Hasir and Inigo sat against the cave wall reading one of the three books that Atala'd given them. After a few minutes, the argonian turned to the khajiit and sighed.
"You know what, Inigo? I think that your mother sold two deadweight fish for healthy ones." Inigo raised an eyebrow in concern. "What I mean is that she wanted us out of the way in order to go swim, catch fish, Hircine knows what else... alone and unburdened by us. I think your mom is ashamed by you and doesn't take kindly to shacking up with an Argonian nor does she relish the idea of her son being with one."
Inigo stared at Hasir as if he'd been hitting by a stray arrow.
"Don't be ridiculous, my friend. My mom loves me and sees you as a good friend rather than a burden. No, I refuse to accept such an outlandish accusation, think no more of this."
Hasir sighed, said the blue khajiit was right and returned to perusing his book. When he had gleaned enough of the book's information, he closed it and went on to the next one. At once, his eyes lit up.
"Hey, Inigo. I may've found something." He said, baring his teeth in a 'grin.' The blue cat got up, walked over to Hasir and knelt down so his eyes were on the same level as the Argonian's while his tail swished back and forth like a dog threatening to rip into a new chew toy. He asked what he'd acquired. "I found out that the Doomstrider is a shapeshifter." He said, the blue khajiit's eyes inflated like a lightbulb that has reached its peak in heat. "Yes, I found it interesting as well." He said, nodding at his friend's enthusiastic expression.
Inigo eyed his reptilian friend.
"Enough skating around the pond, dive right in!"
The Argonian sighed and pressed on regardless of his annoyance.
"Fine... hsss! He, the Doomstrider, can shapeshift into a black wolf. by Oblivion, he can even shapeshift into... Angof the Gravesinger. He can shapeshift into a great many things." He sighed again to try and relieve some stress. "The point is, when I was in Clockwork manor, I banished him, Ceralyne's brother, into a realm of, what I think is some daedric marketplace of some kind." He said, matter-of-factly. "I've been there, that is not the problem. I may've sent him there and he may've went to Molag Bal from there and got a promotion of some kind." Hasir shrugged, "That's a theory I have anyway."
Inigo looked shocked at his Argonian friend.
"This definitely gives us something. As small as the information may be, at least we aren't grasping a straw anymore."
The argonian nodded enthusiastically and went back to scanning the book for more useful information. Finding what he wanted, he closed to book and picked up the second entitled 'beings of Coldharbor.' After several silent moments of reading, he looked at Inigo.
"You'll never guess what I found. I-it, well, it's both good and bads news." Inigo asked what the news was. Hasir eyed the khajiit uncertainly. "The good news is the black wolf that the Doomstrider can turn into is the same one as the embodiment of my negative emotions. I was right in my assumption, he was being used to spy on Hircine for Molag Bal."
Inigo looked uneasily at Hasir; ears flattened like a sad kitten.
"...and the bad news?" He said, a bit disheartened
Hasir took a deep breath as if he was about to plunge into icy water.
"The bad news is that Molag Bal... h-he is experimenting on werewolves... making some kind of wolf-vampire hybrids. The unholy union thing, the tunnel goes deeper than we thought. Inigo, my guess is that Molag Bal is not just content with his desire to scrub the slate clean-the slate being the werewolves-but intends on merging bat and wolffblood so his servants will no longer fear the sun. This book," He said, holding up the book in question, "Details the process he'll use to make that happen. I best he intends to make it an even battlefield so that they can walk in the daylight, share the same strengths as us, well, me and easily take down Hircine."
Inigo began to grin but it soon turned sour.
"That's great, but, my friend, won't that mean the werebats will be doubly succeptible to silver? I mean, being that werewolves and vampires share the same weakness? Silver will, in turn act like a lethal poison to them, stronger even than for the werewolf alone."
Hasir walked to the mouth of the cave, look out to see where Atala was and motioned for Inigo to stay put.
"Yes, it would. Stay here, I'll go and see what Atala is up to. Hopefully, she is finished with... whatever she had to do." He stuck out his hand when Iningo drew close to him. A sublte hiss escaped his scaly lips, "be a good kitty and stay." Disheartened, the khajiit obeyed. smiling, Hasir exited the cave.
