Okay guys! I managed to get this almost on time. Sorry I would have had it earlier but homework hit me like a ton of bricks this week. *not that I actually did much. Is such a procrastinator* Well here is the next chapter which is considerably larger than the previous one. Joy! Now go and read!
Thea stared at him with a look of shock she was sure was displayed clearly on her face. For several minutes it was all she could do, why was he down here? "I-I know you." She said finally, her voice rough like she had swallowed a mouthful of glass.
The young man tilted his head to the side and smiled wryly at her, his eyes slowly travelling up and down Thea in such a way that immediately made her flush a deep red. "Oh? How is that?" he finally said in such a drawling manner that Thea was instantly annoyed.
"Don't talk like that." She snapped. "I saw you the other day getting whipped by that daedra and you looked at me for, like, half a second."
The young man looked amused as he watched her, recognition dawning in his eyes as she spoke. "I remember you now. You were with some other girl too weren't you? Long blond hair? Looked about as courageous as a mouse?"
"Her name is Bodil and don't insult her! Don't you know any manners?" Thea huffed looking at the guy with what she hoped was a searing glare.
The young man smiled and leaned back against the wall of the cell, the picture of ease. Thea didn't notice it before when he was getting whipped but the more she saw of this guy the more she was sure he was an arrogant asshole. The question still remained. Who was he and why was he here? "I only tell the truth sweet cheeks." He told her finally after like five minutes of just sitting there.
Thea scowled, the more he said the more she was sure she didn't like him. "Oh yeah? Then answer me this... just who are you and what are you doing here?"
He shrugged. "I was careless and I got caught."
"Caught? What do you mean, caught?"
The young man just looked at her with one eyebrow quirked. He seemed to be waiting for her to come to some sort of realization and ever so slowly it dawned on her. Her eyes widened as she realized what was implied by that sentence. 'I got caught.' Thea knew what that meant but she still had to know for sure. "I got caught... does that mean you're not a slave?"
He smiled. "That's right. The name is Thorin, pleasure to meet ya."
"B-but how?" She asked thoroughly stunned. The thought of someone, anyone, not being enslaved by the daedra seemed incredibly absurd to her.
"Because I wasn't born into slavery like you, surely you've heard the rumours? Of the rebels breaking free of the daedra and fighting back? Well, you are looking at one of them."
Thea shook her head in denial. No this could not be true, as much as she wanted it to be it just did seem plausible to her that someone could be born, could grow up, not a slave. It just went against everything she knew and of course most whose life philosophies are questioned often retreat into denial as she had done then. "I don't believe you. No one can be born that way, the daedra princes enslaved everyone long before you or even I was born. That whipping must have addled your head somehow for you to spout such nonsense."
Thorin just grinned at her as if her reaction to this little bit of info was to be expected and would be counteracted accordingly. Oh, Thea had only known him a few minutes but she would give almost anything to wipe that grin off his face. He did not say anything else but chose to remain silent yet again as she figured it out for herself and yet again she came to an understanding, slowly I might add.
She remembered the look in his eyes as he was whipped, the look of searing hatred that no one and I do mean no one would have ever had allowed on their face. Everyone hates the daedra but most are too beaten down and meek, wallowing in self despair, to allow such an emotion to manifest to begin with let alone allow it to appear on the face. By that conclusion it was only logical that Thorin was different from the other slaves she had met and the only way for that to be possible would be for him to grow up in a different environment... to grow up not a slave, but a free human being, unattached, unwilling to bow to the whims of the daedra overlords.
Thea watched him now and noticed the subtle differences in the way he carried himself that differed from the slaves that she had known. Everyone she knew was always all hunched over as if to make themselves appear smaller and they always kept their eyes cast downward so to not catch the attention of one of the daedra. Thorin, on the other hand, stood, or in this case sat, tall and rigidly straight in a way that spoke somewhat that he was versed in the ways of a soldier but at the same time he somehow held himself loosely as if he had not a care in the world. Also, he had his head raised high and did not appear to be afraid to look Thea in the eye. There wasn't a single slave in the world that held themselves in the way he did.
So by that logic, Thorin was no slave. Never was and probably never would be but that didn't explain why he was in this cell or why he was being whipped the other day by that daedra. "If you are not a slave then why are you in this cell and why were you being whipped the other day?"
Thorin leaned forward an angry look coming over his face as he thought over what she had said. "It was like I said, I was careless and got caught and when I was, they tried to put me into slavery. I think they don't know I am a rebel and that they just assumed I was a runaway slave. They tried to give me to some dremora as a slave and my job was to drag that blasted cart up to that monstrosity of a party you all call a Gathering. I had to play along until I could escape so I did as they told with a grain of salt but the damn cart got stuck and I was whipped and thrown in here for my inability to move it."
He paused for a few moments, his face clearing of anger to be replaced with curiosity. "Now that I've told my story, what pray tell pretty lady is yours?"
"My name is not pretty lady!" Thea snapped at him. "It is Thea."
"Oh, Thea! What a lovely name." He grinned with a laugh. "So Thea, how did you end up in here?"
