Chapter IV: No Beast will Hinder me

Once the elven commander's former bodyguards returned from the "negotiation," one of them was sent to inform the general. He entered his tent to see him sitting and writing in a large, wooden desk. His body and face were both shrouded in darkness.

"General Telindil, we've come back with news,"

Without faltering from his current task, and without turning his head, the general said,

"Where is the commander?... Was he victorious?"

"No sir, he was..."

"Figures... I didn't expect him to live... He was so insistent on fighting the Ebony Warrior that it got to him... There is no real loss, however, for we can't have fault in our commanders..."

"It seems the Warrior was able to... um... use a form of magic... with his voice... a shout more than anything."

Telindil stopped for a moment, but continued writing.

"So the Redguards have mastered the Thu'um?"

"The only Redguard we know of that can do this is this Ebony Warrior. But, there's another thing... He is the son of that Blade you killed."

"And how does that matter? I've killed more Blades than I can count."

"He's the son of Adrian."

Telindil stayed his hand. He dropped his pen, pushed his chair back, stood up, turned his elven body, and stared at the former bodyguard. He was still shrouded in darkness but his eyes shone yellow.

"He taught him the words... The words of power that Adrian escaped with... Give the other commanders my orders..."

Telindil slowly stepped into the light revealing his yellowish face, long, yellowish-brown hair, and a scar streaking from the side of his right eye down his cheek and down to his neck.

"...Prepare the Horde... we strike tonight.

"Siris, do you remember when I gave you that necklace? You know, the black and white shell." said Aisha to Siris as they sat atop a rock overlooking the camp during the night.

"Yes, oh! I actually have it here."

Siris pulled it from under his shirt. He gave it to Aisha and she examined it.

"Wow... It's as beautiful as I remember it. Sure it's still a bit rigid here and there but overall it's just spectacular. I can't believe you kept it this long."

"Well, this was my way of remembering you. I would never just throw you away."

Aisha looked at Siris, her eyes sparkled in Secunda's light.

Siris and Aisha entered Siris' tent. Inside stood Silian Siallo, looking down upon a map of Hammerfell.

"Need something?" Siris asked.

"Yes," Silian responded, "I want to know why you killed the elf."

"He challenged me. He wanted to see if he could beat me and I proved the poor sod wrong."

"No Siris, why did you kill him?"

Siris turned himself, facing away from the old man, and said,

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You were going to let him live. I saw that you were walking away. You changed your mind, and you crushed his face. Why... why would you do that?"

"It was a fair fight, and I beat him."

"No Siris, this was more than a simple fight for you. After he told you that his general killed Adrian... your father... You had the utmost desire to kill him. It wasn't your duty to kill him, it was vengeance. I told you that vengeance only brings more suffering."

Siris turned back towards Silian,

"The elves killed my father!" he yelled, "If I could, I would kill every single one of those elves!"

"This is an example of where vengeance will take you. Not all Altmer killed your father. I've seen high elves do terrible and wicked things, but this does not mean that the Altmer as a race are terrible. I've known good high elves as well."

"Siris, I think Silian is right," said Aisha, "The only way we can make amends with the high elves is to forgive each other."

"Aisha, not now," responded Siris.

"Siris, vengeance is not the answer!"

Siris pointed his finger towards the tent's entrance, "Get out!" he yelled. Silian took a deep breath and said,

"We all come, we all go."

"Wait, what?" Siris asked.

"we take our place in the course of time."

"Who are you! How do you know that verse!"

"Like I said before, Siris, I am your father's friend... and he wanted me to watch over you when he died."

With that, Silian walked out of the tent.

"He's just trying to help you," Aisha said.

"No, there's more to this. He knows too much. He told me that I have my mother's eyes, but he didn't know my mother."

"Maybe he did, maybe he knew them before your father and mother boarded the ship."

"But he has to have been on the ship to have known that verse. My father only told it to me once or twice, I'm not sure."

"Maybe he told it to him sometime while you two were living by Dragonstar. You never know."

"I just need some time to think... I'll see you later."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then."

Aisha left Siris' quarters as well. Siris looked at the map that Silian had been observing earlier. Nothing of interest lay upon it. He walked around for a moment thinking about the day.

"Was it wrong to kill the elf? He would have done the same to me. Of course it wasn't wrong. Those elves killed my father."

Siris picked his ebony sword up off his weapon rack and began brandishing it. He saw something in the sword, a speck. He began rubbing at it, trying to get it off. A flaw in the crafting, maybe. Siris rubbed at it even harder. But, the smudge slightly moved. Siris looked closer, and realized what it was.

Siris immediately ducked as a claw of a monster came straight for his head. He then sidestepped as another claw came for his torso. It then roared, it's tusks shaking as its large claws spread to each side. Siris stepped back. The creature began to charge and Siris ran toward it, slid on the grass in his tent, and sliced its leg just above its hoof. The creature fell and began squealing as it crawled on the ground. Siris took his sword and plunged it into the head of the creature, and it lay dead.

It was a wereboar. It was a human who has transformed into a massive creature that killed to survive. Its tusks and claws were still as it lay dead.

"I thought these were only found in High Rock,"

Siris thought to himself. But then he heard the commotion, and Siris rushed to equip his ebony armor as quickly as he could, and he ran outside. He saw what was happening.

