I'll join the crowd.

"update! update!"

I heard update!!

*sits down, smiling at minque, ready for her to begin storytelling*

ok....sit down and get amazed....here comes..an update..at last...
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I woke up to a day that was very much like all the other days I spent at this camp; first breakfast, a really sturdy one, it took me about a week to get used to the meals in general and the breakfasts in particular. The breakfasts were meant to provide a good start of the day; the other meals to maintain strength and agility during the various exercises and trials that were due to come.

I usually tried to get a chance to talk to Lalatia Vabdas if it was possible; I liked the woman but I also had a feeling she was to have some influence on my future. I was not yet to find that out though.

It was clearly a different experience to be a woman at this camp, mostly because I was the only one at that time if you don’t count Shardie, the Block-training superior. To start with I spent a full month to refine my already rather good Long-blade skills. I tried to remember all that Telemachos taught me at the Prison back in Cyrodiil, and I think I did rather well. I trained in slashing and thrusting until my arms were numb and I cried in pure exhaustion.

During that first month I did almost nothing but train, eat enormous amounts of food, and sleep. My muscles grew, I achieved a better posture, and my mind was getting more alert and focused. Lalatia Vabdas noticed the changes in me and was very supportive; also she didn’t let me forget that I was and still am.....a woman.

The training-program then continued with how to use a short blade, a spear and a bow; it was crucial to know how to handle various types of weaponry, they told me. And who was I to object? I did what I was told and worked very hard, and so I got my promotions in the Legion, first to Agent then to Champion.

I must admit I was very proud of myself as I got the rank of Champion presented to me by General Artorius himself at a small ceremony at the grand chambers at Fort Buckmoth. I even got a glimpse of Imsin among the group of people attending the ceremony.

I was now required to wear Imperial steel armour, and by this time I had no difficulty wearing such heavy, sturdy armour. My growing muscles had made me both bigger and a lot stronger so I felt rather comfortable wearing it. If only my father could see me now, he would have been so proud. Thinking of my past didn’t make me weep anymore; it just burned behind my eyelids, nothing more. I had apparently grown both mentally and physically.

When I’d been at the camp for 6 months I had the right to take 3 days off, to visit my family, if I’d had one but I took the opportunity to get away from the camp, being a bit tired of all the more or less nasty suggestions given to me on a nearly daily basis. Nothing foul had happened but I was very satisfied with the strong door with the sturdy lock on my private quarters.

I spent the evening before my so-called vacation with Lalatia Vabdas. She advised me to join one of the Great Houses in Vvardenfell; by doing that I should get some sort of a family and also support and shelter. Maybe even a home....That sounded good I reckoned and as she also told me that Neminda in the Redoran Council at Ald´ruhn was the one to contact if I chose The Great House Redoran, my choice was made. I’d go to Ald´Ruhn first thing next morning and talk to Neminda. It might be an advantage for my further advancement in The Legion if I belonged to a Great House, and also, and that was the main reason for me to even consider such an arrangement, I would get a family again!

That night I wept myself to sleep; shook off the mental shield and became “little Renie” again, outcast from the Vantinius-family, deprived of name and honour, ex-convict, with no one to turn to.

Next morning after breakfast, I set off for Ald´ruhn. It was a beautiful morning, some clouds in the sky but with a rather warm sunshine. I had to put on my robe; the steel-armour I was wearing got blazing hot in the bright sun, so I felt as if I was to be cooked inside it. Sweat streamed all over me and soaked my shirt and trousers completely.

Suddenly I was shoved to the ground by a vicious blow from behind, followed by an agonizing scream....I dived to the ground right on my face, the grey ashes filled my mouth and nostrils, but I managed somehow to roll over before something came swishing from above and just barely missed me. Now this was my first but not last encounter with a cliff-racer, one of the most annoying creatures in Vvardenfell. It looks like a bird, but has a long tail with a sharp claw at the end. The creature swings this tail at you with an utmost precision exactly where it will do the most harm. And they are fast! I just barely had the time to once more roll over before the huge tail came at me again. At the same time it attacks you, it screams...a terrible high scream that really hurts your ears.

