Terra had actually been ignoring the situation because she had not wanted to take on the beast. She had wanted it just to go away on its own, but the soldiers were continuously losing and there was no need for that many lives to be lost. She took up arms with the soldiers that were protecting the small farms outside of Riften, all while trying to blend in with the crowd. The one thing that was saving her from being discovered was the fact she was wearing her Nightingale armor so not many people could really focus on her. Slow and calculated she took in deep breaths to prep herself for the amount of air that would be expelled when she used the dead language. Her plan was to freeze the people around her long enough for her to defeat the dragon and take off.
She had worked quickly to execute this plan. Her voice a loud shout, though the people around her did not recognize her words, she had spoken the dragon's tongue. The soldiers could only hear the sound that now paralyzed them. With them unable to move there was no chance of them really observing who was their hero in taking down the monstrous creature. Terra moved through the crowd quickly as she went to attack the dragon as it landed. With the distraction of the soldiers gone, she was able to attract the dragon and made herself the only thing that it could focus on because moving prey was more appealing. She shouted and screeched at the creature before her. She had become accustom to the animal's size but was still unsure of how to determine the creature's power unless she took a hit from the monster before her, but she wasn't going to risk that. Instead she took her bow and arrow with a determination of truly, merciless hunter and with the poison arrows she on hand would work at taking the health down as she would dealt blows with her sword when it landed.
The shout that Terra had used wore off and with no witnesses to who killed the dragon there was an air of confusion around the soldiers. The only thing they understood was that the threat was gone and they were all safe. With that knowledge the people went back to their routine forgetting the whole thing had even happened. Their hero was just as forgettable and had disappeared as well.
Terra laid against the standing stone. She took in the warmth of the sun. She was especially vulnerable to the sun's heat because of the darkness of the armor. She liked how she looked in it. The knowledge that her armor made her less visible allowed her to listen to the sounds of the wild with no fear of discovery.
The Agent of stealth ability bestowed by Nocturne, allowed her plausible deniability to her being there and defeating the creature, though most of the people did not care as long as they were safe, there would be one who as soon as they heard of the defeat would travel to discover who had done the deed. She let out a sigh as she shifted in the sun, the pain from the bruising that happened from getting too close to the dragon was forming under the armor. She tsked herself as she closed her eyes again.
She was absorbed in thought of how great it was to be part of the elusive thieve's guild. It was her that had taken on the responsibility of restoring the guild to its former glory. In addition, the work had rewarded her with a rather large cache that she had hidden away. The guild had given her some shield from being exclusively alone in her disappearing from people. She had managed to keep her acts as dragon born something like the legends, other then the Grey Beards no one had actual… she sneered at herself, except for him, he knew, but that was something she shouldn't think on. Though, a moan escaped her lips that night still haunted her mind. It had been a year since that night and she still could feel herself heat up from the thought of his touch.
"Terra, Darling, you need to get laid and a good one, erase that one from your mind. Nothing good can come from him," she shook her head as she scolded herself aloud. She had taken advantage of the fact that she could escape from the Companions for a time and it was acceptable. The self discovery that she had been on never seemed done as she was taken away from such exploration because she couldn't keep herself from helping others especially when they only hint to the true nature of the events. SHe was too noisy for her own good, that was the simple fact.
The sudden sound of crunching leaves tore Terra from her thoughts and made her go for her dagger. She slowed her breathing and waited to hear for another clue to who was coming. "Remember, if it was a quick steady step then someone was trying to catch her by surprise, slow and calculated the person would hide and wait for her to leave her spot to attack," she tried to remind herself of those lessons, but the sound she hear was someone running toward her. She had not thought that someone would be so dumb. She was soon staring at a young man who appeared in no way wanting to attack her.
"Terra?" the man looked a little unsure.
Terra glared at him, but knew better as she did have a mask covering most of her face and her eyes did not look like her own dark brown. The nightingale armor would actually distort her appearance for other so the man standing before her would have to receive some props for finding her far out here. She bit her lip for a moment in annoyance because she couldn't figure out how they always found the person they needed to deliver the message to. "Yes," she let the word come out slowly.
"I have a message for you," he held the envelope out for her.
Terra took it out of the man's hand, "Thank you so much." She gave a grin though the man couldn't see it and then fished a few gold pieces out. "Here is a little bit for you managing to find trouble like me out here."
The man took the few pieces of gold and nodded as he turned to return to his duties. She watched as his bag that didn't seem to be lacking in weight spoke of where and what he was going to be doing in the days to come.
Terra eyed him as he turned into a speck. She felt the letter in her hand but worried about what was written in there. She was curious to who sent it but at the same time she felt like she knew. Slowly she opened up the letter up and was hesitant to look at it. Farkas' scribbled handwriting was set on the inside with her name written as if he had been influenced by the daedric gods to created a work of art of her soul. She stared at the beautiful drawn work of her name and then let out a sad sigh. The awe of the drawn letters was destroyed by the first sentence of, "Please return to me…" She was frustrated. It matter not where she was he would some how reach her.
