Chapter 1

Under the cover of darkness, Petra Ral, a twenty-one year old human warrior carried a skeletal head of a guar as she crept away from a camp of slumbering adventurers. She wore her light armor, a medium quality dark leather set she only wore for stealth. It was harder sneaking in heavy armor so she had left her platemail set with her horse. The leather armor covered her completely, from the toes to her ginger hair, and only left her amber eyes bare.

In the camp, there had only been one man awake keeping guard with five more sleeping in their bedrolls. Petra had easily been able to sneak behind the guard as he walked around the camp to knock him out. After that, she had searched through the camp until she found what she needed, the guar head. It was an odd thing to steal but it had not belonged to men and women of the camp. They had stolen it from its true owner and Petra had been asked to recover it.

A guar was a large lizard-like pack animal that was common across Morrowind, both domestic and wild. Petra did not understand why the owner was so insistent she bring back this particular head but this was a very unusual request. The guar head she held was covered in scratches and markings that resembled runes or some other sort of writing. Petra used her detect enchantment spell to sense if there was any magic in the item, but there was nothing.

As the warrior made her way to her rendezvous point, near a path to the mountains, she heard the familiar clicking of claws on stone. Normally for Petra, this sound meant a fight but she hoped there would not be one this time.

"Found?" A deep, gravelly voice asked as Petra stood a in front of a small cave. A green, reptilian head poked out of the cave first, checking the area, before the creature revealed itself completely. The creature's mouth was beaked and there was a large frill on its head. Each of its wickedly sharp claws was longer than her hand. It had three claws on each reptilian hand. It had a tail, but on this creature it was crooked, likely having been broken at one time. It was at least a foot taller than Petra.

Petra had defeated Clannfear before but never unscathed. If this creature tried to attack her, she would be in trouble. She believed this one would not harm her though.

"I think. Is this your friend?" Petra held up the skull, hoping her instincts were right and the beast was trustworthy. She had heard of this particular Clannfear before. It was an anomaly and lived near this path but never bothered anyone. She knew however that people did not treat the creature well when they encountered it. Clannfear, like most daedric beasts, did normally kill any humans they encountered so fear and anger were normal responses from humans.

"Yesssss. I can have?" The clannfear had some difficulty speaking human tongue. It used short sentences and would sometimes hiss out words. Its voice was masculine so Petra believed the Clannfear was male but she could be wrong. She didn't know the biology of daedric creatures.

"Yes but you must swear first."

"Yes, Yessss. Swear. Will not hurt soft skins if not hurting I. Swear."

Petra couldn't blame the Clannfear if hurt people trying to protect itself. As long as it did not try to hurt anyone unprovoked then she would be fine with that. She did not know if it would keep the promise but according to the rumors she had heard from travelers, it had not done anything other than watch people from time to time.

"Here." Petra cautiously neared the beast and placed the head in its outstretched claws. Petra tensed slightly, wary if the beast decided to attack.

"Thank you." Its voice was more… gentle? The Clannfear rubbed its head against the skull, making soft growling sounds. The beast was crazy, Petra decided. But it was a good crazy if it meant he would behave. She felt some pity for it as it must have been so lonely that it created an imaginary friend out of skull.

"Uh, you're welcome." Petra responded politely.

"Friend? You friend?" The Clannfear asked as the ginger haired warrior prepared to leave the two reunited friends.

"As long as you behave, yes." Petra smiled. This had been an odd day but she was slightly flattered that the Clannfear wanted to be friends.

"Friend must take reward." The daedric beast's claws clicked as it dashed into its home. A minute later it came back without the head and instead with a small golden item in its claws. Petra had forgotten that it had offered her a reward as well.

"Good human take soul. Dremora lord soul strong."

"Ah, thank you." She held out her hand as the Clannfear gently deposited the item on it. It was a grand sould gem, a round, metal coin-like item with a fiery colored semi-transparent stone set in the middle.

"Friend come back? Back to Dralin?"

"Maybe not for some time but I'll try. I promise." It might be time consuming but coming back would allow Petra to keep an eye on things here. She truly hoped the Clannfear would not attack anyone so she would not have to kill it.

The reptilian beast nodded as Petra left to get her horse. As it watched her leave, it spoke again.

"Two friends now. Two."

I'm not too well versed in the lore and characters of the Elder Scrolls series so things may not be correct but its an AU so I figure its okay.

Please let me know of any mistakes!