"Living means knowing sadness. Use that sadness to sharpen the fangs of your heart."
Chirin no Suzu
Night fell and the sun began to rise. Shira waited quietly in the elder's tent, he had waited all night and still he heard nothing, the hounds were quiet, no footsteps, not even birds. Shira left the tent, he went around the camp once again, as he made his way through the camp the hounds followed, he felt uneasy, Shira went back up the mountain as he traveled up the ridge, he saw a figure standing on the peak. He wasn't alarmed as he knew the heavily armored man standing on the mountain, it was his father, Kiano. Shira's father stood on the peak, looking over the camp and into the desert, he clutched both hands behind his back as he stood there in his heavy steel armor and a sword hung around his waist, his helmet was perched atop a nearby cliff. And his dreadlocks flowed freely in the wind. Shira approached. He stood near his father, they were silent for a time staring at the sunrise.
"It would seem I arrived at the right time" Kiano started.
"What do you mean?" Shira replied
"Small talk at the wedding revealed that goblin attacks are on the rise, after a scouting party is seen, an attack soon follows."
"It wasn't a party, it was only one goblin"
"That's even stranger"
"The largest goblin tribe in the Alik'r is the Sandgrubbers, their territory is far north of here, but the attacks are coming from the east, generally" Kiano paused,"Shira, scout the eastern territories see what you can find, if you don't return in three days I'll send a party,"
Kiano turned around, he dug into his belt pouch and retrieved a metal cylinder, it was engraved with the Marsalisi tribe's symbol, a ten-pointed star. He twirled it around his fingers before handing it to Shira,
"It's a spyglass, it will let you see across great distances, it served me well in the Legion, it will serve you as well if you let it.
"What about you?" Shira replied, grabbing the spyglass and placing it into his belt pouch
"The rest of the tribe should be back by midday. I'll keep watch till then"
Kiano put his helmet on, walked past his son,
"Never took you for the trophy type"
Shira looked down at his waist, the goblin's wretched blade was still awkwardly placed in his belt. He adjusted his belt, then followed his father, Kiano turned right and went toward the camp, he pats the head of one of the hounds and went into his own tent, near the elder's tent
Shira walked south of the camp and headed towards two tall rock formations known as The Twins. He reached the tall rocks, hidden between them was a tiny oasis, inside several camels rested, most of them were sleeping, others drank from the pool hidden within. a saddled camel waited. He pets the camel checked its hooves then, hopped on and left the oasis, then headed back east, he rode past the camp again, He saw his father step out of a tent, he waved and pressed on, he trampled the bones and scraps of armor that were the goblin's remains
Shira had ridden for almost an hour before he encountered the border to what is known as the eastern territories. The border was a massive hand that jutted out of the ground, clenched in its fist was a curved sword. Shira looked into the eastern territories, it was devoid of mountains and most rock structures, it was mostly sand dunes, any roads would be covered by the dunes, they moved on there own and the terrain changed from hour to hour, the only memorable places were lost forts and long forgotten ruins, locations that change with dunes.
Shira looked up, he saw vultures circling above. He thought maybe a goblin attack or someone was dying of thirst, something was out there and on the edge of death. Shira whipped the camel and it went racing up the dunes, he pulled the reins once they reached the top, from the top of the dune he had a vantage point, Shira reached into his belt and pulled out the spyglass, he peered through one end, he saw in the distance, under the vultures, An overturned wagon and bodies laying on the sand.
"Go," Shira said, his camel went racing toward the downed people. Shira arrived at the same time as the vultures, the vultures skulked around the scene, he kicked sand at the vultures sending them flying. Two dead men were left at the scene He checked the first body, it was a fully armored redguard man, iron armor, and an iron saber, his helmet and head were cracked open. Several large rocks were scattered around, blood stained the sand beneath him, he was dead, but not for long. Shira hurried over to the second body, another iron armor clad redguard man, he was on his stomach, with several stab wounds in his back. Shira studied the corpse closely, the stabs were to his back and at an upward angle, Shira struggled with the corpse but managed to get his chest armor undone, he had dozens of wounds, most of them shallow. All of these facts combined, Shira concluded that this was, in fact, a goblin attack. Whatever dragged the wagon was taken by the goblins, Shira walked to the wagon, the moment he turned his back the vultures swooped in and began eating the soldiers. the woodwork of the wagon was well done, it's wood was foreign and it;'s craftsmanship was beyond anything that Hammerfell could produce, it was scarred by a few derelict slash marks and arrows. Surprisingly the doors were still attached, Shira climbed on top of the wagon he reached down and lifted the door. He was surprised to see and wounded imperial woman laying inside.
She reached out her bloody hand, "Help".
