When the Imperial crossed the threshold with the four bound Argonians, he produced a knife from his bag and cut each of their
bonds and began barking orders like some kind of mad dog. The Argonians did not second guess or question his motives, no one
except for Hasir,
"Why do we have yo do what YOU say? Hmm? Can't we make our own decisions for Hircine's sake?" He asked, a bit agitated
The guard growled at this and slashed Hasir in the shoulder with the dagger, leaving behind a deep cut. Neresticus sneered at him
just daring him to contradict him a second time; white hot waves of pain flooded Hasir's senses and, tears filling his eyes, he shook
his head. The Imperial nodded; saying that listening to him will make the Argonian's lives longer than the alternative. He gestured to
the dunmer that had just entered the mine,
"I will leave you in Nerethi's capable hands, now I bid you good day." He said, bowing low but never losing his contempt for the scaly
outsider.
With that, he left the mine, taking care to close the door as Nerethi entered.. The dunmer turned to face Hasir with a smile on
his face,
"So, here we are again, you failing to follow orders and me having to enforce them." He said as he pointed forcefully to the passage
cut into the earth where his kinfolk had started to mine." Here are your choices: Work along with your worthless filth of a family or
deny me any further and I will send you to your homeland in a box." He lent forward and spat in Hasir's face, "Ya got me filth? I got
my eye on you."
Hasir jerked his head to the side as Nerethi aimed to spit at him again and kicked the dunmer hard in the chest sending him
ragdolling through the air landing with a 'thud' against the far wall. The dunmer sat there dazed for a minute, eyes bugged as if he
could not believe anyone would be so stupid as the question his authority. He got up, brushed the grey dust off of himself and, teeth
bared, ran at the Argonian. Sensing this, Hasir expertly dodged this; the dunmer flew passed him and hit another earthy wall.
The dunmer got up again and spat blood and earth that had accumulated in his mouth on the ground,
"Alright, the hard way it is then." He said, grinning madly. Head down the dunmer charged at Hasir
The Argonian did not react fast enough as he was pinned against the wall by the dunmer's hands, which dug into the earth. The
dunmer produced two lengths of rope: one he used to bind Hasir's hands behind his back and the other he used to clamp the
insolent Argonian's mouth shut. Nerethi placed his silver dagger between the Argonian's scaly shoulders and told him that he was
not fucking around anymore,
"Go and join your fucking lizard friends or I will leave you bloody on the ground." He waited for a response but none came. He
grinned at this and the Argonian, seeing no alternative, walked obediently to the rear of the cavernous mine where his comrades
were waiting, the pressure of the blade ever present in his back. Nerethi praised him as he cut the bonds holding the Argonian's
hands together. Hasir massaged them vigorously as he glared at the dumner. What he wouldn't give to punch the dunmer in his big
stupid face and run away from this foul place, never to return.
Nerethi grinned at Hasir and produced what looked like a huge leather lobester cage from his leather bag,
"Here! This ought to kept you silent." He said, as he forced the muzzle over Hasir's head and mouth, "That should keep your bite to
a minimum." Nerethi said, crossing his arms and laughing. Hasir growled at him and snapped at the dunmer, or he would have had
the muzzle not forced his mouth shut.
He bent down, picked up a pickaxe that was lying against the earthly wall near his 'work station' and began to mine; for what
though, he did not know. The Argonian furiously tried to remove the muzzle of his mouth with his claws. Behind him the dunmer
laughed and shook his head as he watched the stupid lizard struggle,
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." he said with a look that could burn a hole in the Argonian. "You wouldn't want to feel my blade
again, would you?"
The Argonian managed to break the muzzle with one sharp claw and snapped back at the dunmer,
"No I wouldn't, why are you treating us as the inferior race here? We are not mindless beasts you can control whenever the mood
suits you." He spat.
The dunmer said nothing but walked over to sit on a rock not far from Hasir, looking self important. The reason, he said, dunmer and
Argonians hated each other needed no further explanation, they've been doing it for years; ever since the beginning of the first era
when their kind came to Blackmarsh, they wanted to control the 'savage beasts' and make them conform to their ways via
enslavement.
