Cearbhail:

Should I even begin to tell you what happens this chapter? How many rules can I break in one chapter about stereotypical character backgrounds can I possibly break? Didn't I give a somewhat similar past to Do'Risan? Yes, yes I did. And why do I mention this now? Because you get to learn something today. Well, something about three characters. you'll see, and I'll explain down at the bottom.

[Ja'Daan]

"By the Order of the Elsweyr National Army…"

Everything was pretty much on fire. The streets were filled with dead bodies, most of them civilians. People of every race littered the ground: men, women, children. Pretty much anything that walked in this town was a target. We should have seen it coming; the war that descended on Rimmen. The army had outposts set up in the badlands near Rimmen once we heard rumors of its plans to secede from our country. Everyone that lived here were in some way shape or form enemies of our nation.

"For seceding from Elsweyr… for the attempted execution of the Mane…

I covered my head as arrows rained into the town. I didn't slow down for a second though. Whoever still lived screamed, running into the already desolate buildings of the poor district. I would have ducked into a building too, but I was still chasing a Khajiit woman dressed like a dramatized pirate. The Ya'Tirrje. She was the shadow we'd been hunting, the leader of the Crushers: a gang of skooma dealers that had taken control over the town. And the reason being was that the leader of the Crushers had actually been Councilor Ri'Pruta, a Khajiit royalty that used to work for the previous Mane. She must have not been that close, because she attempted to kill our new Mane, a preteen cub named Prashin. When she tried to kill him, our version of monks sensed his life passing away. They must have warned the army about his location, and then the army took its chance to invade Rimmen, as they had wanted to do for two months now.

"We sentence this town, and all who inhabit it, to death."

That last phrase drew my attention up to the sky. No one could misplace what the Khajiit had roared into his amplification device. It was so loud that no one could have missed it even if they buried their heads under their pillows, hoping it was all a bad dream.

"Have a nice day…because it will be your last."

It didn't take long before I felt an explosion ripping up over my head. A building further behind us exploded. I snapped my head around to see a round flaming wad of rock rolling down one of the buildings. A shadow passed over me. I glanced up to see more of those flaming rocks falling down into the town. Were they crazy? The Mane was still alive; still in this town!

I tore my eyes off the sky over to Ya'Tirrje. She was running as fast as she could towards the port. The port wasn't too far away now, and we'd been chasing her for a while now. The Crushers tried their best to slow us down, and pretty much did. Trinjje and Rinma were running as fast as they could but they were not really keeping up with me. And I was not really keeping up with Do'Risan even though I was pushing as much as I had. The reason was pretty simple when you thought of it. I had a hole in my side from where a dagger was shoved in my stomach, so that was starting to bother me, even though I'd had some healing potions to heal the majority of the pain, and numb the affected areas. Now that I was running, I could feel that pain starting to rear its ugly head on me. I needed another shot of healing potion, otherwise I'd be crumbling to the floor in pain. With falling burning rocks landing around us, destroying the entire town around us as well, it would not be a good thing to suddenly find myself lying on my chest crying in pain.

A stab in my pain, and white spots in my vision, forced me to take a sharp breath as I collapsed onto my knee. "Daan!" I heard Trinjje scream as she wobbled over to me. She looked just as bad as I felt. She was out of breath, grabbing her side as she fell down beside me. She leaned over and started coughing up a furball covered in blood.

An even worse looking Rinma slowly joined us. She was limping heavily, clutching her side with her only usable arm. The other one had given out our last fight when a Crusher slammed her into a forge and started crushing her arm under a folding hammer. She didn't stop to have it healed, and now it hung uselessly beside her. The other arm was busy making sure her useless arm didn't wail about and make things worse. Her face was swollen; she was barely able to see out her eyes anymore. At first it was just her right eye that had been swollen shut, from taking abuse from the Crushers before we were rescued. Now, both eyes were barely able to stay open.

