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 12: Crossing the River

The lightning storm died away slowly toward the morning, and Mara slowly nodded into sleep. Not wanting to wake her, but being in a rush to get home, the Nord set out with the Khajiit cradled asleep in his arms.

She was a deep sleeper and didn’t wake up until about midday that day. It was actually a nightmare that stirred her from her sleep. She whimpered and whined and muttered something incomprehensible, twitching and jerking her arms and legs as if she were trying to escape from something or someone.

The Nord pushed her up onto his arm as he took his free hand and gently rubbed her face and head to calm her. This seemed to work, for she stopped whimpering when he ran his hand across her face, but started as soon as he stopped.

As they were nearing a river that they’d need to cross, he decided to put her down under a tree and let her wake up by herself so that she could eat and prepare to cross the raging river.

As he laid her down under the shady tree, her head slipped and rubbed against a root. This didn’t wake her fully, but she sleepily nuzzled her head back and forth, a soft purr sound emitting from somewhere in her throat.

The Nord knelt beside her to see what she was doing: she was rubbing one of her big Khajiit ears against the tree root. He put his hand under her head and began to gently scratch behind her ear. This seemed more favorable to the Khajiit, as her purring grew louder and louder, and she slowly leaned her head back into his hands.

But this only lasted a few moments. As soon as consciousness took hold of her, the Khajiit jumped up, hissing. Looking around, she only saw the Nord. She tilted her head, questioningly, at him.

He slowly reached out his hand toward her. She ducked a little but allowed him to bring it to one of her ears and scratch. At first she was too scared to realize how much she enjoyed it, but soon she started to purr lowly. Then she began to awkwardly lean back into his hand, purring much louder. He scratched both ears with his two hands, and, purring uncontrollably, she leaned her head farther and farther in toward him, until, her eyes closed and her head rested against his broad chest, bringing their faces but inches apart.

The Nord was at first highly amused and interested in this strange behavior, but, as he looked down into the soft face in front of his, the long orange eyelashes, the little pink nose and the soft red lips, he soon found his attention drawn toward other thoughts. Even her two sets of ears were beautiful. Unusual, but beautiful.

Pulling away quickly, making the Khajiit loose her balance, he rose, telling her, “We need to eat quickly so that we can cross the river. Do you know how to swim?”

Somewhat confused at what had happened, she answered, “Mara swim? No.”

The Nord nodded. “All right then. The current is really strong, and it could easily sweep you away. You’re going to have to wear a rope around your waist to keep us together, so in case you slip, I can drag you back to safety. Do you understand?”

The Four-eared Khajiit nodded slowly, though she didn’t really. Whatever master said was what had to be done.

“You’re also going to have to hold onto my back as we cross. The horse is going to have a hard enough time crossing by himself, so it will be dangerous for you to be on his back, especially if he falls. I’m going to hold onto his reins to help him across, and you’re going to be on my back, holding onto me. Do you understand?”

Again the Four-eared Khajiit nodded her head.

After crossing the river, which was a scary ordeal for the poor Khajiit who clung so tightly to the Nord as they crossed that he could barely breathe, they continued on again all that day and night.

“Mara tired,” the Khajiit grumbled. “Must sleep.”

“We need to keep traveling. I promised your mother I’d bring you back. Every hour counts; we lost half a week by bringing the others with us.”

“But Mara die if no sleep.”

“Then sleep.”

“We stop?”

“No, you can fall asleep on the horse.”

Mara cried out in protest. “Mara fall and die!”

“Then Mara can sleep in my arms like she did last night.”

Again the Four-eared Khajiit protested, but after another ten or so minutes, she agreed to it. “Just don’t hurt Mara,” she told him.

“Why would I hurt you?”

“And no drop Mara?”

“Why would I drop you?”

The Khajiit jumped into his open arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder. Her tail wrapped around one of his arms.

“No drop,” she reminded him. It took her but a few minutes before she fell asleep, muttering, “No move.”



This post has been edited by sford564: Oct 1 2010, 03:53 AM