10
i. Öenthir's dream.
She remembered this. Every last thing had burned into her mind. The stitched and restitched covers on the bed, made from the cheapest of cotton. The threadbare rush floor covering. Her sister's bed, propped up by a shapeless lump of wood. Even the scorch mark on the pitted mud wall where her first attempt at a flame spell had gone awry.
This was her home. The tiny mud hut in Grahtwood where she had grown up.
And she remembered what day it was too. Several bags were on her bed, half-filled with her belongings and, yes, there, in the corner, was her satchel. Tossed aside. Reported to be of Ayleid origin and paid for by the meagre earnings of her parents in anticipation of her acceptance to the Elden Root Mages Guild. She hadn't wanted it and she wasn't going to Elden Root.
There was something else, though. Something amiss. She turned, a slow, sluggish movement trying to catch the something that seemed to anticipate her and stay of sight. A wisp of a presence in the corner of her eye.
She realised there was a noise, also. As if she was hearing something from a great distance, or like listening to something while immersed in water. She tried shaking her head, but she moved as if trapped in honey, slowed down by its sticky weight. She tried to concentrate. It was someone speaking. Concentrating harder, it soon came into focus.
"You're just going to leave." Very much like Öenthir, a little taller, a little older and with shoulder length dark brown hair, not the shorter blonde of Öenthir, but with the same snub nose, freckles and deep, dark black eyes. Her sister. "Just going to disappear while mum and dad are out working their fingers to the bones."
"Get lost, Ferinwé!" Those were the words she had spoken, but not the words she wanted to say now, but she had no control over this play. "You couldn't possibly understand if your tiny mind tried."
"Oh, right! That's our Öen! With the high and mighty brain." Her sister held her hands at the side of her head, mocking, angry. Her thick Grahtwood accent reminding Öenthir of how hard she had tried to lose hers. "She's too good for Elden Root! She's better than us. Better than me and mum and dad."
"I am better!" The words whiplashed between them and Ferinwé reacted as if the words had struck her. "I deserve better! Better than this infested hole. Better than the mud and the rotting filth that we walk through everyday! I deserve it and I'm taking it."
Öenthir struggled to change what she had once spoken. She regretted it then and she hated herself for it now. The pain she had caused. The distress. If she could go back and change it, she would. She'd still go to Auridon, but not like this. Not again.
Instead, her body moved as it had done that day, grabbing things and shoving them into her bags as her sister stood and watched. The anger in the air was as thick as a wall between them.
And still the 'something', dancing out of sight, teasing her eyes, watched on.
Ferinwé broke her furious stare and turned toward the satchel that Öenthir had such dear love for now, but had only seen as a token of her old life, the life she had been desperate to leave behind back then. She picked up the satchel and tossed it onto the bed in front of Öenthir.
"You better take that." This was where her sister said the most hurtful truth before leaving, "You'll disappoint mum and dad by just leaving, they'll know its for the best, but you leave that and they'll know that it's them that you're leaving and that'll break their hearts."
"I don't care!" Öenthir could feel her own heart breaking on hearing those words once more. Spoken by her in a fit of anger, yet regretted in an instant. She would take the satchel and write occasional letters home, but she had never gone back.
But, the dream hadn't ended and her sister hadn't left. This was different. This was not what happened. Ferinwé was still in the room, staring at Öenthir, her head cocked to the side, her eyes empty of any of the warmth that her sister usually had, even in anger.
"You will care." Her sister's fair skin had become botchy and pitted. It was turning a sickly shade of green, much like the rotting mulch beneath the trees within her forest home. "You will care, before the end."
Pus filled boils erupted on Ferinwé's skin, her face beginning to rot from within. Worms and spiders and centipedes were crawling over her, boring their way through her eyes, erupting from her mouth, her nose, her ears. She was decomposing where she stood, a foul stench assaulting Öenthir's nose.
A light appeared in Ferinwé's rotting hand. It expanded and lengthened, becoming a bright spear of burning light and her sister thrust the spear into Öenthir's body, searing flesh and bone alike. Öenthir found herself lifted from the ground, the pain unimaginable as the spear of burning light set her body alight in flames.