"Don't stop!" Rinma breathed as she basically fell down beside us. She didn't even bother with looking graceful. One second she was standing up, the other… she was on her knees wheezing in pain. The three of us were pretty much out of the fight. I looked from their tired beaten faces up to the sky. And right above us were several giant boulders flying down right on top of us. No really…right on top of us. I had just enough time to wrap my arms around Trinjje and Rinma, pulling them close to me as the ground started to shake. Trinjje cried out in horror as the ground around us suddenly became loud explosions of rock and metal. I felt the heat of the oily rocks as they splattered all around us. But nothing hit us…even though there was a large boulder above us just seconds ago.

I dared to open my eyes to see a sparkly Shield spell thrown up around us, just enough to protect us from falling rocks. I was so dumbfounded that I didn't know what to say. Where did this thing come from?

"That was close." I heard a Khajiit call from nearby.

I turned my head to see a black-furred teenager, probably younger than me, looking at us. She had a long white mane that stretched almost down to her feet. Her hand was stretched out towards us like she was holding a spell. That's when I noticed her robes. She wore traditional Firedrake rabi; black under layers with bright red robes that resembled flames. On her chest was the symbol of fire in Khajiiti. So…she was a firedrake then; our version of mages…loyal to the Mane. She was what I was…only I was a soldier; she was a mage.

The girl dropped the Shield, nodding her head to me. "A thank you would be very welcome right now." She said sarcastically as she glided up to us. "You're the Leo squad sent here to find the Ya'Tirrje, right?"

I nodded as the Firedrake walked up to us. She carried one of the traditional battle staves, a three foot pole wide enough to beat someone with and carved with magicka runes that helped channel magicka. They were what normal Firedrake trainees used. The Leo Academy trains in the same university as the Firedrakes. And my old…well, girlfriend, was training to be a Firedrake.

The Firedrake nodded. "Well, ok then. I'm here to make sure you guys all know that we're bringing the city down. I'm under orders to take you guys out of here and back to the forward command post."

My hand started snaking out towards the almost non-visible Ya'Tirrje. "She's getting away."

The Firedrake snapped her eyes off to look for herself. "So…that's the Ya'Tirrje. Ok then." She looked down at me. She reached into her belt, mumbling to herself. "Think I have one here somewhere…" She finally smirked as she pulled out a healing potion. "Very potent. Drink responsibly."

I snatched it from her, popping the top. I took a deep sip, gladly feeling all the pain in my body washing away. My loose breath was suddenly filled, and I felt full of life. I handed the potion off to Trinjje. She took to it just as I had. She started coughing as she spat some up, but I could see the shift in the way she carried herself. She looked like she had received a miracle. She passed it off to Rinma. Rinma guzzled what was left of it. She paused to grab her arm. I heard a series of snaps, all of which was accompanied by horrifying cries and curse, as she started setting her arm back into place. She drank what was left of the potion.

I stood up as soon as I could, looking down at my squad. "We should go get her now. Jode won't be able to keep up with her for long." He was just as badly injured as I was. There was no way he'd be able to keep up the chase for long. If he could, he would have caught her by now.

"Oh yeah…there is one side-effect." The Firedrake purred happily.

I felt a pulse in my heart, so heavy that it shook my body. I felt my hair standing on end; every nerve in my body spiking. My senses erupted. It was like the world was slowing down around me. The boulders raining from the sky were slower, as if almost frozen above me. The Firedrake looked just as frozen as the rest of the world did; but that smile on her face told me that she knew this was going to happen. I looked from her over to my squad. Rinma and Trinjje were just now standing up, glancing at the world around us. They appeared to be moving like I was. They saw the slow moving world too. But there was something more, something in their eyes. Their eyes were crimson red, and I'm guessing so were mine.

Sen'la'gar. The Red Eyes of the Senche. I looked back at the Firedrake, who had red eyes of her own. "I'm coming with." She announced. "Can't let my big brother handle this on his own." She winked at me. Big brother? What? That's when it hit me. I could see it in her eyes.

"Junna?" I almost roared.

She nodded. "Hi…" She waved to me.

My sister…my baby sister. How many years hadn't I seen her for? Five? Almost five years now. I had left to join the academy when I was 13; my baby sister had been 10 at the time. She looked so much taller now, almost as tall as me. Since I was 18…she had to be 15 by now. Wow. So much time had passed.

