Ello folks, I'm back with another update. So enjoy.
The ice fields, hundreds of miles of nothing but ice and a few islands covered in ice. Red looked out over the fields from the bow of the little row boat they had borrowed from some bandits. Of course they wouldn't need it again, at least not in the afterlife.
"Naomi tell me what ice is in Nordic."
"Isen."
"Very good, now use that in a sentence."
"Disse feltene er full av is. (These fields are full of ice.)"
She was thankful for the training she had received thus allowing her to be better on picking up on the Nordic language quicker. It was like a new code that she had to learn for a mission or something. It was just a few days ago that she had just started learning the basics.
"Won't be long before you can talk like everyone else in Skyrim." He then looked back towards the ice field in front of them. They had been traveling in these fields for a little over two days nearing the end of the third, and had yet to find the bastard they came to find.
In the distance he could see an island that looked good enough to stay the night on, that is if there no horkers there. They had spent the last night in their Dagon damned boat and they sure as hell weren't doing it again. And the night before that they spent it on the Pride of Tel Vos where they took the boat from.
He pulled out the spyglass from the bag he was carrying and looked at the island. It was small, and looked like it had a cave on it covered in drift wood. There was small torch outside allowing the area to be illuminated by the flame. How the people of old could keep torches and fire places going thousands of years with no one tending them was beyond him. "Naomi row us to that island and we'll hunker down there for the night."
He grabbed a pole and pushed another piece of ice out of the way of the small boat. They had to find this person and get the hell back to the Companions to find out what had happened to Naruto. He zoned out for a few seconds trying to think about what could have happened to their blond friend.
"Red!" he snapped out of the trance he was in "Pull the boat up and tie it off." he shook his head and jumped on to the island and pulled the boat up on the island before tying it off to a rock.
"Lets check out the hole over there and see if we can stay here tonight." he pulled out his claymore and slowly opened the door. They peered inside and noticed the candles burning. "Someone's here." He looked over to Naomi and notice she had a kunai out and ready to use.
Red slowly walked inside and peaked around the corner, nothing, he motioned for Naomi to move up to the next corner. Doing so she then saw a man standing at the bottom of a pit in front of a big odd looking door.
She gave Red a few hand motions 'man standing in front of door,' she looked back to the man 'playing rock-paper-scissors with himself?' Red gave her a odd look before sneaking up and seeing for himself. The man was indeed playing the kids game.
'Kami save me, if I had to guess this is the guy were supposed to meet.' he sheathed his sword and walked down the path to the man while Naomi stood there watching the man.
"Septimus Signus?" he said.
"Ah a visitor to little old me," the man turned to face Red "it's been… a week, no no, month maybe, no, a year, gah! I can't remember the last time I've have a human visitor to the outpost, I've mostly been playing go fishing with the horkers that come around, but their sore losers."
"No doubt." Red looked up to the path "Naomi this is the guy!"
She appeared in a burst of speed and stood next to Red looking over the man in front of her. He was old and had an auburn colored beard, he wore mage robes with the hood pulled up and had an iron dagger on his side.
"old man we need to find an elder scroll."
"Elder Scrolls. Indeed. The Empire. They absconded with them. Or so they think. The ones they saw. The ones they thought they saw. I know of one. Forgotten. Sequestered. But I cannot go to it, not poor Septimus, for I... I have arisen beyond its grasp." he looked over to the fire "Ahh my cabbage and horker eye soup!"
Red and Naomi sweat dropped at the insane old man. "Ok then where can we find the Elder Scroll?" To Red's surprise it was Naomi who aksed the question to the man.
The man took the pot off the fire and poured himself a bowl. "Here. Well, here as in this plane. Mundus. Tamriel. Nearby, relatively speaking. On the cosmological scale, it's all nearby." he took a bite of his soup.
"For the love of Mara, Where?!"
He pointed his spoon to the door. "You see this masterwork of the Dwemer. Deep inside their greatest knowings. Septimus is clever among men, but he is but an idiot child compared to the dullest of the Dwemer. Lucky then they left behind their own way of reading the Elder Scrolls. In the depths of Blackreach one yet lies."
