Titus blocked out the talk of Riverwood as best he could. He had helped with the scouring of the now destroyed town and didn't want to hear any more about it. When the Bosmer-Nord woman fainted however, he snapped out of his crying stupor and rushed to her on instinct. He was fast enough to catch her before she landed on the dumner woman's conjured boots. Titus hadn't seen such boots before and didn't know what they were made of but he assumed you would get a nasty wound if your head landed on them. He kneeled down and cradled the woman, trying to get her conscious again.
"Oh my gods are you okay?!" He exclaimed, genune panic in his eyes. Titus wasn't the best thinker in Tamriel but his heart was usually in the right place and he tried to help anyone in need. Beautiful and exotic women were especially satisfying to help and the current roll in his hay reminded him of this.
"C'mon now, wake up. You're allright. You just fainted is all. You're probably just tired or somehting." He looked up to the dunmer woman whom he had gathered was a friend of this bosmer-nord.
"Would you mind heping me miss?!" He said irritably. "Your friend nearly spit her head on your boots and you're just painting your nails?! Get your head out of the clouds and help her! Just because she's prettier than you doesn't mean you have to be a bitch about it!"
Titus then heard a loud hiss above and behind him and saw a brilliant scarlet light burning in the morning sky. Alice was in some sort of trouble and she was calling for help. She usually handled herself in the wild better than he did so it would have to be really serious for this.
"Oh plops!" He exclaimed he turned to weeping Nord. "Shield-brother! My sister's in serious trouble! That flash in the sky was her calling for help. I've got to get back to her and I'm gonna need your help."
He turned to the two new arrivals, a fellow Imperial (Flie) and a Breton (Berlow)
"You guys! I could really use your help too! If not, I guess you could stay with the elf chicks but you need to make a decision now!"
(A few minutes earlier...)
Alice had procured a wooden bucket from her pack and was gathering water from a nearby stream when a large orc in fur armor approached her. He had a large iron war axe, large enough for two hands if need be.
"Good morning little girl." He said. "What might your business here be?"
"Good morning sir orc." Alice said politely. "Just gathering some water for breakfast."
"Is that so? Well I'll have you know this is my stream see, and you're gonna have to pay a fee to get wate from it. Say uhh...100 gold."
Alice saw the expression on the orc's face and immediately knew it was a shakedown. She had more than enough to pay him off but her father never taught her to encourage bandits by appeasing them. She played the innocent child, testing the orc.
"Oh dear!" She exclaimed, putting her right gloved hand to her mouth. "I'm so sorry sir, I didn't know! I'm afraid I don't have that much!"
"Well that's a problem then." The Orc said. "Why don't you go run to your daddy and get the money from him. You can come back for this water when you've got it. How does that sound?"
He leaned into Alice, blowing putrid breath from his mouth into her face. She instinctively wrinkled her nose at it. She was in trouble here. Not because of the brute in her personal space, he would be easy to deal with. There were at least five other bandits in the surrounding trees, lying in wait. She had walked into an ambush and slently cursed herself. She put her hands behind her back, looking scared and worried while descreetly moving a rock into position behind the orc with a telekenesis spell.
"My daddy's not here, and he wouldn't want me to pay a bully anyway."
She flicked her right index finger and the rock hit the orc in the back of the head.
"What the...?" He stammered, unharmed but angerd and confused.
Alice roared as she pushed him back with all her strength, sending a shock spell through both her hands into the orc. He roared with pain and frustration as he found he couldn't move his arms and his head felt like it was bangign against giant dwemer gears. He staggered back and fell on one knee, giving Alice the chance to drop her bucket and run away as fast as she could. She saw five arrows come towards her a few seconds ahead of time in her mind's eye and dodged them through exact, deliberate movement. She sprinted toward the nearest archer and screamed at him while lacing her voice with a fear spell. The nord screamed in pain and terror as the sonic magic hit him. He clutched his ears in a vain attempt to make the wailing in his head stop and was driven to his knees for it. Alice kicked him the jaw full force, knocking him on his back and then stabbing him through the throat with Father's Steel, her shock enchanted imperial sword.
Two more bandits, a Khajiit and a bosmer, abandoned their concealed positons and rushed Alice. She heared them coming and charged up a fury spell in both hands, stabbing her sword into the soft ground to free her right hand. She launched the overcharged spell and the Khajiit's eyes became red as he got hit by it. The two punching daggers he wielded, intended for gutting Alice, were now unleashed on the bosmer, who was cut in his cofusion before drawing an iron dagger and doing battle with his ally in order to survive. Alice let them fight each other while she scanned the treeline. A nord woman was drawing a hunting bow from a high branch. She had just knocked her arrow and was about to draw it back. Alice had no time to dodge it so she drew Mother's Fire, her flame enchanted bow and knocked a steel arrow with breathtaking speed. She held her breath and fired off a shot just as the nord woman fired hers. Alice was fast enough to duck but the Nord was hit square in the chest. Upon impact Alice's arrow exploded in a ball of fire and deadly wood splinters, rupturing the nord's chest and setting her branch on fire.
Alice then saw the orc had regained his footing and looked absolutely furious at her insolance. Alice made ready to dodge his charge and take him down but the fifth bandit, which she had not had time to deal with, poppled out from cover and hit the small of her back with a lightning spell. Alice yelled in pain and staggered for several damning moments. The orc ran into her screaming and she was too slow to completely dodge his ax. A blow that would have taken her head off instead impacted her left side. Her enchanted dress and armor held but two of her ribs cracked with a sickening crunch and a huge bruise started to form. She fell to her knees and the orc picked her up by her dress collar with both hands.
"YOU MESSED UP LITTLE GIRL! TIME TO END THIS LITTLE GAME!"
He threw Alice into a rocky ditch where she suffered more cuts and bruises. She landed on a particularly sharp rock on her back where the lightning bolt struck her. Her armor and dress absorbed most of the damage but the area was red and swollen and she cried in pain when it struck. She then released the distress spell into the sky, just before the orc found her in the ditch and started beating on her indescrimanently. The khajiit, who had killed the bosmer but was severely wounded, found them and did what little evil he could, tearing Alice's armor and dress despite their ebonyflesh enchantments and drawing blood in her now-exposed flesh.