Hasir got up and looked around, confused, as the portal of vertically swirling sands closed behind him. He saw nothing but barren wasteland stretching far in every direction. He heard nothing except for the distant shimmering of stared that looked like far off diamonds and the trickling of a stream. He was so parched of thirst; it was almost as if the very sea of sand was crashing over the scales rocks, leaving them cracked and dry.
Hasir moved through the sand like a mosquito starved for blood. Up ahead, he saw a khajiit, yellow-furred with black spots, sitting with a wolf, fur white as freshly fallen snow, curled up on her lap. He wondered if this was to be his trail. He shook his head; scattered the thought like sands on the wind 'it would be too easy' he thought. 'there has to be a logical explanation.'
He inched closer. When he was but a few feet away, he crouch low in a thicket of grass that lay nearby, unseathing his bow and nocking and arrow. The wolf lifted his snout to the wind, sniffed and let loose a deep-throated growl. The argonian let loose an arrow that missed the wolf by inches. The khajiit's eyes and tail twiched. She turned around and slowly walked towards him with the wolf padding along at her side.
She gestured the wolf to search for the disturbance. Hasir flung himself out of the bushes and cast his bow and quiver aside. He stood up and raised his hands.
"Can you, er, call your hound off? I mean you no harm." He said, gathering his bow and quiver.
The spotted khajiit, who Hasir though looked remarkably like Sa'chil, came up to him for a closer look.
"I'm sorry about that. My woilf, she can be rather wary of strangers." She said, eying him with black encirced yellow eyes. "Erm... right, introductions. I am Valatia. This," She said, gesturing to the wolf, "is Kamali."
Before the Argonian could say anything, the wolf howled and transformed into a smaller version of the woman with the same fur markings.
"Don't mind him." She said, gesturing the Argonian to follow. "He is my son. I birthed him on the bequest of Hircine and his sister, Kyne. You see, I wanted a cub for so long. The nature gods finally made the moons align." She said, peering in the sky happily. "But enough about me." She said, shaking her head. "We are here for you... for you trial... or perhaps you've forgootten." She asked with a mournful look. Hasir shook his head. She smiled, "Good, for your trial, we are going to a grove not to far from here. I will watch as you connect with your animal that resides in your spirit. You must do this, find a way to materialize it and then make it bend to you will. If it refuses, then you must neutralize it by any means neccesary."
Hasir cast her a sidelong glance.
"Okay... how am I supposed to do this?"
She walked with him in silence until they reached a grove of trees with a stretch of grassland before them.
"Everyone has their own method of connecting with an aniaml. I already found mine." She said. "You must find yours." She said, placing a hand on his chest. "Don't believe me? Ask the countless mmen, mer and beastfolk who wished to walk the same path. You aren't alone in this. I am sure the spirits of their animals will guide you in your choice." She gestured to two deer grazing in the grass situated between the trees. "See those? The deer I mentioned when I first met you? If you kill them and return their pelts to me, I can ascertain whether your shamanic trial was a success. Good luck. I will await you at my hut in the oasis.
Hasir looked at her, taken aback.
"You're not coming with me?"
Valatia chuckled and shook her head. The argonian narrowed his eyes at her. He failed to see anything remotely amusing about the situation.
"No, sadly. You must complete this on your own. I wall wait for you at my hut. Farewell and may you, always, walk on warm sands."
Hasir looked over his shoulder at the retreating figure, shrugged and crept to the thicket of grass near the deer. He crouched down, drew his bow and exhaled slowly. The air flew through the air and caught the stag above the right hind leg. Hasir cursed his inadequacy and fired a second arrow. This one struck true. The stag hit the ground before it knew it was wounded. He extracted his knife, put the pelt in his bag and did the same to the doe.
With the pelts in his bag, he headed back to Valatia's hut. He found the khajjiit relaxing in a round, covered section of her hunt. He ascended the stairs and sat next to her. He removed the two pelts from his bag and placed them on a wooden table situated near them. She turned to him and smiled.
"Hasir, I thank you for these." Hasir inquired about the completion of the task. "Not quite." She said. "You've one more task before we can call it a day. There are rumors of a black dog roaming these barren lands. I need you to put an end to it and bring back it skull as proof of the deed. One word of warning, though: this dog is said to be associated with Arkay and, as such, exercise a bit of caution as the hound of the flaming pits can be extremely temperamental and is capable of stripping flesh from bone faster than a Thu'um from a dragon."