"Under deep. Below the dark. The hidden keep. Tower Mzark. Alftand. The point of puncture, of first entry, of the tapping. Delve to its limits, and Blackreach lies just beyond. But not all can enter there. Only Septimus knows the hidden key to loose the lock to jump beneath the deathly rock." he took another bite of his soup "Septimus you've out done yourself with soup! Oh where are my manners would you two like some soup?"
Red was so close to beating the mage into a bloody pulp and leaveing, but he had job to do and it required him to put up with the man. "Ok so you want into the dwemer box and you want us to open it for you in exchange for the info?"
"Yes that is what this one wants, but there is only one path. You look to your left, you see one way. You look to your right, you see another. But neither is any harder than the opposite. But the Elder Scrolls... they look left and right in the stream of time. The future and past are as one. Sometimes they even look up. What do they see then? What if they dive in? Then the madness begins."
"kami the madness has already begun." mumbled Naomi.
"Ok, where do we find the scroll?"
"One must enter the home of the Dwemer to fully understand the daunting task ahead. They had many passages to the great city of Blackreach. Alftand, Mzinchaleleft, Raldbthar those are these passages. The way into the city might be easy, but the way to the scroll is troublesome." he placed his soup down and reached into the knapsack and pulled out a sphere and a cube before handing them to Red. "These are the Attunement sphere and blank Lexicon, I am but a child among the brightest of the Dwemer, but I am a sun in brightness among men. The Dwemer were smart and using these should allow even the dumbest to trick them into giving up the scroll."
Red nodded in thanks and placed the items in his satchel. "You mind if we stay the night here?"
"Septimus doesn't mind, not one bit, but the fairies might, then again they will understand."
Naomi sighed and pulled out a scroll to get their bedrolls out. The act had gotten the mad author intrigued and soon lead to an interesting conversation which ended in Naomi knocking the elderly man out when he tried to take the scroll.
Red looked over to the soup and poured himself a bowl before taking a bite. "the man might be crazy, but he's not a half bad cook." Naomi looked at him like he was insane.
(Naruto and Lucia)
He had rode for two days straight nonstop before the horse gave out, and then he ran for a night before he gave out. He was currently somewhere in the steam fields near Windhelm. He found a small patch of trees and gently place Lucia down off his back. He was tired, and she was still comatose. There was nothing he could do about it right now, and it was the best place he could find to hold up for the day.
He sat back against a tree and rested for a while, his eyelids felt heavy and his body was sore. Eventually sleep claimed him as he nodded off into the dream world.
He awoke, but it wasn't the grove of trees he was standing in. he was in a lush forest and the peacefulness of the forest was relaxing to the stressed blond. He heard something behind him and whirled around to see what or who it was. Standing there before him was a pure white stag looking at him with a keen eye.
"well met hunter." Naruto jumped at the voice of the stag. "I see that another hunter of the moon has come before me."
"who or what are you?"
"I am Hircine the lord of the hunt, and you are someone of great importance to me and the world." Naruto's eyes lit up with recognition at the name. "I understand that you just received the gift of Moon Born, and as such you are bound to me and the world."
"Yes somehow I did, last thing I remember was sucking out a poision from my mom, then I find myself nearly killing my best friend."
"ah yes, you mother Aela the Huntress, she is a fine example of my gift."
"Wait, she has the gift the Moon Born?"
"Yes, as do all the other of the Circle. I remember fondly when I gave them this."
"How do I control it I need to be able to in order to keep myself from killing someone I love."
"That is not for me to say, there are way to do this, but most of time you must learn to do this on your own. Anyway this conversation has been well and good, but you need to wake up."
Naruto awoke and looked around to small grove; he could hear feint sounds of voices nearing him as he shook the sleep from his head.
"Damn it you chibi brat, if it wasn't for the fact you're so useful I'll kill you right now!" yelled a man not too far off from the grove. Naruto stood slowly and drew his small sword.
"Admit the little trick about me being an orphan was enough to be able to kill the last contract, that and you know Astrid would tan your wolf hide if you did." the voice belonged to a young girl.
Naruto could hear their footsteps coming closer to the tree he was standing behind. He really didn't feel like putting up with bandits. Hell he had yet to fully recover from his run, and if the pair was any good he might not be able to defeat them. He stood stone still allowing his dark colored clothes hide his presence from the eyes of the pair. He heard the pair stop a few feet away from the tree he was behind when the wind changed direction.
