Hunting the Hunter

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Enithermon
Enithermon
1,050 Followers

When she got through the gates it was still early, so she took a walk to let her blood cool a little and enjoyed the breeze the little streams created as they wound through the town, and the sight of the mournful willows bending into the waters among the lilies and hyacinth. It was a nasty town as far as the locals went, and as far as the count and his guards were concerned, but it was at least aesthetically charming. Very much a Dunmer town; beautiful and deadly. She ignored a couple of rough looking Orcs who gave her the eye as she crossed a bridge and sat on a little bank of grass and closed her eyes with a sigh, smiling at the warbling sound of some sad drunk, crooning off key songs about cliff racers. Ah, Morrowind, she still wasn't sure she missed it, but once in a blue moon she got a pang or two.

Soon she'd have enough to get and furnish a place here, where she could get a taste of home without all the miserable blight, ash, and death that went with it. This last run should seal the deal, provided the count could be made amenable. She patted her satchel one more time and lay back into the grass.

"Fly, cliff racer fly," she sang under her breath along with the distant drunk, and chuckled as she looked up at the bright green and yellow leaves of the willow. Her chuckle faded and she sighed, her smile inverting as she once again considered those bizarre green thoughtful eyes.

****

The Count was not amenable, or at least not without her having to jump through some pretty irritating hoops first. She had enough money of course, to purchase and furnish the place she had her eye on, but apparently the Count 'wasn't sure' he wanted to sell it just yet, but he might be more likely to if he had a certain rare goblet that was apparently in an abandoned ruin not even a quarter day's trek from the city. Lucky her. Bloody pompous Hlaalu sycophants, she never liked that house... no one liked that house, not even the Imperials who had used them to gain a foot hold in her home land when the fractured houses weakened enough to allow it. At least that's what the ones stationed outside Ald'ruhn always told her. Then again they were in Redoran territory, so it was best not to like the Hlaalu. But as the Temple Ordinators were fond of saying, they were all "scum." Then again they said that to just about anyone really, it was apparently their favourite word.

She gritted her teeth as she jumped down from her perch in a twisted old tree. She'd been casing the ruin for an hour and had seen nothing yet. There would be something, there always was, and the Ayleid ruins always had the worst kinds of somethings.

"Please don't be undead." She whispered. She hated the undead. Ancestor ghosts where one thing, even skeletal guardians, she was used to those, but the zombies...and the wraiths...those made her brain crawl. It was all that dark necromancy the imperials were so fond of. At home there were strict taboos on the mistreatment of the dead, and the desecration of the body and the soul.

Zombies were just...unnatural. The headless ones where just plain unnerving if nothing else. She'd seen an ash zombie once, a servant of the demon Dagoth-Ur, in a cavern she'd hazarded into during a particularly nasty blight storm while hunting in the ashlands. The sight of it, of the empty gaping hole where its eyes and nose should have been, it's skull hollow and black, had sent her back into the storm and had given her nightmares for months. Howling red winds and starving blighted cliff racers were a day in the grazelands compared to that horror.

"Ah well," she sighed, it was this or she started looking for a house somewhere else.

"Maybe it will just be rat infested. Or even better, be full of big stupid bandits" She said cheerfully and crept up on the ruins, making her way to the entrance. This one was laid out a little differently. Instead of the multiple tiers and spiraling stair cases it was just a row of broken columns glowing white in the late morning sunlight and leading in a sweeping curve up to a massive winged figure draped in morning glories. Behind it stood the rectangular stone doors, set in a rocky outcropping. She neared the statue from the side, and still could spot nothing, no people, no animals, no...well maybe not. A low growl sounded beside her and she froze. She'd already thought to have her arrow ready, and all it took was a shift to see the lion emerge from behind the statue.

'Why lions all of a sudden,' she wondered. This one was also bigger than normal, but not as much as the last one she'd seen, but then this one, she noted right away was female anyway. Either way she was pretty formidable. Unlike the last one, this one was snarling, and tensing, and ready to jump. Inanna was about to respond in kind when out of thin air a second appeared between her and the first, so close she could see the speckles on its muzzle, and this one was massive. She hadn't even heard it. Sneaky kitty. She jumped back startled and re-aimed at the new cat, only to find herself trapped in the line of two bright green eyes.

