Hi, I've been replaying Oblivion a few times to get a renewed feel for the game and have returned completely refreshed. I managed to put out 3 chapters today! The first being Ch. 8, then this one, and then chapter 10!

The Guild Recruitment starts in this chapter! I'm now putting together my team and soon the MQ of Oblivion won't be entirely reliant on me. Some of the team will accomplish certain tasks for Martin while I'm either busy, out of reach, or too injured.

Anyways, the first recruit is gonna be…

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A surprise!

Becoming a Hero

Renault must have spotted me, because she was suddenly at my side when I entered the camp. She led me to the tent we had shared and began pulling off the bloody and torn armor I wore. She was surprised and glad that I had no wounds, but she still made me lay down on the cot with her sitting on a chair beside me. The exhaustion that I managed to stave off finally caught up to me and I fell into a deep sleep…

Poor Sulus…

Chapter 9

The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, a few clouds floated in the sky, and we were being ambushed by another band of idiotic bandits.

I weaved through the clumsy axe swings of the scruffy Nord. The rusty steel axe would come dangerously close to me, yet miss just so; this would enrage the Nord with each pass. He bellowed and cursed, calling me every name under the sun and made several queries about my parentage.

"D-damn ye white robed devil!" the Nord yelled after a particularly powerful overhead swing that missed me by a narrow margin. "Cu-ursh the band of fur'i basterds that paid your mother for the pleasure of mounting her for a septim fer five go's!" I thought that one was sad… the previous ones were much more creative; as well as a bit more insulting…

He overreached himself again with a wide cross slash and I kicked him solidly in the gut, knocking his breath away. As he recovered, I threw a vial of poison at his face which took him out of the fight (a.k.a. made him die a painful death). Satisfied with the death of another incompetent bandit, I checked to see who else I needed to kill, but alas all the other guys were dead. Renault had killed the others while I was fooling around, easily protecting Martin from the stupid bandits.

"Well, that takes care of that," I said, walking over to Martin and Renault. "Let's head ooonnnn….!" To my immense embarrassment, I tripped over the axe the Nord had dropped. The two looked at me incredulously; they couldn't understand me at all…

'I actually slept with this man? I'm actually having this man's baby?'

'This man saved Kvatch? He's responsible for the future of the Empire?'

No respect…no respect at all…

We were currently near the village of Weye; it's actually quite large and very busy. The inn was a good deal larger and was always filled with travelers and many fishermen. The shore was littered with shacks and boats; there were a few fishermen and their families on the sand.

My trio of travelers was blending into the crowd rather well as we made an essential stop in the Imperial City. Our disguises were topnotch if I do say so myself; we were dressed as a betrothed couple visiting the Temple of Akatosh. We wanted to have our unborn child blessed by our village priest, namely Brother Devon (Martin wearing his hood up). I was wearing a pair of sack cloth pants, leather boots, and a tan longsleeve shirt with a brown vest. I was armed with an iron shortsword. Renault was dressed in Blue Silk from the dress to her shoes. She was pissed that she couldn't carry any weapons…

We were currently at the Merchant's Inn, sharing a room with two beds. Martin took one while Renault took the other. I had to keep guard in case the Mythic Dawn tried something.

"So, Arthur," Martin asked as we sat around the dinner provided by the innkeeper. "While I'm eternally grateful to for saving the people of Kvatch and for your protection, I need to know more. I can't go on until I know what's on the road ahead." I opened my mouth to make a sarcastic comment on the route we would take, but Renault stomped my foot. She smiled sweetly at me while glaring daggers at me. I'm so whipped…

"Well for starters, we're gonna go to Weynon Priory to meet Brother Jauffre," I began. "He'll be able to explain much better…" I was so lying; I could tell him what was supposed to happen so easily…

"But I need to know what's going on!" Martin shouted, slamming his fists on the table. The silverware rattled and the fruits toppled off the table. Renault placed a calming hand on his shoulder. I felt a tinge of jealousy, but shook it off. After all, the guy was a priest and she was the mother of my unborn child… "I need to know why those daedra attacked Kvatch! And why my coming to Weynon Priory to meet another priest is so essential to the survival of the Empire!" He looked very distressed at the end of it. Renault whispered to me quietly, asking if we could tell him something that would settle his frustrations. I nodded to her. Jauffre could get mad at me later; I'm pretty sure I could take on the old man if I needed to.

