-Glenumbra Daggerfall -
The Argonian walks off the boat, ever so slightly dazzled. His scales are tan-orange, with a dusky patch surrounding his horns. His head swivels as he looks around Daggerfall in curiosity and a little uncertainty. And then, something catches his eye. He knows the Captain is talking about him, and his fellow Argonians, but this is more interesting and he turns toward the end of the dock.
"Former slaves, freed when the Ebonheart pack was formed, found stashed away on a small island, run by the Telvanni." The Captain is telling a slightly rattled Breton. The war between the alliance's wage, in tune with the Worm Cults assault on Tamriel, for the Daedric Prince Molag Bal. "We need restocking, and then my ship will set out for Ebonheart and take them home."
...Home? He turns his head back to regard the boat. The island was... not home. But all he had ever known. How was... Ebonheart home? Ebonheart held Dunmer. Dunmer kept him a slave. Kept all of the slaves, in the mines. His Egg-parents had died when he was young, freedom was not something he had ever known. And so he turns back to what has interested him. Knights training, armor shimmering in the sun, and he stops in front of them to watch, even as the Captain realizes he's gone astray and runs up to him. "I am free?" he asks.
"Yes... Tan-Scale was it?" The captain answers and he turns to him.
Tan-Scale frowns. A name that is his, and yet never felt like his. And this new...thing, a thing he never knew. "Free...to stay here. I want to stay here. I want to be like them." he says as he points to the knights.
The captain looks unsure and the Breton coming up behind him is even more flustered. "You are a... we are at war..."
Tan-Scales blinks and shakes his head. "Not my pack. Not my war. Not my anything." he says firmly.
The Breton looks like he's about to protest but an older Breton, who has been instructing the knights has noticed them and walks up. "You want to be a Lion?" the Breton says.
"Dalton," The other Breton protests but Dalton holds up his hand as he regards Tan-scales. "Lion are the elite guard to the king, my friend. But there are other squadrons of knights in Daggerfall. Perhaps, if you are certain, I can introduce you. I will note, you will face suspicion, being what you are in this time of war."
Tan-Scales regards the Knight's words carefully and then nods. "I want to be a knight," he answers.
-Stormhaven Wolf's Keep-
It has been months of intense training. Of patrolling a far corner of Stormhaven. Of protecting travelers, of dealing with Daedra that appear from the anchors and tears between the realms. In the keep, Tan-Scales sharpens his sword. Apart from his fellow knights, of the Wolf-guard order. His scales, his differences, sets him apart. This should be home, but it...is not yet that. And despite the fact his stomach growls, despite the fact the only thing he likes almost as much as being a knight, is food, he stays outside while the others trickle into the food barracks for dinners. Something pricks at his scales. Something more than the rumble in his stomach and thoughts of delicious stew, soft fluffy bread, and perhaps...perhaps cheese. Cheese, he has found, is the very best food there is. They do not always have it, being war times. But when they do...
And then a sound sends his spine tingling. Sending all thoughts of cheese and food from his mind. A sound unlike any other and then a crash as the wall implodes. As he leaps up cold flakes touch his scales causing him to look up. The sky is wrong. A blend of twilight and a blend of something else that sends a shower of impossibly cold snow down upon the land. A breach between the realms, and as his fellow knights stream out he joins them in the battle, the first major one he has ever been in.
It is screams and the clash of metal. Flashes of Daedric magic, claws, and fangs. And then from the sky, a giant beast of a Daedra swoops down. Huge bat-like wings, talons the size of his arms, fangs and demonic eyes, and scales of ebony dusk the titan lands in the middle of the clash and its tail flash out sending one of the wolf guard flying. Captain Jularane charges and with a burst of speed the titan knocks him down and fangs start to close around the captain's neck.
The flow of battle seems to slow then. A snowflake frozen in the air, clannfear frozen in mid-leap. Tan-Scale's eyes widen. The flow of the river has paused. Giving him a moment of battle clarity. With a mighty charge, he runs toward the Titan and the flow restores itself, and Tan-Scales thrusts his shield into the beast's mouth, metal rending and fangs sinking into his arm, but the pain fails to register as he roars and pushes the beast back. All around him his fellow knights are looking on in shock and awe. That this near outcast Argonian who insists on being with them, insists on being a knight despite no one accepting him, is doing this impossible feat, pushing this impossible beast back. And that is enough to rally them, and with the flash of swords, the titan is struck over and over until it falls to the ground dead, dissipating soon after. The sky flashes a bright blue and then the world seems to shudder as the breach closes, leaving Nirn separate from ColdHarbour once more.
