This is actually the second attempt at writing a story based off an idea I had over a year and a half ago. The first attempt is still up on my profile for any new readers who find themselves interested, and I doubt I'll take it down. I had fun writing the last attempt, but when the winter term of university rolled around, my inspiration suddenly died. Besides, I've since begun to grow increasingly frustrated with the flaws of my old attempt. So I decided to start over. I've kept the characters largely unchanged from my first attempt, but the plot will be taking a completely different direction than it took in my first attempt.

One of the problems with my first attempt is that I had no solid plan for the story. Plot development was a very spur-of-the-moment thing and my goals kept changing. That's not the case for this version though. In this story, I want to explore the world of the Falmer and their societies, something Bethesda completely failed to deliver on, and instead of relying solely on a single falmer companion, I intend instead to directly explore how I imagine their societies to be like, deep in their own underground world that Avernus and Leto journey through.

Just like my first attempt, I just jump straight into the story. It's easier and smoother that way, I think. To my new readers, I'd like to thank you for giving my story a chance. To my old readers, I'm thrilled that you enjoyed my first attempt enough to follow through to this second version; I hope I fail to disappoint. To all my readers, I hope you find this story as interesting to read as it was for me to imagine and write.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for any original characters you happen to see. The rest belongs to the fine people at Bethesda.

27th of Sun's Height, 4E 196

Avernus lay on his right side in a corner of his cell, curled into a fetal position. Ever since his capture and imprisonment, his life had become filled with perpetual darkness and unbearable pain. He had lost track of how long he had been imprisoned here. He had initially kept track of the passing days by counting how many times he fell asleep and when he woke, but he had since lost track. Day and night didn't really have any meaning deep underground, and when the entirety of one's days are spent either in a small, stone cell with nothing in it, or in a tiny chamber alternating between being interrogated and beaten senselessly for the enjoyment of his captors, time seemed to pass achingly slowly. Avernus would have liked to say that he had spent several centuries here already, but the logical part of his mind, as subdued as it was, told him that it couldn't have been much more than a few weeks, perhaps a month at most.

"Avernus," came a soft, barely-audible whisper from the bars of his cell. The building his cell was located in was kept in total darkness, and he had not heard any footfalls indicating the approach of his falmer captors; it was frighteningly eerie how silent they could be when they wanted to, blending into the darkness they lived in as if they were a part of it.

Avernus's first instinct was to curl himself up even tighter and not respond to whoever had called to him in an reflexive attempt to minimize the attention diverted to him. But the logical part of his mind told him that it was Leto calling him. None of his other captors bothered addressing him by his name.

Raising his head, Avernus summoned enough magical energy to conjure a small ball of faintly-glowing orange light the colour of flame (he found pure white light to be far too harsh) and positioned it close to the bars of his cell so he could see Leto.

The face that stared back was thin, with pale skin clinging tightly to the bones of her skull. Leto had high, pronounced cheekbones and a narrow jaw, and her brow-ridge wasn't as pronounced as those of the males of her race were. She had long, pointed elven ears and long, wispy white hair that fell past her shoulders and down her back. As with all other modern falmer, her eyelids, pink and constantly inflamed, were swollen shut, rendering her effectively blind, while the physical structure of her nose seemed to end at the tip of the nasal bones, the cartilaginous portion of the nasal bridge apparently having been lost over many generations of descent, such that her nose had the appearance of being reabsorbed into her face.

Leto then slipped a hand through the bars of his cell, reaching for Avernus. Her fingers were slender and very long, proportionally longer than any of the surface-dwelling races of mer, and ended not in a soft, flat nail but in hard, sharp claws. The pale skin clung very tightly to the bones of her hand, and thick tendons stuck out very prominently along the back of her hand, suggesting a grip that was far stronger than what the surface-dwelling races possessed.

Avernus had been confused the first time Leto had reached for him like this, but he had learned that when she did this, she sought out his hand to grasp. Being blind, the holding of hands during a conversation was the Falmeri equivalent of making eye contact. It was with this understanding that Avernus reached out his mutilated right hand – missing the fourth finger in its entirety as well as the fifth finger and its associated metacarpal – and grasped Leto's outstretched hand (his cell was not even two arm-spans from front to back).

"Hello, Leto," Avernus whispered very softly in greeting. He didn't dare speak in anything more than a whisper; a few visits ago, he and Leto were caught conversing, and they were both beaten for it (though Leto was not as severely beaten as Avernus).