I don't know how long I stood there, looking at her, but it annoyed her. "Hey…Daan. The bad woman's getting away." She said to me, pointing in the direction of the disappearing Ya'Tirrje.

I finally found myself nodding. "Umm…ok. But we're having a talk later."

Apparently, the other two girls on the team wanted to talk now. Trinjje looked from me over to Junna. "Wait…this is your sister?" She said so hysterically that I thought she was going to bust up laughing. "Oh the Twin Moons…" She shook her head. "So, what do we call you? Ma'Junna?"

She shook her head. "Nah…it's Ja'Junna, now." What?

"Ja'Junna?" I asked as I looked at her. "But…you're not old enough to be called that unless…"

She nodded. "Yup…" She smiled. "Don't tell Dad…" She pleaded, grabbing my hands. "I'm begging you." Oh gods… now we really did need to have a talk after this.

"Whatever. We have to catch an evil drug lord; this conversation can wait until then." Rinma screamed at us as she took off into a flash. I don't know what she was so desperate to get moving. The world around us was practically standing still. We had all the time in the world to catch up to Ya'Tirrje.

I nodded to my sister and I raced up to catch up with Rinma. Trinjje was right behind me; my sister trying to keep up with us, but she wasn't a soldier. She looked like she was a student that ran away from school. Heck, she probably did. She never liked the whole sitting in a classroom thing. Knowing her, Dad was worried sick about finding her. He probably didn't even know she was training to be a Firedrake either. That conversation would have to wait though. Right now, we had more pressing matters. That woman had to die. Why? Because of all the things she did. If she got away, she'd only start over, and this time she'd try to take over more than just Rimmen.

It was amazing just how destroyed the town was now. Before, it looked like a mess. But that mess was filled with drugged out people clambering around to find their next fix. Whatever was left of buildings now littered the streets, and bodies with it. I don't know how many were guards, how many were civilians, how many were Crushers. What I did know was that right now, they were all the same. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw people running. They looked like civilians. They were running back, holding their hands over their heads as the Khajiit National Army marched its way through the streets.

I never thought I'd see the day where the darkest moments of my people would sink in. I watched as my race fired arrows into harmless civilians. Anyone that wasn't Khajiit at least. Anyone that was Khajiit was wrestled to the ground and cuffed. As far as the National Army was concerned, anyone not Khajiit was either with the Separatist movement to take over Elsweyr, or a drug lord. The Khajiits were what we were, so they would be taken alive and then dealt with in our justice system. Knowing Prashin and his councilors, all the Khajiits would be let go. That's how we did things. But killing outsiders…that hit me hard. I never thought we'd be the ones to do something like that. But I just watched it happen right before my eyes.

That was something else that caught my attention. I was able to see it happen. I thought I was moving at the speed of light. What happened to my new fast abilities? That's when I felt my goose bumps fade away. Sounds of more crashing boulders came from everywhere. I looked over my shoulder to see that Trinjje no longer had the bright crimson eyes, but her normal light blue ones. Ok…so…did the effect of the potion wear off then? I guess so.

I pushed it even harder to catch up to Rinma, who was still bucking it like she was flashing. I watched as she crashed into the Ya'Tirrje, throwing both of them off their feet. They were just over the docks, and Rinma practically threw them both into the ocean. I saw the massive splash explosion of a flashing Khajiit with super-steroids crashing into the swell of a wave. The ship next to them rocked as a newer, bigger, wave rocked the pirating vessel.

I caught up pretty quickly. Do'Risan was standing near the docks, hugging his leg as he watched the water for any signs of the Ya'Tirrje. When I got there, I looked at him. "Sir? What's going on?"

"I see blood." Do'Risan stated. "But no bodies yet."

