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]

@ Rachel. Ahhh, good, you had better.
Hmm... didn't even see that comment earlier...
@ mALIX Well, it seems to me that they were both right and wrong... They were right in that she was too dependent on him, yet they made him stay away too long.




Chapter 20: Life without the Each Other

At first Mara thought she would die if the Nord did not come back sooner than a week, but the priests kept her so busy that she got distracted enough to forget about him. Still, though, when he did come back she jumped onto him, clinging, kissing and hugging. After disappearing for a couple more weeks and then a month, though, she soon started to learn to expect and accept his comings and goings.

Her dependence on the Nord soon waned until when he disappeared for an entire year, she did not even remember when he was coming back. In all this time, she learned to stop relying on the Nord for approval and instead looked to the priests for it. She learned to read and write, and so eager was she for praise and approval, that she began to learn old scripts and languages. She mastered everything they gave her and when they taught her some magic, she strove to learn more and more of it.

Her desire took her to join the Mages Guild and then the Arcane University. At first, everywhere she went, her half-breed appearance and four ears made people stare and gawk, but soon she became such a familiar sight in the temple and Arcane University, and she knew and taught herself so much to impress the monks and her teachers, that she became well respected and liked by the elites and scholars of the city.

She had a small gathering following her. Because she was so much better at magic than most of the other mages, she had the smartest and most skilled of them as her personal friends. She also had a big gathering of other ‘misfits’ like herself who followed her. Then she had a gathering of city officials and higher-ups, scholars and thinkers, and priests and monks who appreciated her honesty, wit and education.

When the head of the Mages Guild died and appointed her in his stead, there was no great surprise at the choice. She had worked under him for two years, rising significantly in the group as soon as she entered.


Mara had been in the Imperial City for three years, and the Nord had only been with her for barely one year. He had the priests write to him often to find out what was happening in her life and if she needed him.

The priests would often laugh at how much concern he wrote with regarding her. In fact, his letters were the most entertaining things the men had. They highly anticipated his letters to hear what he had been fretting about now: Has Mara been brushing her teeth? Has she stopped climbing on the ceiling rafters yet? Does she still cry in her sleep? New friend? Don’t let her get too familiar with him. Explain to her that not all men have honorable intentions. I hope you are watching them. You should restrict her time out with him, etc.

There was also a hint of sadness in some of his letters. He’d occasionally confided that he missed her and thought of her often. He confided that he wished he could see her, though he knew that he had to stay away as they discussed. He also confided that her courage at going out into the world shamed him into doing the same, so he traveled across the empire, cloak down, defying all the stares and comments. Still, though, he found no peace; he remained ashamed; he was still a monster in everyone’s eyes.