When she awoke, she had decided to explore the lake nearby. She remembered there were two small villages there, Oakwood, a small town located in southern Skyrim, northeast of Falkreath and southwest of Whiterun. It was generally east of the North Keep and had a connection to Neurgrad Watch, a small settlement near the ruins of Fort Neurgrad.
She had taken down the wards, the campsite and made her way down to the road leading along the lake towards Oakwood. On her way she had seen an old, abandoned campsite. As she continued, she noticed a shrine of Talos setting up on the hill. She went up to see it.
When she arrived at the shrine her heart dropped, and she fell to her knees in disbelief. There at the shrine, were innocent worshipers all slaughtered. Nearby, her first evidence of what might be occurring was there. A dead Thalmor Justiciar off to the side. There was nothing she could do for them. She would see if anyone was alive in Oakwood. If so, maybe they would help her to see them buried properly, so they could find their way home again. As she neared the approach to Oakwood. Not but maybe two hundred yards from the gate, a pack of wolves attacked her.
She was surprised when a spirit wolf appeared. It attacked them fiercely. Between the two of them the wolf pack lay dead on the road into Oakwood. The spirit wolf raised its head to call into the heavens and then disappeared.
She made her way into Oakwood. The town was untouched. It was as it had been described to her in the past or maybe as she remembered. She stood there in the town center. “It seems like I’ve been here before. She wasn’t sure though. It could just be something that seemed familiar. She needed to speak with some of the people here to see what they knew of what had happened.”
She paused then and thought, “I’ll have to be careful though, I don’t want them to think I am crazy or something. Maybe I can just tell them I was knocked out by a falling branch off an old tree and had a touch of not remembering.”
She made her way towards the end of town speaking with people as she went but no one seemed to be aware of what was going on. She found the blacksmith and thought she would pay him to touch up her weapons a bit.
The blacksmith opened her eyes a bit about things. He said while working on tempering her sword, “The great war that was supposedly ended with the signing of the White Gold Concordant, was betrayed, and they invaded Skyrim. Some out of the way places like our little village, were left alone but many towns and cities were shattered. Maybe beyond return.”
He went silent after that; she noticed it seemed to take something out of him to even speak of it. Then she asked, “I’ve seen nothing but destruction and misery after coming from near Helgen. There are some dead Talos worshiper that need burial services performed. They’re up the road, the Talos shrine that stands of the hillside.”
He flinched when he heard that. Stood up and handed her the sword and said, “This should do you for a while. No payment needed. These are hard times for everyone.” He turned then and went back to work hammering out some steel on the forge. She turned, thought deeply about the wounds people were carrying. These people are numb, they don’t even want to know anymore what’s going on. Just living it day-to-day”, she thought.