The Argonian Maid?...Nope!

Well, tell me what you think. Does this chapter give a taste about how the relationship between the two is?

 

On an other note..

Quatsch in german means something like nonsense and chaos mixed equally in parts and shaken up with a dash of humor..it sounds like Kvatch and I think it hits the spot..upper Kvatch

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The two argonians were awoken by the sounds of raised voices, clanking metal as guards walked down the stairs to the cell where they were held.



With them was Jauffrey and as the cell door was opened and the argonians stood, he beckoned them out of the cell.

"We checked your story as good as we could and it seems you both are really do gooders and...the story is strange enough that it seems to be true.

We also heard word from Baurus and it seems not only you have been hit by forgetfullness. There is some strange sense behind it if the gods saw it neccessary to make everyone who meet you in the case about the amulet to forget about you. This was also why no search for you was called when you did not show up to bring the amulet"



The red tall argonian was as amused as ever...not.

Many would have mistaken him for a deadra with his dark red and black pattern, the horns on his skull and the seemingly bad temper and most did not understand how the small blue feathered beeing could keep him in check with just a touch of a clawed hand.



"So we are free to go, aren´t we?"

"Well there is something I have to ask of you, but we can not discuss it here where the wall have ears, let us go back to the priory"

And so they went back, Khzzar suggesting to make a run for it and let Jauffrey deal with the problems they should obviously solve for him.

But curiosity killed the cat..and was also a problem for the blue argonian.



This it why a roar could be heard from the Priory up to Chorrol when they were told what to do and it didn´t seem as if Khzzar was amused about it. But at least it seemed harmless and also a bit interesting to meet the son of the emperor who lived as a priest of Akathosh in Kvatch.



Grumbling Khzzar stomped back up to Chorrol, refusing to ride the horses of the Priory who were build to drag and carry quite a deal of weight, but slow, too slow for the taste of the hot blooded Argonian.

"Come on it will be fun, it is not often that you can meet such an important person and we have enough money to buy two bay horses and it will be a fast ride. How hard can that be?"

"Yeah but I bet I am not allowed to march into the chapel, throw this Martin fellow over ma back and drag him back here" a typical joke, said without any amusement to the dark voice.

"Well, no but I bet we meet some marauders on our way and you can let your temper reign, how does that sound?"



And after the horses were assured that the big red fellow would not eat them, the argonians were on their way.



"I could be wrong but I already told you that you have a disturbing affinity for problems..."

"No, you are correct, you already said that. So what, if you want to get to Kvatch as fast as possible lets stop our banter and stear the horses through the underbushes. It will spare us a bit more than a day instead of taking the road" this at least was clear. Riding on the road would cost much time because it would have lead them back to the emperorless city and only than to Kvatch, passing Skingrad on their way...even when the way straight through the woods could be more dangerous and they had to slow at some parts as for the horses not to stumble, they would win some time.

"Let´s go. If we do not find bandits I at least may find some beast to satisfy my hunger"

"You are thinking with your stomach again..."

"At least I think"

"Hey what do you mean with that?"



The friendly banter went on, even when they strayed from the road, riding straight through the forest, getting through some difficult terrain. The road wouldn´t have been much easier, up and down the hills. They had to make some tweaks to their tour when they saw ruins on their way, keeping their distance because they both knew that curiosity would cost them much more time than their way would have spared.



But as the trees got more sparce, the forest lighter and the growths farther away from each other, the bolders on the ground more hinderance than the undergrowth, there was alarming noise.

Leaving the forest behind they saw that there were people fighting troll and bear, some even with bare hands and as it seemed without any fear for their lifes.



The gold and red shimmering maze spoke a clear language as both argonians left their horses behind, running and joinig the tumult.

Bears and trolls might be strong, but Khzzar knew how to use the metal, charging and swinging it over his head as those of the troll gave a crunching sound, the form of the maze imprinted in the bones of its as the beast fell.

The bear seemed in a freenzy, trying to get a khajiit for his meal as lighting from blueish fingertips sorched his hide, making his posture rigid before the bear fell twitching to the ground.



"Yeow... I burned myself again" Kyrell complained, rubbing fingers against each other to get the sizzling feeling out of them while a maze was rubbed clean on the rough cloth the troll had worn, Khzzar snorting amused



"Why can´t you just let us be?" the female cat groused, walking away, followed by the other three people who seemed similiar uncaring, leaving a puzzled blinking argonian behind who followed them, reaching a small cleared ground from which the land could be overlooked...and a big statue stood.