"You will die before the end. You, or one of your friends, perhaps?" The thing that held Öenthir impaled was no longer her sister, but a black thing. A dark and terrible atrocity. "The Dunmer? The Khajiit? Or maybe the Redguard? Or maybe all four of the bound?"
Öenthir screamed in pain as the spear burned ever hotter and brighter and there, even in her agony, the 'something' in the corner of her eye watched on.
And seemed satisfied.
ii. Tilly.
She almost flounced into the courtyard, pleased with herself, to find it already a hive of activity. The sun had only begun to climb into the sky and their horses were all already saddled and their packs attached. The horses had also had a thorough tending to. Curried and combed and brushed, their coats and manes shining in the morning light.
The others had gathered together near the centre of the courtyard. Itagaki, the fresh loved beauty, had tied her hair back into the tight pony-tail and was tightening the straps on her leather armour. The mage seemed to be a little embarrassed at Tilly's sunny disposition, adjusting the satchel over her shoulder several times.
The Khajiit appeared fraught as two servants attempted to strap her in to the new armour that Finds-Things had found for her in her vast, and sometimes legitimate, stores. Tilly couldn't tell if the cat had become upset more about the armour, or that she was being dressed by strangers, or both.
"It feels too light. There's no sturdiness to it." Revna flinched as one of the servants tried to move her arm with respect to get to a strap at her side. "And black? I don't come from here, but won't black make it warmer? I thought the point was my own armour was too heavy and would be too hot for this Kyne damned place."
"No, no. This is good. Very good." Itagaki was circling around Revna, inspecting the new armour the Khajiit now wore, holding a white cloak that a servant had retrieved for her. "We will put you in this white cloak, that will help with the heat, but this armour ... you do not know what this armour means to many people, especially around Hammerfell."
Tilly didn't understand, either. It was only leather armour. Black, leather armour with red highlights and a stylised scorpion motif on the left side of the chest. It didn't seem special to her.
"Your most beautiful companion is correct, my stunning Khajiit friend." Finds-Things-Not-Lost had joined the group and stared with open admiration at the sight of Revna. "This armour was found in a tomb, sealed airtight for centuries. It was the armour of a great and feared warrior of the Ra Gada. Known only as Scorpion Black, it was said no mortal blade could penetrate his armour and that he, himself, could not die."
"What happened to him?" Tilly had sidled up to her companions, trying to get close to Itagaki, but she moved away, seeming to ignore her.
"He died. It was quite unexpected." Finds-Things shrugged and waved a dismissive hand, "But his armour remained complete. I have had experts examine this armour and they have assured me it is as if it was made yesterday. It is magnificent, is it not? And you paid far less for it than I am happy with."
"You wouldn't be happy if we'd paid three times its worth." Finds-Things laughed at Tilly's on-the-nose observation.
"Of course!" Finds-Things continued to appreciate the armour and the person who occupied it. "I did not make my fortune by giving things away, my dearest Princess. Now, please excuse me, I must attend to my own mount. I'm sure these lazy servants have not even started to get him ready, but we must set off soon, or we will be caught in the mid-day sun and my scales are too delicate to be so dry."
Tilly noticed Itagaki watch with intent as Finds-Things moved away, shouting at her servants. The one's attending Revna and her armour had also moved on to other duties, thankful that they no longer had to deal with the irritated Khajiit. When the four of them were finally alone, she looked between the companions with concern.
"I expect everybody felt it, last night, through the binding?" There was a sense of urgency to the question.
"What? No! I ... I fell straight to sleep." The Bosmer mage was a little too insistent, to Tilly's ears, and there was a distinct flush to the wood elf's face. Tilly almost laughed.
"I felt many things through the binding last night." Revna gave Tilly and Itagaki a knowing look, but then gave a far more sympathetic look to the mage. Tilly wondered what was going on there. "Which feeling do you mean?"
"Borgun." Itagaki had seen the look from Revna, and the way Öenthir had reacted, and she set her face close to her usual impassive features. "The Jarl was upset, last night. I believe the voices must have begun their call once more. Which means we have little time to waste. Clear your minds, concentrate and you will feel it too."
Tilly didn't bother. If her beautiful Redguard lover said the Jarl was hearing the voices again, then she believed her. The others did concentrate, though, and they shared concerned looks between them. If the voices had started, that meant they had three months within which to return the Gems of Unison to the tombs of the three ancient mages. Two of whom, they had no idea where to even look, as far as Tilly knew.