Since I had no intention staying on the ground rolling back and forth to avoid the attacking cliff-racer, I prepared myself the next time the tail was heading at me, and grabbed it with both hands. My intention was to drag it to the ground and then ...kill it somehow, but I overestimated my acquired strength or rather my bodyweight, because I was rapidly pulled off the ground and up in the air, before my hands, slippery with sweat, slid off the tail sending me in a perfect arc right among some upright boulders, where I fell heavily and was knocked out for a while.

The beast screamed in anger and agony of the lost prey and started hovering over the area. I was unconscious for a minute or two before I composed myself and managed to get hold of my longbow that luckily enough had landed not far from my hideout after the involuntarily flight. Also there was only one arrow left in the quiver, so it was clear that I had one chance..Not more. I aimed thoroughly, the best I could in my situation, lying among some rocks, beaten and bruised, shivering from fear.

I waited for the beast to come closer; something warm was running down my left leg, I didn’t dare to look, since every single move made the pain shoot right up my spine, the leg was probably broken, but I had no time to deal with that at the moment. The Racer was closing in, it must have caught the smell of blood and sweat emerging from me; I aimed, waited until I could actually sense the putrid odour of the beast, then I let go of the arrow. It hit the cliff-racer in its throat and must have pierced its windpipe because the creature gave up a horrible sound and fell heavily to the ground less than three feet away from me.

I sat still, panting , the relief of getting out of this was immense. Then the pain from my injured leg caught my attention. On examining it I found that it was broken, and in addition I was stuck between those boulders due to my steel armour. I had not the strength left to perform a healing-procedure, so I just leaned back.....and eventually fell asleep.

"Serene, Serene, wake up, you must heal yourself immediately, I will support you. Take off that armour of yours, let your powers heal your leg...I shall guide you"..

The voice in my dream was coming from the woman clad in a blue-white robe, the woman who I knew was a personification of Azura. I naturally woke up, quite calm, knowing what to do. So she was always following me, it must mean something, I just didn’t see it yet.

I managed to take off my steel boots and greaves so the wound was visible. The leg was totally broken just where the boot ended. The trousers were soaked with blood and the bones were visible. I felt sick, and cold sweat ran down my face; I just couldn’t do it this time. I managed to defeat a cliff-racer only to be defeated by a broken leg.

“Serene, put the bones in place, I will guide you”

I gasped; this was the first time Azura had come to me when I was awake, and I heard her voice in my head loud and clear, just as if she stood beside me. Then I noticed my hands moving without my will and gently putting the broken bones in place. I sobbed, for the pain was immense but.....then it began to diminish as the heat from my hands was flowing into the wound. The healing-process was slow but steady, and I felt the leg getting stronger. Then I passed out, the exhaustion was too much.

When I opened my eyes again the sun was setting....the sky was wonderfully coloured in red, orange and purple. My leg was sore but healed, and I made an effort to get loose from the boulders. Standing up I tried to use my legs successfully. The steel-armour was battered and would need some fixing up before I got back to the Camp again or else the General would be annoyed.

But first of all I needed some fix-me-up, before I could even go near Neminda, smelling like a dead guar as I did. I decided to ask the friendly mages for help when I arrived in the town of Ald`ruhn.

Edwinna Elbert smiled at me when I entered the Mage’s Guild;

“So Serene, you are visiting us again I see, and you look as if you could do with a bath and some clean clothing again I reckon?” Edwinna said. I was embarrassed, this was the second time I took advantage of the friendly hospitable mages of Ald`ruhn, but as with the first time, I did not have much choice this time either.

Edwinna examined the healed leg and was then very thoughtful. “Did you heal this yourself, Serene?” she asked, “Because if you did you really have amazing healing-skills, healing one-self is by far the hardest things to perform.”

