The Nord and the Four-Eared Khajiit, About 20 years after Martin's death, as crimes are spreading, a No Options

[sford564]

Okay, I already posted this on fanfiction.net, but I've revised it a little now. Soooo... here it is. It starts out a little dark and gets lighter as it goes.


Chapter 1: Fulfilling a Promise

The Nord made his way through the forest toward the traveling entertainers’ carts. There were all sorts of low lives of every race in this little gathering. Some of the scum wanted to see the bear baiting or to bet on the pit fights. Others wanted to buy slaves. Others still came to have sex with or buy some of the kidnapped girls the travelers had with them.

Sure, slavery was illegal, but it didn’t matter as long as you didn’t get caught. After Emperor Martin’s sacrifice, everyone’s attention was focused on cleaning their world up again from the Oblivion scum and rebuilding it again. Then, when things began to settle down, the talk of the new emperor exploded into several skirmishes, until most citizens didn’t care who ruled, as long as the deaths stopped. Now that the new High Chancellor took over rule, things were peaceful again for the moment. Alas, though, with all the strife that had taken place, the High Chancellor didn’t have enough time or man power to take care of every problem across the land, which meant that slavers began to rise up here and there in various parts of the world.


The Nord shivered a little and pulled the cloak further over his head so that no one could see him as he rode up to the camp. He had promised the dying Khajiit that he’d find her daughter, but he never expected to find her in a place like this. Still, though, he didn’t have as hard a time finding her as he had expected. It seemed that the sight of the four-eared half breed Khajiit made a lot of stir in every town she was brought to.

As soon as he entered the camp, he was surrounded by a group of dangerous looking men. “I’m looking for a Khajiit half-breed. Four ears,” he informed them.

“We have nothing like that here,” one of the men told him, not liking the looks of the Nord.

“Ahhh, so you’re the one asking around, are you?” another asked.

“What do you want, stranger?”

“I want to buy her,” the Nord answered.

“She’s not for sale!”

“She will be,” the Nord assured, slipping off his horse next to them. The vagabonds backed away a little, as the Nord towered over most of them. “Take me to her,” he demanded. No one moved.

The Nord slipped off his hood, and everyone backed away even more, horrified. There was no real face on the Nord; instead, there were two black eyes and two ears in a mass of scarred and torn flesh. He looked inhuman enough to be one of the Oblivion spawns he had hunted many years ago.

“Now,” the Nord growled. The group instantly spilt away from him and one vagabond, too scared to disobey, made his way through camp – nearly running to get away from the Nord – to where the Four-eared Khajiit was locked.

There was a small group of laughing, jeering people in front of the cage. They didn’t even notice as the Nord walked behind them.

This post has been edited by sford564: Sep 5 2010, 07:12 AM

[sford564]

Chapter 2: The Feral Khajiit

The Four-eared Khajiit was a small thing, with two bright yellow eyes with pupils slit into slivers in a very feline fashion. Her lips were small and delicate looking, but she had sharp teeth and huge canines inside.

She was so thin that nearly every bone in her body could be seen.

Even with these oddities, she still would have looked like a regular human were it not for the soft yellow-orange ears that rested atop her head, just above her human ears. There was a big chunk of missing flesh in one of these ears, which told of years of abuse. Her little nose, though human, was a soft pink like that of a cat’s, and she had whiskers on each side of her face, right next to her nose, and a long stripped tail.

The Nord wasn’t sure what was supposed to be going on – was the ‘show’ just the sight of the strange, humanoid four-eared creature? If it was, how could they laugh at such a sad sight and not pity it as it sat there in the little bit of hay and grass in its cage?

He did not have long to contemplate this, for the Four-eared Khajiit’s owner, a strange looking half breed himself – a Dunmer-Orc mix – brought another cage into the Khajiit’s. There was a large rat inside the smaller cage, snarling and scratching and trying to get out. The Four-eared Khajiit, who all this time refused to look up at the ridiculing crowd, suddenly bolted upright, spinning around toward the cage. This got the crowd excited. The Dunmer-Orc opened the cage.

The rat, seeing the Four-eared Khajiit, charged for her. The Four-eared Khajiit, with feline-like reflexes, charged toward the rat and pounced on it. It was hard to know exactly what was happening, as both the rat and the little Four-eared Khajiit tumbled and rolled, hissed and growled, biting and scratching, until, at the very end, the Four-eared Khajiit lay on top of the rat, it’s back broken, tearing at its neck.

