The Argonian Maid?...Nope!

Now i am standing here again, yawning and tired and it is not even dark yet.
The prison had taken a toll on me I guess and I feel not quite myself.
Something is wrong but I can not pinpoint what…except the amnesia I seem to have through whatever reason.
People are not too friendly…they do not know me and I look scabby..the worn clothes and the last events and whatever events I have forgotten.

But at least the beggars do not seem so wary and with their help I can make myself a picture of the city and where I have to go to, to sell my collected goods.
I can not stop yawning and pull myself up again, knocking on the door of the store before I open it and look around if someones home.
And the softskinned female does not look unfriendly..not so much as the city guards. She is eyeing me a bit when I walk up to the counter but after a humble greeting from my side and a not too toothy smile she warms up a bit.
I do not dare to bargain with Jensine and accept the price she offers me for the items I put on the counter.
I may have lost my memory but I am not totally dumb.
Now I have to take what I can get until we are on a friendly term.
Connections in the city is what I need until I know how to go to the Weynon Priory..and got everything I need for my journey.

We talk a bit and my mood does not get better when I hear how far away Jauffre is…
Getting myself killed is not an option. I need better armour and better weapons, healing potions, tools…and the list goes on and on.
So how does one get money without stealing it from the pockets of the people?
But here I am lucky.
The merchant tells me that there are problems with an other merchant and she and her collegues are searching help.
Sounds simple enough and I can use the money…but also it is getting dark and I do not feel to good.
I put the earned money in my pouch after I bought some tools..like oil for the hardened leather of my armour.
She will not give me some money befor the task is done, but a try did not hurt…SHE did not hurt me and I take that as a positive sign.

Dragging my tired body back outside I wander to the other shop…it is closed and after pressing my ear against the door and listening..there seems also nobody home.
More and more tired I walk around the building. Maybe I find a backdoor but more important, one should always know the surrounding area.
There is no backdoor, but I find a small garden and a well. Looks like it is not property and everyone can use it, so I get myself more fresh water, gulping down some after sniffing it and washing me again as good as possible.

But then my eyelids feel so heavy that I can not stay awake any longer, I just can not..no..really, too tired.
Nearly snooring, half asleep I hide my goods and myself behind blooming bushes near a wall. It smells nice, the grass is soft and if I lay still no one will see me if one does not look out for me.
I did not have spare money for a good enough blanket. The thin cloth I bought only helps so much as I use my backpack as pillow, snuggle into myself, curling up and trying to find sleep.
Still warmer than the prison cell..and it smells way better so it is not as hard to find sleep even if my stomach sounds unhappy, beeing so empty.

Rustling wakes me, it is still deep in the night so I lie still, hoping no one will see me here where I hide.
From my position I only see shoes and legs, two people standing in front of the bush where I have lay down.
But they do not talk…they just walk away and my sleep fogged brain rattles. Why have I not heard them approaching?
Thoughts soon flee me as sleep takes over again, now when I am alone again and seemingly savely hidden from view.

As a single sun beam is tickling my nose I wake up. Still too early but I have things to do and sleeping during the day is not an option. The sky is tinted pink, the sun not high enough to banish all of the stars. Musing I count the vanishing lights until last nights event hits me like the club of a troll and I dart up, staring at the place where I saw last night the two persons.
Frowning I crawl out from behind the bush, staring at the ground.
“Hm…” there are still footprints and I follow them, still crawling and only some feet away there is a hatch, slightly grown over but with the trampeled grass and the crumbles of soil one can see that is was used not long ago.
-Curiosity kills the Khajit…no one said a thing about Argonians, or?-
Glancing around fast I open the manhole cover, slipping inside and climbing down the ladder.
Even with the fire which is flickering there in a large iron bowl it is uncomfortably dark..and again I am down in the canalisation.
Did I mention how I absolutely completely hate that?
I tiptoe down the stairs, listening for other beeings down there and ransack the boxes and backpacks I find down there.
Someone lives down here and with the lock pick I found I bet these are not people of the nice kind.
Gasping and nearly dropping the stuff I found -Voices?- hastily I stuff everything in a bundels I made from the blanket which lay there on a makeshift bed, I slink up the stairs as fast as possible.
Going up the ladder is much harder then down and the fear that someone comes after me makes it even more difficult.
Now I am back behind the bushes, watching the entrance to the kanalisation until I am sure that everything is quite and start rummaging through the goods I took with me.
-Ok I think I will sell the old armor and use this one- and what a nice one I found, light but strong and not as used as my old leather armor.
Yawning I put the things I want to keep in my backpack, piling the goods I want to sell back on the blanket.

Jensine is not happy seeing me so soon again..without news, but she gets better when I sell her some potions. I do not know what they are and I have a feeling I got not nearly enough money for them but with her in a better mood I am sure I will get some perks later.

“I found this entrance to the canalisation behind Thoronirs store. What is with the city guards, do they not check there ..at least from time to time?” sounding puzzled and looking even more so when she shakes her head
“You can not tell me..really? That is just screaming opportunity for all kinds of villains!”
Still shaking my head after her explanation about guards that do not want to get dirty and that at least the streets are safe, I leave her store and get back to my task.
To check on Thoronir, knowing how he looks..and if he sells his goods so cheap maybe I can profit from a quick peck.
But what a death loss..nothing I need. Just more or less fancy clothes and such stuff. Also he is not really friendly..maybe he dreams about beeing back in his homeland, hunting and then mounting my head over his mantle..or the head of any other Argonian. Oh well…Bosmer. Do I need to say more?

