Sharp Claws
He pulled the string on his bow, as he was crouching behind a rock, "Don't move..." He muttered, focusing on a deer that was a few feet ahead of him. He pulled the string back as far as it could go and bit his lip. He let go of the string and saw the arrow flie directly into the deer's neck. The deer fell to the ground with a thump, which put a grin on his face.
Faz'Jo - though he preferred to be called Faz - got out of the crouching position and rested the bow in it's holster on his back. He trudged over to the deer and pulled out a small hunting knife. He whistled a song to himself as he dug the knife into the deer, cutting out some meat, along with the pelt.
He wiped some of the blood off his face and eventually finished his work. Before he stood up, he cut off the deer's horns and put them in his knapsack. He picked up the bloody meat and pelt and walked over to a nearby lake. He sat on the edge of small hill just a few inches above the lake.
He put the pelt and the meat beside him, and plunged a knife through a mud-crab that was going to snatch the pelt, "Ugly little bastards." Faz muttered, tearing the claws off of it and throwing them in his knapsack.
He grabbed the pelt and sunk his claws into it, so it wouldn't fall out of his paws. He began to wash the pelt in the lake, the blood slowly dripped off the pelt and into the lake. He sighed and put the newly-washed pelt beside him. He looked ahead of him, the city of Whiterun capturing his view.
The city confused him. It was beautiful on the outside...but on the inside, it was a different story. Mostly due to the soldiers and guards that were posted inside of the city. They weren't too happy to be having a khajiit live in their city.
Faz didn't even want to live in that city. And if it weren't for one thing, he would've left a long time ago. And that one thing being a certain khajiit that had caught Faz's eye since he'd entered the town a few months before.
He'd walked into Whiterun for the first time - as he'd crossed the border from Cyrodil a few days earlier - and had been hunting all day. He had sold all of his hunting gear and went to spend the night at the local Inn. The next morning he had met the khajiit with the singing voice that had made his ears twitch.
He listened to him for hours on end. Faz couldn't explain it, he'd just assumed that the khajiit bard was just really good at charming him.
Only a few days later had he realised that he'd fallen for him.
Faz couldn't help but smile at these thoughts. He stood up, picking up the pelt and meat. He put both of them in his knapsack and began making his way back to Whiterun.
The khajiit was still on his mind, "Oh Blu..." He muttered to himself, "Maybe I'll take you out for a 'personal hunt' one day..." He grinned and laughed to himself. He questioned the seriousness of that statement, untimately coming to the conclusion that he was being serious.
"Ugh, I disgust myself." He muttered, picking up the pace to Whiterun. Before he knew it, he was jogging down the path towards Whiterun, past the Western Watchtower. His ears twitched when he heard a crowd of foot-steps behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed a handful of soldiers dressed in blue uniforms.
He'd recognised these uniforms to be Stormcloak uniforms, otherwise known as the guards of Windhelm. He may not have known much about the current events in Skyrim. He'd only heard stories about some woman who had become known as something called; 'Dragonborn' and that a civil war had been going on in Skyrim, between two different groups; the Stormcloaks, and the Imperials.
This is what caught the khajiit's attention. The Stormcloaks were in Imperial territory. The Stormcloaks gave him looks of disgust as they ran past. Faz gave them a glare in return, "Racists." He muttered.
He noticed another Stormcloak slowly running behind the rest of them. Faz had noticed that this one was a child. Faz stood in front of the child, and knelt in front of him.
"Son, where are you going?" Faz asked.
"To war!" The child shouted, holding up an iron sword in a triumphant manner.
"War?" Faz's eyes widened, "You're a child!"
"I ain't a child! I'm a man! And I'm going to purge Skyrim from the Imperials and the beasts!" He shouted, pushing the khajiit back a few feet, "Get out of my way!"
Faz took a few steps back and allowed the child to run past. He noticed that the group of soldiers were being followed by a larger group of soldiers, "War..." Faz glanced at Whiterun, just noticing a handful of Whiterun guards standing at the front gate.
"They're building barricades..." Faz noted. He began walking back to Whiterun, not taking his eyes off the Stormcloaks that were approaching the town. It took a few seconds for him to connect the dots; that Whiterun was going to be under siege.
Meanwhile, a handful of khajiit caravaneers were conversating just outside the walls. One of the khajiits however, wasn't part of the caravan. He was speaking with one of the khajiits, but was brought out of his conversation when he saw a large amount of soldiers dressed in blue rushing towards the gate.
