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]

Thanks for all the responses ya'll!

Chapter 6: New Clothes for the Khajiit

When the Nord awoke the next morning, he found the Four-eared Khajiit sitting beside him, his dagger in her hand. She looked as if she were ready to strike him, but after a few seconds, he realized that she was sound asleep. She must have been awake all night pondering killing him, until she drifted off to sleep with the dagger still in her hand.

He smiled a little; so she escaped, stole his dagger, and even though he was at her mercy, she decided against leaving or hurting him.

No one else seemed to be awake, so he just lay there and looked up at her. She still wore the blood stained rags from the night before; he hadn’t dared ask her to take them off to be washed. Anyway, he’d have her wear something more covering than the little loincloth and chest covering she wore. Her attire helped add to the image of her being a savage half-breed, and it didn’t look as if it would be very helpful in the cold regions of Skyrim.

Carefully sitting up, he stopped himself from cursing aloud at the pain of his wounds, and slowly reached out to take the dagger from her hand. He had it half way out when a deep cut in his side suddenly tore open further because of the movement.

It was just a little gasp and whimper, but it was enough to wake the Four-eared Khajiit. She opened her eyes suddenly and drew the dagger back.

“Stop it now,” he ordered as she raised it above his arm. She hesitated for a few seconds, pondering what to do. “Give me my dagger back,” he commanded, his rough voice taking on a threatening tone.

She didn’t obey, but she did allow him to take if from her hand.

Cursing under his breath from the pain, he told her, “Help me with this. Get me some of those cloths.”

She jumped to obey him as she realized that he was once again bleeding. She quickly searched the area for a clean rag and pressed it against his wound.

“Thank you,” he muttered after a few seconds. “My clothes. See if they’ve finished drying, and grab a dress for you.”

The Four-eared Khajiit looked at him questioningly, but obeyed. The clothes were hung in the middle of the camp on a makeshift line. It was easy enough to tell the Nord’s clothes apart from all the others, his being nearly completely fur. She just grabbed a dress that hung on the line for her.

“Hmm…They’re a little damp still, but they’ll do. Wait, what’s this?” he asked about the dress. She shrugged her shoulders as if she didn’t know. Why did he tell her to get a dress? “It’s a rag; it’s not a dress. And anyway, you’re too small for it.” Grumbling as he got up, he told her, “Come on, lets go.”

They quietly made their way back to the long line of clothes and the half breed Khajiit watched with interest as the Nord went through all the clothes. The first thing he grabbed was a small black, velvety cloak.

After visually measuring it on her, he went back to the clothes in question. He pulled out two long white under-skirts, both very heavy; a pair of women’s undergarments for the top and bottom – he blushed greatly as he held them out at arms length trying to visually measure them against her; a pair of thick black pants and a matching shirt; and two dresses.

Both dresses were obviously stolen – more black-market material to be sold. One was velvety red and decorated with gold and silver ribbons. The sleeves were made of red silk. He wasn’t sure what the latest styles were in the Imperial City, but surely this had to be on of them. The other dress was of white velvet and silk, and very similar in style to the red one.

“Alright, these should fit,” he told her. He had been so intent on what he had been doing, that he didn’t even notice the Khajiit staring at him with wide eyes of wonder. “Oh, do you like them?” he whispered, slightly raising the dresses up for her to see.

The Khajiit still didn’t say anything, though, and just looked at him with questioning wide eyes.

“Okay, let’s go – we need to go wash the blood off us and dress,” he explained, feeling greatly unnerved by her silence and her constant gaze. She obediently followed him back to their sleeping area – where the Nord grabbed some supplies – and past that, away from the carts, to a little stream. There was no one around, and in case anyone awoke, they were completely covered from view by all the carts.

The Nord dropped the bundle of clothes to the ground, slipped his nightshirt off and went into the water. A few seconds later, his long boxers came to the top of the water and he threw them onto the shore beside him.

“Well, get in here,” he told her.

Her eyes bulged out of her head. She shook her head frantically and ran toward the cart.

“Oh, get over here. I’m not going to look!” The Nord protested. She stopped and watched him, suspiciously. “You need to wash all that blood off you.” Pointing behind him, he said, “Here, you bathe over here so I can’t see you, and I’ll bathe over here so you can’t see me. But you need to hurry before everyone gets up.”

Very cautiously, and much farther down the stream behind the Nord, she slipped into the water.