C.O.T.W Chapter 48: A Lethal Training

  • The next day, Tulen awoke nice and early. he turned to wake Nazeem. The redguard stirred, wiped his eyes and yawned. They

    walked together toward the sanctuary door and out onto the grassy field near the small pond that sat a bit northwest of the rocky

    outcrop. Nazeem smirked as he discovered that this would be the ideal place to have Nazeem train Tulen and the others in the art of

    werewolf assassination. 

     

    Nazeem rigged up four crude effigies of lcanthropes. These 'effigies' were actually flour sacks with grey ears, snouts and front and

    hind paws comprised of wood which were then suspended over the pond with rope that was tied to four large wooden crosses driven

    into the ground with wooden stakes.

     

     As the sun peaked over the mountain behind the small pond, the rest of the brotherhood emerged. Cicero, Astrid, Ocheeva,

    Arnbjorn and everyone else came out wide eyed as they beheld the massive effigies of werewolves hanging by their necks over a

    small blackish-blue pond below. Nazeem smiled as his handiwork and turned him back on it, facing the new recruits to the assassin

    sect of the silver hand.

     

    The redguard cleared his throat, noticing the throng's bewildered lookks as to why he dragged them out of bed,

    "Now, I am sure you are all wondering why these." He smiled as he gestured to the hanging 'werewolves', "Are out here?" He

    scanned the grous of people gathered in a half circle around the pond checking to see if they have their wolf-killing weapons of

    choice; to his surprise, they did.

     

    He smiled in satisfaction. He gestured to the effigies once more,

    "We are here to train on these before you can hunt down real werewolves. He said, raising his voice so that everyone could hear

    him. "You need to learn to walk before you can run." He said chuckling. 

     

    He pointed to Tulen and beamed madly,

    "I hear tell that Tulen encountered an actual werewolf in Whiterun during his initiation contract. So, he and Veezara will have the

    honor of hunting down Arnbjorn as the rest of you practice sparring with these wolf dummies." 

     

    Some of the newcomers backed away from the 'wolves' as they feared they might attack them; some even went back inside, or

    tried to. The black door refused to budge, refusing to answer their frantic cries to be let in. Seeing them, Ocheeva closed her eyes

    and slowly shook her head. She approached the four 'wolves' and took to the sky, taking out an ebony dagger and in the middle of

    her descent, cut through all four strings in one fluid motion before returning the ebony dagger to its sheathe. She landed catlike

    on the dirt behind the small pond, eyeing Nazeem with murderous intent in her reptilian eyes and he saw she was also smirking.

     

    Nazeem clapped while a smile crept across his face. Soon enough the gathered crowd was clapping and cheering her on. Veezara

    walked over to her and patted her congratulatoraly on the shoulder, smiling broadly. He told her that she would make a great silver

    hand assassin and hugged her. 

     

    She smiled back at him; grateful to have him in her life,

    "Thanks eggkin, I couldn't have asked for a better deelith than you." She said, teary-eyed. She then bowed rather humbly, "I am

    honored to be your ka.

     

    Veezara went red in the face as he smiled sheepishly, hugging her,

    "Mother, you have grown into a capable and able bodied Saxhleel and a well-rounded reel-ka, I might add."

    They spoke in jel for the last words of their exchange, causing Nazeem and many others to scratch their heads as to what any of

    that meant. They did not even know the words they spoke in their mostly common language sentences. Veezara blushed as he 'saw'

    the confused looks in the crowd behind him; he turned around and his tail drooped, he went red in the face,

    "Er, sorry about that; that was the language of the Saxhleel." He thought of how to put this so they could understand, "You know, er,

    argonians." 

     

    Ocheeva hissed and jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow,

    "Kaoc, Veezara, have you no shame?" He raised an eyebrow whilst pointing to the throng of people gathered, "Stop beating

    around the bush and tell them the straight truth, Xuth."

     

    Veezara look at her, scales wet with sweat,

    "B-but," He stammered "Ssis, these dryskins are not one with out culture, our language, they are Ojel, not of the hist."

     

    Ocheeva gave her brother a scathing look,

    "Veezara, I know what an Ojel is!" She snapped. He shrugged, "Maybe we should teach these Ojel about our ways or at least,

    our language." He was about to answer but she held up a hand, "No I will not because that might open up a window for some

    typical outlander's brash accusation and we certainly do not want them to invade our homeland." She retorted.