Before any of them knew it, a battle had begun. Stormcloaks and Whiterun guards had begun striking each other down, along with a woman dressed in studded armour. The khajiit had immediately recognised her as the dragonborn, from the stories. He stepped back from the gate, and into one of the small tents.
"Shut the tent, Blu." One of the khajiits said. Blu grasped the tent and shut it quickly. He quietly moved to the back of the tent, with the other khajiits. They saw a barrage of shadows running past the closed tent.
"Stay quiet." Blu whispered. Loud explosions were heard outside, as the Stormcloaks were trying to destroy the walls surrounding the bustling town.
"We can't stay in here." One of the khajiits stood up, "Let's run while we can!"
"No, it's the best idea to just stay in here." One of the older khajiit males argued, "You'll get us all killed!"
The younger khajiit woman growled at the older male, "I'm not dying here!" She shouted, pulling the tent open, she took a few steps outside. And within a few seconds, an arrow had already pierced her skull. She fell to the ground with a thump.
"M'rissa!" The older khajiit shouted. A handful of Stormcloak shoulders tore open the tent and began to attack the innocent khajiit.
Blu grabbed one of the soldier's heads and dug his claws into the soldier's eyes. The soldier fell backwards, covering his eyes and screaming in pain. Blu snatched the soldier's steel sword and plunged it into his skull. He ran out of the tent, panting, he looked back at the tent and saw all of his friends lying dead.
The other soldiers were staring at Blu, all of their weapons unsheathed, "Stay back, you brutes!" Blu shouted, reaching down onto the ground and picking up his knapsack and throwing it over his shoulder.
The soldiers began to slowly approach Blu. Blu was too busy focused on the approaching soldiers, that he hadn't noticed a child - dressed in a blue make-shift stormcloak uniform - run up behind him.
The child plunged his iron sword into Blu's thigh. Blu shrieked in pain and dropped to the ground in a matter of seconds. The Stormcloaks laughed at him, "Should we kill him?" One of them asked.
"Nah, let the bastard suffer." Another one answered. The child spat on him and grabbed Blu's lute that had fallen out of his knapsack.
"Let me have that." One of the Stormcloaks grabbed the lute and broke it against his knee. All of the Stormcloaks shared a laugh, "Come on, let's get back to the battle!" One of them shouted.
All of them shared a war-cry and ran into battle. Blu groaned and pushed himself against the stone wall, "Goddamn...bastards..." He groaned.
Faz was not too far away from Whiterun, but he'd noticed the khajiit caravaneers getting slaughtered right before his very eyes. He decided to take a short-cut, by getting off the path and crossing across the tundra that had made Whiterun well-known.
He approached the devastated caravan, and immediately noticed Blu slumped against the wall. Faz ran faster than he'd ever ran before to Blu and knelt in front of him, "Blu?"
"T-That isn't my name..." Blu muttered, "It's Blu'Ya."
"That's a stupid name." Faz said, running his hand on Blu's thigh.
"So is Faz'Jo." Blu chuckled a little, coughing a little bit of blood out, "I wouldn't touch down there...pain and pleasure don't work well together..."
Faz cleared his throat, "Not the time for jokes." He said, "Let me help you out." He pulled out some blue flowers and some wheat from his pocket.
He pulled out a Mortar and Pestle from his knapsack and crushed the two ingredients together. He put one of his paws behind Blu's head and rested the pestle against Blu's mouth.
"This'll help." He said. Blu drank the liquid and coughed.
"Ugh, tastes like spoiled mead..." Blu made a face of disgust. Faz reached around behind Blu and pushed him off the ground. Blu threw his arm around Faz's shoulder, "It's a damn war-zone..." Blu said, glancing at the gate.
Most of the Stormcloaks had been taken down, mostly due to the dragonborn and her power to pretty much shout all of them into space.
"This is the time." Faz said, "Let's get you back into town..." He began slowly walking through the gate, making sure that Blu wasn't going to fall over. The dragonborn paused, and noticed the two khajiits slowly making their way into the town.
She ordered a Whiterun guard over to them, "Go help them out Caius!" She shouted.
Caius nodded and ran over to the two khajiits, "Come on you two..." He said. He escorted the two khajiits to the gate and watched them walk inside.
"Thank you." Faz said, giving Caius a nod, "You're not as bad as some of the others." He added.
Caius nodded back at him and returned to battle. Two guards on the inside ran over, ignoring the two khajiits and slammed the front gate shut.
