Skyrim
A Tale of Two Souls
Chapter 3
As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, our two heroes, currently sleep sharing a bed in the blacksmiths house in the town of Riverwood. The sounds of activity in the house causing the two to waken, Alvor the blacksmith and owner of the home was getting ready for a day of work at his smithy and his family were getting ready for their days as well, also among them was Hadvar playing with young girl who they had discovered was his niece the night before. As the family went about the beginning of their days, the woman of the house said as she walked over to the bed having noticed the two now awake,
“Ah good to see you two awake and well, not everyday one can say I faced down a dragon and lived to tell the tale, come you two must be hungry, I’ve prepared some breakfast come and eat dears.”
Nodding the cat and the argonian get up out of bed still in the clothes they wore last night, not having much of a choice in the matter, and make their way over to the table and take a seat, the lady of the house handing them both plates filled to the brim with eggs, bacon, sausage, flapjacks, and toast with a choice of butter or jam. Usshin says lowering his hood and wondering how on earth he’d manage to hide his once again growing fangs,
“Wow, that sure is a lot of food, but I . . . I can’t pay for it . . . My coin was lost when I was arrested with those stormcloaks.”
She nods then says with a smile,
“Well not to worry its on the house you saved Hadvar’s life after all it’s the least we owe you.”
Walking back upstairs, Alvor says with a thick nord accent,
“Ay that we do, if my nephew would have died without your intervention then you’re always welcomed to eat in my home, now come eat and enjoy.”
Nodding he looks over to Ne’Ma, giving the young girl a stern look as she was about to dig in without even an after though, but quickly she wipes some drool off of her mouth before looking over to both Alvor and his wife Sigrid then simply nodding with a smile Alvor laughs then saying,
“You’re quite welcome little one, now please you must be hungry eat.”
She nods then quickly dives in to the food fork first, leaving Usshin only to facepalm as several piece roll off her plate but are quickly snapped up by the hungry girl, leading Sigrid to laugh aloud before her husband asks holding off on taking a drink of some fresh and cold orange juice,
“So Mister Usshin, if you don’t mind my asking how did you end up smack in the middle of the stormcloaks and our boys? I bet there is some kind of story there ehh?”
Nodding the cat says finishing a bite of food,
“Well, that there is, if you’d want to hear it that is, don‘t you have to start working on you forge soon?”
The nod man nods then says setting down his glass,
“By all means, being your own boss means I can go to work when ever the hell I want, I’d love to hear your tale.”
Nodding and finishing a piece of bacon, the cat begins his story,
“Well it was about four days ago, we’d gotten on a wagon from Bruma, and rode through the Jeralls, took the better part of a day to get half way though and poor Ne’Ma kept complaining that her tail was freezing.”
There is a laugh among the group but before they could go on the front door to the house opened and in walked Alex, everyone in the house dumbstruck as then fox walked in then said,
“Oh don’t mind me, I’m just here to set up the flash back.”
With that he Snaps his fingers and then the white mist erupts, once settled, Usshin and Ne’Ma can be seen in a wagon the young argonian pressing herself against her father’s warm fur as much as she could do to the fact that she was cold; Usshin knowing he’d have to get her some much, much warmer clothing when they got to their destination, thankfully the driver had a blanket and loaned it to the two of them. As this goes Usshin can be heard narrating,
“It was a clam trip, we weren’t the only ones in the wagon either, we were joined by an imperial family, their son had wanted to join the collage of Winterhold, apparently he had been showing some magical potential, I was kind enough to offer him a test for a few Septims of course, after demonstrating my own magic his parents agreed. Wasn’t a hard test, I gave him a piece of wood that is used in staves told him to focus on it, it reacts easily to magic you see, even small and untrained bits of magic. A few seconds into the demonstration lesson the splinter of wood started to glow, to say that the boy was excited to find out his magic was real would be an understatement, I explained to his parents that that particular glow meant he had a great potential for restoration magic they seemed to be happy with that bit news but I digress, you want to hear what happened after that.”