"I brought you your water," Leto said as she slid two large, stoppered water skins through the bars of his cell. She, of course, spoke the Falmeri language, but Avernus could understand her. He had studied their language at various universities and colleges on the surface, and while he had learned an ancient dialect that was barely intelligible with contemporary Falmeri, he quickly picked up the modern dialect during his captivity.

"Thank you," Avernus replied before releasing Leto's hand. He then pushed himself up onto his side, mindful of his left leg after stabbing pains shot through the mangled flesh of his crippled limb when he snagged his foot on the rough-hewn stone floor of his cell. He then manoeuvred himself so that he was sitting with his back against the right wall of his cell. His right leg was drawn up with his knee almost to his chest while his left leg was folded underneath the right one.

The only clothing Avernus's captors provided him with was a simple rope belt with a couple rags attached to provide him with some modesty, leaving his disfigured feet plainly visible in the warm, orange glow of the conjured mage-light. On his left foot, only his big toe and fourth toe remained, with the other three having been severed, while on his right foot, his fourth and fifth toes had been severed. On both feet, between the tarsals, thick, pink scars ran for about an inch from the spaces between where his toes had once been, left by a cleaver that had been pushed through the flesh between the bones. How hideous his feet were. These injuries, combined with his mangled left leg, made walking without his cane impossible, and even then, it was still difficult.

From his new seated position, Avernus grasped one of the water skins with his left hand – the least damaged of all his appendages, missing only the fifth finger – unstoppered it, and took several greedy swigs before reaching out and grasping Leto's hand once again.

"Is your magic coming back?" Leto asked.

"Yes, and quite quickly too," answered Avernus. "It should be combat-worthy in a day or so."

At the beginning of Avernus's captivity, the water he was given was laced with a toxin derived from chaurus eggs that supressed his magic, thus preventing him from resisting his captors, but since Leto had begun caring for him, she had been able to intercept his poisoned water and replace it with clean water.

"That's great," came Leto's response. "We're almost ready to go. I just need to gather a few more supplies before we can escape. I should have them by tomorrow. Can you hold on until then?"

"Yes," replied Avernus. "I've gotten through far worse than what your…acquaintances, I suppose I can call them, have done to me thus far."

"Right," Leto responded. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How did your body get to be so…wrecked?" she queried, as she ran her fingers over where Avernus's would have been. "Who did this to you?"

Avernus was silent for a while as he thought about his answer. He used to dislike talking about his mutilation with others, but after his recovery, as more and more people asked him, he found it didn't bother him so much anymore. Right now, his apparent hesitation was merely thinking of a way to explain it to Leto that made sense to her.

"Years ago, I was a captain, a high-ranking soldier, in the legions of the Cyrodiilic Empire," Avernus said eventually. "In an event that would later come to be known as the Great War, the Empire was invaded by another power called the Aldmeri Dominion. I was involved in the defense of one of our cities and though we were outnumbered, we were pushing the Dominion forces back. I was leading the final charge when Dominion reinforcements arrived and fell upon my cohort. Most of us were killed, and the few of us who survived were taken prisoner."

"I was taken to a military fort in Dominion territory and shoved into a cell a quarter of the size of the one I'm in now with almost no room to even move my limbs. When I wasn't wasting away in that cell, I was being tortured for information on the Empire's defenses and military strategies. I was kept there and tortured until the end of the war when I was allowed to return home as part of a mutual exchange of prisoners. By that point, my body was utterly ruined."

"And…did you tell them your Empire's plans?" Leto asked somewhat uncertainly.

"Of course I did," Avernus replied immediately with mild amusement, as if she had just asked something very silly. "You can see for yourself what they did to me. Before long, I was squealing like a little girl. I told them anything and everything to get them to stop what they were doing to me, and when I ran out of information to divulge, I made things up. But that didn't get them to stop what they were doing to me; after a point, they just stopped asking questions when they brought me in to hack and cut little bits out of me."

Turning his head to look at her, he found Leto had adopted a curious look on her face; her eyebrows were raised, her mouth hung open, revealing several jagged, pointy teeth, and had she been able to open them, her eyes likely would have been wide with shock.

"Dear gods, and I thought my people were cruel," she said after a moment. "I'm so sorry to hear that, Avernus."

