Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with Skyrim, nor do I claim to on any of my Elder Scrolls fanfics. I do not make any money from writing and posting this fic.
Warning: rated T for suggested drug use. There is no actual drug use (using of the drug) by any character explained or written out – it is only implied that they have or will.
Into the Skooma Den
Ka'ja looked around apprehensively. Nothing behind him but the cold, snowy wastes of Skyrim highlighted in eery moonlight, given off by the twin full moons high above. Once he was sure he was not followed, the gray and black striped Khajiit continued forward, making his way up to a cave entrance. Footprints from various directions all seemed to lead to this point.
To any non-feline humanoid race, it would seem to be pitch black within, but Ka'ja's sharp, yellow eyes gave him incredible perception in spaces with very little to no light. He could clearly see the makeshift door ten paces within, and headed for it with one last look behind him.
He stepped up to the door and tapped on it with his knuckles in a specific rhythm: knock, knock-knock (pause), nock-knock, knock. He waited a few beats before the door opened, revealing the biggest, most muscular female Orsimer he'd ever known.
"Good evening, Mo-grog," Ka'ja said with a bow, letting the full brunt of his accent flood through his greeting. His tail curled in an S as he watched the expression on her face go from hardened and fierce to happy and pleasant.
"Hello, Ka." She opened the door the rest of the way for him, and he stepped gingerly inside.
"Busy night?" he asked.
"Yes, very," she replied with a raspy laugh.
Ka'ja left her behind with a polite nod and traveled forward, his boots making soft scuffing sounds on the cave floor. The cave seemed to become less of a cave and more of a corridor as he went, decorated with long, red rugs and a table here and there hidden in nooks, with two chairs at each and lit lanterns in the center of the tables. When he reached the end, a wide room opened up to him, revealing a scene that never failed to upset him.
Around the room were big, soft pillows of varying colors laid out in circles around hookahs, and surrounding these smoking devices were many different races. At once circle, there were at least four pale-skinned humans and a Bosmer; at another, a Khajiit, a Dunmer, an Argonian, and other human races he could not recognize right off, except for the one Redguard. Ka'ja was never good at telling humans apart. They all looked the same.
The man and mer races were affected differently by skooma than Khajiit were. Everyone seemed to get the same effects from skooma, but man and mer never seemed to be able to handle it as the Khajiit could. The evidence supporting this was plausible to Ka'ja as he made his way through the circles, noting that the humans and elves seemed highly effected by the lethargy-high of skooma (as some were sitting there, head down, presumably in a state of half-sleep, and others were sprawled out on the ground, staring up at the cave ceiling with wide-eyes), while the felines all seemed to draw from the feeling of euphoria one experienced when under the influence of the condensed moon sugar. Most of them were purring loudly, their eyes half-closed, kneading the pillows beneath them, or even kneading on each other. A few couples were touching noses affectionately, and one orange-striped Khajiit in particular caught Ka'ja's eye – he was rubbing the side of his face against the cheek of a human girl, whom was giggling and laughing gleefully.
Sights like this – the entire thing – disgusted Ka'ja. Whatever happened to the times when Khajiit gathered together as brothers and sisters beneath the moons and consumed moon sugar or inhaled the smoke of skooma crystals to connect with the gods? What was happening to his people? He sighed inwardly. If it were not for the fact that street skooma was so dangerous nowadays (improperly prepared skooma could have dire effects), he wouldn't have to visit the drug den to get what he needed.
"Ka'ja! Come here. What is wrong, old friend?" Dar'jzi, a reddish-brown furred Khajiit said as Ka'ja approached. Two women were asleep on Dar'jzi's lap, a Khajiit on one side, and a young human on the other. "Tell me, what ails you?" the kingpin asked.
Ka'ja had thought his ill feelings were hidden, but the tip of his flicking tail betrayed his emotions. "It is nothing," he said.
"Correction: it will become nothing, once you try what I have for you today," Dar'jzi said.
"This one only has so much to spend."
Dar'jzi shook his head with a smirk. "Come. Follow me." He held out his clawed fingers to Ka'ja to take, and he took them and helped the Khajiit to his feet. The two women groaned in displeasure at his parting. After taking a moment to gain his bearings, Dar'jzi wobbled his way over to another bodyguard, this one most definitely a Nord. Ka'ja could tell because of his snow-white skin and sheer height. The armored Nord stepped aside, revealing a chest of Dar'jzi's stash. The Khajiit took a key from around his neck and popped the lock, then opened the chest.
Inside was a skooma addict's dream. Bottles and bottles of the stuff, in liquid and in crystal form, alongside various skooma pipes and jugs of aged wine.
