The Story of the Listener, My first fanfic. Options

[DarkHunter]

I suppose I do... but not really. Arygon might have killed Vivic but I haven't... hmmmmm...

[Kayla]

Alright another update! They'll get longer as soon as I can get through with finals next week!
----
After a few hours, I was disturbed from my thoughts by a thump.

Immediately, I sat up, facing the direction in which the noise had come from: north. My trained eyes scanned the shadows, looking for any signs of movement within the heavy brush, while I instinctively reached for my blade. My hand felt nothing on my hip, where my sheathed blades were supposed to be.
“Damn… I guess my weapons are still in the cave.”
Saprius hadn’t mentioned having any trouble earlier, but then again, I hadn’t asked him.

The wind picked up, and rustled the brush and the leaves of the only tree on the island. Whatever was in the shadows took this opportunity to move, probably thinking that the wind would make enough noise to mask the sound of movement. Whatever it was, it was wrong. I picked up on the movement and followed it, slowly standing.

I saw in the thick darkness, the figure of a person, moving toward the rocks of the cave. When the air became still once more, I leapt at the figure. The metallic glint of steel caught my eye as the shadow unsheathed a blade.

“Who are you?” I asked, dodging an initial horizontal swing from the blade wielder.
A feminine voice cried out in obvious frustration. “I am a daughter of Mephala! I have come to take your life, Listener!
“The Morag Tong has found us already?”
I jumped to the left to avoid a stab.

If the Morag Tong had a new Grandmaster, whoever they were surely didn’t like this woman. She was horribly slow, and obviously had a death wish.

Dodging a vertical swing, I smiled.
“So do you have a new Grandmaster yet? You know, I killed the last one.”
She grunted angrily.
“Eno Hlaalu was a good man!”
“And a coward.” I said.
Practically roaring, she tried to stab me again. I moved out of the way and, taking her by surprise, I grabbed her arm, took her dagger from her, and wrapped my arm around her throat.
She coughed and wheezed, gasping for air, as I restricted her airway. I dragged her over to the fire to get a better look at her.

She was a Bosmer. I should have guessed by her height. Her hair was jet black and her golden colored eyes were full of determination. I put her own dagger to her throat and loosened my grip on her neck.
“How did you get here?” I asked.
She managed to shake her head, grunting and struggling against me.
I stabbed her in the stomach, and she cried out in pain, her muscles loosening.
“How did you get here?” I repeated.
“I…I waterwalked.” She said, her hands moving to her wound.
“Does the Morag Tong have any plans to attack the Dark Brotherhood?” I asked.
She paused.
“Don’t make me ask again.” I said, coolly.
“We were simply hired to avenge Vivec’s death…” She answered, her breathing becoming shallow.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” I said.
“I… know not of a plan…” she said.
This reinforced my idea that the Morag Tong was still quite weakened. But, it was still quite possible that there was a plan she didn’t know about.
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“The Webspinner knows many things… you will find yourself trapped in her web.” She said, laughing.
I pulled the Bosmer close to the fire. She was bleeding profusely, and her face was turning pale. She still laughed with what little strength she could muster.

Kicking her legs out from under her, I held her face close to the flames.
“Mephala is not but a Lady of Oblivion. She will hurt you as much as she helps you.”
This time it was my turn to laugh.
“Don’t you know that spiders are cannibalistic?”

I shoved her face into the hungry fire.

As the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh wafted into my nostrils, I decided not to wake Saprius up. He deserved his rest, and it would take awhile for another Morag Tong agent to travel to us anyway. If one was stupid enough to follow in the Bosmer’s footsteps, so be it. I was ready for them.

[DarkHunter]

hmmm... I suppose thats one way to kill someone Be careful with what you do, evey Dunmer is probably going to try and kill you (if the Dunmer knows who you are at least)

This post has been edited by DarkHunter: May 17 2006, 11:01 AM

[TheStranger]

Heh heh, what a way to go. I like it. Looking forward to the next update

[Kayla]

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the night was peaceful. Sitting, I rested my back on the rocks near the cave where Saprius slept. The attack from the Bosmer, while futile, had my adrenaline pumping.

Just after sunrise, Saprius walked outside, stretching and yawning. The sight of the Bosmer’s corpse stopped him dead in his tracks.
“Damn! I take it you had some trouble last night?” he exclaimed.
I nodded. “Nothing serious. She was a member of the Morag Tong.”
Saprius was amazed. “They’ve located us?”
“Yes. And we need to get moving as soon as possible.” I said, standing.
“Agreed.” He said, walking back into the cave.