A hush falls over the battle and Tan-scales looks around even as blood drips from the puncture wounds in his arm. Then the hush is broken with cries of victory and he is surrounded by the knights as they shout his name. The captain interrupts the festivities with a hand raise, calling for silence. "No," Captain Jularane says. "Tan-Scales, was your slave name, was it not?"
Tan-scales looks at the captain with his black eyes and slowly nods.
"No longer then," Jularane says. "You've proven yourself. I say..." he trails off thinking. "Walks-With-Bravery seems to suit you better if I do say so myself. Do you agree?"
A smile creeps over his face. A different name, a different fate. This river, his. A name befitting of the river he wants to follow and he nods. Cheers of his name echo all around him as they move to the mess hall to feast and drink and celebrate the night's victory.
It is not the only celebration they have had in recent days. Only a few weeks after the attack does news come in of the Vestige's victory against Molag Bal and his dread plan to make Nirn his. And their celebration of that victory is echoed throughout Tamriel.
The next few months were a breath of fresh air, even though the alliance war continued in distant lands. The Wolf Guard's duties fell to patrols and occasional small skirmishes. One day, one patrol come across a scene along the roadside. A pack under a tree catches Walks-With-Bravery's eyes and he slowly licks a fang. A small bit of cheese is showing and it fills his vision. Food, it must have been a merchants pack and as if in a trance he moves toward the pack as the rest of the Lion Guard look around. An overturned cart, yet no sign of a struggle or blood. The Captain's eyes fall to the Argonian and he calls out as Walks-With-Bravery's claws snatch the bag.
A shadow falls over him and with a screech, he leaps backward as a huge spider lands hissing and the Wolf Guard pulls out their swords as they surround the giant spider. Walks-With-Bravery reluctantly drops the bag and takes up his sword and after a short skirmish the spider is dead without anyone suffering any injuries, and the best part is the bag is unmolested, though the previous owner was clearly eaten by the spider.
After the spider incident, the Wolf-Guard relaxes in a local inn and settles in for a nice meal. Walks-With-Bravery, despite eating all the cheese from the pack has a chicken leg in both claws and is devouring them. His comrades laugh about the incident. Captain Jularane watches from his position against the wall, a mug in his hands. Once others are out of range he regards the Argonian carefully. "Molag Bal's threat is over, the Allegiance war continues but our Guard is not tasked with that. But still, it will not be the last time of trouble we will see." Jularane says carefully as he judges Walks-With-Bravery's reaction to his words.
Walks-With-Bravery places the half-eaten chicken legs down as he senses the river shift to more serious waters. "I am a knight. Always. Forever. My River." Walks-With-Bravery responds and then proceeds to quickly finish the chicken legs.
A small smile from Captain then. "We all have our strengths, weaknesses, and even a fatal flaw. Yours...," he trails off and points down at the Argonian's plate.
Walks-With-Bravery blinks and looks down at his plate. Only crumbs and bones remain and yet he was tempted to lick the plate and chew on the bones. Food... a small contented hiss and then he realizes the captain is talking about his brush with the Spider today, over the bag. "Cheese!," he answers. "It was just lying there. Looking so..." a lick of his fangs as the Captain raises an eyebrow.
"The time we escorted the ambassador to Skyrim," Captain Jularane reminds him.
Walks-With-Bravery remembers. The huge container of cheese, so fragrant, so unlike any he has ever tried but upon grabbing some..., "Angry giants," Walks-With-Bravery says sheepishly.
"And let us not forget the skeever nest in the abandoned wine cellar, or the werewolf," The Captain reminds him. "And they were not the only incidents."
Cheese was often IN wine cellars. And who was to know the abandoned stew pot belonged to a werewolf? Still...it did cause the Wolf Guard a bit of trouble...and a bit of laughter at the trouble he could get into as a result of his intense desire for all things yummy and as a fanged smile crosses Walks-With-Bravery's snout he tries to hide it behind a clawed hand.
Jularane laughs then and moves to him, clapping him on the back. "Your brave, loyal, Walks-With-Bravery. You will go far, perhaps even into the Lion Guard one day, if the damnable war ever ends. Just try to keep it in mind. My duty to watch out for you, and the rest of my men."
