge at about midnight after sulking around from not seeing that beauty for a while. He was certain it was her, but didn't want to approach her. There was a friend with him at that time, and he would've looked weird if he said 'wait here, I saw a girl in a tree that I've been trying to find for a week.' He'd have to find her alone.
And that was exactly what he was trying to do. Find her.
He dashed past the guards next to the doors of Solitude who gave him wary looks. He paid them no mind. He darted over the stone path and down the sloped hill that led down to the stables. He didn't take his time admiring the stars like he usually did. But if he did, he would've noticed one thing:
There was one less star than usual.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*
Hadvar's chest was heaving as he arrived at the famous bridge of Dragon Bridge. It was no doubt way over 12:00, but he had a feeling in a gut she'd be here this time. That she'd be sitting behind that cabin, that one cabin that seemed to stick out the least, on the floor surrounded by the yellows and oranges and reds of the autumn leaves. Her lute would be resting in her lap, her eyes shut and a smile upon her lips.
Yeah, so what if he'd fallen in love with a girl he knew almost nothing about? She seemed different than other women. He'd never met a woman who was addictive as she was. Or as frustrating. He really hoped the elf was there; he wasn't prepared for disappointment, and he really needed her in that moment.
He quietly snuck up to the cabin, his back pressed against the wooden wall of the house. This was it. This was the moment he would discover whether or not his efforts of running to Dragon Bridge despite the fact his eyelids were drooping and his muscles were burning were worth it. He breathed out in relief as he recognized the haunting melody of the lute trying to blend in with the sounds of citizens shouting.
As he peered around the corner, the sight was exactly as he had pictured it; the woman with the lute among the leaves of trees. She seemed to be stuck in eternal bliss, before they caught eyes. She ceased strumming the instrument, and stared at him peculiarly, before recognition struck in her eyes, her brilliant, soft blue eyes. She gestured for Hadvar to sit next to her, and he hesitantly took a seat on the blanket of leaves next to her. They crinkled under him, but the sound was drowned out as the lute began playing again.
As the elf struck the last few notes of the composition, she stared into the eyes of Hadvar. With that one look, Hadvar knew what he had to do, even if his palms sweated and his heart pounded so loud he was sure she could hear it and the thought. The melody finally echoed as the elf lay the lute down in her lap, no longer holding it in her hands. It seemed as if she was waiting for him, as if she knew what he wanted to do the moment he laid eyes on her.
So Hadvar took the plunge on whatever courage he possessed, and wrapped his arm around the woman's shoulder confidently, and leaned in. He was caught in her eyes again, and that was what had caused him to stop half-way. It was that moment that he had caught a certain bright glimmer in them. The strange thing about the reflected light was that it resembled that of a musical note, instead of just a random shape.
However, the woman had obviously mistook his hesitation for confirmation that it was okay to kiss her, and she moved in towards him and rested her lips against his, grinning. Hadvar was frozen in place for a second, before he tugged the woman closer to him and moved his lips in sync with the elf's. It was magical for Hadvar; and it felt like hundreds of sparks were tingling the skin on his arms, and it felt like all of his problems melted away as she molded her lips against his.
The kiss was slow and passionate, and Hadvar had never experienced anything like the feeling she gave him. When they pulled away after about a minute, the elf was grinning like a mad-man, before she sighed and shook her head. "You have absolutely no idea what you're getting yourself into." she said vaguely, amusement tinting her voice. Hadvar smiled.
"I think I can handle a woman." Hadvar replied with a shrug.
The elf shook her head, and it went silent, but it was a comfortable silence. One where you can get lost in your own thoughts. "Do you see those nine stars?" she asked, pointing to said stars. They shone brighter than all of the stars in the night sky and they were separated from the other stars scattered across the sky; that much was obvious. Hadvar nodded, liking where the conversation was going; he enjoyed star-watching. "Keep watching them." Ava commanded, and Hadvar nodded, already lost in their brightness.
Ava grinned as the man next to her cried out when one of the stars disappeared. He pointed at where the bright object used to be and stumbled over his words in confusion. Ava laughed as she explained. "Whenever a god is on land, in this case Skyrim, their star goes out until they return to the night sky. Until then, there is just a blank spot where the star used to be." she said, squinting as she examined the stars, oblivious to Hadvar's surprised gaze. "I think Mara's on land right now. I'm not seeing her star."