I followed him inside. We gathered our equipment and put out the fire. Throwing my Black Hand robe on over my Dark Brotherhood armor, I looked at Saprius.
“We need to travel north and to the east. Hopefully, we can find a boat that will take us to the mainland.”
I wondered if we were going to run into the Morag Tong again. It was very likely.
“Alright.” He said.
“We should also find some disguises. It wouldn’t be wise to wear our robes or our armor in public, considering that they’ve probably identified the Dark Brotherhood to be behind Vivec’s death.” I said.

We exited the cave and put out the fire outside, throwing the Bosmer’s corpse into the sea. I then, cast a water walking spell on Saprius and myself and we set out, heading northeast.

We traveled in silence. My boots made small splashes as they hit the water. Water walking has always been a strange sensation for me. Feeling practically weightless, I looked down into the clear water underneath my feet to see small fish darting throughout the water.

After about an hour of walking, I saw a large landmass in the distance. Though I was happy to get off that island and temporarily away from the Morag Tong, I wondered what else we were going to face before we made it back to Cheydinhal.

My feet felt strange when they hit solid land. I could tell that Saprius had gotten a little too used to water walking as well. He shook his feet, and jumped up and down a few times to get his landlegs.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” Saprius asked, pacing a bit.
“I have a faint idea.” I said, looking around at the green grass and slight rolling hills. In the distance, the sky was grey. I knew it wasn’t storm clouds. We were close to the Ashlands.
“We should head north.” I said. “Molag Mar should be close to here. Maybe we can find a boat there.”

As we walked through the tall grass, Saprius looked at me.
“Do you think we’re going to run into the Morag Tong again?” He asked, a worried tone in his voice.
“It’s very likely. We should just keep moving. That will make it harder for them to track us.” I answered.

A warm wind blew my long brown hair and the tall grass around us. There was a hint of grainy ash in the wind. As we came to the top of a tall hill, Molag Mar, the one canton city towered over us. Saprius brushed is shoulder length brown hair out of his face.
“What is that?” he asked.
“That’s the city of Molag Mar.” I said. “It’s not much. Just a temple, a few shops, some places to rest. It serves as more of an outpost to adventurers than a city. It is a city of the Tribunal Temple though, and it is guarded by ordinators. It is connected to the sea. So, it’s possible that we’ll find a boat there.” I continued.
“I say we go in there and try to find some disguises first.” Saprius said.
“That’s a good idea. We can probably steal some priest robes from the Temple.” I said.

We approached the canton, entering the small city. Quietly, we made our way to the top of the canton, avoiding the few ordinators that were patrolling the area.

We reached the Molag Mar temple and I pushed the door open. There were numerous Dunmer priests occupying the small temple. Many of them were too busy studying religious texts to look up at us. The few that did rolled their eyes and went back to their studies. I spotted a staircase that led down to the lower level of the temple and quickly walked down it.

Saprius and I found ourselves in a hallway, branching off into many rooms. It was empty save for two priests talking about Vivec’s death.
“You know they say it was the Dark Brotherhood who did it…” one of the Dunmer priests said.
That was enough to make my heart skip a beat.

Before they saw Saprius and me, we ducked into the first room we saw, slowly and carefully closing the door behind us.

A quick search of the closet in the room resulted in two priest robes. One of them was a deep red, the other green.

Shrugging off my bloodstained Black Hand robe, I quickly put on the red robe, covering my Dark Brotherhood armor. Saprius donned the green robe. Looking at the red sleeves of my robe, I felt relieved. Saprius smiled at me.
“Thank Sithis… I feel a lot safer…” he said.
I smiled. “Let’s get out of here and try to find a boat—“

Just as I finished my sentence, the door to the small room opened. Saprius and I turned to face the intruder.

[Kayla]

I am proud to announce that this story has made it past 50 pages in Microsoft Word! (54 right now to be exact)
----
A Dunmer male and Altmer female stood in the doorway, wearing netch leather armor, and holding writs of execution.
“Uh-oh…” I thought, staring them down.

The Altmer stepped forward.
“Breton! Imperial! You have been marked for execution by the Morag Tong for the murder of Lord Vivec! We are here to make sure you die!” she yelled, her high pitched voice straining my remaining nerves.
That was definitely the wrong thing to say in the middle of a Temple devoted to the worship of the now dead Tribunal. In the room outside, I could hear gasps, and rapid footsteps. I looked at Saprius.
“We have to get out of here. Now.” I said.

