While Hasir lay unconscious in the carriage, his mind exploded with the force of his two emotions trying to dominate the other. He
looked down from way above Tamriel. He stood in the realm of the gods, in Aetherius. He saw he was standing not on a cloud, as
was his first guess, but, he was actuallly staring down into a reflecting pool where he could see not only his reflection but also all of
Tamriel; in its unbridled glory. He stared into pool and instead of two wolves staring at him, a grey wolf stared back at him.
down into the crystal clear water and saw a blue eyed, grey wolf rather than an argonian, staring back at him.
Only one thought occured to him in his bewildered state.
Okay, why in Oblivion am I here?
A voice called out from behind him.
"A hound does not question his master's motives."
Azure lifted his head up from the mirror and stared into the eyes of his master. Hircine walked into Aetherius proper with his loyal
hound by his side. The wolflord crossed the open fields with a stride that a deer would kill to possess. The grey wolf had to run to
keep up with the wolflord's trot. Both he and the wolflord felt elated to run free in their element. A little ways on, they saw
Kynareth tending to her garden. They stopped a few feet from her, the wolf clung to his master's side like a fly to flypaper. The
wolf's ears lowered as he did not recognize this new threat. His hackles raised, lips pulled back to reveal huge canine teeth, and his
paws dug deep into the dirt, preparing to strike.
Hircine chuckled to himself as his put a loving hand on his hound's head.
"Relax. Kynareth is a friend, you might say she is my other half."
The wolf looked up at his master and whimpered. The wolf looked downat the grass in shame. Hircine lowered a furry hand and
lifted the wolf's head and told him that even though Kynareth is an Aedra and he is an Daedra, here there is no distinct difference
as they are all combined to form the E'ta, the children of Akatosh. The wolf strained his eyes and saw Molag Bal standing behiind
Kynareth.
Kynareth, seeing his muscular shadow behind her, turned.
"Molag Bal, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She asked.
Molag Bal told Kynareth that he had never beheld a creature so beautiful in all of Aetherius. Hircine saw a hidden alterior motive in
the works. his eye narrrowed as he pulled a bow and a quiver full of arrows out of his bag, slung the quiver onto his back and leapt
forward. Sensing something was out of the ordinary, he pawed at Hircine and whined, trying to get the wolflord to listen to him. He
wouldn't he only had one goal in mind: protect his sister at any cost. He sped across the plains as sift as a cheetah, Azure was lost is
his thoughts and when he shook them off, his master was halfway across the field with a look of pure loathing in his eyes.
Azure ran as fast as his four legs could carry him. His tongue flopped out of his mouth and hung to the side of his mouth as he ran.
The speed at which he ran caused everything else to seem like a blur as his surroundings could not keep up. All of a sudden, Hircine
stopped in a clearing not too far from where Kynareth and Molag Bal sat admiring her creation of Tamriel below. Azure had to stop,
lest he wanted to crash into his superior. His legs however failed to get the same message his eyes had gotten. His legs tried to grip
at the ground, but sent Azure skidding headfirst into Hircine causing them both to tumple to the forest floor, causing Hircine's bow to
fly out of his hands and land with a muffled thud in the grass.
Hircine got up and rounded on Azure.
"You clumsy oaf, watch where you are going," Azure looked up at him suspiciously,
Hircine raised his hands defensively.
"Now wait a minute...I wasn't spying on them, honest."
Azure wasn't going to be fooled that easily. He growled at Hircine.
Hircine dusted himself off and picked up his bow.
"A wolf can smell lies from miles way," He sighed, "Very well, the reason why I am so concerned for Kynareth is because I am her
brother, she," Hircine said extending a hand towards Kynareth, "is my younger sister.
Hircine laughed to himself.
"You wouldn't understand. The wolf cannot understand the hunter's motives."
In response, Azure raised himself up and put his left forepaw on the wolflord's hand as if to say 'that's okay, I too have a sister who
I care about.' Hircine nodded in agreement, nocked an arrow and prepared to fire. Azure positioned himself so that his body was
equidistant between the wolflord and his target. Azure went to grab the bow out of the hunter's hand but Hircine yanked the bow
away.
Hircine wagged a finger in front of Azure's muzzle.
