Azureous groaned and stopped the spell, his magic taking a small toll in his body. He walked away from the cave and back to Winterhold, thinking about a cure for Okan. As he walked into Winterhold, he was greeted by a group of soldiers with drawn swords and bows.
"Stop right there! You are under arrest!" One of the guards said.
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"So you admit to killing a defenseless ten year old girl? Can you conceive what this means?" Jarl Korir said, leaning on his throne in disbelief.
"A million septims?" Azureous said, rolling his eyes.
"A million...?" The jarls assistant, Malur Seloth, a slimey little man said. "These are serious accusations!"
"And yet!" Azureous exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air "no judgment has been passed. I wonder when you will throw me in prison, or at least give me my money."
The argument continued on for a good few minutes, Azureous making rediculous statements and Malur becoming more and more befuddled as he did so. The reason to why Azureous was making insane and rediculous statements was because he had his mask taken away from him when he was arrested two days ago. Even to Okans and Kents explanations on why his mask was important to his health, Korir had taken it as evidence.
Now, he was paying the price.
"Enough!" Korir roared, and there was immediate silence in the room. He rubbed his eyes and leaned forward. After, he looked at Malur. "Malur, a cup of wine."
"Yes, m'jarl." Malur said, bowing slightly and quickly walking away to the kitchen.
"Now, Azureous, why did you murder that girl? Please, just answer the question." Korir said.
"W-why? Why did I murder a servant of Molag Bal? Hm... why did I indeed...?" Azureous asked himself, muttering underneath his breath. "Maaybeee... maybe it was, or, is, because she killed my friend?" Azureous snapped his fingers and smiled triumphantly. "Yes, yes, yes! That is it! She-the vile woman- killed my friend, or... or acquaintance. His name is Okan. He," Azureous leaned forward "is a lizard. A rather strong lizard. Hey... hey, um... Korir, was it? Yeah, Korir. Guess what? Go on, guess!"
"What?" Korir barely said, sighing.
"He lifted me up! He-he hugged me and lifted me up!" Azureous said, giggling like a lunatic.
"The same Argonian that is... dead?" Korir asked, at the end of his rope.
"No, no! He's a... oh... wait... you'll kill him if I tell you." Azureous cursed loudly and crossed his arms.
"But he's already dead? What, is he like a Vampire, or something?" Korir asked as he took the cup of wine that Malur handed to him. He drank deeply from it and set it down on his armrest.
"Vampire? Oh, no, no!" Azureous said, shaking his head vigorously.
"Jarl, maybe if we gave him his mask, he would make more sense." Malur suggested, looking up from the stool he was sitting on. "It is what his friends said would make him sane."
"No! No, Malur, do you not see what kind of mask it is? If we gave him that mask, he would wreak havoc on Winterhold!" Korir said, shaking his head. "And I am done with this. Azureous, you will spend the rest of your days in the Freeze. Guards!" Two guards immediately ran over to him. "Take him away."
The guards nodded and walked over to Azureous and picked him up from under the arms and dragged him away. Korir felt the guilt of dooming a man to a life of near solitary confinement, but he drowned the guilt in a few sips of wine.
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Kent cursed richly and deeply aloud, shocking the bartender and Okan, along with everybody else in the bar. It had been two days sence Azureous was arrested for murdering Sasha, and Okan and himself had no money and were about to be kicked out of the inn.
"Look, uh..."
"Dagur." The man said venomously.
"Dagur. Vicious name. We'll have the money soon, but right now, our friend is on trial and we are broke. I'll ask the Jarl for work and you'll have the rent for the last two days!" Kent said.
"Yeah. You have two hours." Dagur said, looking down and polishing the same spot he had been polishing sence they had come in. "Two hours to pay me, or you will find your stuff outside."
"Good, thank you!" Okan said, pulling Kent away from the bar.
"Okan, let me go!" Kent said, ripping his arm from Okan's grasp as he pulled him outside.
"Calm down. We need to get work from the jarl to pay for rent." Okan said, walking away from the inn and toward the longhouse.
Kent groaned and followed Okan. They walked across the main path towards the jarls longhouse, Okan nearly tripping over the many loose stones. After their jaunt, the door suddenely opened before them and three men walked out, two in Winterhold guard clothing and another in robes the likes of which the world had never seen before. It was Azureous.