     

    The female Argonian turned back to Nazeem's shocked face and popping eyes. She said she was head of a sanctuary back in

    Cheydinhal. His forehead creased wondering where that was. She apologized for her forwardness and explained that Cheydinhal was

    a city in Cyrodiil. She went on to explain that the sanctuary theie did not kill werewolves but functioned as a civilized assassin

    guild with sanctioned murders, that is, she told him, someone paid the guild to have someone eliminated and she gained all the

    assassination skills she knew now by quickly rising through the guild to become the leader of that particular guild chapter. 

    She walked over to Nazeem, his mouth still agape by the stunning fluidity of how quickly the female Argonian cut the ropes.

    Ocheeva chuckled slightly at the slack-jawed expression of the falkreath dark brotherhood sanctuaryleader. She turned scarlet at him

    goggling at her.

     

    She crept over to him and closed his mouth for him,

    "I-it's nothing special, after all, I had the best teacher." She said. Suddenly her face fell, "Sadly, he died in the purification of the

    Cheydinhal chapter of the dark brotherhood. Luckily I caught the scent of it coming a mile away so I quickly chartered a boat out of

    the Bruma harbor and traveled to Windhelm harbor, booked a carriage and came to Falkreath. She sighed heavily, "His name was

    Tienaava, he was my twin brother. She huffed in anger, "Teinaava and I were inseperable, even as hatchlings. It will be hard to

    imagine life without him."

     

    Ocheeva leant close to her son and whispered,

    "The real reason I came here is because I have a grandson here in Skyrim named Hasir." She said, smiling, "He would be about your

    age now." She said, pointing at Veezara.

     

    Veezara looked at her like she was batshit crazy. Ocheeva smirked at him and told him that she met his mother and father on her

    travels from Cyrodiil to Blackmarsh on many of Hasir's naming day ceremonies,

    "I am glad I met his mother before the fires started engulfing his village." She said, solemny, "Come to think on it, I have no idea

    who set the blaze."  She smiled and shook her head, "What firecarackers they were."

     

    Veezara eyes got big as his tail danced behind him,

    "By my egg! I did not know you had a grandson, may the Hist smile upon you." He said, his face a mixture of surprise and shock.

    His scales suddenly turned dark in confusion, "Were? What happened? Their not together anymore?" He saw a tear form in his

    grandmother's eye and he wiped it away. 

    Ocheeva huffed in exhaustion,

    "Well, my daughter, Haxar, died in that fire." She hung her head, hissing in angrer, "It really dries my scales that my sweet lovable

    Haxar in the fire instead that eggheaded husband.

     

    Veezara's tail swayed calmly behind him and he turned Ocheeva's head to face his,

    "What about Hasir? Did he escape the fire? What of his egg bearer and egg-kin, what happened to them?" He asked concerned


    Ocheeva hissed softly at this and muttered under her breath,

    "By Sithis, that egg-sac! His egg spent too much time in the shade." Veezara heard this and slapped his mother ons face,

    "Mother have some dignity, by Sithis, hsss,"  he shook his head, causing Ocheeva to turn red. 

    She quickly apologized for her brash behavior and told her son that Hasir, his aunt, uncle and his eggkin was going to Morrowind so

    that he could be offered to Molag Bal as part of his vampiric coven. She also said that after he became a vampire, he went north to

    Skyrim.  She also said he got bitten during a sojourne to Solstheim by a lycanthrope,though she did not know what beast's blood or

    daedric prince that governed said beast he decided to go with.

     

    Ocheeva sighed and turned to Veezara, who turned his head to look at her,

    "Veezara, I have some news to share with you." He gulped, afraid of what came out of her mouth.

     

    Instead of telling him because she could not find the right words, either that or she found it incredibly painful. Her hands flew to her

    head as she groaned in agony. She was busy fighting back the wolf as she tried to remain in control. Like Hasir, she hated, nay,

    feared the wolf taking complete control of her mental facilities. Veezara cowered behind a rock as he heard her let out a

    gut wrenching scream. Her red and black leat jumpsuit began to tear as she transformed.

     

    Her legs arched towards the sky, small, wispy gray fur erupted all over her body, sharp fangs burst through her gums, her snout

    elongated into a muzzle and her eyes took on a more amber hue. Veezara gasped as this was so shocking to see his mother not

    share with her only son a secret so monumentous and yet so devastatingly heartbreaking. He transformed mother walked close to

    him and he ran his fingers through her scant grey fur. She was not like any werewolf he encountered before as she was skinny,

    hairless and grey. 

