Eldrin, the Argonian with an Elven name

Chapter 3 - 13th of Second Seed, Second Era 581

The morning was still young and Eldrin was having such vivid nightmares that he couldn't sleep. He finished all the work he needed to do before Rutalu and Haevyn woke up. After they got up and left the house he stayed behind to read on his cot. He felt as if he needed the alone time, but it was his inability to look at them ever since he killed that mer.

They didn't know about it and he hoped they would never find out. With other secrets he would make jokes to test the water but this time he was going to ignore it until it went away.

The silence in the house was broken by a rustling sound outside the half open window near his cot.

He sighed, already knowing who it was, "Careful Zuryl, someone might think you care about me with all this skulking about."

A pair of small giggles answered him. He didn't move his eyes from his book, "Oh good, Kadriel's here too."

The girls forced the window the rest of the way open and let themselves in. As soon as they both had finished crawling through the window and stood up, Eldrin made eye contact with them, "I think that's breaking and entering."

They laughed fairly loudly this time. Eldrin let out a long sigh. In between laughs Kadriel managed to mock the lizard more, "You should be honored the Guard knows you. It means they care!"

Eldrin put down his book and glared at the wood elf from his lying posture. Zuryl chimed in, "Or it means you are a sugartail."

They both laughed again. Sugartail is a Khajiit insult meaning "clumsy thief" and Eldrin didn't appreciate the suggestion.

Zuryl pulled a motionless animal from a pocket, "Look, Zuryl brought the lizard a dead skeever because he is too incompetent to feed himself."

She dropped the dead overgrown rat at the foot of his cot. Eldrin glared at both of them without moving his head.

"Oh come on Elly, you haven't left home in days," Kadriel sat down next to him on his cot.

He was annoyed with their sudden appearance, "I mean I leave home to do chores so what's your point. What do you even want?"

The wood elf took the book from Eldrin's hands and put it onto the floor, "Well, besides your forgiveness for what was necessary to keep you safe, we would like to talk about what happened." She sounded sincere.

Eldrin only continued glaring at her. Mulling it over in his head if he was ready to forgive them.

Zuryl sat on the other side of the cot, "This Khajiit only wants what is best for her friend... and seeing Eldrin without clothes made her heart feel strange."

Kadriel pushed the cat off the cot, giggling, "Zuryl!"

Kadriel turned back to Eldrin, forcing the smile off her face, "No really Elly, we're sorry that our solution to a bad situation was imperfect." Kadriel rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Plus Zuryl fixed the lizard's shoulder." The Khajiit added.

Kadriel turned to the cat and scolded her, "You were supposed to let me do the talking!"

Eldrin sighed again which made both girls refocus on him.

He knew they weren't going to leave until they got what they came here for. He said, "Fine. What do you want to talk about? Besides "how can I trip over my own feet" because, for obvious reasons, I'm not answering that one."

Kadriel asked, "What happened first of all? What do you remember happening?" Eldrin blinked a few times out of displeasure, very bored with the conversation already.

He took a deep breath, "I was leading you two to the camp and I fell down the hill. I landed in the water on top of a Dunmer." The girls stifled a giggle with a snorting sound.