I'm really enjoying writing these interlude parts. I hope everyone likes learning about Rahkei. It also presents some TES IV: Oblivion nostalgia! :) OH AND I'M FINALLY AT 50k+ WORDS! :D

Interlude – Little Thief

Rahkei had run away from the dreadful event that night. He ran north for hours, ignoring his screaming muscles, just wanting to get away. Just before dawn broke across the horizon, he returned to Cheydinhal. He slipped into the city and found his grandfather's home.

Dropping his sword and armor, including the cloak he had hastily worn over his shoulders, he took a lockpick he had always kept hidden with him. With it, he began fumbling at the front door, still catching up on breath from the long run. The lockpick broke and he uttered a curse. Biting his lower lip and fighting back tears, he tried fishing the half of the lockpick stuck in the mechanism. He stuck his index claw in the small hole and managed to wiggle the small metal rod around.

"STOP! You're violating the law!"

The young cub jumped, snapping his claw in half. Releasing a stream of curses he had learned from his sister, he pulled his hand away from the door's lock. Stomping towards him was a dawn patrol guard, holding a torch.

With a yelp, Rahkei bolted in the opposite direction of the guard.

"Oh no you don't!" the guard shouted, running after the Khajiit. He quickly gained upon the cub. He grasped his nape and jerked him aside.

"Getting familiar with lockpicking, eh?" the guard growled. "Let me just tell you that such 'skills' usually – well, always – come with consequences." He began leading the cub towards the city's jail.

"No!" Rahkei hissed, kicking out stubbornly. "Let me go!" The guard lifted him by the back of his shirt and shook him. The little Khajiit whimpered and folded his ears flat against his head.

"That's more like it," the guard sneered. The jail was connected to the guards' barracks. Upon entering the building, fellow guards approached curiously.

"Got yourself a new pet, Geoff"" one asked, barking a laugh.

"Ha ha, very funny," the first, Geoff, replied. "But no. This little whelp was trying to break into someone's home. And I plan on sentencing him the appropriate punishment-"

"The lad's only, what, six years of age?!" another guard exclaimed, eyeing up Rahkei.

"As I was saying," Geoff continued, "regardless of his age, he deserves punishment."

"No I don't," Rahkei whined, keeping his head down.

"Shut up, you!" Geoff yelled. With that, he dragged the cub through the barracks and into the main hallway of the jail. He opened up the gate to one of the cells and tossed Rahkei in, quickly shutting and locking the gate behind him. The guard turned around.

"Filthy cats," he muttered as he walked off, dangling the keys from his fingers.

Rahkei stared off after the guard, and, when the man was almost out of site, the cub stuck his tongue out defiantly.

When he heard the door shut, he slumped to the floor and put his head in his hands.

"Hey, hey cat," a raspy voice – distinctively male – called out from the shadows of the cell.

Rahkei jumped and backed up against the gate. "Khajiit. Not cat. And… who're you?" he demanded.

The voice coughed, and after a few moments, Rahkei realized it was laughing. "Oh, I am just a common old thief that is spending his thirty-sixth time in the poky. It's really not too bad, as long as yer're not of particular interest to any of the guards. Seeing yer're male, though, yer're probably fine…" The voice coughed again. "Or maybe they might have interest in yer pelt, or yer braids…"

The Khajiit cub subconsciously grabbed a hold of the dark braids of his hair. "Show yourself," he said weakly.

The thief clambered from the shadows into the sliver of light coming from the window along the ceiling. It was an old human – Imperial or Nord, Rahkei couldn't tell – with gray wisps of hair and face full of wrinkled folds. He was scrawny, skin hanging off bones like loose bags, and his eyes… oh, his eyes frightened Rahkei.

One of the eyes was filmy but relatively normal, the white part stained yellow and the color around the pupil was a pale green or blue. The other eye was a mass of eggshell white, seemingly merely patched together. Around that eye was a grotesque collection of folded scar tissue.

The old thief noticed the Khajiit staring. He pointed to the ravaged eye. "Ran straight into the corner of a hardwood dresser when escaping on a job," he explained. He suddenly picked his voice up. "Out of all things, furniture!" He stood up. Rahkei tried stepping back only to find the gate still at his back. "I was ridiculed, of course. Actually, meself did most of the ridiculing." He began muttering to himself.

