Chosen of Akatosh Chapter 1

• Posted by TheExcitedGentlewoman January 24, 2016 - 763 views

  

  The prey was so busy with his mating ritual that he failed to notice the predator stalking him behind the camouflage. He primped and preened in front of the female, trying to use his high-pitched voice to win her over, not realizing that his annoying voice was only succeeding in driving her away.

  Mija watched the middle aged Breton from behind a crowd of people, trying to flirt with a younger Imperial girl he had no chance with. She rolled her eyes at the scene and a gust of wind blew her way, the scent of salt water becoming so pronounced she could taste it. The docks of Imperial City were busy that day because of the good weather, the sky much more blue and clear than the water beneath it, and the temperature warm enough for the local children to be out swimming. The sound of the seagulls' calls mixed in with chatter of people and loud thumps as dockworkers unloaded cargo from ships, their colorful curses almost drowning out the rest of the noises. This was her favorite kind of day, so much going on and no one paying attention to their surroundings. It was a pickpocket's paradise. She had been watching the Breton for about an hour, ever since she had witnessed him disembarking from a merchant vessel with a coin purse strapped to his side, so fat that it was practically begging to be snatched.

  Mija carefully made her way through the throng of people, slowly getting closer to her mark, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. There. The Imperial girl had turned away, so she was no longer facing Mija, and the man bent over to whisper something in her ear, the coin purse thrust closer to the young Nordic thief. Her face averted away from the target, Mija walked over, and with deft hands, undid the coin purse's tie with one hand without even slowing her pace. As she walked away with a briskly, she squeezed the purse, grinning as she felt the shape of at least a hundred gold septims through the thick fabric. As the docks disappeared from her sight, she picked up her pace and jogged through the street until she found quiet corner away from the crowds, an alley behind a bookshop. She leaned against a stone wall and smiled down at her prize. She slowly opened the purse, wanting to savor the moment.

  She screamed as sparks flew out and dropped it, though the screeching noise coming from inside the purse almost completely drowned her out. The sparks ignited, and her face caught on fire. She desperately tried to stamp it out with her hands, but when that didn't work she ran from the cover of the alley through the middle of the street to a large decorative fountain, plunging her head into the water. When she was satisfied that the fire was out, she pulled her head out of the water, and breathed a sigh of relief. No sooner had she done that than a strong hand grasped her arm. She jerked her head to look behind her for the owner of the hand, and saw a large blond Nord wearing beautiful white and gold armor, the lines around his eyes the only indicator of his age on an otherwise youthful-looking face.

  "There! That's the thief!" said a familiar high-pitched voice. Mija whipped her head to look, water droplets from her hair spraying the well-dressed Nord. The Breton she stole the purse from. He had a smug look on his face. "She was fooled by the illusion!"

  "Illusion?" she repeated. She looked at her reflection in the water and saw no burn marks on her face. She looked like a red-headed drowned rat, but was otherwise unharmed.

  "Of course! I'm not some idiot who just parades around cities with giant purses right in the open." He gave an evil smile. "Though you clearly are dim-witted enough to fall for such bait."

  She glared at him silently, unable to come up with a smart retort that would put her in better light.

  He pointed a finger at her. "Guard! I demand you arrest this thief!"

  The Noric man stiffened. "Captain. I'm the guard Captain, sir. Captain Ansgar."

  The Breton waved away the title. "Whoever you are. Just see that she pays for the hardships she caused me."

  Mija narrowed her eyes and was about to inform him that she suffered significant more hardship than he had, when Captain Ansgar interrupted her by pulling her away from the fountain and the Breton man. "Not to worry- I've dealt with this one before. I will ensure that she receives the maximum punishment for her crime." The Breton gave a satisfied nod, then walked away to retrieve his gold.

  Mija's bottom lip stuck out the entire time Ansgar dragged her through the city. When they finally reached the guard tower, she whined, "It was calling to me! It was begging me to rescue it from that horrible man! What was I supposed to do, leave it the care of that horrible man, only to be spent on skooma and women?!"

