Reyes was aware of a strange sound at the edge of his hearing. It was definitely a voice of some kind, but what it was saying made absolutely no sense at all. The voice repeated its strange, guttural message. Reyes focused his mind on trying to understand the voice, and as he did so, he slid back into consciousness.

'Wake up.'

Reyes opened his eyes. Under-Leaf was crouching beside him, with his hands on his shoulders, shaking him.

Reyes sat up, blinking away the thin film of trace amounts of dew that had settled over his eyelids.

'The master is awake.' Under-Leaf said urgently. 'Hurry, help me.'

Under-Leaf went quickly to the firepit. Burning wood was resting atop the ashes of the previous fire, and on top of the coals, positioned at a precarious angle, sat a medium-sized sheet of thin metal, and the flames licked around the blackening edges. A couple of small kwama eggs lay in the ash next to the fire. Under-Leaf lifted one of these, and, using his long, claw like nails, cracked the hard shell open, allowing the contents to spill onto the sheet. The liquid egg immediately sizzled on the sheet, bubbling faintly around the edges.

Reyes crouched next to Under-Leaf. 'What are you doing?' he asked the lanky Argonian, as he stared in puzzlement at the sizzling eggs.

'Breakfast.' Murmered Under-Leaf. He threw a quick glance over his shoulder at one of the two tents. 'Hurry! The master comes!'

Still unsure why the eggs were prepared in such away (the people at the Hole in the Wall only served boiled eggs), Reyes picked up one of the eggs, holding them with his index fingers and trying to crack the egg with his thumbs. It was harder than he had expected, having less nails to work with than Under-Leaf, but eventually his fingers broke through the hard outer shell, penetrating the rubbery inner covering, and he pulled the two halves apart. The shell split, and Reyes clumsily dropped the half-liquid interior onto the sheet, just as their master emerged from his tent.

He looked at them, then at the fire. 'Good.' He said, nodding. 'You show some initiative. Be sure to prepare it properly.' He stretched, yawned, and then went back into his tent.

Reyes met with Under-Leaf's slit eyes. 'Thank you.' He said gratefully, as the Argonian had obviously spared him a reprimand.

Under-Leaf smiled. 'It is only my honour.' He said, and then cracked another egg.

Reyes, returning his eyes to the sheet, was amazed to see that the egg whites were actually getting paler, and was solidifying as it fried. The sizzling had subsided, and the first two eggs were growing steadier in structure.

'Now I know why they're called egg whites.' Reyes chuckled, and reached for another egg, which, unfortunately, ruptured as he cracked the shell, and the yellow expanded on the sheet in a pool.

Since there were only two sets of cutlery, the slaves ate the meal with their hands. Reyes, at first distrustful of the food due to its appearance, was hesitant, but once he began eating it he found it was not at all as bad as he thought it would be.

'That was excellent, slaves.' Said Edris when he had finished. 'For a meal like that, you are forgiven yesterday's transgressions.'

Reyes opened his mouth to thank his master, but caught Under-Leaf's eye, and said nothing.

---

As the day neared its end, the caravan broke through the mountains that ringed the Molag Amur region. Although Reyes had been told of the wonderous Ascadian Isles, he was caught completely unprepared by the sight that met his eyes that evening. In a startling transition, Molag Amur ended at the mountains, and a fertile meadow extended beyond. For the first time in his life, Reyes smelled grass and felt it under his feet. In the dim twilight, gigantic parasol mushrooms were outlined against the evening sky, and the cobbled road was lined with golden kanet, heather, and stoneflower. Ahead of them was a lake, so calm as to be like a mirror, and roughly half a kilometer away was a town, ringed by a high wall. A low, echoeing call echoed across the fields from the town.

'What was that?' Reyes whispered to Under-Leaf.

'Siltstrider.' Under-Leaf replied quietly. 'They are huge insects, and look a bit like fleas. I traveled in one when I was taken to Molag Mar.'

'Traveled in one?' Reyes asked, puzzled.

'Quiet.' Edris hissed, and the caravan continued on its way, the guars trudging towards the town.

Reyes almost bolted when an enormous insect, ten times their size, came into view. The behemoth was moving towards the mountain pass, and Reyes could feel the ground vibrate with every step of its six legs. Reyes' awe was momentarily broken when he heard a peculiar sound, like drunken laughter, coming from the insect's back. The siltstrider nearly impaled one of the guars with its long, sharp legs, and as they slaves hurried to get the lumbering pack animals out of the road, Edris shouted vile curses at its passengers. The siltstrider disappeared through the pass, and the caravan continued towards the town.