In reality there was a part of her that was happy that he would be so willing to peruse her in such a fashion but she was struggling with herself on what to do with the fact that she was not so confident with herself that she could not desire to bring her own fears to him. He had been wonderful and that few nights that they had together in that inn still haunted her. The warmth and enjoyment of each others company was far too intense for her and she would often try to flood her mind with other things. The repetition of this argument with herself was draining. This is why she now dawned the armor of the Nightingales. She had ran from everything to the farther corner of the continent so that she would be difficult to track. Not only that she was able to hid very well now that she had Nocturne's blessings; she had become one of the most powerful member of the thieve's guild. This did come at the cost of being sworn to Nocturne. She right now only lived to serve as the restorer of the thieve's guild.
"What is that you have so horribly crumpled?" Karliah said as she peered down at Terra from the top of the standing stone.
"A letter from another destiny that I am denying myself," Terra smiled up at Karliah and gently touched the dark elf's cheek.
"Why do you tempt me so?" Karliah flipped off the stone. "My heart is for another who has left this place and I take my punishment of his death as a sign not to fall away from my duties."
Terra got up swiftly and met the dark elf face to face, "I tempt nothing. If you were not interested in something you would not be tempted. I simply offer a comfort. That is a luxury that none of us can take for grant in this place." Terra froze with sudden shock as she felt someone's hands slip around her waist.
"My Lass is right Karliah," Byrjorn was sly with his motion and pulled Terra close to him. "Oh, we must enjoy what little pleasures the world gives us here."
Terra peeled the man from her waist and shifted away, "Though some pleasures should be denied." She said it almost with so much venom she could see him shield away from her words.
"Now Lass, I told you that Tonita and I were done long ago," he shifted closer to her. "It is nothing but work. We had was a fling and it went away quickly. She is a good fence and nothing more. The guild needs her for that reason alone."
Terra snarled at him, "I am not worried about her job as the fence. She is perfect in that sense but there is no respect or understand between her and I, especially since it was you who scouted me!" She held the dagger to his throat and grinned, "There is no love lose between her and I, just so that you know that we trust each other as far as we can throw each other."
"Well I guess in that case you trust her more, since even for you being so small you take out men far large then yourself," he grinned as he moved his body into the point of the dagger. "And what she feels for you personally has nothing to do with you being the leader of our group so all is fair in that sense. Now myself…." He paused a moment and then with each word stepped into the dagger's point, "I …wholly... trust… you… with… my… life…"
Terra pulled the dagger away and hissed. She slipped the dagger away into one of the hidden compartments that she was so fond of and took hold of Karliah, "Let us away Love, I will make you a meal you look tired…"
"How would you know what I…." Karliah stopped when she looked at Terra and saw the glare she corrected herself. "Yes, of course, a meal sounds great."
In the temple it was silent and enjoyable. Terra found an odd peace there now that she chose to stay there instead of the Flagon. She had taken to the damp and dank place almost immediately after the whole situation was spelt out of her with the guild. She had taken to cleaning it up and making it homy for Karliah, herself and even Byrjorn. Though he preferred to stay in the guild's quarters.
Terra had ingredients stored up there and she had gone to the market to pick up some fresh meats and cheeses. Those perishable items were not ideal to store in the cave so they would remain a purchased item. She also had become tired of deer meat for a time and thought horker meat and maybe mammoth sounded great. She pulled out the items and the cookbook that she had gotten Karliah a while back so that the dark elf would attempt to make something other then dried meats and bread for her meals.
Terra didn't really need the book but brought it out to refresh her of certain things like small spices that she might over look by herself but would think they need to express the taste of the meal as it should be. She followed every step carefully and patiently working in the time limits that the book described.
Karliah sat in the kitchen and watched her with curiosity, "WHAT could possibly make you take up cooking and the likes? Meats, cheeses, and bread work just as well as a whole meal, so why do that?"
"That does not meet the requirement of veggies and fruits," Terra said as she added the last of the ingredients to the pot and covered it. "I need to bath, leave the lid on that. It has an bit of time before it is ready. You should clean up as well. I can smell you from here. " She took off the apron and hat, placed them carefully back in their place on the shelf and grabbed the fresh lavender that she had left on the corner.
"I don't smell that bad at all," Karliah chuckled softly as she got up to follow Terra. "Besides I work hard. My antics helped you a lot in restoring the guild."
"Of course, not to mention that your group was the cause for the mess in the first place," Terra said and she led the way to the bathing area she created while trying to spruce up the cave.
There were nature springs all through the cave, she had simply taken one of those springs and set up a small piping system from the spring and directed the water to this single room that had a natural drainage out of the cave so that the dirty water could be dumped out once they were done. She also set up a stone sitting area so that the water would stay in a certain area and built a stove like area under the stone so that they could have warm water for the bath. This would be easier then warming up the water in the kitchen and dragging it into another area.