The audience ooohhh’ed and aahhhhh’ed at the sight of all the blood and the sounds of the battle cries, but when the fight was over, and the Four-eared Khajiit tore at and ate its prey, a general hiss of disgust rose up from the crowd. More jeers and some small rocks met her this time. She ignored them for the most part, until a stone was thrown against her back; she turned around, mouth full of raw flesh, and hissed at the crowd.

The crowd laughed and jeered and soon, after leaving some coins, left. All did, that is, but the Nord. He watched as the Dunmer-Orc went back into the half breed’s cage, and cursing and muttering of what a “vile animal” she was, threw her back to the ground as he took up the rat’s carcass.

She frantically tackled him with one hand as she pulled the rat from his grasp with the other. Her master took a whip from the side of his belt and let it fall hard against her shoulder where the rat had already caused a wound. She cried out in agony and fell back just as the tip of the whip struck again, grazing her already cut feline ear.

The Dunmer-Orc grabbed her by her long reddish-blonde hair and thrust some coins under her nose. “I told you to entertain them. You’re an animal: you’re supposed to show that! But you just sat there!” He let go of her hair long enough to smack her head, and then grabbed it again with renewed strength. “They like to see you angry. You hiss at them. You growl at them. You climb your little bars for them. Anything to make them happy. If you want to eat, you entertain. The more you entertain, the more gold I get. The more gold I get, the more you eat.”

“Then take this, and let her eat,” the Nord interrupted, offering some coins to the elfish-orc man.

Both master and slave jumped, and turned their eyes onto him. The half breed Khajiit’s was a mix of fright and wonder, while the Dunmer-Orc’s was one of agitation.

“You there,” the Dunmer-Orc demanded of him, “what are you doing here? What cage have you escaped from?”

The Nord glared at him, but answered, “I want your Four-eared Khajiit.”

“Well you can’t have her!”

The Nord tossed a bag through the bars at his feet – he picked it up and opened it, exclaiming when he saw all that was inside: pearls of the finest quality, gold, silver and all sorts of gems. Why, this would be a king’s ransom!

Laughing and muttering incomprehensibly, the Four-eared Khajiit’s master lost all control of his senses for a few moments, but, then, realizing that the Nord might change his mind if he was not given the half breed right away, he declared, “Deals are final! No changing your mind – now get in here and take this monster. She’s yours.”

The commotion he caused made a crowd gather round, and silently gawking and muttering about the state of the Nord’s face and why he’d want the half breed, everyone watched as the Nord made his way toward the back of the cage that the Dunmer-Orc had opened for him.

The Four-eared Khajiit looked up at her master, a mix of horror and fear spread across her face. She knew what to expect from him, but this new man – this creature with no face – what did he want from her?

She put her hand on her master’s leg, as if asking him what was going to happen to her and begging him not to give her to the Nord.

But the Dunmer-Orc sneered at her. Looking down into the Four-eared Khajiit’s big, frightened eyes, he whispered into her ear, “Well, why do you think he wants you? He’s a monster, just like you.”

The Four-eared Khajiit looked back at the Nord, cringing slightly at his monstrous face and huge frame. It was hard to take one’s eyes off such a horrific, scared sight, especially when two black, piercing eyes stared at her from under all the mutilated flesh, but the Four-eared Khajiit still managed to observe the rest of the Nord.

He was long and thick, resembling a Minotaur in width and brawn. His hand as he reached for the cage door looked as big as her head.

He was not in any attire she had seen before. Rather, with thick furs draped across his shoulder as a cloak, thinner furs under that for his clothing, and thick fur wrapped around his leather boots, he looked more of an animal than the animals that adorned him must have.

She looked up at her master once more, never saying a word, but silently pleading with him with her eyes.

He sneered at her. “Maybe he wants you for another one of his cloaks,” the Dunmer-Orc snickered. “But he probably just wants you for his mother of mine. What type of monster like that could get anything aside from another monster? If you live, he’ll probably take your freak children and sell them just like your father did with you.”

The Nord, not quite sure what they were saying, but sensing that something was wrong, slowly advanced toward the two.

The Four-eared Khajiit tensed and hissed at him. The Nord, not sure if this feral-looking creature meant to attack, stopped for a second.

Seeing him stop, the Dunmer-Orc reminded him, “A deals a deal. Here’s your mother of mine.” He picked the Four-eared Khajiit up by her hair and tossed her toward the Nord.

The Four-eared Khajiit, though, being an agile creature, leapt into the air the second her feet and fingertips touched the surface, and landed on the Dunmer-Orc. There was but a seconds protest from the bigger creature when an ear-splitting crack was heard. Before anyone could react, the Four-eared Khajiit was over her slave master’s neck and tore it out.

This post has been edited by sford564: Sep 5 2010, 07:10 AM