Since I restarted Hrafn, I am going to restart her journal as well. Even though some of it will be the same as before.

The trouble is, some has already changed as well.
From the journal of
HrafngoelirWell Ma, you always told me to write things down in a journal, just like you do. I know you always wanted me to be an alchemist like you. When Shor's bones thaw in Sovengarde! But here I am anyway, writing in this empty book I bought from the trader here in Riverwood. I wonder if you are still back in Dawnstar, picking snowberries off the mountainsides? And nagging Pa to wash up before dinner. As if a blacksmith can ever get clean. If you did not like soot, why did you tie Mara's knot with him?
Anyway, why am I writing this Ma? So much has happened in the last few days. So many impossible things. Maybe I just want to convince myself it is all true, and I did not just dream it. It still seems like a nightmare, dragons, the Empire trying to kill me, it is like Nirn has turned upside down.
It all started, when? I have no idea what day it was. I was finally returning home, after so many years serving as a mercenary for the Imperials. So many years of fighting those Cyrod's petty little battles, and for what? So that damned Emperor of theirs could betray we Nords, betray Talos? What did we spill out blood for?
Ah, but that is just the tip of the horker. While crossing the mountains, I walked into something. I do not know what. There was a line of wagons carrying men. I thought it was a caravan at first, so I went to greet them. I was hoping they might have some mead or ale to trade. I have been living on melted snow and rabbits for days. The next thing I knew there was an arrow in my leg, then the pommel of an Imperial sword made a home against my head.
When I awoke, well, I was in the caravan. Only it was not a caravan at all, but a train of prisoners. The Jarl of Windhelm himself sat beside me! I remember him Pas tales about the Great War. He fought with Pa and the rest of us Nords who had taken up the axe and sword to defend the Empire from the cursed elves. Now this is how the Empire treats us in return? This is our reward for faithful service? First they take our gods from us, then our lives?
For we were bound for the headsman's axe, in the Imperial castle at Helgen. They could care less that my name was not on their filthy list, or that I was a veteran of their own service. All they wanted was Nordic heads in a basket.
They would have had them too, if not the for the dragon. Yes, I wrote that, the dragon. I saw him as they laid my own head on the block. It was black as ebony, and turned the sky the same color with but a word. Thunder and fire rained down as it spoke, and men died all around. Nothing could harm it, not steel nor spell, and it took its time knocking over the castle as if it were one of those houses of cards Da would make at the dinner table.
The rest was confusing. More confusing than any Khajiit raid or Bosmer ambush. I was able to escape along with a Stormcloak named Ralof. He had sat across from me in the wagon. I like him Ma. He is not all full of bluster like most Nord men, who try to hide their fears and doubts behind false bravado. He has nothing to prove to anyone. He is just himself. A good Nord man who fought his way through the Imperials with me, as we made our escape from man and dragon. I wonder if he has tied Mara's knot? He spoke of a girl he knew in Helgen named Vilod. But only the blood-swans live in Helgen now...
The rest seems to trivial. We made tracks from there fast. If any of the Imperials escaped, we had to put miles between us and them. As well as from the rest likely to come when they saw the smoke. It filled the sky like a harbinger of doom. We made our way to a village where his sister lives, and hid with her for the night.
Ralof told me about the rebellion, about how Ulfric challenged the High King in the old way and slew him in personal combat. That the Empire wanted him dead, because he will not bow down to the elves, and betray our good Talos. I cannot believe so much has happened since I was away. Ralof says I should go to Windhelm with him, and join the fight. I think I should.
But it has been so long, and so much has happened, I wonder if I am home at all? I think I will be coming to see you soon instead Ma. First at least. You warned me about going away to fight for the Empire, but I would not listen. Now I see what a mistake it was. How many years of my life have I wasted for those faithless cowards? You were always so much smarter than Da and me. Like he always says, I got your looks, but his thick head. Maybe you will know what I should do?
-Hrafn, in Riverwood.