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 21: Returning to the Imperial City

When the Nord came back to the Imperial City, he found the old leader of the Mages Guild was dead and buried, and Mara was the new leader. They would have an official ceremony to welcome her that evening.

An elderly mage led the Nord to their leader’s chambers, where Mara and a group of fellow mages gathered around a table. Mara, the smallest of the group, sat at the table reading various scrolls and parchments, while the others stood behind her, either talking to each other or looking over her shoulder, whispering stuff to her. All were in black to show the sorrow for the old leader’s death.

“This man claims to be a ‘friend’ of yours, Mara,” the elderly mage introduced the Nord.

Mara and the others looked up, perplexed at the sight of the huge, cloaked man in front of them, covered entirely in furs. Then recognition shown in Mara’s eyes.

As her friends began whispering, with much distain, “Who is this?”, she jumped from her seat, over the table, and onto the Nord, knocking him onto the floor.

Laughing a little, the Nord pushed himself up. “Mara, you’re going to kill me,” he teased. Mara ignored this, but instead threw his cloak back. She paused for half a second when she saw the scarring: she had forgotten just how bad it was. She rubbed her hand across the deep grooves of flesh for several seconds, then brought her face against his in a passionate kiss. Her arms wrapped around his throat to bring him even closer to her, and, laughing, she kissed all over his face.

The Nord smiled deeply, trying to tell her how happy he was to see her, but unable to talk because of all her kisses. He wanted to tell her that he missed her. He wanted to tell her that he loved her. He wanted to tell her that being apart from her was one of the hardest and most miserable experiences he had to go through in life. He wanted to ask to be a part of her new life. But all of this seemed to fade from his mind as he looked up at the friends behind her.

When she had thrown the cloak off him, they gasped and drew back. But now, seeing their leader and friend kissing and hugging this monster in front of them, their looks of horror and fear turned to disgust and loathing. In some faces, even jealousy.

How could he expect to be part of her life when he scared and disgusted her friends and acquaintances? They had finally accepted her despite her appearance. They had accepted her because she was smart and brilliant. He wasn’t. He was well taught, but had little patience for books or learning. He preferred to be always active, hunting, training, or fighting. Perhaps what they were whispering about him was right. Maybe he was a barbarian. Maybe he didn’t belong with her.

Gently pushing her off him, he slowly rose. She rose also, not quite sure what had made him do that. “I’ve come to see that you are all right and to congratulate you. I will be leaving in a few more days, so I wanted to make sure that you were happy and didn’t need anything.”

His cold attitude made her realize that there were others watching, so, standing up a little straighter, with a friendly yet business-like voice, she answered, “I am fine, thank you. You came all this way to just leave again?”

“Yes. I think… I’m not sure yet.”

Her face softened a little. “Have you had anything to eat yet? Do you have a place to stay the night? We’re having a celebration tonight in my honor. You must come.”

Looking over at the other mages, the Nord began to protest, “I…I…”

“No, you will stay here tonight. I will have a bed and bath prepared for you, so that you may rest for now and join us at the celebration later. Then we must talk.” Turning from him to the older mage who brought him to her, she gave a few instructions and then they both left.