The Argonian glared all while mining for that which only the Dren brothers and Nerethi only know, but Hasir knew different, he took
the pickaxe and instead of using it to strike the earthy wall, he tossed it as hard as he could at Nerethi's head; the dunmer dodged
this by shifting his position on the rock, glaring with hate at the Argonian.
Hasir looked over at his Argonian inmates and signalled that they should not be subjected to such torture and followed his lead
instead. They refused; Hasir huffed in impatience and asked them if they want to be slaves forever like their anscestors were or if
they wanted to break the mold and forge their own path. There was silence for a time as the Argonians thought this over. After a
while, they nodded in agreement and advanced on Nerethi, forcefully dropping their pickaxes on the ground. Hasir did the same.
Nerethi cringed as the Argonians encircled him like dogs closing in for the kill,
"Too long has your people enslaved my people, well I say that it's time to break the mold. No more will we mine for your people
who reap the benefits while we toil day in and day out without any recognition. Do we not all bleed the same? You are not superior
to us, in fact, no one is, we are all the same. You think us savage beasts who require your interference to help us see what is 'right.'
Well, I've got news for you, no more."
The Argonians stopped circling Nerethi and looked instead at Hasir,
"My Argonian brethren, are we going to take this?" He asked, raising his hands in defiance
"No, we will not." Came the collective response, "Down with the established order, down with the dumner!" Hasir exclamed. They
parroted this, slamming their tails down in rapid succession on the ground as if they were war drums. Khash clapped in time with
their ferociously thumping tails.
Hasir smirked as he picked up a spear that lay against the far wall; he and the other Argonians advanced on the dunmer. The other
Argonians grabbed their fallen pickaxes and brandished them threateningly in the dunmer's face,
"Any last words before we turn you into horker stew?" asked Hasir, his muzzle pressed against the dunmer's nose
The dunmer retreated off the rock and backed against the far wall,
"S-s-stop n-n-now or I w-will call for b-backup." He stammered
Hasir stood, one foot on the rock he had just vacated,
"Are you mocking me? Not a wise decision." He said, speaking loud enough for the dunmer to hear. He gestured around at the
snarling Argonians, "Anyway, look around you Nerethi. Four angry scaly slaves against one Dunmer? Even if you called for backup
you have no chance against us." The Argonian smirked because he knew he had just silenced the dunmer
Hasir told the other Argonians to take the rope that was lying against one of the wooden bracketed walls and bind the ignorant
dunmer with it and he also told them to bind his mouth so he could see what it feels like. The Argonians acknowledged him
and scurried over to the dunmer, still cowering in the corner and bound his hands together tightly and they also bound his mouth
shut so he looked like someone who was trying to relieve himself from a horrible toothache.
Hasir gasped as, at the front of the dumner, were the Dren brothers. Vadem and Orvos,
"Stop them, let no one escape."
All the dunmer unsheathed their weapons and charged at the Argonians who did the same. Hasir leapt off his rock and unsheathed
his flame whip and smirked at the dunmer as he tightened his grip on his whip. He lead the charge as he hacked and slashed at
the vulnerable parts in the dunmers' armor.
Hasir broke off to face Vedam and Orvos Dren who had likewise broke away from the throng. He looked over to the others. He smiled
as he watched his aunt and uncle fight bravely against their dunmer combatants. Khash was likewise doing well against hers as she
unsheathed two orcish daggers and sliced through her attackers as if she was not fighting but instead doing some kind of macabre
dance.
Drujeeta and Juleen looked over to Hasir as he fought their attackers,
Hasir it was really brave of you to-AURRGGH!" Two dunmer had, one by one, run the two argonians through with their swords. They
smirked evily as the two nearly lifeless lizard bodies slid off of their swords to the cave floor.