"You!" she croaked, and let the string slacken...though not so much that she couldn't still fire one off if she was wrong. This couldn't be happening. The other cat came charging to his side and Inanna raised her bow again. The big male growled low and menacingly, making both of them freeze. Both her and the smaller cat were looking between each other and the big guy standing between them. Inanna suspected that neither were entirely sure just who he was growling at. Inanna slowly lowered her weapon and the female moved away, but her ears were still flat, and her eyes watchful. She appeared to have the same sort of eerie thoughtful eyes as her friend, though hers were a dark blue, and not particularly happy. Inanna hooked her bow over her arm as a sign of good faith and held up her palms.

"I, ah, I'm surprised to see you again." She thought his eyes looked much more wary this time than they had before, perhaps he didn't recognize her. Maybe he thought she was hunting him, maybe that's what those other folk had been up to.

"I'm...I don't know if you can understand me...but, I'm a treasure hunter," she emphasized the word treasure, "I find artefacts for people." She tilted her head to the door way, "That's what I'm doing here...is that ok? Is...um...is this your place? I'll leave..." She felt a little foolish as the beast stared at her, no doubt wondering what all the strange noises she was making were all about.

The other cat had stopped looking at her like she was dinner, and more like she was an interesting toy, which wasn't much of a consolation. She looked between the two of them, waiting for one to move, either to attack or wander off, or start talking back...whichever.

Apparently it was none of the above. Instead the green eyed lion moved towards her, passing her with only a hands breadth between them, making her hair stand on end, and walked towards the door and sat next to it. She stared at him and he stared back, then looked at the door and back to her. She took a tentative step forward, then another. No one was growling yet, though the female was giving her what could only be called a dirty look, so she kept going until she was standing next to green eyes with her hand on the door. She gave the cat a questioning look and pushed it open. They stood there a while and finally he entered, pausing at the foot of the stairs until she followed. Blue eyes also followed so that Inanna was sandwiched between them.

She was stunned at her own calmness. Certainly she was nervous, but normally this should be terrifying. Yet there she was. Perhaps it was merely too unreal to be upsetting just yet. They led her like that through two halls and down into a series of narrow circular corridors. Once or twice she thought she saw something moving in the distance down side corridors. More big cats? Perhaps they were some form of Khajiit after all, some sort of non-verbal kind, a hybrid or something. She huffed out a confused breathe and both of them stopped and looked at her.

She smiled apologetically. Green eyes searched her face a moment then turned back leading her into a smaller space with a single door. He sat again. She approached but recognized it was a pressure activated gate. She could see nothing on hand, and nothing on the other side of the lattice door. She looked around and arched a brow at a new fourth member of the group, this one minimally larger than Blue, though just barely, and watching from a distance down the hall. She lifted a hand in greeting, assuming it was also one of these obviously sentient cat things, then kept looking around for the trigger mechanism.

She finally looked up and noticed a narrow walk way over head, part of which was obscured. The walls were pretty rough and cracked, and the walkway wasn't too high above them so she ran her hands over the wall till she found a good grip and started to climb. Someone, she assumed blue eyes, growled, and she looked down.

"Don't worry, I think I just found the pressure block, I won't leave your sight." She figured even if they couldn't understand the words, the tone of voice would at least count for something. She kept climbing and the growl subsided. "Ah ha!" she crowed softly as she pulled herself up. The block in question was protruding slightly and had a tell tale blue crystal in the middle. She didn't know how these things worked, just that they did. She pushed it and saw the grate slowly rise up.

It was easy enough just to hang and drop down, and she walked through the gate with haste, not surprised when it slammed shut behind her. She turned and both visible cats were up and alert. Green eyes started pacing.