He saw the deep Indigo sky that marked the transition from day to the twilight hours of dusk and wondered where he'd find Atala. He prayed to the nature gods that she'd not been claimed by Molag Bal. He tensed up and hid behind a tree as a shadowy figure moved close to him.
Hasir delivered an axekick, dropping the shadowy figure. She got rapidly to her feet and swept the Argonian's feet out from under him with a well positioned sweepkick. He yelled out as he fell like a tree in the forest.
"How dare y-oh, Atala, sorry if I attacked you." He said as the khajiit helped him up. "I think you were... erm... nevermind." He said, rubbing his neck sheepishly. Did you, erm, get done what you needed to?"
She nodded and asked if his hunt was fruitful as well. He nodded.
"Yes, Inigo and I fou-" She eyed him with the air of someone who didn't like having the wool pulled over her eyes. "Erm, I meant that I found an underground operation that involves Molag Bal, and I think the Doomstrider is in on it too, he, er, they, are planning to create a mixed species, one of vampire and lycanthrope. I think he seeks to match the strength of Hircine's followers in some upcoming battle."
Hasir sniffed the air, snarled and drew his bow.
"Atala, get behind me!"
the khajiit looked all about her and shrugged.
"I see no one. What on Tamriel are you on about?" She asked, eyeing him concernedly
He drew his bow as far as it could go when he heard a twig snap.
"No time for questions, behind me. Now!" He hissed
No sooner did Atala seek the shade of the scaly shelter when a black-boned skeleton with skin stretched tightly over it stepped out of the treeline. Hasir lined up the shot and fired. The arrow struck the undead being in the knee; slowing its progression somewhat. The creature soon resumed its shambling advance. The argonian adjusted his aim and caught the draugr in the chest. The impact sent it flying backward to land on the densly packed earth. Hasir sheathed his bow, brought out his dragonbone axes and within seconds, was upon the creature.
It flailed and fought but it knew it was about to be a foutain of blood erupting from an incredibly ashen volcano. As he delivered the killing blow, Hasir sheathed the axes and walked over to the female khajiit. He looked up at the sky and noted it was about time for them to turn in. Atala agreed and headed inside the cave after the Argonian.
Later that night, Ataala and Inigo's dreams were peaceful but Hasir's was anything but. An image materialized inside his scaly brain for a familiar castle with its cemetery, the dead, burnt body depending from an equally dead tree and the open flaming maw of Oblivion. Hasir walked into the cathedral and saw a forboding sight. Inside were five or six metal tables, tubes extending from each to a central mechanism of some kind. Standing before the mechanism was a red eyed khajiit.
Sensing the argonian behind him, he turned around and gesturing to the tables, which, Hasir was shocked to find, had a werewolf on each of the pristine surfaces. Hasir stared from the werewolves to the central mechanism only to discover that it held blood.
"Do you like it Argonian? I will help Molag Bal create the perfect soldiers for the upcoming war." Hasir snarled and inquired about this 'war.' The doomstride smiled evilly. "The war to end all wars of course. Your putrid kind have been a blight on this land for long enough. My lord seeks to remedy that by evening the playing field and decapitating the head of the wolf once and for all."
Hasir gestured to the central 'blood bank' The doomstrider followed his gaze and a grin broad upon his face like waves on a beach.
"Yes, isn't it beautiful." He said, walking up to it and placing a paw on it metal surface. "This, as you may have guessed, has vampire blood in it. Don't ask me where I got it, you really don't want to know." He said darkly. "All you need to know is that your friends-are they your friends, who knows and... more importantly, who cares?" The point is I will be pumping them full of this blood my Lord so graciously gaves to me." He raised his hand to stiffle a small giggle. "Did I divulge the secret? Oh well, cat's out of the bag now."
Hasir turned from the machine to face the black khajiit and caught some familiar furry faces on the tables adjacent to the 'blood bank.'
"I don't give a damn if you did or not, I just want this Oblionish machine destroyed and the wolves freed." He walked toward the Doomstrider and poked him in the chest, "If I have to blow the damn thing up and sacrifice my friends and grandmother, its no scales of my back." He snarled through gritted teeth.