I said I did but also mentioned the help from Azura. And the encounter with the cliff-racer that caused the whole thing. Edwinna laughed when I told her about my “flight”;

“Now how could you even consider taking down a cliff-racer with your bare hands, girl?” she smiled,”You have not improved your humbleness have you?”

After a hot bath and dressed up in some very nice clothes that originated from Edwinna´s own wardrobe, I was ready to visit Neminda. Just before I left The Mage’s Guild I got a glimpse of a tall man talking to one of the mages, he was blond, tall and quite muscular, but what caught my attention was the aura of strength and power that surrounded him....I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
Edwinna noticed my hesitation and smiled at me;

“That is a man called Trey of High Rock,” she whispered, “He’s a very good man, always polite and nice. I think he just brought some books for our scholars....”

"We here in the guild have heard rumours from the Imperial City, that the Emperor thinks he might be the one. The Reincarnation of Lord Neverar reborn. That is of course just a rumour, but imagine...

I tried to remember what I had read about this phenomenon in those books Imsin gave me when I arrived, and I hoped I was to meet with this man...one day.

As I arrived at the Great Hall in the Redoran Council, Neminda immediately spotted me and waved cheerfully at me. I felt warm at heart and hurried to approach her.

“Serene! It’s good to see you.” Neminda shook my hand and smiled happily at me. “What brings you here?”

“I...I would like to join .....”

“Ahh, you would like to be one of us? You want to join The Great House Redoran?” Neminda sounded very happy as I nodded..

We went inside Neminda´s small office and she presented me with the proper papers to fill in. As she noticed I was a healer she stared very strangely at me. I got the feeing that this fact was the most interesting about me.

“Now then Serene,” she said after the paperwork was done, “I am sure you will be comfortable amongst us and I can see your skills and personality will fit in very well in House Redoran”.

“You will have to perform one minor quest for the House before you will be given a sponsor or mentor if you like,” she continued. “There is a lady who lives in the countryside outside the town on a farm. She is a guar-herder and has lately had some problems with ...oh believe it or not..Mudcrabs attacking her guars!”

I looked at Neminda with surprise, I thought mudcrabs would live by the sea....but this was an exception I supposed.

I promised Neminda to have a look at this first thing in the morning; right now I just needed some food and a good night’s sleep, so I headed back to The Mage’s Guild and humbly asked if I could use one of their guest-rooms.

Of course I could, and even more, Edwinna had arranged for my armour to be mended and polished. So after a simple supper I tucked myself in, and immediately fell asleep.

hehe cool

Great update. And this is the first time she sees Trey..oops, I mean Lord Nerevar Reborn... in person, too.

Good job Minque. The long awaited update was worth the wait

Great update! Been waiting but it was well worth it. The best parts were the cliff racer battle and the broken leg part, they sound familiar somehow...
Serene got clothes for free! Kiln got arrested for the same thing in my FF(Trying to get clothes for free.)...women always get the better deals...so unfair.
This has been a long awaited update for me...couldn't ask for more...well, I could...

LOL most of the time that is true

Good as always Minque... Nice writing and its just getting better and better, and that u update with such long stories is also good, cant really get the eyes of the story for a while Very good!

Please come with another update

Ahhhh... the plot starts to thicken Wooyay !

This post has been edited by milanius: Jul 21 2005, 12:48 PM

So a few new plot strands start to open. Oh, and I have to say this, for the person who can't write action sequences..... that was a pretty damn good one. I'm not going to let you say that from now on

So, we have our first glimpse of Trey through another character's eyes, Azura taking a more direct involvement, the beginning of a career in Great House Redoran and free clothes. Quite a packed update really. It goes without saying thats its well written and exciting, and my particular pleasure of qouting little parts has plenty to work with as well. This might well go into Darkwings quote thread.

"But first of all I needed some fix-me-up, before I could even go near Neminda, smelling like a dead guar as I did."

hehe, I liked that.