     

    The werewolf looked at her son through eyes that clearly stated that she was literally killing herself to serve the greater good; to do

    good for others as she always put other men, mer and beasts before herself, both as an Argonian and as a werewolf. Veezara

    brought his hands up to cover his mouth as he gasped; Looking at his mother's pitiful wolf form did not do anything for him, only

    when he actually ran his scaly hand over his mom's head and down her back did he finally understand. She let out a small whine as

    she ttransformed back. Her whine and yelps became more pronounced.

     

    Veezara rushed over to his mother's wolf who was whining non-stop as she thrashed about uncontrollably on the ground as she

    started to transformed back. She knelt down so he was level with her head and lay it on his lap. He looked down as the wolfish snout

    began shrinking into a reptilian nose and her eyes began to turn into their normal shade of red with vertical black pupils. She had

    tears in her eyes as she continued to thrash about when she became more reptilian. 

     

    Her yelps and whines turned into screams of agony and her twitching slowed down somewhat but did not stop. Veezara had to turn

    Ocheeva on her side to prevent her from swallowing any vomit that she would have had excavated from her mouth. He also had to

    keep her from swallowing her tongue. She would have, but there was no need as she came around shortly after her dreadful

    transformation back. 

     

    Her eyes refocused as the world swam back into view. Veezara beamed down at her,

    "Hi, how are you feeling?" He asked.

     

    Ocheeva clapped her hand to her forehead before trying, unsuccessfully, to stand up and plopping down again,

    "Ow, my head." She moaned, "What happened?" Veezara told his mother to settle down. He then asked her what she remembers,

    "Well, I remember ripping of my leather skinsuit and then everything went black for a while and then I was in your lap looking up at

    you." She said, caressing his face with her hand.

    She looked down at her nude reptilian form and escused herself while she went inside and got a new suit to replace her torn one.

    Veezara turned to Nazeem with a raised eyebrow,

    "Two questions, one, why didn't her leather armor stay in one piece or even on her body as she transformed from lizard to wolf and

    two, just how did the Argonian become a werewolf?" He asked, counting out the qustions on two clawed fingers.

     

    Nazeem shook his head as Ocheeva appeared once more, outfitted in a new suit of skintight clothing. He asked her the same two

    questions, except with the proper pronoun. She held her hand up and told him she will answer them another time. Nazeem ushered

    the two to the side by the sanctuary door. The redguard looked at them with a mix of excitement and dismay,

    "You two!" He turned to Ocheeva and Veezara, they jumped as if his finger were a white hot poker. "You two will join Tulen on the

    pursuit of Arnbjorn as the rest of you." He scanned the crowd, "will continue with the, er, wolf effigies." He said in a choked voice.

    Nazeem did say, however, he had to either repair the noosed 'wolves' or find ingredients to make new ones.

     

    Ocheeva nudged Veezara in the ribs and jolted her head to the left,

    "Veezara, let's leave this lot," she gestured to the crowd surrounding the pool while Nazeem summoned rope seemingly out of

    nowhere and he picked up the water-logged effigies and attached them to the uprighted wooden crosses again. "and find Tulen,

    shall we?"

     

    Veezara was busy training on the dummies when Ocheeva came up behind him and pointed to Veezara, whose hands were thrust

    deep into his pockets,

    "Come on son, we should join Tulen and begin our 'training' session." She said, wearing an evil grin.

     

    Veezara put a hand up and pointed to an argonian who was slashing wildly at his dummy,

    "Who is that? A newcomer? He gestured to his mother, cocking his head in his direction."

     

    Ocheeva eyed him with loving interest, her heart seemed to skip a beat,

    "I don't know, but Xuth, what a tall glass of Argonian ale that one is." she said, trying to still her heart and slow her rapid

    breathing.

     

    Veezara turned to his mother a eyed her malicously,

    "Kaoc! Mother, how old are you?"

     

    She appeared to not have heard him, so he answered for her,

    "You are old enough to be his grandmother, not his lover, you saggy eggsac!" Ocheeva heard this retort of pure malice and slapped

    Veezara hard in the face. 

    "Veezara, the hist wtaches us all so watch what you say to your mother, hssss!

     

    The Argonian smell a new scent on the air and came over to them. He shook Veezara's hand as they both introduced themselves and

    the Argonian gestured to his mother,

    "Mere-Glim, may I introduce Ocheeva; Ocheeva, this." He said, pointed to the muddy green Argonian, "is Mere-Glim he was raised

    in-" Ocheeva's heart was beating in her ears and this made it nearly impossible to her what her brother was saying as she only had

    eyes for the Argonian newcomer.