Ava glanced over to Hadvar before pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "Do you know that for sure, or is that a theory?" Hadvar asked, eyeing her strangely.
She stared back at him. "For sure." she confirmed, smiling. Hadvar smiled back.
"How can you tell which Divine is on land?" Hadvar asked, trying to catch when or if a star would disappear. To his disappointment, they stayed in place just like regular stars. "And is it often that they disappear?" he asked. There was no way they disappeared everyday without him noticing; he checked the stars every night. It was a habit of his.
"How to tell which Divine?" she repeated, her gaze still on the stars. "The star's shapes give it away." she said, pointing to Mara's star as it reappeared in the sky. "If you look closely, Mara's looks a bit like a heart, as she is the goddess of love and compassion. As for how often..." she trailed off. "hard to say." the elf continued. "It doesn't happen too often; Divines are usually forbidden from intervening in the lives of mortals, unless it's their job, like Mara's. Mara blesses two people to fall in love every once in a while if she feels if she deems it necessary. The other Divines usually stay put in the sky, watching over everyone."
"Why do you say usually?" Hadvar asked.
"Because I get away with it."
"Excuse me?" Hadvar said, his eyebrows furrowing. Ava turned to face him, and he saw the glimmer in her blue eyes again; the shape of a lute. It was in that second where he compared the glare of the stars and the sparkle in her eye, and connected the pieces together. "Y-You're a goddess?" he stuttered, his mouth open in shock.
"On a regular day, there are ten stars in the group." was all she replied back with a grin. "I'm one of the lesser-known goddesses; the god of music. Since that is so, I've been allowed to be a part in people's lives. Like in yours." she explained, all the while Hadvar stared back open-mouthed, before he started laughing. Ava smiled at the man.
"I think I know who Mara was on land for." Hadvar stated, staring at the star in the black sky.
"Who?"
"Us."
-----------------Stop Reading Here If You Want This Ending To Be Fluffy-----------------
*Four Weeks Later*
Ava was at Hadvar's funeral.
And so was Hadvar.
"This is unbelievable!" Ava whisper-yelled to Hadvar, clutching onto his arm. "You aren't dead! Go up and tell them you aren't dead!" she demanded, shaking Hadvar's arm, but he was too caught up on what was happening on the platform. They were holding his funeral, but he wasn't dead yet. They had assumed he was dead because he hadn't showed up for the army in five weeks, and there Hadvar was.
Attending his own funeral.
His girlfriend shook his arm again, and he yanked it away from her. "Stop," he said softly, his attention back at the person talking about how Hadvar was such a good person. "I'm doing something not many people are able to do." he explained, his eyes soft and his lips curled into his mouth.
"Yeah? And what's that?" Ava asked doubtfully, letting her grasp on Hadvar's arm go. Hadvar stared into Ava's eyes before turning away and a tear slipping down his cheeks.
"See how I'm remembered after I die." he answered, and Ava finally decided to listen to what the people on the stone platform were saying. There wasn't a large crowd gathered; his uncle and his aunt were there, crying, and a the rest were Imperial soldiers who weren't really paying attention, just staring off into space and tapping their feet.
A woman, Hadvar's aunt, went up to say something about Hadvar, but failed as she burst into tears in front of everyone. Hadvar's uncle went up and guided his wife to the crowd, the sound of her crying getting to Ava as a tear slipped down her cheek. "Do you see what you're doing to them?" she whispered, sobs threatening to wrack through her. Hadvar seemed to be in another world however. His lips were parted, and strange sounds were coming from his throat.
Ava sighed. Now, she knew, was when things got drastic. "If you don't go up there and tell them you aren't dead, I would have to leave you, Hadvar. I wouldn't allow myself to be with someone who lies about something as terrible as their death." she whispered, eyes glassy with former tears. "I'm sorry." she said, as Hadvar stared back at her gravely.
"I love you, Ava. I hope you never forget that." Hadvar confessed, cupping her cheek and pulling her in for a short kiss. Ava smiled. She knew he'd come to his senses and realize what he was doing was wrong. Hadvar shrugged out of his coat, draped it over Ava's shoulders, and walked away from her and out of the Solitude gates.
Ava sputtered. He was actually going to live the rest of his life pretending to be dead just because he didn't want to correct someone's mistake. He was accepting he couldn't be with Ava, accepting that he was a liar. "Hadvar!" she cried out to him, but he was gone. The crowd's eyes were turned to her at the sound of Ava's outburst, with her tear-stained cheeks and red eyes. The person at the podium asked if she'd like to say a few words about him, and she nodded.