This only served to fuel Hasir's bloodlust instead of having the opposite effect like the dunmers had hoped. You morons, how many
times have I told you? Always keep your mind on your assailants. He thought as he gritted his teeth and braced for the Drens'
attack. The Argonian employed the training that Quinchal had taught him all those years ago. He dodged every thrust, jab and
slash the brothers had dealt, clearly hoping for a killing blow. Hasir smirked slyly at this and ran, sword stretched sideways toward
his attackers and attacked with a ferocity the dunmer had rarely seen in an Argonian; then again, the dunmer had never seen an
Argonian fight before. He delivered deadly slashes so quickly that the dunmer were on the grounnd clutching their broken bodies and
gasping for air that was failing to come before they knew what'd hit them.
Hasir tore his eyes away from the useless meat sacks and looked to see how Khash was doing. He smlled happily as the young
Argonian seemed to be holding her own, she even had the proper footwork required for her preferred fighting style. She was cutting
down dunmer left and right as if the were trees that had offended her in some way.
Hasir ran over to his aunt and uncle who were drawing raspy breaths with half-lidded eyes,
"Drujeeta, Juleen, I will avenge the dunmer for what they did to you. Erm, any chance you will get new bodies?" He asked. Drujeeta
and Juleen said that might be a possibility if the dunmers= and Molag Bal followers do not go forward with their poisoning of the
Gildergreen which would, in turn, kill of all trees in Tamriel, including hist trees.
Hasir bellowed out in rage as he approached Nerethi who felt the Argonian's hot breath on his face,
"Curse you to Oblivion, you bastard. If you hadn't called for backup or had this stupid plan to kiss Molag Bal's disgusting feet, my
aunt and uncle would be alive and you would not have their deaths on your conscious." The dumner was about to say he did not call
for backup; that Vedam dren knows all of the goings on in Vvardenfell when Hasir blatantly cut him off,
"I don't give a damn what your fucking duke says, this superiority complex that your people have is causing too much pain." He said
through angry tears
Hasir kicked Nerethi so hard in the side that he hit the mine floor with a dull thud. He checked on Khash again. She was grinning
broadly before a heap of dead greyskins that she had dispatched. Hasir whipped around to face Nerethi again,
"Get the fuck out of my sight before I lose my shit. Never darken the doorstep of any Argonian again with your dunmer filth." He
said, eyes bearing into the dunmers; Nerethi nodded, got up and ran out of the ebony mine entrance.
Hasir walked over to Khash smiled and asked if she was ready to leave this pitiful place. She nodded but then thought of something,
Hasir looked over to see what she was doing. Realization came crashing over him that she was going to give his aunt and uncle the
burial they deserved. Hasir noticed Kash kneeling beside the two dead Argonians and helped her hoist the two dead Argonians on
each of their shoulders and walked out of the mine ready to start a new chapter in Tamrielic history that did not include their race
being slaves to anyone.
The found wood not too far from the Calera mine, constructed two funeral pyre and set the dead Argonian on them. Khash looked at
his hands are he screwed up his face as his hands began to glow; Khash was awed by the ball of fire that leapt in Hasir's
outstretched hand. He glanced at Khash and then back at the funeral pyres and set each one aflame.
When the fires died down and the bodies consumed, Hasir gasped in awe as to transparent wisps of pure energy exited the burnt
corpses of his aunt and uncle and flew in the direction of Blackmarsh. He smiled to Khash and jerked his head in the direction of the
harbor. Khash asked what thoose wisps were.
Hasir gazed skywarrd, watching the wisps disappear from sight,
"Khash, those are the souls of my relatives going back to the hist so that they can find new bodies."
Khash looked at Hasir confused; she did not know about the reincarnation process in part for her not hatching in Black Marsh proper
and being told the rite of reincarnation of even what it was, for that matter. Hasir thought on this, decided he wouldn't burden her
mind with this rather confusing piece of information and said that they should get to the harbor.
When they got to the Caldera harbor, Hasir told Khash that he had something he had to do and would not be able to go with Kash to
wherever she was thinking of going. Khash told him that that was ok and she would book passage to Skyrim via one of the ships in
the harbor. She told Hasir that she would meet up with him at the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood. The two Argonians shook hands
and went their seperate ways.
Replies