This was when the human who looked like a monk walked up to the argonian..and than it was clear what was going on. They smelled like wine, not that they seemed drunken. But if they worshipped Sanguine it would need a bath in wine for them to show their drunken state.

Still the 'monk' informed them about his 'high'-ness and how to show him proper respect..not a word of thank was spoken, but that may just be the way of some of those daedra worshippers.



In the end it seemed this worship was (yet) not needed  "Well you go on them, but come back later and bring some wine, will you?" which made the others cheer, another feast, another reason to drink even more "Come back when you have some more time, all the erratic running around and worrying prevents all this fun" It seemed as if Sanguine had spoken through his follower, and spoken enough. At least for now.

(A bit irking how those beeings always think of them as the most important, no matter if gods or daedras or..whatever else...)



But that didn´t keep his followers fom frolicking and popping open some bottles that smelled even worse than the odour wafting from the people who took another try at getting drunk.



"You sure it was right to save them?"

" Hey, they are not bad..they only smell bad but they are harmless...and now come on...we have some hours before it gets too dark. Or do you want to camp here?"

But the nasty look he threw at his partner said everything that was there to know as they climbed on the horses, letting them trott in a more comfortable pace now that they could overlook the area around them, again avoiding ruins and places that looked as if they could mean trouble.

Sooner than they both liked it was time to camp. Normally they would need a bit more than three days to reach Kvatch, but now they already had conquered half of their way.



Unfortunately for the bandits there, they found a camp. Instead of practising spells Kyrell backed down and Khzzar had some fun, playing out his dremora like appearance and hunting the bandits down after they realised their error in attacking the two riders, trying to flee.

Not that he needed a horse for speed, it was more fun to hunt the bandits at foot, running after them while Kyrell overtook the camp and unhitched the horses, letting them graze after a rather harsh day that broke them out in sweat even without gallopping them through the pasture or they would have ruined the horses, maybe brought them to fall with the uneven terrain and a too harsh drive forth.



Seemingly uncaring for the plight the dunmer were in Kyrell rubbed the horses down, humming a tune and just throwing a cloth at the other argonian when he came back to the camp.

"You do not want to eat that, or? Who knows where those have been?"

But it was a habit, not easily broken for the rather carnivorous reptile as he brought back the bandits, partly..

"You know, I have an iron stomach"

Again Kyrell sat a bit distanced, eating a typical meal of various dried fruits and nuts, some bread and hoping that the crocogonian wouldn´t upset his stomach with the raw flesh, especially dunmer flesh.



At least the stench that Khzzar later emitted from his different orifices kept wild beast away so both had a good nights sleep.

Only that they had to bind the horses or those would have been gone until dawn, fleeing like the rest of the wildlife from the sulphuric clouds that wavered around the camp.

Only pieces of cloth, soaked with the extract of herbs in front of the nostrils of the horses (and one argonian who wasn´t as immune to the stench as the other) kept them from bolting, not caring for the ropes around their legs.



"Are you sure there isn´t a dragon somewhere in your lineage?" Morning brought a fresh breeze with it, but still you could taste a bit of the ungoodly smell around the camp.

"Could be, who knows? Stop talking and start packing up"

"Stop rushing me" as an apple core flew through the air and hit the big red smelly one in the back of the head.

"What did we say about throwing things?" with flashing teeth Khzaar slowly turned around which made Kyrell scramble on the horse with an 'eep'

"I don´t throw things at you, you don´t throw me...come on, stop lazing around and get on the horse" while goading the horse into a gallop, away from Khzaar who grinned, climbing in a much more sedated pace on his steed and following the lazy ass whom he had speed up successfully.





The rest of the ride was rather uneventfull if you did not count some of the bigger predatores who fleed when a spell was fired, tearing up the ground next to them.

"You know how my tribe always said..if the forest is quiet that is only because something big will show up at the end of your way"

A bit wary Kyrell went to look at Khzzar, fearing the same but not wanting to voice it out loud "Well, if you voice it, it will happen..bad Omen and such things..." painting the deadroth on the wall so to speak.

But soon the hill on which Kvatch stood could not only be seen, but they were nearly in front of it, at least it looked this way with how high the hill and city towered over the landscape....and they were in the back of it, the road was on the other side of the hill.



"When do you think will we reach Kvatch? Do you want to ride into the night or camp here and rest before we meet this Martin fella? Still seems quite some hours, not to mention the last part up the hill"

"The horses are not too tired, we had a good pace with them, so lets walk..it won´t tire them much and we can rest in the city for a bit before we go back, or are you that tired big boy?" edging him on.