"We'd best get a move on, then." Tilly had moved beside Itagaki and placed a casual arm about the Redguard's shoulder, but Itagaki shrugged the hand away, turning towards her horse and jumping into the saddle with one acrobatic sweep of her legs. This annoyed Tilly. Annoyed and confused her.
"I'm still not sure about this armour." Revna was fidgeting and adjusting the armour, rolling her shoulders as if the armour was pinching her. Still, she attached the brilliant white cloak Itagaki handed to her to clips on the armour and mounted her horse, adjusting the cloak to cover the horse's rear.
Tilly had to admit, to herself, that the Khajiit did look magnificent. The combination of her sheer size, the deep black of the armour and the pristine white of the cloak gave Revna a look of nobility. Royalty, even. It was impressive and, with the handle of the cat's great sword poking out from beneath the cloak, even intimidating.
"Do you trust me, Revna Astadottir?" Itagaki pulled the reins of her horse, turning to face Revna. The Khajiit looked into the Redguard's eyes and gave a curt nod. "Then believe what I say. When we leave through those gates, you will see what that armour means to the people of Hammerfell. Prepare yourself, my Khajiit friend, for you are about to become legend."
"But I don't want to be 'legend'." Revna looked down at the armour beneath the cloak.
Tilly found this all a little too dramatic for her tastes. With a roll of the eyes, she found her horse and climbed into the saddle with far more ease than she had only a few days before. The cat may be about to be 'legend', but she was infamous. Or, she would be, as soon as this little excursion was over and done with. Damn the cat, damn the uppity mage and damn the Redguard, whose passions were up and down like Dibella's knickers.
She would put all her efforts into this quest, now. She would show them all that she was as much a Divines' damned hero as any of them. If she did, then Itagaki might decide what she wanted.
iii. Revna.
The gates of the Argonian merchant's compound opened and the party set out into the city once more. Even at this early hour, the avenues were teeming with people. And goats. A large herd of goats, shepherded by an old Redguard in a dusty turban and long, white robes, blocked the way for a short while, Finds-Things shouting at them to move.
At first, Revna thought that Itagaki had been pulling her leg about the response the armour would have on the people of Abah's Landing, knowing how little Revna liked too much attention. Few people, if any, looked at the party of varied people upon the horses, at first. But, then, she began to see people looking and furtive tugging at sleeves to the people next to them.
Soon, after the goats had dispersed out of the way, the party found themselves slowed by another herd. A throng of people began to form about them. Whispers and murmurs sweeping around like flames jumping from one flammable material to another. Hands reached out to touch Revna. To touch the hem of her cloak, her horse, her feet and, especially, her armour.
Revna didn't like it. Her mouth dropped and her eyes widened like a cornered animal, searching for escape.
"Let's go back to the compound. I want to get out of this armour. Now." She turned in the saddle to look behind, but the crowd surrounded them. "This is madness! They can't possibly think I'm this 'Black Scorpion'."
"Scorpion Black, my dear." Finds-Things-Not-Lost was enjoying the attention, waving at the crowd, making sure that they knew she was with Revna, "They believe the stories. They have always been told that Scorpion Black would return in their hour of greatest need to free them from tyranny. In their eyes, you are here to save them from ... from ... who is in charge of the Empire right now?"
"No-one." Tilly was leaning forward over the neck of her horse, amused a great deal by the whole thing. "There's a whole war going on to decide who will sit on the Ruby Throne."
"Ah, yes, the war. Very profitable." Finds-Things rubbed her chin, musing over the possibilities to make profit. She shook her head and continued. "Then the great and immortal Scorpion Black is here to deliver them from the war. Or from famine, or floods, or whatever else they decide you are here for. Prophecy is malleable like that."
"I'm not here for anything!" Revna tried to weave her horse through the crowd, trying to avoid the reaching hands and ignore the murmuring voices. "I am just one of four, trying to save a young girl's life. I'm not some hero here to save them."
"Are you not?" Finds-Things caught and held Revna's eyes. "Are you not here to enter the tomb of a great, powerful and ancient sorcerer? Are you not about to bravely face the unknown, sword in hand, ready to fight to the death if necessary? Sounds like heroism to me."
