The three tumbled out of the purple, swirling vortex and Scar-Tail, as usual, had a death grip on Apoltis. Ra'Tarnik tumbled next to the two and stood up brushing himself off. Scar-Tail stood up as well releasing his grip a bit from Apoltis. The kid coughing a bit from the dirt in his mouth, looking at the two. He took a long breath asking the both of them, "Are you okay?"

Both were alright not having to say anything to verify that. Ra'tarnik patted Apoltis on the back and said, "Let's get out of here."

"That sounds like a great idea!"

Scar-Tail hissing with disgust questioned, "Yeah, brilliant plan. Except have you forgotten the two outside?"

"Oh yeah, I guess I did. I do not even have my axes anymore."

All three of them heard a strange noise near the front of the cave. They started walking towards the entrance to investigate with Apoltis being the first one to reach the entrance. Scar-Tail, slightly ahead of Ra'tarnik, had to ask, "Alright, so how did you manage to make it into this cave?"

"What? You mean earlier?" Ra'tarnik asked.

"Yes."

"Came in right through the front door."

Before Scar-Tail could ask how on Nirn he had done that, Apoltis was already at the front looking out into the early evening day. Scar-Tail and Ra'tarnik weren't too far behind as they too saw outside into the forest with no Xiviali in sight.

Something was wrong though. Apoltis felt it in his gut. It left a bad taste in his mouth like the taste of blood. He soon took off with Scar-Tail and Ra'tarnik right behind him. They caught up quite easily with the rushing boy and Scar-Tail was the first to ask, "What's wrong?"

"Border Watch! Something is wrong!"

Ra'tarnik then asked, "What?"

"I don't know!" Apoltis didn't have an answer.

The sun was below the trees as the evening light turned the entire forest a golden color. As he rushed on by, the trees and grass looked a bit like emerald and golden jewels rushing by him. The two veteran warriors behind him trailing him at incredible speed. The three of them running through the forest as Apoltis took a hard turn onto the main road nearly sliding to a fall. The two beast fighters swiftly coming right out of the forest after him nearly sprinting to keep up with the speeding child. Scar-Tail now had a better idea how Apoltis avoided the daedra on his case back at The Inn Of Ill Omen.

Apoltis went rushing into Border Watch and could already see the smoke pluming up from the small village. Scar-Tail had tried to stop Apoltis from rushing in but it was already too late as the two warriors stopped briefly to survey the carnage. Some houses had been burnt and there were at least three scattered dead khajiits. Both of them could tell they had tried to fight back against whatever had happened but they were no match for whatever it was. Even the Inn was lightly scattered with fresh battle scars.

Scar-Tail was the first to see hoof prints in the dirt. A lot of them. He bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt and let it flow from his scaly hand. He saw the difference in the grains and brushed off his hand. He stood up saying, "Two parties were through here. The first came through about twelve hours ago. It would have been dark by then. The next were more heavily armed and probably left four hours ago."

Doubting eyes stared at Scar-Tail as Ra'tarnik asked, "You can tell all that from just hoof prints in the dirt?"

Licking his teeth with annoyance Scar-Tail said, "I am very well trained."

"I'll just bet you are."

Scar-Tail had hardly taken his eyes off of Apoltis who had ran up to one of the smoldering, wooden houses. There, he had bent down on both knees as the elderly shaman kahjiit was there on the ground with her head being held by her much younger male apprentice. He was petting her head as her fur was matted with mud-thick blood. The younger apprentice had done everything he could with herbal medicine but it was not enough. She was too old and her body was not accepting the medication. He had cast a novice healing spell as well but the only thing it seemed to be helping with was some of her pain and breathing.

Shaken by the carnage and remembering back to Hackdirt, Apoltis slowly lifted the old shaman's hand up in his and clasped it in both gently. He held the old, wrinkled, slightly blood-stained paw to his cheek in mourning for the old khajiit.

She barely had her eyes open as she saw the young boy holding her paw, smiling, saying, "They were looking for you but we told them nothing. All of us held are tongues, angel."

By that time, Scar-Tail and Ra'tarnik had come close with Ra'tranik bending down to hear the woman better while Scar-Tail stood over Apoltis.

Ra'tarnik leaned in and asked, "Who?"

Barely able to turn her head, the shaman said to Ra'tarnik, "The first were vampires." She coughed a bit with a raspy sound exiting her lips. She was not long off from death. "We held them off with ease. They had no chance."

Her younger, male apprentice took over, "But then came the others. The daedra!"