  Ansgar stopped walking but didn't let go of her arm. "Yes."

  She huffed. "That's inhumane."

  He responded to her huff with a long sigh that wracked his whole body. He finally let go of her arm and tugged at his shaggy beard, his eyes closed and his body turned away from her. "You don't have to steal, you know. I make plenty of gold for the both of us."

  Mija rubbed at the spot where his death grip had been to help get the blood flowing again. "I know. But I'm sixteen, I can't live off of you forever. I need to find my own way."

  He finally turned to face her. "But did it have to be your mother's way? The way that killed her?"

  Now she turned to hide her face, and fought to keep the tears from falling. "You don't know what happened," she said, trying unsuccessfully to keep the trembling out of her voice..

  "I know that she went out on a job and never came back!"

  She flinched at the harshness of his voice, but had enough bravado to state what had been on her mind for years. "And left you with a daughter that you never wanted don't know what to with."

  The ensuing silence stung more than the fake fire that had been on her face. Every second that went by without a protest devastated her even more. Finally, he muttered, "Could just get married."

  She stiffened at that. Of course that would be his suggestion. "I want to be a thief! I want to be the best thief in all of Tamriel!" Her voice rose with every sentence, and she ignored her father when he tried to shush her. "I want to be a legend! I want bards to sing songs about me, and have an alias that is only whispered in hushed tones. I want to be a legacy for Momma!" She was fully facing her father now, her face lit up in excitement.

  "Stop it!" he snapped. "If you want to act like a miscreant, then I'll treat you like one!"

  "Hey!" she shouted, as he gripped her arm again and forced her into the guard tower. There were several other guards in the main room, but they paid the two no mind. No one wanted to get in between the captain and his rebellious teenage daughter.

  "Daro!" Ansgar called. "Fetch me a straw matt and a chamber pot!"

  It slowly dawned on Mija what was going to happen, and started struggling to disengage herself from him. "Let me go!" she demanded.

  He ignored her and dragged her down a long hallway until they reached a room at the end. It was a small, windowless room, made of stone like the rest of the tower, and had such a damp, musty smell that made her nose wrinkled involuntarily. Except  for a few barrels with rusted weapons and armor sticking out, the room was bare. Mija was shoved inside, hissing when the stone floor cut through her brown trousers and left a shallow scrape on her shin.

  "Be grateful I don't lock you up in the Imperial Prison!" Ansgar said from the doorway. Daro, another guard, scuttled in and set the matt and chamber pot on floor next to her. She gave him a pleading look, but was only met with apologetic eyes as he left the room. "This is where you'll spend the rest of the day and through the night. And if you don't give up this idea of being a thief you'll likely spend the rest of your days in a prison cell." He stared at her for awhile, obviously expecting her to beg, to cry, to promise she'll never disobey him again and be a good girl for the rest of her life. She lied down on the matt with her hands behind her head and stared pointedly at the ceiling. After a few moments, she heard the door shut and the lock click into place. Only at this point did she start to cry.

  She tried to keep herself busy throughout the day. Crying took up a big chunk. Mostly all she had to distract herself was her fancies of becoming a master thief. She imagined herself stealing a large diamond the size of her fist, and getting away undetected. That deed put her in the sights of The Thieves Guild, and immediately recruit her. When she arrives at their base, her mother is there. She tells Mija that she's been in hiding the last five years because of a job gone bad, and she's been waiting for her to join The Thieves Guild so they could be together again. Mija decides that she would be upset about being abandoned at first, but relent soon enough and forgive her. Then she would meet a handsome Nord man who was rough around the edges but had a good heart and who was almost as good a thief as she was. He would have dark hair that was just long enough to be tied back, but not long enough to be in competition with hers. And he would have a small scar below his eye that made him look dangerous...

