Chapter 6: The Scamp Gate

Nightshade's morning had sucked big-time. She was half-way up the mountain and even when she woke up, her legs just went three steps out of her tent before she had to sit and rub them. Ice had said it was a good thing and that her legs would get used to it. She was going to make him get used to her fist.

She couldn't make it to Kvatch, but luckily she didn't have to walk it all, because the five was suddenly surprised to see a camp, possibly with about a dozen people. Most of them looked sad or was crying. Three of them were calm.

"What's going on here?" Elyon furrowed her brow and approached the closest person, a Redguard who held her face in her hands. She started weeping right when she saw her, so she backed away.

"I can't go on," Nightshade fell to the ground and a small dust cloud formed. Elyon crouched beside her. "Ice, go get some information. Night needs some medicine."

"Huh? What are you going to do?" Ice didn't like the fact he'd be doing the dirty work.

"I specialize in alchemy and healing magic. I was taught by the best back in Vvardenfell."

"Really? Why didn't you mention it before?"

"Because I never needed to," she started to take something out of her pockets. They looked like large seed pods. She beaconed for Silver, and Richu jumped off her back. She had been sleeping, but now she was curious.

Ice looked angry. "Fine. Fine!" He marched off and came to a slim, pretty-looking Wood elf with a blue-velvet dress and light hair in a bun. She blinked. "May I help you?"

"Yeah," he growled. "What's going on? Who are you people?"

She looked at him while arranging odd looking objects on her table. "Haven't you heard? Kvatch is under attack. We're refugees, the ones that survived."

"You're rather calm."

She faltered and one of the trinkets fell and broke. She was closing her eyes. "Please go, I have nothing more to say."

Ice backed off. These people were freaking him out. So, where was this Martin?

He walked back to Elyon to find her using an alembic. "Kvatch has been attacked; just our luck. How much do you want to bet we're going to have to rescue Martin from some trapped building and all the rest of the survivors?"

Richu glared at him while Elyon just said, "Ok." She started to pour the liquid she made into a vile. "A fulfilling power drink made from aloe vera for health and fatigue, flax for a boost, ginkgo for your magicka, and peony for strength." She handed it to Nightshade, who weakly drank it.

"Now, there might be some side effects, including feeling invisible, feeling light-headed, having a shield, being unlucky, and feeling shocked (and I mean electricity-wise)." Immediately after Elyon said this, Nightshade jumped up a little and rubbed her sides. "There's the shock." She got up anyway and felt her legs. "Hey, I do feel better. Thanks!"

"No problem," Elyon smiled. Richu started to wag her tail when she rose too.

"So, we have to find out where Martin is," Ice tugged on Nightshade's robe. "We better hurry before it's too late."

She sighed, but followed. Elyon led Silver after them after she put her alchemistical tools away.

They didn't walk far out of the camp until an old Breton, who looked like a monk, stopped them. "It's the end of the world! Oblivion has risen and Cyrodiil will turn into Molag Bal's Coldharbour!"

"Yeah, yeah, we're looking for Martin." Ice rolled his eyes like he heard things like that every day.

"Martin? The church guy? Didn't see him. He's a victim of the Oblivion Crisis! Run, before it's too late!"

"Unlike you, we're not cowards," Ice seemed more than irritated by the monk's pessimism. "Come on."

The Oblivion Gate was nothing like Nightshade had ever imagined. It was oval shaped and looked like it was made of fire with claws outlining as the doorframe. The fire came out from the middle and shined as it sped outwards towards the black talons. Ice had stepped back and was squinting his eyes in regret of ever coming. Elyon just looked amazed.

"How are we supposed to get through that?" Nightshade had grown chipper since her legs had healed, but her voice faltered from that.

Ice shrugged. They were standing more than a few yards away behind, what they noticed, a fence of badly placed, sharpened sticks. There were guards sitting behind them, looking worried and drinking a bottle of some sort of alcohol.

"Excuse me," Elyon called. "What's going on?"

A guard looked at her. "Hell, that's what. Those Daedra have been coming out of that gate for ages. Kvatch is a goner."

"What sort?"

"Evil ones, what else?"

Ice looked scared a little. "Evil Daedra…"

"What other sort of Daedra is there?" she turned her attention back to the guard. "Where's your captain?"

"He went into the gate with a few men. Hasn't come back."

She sighed. "You were right, Ice, we'll have to go and save Martin. Come on."

"No, wait!"

The guards were baring their swords as something started to come out. Ice's eyes went wide. Elyon bit her lip. Nightshade just wanted to know what it was.

"They're coming!"

They bared their weapons, ready for combat. Something was coming out of the flaming gate.

