D.K.R. Year 1 Fledgling Part 2 Blackwood Bound

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    Mere-Glim smiled warmly as he piloted the boat through the rough waters they had hit after left the small island behind. The waves

    constantly bashing the sides of the boat did nothing to darken the Argonian's mood. He was just happy he can show his home to

    another Argonian who is not his brother, mother or father. 

     

    As he piloted to ship, Neesh and Milsha were talking animatedly with their mother. Tulen was sitting alone in the back of the

    canopied portion of the Marsh Warrior. He never felt like he belonged to this family of Argonians. Even as a hatchling he felt isolated

    from other Argonians. He never thought of Drujeeta or Juleen as his parents nor the two young Argonians his egg-brother and sister.

    He just didn't share the same interests as the others did. He put his head in his hands as he thought that someday his real mother

    and father would take him away from this ill-gotten family and would live happily-ever-after in Blackmarsh somewhere. Even if his

    brain believed it, both his heart and intuition knew the truth; they did not exist. They said that he was living in a fairytale if he did

    believe it were true. Tulen sighed as he resigned himself to forever call these Argonians mom and dad. 

     

    Mere-Glim maneuvered his craft with expert skill barely running aground on the sandbars that would pop up here and there. Juleen

    walked over to an icebox he had brought aboard the boat, opened it and extract four succulent cyrodiilic long fin he had caught

    while on the island. He cooked them using the heat from the boat's motor and put them on square wooden plates he and Drujeeta

    had brought with them amongst other cookery items. He served Drujeeta a whole fish and placed it in front of her; she thanked him

    by kissing him on the cheek, Juleen turned red as a tulip. The next fish he cut in half and likewise placed the fish on wooden plates

    and handed them to Neesh and Milsha; immediately after doing this, he regretted it right away because they started fighting whose

    piece was bigger. 

     

    Juleen sat between them andd told them that each person got an equal share and that there is to be no fighting in front of their

    guest. Their tails drooped,

    "We're sorry dad, we will try to handle our disagreements in a more grownup manner, like conversing with one another rather than

    biting each others' heads off." Hearing this, Juleen chuckled and ruffled their leaf-like hair.

     

    Julleen finished handing out the cooked fish and soon everyone fell asleep on their respective benches. Juleen walked to where

    Drujeeta sat and fell asleep, letting his tail wrap about her waist. Drujeeta tried to stay awake but failed miserably as she felt her

    eyelids drooping. Mere-Glim kept on piloting the boat throughout the night. 

    The Argonians stirred as pale yellow lights assaulted their eyes. Drujeeta and Juleen stretched and nearly fell of the bench as they

    saw Mere-Glim standing in front of them with a wooden tray filled with two bowls of Aojee-Sakka, eggs, three fish filets, two cups of

    a wine the Argonians had never seen before,

    "Good morning my fine Argonians." He said as he set the tray between the two confused Argonians. They looked at it skeptically and

    asked the grinning Argonian if all this food was for them. The Argonian shook his head, placed a wooden plate of fish fillets and a

    bowl of the poisonous frog soup near them and poured two wooden cups full of the wine. 

     

    The Argonians looked curiously at the wine,

    "Ermm, what is this, it looks like kwama dung." They said, picking it up with disgusted looks on their faces. Mere-Glim said that

    his brother from Blackmarsh made it for him. He said his brother called it the White-Gold tower, named after the tower that stretches

    skyward from the Imperial palace. The Argonians exchanged bewildered looks at this; Mere-Glim explained that there was mead,

    lavender and dragontongue mixed in.

     

    Drujeeta and Juleen nodded in unison and lifted the cups to their lips and took small sips,

    "Xuth, Mere-Glim, this is really good. Where did your brother learn to brew drinks like this?"

     

    Mere-Glim told them that he watched his brother, Talen-Jei, make it in Blackmarsh . He lent down, grabbed the tray and went over to

    where Milsha and Neesh sat and served them each one egg each. They thanked him; he said they were welcome. He did the same

    with Tulen; except he added the remaining fish to his plate. He went back to where Dujeeta and Juleen sat,

    "Mind if I sit with you guys?" The two Argonians looked up from their meal, smiled at him and said that it was no imposition at all

    and gestured for him to sit down.