"Don't worry, Serjo" she said softly through the gate, not sure what else could hear here in the gloomy corridors that led away from the gate, "some of them are timed...there's usually an exit in a hidden walk way over the entrance." She still wasn't sure they could understand her, but she was saying it as much for herself as for them. She wasn't thrilled about having to find a new way out. It wasn't the first time it had happened, but that didn't make her particularly happy. She grinned at the big cat, hoping to show him she wasn't afraid, though mostly to get him to stop pacing, it was making her anxious. She took a deep breath and shifted her arrows on her shoulder so that the silver ones fell within closest reach. If there were wraiths, she'd need them.

Faric ignored Mirisa's steady questioning glare and watched with interest and apprehension as the slender dark skinned Elven girl merged skilfully into the shadows, the only evidence of her presence the twin red flames of her eyes that flickered towards his as she cast one last look behind her. Then she was gone.

"Now will you explain what the hell it is you think you're doing letting some stranger flounce around our lair?" She was standing naked, hands on her hips, her blond hair a halo around her face. She did not look happy.

She was the best warrior among them, second to himself, and their little tribes second in command, she had every right to question him. He just wasn't sure he had a really good answer. Generally he was careful about this sort of thing, never random or unpredictable, always looking out for the interests of the group. Especially now, especially when they were at risk as they were, hunted, and driven from their home-lands into new and unknown territories.

That's the only reason she had let it get this far. He knew that. He tried to think of something convincing as he shifted. They could communicate in their other form, but it was more senses, shapes, feelings, and concepts. The finer points of dialogue were generally lost, i.e. it was harder to sell someone a line. Their throats just weren't built for speech. He turned looking down at her and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, she's not entirely a stranger." He began with a sigh. She cocked a brow at him. "She was the dark elf warrior I told you about from the ruins up north. The one who helped take out that last group of hunters." He'd assumed she must have been a powerful fighter, after he saw the way she drove that sword through the other hunters armour. That wasn't an easy feat, even with leather armour. She was a lot stronger than she looked, and just as fast.

"She doesn't look like much of a warrior to me." She crossed her arms over her breasts and gave him a smarmy look. "what did she call herself...treasure hunter? She's just a sneaky little thief. If anyone questions her about our whereabouts, she'd sell us out for a steak and a pint of ale." He chuckled.

"That sounds more like you Mirisa. I think she'd hold out for cyrodilic brandy...she looks shrewd that way." She smirked back.

"Either way big man, you better make sure she doesn't. Clearly you think you owe her or something, which is why I haven't torn her to itsy bitsy pieces, but if I find out she talked and you did nothing to stop it I'll shred both of you."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"you'd be well within your rights." He nodded again. She was right, he'd taken a foolish and stupid risk letting her in here, letting her live for that matter. He wasn't a killer though, and he did feel like she was somehow on their side, like he owed her, even if it was just for lowering her weapon, for recognizing what he was and actually giving a damn. She wasn't a killer either. A hunter perhaps, a warrior even, but not a killer. He could have killed her that first time, and she had been smart enough to know that. She didn't have to turn her aim like she did, but that didn't mean she would have hit him if she tried. "I don't think she would though."

"How can you know?"

He shrugged. "I just have a feeling."

"That's comforting."

He mimicked her stance and crossed his arms. "I have good ones sometimes you know." Her smirk widened.

"I bet."

"What's that supposed to mean."

"It's spring, Mr. Alpha male with no mate and very sensitive nose."

He did frown at that.

"I've already mated" he growled, "I have a child, I'm not some hormonal boy Mirisa." Indeed, he was turning sixty one in a few months.

She sighed and looked at him seriously. "I'm saying this as a friend, so don't try to rip me open, but just because you lost Pern doesn't mean you lost everything else. I know it's pretty fresh, but it's been a few years now, and quite frankly she oozing pheromones and you're in a good state to pick them up." His frown deepened. He didn't like talking about Pern, but he couldn't be angry with Mirisa, she'd lost a mate as well to the hunters, and at least he still had little Aina to remind him of her. Mirisa never had the opportunity to have children.

"She's not one of us, she doesn't go into hea.." She held up her hand.