Unseen by the argonian, eyes locked on the black khajiit, the other inhabitants of the room shed their artifical bonds and sat up. The doomstrider smiled at this all while the black haired Argonian remained none-the-wiser. Hasir looked around; trying to see why the Doomstrider was so jubilant.
The argonian raised a spikey eyebrow; wondering what the Doomstrider was thinking.
"You're, what? Wondering why I am doing this?" He said. "Simple, my dear Argonian. World conquest, and helping my lord rid the mangy dogs from the face of Nirn, of course.' He gestured to the werewolves that formed a circle of pure hatred around the Argonian. "These 'friends' of yours have invited you to diiner, it would be rude to deny them." He aused and thought on his possible erroneous words, "Is it 'invited you for dinner' or 'invited you to be dinner?' I always get those confused." He shrugged, "Oh well, have fun getting mashed to a pulp."
He vanished into thin air, leaving Hasir to defend himself with the bloodthirsty hybrids closing in.
"Ocheeva, I know you, and you, Juleen, Khash... you are definitely not killers. The bloodmoon isn't up yet or maybe it is. My point is that blood," He said, gesturing to the machine and the tubes, "that... is not yours. You are being brainwash be the head vampire and his feline pet. No, come on guys, be civi-ARGH!"
Hasir grabbed his shoulder in pain as a black werewolf with icy green eye pierced it with a foot long yellowing fang. He cried out as he ripped the fang free. He felt the room fade into a black void as he quickly lost consciousness.
The growls of the werewolves were replaced with those of concern. Inigo woke up and went over to the bed where the Argonian lay,
"My friend, why are you always in these situations?" When he did not respond, the blue khajiit checked his pulse; satisfied, and a bit worried, the khajiit went to find Atala knowing she would have more expertise in the matter.
He moved through the room silent as a shadow and slipped out the cavern entrance. He found his mother curled up beside a campfire she'd constructed.
"mom," He said, shaking her like a skooma plant trying to extract some moonsugar, "Something's wrong, that Argonian you just met.... something's wrong." He said, nervously. He could feel his fleas itching with unease as well. She stirred, opened her eyes and went with her son to the cave.
She moved to Hasir's bed as silently as she could. She peered down at his scaly form, check his pulse and checked under the scaly curtains to see if the sun was poking through on a clear day. To her surprise, it wasn't. Instead, a red, crimson as the Bloodmoon was threatening to overtake his once clear skies. She closed the shades.
She turned to her son with a questioning look suffusing her furry features.
"Did you see who did this? Do you have any idea who would do this?"
Inigo shook his head slowly.
"No, I don't. I do remember my friend reading a book about the Doomstrider, or was it Molag Bal, using werewolf hybrids to try and take over Nirn.... to even the score with Hircine. I certainly hope that he did not turn into one of them, if that is where he was before... this happened."
Atala squeezed her son's shoulder and walked over to the same bookshelf that Hasir had gotten the books, which were now laying in a pile to the right of the tree-like bookshelf. She grabbed a book and started riffling through it.
"It says here," She said, running a finger down a list of ingredients, "that we need alchemical ingredients to craft a potion of expelling. The easy part is... all the ingredients are found both in this forest and the larger continent of Elsweyr. Now for the hard part," Her face fell as she looked at the book uncertainly, "We need a ground fang from whomever or whatever bit him, a bit of ground silver and ground wolfsbane. Those bits will be hard unless I call on a little help."
She handed her son the book as a reference. Inigo thanked Atala and went in search of the ingredients. As he scanned the list, his brow furrowed.
"Moon Sugar, pfft, that was is a no brainer but... Afiq fur and Bone Meal? I have no idea where to find these." He heaved a deep sigh, "Better start looking, else Atala with use my fleas for the potion instead." A thought struck him, "Hmm... for silver and wolfsbane, I can always check the huntings grounds and," He shook his furry head, "No, how sttupid I was to think the Silver Hand operate here in the other world. I guess I could investigate a base of the Silver Hand precursor, who that is, though, I've no idea."
He set off in the direction of Elsweyr when out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a beautiful khajiit female. At first, he thought it was Ma'kara back from the dead, but, upon second glance, he saw that that was not the case.
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