"Theres someone here." he heard the little girl mumble.
"Yeah I noticed." Naruto heard steel being removed from leather "Come out, we know you're here."
Naruto stood in place and wait for them to approach before he would attack. He knew Lucia was still comatose and on the other side of the clearing in plain sight of the two. Now all he had to do was wait.
"Arnbjorn there's a girl asleep on the other side of the clearing."
"Good job Babette." he heard the man walk closer "If you want a bite to eat have at it, I mean I don't think she'll wake up when were done."
Naruto could almost see the pair smiling at the idea of what they thought was a free meal, but that idea was about to be shot down in a hailstorm of fire. He waited till the girl walked up almost beside him before striking. He grabbed the girl and twisted her arm around her back and holding the blade at her throat.
"Move and she dies." his tone was as cold as an ice wraith and held more threat then a serpent ready to strike.
He flicked up a candle light spell and got a good look at who he was facing. He was a big man in steel armor with a red and black cowl pulled up over his head keeping his face hidden. The girl he was holding at blade point was dressed in leather full body armor in the same suit of colors as the cowl. She had brown hair and slightly glowing eyes that kind of creped him out.
"I would recommend you let her go before things get nasty." the man he found out was named Arnbjorn said to him.
"I'm so sorry, but as it stands right now you were going to make a meal out of my family member, and that doesn't go over very well with me." he could tell something was off about the pair that was here in the grove with him.
"Well forgive me brat, but now both of you will make a tasty meal for both of us." Naruto watched in horror as the man grew in size and grew fur. He loosened his grip on the girl and before he knew what was going on she sunk her teeth into his arm.
Naruto yelled in pain as she bit down on his arm, but it didn't take long for her to release and start screaming in her own pain. "The blood of a demon's a bitch isn't it?" he said before hitting her with the blunt side of his sword knocking her out. He barely had time to dodge a claw from the oversized wolf.
Each time he jumped out of the way of the attacks his legs burned in protest at the act. It seemed that this fight was one sided to begin with from the very start. He couldn't form hand seals and he couldn't gather his Magicka to use any spells, all he could do was dodge.
He saw a claw coming from the left and quickly moved the short sword to parry the strike. The claws were as tough as steel and just as sharp as a razor; he could see that this form was strong, But like every power it had to have its weakness.
'the movements of the man are strong and fast, but he lacks the time to shield. That's it! He can't move his arms fast enough to shield his face.' With that is mind he ducked under a wide swing and pointed his fingers up at the face of the man. A small shot of fire hit the wolf in the face and singed his hair along with leaving nasty burn on the end of his muzzle.
"You know kid you're not half bad." Naruto's eyes looked towards the werewolf. That was something new, a talking werewolf. "You would make one hell of an assassin, too bad I'm going to kill you."
Naruto didn't see the foot come up and hit him in the face. He reeled back in pain and could feel blood gushing down from the cuts. His hood fell down and the moon light reflected off his blond hair.
"Ah, so that's why you're so good. You're that Companion brat, The Ranger, as they call you, Naruto Uzimaki Namikaze. I remember seven years ago when you were just a squirt and that bitch Aela was the one who ratted me out for my blood lust."
"You forgot the Septim at the end of my name and I knew that name sounded familiar, your Arnbjorn of the Red Moon. The person who went rouge and killed off half of the Whiterun guard. The only person who was ever kicked off the Companion Circle. It's an honor." Naruto's voice was dripping with sarcasm that only seemed to provoke the man more.
He charged the blond with a renewed vigor. Naruto was ducking, rolling, jumping and parrying the fast strikes, but by now the blood had seeped into his eye and forcing him to keep it closed. He could barely see as is, but now the fight had elevated to a new level of difficulty for the blond.
He felt claws cut him across the chest and quickly performed a Substitution to keep from taking more damage. He was crouched behind a tree on the other side of the grove well away from Lucia. His chest was gushing blood and his vision was blurring.
'I have to end this fast, before I lose too much blood and pass out.' he peeked out from the tree and saw the werewolf sniffing the air around him before looking at the tree he was behind. The moon light illuminated the clearing allowing him to see the feral smile on his face.
"I know where you are boy, so come on out and face death like a real man, or is the big bad Companion afraid of death."
