I know it's been two going on three years since I last updated this story...but I was in a real rut and couldn't think of anything to write for it. Thank you to Painelust for kicking me out of my slump for sending me the message about the story with the "kejit" in it...thanks...its "KHAJIIT", okay?...=)
Shadowmere snorted as Arvina gave her gentle dig in the ribs with her heels. The mare trotted irritably, snorting every now and then.
She was the only one who remarkably lively in the group.
There was a tense silence and a dark cloud hanging over everyone's head.
M'raaj-Dar was hissing quietly to himself, his body aching and hurting where he was cut by Daedric weapons and claws. He was missing patches of fur here and there.
His companion, sitting behind him, was as still as stone. Grun too, suffered cuts and slashes here and there, but the worst wound was hiding behind the new eye patch that covered his left eye.
Arvina was a little bruised and battered but was in relatively good shape compared to the two.
In fact, the only one who was completely unscathed was Martin, who trudged behind M'raaj-Dar's horse, his wrists tied by a thick rope which was being held in a death-like grip by Grun.
Martin felt tired, following two horses on foot, but he knew he wasn't in any position to grumble.
It was his fault that his three dour-faced companions were in such bad shape in the first place.
He had insisted that they help the guards at retake castle Kvatch, and upon blackmailing them that he would willingly die by Daedric blades or his own, they reluctantly agreed to help. M'raaj-Dar had knocked Martin out so that he couldn't follow them into battle.
Arvina, M'raaj-Dar and Grun had the charge into the Daedra-infested castle, and were successful. However, Grun, the powerful dwarf, had taken on two gigantic Daedroths in the battle. The dwarf warrior was victorious, but had lost his left eye in the battle. The dwarf blamed Martin for it.
Grun had insisted that Martin be tied up, intent on keeping him from "being a sodding pain in the arse", and Arvina and M'raaj-Dar, both suffering from their own wounds, had not been particularly inclined to stand up for Martin.
Now the four of them steadily made their way back to Chorrol, to Weynon Priory where Jauffre was making preparations for them.
"Keep up, Bastard!" snarled Grun, giving the rope a good yank, causing to Martin to stumble a few steps forward.
Martin grumbled. While he understood the dwarf's less-than-friendly attitude towards him, he still didn't deserve to be treated like some sort of prisoner. But he was getting irritated that Grun kept calling him 'Bastard'. He had a name, for Akatosh's sake!
Night soon came and the group decided to camp for the night.
While the Khajiit made the campfire and started cooking something and Arvina began pulling out the sleeping rolls, Grun looked around, his dark, glittering eye squinting as looked for something.
"Looking for something?" asked Martin, hoping to try and mollify the dwarf a little.
"A tree," grunted Grun.
"To pee on?" asked Martin.
"To tie ye to."
"What?"
"You heard me, Bastard."
"You can't be serious!"
"As serious as I'll ever be, Bastard."
"You can't do this!" shouted Martin, angry now. "I'm not some sort of prisoner so stop treating me like one! I did nothing wrong!"
"Ye cost me my left eye, Bastard!" roared Grun. "Ye made me, the lass and Whiskers fight a battle that wasn't ours, forced us to go through hell and got us damn near cut up! So shut yer mouth ye ungrateful bastard and deal with it!"
"Then what?" yelled Martin. "You were going to abandon them to the Daedra! Have you no decency to help others? I did what I had to in order to get you to help those people!"
"But ye weren't the one who had to face death!" snarled Grun, grabbing Martin by the front of his robes and pulling him down so that they were face to face. "Ye weren't the one who had to cut up some damn shrieking demon and get cut up in turn!"
"I wanted to come too, but your friend knocked me out remember?" snapped Martin.
"That's because we needed yer worthless hide alive, Bastard!" spat the dwarf. "That's the reason we stormed Oblivion in the first place! So that we can get in to that damn city to get ye out, Bastard! If we let ye come with us, ye might've ended up sliced up on some Daedra's blade or crunched up in some Daedroth's jaws, Bastard! Did ye not understand the whole purpose of 'keeping ye alive', Bastard?"
"STOP CALLING ME BASTARD!" screamed Martin. Suddenly, his hands began to glow a fiery red, burning off the ropes around his wrists and he swung out a flaming fist into Grun's face, sending the dwarf flying backwards.
His hand was throbbing from the impact with the dwarf's hard skin, but he barely felt it. He pounced onto the dwarf and tried to wrap his hands around Grun's thick throat. Instead, he found the dwarf's powerful grip on his own throat, threatening to crush his larynx, before being thrown off.
Martin struggled to his feet and saw Grun charging towards him, murder in his remaining black eye and Martin sent a firebolt right into the dwarf's face. Grun grunted in surprise, and suddenly Martin was tackling him to the ground.
The two of them scuffled around before finally being separated by M'raaj-Dar and Arvina. The Khajiit held the dwarf back, his considerable strength barely able to restrain Grun while Arvina threw Martin onto his back and pinned him beneath her boot.
"That's enough, both of you!" shouted Arvina. "Martin, we're not happy about getting beat up by Daedra just so that you'd agree to come with us, so quit your whining! Grun, I know you're angry about losing your left eye, but that's no excuse for treating Martin so cruelly!"
Silence followed after her outburst.
"Please, you two," said M'raaj-Dar quietly, his ears drooping. "We're all tired here and we need some rest. I know it's too much to ask that you two to tolerate each other, so at the very least ignore each other."
The Khajiit released Grun and Arvina helped Martin onto his feet.
"Let's...let's just eat and get some rest," said Arvina tiredly.
They ate the stew that M'raaj-Dar cooked eagerly enough, but the air was filled with so much tension that eating the delicious stew became an unpleasant affair.
Martin helped M'raaj-Dar to clean up after they were done while Grun threw more sticks on the fire to make it burn brighter. When Martin and M'raaj-Dar were done, Arvina spoke up.
"One of us should keep watch for every three hours..." she started.
"...I'll take first watch," said Martin stiffly.
Arvina nodded. "Thank you, now the rest of us should get some sleep."
As Martin went to sit on a rock nearby to take watch, he heard M'raaj-Dar speak to Grun.
"Maybe the kid's not so bad."
A snort from the dwarf.
"Bastard."
Martin gritted his teeth.