After a detour to a tavern, buying some food I get comfortable on the wall that sourrounds the divide, which itself surrounds the more royal part of the city, the part for the refined society. At least that’s the way it looks for me.
The city guards glance in my direction when I drap myself, belly down on the wall.
But it seems I do not look important enough for them to shoo me away.

Sunshine…another part of heaven for me. Wonderfull how the sun heated up the stone on which I lie now..how nicely it beats down on my back and warms me through and through.
Happily I whistle a tune but still look with half lided eyes to the store of this bosmer male.
Everyone will think that I sleep, now that I have stopped whistling..or maybe they will think me dead and eyeing me as a strange hunting trophy? Like the wolf hides which I saw in the store..maybe… who cares?
It gets almost boring until I see one Khajiit and then an other racing by me and down the street.
Again my brain stays behind as I jump up and chase them. They are faster than me and that is irritating me, even if I do not know why.

Then I fear to loose track, catching a glimpse of the second one as they enter a building near the stores, speeding up to follow them into the house.
First nearly busting the door I collide with one of them, landing in a heap on the floor.
Head over heels I am in the middle of a grapple, trying to push the Khajiit away from me and ducking away from the claws, at least I try to.
“What´s going on herrre?” the other Khajiit growls, still standing in the same spot and looking down at us, me fighting off his…what..companion, brother?
Squaking I duck my head as a clawed hand whips above me, catching the wrist and holding the Khajiit away from me, bracing my knee against his chest
“It wasss an accident..misshunderstanding…shtop!” lisping under the stress of not getting any more scratches by the bristled furskinner
“Misssunderrrstanding?” the Khajiit above me growls, is he getting even more angry then before?
“Ssshtop it damn…I wassh too fast and stumbled!” not daring to make a scratch on the Khajiit because then I would be really doomed, back in the prison for attacking a citizen.
And then there is a rough chuckle from above, the calmer of the two lifting the irate Khajiit at the neck, dragging the hissing furskinner away from me
“Hm yeah..wash too fast. So what were you washing?” he is ribing me
“Actually I was bathing..sshunbathing” I counter, sitting up and rubbing my arm while I look up to the two brothers. So they are three brothers actually, and the founders of the black horse courier which they inform me about.
“So you say you are on the task of helping Jesine with her problem? Good luck then..there is something fishy going on, and not the good kind of fish. I was there once in Thoronirs Store and wanted to buy some new clothes but…” and there Ra'Jiradh is tilting his head, rubbing over his whiskers “…there was an odour on them. I did not like it. I do not know what this smell was but it was unpleasant. Not blood, something else” then he shruggs while his brothers is calmer now, but still grumbling under his breath “Stale and dusty somehow..maybe it can help you..oh and yeah..last week ..do you remember?” he is asking his brother who looks up, raising an eyebrow
“You know this unfriendly guy who looked like wanting to skin us because we ran into him?” then he is looking at me again “Thoronir came from the same direction as this guy and he watched us, stood in the doorframe of his shop until the guy was behind the corner. I think the two know each other and…yeah…real early morning hours. Watch the shop during the night”nodding to himself “ I have the feeling I saw the guy before and maybe they meet once each week”
What else should I do? I had no other clue and what happened in the small garden made me think that this would be really the guy I needed to find…was he the owner of one of the voices I heard down there, behind the door in the sewer system?

Reflecting all that had happened I was taken by surprise as the younger of the two attacks me again, wrestling me down and..hey that was unfair!
“WHAT?” I squeak angrily as Ra'Jiradh helped his brother, smirking down at me, at my puzzlement.
“You know someone should really drag you over the coals before you jump into the fire again” berating me, amused over my stupid ´entrance´ into their home.
“Put me down…put me down at once you crazy furssshkin!” struggling in their grip and trying to bit them as they haul me up, wrapping me in a blanket and carrying me out the door.
“Pumedown..pumedown afonce” muffled through the thick cloth, hissing like a snake and then squieking as one of them intentionally plucks a feather from my tail, hitting him reflexive over the head…I at least think it was the head. I really can not tell exactly because I feel dizzy as they speed away, just like before and then stop..but my head does not stop spinning “Damn …fleebitten …raggy..ihiihiiIII” +SPLASH+
I only screech as they drop me out of the blanket, down in the water near the place where I had lain before on the wall
“Your right oh brother of mine..because it has feathers does not mean it is a bird”
“But maybe it is a bird, just not a duck because it seems that it can not swim like one”
“Think we should take a bite next time, then we can at least tell if it tastes like a duck”
“But have you ever seen a duck that could not fly?”
“Oh why… it did fly..down and not for long but it flew”
Fuming, still up to my nose in the water, I glare up to them
“Bashtards” what makes them laugh
“No, sorry, not interested in a bath, at least not with water”
Ok, that makes me turn dark red where my face normally shows only a light tint of red
“Not in a million yearsssh” I squeak angry..climbing out of the water, dripping wet, feathers hanging over my eyes.
Oh and now that made them laughing even harder..Khajiit
Not even splashing them with a myriad of droplets as I shake myself, trying to dry me, can stop their fit.
But maybe they die because of lack of air if they continue this way…and my disheveled look seems to work good for that.
“Ok we are even…no harm done…good?” At last they now try to stop their laughing, coughing a bit
“Yeah whatever” I mumble, mustering them before I turn back to the garden where I have hidden my goods “See ya sometime”… “Furballs…” grumbling, but more good naturally than angry
“Ok brother..not all Argonian are bad..now stop teasing” I hear them still talking as they jog back to the courier and i..i will take a short nap in the sun, getting extra sleep for tonight.