She rose one trembling hand up to her protégé and said, "Oh yes! We tried with everything we had to beat them back. They had that imperial man with them! He conjured some of them right out of thin air! Others came on horseback. They did all this -" She said, weakly sweeping her raised hand across the whole of Border Watch. "He threw fireballs with the expertise of a master mage. Daedroth, Clannfears, wolves," She began coughing again.

The soon to-be new shaman took over, "He even had a shield he conjured up made of all kinds of magical conjured weapons."

Scar-Tail's harden skilled eyes scanned Border Watch seeing if there was a familiar he left behind to spy on them. He was also trying to sense the vampires but none of them were around. What his eyes did pick-up on was some movement just behind where he was standing with Apoltis. His eyes thinned and his tail slowly swayed with inquiry at the movement. There was something reminiscent about it. As if he had seen that exact movement before. In all its skill and shiftiness.

The shaman woman continued on, "My people. I thought they were cowards for not going with you to the cave but you," She said, pointing at Apoltis, "You gave them courage. They would rather die to protect some small boy they had never seen then save their own skins. To loose this town they created with their own hands. Oh Nine forgive me for thinking - thinking they…" Her coughing became hard and nasty. She put her hand up to her mouth and both her apprentice and Apoltis looked at each other with sadness.

Then, she let out one gasp of air and her body went limp. Her hand weakly raised up to Apoltis's cheek and with her final breath of air she said to him, "Thank you." The paw at Apoltis's cheek suddenly dropped to the ground and a final sigh of air exited her body and her eyes closed. Her body was limp and lifeless.

The young, khajiit protégé let go of her head and it flimsily fell on the ground. She was dead and her protégé was no longer an apprentice. He was now the new shaman.

He stood up with Apoltis softly weeping at her side. The new shaman took up her staff that was lying against the wooden house and he said to her, "Rest comes to you now. I will burry you where you wanted."

Ra'tarnik with hurt in his eyes stood up and took an inhale of air. He asked, "Where is that?"

The new Border Watch shaman turned his head and said, "She only told me and did not want anyone one else to know. I can tell you that it was somewhere in Elsewyer."

Ra'tarnik nodded, understanding. He looked over at Apoltis and walked over to him with Scar-Tail still locked on the forest behind all of them.

With his one hand, Ra'tarnik put his hand on Apoltis's shoulder and asked, "Are you okay?"

The boy looked up at the cat man and said, "No. It reminds me of when my mother died."

This got Scar-Tail's attention. He bent down alongside Apoltis and took his shoulders in his hands. He didn't know what to say to the teary eyed child and it took him a minute to come up with the words, "Apoltis - Death is a part of life. Whether they go to some other, better place or whether they sort of just float away; its not important about who they were but what they did. What they did for you."

Apoltis just said, "No. That's selfish."

Letting out a defeated exhale, Scar-Tail desperately tried to think of something else to say but Ra'tarnik beat him to the punch.

"You probably miss her a lot, don't you?" Ra'tarnik asked.

"My mom?" Apoltis asked back.

"Yeah."

"yes. I do."

"Well I am sure that your mother and her," Ra'tarnik said motioning to the deceased shaman woman, "Are very proud of you right now. She said so herself before passing on, did she not? So really, you gave as much to them as they wanted to give to you."

Apoltis sniffled a little bit and said, "But there still dead."

Scar-Tail chimed in with, "But - they will always be with you." He said, not sure if that bit would work or not. He had heard it at a funeral a long time ago.

Looking up at him with a little hope sparked in his eyes, Apoltis with a little cheer asked, "You really think so?"

Scar-Tail could only fake a half-smile and say, "I know so."

A strong wind came from behind Scar-Tail that drew his attention. He turned around with his hands still on the young boy's shoulders and looked out to the forest. He saw more movement in the trees as the sun's last beams of light slowly cascaded away from Nirn. The sky now growing that deep purple overshadowed by hues of blue.

Ra'tarnik joined him by his side looking out to the forest as well. He did not see anything that Scar-Tail had seen. Leaning into the argonian, asking, "What is it?"

"Something." Scar-Tail's eyes not once moving away from the trees that he saw the movement near. "Something familiar."

"Vampires?"

"No. Something more dangerous."

Both warriors scanned the forest with harden eyes but Ra'tarnik saw nothing. He did not have to though. Scar-Tail knew it was there. Something from his past. An evil that had not fully developed yet. A lurking monster that may be deadlier than any daedra that hunted the boy. Not just a danger to him either but to the whole of Tamirel.

