Around three in the morning, Drujeeta and Juleen roused Milsha, Neesh and Tulen from their peaceful slumber and ushered them out
the door. As an afterthought, they grabbed the fur cocoon, placed the hatchling inside it and left the hut with their children trailing
after them like sleepy but obedient puppies; Drujeeta unlocked the pen next to the hut, got four packguars and loaded them up with
the provisions for the trip.
Tulen sniffed the air and covered his nose with a clawed hand,
"Urgh! By Sithis, Milsha, if you need to let one rip, you should let us know first." He said with the effort of not breathing it in.
Milsha looked back at him and laughed,
"Trust me if I did it, you would have heard it." she said, narrowing her eyes dangerously at him
Drujeeta looked at her kids and up at the sky and frowned,
"Will you calm down for Sithis' sake? She asked her daughter complete with a nasty look. She looked up at the sky and sighed, "No
one let one rip, it's... the sky, it... hasn't been the same since the plague."
The kids stopped and fixed their aunt and uncle with perplexed looks,
"What plague? We didn't hear about a plague." They said together
Juleen slowed and pulled them aside into the brush that lined the path,
"Long ago, before you, your aunt or even I were even hatched, there was a terrible plague that swept the continent. It killed
many inhabitants of ancient Argonia; the An-Xileel, the ruling body at the time had advisors from all the tribes of Argonia. The
remnants of those tribes are honored in our tribes today. Some theories circled amongst the Saxhleel are that one of the
council's advisors had locked himself away in one of the stone pyramids where he had set up an extensive alchemy station in it.
Some think he created the plague that ravaged the region of Blackmarsh."
He looked at his nephews and neice and scoffed,
"This 'theory' of course is a bunch of fleshfly dung, I think the only one who caused this plague was the one they call stone fire, or if you
want to use the name we Argonians have taken to calling him; Norg-Greel, or forbidden enemy." He scanned each of his brother's
hatchlings in turn, "May anyone who speaks his name be cut off from the Hist for all time.
The hatchlings gasped and asked their uncle why they had to hurry. He turned and hissed, in a low voice that Argonians do not
develop gills, poison and disease resistances until they are much older. Tulen, Drujeeta and Juleen are the only safe ones because all
their facilities were intact whereas the hatchlings did not yet have access to them. They took their uncle's stone-walled expression as
a sign to keep moving, lest the young hatchlings succumb to the poisonous air.
Silently, they made their way to the Murkmire harbor to charter one of their ships dubbed the Marsh Warrior. The harbormaster, a
green scaled Argonian they had never seen before boarded the ship and helped them aboard. He helped them load their four guars
into the covered rear of the ship with all their provisions they had packed for the trip. They had boarded the ship and they were off
toward their new home.
The ship's captain, An Argonian named Waxluthil, repositioned the bow so it was pointing toward their new destination. The captain
thought it best to bring them to his home village in Southern Cyrodiil. They needed to inform the Argonians that resided there about
what happened in Stormhold. The sea was rough but the captain knew how to maneuver his craft through three foot tall waves and
squalls that threatened to overturn the ship. The youngest of the argonian children was fast asleep in his basket.
Milsha got up from her seat and went over to Drujeeta, a copper scaled female argonian with a blood red hooded robe and tugged
at her robe, "Mom, I'm really hungry." Milsha moaned.
She waved absent-mindedly toward the stairwell leading down into the ship's hold.
"Milsha, we stocked vials of blood in the galley before we disembarked. That will sate your hunger for the time being while shielding
you from the sun's harmful rays."
The girl bounded down the stairs and found the collection of the blood vials and drank one. She was satisfied and probably wouldn't
need blood for three more days. With her hunger satisfied, She went back topside. The little lizard in the basket gave
a screech. Neesh heard this and jumped, "What was that?"
Drujeeta looked up from the basket and whispered to him as the the small Argonian's ears were still sensitive.
