The Great Oblivion Crisis

TMS: … Just read the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Adventure Time, Elder Scrolls, nor any associated characters. They belong to Cartoon Network and Bethesda respectively.

Simon had moved the two bedrolls into the large tent and they both settled down to sleep. Marcy drifted off quickly; clutching Hambo to her chest, but Simon had a harder time resting, so he lay on his bedroll, with a bearskin serving as his blanket, staring out of a crack in the tent cover at the campfire.

'I don't get it, why do I still feel so… uneasy? We're doing great so far, I'm a mage associate, and we're sleeping in a tent, wrapped in warm animal pelts, after having a nourishing dinner that didn't come from a can, and there's a populated city a half-hours walk away. Compared to our old situation, we're living the dream.'

Simon decided to think, the knowledge that had been imparted on him by the crown was strange and not all his own, the knowledge was sort of scattered throughout his mind, general information about the world became part of his memories as soon as he acquired the knowledge, but the rest was deep within the recesses of his mind until he needed it, in which case only what he needed became part of his memories, nothing more. There was still a great deal of information that Simon had not seen, but he realized he would have to. He needed to know of the new dangers of this world. So he called upon the knowledge, and he saw strange and horrible things.

He saw zombies, goblins, giants, atronachs, hackwings, and swamp leviathans. He heard of wars, civilizations that rose and fell. He saw and heard of statues and legends of Daedra; terrible, monstrous creatures; terrible demons from "Oblivion". This world was inhabited with great terrors that would chew you up, spit you out, step on you, and eat the remains.

Simon knew that many of these great beats were incredibly rare, yet they still existed, and luck was not something he usually had on his side. He looked over to his little girl, who was smiling in her sleep as she held her treasured toy. If it was "October" now, then she was almost ten years old. In a few more years she would be a teenager, and knowing her she would want to fight if they ever ran into any of these creatures. The idea of her in a fight made him feel several different things at once, but it was a very real possibility. Heck, she had carried her sword with her all day.

'Oh gods, I can't imagine what people must have though, a nine year old in armour, toting around a sword.'

Simon started having a panic attack, but then it was instantly forgotten as he heard rustling outside. Simon slowly rose and quietly slipped out of the tent, raising his hands; ready to use magic at the first sign of trouble. They had changed into their old clothes to sleep in and their swords were in the chest.

'That was stupid, locking up our weapons in a box.'

As he looked around Simon noticed three things:

1. The fire had almost burnt out,

2. The moon was just a tiny sliver in the sky, meaning the area all around the camp was almost total darkness,

3. The rustling was coming from two directions.

Simon looked to both sides, not sure what to do, but then, squinting through the black of night, he noticed a creature; it looked like a medium sized dog with very short legs. Simon glanced back and when he couldn't make out another silhouette he approached the short dog, calling upon his magic; frost appearing on his hands.

"I know your there! I'm warning you, I'm armed!"

Suddenly the creature jumped at him making a screeching noise, as he flung frozen wind at it he realized what it was.

A giant rat.

His first two attacks missed as the creature leapt at him, baring its teeth and claws. Simon backed up and sprayed it with more frost, it leapt over his low attacks and flailed at him. Simon rolled to the side to dodge its pouncing attack, it turned around and snapped its teeth at him. As the rat approached closer Simon was backed up against the fire, caught between a rat and a hot place. Simon frantically threw out some magic; an ice spike that shot from both of his hands and struck home; bursting the rats' skull like a balloon.

"…Eww…"

Simon sat down with his back to the fire and took a deep breath, tired from dodging the rat's wild pounces and bites. Then something happened that made him forget his fatigue.

He heard a growl and a shrill scream.

"Marcy!"

"Simon!"

He turned around and saw the source of the other rustling noise, a wolf that had snuck around him and poked its head into the tent, Simon rushed over and kicked the wolf in its rear leg and backed up again.

"Come and get me!"

The creature growled and turned around, snarling and frothing at the mouth. The beast was almost as big as Simon, and undoubtedly faster. It lowered itself, readying for a pounce, Simon sprayed some frost but it sputtered out quickly, barley phasing the beast. It snarled and leapt, baring its claws and pushing Simon down to the ground, it growled and roared as it prepared to bite. Using as much of his strength as he could Simon forced the wolf off of him, rolling it aside and calling upon all of his power, he shot another spike, however this one was the size of a pencil and merely stabbed the wolf in the shoulder. It snarled and immediately pounced again; shoving him away from the camp and into the darkness. Simon wildly rolled and crawled to try and get back to the tent, but the beast shoved him again, laying him out to the side of the tent. The wolf poked its head out from the shadows baring its fangs and preparing to take a chunk out of its foe, Simon closed his eyes and raised his arms to protect his face, though he knew that wouldn't save him from the rabies.

