"We drink to our youth, and to days come and gone-"

"I swear to Azura if you keep singing that song, I'll cut your tongue out when you sleep."

Salyaris looked up from her pack, a grin on her face, "Oh c'mon, you know you love that one!"

Teldryn grimaced from his place on a nearby boulder, his helmet in his hands as he wiped off one of the goggles with a rag, "I absolutely despise it. Divines know why the bards feel like singing it here. Over and over and over again." He gave a shiver as if the very thought of listening to one of the minstrels in that tavern in Whiterun sing "Age of Oppression" was the most disgusting thing he'd ever heard. "Tasteless is what it is. If you must sing, sing one of your songs. Or go somewhere where I can't hear you and do it."

Salyaris snorted, rolling up her bedroll and stuffing it in with the rest of her gear, "You enjoy my singing, don't deny it."

"Maybe I should get you a muzzle."

The Khajiit gasped dramatically, placing a hand over her heart, "Oh Telly, you wouldn't!"

Teldryn pointed angrily at her, "And stop calling me that! I thought we agreed you would stop as long as I didn't call you Sally."

Salyaris hissed, "Don't even mention that! Sally sounds like some Imperial girl who grew up eating nothing but sweetrolls and taffy strings. Salyaris is the beautiful Khajiit you see before you who grew up eating ash yams and fish every day, which I'm thankful for. I mean.." She stood and gestured gracefully to herself, "Have you ever seen such beauty?"

"Oh, do excuse me Your Highness. I didn't realize I was speaking to The Mane," Teldryn droned, rolling his eyes and putting his helmet back on.

Salyaris sputtered, "I have the pelt of a much younger Khajiit! Not the one of some.. mangy... "king" who has everyone else's fur braided into his. Ew."

Teldryn gave her a strange look, not that she knew now that his face was hidden, "Sometimes I forget that you're not like the other cats. Ah, what was it that ship captain called you? A Dunmer in Khajiit's clothing?"

"Because I grew up in Vvardenfell? Bah, what do ship captains know? They're nothing more than civilized pirates."

"Savvy?"

Salyaris shot Teldryn a rude gesture, to which he simply chuckled and slid off of the boulder. The Khajiit stood, adjusting her own horned helmet and ebony armor before slinging her pack onto her back and shrugging her shoulders until it sat comfortably.

She gave the camp one last look, "Forget anything?"

Teldryn walked up to stand beside her, "Doesn't look like it. Let's get a move on before our employer suspects us of deserting."

Salyaris snorted and began walking towards the road, "Yeah, wouldn't want him to think we'd stolen his cheese."

"With your devotion to Sheogorath, I wouldn't put it past you, you know," Teldryn said, following close behind.

"Hey hey, it's not devotion. It's more of a... an odd friendship? If you want to call it that. He comes by for tea and a strawberry torte every now and then, we talk - more like he talks and I try to keep up - and sometimes if he's feeling bored, Sanguine will show up. It's fun."

She heard Teldryn sigh, "Remind me, how many Daedric Princes do you have in your head?"

She had a toothy smirk on her face as she looked at her companion, "Depends on what day it is. What day is it?"

"Oh forget I asked."

They fell into a comfortable silence afterwards, both focusing on the brisk pace Salyaris had set in order to make it to the settlement in time. Their job was simple; bring some supplies to a small mine southeast of Whiterun, probably clear it of spiders or draugr - depending if the miners were stupid or not - then head back to Rorikstead for payment. It wouldn't be much, according to the innkeeper who set them on the quest, but at this point Salyaris and Teldryn would take what they could get. Building a house was much more expensive than they'd expected. Teldryn attributed that to the fact that they weren't building it the "proper" way. Which was, of course, how they built most houses in Morrowind. Salyaris tried telling him that it wouldn't be the best thing structurally if they were to build it like that, but he still complained, though it usually fell on deaf ears anyway.

However, when they finally arrived to the tiny mining settlement, Salyaris could immediately tell that something was amiss. The hairs on the back of her neck and tail stood on end as they approached the two small buildings. The mine could be seen off a ways, leading into the large rocky structure that loomed above them.

The Khajiit reached out to grab Teldryn's arm, coming to a halt just outside the first building, "Teldryn, wait."

"What?"

"Something's... Not right.."

The Dunmer placed a hand casually on the hilt of his sword, "Such as?"

Salyaris' tail tip began twitching, "It's the middle of the day, where is everyone?"

Teldryn shrugged her hand off, "Sera, it's a mining town. They're probably all down there mining."