"I know you want to play fetch, perhaps later, ok?" He said, smirking and rufflling the wolf's grey fur,
The wolf snapped at the bow with his teeth and this time, succeeded. He and the wolflord were playing a rudimentary tug of war. In
the end, the wolf was victorious in wrenching the bow from Hircine's grasp and tossed the bow a far distance away from him. Hircine
look astonished at this act of clear subordination that the grey wolf had done.
Hircine rarely yelled at his servants, but he was close to unleashing his fury on Azure.
"Hound, why would you do such a thing? Don't you want to serve and protect your master? Move out of my way!"
The hound did not budge. He had to tell Hircine the truth, that it was just a harmless date, but, how could he? He couldn't speak in a
voice Hircine could understand. So he leapt in front of Hircine, lips pulled back in a snarl, his back arched. This action caused
Hircine to backpedal a bit. Hircine, I see no harm being done. Leave them be. He attempted to drive his master into a corner
because he knew something Hircine didn't.
Hircine looked terrfied as he backed away from his enraged servant. It was a shame Hircine could not understand what his followers
were thinking. All he knew was how to read their body language and this wolf's body language meant: I am really pissed right now
and if you don't see what I see, I will go complete apeshit. Hircine bumped into a thickly wood oak tree behind him.
Azure was fed up with no one understanding him and thinking him is an idiot, which he wasn't. He was an intelligent creature even
if he and the inhabitants of Skyrim do not see it. They think of wolves as nuissances that need to be killed because they think the
wolves have gone 'feral.' He raised his paw and was about to kill Hircine, but the wolflord ducked out of the way just as the paw was
coming at him. Azure's paw cleaved the oak tree in two. Hircine frowned at his servant, conjured a portal, stepped into it and
disappeared. The wolf spun around, sniffing the air, seeing if he could smell the wolflord's scent
The wolf did smell a scent, but it was not Hircine's. The scent belonged the a silver wolf who stood five feet away, watching her son.
Azure looked up to see a familiar face staring back at him. His aunt padded towards him and placed her nose against his, they
closed their eyes. When Azure opened them however, she was gone. He looked up and eight nord priests appeared. The wolf turned
swiftly to the right and saw Kynareth abruptly change. her brown hair turned golden as an ingot and her face became the same
sheen of gold as her hair, her green dress turned white as freshly aged dandelions. The Daedric lord unsheathed his claws and
slashed a huge gash in Inga's stomach. Azure yelped as the lord of domination swung his tail around and decapitated the Aldmer. At
that moment, Hircine reappered and motioned for Azure
Azure's blue eyes widened with fear as, when the Aldmer dead, the illusion died with her. The endless fields and forests of aetherius
slowly faded and the realm of Coldharbour began to dominate the space where Atherius had been moments before. Azure turned
back to the eight nords, but found that they turned from humans into something a lot worse: eight walking corpses with scabby skin
that clung to their rapidly rotting bodies clothed in ragged robes that might have suggested they had been powerful high ranking
clergy of some kind in life. They wore matching, equally ragged hoods and upon their faces, wore bruised and battered masks that
might've been given to them in some ceremony of some kind. Next to the priests was a black khajiit with red eyes.
Hircine beheld the now flickering barren realm where lightning crackled overhead and looked down at Azure as the realm flashed
back to its usual blue color instead of the bluish-black sky and told him that this is more than likely a foreshadowing of events yet to
come,
"My hound, the answer you seek, to destroy Molag Bal and his minion's plans is hidden with the many resting places of the priests of
bal and in Krovaxis." The wolf looked confusedly at him. Hircine sighed, "The, er, temple is situated somewhere in Skyrim and
remains locked to invaders. There is a key to open the door, but, I admit I do not know where it is."
The sky had ceased to be bright blue but instead turned a bluish purple color.
Then the entire thing went pitch black as if someone turned off the lights in the entire realm. Confused, Azure sniffed around for the
cause of the blackout. He crouched down and growled, Hircine looked in the direction the wolf was facing, expecting someone to
come out the dark, they didn't. A high pitched voice in the darkness.
It sounded quite pleased with itself.
"Ah, Hircine and his pet wolf, let me guess you want to help poor wolfie here find a balance to his emotions, right?" a chuckled
sounded from the darkness. "How wonderfully... boring."
