Nendir headed over to Balimund and asked if his arrows were ready. "That they ar'! Fine arrows, an all' good fer' taking down them damn fiends thatta' been attackin' the hold an' all." Balimund said with a guttural tone. "Who's this fella?" Balimund gestured towards Marcurio with the elven axe he'd been tempering earlier.
"This is Marcurion, an Imperial mage I'd recruited yesterday, Balimund." Nendir replied. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and looked round. It was Marcurio. "It's Marcurio, not Marcurion, Nendir." and then, "....nevermind." He said, as one look from Nendir told him all he needed to know.
Nendir filled his quiver with the arrows, payed Balimund, and gestured to Marcurio again to follow him, and headed outside the city gate. He explained to Marcurio he needed to find someone Isran knew, someone that could help with much needed artillery to protect the Holds against these... night lurkers. Her name was Sorine Jurard. Isran had explained that she knew a recipe that the Dwemer had perfected that she could apply to the basic crossbow mechanisms. Nendir quickly figured that her assets would be invaluable to the Dawnguard, and set off in search of her.
After a few hours walking, they were in the middle of some plains, where, neither of them knew. "Where is she?" Marcurio asked. He never got an answer, but got shoved out the way by Nendir hurriedly. "VAMPIRE AMBUSH!" He yelled, as Marcurio ran towards the waters edge and readied some spells. Nendir, took no chances. He grappled the top of a rock and climbed onto it, and drew his bow, he barely had time to ready an arrow before both of them were surrounded.
"A LITTLE HELP HERE?!" Marcurio shouted to Nendir, as he dodged a ice spike. He off-handedly fireballed the closest vampire and was struck by a flash of red in return. Nendir fought off the few surrounding Marcurio as he fled further to the waters edge towards him. He tossed a scroll to Marcurio as he pinned a vampire to the rock by it's throat by his arrow. The scroll landed too far away from him, and attracted the attention of the closest Mistwalker, who advanced.
Marcurio lept onto his stomach to the scroll and hap-hazardly fingered the dirt, scrabbling to reach it - But no - the Mistwalker snatched it up and then CRACK! as it slumped to ground; Nendir had swung the end of his bow around in the air and it had connected with the back of the Mistwalker's neck. The scroll fell from the vampire's dirty, bloodied claws at Marcurio's feet, which he quickly snatched up. Another vampire had now strangled Nendir from behind, clawing at his throat; "MARCURIO! CAST IT! FUCKING CAST IT!" Nendir managed to stab the vampire in the leg with an arrow, but as it too, came crashing to the floor, it swiped at his ankle and crippled Nendir, he crumpled to the dirt, writhing in agony.
It gave Marcurio enough time to mutter the scroll and behold the spell. He waved his hands and there was a flash of golden flames, as the vampires were engulfed in flames and simultaneously dropped to the ground, croaking in pain, like Hagravens.
After the dust settled, Marcurio ran over, clanking in his armor, to Nendir. Nendir gagged - "I-i-in m-my -s-a...tch...el....h-ea...l healing....p...p...."
Marcurio understood, he rushed to unfasten the satchel and quickly found the vial of red liquid; He passed it to Nendir, who downed it greedily. He managed to stand up after a few moments, and wiped his brow. "Shor's beard, Marcurio! I thought I was fiend-fodder there for sure. You saved me, you really did". Nendir said thankfully. "Well it was your scroll, not mine. I only had a Storm Atronach scroll, and it was would've been damn near helpless against a mob of that size". Marcurio replied. "You mean you had a Atronach scroll all this time?!" Nendir vented. "Nevermind, you saved me, and I'm thankful. It's just a good thing I didn't catch that damned Sanguinare bloody disease really...We should reach Sorine by mid-evening Loredas".
Nendir and Marcurio trudged on, Nendir feeling that he had made the right choice letting Marcurio tag along after all. "Maybe he's not as useless as I thought he was..." Nendir thought to himself.
Part III
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