Another chapter! Yay! This one is a bit shorter and contains a lesser amount of steaminess, but hey, what are you gonna do about it? Sometimes you just gotta move the plot forward. Oh, and no animals were harmed during the writing of this chapter. Just in case.
Chaper 2: The Hunt
Kian felt her entire body suddenly entwined with the feeling of adrenaline. Slowly waking up, she felt her body levitating, not contacting the ground or anything around her. She couldn't open her eyes and the drowsy feeling of sleep yet persisted, even though her heart was pumping. Trying to move, she strained the muscles on her arms end legs and she wasn't sure whether they moved or not. Without a sense of time or direction, she felt her entire body starting to move. Not by the command of her mind, but of its own accord, almost as if she were... falling. The feeling grew as she began falling faster and faster. Her reflexes finally resumed and she opened her eyes wide and dropped her jaw, trying to breathe in. Everything was a blur, but she saw it. She saw the end of her journey, the end of the fall. It grew closer with every moment and Kian felt herself preparing for impact. It gave her no time at all to think about what was going on and where she even was and soon she found herself only a hair away from the greenish blue surface that looked as if it'd been drawn with broad brush strokes on a canvas and then everything faded to black.
After what felt like a while, she opened her eyes. And lifted her torso off the ground. Ground? Her downward gaze was pointing at the surface to which her body was racing just moments ago. It looked kind of like water with a turquoise tint, giving off a faint, magic-like glow, except it didn't feel wet, insted, it felt somehow soft and non-existent, like very a very dense wind beneath her body.
She stood up, an action which seemed to take very little physical strain, almost as if the wind had been helping her. She looked around and found herself to be surrounded by pine trees, whose tops pointed to the light red sky which held a billion stars, all visible trough the red haze. She felt a heat radiating from the peculiar ground, warming the lower part of her body. Though the air was cold above her navel. Goosebumps erupted on her arms and breasts and her light-red nipples hardened. She noticed she was still completely nude, as she was during her evening indulgences, when she fell asleep. She ducked her elbows and knees to escape some of the cold that lingered above.
She started walking directionless, between the mighty stems of trees. The trees themselves all seemed to be very tall and old, one looking nearly identical to the other. There was no other vegetation to be seen anywhere.
Despite the fact that the space she found herself in had every marking of a dream, she couldn't help but think it was something more. She could feel the air around her and the strange, almost magical feeling of the turquoise ground beneath her soles. She tried to speak and out of her mouth came an indistinguishable mutter. The mutter, silent as it was, started to echo and then all sorts of sounds started making themselves known. She could hear the buzzing of bugs and chirping of birds, the sound of running water in the distance and the whooshing of wind, which she could now feel brushing her cheeks and flowing trough her hair.
At the heels of the trees, vegetation started materializing in a dark blue light, grass, different sort of weed, small flowers colored blue and yellow, ivy suddenly grew on trees and small birds started to flap about, flying across treetops, landing on the branches. She could now feel the cold, wet morning grass beneath her feet with pine needles sprinkled here and there, it felt a lot like the forest surrounding pine rock.
She noticed a clearing just up ahead and walked toward it. At the center of the small clearing was a severed trunk and several pieces of apparel lay on top. There was a top created from a brown bear pelt which was just lazily stuck together with an iron button on the chest and then similarly made skirt created with a grey wolf pelt, and white rabbit pelt footwear which would extend to the knees and finally, a fur helmet with the upper jaw of an elk attached to the top, long and branching antlers proudly stretching from the sides. It almost looked like bosmer craftsmanship, except for the choice of animal, which resided mostly in nordic regions.
Kian picked the bear top and slid it over her head, hanging it around her elbows. It rested gently upon her breasts. She then grabbed the wolf skirt and tightened it around her waist. It provided little warmth for the moment, but it kept wind from blowing on her delicate parts. She hesitated a bit before picking up the fur helm, but did nonetheless, since the air was coldest around her head. She then left the clearing, leaving the footwear behind.
She continued to walk trough the neverending forest, strangely compelled to keep going. After while, she noticed something struck into one of the trees ahead of her. She made her way there and noticed a the tip of a long, dark dagger glowing red trough the smooth, meandering cracks. She grabbed its hilt and dislodged it from the tree to inspect it closer. Small inscriptions ran all over the blade. Deadric letters. This was a legendary deadric weapon, she'd only hoped in her dreams that she could ever wield one. Although this did still seem to be a just that.
Behind her, a voice suddenly spoke, echoing loudly around the forest.
"Kian," it spoke, "welcome to my realm. I've been observing you for a long time."
For a while, everything was silent. The birds had stopped chirping, the bugs stopped buzzing and all Kian could hear was the gust of the wind.
"This will be a test of your abilities," the voice continued. "Best of luck in the hunt."
A started walking toward her from the distance, between the trees. She could make the shadow of a four-legged creature. She felt her head getting lighter and felt the top of her helm with her hand. The elk skull was gone.
The creature stopped and rose its head, long and branching antlers stretching from the sides. It tapped its hoof in two audible clacks. This was a signal. Kian launched into a ferocious sprint, dagger in hand. The creature turned and ran. It ran fast, faster than the Forsworn girl, the clacking of its hooves echoing troughout. The clunky wolf skirt flapped around her legs, slowing her down. She swiped the dagger skillfully and the button holding the pelt together flew trough the air, releasing the pelt, making it flap onto the ground. Kian felt a shock of cold air on her privates, but continued to run more lightweight, now at a faster pace.
She didn't care much for running, her usual hunts for small rodents included slowly creeping up to them, making nary a sound. This was just the opposite. Her feet would slap onto the ground at a hasty rate, hitting just about every rock, pine needle or whatever hurtful was below. This was different though. It was almost as if the entire environment was created for her "test", putting her preferences into account. This ground felt softer, the needles were scarce and her feet not once felt the pain of a rock jabbing at her skin.
The elk was running slower and slower now, relaxing in the knowledge Kian could never catch up to its incredible speeds.
Then, Kian thought of another tactic. She slowed down and crouched, leaning behind a tree. Everything in the environment was silent ever since the voice started speaking, except for animal's own steps, which made an audible clacking sound.
She moved silently to where she'd last heard the animal. She could hear it. The clacking. It was much slower now. She slowly and carefully started moving toward the sounds using her sneaking abilities, stepping ever-so-lightly on the heel first, then slowly moving the ankle and shifting the focus onto the toes. Leaning to the left and peeking from behind a tree, she saw the elk. It looked identical to the ones running across the tundras of Skyrim, the kind they'd roast and eat together with in her tribe. Grey, almost purple hair covering the entire body, small black eyes on the head, those were the two features that stood out the most to Kien.
She silently crept as close as she could to the creature, then violently lounged and stabbed the dagger into its side. the creature shrieked horribly, then galloped away ferociously, forcing the dagger out of her hand. Kian lounged again, running after it. This time the creature was weakened in pain with 12 inches of deadric ebony piercing into its body.
Kian got within touching distance of the creature and jumped, latching upon its back, grasping onto its hair. It started kicking with its back legs and trying to stand up to discard her desperately, but was unable. Kian struggled, humping upward with her legs, trying to entwine them around the elk, rubbing her bare stomach and pelvis against its body. She grabbed a hold of the handle, pulled it out, spraying blood, then stabbed it again, and again and again until the creature dropped dead, bleeding from several parts of its body.
Kian lay on the ground gasping for air, trying to regain the breath that the fall had squeezed from her chest. Then everything around her started to fade. In the end, she could hear the same voice from before, saying "Well done."