     

    Mere-Glim was about to sit when Drujeeta stuck out her hand,

    "Not there, mud for brains! Do you like the feeling of egg on your pants?" She said, gesturing to an empty section of the bench on

    her husband's right side, "We saved you a seat next to Juleen." He thanked her and moved over near Juleen, sat down and dug into

    the uneaten fish that Drujeeta had given him after she polished off the eggs. As he ate, he couldn't help but smile at the female

    Argonian,

    "Thanks, beeko, you are truly sun on my scales." He said, punching her in the shoulder

     

    When Mere-Glim finiahed his meal he went back to the front of the boat and steered the boat onwards toward Topal Bay. Around

    early afternoon, after seeing nothing but open water, Mere-Glim saw an inlet with a couple of islands inside it; His eyes lit up when

    he maneuvered the waters near his home,

     

    He looked towards the canopied section where the four Argonians sat,

    "Drujeeta, come here, I want to show you something." She jumped up, put her dish on top of her husband's plate and replaced them

    in the basket that they were found in and walked over to the chocolate-spined Argonian, "What did you what to show me?"

    He pointed towards the horizon; Drujeeta's eyes went wide as she beheld a village with mud huts scattered about the swampy

    land. She could also see numerous Argonians walking among the huts.

     

    Mere-glim told the Argonian to sit down because they would be docking soon. The dark green Argonian went to the stern, stuck his

    tail in the water and rotated it around like a propellor. The boat sped onwards toward the small village. As the village loomed closer,

    The Argonian slowed the boat down so that it did not crash into the peninsula that stuck out like a sore thumb. The boat stopped

    at a dock near the village. Mere-Glim hopped out, waded toward the dock and tied to boat to the post nearest to the village

    entrance. With the boat secured, the other Argonians disembarked, Glim helped the young Argonians step from the boat to the

    docks so that they did not misstep and fall into the mud.

     

    The Argonians walked along the dock to the village. As they walked they could smell an earthly aroma coming from a clearing

    between the huts mingled with the acrid stench of swamp water. Each Argonian, except for Mere-glim, had to plug their nose due to

    the overwhelming stench. When they got to the village, their eyes bulged as they saw Argonians sittting around a fire smoking what

    looked like a marsh reed filled with a substance that was clear only to Mere-glim; this was clearly lost on the other Argonians. 

     

    The Argonians stopped and turned to Mere-glim, who was grinning like an idiot, and asked what in Oblivion that substance was that

    they were smoking,

    "Erm, what are they doing, Glim?" Drujeeta asked him

     

    Mere-Glim seemed lost in thought, either that or he was stupified by the drug's aroma,

    "Er, what? Oh, sorry." He glanced at the two Argonians, "What you smell on the air is a drug known as Daril." He glanced over to the

    older Argonians, who looked at him like he said a filthy word, "When translated to the common tongue it means, erm, seeing

    everything in exstacy. It is poisonous to every other race except the Saxhleel because we have built up an immuinty to its

    chemicals. He laughed at their disgusted faces. 

     

    He shook his head bemusedly at their confused faces,

    "I know what you're thinking and no, we only do this for recreation." He said, chuckling, "we still lick hist sap to receive our visions.

    We have many shamans, Sap speakers we call them, that communicate with our ancestors' souls that are part of the hist to

    determine the future of our race. One sap speaker in particular learned of a rather disturbing occurence."

     

    The two Argonians craned their necks in his direction and asked what this 'strange occurence' was. Mere-Glim sat down on one of

    the six logs that encircled the firepit dug into the marshy earth where the other two Argonians sat. He glanced around at the five

    other logs where five adult Argonians sat, four of which were still sucking on the reeds.

     

    He looked away and bent his head close to Drujeeta and Juleen as well as dropping his voice so only they could hear him,

    "The Sap speaker, Among-The-Hist, saw a rather disturbing vision when he licked the hist sap the exuded from one of the five hist

    trees that surrounds his hut. Drujeeta and her husband stared into the flames while asking Mere-Glim what he saw; Mere-glim told

    them that Among-The-Hist saw two races; an Aldmer and a fellow Saxhleel participate in a marriage ceremony. He also said the sap

    speaker saw a demonic cat-like being burning the Aldmer with purple fire. 

     

    Mere-Glim told them the Among-the-Hist also saw a vision of an sword cutting into black fur; then Mere-Glim said his friend saw a

    tree dying in a far off land. Juleen asked Glim what this tree has to do with Molag Bal. Glim told the curious Argonians that he did

    not know; he did know one thing though, werewolves and vampire marriage unions were frowned upon by the creator of vampires.