"It's no matter," dismissed Avernus. "That was a long time ago, and I've spent much more of my adult life crippled than able-bodied, so I've gotten used to it."

"Oh," replied Leto awkwardly. She didn't really know what to say to something so horrible. "Anyway, I should probably go gather the last of our supplies."

"That would probably be best," Avernus said with a mildly dejected tone of voice. Leto was the only person who didn't treat him with malice since his capture, and he enjoyed talking with her, even if it was only about unpleasant periods in his past. "I don't want you to get caught talking with me again."

"I'll be back in a bit, when everyone's asleep" she reassured him. "I don't think you have any more beatings today, so hopefully the time should pass faster. Maybe you can sleep or something."

"That would be nice. Good luck, Leto."

"Thanks. I'll see you soon," she replied, giving his hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it and silently scurrying away, back into the darkness beyond Avernus's orb of conjured light.

Avernus released the magic sustaining the ball of light and let the darkness creep back into his cell. He took another gulp of water from one of the skins Leto had dropped off, before slowly reverting to his previous position, curled up in a fetal position, laying on his right side.

It was extremely fortunate for Avernus that Leto had been assigned as his caretaker upon his capture by the falmer. Her position was considered very lowly, and as Leto belonged to one of the lowest castes in Falmeri society, Avernus had learned, it was assigned to her. Unlike every other falmer that Avernus had encountered so far, Leto didn't treat him with hatred or violence. In fact, she was quite civil and very curious. At times, she even went out of her way to show him kindness, such as how she would bring him extra rations of food when she could get away with it, or simply converse with him, occasionally. One of the first things Avernus asked her was why he was kept prisoner and tortured by her comrades. He had been told that because he could speak their language (even if it was only in an ancient dialect, at first), the higher-ups in Leto's tribe decided to interrogate him for information on the surface world. Allegedly, despite Avernus's claims to the contrary, they also insisted that because he could speak Falmeri and was quite educated, he must be an important political leader, and that he's denying these charges in order to not be beaten and tortured. He supposed it made a bit of sense.

What surprised Avernus the most about Leto was that shortly after his capture, she had informed him of her plan to escape from her society and that she wanted him to join her. Avernus had learned that since she belonged to a very low caste in her society, Leto was often subjected to frequent abuse and mistreatment by members of superior castes. While she wasn't treated as badly as slaves or captives, she was definitely treated as "sub-falmer" by her peers. She had no particularly close friends and her family was dead, so what did she have to lose by running away and ingratiating herself within another society?

When she had mentioned this to Avernus, he had asked a rather stupid question: "You mean there are other societies of falmer?" he had asked.

"Of course there are," Leto had replied in a tone that said Of all the questions to ask, this is the one you ask first?

Looking back, Avernus did see how it was a stupid question. The surface-dwelling races had numerous, very diverse societies, so why wouldn't the Falmer, especially when their slavery at the hands of the Dwmer was such a widespread institution at the time when the first rebellions began?

The next question Avernus had asked was why they couldn't flee to the surface. Leto's was reply was that, quite simply, she had no idea where the lift to the surface was located, since she wasn't allowed anywhere near that area. Avernus couldn't guide them there either because the lift was located a fair distance away from where he was currently being held, and much of the route through which he was transported was shrouded in total darkness, so he didn't know where the lift was located either.

This meant that if he were to escape from his captivity, it would only be to flee even deeper into the cave system the Falmer lived in, which was apparently quite vast; he would never be able to return to the life he had on the surface. While this was an upsetting fact, he had come to this realization not long after his capture, and though it was still depressing, he found that it didn't sting as much this time around when discussing Leto's escape plan.

The plan was coming along quite nicely, so far. Leto had been able to provide Avernus with clean water without anyone else finding out, and because of this, his magic was quickly returning to full strength. She had also managed to pilfer weapons, clothes, food, water, and other vital supplies from their respective stores undetected. She would then return for him later tonight when everyone was asleep, and then they would finally abscond from her tribe's wretched lair.

The problem was where to abscond to. The underground world of the Falmer and the ancient Dwemer certainly wasn't as open as the surface world, but neither did it consist solely of a small number of scattered and isolated caves and ruins. Leto told Avernus that, from what she could tell, her tribe lived in a small part of a very extensive network of naturally occurring tunnels and passages, in addition to the ones made by the Dwemer, that linked many caverns and ruins and all eventually connected to one impossibly large cavern that served as the central hub of this network. Leto's tribe referred to this hub as Blackreach.