I glanced into the water. I could see the blood too. Bubbles too, lots of bubbles. I sighed as I took a deep breath and dived into the water. I hate water. I hate water so fucking much, but that didn't matter. My friend was in danger, and she after the moment she shared where she opened up and told me how important I was to her as a friend, I didn't want her to go out like this. So, I used my massive body size to push me down deeper into the water. I saw more and more blood flowing up as I went down too. As it got darker, I started activating my nocturnal vision. It was then that I could see two shapes, two Khajiits. One wasn't moving, the other was slashing at the motionless body.

As I got closer, I felt the air in my lungs cry out for me to stop going down and to return to the surface. But I had to either kill the Ya'Tirrje or get my friend up to the surface before she died too. I pushed the thought of me drowning out of my mind and pushed myself further down. And I could see who it was now. The lifeless corpse was the Ya'Tirrje. Well, 'corpse' was an understatement. She was a mess of body parts. Mostly torn flesh that was floating around a bloody puddle of organs. Rinma stood in the center of the blood storm, slashing at everything she could. She was screaming as loudly as she could, bubbles flying out her mouth was she was certain that she wasn't going to die afterwards. Her claws raked the lines of intestine floating around, the torn pieces that used to be body parts and lungs. I could even see Ya'Tirrje's severed head staring up at me with horrified eyes like she couldn't believe this had happened to her. I almost couldn't believe it either; and I was watching it happen.

I looked into Rinma's eyes to see that they were fully glazed over. She wasn't even aware of what was happening anymore. She was blood-raging. It only happened when a skooma addict happened to carry the Sen'la'gar. If that was true…then Rinma was a skooma addict. Oh no…I was starting to respect her. She was a moon-gazer too, just like the other Khajiits I'd grown to hate. I shook my head as I bent down, swimming up behind her. I wrapped my arms around her, pinning her to me. She snarled and tried to fight me off, but I'm physically stronger than her. I'm Cathay, I'm always stronger than the Suthay, no matter how long they train for.

I started swimming us up to the surface when her body stopped fighting me. She stopped screaming and started coughing instead. I knew it…she was drowning. I looked up, pushing even harder as I saw the sun glaring overhead. I could see the light shimmering, the faces of our friends looking down for us. I closed my eyes as my head burst through the water. I took a deep breath as I threw Rinma up. When she broke the surface, I heard her gasp for air too, but that didn't last long. I couldn't keep her above water for long, so we both ended up underwater again. But that was the last time we had to worry about that. Our friends reached, grabbing our arms, and started pulling us out of the water. I was so happy to finally be done with this. The Ya'Tirrje was dead, all of Rimmen was pretty much destroyed… what else could possibly happen?

I took a few deep breaths as I lied down on the pier. Rinma lied down next to me, her eyes still glazed over, but no longer crimson. Before I had time to collect my breath, I had Trinjje crashing down on top of me, grabbing my face and kissing me. I was surprised but I quickly overcame that and grabbed Trinjje closer to me as I enjoyed our moment. We did it. We survived this town and did what we came here to do. Might as well take a few minutes to enjoy it, right?

"Brother?" Junna called as she joined us. She was out of breath and bending over to catch it. "You…you have…you have a…" She leaned up, taking one last deep breath. "a girlfriend?" She looked so surprised before looking at Trinjje. "And a white-fur at that?" She looked so confused that I almost didn't think anything was normal about it. Then she shrugged, saying, "That's cool." She ran over and threw Trinjje into a hug. "I have a new sister! Yay!"

Trinjje broke out into a purr and started acting like one too. "Wow! I have a sister now too! Double yay!" And they started jumping up and down screaming joyously at each other. I never knew my sister was a Purr. I thought she'd become a criminal.

I looked over at Rinma. Do'Risan was looking down at her. "She's high on skooma." He shook his head. He bent down to touch her neck. "Look here." He bent her neck enough to show me the tiny ruffle in her fur. There was a bulge with blood that had clotted around a large bump. "She was injected with skooma." He shook his head. "And it must have sent her feral." He looked over at me. "You remember what happened to that Imperial you forced to eat skooma in front of you?"

I had to think back, but I remember him. He tried to offer me stronger than normal skooma. I shoved it down his throat and watched him moon-gaze to death. That's when it snapped in my head. I looked over at Rinma to see the same distant glare of her eyes. "No!" I screamed as I pushed myself up onto my knees. "Rinma!" I screamed to her, grabbing onto her shoulders and giving them a shake. "Rinma!"