  She wasn't quite sure when her daydreaming turned into actually dreaming, but the next thing she knew she was being viscously shaken awake. She slowly opened her eyes and saw her father hovering over her, his face a mask of worry. "What...?" she started, still half-asleep and not entirely sure where she was.

  "You must come with me now!" he said, pulling her to her feet and roughly shaking her fully awake. He started dragging her again at a pace that was fast, but not fast enough to draw attention. They soon exited the guard tower and were walking through the streets, the cold night air causing Mija to shiver.

  Most of the population were in their beds for the night, so the only illumination they had was the smattering of torchbugs here and there.

  "You're in danger, Mija," he told her as they made their way through the streets. "You're going to go stay with your uncle in Skyrim for awhile."

  Her eyebrows knit together and she stared up at him in confusion. "What am I in danger from, Father?"

  He sighed heavily. "By the Eight! We don't have time for your questions right now, so just stay silent for once."

  Insulted and hurt, she pursed her lips and said no more until they reached the main entrance of the city. Mija surmised that she must not be in danger from her father's fellow guards, as there were two standing at the entrance. They opened the large doors for their boss and his daughter as they passed, not even a sideways glance between them. She had been outside of the Imperial walls a few times, had even been to Chorral with her mother a time or two, but this time as she stepped into the wide open space, she realized that this might be the last day she was safe within the Imperial City, at least for awhile. Her unknown future lay within a tundra wasteland that she had never seen before. This time she shivered from more than just the night air.

  She glanced over at the stables and was surprised to find a large Argonian leaning against a black horse. Not large in height or overweight, but he was the buffest lizard Mija had ever seen. The giant steel greatsword strapped to his back was probably a factor in this, though she felt it was a contradiction to the copper monk robes he was wearing. He must have felt her eyes on him, as he picked that moment to look up, and his yellow eyes widened when he saw her, then squinted as if he was trying to place her face.

  Still holding onto her, Mija's father led her over the Argonian, and glared at him intensely. The lizard just stared back wearily at him, his green face only showing boredom. After a few moments, Ansgar turned to his daughter and said in a soft voice, "Now listen to me. Tabara is going to take you to Skyrim. You're going to be a good girl, ok? You're not going to ask questions, you're just going to go where you're supposed to, and write to me when you get there."

  She felt immense frustration at being talked down to like a child, and still wanted to know what the danger was. "Is-" she started, but he cut her off. "No, I wouldn't trust Tabara completely, but he's a priest of Akatosh, and we have no choice." The only reaction the Argonian showed at being call mistrustful was a slight twitch of his lips, though for all she knew it could be unrelated. Her father hadn't answered the question she had been about to ask, but she was glad to have that piece of information for future reference.

  Tabara mounted the horse withouting saying a word to them as Ansgar put his hands on Mija's shoulders and looked her in the eye. She waited with anticipation that this would be the moment her father tells her all the things he never did before. I love you Mija, of course I wanted you Mija, I will miss you and count the days until I see you again Mija. But all he did was pat her once on the shoulder and turn her towards the horse. Crestfallen and near tears, she silently mounted the horse, making sure to grip the sides of the saddle to stay balanced, instead of Tabara. Too intimate for a first meeting. When she was settled in, the Argonian made a soft noise at the horse to make it trot, and they started off down the bridge. Mija turned to look behind her and saw her father's back as he was already walking away, not even bothering to watch her go.

  Author's Note- Yay, I finished the first chapter! This is actually the most I've ever written for one story. I'm somewhat new at writing, so tear it apart. Believe me, there is no way you could as hard on me as I am on myself. Any thoughts you have about it, lay it on me. Also let me know if I deviate from lore, I'm trying to stay as on track as possible.
  As for the plot, it will technically follow the main storyline, but I'm going to change some things, skip some things, and move some things around. I find just rehashing the same old script to be boring. There will also be other narrators to put a different spin on some events.

  Table of Contents