Chapter Seventeen: Achen - Part One
Though the Dissident priests had offered Merlac and Achen shelter for the night, the two companions preferred to sleep in the wilderness. Merlac was sitting on a nearby hill, watching for predators. It was Achen's turn to sleep, but he wasn't tired.
Achen took a deep breath and watched the clear night sky of Vvardenfell though the flames of their campfire. The wind was calm and the night warm. Achen wondered when would be the next time to have a good night's sleep. Merlac had once again found his path to become the reborn general Nerevar, and Achen felt it was his responsibility to either help his companion in this quest, or die trying.
Achen turned his eyes away from the fire. The grip of his sword glittered faintly in the starlight. a daedric longsword. almost any daedric item would be worth killing somebody, but a sword with long blade in good condition. Achen had a good reason to be proud. Of course Merlac had his own one-handed longsword, the true blade of Vivec himself, but Achen's sword wasn't a present, he had found it himself.
The campfire continued to crackle quietly, as Achen started dreaming and memorizing.
---
"OPEN THE DOOR, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!!!"
Achen woke up startled.
"You piece of guar excrement, OPEN THE DOOR I SAID!"
It took Achen few seconds to realise that someone was at the door and if he didn't open it really soon, this clearly angry person would smash the whole door if he had to.
Achen stood up from the chair he had been sleeping on and looked around him. A small, Hlaalu-styled room with a small table, two chairs, a rusty workbench in the corner and narrow staircase in the other side of the room. And a slightly oblique door, where the yelling male voice came from.
"You have exactly 10 seconds, TEN SECONDS I TELL YOU, to open this door, or I will call the guards and declare you an outlaw!"
In no hurry, Achen lazily walked to the door - wearing only his dusty pants - and opened it, trying to look as bored as possible.
The opening door revealed bright sunlight and Achen had to cover his still-tired eyes. As soon as he saw again, he noticed an extremely angry, yelling little wood elf in front of him.
"Finally! Have you any idea what time is it? It's NOON! Do you remember when you promised to pay the rent of this house? THREE WEEKS AGO! If I knew even the most simplest spell in Tamriel, I would immedi."
Achen yawned and interrupted the raging wood-elf by walking right past him. He walked down the short stairs and opened his mailbox.
"Crap, still nothing", Achen said to himself.
"EXACTLY!", the wood-elf screamed. "NOTHING! You haven't had a single job since last Evening star and you have no money at all! But guess what, either you give me your rent money RIGHT NOW, or I WILL call up the guards!"
"Relax, Tuff", Achen said, finally turning his attention towards the elf. "How about you give me one more week time to pay my debts?"
"A WEEK? That is absolutely out of question! I already gave you three!"
"Thanks Tuff, I love you too!", Achen said and closed the door again in front of the elf.
Achen sat back into his chair. Though he gave the impression he was bored and everything was irrelevant, he was very nervous. Two months ago he had started a one-man's mercenary service and rent a house from Caledra. The idea was good, but there just weren't enough well-paying jobs to cover the rent and food. Occasionally some villager came and asked Achen to kill some rats from their basement and stuff, but most of the days he spent just by sitting and waiting.
Achen stood up again and walked to the closed wooden window. He put his hand to the handle and was just about to open the window, when a big, rusty nail smashed through the wooden frame, right between his fingers.
He took a step backwards and watched as three more nails smashed through the clay wall. Achen put on his dusty shirt and ran outside. Behind the corner he found an imperial soldier hammering an official note to his house's wall.
"What the hell are you doing? Those nails almost smashed through my hand!"
"I'm on a official business of the Imperial legions, so... bad luck for you", said the guard, gave a laugh, put his hammer back to his belt and walked away.
Raging Achen tore the piece of paper from his wall and was just about to throw it away, as his eyes caught the topic.
"Mercenaries needed for a dangerous job - Reward 6000 septims if successful"
Achen scrolled open the rest of the note and began to read eagerly.
"The Imperial legions are looking volunteers for an extremely dangerous one-time assignment. The job includes fighting against the undead, so an enchanted weapon is mandatory. Unexperienced adventurers don't bother. Everyone who is interested, please contact officer Kingsley in the fort Moonmoth."
This was exaclty what Achen had been hoping for; a well-paying one-time job. Five minutes later he was fully dressed and closed the door of his house. It would be just a half-hour-walk to Balmora and from there to fort Moonmoth. Achen's luck was finally getting better...
---
"So I get the job?", asked Achen anxiously while walking behind an imperial officer though a narrow stone corridor deep below fort Moonmoth.
"I didn't say that yet", replied the officer. "You will be tested first, like the other adventurers who applied for this assignment."
