Hasir froze as a portal opened right off the path they were walking along. Inigo and Ithelia nearly bumped into him as he presumably went cold as the surrounding atmosphere around him. The khajiit furrowed his brow and looked, questioningly at the stone-faced Argonian, wondering why they'd stopped their forward momentum.
The cloaked daedric prince eyed Hasir with apprehension marring her beautiful features.
"Hasir, why have you stopped? We were almost there." She said as she gestured over the hill.
Hasir shook his head and pointed to a portal just off the road.
"I think we're being followed."
Inigo and Ithelia looked at each other, frowning. Inigo turned to Hasir, brow furrowed.
"Are you sure? You weren't dropped in the swamp as a hatchling? Stop living in the clouds, my friend."
Hasir facepalmed; not believing someone could be so stupid.
"No, you idiotsss," He hissed. "I think Khamara knows what we're doing, and to that end, sent her cronies to wipe us off the map, what a coward." He said, fists and teeth clenched.
That explanation did nothing to assuage Inigo and Ithelia's confusion. Inigo look around him and saw just what Hasir'd seen earlier, four bluish shimmering portals surrounded by grey fixtures with horns permeating the entire fixture. Ithelia made Hasir and Inigo gather behind her as, through the portals stepped otherworldly beings; draugr with cuirasses set with a grotesquely elongated face with purple gems for eyes. The draugr wielded longsword which blazed cold wih the coldest fire. They sat astride equally menacing steed clothed in night and with piercing blue slits for eyes set deep into their skeletal eye sockets.
Inigo yelled as an arrow fired by a draugr bow whizzed by his ear, slamming into a slab of rock near the temple.
"What in Oblivion... are those things?' He stammered, pointing a quivering claw at them.
Hasir conisdered shaking Inigo like a willow tree to snap him free of his fright.
"Oh, come on." He groaned. "Inigo, stop being such a kitten and khajiit up already. We'll face them head on, like we've done with others threats. They can't be that difficult... even if they look less than pleasant."
The shadowy steeds drummed the earth with hooves like thunder as they closed in on the Argonian and his companions. The skeletal riders unsheathed menacing-looking steel longswords as they reached the trio, and dismounted. Hasir had to think fast as the draugr encircled them like wolves set for slaughter by ravenous pigs.
Hasir and Inigo cowered like two helpless rabbits as, all about them, the blue eyed, hooded draugr circled them like a cyclone. Gathering some ssemblance of courage, the blue khajiit nocked an arrow and fired. There was the sound of metal scraping against bone and the arrow missed its target spectacularly. The draugr's eyes narrowed with malice as it closed in for the kill. Inigo's fur stood on end as he began fearing for his life. He knew a second arrow would suffer the same fate as the first, so thought better of it. The arrow collided with hardened bone as the Argonian swiftly blocked the arrow.
The draugr screamed in fury; a long drawn out scream that mingled wih the poisonous atmosphere. The draugr unsheathed a menacing looking two-handed broadsword beneath his cloak and ran, head-first, at Hasir. Instinctively, the Argonian threw his axe, dismayed with he lack of performance from the axe, Hasir swore as it slammed into a blackened tree trunk from where Inigo had taken shelter. The khajiit wished he had the glow sword, but it was Hircine knows where by now.
He knew only a sword that burned bright with the fires of creation could defeat the darkness. True, he had his bow but he knew that would be as effective as roasting a chicken with a bolt of lightning.
Inigo shouted orders to his reptilian friend to hopefully help him surmount this evil.
"Give ;em the old one, two! Right between the eyes. Pop them in the kisser!" He advised, squaring up like someone ready for a fight.
Hasir laughed and shook his head. He furrowed his brow; obviously thnkinng on something.
"Inigo you can't give a draugr the old one, two. What we need is... aha, I've got it."
He drew an arrow from his quiver and dipped it into one of the sconces adjacent to the temple's etrance. He nocked the bow, pulled back the drawstring and fired. The draugr caught aflame immediately, and, seeing his success, the Argonian repeated the movement a few more times until the draugr looked like a nightmarish volanic vent. He trained the bow on the other rapidly approaching skeletal shadows when, out of nowhere an arrow slammed, full-force, into the nearest draugr.
Hasir, a bit annoyed to having been interrupted so abruptly, snarled and shouted into the darkness.
"Alright, who dares interrupt my archery skills? Come on out before I make you into a pin cushion!"
Out from behind a blackened tree five feet from where Hasir stood, livid, stepped a black khajiit with white claw mark-like warpaint on his face.
