AN: WOAH. Usually I get about 2 hits a week. The day I uploaded Chapter 1 of this, I got 50. 50! FIFTY! FIVE-OH! I must be doing something good! Also, bow to the mighty Immortal Bubblewrap for reviewing. Thank you everybody! Especially, YOU.
The song lyrics are "Iron", by Woodkid, in case you're interested, and Ahdanji was born under the Shadow, so that's the reason she can disappear faster than Superman can run from Chuck Norris.
It's set in Morrowind's time, about 20 years before mister/miss Nerevarine came along.
Enjoy!
~Ahdanjii~
Ahdanji ran. The Imperials were getting dangerously close now. She was invisible, but it was going to wear off any second...
WHUMP
Alkosh, she tempted fate. An arrow hit the tree next to her, and she tried her best to dodge and weave, but she was not good at evading arrows. The next one buried itself in her arm, and she fell. She shakily stood up and limp-ran away.
"Where'd it go!"
"What are you asking me for, you hit it!"
"A million mile from home, I'm walking ahead."
She walked on, her teeth bared in pain. It wasn't far now, she could see the smoke of the houses. She could hide in someone's garden, she'd leave before they even woke up. These Nords didn't care who the Empire wanted to hang, but they didn't like Khajiits.
~Ulfgard~
He had jumped, no, leaped off the cart, burst into the house, and screamed that there was a killer on the loose. His mother's response? Clean the goddamn livestock shed. Could he at least have supper? No, he couldn't. He managed to avoid invoking one of the Eight, which saved him from an earful, but he still grumbled. Slamming the door, he trudged over to the garden. He loved Skyrim, he could withstand cold alright, but he hated being hungry and basically blind from the night darkness.
He heard distressed mooing, and the cows were not in the shed. He heard something move - then the brush fell over. He grabbed the pitchfork leaning on the fence. Wielding it like a true warrior (Or so he thought), he advanced towards the shed.
"Who's there?" he asked, not as scary as he'd like. The movement stopped. He peered into the darkness.
"Will it hurt poor, injured Ahdanjii?" a strongly accented voice said painfully, seemingly from nowhere. It chuckled. "Poke out her eye? Ahaha!"
Ulfgard lit a wall-torch some flint. It was his habit not to use magic, Nords shunned it. Anyone could cast a stream of flames, he thought, but his family insisted he used flint.
The dim light revealed a prone Khajiit girl. Her fur was the colour of burnt sienna, and her glowing eyes were golden. She had nasty rope burn around her wrists, from bounds tighter than they should be. She was wearing an olive-coloured vest and patchwork brown trousers, and no shoes, but footwraps.
An arrow was sticking out of her left arm, and she was bleeding. a tiny puddle of blood had collected around her arm.
"You..." he gasped.
"Ahdanji." she grinned. "Ahdanji saw this one today, did she not? This one was not throwing fruit at her." she paused. "This one pities beasts." she smiled, triumphant. Nords hated Khajiits, to pity them or show kindness was a sign of weakness to most, and she knew. She used this against him. She mocked him.
No matter how angry she made him, there was no honour in fighting an unarmed and injured opponent.
She cocked her head at him.
"This one does not care?" she asked.
Ulfgard huffed. "There's no honour in killing you. Now get out."
"Tsk! Nords are all the same!" she hissed. "Kill Ahdanji, stop the pain, or help her. Nord has the choice."
He held the fork above his head with one arm, and she cowered and brought her hands up.
"No!"
He threw the fork into the ground and crouched next to her, laughing. Her ears stood up in shock, then flattened in anger.
"Stupid Nord!" she hissed. He kept on laughing. She gave up and chuckled, her ears rising slightly.
"Nord will help her?" she asked quietly, with wide eyes.
"Me? Help a murderer? A thief?" He asked rhetorically, and her gaze lowered. "Of course I will!" This heralded him a playful slap.
"Stupid Nord!"
He laughed and went back inside, returning a few minutes later with a deer pelt and some bandages. He set them down beside her. He pulled some bread from his pocket.
"Khajiit do not eat bread, idiot."
"I know." he said, shoving it in her mouth and ripping the arrow from her. Her scream was muffled by the bread, and she bit down so hard that she cleaved it in two with her teeth, and the other half fell to the ground. She spat out the bread.
"Stupid Nord.." she hissed to herself as Ulfgard bandaged her arm.
~Ahdanji~
As the Nord bandaged her wound, there was an uneasy silence.
"You don't seem like the murdering type." he stated as he worked.
"Ah, but this one seems the farming type." she retorted, trying to bring the conversation away from that topic. She didn't need it right now.
"I hate farms." he complained, and Ahdanji laughed.
"Heh, so does Ahdanji. All vegetable, no meat. Except for them." she said gesturing towards the cows with her free hand.
"You really are a thief arn't you?"
"Ahdanji has no choice. In Elsweyr, Ahdanji was already poor. In Skyrim-" The Nord sniggered as she pronounced "Skyrim" oddly, which she ignored. "-Nords do not like Ahdanji. Ahdanji does not have anything to give caravans. Ahdanji steal from farms to eat."
"Ahdanji calls this stealing, yes, but Ahdanji does not steal for profit." she said, then remembered her time in Suran. "Unless Ahdanji really, really hate victim."
"Well, this Nord does like you."
"Bleh" she said, sticking her feline tongue out.
"Shut up. Anyway, I'll help you. And call me Ulfgard, it's much better than "Nord"."
"Ahdanji judges...Ulfgard-Nord."
He sighed. "Whatever. Anyway, my parents do not know you're here, so stay hidden."
"With what?" she said, snarky.
"Uh...the bales of hay?" She hissed in annoyance, but it was better than anything she could think of.
"Fine." she complied, and dragged herself over to a spot behind the hay. The Nord wrapped her up in the furs, and the warmth was lovely. She closed her eyes and purred as he turned to leave.
"Nord!" she said, opening her eyes. He turned around. She looked down. "...this one thanks you for helping her."
He smiled, and walked off. She watched him until he was hidden from her by the hay, then she yawned and purred herself to sleep.
