Private WANTED!

[< That Damned Arrow >]

"What happened the other time?" Kohl dared to ask. He also silently wondered what they had been arguing about.

 

[Vixen]

"A girl, her name was Kenzie." Shisha smiled. "She was a very pretty girl, she was kind, and cared for Falcion very much. However with Falcion's step-mother, Cerine, alway's spreading rumors. Also, the girl was in with the Dark Brotherhood. I thought it was best that we left the Imperial City, and never see Kenzie again. The girl was always looking for someone, I never figured out who though, she also had a friend she hung around with. A Dark Elf I believe, I can't remember her name. Falcion did not like my opinion and we got into a huge arguement, it finally took me besting him in a duel that he finally saw reason. I went a little to hard on him, and he was severly injured, we spent a couple month's in Bruma so he could heal, he didn't speak to me for some time. It wasn't until, a couple months ago at the Bannered Mare in Whiterun that we were back on speaking terms once more, when you made your promise to me."

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

Kohl had turned pale. "Did ... did you say a Dark Elf? Was it a woman? Dark, almost violet hair? Wine-red eyes and a narrow face?" He could still remember the assassin, and the way she moved as her dagger cut through his ribcage. He had nearly died that night, especially since Varmiir had demanded that he never return to the house again unless he was looking for trouble.

 

[Vixen]

"Yes, that's her. Her name, though. I cannot remember." Shisha had a thoughtful look as they began to see camp.

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

"She's the one that tried to kill me. That was ... about a decade ago, I believe." His look was dark. "She told me her name before she drove the gods-damned knife up my ribcage. Riamdadra. A complicated name for a less than complicated woman. I'm still not sure if that's actually her name or just a code name, and I hope to never find out. Riamdadra, and may I never forget. Fierce follower of Sithis and lover of the Daedra. Gods curse her hide. Mara curse her soul." After a moment, he added thoughtfully, "And may Auri-El shine his light upon the shadows." He looked up and noticed that the dampened campsite was coming into view. He was thinking of how he could still remember the ebony blade twisting in his gut, straining to reach his heart. He had bled out on Cyrodiil's beach-washed grass near the southern borderline. He wished he could say that he wondered how he had survived, or that he had been 'blessed' with undeath like in the Nordic legends, but he remembered none of it. Only waking up with a Cyrodiil temple priest of Mara, completely unclothed and bathed in scars and both new and old blood. Love, the old man had said, saved his life, but Kohl had always thought there was more to it than that.

 

[Vixen]

"Riamdadra." She let the name flow over her tongue. "Yes, now I remember. She was one to talk about Sithis." Falcion sat on a large boulder thinking when he heard Shisha and Kohl coming towards camp. He stood up suddenly. "Felidae hasn't come back." Shisha had a concerned look on her beautiful face, and she cursed loudly. "Come get your things and let us go find where that Kahjiit went off to." Falcion gathered his things and waited for Kohl and Idris.

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

Kohl grabbed Solar and slid it back into it's sheath. He slid his armored hood over his head and jogged over to Falcion. "Sorry ... about earlier. I think you should know: I can control it."

Idris immediately went over to Falcion, a frown on her face. She didn't like the Khajiit in the least, but if she had somehow been discovered on her little 'walk' then things could get ugly, fast.

 

[Felidae]