-Some years later-
Walks-With-Bravery leans against a rock his eyes threatening to close. With an effort, he forces them open. The cave, is lit by torches. His fellow Knights of the Wolf Guard are all around him. Some leaning against the walls, some lying on the ground, nearly all injured in some regard or another, and all of them weak. Their supplies of water were nearly gone. The last of their food, was gone days ago. Nothing left, perhaps not even hope. As his eyes try to close again he thinks back to Captain Jularane's words, years ago. Never over, but never did he imagine this war. The days of the Plane-meld had been bad, but this... so very much worse. A necromancer of unimaginable power, perhaps more so than even the dread Mannimarco. The necromancer had unleashed the undead upon Nirn without mercy, without remorse, perhaps without sanity as well, for he seemed to wish all that lived, to live no more. The Wolf Guard had been fighting near constantly, and then when out on patrol had been set upon more undead than they could hope to fight and survive and so the Captain had led them to this cave and had been injured as he risked his own life to barricade the undead out. In hopes, that the undead would move on. Or in hopes of rescue for his Knights. But the undead was relentless, and no rescue. No...hope. With a small sad hiss, he slumps to the ground the rock cold on his fevered scales. The last look he has before his eyes shut is his comrades, his friends, and his family. How they would further weaken, how they would die. How...he would die, and how he had no hope of saving them.
-?-
The smell of something wonderous wakes Walks-With-Bravery. Not just food, but his favorite food. Cheese. As he snaps his eyes open he struggles to rise and looks around. A room with maroon walls and lit by golden light. No doors, no windows, and in the middle on a jewel-encrusted pedestal sits the most delicious cheese he has ever set eyes upon. It seems to call to him and so he forces himself up and starts to stalk it. This had to be a dream. A dream before the end, but still it seemed so real and he reaches his claws for the cheese.
"Do...not...eat the cheese," A voice calls out.
Slowly he turns his head to the sound of the voice to see a man standing by the door, dressed in simple brown pants and a shirt, with a darker brown vest. His head is balding, what remains of his hair is grey and he's looking at Walks-With-Bravery with a doleful expression.
"A dream," Walks-With-Bravery says sadly. As he had thought.
"No...," the man says to his surprise. "But... still I caution you... do not eat the cheese. It will displease him greatly."
Long moments pass as he looks between the man and the cheese. He is so hungry, but eating this thing...if this was not a dream... may save him from the grips of hunger. But it would not save the others and slowly his arm falls. One thing above cheese he loves is the Wolf Guard who are his family. Again, his eyes start to close but then a thought occurs to him. One that makes no sense whatsoever, but it is still there, in the river of thoughts. "Will it save them?" Walks-With-Bravery whispers.
A small frown from the odd man. "It may. There is no telling what it will do to you if you eat it. It could make you strong, for a while. Then again it could make your scales fall off." the man says and then tisks as Walks-With-Bravery's claws start to reach for it again. "Again, I warn you, HE will be greatly displeased if you do this. It is forbidden."
Who was he? Did it matter? Did it matter if eating it killed him, in the end? If there was a chance he could be brave, one last time, and save his family? With a quick snatch of his claws, the cheese is in his hands.
The man sighs again. "Oh very well. I cannot disalude you. I tried. But one final warning. One bite is all you need. One bite and place the rest back. Do not eat the whole thing, you do not need it."
One bite. Somehow he knows this man speaks the truth and he takes a bite. The taste of the cheese explodes in his mouth, like all the cheese he has ever tasted, all the ones he never has, and all the ones that are somehow impossible to taste. As he swallows his eyes never leave the rest of the cheese. He needs to put it down. But he needs to eat it as well. It is the very best he has ever had. He wants more. Even if he should not. And what would the harm of it be? He had already taken a bite. And so before the man who watches him can react he stuffs it all in his jaws and it is gone in moments.
The man lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Now you have done it," he lectures as all fades to black.
-Cave-
Walks-With-Bravery's eyes snap open. Back in the cave but now a surge of unnatural strength pulses throughout him and he leaps up just as the barricade finally breaks. As the surge of the undead start to flow in he lets out a mighty roar and charges at the horde, sword and shield in hand. What follows is a frenzy and when it is all said and done the undead lie in so many pieces around him. As quiet falls he looks back at the Wolf Guard, shock in their eyes, but also hope, which was so very close to being lost forever. At that moment he waits for the end to come to him, but nothing strikes him down and as the knights who can rise surround him in somber celebration he allows himself to hope the dire warnings were just that, and nothing more.