Time fast forwards quickly till the wagon pulls past the snow of the Jerall mountains making its way to a lush forest. Usshin then resumes his narration, telling the story to the people back in the home,
“It was about daybreak when it happened, it happened so fast I didn’t have a chance to react outside of protecting everyone’s lives. A large hail of arrows beset the cart I managed to shield myself, Ne’Ma, the would be mage and his parents, and the cart driver, his horse however was beyond my reach. The poor animal took several arrows then fell dead taking the cart with him and we tumbled out, I happened to strike my head on a rock on the ground most inopportunely and when I managed to get to my feet a blade met my gut and I was tossed to the ground. Believing me dead the bandits took everyone else and left me behind, I blacked out as Ne’Ma was screaming my name.”
Watching Usshin black out there is silence till Alvor is heard asking,
“You were gutted by a blade, but survived? Think you can teach Hadvar that little trick?”
There is a collective laugh before once again time fast forwards watching the shadows quickly rush over Usshin’s face till he goes on saying,
“Yes as you guess, I survived . . . .obviously, I have natural ability to heal even severe wounds, but it takes time to do so, the death the bandits miss took me to have was a trance of sorts, long story short my body shuts down then heals, when I’m better I wake. It was about dusk when I woke, Ne’Ma was long gone, but one thing that is good about being well me is that I have a very power sense of smell, I was able to track her down on scent alone.”
Sigrid can be heard saying however as the scene unfolds it actually seems that of Usshin began tasting a bit of blood from the ground, it was Ne’Ma’s, afterwards he leaves, following the scent of her blood, something only a hungry vampire could do; The scene changes to the of a cave entrance
“Wow, that’s very impressive, I never knew that the khajiit had such a strong sense of smell.”
As Usshin goes about sneaking into the cave, killing a bandit guard with a spell of some kind he also narrates,
“It was actually a fairly simple thing to get into the cave they had taken the prisoners into, the guards where easily killed to distracted by goings on inside, and once dealt with getting inside was easy and from there I worked my way down.”
The narration ending there Usshin silently moves though the cave, using a spell to change his robes into something more form fitting, allowing him much more range of movement and covering his face; being in the eve of the night and in the belly of a cave, the sun was one thing this vampire didn’t have to worry about. As quick and silent as a shadow the enraged cat quickly and easily puts down bandit after bandit as he worked his way into the depths of the cave till eventually he stumbles on a set of cages, within which sit the two adult men sit tied to each other, the cage other the woman and her son, the third empty Ne’Ma was nowhere to be seen. Looking around from where he perched he managed to get the attention of the captive people by dropping a rock then letting a dim light shine from hand. Lowering the fabric covering his face the people are relieved to see the cat, who puts out the light and returns to the shadows as a man walks over then asks the men,
“What was that sound?”
The carriage drive says looking up to the bandit,
“Was only a rat, knocked over a rock as it made off with some cheese.”
Looking around and seeing nothing the man shrugs his shoulders then walks off mumbling “damn rats, filthy creatures” then shining the light once again Usshin slowly mouths the words ‘how many men over there?’ getting what he was asking the men looked over and silently took a look then whispering to the woman who in turn said something to her son, being the most in the line of sight of the cat then doing as his mother told him, holing up three fingers on one hand, then one more on his other then acting out the fact one man was on patrol and often returned to the room. Nodding the cat puts out the light and sneaks over to the cages, hiding behind a wall the cages where near. Looking to the boy, Usshin covered his eyes with his hands, the boy nodding then following suit, and as the guard patrolling around made his way back Usshin grabbed him from behind, slitting open his throat with a blade and gripping hard the mans mouth to keep him from making any noise. Once dead Usshin sets him down quietly and takes his keys, unlocking the cages the cutting off the ropes holding the people together. Silently Usshin says as they quietly makes their way out of the cages,
“Go the path behind me is empty, I killed the bandits as it progressed, stay quiet and stay safe and you should be able to make it out.”
