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 9: A Name for the Khajiit

The Khajiit was obviously hungry, for she finished her meal within seconds. The Nord gave her some stale jerky to chew on, but it was rather hard for her, so she was forced to eat slowly. They ate for several minutes before the Nord broke the silence. “You look very good in that.”

The Khajiit nearly jumped out of her seat. She calmed down when she realized he had only spoken, but she still looked over at him suspiciously.

“You still haven’t thanked me for getting you those clothes or saving your life,” the Nord reminded her.

“…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad to see that you’re finally talking to me, because I have a couple questions to ask you. But first, we have to make some rules. First rule is, you must never try to kill me. Actually, the first rule is, you must never kill me. And the second rule is, you musn’t try to kill me. Do you understand?”

The Khajiit slowly nodded her head in agreement.

“Good. Then, I need you not to run away from me. … Agree to that please.”

After several moments of hesitation, she answered, “Four Ears no run.”

“Good. And then, I want you to stop hissing at me. Agree again, please.”

“Four Ears agree.”

“Good. Now repeat the rules to me.”

It took several moments for her to answer, but she very slowly answered, “No kill. No run –”

“Ah, no trying to kill me either,” he reminded her.

Ducking a little as he responded, expecting him to lash out at her for having missed one of their new rules, she continued, “No hiss?”

“Yes, that’s right. Now Mara, I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to answer me honestly. Please don’t be afraid.” She did not say anything, but only looked over at him with eyes full of fear; so far she wasn’t doing very good with the “don’t be afraid” command of his.

“… I need to know what he did to you that made you kill him,” the Nord slowly began. “Was it because he was selling you to me? Was it because he did that to your poor ears? Or…the thing with the rat?”

She did not answer. The Nord slowly ran his hands through his hair in frustration, “Look, I need to ask you something. I’m going to put it very bluntly, and I need you not to be afraid. And I need you to tell me the truth, okay? I need you to tell me…did he, at any time, umm…touch you…uhh… rape you, and if so, did you ever have any children?”

The response was two big eyes full of fear staring at him. “Look, you have to tell me,” he explained. “If you have a child – his or anyone else’s – we need to go find it. Is it in this camp?” She didn’t answer, so, sighing deeply, he begged, “Please answer me. … Do you have any children?”

The Four-eared Khajiit shook her head no.

“Okay, did he or any of his scum friends hurt you like that…you know, sexually?”

The Four-eared Khajiit shook head no again. “Four Ears is animal. Master only likes Dunmers.”

The Nord breathed a sigh of relief.

“But new Master likes Four Ears?” she asked.

“NO! No! No, no, no. Never. I mean, I like you, but I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. It’s because I like you that I would never do anything to hurt you.”

“Master no hurt Four Ears? No beat Four Ears? No make Four Ears wife?”

“No, no, master won’t do anything like that. In fact, master has a name, you know. Master’s name is Svein Leifegil, but most people call master ‘The Nord’.”

“The Nord? Master wants called The Nord?”

Shaking his head, he agreed, “Yes, you can call me ‘Nord’ if you want. When I was younger, my best friends called me that, so I would like if you would, too.”

After several moments, she asked him, “Master let Four Ears talk?”

“What do you want to say? – And call me Nord.”

“Old Master beat Four Ears if talk. Nord let Four Ears?”

“Mara, I want you to talk. I want you to tell me what you are feeling and thinking. I want you to tell me what you are afraid of and what you want. Do you understand?”

The Khajiit shook her head in agreement. “What is Mara, Mast-Nord?”

“It’s you.”

“No, master. Name Four Ears.”

“Nord,” he corrected again. “Is that what your old master called you? Four Ears?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not your name: your real name is ‘Mara’. Do you want to know how you got that name?” The Four-eared Khajiit shook her head yes. “Your mother named you that, Mara. Do you know anything about your mother?”

She shook her head yes. “She is Two Ears?”

The Nord shook his head in agreement. “Yes, she has two ears. Her name is Jo Dar. You have never seen her before, because they took you from her when you were just born. She wanted to name you ‘Mara’ after her goddess. She always told me she was going to find her little baby girl. She said she’d be able to find you because you had four ears – two human and two Khajiit.”

Tracing his finger across her pointed human ear as she jumped and cringed slightly, he said, “Well, elfish ears. It was a Bosmer who raped your mother. It was he who sold you. He was so horrified to see that you were a deformity that he tried to kill you, but she saved you.” Taking her quivering hands in his, he told her, “Mara, your mother is dying. She begged me to find you. I’m not sure if she’s even still alive, but we need to get back for her to see you. Do you understand?”