She shuffled up to the platform and up the stairs, breathing in heavily. "Hadvar is and will always be a good man," she started, her eyes shut as a tear slipped from them. Hadvar's aunt sobbed loudly, blowing her nose on her sleeve. "The last thing he told me was...was that he loved me." she choked out, staring off into space. "What kills me was that I didn't get to say it back. He was gone by then." she said, staring off into space again. "I-I'm sorry. I have to go." she said, leaping from the platform and dashing out of the gates.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*
One week, two hours, seventeen minutes, and thirty-eight and three fourths of a second. That's how long it's been since Ava laid eyes on Hadvar, and she still couldn't find him. The other gods had been no help to her search. They simply turned their noses and said she shouldn't be with a mortal like him. In the night sky, her vision wasn't good enough to spot a single human out of thousands on a huge land. If she was more well-known in Skyrim, she'd burn brighter and have better vision. For now, all she could see was clouds drifting by and the occasional tree.
As for Mara, she had said that she isn't allowed to help in such an affair, but she had said something around the lines of, "If you were Hadvar, where would you go when you're sad?"
Ava sighed from the bench she sat at in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. That was the best advice she had, and probably the best she could receive. But the question just made the guilt seep deeper into her skin; she didn't know where Hadvar went when he was depressed. She knew he couldn't show his face in Solitude ever again in case he was found out about, so there's one place to rule out. As for the rest of Skyrim...
A groan slipped past her lips as she laid her head in her hands for the hundredth time in a week. Now that she had thought about it, maybe it wasn't smart to tell him what she told him. She didn't really mean she would break off the relationship with Hadvar; it was just a means of convincing him to admit he wasn't dead.
As she chewed on the piece of buttered bread in her hand, she put herself in Hadvar's shoes. Maybe it wouldn't be the best idea to give himself up. After all, ditching on your Imperial Army duties was considered a huge offense, and most likely he'd end up in jail before he could explain himself. Also, even if they didn't imprison him, hadn't he said he didn't want to be in the Imperial Army anymore? Didn't he say something about trees and his uncle?
Ava had thought about Hadvar being with his uncle and aunt, but she hadn't checked yet because of one huge predicament; she didn't know where they lived. They could live in Whiterun for all she knew, or even Solitude.
The goddess scrunched up at the taste of the burnt bread, and tried to nonchalantly slide it into the trash without being noticed by the bartender standing just a few feet away. Since she was a Divine, she was immortal and magical, so she didn't eat food for its ability to rid her of hunger. She ate it for flavor, and you can believe the bread had the flavor of a concrete block, and the texture, too.
Ava sent a forced smile to the bartender, before sliding out of the chair in front of the wooden counter at the small tavern. It was time to head off for the next possible location: Riverwood, the small town belonging to Whiterun Hold. She was feeling better about this one, for she had overheard that there was a lumbermill there and there were plenty of trees in Riverwood. And she could faintly recall the name of where his uncle lived starting with an 'r' from when Hadvar told her when they first met at the tree.
She pushed past some men throwing around a mead bottle and letting out boisterous laughs. Ava quietly slipped through the inn doors, and snuck down the breaking stone stairs leading to the inn. The streets were rather unpopulated in Whiterun, which made sense. She couldn't imagine anyone running around at this ungodly hour in the middle of the night.
A guard held the Whiterun doors open for her as she strode out of them, sending the man a grateful smile. As she approached the stables, Ava summoned her horse from her stall where it was merrily nibbling on hay. It was none to happy to leave the comfortable stall, but obeyed her master anyway. Ava leaped onto the horse, kicking its sides. The horse reeled onto its back legs and took off towards Riverwood.
Ava stroked the horse's mane as she galloped down the stone path through a forest leading to RIverwood. The only sound that was audible was the soothing pounding of her horse's hooves against stone and the crickets and chirps of a forest at night, before a deafening roar shook the ground. She heard shouts and screams coming from the village and her breath caught in her throat like a fisherman's hook.
She could smell smoke and the distinctive scent of dragon, and leaned forward on her horse and kicked it a second time so it would move a bit faster. As the quaint village came into view, she watched the houses and stores burn to the ground as guards attempted to fend off the dragon, to no avail. Ava shot off one of her arrows from her bow at the dragon's tail, but it wasn't fazed by the projectile in it's scales. The tail was obviously not its weak spot.
