The dunmer dropped their Argonian baggage with loud thumps at their feet. Hasir felt Nerethi hold him over his head and slam him a
bit too hard on the deck of the ship. He let out a great yelp of pain as his rear end bounced painfully off of the wooden surface. The
dunmer captor did not so much as lend help to the poor Argonian at his feet; as a matter of fact, he seemed to be relishing it.
Hasir looked up and hissed irritably as he rubbed his bruised backside,
"Hsss! What was that for?" he asked, narrowing his eyes rather dangerously at the dunmer, "You fucking moron, do you have it in
for me or something?"
Nerethi did not answer but sniggered to himself as he walked past him; not bothering to loosen or even cut Hasir free of his leathery
cage. Hasir cast around him to see the states of his comrades; they faired little better than he did. Hasir sat still as a statue as
Nerethi walked back towards him wielding his sliver blade again. He heard Nerethi's voice flow from inside the captain's quarters,
which lay within a few inches where the Argonians lay. He could hear him stop and talking to a figure hidden by a thick oak door.
Hasir tried to position himself so as to listen to this conversation more easily; to his dismay, however, the ropes holding
him restricted his movement so he just lay there listening.
Nerethi did a quick salute to the hidden figure,
"What brings you here sir? I was told to bring the slaves here sir." He surveyed the man's eyes, which remained resolute
He shook his head as though he thought up something Nerethi was not privy to,
"No, we have too many slaves here at the moment," He encircled Nerethi while eying him with purpose, "My brother, Duke Vedam
Dren of Ebonheart informed me that the surplus slaves, " He gestured toward the four bound Argonians in answer to Nerethi's vacant
expression. "are to be sent to work in a diamond mine just outside of Caldera called Abaelun Diamond Mine."
The dunmer slaver squealed in fright. The second voice asked him what was the matter. He said that the slaves that got sent there
seldom returned; they were ravaged by continuous disease and in-fighting among the slaves. He then asked the second occupant
of the cabin about the Ministry of Truth.
The second gravely voice told Nerethi that they had stopped sending slaves to the floating 'moon' over Vivec city because of their
constant bids of escape and increased riots that happened there.
Hasir did not listen any further to the two way conversation. He strained against his bonds as he tried to cut the netting around him.
After two hours of many futile attempts and many angry hisses and curses, he finally managed to cut a large enough hole in the
thick chitin chords to scamper through.
The Argonian struggled to his feet, clearing the scent of woodgrain from his nostrils and started cutting the other nets holding the
teenaged Argonian and Hasir's aunt and uncle.
The door to the captian's quarters flew open and a dunmer who Hasir did not recognize stood shoulder to shoulder with the person
who, Hasir had no idea why, had an extreme level of hatred for him. Hasir looked loathingly back and uttered a low, soft growl.
Nerethi lunged at Hasir and clamped his gnarled grey hands around his scaly snout,
"Don't you growl at me you worthless dog." He said, kicking Hasir hard in his stomach; causing the Argonian to groan and crumple
to the ground, grasping his bruised stomach.
Hasir looked at Nerethi indignantly,
"Why do you hate me more than the other slaves?" He coughed, spitting up blood, trying his best to aim for Nerethi's shoes.
Nerethi shrieked, leapt out of the way and smacked Hasir hard on the cheek, forcing him to hiss again. Nerethi knelt down and
pressed the silver dagger into his neck, forcing Hasir to yell even more as he could feel the silver burning his scales. Hasir pleaded
for Nerethi to stop; the dunmer did not stop, however, quite the opposite in fact as he seemed to increase the pressure on Hasir's
neck causing Hasir to scream and kick out in agony.
Nerethi frowned mockingly which made Hasir question his motives,
"Does the dog need a healer?" He waved his hand dismissively, "Well, tough shit, now get down into the hold with the rest of your
Argonian filth or shall I use the silver dagger again?" He said, gesturing to the door with his finger, "Now go and don't you think of
escaping, at least not until we reach Caldera harbor."