The two assassins brandished silver daggers and leapt toward us. I could feel some of my old wounds tightening and straining as I easily dodged them and made for the door. Saprius, unlike me, wasn’t born under the sign of the The Theif, and therefore wasn’t blessed with extra agility. He found himself cornered by the assassins.
“Sarelle!!” he yelled, pressing his back against the wall.
The Temple priests were beginning to surround the room we were in, yelling death threats, calling the ordinators, some even starting to conjure daedra.
The assassins were closing in quickly on Saprius.
“Damn it!”

I ran back toward the assassins, unsheathing my Blade of Woe and burying it in the Altmer’s spine. She let out a cry of pain and fell to the floor. I grabbed Saprius’ arm and we ran toward the crowd of priests.
“We’re going to have to cut through them…” I realized.

My boots pounding against the stone floor, I threw a powerful flame spell into the crowd. The priests scattered, and shrieks of pain, and the roar of flames filled the air. Still clutching Saprius’ arm, we practically flew up the stairs, back into the main room of the Temple.

I didn’t expect the Morag Tong to locate us again so quickly. They must have had all their forces focused on us. Escaping Vvardenfell was going to be much harder than I had anticipated.

Just as we burst through the front door of the Temple, and out into the open canton, we ran right past a group of ordinators. To my dismay, I looked back to see the Dunmer assassin right on our heels.
”After them! They’re the ones that killed Lord Vivec!” he yelled.

Behind us, I could hear the sounds of clanging metal, and angry yelling. My arms and legs pumped quickly. I could barely feel the stone under my feet as I ran. As we made our way down the canton, I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.

We made it to the final level of the canton. A lot of ordinators were still behind us. Ahead of us lay the vast Ashlands.

As we ran across the ashy earth, grey ash and dust flew up in front of my face. Behind us, the ordinators had stopped pursuing us, probably figuring we would die out here anyway. The only one still on our trail was the Dunmer assassin.

Tired of running, I stopped, turning around and drawing my sword. As he neared me, he brought his dagger back in an attempt at a horizontal slash. I stepped out of the way and tripped him. Saprius immediately pulled his claymore over his shoulder from its sheath, and brought it down on the back of the Dunmer’s neck, decapitating him.

Still standing, and breathing heavily, I slumped down resting my arms on my knees. Saprius looked around. There was nothing but grey ash surrounding us.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” he asked.
I shook my head, watching the blood flow from the Dunmer’s neck, mixing with the ash. How did the Morag Tong find us? When were we going to see them again?
“I would imagine that we’re north of Molag Mar.” I guessed. “We can’t return to Molag Mar. We should try to head east to Azura’s Coast.” I said.
Turning east, Saprius and I began to walk across the grey earth.

[TheStranger]

Nice

Sounds like they are in for a long trip home.

[DarkHunter]

A VERY long trip home Yeah, those priests are annoying when you do anything in there... so much hand-to-hand *shudder*...

This post has been edited by DarkHunter: May 19 2006, 10:49 AM

[Joryn]

Ahh, Azura's coast and onwards, thats Telvanni town. My favourite. Its going to be great to see how this plays out from here.

Judging from what Ive seen of these two in Morrowind, its not likely to get any easier. Another great update.

[Mazelure]

Sweet... decapitation... anyways I would really want to see how this plays out in the telvanni cities... and beware Sadrith Mora... for there lies one of the many Morog Tong bases... beware...

[Kayla]

The wind began to pick up, making the grainy ash twist around my head. I prayed to no gods in particular, that there wouldn’t be an ash storm. As a Morrowind native, I’d been out in the Ashlands many times. I’d come to recognize the creatures that made homes in the Ashlands, I could tell when one of them was diseased, and I’d learned to read landmarks. But, one thing that I’d never gotten used to was the ash storms. They were often very violent and extremely unpredictable.

“Where are we going?” Saprius asked, tearing me from my thoughts.
“Azura’s Coast. Known as the Telvanni region.” I answered, still carefully watching the sky.
“House Telvanni?” Saprius asked.
I nodded. “Have you ever seen a Telvanni stronghold?”
Saprius shook his head, looking a bit confused.
“Then you’re in for quite a treat.” I said.

The Telvanni strongholds always struck me as breathtakingly beautiful. They were simply growing, living, breathing towers. The colors were vivid, and the tower itself unique, as no two Telvanni mushroom towers looked alike.