Scattered throughout this far-reaching network of caverns and tunnels and ruins were many bands and tribes of Falmer, some numbering as few as a dozen or so individuals and others containing up to a few hundred. The tribe that Leto (and Avernus, as a captive) belonged to was one of the larger types and, due to its significant size and overly-aggressive nature, was able to exert considerable influence over the surrounding portion of the tunnel system. But as large as Leto's tribe was, its influence still confined to only a very small portion of the far-reaching tunnel network, which was essentially the underground equivalent of backwoods country anyway when compared to the vastness of Blackreach. If Leto and Avernus could escape and make their way to Blackreach, then they might be able to find a different tribe of falmer to integrate themselves into. As difficult as it sounded, it was the best plan Leto could come up with, and Avernus didn't have any alternative suggestions.

Being educated in several universities and colleges across the Empire since his discharge from the legions, Avernus had considerable knowledge of magic and spell-craft. Leto would physically assist him with his ruined and crippled body, and Avernus would use his magic to deal with pursuers once they inevitably learn of his and Leto's disappearances.

Their plan was so close to being carried out; just a few more hours were all that stood between Avernus and freedom! His excitement made sleep a little more difficult to come to him than usual, but soon enough he fell into unconsciousness.

Avernus was jolted into wakefulness by a hand on his shoulder forcefully, but roughly, shaking him. His first reaction was to panic, thinking that we was about to be dragged into the small room where he was beaten and interrogated.

"Avernus, wake up," Leto whispered urgently to him.

Upon hearing her voice, Avernus quickly calmed down. Conjuring another orange ball of light, he saw that his cell door was open, and Leto was crouching over him with a satchel on her back. She had a pair of swords tucked into her belt, and between her back and the satchel were tucked a bow and a quiver of arrows. All her weapons were made of the hard, chitinous material that the Falmer seemed to prefer. He also noticed that in her other hand, she held his cane, which had been confiscated from him upon his capture. She had wrapped the tip of the cane in several layers of rags, most likely to muffle the tapping sound it makes upon contact with the stone. Clever, Avernus thought.

"Time to go," Leto announced. "Now's the perfect time. The son and daughter of two of the most powerful clans were just mated to each other and today was the first day of a huge celebration. Everyone's passed out now. Likely won't be up for a good while yet. Perfect time to go."

"Excellent! Help me up then, requested Avernus.

Leto grabbed Avernus under the arms and gently lifted him to his feet. While Avernus regained his balance, Leto passed him his cane and moved to his right to support him physically. Now that he was standing upright, Avernus realized that Leto was very tall. Currently, she looked to be at least half a head taller than him, possibly more, even; about the same height as the average Altmer female, he figured. He had never noticed just how tall she was before.

"Ready to go?" Leto inquired.

"Yes, but I'm afraid I can't move very fast," Avernus informed her.

"We'll have to do something about that. I want to make the most of their distracted, drunken partying," remarked Leto. "But for now it's fine. Leto's go."

With that, the odd duo set out. Their speed was limited by how fast Avernus could hobble along, though with Leto supporting him, he could move a little bit faster than he would otherwise be able to on his own. Avernus also had his floating ball of orange light follow him as he walked, allowing him to see where he was going. Since the rest of Leto's tribe was effectively blind just like her, he wasn't at all worried about the bright light alerting the rest of the tribe to their escape.

Slowly, Avernus and Leto made their way out of the Dwemer building that housed Avernus's cell and into the encompassing cavern. The orange glow of Avernus's conjured ball of light showed a couple other Dwemer buildings, but they looked to be in severe disrepair. The rest of the space in this section of the cavern was filled with Falmer tents and other structures cobbled together from a mix of natural rocks, scavenged rubble from Dwemer ruins, and that same hard, chitinous material used to make their weapons. These structures were sparsely distributed, which suggested to Avernus that this particular section of the cavern was located on the outskirts of the populated "urban" territory of Leto's tribe. Supporting this notion was the fact that there were very few other falmer present here, only a handful or so. Just as Leto said they would be, these falmer all seemed to be unconscious. Indeed, Avernus could even hear one snoring rather loudly.