"We do not know what we will be facing, if anything." Itagaki had pushed her horse to the front, making room for them all to pass through the growing crowd of people staring in awe at Revna. "We are all just here to return what was once taken. But, Finds-Things is right. Let the people have this. Let them have hope."
Revna fell in to silence, staring down at the reins in her hand, letting her horse follow the others as they made slow progress through the city. She hated being the focus of anyone's attention, let alone the attention of hundreds. And there were hundreds of people here. It felt like the entire city had flocked to see the great Scorpion Black reborn.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see them all. Most of them were Redguard people, but with Khajiit and Argonians in the crowd, tall high elves, shorter dark elves and even shorter wood elves. Bretons, Imperials, even a Nord or two had joined the wave of people following them through the avenues. Following Scorpion Black.
Revna hated it.
"Well, you did want to be accepted." Öenthir had fallen in beside her, a barrier to the people on one side, at least. "Probably not the way you wanted it, but it is acceptance. Of a sort."
"I want to be accepted for who I am." Revna tapped her chest, next to the etching of a scorpion on her breast. "Not for the armour of a ghost."
They had reached the gates of the city, by now, and the city guards had finally sprung into action, pushing the crowds aside as best they could, but even they would turn and give the occasional stare in admiration at Revna and her controversial armour.
They finally broke through the crowd, passing through the gates and kicking their horses to a canter. The crowd followed for a short while, then diminished and dwindled until only a few stragglers began to fall behind and then disappear into the distance.
Revna breathed a deep sigh of relief once they were alone, finally able to relax as Finds-Things-Not-Lost led them through the rocky landscape, pointing out another tomb carved into the rock, across a stream from where they were. Another ancient magick user, a necromancer, Bahraha. Another one from history that would not stay dead, dispatched to Oblivion by some nameless, soul-deprived vestige out to make a hero of themselves.
The party lapsed into silence as they wound their way along a almost unnoticeable path. Itagaki rode beside the Argonian, at the front. Tilly had fallen in a little behind them, staring daggers into the Redguard's back and Öenthir had remained beside Revna, keeping pace and giving the occasional look at her with a comforting smile.
"I wanted to ask," Revna broke the silence, more comfortable now that they were away from the masses of people in Abah's Landing, "I felt your distress through the binding, last night, and I wondered if it was anything you wanted to talk about?"
"Oh, it was nothing." Öenthir tried to brush it off, but Revna could see that the Bosmer had concerns. "Just a nightmare. Well a dream, at first."
"Another nightmare?" Revna felt concern for the wood elf, herself. "Do you get them often?"
"No, not really." The mage thought for a second before continuing. "This one was different. Like a memory, but it was like my memory but remembered by someone else. It was ... disturbing, in more ways than one."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Revna could see that the thought of the dream was still uncomfortable to Öenthir.
"No. It's fine. It was just a dream after another strange day." Öenthir made a little chuckle. "I'm sorry you had to feel it too, though. Damn this binding!"
"Aye." Revna looked forward towards Tilly and Itagaki. "I think the binding shares too much, if you ask me."
Öenthir said nothing but tried to hide a little, embarrassed, smile.
Finds-Things-Not-Lost called a halt to the party then. She rode forward for a short distance, examining the landscape before them. The land was starting to become more rock than sand now, with less clumps of grass and more brittle, small leafed bushes with sharp looking branches.
"The path ends here." The Argonian returned to the party, "It gets more difficult from now on. We should ride single file. And watch out for Kotu Gava! If those bastard insects swarm on you, you'll get cut to ribbons!"
Revna looked upwards to the terrain that would soon become mountainous. Small mountains, but mountains nonetheless. They were heading towards the thin isthmus between the peninsula of Hew's Bane and the rest of Hammerfell. Almost impassable by land and bypassed by sea most other times, or so Itagaki had said.
It was a dangerous place to travel, but a perfect place to hide a tomb that was never meant to receive visitors, let alone entered, and Revna wondered if the infamous Scorpion Black had ever made this journey. Or had he been too busy being the instigator of prophecies to embarrass a poor Nord raised Khajiit in the future.
iv. Itagaki.