We walked until dark. Just as the sun had disappeared, the horizon was filled with complete blackness. It suddenly struck me that the region we were in was very mountainous. As we neared the mountain, I looked at Saprius.
“Tell me, Saprius, have you ever climbed a mountain?” I said, still keeping a worried vigil on the now dark sky.
“Yeah. The Jerall Mountains.” He answered.
“Have you ever climbed a mountain during an ash storm?” I asked.
“What’s an ash storm?” he asked.
“I have a feeling you’ll find out soon enough.” I said, reaching the rocky base of the mountain that lay in front of us, and starting to climb.

Saprius looked confused, but began to climb as well.

As I climbed the rocks, I thought about where we were going to go. There were many towns located on the scattered islands of Azura’s Coast. Most, if not all of them, were Telvanni. That didn’t bother me very much. The Telvanni had a tendency to isolate themselves from the rest of Morrowind’s society. I doubted that the death of Vivec bothered them very much. From what I gathered, knowledge was the only god a Telvanni worshipped. However, because of their political prowess, Morag Tong presence in Telvanni cities and towns tended to be quite strong. I knew of one Morag Tong guild hall in Sadrith Mora. I intended to stay clear of it.

Saprius and I finally reached a small ledge on the mountain and decided to rest.
“Sarelle, you haven’t slept in awhile. Try to sleep and I’ll keep watch.” He said, breathing heavily.
“You sure you’re up to it?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He said.
I nodded. “Thanks.” I said.
Soon, I drifted off to sleep.

That night, Lucien visited me in my dreams.
“Ah, Sarelle… it’s been awhile.” He said.
“Yes. I haven’t had much time to sleep. The Morag Tong is hot on our heels.” I said.
Lucien frowned. “The Morag Tong is quite an adversary.” His chilling blue eyes bore into mine. “They could be planning an attack right now and you wouldn’t even know it.”

I awoke with a start, my heart pounding rapidly in my chest. My vision was clouded and the wind was howling. An ash storm had started while I was asleep. I pulled my Black Hand robe from behind my priest robe and wrapped it around my face, so that I could breathe easily without inhaling ash. Ash storms very often carried diseases. Saprius was nowhere in sight.
“Saprius!” I yelled, my voice hardly penetrating the ash.

I looked around and began to survey the small ledge I was standing on. I couldn’t see Saprius. I couldn’t hear anything except the wind howling. I started to curse myself for falling asleep.
“I shouldn’t have left him alone! Sithis! What was I thinking?” I said to myself.

Suddenly, I heard a thud from above me. Rocks began to tumble down the mountain, bouncing off the ledge I was standing on and falling down out of sight. Dodging the rocks, I jumped off the ledge, grabbing at footholds on the mountain, scurrying up as fast as I could.

The ash was everywhere, obstructing my vision and stinging my eyes. The wind threatened to make me lose my balance, sending me falling to my death.

After climbing of what seemed like forever, I reached another, bigger ledge. I could hear yelling. I realized that it was Saprius’ voice. I just couldn’t see him.
“Saprius!” I yelled into the storm.
“Sarelle! Is that you? Help!” he yelled back.

Four figures materialized in front of me. One of the figures was wearing a robe. That had to be Saprius. The other three seemed to be wearing tight fitting armor, and were pursuing the one in the robe.

“Damn! They’ve found us again!”

[Joryn]

Assassins in the middle of an ash storm? I can hardly wait to see how this plays out.

As I expected, another great update.

[DarkHunter]

Robes... What if it's Telvani magi planning on doing expermints on you r body... I have a feeling it would hurt...

[Mazelure]

I wonder... how in the bloody hell did those damn assasins track you down in the ashlands... climbing a mountain... in a freaking blight storm... those are some damn good assasins... not as good as Sarelle... muahahaha

[Kayla]

Very short update, but I plan to make another, longer one a little bit later.
----
I immediately leapt into action, drawing my elven shortsword and running toward my enemies. The ash and wind hid them from sight for the most part, so I listened carefully for their footsteps, relying on my sight only when needed.
“How do they keep finding us?” I asked myself, spotting an assassin, and lunging forward, swinging my sword. I felt great satisfaction when I felt an impact, and heard a pained cry.

Quickly, I reached out with my hand, grabbing the assassin’s throat, and pulling them close so I could see them. Through the blowing ash, I saw the face of a female orc. Her eyes widened momentarily before I snapped her neck. Just as I was letting her body fall onto the rocks, a searing pain tore into the back of my right shoulder. Behind me, I heard a loud hiss.