"Hey! Hey, Azureous! Where are you taking him?!" Okan yelled at the guards.
"The Freeze." The taller one said, not bothering to stop.
"The free...?" Okan trailed off. "Oh."
"What's the Freeze?" Kent asked, watching the guards drag Azureous away.
"It's like prison." Okan looked at Kent with a mischievous grin. "A very easy to escape prison."
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KORIR'S LONGHOUSE
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"Work? Talk to Malur, he might have work for you." Korir said, not bothering to even look up from the book he was reading.
"Malur? O-ok." Okan said, quickly walking away. Malur was only a few steps from Korir, so finding him wasn't hard at all.
"Do you have any work for us? A bounty or something like that?" Kent asked as Malur looked up.
"Bounty?" Malur said, looking up. When he saw the two, his eyes immediately lit up. "Ah, you two are Azureous's friends! Yes, I have a bounty for you two. Here."
Okan snatched the bounty out of his hands and thanked him. After, the two walked out of the hall, not looking or talking to anyone. Once the two were outside, Okan handed Kent the parchment with a shrug. He mumbled something about not knowing how to read bigger words. Kent sighed.
"You need to learn to read." He said, openeing the paper. "It says that... dah, dah, dah... it says that there is a Giant a mile away who is killing sheep... blah, blah, blah... reward is three thousand septims. Also says that mammoth tusks are a hundred septims for two, so we might kill a few mammoths."
"Mam... mammoths? Giant?" Okan said, the color draining from his face. "Crap..."
"What? Afraid of a giant?" Kent said, smiling as he walked away.
"N-no, I'm afraid of pain, among other things." Okan said, shuffling along.
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A MILE AWAY
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"S-so that's the giant?" Okan said, gulping.
"Yes, Okan. It is. If you don't want to fight him, I'll fight him. But we need the money, so we're doing this wither you like it or not." Kent said, walking towards the giant slowly.
Okan gulped again and walked behind Kent, scared silly. Okan wished that he could be as brave as Kent, but he had other things on his mind, things that scared him more than killing a giant and a herd of mammoths. But they needed the money, so he picked up his pase and soon matched Kent.
"We're going to do this quietly and quickly. No room for mistakes, ok, Okan?" Kent said, taking out a nearly hidden Dwemer bow. He drew a wicked looking arrow and notched it in the bow. Kent squatted down so he could aim better and drew the bow. He took aim and fired and the arrow sailed through the air, whistling as it traversed the distance. A few seconds later, the arrow sunk right into the Giants neck, dissappearing into his flesh.
"Nice!" Okan said, smiling at the prospect of killing the Giant without any hassle.
"No, not nice. He's not dead yet!" Kent said, quickly drawing another arrow and firing as the Giant rose.
As he loosed the arrow, the Giant started to jog over to them with its deadly club raised high. The arrow buried itself in his left shoulder, but the Giant didn't even seem to notice, he was too mad. The Giant jumped up and swong his club down as he fell, aiming the strike directly at Kent, who dodged the blow just in time. Kent threw his bow down and took out two nearly identical Dwemer swords. They were identical up to their color. One was red, which was a fire enchantment, and another was maroon, which was a health enchantment. As the Giant rose from the ground, Kent sliced his left hamstring, which caused the Giant to trip again, this time resting on his left knee. The Giant looked up and saw Okan, who was too terrified to move. The Giant grabbed Okan as fast as a lightning bolt and was soon crushing him in his hands. When Kent saw his friend was in trouble, he dashed forward and jumped up with his swords aimed at the Giants's right arm. Both the blades went clean through his arm, and the giant arm fell to the ground with a wet thud. The Giant screamed in pain and threw Okan towards a snow bank and clutched his arm, trying to staunch the bleeding. Kent was soon behind the Giant, and running towards his back. He jumped up and kicked the Giant with both feet, causing him to fall face first onto the ground. Before he could get up, Kent got up and ran across his back to his head, which he sunk both of his twin blades into. The Giant sputtered for a second before he stopped moving.
Kent got up, leaving the two blades in the Giant and ran over to where Okan was thrown. As he ran over to the snow bank, he quickly knelt down and slid on his knees over to Okan, who was barely moving.
"Okan! Okan, are you ok?!" Kent asked as he shook Okan. "C'mon Okan! We need to get the money!"