The path they were taking was rough going, twisting and turning, almost doubling back in some parts, and always moving higher into the stark sand brown mountains. More than once the horses struggled on the rugged terrain and they had to dismount and lead the creatures with extra care over shifting rocks and gaping clefts.
The Argonian seemed to know, or at least have a good idea, where they were going and, as the sun continued its rise into the sky, Itagaki stopped the party at regular intervals to drink water. Revna seemed to find the going more arduous. It was an expected problem. The Khajiit had never experienced heat like it. Being thrust from the moderate chill of the Rift into this, hot cloying environment must be a great shock to her, even with the lighter armour and the white cloak to reflect the worst of the sun's baking rays.
"You still find the armour uncomfortable." She stated during one of the water breaks, seeing Revna shift the chest piece once again.
"Aye. In more ways than one." She didn't seem miserable, but nor did she seem even close to being happy.
"I understand." She looked down the mountain, the way they had come. The city of Abah's Landing now a mere speck in the distance and who knows how much further they had to go. "But, the prestige of that armour may very well work to our advantage in the future and it is better to fight in in this heat. You will see."
"That's as may be, but I feel like a fraud. People thinking this armour means I am something I am not." Revna wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and took another drink from her flask. "I'm just a warrior from Skyrim. Nothing more. I don't want to be anything more."
"I truly do understand." Itagaki bent over to check the legs and hooves of her horse, "I never wished to be a warrior, but I still trained and still fought and now I cannot imagine being anything else."
"What would you have been, if not a warrior?" Replacing her flask into her pack, Revna seemed a little shocked at that minor revelation.
"I wanted to be a bard. A musician." Itagaki rarely laughed, but she laughed at her own foolish childhood dreams. "I was quite the flute player. I had promise, so I was told, but I had to follow my mother and father into the war parties. It was the lot of my family and it was made very clear to me that it would be my lot in life too."
"I can't imagine you as a bard!" Revna joined in the laughter with that musical, tinkling laugh that was so at odds with her big frame and her normal speaking voice. The Khajiit unfastened her weapons roll and checked that they were still fastened correct and secure. A long piece of wood, added to the roll at some point, with the beginnings of carvings in its surface could be seen. "Or, maybe I can. A flute, eh? I'll keep that in mind."
Itagaki didn't know what her Khajiit friend meant by that and she furrowed her brow as she tried to work it out. The Argonian called to them all to continue the climb before the sun reached its zenith. She worried about her scales drying in the ferocious mid-day sun and wanted to reach their destination before then. Itagaki agreed. There was little shade in these mountains.
Upon remounting, it was Öenthir that rode at her side for this part of the journey. Immaculately dressed, as always. This time in matching light, white cotton pants and blouse, unbuttoned down to the uppermost edges of her breasts with a cream waistcoat, unfastened, over it, and a wide-brimmed cream riding hat, a light mesh band around the crown that extended down and tied under her chin.
The Bosmer had been swapping her time, riding with each of them at different points, almost like she was trying to give equal time for everybody, even Finds-Things-Not-Lost. It was curious, considering that she had been so against joining the expedition in the first place, but she seemed committed now and, despite her initial aloofness, had integrated herself with everyone. Itagaki had come to like the little wood elf a great deal.
"What do you expect we'll find once we get to this tomb?" It was small-talk, but welcome small-talk. "Have you ever explored a tomb before?"
"I have not. Tombs in Hammerfell are considered sacrosanct. We do not disturb the dead." Itagaki looked at the mage. She had been speaking with Tilly earlier and she wondered what they talked about. She resisted the urge to look back at the Dunmer. That was something to deal with later. "Have you?"
"Oh, yes!" The mage almost seemed proud of the fact, but then her upright back relaxed and she looked at Itagaki, almost in apology. "Well, not really. I was taken to a couple in Auridon, with the rest of the class, but the tombs had already been explored and anything bad had been removed or cleansed. It's not the same as what we're doing here."
"Then this will be a new experience for us both." Itagaki shared a smile with Öenthir, "And it is something your classmates would enjoy hearing about, I should expect, when you return in triumph."
