WARNING - this section conatins SPOILERS! So don't start crying to us if we've ruined stuff for you, you big baby.

Life was a damn sight better than it is without him... he taught me archery. That's how we met. I was clumsy with my hands, and my folks thought archery would help that. It helped my dexterity, sure, but it also... let's just say I was a rebellious teenager, and giving me a weapon and an excuse to go running off into the woods for hours at a time might not've been the smartest move my parents could've made.

He knew I wasn't happy on the farm, and even though I was a pretty good archer by then, he still came to visit every few months. Then, one time, I told him I was going with him when he left. He said he'd stop me, I didn't know what I was getting into; and I told him that unless he shot me it wouldn't matter. He replied that he might shoot me, and I said that if he did I'd bite off his fingers and come anyway.

So, I went with him back to his home high in the Aerbs, on the Alexandrian side. He was one of the best hunters in the small village, and taught me most of his tricks. And along the way...

Um, what can I say? He knew how to support me when I needed it, and let me alone when I wanted to be. He knew how to read my moods, how to back down when my dragon blood showed its temper, but still stand firm when it counted. And he... I... this is hard.

I'm not gonna say more about that, except it ended with us getting married. It was a good life, and we lived it for nearly ten years. I'd go chop firewood while he went hunting, and we'd enjoy the fresh meat and hot fire. I never could knit worth a damn, but he could, so he made some of our clothes. He was hopeless as a woodworker, but I wasn't, so I kept our house in good repair and made us some simple but rugged furniture. It was all ugly as hell, but it worked, and he'd always carve these designs into 'em afterwards...

One winter we were running low on food, and the storm was still going strong. He said he saw a prey animal not far outside the window, wandering blindly in the blizzard, and that he'd go kill it.

I didn't think much of it when he wasn't back a quarter-hour later; he knew better than to go out of sight of the house in that kind of weather. But an hour and a half later, I bundled up and went out after him. I found him - the beast ran away, and he'd gone after it but forgotten how close we lived to... he fell damn near a hundred feet before he hit a boulder and stopped...

But I didn't find that out for awhile. I got lost first, nearly froze to death out there before the storm died down... that's when I found him. He was still alive, so I planned to carry him back home. I was going to nurse him back to health, and it'd all be fine...

But it was too late. He was badly frostbitten, and broken bones, and his lungs... when I put my head against his chest, it sounded like his lungs were full of liquid. He was in pain, so much pain...

I had to do it, you understand? He begged me to, even! No mages in a thousand miles, no potions powerful enough to heal him, and he was dying an agonizing death... could you bear to see the one person you love the most die like that?! I... I had to do it, you know? There wasn't a choice. I swore on my own life I'd do anything for him, and all he wanted... he just wanted...