The Story Of Hajima The Nin Ronin, this is kinda long and addictive maybe.. Options

[jchamber]

I got inspiration from you guys, so thanks. Well here it is. Lemme know whatcha think.

(edited for fluidity, immersion, detail, and character touch up)

Chapter one- the begining
Part One
The Uncertainty

"Owww, my head..... dear Mephala!! What hit me?" I found myself with my face buried in a pillow on a hammock and my head was splitting in two. I can't remember what happened that was making my head hurt so bad or why I am lying down but I did know I wanted the pain to stop.

"Quiet, or the guard will hear you, he can be a mean sort." Said a gruff, deep voice. I turned my head to get a veiw of the guy and as I did so realized that I was on a boat, and that I didn't have a sea stomach as nausea overtook me and spilled my previous meal, which seemed to contain little more than a thin soup that I can't remember eating.

"Hey! Watch it!!" said the gruff voice that was now connected to a muscular dark elf with an ear ring, and scar on the right side of his face that took one eye out. He was wearing nothing but a pair of worn out, undyed, perhaps too used... pair of trousers on.

"Sorry 'bout that, I didn't see you were standing so close, good thing you were a little behind me."

"Yea good for yout health too, how are you besides being seasick?"

"My head is feels like it's going to explode, Several parts of my body feel like they have been wounded, I am still tired, and I haven't the strength to turn over to look at my body to see how bad the damage is."

"Well don't worry you'll be fine, gave that guard a mighty good fight though."

"What? Why is there a guard and just how hard did he hit me on the head, I don't even remember getting on this boat, or why I would be on one.. And why did I fight..."

"Slow down there," the man interrupted. "You are on a boat because that is where the guard put ya, the guard is here because I am a murderer and you have undoubtedly been found guilty of something...not that I am saying you did it, ... whatever it was. When the guard brought you to this boat I am guessing you knew you would get seasick or just wanted to escape and you just about did seeing as it took five guards to help the one you gave a thrashing to bring you down. I didn't see it but I heard it, and about it in good detail. I hear one had a hammer and got the back of your head when the other four were trying to get close enough to you, without getting hurt, to grapple you. I heard alot of scolding afterwards, seemed you were not supposed to be hurt getting on, that guard probably got his status revoked. As for this trip I am guessing we are about halfway there and I would suggest you go to sleep if you can't even turn over. By the way I am Jiub, we can will talk later, when you wake up, for now just rest."

And so I allowed myself to stop fighting the weary weakness that poisoned my mind and muscles and just let go...and soon I was standing in a windy foreign terrain. I had never seen anything like it before, the dirt was red and being picked up in the air, there was also another kind of dirt that seemed to be falling from the sky like a very light sprinkle in the storm of red. Before I could gather any more information about the place I heard a voice in my head of a soft but somewhat resounding tone, "They have taken you from the Imperial city's prison, first by carridge and now by boat. To the east... to Morrowind, fear not for I am watching. You have been chosen"

My shoulder was shaking, I began to wake up...to that gruff voice of Jiub's "Wake up, we're here. Why are you shaking? are you ok? Wake up. Stand up,... there you go. You were dreaming. What's your name? Forgot to ask before you passed out again.

"Owwwwww, I am still really sore, so take it easy on the sholder. Um, gimme a minute I just had a really weird dream.....Um .....BAH why can't I remember....I am sorry I can't remember my name right now, so just call me whatever you want."

"I think you seem like a Ganthar"

"That sounds bad lets go with Hanthimar instead."

"What do I care, it's your name."

"Fine then until I can remember my name we agree on Hanthimar"

"Ok, well, Hanthimar not even last night's storm could wake you, I heard them say we've reached Morrowind. I'm sure they'll let us go!" Jiub said hopefully. "Quiet, here comes the guard."

I could see him coming down the steps at the other end of the lower level of the boat, he looked very serious, but almost comical in that he only had one bracer on and one bracer off. His clothes were dark, but his boots and overvest were lighter. They might provide a little bit of protection...why am I thinking like that, I don't want to hurt the person who might let me go....now he was upon me and began to speak in a light, but very official, voice, "This is where you get off, come with me." I now noticed that the Imperial had some facial hair and was begining to bald, but that was at this point irrelivent. I was more worried about how I couldn't remember my own name. As the guard walked away I was caught up in my own thoughts, trying to remember something. The guard stopped and looked back threateningly.

