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> The Adventures of Marius:, The island and the madmer
redsrock
post Jul 3 2008, 02:45 AM
Post #1


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Chapter One

"Marius, be a dear and fetch me some water from the well, will you please? I need to clean these dishes before I can fix us lunch."

"Just let me finish something real quick, I'm almost done."

Marius could hear his mother talking while walking down the hall, and this made him roll his lime-green eyes at the thought. "Marius, I don't want to keep asking you things, over and over, I-" she stopped mid-sentence after she saw what her sixteen year old son had doing in the first place. "Marius, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times, YOU'RE NOT JOINING THE IMPERIAL LEGION!"

"But why?" Marius had by now dropped the silver longsword he had been polishing and was standing beside his bed glaring into his mother's eyes. This was not the first time they had quarreled, and he knew it wouldn't be the last either.

"Because I NEED you around here! After your father died we were left with nothing! If you are to run off to kill things who will be here to help me around the house? I certainly can't fix the food, clean dishes, milk the cows, feed the animals by myself. Do I really need to go on?"

He sighed sarcastically and bolted out of the room and out into the kitchen. "Fine, mother, have it your way...again! You know, father gave me the sword for a reason," he added, turning back around and facing his mother, who herself was now standing in the middle of the hallway.

"And what reason is that, Marius?" She asked with her arms folded and a smile upon her face. She was waiting for Marius to use the upcoming excuse. She'd hurt it millions of times.

"To follow in his footsteps and-"

"Get yourself killed just as he did?" She said, interrupting Marius. "He died fighting for people who didn't even care about him, Marius! Did they give him a funeral? Did they send their apologies? By the gods no they did not! They sent us a blunt letter explaining that he died 'fighting for the glory of the Empire', and didn't even bother sending his body!" She yelled, adding a bit of sarcasm to the last sentence. Any other time she would have started crying at this time, but she was used to the arguments with Marius about his father's service to the Legion. Crying did her no good and she didn't see a reason to continue it.

"Why do you disrespect the Empire so much, mother? Because of them we have our freedom. Because of them we are free from the Ashlanders people. You and I both know Caldera used to be full of 'em." Marius couldn't stand the way she talked of the Empire day in and day out. It drove him crazy to hear her talk like that.

"Marius," she laughed, "You have no idea how or why Caldera has become what it is today. The Empire isn't as prideful and glorious as you think it is. Now, get out and fetch me the water or you won't be doing anything for the rest of the day."

"But I was gonna meet my friends at Potter's Creek later on!"

"Then I suggest you get going on that water," she said, already having her back to him and walking down the hallway towards her room, carrying the sword and no doubt putting it back into the old chest where it had been before Marius pulled it out.

It isn't fair, she can't keep telling me what to do. Soon I'll be an adult and I'll be able to make my own decisions, Marius thought as he trudged out the door and over to the watering well. Bernie, one of the few pigs on the farm, wabbled up to Marius from behind and nudged his bare ankle with a cold and wet nose. "Oh, Bernie, I didn't see you coming fella'. Here, you want some water?"

Marius dumped a pale-full of water into the pigs' trough and then refilled the bucket. He walked back into the house and sat the pale on the floor just a few feet away from his mother. She had just started to prepare biscuits, one of Marius's favorite foods.

"You're fixing biscuits?" he asked her.

"Yes, Marius, I am. It's too bad you won't be here when they're done," she said, referring to him going to Potter's Creek.

"But you'll save me some won't you?"

She turned around and gave him a warm smile, which in return made Marius feel guilty about yelling at her, even if he still stood by what was said.

"Of course I will, Marius, have I ever not?" She walked over and gave her son a hug, and Marius could feel a set of tears from his mother's cheek, with he being about an inch taller than she. "You know, through all of our arguing and whatnot I sure hope you know how much I love you, son."

"I know mother, he replied rather bluntly, wanting to escape her tight grasp and be with his friends at the creek.

After what seemed to Marius like hours she let go of him. "Alright, you may go. Though I'd like it if you were home in a couple of hours. Lunch will likely be ready by then."