"I was thrown in here because I stopped some dremora from crushing a little boy's ribs." She said rather bluntly.
"Well wasn't that gallant of you." Thorin stated, a hint of admiration in his voice.
Thea shrugged. "I don't know why I would do it when I have seen things like that happen tons of times before and did not do anything then."
"Maybe it was fate? Maybe some divine force interfered and made you do it." He said spreading his arms out wide in a grand, sweeping gesture. "They can be finicky like that."
Thea scoffed. Ha like the Aedra ever gave a damn about her or mortal kind of that matter. They had always been distant in the past and after the Daedra invaded Tamriel they had become practically nonexistent. Some still worshipped them in secret in the hope they would intervene and end this nightmare but their prayers were never answered. Thea learned that the hard way. "Yeah like the Divines care about what happens to us."
"They care more than you think."
"Yeah, sure they do." She rolled her eyes. "So you mentioned something about escaping? How is that possible when they keep us all locked up tight in the city like... like animals in a pen?"
He shook his head. "Oh, Thea. Don't you know that even the most inescapable of prisons have a chink in their armour? A way to escape? I have an idea to get us out of but we will need the velvet cover of night..."
….
It was nearing nightfall now, Thea and Thorin knew this because the daedra had come down about an hour beforehand to give them a sparse dinner of two pieces of bread and water; they always did this just before darkness fell. "Well aren't they generous." Thorin had exclaimed sarcastically after they had disappeared back up the steps, staring at the stale moldy bread with revulsion.
"Better than nothing." Thea had replied, biting into her own bread.
Now they sat in silence or it would have been silence if Thorin would just shut up. He kept jabbering on and on about this and that, the most pointless of things, he didn't seem to care in the least that Thea wasn't paying attention to him anymore. Her head was leaning against the cold and dirty stone wall. "And I told her 'Woman, that is the worst sweetroll I have ever tasted.' And she replied with, 'good sir I happen to be a man.' I was then like, 'holy shit man! How?!' Because the weirdo was wearing a dress I thought he was a girl and I asked him to prove it to which he proceeded to lift up his skirts and show me his-" Thorin suddenly stopped right in the middle of his story, much to Thea's relief, and narrowed his eyes holding up his hand as if to tell Thea to stop what she was doing like she had been the one chattering.
A few moments later there was the sound of clanking footsteps and a pair of dremora appeared from the shadowy staircase. The made a beeline for their cell where they proceeded to unlock the door and grab Thea by the hair, dragging her out. "Time for your punishment mortal!" The daedra that had her by the hair growled.
They started to drag her back up the steps and just before they disappeared up them, Thea caught a glimpse of Thorin's stunned expression as he held onto the bars. Clearly he had not thought this would have happened. Thea had not thought this would happen either. She had figured the daedra would have waited until tomorrow to deal out their punishment, it was what they usually did.
But it was happening and Thea was sure that this was when her life would end. She didn't expect Thorin to do anything, he would probably just forget about her and go along with his escape plan. She was not mad about the fact for it was what she expected, in his place she would probably have done the same.
The dremora dragged Thea around the Slaughterhouse and down the steps, heading for what had once been the Skyforge but was now just another of one of the places the daedra liked to torture the slaves. The torture that awaited Thea there could be anything from being branded, having to stand on hot coals, being burned to death or even being stabbed by red-hot pokers, though Thea figured that it would just be death. Death might actually be welcome, at least then she wouldn't have to deal with this hellhole she called a life anymore.
Minutes later she was being dragged up the steps and tied to a post there. One of the dremora stuck a few pokers into the fires of the forge to get them ready... it wouldn't be long before they were. Despite her fear though, Thea refused to show it and for the first time in her life, held her head high like Thorin and let the hatred she felt towards these beings be clearly shown in her eyes. She was about to die so why not let these vile creatures know how she truly felt about them? It wasn't like they could do anything to her, they were killing her already.
"Getting defiant in the face of death now aren't we?" cackled one of the daedra with an abominable smile. "We shall see just how defiant you are once you have been tortured to the edge of death and back again."
The pokers were ready now and one was taken out, the end a glowing cherry red colour. It was pressed to Thea's arm and she immediately felt a starburst of pain that shot up her arm faster than an shock spell. She cried out, making a low moaning sound as she tried to hold back the scream of agony she really wanted to make. There was no way she was going to give them the satisfaction of hearing her scream. "You are weak, mortal."
Another poker was taken out and this one was applied to her stomach, burning right through her shirt and searing the skin underneath. This one was an even more intense pain, making Thea wither in pain. She still managed to keep back her scream though and this seemed to only infuriate the daedra torturers even more.
One of them got angry that, after several more poker burns, Thea still wasn't screaming. It picked up the last poker and stood before her slightly limp body with it held up high. "You'll meet your end, mortal." It raised the poker higher. "You will bleed!" It shouted before slamming the poker down with a tremendous force.
Thea closed her eyes, not wanting to see her blood fly before she died, but the pain never came. Instead, she heard a wild yell and opened her eyes the see... Thorin wrestling with the dremora?!