"Ngh... money? Really? What about me?" Okan said, sitting up slowly.
"O-oh. N-no, I thought that if we had an objective, than we-I could motivate you." Kent said as he helped Okan up and off the snow bank.
"Yeah, well, I'm fine. Just a little... a little disoriented." Okan said.
"Heh, sorry." Kent said, ripping his swords out of the Giants neck. He raised one of the swords above his neck and swong it down. The head was cleanly severed off of his corpse. Kent picked it up by his head and motioned for Okan to follow him as he put his sword in his scabbard and walked away.
"Why... why are you taking his head?" Okan asked, avoiding the bloody trail as he walked alongside Kent.
"Proof." Kent said.
"Proof?"
"Okan, how do we proove that we killed a Giant without proof, like his head?" Kent said, not bothering to look back.
"What about the mammoth tusks?" Okan asked, nearly tripping over a very loose rock.
"Do you think we can kill a mammoth? You nearly died by killing a Giant." Kent said.
"Fine. Just walk faster, it smells horrible." Okan said, covering his nose.
"At least you don't have to carry it." Kent said, smirking.
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WINTERHOLD, KORIR'S LONGHOUSE
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"Talos, no! No, leave that thing outside!"
"But it has stopped bleeding..."
"It smells terrible..."
"Take it out!"
"NO! Bring it here, carefully!"
The sea of voices were thundering, they could almost be heard from the college. The disturbance was caused when two men, Okan and Kent, brought a decapitated Giants head in Korir's longhouse during a meal. It had obviously caused a great commotion in the hall and now, Korir had wanted to see the Giants head so he could give the money and they could leave them.
"What?! But, Korir! We're in the middle of a meal!" Malur exclaimed.
"The sooner we see proof that they killed the Giant-and it's not just a joke- then you can pay them the money and they can leave. Once they leave, we can return to our dinner." Korir said, dismissing his advisor.
"But... but..."
"Bring it here!" Korir demanded, smashing his fists on the table.
Kent walked carefully walked the head over to the jarl, making sure that it didn't touch the table or other guests. Once it was over to the jarl, he turned it so he was looking it dead in the face. The jarl looked at it for a while before dismissing Kent. When Kent had moved the head away, Korir looked over at Malur, who took out a coin purse.
"You, Argonian! Here's the septims. Take them and leave." Malur said, tossing the coin purse over to Okan, who nearly missed it.
Okan and Kent did not say anything, but walked out of the hall silently. Once they firmly closed the door, Kent threw the Giants head in some nearby shrubbery. It fell to the ground with a thump, and its jaw nearly fell off.
"Eww..." Okan said, quickly walking away from the rotting head.
"Silence. Now, we need to break Azureous out of prison. Or, freeze. Whatever you call it. But whatever you called it, you said that it was easy to break out of. Where you lieing?" Kent asked, openeing the door to the inn.
"Was I lieing? Oh, no. No, I've heard stories about it, and it is supposedly super easy to break out of. I mean, did you see that they only took his mask?" Okan said, looking over and grinning.
"Oh shi-... really? So... he has all his supplies?" Kent asked, paying the man.
"Yes, and don't pay him, we're leaving." Okan said, swiping the money away from the counter before Dagur could take it.
"Good riddance then." Dagur said, frowning.
"Okan, what are you doing? We-"
"No we don't" Okan said, cutting Kent off "we're getting our supplies and leaving."
"Oh. Ok then." Kent said, walking to what once was his room.
Okan walked back to his room and grabbed what little supplies he had and quickly got out of the room, leaving the haunted reminders of a slaughtered ten year old girl. No, not a girl.
A Vampire.
A dirty, sniveling Vampire. A Vampire that turned him into a Vampire. Okan looked at his arms and were very shocked to see that they were already a disgusting yellow-white color. They were always white in complexion, but they always had a black tint to them, not yellow. This infuriated Okan to the point of no return, so he punched the wall. But that only made his arm hurt. He walked out of the room and met up with Kent, who also had a few of the belongings that he had.
"What was that noise?" Kent asked.
"Nothing." Okan said venomously. "Let's go."
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So.
You enjoying your vacation? Well, if you still go to school, that is. Anyway, I'll start to work on the next story right after I post this one, so good day!