Re-introducing two characters you already know...and a new one...enjoy...

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Chapter 1

A Khajiit hovered over his experiment anxiously, intent on dropping exactly one dropped of mandrake juice into his concoction.

Almost…

Just a little bit…

"DAR!!!"

The Khajiit jumped and accidentally emptied the entire mandrake juice into the concoction.

It hissed with violet fumes and evaporated.

"Failure number thirty," grumbled the Khajiit. "Due to a complete overdose of mandrake juice…"

"DAR!! GET UP HERE NOW!!"

"…caused by an extremely irate Imperial girl,"

The Khajiit emerged from the cellar that was he's laboratory.

His brown orbs blinked in the bright sunlight as they adjusted. He wore simple blue robes and an old brown headband around his head. His short mane fell around his face in braids. His fur was pleasant golden brown and his tail flicked from left to right, indicating his nervous state.

"Yes, Arvina," he said in falsely calm voice. "How can I help you? Do you realise that I've just failed my experiment again because of your wonderfully delicate call?"

The Imperial before him regarded him with a cold steely glare.

She was dressed in a simple brown dress that outlined her curves. Her ebony hair was tied back in a ponytail and her normally kind brown eyes now burned dangerously from her tanned face.

"Don't take that tone with me, M'raaj-Dar," she hissed.

The Khajiit winced inwardly. Whenever Arvina used his full name he knew he was in big trouble.

"What happened to the last mandrake plant in my garden?"

"Oh," said the Khajiit.

"Don't 'oh' me, mister," snarled Arvina dangerously. "What did you do with it?"

"Ah," said M'raaj-Dar uncomfortably. "You see, my potion needed a drop of mandrake juice. I saw your mandrake plant in the garden and thought that that was no sense in running to the Mages' Guild to buy another one when there was one already available."

"That last one was for my stew!" shrieked Arvina.

There was a silence.

"You can eat mandrake as a meal?" said the Khajiit, trying not to laugh.

"I was trying something new!" yelled Arvina. "But you just had to use it for one of your blasted experiments!"

"Well, now that I know what you were planning to do with it, I think I did us all a favour." said M'raaj-Dar, unable to suppress the grin that was appearing on his face.

"What!" cried Arvina. "You just blatantly made fun of my cooking!"

"Uh…no I didn't," snorted M'raaj-Dar. "Since I could hardly call what you do in the kitchen 'cooking'."

"That's it!" Arvina cried out, picking up a broom. "Your in big trouble now mister! What do you have to say for yourself?"

The Khajiit took a step back.

"Um…you're beautiful when you're angry?" he tried.

The next moment, he found himself running across the fields with a very furious Arvina chasing him with the broomstick.

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Uriel Septim followed Captain Renault, Glenroy and Baurus as they led him down into the dungeons.

My sons, I'm so sorry for all of this, he thought in anguish.

"My sons, they're dead aren't they?" he said to Renault.

"There no proof of that sire," said the Imperial woman in reassuring, brisk voice. "The messenger only said that they were attacked."

The aged emperor merely sighed. "No, they're dead. Somehow I know it."

He didn't even hear whatever Renault said next.

Until he saw him.

The one from his dreams.

The creature standing before him was…peculiar.

He was short, probably just less than five feet. But he was extremely muscular and his skin colour was like the colour of granite rock. He was also bald, but had extremely thick and long beard that reached down to his chest. The beard itself was grey, indicating that he was probably quite old. But what struck Uriel was that the creature was craggy, like a weathered rock, and he was heavily scarred.

"You, I've seen you." said Uriel.

The creature did not respond, merely gazing at him with eyes that glinted like black diamonds.

"Do you have a name?" prompted Uriel.

The creature cocked its head, and then grunted with a deep rumbling voice. "Grun."

Uriel studied the creature's face and nodded.

'You are the one, then today is that day, Gods give me strength.'

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Grun came around, feeling slightly disoriented. He took in his surroundings.

The cell was big, to him anyway, had one table and one stool. He reached out to the stone wall. After awhile, he turned to recess in the wall where the bed was.

From the touch of the stone, he knew there was a hidden passageway behind it, if only he could find the lever that activated it…

He heard voices and cursed silently.

He sat himself on the stool and observed the newcomers.

There were four people, three of them clad in armour and one of them in fine robes.

"What's this prisoner doing here?" demanded one of them, a woman from the sound of her. "This cell is supposed to be off-limits."

Apparently she was in charge.

Another of the armour clad figure stammered something.

"Never mind," barked the woman. "Stand back prisoner! We won't hesitate to kill you if you get in our way!"

Grun snorted but complied.

One the armoured figures walked and said to him: "Stay put prisoner."

Grun merely scowled and crossed his arms.

Then, the old man saw him.

The old man had kind wrinkled face, and hair as white as snow. The elaborate robes he wore seemed too big, indicating that he was very thin.

The old man spouted some rubbish about seeing him before and asked his name. Since he asked politely, Grun told him.

Then the old man implored to some gods about something about strength.

"Pardon me fer askin'," Grun said. "But who the ruddy hell are you?"

The armoured people around the old man, most likely his bodyguards hissed angrily but to Grun's surprise, the old man merely smiled.

"I am Uriel Septim," he answered. "By the grace of the Nine, I serve Tamriel as her Emperor."

Grun raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"An emperor, eh?" he snorted. "That sounds fine and dandy, but what the hell are you doing in the dungeons?"

"Assassins attacked my sons," replied the old man, seemingly unfazed by Grun's rudeness. "I may be next. My Blades are leading me to safety through the city sewers."

Grun merely grunted.

"If you don't mind my asking, Grun," said the Emperor. "What are you? You are unlike any being I've ever seen on the face of Tamriel."

"You wouldn't now would you?" snorted Grun. "I'm a Dwarf."

Uriel gasped in surprise. "A Dwemer?"

Grun shook his head. "No, not a Dwemer. They're no shorter than humans. I came from across the sea, very far away from here, you probably never even heard of the land. I'm what you would call, a True Dwarf."

"Then how do you know of us?" asked Uriel.

Grun was about to reply when Renault cut in. "Please sire, we must get moving."

Uriel nodded as Renault pressed a stone, revealing the hidden passageway behind it.

He followed Renault and Glenroy through.

Baurus paused and looked at the Dwarf.

"Looks like it's your lucky day, just stay out of our way."

Grun merely snorted before following Baurus through the passage.

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There you have it...Grun is a Dwarf...i know that there no real dwarves in oblivion...but i prefer to think that they are merely...undiscovered...

so...Grun is not a Dwemer...just wanna make sure everyone gets that...cuz Dwemers are normal sized...

by the way...when Grun speaks...think of an Irish or Scottish accent...

chap 2 coming soon!!!