*Shhnikt*

Simon heard the noise and moved his arms to see, he gasped as the wolf's head lay at his feet, the body fallen over on its side. Simon looked to his right and saw Marceline, holding her steel sword which was covered in blood.

"Simon are you okay? Did it hurt you?"

"Yes, I'm alright… you killed it…"

"I had to."

The next morning Marcy woke up again, and saw Simon sitting up on his bedroll, his iron sword at his side.

"Simon, you promised you would sleep too!"

"I did, I just woke up. We need to get rid of those… things outside."

"I can take care of that."

Marceline walked out, putting on her fur gauntlets, she dragged the rat and wolf away from the tent and lit them on fire with a flare. The knowledge told her that magic fire would only burn what she wanted to burn. As the animals burnt she thought again about what she had done last night, it was obviously the right thing to do: that wolf was going to eat Simon, but as she snuck around the tent and brought her sword down on the beast's neck, she hadn't even hesitated, not even for a fraction of a second. Was killing that easy? It was only an animal, but what if they ran into bandits? Could she do the same to people? Could Simon?

'We'll have to.' Marcy thought coldly. She turned as she heard Simon walk out of the tent, he was all suited up.

"Marcy, could you put on your armour? We have some more things to sell in the city."

Marcy nodded as she returned to the tent, Simon looked at the burning creatures, and guessed what she had been thinking about.

'*sigh* I had hoped this kind of thing would never come up, and it wouldn't have, at least not in our old situation. She wouldn't have to know that those things used to be people.'

But Simon knew that Marceline would have figured it out eventually, she was a smart little girl. Simon noticed he was once again grasping at straws, trying to think of reasons the old life was better. But that's all it was, grasping at straws, the big selling point was that they no longer needed the crown and there were other living people. Simon then thought of what had happened last night, when his magic wouldn't respond and died out. According to the knowledge; all living things had something called "magicka" everyone had a set amount and it decreased as spells were cast, when there was no more magicka, there were no more spells, however magicka returned over time.

'This world is strange, or did people always have magicka and we just didn't know.'

Simon knew that some magic had to have existed in the world before the war; Marcy was living proof of that. But was magicka some sort of mutation created by the bombs? No, because Marceline learnt and cast Flares and she wasn't affected by the radiation. Or was she only protected from the lethal parts of it?

'I don't probably don't want to find out the answer to that.'

"Simon I'm ready, and I got the stuff together…"

Marcy walked out of the tent in her armour, holding out Simon's backpack which was full of the things they planned to sell. Simon took the bag off her hands and they left the camp. Simon and Marcy walked in silence, their plans for a fun day on the town forgotten in lieu of last night's mishap.

'That's not fair, to her or me.'

"Hey Marcy, how was that book you were reading?'

"Pretty good, it was talking about The Mythic era; ancient history and stuff."

"Neat!"

"Yeah, it's kind of weird but I like it. This whole world is different, I want to know everything I can about this place!"

They kept talking about books and things they had seen in the knowledge. They were soon in the city. They swung by the general store and sold the bandit leftovers for 141 septims, then spent 34 of those coins on some bowls and a few more books. Then they stopped at the mages guild.

"Unfortunately; nothing for your recommendation has come up yet Simon."

"That's alright, you'll think of something eventually."

Marcy tugged at Simon's greaves.

"Oh right, I almost forgot! What is the minimum age required to join the mages guild?"

"I'm sorry Marcy dear; you have to be sixteen to join."

"That's alright, I'll just be dad's unofficial assistant until I'm old enough."

"That's a great idea!"

A man wearing armour who had been bargaining with Felen, the guild's alchemist, walked over from the dunmer and addressed Simon.

"This guild might have an age limit, but the Fighter's guild has a training program for young warriors, we'd be glad to have her!"

"No. She is not joining the Fighters guild any time soon, good day sir!"

They walked out. Marcy looked up and saw that Simon still looked angry.

"Why were you so mad at that man?" she asked

"I did get madder than I should have, I just don't want you getting hurt."

"But if I was trained I'd be better in fights, so I wouldn't get hurt as easily."

"…"

"Simon?"

"…Well, the training would probably cost a lot of money, and we need every septim we have for food."

"He didn't mention a price, and you could have asked."