"So this is a some kind of competition?", asked Achen and almost hit a stone wall as the officer suddenly walked around a corner.
"I would call it more like surviving, as you will not be the only one who will be chosen."
"But... hey, whoa, I usually work alone! I don't want some big-headed fools as my burden!"
The officer gave a laugh.
"Heh, I'm afraid the mission requires more than one man, no matter how good you are."
"Hmh. So what is the test?"
The officer had arrived to a strong, wooden door, opened it and walked to a larger room. When he answered to Achen's question, he spoke to the whole room.
"All right, everyone listen up. I'm a busy man so let's get through this quickly. Here's the deal; everyone who likes to take part in this rather well-paying assignment, will go into that large prison cell.", the officer said and pointed at a large, chained, metallic door on his right. "Once you're all inside, the door will be closed and we will release some...aggressive animals to threaten you. Your goal is to kill all the animals, and once they're all dead, those who are still alive and in good condition, will be chosen to this job. Any questions?"
Achen's eyes looked each competitor in that room. There were seven of them, plus Achen himself of course, three men, one male aragornian and three women.
"This is sick!", said one of the women. "I will not go into that room to kill some lousy rats, I came here because I thought this would include some serious action!"
Achen noticed that two of the men gave a quiet laugh and grinned to each other.
"Of course we can't force anyone", said the imperial officer. "Everyone is free to leave, but once you're inside the cage, you will not come out until all the animals are dead. Simple as that. Now...anyone wants to quit now?"
Achen and nine other adventurers glared at each other for a short time. Finally, the women who had spoken previously, snorted and walked out of the room.
"One gone, six to go...", said Achen to himself.
"All right", said the officer. "Now, if anyone else isn't going to quit, we'll get started. Everyone leave your personal weapons to this table and take these daggers." The officer handed each of the competitors an imperial dagger in not very good shape.
Achen undressed his sword sheath slowly so he had an opportunity to take a quick look at the others while they one by one stepped inside the cage. The first of the two remaining women was a tall, strong-handed and serious-looking. Actually, Achen noticed to his horror that this woman was much longer than himself, even though he was rather tall himself as well.
The other woman was much younger, much smaller, and to Achen's joy even pretty cute. A quick glance to her weapons and Achen saw this girl was carrying a small crossbow outside her backpack.
Next one to walk into the cage was a rather old man. Though he could have been easily twice as old as Achen, the look on his face wasn't tired. Just behind the old man came the second one, a much younger imperial. Achen wasn't sure why, but this quiet young man looked somehow suspicious.
The aragornian - the only non-human in the group - looked around him looking a bit nervous, but eventually he walked past Achen and into the cage. The last one left was a strong-looking man with long, blond hair and short black beard. As he walked past Achen, he stopped for a second to look at him, but soon followed the aragornian. Achen saw that he was the last one in the room, except for the imperial officer, and walked inside the cage as well.
Inside the cage Achen turned around and saw the officer close and lock the large door behind them. The officer spoke through a small metal hatch in the door.
"Okay, everyone is in. Good luck you all, hopefully you don't all die..."
The metal hatch closed with a loud clink, leaving the seven adventurers to a rather dark, large room.
Achen started walking around and looking at the room's corners. In every corner, there were a large corridor sealed by a metal hatch. As he walked near the corner next to him, he heard yelling from the other side of the room. One of the hatches had opened and the other competitors were facing it with their daggers ready.
Achen took out his own dagger as well, as four enormous kagoutis ran to the room from the open hatch. Three of them hesitated a bit and stopped in front of the competitors, growling. The fourth kagouti made a screaming noise and jumped at the old man. The man was too slow to react and the animal jumped against him, striking its huge teeth on the old man's leg.
The old man screamed in pain as the kagouti swinged him right and left, while red blood squirted around the cage. The three other kagoutis were encouraged by this and also attached the other competitors. The smaller woman threw her dagger at the nearest kagouti and hit it right to its forehead. The animal gave a howl and crushed to the stone floor inanimate.
To Achen's surprise, the big man was laughing, threw away his dagger and jumped against the biggest kagouti, yelling like a madman. The kagouti was clearly surprised of this act, and tried to evade while the big man crabbed the large animal between his strong arms and started squeezing. The animal was trying to get off the man's hands, but this just kept laughing and cracked the kagouti's neck.
While Achen had been watching this show, one kagouti had ran to him and jumped with its mouth open. Achen saw it coming from the corner of his eyes and evaded at the last possible moment, while striking the kagouti with his dagger. The rusty dagger broke as it struck the animal, but it seemed to hurt it anyway, as the kagouti gave a loud shriek and run back to the corridor in the room's corner.