---

The streets of Suran were quiet as they arrived in the square. The only sounds in the night air were the soft flowing of the river, the creak of the lanterns and shingles as they swung from their posts in the light breeze, and the footsteps of the party and the heavy breath of the guars in Reyes ear.

'Sathys, stay here with the lizards and the boy.' Edris commanded. He stalked off into the town, and Reyes lost track of him as he disappeared into the dark

After a couple of minutes, during which the sun disappeared from sight and plunged the group into darkness, he returned with another Dunmer. As they emerged from the dark, Reyes at first thought they were a couple of shadows, as every corner seemed to hide a shadow or two. They were chatting, apparently small talk. Edris had assumed a friendlier demeanor, and the smile looked as misplaced on his face as it had been on Galdin Llethis'.

'Helys,' he said, smirking to the other Dunmer. 'I brought an entire load of saltrice for you all the way from the Grazelands. Surely the trouble I've gone through is worth at least two hundred septims?'

'Exactly my point, old boy.' Said Helys. 'You traveled a lot more than you could have done. You could have just traveled straight from there to Molag Mar to Suran, but you detoured through Sadrith Mora. As a result, the saltrice is sure to be slightly stale, and therefore not as valuable as it would have been if you had come straight to me. My offer stands at one hundered.'

'Could we, say, split the difference at one hundred and fifty?'

'Nothing doing, Edris. The last time I haggled with you, you sold me a load of spoiled shein for a lot more than it was worth.'

'Helys, the shein wasn't spoiled! It was aged!

'Shein does not age, Edris, and you know that. Now then, lets have a look at what else you have.'

Edris, who apparently had marginal magickal capabilities, conjured a light that illuminated the pack guars. In the magickal light, Reyes could see the other Dunmer, an old, wrinkled man, pulling a face.

'I wish you had just brought it up.' He said. 'I can't stand the smell of Guar.'

Edris opened a pack, reached inside, and removed one of the several daggers. 'I have a shipment of fifty iron daggers, from Sadrith Mora., say, ten gold apiece?'

'Excellent. There has been a rash of break-ins lately. I'll take thirty.'

'Done. A couple of spell scrolls, also from Sadrith Mora.'

Helys opened one of them. 'Hmm.' He said 'Command Humanoid. The slaver's been having some trouble with his merchandise. Speaking of which,' he peeked over the scroll 'is the boy for sale?'

'Not unless youre willing to pay more than three thousand.'

'Too rich for me. Oh, well.'

The sale went on, during which Edris, a skilled salesman, sold a suit of chitin armour, his stock of saltrice (at a difference of 150. He was a persistent man) A load of muck, kwama eggs and stoneflower perfume, as well as a couple of miscellaneous potions and the katana that had been taken from the body of the Redguard brigand.

'I think that's it.' Said Helys, taking another look through the packs. 'No, I don't need anything else.'

'I have your order here, too.' Said Edris, assuming a hushed tone.

'You do? That's excellent.'

Edris unbuckled something on the first guar, and the hidden pocket came loose. He handed the leather bag to the Helys, who gave Edris a bulging bag of gold in return, then looked at the slaves.

'Are they safe?' he asked.

'Yes,' replied Edris 'they've known for awhile.'

'Are you sure?'

'Don't worry about it.'

'I had a friend once who removed their tongues as a precaution. You might want to consider it.'

'I said don't worry.' Snapped Edris. 'They know what will happen to them if they let anything slip.'

'Well, goodnight.' He said, and then hurried off into the dark.

---

That same night the party departed for Molag Mar again. The stars shone from a clear sky and the crickets sang in the bushes as they headed back through the mountain pass. After an hour of travel, they set up camp again, in the shadow of a huge grey boulder. After a meal of a few scraps of tough hound meat, Under-Leaf their master and the bodyguard retired. Reyes and Under-Leaf soon followed their example.

As he lay on the ash, halfway through the doorway of sleep, Reyes felt sure that something significant would happen tomorrow. The thought calmed his troubled soul, and half-hearing the sound of a rat gnawing something in the dark, Reyes dozed off.