But before the so called big boy could voice a reply something shook the earth and thunder sounded while the sky darkened, stars swallowed before a fire sheen tinted it a sickly red.



The horses bucked panicked and only with some luck their riders weren´t thrown off while the equines ran in the other direction before the two argonians could stop their horrified flight.

But after some minutes that felt like hours they could stop the bay horses who still shook and foamed at the mouth, gnashing their teeth while fighting their instincts to get away from danger.

"No, this time that wasn´t me with the smell"

"I feared you would say that" rarely someone would wish for a companion to be the source of some horrible odour, but this was such an occassion.

"We have to get up there"

"Do you think 'they' are up at the city?"

"What else titchy? Can´t imagine much else that would..make up such a spectacle"





In the end they went up the hill straight, passing by a small settlement on their way. Their way may have spared them some time, but still it cost them hours to reach the walls of Kvatch and what they saw was not pretty.

The ground was scorched and in parts still hot enough for the horses to shy away, trees black and burnt down and stones from the wall were in their way.

The smell was just as bad as the ruined landscape would let one imagine, not just wood and earth, but also burnt flesh and still the red sheen was all around them.

As on cue it started raining and when they had made their way to the front where normally the gates of the city would welcome one, there was a different kind of gate.



As they rounded the corner there was not much time to think as a group of flaming beeings ran out of the similiar flaming gate and watchmen from the city tried to hold them up.

Khzaar felt a bit disturbed that his companion already had jumped from the horseback and ran lightning wielding up to the flame atronarchs.

So it was on him to ran after his wayward friend, just in time smashing one of those atronarchs into the burned ground as she had tried to sneak up on the smaller argonian while the watchmen and Kyrell dispatched the others.

It wasn´t so funny as the guards turned on him, mistaking him in their strained mood of thinking for another daedra with his stature and colouring.



Only the angry bellow of one of the men halted them in their attack, and a small feathered argonian who stood in their way, spread arms in front of Khzzar who only grumbled "Stupid" at the smaller one.

"Stop that nonsense, we can´t attack each other. Didn´t you see what was going on? This way we do not need the Deadra to off us"

Walking straight up to the argonians, judging their appearance he introduced himself as the captain, now that the real one was dead or at least lost inside the walls of Kvatch.



That he accepted the help of the two argonians showed how deep in trouble they were as if the landscape wasn´t a dead giveaway. But first the horses were taken to the camp where Kyrell just had to give out their proviant for the ones who had lost everything. Some people had packed and were on their way, away from Kvatch, not wanting to stay, not believing that the guards could keep them safe for much longer.



Sniffling Kyrell dug into the knapsack, hiding behind a small tent so as not to let people see how the bottomless item produced dozens of potions, acting as if they came from the saddle bags together with scrolls of healing and much more food than those small bags could have carried.

But the people were too disturbed by what had happened as to question where those riches came from, sharing the items between each other.

"You know...we will need some for ourselves.."

Seemed as if that was the wrong thing to say as Kyrell teared into the bigger argonian

"Do you think I am stupid? I made so much of this crap in the mages guild it just clogs everything up and there are still hundred or more flasks with different healing and magika potions you big oaf...I may have feelings but I like my life very much"

"Didn´t seem so when you declared to help them by going into that hellhole to close it..and don´t again try to punch me" holding Kyrells wrist as a fist had attempted to connect with a red scaled nose"

Wrenching it back Kyrell just turned huffing "You can stay here if you want, you don´t have to go with me"

"And miss the chance to have some real fights, you got to be kidding me titchy" as he bumped slightly into the other argonian with whom he had caught up

"Now have you everything stored away or gifted that you will not need?" accepting a potion from Kyrell "What exactly is.."

"Just something to resist the flames and the heat that will be awaiting us..I know you like it warm but I bet even you can be set on fire"

"Yeah, true" gulping the ash tasting liquid down that felt uncomfortably cold in his stomach "You won´t change into something...better?"

"Naw, it will only slow me down and not help much. This is just fine as it is ..imagine me wearing iron and getting hit by flames...would roast me. This way I can just jump aside"







This was how they went in, mace and enchanted akaviri katana drawn as they walked through the howling ring of fire.

The static irritating sound made the experience even worse for Kyrell who seemed to be more affected by it while the people down in the camp and even the soldiers next to the gate didn´t seem to hear the high pitched sound that grated on the nerves of the argonian.