"My alchemist has been working on some new stuff," Dar'jzi said, shuffling through the vials. He brought up one and Ka'ja took it to examine it. "It's leaf-skooma from Solstheim."
"I do not want skag," Ka'ja said, frowning.
While moon sugar was the base of skooma, nightshade was the additive. Different parts of the nightshade plant produced different types of skooma: the leaves a cheaper, more bitter-tasting skooma that was said to shorten one's lifespan considerably; the flowers and berries of the plant could make a more fragrant skooma and was often purchased by higher-class people. The root of a nightshade plant was where it was truly at – the active ingredient within the plant that heightened the effects of moon sugar were found to be most concentrated within the roots. Leaf-based skooma, or skag, was the least expensive, while flower- and root-based skooma was a bit more pricy.
"This is much better than Elsweyr skag," Dar'jzi went on to say.
"My coin purse is not that light."
"Right, my friend. My apologies." Dar'jzi put the leaf-skooma back in the chest and pulled out a few more vials. "How about these, instead? These are new." He handed the vials to Ka'ja.
"What are they?" he asked.
"Poppy-skooma." He pointed to the one in Ka'ja's left hand and said, "That one is Bitter Coast marshmerrow skoo. Has a very sweet taste." He then pointed to the one in Ka'ja's right hand. "That one is Black Marsh dragon's-tongue. Rivals nightshade in potency, and gives one endless endurance."
Poppy seed skooma was very new to the market, and while Ka'ja didn't know much about it, he did know that it was more powerful than nightshade skooma, gave the user higher ups and lower downs, and that the high you got from it was more of a physical and emotional high. Nightshade seemed to be more of a spiritual high.
"Let us stay within the nightshade family," Ka'ja said.
Dar'jzi gave him a cheshire grin. "Stick to the familiar. A safe bet," he said, taking the two vials back from Ka'ja to place in his chest of goodies. He dug all the way to the bottom, pushing bottles to the side, until he found what he was looking for. He brought the bottle up to examine it before handing it over to Ka'ja. "Elsweyr skooma, made from the root. Double-distilled."
Ka'ja felt his ears perk as his eyes widened. He had not yet been able to find any skooma that was double-distilled. He looked from Dar'jzi's grin, to the vial, and back to Dar'jzi.
"How much?"
"For you, my most loyal customer, a deal. I will take ten gold off the top. You can have it for fourty-five septims."
Ka'ja tensed. He only had fourty-seven gold to his name.
After a long moment of thought, the Khajiit reached into his coin purse and withdrew all of his gold, putting two coins back inside the pouch. He handed the money over to Dar'jzi and took the bottle, tucking it into the breast of his leather armor.
He might have to live on other people's scraps for the week, but tonight, he would soar past the moons, and perhaps touch the very stars themselves.
A/N: Hope I didn't offend anyone with this one-shot. I seem to be doing a lot of offending lately without meaning to. D=
The original idea came to me a humorous plotbunny – I was sitting around, struggling to write my main fics (as usual), when suddenly my cat jumps on my lap, gives me that sultry look that only a cat with ulterior motives can give, starts purring, and proceeds to knead my leg. Then I thought, ohemgee – Khajiits on skooma would so do that! I was going to make this a quick one-page comedy/parody type of genre fic about Khajiits on skooma purring and kneading each other, but as I started doing some heavy wiki reading on skooma, I found out about the religious and spiritual aspect the Khajiit race got from the act of consuming the drug. Suddenly, as I sit down and start typing this up, it took on a more serious tone, and before you know it, it was no longer about something funny in my head, but the sad possible ending to a race's culture and views and values. Even as I wrote Ka'ja (like the WoW reference? *wink*), I realized that he, like so many other heavy drug users, sees himself as above the masses, using skooma to reach the gods and thinking he is in control of his addiction, when all actuality, he's looking for his next fix. Sure, it may feel heavenly – it may even help him reach the very gods themselves – but it is destroying him and his own values in the process.
For those reading Stranger in a Strange Land, you'll notice I took Dar'jzi, the bandit whom first appeared in chapter 14 (and whose name is mentioned later in chapter 16, I think – maybe later than that), and tossed him in here. Why? Well, for starters, I'm in love with his name. Secondly, I wanted to give him a small back story where we see him not as a follower of another bandit, but a drug lord whom once had it all and somehow lost it all.
Thank you for reading!
PS: After writing this, I realized how friggin' fun it is to write Khajiits. It's so fun to use their tails and ears to express them! I love them even more now. =3