D.K.R Year 6 Alpha Part 7 Fort of the Black Hand

• Posted by Hasir November 19, 2021 - Filed in TSC: CB Story - #TSC: Long Story  #Hasir  #C.O.T.W  - 2,772 views

  

   

  Ocheeva looked up at him and nodded slowly,

  "I know that, Hasir smiled, getting from where he sat, "It is decided then. We, both of us," Hasir said, gesturing from himself to Ocheeva,

  "will find and kill Shaleez." Hasir looked frightfully at his grandmother as her face twisted into an expression very different from her usual 

  carefree expression; one that made Hasir's scales itch. 

   

  Hasir asked where Shaleez went after she left the dark brotherhood sanctuary. The elderly Argonian merely shrugged, her face

  softening again. She did not know where she had gone but only had a few educated guesses. She sat silent for a long while until she

  finally plucked a plausible idea from the sea of thought. She told Hasir she thought that the female shadowscale will have headed out

  for an island far north-west of Cyrodiil.

   

  Hasir raised an eyebrow and chuckled,

  "Shaleez on Skyrim? That's absurd! Ocheeva, I mean, Argonians are, well, erm... cold blooded so I guess she will be just fine." He

  finished lamely. Ocheeva instantly stood up and proceeded to walk past Hasir, past a row of houses and out into the great forest via

  the city's north-eastern gate. The young Argonian got up and followed his grandmother's scent and soon found himself outside in the

  great forest.

   

  Hasir sniffed the air for confirmation to where Ocheeva went. The scaly six year old Argonian found Ocheeva run up the dirt road

  toward an old fort at the top of an unseen hill. frantically, he ran after her shouting,

  "Ocheeva, hey Ocheeeva, where are you going?" He asked, trying to shout above the buzzing insects and the wind whistling through

  the trees of the forest. He backed up a few feet and looked up the hill where the female Argonian was headed and saw an old, disued

  fort that looked like it was used as a heavily fortified Imperial fort some time ago; its battlements were worn and most of the once

  magnificent entrance was buried by earth. 

   

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ocheeva round the bend as she ascended higher on the dirt road that lead into the fort.

  Hasir tried his best not to give anything away, least for all the fact that he was following Ocheeva's every step. As soon as he saw

  Ocheeva grab the fort door. She seemed to pull its metal hand but thought on something else and went over to a cut away tree

  trunk with a manhole cover concealing something from view. Hasir thought this was particularly odd behavior, even for Ocheeva,

  whom he had only met some hours ago. 

   

  He proceeded up the hill not to the fort but to the tree trunk he had seen Ocheeva disappear into seconds earlier. Hasir was

  wondering if he had to say some secret passphrase like in the Cheydinhal sanctuary, he spoke several different phrases that sprang

  up in his mind, nothing worked so he simply moved the manhole cover and slipped inside.

   

  Hasir gasped as he decended the rope ladder, hopping down the last few feet before landing on the lightest of feet in the massive

  room. Hasir's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open as he saw a table with two chairs neatly pushed up against it, a desk sat on

  the far wall and a massive banner with a stylized black hand on an offwhite banner with intricate black swirls around the banners

  edges in the middle of the wall adjacent to the door, which reminded Hasir of a Cheydinhal door cut in half. 

   

  He looked around and saw Ocheeva rifling through the drawers of the desk. His tail became cradled between his legs and he knew

  what Ocheeva was doing. She was trying to find evidence of Shaleez's purpose of heading off to Skyrim. He inched slowly closer to

  Ocheeva, fearing any backlash should she be interrupted, tapped her on the shoulder after seeing the Argonian remove an old

  journal from the elongated front drawerr from the wooden desk; she coughed, because of the dust plume and opened it. 

   

  Hasir cleared his throat noisily hoping to catch her ateention; she did not acknowledge him or turn around, he tried again,

  "Ocheeva, er, what... are you doing?" He asked, a sheepish grin strewn across his face

   

  Hasir never saw any old man, mer or beast move so fast in his life; she gave a startled cry and turned to Hasir, pumping the desk

  and almost made the journal skid sideways of the desk,

  "Oh, Hasir, you startled me...er, what do you want?" She asked, eyes wide with fright

   

  The Argonian said that he was just curious if she found anything pertaining to Shaleez. Ocheeva nodded and pushed the book

  toward Hasir who caught it like it was a fish; It read The Renegade Shadowscale. He cracked the book open and began to read,

  "Through my many travels in Tamriel I have never seen such a gifted student in the arts of stealth and death as Shaleez. I, Lucien

  Lachance found this young hatchling in the Argonian city of Gideon, under a strange tree that all the odd houses were built around,

  her parents gone and no other caretakers visible, I took her and trained her in the sacred arts of assassination."