"Don't shoot. I surrender." He said, place his bow on the ground. "I admit, it was I who fired the arrow that intercepted your own."
A stray fireball flew as if from nowhere and li up the second draugr. Hasir wore a confused expression as it ran around like an undead chicken with its head cut off and finally crumpled to the ground. Hasir shot the little khajiit a questioning look. To answer, the khajiit turned beet red and reached behind the tree, grabbed hold of something Hasir could not see and pulled it into view.
Hasir's eyes went wide as he beheld a moss-green Argonian with flaming red hair wearing some kind of garb that he remembered seeing on the Redguards visiting Whiterun. The young Argonian and Khajiit approached Hasir and, together, they made short work of the remaining draugr horsemen.
Inigo looked confused, as he approached the Khajiit male and Argonian female.
"Pardon me if I seem rude, but, why are you here? How did you get here?" He said looking from one to the other.
The little khajiit knelt down as if to kiss the blue khajiit's feet.
"Our mom... She died. We are all alone. We came here in search of adventure and purpose." The khajiit boy stood up and smiled at Inigo, "Forgive me, erm... my name is Lance. That... over there," He said, gesturing vaguely, "That is my empty-headed sister Ginger."
Hasir looked, shocked from one to the other; scratching his head in confusion.
"You guys don't look related." He said, and promptly scolded Lance for his rude remark. "Don't call your Sister dumb. I am sure she'll beat you at any challenge the College of Winterhold hosts. Give her due credit."
Hasir and Inigo decided upon making a camp for the night. Inigo set to work gathering wood for the fire, Hasir began stripping some wood from the surrounding trees until he had a sufficient amount to craft a crude structure to stretch a supple bit of leather across, thus forming a tanning rack from which he could tan some leather for the tents. With that done, he used the extra woods he procured for the tent supports. He then rolled out three furs under the leather canopies and went to see how the blue khajiit was doing.
Hasir sat on one of the logs surrounding the small camp and smiled to himself as he watched the blue khajiit setting the wood. He almost lost it when he saw his feline friend struggling to strike the sticks. The argonian sighed as he helped the fumbling feline.
"Here, let me help, you hopeless feline."
Inigo bristled at the thought of help. He constantly repeated his stubbornness. He softened a bit as the Argonian's caring hand gripped his shoulder.
"Inigo, let me do this. You can... go get us something to eat."
Inigo smiled at the compromise as he went into the nearby woods to find a suitable meal. He got about an inch into the canopy of ghostly trees when he let out a huge groan. Not too far away, Lance appeared, carrying some firewood.
"What are you doing here? You could get lost. You don't know what hidden dangers await you in here." He fixed the young khajiit with a curious look. "where's your sister?"
Lance looked up at him with a confident grin.
"She's further on down the path gathering dinner."
Inigo stared at him, shocked. He found it hard to believe that a khajiit this young and his daughter, skilled or not, we wandering about on their own.
"Come on, it will be dark soon and those draugr'll be back. He said, grabbing Lance's arm and looking about, panicked. What were you thinking, you and your sister wandering off alone?." He said, goosebumps rising on his body.
The small khajiit eyed him with a defiant look.
"Why should I go with you? You're not my Dad. I'm eight years old and plenty qualified to wander on my own. My sister is too. My mom said so." He said, trying frantically to free himself from Inigo's vice-like grip.
After many minutes of running hither and thither with the khajiit flopping like a ragdoll behind him, he found the red-haired Argonian and brought them back to the campsite.
When they got to the campsite, Inigo was amazed to see the fire lit and the tents already erected. He led the Argonian and Khajiit over to a log adjacent to where Hasir stood next to one of the tents and fixed them with a rather stern expression. The two children cowered in fear, minds floating away to the rapids in an otherwise calm lake.
Hasir heard the distress and walked over; eyebrow raised.
"What's all this about?" He asked, eyeing the blue khajiit. "Inigo? What did they do?"
Hasir sat on a log opposite Inigo, his tail hanging limply over the edge, and listened intently to his tale. The khajiit told the Argonian about how the two 'troublemakers', as he put it, were caught redhanded. Hasir fixed Inigo with an expression of one left behind in the mud while the Haj Mota hunted his prey. Inigo lost not one ounce of steam in his pursuit of thruth. He told Hasir that Ginger and Lance were trying to undermine his and Hasir's camp survival skills.
Hasir rummaged in the nearby tent and produced a pan and some fish from his pack. Inigo eyed this perculiar catch with bewilderment.
