There she was!!! I’d almost nodded off when I saw the female Khajiit casually walking in the direction of the front gate. Of course.. I, I couldn’t be certain; having been given nothing but a basic description. However I didn’t give myself two seconds to think, I went for it! Overcome by blind panic, I jumped down and sprinted after her. Although I ran faster than a startled deer, the Khajiit I very much hoped was S’Krivva had gone beyond the square. If I followed the guards would be sure to notice me, but I didn’t care anymore, so I didn’t slow down one bit! My heart was practically beating out of my chest as I came upon the corner where she’d turned right. Throughout the pursuit I was desperately trying to think of what to say; all I could come up with was “help me” which.. I guess sums it up pretty well. As I rounded the corner, a moment of dread, S’Krivva wasn’t in sight; coincidentally I saw a door closing and quickly leaped inside. The room was very dim, I gave my eyes no time to adjust and franticly looked in every possible direction, yet nothing! How could this be!?! I must have been right behind her! Suddenly two bright yellow eyes lit up in front of me. I would have jumped backward if my back wasn’t already against the door. Before I could utter more than a surprised yelp I felt something hard hit the left side of my temple. The world turned sideways, my vision went dark. Last thing I remembered before losing consciousness were those yellow eyes like twin suns hovering above me.
Sabre woke up dizzy, confused and with a splitting headache. As her vision returned she found herself lying in the middle of a room on an old threadbare carpet “ooh my head... Where am I?” S’Krivva glanced at her over the edge of a bounty poster “best not move too much. You’re a lucky young Redguard. This one only knocked you out, this one could have swiped your head off.” Through the pain and dizziness, Sabre was able to sit herself up on her knees “I’m very sorry.” She tried to stand but quickly thought better of it. Putting the poster down the Khajiit looked at her puzzled “Redguard is sorry? Forrr?” Rubbing the side of her head, Sabre was shocked at the swelling she felt, but was relieved there was no actual wound “for barging in like that.. I, wasn’t thinking clearly. Wait.. S'KRIVVA!?! Are you S'Krivva?” The Khajiit smiled a large toothy smile “yes child, this one is S'Krivva. You’ve been looking for the Thieves guild yes? You’ve been looking because of this?” turning around Sabre’s bounty poster. Sabre was trying to curb her excitement but couldn’t hold it in any longer. Through tear-filled eyes she nodded “can you help me? Can you remove the bounty? I, I can’t pay you.. not right now.. but I will! I promise!” S’Krivva held up a hand to quell Sabre’s frantic pleading, her expression turned frighteningly serious “S’Krivva is sorry, she can not help” the Khajiit carefully folded up the poster and handed it back “this one can only assist those of the Thieves guild.” With her head hung in defeat Sabre folded the poster a few more times and stuffed it down her shirt. “Do not lose hope, all is not lost, S’Krivva has idea, young Redguard should join the Thieves guild yes?” and the large toothy smile returned.
As you can imagine I was very disappointed that S’Krivva could not help me right then and there. But promised she would once I join the guild! She generously offered me lodging for the night and to help me out of the city in the morning.
Perhaps it wasn’t just bad luck that Sabre didn’t manage to spot S’Krivva for such a long time. S’Krivva was actually avoiding the place as she had received word from the Skooma Den that someone was looking for her. With the tension between the Thieves guild and the Imperial Legion she figured this person might be a spy. This is also the reason why Roxanne became increasingly hostile towards Sabre. Roxanne had no love of the Imperial Legion and their negative views on Skooma. Having to sneak around became a great annoyance to S’Krivva and eventually she decided to set up a trap using herself as bait.
When bursting into S’Krivva’s home, Sabre was very surprised she didn’t bump straight into the Khajiit. S’Krivva knowing Sabre was two steps behind her used stealth to hide in plain sight.
S’Krivva could have killed Sabre as she stepped in the door but decided to only knock her out for several reasons. Sabre’s eyes were filled with desperate panic, not the expression she was expecting from a spy or assassin. Sabre held no weapon(s) and looked like a Redguard, a race that doesn’t generally utilizes magic. S’Krivva also figured it would be prudent to get information out of her first, after searching her unconscious body and finding the bounty poster she understood the situation.
Hmm.. I could go into more detail on what characters were thinking and why they were acting the way they did.. but.. I’m wondering if perhaps it’s best to leave the story slightly vague so the reader can speculate on the details. If you are reading this and would like to know more you only need to ask ;)
The three panels I drew are probably the most boring part of the whole story.. When I first started my OC, I didn’t plan to put a lot of work into the pre-main-quest part. I figured I’d create a short story of how Sabre got to where the game starts. But it’s just grows wild! I’ll take an event like the one above, create a few lines of dialogue in my head, draw the pictures to go with them and after a few days/weeks I’ll get around to typing out the story. Given enough time to think about it, the story usually ends up more interesting than the illustration :P I’m sure I’ll be able to add the more exciting scenes as flashbacks at a later time. Ideally I’d love to create an action packed comic strip.. and it frustrates me that even though I can see the pictures in my head I haven’t been able to translate them onto paper.. I’m trying but it might take some time for me to work out how. I have a few (very) rough drafts already which I’ll post one in today’s Sunday Scribbles.
