Tales of Tamriel: A Beginning

Chapter 2

It was about a days trip to Morthal, they had left around seven and their horses were slower as they were doubled up. They made camp at the border of Whiterun and Hjaalmarch, Kuvar brought his lute and played songs all night until they all dozed off to wolves howling in the distance and trees waving overhead. Hasell dreamed a very strange dream that night, he dreamt he was staring at a woman, it was a relatively young girl and she looked as though she was crying. He looked around and realized they were on a battleground of some type. He wondered what this was, the woman picked him up and placed him in a trapdoor that looked like it might have gone to the basement of somewhere, but was more of a hidey hole. The woman told him to be very quiet, and locked the door on him. He then heard clashing and bashing of swords and shields outside of the little safe area. This continued on for a few hours until...... he woke up. He was unsure of that dream and felt as though it meant something, he had never had dreams like that. Sure he had dreamt of pretty women before but none of them were crying and certainly none of them picked him up. He must have been much younger. But it was not a problem now, now the problem was the people of Morthal. They set off at once carrying on the same road as the day before, the Skyrim sun was blistering hot, but that was expected this time a year. They had to stop again once they reached the river, they all drank from there and washed their faces in cool refreshing water. They got back up on the horses this time without gauntlets or helmets on to help with the heat. Hasell was most definitely having a tough time with his beard. He was definitely proud of the beard, he had worked hard and long on it, but it was just so hot that the beard most likely absorbed tons of heat and made it extra hot for Hasell. But that was the least of his problems right now.

By the time they were about a mile from Morthal, they began to see a group of about seven people. "Perhaps Queen Hania got our letter?" Hasell suggested, but it was most unlikely for the letter to be delivered that fast, her to read it that soon, and send help that quick. So they really just had to approach them and find out, they looked Imperial from afar but were not dressed like Imperials. When they were about 10 feet away Hasell realized they were all Redguards. They had some type of mask covering their face and a curved sword sheathed on their waist, none of them spoke to another until Kuvar said "Okay who's going first?"
The center Redguard took the front of the group and looked them over for a second then said "I know you." and took her mask down to reveal hat she was Kirginia. She was not a feminine looking woman, that might have been because of the mask and overly applied clothing but she really did come off as a man without speaking. She was very pretty though, as Hasell had remarked to himself the first day she arrived in Rorikstead. He was a little disappointed when she left but he obviously was never going to attempt to have a relationship with her. He had all that time if he wanted to. He was a bit confused as to what she was doing there and who the other men were, so he did not waste anytime trying to find out. "What are you doing here?" Hasell asked. She glanced at her acquaintances who just nodded at her. "We are Alik'r Warriors, Mercenaries, sent from Hammerfell." She announced "We have been hired to come get rid of a group called the Blackblood Marauders." She said. "Now your turn, why are you here!?" She snapped. "We're here to save our friend." Rorik said. "Yeah, he's been held hostage by that same group, we were just going to negotiate with them." Kuvar said. "Negotiate?" She said "Bha-Bhahahahahahahahaha, Oh ahahahaha, Hahahaha ohh Sweet Mother of Akatosh, you can't negotiate with Marauders, Ahahahahahahaha." She broke out. Everyone looked at Hasell with scolding eyes, but Hasell continued with the conversation. "What are you going to do here then?" Hasell asked. Their laughing stopped and they became dead serious. "Well we are coming to kill them of course, every last one." A Redguard said. They were silent after that, they were very direct with their approach, "Why not reason with them first?" Kuvar asked. "Because that is not what we were paid to do." Kirginia said "We are here to kill them, nothing more." She said. "Okay then." Hasell said after a moment jumping off his horse. "Let's do it, I figure if they would kill us we should kill them." Hasell said. "Oh no you don't understand, this is our job, you guys can go back home to your pathetic little Roriktown." Kirginia said. "Rorikstead." Rorik said a little on the edge. "Whatever." She said putting her mask back over her face "Goodbye either way." She said intending to end it there. "NO" said Hasell making her turn her horse back around again. "What?" She asked "I said no!" He said again "I did not come here to be denied by some-some Skeever-brain!" He exclaimed "I came here to rescue my friend and I intend to do just that with or without you in my way!" He continued "And if you have a problem with that then we will have to battle it out through steel!" He finished. "Wow. Excellent speech." She said sarcastically "Hmmphh. Okay fine, I guess we get paid either way." She said.
They turned to get ready, "You coming?" She asked. As Hasell hopped back up on the horse, "Right behind you." He said.

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They got about a fourth of a mile away before they decided it was too close. They hopped off and got on a ledge to scout the area. "Okay, it looks like the hostages are there, at that Inn." Kirginia said. The group mutually agreed with her, she seemed extremely confident in her leadership, and the Alik'r seemed to be confident with her leading. Hasell didn't think to question her leading the group. These Marauders however were very questionable, they were all different races just about. Hasell had never seen so many races get along so peacefully with each other, it was unnatural to him. He began to think of ways that they could get in without being caught, he quickly noticed the window in the back of the Inn. No Guards seemed to be there but he knew that they would eventually, he spoke up. "If we can slide down quietly, we might be able to skip thro-" He was cut off by the yelling and screaming of men and women alike coming out of the Inn with whatever weapon they could fashion from inside it. They trampled every man and stabbed every mer that was by the door. But that wasn't even the half of them. Hasell instinctively rolled down the rock towards the battle, Kuvar sort of pulled on him but the tug wouldn't have done anything to a boy. He drew his sword a charged into the battle, slaughtering every damn marauder he could, looking for Thorek. More Marauders came and some of the hostages began to retreat back into the Inn as they became cornered. By this time the other people on the rescue team arrived but Hasell was already charging in to the Inn with his Sword and Face as bloody as they'd ever been. It was chaos in there, he slaughtered everything that had a reasonable weapon, and just barely stopped himself from killing the ones that didn't. He reached the center of the Inn and there he saw Thorek. "Thorek!" Hasell yelled, Thorek had two butter knives and was killing like a frostbite spider, he gave Hasell a sort of mean looking smile and started to turn his head back towards the fight. But it was too late, a Khajiit Marauder shoved her sword clean through his back. First his knees lost balance, then his waist, then his neck. He gave Hasell a sort of half grin and stopped blinking, Hasell don't have any time to think, he just killed the Khajiit and then the next marauder, and the next one, and the next one. Somewhere in the fight someone knocked over a candle of kicked a log too far off the fireplace because the walls started to burn down. But Hasell didn't care, he just continued killing more and more, every marauder there would die he swore to himself.  A few civilians died but he didn't care he just killed those Marauders, and then more Marauders. By this time there wasn't really an Inn any longer and just a black battleground of soot. But He did it, he killed every Marauder there, and when he was done he dropped to his knees where Thorek was killed. He said a prayer to Akatosh, and just looked at Thorek. His best friend, his mentor, his father figure, he failed him. He should have been there sooner he thought. He should have come sooner he told himself. But there was nothing he could do now. He just let his knees sink deeper in the ash and a few tears drop for the first time in a long time.