KENDOV

A.N.)- Screw Authors Notes.

The wheels of the cart creaked in time with the thumping of the hooves on the well packed trail.

A soft page turn, "How did you get those by the way?"

"What do you speak of?"

The man looked up at his furry companion in the wagon. The two of them sitting across from each other as it moved down the road; and the human gestured at his own face with a hand, "The scars."

The khajiit gave a little nod, "It is quite the story. Are you sitting comfortably?"

"Inigo," the man said with an eyeroll, setting his book into his lap. He gestured grandly at his sprawling position, sideways in the seat, his right leg laid out along the length of the bench and his back propped up behind the driver, "I'm about as comfortable as I can get."

The khajiit grinned just a bit, the five gouges in his blue fur crinkling as sharp teeth shown through his blunt muzzle. "Alright then." The grin faded slightly as he looked out at the Skyrim landscape slowly passing them by, "It was… about a week after my… betrayal."

The smaller man gave a little nod at that, "Were you off the skooma yet?"

"No… not quite. I was still an addict… after I… after what I did, I managed to score a little skooma on the road. I used it and sat up all night staring at the stars."

It took some subtle shifting on the part of the human, but the book was stuffed into his pack. The two in the wagon were a strange pair; one a decently sized blue khajiit in tightly bound steel armor, the other a small man in dull brown robes interspersed with light bronze plating.

"I decided I would end my life the next day… after what I did to Felix and you I thought it best for everybody I just went away."

"Well, I'm glad you're still around."

"You are very nice to say such things… But I am glad too."

"You tried to follow through with that though…"

"Yes. I watched the sun come up and then made a noose. My camp was high near the edge of a cliff. I fastened the noose to an overhanging tree branch. I used the last of my skooma, placed the rope around my neck, and jumped off."

The man shifted uncomfortably, looking at his companion as words failed him, "Inigo…"

The blue khajiit grinned, ears forward as he leaned his elbows against his knees, "It is okay Jaykob, it is behind me."

Lips pressing into a thin line, the man looked at his companion, "… what happened?"

"I remember falling, the twanging noise as the rope went taut, a brief moment of pain, a snapping noise, I thought it was my neck." Inigo gave a little shrug, "Then I was falling again. The cliffs rushed past me. I thought, 'Well, the rope didn't work, but the ground will do the trick.' A wide ledge hurried up to meet me, I closed my eyes just before impact. There was a smashing noise… then I was underwater."

Jaykob's head tilted and a few strands of his silver and brown hair escaped the tight bun as he gave his partner a confused look. "… did you bounce into a river?"

"No, I broke through a thin layer of rock into a cave." A snort was his answer, making the blue khajiit frown, "And no fat jokes!"

"I wouldn't dream of it," the reclining man said, his grin indicating the complete opposite.

The horse whinnied as the cart came to a halt, "Um…"

The strange pair looked over at the driver, the human being the one to speak up, "Yeah-… ah."

"Now look here, there's a toll to use this here road."

Both of the passengers leaned out slightly to look at the source of the voice, a quartet in armor blocking the path. One woman with a sword and shield, two men, one with an ax and another with a bow, and an orc with a hammer the size of a toddler. The two passengers shared a concerned glance, Inigo's ears flicking about as Jaykob moved closer to the driver's seat.

"Great. Look," with a grunt, he pulled himself higher up, half leaning over the wall of the wagon, "You guys don't realize who you're trying to mug. We can part ways without any trouble right now."

The orc snorted, "Oi, you shut up ya scrawny paper pusher, you ain't gonna bluff your way out of payin' the toll."

"Well… for one, do we really look like people who have a lot of gold?"

"You look lousy with gold, yeah."

"Fair enough. But the other part is..." An audible creak drew the attention of the highwaymen to the other side of the cart, where Inigo had silently rolled out, his ebony bow at full draw and pointed at them. A whispered word and their heads snapped back to the leaning man, whose skin had become stone with a ball of flame over his palm.

The archer brought his bow up rapidly, nocking an arrow even as the other highwaymen drew their weapons.

The mage shrugged, "Well, we're members of the Companions. And, yes, we're supposed to bring the likes of you in. But you actually offered us all a chance to just pay without violence and you're not our job, so we're willing to let you go."

The orc growled, bringing the enormous warhammer about to a ready position, but the smaller man with the sword leaned in. "Gorag, we sure we want to mess with Companions-?"