Confident that no one would grow aware of their presence, the duo set off, Leto leading Avernus to one of the cave entrances toward the back of the cavern. Avernus hobbled along next to Leto, and as they travelled farther in, Avernus began to notice small amounts of luminescent fungi growing on the cavern walls and ceiling. The farther they progressed, the greater the amount of fungi appeared until, soon enough, the natural luminescence was strong enough for Avernus to see by it, as the cave passage was bathed in a soft teal glow.

Shortly after this point, the pair emerged into a small cavernous area, larger than the corridor-like caves, but not nearly as large as the massive cavern that housed his cell block. In the centre of this cavern was a pool of water, and, like the cave, the walls were covered in tendrils of luminescent fungi that reminded snaked along the walls in tendrils, reminding Avernus of the patterns of veins beneath the surface of one's skin. The surface of the pool was calm, and imperfectly reflected the vasculature-like tendrils of fungi on the cavern walls.

Leto began leading them toward the pool.

"There's a pool in this room," Leto informed Avernus, unaware that he could see this for himself.

"But why are we here?" queried Avernus.

"To wash our scents off, obviously," explained Leto. "Otherwise it'd be easy for them to track us."

"Oh. What kind of creature do you use for tracking?" Avernus wondered.

"Uh, people," Leto answered, as if he had asked something quite stupid that even a small child would know.

"Really?" Avernus exclaimed in disbelief. "That's…frightening, how powerful your people's sense of smell is."

"I like to think it's funny how non-existent yours is," Leto countered, as she released Avernus's hand and walked to the edge of the pool, discarding her weapons and satchel as she made her way over.

"Fair enough," Avernus conceded.

Before he could say anything more, Avernus observed Leto begin to remove her clothes, right in front of him and completely unabashed. He knew it was because her people were blind, and that the only way to tell if another was nude or not would be to go up to them and feel their body, but Leto's actions still caught Avernus off-guard.

First, she removed her top, which was made of the same material as Avernus's rags and showed off her bare midriff. Next came her skirt, which was rather similar to Avernus's and consisted of two pieces of cloth (albeit in better condition than Avernus's rags) attached to a rope belt. She then tossed her clothing over to where she had left her weapons and satchel.

Leto stood completely naked, and, to his shame, Avernus was actually growing aroused and could feel himself hardening. But more than arousal, he was very intrigued by Leto's build and physique. The first thing Avernus noticed was how similar the shape and proportions of her body were to a woman of the surface-dwelling races (excluding her hands and feet). Her shoulders weren't very broad, about the same width as a typical Altmer woman her size, and her figure narrowed appreciatively toward the waist before flaring out again at her hips, just like a woman from the surface. This shouldn't have been surprising, but perhaps since their faces, at first glance, appeared almost monstrous, he had expected a more monstrous, less anthropic body shape from them.

Another thing Avernus noticed was her musculature. She was well built and more muscular than the majority of women from the surface, but at the same time, she wasn't excessively muscular. It wasn't so much that she had especially large muscles (they were only somewhat larger than normal), but rather that her combination of less body fat on average than surface women and her muscles being very well defined seemed to give the impression that she was well muscled. Yet, this in no way diminished her femininity of her build. If anything, Avernus found himself even more aroused, since he preferred well-built women over thin women. Actually, now that he thought of it, Leto's muscularity in proportion to her height was very similar to an Orsimer female. He wondered if this was because of the violent and war-like history of her tribe. He would imagine that if a violent society was small enough such that most, if not all, of its members had to fight to survive in it, then likely over many generations the people would grow larger and stronger than people from non-violent societies.

Despite the similarity of Leto's general body shape to a surface woman's, however, Leto's feet were larger proportionally, and her hands and fingers were also significantly longer, proportionately, as well. Furthermore, her skin was quite different as well. Unlike the surface races, Leto's skin had almost no colour to it, appearing as only a very light shade of grey with a very slight tint of pink. Her skin also appeared to be more translucent, as Avernus was able to see several major veins underneath on the inside of her thighs and upper arms, and it appeared thicker and tougher as well.

Avernus's eyes then drifted to Leto's rear end, where they lingered a moment until she slipped gracefully into the pool without making a splash, breaking the spell on Avernus.

Sighing, more in frustration with himself than anything, Avernus discarded his pitiful set of rags and hobbled over to the edge of the pool. As he approached, Leto, who was now entirely submerged, save for her head, turned around to face Avernus.