Shaking the cats hand the father says quietly,
“Thank you my friend, if you ever make a trip out to Rorikstead look for me, I’ll pay you back for this gift in full I give my word as a man”
Nodding Usshin then signals for them to go, He still had business to take care of, his baby girl still needed him. With the innocents out of harms way he quickly made his move ghosting one more guard before erupting into a fight with the rest, who fell quickly to his combined skill with both magic and blade. Effortlessly felling the guards left in the room and the one ahead then making his way to a large chamber was easy, where he finds dozens of people were gathered, all wearing masks to hide their faces, it seemed to be an auction of some sorts, reaffirmed when one of the bandits on stage shouted,
“Sold, to the gentlemen in the front row wearing the fox mask.”
One man then walking to hand over a large and very expensive looking bust of Tiber Septim the third, then handing it to the man in the mask’s servant, then masked man in question handing over a big bag of gold coins. Returning to the stage the broker then said,
“Alright my friends, next on the docket, a very rare item indeed.”
One man forcing Ne’Ma on to the stage, the young girl having been stripped completely and her hands bound behind her. The man going on to say,
“We have here a young argonian girl, now I know what you’re thinking, what’s so special about this young naked lizard? Well if you’ll take a closer look her eyes are almost unheard of, bright blue like that of a sapphire, and her voice umm, I can personally say I’ve never heard such a pretty voice on a lizard before, not to mention, she’s a virgin, we’ve taken very special care that we didn’t damage that very precious bit during our examination. And last but not least, we all know how Argonians are, even the females get fairly strong and are damn resilient to disease, train her well and you’d get more then your moneys worth. Make her sing, make her work, make her serve your tables during a feast, use her as your own personal fuck toy, we don’t really care, what we do care about is the fact that the bidding starts at five thousand Septims, do I have any takers?”
As the man goes about his auction several men in the crowd quickly drive the price up to ten thousand, Ne’Ma quietly crying at the thoughts her father might be dead, and that she was moments from being sold as a slave, however as her price reaches twenty thousand a sharp cold overtakes the area, to the point that even the auctioneer stops to say,
“what the hell? why is it getting to damn cold all of a sudden?”
Suddenly Usshin falls from the ceiling, the cat fully engulfed in black flames shouting as he held out his hands,
“trying to sell my daughter into slavery! UNFORGIVABLE!!”
The black flames covering him shoot into a pillar the fills the whole of the center of the room. He then says as the robes unwind to their pervious state, shooting the crowd a fear baring look making the lot of them shake in their boots,
“IF you perverted bastards value your lives you will flee!!”
In that instant in his rage, the cat tears opens a small oblivion gate and instantly a blade flies from it decapitating the auctioneer and instantly no less then a dozen daedra pour out and start killing the bandits, the buyers in a panic going as far as to drop their illegally obtained goods and items and running for their lives. Its at this point that Usshin once again begins narrating saying,
“I’ll admit I went a little bit overboard, but they were going to sell my Ne’Ma . . My little girl . . . . As a sex slave. After opening the oblivion gate I flew into a rage, alongside no less then a dozen daedra I began slaughtering them like the beast they were, at one point I even began turning them inside out. It was no less two hours later when I came to my senses with a little help from Ne’Ma, I was currently fe . .er”
He coughs a few times pretending to be clearing his throat, then taking a drink of his juice before going on,
“Beating the crap out of their leader, the spell that opened the gate had long since expired and the daedra that it spawned had vanished, Ne’Ma managed to find me. . And well I’ll save you on the gory parts for the children’s shakes, but to say I was a mess . . Would have been putting it mildly. Ne’Ma starting singing me this little song that I had sung for her when she was little and I was trying to get her to clam down, her voice it just started echoing off the walls it . . It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.”
