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]

Okay, so I'm not the best at fight scenes... This is the best I can do.




Chapter 4: Fight For Life

What ensued was perhaps the most spectacular fight the traveling band of thieves and slavers had ever encountered. They could kill all the wild creatures they met along the trails, other criminals who were stupid enough to attack their group, and the occasion patrol of guards, but none of them were a match for this one Nord.

The first three that attacked him were felled instantly. This brought the whole group after him. For such a big man, he was incredibly fast and agile. He ducked and dogged and evaded their blows, blocking with his sword and dealing out lethal strikes as the group came toward him.

There were only so many people who could get near the Nord, though, while the others surrounded him. So those not fighting him went after the Four-eared Khajiit. There was a group of scoundrels waiting at the cage’s door, trying to break it open, while others stabbed through the bars at her with their weaponry.

The Khajiit managed to outmaneuver all of their blades by jumping this way and that, and dodging this and that. The only thing she couldn’t defend herself from was an archer.

One of the men grabbed a bow from out of a cart and took aim at her. The first two shots she evaded, but the third hit her directly in the leg. Screeching in pain, she just barely evaded the next one; as it was, the arrow shot through her little Khajiit ear, causing both ears to now have huge cuts across them.

Another arrow was released the same time several blades were swung at her – jumping out of the way of the blades, she watched as arrow flew closer and closer toward her chest, right toward her heart. She held her breath, expecting to be suddenly thrown to the ground by the arrow and then finished off by the blades swinging at her.

But just as the arrow drew close enough for her to see the sharpened tip, a mass of fur and flesh flew into her sight and smashed against the cage’s bars. There was a loud gasp of pain, and instantly the Nord was on his feet again, felling those around him, charging at the archer. The archer dropped his bow and drew a shortsword, but was too late.

As the Nord’s attention was drawn away from the Four-eared Khajiit, the others went back to attacking her through her bars. She had found a spot in the center of the cage where they couldn’t reach her.

Angered, one of the scoundrels grabbed a torch and threw it into her cage. The hay and dried grass on the bottom instantly took to flames.

The half-breed Khajiit jumped back as the flames rushed toward her, getting slashed in the leg once more. Crying out in pain, and trying to avoid both flames and blades, she jumped onto one of the cage’s bars, and then up onto the bars on the top of her cage. There she hung, in great pain, in the center of her cage as everything below her burnt up. The scoundrels could not get to her from up there, and though the flames hurt her wounds and singed some of her hair, they could not kill her like that.

Some ran and grabbed hay stored for the horses and pushed it through the bars. Seeing what they were doing, a couple others ran and grabbed some firewood they had previously collected for their fires that evening. They pushed all of this through the bars toward her; there was only so long she could hold onto those bars, wounded as she was, before she would fall and burn to death.

The door to the cage was being blocked by swordsmen, so if she tried to come close to it, they would kill her. Yet, if she stayed where she was, the flames would get to her.

Crying again, what sounded like a weird mix of a human’s call and a cat’s pitiful mew, she watched as the flames jumped higher and higher.

She did not have long to wait for her call to be answered, for the Nord rushed to her defense. She couldn’t see much through the flames, but she could hear all of the cries of the falling men. Then, from the side of her cage by the door, she heard a loud clash of metal on metal. Again and again, and suddenly the door swung open. The Nord stepped through into heat and flames, trying to get to the scared Khajiit.

“Jump,” he called, his deep voice booming over the roar and chatter of the flames.

The Four-eared Khajiit looked down at him, his massive frame blocking the whole doorway. A few men ran toward him, their swords drawn, but he did not turn yet to face them. The flames began to singe the fur cloak he wore and then it burst into flames. Still he did not move, waiting for her to come down to him.

She swung down from the bars into his open arms. She clung tightly against his chest with one hand while she tore the big fur cloak off him with the other. The cloak fell to the floor of the cage and continued to burn.

The Nord grabbed two of his assailers and threw them into the cage. As screams filled the evening air, he fought the last half dozen men. All the while the Four-eared Khajiit clung to him, her two arms wrapped around his chest, her wounded feet wrapped around his waist, and her tail tucked under her body.

It was a bloody battlefield. Men lay strewn across the little clearing. The only ones left living were the caged slaves, who witnessed the whole ordeal, the group’s horses, which only stayed because they were tied securely, and the Nord and the Four-eared Khajiit, who remained with her arms wrapped around him, scared to leave.