Chapter Eleven: Drem
Karja fell onto a chest and sighed in exhaustion. They had just reached a Zealot's camp – devoid completely of Zealots. Karja couldn't remember if she had cleared out this particular camp or maybe if someone else had. She scratched her chainmail covered thigh and groaned.
"I'm exhausted" She told Camori, who was unlocking and going through every chest and barrel.
"There's nothing here"
"Then I must have been here before" Karja yawned, referring to her thieving habits. She looked at the horizon, the sun was setting. On cue, the fang, sheathed at her side, made a wispy noise in reaction to the dusk, the gem had turned blue and it's powers changed. Karja didn't have to look at it to know that. She and the Fang had been together since her first errand for the previous Sheogorath, even though Karja loved bows with a passion – no other weapon had surpassed the fang's loyalty yet, it had gotten Karja out of a lot of tight spots. "We'll get some sleep and then head out again" she yawned.
"What if something attacks us while we're sleeping"
"Don't worry about that" Karja told him, she raised her hand and with a glow of red light summoned Drem, the Flesh Atronach. He appeared behind Camori so for a few seconds he looked around confused, then clumsily backed right into him. He spun around and let out a small horrified gasp.
"Oh dear" he said looking up at the beast who was at least three feet taller than him.
"Don't worry…this is Drem, he'll protect us"
"Erng" Drem grunted, prodding Camori by the shoulder with one finger and looking at Karja.
"Yes, he's an ally, I haven't introduced you before…Drem this is Camori, please be a little gentler next time" she requested.
"Yes…please" Camori said holding his shoulder protectively.
"So where did Vaernima say this orb was?" Camori asked, biting into a sweet roll Karja had brought from Cyrodiil. He was laying on his side on a bedroll that they had brought along, sleeping on the dirty and soaked ones that already occupied the camp was less appealing.
"In a tower, she marked it on my map" Karja told him. Recalling the conversation she had had with Vaernima, and unrolling her map and handing it to Camori.
"Arkved himself is nothing to worry about, but there are probably Daedra plaguing the place by now" Vaernima had told her. Camori studied the map, taking another bite out of the roll. He handed it back to Karja. She sat cross legged on her own bedroll a few feet away, she stuffed it back into her pack.
"How did she know you had the amulet?" Camori wondered, pulling a blanket onto his ebony covered legs and sitting up. His cuirass was made of amber and it had been a gift from Dumag for finding the amber in the first place.
"Well…the Emperor was seeing me in his dreams, and Vaernima sees people's dreams as well, she still can't figure out how the Emperor spoke to me through my dreams…when he's dead"
Karja watched Drem walk about in the grassy area before them for at least ten minutes before finally drifting into sleep. She slept on her side, with her sheathed fang cradled in her arms, ready to attack if anything should come by. She was awoken once by the sound of Drem growling and opened her eyes just in time to be entertained with the sight of him kicking a Baliwog into a tree.
It was still dark and Karja was practicing with her bow when Camori woke up; she was shooting at a mangled and twisted tree and kept hitting the same thin branch every time she shot. She'd apparently taken a light potion, for there was a large green glow surrounding her and everything within about 50 feet.
"You still tuck your thumb under" Camori observed, looking at how Karja held the bow. She ceased her firing and looked up at him as he walked down onto the ground. "I told you not to do that"
"You said don't do it when making a fist" she replied innocently.
"Well don't do it ever" he told her wriggling her thumb out from under the rest of her fingers. "If you have to switch weapons fast the tension will slow you down. And like I said when you fight hand to hand, you'll crush your thumb if it impacts with anything" Karja sighed, taking an apple out of a pouch at her side and taking a seat in the grass, she took a bite from it and then offered it to Camori. He sat down and took the apple from her and sank his teeth into it.
"I've gotten along fine with my thumb tucked under the whole time" she teased. He ignored her and questioned the absence of her Deadric guardian.
"Where's Drem?" he asked.
"He disappears after three hours" Karja explained.
"But I thought they could stay as long as you wanted if you were in the Isles" Camori inquired.
"No, that's only Keen and Harla because they're physical beings, and are bound to the Shivering Isles, so when I take them out of the place they're bound to they can only stay for so long…Drem is a manifestation, of sorts. It depends on the strength of my Magicka how long he stays here" she explained as he handed the apple back to her and she bit into it.
"Should probably head out soon" she said, scratching at the skin which was under her ebony gauntlet. Karja preferred light armor on her legs and heavy armor on her torso, which was why she had given her ebony greaves to Camori, but kept the Cuirass.
The pair of them knelt behind a hill of rocks a couple of hours later, beyond the rock was a large pool of water with various vegetation surrounding it, and in the water was a large group of at least four or five Grummites. They stood there croaking and looking around stupidly.
"Mating ritual?" Camori guessed raising an eyebrow.
"Not the right time of year…how are we going to get past them?" Karja whispered as quietly as she possibly could. Camori shrugged. "We could fight them" he suggested.
"There are too many" she concluded.
"Look" he whispered. Karja peeked out from behind the rock; two of the Grummite were lumbering off down the hill on the other side of the pool.
"That leaves three" she said. "Can you kill one of them with one shot?"
"With an enchanted bow or arrow and some poison maybe, I'll have to get it in the head" Karja pulled her giant leather pack off of her back quietly and slowly, she opened up a back pocket that held many silver carafes filled with potions and poisons, she rummaged through it quietly until she pulled out one with a black stopper and read the inscription on the top.
"What is that?" Camori asked as she set it on the ground and inspected the arrows she had. She pulled out a metal Dwarven arrow. "Very bad to drink" she answered quietly, pulling the stopper off of the carafe and pouring the poison onto a stained rag and wiping the arrow with it. "It's a little something of my own design, really, made using Nirnroot leaf extract…" she held the two-pronged end of the arrow with the cloth and poured a generous amount of poison onto it. "And Unrefined Greenmote…with Fennel Seeds and Harrada"
"Harrada?" Camori asked.
"Bought it" she explained. "It only grows in the Deadlands" she handed him the arrow along with her Bow of Embers which would set the target on fire. Camori knocked the arrow, holding the bow sideways and taking aim.
"Get it in the head…the poison paralyzes and drains health and fatigue, he'll die instantly" Karja guided. The Grummite then grunted and looked right in their direction, the very second Camori fired the arrow, it didn't have enough time to get out of the way, the poisoned arrow pierced it's skull and burned it's flesh before knocking it backwards into the pool of water. The two remaining creatures screeched loudly and began running for them. Karja rose to her feet quickly brandishing a Golden Saint Longsword as Camori dropped the bow and drew his enchanted Glass Claymore just in time to block an attack from a vicious Grummite. He jumped backwards and slashed downwards at a diagonal at the creature which blocked his attack and spun around, jabbing it's dagger at the Altmer. Karja leapt on top of the rock they had been hiding behind and swung a large arc at the Grummite, leaving a gash across it's collarbone and shoulders, it pounced on top of the rock and collided with her, knocking her backwards onto the ground, she landed with a thump and shook her head, the Grummite bounced off of the stony platform attempting to attack from above, but Karja had already had her sword pointed toward the sky above her and the beast ended up impaling himself on it. Blood spattered Karja's hand as the Grummite screeched and wriggled in agony, Karja dropped the sword and promptly crushed the beasts skull in with her foot.
"Overkill, wouldn't you say?" Camori voiced from a couple yards away, his opposition had been taken care of and he was currently wiping the blood off his claymore with a rag much like the one Karja had used to poison the arrow.
"It got the job done" Karja replied, sheathing the longsword and picking the rest of her load off of the ground.
