Inigo stood between the approaching Silver Dawn member and the Argonian.
"If you want to get to my friend, you'll have to go through me." He exclaimed, tail whipping ferociously
The Silver Dawn soldier unseathed a menacing-looking siler greatsword and gripped it so tightly, Inigo could see his cloth glove squirm inside the metal gauntlets like worms in a cocoon.
"Try it and you'll be half the khajiit you are now." He threatened.
The enraged khajiit flew at the Silver Dawn soldier, ebony sword drawn. and sparks flew as the two swords collided. The blue khajiit swung his sword so fast in a downward arc that it tripped up the man, knocking his helmet off, showing a triangular red and white-furred head with whiskers protruding from a prominant black snout. Inigo smirked as he positioned the sword ready for the killing blow.
"Fuuny." He said, chuckling. "Now tell me the one about a crumbled silver mess on the carpet."
The ma, tossed his sword aside, got up and slowly raised his hands to shoulder height.
"Fine, you got me. I surrender. I feel I should introduce myself, seeing as that is the only honorable thing to do." He said, extending a hand to the blue khajiit. "I am called Balian." He said, smiling.
Inigo returned the kind gesture. He thought on a parculiar similarity with someone he knew as he looked into Balian's face.
"I'm just curious, but do you know of another of your kind named meadow?"
Balian nodded, surprised to hear about his sister.
"Yes. She is my sister. I haven't heard of her since our parents died at the hands of the Silver Hand." He said. He fidgeted, intertwining his hands together. "You see." He said, his eyes welling up with tears. "We were given over to Molag Bal as pups and were given an ultimatum: join him or watch our parents be slaughtered like cattle. We saw the death and destruction Molag Bal brought and decided to abandon him. That," He sobbed, "was the last time either of us saw our parents again."
Hasir came over at that moment and looked from the 'grief-stricken' fox to his feline friend in concern.
"Please tell me you're not buying what this guy is selling. I can smell a conartist from miles away. This guy," he said, gesturing to the 'destatute' fox, "can fill a dinner table with all the bullshit he is dishing out."
Inigo looked, sadly, into Balian's pleading eyes.
"Come on, my friend, if he was flinging shit, we would have ducked right?" He said, laughing. The joke was obviously lost on the Argonian, who simply groaned. For better or worse, Hasir motioned for the fox to join him.
Balian smiled but, soon his ears were on red alert as a creature that Hasir thought look oddly like Hircine, perhaps distant cousins as they both had features of deer, scaled down the black exterior of the ship and advanced upon the camp.
"Balian, what are you doing? We had orders from Stonefire to eliminate the werewolf, not make friends with it." He yelled, gesturing to Hasir.
Hasir stood up, unsheated his axe and advanced on the ungulate.
"Well, I have a message for the taskmaster, this werewolf has no intentions to go with you now or any other time." He said, jabbing the deerfolk in its chest. Who are you to give orders, hmm?"
The deerfolk grasped Hasir by the collar, lifted him off his feet and narrowed its yellow eyes.
"You'd better mind who you are talking to, lizard." He growled. "I am Oak Tenderfoot, leader of the silver hand and leiutenant of Molag Bal's army."
Hasir chuckled at this. Oak's face became crimson nirnroot-red at the Argonian's words.
You? Lead Molag Bal's army? Okay my friend. Not to get you antlers tangled in knots, but... Kamara is Molag Bal's right-hand khajiit. It used to be the Doomstrider, but he joined the triad of fate. You might just as well be the scat on the bottom of Molag Bal's foot. Leiutenant, yeah right." He said, sniggering.
Oak, furious at being one-upped by a smart-ass Argonian, unsheathed his sword and ran at the Argonian. Balian ran to shield Hasir from the faun's attack but found himself playing host to his own barbeque.
Hasir watched angrily as the fox fell like a tree in the woods during a lightning storm.
"Oak, why did you do thiss?" He hissed, eyed narrowed. "He had no quarrel with you. He was innocent. His sister will be furious when he doesn't arrive home after a successful deer hunt. Quite the opposite, in fact, the deer skewered him. You sssicken me." He hissed.
The faun sneered as the Argonian took a battle stance and readied his dragonbone axe.
"Do you really think you're a match for me?" He laughed. "Put that away before you put someone's eyes out." He said as he pull his leg behind him and performed an axe kick, knocking the axe out of Hasir's hand.
Hasir gaped, open-mouthed, at the faun; aghast at his apparent martial arts skill.
"How did you... where did you... learn that?" He asked, pointing an ebony claw at the two-legged deer.
Oak smiled darkly and positioned his foot on the dead fox's lifeless corpse. The argonian and Khajiit looked at him in displeasure.
"Well, I just wanted to draw the fox out of her hole, in a manner of speaking. Seeing as Hteranyk is already after her."
Hasir raised a spiky eyebrow in confusion.
"What on Nirn are you talking about? She is miles away."
Oak grinned evilly and eyed him with disdain.
"Her body may be, true, but her consciousness is very close." He said, gesturing to the nearby temple.
Hasir ran a hand down his face and sighed.
"I saw her body. She is in the cabin I left to come here. I planned to rescue the quad of fate and that is what I mean to do." He stated proudly. Oak, I am not sure if your tree goes all the way to the top or if there's snow forming on top of your mountain but, whatever it may be, you are an idiot!:" He pondered the thought for a while, "If, that is, in fact, tru, then she's in serious trouble." He said, his eyes big as Teeba-eenu balls. He sighed as the deer-folk brushed this off. "Why is Htenaryk after her?"
Oak walked towards a rock that sat near the temple, picked up some smaller rocks that sat around it and fashioned an all too familiar shrine upon it.
"Recognize this?" He said, gesturing to the rock formation. Hasir nodded. "Well, Stonefire wants to use his creation to sacrifice one of The nature god's filthy creations, namely, the insufferable fox."
Hasir eyed his curiously and raised an eyebrow. He thought there was a law prohibiting the same species or, similar, species killing each other.
"I thought there was a law... read it in a book somewhere... erm, something about the green pact, I think?" He said, rather unconvincingly. "Anyway, Whatever." He said, waving the thought away. "Ever heared of it? The Green Pact? It states that no bosmer shall ever destroy nature or eat its bounty... including animals." Oak stared him down, forcing Hasir to reconsider. "Erm... it was something like that."
Oak bared his teeth in a kind of annoyed grin. He'd no idea that an arrogant lizard had not once thought to ask him about his birthplace.
"Of course I've heard of it, you ignorant lizard! I was born in Valenwood." His grin faded as he thought on something. "Well, I did until my village was ransacked by daedra. They were led into the rzing by Stonefire himself." He sighed as he ploped down on the rock. "All that senseless destruction, utterly shameless."
Hasir eyed Oak with confusion, spreading his ebony claws wide.
"Well, if you devalue the daedra for razing your village, why join them?" He asked.
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