    The Argonian bowed so low that his chocolate spines nearly touched the ground,

    "Greetings Ocheeva, I am Mere-Glim, you can call me Glim or Wuthilul," He paused and added, "Er, whichever you prefer."

     

    She smiled at him and chuckled a bit,

    "Mere-Glim is fine by me." She said, blushing

     

    Ocheeva sat down on a rock and instructed Mere-Glim to do the same, he did so. Ocheeva asked Mere-Glim where he was born and

    why and how he came to Skyrim. She also wanted to know why he joined the newly formed sect of silver hand assassins. He said he

    was about to ask the latter three questions of her as well.

     

     

    He answered her questions first as his tail twitched behind him,

    "Well, I was born in the city of Lilmoth near Murkmire. I came to Skyrim by boat from the Murkmire harbor. I came to Skyrim

    because I wanted to avenge my father's death." He said as he got up from the rock and paced around. "He got a bounty on his head

    due to him refusing a dark brotherhood contract." Mere-Glim sighed, "They killed him because he broke a tenet of the brotherhood. I

     

    know the tenenets are old hat in the Skyrim dark brotherhood. In Black Marsh, though, the tenets are still in effect in the Black

    Marsh dark brotherhood. It is that guild that turns out shadowscales regularly.  As for the last question, I joined this sect of silver

    hand assassins because my cousin was killed by a werewolf and I wanted to get revenge against those disgusting creatures."

    Ocheeva gulped and started to sink behind the rock. How could she tell him that she is a werewolf? If she did, she feared he would

    run away from him. She paused and told herself that was crazy. She told him why she came to Skyrim and that she had to leave

    Cyrodiil to escape what was called the purification, which  was a law that the emperor put down ever since he found out that a

    werewolf was running the legally sanctioned assassination sanctuary. His creased his forehead at her asked why he would do that.

    Ocheeva said it was because she contracted lycanthropy during one of her contracts she had to take on for Lucien Lachance. She

    hung her head and told the male Argonian that she was no longer welcomed back to the sanctuary.

     

    She looked sideways at him and shrugged again,

    "I decided to come here because a courier from the Black Horse Courier message company, which is the main mail service in

    Cyrodiil, rode up the my house one night and handed me a flyer saying 'Are you a skilled werewolf hunter? have a strong dislike of

    the supernatural? If so, the newly formed silver hand assassins would more than likely be up your alley'."

     

    She sighed, patted her legs with her claw hands,

    "So, I came here, not only to start life anew but also to be with my own kind."

     

    Mere-Glim looked aghast at this, mouth agape,

    "But, erm, but," He stammered, "if you are a werewolf, than why join a guild of werewolf hunters?"

     

    She sighed rather mournfully,

     "Koac! Mere-Glim you are such an eggsac." She took a deep breath, "I, a werewolf, have joined a guild of werewolf hunters for a

    chance to meet my grandson again." 

     

    Mere-Glim scratched his head, trying to grasp this, however hard he tried, he couldn't,

    "By Sithis, old woman, that does not make sense. this sect, as I understand, battle the hounds of Hircine. This is just bonkers." He

    sighed, shaking his head.

     

    Ocheeva nodded understandably and said that it does seem a little bit crazy. She turned to Mere-Glim and smiled, patting his

    shoulder,

    "I would love to chat more on the subject but I've got to get back to Nazeem, see you." She said smiling as she waved goodbye."

     

    He got up and returned the gestured and went back to the pond, produced a short bow, and started firing arrows into the 'wolf's'

    chest. Ocheeva got to the redguard who was waiting in front of the passage to the black door. She gave a sheepish smile when she

    saw he, Tulen and Veezara were watching her with their arms crossed and scowls on their faces. 

     

    Her eyes narrowed as she glared at his, fangs bared,

    "What are you three staring at?" She asked, outraged

     

    The three of them waggled their fingers at her and Nazeem shook his head,

    "You're late. Your training started thirty minutes ago! Where were you?"

     

    Ocheeva started to speak but Nazeem cut her short,

    "By the divines, I don't care where you were." He said indifferently. "Get your tails in gear and go train, damnit!" He yelled, slapping

    their rears once at a time.

     

    Arnbjorn gulped hard and groaned, "Oh divines, please no." He said, shaking his head. The gears which were coated in cobwebs

    started turning in his head as his eyes expanded in size and took to his heels, not caring if the trio of argonians was following him or

    not. He just wanted to get the hell out of there.