"Not really." Öenthir's head had dropped and she had a sadness about her as she looked down at her reins. "The Altmer students don't associate with anyone, the Argonians are practically ignored by everyone, including me, and the other Bosmer students think I act above my station. They say I think I'm better than them."
"And do you?" Itagaki was not one for treading lightly in conversations. Nothing was ever gained by prevaricating.
"I ... yes." The mage's head dipped even further, the brim of her riding hat covering her eyes. At least she felt shame about it, Itagaki thought. "I mean, I did, but so much has changed in so little time that I think I've changed so much too and I hope I don't change back once I return to the Guild."
Itagaki didn't answer straight away. They had all changed in the short time they had known each other. Less than a week had passed and even she had changed. She hadn't meditated for days. She was being emotional, in good ways and bad. And with Tilly, she had ...
"You will not." Itagaki had caught herself before thinking about the dark elf again. "Change is essential for life and you can never go back to how things were. Never exactly enough, no matter how hard you try to make it so. You will always be different than you were, it is up to you whether that is a good difference, or a bad difference."
Itagaki dipped in the saddle, trying to look beneath the brim of the Bosmer's hat, and flashed a warm smile when she caught Öenthir's eye. Öenthir smiled back and soon her head raised once more, smiling again.
Finds-Things-Not-Lost raised a hand and stopped the party again, far too soon for another drink break. The Argonian stared down at the ground before her horse, shaking her head. Itagaki trotted up to join her, looking at where the Argonian was staring.
"We may have a slight problem." The Argonian looked at Itagaki, noticeable worry on her face.
v. Öenthir.
They had found themselves at a the entrance to a thin pass between two steep rising cliffs. Wide enough to ride two horses side-by-side but with little room for much else. It was going to be tight going for a while, but that wasn't what had concerned Finds-Things-Not-Lost.
Öenthir followed the lead of the others and dismounted to have a closer look. Scattered around the entrance to the pass were piles of bones, bleached white in the Hammerfell sun. Bones from, as Öenthir could see from a cursory inspection, several different animals. Some she could identify, goats, jackals, humans (or, at least, humanoid) and even lion bones, others were of animals that were beyond her studies.
"Troll." Itagaki picked up a thigh bone, tracing the teeth marks with her fingers, and stared down the pass. "These bones mark its territory. Is there another way around?"
The Argonian shook her head and pointed at the steep cliffs on either side. Itagaki tossed the bone aside, sending it clattering into the other bones at her feet. She loosened her swords in her sash and looked at Revna in silence. Revna nodded and returned to her horse.
"We will need a strategy." Itagaki handed the reins of her horse to Finds-Things. "Trolls are not easily killed."
"I have a strategy." Revna hefted the double-edged battle axe she had unfastened from her weapons roll and made a wide-arced practice swing. "We hit it very hard until it stops moving."
Öenthir felt, once again, that she was going to be of little use as the Khajiit strode toward the entrance of the pass, her axe held with ease in both hands. Itagaki shook her head at the big Khajiit's over-confidence, but followed her into the pass, drawing her short sword.
Still, even though she had little to offer in a fight, Öenthir followed, hoping that there was something she could do and not wanting her friends to go into the troll's den alone. She looked at Tilly who, at first, seemed determined to hang back and let the other two do the dirty work, but, upon seeing Öenthir follow the others also decided to follow, albeit with slow begrudging movements.
The four companions made their way with care through the pass, the Argonian had remained behind, watching the horses. The pass meandered and twisted, thinning out, widening, rising and falling, hollowed from the rock faces by decades of erosion from some ancient river that had now dried out or had changed course over the years.
Soon, the pass widened again, opening up into an area that had likely been a gulch. A dip in the floor where once there had likely been a pond was where they caught sight of the troll, laid in the sunlight, relishing the warmth among a blanket of stark white bones. Itagaki stopped and crouched down, the others following suit, and she surveyed the area.
"Well, we certainly cannot go around it." She pointed to both sides of the small valley. "There is no cover on any side. We shall have to fight it."
"Good." Revna's eyes almost glowed with enthusiasm for the battle to come, gripping and releasing her hold on her axe several times. "This will be a glorious fight!"