Terra often left a bit of clean water so that it would boil in the stone tub and simply added the cold water from the spring to create the perfect tempter.
"This is such a weird device you created," Karliah was striping down as she watched Terra finish off the preparation for the bath.
"I didn't create it, I found some plans in a dwemer ruin and followed the instructions. So I think they were on to something," Terra threw the lavender into the water and smiled as Karliah set her clothes aside and moved toward the tub. "You do not get to reuse that armor until it has been cleaned! So don't even think that you could just put it back on after this."
"I didn't bring anything else so unless you expect me to walk around naked," Karliah sighed gently as she slipped into the water.
"I brought us stuff to wear so don't bother with that armor, and I mean it," Terra said as she stripped down slowly. She hadn't realized that her body ached as bad as it did, but when she finished pulling off the armor, she noticed some gashes on her sides in addition to the nasty bruise that was now stained her flesh. The scars were trophies to her, each mark showed that anything could be thrown at her and it couldn't kill her.
"You have too many scars to just have been a thief, Terra," Karliah had been watching her with careful, calculated glances. She didn't want to make Terra uncomfortable but at the same time she was trying to examine the woman's wounds.
"You are right, Karliah," Terra said as she entered the tub but elaborated no more then that.
"You know of my past but…" Karliah seemed hurt.
Terra sighed, the topic was something she often avoided for the sake that who she was and what she had done or was expected to do or what was prophesied to be fulfilled was a heavy weight on her back. "I left home at an early age, I chose that I would not be pathetic like my mother, who seemed to be waiting on the man who won her heart and lived alone with the daughter of said man but never received anything from him. I was embittered with this and decided that I would know better and so I left her in the dark of night so that she couldn't stop me." Terra figured she would leave a lot out and was trying to figure what to talk on next when she felt Karliah's fingers tracing the scars on her back.
"But how did you get these?" Karliah's fingers were gentle and this made Terra shiver a moment.
"Those are from a being a silly little girl who didn't know to mind her business when it wasn't her own," Terra said softly and Karliah's fingers stopped tracing and began stroking.
"What does that mean?" Karliah was prodding gently against the scars more as a motivation to get Terra to talk then to make her feel conscience about them being there.
"I gotten in the way when a soldier was beating a young child that had been protecting his mother because her husband was a storm cloak. She had practically passed out, laid sprawled on the ground, but the man continued to scream at her and lash her with the whip. The young child not being able to know what to do got in the way and received a lash that tore at his cheek and traced a wound down his body. I got in the way when the next strikes happened and took the rest of the hits. Once the soldier was tired of blooding me, he left all three of us there. I carried the woman back to their home as the son directed me and we took care of her wounds and the child's. I ignored my own wounds and even paid for the healer to tend to them," Terra seemed to lose her voice as felt the flood of memories were coming back.
"Was that all?" Karliah whispered as she leaned against Terra. Her breast were soft against her back and moved gently with every breath.
"It is nothing," Terra turned around and faced Karliah with a chuckle. "We need to get cleaned up. The food has one more step before dinner is completed. Turn around I will scrub you clean and get you all set for dressing in something nice." Terra took the cloth that she had set a side before entering the tub and one of the bars of soaps that she made and lathed the washcloth up.
Karliah raised an eyebrow at Terra but said nothing as she turned and made her back available for the woman to scrub. She had scars of her own but Terra knew of all the stories that went with them and never brought them up. Wounds and scars were not something people would talk of in polite conversation and so there was never a proper way to bring anything like this up but if one wanted to know then one had to pry and keep digging.
Terra did not desire to continue to where this was leading. This was something she had started but something was tugging at her and it stopped it. The feeling made her feel terrible in some way. A part of her mind was wondering what was written in the letter. With that poisoning her mind she could not provide the proper attention that Karliah was needing when it came to intimacy, she had lost her lover before and sworn off love so any kind of affection from this dark elf needed to be handled with a delicate hand.
Terra had managed to get some nice clothing for them on her last adventure and the dragon had not been so difficult that it had ruined her backpack. She handed the dark elf a dress made of dark purples and greens. Karliah stared at the present and didn't move to put it on. "I picked it on the thought that the greens and purples would complement that beautiful skin of yours," Terra said putting on her own outfit, it wasn't a dress more of a coat and pants that compliments her own skin with dark blues and greens. "If it is so terrible I can just toss them into the fire and you can wear the smelly armor…" Terra had watched the dark elf with careful and judging eyes.
"No, it isn't that… it's just you got me a gown," Karliah seemed to be whispering this carefully.
"Yes, we all need nice things from time to time and I thought you had taken me into your world so I should repay you in some way," Terra smoothed herself out and left the elf there. She didn't want to hear anything about what she had just done. It wasn't that important just a nice gesture. She made her way to the kitchen and was just in time to catch Brynjolf trying to open the lid to the pot. She threw the dagger so it would sound against the metal of the pot. "Brynjolf that is not how one sees what is cooking. You simply ask the cook," Terra walked over and picked up her knife from the ground.