Stars Aligned: Asmer

Chapter 3

-Chapter Three: Valenwood's Peril-

After arriving in Valenwood, the group quickly discovered there was a problem at large. Not a single soul was visible, nobody was outside. Looking around, Sakarine held up a hand, a silent gesture that told her two companions to wait outside. Knocking on a door to a home first, she soon picked the lock and slipped inside. Everyone was unharmed, besides the fact each person in the home happened to be unconscious. Walking back outside casually, the young woman sighed. "So it seems the twin Dragonkin are passing through Valenwood. We will have to be careful." She murmured.

Although Zavhi said nothing, she didn't understand what Sakarine meant by Dragonkin.

"Ja'daar does not understand. Please explain Dragonkin to Ja'daar." The Khajiit requested, tail waving about slowly.

"The Dragonkin are my friends, the twins Askel and Eske. Hardly anyone knows of them. They have voices more powerful than all the Greybeards and past Dovahkins combined and have blood directly from Daedric Princes. They worship both Dovah and Daedra. Their symbol is a dragon holding a Daedra heart. Askel is quiet and cold, Eske is polite and soft-spoken. Without meaning to do so, whenever they pass through a town, before they arrive a terrible storm hits, driving everyone inside. Then each being is knocked unconscious by strong magic to keep them inside. Anyone left outside mysteriously dies unless they have a certain fire to their soul. It seems we three have that fire," Sakarine explained as best she could, earning a hesitant nod from Ja'daar.

The situation seemed a bit odd to Sakarine. Askel and Eske usually never traveled to Valenwood. She didn't mention this, as it would cause more worry than necessary. The twins wouldn't hurt her, or her friends. That is, as long as she was there to prove the friendship. That might be bad. The twins were highly untrusting and often would do what they could to eliminate unwanted witnesses. Leading her friends away from the town, they traveled through Valenwood until suddenly the ground shook beneath them. The sound of a dragon's soul being sucked straight from its core resonated and Sakarine stopped the group, raising a finger to her lips. Slowly waking toward the source, they followed her with great caution. Eventually they found themselves in a clearing between towns, two cloaked figures facing with their backs to the group, surrounded by the skeletons of dragons. Sakarine called out their names, "Askel! Eske! It's me, Sakarine!" Her voice carried like the scent of the sweetest flower in the spring, the two young men turning around. Askel was tall and lean, muscular with a well shaped body and strong, handsome features to his face. Almond shaped silver eyes glared from beneath raven black hair, medium length and fine. His twin brother, Eske, was an inch or so shorter, thin and bony with a gentle smile brightening his feminine face. Mostly black hair brushed the top of his shoulders, a large white section covering his right eye while the left eye, violet like the other, dancing with a quiet excitement. No words escaped the lips of Askel, but Eske spoke gently, the air quivering with the power in his voice, "It isn't that we don't wish to communicate more, or that we don't find it lovely to see you again, Miss Bloodblade, but you really shouldn't be here." He said gently, the faint smile tracing his lips. Sakarine was at a loss, "Why?" She asked him with concern heavy in her voice, her fire orange eyes focusing on his violet one.

"All the people with a shred of the circle's blood knew dragons were coming back. We did. But the population of Tamriel does not. Their souls... The souls of dragons are being revived. They are swarming us."