Loredas, 17th of Sun's Dawn, 4E 01 12:58pm
Finally we were outside the mine. After three days of traveling, we were outside the wooden door that led into the mine. We had gotten there pretty fast, the little elf struggling to match my long strides the entire way. He'd filled my ears up with complaints about me walking so fast but I just walked a bit fast and he was more focused on keeping his breathing in check to complain.
"Well… This is it, you ready?" He asked, looking pretty pumped for it. He still wouldn't tell me who actually told him to clear the place out or why he was so excited to do it. I wasn't going inside there without an answer.
"Before we do, answer me this: Why are we here?" I demanded, stooping down so I was right in his face.
He immediately started looking everywhere but my face. "I…Uh… Don't know what you're talking about. I told you, they're taking travelers…" He stuttered, still not meeting my eyes.
I pressed him against the wall, picking him up to my eye level by the shoulders of his armor. "I am not going in there without an answer. Why. Are. We. Here?" I demanded again, shaking his shoulders with each word.
His shoulders sagged and he looked down in defeat. "Azura… Some of her followers turned into vampires so she wants them… So she wants them exterminated," He finished, looking down.
I gently set him down, got down to his level so we were eye-to-eye, and then smacked him across the face as hard as I could. When he looked at me with utter confusion and a bit of anger, I shrugged. "That's for not telling me we were doing this for a Daedra," I answered his unsaid question: Why?! "And this…" I said, picking him up in a hug, "Is to let you know that if you become a fanatic of her, I am going to slap you again, but I don't care that you do this for Azura."
I set him down once more and he looked up at me with grateful eyes. "Thank you, Kasuld. I know it isn't easy for you to understand, but I grew up worshipping her in Morrowind. This is my chance to prove I am worthy to be her champion. This really does mean a lot to me."
"Hey, no problem, I'm happy to help. But know that if you do become a fanatic instead of just a regular worshipper, I'm going to slap you again… with my bare fist."
"But that's a…" He stopped, understanding coming to his eyes. "Okay, alright. No fanaticism for me."
"That's a good boy. Now let's kill some vampires," I said, grinning.
Holding my torch up to light the way, we walked about halfway down the corridor which was at a decline. "Sure is dark down he-Yegh!" Jarow grabbed the back of my Blades Armor yanked me back.
For a Nord of my size, it was quite a feat that the little Bosmer was able to pull me back. Then again, this is the elf that closed dozens of Oblivion Gates, fighting through hordes of Daedra to get the Sigil Stone from each one; and also the one who fought Mankar Camoran and his two children. "What in Oblivion?!" I cried out as he pulled me back.
Raising a finger to his lips, he pointed at the tripwire I almost stepped on. Carefully cutting it so it wouldn't trigger, he pointed down the corridor, cupped his ear for me to listen closely, and put out the torch, sending us into almost darkness as there was a light coming from ahead.
Looking around, I realized I couldn't see Jarow anywhere. He'd melted into the shadows. Remembering he motioned for me to listen closely, I heard a voice muttering to itself from further down on the passage. Slowly walking down the corridor, I found a Nord woman in fur armor with an iron short sword in her hand that she was fidgeting with and a fur shield on her other arm.
Walking up behind her, I was planning to take her out quietly so as not to get all of the other vampires attacking me at once. However, I forgot to take in account the vampire's enhanced senses. She spun around when I was a yard away, katana poised to strike. She flung some sort of spell at me that I dodged. I lunged forward, sinking my blade into her chest, where her heart was, before quickly spinning around and decapitating her, making sure she couldn't come back from the dead.
"Bit overkill, don't you say?" Jarow's voice said from the shadows, making me jump for the second time that day.
"For the love of all that's holy, will you stop doing that? Scares the shit out of me," I said, glaring at where his voice came from.
"Over here," He said, coming from the complete opposite direction I was looking.
"What the… You know what, not even questioning it anymore. Oh and it wasn't overkill. I was just making sure she doesn't come back from the dead."
"You stabbed her heart, that's pretty hard to come back from," He said, giving me a look I couldn't determine.
"Superstition, I guess. Now let's get this over with. Place gives me the creeps."
We continued on and found a lit area, it looked like an actual mine instead of a cave, with the wooden beams on the ceiling and wall. I was going to go forward but Jarow indicated a small passage and we went through it instead. It led to an open area with wooden pillars holding up the ceiling and a wooden wall. Motioning for me to stay put and be quiet, Jarow crept along the side of the wooden wall, where anyone on the other side couldn't see him and poked his head around the corner. He looked back and held up two fingers meaning two vampires. Then he pointed to me, meaning there was a heavy armored one. Peeking around again, he turned back around and pulled out a feather, meaning a light armored one. Nodding, I went to the other corner of the wall, waiting for his signal which was usually some animal screeching.