"Erm... my friend, when did you find time to go fishing?" He inquired, pointing to the fish.
The Argonian laughed, put the fish in the pan and put it over the fire to cook. While it was cooking, he offered everyone a wooden plate.
"I...well, with you gone, I... found a nearby stream and went fishing." He said, shrugging as if this was a coom occurance. "Well... it wasn't a stream, per se." He said, rubbing his neck distractedly.
Upon realization washing over them, Inigo and the two orphans threw their plates on the ground. Eyebrow furrowed, the Argonian begrudgingly picked up the plates.
"If you didn't like what I did, you could've said something... Hsss!" He hissed, "I'll never cook you lot a meal, hmph!" He said, disdainfully. Inigo and the orphans looked on apologetically. Hasir cowed a bit, "I...erm, we, er... need to rest up because tomorrow we sent out for the temple and rescue Ceralyne."
Hasir ducked under the tent flap and bade the others good night. With everyone in their respective tents, Inigo and the orphans sharing one, Hasir let sleep wash over him. Deespite the calmness of the night, The argonian's mind was a whirlpool of distracted thoughts.
The swamped Argonian fell through a chasm of purest blackness until he 'saw' a temple with windows sporting red pentagrams and strange red plants scattered like stars in the night sky before it. Hasir had no intention of going closer but, was nonetheless, pulled onward as if by an invisible hand. The interior was decorated with ebony curtains adorning the windows and banner with interwoven crimson skulls holding a hairless crimson skull aloft. Hasir looked deeper into the cathedral and saw four hooded figures robed in the darkest night.
He crept through the cathedral like a shadow on the wind; hiding behind pillars until he slithered to the front. From his hiding spot, he could see two of the figures, necromancers he guessed, were of the fline variety. He glance upward and saw a stone altar robed in the same midnight the adorned the chapel. He had to clamp his hands over his nostrils to protect agaists the malodorous scent emanating from the altar.
The argonian watched as a hooded figure placed a feeble-looking bug on the altar. Hasir wanted to cry out but thought better of it. The fact was, he knew that dragonfly as Inigo's best friend, before him, that is. He gasped as the hooded figures lowered their hoods. Vajhira, Inigo, Ceralyne, Xelzaz and Adrian, Ceralyne's brother were, to Hasir's horror, all participating in some profain ritual. He crept to the altar for a better look and saw that they were attempting to resurrect the dragonfly.
The chapel suddenly becames flooded with chanting and purplish-black energy seemed to surround the dragonfly. Hasir became so shocked he tripped over the cloth. Upon seeing him, the summoners directed the beam toward him. He could hardly believe it, how could he die in order to revive this creature. He was lifted off his feet and saw all the summoners' eyes on him. He screamed as their flesh melted away, arms and leg, slowly being stripped of flesh, elongated. Their mouths, too, became devoid of living tissue. It took mere seconds for them to take on a more undead appearance, sheding their shadowy cloaks to reveal their true nature.
The argonian begged for mercy and he became a shell of his former self. He collapse under the weight of the spell. He had just enough strength left, literally a walking skeleton, to see that the leader of the undead werewolves, or rather, the summoner, shed his cloak and revealed...
With the last ounce of strength, Hasir stared into the face of his feline friend. Devoid of all kindness, Inigo stared back with newly cold, red eyes. He blamed the Argonian for the dragonfly's death. Hasir, despite his protests, was powerless to do anything. Inigo's words cut into him like a laser would stars.
Hasir was shocked that Inigo showed no pity, no remorse as he sent his undead hounds to tear into the Argonian's scales and gnaw on the bones. He screamed bloody murder as he felt agonizing pain rocket through him like a lightning strike. As the life was leeching from him like the moon plays with the moon as if it were a race to see who comes up first, the dream shifted. He looked all about himself and saw tons of glowing white orbs around him within a network of roots nestled in the soil of his homeland.
The argonian could smell the damp earth beneath him and hear strange whispering seeming to beckon him upward. The voices led him to a central chamber where he saw, not orbs as before, but greyish-white silhouettes of loved one he'd lost and a closte where hung all manner of new reptilian forms to be picked out. He saw the greyish-white forms exit through the tree's root system like a high-speed carriageway after picking out their vessel to be reborn into.
Hasir could smell something burning - he thought it must've been one of the newly gotten suits must've malfunctioned, but, as his lids seperated, he saw Inigo sitting with Giner and Lance around a fire.
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