"Wake up, cat. We're almost there."
Felidae groaned, and tried to open her eyes. This proved to be in vain however, as they seemed to be glued shut by something hot and wet that coursed in rivulets down her face. Congealing blood, she guessed, judging by the searing pain on her forehead that the substance seemed to be emanating from.
Her body was in obvious motion, as she began to feel rocks and other sharp objects scrape across her skin; digging in meanly as she was dragged across the dirty, uneven ground. A thick rope was wrapped tightly around her shoulders, biting painfully into her flesh every time her captor yanked on the other end.
Every part of her body ached.
She attempted to move her arms, to hopefully reach down and grab the dagger on her leg, but her hands were bound behind her back in such a way that not even her claws were of any use. It was highly probable that all her weapons had been removed prior, anyway.
The Khajiit gasped as a heavy boot connected with her ribs, ceasing her futile struggles.
She had no choice but to face the ugly truth; the great and renowned bounty hunter Felidae was prisoner to a bunch of crazy, uncivilized dullards.
Brilliant.
But just because she was at a physical disadvantage didn't mean that she couldn't make use of the keen, razor-sharp power of her mind.
And so the Khajiit remained still, her body seemingly resigned but her head racing to think up a truly spectacular plan. A plan that would somehow involve escaping a squadron of Forsworn soldiers, whilst suffering the slight disadvantage of being both unarmed, unable to see, and trussed up like a dead horker.
Nope, nothing.
Felidae grimaced and forced her eyes open to slits, but this turned out to be a mistake as the intense sunlight caused a white-hot pain to shoot through her skull; a pain so bad that it felt like she'd got a flaming arrow lodged in her temple. She quickly closed them again.
There was no doubt about it; if she was ever going to escape from these guys, she'd need some help.
But why would the others want to help her after everything she'd said to them? She wouldn't be surprised if they were so angry they'd packed up and gone home, leaving the bounty hunter to her fate at the hands of the enemy.
And after the insults she'd thrown at Kohl earlier, if the Forsworn didn't end up killing her, he probably would.
You see? Felidae thought to herself angrily. This is why you never team up with anyone, you dumb fool. You always have to mess it up. Always.
Her head slumped back, letting all the regret wash over her. You work alone, girl. You always have and you always will, because you don't mix well with other people. You do realize this, right? Right? Then why do you keep making the same mistakes? Now look where you are...
Felidae sighed quietly. Although she couldn't help but wonder why she was still alive, at least she wasn't dead.

Problem was, that wasn't always a good thing.

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

"We should hurry." Kohl was already regretting transforming - not like he already had, but: "Who knows what she might've gotten herself into. And she did seem overly eager to just go there and kill the bastard..come on."

 

[Vixen]

"Agreed." Falcion and Shisha said in unison. They looked at each other and the tenison that was in the air melted, they bursted out laughing. Shisha just smiled and said. "Come on, she went this way." She began to walk in the direction Felidae had went, Falcion trailing behind her talking up a storm.

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

Kohl smiled slightly, relieved that they had befriended each other again. He walked a bit behind them, Idris to his left and completely silent.

She was a bit out of her element, but Idris wasn't bothered with that. They trusted her, and she could finally get revenge on the Forsworn, get her sword back from their encampment, and go her own way after their little adventure.

 

[Felidae]

After what seemed like hours of being dragged over rocks, through gorse and into mud, Felidae sensed a sudden change in atmosphere. She could no longer feel the light breeze on her face, nor the call of birds, and her captor's footsteps sounded like they were now moving over stone rather than grass. Their echoed breathing suggested they'd entered a cave complex of some kind.
With this in mind she chanced to open her eyes again, and was relieved to find the place was mostly in darkness, although the glow from the various wall torches still make her head pound a little. Wincing slightly, she glanced around, trying her best to ignore the throbbing pain in every part of her body.
Could this be Faldil's lair? Or was it just another random Forsworn settlement? Probably the latter, as she severely doubted the Forsworn would be stupid enough to take her straight to the person she was trying to kill. But on the other hand, the Bosmer obviously didn't want her dead just yet, so perhaps he had something else in mind for the defenseless bounty hunter.
Or, in a more probable sense, he was just a mad sadist and wanted to kill her himself. Slowly and painfully.
Felidae shook her head, trying to dispel such bleak thoughts. She just hoped against hope that the others would arrive and get her out of this mess as soon as possible.

 

[Vixen]

Shisha could tell where Felidae had went pretty easily, she was good but even the most careful leave behind foot prints. It was simple until..."plops!" She cursed loudly, Falcion had a confused look on his face. "What?" "Her footprints are all jumbled up with a bunch of others I can't tell which way she went or if they took her with them." Shisha sighed, and began thinking. "I could possibly reach out to her and examin her memories, but if she went to far away I can't."

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

"Try to reach out for her. I'm not sure what the Forsworn would expect," Kohl muttered. "I'll try my luck at this, too." He bent down, two fingers gently prodding various footprints. He took a deep intake through his nose, closing his eyes slightly. "Ugh," he growled, shuddering slightly. "They seriously need to be introduced to juniper fume."

Idris watched them silently, looking far out at the landscape, almost looking for figures.

