Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5583506-20160117031504/@comment-5583506-20160117212403

(Aight, everyone accepted. Let's get this show on the road.)

Three weeks had passed since they had left High Hrothgar, or at least she thought that three weeks had passed. Out in the wilderness it seemed to be impossible to keep track of time, and she had barely gotten any sleep last night due to the constant thundering of gigantic feet. Ran'Jinro however had slept as if he had never seen a bed before. She envied the middle-aged Khajiit. He always acted like he didn't have a care in the world. Despite the fact that he had told her several times that he feared the Beasts as much as any, he seemed to hide it pretty well. While she had stayed up for several hours, peering over her shoulder in case some curious Wolf Beast or a Sabrecat would pop their heads in through the trees, the Khajiit had snored pleasantly with his arms behind the back of his head.

And now they were out here... The Whiterun Tundra was the name. She could even see the ruins of the once so beautiful wooden structures of the city in the far off distance. Reports had been coming in from Beast Slayer scouts that a strange Wolf Beast had been sighted, heading in through the central regions of Skyrim. While not particularly different in terms of appearance, the Beast had showed signs of... peculiar behaviour... It had been plain out ignoring smaller Outsider tribes and other Beasts, heading through the countryside as if... as if it had a purpose in life. While they all knew that the Beasts didn't possess anymore intelligence than their ancestral counterparts, it was eccentric behaviour indeed. Especially since the Beasts would normally attack anything that moved, whether it be docile animals, people or other Beasts. They would also roam the lands spontaneously instead of following a direct route. But this one didn't show any of those traits. It just wandered along in a determined path, ignoring other animals and creatures and heading straight through the tundra. Perhaps it was diseased or something? Whatever the reasons were, she and Ran'Jinro had their duty to carry out.

This was to be Evelyne's first Beast slaying and Ran'Jinro, her old mentor was there to supervise her and make sure that she succeeded and come out alive in the process. A Beast showing clear signs of eccentric behaviour would truly be a test worthy of her training skills. They had been following its huge tracks for about two weeks now. They had lost sight of it during the night, but she had a good feeling that they would encounter it this very day. Or at least she hoped so...

"Everything okay there, lass?" asked the Khajiit as he rode up alongside her.

"Yes", said the young woman. "Just a bit nervous, it's all."

Ran'Jinro shook his head. "Don't be. Just stay calm and everything will be alright. I am with you now, remember? I will try to distract it, make it focus on me, then you move in for the strike against its head with your gear. Strike hard and fast. You got to make sure that you puncture its skull and skewer the brain."

She nodded with determination. "I will remember that."

Two horses rode along the vast and open landscapes. The sun's vague rays, gleamed through small openings of a thick sheet of grey, rolling clouds; and the only sound that could be heard were the rhytmic drumming of the horses' hooves against the moist grass. In the distance Mount Kilkreath towered up before them like a petrified Beast.

"Hmm", said the Khajiit suggestively with a foreboding voice. "Seems like the tracks are headed towards Kilkreath."

"Maybe it is just another Beast after all?" said Evelyne. "Smelling... flesh, perhaps?"

The Khajiit shook his head. "Nay. That's not it. Not even a Beast's senses are that well-developed. It would have been impossible for it to smell them during all this time. Besides, Saarthal is much more closer to where it was first spotted. If it could smell people and wanted something to eat, it should have headed there first. This is different."

"Maybe it's just cutting straight through Skyrim? Trying to reach the sea?"

"Could be", sighed the Khajiit as he began to dislike the situation. "But I have a strong feeling it doesn't want to drink sea water."

Their path across the tundra took an occasional two or three hours, and by that time the horses were almost spent and needed resting. The sky had begun to darken and evening would soon be upon them. They stopped at the foot of Mount Kilkreath where the tracks had ended. Evelyne looked around and up as if she had expected the Beast to have climbed up the mountain wall.

Ran'Jinro took notice of this and shrugged with amusement. "Don't bother, lass. Their ancestral counterparts didn't like mountain climbing and neither does these Beasts. Must be something genetically inherited."

Evelyne nodded and felt that a pressure had been building up within her during all that time she had been riding. "Uhm, Ran'Jinro?"

"Yes, lass?" said the Khajiit and turned to her as he fed the horses.

"I need to... uhm..."

The Khajiit eyed her curiously before his expression softened as he suddenly realised what it was she meant. "Oh. Oh, yeah... Sure. Go right on ahead, lass. Just keep yourself close to this area, you understand?"

She nodded in understanding and stumbled off amongst the rocky labyrinth heading for a ravine. There she sat down and sighed in relief as her bladder finally couldn't contain anymore than what was already in it. The anxiety over the fact that soon she would have to fight her first Beast also helped somewhat...

The Khajiit just shrugged with an amused smile as he saw her head disappear behind a big rock.

''Such a peculiar young woman... But still I sense that she has great potential to become a fine Beast Slayer one day... I was so like her the day I had to fight my first. Wonder if Commander Trymir still has those vomit stains on his boots?''

Suddenly one of the horses neighed nervously and clipped with its ears.

"What is it, Tick?" asked Ran'Jinro and looked around for potential threats, yet couldn't see any.

He then made sure to look Evelyne's way to make sure that she wasn't in any kind of trouble. The young Breton finally stood up behind the rock, pulling up her pants before waving to her mentor as a sign that everything was alright. It was by then he took notice of the huge, threatening eyes staring her down from within the ravine.

Ran'Jinro laid his ears back flat against his head. "By the Twin Moons", he whimpered. "EVELYNE!" he shouted and waved her in eagerly with a motion of his hand. "RUN!"

The young Breton seemed to be aware of the gigantic presence behind her just then, as the Wolf Beast emerged from the cover of darkness, picking up pace as it rushed out from the open ravine and towards its intended preys.