Everything now black all there was, was Usshin talking of what happened next, going on with his story,
“However in my blind rage I mistook her for a foe grabbed her around the neck, I quickly realized who she was but the damage had been done; in that instant I cast some kind of curse in my rage and now I can’t remember what one it was, however it has robbed her of her voice, until I can figure out what curse it was and undo it she’s all but mute. Afterwards once the fog had cleared from my mind and I saw her still as naked as the day she hatched I quickly threw off my robes and cover her in them it must have been ten below in that cave. I then found her something to put on among the bandits ill-gotten goods and together we fled the cave and that we did, we ran though the forest for what seemed like hours, I quickly got lost due to the fact that all I could seem was the blood I was covered in so we stopped at a stream being fed by a waterfall and I took it as a chance to clean myself if only a little, but as I did I didn’t notice the on coming danger Stormcloak troops, before I could react to get me and Ne’Ma out of harms way a battle erupted as you and the other imperial troops ambushed them. I managed to get away with Ne’Ma in tow however I was caught, several battalions of high elves belonging to the Thalmor were marching down the pass I was trying to get though, I believe now they meant to ambush your people and the Stormcloaks, With general Tullius and Jarl Ulfric out of the way they could easily take over skyrim for the dominion, crushing both the empire and the rebel stormcloaks in one fell swipe, but they didn’t expect me to be in their way and honestly, if they had asked me to move I would have but instead one elf shouted ‘Kill them, no witnesses’ and a second battle erupted. While you and imperials fought the Stormcloaks I fought tooth and nail against the Thalmor. I killed more then several dozen of them before I got tired, I had just spent so much of my magic slaughtering the bandits only to be thrown against the elves. Once they managed to knock me out however instead of being able to just kill us and move on with their plan, you and general Tullius and the rest of your troops caught them, and they played it off saying the caught a stormcloak mage trying to escape, and you bought it, and then me and my Ne’Ma, ended up in those carts, ready to be beheaded by that imperial captain.”
Once again inside the home of Alvor the blacksmith, everyone having forgotten the fox was ever there, Alvor says mindlessly chewing on a piece of bacon,
“That’s . . . that’s one hell of a story.”
The cat nods coddling Ne’Ma who was sobbing remembering how close she was to being sold, the cat then says with a laugh trying to lighten the mood,
“Talk about greetings from Skyrim eh?”
There are a few nervous chuckles from the others before Hadvar says putting his hands on Usshin’s shoulders,
“Well then looks like I owe you my life two times then eh friend? I never would have imaged the damned elves, traitorous bastards. I never would have thought they’d have given us the perfect chance to capture Jarl Ulfric only in order to kill us all in one fell swoop, I swear they’ll pay.”
Looking over Usshin asks,
“How will you do that?”
The man shakes his hand and says,
“Not sure, unfortunately the story of one khajiit won’t be enough evidence to prove their traitorous intent, I’m more then certain they’d lie to cover their asses like they did with you the first time.”
Nodding Usshin asks,
“So what should we do now then?”
Alvor says speaking up after having finished more bacon,
“Well in the mean time might I suggest something, Jarl Balgruuf needs to be informed of this dragon, Riverwood is defenseless, if it attacked now we’d all be killed. If you and your daughter could go to Whiterun and ask him to send guards to protect us, we’d be in your debt even more so then we are now.”
Nodding in agreement, Usshin says,
“We’ve got nothing else to do right now, might as well huh? Might even be able to get ourselves some proper clothes, providing we can get our hands on some money”
Ne’Ma nods with a smile, however as they get up ready to start their task, once again someone snaps his fingers and a white mist envelopes everyone leaving only the fox with a grin on the face, quickly saying,
“What, can’t let this chapter keep prattling on forever now can I? Don’t worry though, you’ll be able to find out what happens to our heroes next, in the next chapter, so bye for now.”
Waving goodbye, the fox the vanishes, back flipping and falling into the white mist.
~End of Chapter~
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