Ceralyne's words rang in Hasir's ears as he road along the cobblestone road. A few minutes later, as the sun was beginning to set on the horizon, he saw an ancient khajiit temple sitting amidst caynos and blooming flowers. He cautiously approached the temple. Through the leafs blocking the entrance, he could see tall khajitti buildings with red an yeloow linen hanging from the entrances and some stone steps leading to a closed-in stone courtyard.
One of the khajiit saw him, descended the steps and down the narrow entryway toward the Argonian. Upon seeing him, Hasir noted the strange garb he wore.
"Greetings scaleback, welcome to the temple of Khunza-Ri. Do you know who he is? What am I saying? Of course you haven't. Anyway, Khunza-ri was... erm why does Argonian walk with Ra'zimb'a and he will impart his knowledge to Argonian, yes?"
Hasir and the khajiit walked down the narrow walkway surrounded by walls with ancient symbols etched upon them. They descended the steps and the end and then... Razum'dar laughed aloud as the Argonian mouth fell open as if was about to trap an awaiting fish.
"Ra'z is sorry but have you not seen a temple the wonderful before?" He asked, surveying the Argonian shocked face. Two felmale khajiit came to see what the fuss was about and why Razum'dar was roaring with laughter. "I'll take that as a 'no'. Argonian may I introduce you to Khamira and Kuzimiko.
Hasir snapped back to himself as saw the lovely black-furred female wlk up closely accompanied by a housecat, or wiat radafir referred to them as, an Affiq.
"Why is everyone wearing such strange clothing?" He said, eyeing them warily.
The female khajiit scoffed at him and pointed out his bad fashion sense.
"What we're wearing? Have you looked at yourself? You look like something a dragon threw up!" Did you have to battle said dragon or did he concede those scales and bones to you and bite the dust on his own?"
Hasir's eyes narrowed as he glared at the khajiit and snarled. The female khajiit's fur bristled. Razam'dar stepped between them to help quell any oncoming storm. The female khajiit and the Argonian apologized and walked together through the runic passageway as they approached the temple. The Affiq lead both the khajiit and the Argonian up some stone steps to a sitting area consisting of cusions like the one Hasir'd seen on Akavir.
Hasir sat do while the khajiit did the same opposite him and the Affiq laid down with its head on its paws.
"Why am I here? I was sent to find a village of Argonians, not some stupid temple set way out of the way." He asked, staring at Khamira. "Who in Oblivion is this Khunza'ri guys anyway? I heard Daahin talk about him but that's it. Give me his life story, who was he?" He said as three two khajiit exchanged look and, as if asking for a third opinion, turned to the affiq who nodded.
"Fine." She said, a slight slur in her voice. "Khunza'ri, as Selene understands it, yes, my name is Selene and we khajiit worship the moon, pity it does not get us drunk, anyways..."
She was about to fall onto the floor when Razum'dar adjusted her cusion. He turned to the Argonian and jerked his head toward the drunken Affiq.
"Razum'dar apologizes friend, but she was born under a blue moon. That is why she is so odd. Truth is, we've been guarding her ever since she was a newborn kitten. This temple is more for her protection as it is for Khunza'ri's sacrifice. To finish Selene's thought for her, Khunza'ri is the khajiit who droven dragons from our land. This one knows that dragons come from Akavir but long ago, when the dragon break happened." He saw Hasir's perplexed expression, "A dragon break is the event after the dragon soul is formed. The even caused one collective soul to became a sect of peaceful eastern dragons and the chaos loving western dragons.
As he listened to Razum'dar speak, he envisioned a never ending circle of three dragons eating and regurgitating each other. He could see three dragon species: one water, one etheral and one earthly and dangerous all claimed the pearl as his or her own. In his mind's eye, the water dragon, departed to the seas, the ethereal to Akavir and the earthly tower of destruction to be doomed forever to roam the mortal plane.
Hasir finally thought he understood and lit up a flame spell aimed for Selene's tail.
"So, if I got this correctly, Khunza'ri defeated the dragons and sent them of the Hircine knows where. Who created the dragons?" He asked, confused as Selene tried desperately to extinguish her tail.
Khamira reached over and extinguished the raging affiq's tail. Selene glared at her and then at Hasir.
