F R O M U N D E R A H I S T T R E E
Part One: Love Song
By Bigdoggeh (John Strickland)
I watched the red sunset fall at last over the final slip of Argonia. The ship was far out as sea, now, perhaps one or two nautical miles away. As I lay, dressed in only rags of clothing on the port side of the ship, I dream of Anvil, and wonder what it will be like.
My name is Haj-Chaste, and I am a proud Argonian girl. This is my story, and you will hear it as you read these pages. It begins here, as we lay our scene off the coat of the Black Marsh. I am an exile; a shadowscale. I do not want this occupation-It came to me, as I was born under the sign of the shadow, and any Argonian bornnunder that sign... is doomed to live and die for the mercenary assasins, the Dark Brotherhood.
I despise this occupation. I have a free soul, and that is what I seek to be: Free. Perhaps one day...
Haj-Chaste lay alone beneath the Hist Tree-She was alone here, and she was crying.
Crystal tears dripped from deep blue eyes as she thought of the past as a child, and of her mate. How she would leave them all behind for the Dark Brotherhood. Thoughts swirled and pivoted about the Argonian youth's mind as she thought once again...
She didn't give a damn about anything, anymore...
...And I hum a love song, for my lost mate and life, and to the sky. For this dying day. For my dying homeland. I'm scared... I do not want to kill... Yet, it is my destiny. So destiny must be escaped forever... Forever...
...So I jump from the ship...
Splish; splash; splish; splash...
Chaste opened her blue eyes to see waves over her...
"Damn!"
The Argonian girl jumped up, praying to akatosh that she was not in the middle of the ocean.
...And there she was. The rotted sign on the sand beside her read "Leyawiin: Ninety Paces." She was save! Safe, safe! So she set off with a dive down the nearby swampy river, murker watter chipping with bugs of all sorts. She left her clothes by the shore, feeling she would not need them, and set out, swimming, powerful legs through thick waters.
In the distance, the towering spires of a city shone and flew upward like a lifehouse beacon that saved her from wandering in this forsaken wildreness. Safety!
"Leyawiin" the sign read. It was a strange place; a city she immediately liked. There were Argonians here-plenty of them-and she somehow felt welcome in this bustling-
"Hey. Put on some clothes."
Chaste turned back to face her worst fear: A tall, pale cloacked man.
From the Dark Brotherhod.