"The fact that you're not aware of catching them should be evidence enough that you're not thinking clearly. Believe me, I don't know much about those dark elves, but that girl is practically glowing, maybe they have their own cycles too, we're used to men where we're from, not these southern elves, we can't know for sure. I'm grown up enough to admit that it's part of the reason I want to lay into her so bad." She grinned broadly and with menace. "I've always been the competitive type."

"And what exactly are you competing for?" He asked dryly.

"Have I ever needed a reason?"

He lightened a little. "No, no you haven't."He gave her a wry smile. "Is she really..."

"Oh yeah. So watch yourself."

He frowned and nodded seriously. "I will. But I still get the feeling she's trustworthy. We'll see. I'll keep an eye on it. If it works out, it might be useful to have a contact for once. We're outsiders here, we know no one, and the hunters don't seem to be letting up."

He paused thoughtful and looked back into the dark corridor the shadow of a woman had disappeared into and then back at Mirisa who had already shifted back. "Besides if she is just a 'sneaky thief' she might know someone who can help us figure out who's behind the hunters. No matter how many we kill, they seem to keep coming back. They're just mercenaries, someone is hiring them. Someone who knows of our existence."

She looked at him sceptically, and he smiled back.

"I know, I know...I'll be careful. You know I'd never do anything I thought for a second might jeopardize our position. Owyn," he called as she turned away, and he watched the young male bound forward, lowering his head deferentially to Mirisa as he passed her even as he eyed her swaying haunches, she growled half heartedly at him and he averted his eyes. Now there was a hormonal boy, barely twenty two, old enough to be interested, not old enough to know better.

"Keep an eye on this gate will you? Let me know if that elf comes back." Owyn huffed and lay down obediently beside the gate as Feric shifted back and trotted off to look for this supposed second exit. If this was going to be their new home for the time being, he wanted to know it like the back of his hand. It would only be a matter of time before someone would track them here, and he needed to be prepared.

"Disgusting creatures." Inanna covered her mouth to keep from gagging as she pulled her arrows out of the fetid corpse, and watched the flesh disintegrate and ooze at her feet. The only redeeming thing about the undead was that you usually got most of your arrows back. It really helped cut down on expenses. They were also stupid as hell and helped set off traps before she even got there. This one had done most of her work for her by charging at her through a suspicious looking corridor with long slits in the ceiling.

She bit back another gag and pulled a bit of dark clothe out of her bag, wrapping it around her face. It helped a little, enough to get her supplies back without losing her breakfast. The evil looking metal blades were still rising and falling rhythmically around her as she worked, but she'd watched them long enough to side step each of them as she progressed. She wasn't about to complain, but these ruins really were a bit repetitive. Once you've survived enough of them, there are few things that can surprise you.

Inanna resisted the urge to sigh and continued her torturous creep deeper into the bowls of the ruin, hoping it would end soon. She'd been through two proper doors, and umpteen gates, and still no bloody cup. The corridor turned and she was faced with yet another gate, this one with a floor trigger. She sighed and peeked through the lattice work, trying very hard not to set off the trigger before she was good and ready. She couldn't see anything from where she stood so she opened the gate and snuck in a little further.

The hall opened up into another great hall dotted with columns and great stone alters. In a far entry way she spotted a warm glow that could only be fire. So there was something living down here after all. That combined with the presence of zombies usually meant one thing. Necromancers. She barred her teeth in a silent snarl and picked the darkest shadow she could find in which to set up shop.

It was a long wait, but at least she was right side up this time. Her patience paid off and finally a figure in a dark robe entered the room. She could see instantly it was an Altmer, and she bet her life there was probably a self congratulatory smirk plastered on his pointy arrogant face. Her own people weren't exactly friendly, but as a general rule no one really liked these high elf pricks. 'Good thing his heads so bloated with ego,' she thought darkly,' it'll make a better target'. No sooner had she had the thought than a shining barb hit home and the figure crumpled. She let loose a second for good measure, hitting him as he fell, ensuring his silence.

The next figure came out, this time more quickly, more warily, perhaps sensing something was wrong. The woman called out.

Enithermon
Enithermon
1,050 Followers