Necra awoke in a cold sweat, tears running down her face from the nightmare she had just had. This sudden bout of heavy breathing woke Gias instantly, who had been trained to act at the slightest flicker of danger. "Necra!" he spoke rushing to her bedside, "What is the matter?"
"Nothing…" she trailed off, "Just a bad dream."
"What's all the noise about?" Came the gruff voice of Garthor, who was now rubbing his eyes profusely from being woken so early, "Some people need to get their beauty sleep!"
"It seems…" the accented speech of Jo'rak rung out through the room, "that that would not do much good for an Orc like yourself, but a handsome cat such as me needs all the sleep he can get" Necra giggled at the Khajiit's remark, but Garthor was not as amused.
"What did you say, fur ball?" he snarled, "come down here so that my fist can hear you say that!" "Oh, simple minded Green-skin…" Jo'rak said as he stifled his laughter," why would I want to do that if I am perfectly safe up here?"
"Oh girls…" the soothing voice of the freshly awoken Saria stopped their argument instantly, "you're both pretty! Now can you please go back to sleep? Kala and I are reading and it's difficult to concentrate when you guys won't shut up!" Kala sat on her bed, silent as Saria vented out her feelings, before going back to her book.
"Fine…" Gias sighed, smiling at Necra before getting up and making his way back to bed.
"Wait just a moment my friends" Jo'rak's sly tone descended unseen onto the band of tired teens, "I can only notice that three are missing from our numbers…"
"He's right" Saria stared up at the blackened ceiling, "Where are Torgor, Lilleth and Arabelle?"
"So I just hold it like this?" Lilleth asked, gripping her new bow tightly in her green tinged fingers.
"Just like that" a man smiled at the Bosmer girl with pride in his eyes. He watched as she plucked an arrow from her quiver and fired it at her target, achieving a perfect bull's-eye with relative ease. "Not bad" he said walking towards her, "but I think that's enough for tonight".
Lilleth nodded and withdrew her weapon, "I do love our late night training sessions master"
"As do I child", the tall man beamed down at her, "now quick, if you can beat me back to the house, you might just get a sweet roll before bed…" He trailed off as he watched her race off towards their home, only to stay still and speak to the darkness, "what do you think, Muiri my dear? Remarkable isn't she?"
A startled rustling could be heard as the named woman stepped out from behind a tree, "how did you know I was there?" she smiled slyly as she walked towards him.
"You know you don't have to sneak around" he said wrapping his hands around her waist and leaving her question unanswered, "You could have just asked to come, Lilleth wouldn't've minded"
"Where's the fun in that?" she grinned kissing his cheek, "now let's get going, they should be waking up soon" They took each other's hand and held it tight as they strolled back home.
"Should we really be doing this?" Torgor whispered, "What happens if someone finds us?"
"No one's going to find us" Arabelle said turning into the empty room, "Now lock the door, we don't want anyone to find us"
"But you just said…" the Nord boy was interrupted by Arabelle's lips crashing onto his own.
"Stop worrying…" the Breton smiled maliciously, "loosen up, have some fun!" She kissed him again, deeper this time, with more passion, pushing him up against the stone wall as her hand rustled through his blonde hair. He gave in and held his hands firmly around her hips, and watched as she started to unbutton his tunic.
"That is far enough you two", a soft voice echoed around the stone room, and the two teenagers stopped, terrified, before Muiri's invisibility potion wore off and her cloaked figure stood in the corner with her face twisted into a wicked smile. "Now; both of you get back to bed before I ground you until the Greybeards gasp at your age." The Nord and the Breton solemnly marched out the room and up the stairs, followed closely by the triumphant alchemist.
"Well this is nice, is it not?" Jo'rak's wicked voice made everyone stare in his direction, "All of us, sitting here; wide awake in the dead of night, it is all most…tense"
"Well if somebody hadn't had put the master on our watch for the rest of the night…" Garthor glared at Torgor and Arabelle, who had both gone a shade of crimson, "then maybe we could have snuck out to do something"
"What's so wrong with just sitting here?" the light tone of Necra penetrated the harsh atmosphere, "Isn't it nice to just be with one another? It's not like we'll all be together forever…" The High Elf looked down glumly, hating it when her friends fought.
"She's right" Gias said, beginning to stand, "one day we'll all be off on our own adventures, never to cross paths again… so let's all just get along, okay?" Kala smiled at Gias' gesture, before letting her reptilian eyes dart back to the book she was reading.
"How about this? We make a deal" Lilleth whispered to her comrades from the shadow in which she was hiding, "sometime in the future, no matter our home, no matter our plans, we see each other again, so that we can become living proof that friendship can last forever. What do you guys say? Friends for now and friends forever?"
Garthor and Jo'rak glared at each other, before growling in unison "fine, I guess"
Saria and Kala both looked at each other before nodding gleefully.
Torgor and Arabelle blushed and linked their hands together, "deal!" they both roared happily, throwing their joined hands into the air.
Gias and Necra smiled at each other, uttering the final words before a long, comfortable silence "of course" they said, "it's a promise!"
Hey guys thank you for reading the 1st chapter of The Apostles of Scorpio! I will now be running a little competition-like thing; the next 9 chapters or so will be looking into the lives of each character, so here's where you come in. Review this chapter, and in that review say which of the characters shown you would like to learn more about. The most popular OC will get a chapter first J Thanks and see you next chapter!