"Neesh, he just yawned, calm down and go back to your seat." Drujeeta reassured him.
Drujeeta bent down and picked up the basket. She placed it between her legs for the added security. She saw the green Argonian
with chocolate spines moving towards her, beaming.
"Greetings beeko. My name is Waxluthil, who is this little bundle of joy?" The Argonian asked as he looked down at the basket
Drujeeta and Juleen looked at each other and shrugged,
"Dunno, we have not given him one yet."
Waxluthil groaned heavily and slammed his tail down hard causing the two Argonians to squeal in fright.
"By the hist, you haven't given him a name yet?" He said, realizing the anger threatening to overwhelm him like a swarm of mosquitos. He
took a few deep breaths to try and quell that anger, "Well, I am sure you'll think of something soon."
Waxluthil and the other two Argonians thought for a while. They looked at the hatchling, who was trying to grab his tail which was
constantly eluding him.
Waxluthil looked at the small Argonian and bared his teeth in a, hopefully genuine smile.
"By the hist, his tail won't sit still." He said, sniggering
An idea came to Juleen just then about the name,
"I know, how about Hasir?"
Both Drujeeta and Waxiluthi smiled at this and said it was the perfect name for the little hatchling laying just feet from them. Juleen
informed Waxiluthil that before they go to Blackwood, they had to take care of a few things in the Vivec marketplace first.
Waxluthil smiled and nodded. He went back to the helm, thought of something and turned around.
"Please, Waxluthil is my Blackmarsh name, call me Mere-Glim or Glim from this point forward okay? That is the name my fellow
Blackwoodites call me, so why don't you start calling me that too?"
Mere-Glim went back to the helm and sped the ship on to Vivec city. The ship reached Vivec city by quarter past three in the
afternoon. The Argonians stared in awe at the cream-colored cantons with bridges connecting them together. At the city's center was
a giant palace jutting skyward out of the sea floor. The palace had several waterfalls that supplied water to the palace with four
levels of overflow. Juleen's jaw dropped when he saw all the stone steps that descended from the palace.
Neesh pointed to the giant rock that was floating in the sky.
"What is that, father? Kinda seems unnatural to have a rock float." He asked
Juleen shot a stern look over at his daughter.
"Neesh, it it rude to point." He snapped back at her.
Neesh sat on one of the ship's benches and frowned. Drujeeta got up from her seat and comforted the small argonian, all the while
glaring at her husband as if he made some grave mistake.
Drujeeta told Neesh that rock is called the Ministry of Truth. While Drujeeta was explaining about the floating rock, Hasir was kicking in the
furs, trying to uncover his head so he could look at what everyone else was looking at. After succeeding and failing five times in as many
minutes, he finally succeeded in removing his fur covering. He squinted as the sun peaked over the palace district in the sandstone-like
city of Vivec.
He screamed in pain as the sun's rays burned his eyes. Drujeeta rummaged in her bag for a remedy.
"I have the means of soothing your eye pain, little one." Drujeeta took a small dropper of water and put a few drops on his
eyeballs. He hissed appreciatively. "Your eyes are still very sensitive."
"Children, the sun is bearing down on us, we should go ashore and find some shade." With that said, he requested to Quinchal that
they should stop for the day because the kids are getting restless. Mere-Glim acknowledged and moored the ship in the Vivec harbor.
The argonians disembarked with Drujeeta carrying the infant Argonian. Hasir began kicking and fussing inside his fur cocoon.
"What do you want little one?" She looked where Hasir was looking, "Oh, you want to go into the water?"
Hasir started grabbing for the water while clapping and giggling excitedly. Drujeeta lowered him into the water,
"I will put you in the water while I hold onto you so you can feel the cool water on your scales."
Hasir swam, well, splashed in the water for about fifteen minutes while she held him at waist level. She had taken off the bundle of
furs, rolled them up and put them on the platform near the Vivec temple and hopped in also, the water was refreshing, not only to him,
but, she felt particularly invigorated by it. She swam as she used her tail as a rudder all while the baby argonian sat on her back.
