When Goes-Unseen opened his eyes again, it was morning. His tail was mightily sore from sleeping in a funny position. He had been about a head too tall for the cramped bed, but he was immensely thankful for it just the same. He pulled back the blanket and swung his legs onto the floor. It was surprising how weak he was- as though the arrow had sapped everything out of him down to the farthest extremities. Tentatively, he reached a hand up to the wound, and found it was covered by a bandage. At very least it was no longer throbbing- and no longer bound to his chest. The Khajiit had cut it free while he was sleeping.
He found his shirt and his breaches, but it took a long time to get them on. He went outside to find Dari sitting cross-legged on a large stump. She had a thin pipe stem clamped firmly in between her teeth, and his dagger in her hand. She was running it across a very fine sharpening rock that glinted in the sun. The river was wending it's endless way past the long wooden dock and towards the sea, it's passing lending a wonderfully calming background noise. The trees were thick on all sides of them, big fat trees with hundreds of roots diving into the soil all around their trunks, seeking the water.
He almost asked if he could have the knife back, but decided against it.
"You don't say much, do you?" She said, at length.
He shook his head.
"Good. I like that." Dari said. "Sometimes I talk too much myself. Gets me in trouble."
A cloud of smoke drifted from between her lips and floated away. A motley gaggle of chickens appeared around the corner of the house, pecking at the ground. There were all different breeds and colors, and all looked very hard-bitten and scraggly.
"Could you do me a favor?"
"You saved my life. I think I owe you more than a favor." He said.
From beside the stump she pulled a small bag of feed.
"Give the little hell-raisers something to eat."
She watched him sprinkle the bits of corn on the ground with his good hand. The hens jumped forward at the sight of the food and began to jostle one another for position.
"How did you come to speak Cyrodillic so well?" She said.
He did not reply immediately, just as he had not when she asked him about the arrow. He was not being truthful with her- she could tell. If there was one thing she had learned to spot in her life, it was a lie being concocted.
"I was taught when I was very young, practically a hatchling."
"You had a good teacher. Most of the Argonians around here hiss like a steam kettle when they try to talk to the humans. You royalty?"
"...what?" He said, taken aback.
"Are you a noble's kid or something?"
The Argonian laughed at this. She didn't know it then, but it was the first time he had laughed in a very long time.
"No, but I was a servant of royalty. My family has served the court of the King of the Black Marsh for generations."
"I see." Dari said. "What was that like."
Goes-Unseen paused a moment, thinking. The seed dribbled through his fingers and the chickens pecked at it, but he paid them no mind.
"It was not good. The King can do whatever he wants to you. He could ask you to kill your own mother, and you would have to do it, and if you didn't do it he would kill your whole family and then you."
He glanced at her and then looked down and began to toss the seed again. Clearly he had said more than he wanted to.
"Did he ask you to kill your mother?"
"No. But he asked a great many other things that were just as bad."
Dari almost pushed farther, but she did not. He had clearly reached his limit of questions, for the moment at least. There was something tremendous lurking inside that quiet, polite voice and those piercing eyes- some emotion whose depths and breadth was so catastrophic that it must be kept at bay every moment or else it would break loose and destroy everything.
"That's enough. The chickens will keep eating until they burst if you let them."
She took the sack of feed from him and rolled it up, giving him his knife in exchange.
"Would you like to help me check the traps?"
He nodded.