   

  He looked at Ocheeva, brow furrowed, pointed to the book, face screwed up in disgust,

  "Hsss, Ocheeva, this is a piece of flesh fly dung, I mean it doesn't even tell me where Shaleez went."

   

  Ocheeva beckoned for the book and opened it to a predetermined page as if she memorized the whole book by heart. While she

  read, Hasir began feeling hungry; his eyes roved around the roam when they fell on a barrel sitting in the corner of the room. Hasir

  got up, moved across the room to the barrel and lifted the lid. His mouth watered as he saw about twenty apples; red and green.

  Hasir scooped all of the apples out of the barrel anbd placed them, one by one, into his bag; thinking they were safe to eat.

   

  He removed one from his bag and, mouth watering like a faucet, bit into the apple. Ocheeva heard this, shut the book, leapt towards

  Hasir and forcibly took the apple from his clawed hand, She looked at him with a stern expression on her face and chastized him

  harshly,

  "By Sithis, Hasir, what in Oblivion do you think you're doing?" Hasir shrugged. She opened his bag and laid the apples on the ground

  and picked one up, "Do you have any idea what these are? What they can do to you?"

   

  Again the Argonian shrugged; Ocheeva picked up a couple of apples and began pelting him in the face with them,

  "You. Stupid. Reptile. These. Are. Poisoned. Apples." As she said each word, she pelted him with an apple

   

  Hasir yelped and tried to slow the barrage of apples by holding his arms in front of his face. Hasir silently munched an apple as he

  watched Ocheeva display her rage, chuckling to himself,

  Hasir... are you eating one of the apples when I told you what they were?" He quickly shook his head; Ocheeva, however was not

  convinced and told him to open his mouth. Hasir hid the bits of apple under his tongue as he showed Ocheeva the great empty

  cavern of his mouth, "See? nothing, you worry to much Ocheeva, I was merely... testing the rigidity of the apple and I was then

  intending to throw it on the floor to reunite it with its family." 

   

  Ocheeva shook her head in disgust,

  "Hasir, you are an idiot, hssss." As she said this, she slapped her grandson on his cheek and went back over to the desk to proceed

  with the journal. Hasir gulped and went back over to the desk as well; his face broke out into a painful grimace when he realized he

  shallowed the poisoned apple. He tapped Ocheeva on the shoulder and told her that he shallowed a poisoned apple; she covered her

  face with her hand and told Hasir that all Argonians have a natural resistance to poison.

   

  Hasir said he knew that, which was obviously a lie. He went over to the apples strewn across the floor from the desk end to the

  barrel and began gathering them up when he heard Ocheeva shriek in delight; he turned and asked the female Argonian why she

  was so mirthful, "Hasir, I may have found it, right here," She said as she brought the open book over to him, "it says that Shaleez is

  indeed a member of another organization, hmmm... it is called the Silver Hand." Her brow furrowed, "Funny, I don't remeber hearing

  about such an organization."

   

  Hasir's eyes went wide as realization dawned on him,

  "Ocheeva, bring that book." He said, pointing towards the book on the desk, "I have a horrible idea about all of this, I have a funny

  feeling in my scales this has something to do with Molag Bal." Ocheeva chuckled and she exited the fort, the Argonian scrambled up

  the rope ladder afterward.

   

  When out in the forest, Ocheeva sped off on a horse Lucien gave her towards the harbor in the city of Anvil, toward the city's harbor

  to book passage for Skyrim. Hasir went with her only to part ways as two ships appeared at the port, one black and gold manned by

  a golden reptilian native of Akavir and the other, a version of ships commonly found on Skyrim with a male Argonian whom Hasir

  had seen before. With a final word of farewell, each ship went its own way, one to Skyrim and the other to Akavir.