When she was done feeling revitalized by the water, she swam to the edge, got out, walked over to the cart and placed Hasir down in
it, then she grabbed the bundle of furs, unrolled them and wrapped them around the little argonian. The cart which her children sat
in was brought from Blackmarsh. It was packed with food for their trip to Blackwood.
When they had reached their destination, the argonian children got out and, together, they all went up the steps to the palace plaza
where they beheld seven stalls, Drujeeta and Juleen passed clothiers, traders, and healers until they came to a smith who was
working his forge. Nearby was a rack with spears, longswords, halberds and bows.
Juleen approached the smith but the smith started to back away because she thought he was an escaped slave. He even started to
call for the ordinators. Juleen had to lightly shake him while saying he was not an escaped slave. He said that he, his wife and
children came here from Blackmarsh to escape a plague that was enveloping it. The smith considered this when the argonian told
the man that they are considering a new home and needed supplies.
Juleen smiled, but to the shopkeeper the smile was mistaken for a malicious sneer,
"Sir, I would like five ebony daggers, an ebony longsword, and two ebony bows with matching arrows please."
The shopkeeper was unsure whether Juleen wanted to do business with him or eat him. Juleen reassured the dunmer he will not be
eaten. The shopkeeper's body relaxed from the overly tense posture he had just seconds before. He said it would be one hundred
and forty septims. Juleen gave the shopkeeper the money. The shopkeeper gladly accepted the gold and handed over the weapons.
With weapons in hand, the Argonian went over to his wife who was browsing the potions the that alchemist had for sale. She saw shelves
full of potions spanning the wall behind the apotecary. She had a similar experience as Juleen. She asked the apothecary what potions he
had.
The shopkeeper told her what he had in his inventory,
"We have every kind of potion you could possibly imagine."
Drujeeta said that she would take six blood potions." The alchemist looked at her like she had six heads. "What do you think we
are? a blood bank? Go bother someone else, vampire." The shopkeeper snapped back. Drujeeta's tail thumped down hard on the
floor making the stall owner jump in fright. "well, who would have blood potions then?" She snarled.
The shopkeeper said if she didn't go quietly, she would call the guards. The Argonian swore under her breath and proceeded further
down the row of stalls until he came to a dimly lit corner of the trade plaza. Juleen approached the stall and saw that it had red
candles lining the entire table with various red pentagrams and shrines surrounding the little stall.
A sign above the stall said sixth house goods for sale including pentagram making materials, blood potions and necromancy wares.
The male manning the stall was a pale faced dunmer wearing robes unlike anything Drujeeta had ever seen. The robes were black
with ornamental red clothes draped over them, then finished with intricate golden symbols.
The shopkeeper greeted her; gesturing to a plethora of the forbidden paraphernali behind him,
"Greetings, argonian, to my stall of forbidden magics. My name is Hanarai Assutlanipal. What is it that you seek? necromancy
supplies? potions? dodads for the dark arts?" Drujeeta said she would like six blood potions. The dunmer went over to a table in the
corner, on which sat bottles filled with various liquids. Hanarai ran his long, bony finger along each shelf, muttering to himself as he
looked. At last he found six blood potions in the back of the assortment of potions.
He walked over and placed them on the counter,
"Here we are, six blood potions." He held out a grey hand, "Ten gold please." Drujeeta handed over the gold and took the blood potions.
Drujeeta put the potions in her leather bag. Drujeeta and Juleen walked out of the plaza and into the canton. The kids saw them
and the argonian gave their kids three of the four iron daggers and three blood potions. Hasir clapped for joy as he saw his mother.
She produced a bottle with a rubber nipple from her bag, poured the potion into the bottle and handed it to Hasir. With everyone
satisfied, they boarded the ship to continued their journey to Cyrodiil.