"Ok, I will," and then he was off out the door and running towards Potter's Creek, praying that his friends hadn't started without him.

******************************

"It's about time, Mar, we've been waiting almost an hour!"

Marius's best friend was waving frantically in a playful manner as he ascended down the large hill that ran right into the creek itself. "Sorry...Katrina...but my mother kept me longer than I thought she would," he responded, out of breath from running the entire way.

"Well don't worry, we didn't start without ya'," the Redguard Jonah said, another one of Marius's good friends, but not quite like Katrina. She and Marius had a connection that was special, even if the two didn't know it yet.

"Do you think we'll be able to find it again?" Katrina asked Marius while he was still catching his breath.

"I sure hope so, it looked like a lot of fun. Maybe we'll find some treasure or something."

The trio had been running through the woods yesterday when they had stumbled upon an old cave, a small one mind you, but one that was located out of view, situated behind a couple of large rocks that had done a good job of keeping the cave from normal eyesight. Being sixteen year-old kids they were of course curious about exploring the cave, but by the time they had discovered the hidden cavern it was almost dark.

They walked along the edge of the creek, talking and laughing like normal kids do. After several minutes they passed a small deformed tree. Marius remembered the cavern being somewhat close to that tree, somewhere the right. So they walked across the creek, since it was rather shallow and barely went up to their knees, and continued onward.

"There, there's the two boulders!" Jonah yelled with excitement as he began running towards the oversized rocks, with Marius and Katrina following close behind. Once they reached the cave's entrance they just stood there for several seconds, and then the youthful fear finally kicked in.

"Who's going in first?" Katrina asked hesitantly, now all of a sudden not too sure if she really wanted to enter the cavern or not.

"I don't know, but it ain't gonna be me..." Jonah responded, backing away from the dark hole several feet.

"What's wrong with you, I thought Redguards were supposed to be all brave and everything..." Marius laughed jokingly. Jonah flashed him an angered look and that's when Katrina took over, which was quite ironic because she was the only girl of the small group.

"Fine, I'll go in," she said, and then did just that. Marius and Jonah waited anxiously a few seconds before Katrina called out from within. "It's fine you guys, and it's not as dark as I thought it would be! There's some light coming from a few holes at the top! Come on down, but watch where you're walking, there's dip when you come in!"

The two boys looked at each other, both still undecided on who was entering the cavern first. "Just go, Jonah, I'll follow!"

"Why don't you go?" the Redguard boy yelled out in defiance.

"Stop yapping already and just come in at the same time!" Katrina yelled impatiently from within the cave.

Marius and Jonah simply shrugged their shoulders and did just what Katrina told them to do.

This post has been edited by redsrock: Jul 3 2008, 02:45 AM


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redsrock
post Jul 3 2008, 09:06 PM
Post #2


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Chapter Two

Landing hard on the ground below him, Marius yelled out in pain as his left knee collided with a broken piece of rock. Jonah was at his side in less than a second, with Katrina at the scene shortly after.

"Are you alright?" she asked him while bending over to inspect his wound. "It's not that bad, just a scrape is all."

"Yeah, it just stings. I'll be fine, but do any of you have a piece cloth?" He asked, feeling a bit stupid. What kid would walk around carrying a cloth in their pocket?

Katrina and Jonah both shook their heads no and Marius sighed. Then he reached onto the side of his belt and grabbed a small iron knife, one with a dull blade. It was an item he had found while wondering the forests weeks ago, and had been hiding it from his mother ever since. Marius tore off a piece of long piece of his shirt-sleeve with the knife and wrapped it tightly around the wound, then tying a knot to keep it steady.

"Nice thinkin', but your mother's gonna be mad when she sees your shirt," Jonah chuckled.

"Yeah, well it won't be the first time she's been mad at me..."

The three continued on through the cave, thought it only had two areas; one being the large space in which they had first entered, and now a much smaller area located in an upper right corner of the first room that they found themselves in. "Hey look, it's a treasure chest!" Jonah yelled as he began running towards an old and worn-out wooden chest. The bark looked to be hundreds of years old and there were many scratches on the copper key lock. "Marius, give me your knife and I'll see if I can get it open!"