"I don't deserve to be in here," the Khajiit cub murmured.

The old man interrupted his own mumbling. "Huh? Whassat yah say?"

"I was trying to enter my gr-" He stopped himself and slid to the floor. "Grandpah's home…" he whispered.

The scrawny thief scuttled towards Rahkei, and it took all the cub's willpower to not recoil from the putrid, old man. The thief fumbled with the skimpy folds of cloth around his body and conjured a lockpick.

The man held the piece of metal to Rahkei and winked his sickly eye. "I always manage to smuggle one of these babies with me whenever I get caught, so I usually escape. I'm willing to help get yah out this time, though, little kitty." The cub stared at him, brow ridges raised. He then looked at the lockpick in the man's bony hand and reached out for it.

The man swiped his hand away. "But fer a price!" he barked. Rahkei pressed his ears back against his skull. "Fer a price," the thief repeated. He lifted his empty hand and grabbed one of the cub's braids. Rahkei wished he could get far away from this disgusting man, but he stayed put. "Only a braid," the old man continued. "The price is only one of these lovely, delicate braids. Once I have one, I could lead yah out of here."

The cub nodded numbly. "GOOD!" the thief yelled. Rahkei pressed his ears more firmly to his head and his whiskers were sticking out, alert. The old man scrambled back towards the shadows of the cell and returned a moment later with a tarnished butter knife. Rahkei shut his eyes as the man grasped one of his braids and began sawing at it with the small knife. Soon, he felt the hair give way to the man.

"Ahh, so beautiful," the old thief murmured, staring at the braid in his palms. He then tucked it away and stood up. "Come, we have work to do, cat-kitty!"

"WHAT IN OBLIVION IS GOING ON DOWN THERE?!"

The old man recoiled back into the shadows as Rahkei pressed himself against the grimy stone wall. Two guards thundered down into the jail. One held a sword arm ready and observed the Khajiit cub, then peered into the shadows of the cell. The other stood back with his arms folded.

"Has Orsley the Old acquainted himself with you yet?" the guard with the folded arms snickered to Rahkei. "I'd watch out, little cat, because sometimes the sick old thief gets a little too sick, if you could tell what I mean." With that, the guard turned on his heel and stomped out of the jail. The other one quickly followed, glancing back uncertainly.

Rahkei slowly turned to look at the thief, Orsley, in the shadows. Orsley climbed out. "Ready?" he asked as if nothing had happened. The Khajiit nodded briskly without any thought. The old man pushed him aside and began fumbling at the gate with the lone lockpick.

The Khajiit cub looked around nervously as Orsley worked the lock. After a time that seemed a bit too long to Rahkei, the lock opened with a satisfying click. Orsley beckoned the cub to follow him as he silently opened the gate. Rahkei immediately dropped to a crouch and tagged along.

Instead of going up the main hallway of the jail that opened up to the guard barracks, Orsley went further into the jail. He entered a battered, ancient cell that was actually the last one on the left. Its gate was ajar and he slipped inside.

"Not many fools know of the secret passage out," Orsley explained in a rasping whisper. Rahkei followed him inside the ancient cell. The old thief disappeared amongst the thick shadows of the cell, dragging the cub by the hand so that he was along side him. He led Rahkei through a narrow gap that was within the shadowy walls. It revealed a cave-like passageway, in which they crawled through. The scent of the passage was full of mildew and decay, not too much better than the stench rolling off of Orsley.

"Hey, yah've got a knack for being silent, kitty," the old thief commented after a while of creeping through the cave in silence. Rahkei stayed quiet. Shrugging, Orsley continued. "I think that yah could find some good coin with the Cyrodiil Thieves' Guild."

"I'm not sure if I want to steal anything," Rahkei said softly.

The man laughed, hacking. "Sometimes yah ain't got a choice when you have to keep yerself alive."

Rahkei pondered uneasily over that.

A faint light revealed the end of a tunnel. The cub's heartbeat quickened. Orsley obviously had some of the excitement too as he quickened his crab-like pace and scampered out of the tunnel within minutes.