    He wanted to only bred purebred vampires, not filthy vampire-lycanthrope hybrid. 

     

    Juleen looked at Mere-Glim with a sorrowful expression on her face,

    "Glim, er, mind if I call you Glim? Mere-Glim is such a mouthful." The Argonian said he did not mind. The female Argonian smiled,

    "Glim, er, this 'doom and gloom' is all well and good but when will we find out about my sister, Kassamae and her husband?" Glim

    shot daggers at both of them and said, irritably, that it was because of the unamed Argonian they fled to Hircine knows where in the

    first place. 

     

    Juleen lent froward and yelled at Mere-Glim,

    "So you are in league with him too, huh?" He said, getting up and jabbing the dark green Argonian in the chest, "What, is Molag Bal

    not good enough that you had to become his enemy's servant?" His beady eyes narrowed at the Argonian.

     

    Drujeeta stood up and held the two Argoonians an arms length away from each other,

    "Okay... one, Hircine and Molag Bal are rivals not enemies and two, we are not servants of Hircine; we follow him by our own will."

     

    She cast a seething glance at her husband, "At least our lord does not force his followers to worship him like those that follow

    Molag Bal." At this, Juleen flew into a rage and flung himself at his wife; knocking her to the ground just inches from the still burning

    fire, causing some of her hair to catch fire. They began to roll on the ground like pigs in mud, clawing at each other while spewing

    obscenities.

     

    Mere-Glim and his fellow tribesmen dived at the still wrestling Argonians and after several minutes and as many failed attempts,

    they managed to wrench each other apart; even though they kept trying to go at it,

    "Drujeeta, Juleen, stop acting like damn hatchlings and establish a common ground will you? He said incredulously

     

    He looked from one to the other, their tails drooped and they apologized for their behavior, first to each other and then to Mere-glim.

    The other Argonians stll tried to help but the dark green Argonian bade them go back to whatever they were doing previously.

    Drujeeta and Juleen said to the others that they were allowed to worship whomever they wanted. Mere-glim smiled and said that he

    was glad they were getting along and returned to the matter at hand.

     

    Just then, a freak wind blew that almost extinguished the fire like a candle in the wind. The Argonians looked at each other with

    nonplused expressions; Among-The-Hist came out of his hut and ran over past the fire to Mere-glim. In a panicked voice, he told the

    Argonians that he had a vision of a nord woman forcibly prying the souls from the hist and trapping them in a soul gem. A wave of

    cold stole over them like a wave from the sea of ghosts. They dared not think on this any further lest she become depressed;

    however, despite this unique annotation, Juleen still thought of Beela-kaar as the main problem, not Anise, whoever that was. 

     

    Mere-glim looked stunned. He had no idea that his grandfather went from being a friendly and all around nice Argonian to being

    villainized by all of Blackmarsh for crimes he did not commit. He stomped over to the fire, grabbed Juleen and shoved him backward;

    the Argonian toppled over the log and landed tail first in the swamp. Juleen gasped, rushed over to Drujeeta and helped her up. She

    walked, his clothes and shoes waterlogged, over to the log and sat down and almost slid sideways off the log. 

     

    Drujeeta stormed over to The dark green Argonian and punched him in the face, sending him face first into the dirt near the fire.

    Glim stood up, scales spattered with mud. His eyes burned with the fires of Oblivion as he bellowed and ran at the amber Argonian.

    Drujeeta side steped him; sending the mad Argonian to tumble head over heels into the swamp. 

     

    Mere-Glim got up, wiped off the swamp water and told the male Argonian off. She bent down and offered him a reed of Daril; he

    batted it away angrily watching it sink in the swampwater,

    "You know what? I don't know why I invited you, you... you... soul shriven! How dare you demonize my grandfather, making him

    into something he's not, you are no longer welcome here! Go... Now!" He bellowed at her. 

     

    One of the Argonians got up from the log he sat on, walked over to Mere-Glim and tapped him one the shoulder,

    "Glim, control your emotions, you don't want your wolf to come out prematurely, do you?" He asked, staring at Glim with beady eyes

    and a tense tail. Glim stared at the ground while his tail kicked up dirt. He swore, turned around and apologized to Drujeeta, her

    husband and her kids. He boarded the Marsh Warrior and set out for Morrowind again because of the secondary vision that the

    tribe's shaman, Among-The-Hist had that Glim did not inform the Argonians about.