Balancing herself on the horse's back, she stood on top of the horse's bare back, prepared to leap onto a burning building as to get a better angle of the enemy. When the time came, she vaulted towards the building and the mare kicked and launched herself at the dragon to distract it so the guards could attack it.
Ava notched three arrows at one time onto her bow, before releasing them and sending a spray of arrows towards the dragon, but yet again the dragon didn't form any type of acknowledgement for the arrows sticking out of its side. This was a dragon that wasn't going without a fight. Suddenly, the dragon roared again and it pounded its wings before taking off into the air. Before it could get out of reach of Ava, she leaped from the building, and gripped onto the dragon's wing. She heaved herself onto the screeching dragon before she collapse to the floor.
She sprinted towards the mouth and snout of the dragon, stabbing her sword through the roof of it's mouth from the top of it's mouth. It shrieked ear-splittingly loud again; it had definitely felt this attack. Before Ava could react, however, the dragon wound it's pointed tongue around her figure tightly, squeezing her before it snapped its tongue back into his mouth, bringing Ava with it.
Ava glanced around at the inside of the mouth of the dragon, tryign to calculate the time to strike, as the dragon's grip on her with its tongue was loosening as it snapped its jaws at guards. Finally, she had a proper grip on the sword in her scabbard, and jabbed the dragon with the sword as best as she could. It wailed, and from where Ava was, it felt as if her ears really were splitting. It was greatly weakened by that point.
Ava, now free from the dragon's tongue, realized that the dragon was breathing in air so it could spit fire, and she began to panic. Sure, she was immortal and would survive the blow, but she'd rather not live the rest of her life -also known as forever- with charred skin. Bringing all the force she could muster down on the handle of the sword, she planted her weapon into the bottom of the dragon's mouth. Ava slipped as the dragon tilted its head backward and cried out again in agony. At the last moment, however, Ava's fingers gripped onto the hilt of the sword and she hung just above the throat of the dragon.
When the dragon had righted its head, Ava yanked her sword from the pink floor of the dragon's mouth, and in one swift movement that was so quick if you blinked you would miss it, she cut the dragon's thin tongue off. The beast wasn't given time to shriek one last time before it collapsed. Its dead carcass shook the ground as it impacted with it.
The goddess, still inside of the dragon's mouth, felt and heard the wind of the dragon's soul whipping around her ears and filling her with a sense of temporary bliss. The scales and flesh of the dragon's corpse slowly began to burn and it's clear smoke wound around her, as the villagers and guards gazed in awe at her. As the wind died down, cheers began to erupt through the crowd, bringing a natural smile to her face.
It had been a while since she had smiled so easily.
As everyone praised her, she caught eyes with two people she wasn't expecting; Hadvar's uncle and aunt. They didn't seem to recognize her yet, as she was swarmed with villagers and dog trying to lick her face with its soft tongue. She grinned at everyone, gently nudging past them and towards Hadvar's blood relatives. As she neared them, recognition dawned on their faces. Ava dismissed the group of admirers, who shuffled away and slowly dispersed.
When they had all gone back to their homes if they hadn't been burned to the ground by dragonfire, Ava locked eyes with the pair. These were the people who possibly knew where her ex-lover was. She breathed in shakily, both from the dragon attack and from the truth possible being revealed. Before she could ask the question, she received an answer.
"Hadvar is over there by the mill," the uncle answered, a sad look clouding his eyes. "We haven't gotten him to talk for about a week. I wish you luck." he said, gesturing to where Hadvar sat on a wooden ledge of the mill. His back was to them, but there was no doubt that he could hear them. Ava was feeling as good as she thought she would when she finally saw him; now she was feeling a sense of dread. He didn't seem happy she was there.
Nodding towards the aunt and uncle, she trudged over to where Hadvar sat, watching the waves crash against each other. Ava bit her lip as she hauled herself onto the ledge where Hadvar sat, and rested herself down next to the Nord. She laid her head on his shoulder, and gazed up at the stars. Not at the Divines like she always did; she stared at the stars, the real stars. They gleamed and sparkled down at her.
As Hadvar rested his head on top of hers, she realized one thing that brought a grin to her face;
Things were going to be okay again.
-----------------------The End-----------------------
-unedited, of course.