"Yeah but... All of them wouldn't be mining at once, right? We've been to plenty of mining settlements, there were always plenty of people sitting around."

"Well," Teldryn scoffed. "They were all sitting around because they were waiting for us to fix their problems."

Salyaris glared at him, "Just listen to me when I say that I don't trust this! My gut's telling me something's wrong here."

Teldryn heaved a great and dramatic sigh, "Oh fine, you're the boss here. What do you suppose we do?"

The Khajiit paused, looking around, "Alright, let's start by sear-" Her order was cut off by the door to the house they were standing next to slamming open. A mass of figures poured out, all wielding swords, axes, and bows. A similar state befell the next house, and soon they were surrounded.

Bandits.

"It's a trap!" Teldryn shouted, drawing his sword and summoning his Flame Atronach. They really needed to come up with a name for her...

Salyaris heaved Bloodskal off her back, "Thank's for pointing out the obvious!"

Someone, probably the chief, shouted a, "get them!" before the massive group of bandits charged them. Salyaris let out a snarl, baring her teeth as she swung Bloodskal in a massive arc. The arc of red blasted a group of bandits in front of her a good ten feet back, knocking them onto their backsides and allowing her an easy chance to end them. As she sunk the tip of her sword into the chest of an Orc, she spared a glance at her companion.

Teldryn seemed to be fairing well, though it was obvious he would soon be overwhelmed. While he was happily hacking away with his sword and setting everyone he could on fire with his magic, the mass of bandits was slowly surrounding him. It seemed as if they perceived him as more of a threat between the two of them, and Salyaris growled. Big mistake.

She locked swords with one nearby, "Teldryn! When I say so, get out of the way!"

Thankfully he heard her over the sound of metal clashing, "Kind of hard to do when you're surrounded, sera!" He grunted with effort as he struggled to dodge the incoming strikes. He elbowed an unlucky Nord woman in the face who got just a bit too close, "You filthy n'wahs!"

"Have the Atronach make a path! Just trust me!" She sliced the bandit through the middle and sent him flying, turning to face the main group. Teldryn had followed her lead, commanding his daedra to clear just enough of the group of bandits so he could get out of range from what he knew Salyaris was doing.

The Khajiit, in the meantime, took a deep breath. Her stomach clenched in anticipation as she felt her lungs begin to burn. A tugging feeling that she'd begun to associate with her dragon soul nagged at her core as she summoned up the words.

"Now Teldryn!"

The Dunmer was smart enough to dive out of the way as quickly as he could. As soon as he was out of range, Salyaris let loose the shout.

KRII LUN AUS

The purple shockwave sprung from Salyaris' jaws, hitting a majority of the bandit's head on. All who were hit winced as their skin began to glow a same shade of purple, and Salyaris felt a distant satisfaction in watching them writhe and fall as their lives were drained away.

The rest of the bandits were easy pickings, now that the duo wasn't being overwhelmed. Teldryn shot what fireballs he could, though he seemed to be running low on Magicka, while Salyaris sliced through flesh with Bloodskal. She felt herself get lost in the motions, the rhythm of swing, dodge, swing, stab, spin, swing lulling her into a daze as everything else became a blur. It became a dance as she spun around the now frantic bandits, refusing to let any stand in her way or escape. It was due to this blur that she lost sight of Teldryn.

And why she didn't notice the bandit chief running up behind her.

"Move!" Teldryn's shout caught her off guard, and she didn't have time to resist as a body shoved her to the ground. There was a clang of metal above her as she spit the dirt out of her mouth, soon followed by a familiar squelch. Looking up, she felt her heart drop to her stomach.

Standing above her was Teldryn... with the bandit chief's sword through his chest.

"Damn..." Teldryn growled, and the bandit chief bared his teeth as he yanked the sword out and away. The Dunmer fell to his knees, and Salyaris felt a new fire burn within her core as she watched the chief raise his sword for a final swing.

"No!"

Authors Note:

Yeah, this is happening. I'm supposed to be studying for my four exams this week, but instead I write fanfiction about my Skyrim character and Teldryn. I'm so smart! Anywho, this has been floating around in my head for a few days after an incident in the game, so I thought it'd be interesting to write it out.

No it's not over, I wouldn't do that xD I'm not heartless, I swear.

I'm not sure how long I'm going to make this... Eh, whatever. All that matters is that I kind of know where I'm going with it! Yay!

Thanks for reading! (sorry for any mistakes, I legit just wrote this all out and it's 1AM)