"…"

Simon knew that she was right, he knew that he was, yet again; grasping at straws, this time to think of a reason to try and keep her from battle.

'But I have to try, she's still a young girl, she's my daughter! I have to keep her safe.'

"*sigh* Marcy, I just don't want you fighting, at all if we can help it."

"But I can fight, I'm not a baby! And we'll have to fight, there are nasty things in this place!"

"I know that Marcy, which is why I'll think about that training."

"Yay! Thanks daddy!"

"You're very welcome dear, now did you bring that list of alchemy ingredients?"

"Yup, it's right here. It says: Aloe Vera leaves, Arrowroot, Columbine root pulp, what's pulp?"

"It means mashed up root."

"Oh okay, Dragon's tongue, Elf cup caps, Ginseng, and Lady's Mantel leaves. Are we gonna have to fight dragons?"

"No, there are no dragons anymore, it means the flower."

"Oh yeah, I remember that… weird."

"Well then, we should go look for some of those ingredients. We need the money."

So the daddy/daughter duo (I love Alliteration) trekked through the wilderness; heading east, as some of the ingredients were more common farther from the coastal region. However when they reached the base a hill leading up to another city Simon decided they had to turn back.

"But dad, we've hardly found anything!" Marcy protested.

"Yes, but we shouldn't head to far from our camp; if we go much farther it'll be dark before we get back. Tomorrow we can bring some supplies and head out farther."

"Like camping?"

"Well we're already sort of camping because we live in a tent, but yeah, it's like camping."

Marceline liked the idea of camping twice over so she allowed Simon to lead her back "home". Along the way they found a few more ingredients to add to their stock for the guild. When the camp was within sight Marcy pointed out another Aloe Vera plant and pulled it out of the dirt.

"Marcy… you didn't have to uproot it, we only needed the leaves."

"Sorry, oh well." Marcy plucked some leaves and chucked the rest of the plant behind her.

"We should put it back, it might still grow-"

"Simon look!" Marcy loudly whispered.

Simon looked in the direction his daughter was pointing and saw a Khajiit (a cat person) walking out of their tent carrying a bulging sack. The humanoid feline was wearing a shirt made from a potato sack, and pants that looked like a bunch of rags knotted together. Marcy threw a flare and ran towards the thief. The small flame flew in front of the khajiit's face, causing him to drop the sack in surprise, he crouched to pick the sack and saw Marcy running at him, she reached him and punched his face. The Khajiit fell backwards and Marcy kicked him in the side.

"Stealing is wrong!" she scolded the prone cat man, who was clutching the places Marcy hit him and whimpering, while staring at Marcy and Simon with a look of absolute terror on his face.

"Look dad, I beat him!"

"Marcy… erm, good job?" The Khajiit got up on his knees and clasped his hands together.

"Please have mercy on Qa'kir, Qa'kir is poor and hungry. Qa'kir would not have stolen from this place if he had known that it was not abandoned. Please don't kill Qa'kir, he will leave you alone and return to his home in the woods"

"…Alright then, Qa'kir, how about you stay here with us for a while, you can have food."

"What?" Marcy said in disbelief.

"Marceline, sometimes people do bad things for good reasons. Like when I broke the window on that building to get soup for you."

"Oh, okay. I'm really sorry for beating you up Qa'kir."

"It is alright child; in your position Qa'kir would have done the same thing."

"Now Qa'kir, how about you help me get dinner started?"

"Yes sir."

"Oh none of that, just call me Simon, and this is my daughter Marceline."

Qa'kir nodded and handed over his sack, Simon took out an apple and some leeks, he handed these back to Qa'kir, who started ravenously eating the apple, after seeing how hungry he was Simon also took gave him a loaf of bread, he then took out some more apples and leeks for Marceline and himself.

"So Qa'kir, how long have you been living in the woods?"

"Not very long, Qa'kir grew up in Hamerfell, was born into a traveling trade caravan. A few weeks ago Qa'kir's caravan was raided by bandits, Qa'kir had to flee for his life. But Qa'kir is tricky, managed to sneak across the border into Cyrodiil. Qa'kir has been living in the woods since then."

"I'm so sorry for your loss, we can help you get back on your feet around here, we could use some help anyway."

"Oh thank you Simon and Marceline, Qa'Kir will help you as well as Qa'kir can!"

TMS: Well that was chapter 4, so far this story has been a lot easier to write than my other work, maybe because I'm more familiar with Elder Scrolls and Adventure Time than some of the other things I'm writing for. Anyway, I've got stuff to do so I'll see you all next chapter!