Whiterun was completely empty, except for the few guards that were at the gate. Faz glanced at Blu, his face had drained of colour, "I don't think that potion went down well..." Blu said, coughing.
"It's supposed to make you sick. It's an odd process..." Faz said, slowly bringing Blu to his house. Faz pulled out a key from his pocket and put it into the key-hole of Breezehome. He turned the key and pushed the door open.
Faz brought Blu in and sat him on a chair in front of a small fire. He shut the door and pushed a piece of furniture in front of the door, "Best to keep us safe..."
"I think they w-were doin' a good job of that already..." Blu said, referring to the guards outside of the walls.
"Oh? They were? If they were, you wouldn't have gotten hurt." Faz said. He walked over to a nearby shelf and picked up a few blocks of already-chopped firewood. He threw them onto the fire and walked upstairs.
He came back down holding a few rags, "Let me fix you up." He said, walking over to Blu and kneeling beside him. He emptied a broken down healing potion onto one of the rags and ran the rag across Blu's wound.
Blu groaned, "Damn, that hurts..."
"Give it a few seconds and pain'll go away." Faz removed the rag from Blu's thigh and grabbed the two rags that were left over. They were tied together with leather, "This bandage will help too."
He wrapped the bandage around Blu's thigh and gave Blu a smile, "There you go. Good as new."
Blu just stared at Faz, which made Faz a little uncomfortable, "Where's your lute?"
Blu snapped out of it and coughed, "I-I um...it was destroyed." He said, with a sigh.
"Oh." Faz frowned, "Oh well." He shrugged, "I can just buy you a new one."
"Seriously?" Blu raised an eyebrow.
"What? They aren't that expensive." Faz shrugged again.
"Well, thanks." Blu looked away and made himself comfortable on the chair, "You sure know how to make somebody feel at home." He said, glancing at the fire. He leant forward and made himself warm with the fire.
Faz stood up and walked over to a chair that was right beside Blu's. He cleared his throat and handed Blu a bottle of mead, "Mead. The drink that solves all of life's problems. Thank you."
In a few seconds Blu had already downed the bottle, he rested the bottle on the floor beside him and sighed, "Why do the Nords hate us?" He asked, glancing over at the other khajiit.
Faz sighed, "Nobody knows," He shrugged, "But on the not-really-bright side, Argonians and Dark Elves get the same treatment."
Blu shook his head, "They're just bastards, no other words are rich enough to describe them."
Faz laughed, "Nice."
The battle outside slowly died down, and the two khajiits took notice of this when they heard children playing outside again, "You gonna go back to the Inn?" Faz asked, glancing over at Blu.
Blu laughed and gave Faz an 'are you serious' look, "Hell no. This place is cozy. I'm gonna chill here."
"Well." Faz stood up, "If you are, I might as well cook this deer meat I got earlier." He opened his knapsack and pulled out the meat he had collected earilier.
He walked over to the fire and set up a small cooking station. He tied the meat to a piece of wood and began to cook it. Blu watched Faz cook the food, a small smile on his face.
Some time passed before Faz was finished. He handed Blu a plate with the newly-cooked food and a fork, "Dig in." Faz said, sitting down beside Blu and eating his own food.
Blu finished his food rather quickly, while Faz was still chowing down. Blu put his plate on the floor beside the empty bottle of mead and glanced at Faz. Faz eventually finished his food and relaxed in his chair. He put down his plate and stood up.
"I'm gonna go out for a bit, to see what's going on outside." He threw his knapsack over his shoulder, "I'll be back soon."
Blu stood up and nodded, "Okay. I guess I'll just look around in here."
"Go ahead, make yourself a home." Faz shrugged. Blu approached Faz and gave him a smile. Faz gave him an awkward smile, then turned to leave. Blu placed a paw on Faz's shoulder, causing the khajiit to turn around.
Blu grinned a planted a kiss on the other male's lips, "I'll be here waiting." His paw reached down and groped him. Faz's eyes widened.
Blu cleared his throat and walked away from the other male, "U-Um...y'know, I could just stay here..." Faz took off his knapsack, "It doesn't really matter that much..."
"Good." Blu turned to the other khajiit, "Let's have a little fun!" He walked over to Faz,
"But watch the claws, they're sharp."
My first Elder Scrolls fic. I had planned to do one last year...but never really got the mojo for it. I hope this is satisfactory. And yes, Faz is my name of my khajiit character in Skyrim...and Blu is the khajiit incarnation of IndagoBlu, a friend of mine...
...the ship has begun!
-RSM