Scar-Tail turned back towards Apoltis and thought about the vampires. He had to figure on a safe place to go. Someplace where they would never follow them into at least for awhile. Looking back at Apoltis he directed, "We need to get to Skingrad."

Ra'tarnik just gave him a puzzling look, "Why on Nirn do we need to go there?"

"Vampires are forbidden in that city."

Now Apoltis was curious, "Why is that, uncle?"

Scar-Tail took a look at Ra'tarnik and then bent down to whisper in Apoltis's ear, "Because there are already too many."

With shock in his eyes, Apoltis whispered in Scar-Tail's ear, "That means they will be welcomed, does it not?"

With another cautious look at Ra'tarnik, Scar-Tail lead the boy away from the interested khajiits. As he did so, he looked back at the passed-on shaman woman asking, "Do you not think you should prepare her for burial?"

Ra'tarnik growled a bit with irritation but the new, young shaman asked, "Ra'tarnik, will you give me a hand?"

Not taking his eyes off of the dark-cloaked argonian and the small boy, Ra'tarnik answered, "Sure." He bent down and got her feet while the new shaman got her head. Ra'tarnik grumbled a bit from his wounds but he struggled through them.

With both of them carrying the dead khajiit woman to a more dignified resting place until she could be transported to Elsewyer, the young shaman saw the wounds on Ra'tarnik asking, "those cuts look mean."

"I shall live." He snapped back still taking cautious glances over at the boy and the shifty reptilian.

Scar-Tail waited for them to be busy with her before continuing his talk with Apoltis. "The khajiit…"

"Ra'tarnik?"

"Whatever - he must not know that there are vampires in Skingrad."

"They will not hurt us, will they?"

"They will not hurt you. I promise you that! The ones that hunt us are wild and murderous. They will not be welcomed. Especially by the count. If they know what is good for them, they will stay away from Skingrad."

"The count must not like vampires?"

Nodding his head in extreme agreement, Scar-Tail said, "You have no idea. It is probably the safest city from vampires."

"Okay. How far is it?"

"It is quite the distance. We will stay in Border Watch for the night. Then, in the morning, we will head northwest, towards the Gold Coast."

Ra'tarnik came up to the both of them and asked, "So, what is all this secrecy about, may I ask?" Talking more to Apoltis then Scar-Tail.

Apoltis got slightly excited and said, "We are going to Skingrad!"

"So far westward, why?"

Apoltis just kind of looked down at the ground. Trying not to lie to Ratarnik but also not tell him why.

Scar-Tail took up that charge. "I have friends in Skingrad. We will be safe there."

"What kind of friends?"

"Ones that would not appreciate your company."

"So, I take it this is goodbye?"

Apoltis quickly went over to Ra'tarnik's side and grabbed his hand. "No! Come with us."

Scar-Tail snarled at Apoltis. "He is not coming with us!"

Ra'tarnik then made a point that even Scar-Tail could not argue. "You cannot protect the boy by yourself. You will need an extra-skilled fighter by your side. Besides," He said looking down at Apoltis, "I have a promise to keep."

As much as he wanted to, Scar-Tail couldn't argue his point. He had seen the khajiit in battle. He was damn good. Better than most Dark Brotherhood he had seen. Scar-Tail took Apoltis away from Ra'tarnik. He put his index finger right on the khajiit's chest saying to him, "If I get one notion, one iota, of you trying to kill me or the boy I will skin you alive and use your fur as a stall mat!"

Ra'tarnik growled a bit and said in retort, "same goes for you. Scales are little rough on my fur though. I'd much rather prefer you as a pair of boots. That way every time I take a step, the remains of your carcass can kiss the ground I walk on!"

Apoltis got in between the steaming warriors and said, "Okay! Then it is settled." Looking up at Scar-Tail pleading, "Right? Ra'tarnik can come with us?"

Setting his sights on the boy, Scar-Tail then looked back at Ra'tarnik, "As long as he stays out of my way!" Harshly turning away, walking back up to the Border Watch Inn, he ripped a daedra arrow right from the door panel and broke it in half with rage.

Ra'tarnik sneered at him as he looked down at Apoltis saying, "Apoltis, be careful around him. I know he is your uncle but just watch your back."

Having this innocent, sorrowful look come over his face, looking at Ra'tarnik with those sad eyes, Apoltis mournfully said "I don't think I am the one he wants dead."

Agreeing, Ra'tarnik watched the boy go into the inn while he found the shaman. He went up to him and asked, "Do you have any weapons? Enchanted ones?"