"You better do what they say," said Jiub. So I got over my daze and followed the guard. When I got to the door in the floor of the top level a woman behind the stairs said, "The sooner you leave, the sooner we can move on." She was a ....well no better than a female dog let's say....That thought was interrupted by the gaurd from below that was escorting me,

"Get yourself up on deck and let's keep that as civil as possible." I paused for a moment to hate the woman, and the male guard gave me a small light push with a, "On deck now, prisoner" So I headed on up the stairs in front of me. I never could have guessed what I was to find at the top.

This post has been edited by jchamber: Feb 15 2006, 06:37 AM

[jchamber]

I know one, or more of you few readers haven't gotten a chance to read the last post, but I promised minkey new material today, lol
So here is the end of what I have written in sequence...thanks again for the stuff minkey
Chapter One- The Begining

Part Six- The Solution's Conclusion

I moved on to the area behind Arrille's tradehouse, which was brightly lit at this point because there were fires had been started so as to fight off the evening chill and to substitute for the fading sunlight. I could see a lot of my surrounding without being seen myself. I did not see the guard however and was starting to get nervous as his absence might set my timing off for the other routes. I was about to move to the next route when I saw the guard turn around the corner of the tradehouse and was jogging in my direction. I launched a foot out in front of him from the shadows, with which my jail clothes were blending well, but this guard was relatively well balenced seeing as he did not fall over. He even kept right on running, he must have thought it was a root or something. That worked for me.

I decided not to persue that particular guard just yet. I made my way around town back to Fargoth's house to see about my unfinished business, which I could now fulfill with the knowledge of the tax collectors real murderers. I walked into the room at the precise moment that I figured out why the last guard had been in a hurry and was late. He had been in the building and must have gone for backup, or a witness, or for someone to help him untie and carry the guy I tied up. Well I didn't want to be inside when they got back in case there were more than a few that came back.
...
I had to wait a full minute before I saw the same guard coming back, with two others flanking him. One of the guards was the guy from my first day in this accursed place, Barry I think was his name. Which kind of an odd name for an Imperial really. The other flanking guard was from Arrille's that had charged me a tax to get into my room, well this would be difficult but worth it. I immediately drank all but two of my SFnE solution so that it would have a few seconds to hit my stomach before they actually reached the building.

The moment they were all three in the door I jumped in behind them silently so that they were thinking only of their comrade in front of them, while I had time to take a full second to aim at the neck of that Nord of corruption. In a single stroke I had severed his spinal cord, wind pipe, and major artery of the left side of the neck. not to mention the muscle there so that the head immediately flopped over on its right side spraying the other two and myself in warm, moist, copperic blood, Nord blood seemed to be extra thick somehow, perhaps from centuries of cold weather.

As the other two simultaneously turned and drew their swords together, I slashed my own prepared blade across the throat of the guard that had went to get the other two, this cost me dearly however as I was hit by a blow to the side from Barry. I felt myself serge up with even more adrenaline and I drew my sword back and sliced his entire head clean off as the thrill of battle coursed through my veins I felt the wound I had recieved seal up from a potion before it wore off.

Even the damage to my side seemed to disappear as I cut the belly, of the tied down guard, open to display the hidden contents, which acctually had a very offensive odor to them as the food that he had last ate was obviously something bad and had produced alot of gas. I tried to wipe myself off as best I could before I left the house-de-Fargoth.

I had done well with that little incident as I only needed one healing potion for the cut I recieved from essentially five guards thus far. I wanted to get to the next guy as I was still excited. I found the next person just where he was supposed to be, on route to fargoth's house, this was the guy that was supposed to be the first one to find the tied up man, and I was supposed to get here about a minute ago. Things were not going to plan but were working out well enough so far. As he got near the house he seemed to feel less at ease, perhaps this one had some talent in divine-ing things.

Oh Mephala, help me! It was the man in the robe from the inn from a fortnight ago, he was undoubtedly a rarity as being a mage of some sort in the Imperial order. I had expected all the guards would be fighting with weapons, and so I had nothing to defend myself against magic except wits, my abillity to dodge a direct attack, and my unlikely chance of a deathblow being dealt to him before he could cast on me. I didn't want to count on the idea that he would limit himself to direct attacks, and I wasn't sure how fast the guy was so I didn't really wanna find out the hard way with magic being involved. So that left me with my wits. I dropped my weapon silently on the ground and I put on a friendly face and felt a warmthly glow arise from within me that seemed to beam un-ignorable confidence from me. I steped up to the light and spoke with this guard as persuasively as I could.

"Hello, I am looking for my items that were with me the night before I was taken to prison, you were one of the last people to see it would you happen to know where those said posessions were placed, and could I please get them back as I need it so that I can head out of town to Vivec where I have business." I didn't want this guy to lead anyone after me once he figured out what I had done, obviously.

