-Star-song Tribe-
Softly-Spoken-Crab sits by the Egg-nest of Star-Song tribe, resting from her training. She had been here for months and would be here a while longer. She thinks back to coming here. How strange had it been. Her eyes close as she remembers her first day.


Softly-Spoken-Crab had journeyed with Jeer-Tei deep into the marsh and at last, they arrived at Star-Song tribe. Softly-Spoken-Crab was still a little afraid, still had not heard the Hist speak. She took in the village as the Star-Song tribe had taken her in, and been so uncertain until Tree-minder Neeseta came to her and took her hands into hers. "Many are taken from the Hist, never to hear the Hist speak. To welcome one back is always a great joy. Come, Softly-Spoken-Crab. Let me take you to our Hist, so you may know it.
Softly-Spoken-Crab nodded and followed the Tree-minder, and she sits under the Hist. Tree-Minder Nesseta moves to the Hist and touches it gently, then sits by Softly-Spoken-Crab. "You must know the Hist, Softly-Spoken-Crab, and you must also know certain truths." Tree-Minder Nesseta tells her as her claws bring up a small jar. "Sap from the Hist. Do not fear, Softly-Spoken-Crab. You were meant to come home, meant to be the champion of life."
Softly-Spoken-Crab takes the jar, looks into its depths. "I never asked for this," Softly-Spoken-Crab says. "But I never would think of backing away, despite my fear. The lovely lady showed me some of what could happen. The sorrow it could cause." Softly-Spoken-Crab brings the jar to her mouth and drinks and the world goes dark.

Softly-Spoken-Crab opens her eyes and all is dark for a moment before green life surges all around her. The Hist grows before her eyes, as do ferns, plants, trees, and flowers. Softly-Spoken-Crab moves in a circle marveling at it all before turning to the Hist.
"Softly-Spoken-Crab," The Hist seems to say, speaking inside her head, or perhaps inside her very being.
Softly-Spoken-Crab smiles as the Hist speaks, she can feel the Hist, and it is as if a part of her she never knew was gone, was suddenly there like a flower rising from a seed. "I can feel you," Softly-Spoken-Crab says, her eyes wide. "I do not have words,"
"Your thoughts are felt, Softly-Spoken-Crab. We are connected now, as it should be. Now sit, and see what we have to show you."
Softly-Spoken-Crab sits under the glowing Hist and the past appears to her as if it was happening this very moment. She knows Keerasi-Zish's truth, sees his life before he was cut off and banished, and became Viperish Night. It fills her with such sadness, to see how lonely his life in the Marsh had been. And then, The Hist shows her the why of it, the truth of the corruption inside of him, and Softly-Spoken-Crab is filled with a chill she feels down to her very spine. To know Keerasi-Zish is to know true despair. Softly-Spoken-Crab lowers her head and shakes and the vision blurs as she wakes.

Softly-Spoken-Crab feels tears on her cheeks and she looks at Tree-minder Neeseta. "I am glad to be home, Tree-minder Neeseta," Softly-Spoken-Crab says. "But the truth..."
"You need time," Tree-minder Neeseta says. "Take time, and then you will begin your training. We need to teach you the ways of the River, and the Hist need to teach you more, what none of us have yet needed."


Softly-Speckled-Crab opens her eyes as Tree-Minder Neeseta moves beside her. "The eggs are precious," Tree-minder Neeseta says with a kind hiss. "Those that have been filled with Argonian souls waiting for rebirth are treasured, always," Tree-minder Neeseta gazes at the eggs of Star-song tribe with love.
Softly-Speckled-Crab follows her gaze to the eggs. "So even if someone does something awful to one, it must still be born," Softly-Speckled-Crab says.
"Yes, to murder an unborn for any reason. The Hist would weep." Tree-minder Neeseta says and falls silent for a few long moments. "Keerasi-Zish should have been loved. But the taint upon him was great and could be felt by nearly all Argonians. Their instincts caused them to shy away from what was so different, so wrong. He was not loved. He should have been." Tree-minder Neeseta closes her eyes. "We hold much blame for this."
Softly-Speckled-Crab closes her eyes too, thinking of the Argonian Keerasi-Zish who became Viperish Night when his people forsook him. Her spine aches with sadness, to not be loved for something you could not help, the loneliness and sadness he must have felt. Softly-Speckled-Crab can only imagine it, for she had been loved. Her Egg-parents was gone, but she could sometimes still feel their love, their desire that Softly-Speckled-Crab not fall into hatred of the Dunmer, for being what they were. They knew no other way. "Keerasi-Zish could have been good," Softly-Speckled-Crab says as her eyes reopen. "I think his Egg-mother loves him. She spared him, despite what he has done." Softly-Speckled-Crab sighs softly. "But it is too late for love."
Tree-minder Neeseta is silent for a few more moments, gathering her words. "Even a small drop of water can alter the river's course," she says. "Or the drop could be swallowed and lost." She opens her eyes to gaze upon Softly-Spoken-Crab.
Tree-minder Neeseta's gaze is heavy and Softly-Spoken-Crab knows truth, for the Hist has sung to her since she arrived here. "The Hist had to banish Keerasi-Zish, for the venomous Daedric taint could not be drained from him, and it could have spread and destroyed all of us and the Hist." Softly-Spoken-Crab's eyes harden as she rises, taking hold of her staff with a sure grip. "The Hist gave him a chance at life. Life is sacred, and he now takes it without mercy." A trace of sadness passes over her.
"You are kind, Softly-Spoken-Crab," Tree-minder Neeseta says. "But if Keerashi-Zish is utterly lost, it is a kindness to him and all others to end him."
"I know, Tree-minder," Softly-Spoken-Crab says, and then her head moves toward the Hist. "The Hist calls for me. I must travel between its roots for my final training." Softly-Spoken-Crab says. The Hist had been preparing her for months for this. To enter the very roots, in a place between reality and dreams, where time had no meaning. She would remain until she was ready. Her kindness would have to be put aside and she would have to take the final step into becoming the Hist's champion and doing anything she must to save the Argonian's and the Hist...and the rest of Nirn.
Tree-minder Neeseta rises and moves to Softly-Spoken-Crab and takes her face in her hands. "Be what you need to be, put aside what you must, but do not destroy it. Someday you may need your kindness again, Softly-Spoken-Crab. In more peaceful days."
Softly-Spoken-Crab cups Tree-Minder Neeseta's hands with her own. "I will try, Tree-Minder," she steps from her and turns to the Hist, and moves toward it, and her final training.