"All right," I decided to tell him enough for him to get by; which, in my mind, was almost everything essential…almost. "To be put bluntly, the attack on Kvatch was because you lived there." Martin looked like he was stabbed in the gut while Renault looked at me in alarm. She didn't know why I had said that. Of course, she didn't know the daedra attacked for the specific task of killing Martin either… "The daedra targeted Kvatch with the sole purpose of killing the last heir of the late Uriel Septim. They came there to kill you."

"How do you know I'm the Emperor's son? It could have been anyone living in Kvatch!" Martin asked in a scared tone. His voice wavered with each syllable.

"Yes Arthur," Renault added in. She was wide-eyed and shocked. I forgot that she didn't know Martin was Uriel's son. "How do you know?"

"Renault, don't you remember what my job is, or rather was?" I replied to her. She nodded and slouched in comprehension. I turned back to Martin. "You are Uriel's son. Not only are you the spitting image of His Majesty's younger self, you exude a presence that just screams 'destiny'. Only the Septim line has this aura. Also, the Emperor told me exactly who you were just in case something happened to him. And guess what, something did. All the other heirs are dead and he was assassinated by the mortal agents of Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedric Prince of Destruction!"

I leaned back into my chair while Martin absorbed the information. Renault appeared to have a few questions herself. "I was the captain of the Emperor's personal guard. Why haven't I heard any of this before, especially from my predecessor? This would be something I would have needed to know!"

"I can't tell you why the Emperor didn't wish for you to know, but your predecessor didn't know either. It was the one before him that knew. He was Jauffre, who we are on the way to see. He was the captain back then. He was also the one that took Martin to the family that raised him."

"So my family was just hired to care for me?" Martin asked sullenly. "I was just a source of gold?" I shook my head.

"No, they didn't know who you were. Jauffre had taken you to his younger sister, who believed he was just a palace servant at the time. They were never told where you came from, just that you needed a home and Jauffre trusted them. They probably thought you were a bastard Jauffre spawned." I finished the lie, feeling that funny feeling return again. It was getting more intense each time. The first one was a slight tickle; this one was a deep chill.

"So, we're escorting the illegitimate son of the late Emperor to the Grandmaster of the Blades," Renault muttered quietly, even though both Martin and I could hear her. "I'm on a mission that could decide the fate of the Empire while pregnant with a man with no past and knows all about the future… I knew I should have listened to my mother when she warned me away from men wearing white robes…"

Martin looked at me in surprise. I blushed at his patronizing stare. He had a look that said, 'You're on a mission of great importance and the first thing you did was get a girl pregnant…' Then Renault looked up and gave one that said, 'I'm the bloody Captain of the Guard and I got pregnant because you're too bloody mysterious to resist!'

Yeah, I'm badass… Actually, I memorized 'Every Stare has a Story' by Oculus…

The next morning, we made a quick stop at my shack. We needed some supplies from my basement. My potions, poisons, arrows and knives needed replenishment and Renault needed some new gear. She had to get rid of her stuff when we bought her dress and shoes. She wouldn't let me buy them for her, despite the fact that I'm rich and she's broke and the mother of my unborn child… She's so damn stubborn.

So she literally had nothing but the clothes on her back and needed new shit. Anyways, when we got into the basement Martin was shocked at the secret entrance to my armory. He was even more surprised by the amount of stuff I had there. I even gave him an enchanted dagger that he had been eyeing when he thought I wasn't looking.