Marius handed Jonah the knife and the Redguard boy went to work. It took him just a few minutes until a loud click of metal sounded, and the top of the chest rose up, causing a great deal of dust and dirt to fly into the air. But alas it was too dark to see anything inside the chest, even with the small amount of light coming in from the numerous holes in the roof of the cavern. "

Let's take it outside and see what's in it" Marius exclaimed joyously after taking the knife back and putting it back between the belt and waist.

The three helped carry the chest out of the small room, but when they were about to leave they we were met by four figures who were standing right in front of the exit, including three Argonians and a muscular looking Nord with a long and un-kept darkish blonde beard.

"My my, what do ya' have ther, kiddies?" The Nord called out with a sly sounding laugh. He was holding in one hand a wooden club, and in the other a long leather rope. "Why don't ya' three lemme help ya' with that ther chest..."

"Here you go, mister, you can have whatever is in the chest. We don't want it," Marius mumbled wearily, afraid that the man and his companions only wanted the treasure for themselves. Though this was not what they had wanted, and the Nord and the Argonians bursted out with laughter.

"No, no, no, you got it all wrong, lad. We don't want the chest, all we want is YOU!" He laughed again and the Argonians started to spread out and circle around the children, each holding long wooden sticks. "Please don't struggle, we don't want to have to hurt ya'", he chuckled in his Nordic accent.

"Leave us alone!" Jonah screamed, getting angrier, but to Marius's surprise, not fearful. Jonah balled up his fist and readied himself for whatever was to come. Marius had a similar plan, but his called for a weapon of metal rather than flesh. The Argonians closed in on the group and Jonah went to work on the nearest lizard.

"Stay back,"Marius yelled to Katrina, but as he turned his head to speak to her one of the Argonians had wrapped his stick around Marius's neck. Katrina cried out in terror and was about to help Marius but she too was grabbed from behind by the lizard, and quickly thrown the hard rocky ground soon afterwards.

"Leave here alone you filthy lizard!" Marius yelled. The Argonian's grip on his neck only tightened, and he reached for the knife in his belt. The Nord seemed to have noticed this move and he yelled for the Lizard to watch out, but he was just seconds too late. Marius swiped his blade from behind and caught the Argonian on on the thigh. He immediatly let go of Marius, and the boy turned around to attack further, but the Nord was already one step ahead. He whacked Marius in head with his club, causing him to tumble to the floor, almost knocking him out cold.

While Marius laid on the ground the Nord quickly moved into position and began tying the boy up with his rope. "Get over here and help me!" he screamed to the wounded Argonian as Marius flailed his legs and squirmed to get free. But it was of no use, and the strength of both the Nord and the Argonian helped them tie Marius up in a matter of seconds. Marius looked to his right and saw that the same thing was happening to Jonah, though his captor had a bloody nose. And the same with Katrina as well, who at this point was crying her eyes out.

Marius was about to yell out loud but then the Nord covered his mouth with a piece of cloth. He put his mouth close to Marius's ear and whispered, "You and your pal took blood from my friends, and now I'm going to do the same to yours." Then he chuckled and added, with great pleasure, "But it's not like I hadn't planned it in the first place..."

He took out a small dagger from his own belt, even smaller than Marius's, and one with a green substance spread over the blade. He stabbed Marius lightly in the arm and the boy immediatly began feeling extremely dizzy. Within a few seconds he had at last dozed off, and then the Nord continued the process with the other two children.

**********************************************************

By the time Marius woke up, he was sitting inside some kind of room, a small and cramped space made up entirely wood with a tiny bed and an even tinier rickety wooden chair. Marius was lying on that tiny bed, already halfway off with his hand dangling over the side and the cloth taken away from his mouth. Suddenly the room began to rock slightly to the side and Marius then fell clear off of the bed and hitting his wounded knee on the wooden floor.

I must be on a ship, he thought to himself as he grabbed his knee in pain. That's when he noticed that the torn piece of shirt had been replaced with an actual cloth-dressing, one that had been wrapped around his leg by someone who must have known what they were doing, because unlike Marius' messy knot this dressing was folded neatly and pinned together by a long metal needle, similar looking to what his mother had used to quilt blankets and other pieces of cloth.