I quickly spun around to see a hulking Khajiit wielding its own long, and bloodstained claws. He darted away, choosing to stalk me from the safety of the ash storm.

Suddenly, all around me, I heard more movement and more voices.
“Don’t tell me more have shown up…”

One figure moved toward me. I could tell by the way it was moving that the figure was Saprius. To confirm my assumption, his face materialized through the storm. His eyes were deathly serious. I was completely shocked to see that he was bleeding badly from a head wound. However, as he spoke, he showed no signs of weakness.
“Sarelle… they’ve found us again. And more keep showing up. I’ll stay here and keep them busy. You have to make it back to Cyrodiil. You have to tell the Night Mother of our success. The Dark Brotherhood needs you.”
Through the shrieking wind, I could faintly hear the voices of the Morag Tong assassins. They were thirsty for blood, and searching for us.
“I’m not leaving you, Saprius.” I said.
“Go.” He demanded.
“No.” I answered, standing firm.

Catching me completely off guard, Saprius grabbed my throat and as he dragged me across the rocks, he spoke calmly and firmly.
“I am nothing but a Speaker. You are the Listener. You are our leader. If I let you die now, I will spend the rest of my life regretting it. I have lived a good life. The Brotherhood has given me a family. You have given me friendship, and had faith in my abilities. With you alive, we will not fail.”
I kicked my legs, my boots scraping against rough stone.
“S-Saprius…” I managed to choke.
“In your company, under your leadership, under the service of Sithis and the Night Mother, I proudly accept my fate. Goodbye, Sarelle.” He said, throwing me off the edge of the mountain.

This post has been edited by Kayla: May 23 2006, 12:38 AM

[Mazelure]

Hells yeah... I love loyalty... the only thing I hate more than betrayal is... well betrayal... so once I built my own army and rule the world I'm going to implat little chips inside of everyones head so they will be loyal to me untill the very end... and I mean the very end...

[Kayla]

I half fell, half tumbled down the rocks on the way down the mountain. The ash was everywhere, in my eyes, nose, and mouth. I could taste blood, but I didn’t know what was injured. I couldn’t tell which way was up or down, and the wind was screaming at me from all directions, threatening to drive me mad.

When I hit the ground, I landed on my back. It took a moment for me to realize what had happened, but my mind refused to think about Saprius. All I wanted to do was get away from that mountain.

The ash storm was still very intense. I was dizzy, weary, and in pain. Plus, the wind was blowing so hard, I found it impossible to find my feet. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, but I knew that I had to move.

Rolling over onto my stomach, I spat out blood and began to crawl, in what direction, I didn’t know. I didn’t care. My mind was screaming for me to move far away from the mountain.

I crawled until I thought I could crawl no longer. Even then, I continued on. Saprius’ final words invaded my thoughts, and remained in my mind until everything went black.

I awoke to the peaceful sound of the ocean waves. No more shrieking wind. No more ash in the air. My body ached, and upon inspection, I found my Dark Brotherhood armor covered in ash. I took off my gloves and boots, emptying the ash from them. I shook my priest robe and Black Hand robe out, and then shook the ash from my thick hair as best I could.

My vision blurred a bit as I looked up to the sky, and then off into the distance at the land ahead of me. I could see green grass, and some of the sea. I’d crawled all the way to the Grazelands.

I stumbled toward the ocean, still struggling to use my stiff, aching legs. When I finally reached the ocean, I could see a landmass on the other side. I jumped into the small canal and began to swim, thankful that the ash was leaving my hair and skin. The cool water was also rejuvenating.

I reached the other side of the canal and as I climbed a small grassy hill, I began to think about Saprius. Many thoughts and emotions raced through my head. My muscles felt cold, my brain numb. I couldn’t help but feel guilty.
“Why did I have to leave him alone?”

I focused on just trying to get back to Cyrodiil. I wanted to hear the Night Mother’s voice. I wanted to see what all had changed since I’d been gone.
“Too bad Saprius won’t be able to return with me…”

As I came to the top of the hill, I was astounded to see the amazing Shrine of Azura. It was a shrine dedicated to the daedric lady, boasting a statue of her that could be seen for miles.

I smiled. I knew exactly where I was.

[TheStranger]

Woah, great update

[DarkHunter]

Yay! I mean... poor Saprius... Good work!

[Joryn]

Hey, great updates. Its a shame about Saprius, but I never count somebody completely out until I see them dead without a doubt. But right or wrong, we will have to wait and see how things play out. Still hopefully the shrine of Azura will cheer Sarelle up some.