"SCREEEEEEEE!"
"What the fuck was that?!" Came a brutish voice, a female Orc, I deduced.
I heard heavy footsteps and then a shadow came into view, headed toward my corner. Once it'd reached a distance I assumed would be within striking-distance, I turned the corner and lunged.
But the Orc was trained and quickly raised her shield to block my katana. She swung with his axe and I raised my Blades Shield to block it. We glared at each other over our shields before both striking at each other. Our weapons met and we came in close, glaring daggers at each other while trying to overpower the other's weapon. Smirking at her, I dropped my katana, making her fall off balance from all of the power she was putting into moving it that way, and I pulled a short sword out of my belt and stuck it into the back of her head and she fell past me. I cut off her head like the first once she was on the ground.
Thinking that Jarow had taken care of the other, I relaxed, letting the tension go out my muscles for the moment when I felt a blinding pain on the back of my head. I cried out and turned around, swinging my katana. It caught in the side of a woman's head, halfway through from the force of my swing.
When her body fell, behind her stood Jarow, holding up Umbra poised to strike.
"Well, that took the fun out of that. Are you alright? Did she get you?" He asked, looking worried.
"Only a scratch, I think. Got me on the back of the head, stupid bitch," I growled, kicking her dead body.
"Hey, now, don't do that. Respect the dead, right?" He said, looking offended I kicked her.
"Why should I? She wouldn't have shown me the same respect," I argued.
"Well you're not like her, are you? No. Not by a long shot. Now, be respectful. They may be bloodthirsty vampires but they're still people… Or were."
"Whatever, let's just keep going."
Going back into the first wooden area, we saw a couple of coffins ahead and decided to check those for sleeping vampires. We broke both of the lids but none were inside.
We found another passage to the left of the coffins and decided to go through there. Continuing down it, we found a small cave with complex designs on it, but no vampires inside it so we kept walking down the passage on the other side of the cave. We found a few more empty coffins but no vampires when the passage came to a dead end.
We went back to where I killed the Orc and Imperial woman and found that it was just wall at the back of it. There were no more vampires and I was ready to leave but Jarow wasn't satisfied.
"No, no, no! Azura told me there were five vampires. Not three, five! Where are the other two?" He cried, looking desperate. He really wanted to prove himself to Azura if he was this desperate.
As he was mumbling about him failing, I notice a string on the back wall. Walking over to it, I pulled it downward and a rock wall slid open.
"Um, Jarow."
"I'm a failure, failure!"
"Jarow.."
"I am not worthy as Azura's champion, because those two vampires aren't here!"
I walked over to him and slapped him hard across the face. He just stared back at me in surprise.
"Pull it together! Look!" I pointed to where the wall came away.
"You did it! They must be down there! Thank you! Come on, let's finish these bloodsuckers."
We went through the wall and it led to a decline that went into an open place, with a structure not unlike the one in the Orc room. The room was empty but I heard voices on the other side of the structure, motioning to Jarow, I moved toward the lit side and he went into the side blanketed by darkness. Peeking around the corner like before Jarow looked back at me and made the same motions as before but instead of a feather, he acted like he was pulling on a bow string, which meant one must've been an archer. Once more, we moved to the corners and I waited for his signal.
"SCREEEEEE!"
Once more: "What the fuck was that?!" Said a brutish voice, the Orc.
Like before, I waited until the shadow was within striking-distance, but I waited a bit longer so they were closer before I struck out with my short sword. I was thankful I had waited because it caught the Orc by surprise and the blade slid home right into one of his eyes, ending his short miserable life right then and there. His body crumpled to the ground and I looked past him, where an Altmer with a bow looked surprised on the other end of an arrow. She let it fly and I raised my shield, deflecting it. She reached for her quiver to grab another but instead found a sword blade. Her eyes went wide before it went between them.
Jarow stood behind her, looking very pleased with himself.
"So what, that's four for me and one for you?" I said with a smirk, laughing at the glare he gave me.
"Let's just get out of here. I need to get back to Azura and you need to get back to Cloud Ruler. Bet they miss you there."
"Aye, probably; no one likes to do lookout duty so they always stick it to me because they know I won't complain. Alright, let's go," I said.
When we were outside, Jarow turned and held out his hand. I took it and we shook, him giving me a grateful look before saying his thanks once more for helping him become Azura's champion. He went on his way; the Shrine to Azura was apparently northwest of Cheydinhal.
I sighed and went the other way, back to Bruma and the Cloud Ruler Temple. I bet as soon as I got there, I'd be stuck with lookout duty.