Warriors and Thieves: Chapter Three

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    Warriors and Thieves

    Chapter Three


    A Chance Meeting

     

    The heavy oak door to Kynesgrove inn slammed open with a bang. The wind howled and small ice-shards darted through the open door, tearing at the comfortable heat with long icy claws.     

     

    Heavy metal boots stamped onto the wooden planks of the inn’s flaw with hollow thumps, testifying that their owner was a giant of a man.

     

    Farideh froze. Her back was turned to the door, and she dared not look in fear of it being a mercenary hired to kill her. Shorely Mercer could not have found out so quick, she thought to herself, A khajiit knew it was a mistake coming here.

     

    Her eyes were fixed on the wall in front of her. She could see his shadow, the man who had come to kill her and take back that which she had stolen from Mercer; he was massive and she could tell from his shadow that he was wearing a full set of solid metal armor. Her only weapon was a fine, ebony dagger… useless against plate metal protection. I am dead, she thought, the fear settling in as the thug walked further into the building.

     

    What should a khajiit do? Farideh asked herself, this one must act fast, before he sees a khajiit… before he realizes that a khajiit is the one he’s after.

     

    The innkeeper gasped at the sight of him as she blundered into the hall from her sleeping room.

    Good, a distraction.

     

    In the blink of an eye, Farideh jumped to her feet, dagger in hand ready to pounce, run, tumble or whatever the situation required her to do in order to stay alive.        

     

    But what she saw was far from what she expected. There was no mercenary, no thug hired to kill her. Instead there stood the biggest (not to mention ugliest) orc Farideh had ever seen.

     

    He looked half dead, covered in blood from top to bottom. That can’t be his blood, Farideh thought, otherwise he’d be dead… there’s too much of it. She hid her knife away, collecting her composure, all fear gone in a heartbeat.

     

    As she watched, the orc slowly looked around the room: first at the innkeeper next at herself. He looked old, too old infact, she shivered: old orcs are very dangerous, unpredictable, hell bent on dying one way or another. At least that explained all the blood.  

     

    The orc grunted, then took half a step and collapsed as long as he was, face first onto the inn’s floor with a heavy metallica crash.  

     

    The innkeeper stood frozen, useless fool, Farideh thought as she nimbly made her way over to the bloody orc.

     

    “Give this one a hand!” She snapped at the innkeeper, struggling to turn the huge orc unto his back. He was too heavy for her to do it alone.

     

    The innkeeper stared at her dumbly.

     

    Farideh got up, crossed the room and grabbed the woman by her arm, “Help. Khajiit. Turn. Orc”, she spoke each word clearly and softly as if talking to a simple child (or something else with an extremely low intelligence).

     

    The woman blinked, “Help, ohh yes help of course” she muttered dreamily. She mindlessly followed Farideh.

     

    How can she be so scared, he’s not even dead and he hasn’t done anything to frighten her? She asked herself as the innkeeper helped turn over the massive orc. He was covered in scars, his face almost looked like a roadmap, Farideh smiled humorlessly at that joke.

     

    “Thank you”, she said to the innkeeper, “A khajiit might need your help again in a bit so don’t go far”, the innkeeper got up and quickly skittered away.

     

     

    It took Farideh almost an hour to get the orc out of his armor and into one of the inn’s beds. She had to ask for help from the local miners to lift him and carry him into one of the beds, and it had taken three of them to get the job done.

     

    Now Farideh sat in her room, reading some extremely boring book about some extremely stupid bard from Cyrodill, only fools come out of that country nowadays it seems, she chuckled quietly.

     

    She had, however, saved the orcs life to be sure. As she had removed his armor, she had discovered a massive gash in his left flank. It was so deep that she could almost see the ribs underneath, almost - if not for all the blood.

     

    Farideh had cleaned his wound, mixing a potion from herbs she carried in a small pouch at her belt, forcing his lips apart to drink it.

     

    Now the gigantic orc simply slept, like a lamb, snoring gently from his ruin of a nose, big chest heaving with every lungful of air. Farideh smiled, she knew about orcs and she knew exactly how she would make use of this one. With a bit of luck...

     

    Ohhh honor, she thought to herself, the honor of a warrior, useless to be sure, but under certain circumstances it can prove very, very useful. Ohh yes, she knew exactly what she’d tell him and hopefully he might just be able to save her, or at least escort her safely to the border.

     

    If all went well, farideh wouldn't need to hide from any mercenaries, at least not until she was safely out of skyrim… if all went well that was.

     

    She sighed, lay down the book which she hadn’t actually been reading, only staring at the same page for ages as her brain developed a way for her to escape this mess unharmed and wealthy.

     

     

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Comments

4 Comments
  • Idesto
    Idesto   ·  January 22, 2016
    The plot thickens! Nicely done. 
  • Sotek
    Sotek   ·  January 7, 2016
    Oh well played. Nothing says "leave me the hell alone like a bloody greay orc. (Few werewolves are the exception)
  • BlueDremora
    BlueDremora   ·  January 6, 2016
    Hehehe if you only knew Lissette  Thank you! Can't weight for your stories. 
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  January 6, 2016
    Well that was a good twist. Looking forward to more.