Naruto knew he was goading him on, and part of him wanted him to stay there and wait, but that thought was thrown out the window as he stood and walked out. "I must say you sense of smell is very very good, but like all animals you stink and I can smell you from all the way over there, puppy." he saw something blue in the side of his eye and quickly turned to face it.
An ice spike flew at him with the speed of a lightning bolt. He didn't even have time to move before it struck him in the shoulder forcing him to drop his sword. The pain from the new wound was like nothing he had ever felt before being both cold and painful.
He gritted his teeth in pain and flung one of his stars before disappearing in a blinding light. The werewolf was sent flying though a tree at the kick of the blond. His back was turned to Babette and before he knew it she had hit him with a shocking touch spell disrupting nerves and forcing him to his knees.
Cold steel graced its presence on his neck as her dagger rested on the vein. "Give me one reason to pull it back."
"I'll kill the fucker! You hear me I'll kill him!" Naruto glanced out of the corner of his good eye Arnbjorn coming back into the clearing carrying a sword. "Hold him still Babette while I cleave his head off." he brought the blade up for the killing blow.
Naruto just closed his eyes and accepted his fate, Red had never told him just what could kill him, but he had no reason to not believe that a killing blow on a human was equal to a killing blow on him. 'Goodbye everyone, thank you for everything you've done.' He could now hear the wind being displaced from the sword coming. His eyes shot open when he heard the sounds of steel meeting steel. He looked up and saw a lady standing there holding the sword back with a pair of orcish daggers.
"I would prefer you not kill the newest recruit, after all we've been trying to get him for a while now." She was dressed in the same fashion as Babette but she also had a hood on keeping her face hidden from sight.
"Astrid!" he heard the man say "Forgive me I didn't know you wanted the brat to join the Brotherhood."
"It's ok husband, I had a mission set up for him to test himself, but being able to go against you this long was quite a feat, after all I got to see a good fight." finishing the sentence with a dark chuckle. She had been sitting in the trees above them for quite a while and was waiting for Naruto to wake up before she confronted him.
"Good of you to join…in…" mumbled Naruto before he passed out from blood loss.
Naruto felt warm, almost like he was sitting beside a fire under blankets. He flexed his fingers and felt what felt like fur underneath him. Groggily he opened an eye and glanced around the place he was in. it had stone walls and a small chandelier overhead, and had banners that he couldn't make out due to his blurred vision.
He tried to open his left eye but found it sealed shut from something. He pulled the wool blanket back using his left hand due to his right being in a make-shift splint. He knew from the moment the ice spike had hit him that the arm was pulled from socket and the bones around it was shattered, even though he healed fast if would take weeks for that to heal.
He pulled his feet slowly off the bed and placed them on the cold stone floor. He stood up and wobbled like a drunk from the change in pressure in his head and lack of air. This alone made him wonder, how long was he out? The last thing he remembered was that assassin Astrid save him from being killed.
'Lucia!' he franticly looked around the room trying to find the person. He wobbled forward and reached the door to his room before opening it and trying to walk out. The key word there being trying because the second he tried he fell forward and would have fallen face first on to the ground had someone not caught him.
"I got you." he glanced up with his right eye to see the person he had been thinking of holding him up with an earth spell. That was something new he had never seen before, had she really made a new elemental spell?
"Thanks." he replied weakly. He looked to her hands and notice a plate full of food and a cup of cold water on the side of it. "When you figure out how to do this?"
She didn't really know how she figured it out; she just knew that she could. Then again everything had been felling weird since the battle for Whiterun. She couldn't even remember how she got here, but she knew everything was ok for right now, before that she had nearly killed the redguard Nazir for changing her bandages on her stomach. "In all honesty I don't know, when I woke up I almost killed Nazir was an earth spike. Ever since then I've been talking with the crazy mage Festus to try and figure it out. He said that if I could teach that to other mages then I could open up entirely new doors in the realm of Arcane Discovery."
Naruto nodded slightly and leaned back against the wall. "How long have I been out?"
"You've been out for almost two weeks now. The damage done to your body is quite substantial; if I hadn't intervened when I did you would be dead." Naruto looked over and saw a Nord woman standing there in the passage where Lucia had just come.