The main camp was overrun by lycanthropes of many different kinds. The Redguards and other soldiers of the army were desperately fighting off the creatures.

Siris watched as a werewolf jumped atop one of the soldiers and proceeded to tear his insides out. A werebear jumped and crashed into one of the tents, and seconds later, blood splattered across the tarp. A werevulture carried off the Breton Mage that Siris had met at Elinhir, and carried her away from the fight.

A werewolf rushed toward Siris, who blocked its claw attack, but the creature jumped on him, and positioned its mouth to eat Siris' face as drool and slime poured from its lips. Siris pulled his sword from under the beast and stabbed its belly. The werewolf fell dead and rolled off its victim.

Siris then ran in one direction with only one thought in his mind,

"Aisha."

Siris jumped over a werelion and as it turned its mane to fight its foe, he sliced the monster in the neck and continued to run. As Siris approached Aisha's tent, blood splattered across it.

"No!" Siris yelled as he ran up to the tent, cut the tarp open, and proceeded inside.

To his surprise, Aisha was in the middle of battle with a werecrocodile. She had just cut its arm off. Siris climbed on the back of the beast and stabbed its neck, ending its life.

"I think we're even now," Aisha said.

The two ran outside to face the lycanthropes. Another wereboar charged at Aisha, who picked up sand and threw it into its face, dodged, and allowed it to run blindly until it crashed into a tent. She then dismembered a werewolf and cut its chest.

Siris cut the wing off of a werevulture as it attempted to grab his arm, and crushed it with his foot. He then took his bow and shot another werevulture as it was about to rush its beak into another soldier. He then yelled, "Fus Ro Dah!" at an incoming werebear.

Three werelions came from around the tents and cornered Siris and Aisha. Aisha pointed her two scimitars at the beasts while Siris formed a paralysis spell in his hand. He shot it at one of the creatures, paralyzing it immediately and sidestepped out of the way of the other creature's attack and stabbed its back. The other werelion pounced on Aisha, and as she was knocked over, she pushed the monster off of her and sliced the head of the cat.

Siris walked up to the paralyzed werelion and easily killed it before it could free itself, but all of a sudden, another werelion jumped for Siris' face...

...and Silian Siallo cut its head off.

"I don't mind you killing these things," Silian said.

The three then grouped together, back to back, and cut up a werecrocodile, three werewolves, three wereboars, two werebears, and four werevultures.

The army quickly gathered their numbers and arms and drove the beasts back. The number of lycanthropes quickly diminished. The last werelion in the horde jumped on an unsuspecting victim and quickly killed him. As it prepared to savor its meal, Siris plunged his sword into the beast's neck and ended its life. The soldiers began cheering...

and the sun began to rise.

That evening, after everything was cleared and the camp inspected, the generals, commanders and captains gathered in the pavilion to discuss what had happened during the night.

"What was that?! One of the generals exclaimed.

"A small army of lycanthropes," Siris said back, "We got them though."

"I know what lycanthropes are," the general replied, "What I want to know is how did they get sophisticated enough to gather up into an army and attack the camp?"

"Can werecrocodiles even survive in Hammerfell?" one of the captains asked.

"The Aldmeri Dominion must've been gathering lycanthropes. But how did they get so many?" inquired one of the commanders.

"They probably kept them all as prisoner and released them on us." said another commander.

"There must be more to it though," said Siris, "why would they release them all now? Wouldn't it be smarter to use them in a primary battle?"

"It could be just a terror attack. Probably to strike fear into the hearts of our soldiers.

"Anyways, we have many dead and many wounded soldiers," said another general, "We need to bring in supplies, healing potions, cure disease potions, everything we need to make sure lycanthropy doesn't spread throughout the army."

When the meeting was over, Siris climbed back to the rock that overlooked the camp where he and Aisha had met together the night before. Aisha was there as he predicted. She was just sitting over the edge of the rock, staring at the camp, and yonder at the sands of the desert. Siris sat down next to her.

"Siris... do you want to know the real reason I'm here?" she asked.

Siris, confused, asked,

"What do you mean? I thought you joined up after the elves attacked Hegathe?"

"No Siris, it's more complicated than that."

"What do you mean?"

"While I was living with my parents in Hegathe, I was courted by this dashing Redguard. Well, he was dashing to everybody else... but to me he was a terrible, rude, self-centered pile of dirt. Well, of all the Redguards in Hegathe, he decided that he was the right one for me. When I became eighteen years of age, he presented my parents with a dowry larger than they could have imagined. You should've seen the look on their faces. Anyways, they ordered me to marry him. The only problem with this though, is that I didn't love him back. In all honesty, I actually thought you would come and rescue me from that bastard, but what were the chances of that happening, hmmm? However, my parents disregarded my request and continued to order me to marry him. I lost my parents the day I left to join the army. I probably won't see them again as well... who knows what else these elves will throw at us. They weren't really my parents anymore anyways. All they love now is money and riches. Well... I'm glad you're here, Siris."

"I'll always be here for you, Aisha. Not even the fires of Oblivion can tear me away from you," said Siris.

Aisha leaned her head against Siris' shoulder, and they both watched as the sun set.

To be continued...