-Shadowfen Southern Border-

"I do not have fleas! You do! And when are we going to leave this fetid swamp?" The speaker snaps at the back of an Argonian, he is a Dunmer of around 18, grey skin with a slight green tinge, a black mohawk, and angry crimson eyes. The crest of the Dres house is on his muddy armor, which has seen much better days.

The Argonian stops and slowly turns around, she has silver-grey scales and purple fins on her head, and her golden eyes narrow slightly as she gathers all her patience. "Tervven," she hisses and then closes her eyes briefly before reopening them. "I did not mean to bite you!" she says with an anguished look upon her scaly face. Back in Deshaan she had been scared and lost, and father home then she yet knew at that moment. Why had the portal she ran through brought her here? This was before. The river ran forward, never backward! And yet, she was still so very lost in time. The portal...without it she would have been lost to the hunters, dead upon the ground, but her pack in Skyrim... her brothers back in the Marsh... her egg-father and grandmother who wandered the world on their quest... Beyond her claws, beyond all hope of ever returning to. "I can not fix this," Leaps-With-Wolves says in a quieter tone. "By the River, by the Hist, by Hircine, I am sorry." And with those words, she turns and continues. The border is near, they will cross into Blackwood soon. Why she wanders that way, she does not know. All she knows is some instinct drives her and without any other path to follow, she follows this.

Tervven grumbles behind her before he continues to follow her, as he has done ever since she bit him. "I do not have fleas," he insists again, "I deny this utterly! I will not turn and you will fix this."

Both statements contradict and she sighs. How to deal with this Dres slaver? She could not hurt him, kill him. Not when this was her fault. To her, being one of Hircine's wolves was a gift, but to others, it was a curse. And it is not within her power to fix this...soon he will turn for the first time. And what then? Will he be able to retain any control or will he... at the dark thoughts she trembles as they continue through the last of Shadowfen.

-Stonefalls, Vivec's Antlers-

Talshaza Dralith had been careful. The young Dunmer woman from a small house, far from home for the first time in her life. Long ebony hair braided in the back, crimson eyes, and unusual runes dull red, nearly blending into the dark of her skin mark her face, and cascade down her arms. Yes, she had been careful up to this point. Staying on the road and staying near fellow travelers. But a group of friendly Guar had distracted her. They reminded her of the Guar her family had kept on their Kwama farm before the undead came during the Mad Necromancers war. When the dust settled, most everything was dead, including her parents. And so these guars reminded her of what had been lost. But twilight had soon fallen and when her attention turned back to the road, it was empty of all other travelers.

And that is when they struck, slinking out from behind a large cluster of rocks. Five masked bandits who saw her alone, as easy prey. With no formal training in warrior or mage craft, she...was. And so Talshaza did the only thing she could think to do, she turned and ran from them into the grass, Vivec's Antlers to her right and open plains to her left. The bandits' quickly cut off the left and she is forced to move closer and closer to the steep rocks until she is trapped between them and the hunters and she turns to face them. In this moment it would be easy to surrender, for she is so very afraid, but the spark within her that leads her to follow a strange song, that lead her to leave her brother and simple life behind, will not just give up. Will not surrender. Talshaza reaches for the strange staff that found her over a month ago outside her house, facing with bravery, impossible odds.

"That's all you've got?" The largest bandit sneers at her and in his hands, a second later is a huge sword as he laughs at her.

Talshaza's runes flare to brilliant life, as if awakened by the threat and the staff answers their call, fire springing to life and covering it in blazing light, and she almost drops it. Until something speaks to her, not with words but a deep instinct. ~Do not fear this fire. Others should fear it, but never you.~ "Stay away," she softly growls but the bandit just laughs again and charges her, and she raises the staff and the flames burst into rage and shoot out to engulf the bandit reducing him to so much ash. The four remaining bandits freeze in shock and a strangled gasp escapes her lips as she stares at what remains of her attacker. The brief pause does not last long however, and the bandit's rage overcomes their fear of the fire and they charge her all at once. ~Again~ it speaks to her. The staff, the fire, or whatever power is within it. But the horror of this moment, of taking a life for the first time sends Talshaza into panic and she whirls and scrambles up the steep rocky surface racing higher and higher the furious bandits right behind her.

