-1The Legend of Ajira
By Madame Ergoth
Chapter 6: Reawakening
The next morning, Ajira woke to the cool breeze blowing inside her tent. She moaned and noticed she had a large bump on her head, though she had no idea how it had got there. Massaging her injury, she wearily got up on to devilishly aching paws and looked around. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was screaming as her parent's house caught fire out on the Ashland plains. She remembered nothing else. Straining, squinting around, she knew that this was not her comfy hut back at home. This was somewhere...different. Where could she be? Ajira sighed, deep in thought. She remembered vaguely this place, almost as if by déjà vu. She knew she had been here before...but why, when, and what was she doing here now?
She stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. Strangely, all the scattered yurts, the barbaric-looking dark elves, they all looked so familiar to her, she knew she had to remember this place.
Ajira stopped, racking her brains for an answer. She knew her mom had used memory spells before; maybe one had been put on her. But how to break it? She would have to ask her mom. But where was she? Who was her mom? If it was a memory spell, thought Ajira bitterly, it was a damn good one.
"Hey, Ajira!" called an Ashlander across the camp. He looked to be about teenage, and--Ajira couldn't believe her eyes--he was a Khajiit, just like her! She stared, transfixed, at the strange but beautiful boy. She had never seen him around camp before...and how did he know her name? Ajira cautiously walked toward him, trying to smile even though she was deadly suspicious.
"Hey," he said again when she came closer, "My name's Kark. I'm new here at camp, a hostage like you. Nice place, huh?"
Ajira listened and dug out her ears to see if she was hearing correctly. A hostage like you... What did he mean? Was she really a hostage? She didn't remember anything since she was knocked out back at her hut. "I'm...I'm a hostage?" she stammered.
"Obviously," muttered Kark, "Would you be here if you weren't?"
"I don't know why I'm here," said Ajira softly. "I woke up this morning and I was here. It all seems strangely familiar, but I can't tell how. I just woke up and I was here."
"Ah," said the boy, rubbing his chin, "sounds like a memory charm to me. You've probably been here a while, but just don't remember it. I'm a mage-in-training; maybe I can help you."
"I'd like that," smiled Ajira, staring into his steely black eyes. To an outsider, they seemed to have no depth, no light, but Ajira knew that behind the crusted exterior of Kark, there was really something beautiful inside. She walked off with him, following him to a cramped yurt on the corner, and for the first time in many months, actually felt happy.