"Do you need help getting in?" she inquired.

"I'm fine, thanks," Avernus responded briefly.

Supporting his weight between his cane and his good leg, Avernus slowly and cautiously lowered himself to the ground, carefully pulling his ruined leg out of the way as he did so, until he was sitting with his legs hanging off the edge and dangling in the water.

Staring into the pool, Avernus realized that he could see his reflection in the surface of the water. He realized he hadn't seen his own reflection in several months, since before he embarked on his ill-fated expedition. He could see quite clearly the dark, greenish-grey hue of his Dunmeri skin and the blood red tint of his eyes. On his right shoulder, Avernus could see the insignia of the Imperial Legions that had been tattooed on, consisting of a stylized dragon with a head and tail extending up and down from the body respectively, and wings extending to the sides and shaped in such a manner that the dragon formed a diamond shape. Across his torso, there ran numerous scars and burn marks. Few were battle-scars from his days in the Legion; rather, most of his scars he received during his time as a prisoner of the Thalmor. The Falmer of Leto's tribe hadn't given him many marks, mostly preferring to beat him instead. He could make out several bruises on his torso, but those would heal in time. Across his face, there ran three diagonal scars. The top ran from his left temple down to the right side of his node, passing above his left eye. The middle ran from beside his left eye, passing just below it, and running to his upper lip. The lower scar ran from just below his left cheekbone to his chin. These scars, the Falmer had given him, when one of his interrogators got frustrated and slashed his clawed hand across his face. Avernus was lucky he didn't lose his eye. That and some bruises on his chest were the only things that had changed since his latest imprisonment.

Avernus, deciding it would be best to wash himself and leave as soon as possible, then used his arms to lower himself into the pool until he felt his feet contact the bottom. Once he was in, he began scrubbing his body with his hands, wiping away the dust and grime that had accumulated on his skin since he had been captured and shoved into that cell.

Just as he was finishing, he saw Leto climb out of the pool, produce a medium-sized piece of cloth from her bag, and begin to towel herself off with it before wrapping her hair up in it (some of it having gotten wet in the pool) and putting her clothes back on.

"Do you need any help getting out?" Leto asked.

"That would be nice," Avernus accepted. It would be trickier getting out of the pool on his own than it was getting in.

Walking over to the edge, Leto grasped Avernus by his wrists and pulled him out of the pool seemingly without effort, setting him down gently on the rock floor. Stooping, she then retrieved his cane for him to balance himself on.

"Sorry, I only have this one cloth," Leto said, referring to the cloth wrapping her hair up that she had dried herself with. "You're welcome to use it, but it's all wet and I'm not sure how much use it would be."

"Hmm. I think I might try something else, actually," mused Avernus as an idea came to him.

The crippled man then conjured forth flames to coat the palms of his hands, and applied the same protective magic that kept the skin of his hands from burning to the rest of his body. Next, he ran his hands all over his body and adopted a satisfied smirk when he found that the heat of the flames had evaporated all the water. Pleased with how his idea had worked, he then scooped up his rags and reattached them around his waist.

"What did you do?" inquired Leto, as she began re-equipping her weapons.

"I conjured flames and let their heat evaporate the water from my body," Avernus explained.

"How did you not burn yourself?" Leto asked. She was genuinely curious.

"More magic," answered Avernus. "Magic is, by its very nature, quite dangerous, and one of the first things to learn is how to manipulate it without injuring yourself."

"Interesting," Leto remarked. "But we should get going. I want to get as far away from here as we can before we have to rest."

"Agreed. Let's get moving," concurred Avernus.

Leto went to support Avernus and the two then set off. The orange ball of light, which had remained in a corner during their bath, adding its illumination to the natural luminescence of the fungi coating the walls, began to follow Avernus once more, shining its light through the passageways and illuminating them for Avernus to see where they were going.

On and on the pair walked, each step taking them farther away from Leto's tribe and closer to Blackreach.

And there's the first chapter. Please take the time to leave a review. I'm eager to hear what you think. New readers, what were your first impressions? Old readers, does it match up to my first version so far? Thanks again for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Also, in my profile, I've linked a picture that I like to think looks like Leto. I'll put it here too:

phantom61485 . deviantart art/Tolkien-s-Female-Orc-178634205 (Remove the spaces)

That's it for now. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Take care ^_^