Light. Blinding light. When Rahkei managed to adjust his vision to the daylight, he observed that it was about midday. He and Orsley were standing on a grassy slope dotted with the small bursts of color of wildflowers. To the west rose the walls of Cheydinhal. The cub faced the city.

"Yah want to get back in there, cat-kitty?" Orsley's distinctive voice cut through the soft noise of summer.

Rahkei turned to him and nodded. "I left something in there," he said, thinking of his S'karthast armor and sword. "I want to get it back before someone steals it…"

Orsley was watching him with a concerned look, then he sighed. "Okay, I'll help yah find it. It's likely that it's gone by now though." At the cub's defeated look, he quickly added, "But I'll help yah even then! Come on."

They reentered Cheydinal nonchalantly as if they hadn't just escaped from the city's jail.

"Yah see, that's the key," Orsley noted as they strolled passed the east gate's guards. "Act completely normal and give no reason for people to be suspicious of yah. Even me! Sure, I look pretty odd, but people just think I'm a drunk beggar or something of the sorts." Rahkei kept this in mind.

"So, where's this grandpa's house of yers?" the old thief asked.

"Over here." Rahkei led him to a two-story, Tudor-styled home.

Orsley whistled and stood back, looking at the house, as the Khajiit cub ran up to the front door. "This is yer old man's place? Never knew a cat lived here."

Rahkei urgently sifted around the entrance to the home. No armor, no sword. He checked the bushes to the side. Nothing.

Wait. A glimmer. He reached down and retrieved the helmet to the S'karthast armor. He hurriedly looked in that area for the additional pieces but to no avail. Orsley approached.

Rahkei showed the lone helmet to the old thief. "The rest is gone though," he whimpered. "I really want it back." The man snatched it from his hands and stuck his nose on it, inhaling deeply. "What the-" the cub began to say.

"Yep, smells like the Thieves' Guild. I could get the rest back fer yah. I'm still a part of it, yah know." Orsley winked. "But first, let's make sure yah could get into yer grandpa's home." He shoved the helmet back into Rahkei's arms and led him to the rear of the house.

"Rule number one, never try entering the most obvious way, especially in broad daylight." He found a small door along the side of the home that Rahkei hadn't even noticed before. "Most houses have these," Orsley explained. Taking out the same lockpick he used to break out of jail, he unlocked this door to the home.

"Now go do whatever yah want quickly," the old thief instructed. "Grab a spare key or whatnot. Then we'll head off to the Thieves' Guild.

Rahkei bolted inside. He half-expected to see his Grandpah lounging on the sofa, snoring lazily, and his sister grumpily preparing a meal and cleaning up after the two males. Of course he saw neither of them. Fighting back the urge to lie down on the floor and curl up, he made his way to his bedroom. There, he set down the helmet. After leaving his room, he entered his grandfather's, sifting around for a spare key to the house. He found one in a small, wooden chest hidden beneath the bed.

"Done?" Orsley asked as the Khajiit cub reemerged. He nodded and locked the door behind him. The set off and returned to strolling the cobble roads casually. "Lucky for you," the thief said, "there's a small meeting place for the Guild here in Cheydinhal. The headquarters are in hidden the Imperial City, a few leagues from here. Now, yer belongings shouldn't be too far away, given they were just stolen." They stopped before a building that looked like Rahkei's grandfather's home, only a bit larger. A tall Dunmer woman was standing outside of it.

"What do you want, Orsley?" she said in an exasperated manner.

"Something was stolen from me and I want it back," the old man sneered. "Someone in the Guild was foolish enough to take something from a fellow member! Tsk tsk. This'll have to go to the Gray Fox."

"And what could you possibly have that's worth stealing?" the Mer said.

"Nun'ya business. Lemme inside. Oh, and the cat-kitty too. He's my new pet." Rahkei was about to object to that when Orsley tugged hard on one of his braids. "Plus, I have seniority, Madame Morya."

Morya snorted but let the old man and Khajiit cub enter the building.