Hircine nocked an arrow and drew the bow back.
"Show yourself or I'll start shooting." He warned, no response came.
The hunter's best tools are what is given to him. Azure's ears flicked back and forth, just waiting for a sound, any sound to
reverberate off the wall so he can at least make a stab at who or what the voice belonged to. His eyes would also work well for the
scenario becase while nothing special in the light, they over perform in the dark, easily making up for their lack of distance. Wolves
are supposed to see well at night. This was not night though, it was night in a sense, but he knew they got teleported somehow from
the doomed Aetherius to this dark room.
The room lit up with different shades of blue and yellow as Azure used his night vision to root out the imposter. His eyes scanned the
perimeter until they locked onto a humanoid creature whose face and clothing were bathed in the same blue and yelllow as the
room . Azure leapt forward and clamped his teeth around the imposter's leg. The creature let out a shriek of pain as it was swung
sideways. He crashed into a wall causing it to crack a little bit and bright light spilled through the crack, just enough to illuminate
Hircine, Azure and the creature who hung upside down, suspended in midair.
Sheogorath floated there in his finest pink and maroon outfit with brown dress shoes and mismatching socks. One of his pantlegs
had a tear mark in it thanks to 'Mr. wolf,' which was Sheogoath's nickname for Hircine''s pet wolf.
Sheogorath frowned at them.
"You Foiled my plans for the last time," He thought on this a bit, He grabbed his frown and flipped it right side up, "no that isn't right,
ah, yes, good morning my furry friends."
Hircine shouted at the deadric prince.
"Enough stalling, Sheogorath, how do we get out of here?"
The daedric prince tented his hands and his face screwed up in thought.
"Looking for a way out of here are ya? Very well, if you want a way out, you first have to play a game with me. Win and I'll
transport you to Nirn." He face frown again, "but, lose and you will remain here." He floated in front of Hircine, who by his upside
down position looked like a deer who got caught in his own trap, "FOREVER!"
Sheogorath rotated himself so he was floating right side up in front of the the hunter.
"Hey Wolfie, feeling a bit bored of your existence as a wolf?" He smiled at the canine, "I can fix that."
Wabbajack!
"There, now does that feel better? I know you're just 'pinching' yourself from all the excitement you feel." He cackled madly at his
own joke.
Sheogorath snapped his fingers and a large brown armchair appeared out of nowhere. He sat in it, looking amused at the mudcrab
that scuttled about on the dark, cavern-like floor. Hircine groaned and asked Sheogorath to change him back. Sheogorath said that
he would not and that 'Mr. wolf' looked good as a helpless, little mudcrab.
Angered, Hircine drew his bow and pointed the arrow at the mad prince. Sheogorath lazily waved his staff. The huntman's bow and
arrows disappeared from sight. The prince of the neverthere wagged his index finger at the huntsman and said how Hircine was
being a poor sport and that he should have better manners when addressing guests.
Hircine stood up so fast that he nearly bumped his head on the cavern ceiling.
"Look 'mad god,' I have no idea who you think you are but that," he pointed to the mudcrab in question, "is my hound you just
wabbajacked. Either turn him back or we'll have serious problems." Sheogorath yawned and pointed the staff at the mudcrab.
Wabbajack!
He was expecting to be back in his wolf body, but, Sheogorath was never good at magic so what Hasir transformed into was a wolf
with a human mind instead of a canine one. Hasir padded over to a pool of water that was forming below a stalagmite and looked
down. When he saw what he had turned into, his reptilian brain exploded with fear, he tried to scream but all that came out was a
yelp of fear. He ran back to Hircine's side and cocked his head sideways as he looked at his master.
Hircine ignored this and looked at Shoegorath and prepared to ask a pertinent question.
"Sheogorath, be honest with me, are you involved in Molag Bal's plan?"
Sheogorath spat out his tea that he was drinking, causing brown flecks to decorate the walls.
"I beg your pardon?" He coughed, eyes wide in disbelief, "I will answer your question but, first you must beat me in a little game."
As he said this, his mouth curled into a wily smile.
Hircine strode forward and shook Sheogorath's outstretched hand.
"What kind of game?"
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