Several Wolf Guard was lost that night, but the rest, including Captain Jularane, survived and recovered, and shortly after the war at last ended. On that night a grand celebration with food and drink. It was a bittersweet end, for so very many had perished in what became known as the Mad Necromancers war. Normally Walks-With-Bravery would be in with the rest, feasting on anything his eyes laid eyes on, but his spine was unsettled. What happened the night in the cave lingered. The strange place, the cheese, the warnings that seemed to come to nothing. And when he had entered the inn with the rest of his guard, for the first time the sight of food left him nearly sick. And so he left.
Captain finds him leaning against the Inn wall, limping slightly he sits on a bench near the Argonian. "First time I have ever seen you turn down food, Walks-With-Bravery." Captain quietly says. "Wars... they do take their toll. And we have been through much in recent times."
Walks-With-Bravery slides his eyes to his captain. This is true, but not what causes the river to be so disturbed. He opens his mouth and then shuts it quickly. How to admit that his flaw had overcome him in the end? And what good would it do? Nothing had happened for it, save for the Wolf Guard being saved. "This is my river," Walks-With-Bravery says, meaning it with all his spine.
The Wolf Guard are given a short break. To return home, or to take a break from the horrors of war. Walks-With-Bravery, still unsettled, still feeling sick every time he sees food, takes off on his own. Near night he comes along a caravan camp, merchants and travelers gathered together against the dangers of the road. He settles in with them and soon stew and bread are served. As he pokes at his food his eyes catch a huge rind of cheese on a nearby barrel. There had not been much cheese with travel so very dangerous during the war, this was the first he had seen of it since the night in the cave. And as he stares at it the world vanishes and it is all he can see, smell, desire. He's hardly aware he has risen, hardly aware his footsteps are taking him closer and closer to the desired cheese. Claws reach for it and his fangs are chomping down upon it. As the last bite slides down his throat everything goes crimson red.
The sun rises and Walks-With-Bravery throws up his claws, the light sending shards of agony in his skull. With a slow hiss he rises and the sight that greets him chills him to the depths of his spine. The camp is ransacked, bodies with unimaginable wounds lay strewn about, flesh-flies buzz and with a straggled hiss he leaps up. And that is when he notices his claws. Dried blood cover them, splatters of blood on his scales and armor. With a confused hiss, he backs up until he hits one of the wagons.
"You...were warned," a man's voice says.
Walks-With-Bravery's head snaps around as he sees the balding man, the same from that strange room, with the cheese. "Warn...what happened?" he asks.
"You ate all of it," the man says. "Mortals do so like to curse themselves. I warned you, he would be angry. You are lucky he has other matters to contend with. I am here instead."
Cursed...he...he could not have done this. Innocent life, innocent blood...a wave of dizziness hits him and he slumps to the ground. "Take this away," Walks-With-Bravery weakly says. "It is not my river."
The man dolefully shakes his head. "You were warned," he intones before vanishing, leaving Walks-With-Bravery so very alone, and very nearly broken.
It takes so much effort to return to the Wolf Guard. Darkness has long since covered the land before the fort comes into view and Walks-With-Bravery stops looking at it. Fellow knights are out training, talking, being. So very much did he want to join them, to BE, but... a glance down at his claws. He had tried to clean them in the river, but flecks of blood remained. The only memories of the last night that returned to him were crimson, screams, and utter madness. If...if he went back to his family, would it happen again? Would he hurt them? How could he...ever do such a thing? As he thinks back to the last memories of sanity the night before... the sight of cheese, the taste of it, the madness and crimson that covered everything, even his recollection. That was the result, and if he went to the Wolf Guard, the unspeakable may very well be the result. A small anguished hiss. Did he do it? Kill...innocents? Kill whom he was sworn to protect? With a shudder, he turns from the Wolf Guard, turns from those that had been his family, his river. Truth. There was no returning to before. There was no going back. Only forward away from his family into utter despair and darkness.
The memory fades and the quartet is silent for long moments. It is Book's turn to rest her claws on Cheese's. Words...will always fail. A life's dream turned into a nightmare. One mistake shattered all that was. "Lost," Cheese whispers. "Lost in a cursed river. My fault. Broke my vow of protecting those I swore to."
Licks gives Cheese a small nod, a look of sadness and understanding on his face before he bows his head and closes his eyes. The memories began again, from the one who cannot speak, who can only show them his tale at this moment.