Super update!

So we finally see Trey, huh?

*shakes head and chukles to himself* .... Reminds me of an older person being bombarded by younger kids demands for stuff. "Give me this and this! IF I don't get this im going to cry and sit ont he ground and not move."

I hope you can manage on your own. But then again... *starts to whisper* you can warn people if they get to annoying.

As Burnt has said some more plots have been opened up. What will Serene do next? We will have to wait next week to see the season finally.

Hey Ummm This is My First Post But Minque PLEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSEEEEEEE make an update soon. school will start soon and then my PC time will be halved.....

HURRY!!!!!!

Minque's on some sort of trip right now...she should return within the next few days though...

She comes back the fifth....which is tomorrow, or today here.

Well the last update was good and since I am behind in times I think its time for a new one...HEHE.. GJ Minque

Can't believe I haven't commented on this addition- (bad dog- no cake for you!)

The fight with the cliff-racer was wonderfully written- we mostly just despise them/take them for granted, but I have had more than one starting character killed by the spotted owl cliffies.

And now she will be part of Redoran- the only choice for our honorable Serene, of course. And she sees a "mysterious stranger," who for once isn't tripping over his own sword....

Great writing, as ever.

Long time, no update.....but here it is..at last!!

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I made an early start next morning, according to the map Neminda gave me yesterday, it would be quite a walk to get to Drulene Falen´s Farm. The morning was bright and clear, no ash storms, no rain; a chilly wind blew over the dry and grey landscape as I headed for my first task for The Great House Redoran. I felt content and happy; I was going to get a family, a home, something to belong to, a thing I had been missing for a very long time.

I was watchful as I strode the path leading to Maar Gaan; I had my encounter with the Cliff Racers well in mind and did not want another one. The map was very well done so I really had minor problems finding the little opening in the lower vegetation where the Guar Farm was located. A couple of Guars were slowly patrolling outside a small house with a nice little garden in front.

Drulene Falen, a tall Dunmeri lady in her fifties, greeted me rather warmly, despite my obvious Cyrodiilic features.

“Ahh, you are the one Neminda sent?” Drulene was apparently not expecting a woman to help her out, “Why this can be a heavy duty, are you sure you are strong enough? I’d reckon Neminda would have thought of sending a man instead, it’s not a woman’s job, it ain’t”

I reassured Drulene I was strong enough, and after trying to help me off with my heavy steel cuirass, she was convinced I could handle the situation.

She offered me some hackle-lo tea as a small fortification and so we sat down on a narrow bench just outside the house, where she told me her story;

Drulene Falen was a widow since five years ago, and made her living breeding Guars, mostly for training them into pack-animals but also for their very tender meat. Her late husband, Tralayn Falen, was killed scouting the Red Mountain Area. This was the first time I heard about Red Mountain, but it would not be the last.....

The Farm had been rather prosperous for quite some time but during the last year prices on Pack-Guars had lowered so she had to struggle quite hard for her living. Therefore the sudden attack of the hostile mudcrabs was a severe blow to her entire living. They had captured a Guar and dragged it along westwards. The loss of a presumptive Pack-Guar meant a major economic drawback for her. Why mudcrabs would come all this way into the country she could not explain; their normal habitat was close to the sea.

Nevertheless I got the picture and set off to try to exterminate the crabs and maybe recover her lost animal. The more to the west I went,the the more the landscape changed towards the kind of environment you find near water; obviously the mudcrabs were heading home with their prey......

I found them in a grassy opening quite near the coast. The sun was bright and the heat was devastating. Sweat ran down my back, and I had to sit down for a while behind some huge Gold Kanet bushes before performing my task. The mudcrabs had dragged the Guar with them all the way from Drulene´s farm, then killed the poor animal, and filled their stomachs with its flesh. The odour from the half-eaten cadaver reached my nose, and I understood that there was nothing to do to save some for Drulene.

