Aislinn’s fur was caked with mud as she slowly sat up, rubbing her head. Where am I? The last thing the young Khajiit could remember was traveling through the Black Marsh with her friend Tor…she believed the rough translation of his full name was ‘Son of Spear’…
"Tor"…
Aislinn was taken back for a moment. Worshiping the gods of her adopted family had never seemed like an odd thing, as she was raised and chose to do so from a young age, but every now and then she had to think about what this meant for a Khajiit. This was one of those times.
"I was raised in Skyrim since I was just a kitten, I believe. The Khajiiti gods are foreign to me despite my lineage. I know nothing of of my true parents or why I was presumably abandoned in Skyrim, though I’m blessed to have the family that took me in. And yes, the accent is not expected either." She smiled humorously.
"If I may ask, what’s your story?”
The thought came to mind that it was somewhat awkward that they were just talking right there, in the middle of a swamp. K’Reezah wasn’t complaining; she had been alone for the past few days, only occasionally making brief conversation with a tribal, or a local, but nothing in terms of a casual, friendly chat. Obviously, she was no longer hidden from view, putting both of them at higher risk in the area they were in, but she was sure they could fight almost anything off.
"My story…" she repeated, looking down to the ground momentarily, trying to decide where to start and what to tell her. A black and green snake slithered past, perpendicular in between the two pairs of feet. "Well, I was born is Elsweyr. Raised by my amazingly loving birth parents, but slave traders from Morrowind captured us. I was bound as a slave until I was nineteen, and on the night my friends, family, and myself tried to escape, I was the only one who made it out alive, and I did so ever so barely. An Argonian found me, took me into his home within Skyrim’s Dark Brotherhood, and I was raised up from there. Of course, my dialect is no longer Khajiiti, which is mainly due to my treatment within Morrowind." She finished with a weak smile.
"So…" she continued, trying to change the subject away from her, "what are you doing here, in Black Marsh?"
Aislinn had little time to be sorrowful about the Khajiit’s story because of her next question. She glanced around them, as she had kept doing, as if in fear of some beast of the marsh sneaking up. "Truly? I want to explore as much of Tamriel as I can and live to tell about it. It’s been kinda a dream of mine since childhood, to see everything. Maybe a bit suicidal" Aislinn motioned to the area around them "but still great to me."
As if foreshadowing the coming of its larger brethren, the small snake turned up its head and hissed at Aislinn and K'Reezah, baring its venomous fangs that dripped with liquids that would bring forth an unknown fate to the victim. She was tempted to stick it with her dagger, but it soon abandoned its stand between them, and slithered off into a murky green body of water.
"Maybe just a little suicidal," chuckled K'Reezah in response.
As if on cue, a blood chilling hiss filled their sensitive ears with the sound of imminent, painful death. An oversized snake, at least twenty meters in length, and more than two feet in diameter, pushed its way through the swamp with great speed. It was aimed directly at them, and was bound to attack to kill. During the brief eye contact K'Reezah made with the beast, she could see an intense hunger in its eyes, similar to that of her own when she needed to feed.
The snake moved faster than any monster, apart from a dragon, that she had ever seen. There was no time to draw her bow, and a split second after making visual contact, she drew her Daedric dagger and slashed at the monster as it reigned down upon them.
