(1) - The Border Incident

Jerall Mountains

As Gwenneth approached the border of Skyrim, she heard voices in the distance. Curious, yet careful, she approached the voices stealthily. It was then she saw a large group of Imperials below the rocks she was on, and it looked like they had just made a few prisoners. TheImperials were kicking the prisoners, who looked like Nords, and Gwenneth felt her despise of Imperials growing as she watched the scene. Just as Gwenneth reached for her axe, someone grabbed her arm from behind, and another one grabbed her other arm. "You're under arrest"; one of the Imperials behind her said.

Gwenneth was taken to the other prisoners, stripped of all her belongings and armor, and with nothing more then a ragged tunic to wear she got pushed in a horse-drawn wagon. With her in the wagon were three other prisoners, two Stormcloaks, as they called themselves, and a thief. Gwenneth learned that the Imperials had actually set out to catch these Stormcloaks, as one of them was their leader. Apparently, there was some turmoil going on in Skyrim, a civil war of some sorts, something Gwenneth had been completely oblivious about as she had spent all the previous years in seclusion.

Then they arrived at Helgen. Gwenneth recognized the walls and towers from her youth, when she had lived for seventeen years just North of it. As they were ordered out of the wagon, it became clear that they were all to be executed.

"I can't believe it. Here I am, barely back in Skyrim for the first time in 15 years, with no possessions left whatsoever, and being led to my own beheading. Is this my destiny?"

Then, just when Gwenneth's head was about to be severed from her body, things went very fast. A dragon arrived, roaring and spitting fire, towers and walls crumbled  as panic ensued, and Gwenneth had to run for her life, dodging fire and falling stones.
She managed to follow a Stormcloak named Ralof into the safety of a keep, while the dragon wreaked havoc in Helgen. Ralof cut her bindings loose, enabling her to put on some armor she had stripped from a dead body inside. She managed to get hold of an axe, and then the two of them traveled deeper into the keep, fighting off imperials, and grabbing what ever supplies they could get a hold on. Eventually they reached a passage to a cave, where they fought a nest of huge spiders, and just after that Gwenneth managed to kill a bear with a bow Ralof had given her.

Then they reached the cave's entrance, and stepped out into the pitchblack night, in a snow covered forest. Ralof was quick to depart, though he mentioned his sister in Riverwood might be able to help Gwenneth out. Gwenneth immediately knew Riverwood wouldn't be her next destination, as her thoughts traveled deep in her memories, remembering when she knocked Mendel out, perhaps even killing him, and then fleeing Riverwood at the age of seventeen. Now, fifteen years later, Riverwood could wait for her return a bit longer, there was another place she wanted to travel to first, a place she had longed to see for years. And, since they had just left Helgen, she knew it had to be close...