Now that little miss 'catnip' is woken up, yes that is correct... more or less. We've noow idea where they went. We do have some people who were once Ka'Po'Tun who completed the Tiger-Dragon ritual, so not all dragons are gone. As for who created the dragons, it is our theory that Molag Bal used them as an attempt to make his perfect race, or a blueprint to start with."
Hasir told Khamira who he was really there to see. She got up and parted the curtain at the back of the room. Hasir gasped as he beheld a large body of water bordered by canyons and mountains. On the water were several reed huts seperated by bridges fashioned of the same material. Hasir thanked Khamira, wished a quick detox for Selene and departed for the village.
When Hasir came nearer the village, an Argonian gaurd stopped him.
"Halt! Who are you?"
Hasir gulped and looked taken aback.
"I am Hasir of clan littleclaw in Stormhold, the, er, little village to the far north of Lilmoth?"
The scaly guard sighed.
"Ok, ok, go on in." He said
Hasir marveled at the sight, Argonian adults playing with hatchlings in the water, reptilian felames hanging laundry on lines and several reptiles mud-basing in the depths of the crystal clear water. As Hasir was about to dive into the water, he heard the snippet of a conversation from two green and orange scaled Argonians.
"...something about a forbidden relationship, gods, I sure don't want to be him."
Without thinking, Hasir unsheathed his bow and shot a roow directly at one of the offending Argonians. He anticipated this and dove into the water; narrowly missing the arrow. The other Argonian walked up to Hasir, sword drawn and eyes narrowed,
"What do you think you're playing at, hmmm? did you hear that all the way for where you were standing, doubt you did."
Hasir kicked the sword of his hand anddrew his own bow back like a sword and rested it against the Argonian's neck.
"I heard it plain as day. Why don't you Saxhleel dive into a deep mud pit instead of slinging someone's name with mud. What good does that get you. Nowhere, that's what." He spun around and tripped up the Saxhleel with his tail.
The Saxhleel was about to get up but Hasir placed a boot on the Saxhleel's chest.
"How did you hear about thisss?" He said, asss far asss I am aware, no one replaced the An-Xileel."
The Saxhleel squirmed like a fish on dry land.
"You thought your little escapade was silent. It wasn't and now, the drykillers, a police force of sorts in Blackmarsh are after you. Not for the incident at the Xinchei-Konu monument but for you breaking one of our most sacred tradions: never ever marry outside your race and/or tribe. The only one who did was that Altmer vampire who married that Argonian werewolf, that was millenia ago."
Hasir snarled and stamped on the Saxhleel's chest as hard as he could. A horrifying 'crack' sounded as the ribcage tore into the heart, rupturing iit like a wolf's teeth isto raw meat. Several Argonian looked up.
Hasir was so angry that, without bothering to strip out of his armor, he dove into the water. It felt cool on his scales and while not cooling his anger completely, did a moderate job at taking the edge off. Hasir could not think of the last time he was in the water, except that vague memory he has of his mom letting him sit on her back as she swam. In the water, he felt alive much more than his clumsy self when he is on land. A crzy thought occured to him - what if the entire world flooded so he could just swim from place to place. If Molag Bal did take over the world then he and his servant wouldn't surivive as they are fire and would evaporated when exposed to that much water.
He did somersaults and various other maneuvers in the water. He came up for aiir stripped out of his armor, placed them to the side of the walkway to dry and dived under again. He heard a splash, almost like a many-legged animal had joined the party. When he came up a second time, he saw a gold wolf swimming circles around him.
He got out and lay in the sun for warmth. The gold wolf padded over annd, transformed and lay next to him. He turned and nearly jumped in fright.
"Ceralyne what are you doing here? As soon as you are seen, you'll be thrown out. I am guessing this may be some secret club. You do not have membership, now leave." He said, pointed from her to the exit. She shook her head and said she came for a reason.
She imparted the reason to an angry Argonian with almost pleading eyes which were raindrops muddling a golden sunset.
"Hasir, I came as fast as I heard, I mean my father died because of it. Hasir, the drykillers..."
Hasir looked at her and got to his feet. He helped her to her feet and hugged her.
"...are after me I know." He said, calming her down, "Lyne. I don't care what anyone says you are perfect for me, and I for you. Two halves of an imperfect whole. I will kill anyway who thinks differently."
Ceralyne looked at him, kissed him and held his face in her hands.