"I do!" He said enthusiastically. He led Ra'tarnik into the cabin that him and the previous shaman use to live in.

Entering, Ra'tarnik had to duck a bit from a bunch of growing Deathbell. He looked over the small cabin and it was quite cramped inside. To his left was a filled bookshelf. Most of the books were on alchemy and restoration. In front of that was a small table with a few alchemical instruments and a bowl with a mixture of things. Whatever the mixture was, it didn't smell good, that Ra'tarnik was sure of. To his right was another small room with a bed and a broom next to it. In front of him was a straw bed matting and there was the new shaman in front of an extravagant display case.

Ra'tarnik approached cautiously and as soon as he moved, the shaman began talking, "When she was young, she knew a great enchanter. He lived in Morrowind. Before passing on, he gave her a gift. One that she never knew what to do with and why she did not give it to you or anybody I have no idea. Maybe she thought it was too powerful to be wielded by anybody. But anybody who protects that boy is going to need some protection. You did not see what great power the daeda and that wizard wielded. I did. You will need all the help you can get Ra'tarnik."

Close enough now, Ra'tarnik could see what was inside the long, elaborate case. It seemed to be a glass halberd except it had two heads on it like a battle-ax with a long, spear-like blade between the two heads. Ra'tarnik couldn't help but get a sadistic smile across his face. He didn't like to use two-handed weapons but he could when the need arose - and the need had certainty arisen.

"She told me, that no weapon like this existed in all the nine providences. It was made by a skilled smith and enchanted by her mentor. Although she never went into enchantment herself and was more into alchemy, she kept it because it was such a powerful weapon."

Ra'tarnik's eyes were bedazzled by the weapon. "What's the enchantment?"

"According to her it has the blood of a daedra lord on it. It is specifically designed to kill daedra. It takes their souls and powers itself with them, making the weapon a veritable self-powering, soul stealer. As you know, all weapons' enchantments are powered by souls in soul gems. But this - this powers itself with every daedra soul it steals."

Putting his hand on the glass, Ra'tarnik said, "What is its name?"

The shaman took a key out of his pocket and opened the case. He could barely hefted the weapon with both hands but he managed to present it to Ra'tarnik and said, "Gluttony."

Ra'tarnik easily wielded the weapon in one hand taking it from the shaman. He put the end of the weapon down on the ground and stared at the two blades of the ax along with the long spear blade atop. He then uttered out, looking at the weapon with pride, "Gluttony. Seems appropriate somehow."

He put the weapon on his back and could not thank the shaman enough. He went to exit the cabin but the shaman stopped him. He put one hand on Ra'tarnik's shoulder and said, "Those wounds need healed."

Looking down, Ra'tarnik agreed. The shaman walked into the bedroom and removed a few bottles from a chest. He then motion Ra'tarnik into the bedroom and said, "Lay on the bed and I will…"

Ra'tarnik stopped him and took the bottles. "I know what needs to be done with these. I know somebody else who I would rather have these wounds treated by."

"They require a smooth touch and…"

"And I know just the person."

He exited the cabin and the dark of night blanketed the land. He fixed his right, imperial steel gauntlet and walked with the weapon on his back. The bottles still in hand, he struggled with the weight of the weapon. It had been a long time since he had had a two-handed weapon equipped. He would get use to it.

Walking past the Border Watch Inn, Ra'tarnik was still fiddling with his right gauntlet. He hoped to see Apoltis in the morning. Even if it did mean dealing with his annoying as all Oblivion uncle.

He walked over to a cabin that seemed untouched by the attacks and he was thankful for that. He knocked on the door fumbling with the bottles in his hands. The door was opened by a young, female khajiit. She was dressed in nothing but a long, white nightgown that accentuated her bodily features. Ra'tarnik gave her a sheepish grin and said, "Sorry about the wood earlier. I would have gotten it to you but…"

She put one clawed finger on his lips shushing him.

He motioned with the bottles in hand, "Mind giving me a hand?"

She directed him right into her cabin and with that sheepish grin, he entered her cabin with the door closing behind them.

(A/N: I'm glad everyone has been enjoying the story so far. It really is a joy to write. I cannot stress enough for reviews and I'm glad so many of you have taken the time to review. Thanks to all of you and I hope the story continues to hold your attention until the final chapter and beyond! Not to just those who review either. I know some readers are a bit shy about reviewing and that's more than okay. You still show your support just by reading and/or making it a favorite. Thanks for that as well!)