Inside was completely dark, save for a lone candle sitting upon some sort of mantel. Rahkei was able to see more than Orsley. He spotted a figure seated upon a chair across the room. The old thief shuffled towards the figure and jumped when it spoke.

"Aren't you getting too old for this, Orsley?" an irritably soothing voice crooned.

"I don't think so, Mister Gray Fox."

"I see." A pause. The hooded head tilted towards Rahkei. "So, who is this you've brought?"

"My pet. Someone stole the armor and sword I had acquired fer him just within the few hours before now."

"Describe it."

"Umm…"

Rahkei piped up. "Dark grayish leather with metal designs all over it and a sword similar to that."

The Gray Fox's eyes scanned over the Khajiit cub. "How convenient. Someone had brought such items to me only an hour ago."

"Told yah," Orsley twittered at Rahkei.

"Although, what's to prove," the Gray Fox continued, "that the items were yours to begin with, Orsley?"

The old thief looked caught off-guard. "This is nonsense! They are mine and I want them back!"

"I did not say I wouldn't return the items to you. In fact, despite your rude outbursts, I am willing to give them to you, given all that you have provided for the Guild."

With that, the Gray Fox rose and disappeared into another room. Moments later, he returned, carrying the S'karthast craft in his arms. It took all of Rahkei's self-control to not reach out and snatch the items from the arms of the Thieves' Guild's official.

The Gray Fox passed the items to Orsley, who, in return, handed them to the little cub. Rahkei eagerly hugged the bundled armor to his chest and hooked the sword hilt over his wrist. The Gray Fox watched the young Khajiit with an amused expression.

"Who is he?" the Gray Fox murmured to Orsley, low enough so that the distracted cub could not hear.

Orsley shrugged. "Met him in the poky. Unjustly sentenced. Helped get him out for this." He revealed the dark braid he had cut from Rahkei's hair. The Gray Fox appeared unsurprised. Orsley shrugged. "Really, I had just a gut feeling for 'im. I think he also may have some potential for being a thief, too."

"Your 'gut feelings' are usually correct," the Gray Fox mused. "Advise him, then," he decided. "Lead him in the right direction, and tell him to fence directly to me whenever I am here – which is once every two weeks, if you haven't remembered. That way, he could stay in this city."

"Thank you, Mister." Orsley dipped his head, then turned around and led Rahkei out of the building.

As they exited, the old thief asked, "What is yer name, cat-kitty?"

"Rahkei J'varon S'karthast." The name rippled off his tongue.

"Oh, that's quite the mouthful. Well, Rah, I'm going to help yah get settled on yer own."

"How?" They were heading back to the cub's grandfather's house.

"Yah have Thieves' Guild rights now," Orsley told him. He explained what the Gray Fox had come up with. "Do yah think yah can do it? To survive?"

"Surely there must be other ways to earn money," Rahkei began to protest.

"No, lad. At least, not easily. Trust me. Yer're best off this way."

The Khajiit cub began unlocking the back door to the home. "What if I get caught?"

"I'll help yah escape again," Orsley readily answered.

"What if I… just can't do it?"

"Yah can. I can see the talent in you, cat-kitty. Now, go. Go relax and think over it."

"Where will you be?"

"Around." The old thief offered a broken-toothed smile and walked away.

Rahkei entered the building. Numbly, he found his way into his room and set down the S'karthast armor set and sword. He sat on the bed.

Is this the right thing to do? he thought to himself. Is there anything else I could possibly do? Not that I know… His thoughts returned to his deceased grandfather and sister. Instead of submitting to weeping, he thought of the Imperial guards that had committed the crime.

"Imperials," the cub hissed. "Imperial guards. I HATE THEM!" He screeched towards whatever gods were listening.

They will be my first victims.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

As Orsley walked away from the house, he had a conversation with himself.

"I wonder what has happened to his family. It's not my business to worry about though. Or should I pry the information from 'im? No. If he wants me to know, he'll tell me." A pause. "I think he'll do quite fine on his own. I'll help and train 'im if the need comes, though. Yeah, the cat-kitty will do fine. He'll do fine…"

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

In my sleep, I murmured, "Cat-kitty…" and turned on my other side, breathing at a faster pace than that of which I had fallen asleep several hours earlier.