"I've just one question, who or what are drykillers?"
Hasir stared over his shoulder as he proceded to put on his arm and do up the leather straps.
"The drykillers or Thtachalxan in my tongue, they are," He stroked his chin with a black clawed hand, Xuth how do I put this? They are hawks who kill birds who fly too far from their nests. They..." He gulped, "They are a detachement of those loyal to the An-Xileel. It is their job to hunt down anyone breaking tradition and slay them like the beast they are." He hung his head. Ceralyne could see tears coming from his eyes.
Ceralyne scoffed at this idea. She could not see how anyone would want to live under boring tradition.
"Yeah, so? What does this have to do with me? Do they have something against the Unholy Union? They should leave that stuff in the past and move on."
Hasir walked over to her and nodded.
"They just hate anything different, that's all."
Ceralyne nodded and together, they went back to the temple. They entered the stone chamber with brown and black tapestries adorning the stone walls. Hasir looked around, more thoroughly this time, and found the same cushions he sat on with the affiq lead mini khajiit caravan and at the end of the chamber, on a raised platform stood a brown book with a black fang crossed with a khajjit mouth embossed on the cover. Hasir noted this and saw an old gong sitting in the corner and, upon closer inspection, matching the one he saw on the book painted on the tapestries.He also saw Inigo in a far corner praying to a stone statue of what, at, to Hasir, looked like a stone khajiit wearing a wreath of flowers that froze on her at the first bad frost of winter.
Razum'dar approached Hasir and smiled as he approached the platform and gestured to the book.
"I see that you found the chamber of the silent claw. You may have guessed this already but this is the very chamber that the long dead whispering fang masters taught Khunza'ri."
Hasir nodded and walked over to Inigo; tail swinging side to side.
"Inigo, when did you get here? I didn't see you come in." He jerked his head toward the statue, "Who is this? Did you two, er, fall in love or something?"
Inigo eyed Hasir curiously and laughed.
"Fall in love? Me? no my friend... well I am in love, but she is not here." Inigo blanked Hasir's bemused expression, "I was looking at this statue because she looks like the khajiit witch that cursed Inigo during a new moon while that idiot M'randru'jo told the entire town of Annequina that the 'new kitten' was a bad omen. Stupid little bastard." He said, snarling.
Hasir groaned and threw up his hands in the air and shot dagger at Inigo. The Argonian's mouth pulled back into a snarl.
"For howling out loud, Inigo. Didn't you say that you were born under a dark moon?" He asked, pinning him against the wall with his claws.
Inigo grinned nervously at Hasir's snarling face; wincing at the force exerted on his bones increased.
"My friend, stop it. You hurting me." The Argonian narrowed his eyes. Inigo gulped. "Alright, I... lied." He said, grinning hopefully at the Argonian. "I thought that by protecting myself from the shame, I would do away with any misconceptions I had with my past. If I told you the truth, you would've hated me." He said, close to tears.
Hasir punched a fist into the wall by Inigo's head.
"Hircine damnit Inigo. " He sighed deeply. "What is her name?" He asked, adressing the floor more than the blue khajiit.
Inigo gulped again and nervously stated her name; not sure if this would quell the tsunami his anger flood was about to become. He flinched as Hasir reeled back to punch him again but restrained himself and cocked his head in confusion.
"Wait, who?" He asked, lowering his fist
Inigo straightened up, thanking his scaly friend for stemming the flow of lava from his inner volcano. He explained that the khajiit witch sent M'randru'jo to the settlement of Annequina to weave a false path through the desert. Hasir's brow furrowed as he asked the khajiit witch's location.
Inigo rubbed his neck and glanced at the apologetic Argonian.
"She is... erm... in the cave over there." Inigo said, pointing beyond the meadow's gate.
Hasir nodded as he understood. He also brought to bear his awareness of Daahin's endeavors.
"We'll get there. Now, though, we need to go see what Daahin is up to."
Hasir got up and extended a hand to the indigo khajiit who was cowering like a scared kitten against the wall. Togeth ehy went outside to find Ceralyne leaning against one of the exterior pillars. She asked them where they were going and stared at them in consternation. Her shocked expression eleviated when they said they had a little errand to run first. She nodded and they exited the meadow through the narrow passageway and walked toward the Elsweyr harbor.
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