"Oh my—what the heck?"

A small creature with large ears and pale, brown skin came running out, baring long, sharp claws. Ice rolled his eyes and with a lone swipe of his dagger it went backwards and died.

"That's what you're worried about? A stupid scamp?"

The guard was sweating. "They're vicious. That's all that's come out, around three of them at a time, tearing and running around—"

"By the Nine, you're a bunch of chickens! They're scamps! I was expecting real Daedra, like Clannfears or Atronaches. No, you bunch of yellow-bellies are scared of scamps, runts at that!"

"If you're so tough go in there yourself!" A guard at the end of the fence barked.

"We plan to," Elyon started to walk up to the gate.

"What's so bad about scamps?" Nightshade would rather ask Elyon because she clearly had more experience than Ice.

"Scamps throw fireballs and resist fire and spells, but they are weak against shocks. Stunted scamps, like the one we just saw, are even weaker." She patted Silver's snout and Richu's head. "Stay here until we come back."

The trio approached the gate cautiously. Elyon felt the portal and it rippled like a liquid, not like fire. She inhaled deeply and stepped through. Ice stepped next, and Nightshade stepped reluctantly.

She stared, a look of surprise across all their faces.

The world of Oblivion was right in front of them. The ground was red dust and all around them were towers of wicked, black metal with sharpened tips. They were connected by bridges, narrow and without rails, and around their small island was a sea of lava. Fires were everywhere, almost like lights, just suddenly appearing and then shrinking and blown away.

"I've counted seven towers, one in the middle of six," Elyon frowned. "I don't see any Daedra either."

"You mean scamps," Ice laughed, a little nervousness showed in it.

"What do we do?" Nightshade was scared. This place was pure evil.

"Well, it's pretty obvious we have to get into that middle tower, but there seems to be a bunch of fires and rocks around it. We'll have to find a way through the other towers," Elyon started to walk.

"Wait up!"

They proceeded cautiously into the hellish place. Nightshade had to grip her bearings more than once when they passed gruesomely tortured bodies with blood dripping down their decaying bodies. Eyes were opened wide as guts hung out of stomachs freely and mouths were open in sheer terror as their feet were tied to a string and hung upside down. Elyon was stiff while Ice was shaking. They knew perfectly well this could be their fate.

"Odd, how we haven't co-co-come across any Dae-daedra," Ice stammered, trying to look optimistic. Elyon nodded grimly and Nightshade just kept walking with a disgusted look on her face.

"F-finally, a door!" he pushed it open. It felt gritty and brittle, like lead, and yet it held strongly. The unusual grooves and spikes gave way to an odd tower that towered into the sky. If he had looked closely, he could've seen the red and black blotchiness above.

His marveling was short because two nasty-looking scamps had seen them and were running at them, screeching. He took out his knives, but they proved stronger than they looked as they ganged up on him and made him fall.

Nightshade unsheathed her sword and slashed. Elyon, like usual, just watched. The scamps, in no time, were motionless.

"What the hell?" Ice's anger showed in his reddening face as he confronted Elyon. "Why is it you never help?"

"I killed a spriggan for you," she calmly retorted. He was about to answer back when Nightshade tapped him on the shoulder. "What?"

"What's that?"

They looked to see, in the middle of the large floor, a pit, and at the bottom were large spikes. "A torture pit. No much of torture, though. All you have to do is push someone down and they die with a scream instantly." Ice stuck his tongue out.

"So, where to now?" Nightshade looked around to see a spiral slope heading upwards to the middle of the tower. She sighed as Elyon pointed that way. "That just looks plain scary."

"Afraid of heights?" Ice taunted her as he started to walk upwards and almost slipped. Nightshade snickered slightly, but she didn't smile. The girls followed anyway.

They walked, and walked, and walked. They didn't talk at all, not really feeling up to it. Nightshade looked at the floor to notice it was black in some parts and red in others. This interested her for some strange reason.

When they reached the top, there was a small room with a hole in the middle. She looked down to see the pit directly below, and saw something she didn't before. There was a blue body below, bloody with the spike sticking through its stomach, blood all over its face, which looked like it was screaming.

There was a bridge leading out into the windy air through a door they had found. She didn't even look down; she was too scared. To add to her feeling, there were no rails or anything obscuring her from the ground below. When they reached the middle tower, she clung to the wall, her ponytail getting ruined from the wind.

Ice followed behind her and violently pushed her aside while looking wildly down. "Who's scared of heights now?" Nightshade taunted with a shaking voice.

