Gaenor: Reloaded Options

[ShraX]

I posted this on the official TES forums, and although it's not finished, I'll continue updating both here and there.

If you haven't read the other two stories I've written, one of them is in the Fan Fiction section of this site, and you can PM me for the other. There really is not much needed to know when reading this one, except who the already well-known characters such as Gaenor and Almalexia are.

Enjoy--

The Nerevarine lay a lifeless corpse upon the Mournhold Temple steps. His blood trickled out of the slashed openings in his neck, limbs and torso, and down each stair, leaving its stains as it went before collecting into a shapeless pool on the tiled courtyard floor. The High Ordinators were still, their armored masks hiding the looks of terror on their faces as they stared at their defeated savior. The Temple doors were now wide open, and Almalexia hovered at the entrance. Her Hands were nowhere in sight.

"My champion," she said softly in disbelief, her golden face emotionless. "Who is responsible for this?" She spoke quietly but the entire city heard her. A Hand emerged from the darkness of the Temple and removed his helmet., engraved with the Daedric runes for S and V. "Our guards watched the battle," he explained in his low, rumbling voice. "They dared not aid your Nerevar for fear of death by his murderer - the Bosmer, Gaenor." The Demigoddess floated down the stairs, over the the corpse of the Nerevarine and turned back to the Temple. "Salas, this wood elf has gotten his revenge, but Terenius' life is nowhere close to Nerevar's in worth. Remain here and clean this mess. I will find young Gaenor and speak with him." Her Hand bowed and ordered the two Ordinators, still in a stupor, to dispose of the Nerevarine's body, as well as those of the four slain Hands within the Temple. Almalexia's wrath was unbridalled, and vengeance consumed her. Her fury at the news of Nerevar's death manifested physically, killing all but her favored Hand, Salas Volar, in an explosion of goldy flames.

She flew from her place in the Temple courtyard high above the city and into the clouds which concealed the late afternoon sun's light. The moons were now more than halfway over the mountainous horizon and brought their stars with them. With a gesture of her wrist the dense clouds parted in two and the light of the lowering sun lit the city aglow. She closed her eyes and began searching for her prey. However, this was unnecessary. Almalexia expected this mortal to flee into hiding from her might, but he welcomed it. He was sitting on a bench in the Bazaar, doodling shapes in the dirt with his sword.

His armor was sundered, dented and sliced through. One pauldron was missing as well as both gauntlets and parts of his greaves. It wasn't clear to tell from his ebony armor, but he was covered in blood from head to toe. He leaned his blade on the bench and removed his helmet, then placed it over the hilt. It was hot and sweat was dripping from his forehead to his beard. He put both hands to his face and wiped it, and ran his fingers through his stiff hair. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes, waiting with open arms for death's embrace.

Almalexia dove towards him like a starving hawk upon a field mouse, disintegrating the clouds with the aura of flame around her. This mortal wood elf defeated her martyr in combat and had the audacity to sit on a park bench in plain sight! Masser and Secunda were rising in unnatural quickness and the sun was already out of sight. The furious demigoddess did not realize in her blind rage, but Gaenor tore away from his hands and looked up past her to see it: both moons took position directly above him, Secunda in front. As they slowed to a stop everything around him turned pitch black, aside from the raging Almalexia, now halted in mid-air, as well as both moons.

The elf slowly stood and faced his enemy in partial confusion. After his ordeal he truly cared not what his fate was. 'An eye for an eye,' was his logic. 'She took Terenius and I take the Nerevarine.. but this is very strange. perhaps this witch's debt is still not repaid.' He walked past her toward the moons, which were glowing and pulsating with light, as if to communicate.

"Much has happened this day. We must speak."

[ShraX]

"I don't know what makes you believe I need assistance in breaching these city walls, but whatever it is is likely laying eggs in your brain as we speak." Gaenor was stern and direct to Naztheril, who had now stepped back and left himself ample space for shifting to his original shape. He looked up at the elf from below the dark rim of his hat with a smile. "Let me tell you something, Gaenor my friend." He lifted his arms up with widely-spread fingers. "You have ascended to a new form of life: the Bearer of Fire and Light. This figure's destiny is scrawled upon the eternally-binding surface of the Elder Scrolls. I have seen this, and I know it dictates that I will aid him in gaining access to the Emperor's City at this point in time. Therefore, turn your arrogance to those to whom deserve to be spoken down. I am here to help, so accept it or fail in your quest." Gaenor grunted in annoyance and stood back as Naztheril looked to the ground once again.

It was difficult to tell from behind his shaded spectacles, but his eyes were now completely white. There was sweat dripping from beneath his hat and down the tip where it slanted on his head. His hands shook violently and he braced himself with stiffened, muscular legs that showed through his pants. The Bosmer wondered silently what he was doing to himself, and thought it best not to ask. "Are you watching?" Naztheril managed asking through his gritting teeth. "Behold that which in nightmares are banished!" At once his skin exploded with blood and muscle tissue revealing a hulking, pulsing mass in the form of a human, but without any discernable features. His shape transformed irradically until it established itself on ten enormous, jointed legs. A tail erupted from his back, elongating from his spine and constantly generating new bone structures and segments. He sprouted scales along his torso, sleak feathers on his head and beaked face, and a thick carapace on his limbs. At last the transformation ended, and there he stood high above the elf who hadn't moved an inch from his place; he had the head of a gryphon, the body of a reptile, and the legs of a spider. All of his eyes looked to Gaenor to see what he thought. "Your opponent was forty miles tall, yet you are less than half his size." he said. Naztheril, Beast of the Night Sky, threw his tail into the air, crouched on all legs and let out an earth-shattering roar directly at his elven friend, implying that size matters not when inner power is concerned, since he had no speech in his present form. The Bosmer was unharmed.

He leaped onto one of his legs and climbed up onto the back of his neck, clinging to his feathers for support. "Let us continue, then." said Gaenor, and Naztheril gave a short screech in acknowledgement. The Beast stormed down the grassy bank of the moat and into the water, and walked slowly through without much trouble. It spanned three miles in length and was so deep it was nearly black in color, but Naztheril stood in even its darkest depths with room enough for his body to remain dry. The massive creature trudged on toward the Imperial City unhindered, and kept sharp eyes on his surroundings.

==========

"What in Mara's name is that?!" cried a guard in the main eastern watch tower of Cyrodiil. He could barely see it in the distance, but he told his superior officers what he thought it could be; Henar. Reports of the undead menace had been coming in constantly throughout the past weeks from Morrowind and Skyrim claiming that a skeletal fiend had ravaged Mournhold and various Nordic settlements. "If what you say is in fact true," replied General Marcus Ginius of the Imperial Army, "then this 'Knight Henar' has under his command this.. giant monster who is currently swimming through our moat? Am I understanding this correctly Private?" The guard who had reported what he saw nodded nervously. "I must see this myself."

He and five other infantrymen, including the witness, proceeded quickly to the main east watch tower and all watched intently from between the large stone blocks which lined the top. "I see nothing but a noonday's sun and the shining water," declared the General in his commanding voice. "Keep this up and I'll see this tower dry as a Crendian weed field. I won't have my men drunk on duty!" However, he continued looking out across the moat, just in case of anything suspicious at the last moment.

"Greetings, fellows! I would shake thine hands but, alas, I am all wet from swimming.. did you catch a glimpse of the monster? You Imperials certainly guard your cities well..."

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