He looked to his arm where the Nord had stabbed him and noticed a large red spot with a tiny hole in the middle. The general area around the spot was very sore. He must have poisoned me with something...

Marius stood up from ground and hurried to the door, becoming more and more nervous by the second. Though when he twisted the iron handle of the wooden door it didn't even budge. Oh no, it's locked... Not really knowing what else to do, Marius sat on the edge of the bed and began to cry softly in his hand. He thought about Jonah and Katrina, but mostly about his mother and the terms he had left her on. She had given him a hug, but Marius had hurried out of the house without even saying he loved her back. That was the feeling of dread that shook Marius's mind the most, the thought that he might not ever see her again.

Where could we be going? I sure hope Jonah and Katrina are alright... Suddenly the door bursted open and there stood the Nord, the same one that had stabbed into Marius' skin with the dagger. "It's about time fer ya' to wake up, we're 'bout an hour 'er so away from makin' landfall," he said, a conniving grin spread across his hairy face. He paid no sorrow to the sad mental state Marius was in, and rather began to poke fun at it instead. "Quit yer cryin', lad, thur's no use fer it..."

He closed the door and locked it back with an iron key. Then he folded his arms and just laughed while the boy continued to cry. "I s'pose I should go ahead and tell ya' what's happened, shouldn' I? Well, if ya' really wanna know yer gonna have to quit that damn cryin, lad, it's already gettin' on m' nerves..."

The boy simply wiped his nose on the one sleeve he still had and glared into the Nord's brown eyes with a look of pure hatred. Marius wanted nothing more to run him in with his dagger, but as he felt his belt he realized the dagger had been taken away. Then, noticing the movement and the look of display on Marius' face, the Nord laughed, "What, ya' think I was gonna let ya keep that little dinner knife of yers? Nah, I threw it way fer ya'," he said with a wink. Marius still sat on the bed, still giving the same angered stare.

"And now that ya'v stopped the cryin' I'll tell ya' what's goin' on. Ya'v been kidnapped obviously, to work on the Isles of Paradise. A Bosmer, who ya'll meet soon enough, runs the place with an iron fist and an insane mind. Ya'll get what I'm sayin' before too long I s'pose. He'll want to speak with ya' and the other children before we make landfall. It's probly best ya' get dressed into the garments that we've provided fer ya'. Ya' can find 'em in that box ther," he said pointing to a tiny box behind the bed that Marius had not noticed. Then the Nord left the room, slamming the door behind him and laughing loudly.


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redsrock
post Jul 4 2008, 03:38 AM
Post #3


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Chapter Three


"Psss, over here!" Marius heard someone whispering behind him but when he turned around there was of course no one there. "Down here!" came another whisper. He looked to the ground and saw that at the bottom of the wall near the corner of the room was a hole, where pieces of the ship had been torn off. Marius knelt down on both knees and saw a boy about his age, an Imperial as well, peeking at him from the other side of the wall. "How's it going?"

The boy was smiling widely, and Marius thought that was rather strange. Who in their right mind would be smiling after they'd been kidnapped, and then put on a ship heading to an unknown direction? "Who are you? Were you kidnapped too?" Marius asked.

The boy smiled even more and said, "Yeah, about a month ago I'd say, though I'm not really sure. It's hard to tell time locked up in a room all the time. My name's Roderick Gaalmane. What's yours?"

"Marius...Marius Dalvane. And did you say a whole month?" Marius asked with a bit of shock that the boy had been on the ship that long.

"Yep, I think the ship has been stopping at different places looking for children to kidnap. There's been two others in your room, but they were moved around each time. Hopefully you'll stay here longer."

"And why is that?" Marius was starting to find the boy annoying.

"I don't know, I guess so I can have somebody to talk to. It's been lonely here by myself for the past few days. I think we're getting close to wherever we're going. I heard you and the Nord talking."

"So you heard me crying too?" Marius, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

"Yeah, but it's nothing to feel bad about. I cried a lot in the beginning as well. Now I just want to know what's going on, and why they are only capturing kids...or at least those around the age of sixteen or so. How are you exactly?"