She continued to glare off into space, her eyes unfocused. Her breathing was shallow and quick. I felt my stomach turn over as I looked up at Do'Risan. "Sir…"

He nodded. He placed a hand on my shoulder. "There is nothing we can do. This is a battle she has to face on her own."

I looked over at Junna. "Do you have anything for skooma? Healing potions, anything?"

She turned her attention to her pouches. "Um…magicka potions…health potions…but those won't work on skooma. They'll likely make it worse. Sen'la'gar potions." She shook her head, throwing her arms up. "I'm sorry, I don't have anything."

"What about spells? Scrolls?"

She grabbed her head. "I'm only a freshman! I don't know stuff like that yet! That Shield Scroll was the only one I had on me!" She looked me in the eye. "I'm sorry, but I'm still new to this." She looked at Rinma. "She's on her own."

I looked down at Rinma, hoping to see her eyes unglazed. She was still staring off into nothing, her breathing becoming even sharper, even heavier. Her mouth gaped open for a second, like she was going to say something. She started choking, her body convulsing in my arms. She reached out for something, finding my face. I saw tears flowing down her unfocused eyes, her mouth twitching to form words. I watched as her hand slowly slid down, her breathing coming to a pause, by body suddenly feeling lighter. I had just watched my new friend die in my arms. This wasn't right. Someone had to pay for this.

…

[Rinma]

"Did you hear what Ma'Rinma did two weeks ago?"

"Yeah, but…should we even call her that now? I mean…the Ma' honorific. She obviously doesn't need it anymore."

"She's still a child. And children don't take the Ja' honorific until they become adults, at 15."

"Do you think she's still a child after what she went through? I mean… to kill her father like that."

"The bastard had it coming. He took away his right to live when he did that to her. I'd have killed him myself if I knew what the poor girl had to live through all these years. Both her and her mother. The poor woman. If only she told someone. She'd still be alive."

"Can you imagine? Being so desperate for it all to end that you'd take that much skooma. Do you think she knew she was committing suicide with that much, or do you think she was so desperate for an escape that she just…you know…overdosed?"

"I can't really say. But I know Ma'Rinma was strong enough to do what she needed to do."

"To kill her own father. I can't even begin to imagine what that will do to a poor nine year-old. Any idea who will take her in?"

"I hear her grandfather from Dune is coming down to pick her up and take her back with him. I don't know how moving there will make it any easier for her."

Perhaps it will get me away from here! I thought bitterly as I listened to the two elderly ladies grooming each other. I was fumbling through the garbage for something to eat when I heard the two old women talking to each other about me. I hid behind the garbage can, listening to them. I didn't have to worry about anyone watching me. Everyone avoided seeing me. When they did, they saw a filthy girl living in the streets. No one wanted me, not since I killed my dad two weeks ago. They thought I was dangerous, but no one would confront me with what I did. It was in self-defense, and they knew it. That didn't stop them from seeing a monster when they walked past.

My mother had problems, serious problems. And father had trouble controlling his urges. He abused us, over and over again. I never knew what that word meant until I heard it in the marketplace. I never knew it was unnormal, or that I should be angry about it. But once I learned, I began to see what it really meant, what was really happening. My mother was messed up because of father. And she took drugs to get away from it. To get away from both of us. I was already seen as a little monster, and when I killed dad…that was it. That was the final straw. She screamed at me and took as much skooma as she could to forget what I did. She died…maybe an hour after I killed daddy. People got it wrong. Dad didn't kill her…I did. I killed them both. I was a monster.

So, sitting here in the alleyway, looking for food to eat was the only thing I could do. Grandfather was most likely on his way to collect me. I'd never met him before, but according to what I heard from the people around me, he was a respectable person, a Leo. I don't know what that was, but it means something to the people here in town. They won't talk to me though. No reason to risk being killed by a little girl. That would be embarrassing.