"They're bluffing, no way the Companions would let a khajiit or a mage join." The orc snapped back at him before bellowing at the carriage, "You hear that ya brat?! We ain't falling for this bluff either. So hand over your gold or your life. Your pick!"

Jaykob glanced at the driver of the carriage, "Stay close to me."

Gorag snarled, baring his tusks, "You aren't gonna give up?"

"Inigo."

Then a bunch of things happened at once.

A black arrow sprouted from the orcs chest, puncturing his steel breastplate. Jaykob threw his hands forward, a shimmering light in one hand and a black void in the other–

The archer highwayman loosed his arrow with a yelp as purple non-flames splashed into existence in the midst of the criminals; and the group scattered., the other highwaymen scattering–

With a roar of fury, the orc charged, hammer raised and the panic-fired arrow glanced off of Jaykob's ward, skating off into the wilderness.

Inigo rushed off to the side, nocking another arrow in his ebony bow even as the two other melee focused highwaymen sprinted towards him. Their archer taking of in a sprint to get away from the flame atronach summoned within inches of his face.

But Jaykob's awareness of what was going on around him fell to the wayside in favor of focusing on the charging orc. It was a tad more important.

A snarled word and a ball of flames appeared in his right hand as over four hundred pounds of muscle and steel roared their approach to the carriage.

Jaykob threw his right hand forward with another word. But the flames fizzled into nothing– the lack of burning death immediately clicked and the man started charging another spell, "Shi–"

*WHAM!*

The warding spell shattered, as did the corner of the cart as over a dozen pounds of steel smashed through both, with a little stone-covered face between them.

The man grunted as he hit the dirt in a roll, struggling to right himself. But the Gorag was having none of it, swinging his hammer once more at the man on the ground.

Jaykob's hands were thrown up desperately, a glowing shield flashing into existence over him, this one stopping the hammer with a resounding bang. And again, Gorag brought the hammer down, and again, and again. Each time, the semi-transparent shield's glow dimming more and more.

"I'll use your fucking cat for a rug!" The orc laughed as he brought the hammer high over his head in spite of the arrow in his chest, "Companions my ass!"

"Yeah yeah," the human muttered even as the ward disappeared, his hands pointing at the orc as he said another word. A terrible gale blasted out from his palm, making the orc stumble even as it tried to push him off his feet.

Gorag grit his teeth, leaning into the wind, "Like… that'll… stopmmmph-?!"

The second hand joined the first, adding a stream of liquid ice to the gale. Within moments, the orc's upper body was coated in a layer in hardening ice nearly an inch thick, making him stumble back.

Fury burned in the orc, and with a muffled roar he strained and struggled with his encasement. His muscles burned, muscles that were the envy of every other member of their band! With a loud crack, the ice began to break under the pressure, until, with a bang and a roar, Gorag freed himself. Even before the frost had cleared from his eyes, he swung his hammer around at the offending little mage!

*thwump*

"… what." Blinking blearily, Gorag's head tracked up the wall of stone before him. He found a pointed head of rock and stone towering several feet above him, the last traces of purple flames flickering out of existence around the summoned atronach. "… oh."

And then it hit him.

The atronach that is, not any particular realization that stealing was wrong or anything, heavens no.

Magical words tumbled forth, followed by fire. A bolt of flames slammed into Gorag's tumbling form, getting a pained shout from the green-skin.

Jaykob's held out his hands, "Up." The atronach held out the stone spear it had instead of a hand, which was grasped, and then lifted. Even before he was properly on his feet, the smaller man commanded, "Fight."

With the sound of grinding stone and tumbling boulders, the atronach charged off after the orc, and Jaykob's hands began moving. The driver of the carriage had dove into the back of his carriage, his horse struggling in place, the archer long gone. But what was a concern were the other two highwaymen and Inigo… they were trying to flank the khajiit.

The blue khajiit's bow was in his left hand, his thin steel sword dancing about in his right as he backed up. Circling and retreating, trying to prevent the man from getting behind him as he fenced with the woman.

The spells finished charging with a buzz, and with a hobbling step, Jaykob lined up and loosed the magical energies with a thunderous crack. Bolts of lightning that leapt from the mages hands, a brilliant ribbon connecting his palms to the man for the briefest of instants.

Before he could follow up, a loud crash dragged the mage's attention back around. The tenuous thread holding the atronach in this realm snapping as Gorag crushed the atronach's torso under his massive hammer.

Gorag's bloodshot eyes swung to the mage as the remains of the atronach faded into the void, blood leaking down the side of his face, one of his tusks cracked.

Jaykob blinked, "Ah."