Hasir screwed his face up at this,
"Why? What's there?" He asked incredulously
Nerethi raised the dagger in the air as if he were going to stab Hasir again, the Argoonian did not so much as flinch,
"How dare you speak out of turn lizard." He threatened, running at the Argonian, silver dagger raised in the air
Hasir saw this coming a split second before it actually happened and sidestepped out of the way, causing Nerethi to crash into the
ship's mast. The argonian smiled to himself as he knew his uncle would be proud if he were up here instead of in a cage down in the
ship's hold cold and alone. He thought more on this and realized that Argonians were warm-blooded reptile folk so he would not be
cold and the fact that Drujeeta was in the same cage would mean he most certainly would not be alone. His one worry was that if
the dunmer who had captured them were down there then they would most likely be cowering before the weapons of the dunmer.
Hasir knew what he has to do, approached the trapdoor and passed through it.
Once back in the ship's hold, Hasir saw Drujeeta and Juleen somehow had suffered two black eyes between them and several cuts on
their green faces. Hasir tore his eyes from this grotesque sight and was relieved to see that Khash was unharmed. He failed to
survey the whole hold, however as four figures crouched in the shadowy corner by the hay pile where the prisoners had hidden two
of the guards hours before and lunged, eyes red and teeth bared, hungry for some reptilian flesh. Sensing this, Hasir stepped
sideways and the four dunmer flew passed him and skidding to a halt; their fingernails digging into the wood floor.
Hasir looked up and saw, through the minute cracks on the wall of the ship. Light from a single, solitary silver eye in the sky suffuse
the ship; filling ever crevice of it and flooding Hasir's senses. He fell to all fours unable to fight the moon's influence and let out a
scream of pain that quick turned into a yelp as his body underwent the transformation from Argonian to wolf. Hasir's soul split into
two equally angry werewolves: one white and one black. Long, thin strands of saliva dripped from the wolves' bared fangs as they
uttered a deep growl as the dunmer got up to their full height. The werewolves ran at the dumer and began biting and slashing
every bit of flesh they could reach. the Argonians looked on; totally clueless that the two wolves in the hold with them, the ones
fighting the dunmer, was Hasir.
One dunmer told the others to split up and that that would make it a more 'even' fight. The dunmer broke off, sparing against their
new enemy. Frost and Bloodfang swiped at the dunmer knocking them unconscious. Nerethi barged into the room, shocked to see
his cohorts on the ground, unconscious, The dunmer slaver leader saw his silver whip, picked it up and brought the whip up in an
upward arc and brought it down on the black wolf's head.
The white wolf heard a yelp as he smelled fresh, hot blood that had started oozing out of a huge gash on his head, just above the
left ear and ran to his ailing friend's aid. He tried licking the wound. Nerethi laughed at this futile attempt to help the injured wolf.
The white wolf rounded on the slaver who was just about to whip the black wolf again.
Frost forced the dunmer to drop the silver whip, which landed on the floor with a clang, as he scurried across the floor towards the
wooden of the ship, he could see the white wolf growling and baring his teeth at him. The wolf gnashed his teeth furiously as he
franctially tried to get at the dunmer, who had kept the wolf at bay with an outstretched leg.
Frost still heard Bloodfang's pitiful whimpers as he redoubled his efforts to get to the dunmer; finally after many attempts and
failures and a cry of pain from Nerethi, the white wolf forced his way past the barrier and attempted to bite the dunmer on any bit of
flesh he could reach. Nerethi braced for the worst when he look over his shoulder at a hole and saw orangish-yellow light permeate
the room. He glance back over to where the White wolf stood moments befor and noticed that both he and the black wolf had gone;
in there place lay the Argonian
Hasir staggered over to Juleen's cage which was situated next to his wife's cage and across the room from Khash's. Hasir was about
to explain the fact that the dunmer slavers actually thought him an escaped slave but upon opening the door, he passed out in
Juleen's arms and fell asleep.