Naruto chuckled; it was almost the 10th of Frost Fall. His birthday. The day Red said he would undergo the most pain he had endured because of his demonic blood. The day he would go from half to full demon. "Time seems to fly like the perfect arrow. It just goes on and on."
"That is does child," he looked at her she had blond hair and fair skin with cold brown eyes. "I can see that your eye hasn't healed yet, I know the cuts were not deep but it still shouldn't have taken this long to heal."
"I know the reason, and I am not worried about it. Let's just say my body is waiting." Naruto said cryptically to the Nord. It was true his body was in a semi hibernation of sorts for the upcoming day, and all he could do now was wait. His stomach growled at the smell of the food causing him to grin sheepishly. "but first I need to eat something, then I have something to tell Lucia."
(Red two weeks three days earlier)
His eye was twitching as he looked at the horker on his back like he was sunbathing in their now splintered boat. He woke up that morning and at a good breakfast, decided the best route to Blackreach, had a nice cup of coffee, and then went outside to get ready.
And this was the sight he was greeted to? An oversized horker in his boat!
"I swear to Kami, do the creatures of this cold ass bearin wasteland just enjoy mind fucking me?!" he yelled. This was not the way to start a day. He heard something behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see Naomi standing there.
"Why are we not ready to go yet?" she asked with clear annoyance in here voice. She saw him point and only then did she notice the oversized piece of blubler in their boat. None her training could have prepared her for this, nothing could have. She cracked an annoyed smile and looked to Red who shrugged his shoulders.
"please you have to tell me how you are able to seal solid objects into a scroll!" could this day not get any worse. First the horker, now the crazed mage with a fettish for something he couldn't do.
"Shut up!" he watched as Naomi kicked the man back down the hole leaveing a clear boot imprint in his face. This gave Red an idea as to how to get the horker out of the boat.
An evil grin spread across his face as he walked up to the horker. The walrus looked up at him with black eyes, "GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR FUCKING BOAT!" he yelled before kicking the thing like a football clear out into the ice fields with a resoundsing splash as the thousand pound creature hit the water. "good now that that's over with we can go."
"one problem with that, how, we don't have a boat, we don't have any way to leave." she complained. Red just grinned and took off his armor before making a handseal and being covered in dark red flames. The flames slowly subdued allowing her to see a horse sized fox with nine tails standing there.
"what did you really think I cant control how big I am because of what happened almost thirteen years ago?" he watched her nod her head dumbly "anyway get on, I don't like this, but it's the only choice we have."
She carefully climbed on his back and grabbed on to his long hair after sealing up his armor. "Let's go" he nodded and took off at breakneck speeds. He grinned at the feeling of wind in his face even if it was cold, it gave him a feeling of freedom.
It took them a week of running through the ice fields to reach Dawnstar. Red had changed back into his human form before they had reached the small port. He didn't need the guard starting another damnable fight with the so call Daedric Fox that the rumors he keeps hearing about. Whiterun had yet to even rebuild from the incident.
He looked at the town's people and quickly noticed their state of unrest. They looked like they hadn't slept in days, if not weeks. The only people who didn't look like that were the sailors. They walked up the hill and towards the tavern hoping to find a place to rest for the day. With each step he saw more and more people who looked like they hadn't slept.
He opened the door and allowed Naomi to go in first who gave him a nod in thanks. He walked in and the first thing he noticed was a priest talking to some of the people. 'What's he doing here?'
"listen I can assure you I'm doing everything in my power to find the source of these nightmares, now if you would go back home and leave me to my work." Red had grown interested in what the man had said. He and Naomi walked over to the counter and pulled out one of the bar stools a bottle of mead was quickly placed in front of him. He drank down the liquid and place three septims on the bar before walking over to the priest and tapping him on the shoulder. "Oh for the love of Mara, I already told you…" the priest looked at saw the new face standing there "yes can I help you?"
"No, but I can help you." he grinned. The priest's eyes darted from Red to Naomi and back to Red. Red leaned in and whispered in to his ear. "Priest of Vaermina."
And that folks is another chapter of The Last Septim. Quick shout out to JoyEternal THANK YOU! You really helped me out with that review, I could not find out that info anywhere.
Anyway as you can see now Naruto is in the Dark Brotherhood after a odd confrontation with the assassins, and Red and Naomi are in Dawnstar scaring the holy shit out of the Priest.