Elyon was a superb balancer, much like a cat, stealthy and fast. Her arms didn't even flail out. She did look scared, though. Before she reached the tower, she pointed. "Behind you!"

The two turned to see a rather nasty looking scamp. He looked like he hadn't eaten in days, or slept. He kept rubbing his hands like he was gambling, and his left ear was torn. His eyes were swollen and bloodshot, but yellow all the same. Nightshade jumped back when she heard its voice.

"Well, looks like we have intruders, like the master said."

"A talking scamp!" Ice looked fascinated with the small creature.

"Master wants young heroes eliminated. Master will be pleased…" The scamp raised its scrawny arms and the shadows started to move, contort, and come off the walls and floors. The room, being large and oddly different with many pillars, two large windows bringing in dusty rays of light, and tiled floors, had many shadows, and soon a whole army of scamps stood before them, grinning and flexing their bony fingers. "Get 'em!"

Elyon cracked her fists and started punching like crazy. Ice and Nightshade slashed through, and yet the scamp that started it all was laughing, mocking, and only creating more.

"We can't win this!" Ice was back-to-back with her. "You need to get to the top of the tower and—well, do something!"

He pushed her into the swarm of Daedra and blocked for her. They went through the room until they found a door. "Go, we'll stall them!"

Her robe ripped and stained with blood, Nightshade pushed the stone door, and instantly found herself in another room, but it was more like a hall. Doors were on either side of her, and yet she knew none of them would help. She could hear screams and evil laughter, the hall seemed endless. Scared, she finally reached the end—

For a moment Nightshade thought she had made a complete circle, because the room looked very much like the first tower, with the spiked pit and ramp circling up. She staggered back, shocked, until she realized it wasn't. This room had doors, and the sky was much more visible. She started to climb.

"We have to get to that scamp!" Elyon shouted over the screeching of scamps. "I have a plan. Get to the middle of this heap and distract him, ok, and for gods' sake don't die!" She jumped over the heads with amazing acrobatics and landed on top of a bigger scamp, immediately killing it. Ice, with no better idea, followed orders for once, though not with great enthusiasm, and started to flail around.

"Hey, scampy-guy! Your mother was a—uh—three-headed Guar who mated with a rat, which explains why you're so butt-ugly!"

He smirked as the scamp's pale face turned crimson with anger. "I'll show you who has the better genes—"

Too late. Shouting untranslatable words, Elyon had shot a ray of green-white light at the scamp, hitting him square on the back. His concentration blown, he fell and the scamps reduced to nothingness around them.

"Good hit," Ice stared at the paralyzed scamp. "You shouldn't have stunned him, though, because now you have to kill him yourself."

"I don't want him dead," Elyon saw the scamp twitch and picked him up. "I want to know what's going on."

Regaining consciousness, he groaned and rolled his head back.

"Well," she shook him. "You heard me, Daedra!"

"Creeper doesn't know!" the scamp cried. "Creeper was in his master's house when dark man appeared. He said Creeper must obey the new master or else his old master would die! Creeper, being loyal, obeyed!"

"Creeper… hold up. Aren't you that scamp that sells lock picks and stolen stuff with skooma in Caldera?"

"Yes! You know Creeper! Creeper wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Hmm…"

Nightshade could sleep for a year after this. She had reached the top and had finally got the hang of not looking down. Oddly enough, there was only a scamp guarding the overhang, which was swiftly put to rest. But that wasn't what captivated her.

It was a ball that looked of flames, like lava, but cooled with molten on top. It floated above a pedestal of cruel-looking claws. She wanted to touch it, to hold it, to be enthralled by it.

She reached out, eyes wide, and her fingers touched the warm surface. She pulled, and she was suddenly spinning, everything transforming or disintegrating, refusing to let go…

"Nightshade!"

She clutched the stone to her heart and realized it was Ice that had called her name. She looked at him, unable to speak.

"You did it!"

She nodded, and then looked at Elyon. She wasn't looking at them. She was looking at the flames around them.

A Word from Haunt: Ok, this chapter's a cliff-hanger, and has a lot from Morrowind. I'm telling you now; Morrowind's got a BIG part in this story. I'll try to help, though.

Creeper- a scamp that was in the Orc Mansion in the Morrowind city of Caldera. I remember he was sort of a fence and could sell practically anything to him.

Guar- A pack animal used in Morrowind that looked kind of like a round lizard. I thought they were kind of cute…

Caldera- City in Morrowind. Its main importance was the Mages Guild. It was a sort of fort town, small, and was near the Caldera mining camp in the West Gash region.

Morrowind- a country to the northeast of Cyrodiil

Vvardenfall- a large island disconnected with the mainland of Morrowind