She watched him as he traded blows with the dremora, rolling over and over on the platform, how had he gotten here? Last she had seen, he had been locked up in that cell but more importantly, how had he managed to get here undetected?
Finally, Thorin managed to gain the upper hand grabbing a poker and stabbing his opponent in the neck. There was a bloodcurdling scream and the daedra fell before him dead and a pool of brackish blood already beginning to form. Thea thought it was over until she heard the enraged yell and saw the other daedra that had brought her here scream and rush at Thorin, his dremora mace held high. Thea cried out to warn Thorin and he only just managed to dodge the attack, the mace just scraping his arm and leaving a shallow cut there. Thorin grabbed up the poker, yanking it out of the dead daedra's neck, and swung it upwards blocking the daedra's next attack.
This battle lasted a bit longer than the first one but it wasn't before long that Thorin, the lucky bastard, got in a good hit; stabbing the daedra right in the heart. After he was sure it was dead, he made his way over to Thea and cut her binds with a sharp rock she had not noticed he had in his hand. "Are you okay?" He murmured sounding genuinely concerned for Thea which confused her, a serious look in his eyes.
"Ummm..." She blinked. "Yeah... just a few burns. Nothing I can't handle."
"Good." Thorin grabbed Thea's hand pulling her to her feet. "Now lets get out of here then."
Thea blinked again looking around dazedly. "How?"
He grinned at her, looking much more like the Thorin she knew, rather than the serious concerned one she had just met. "This is how." He said, marching over to a part of the stone wall that covered the back wall of the Skyforge. He took the poker still in his other hand and after inspecting the wall for a moment, drove it downwards into the weathered, gray stone.
There was a loud resounding crack and a large fissure appeared in the stone. It continued to fan out in smaller lines before crumbling outwards to reveal a gap in the stone, revealing a brownish plane beyond. Thea stared mouth wide open, getting her first glimpse of the world outside the city of the first time. "H-how did you k-know?" She asked him stuttering a bit.
He smiled pulling her forward and propelling her towards the new opening. "I happen to know that long ago when this was still just a forge, there used to be gaps in the wall here to let the forge smoke out without hurting the citizens of the city. Of course the daedra had filled it in but I still knew this was our ticket out of here."
Thea climbed slowly through the hole, Thorin following quickly behind her. Before she even knew it, he had a hold of her hand again and was running at top speed across the plain, Thea stumbling and just barely managing to keep up behind him. "Why are you running so fast?" She shouted at him, nearly falling flat on her face as she tripped over a large rock.
"Because we need to get out of sight of the city and to the safe point where we can rest before continuing on!" He shouted back not slowing down in the slightest. In fact, Thea was pretty sure he actually picked up more speed.
They ran like that, flat out for what felt like hours until Thea was just about ready to collapse in exhaustion, her lungs feeling like they were about to collapse. Suddenly, and much to Thea's relief, Thorin began to slow down as they came to a rocky slope just above the edge of a river. He led the way down to a cave hidden in the slope and jumped in, pulling Thea in after him as he still had a hold on her hand... what a gentleman.
He suddenly let go of her hand, going to sit by the entrance and Thea gratefully sank to the ground, rubbing her sore, raw and bloody feet. The thin shoes that were given to the slaves definitely weren't meant for such a journey. "Where are we?" She asked curiously, having not known anything but the city since the day she was born.
Thorin looked back from his spot at the entrance. "Well this cave is called Shimmermist Cave, it was once home to the Falmer, a twisted evil race of blind creatures one known as snow elves, but I'm not sure if they are still here. At any rate, they won't bother us, won't even know we are here unless we go farther into the cave and the river outside is called White River. It comes all the way from the sea and drains out into Lake Llinalta."
"...Wow..." Thea muttered under her breath, amazed that one could know so much about the land around them. "You sure know a lot."
He grinned. "Yah that's me. Handsome, charming, strong and charming."
She rolled her eyes at him, wincing as her wounds gave a painful throb. "don't be so cocky. Nobody likes an arrogant douche bag."
"Really? Nobody? Well then I wonder what all those girls and guys were thinking. I ain't particularly picky which gender chooses to fawn over me." He grinned but then frowned as he saw her wince. "Your wounds bothering you? Because I can take a look."
Thea shook her head. "I'll be fine. So how long will we be here?"
Thorin did his appearing thoughtful act which was really starting to tick Thea off before finally deciding to speak and answer her question. Finally. "We're going to wait the day out here and once nightfall comes, we will get moving again. Best rest up while you can, we have a long journey ahead of us girly."
Thea was even too tired to snap at him for calling her girly. Nodding in agreement, she lay down on her more uninjured side and curled up into a ball, folding her hands underneath her head as a pillow. She didn't have time to contemplate on the day's events before she fell deep into sleep's dark embrace and everything went blank. The last image in her thoughts that of Thorin sitting at the entrance, gazing outward into the night.
Okay okay. I'm sure you are wondering, when will the next chapter be up? Well maybe next week if things don't get too bad but it all depends. *yawns* now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go crash now~