Hello my fellow readers! Here's another chapter for you all, hope you like it. I know the main plot hasn't been truley revealed yet but in the next two chapters or so it will be. So anyway, read and review!

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Larka and Krillan journeyed by foot and then by Silt Strider to the outpost of Molag Mar. It was reported that the Anazimabrah held camp in the Molag Amur region, though the tribe was very reclusive. At the present the two were in a bustling tavern filled with pilgrims, adventurers, guards, and the common drunk. The two were sitting at a table in the corner, Larka with her hood drawn up and her cape concealing her weapons.

"You're only drawing attention to yourself by being so mysterious you know." Krillan remarked as two Nords gazed in their direction.

"Either way I'd be drawing attention to myself. This way I don't have to directly see anyone who bothers to look. –I've had trouble in this stronghold before. The guards might remember me and that would make our departure a tad bit more complicated." Larka replied drawing her hood up even further.

"You're awful tightlipped about your adventures you know." Krillan said with an air of feigned carelessness. Larka knew her was always curious about her past, she had told him very little of it to begin with.

"Suffice to say when I first came to this Island, I've told you what a state I was in, I did anything for work, anything to get me into one town and out of another. If my memory serves me right I had a bit of a scuffle with a pair of Nords when I was last here." Larka said obligingly, knowing that if she didn't tell Krillan he'd eventually bring it up again.

"And did you have a good reason to get into a scuffle with these two Nords?" Krillan asked. "Well, I was stealing the coin purse of one and the other caught me in the act. A fight ensued in this very tavern and I believe the guards threw me out. They held me in jail for a night before I-err-Convinced them to let me out." Larka said. "I don't think we'll have any trouble here now though. I've become a little less careless since last time." Larka said quickly for Krillan's benefit. He was already glancing around the tavern with nervous eyes.

"Hmm, and I don't suppose the two Nords would be here in this very tavern right now?" Krillan said turning to look at the two male Nords who were still staring at the two of them.

"Damn it!" whispered Larka. "I'm sorry Krill, we'll have to buy our drinks elsewhere." She said getting up quickly.

"Larka!" Krillan whined as he stood.

"Come on, they're getting edgy and if there's going to be a fight I'd prefer it where I can actually swing my sword with out killing five people at once." Larka said. The two men were in fact getting edgy and one was whispering malevolently to the other who was grinning.

"Larka, I suggest leaving now and making a few hours head start on this Ashlander camp." Krillan said nervously as they made their way to the front door, Larka had her veil up now and her tanto was drawn beneath the folds of her cape, her other hand on her wakizashi.

"If you insist." Larka said coolly as she stepped through the doorway.

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Once outside the tavern the two travelers started out at a brisk pace for the outer stair that would lead into the Molag Amur region. However, as if right on cue the two Nords came rushing after them, one with a Nordic battle axe similar to Krillan's and another with a large broadsword. "Evening." The one with the axe said. "I don't suppose the person under the hood would remember me?" he asked grinning. "Oh yes, we've had a run in with you before missy. We were made something of a laughing stock, beat by a young girl and all. Mind if we return the favor?" the one with the broadsword asked maliciously.

"My friend and I really wish we could stay but we have some pressing business to attend to." Larka said calmly as she drew her silver blade. She could feel Krillan at her side, she knew he had drawn his axe and held it loosely, though his knees were bent in a fighting stance.

"Heh heh heh. Sorry my darling, it doesn't work that way. See, last time, we were drunk and weaponless, now we're prepared to take you and your Breton boyfriend. And I don't mean out to lunch." Said the one with the axe; he then chuckled to himself at his pathetic attempt at a joke.

"Well, I can see that I'm dealing with two creatures of a far lesser intellect so I'll put it simply." Larka said throwing back her hood and raising her weapons into a ready fighting stance. "We'll fight, you'll die. It really won't take long and we've got some time to spare." She said icily. Her battle fever was coming now she could feel it. It added a slightly metallic taste to her saliva and her muscles felt supercharged. This wasn't going to be like a stealthy assassination. This was going to be a challenge.

"I might have known this was going to happen at some point." Krillan said. "Just don't get killed before we even start your quest."

Larka smiled cruelly, "I assure you that will not happen."

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The one with the axe charged her, while the one with the sword advanced on Krillan. The man made a sharp slash downward and Larka easily jumped aside. She retorted with a slash of her wakizashi that fell just below his shoulders. The Nord was quick though and had just enough time to block her attack. Soon it was a dance of slashing stabbing and dodging from the pair. In between attacks Larka would glance over to see how Krillan was doing. Each time she inwardly smiled, he didn't seem like it, but the man was a ruthless fighter. It was all the other Nord could do to keep from being chopped up by her friend's axe.
The fight had gone on for a few minutes and, though Larka wasn't even pressing herself, she had begun to grow tired of the business. The Nord wasn't a particularly good fighter, neither was his friend, but a thin one edged sword against an axe was a rather bad match. Also, they wore steel imperial armor instead of the traditional Nordic, and Larka's weapon wasn't a good match for the metal. True it could eventually have pierced, but Larka didn't feel like pressing on. Her battle fever was still fresh though, and she wanted to make this particular man to go down in flames. So that was what she did.
Quickly she dodged a chop of the axe and did a swift backhand spring away from her opponent. She sheathed her weapons and quickly drew her magic from within. Her mouth formed the incantation and her hands thrust the spell out. An explosion of orange light and heat radiated outward as the flames hurtled through the air. The Nord hadn't even seen it coming. The flames engulfed him within seconds and his friend, seeing the death of his comrade, fled Krillan and ran back up the stairs.
Krillan strode over to Larka, he was sweating and he looked slightly fatigued but he was unharmed. "You could have just beheaded him you know, he wasn't wearing a helmet." Krillan said.

"I thought of that as a possible death but that one befit him the most I think." Larka replied slightly viciously, her battle fever hadn't quite left her.

"Alright, alright." Krillan said.

"You lecture me on killing. But you fail to recognize that I'm good at it." Larka said icily as she removed her veil and used it to whip the sweat of her brow.

"Well" Krillan began but Larka cut him off.

"We should start off now, the sun will rise in an hour or so. And a guard may come to investigate." She said indifferently as they resumed walking.

"Do you intend to make me feel disconcerted or is it just something that happens when I'm around you?" Krillan asked.

"I believe you do it yourself." Larka said, iciness still clinging to the edges of her speech though her half smile reassured Krillan.

"Oh, ok then." He said with a return smile. He was used to this Larka; this was the Larka that had come to the island long ago. This was the Larka everyone else saw. But the Larka he knew wasn't as shrewd or as cold shouldered. While she was brash and demanding she was his Larka. Not everyone else's, many thought they knew the true Larka, the cold and vicious woman with a vendetta against the world. But Krillan knew the inside of that woman, and he knew that it was all just a wall she had built. A wall he had managed to wear away. A wall that still existed to the world and a wall that Larka embraced, a wall that Krillan occasionally tore down to reveal the person underneath, even if Larka seldom realized it.