"Sixteen."

"So am I. The Nord and some others kidnapped me as I was picking berries in the forest. Swept me up and brought me here they did. I-"

Marius, no longer able to control his anger, replied harshly, "You know, I really don't feel like talking. I've been separated from my two friends, my mother, and I don't what's going to happen. The last thing I need is someone who doesn't know when to shut up..."

Silence for a few seconds, and then Roderick spoke up once more. "I'm sorry, I...just don't like being alone, and when you came I got all excited. I'll leave you alone now..."

And immediatly Marius felt sorry for what he had said. It wasn't like him to have sudden outbursts like that. "No...I'm the one who should be sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I..I'm just not used to all this yet. I'm scared, to be honest..."

"No worries, I totally understand. I'll admit, I do talk a lot, but hey, who doesn't? Anyways, I think I will leave you alone, at least for a while. I need to get changed into the clothing they've given us. Supposedly the Bosmer man is going to talk to us before we set foot on wherever we're going."

"The Bosmer man?"

"Yeah, he's the one who's been ordering our kidnapings, or at least that's what I heard a guard say the other day when I went to the bathroom. I don't think he liked me listening to his conversation. He hit me hard with his stick."

Finally the kid stopped talking and Marius could hear a box open on the other side. He figured the kid was getting dressed so Marius did the same thing. Inside the wooden box behind the bed was a pair of dark-leather pants and a tan-colored shirt, and under the clothing was a pair of leather boots and a brown pigskin belt. The outfit wasn't the most glamorous Marius had ever seen, but he didn't feel like disobeying orders.

Almost as soon as he was done buckling his belt and finished getting dressed the Nord he had met with earlier yelled from outside the door. "Five minutes and we leave fer the deck! Make sure yer ready!"

"You heard him, right?" Roderick asked Marius once the Nord had left.

"Yeah, I did. What's his name, do you know?"

"No, but he sure is mean. He's made many of us cry, so don't feel bad about doing it yourself." Marius wasn't sure whether to thank him or not, so he just didn't say anything. It didn't matter either way, because in a few minutes his door swung open and an enormous Orc stood in the doorway with a similar-looking club the Nord had hit Marius with back at the cave. "Get out, kid, it's time to get yourself on deck," he said, his deformed-pig-like face bunching up into an ugly snarl. Marius didn't say anything but walked out the door. Thankfully for him Roderick had left his room at the same time, so he was able to walk to deck with him. Even if Marius found the kid somewhat agitating, he was still glad to at least walk with someone he'd already spoken to. It made things easier, even if it was only a little bit.

"Hey, it's good to meet you actually in person. I really don't think peeking through a hole in the wall counts," Roderick said with a laugh.

"MOVE IT ALONG!" the Orc ordered loudly from behind, startling the two boys, plus a few other children in the area. There were other Orcs leading the sea of children, as well as some Argonians and other races as well. Marius took these adults to be workers of this Bosmer man. He didn't say anything to Roderick, and vice versa. Neither of the two wanted to take a chance of getting whacked upside the head by a stick.

And as the moved along the wooden corridors Marius took a mental note of how many children there were. It was an awe-striking scene to him, that all of these children had been stolen from their homes. There were all kinds of races, from Imperials like himself all the way to the furry Khajits and the scaly Argonians. What the hell is this Bosmer planning? Marius thought to himself just he was nearing an open hatch leading to the deck of the ship.

Once he was on deck Marius immediatly craned his head around looking for Jonah and Katrina, but he couldn't see either of them in the massive flock of children, and in fact he could barely see his feet because things were so crazy and crammed. Suddenly a high voice sounded from the mast of the ship, and standing on a platform was a Bosmer wearing an expensive multi-colored robe. The short elf began to speak and a hushed silence fell over the youthful crowd.


--------------------
*Hey everyone, TES Fiction is looking to revamp its very talented group of writers. So, if you love to write (TES or non-TES), come on over! Whether its stories, poems, song lyrics, etc, it doesn't matter!*
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