The sound of rocks shifting as one of them slips and falls to the shallow watery ground filled with coral below his scream cut off as he hits with a sickening thud. Talshaza keeps running until she reaches the very top and she turns to face the remaining three bandits, staff gripped tightly in hands in a threat she cannot bring herself to mean. And they sense this, her hesitation, and come for her again. A rumble in the distance breaks the chase however and soon after a quake rips across the land land causing the bandits to fall to their knees and causing Talshaza to stumble and fall backward from the rock to the coral infested ground below with a startled scream.

-Shadowfen Southern Border-

Hours trekking through the swamp, at last Leaps-With-Wolves stops in a small clearing surrounded by marsh trees and starts to make camp. Evening is falling, and the marsh is so very dangerous at night. Not for her, but for this squishy Dunmer following her, and even now the anger has yet to die within his eyes. As the fire flickers to life she faces Tervven. "You must learn to control your temper," she hisses. "For if you change with it..."

She's cut off by Tervven's angry outburst, "I will not! I DENY IT! Fix it!" Tervven snarls. "Fix it or I will...I will..." Tervven's hand moves to the short ax clipped to his belt and Leaps tenses, her claws drifting to her sword.

The fight is cut off as the clearing is suddenly lit by brilliant blue light as a portal opens and Talshaza falls from it, landing on her back in front of the two. With a small sound, she sits and looks up at Leaps and Tervven. "What happened...," she says then trails off as confusion crosses her face at the unusual pair. A Dres Dunmer, the crest of his family on his clothes, an Argonian, but not a captive one. "What..." she whispers utter lost. One moment falling to her death, the next here in the Marsh. All that has happened, killing the bandit, nearly dying, is almost too much for her so she instead focuses on Tervvan and Leaps. "You are House Dres, with an Argonian?"

Tervvan crosses his arms across his chest. "NOT by choice! I can not, simply can not return to my house until she has UNDONE WHAT SHE DID!" Tervvan snaps. "Why else would I be following a damn lizard around?"

Leaps-With-Wolves hisses angrily then looks away. "I did not mean to bite him. I have never once lost control like that. Ever. My wolf and I swim the same current! We understand each other, we are one!" she hisses.

Once more the world overwhelms Talshaza as Leaps words sink in and her eyes widen in fear and she scrambles up and backs away from the Argonian, who just freely admitted what she was. A werewolf. And if she bit the Dres...

Leaps-With-Wolves head snaps up as she realizes she's frightened the female Dunmer. "Calm!," she hisses. "My pack lives in the wilds of Skyrim's mountains. We never hunt man, mer, or beast folk. We live as pack in peace, and hunt the wild beasts."

Slowly Talshaza meets Leap's eyes and calms as she sees no malevolence, no monster within. Just a young woman such as herself, and with a start, she sees loss in those eyes as if the Argonian wolf is so very lost. Just...as she is. "I...I am Talshaza," she says.

Tervvan lowers his arms and studies her. "What house do you belong to?"

Her eyes move to his, a flash of grave sorrow within. "I am not from one of the great houses. And my house...is it one with just I and my Brother left? We lost...nearly everything in the war." Talshaza answers quietly.

Leaps-With-Wolves moves to the fire and she stares in it. " I am farther home than I have ever been. I...my pack, and my family are beyond my reach. I am lost, and yet I am meant to be here. The river pushes me forward. I just do not know why."

Talshaza moves closer to the fire and to Leaps. "You are lost," she softly responds. "I am too. The staff I carry found me. It...I do not know what it is. It drives me from home, drives me to find...I do not know what. I have never been away from home. I do not know what to do, where to go." she falls silent and looks down at her hands. "I...never hurt anyone before. The staff reacted, the bandit. Nothing was left of him but ashes. And it wanted me to destroy the rest of them. They meant me harm, I nearly died falling, trying to escape them. Something...someone saved me."

"I am Leaps-With-Wolves," Leaps says. "This is Tervven. Come with us. We are all alone, lost, but perhaps together we will not be alone."

Tervven grumbles, but a sound from the marsh has him moving closer to the fire and the two girls. "I am only here until she cures me. Then I am returning home! Where I belong." he says as he sits by the fire.

Leaps seems as if she will argue for a moment but then she just shakes her head and sits down. The Dres will accept his fate or not, but she is tired of arguing, and does not wish to scare Talshaza again.

The Dunmer woman is quiet for a few moments before she too sits down. "Whoever saved me brought me here. To you two," she says. "I will travel with you. The sounds of the marsh all around them, as the three, settle in for the evening.