I sighed as I stood up from hiding behind the trashcan. I looked inside it really quick, hoping to find something I could eat. There was nothing waiting at home for me in regards for food. I ate all of it. And no one would bother going back to my little hut now that it had the stench of two dead people in it. I was all alone, in a nice hut, living on my own. Surviving on my own. I like it like that. I wasn't lonely at all. It's not like I enjoyed the nights where my parents would hug me or anything. It's not like they did it anyway. My hugs were given to me by my father, and I learned those types of hugs weren't normal. My mother was good at staring at the moons…whatever that meant. It lasted for hours though, and the whole time she'd ignore me. I hated it. So, my life wasn't any different now, just less happening to me by consequence.

I found a small carton of moon milk, almost empty. I could see a small amount still remaining. Whoever threw this away wasn't paying attention to how much was really left. Lucky me. That's my lunch. I put it aside to find something else. Some apple core just carelessly tossed in here. More luck.

"Are you Ma'Rinma?" I heard an old scratchy voice call down to me.

I jumped away from the trashcan. "I wasn't stealing, I swear!" I said to him, taking the apple core and hiding it behind my back. "I'm just…" The Khajiit standing in front of me was pretty tall, and although his fur was nearly all gray from age, he held himself proudly. The way he looked down at me, I think he reminded me a bit of mother. "Yes…" I said to him. "But I think people are calling me J'Rinma now."

The old man brushed his long beard for a second. "But you're a child."

"Not to everyone in town, I'm not." I mumbled.

The old man nodded. "I guess they would see you as something they wouldn't understand." He nodded for me to follow him. "Come, Ma'Rinma. Time to go home."

"I don't have one." I said to the old man.

He looked back at me. "You do now. In Dune." Dune? My Grandfather lived in Dune.

"Granddad?" I called up to him.

He nodded. "Yes, Ma'Rinma. I'm Dro'Indra, your grandfather. Come now. We have much to do. Much to help you with."

"Help me with?" I echoed him as I followed behind me. "Help with what?"

"What you've just gone through… you can't face that alone. You will never be alone, ever again." He looked back at me. "There are moments in our life where we must fight to survive. You've experienced this too early, and now you need help. Help to understand what you've just learned. I will be your guide. You…are a survivor, Ma'Rinma. I will help you understand what that means."

…

You are a survivor!

I felt my body shake as I drew a sudden sharp breath. My body felt like it was on fire; my lungs were in pain, my throat dried out. My fur felt wet and plastered to my skinny frame as life suddenly erupted around me. My vision was dark and blurry for a second, but it was quickly coming back to me. I could see the bright sky overhead, the misshaped clouds of a rainstorm drawing near. And then I could see the dark-furred face of Ja'Daan looking down at me. His fur was ruffled with worry, and the way he held onto me, you'd think I had just died or something.

As soon as I came to my senses, I felt my stomach turn over. I managed to sit up fast enough to vomit on my lap, coughing up as much water as blood and furballs as possible. I don't know what the heck I put into my system, but I shouldn't taste blood that isn't mine. Or fur for that matter. It looked a lot like the Ya'Tirrje's fur.

I sighed a relief as I relaxed in Ja'Daan's arms. He was hugging me pretty tightly, crying into my shoulder, rocking me back and forth as he tried to crush me. A big boy like him probably could crush me even if he didn't plan on it originally. My head was still spinning around pretty badly so…I had no idea what on the Twin Moons was going on. It got even worse when the two girls came crashing into me as well, both of them screaming happily as they started hugging me to death. My head spun even harder and I struggled to fight them off, but with both of my arms pinned and my body still rejecting me using anything, it was a fruitless battle.

I settled for looking up at Do'Risan. "Uncle…" I said to him. "What happened?"

He smiled and rubbed his hand in my mane. "You died…welcome back."

I died? What? When?

Cearbhail:

Dro'Indra is the one that adopted Do'Risan and took him to Dune to become a Leo like him. He was also the grandfather of Rinma's mother. So, that's why Rinma called Risan her uncle. Anyway, next chapter should be about what's going on in Morrowind, but I may also show what's going on with the Orcs. They've been busy.