Still I had to deal with the mudcrabs. They looked rather big to me, bigger than the one I had a meeting with outside Seyda Neen last year. I took off my cuirass; mudcrabs don’t jump on you, they pinch your legs, so it would only hinder me.

I wiped my sweaty hands on my shirt, unsheathed my sword and started walking towards the beasts. Mudcrabs do not have very good eyesight so I was quite near them before they even noticed me, but when they did, they attacked immediately; squeaking and clipping with their pincers they came at me, both of them...at the same time but from different directions. One of them grabbed my left boot, and I could feel the steel slowly bend.....the other one I managed to turn upside-down with a slash of my sword. A mudcrab upside-down looks rather ridiculous, making squeaking angry sounds and waving its claws ferociously in the air without achieving anything. I laughed as I watched it struggle to turn around.

The one that had caught my left boot was about to perforate it so I realised I’d have to do something about that immediately. A hard thrust of my sword hitting just between the claws made the crab loosen its grip, and I quickly drew my foot back and kicked the astonished mudcrab from below so it also ended upside-down.

So now I had two angry mudcrabs lying on their shells waving claws at me, but I was aware that they would succeed in turning around in a short while so the best thing was to end their misery as soon as possible. A couple of deep cuts with my dagger into the soft parts of the crabs took care of it all.

A thought entered my mind, seeing the two huge dead crabs. I might be able to somewhat compensate Drulene for her loss if I could bring home the meat to her. Crabmeat was delicious and it could be dried to lastthroughout the coming winter. I immediately started to recover the nice white meat from the two crabs, neatly putting it on some cork bulb-leaves that I’d first put on the ground. Then the next problem occurred; how could I get all that meat back to the farm? It was far too much to just carry and I had nothing to carry it in. So there I was standing, a huge heap of fresh crab-meat on the ground.....and two empty crab-shells......crab-shells?

Then I knew what to do. I carved two small holes in one of the shells just along the edge where it was laying upside-down. There were lianas hanging from some nearby trees, so I went to get one, about 3 metres long. This liana I threaded through the holes, and then had a kind of sleigh, to put the meat in, now all I had to do was drag it behind me.

So I headed back to Drulene´s farm, slowly walking, dragging an upside-down mudcrabshell behind me filled with crabmeat. The other crab shell I used as cover, in case any Cliff racers should feel like an extra treat.

It was late afternoon when I arrived at Drulene´s farm again.....No need to mention how happy she was about all that meat. She embraced me, tears running down her cheeks;

“Oh you lovely girl“she said, “Come let me offer you something to eat and drink, before you must go back to Neminda.”

I was offered some bread and tea; it tasted wonderful, mostly because it was a gift from heart; Drulene barely had food to survive herself and yet she offered me some of it. Sitting in her cosy house sipping my tea I felt really satisfied with myself. Drulene was a woman who loved books from the looks of her place. The room in which we sat was covered with bookshelves from floor to ceiling. There was a book lying on the table where we sat, it was called “The Hope of the Redoran,” and since I had just joined that particular house I naturally was interested in that book.

Drulene showed it to me, it was a history of one of the leading Families in House Redoran, the Sarethi-family.

“My late husband, Tralayn, used to work for Serjo Athyn Sarethi,” she said, “A noble man he is, always honest and righteous, a great leader .....”

I thought about that when I later headed back to Ald´ruhn to report to Neminda, who indeed was pleased to hear how I had helped Drulene out. Especially she was pleased that I had arranged some winter-supplies for the poor widow.

I was to be back at the training-camp early next morning so I decided to take a walk back this evening and arrive early.

Neminda said goodbye to me and told me that when I was finished with my training I should get back to her and she then would have organised a mentor for me, including a family with whom I could stay while in Ald’ruhn.

Pleased with that information I walked back to Fort Buckmoth, to accomplish the second half of my training.

YEAH! Update! The long awaited update...time to read now.