As Achen rose up, he saw that the tall woman and the suspicious young man had together killed the third kagouti and were now threatening the fourth, which still had piece of the old man's leg in its mouth. The old man was lying on the floor with his throat ripped open, clearly dead.
The young man made a fake attack which distracted the kagouti, allowing the tall woman to attack. The animal tried to evade but the woman quickly sliced its throat open, leaving it to die on the stone floor.
"That was easy", the tall woman said and gave an arrogant laugh.
"I don't think it's over yet", said Achen.
"I agree, that was too easy", said the big man with low voice.
Like an answer, the hatch on the opposite corner opened. The big man took up his dagger from the ground and Achen threw away his broken one and replaced it with the one on the hand of the dead old man.
The aragornian, who had stayed quiet behind the others so far, made a loud scream and ran to the room's door screaming.
"You know the rules, nobody comes out before the animals are dead!", said the officer's voice behind the door.
The five others ignored the aragornian and prepared to fight whatever would come through that hatch. Soon Achen started hearing loud breathing from the corridor, strong like a storm wind.
"What is it?", asked the suspicious young man quietly.
"Oh crap...", said Achen, who well knew what monster was walking in the corridor, only one creature would breathe like that.
Slowly, a huge figure of a large, grey ogrim sauntered from the corridor, breathing heavily and looking around him.
"Umm... if this is the test-part, I'm beginning to wonder if I want the real job anymore...", said Achen.
The ogrim noticed the adventurers and made an unbelievable roar, which filled the large stone room. The giant hit the floor with its huge fist, trying to hit the young woman, who luckily was too fast for the ogrims slow reactions.
"How the hell are we going to kill that with few rusty daggers?", yelled the young man.
"Maybe you can crack his neck as well", joked Achen to the big man who had killed the largest kagouti.
The aragornian kept screaming and banging the door twice as hard. Ogrim noticed the screaming lizard and rushed through the scared adventurers, accidentally hitting the tall woman with his fist. The woman was struck to the ground due to the power of the strike, and from the way she held her left arm, Achen knew it was broken.
The aragornian banged the door few more times before the ogrim grabbed the lizard-man into his giant fist and snapped his spine. The aragornian kept whining quietly as the giant ripped his body literally into pieces. Achen was starting to feel sick from all that blood.
Suddenly, the ogrim started coughing and waving his head around. Eventually, its huge body fell to the ground and gave its last breath. The five adventurers stared at the enormous body. Then Achen saw it; a large, sharp, broken bone was sticking out of the ogrim's throat.
"It choked into his meal... thank Almsivi that ogrims are as stupid as they look.", laughed the big man.
Suddenly the room's door opened and the imperial officer stepped in.
"Ah, great work, great work.", the officer said.
"Umm... what about the two remaining hatches?", asked Achen.
"Don't worry about those, they only contained rats and stuff like that, the previous adventurers who applied for this job already killed those.", the officer said smiling.
"So... we won?", asked the young man.
"Oh no, not yet. You four just got the job, after it's finished then you will get your money."
"Four...what do you mean with four? There are five of us.", said the tall woman, who was still holding her hand in a weird angle.
"You're injured, I'm afraid you cant join the others, you would just be a burden to them.", said the officer.
"Can we now hear what the job is about?", asked the young man impatiently.
"Ah, certainly! Come with me.", said the officer and turned around.
---
Few minutes later, the four adventurers and the officer were sitting around a round, wooden table.
"All right, look at this.", said the officer and opened a small map. "This is the map of the southern sea surrounding Vvardenfell, and that smallish piece of land in the middle of it is the island of fort Firemoth."
"You mean that new imperial fort that was captured by Dremora Lord called Ogon and his army of skeletons some months ago?", asked Achen.
"Yes the very same fort. Despite the numerous attempts on re-capturing the fort, we still haven't managed to kill the daedra lord himself, and as long as he summons more skeletons there is nothing we can do. We can't sacrifice any more loyal soldiers, the fort isn't that important."
"But you are willing to send four poor adventurers to do the job for you?", asked the big man sarcastically.
"Exactly. We believe that a small group of fighters should be able to sneak into the fort, move to the underground levels, find the dremora lord and kill him. The imperial legions will loan you some enchanted swords and arrows so you can return the creature back to oblivion, but don't try to run away and sell them or anything, because they all are marked with imperial seals."
"So we go in, kill the dremora lord, come back and get our money?", the young girl asked.
"Exaclty."
"When do we leave?", asked Achen.
"As soon as you're rested."
The sun slowly landed in the horizon and the night surrounded the Moonmoth fort...