Back to me, I got three new sets of assassin robes to replace the ones that got lost or destroyed. I even decided to replace Anduril for now. I had the feeling that Anduril was gonna cause a few problems in the future. I put it in its locked, trapped, and cursed display case while putting an enchanted Elven shortsword on my hip. It had a Drain Health, Magicka, and Fatigue enchantment; in the game, the equivalent strength would be a magnitude of 25 for 5 seconds each. It had a good 30 strikes before it needed recharging.

Renault decided to dress in a set of Mithril armor, minus the shield and helm. She stuck with a Silver Longsword and had her Akaviri Katana on her back like a two-handed blade would be. Her long brown hair fell in waves down her shoulders to her upper back. She stood proudly in front of a tall mirror, admiring and adjusting the armor to be a perfect fit. She looked so hot…

Martin came up and asked if he could have few of the scrolls I had for extra protection, which I agreed to readily.

I was too distracted by Renault's ass to say no...

We were coming up to Chorrol from the west when the one thing we had been watching out for happened. We were ambushed by the Mythic Dawn, and unlike the assassins sent after me before, these guys were skilled. They came at us out of nowhere, likely hidden by Invisibility potions, wearing their summoned armor. There were five of them; three came at us head-on wielding daedric maces while two held back. Those two flung lightning at us while the three attacked us up close. Renault quickly stabbed the one that went for Martin in the back while I held off the other two.

They worked well together; they would cover each other whenever I knocked one back. They were tough, but I ended up sending a super-charged Greater Fireball at them in frustration. I was suddenly knocked to my ass when a bolt of magical lightning grazed my arm. Renault screamed in fear when she saw me go down and Martin flung opened one of the scrolls he got from me.

He read the words quickly and pointed the scroll at the agents like a wand. The scroll emitted a soft glow and fired off a huge array of lightning, frying the two instantly. The scroll then turned to dust.

Renault was by my side as I got up. The lightning stung a good deal, but my robes blocked most of the blast. The right arm was damaged; the sleeve was missing, leaving the shoulder and the gauntlet intact, yet darkened as if burnt. The skin on the area struck was cooked like a steak and the surrounding area was bright red. Renault was softly rubbing a strong health potion on the wound while Martin was casting Convalescence at me. The wound quickly became good as new, though the arm felt very tender and sore.

Renault helped me to my feet as two Chorrol guards came charging down the path. "We saw a burst of lightning coming from this direction. Is everything all right here?" one of them asked. I glanced around, the ground was scorched and the bodies had been disintegrated by the spell from the scroll. That was one powerful spell…

"No, just a faulty scroll going off; it fell out of my pack and caught my friend in the arm," Martin answered. The guards accepted it without question and walked with us to Chorrol.

We stopped for rest and healing at the cathedral while outside another thunderstorm raged. Martin was talking with the cleric in charge while Renault tried to get me to stop serving her every whim. We had been snacking on some apples from my Bag when she commented on a strange craving for roasted venison. I took one look at her and ran out into the storm, much to her shock. I then returned moments later with a piping hot platter of roasted venison and a pitcher of the tamrielic equivalent of coffee, honeyed apple tea. Renault actually squealed in delight as she feasted on the venison and tea, squealed!

The cleric, a female Breton, cooed at the scene while Martin told her that Renault was pregnant. She was even more delighted and quickly shooed both Martin and I away. She and Renault entered into the ancient ritual forbidden to all men. Girl Talk…

Martin didn't understand what had happened but I explained the phenomenon to him. He nodded and we ended up talking about his time as a priest of Akatosh. It's ironic that a man with the blood of Akatosh would unknowingly become a priest of Akatosh, all the while 'rebelling' against his foster parents.

After several hours and the coming of morning, we set out down to Weynon. The trip was short and we found the Priory in shambles. Prior Mable was dead and Brother Pimer was tending to the dunmer groundskeeper. He quickly sent us upstairs to see Jauffre.

The Amulet's gonna be gone… I knew I should have made a fake made and given to Jauffre…

There's Chapter 9! Ok, I lied. I ended up filling my 2000 word limit and put the recruitment of my first teammate in the next chapter.