Kohl took two more deep intakes of breath through his nose. "It is hard to tell, with all the different smells. It's easy enough to decipher, though, that she was taken. By force. So just follow the majority of footprints, and keep an eye on the prints and an ear out for trouble," he suggested, getting to his feet. "My thoughts on this are, they took her to the Redoubt. It's not too far from here; just past the grasses and over the rocks, unless I'm mistaken or we're being tricked." He pointed in a northeastern direction, where, although near far, the Druadach Mountains loomed over like a god having had too much mead.

 

[Vixen]

Shisha silenced him quickly, and closed her eye's. Reaching out with her magic she began to feel for Felidae's conciousness. Every living thing was known to her, plants, animals, mer, and men. Her eye's snapped open, she began to use her magic once more. A blue ball of ghostly smoke appeared in her hands, releasing it 3 ghost-like creatures appeared. A hawk, lion, and fox all appeared before her. Speaking in her strange tongue once more she said to them. "Finna eles." The creatures quickly turned and fled into the wilds. Turning to the group she said. "Come, I know where she is." Falcion stared wide-eyed. Her magic had always amazed him, he had never seen her do something like that before.

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

Kohl was just as amazed. He quickly shook himself and followed her. Although slower than a sprint and such, his forelegs blurred slightly.

The animals brought Idris close to home. They were about the size of the ones back in Valenwood. She took a deep breath to relieve herself of the choking feeling that had fallen around her ribs and followed, also.

 

[Vixen]

Shisha followed the hawk which was high in the air leading the group towards the mountain. Shisha would stop every once in a while and check the ground or reach out with her magic, they made swift progress towards Felidae's capturers. They came up on a hill and Shisha stopped once more, and turned towards the group. "Stay here, I will be back soon." Falcion began to protest. "Where are you going?" "To see where she is in the camp, I know she is pretty deep inside. However, I do not know where exactly and I would rather not go charging in blindly." She took a deep breath and spoke again. "The Elf. The one we are hunting is inside aswell, his mind is quite.....disturbed." She looked off into the distance the breeze blew through her golden hair. "I will be able to take one person with me. Who wishes to go?" Falcion immediately stepped back. "I like watching your magic, not being a ginipig." She just laughed, and turned to Idris and Kohl. "So, which one of you?"

 

[< That Damned Arrow >]

Idris bit her lip. "As much as I want to slit Faldil's neck, I'm pretty sure that honor lies to you. Your bounty hunter friend seemed especially eager. I'm staying back," she said.

Kohl looked at Idris and then back at Shisha. "Guess it's me, then," he shrugged. Part of him relaxed slightly; he'd be able to spend a bit more time with Shisha. Another part of him was twittering with excitement. Fighting was still something he connected well with, hardly unpleasant.

 

[Vixen]

She clapped her hands together. "Excellent! Let's go before the ground opens up and swallows us, shall we?" With a flash of light Shisha was a little pure white song bird with electric blue eyes. Kohl's eye sight was greatly enhanced, he was now a bird some thing of the same size but was a black color with bright amber eyes. {Follow me, we are not to far.} And with this she flew off over the hill.



(I didn't know his eye color.)

 

[Felidae]

The cell wasn't as bad as she'd expected, in all honesty. True, it was dark, wet and smelled of death, but at least it was spacious.
Felidae was slumped against the wall in the far corner of the room, both hands shackled above her head. The Forsworn had thrown her there about five minutes previously and had gone to fetch Faldil, confirming her suspicions that this was indeed the Elf's hideout. The place was infested with rats and a bleached pile of bones lay scattered in a puddle beside her, the cracked skull seeming to grin mockingly at her predicament.
Spitting blood onto the floor, she struggled half-heartedly against the chains holding her in place, before considering it a waste of effort and collapsing.
A steady drip of water had started to leak from the ceiling above, landing every couple of seconds in the space between her ears and quickly getting more and more irritating. The wounds covering her body she had long since gotten used to, but something about the water infuriated her, probably because it was the slightest thing but there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She was hungry, cold and exhausted, but there had been no sign of Kohl, Shisha or the others since she'd left camp about an hour before.
The Khajiit had almost abandoned hope that there was any rescue coming for her, and was ready to resign herself to whatever fate the Bosmer had in store for her. But if there was the slightest chance that the group was on their way, then they'd better get there fast before Faldil arrived. Or things were gonna get nasty.