"Have a care, my friend. Trolls are faster than they look." Itagaki made a friendly pat on Revna's shoulder. She was advising caution, but Öenthir could see that she was almost as eager as Revna. "You attack from the front, grab its attention and I will circle around and attack from behind."
"Aye." Revna was rocking back and forth, as if she had trouble stopping herself from starting the attack now.
"You two hold back." Itagaki turned to Öenthir and Tilly. "If things go awry, I want you both to distract it. You're both unarmoured, so you'll be faster. Run around, keep out of its reach and throw things, anything, until Revna or I can land the telling blow."
"Stay out of its way?" Tilly seemed as relaxed as if it was only another day. "My kind of plan."
"I can try my Mage Light." Öenthir offered. "It might confuse it."
"Good idea." Revna nodded at Öenthir, "But no heroics. Keep as far away from it as you can. Leave the close fighting to us."
With the plan worked out, Itagaki and Revna slipped from the mouth of the pass, one to one side, the other sneaking around the other side. Öenthir's mouth was dry as she found herself holding her breath. She stopped herself and tried to breathe as normal as she could. She hated to admit it, but this was exciting.
Her two friends had reached points opposite each other with the snuffling, sunbathing troll between them. Itagaki gave the signal. Revna paused a second, looked around, and picked up the skull of some animal, hefting it twice in her hand before launching it towards the head of the troll.
Nothing happened at first, the troll tried wafting its hand in front of its face as if it were swatting a fly, but then it began to stir, sniffing the air. It had caught the scent of Revna and Itagaki. Sitting up, it used its long powerful arms to stand, looking around. When a second skull hit it, it immediately focused on the Khajiit before it, and snarled.
Itagaki had been right, the troll was fast. It launched itself across the gap between it and Revna, landing before her even before she had got half-way through a swing of her axe. The troll caught the axe by the handle, Revna's hands too, held in its huge clawed hand, and, with surprising ease, it picked the big Khajiit up and tossed her aside with a roar.
Revna flew through the air as if she weighed nothing more than a child's doll, crashing into the wall of the valley before falling to the floor. A motionless, limp pile. Öenthir almost ran out to her, but Tilly held her back by the collar of her blouse and waistcoat, shaking her head.
With the shock of Revna's attack thwarted so soon, Itagaki still had the wherewithal to force home her own strike. With the troll still roaring its defiance at Revna, Itagaki stepped forward, thrusting her sword deep into the trolls back. This time the troll roared in pain, clutching and grasping at its back trying to get to the source of that pain. It began furious flailing. Its body twisted, its arms flew about in all directions. The ferocity of its pained movements ripped the sword from Itagaki's grip, still entrenched deep in the monster's back.
Before she could even think about drawing her other sword, the troll had swept an arm in a long arc, catching Itagaki at the apex and sending her pinwheeling to the far end of the valley. Now it returned its attention to the unmoving body of Revna, the nearest and the first to attack it.
Öenthir couldn't hold back any longer, she almost flew from the mouth of the pass, casting her Mage Light as she ran. Tilly, with hesitation, ran the other way, picking up bones to throw. The ball of Mage Light did the trick, floating in front of the trolls face, it swatted and swiped at the ball, ignoring the various bones that Tilly was throwing.
But the troll was not as stupid as it looked. It saw the tiny figure of Öenthir and swept its arm at the ground sending bone fragments flying towards her. She stumbled and fell trying to avoid them and the troll moved with speed towards her, stopped only by a yell from behind as Tilly launched herself onto its back stabbing it several times in the neck with a dagger.
Again the troll screamed in pain, reaching back, grabbing the dark elf and tossing her aside before returning its attention to Öenthir. She couldn't gain her footing and scrambled backwards, praying to Y'ffre. The trolls huge frame blotted out the sun as it loomed over her, her back against the canyon wall and she did the only thing she could think of. Without warning, the trolls face was on fire, flames burning and singing its needle-like fur, making it rear up in pain once again.
And then the roaring and screaming stopped. Its eyes rolled into the back of its head and it began, like a tree after felling, toppled to the side. Öenthir was still shadowed, but this time the shadow was smaller. Familiar.
Revna, covered in her own blood and the trolls, with much effort, pulled her axe from the skull of the troll. She stood there, for a moment, victorious, magnificent, before staggering and then collapsing to the bone covered floor.