The argonian's tail slammed onto the ground. This make Valatia look at him reproachfully.
Great! Another thing for me to do. When will you grant me the black crown?" She eyed him warily, not knowing what this 'black crown' was. He groaned in exhasberation. "You know the... er... crown in Elsweyr waiting for the victor of these stupid 'trials' you've put me on. That crown! For howling out loud woman, you are a stone's throw from being a empty-headed moron. You call yourself an 'all-knowing shaman, an oracle. Hsss!"
Valatia stood up and narrowed her eyes dangerously. Hasir, however, never cowered or faltered under her cold fury.
"Hasir, stop being so paranoid! For your information." She said, positively fuming. "I don't know of this 'black crown' you speak of but my impression is that this is the crown of legend that my brother talks about. He says that it belonged to Akatosh and was stolen by Molag Bal in order to confess his love toward Kynareth. He also said Akatosh saw this and cursed tthe crown, intent on brainwashing Molag Bal to kill Kynareth; chop down the tree he spent so long watching grow. What I'm saying is beware of that crown for, if I am correct, still has a bit of the brainwashing, neigh, controlling magic upon it. I fear if you don the crown, you will fall afowl of Akatosh's shadow and I pray your clock is not broken."
Hasir gave her a confused look. Valatia smiled back and flung a spear made of intricately carved wood interwoven with a brilliant golden light and an ivory tip.
"I was just making an observation. By akatosh, you can be so dimwitted at times." He caught the spear, looking apprehensive. "Oh, that?" She said dimissively, "That is called the spear of Daylight's Fury."
Hasir looked at her curiously and then scrutinized the spear he held in his claws, his tail thrashing behind him like an agitated serpent.
"Akatosh? Isn't this more Meridia's weapon? She deals with dark abhorrances not-"
Valatia gave him a look that could have chilled the sand. The argonian looked at her and gulped; fearing some line had been crossed.
"Yes, Meridia gave the spear to Akatosh who then gave it to one of his desciples, namely my son and he gave it to me. Any more stupid questions?"
Hasir gave her a stupified look.
"Yes, but your son's not a disciple of-"
She eyed him dangerously as he took the hint and sheathed the spear on his back.
"Hasir, stop being an idiot and kill the beast already, will you?"
Hasir smiled awkardly, shouldered his bag and proceeded down the stairs.
"Okay, okay... geez, no need to bite my head off." "I guess I'm off to clear the skies of a massive dark cloud then. thanks for the tip... spear...speartip... thanks for the, uh, spear." Valatia groaned audibly, waved back and watched as Hasir got swallowed by the sandy vortex.
The Argonian knew finding the spectral black dog the khajiit spoke of would be no easy task, but, he was up for the challenge. As he walked, he found his mind drifting away to an uncertain ocean of thought that contained unclear images of him donning a wolf fur cloak from which the black crown poked out from underneath and doing unspeakable evil. He shook these bothersome images off as effortlessly as swatting away a fleshfy and walked until he found the clearing the khajiit spoke of.
Hasir moved toward a tree on the edge of the clearing,unsheathed his bow and nocked an arrow. He sidled along the tree line until his quarry was in sight. He resting the draw bow against a tree with an opening just big enough to have his arrow poke thought but not too revealing that it gave his position away. He peered through the opening and saw it. A dog, large as a great black wolf feeding on a slain deer. Hasir studied the creature to find a weak spot and fired. The arrow phazed through the black form like bull netches through water.
Disheartened, he swore. He sheathed his bow and unsheathed his twin dragonbone axes. He broke cover and ran at the beast. He hacked and slashed, but the beast effortlessly dodged his attacks. His mind travelled back to the time he battle Bloodfang, but ended up having his friend doused with black ice. He feared the same thing happening again so his took a run at the beast, slid under his bellly and executed a slash. To his surprise, the attack made smoke scatter like birds on the wind. He cursed as he fumbled in his bag for the spear that Valatia'd given him and, praying that it worked, flung the spear as hard as he could as the beast lunged for him.
The spear sunk deep into the beast's palette. Hasir watched as the spear engulfed the black dog in its golden light. Within seconds, the beast was gone. The argoian walked over, tail swaying side to side, and yanked the spear free. With his goal achieved, he headed back to the khajiit's hut.
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