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]

Acadian, thanks for the advice. I’ll slow down a little now. Sorry. I’m glad you liked the fight scene. Lol. It gave me great difficulty, so I’m usually more critical of things that don’t come as easy.
hazmick, Remko, thanks so much for the comments.
mALX, I’m glad you were able to find it on fanfiction.net, and thanks so much for all the comments and suggestions you gave me there!




Chapter 5: Her Three Choices

The Nord fell to his knees. The Khajiit jumped to the ground before he landed, crying softly at the pain in her legs. She looked in amazement and horror at the warrior in front of her. His face was pale now, his body was covered in his own and many others’ blood, and his sword had fallen from his hand.

The Four-eared Khajiit slowly dragged the heavy sword away from his grasp. He did not protest, but just look up at her, waiting for her to make her move.

After several seconds she slowly lifted the blade up with both arms, cradling it for extra strength, and placed it in his lap. She drew back a little.

“Come,” he commanded weakly. With great effort he rose, sword in hand, and went to the carts of slaves. The slaves backed away as he swung his blade against the lock. After a few hits, it broke open.

“Search the bodies and free the others,” the Nord commanded. “And one of you bring me fresh water and bandages for myself and the Khajiit.”

The newly freed slaves scrambled to do as they were told. Any slavers still alive were killed, and the Nord commanded that all the bodies were searched for any valuables. All good clothes were to be stripped off them and cleaned in boiling water.

There were two groups of slaves. The men, who were used as cheap work hands, were mostly Khajiit, Orcs, and Argonians – people who would not be missed. The women were of all races, most of them very young and beautiful. They were to be sold as “wives”.

Both groups of slaves did as they were told, and brought clean water and bandages for the Nord. The Four-eared Khajiit nearly ran several times when the others came near her, but the Nord tightly held onto her hand, keeping her beside him all the while. She could have broken free from him if she really tried to, but his firm grasp seemed to reassure her as much as it scared her.

The Nord had the Khajiit help him remove his clothing and give it to the freed slaves to be cleaned. He then had her wash out his cuts. She obeyed, though she cringed and ducked every time he hissed or cursed in agony.

The Nord then made the Four-eared Khajiit sit down as he examined her wounds. He washed the blood off her, and, after cleaning each wound, and dabbing them with a stinging substance he put on a little, clean rag, he made her drink a strange liquid from a strange looking vial.

“This will heal you,” he explained as he took one for himself.

Alas, when he examined her second pair of ears, his vile, powerful potion would only close the tears. “The flesh is torn off the ears – it will be scarred for the rest of your life,” he gently told her. She seemed too much in pain to worry about that, though.

One of the wounds she received in the side of her stomach hurt a great deal more than the others. When he brought the clean cloth across it, she cried out and, jumping back a little in her seat, hissed threateningly. The Nord ignored this though.

“Shut up,” he told scolded. “Do you think I liked getting an arrow in my chest to save your skinny little self? No. So you don’t complain about a little pain like this. If it gets too bad as I clean these out, dig your fingernails into the chair and cry. Understand? Now don’t worry, I’m going to give you something to heal these up. I just need to clean them first.”

His voice was so serious that the half-breed Khajiit felt she had to obey him, but there was something more, too. There was a softness in his black eyes and a gentleness in his deep, harsh voice that made her trust him. She very reluctantly slid back in her chair, and, digging her fingernails into it, allowed him to continue.

“I want you to talk to me,” he told her as he worked on. “I don’t want you hissing at me. If something is hurting you, I need you to tell me. Hissing and growling isn’t going to let me know what you think or feel.”


That night as everyone slept, the Four-eared Khajiit slowly crawled out from under the thick blanket the Nord had put her in. He told her that he wouldn’t put her in a cage, but that he didn’t trust her yet, so he had her hands tied in front of her and a rope tied around her waist. The rope was connected to his wrist so that if she made any fast movement, he’d know.

She observed that he had his sword and a dagger close at hand.

It was very easy to slip out of the ropes because he didn’t tie them as tightly as he should have; he didn’t seem to want to hurt her.

She carefully slipped the dagger away from his hand. She now had three choices in front of her:

Firstly, she could stay. He seemed to be nice to her. But what if that changed? Would she get another opportunity to escape after this? Now he was still wounded and sleeping; escape would be easy.

But when he was no longer wounded, what would happen then? He was so much bigger and stronger than she, and a fighter like none other that she had ever seen. Escape from him would be impossible.

Still, she had never known what it was like to be alone and to fend for herself. Even worse, she was a half-breed birth defect with four ears. All anyone wanted to do was laugh and throw things at her. What did he want with her? Did he intend to hurt her? Did he want a servant? Did he want a wife? Would being the wife of a big monster like him really be that bad if he was nice to her? Yes, he was ugly and deformed looking, but that didn’t mean he was bad. She was ugly and deformed, and she wasn’t bad, was she?

She shook her head and pondered that for a while.

Then, secondly, she could run away. She could try to escape as he was wounded and slept. But, still, there were many creatures out there. She didn’t really know how to protect herself. And, of course, he’d come after her. If he could kill all those men, then he could definitely hunt her down.

Or, thirdly, she could kill him and run away. That was the best choice. If he was dead, he couldn’t come after her. She’d feel much better if all she had to fight were the many beasts of the forest instead of the barbarian Nord and said beasts.

She sat beside the sleeping Nord pondering all of these thoughts. The dagger lay ready in her hand, and a couple times she raised it above his chest. Something always made her pull away, though.

This post has been edited by sford564: Sep 9 2010, 06:05 PM