"Eh? I wasn't really supposed to say anything....but I guess if it'll get you outta town faster there can't be any harm in it. Follow me up to the storage, where your things are located." This guy's meekness in his voice had gone from him the minute he put his uniform on it seemed, as he now almost sounded much like Barry had the first time I saw him. "It's just in that door there, go on in."

"Could you show me where? I don't want anyone to think I took anything that doesn't belong to me, you see."

"Oh,... very well, I will grab it for you...*nervous seconds pass as he rumages through the loot*..Here you go." He had the whole set of clothes and probably most of the money still in there, but now there was a dagger. I think he was testing me to see if I would steal something right out of his hands. I don't like to be analyzed, so I pulled it from the sheath and in the same motion slashed across his throat. Or at least where his throat had been a moment ago. I couldn't see where he had went, but he was either invisible or had magically moved somewhere, and I had no intention of staying put to find out which.

I headed out of the storage area only to find that there were that last 3 guards, as well as captain Sellus, running toward me. I quickly downed the rest of my potions and moved into a melee range. I evaded the first sloppy thrust attack and allowed it to flow past me as I had to parry the next blow with the short blade I had off to my other side. The third guard was one I hadn't seen except on routes through town. He was the first to go to an early grave, as he attacked last out of the first wave. His weapon ended up poke-ing him in the eye. This caused him to drop to the ground. I took his sword, as he rolled around grabbing his eyeball/socket.

With my new longer blade I went to hacking as hard as I could at the other two fighters, who merely tried to keep from allowing the blade to touch them. I could tell they were getting tired but I was barely breathing hard. After about ten seconds of being on the defensive they turned tail and ran. Then Sellus finally arrived at my location and he took a conservative stance. I tried to break it with a wide swing to his temple, which got me hit in the ribs by his own sword as he ducked my attack. I made a backswing into his torso as well and got my sword stuck in the upper arm bones on his right side. On the plus side he just lost most of his movement on that side because I had severed a lot of muscle fibers. He was bleeding profusely and the smooth liquid was running down his sleeve and dropping to the ground as we continued to parry and attack back and forth a bit. Both of us were too intimidated to take a really offensive movement that might cost us our life. Finally, as we were begining to get so worn down we would be fair game for animals, I found an opening to fast-stab his face and ended it.

I slumped to the ground and could feel the effects of the potions starting to wear off, and so had my excitement rush. At this point I just wanted to go lay down somewhere and rest. I really needed to take care of those last two pests, but I didn't know where they were. I decided to walk back to the tower and ask for another healing potion as I was pretty sure I needed it and had earned it by now. I got to the lighthouse and was given another bottle of sweet healing juice...I quickly felt better, not rejuvenated, or even normal, but much better.

I wanted to get moving quickly before anything bad could happen and I decided to go to Balmora as soon as the stilt strider got back. I had heard of it from the annoying Argonian while I was in prison. He confirmed that it would run a route to Balmora. I listened for anything unusual and couldn't hear any kind of commotion outside, Waiting until the stilt strider got back from its last trip. Eventually I heard the cries of the strider coming in to port. I started to make my way into town in my new old-tax-collector outfit that had been given to me as a present and show of appreciation, not to mention so that I didn't walk out with a half a dozen men's blood on me....that would kinda look suspicious.

As I approached the top of the hill where the strider was I spoke up a bit, "What all can this thing do and where can it get me?"

Darvame Hleran , "Well, this old bug is your only non-walk option to get to anywhere, but I only take this baby to Balmora, Vivec, huge city that is..., Suran, and Gnisis, although that's kinda far so it'll cost ya."

"Well I have business in Balmora so I think I would like to head out that way."

"Not a problem, but I need 15 gold paid in advance." Which I gave her.

Three hours and a couple dry, heaving, vomits later I got to Balmora. This town's buildings were different from the ones in the previous town. And with the thought of the sickness in my stomach I embarked on my newest task. With only 25 gold I might very well starve at the rate things were going. But for now the name of the hour was Stargel...wait a sec..., huh...?.

Here ends our time in Seyda Neen and the long Chapter One. I am informed that this chapter is about 16 pages, which in comparison to Serene's 25 for chapter one I figure I am not quite as detailed, then again my chapter one covers less geography...oh well writing styles have a nice variety and make things more interesting I hope that you all have enjoyed reading this.

and so minkey you have effectivly had the end of the first chapter of my first fanfic dedicated to you.

This post has been edited by jchamber: Feb 28 2006, 03:49 PM