"I'm gonna put your head on a gods damned pike!" Gorag snarled, frost breaking off of his face and armor as he charged the mage.

"Yeah-no." Jaykob's hands flew forward through gestures even as the orc closed the distance with a battle cry. A blast of purple flames encapsulated a void that appeared in the closing gap, heralding the appearance of another atronach of stone.

"Oh come on!"

A vial was ripped from his bandolier, the mage pulling the cork with his teeth even as his other hand moved through gestures. A small buzzing ball of lighting grasped in his palm as he downed the vial. The orc smashed the atronach into gravel with only a few swings.

Jaykob's left hand came out, and a torrent of ball lightning began to pour forth. Each one of the barely controlled balls slamming into Gorag. Every fist sized ball of storm-light popping into little blasts of sparks and smoke and flames as they hit.

But the orc charged forward, uncaring for the little flames and spasms of his muscles, uncaring for the glowing hot metal his armor was turning into, uncaring for the constant stream of lightning coursing through him, he charged.

Jaykob grit his teeth, planting his feet and bracing his left arm with his right as sweat beaded on his forehead, pouring magicka into the spell and into the oncoming bandit. He had no other options, no potions on hand that could help, no more powerful spells, no equipment on hand that hadn't been left behind in the carriage, he just had to hope that this spell could bring down the orc before he was reintroduced to the business end of the hammer.

The orc charged-

-and stepped right on top of the rune spell the mage had laid while summoning the second atronach.

A geyser of water exploded from beneath the orc, sending him hurtling several feet upwards and soaking him, the mage tracking the orc's trajectory with his spell until the mass of muscle and fury and steel hit the ground once more, spasming and smoking and bits of his body turning to ash.

It was only then that the mage cut off his spell, sweat running freely down his face and taking a half step to look around, "Inigo!"

"I am okay, my friend!" The khajiit called out, only breathing a little heavy, his bow and sword still in hand, blood dripping from the steel blade as he stood over the form of the lightly armored woman. The other highwayman was several feet away, some of his armor melted into porridge and parts of his flesh burned by the dual bolts of lightning that had struck him.

A sigh of relief was the response before the mage turned to the carriage with its damaged corner, "Bjorlam! You okay?"

The carriage driver poked his head out of the back of the wagon, "I-I'm alright!"

"Good," a small smile crossed the man's face as he nodded, "We'll–"

Whatever he'd intended to say was lost when his head was jerked to the side by an arrow, the mage collapsing.

"Jaykob–!" Inigo didn't think, he just reacted, nocking the ebony bow, drawing, and loosing at the remaining bandit.

"Gurk-…" the archer doubled over with the sword in his gut, collapsing even as Inigo rushed over to his companion.

"Jaykob-!" the aforementioned human rolled onto his back with a groan even as the feline knelt beside him, "Are you okay my friend?"

"Mostly," he muttered, rubbing his face with a hand. The stone-like quality of his skin had been cracked all around his cheek in a jagged line, blood trickling from the cracks from the stoneflesh over his armor and robes, "You?"

"I am fine." The khajiit rebuffed, slinging his bow over his shoulders before grasping the smaller man's bicep and standing with him.

Jaykob gripped his companions armored arm as he was hauled to his feet. Wobbling slightly in place for a moment, he brought a hand to his face, a soft golden glow appearing about it, muttering under his breath. Rubbing the blood off of his face, "You injured?"

"I am fine my friend," Inigo said with an exasperated eyeroll as his friend looked him over. But any further whinings were cut off with a pained hiss as the smaller man grabbed his wrist.

"Fine. Uh-huh. After slicing open your hand?" A quick glance over him again, then at the archer in the distance before shaking his head, "After shooting your sword… totally fine."

"It had purpose." Inigo muttered sullenly even as his left paw was manhandled by his companion, who cradled it.

A golden glow saturated the arm and hand for several moments, the large slice into the fur and fingers sealing up with a scab. When it was done, the smaller man gave him a look, "Yeah. Problem isn't that you got hurt, it's that you didn't mention it."

The khajiit's ears fell, "I am sorry my friend, I do not mean to make you worry."

Jaykob gave a long suffering sigh before rubbing the top of the taller companion's head, shaking his own head at him with a smile, "We're Companions. Trying to become a part of the inner circle. It'll happen."

With a little nod, the man began to limp towards the downed orc, "Now c'mon, let's gather up the bodies. I'll do the rites."

Inigo smiled, ears perking up just a bit as he nodded, "And I'll check their pockets."