"Oh, Gods! Oh, Gods! Oh, Gods!" she pleaded as she stumbled back towards the horses among the rocks.

Ran'Jinro threw her the reins and rode off, pulling some tools up from one of his satchels. "DON'T STOP AND LOOK AT IT! JUST RUN! ESCAPE!"

Evelyne reached her horse Puke and sat up in its saddle, eagerly pressing her spurs into the horse's side. It whined and rode off in the highest speed available, sensing that it was in as much danger as its rider.

The Wolf Beast came crashing out from the ravine, sending rocks and pieces of stone flying in every direction as it focused solemnly on the Breton riding away from it. Ran'Jinro had never seen anything like it. This was no ordinary Beast, although it certainly looked like it. There was something in its eyes that rendered it unique among its own kin, but he refused to believe it no matter how many times he kept looking at it. And that was the sign of determined intelligence. This wasn't some random rampage. This Beast had been heading off in the direction of Mount Kilkreath where it had all of a sudden stopped and gone into hiding in the ravine. Why?

As the pieces slowly fell into place for the Khajiit, his main concern right now was to ride up alongside of the Beast, trying to have its undivided attention. He readied a compound canister and threw it with all his force and might against the Beast's head. The canister shattered and a flash of light rendered the Beast temporarily blinded on its right side. The creature roared in pain and slammed its front paw into the ground, causing the very area to tremble. The distraction seemed to work as it gave Evelyne some distance from herself and the predatory creature. Instead the creature seemed to focus from where the pain had come from, the gaze of its left eye, eventually settling on the Khajiit on his horse.

"FIGHT ME, YOU BLOODY MONSTER!" growled the Khajiit and whipped up another compound canister, this one containing a lingering, acidic poison. It would most likely irritate the flesh of the Beast and make it distracted to try and clean its wounds while he could try to find some way to climb it from behind and bury his swords through its skull.

"YOU FIGHT ME, YOU HEAR?!" he shouted and waved with his arms, determined to make the creature even more furious than it already seemed to be.

The Beast observed him for some time, almost as if it was deciding whether or not it would attack this strange little prey that acted as if it was more of a challenge than the Beast itself could handle. Finally the Beast had decided and lunged towards the Khajiit. Ran'Jinro took the reins and steered Tick to his left, watching as the Beast crashed down right next to him. It didn't leave him with an opening to hit the Wolf Beast's left eye, but he decided to throw the canister either way, aiming for the same eye as before. Once again the canister exploded and the creature roared in pain and agony as the poison began to affect it.

The head of the Beast turned towards Ran'Jinro in a furious snarl, observing him through its left eye for a moment that seemed to last forever. Ran'Jinro just sat there in his saddle, slowly reaching for one of his cleavers. His heart was racing like mad within his chest, knowing that just about any moment now, either he or the Beast would be dead, if it decided to attack. It was a gamble, if anything...

But then the Beast made a decision that made him even more certain that this Beast was unlike anything they had ever encountered before. Its snarl dissappeared as it regained its senses, and instead of lashing out against him, it just turned its head towards the north-west, past Mount Kilkreath and ran off.

The Khajiit breathed out, and if he hadn't already taken a piss before sitting up in the saddle, he would have been pretty sure that he would have had to ride after it with wet trousers.

"Ran'Jinro?!" exclaimed a voice from afar after a while.

He looked up and took notice of Evelyne returning to him.

"By the Divines!" she said under her breath. "Are you alright?!"

"Y-yeah", he said with a sigh of relief, his hand slightly trembling as it was still reaching for the cleaver's handle. "Just realised until now just how hard-fought they are."

"What happened?" she asked. "From what I saw... That was unlike anything you ever taught me!"

"How could I've?" he replied, looking just as confused as she was. "I wasn't prepared for this encounter myself." He nodded in the direction the Beast had run off to. It had resumed the same course as before; towards Kilkreath. "I think what we are dealing with here could be something very dangerous, Evelyne. What happened back there at the ravine... I think... I think it must have smelled us somehow and headed there in order to..."

Evelyne was a fast learner, and more intelligent than he often took her for. "What are you saying?" she hissed. "You don't suppose that...?"

He nodded and swallowed. "That was a trap", he explained. "An ambush. It wanted to be rid off its pursuers. I have never seen a Beast do that before. Its gaze... It's more intelligent than I would like to give it credit for. And right now it has resumed its intended route, and I do fear where that will take it."

He took a hold of his reins and motion for his apprentice to ride after him. "To Kilkreath..."

Cold winds had begun to blow in over the Pale as the evening slowly began to fall on the northern landscapes of Skyrim. The tribes of the Outsiders located in the region would do best to seek for cover with their kin and keep their fires low to avoid being seen by passing Beasts. Tomorrow would be a good day for some hunting and gathering. Yet soon the winter would be upon them, and they all knew that they eventually had to withdraw to the south. The Great Forest of Cyrodiil was one of the few places that remained warm no matter which season, and it was also a good place to stay in cover from preying beasts. Besides, they knew also knew that they had good friends over there that would surely give them some sanctuary, unlike those ingrates living in Saarthal and Kilkreath.

Kilkreath had begun to settle in for the night. The city consisted of a top plane, high up on the tallest peak of Mount Kilkreath, surrounded by a tall and strong wall with a pallisade; and a subterranean part, built directly into the deep shafts of the mountains. Shops were closing and people were retiring for some well-earned rest. Tomorrow would be another day just like any other. Schools would re-open for the children and the merchants would eagerly see what goods the daring traders from cites from afar had to offer. The city guards were working in shifts and had two divisions. One manning the walls by day and night, and one patrolling the streets to keep troublemakers and Outsiders away.