» Wed Sep 18, 2013 3:00 am 'Ello.
I've been writing about my DB, a high elf named Erissa, and a friend's Dragonborn, a khajiit named Kerdo. They have been travelling together for years, and after a strange turn of events, find themselves dragged along by the currents of fate as the prophesied heroes, bound by blood and soul, destined to stop the World-Eater.
We've been working on a story together, and I wrote two shorts connected to it for fun. Most of our character's lore and secrets are being kept under wraps until TheShadowKirby decides he's written far enough to start putting chapters on dA/FF/here, but if anyone wants to know anything about them,
I quite enjoy writing, and if any of you would take the time to read and provide feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.
The Fireblood's Heart:
This one focuses on Kerdo and Erissa's feelings about the escape from Helgen, and their friendship.
Spoiler
Erissa Fireblood pushed the door of Riverwood's inn open. The inn was not very busy at this late time, there was only one person in sight; other than the innkeeper. Her closest friend, a male khajiit named Kerdo, was waiting for her arrival. Their other companion, a Breton by the name of Raven, was not present.
The full realization of what had happened today only sunk in once she slumped down onto the seat next to him.
"By the nine, what have we done?!" she gasped, her head in her hands. Kerdo looked at her in puzzlement, holding the bag of coins.
"How many of those soldiers did we kill down there?" she asked him.
"A lot. But they tried to kill Kerdo and Erissa first, remember?" the Khajiit said, tossing his coin purse into the air and catching it.
"I guess the money is all that matters to you, but-"
"Hey. Kerdo likes money, but he does feel bad about it too," Kerdo said, and looked around to see if anyone was nearby, then started to speak in first person. "Tomorrow we'll go to Bleak Falls Barrow, get that stone and then we can go off to wherever we feel like, just like before. I want to see Red Mountain sometime." He said reassuringly, his voice lowered this time.
"Like the last fifteen or so years? Legitimately, this time, or should we go back to... liberating our earnings?" Erissa said quietly, whispering the last bit and smiled mischievously at him.
"Well, this is a start. More can be liberated easily enough. With your Intelligence, my strength and handsome appearance, we are a perfect team," Kerdo tossed the coin purse once again.
"Are you forgetting your endless modesty?"
"Why, yes I did. Thank you for reminding me, sister."
"How much do we have?"
"We have about 150 coins, which add up to roughly four or five hundred septims, since most of them have higher values than one." Kerdo pulled a two-septim and a five-septim coin out of the bag. Again, he glanced to make sure nobody was nearby.
"Enough for a few weeks. And when that runs out, I can just cut some merchant's purse." Erissa said. Their conversation was whispered now, and both kept an eye out for other people.
"Which is thievery," Kerdo said mockingly.
"Hypocrite. Should we take Raven with us?"
"We don't owe her anything. If you really want to, we could leave her some money, but I don't think we should take her with us,"
"And then she'd waste it all on alcohol. I like Raven, but she's only going to be a burden."
"So it's settled, then?"
"The barrow, and then we leave." Erissa said with satisfaction. "Innkeep! Do you have any wine?" Erissa called out.
As the innkeeper brought some over, Kerdo thought about their plans.
"We could also give mercenary work a try. That group fighting the giant said we should try to join. There's good money to be made by collecting bounties,"
"I don't know about that, Kerdo. I'd rather not kill anyone else,"
The two of them fell silent for a moment. Erissa let off a sigh and took a long drink of wine.
"Are we really going to do this for the rest of our lives?"
"I don't see why not. It's worked so far," Kerdo said.
"I've been thinking… At some point, I think I want to settle down. Not anytime soon, but… I've been thinking about it,"
"Find yourself a husband and have children?"
"Well, I think so. I'm not sure. I'm still very young, for an Altmer."
"You're worried that I'll grow old and die?"
Erissa was silent for a moment.
"Kerdo, we're not related, but you are the only family I have left."
"And you want a family of your own. I understand that,”
"That's not quite what I meant. Sooner or later we're going to have to stop being children living on the streets, and do something."
"I'm not planning to grow up. I can't stop growing older, but I'm not growing up,"
Erissa laughed. "Me neither, I guess. Look at us, worrying about the future. For all we know, we could be eaten by a dragon tomorrow,"
“Speaking of tomorrow, it is late and we will be busy. Kerdo thinks we should get some sleep.” Kerdo said, slipping back into third person as the innkeeper came within earshot. He paid for the wine and then got up to go to bed. A few moments later Erissa gulped down the last of the wine, thanked the innkeeper and then went to her room.
The Fireblood's Fury:
We find out why Erissa Fireblood received her second name, and also see her mischievous side too. Set only a few months after the previous one, I think. There's no specific time period for this one. I mostly wrote it because I wanted to try writing some combat, but it then kind of evolved and grew into this once I started thinking of why Erissa was fighting the bandits so fiercely.
Spoiler
Erissa stepped inside, and was disappointed that there was no smell of cooking. A hot meal would have been nice. At least she'd have a warm bed for the night.
"Aela? We're home! Where are you?" She called out.
Silence. They walked inside. "This is not funny!"
That was when Erissa saw the note on the kitchen table.
Nice house. You look like you have some money, so here's the deal.
My friends and I have the Nord. If you want her back, it'll cost you. Bring 5,000 gold to a camp south of the lake by the end of the week or we'll slit her pretty throat for you.
Send only one person, or we'll kill the hostage
- Rochelle the Red
"Kerdo! Alexander! Aela's been kidnapped!" She screamed.
The two men rushed into the room, and Erissa showed them the note.
"Kerdo says we votes on who goes, and Kerdo votes Erissa,"
"Hey! I don't think that's-"
"Kerdo thinks that sending a sneaky person that is very good with a crossbow and knives to kill a few idiot bandits is smart. Erissa could kill them all before they see her,"
Erissa sighed. "Fine, but I want you two in the woods watching, in case something goes wrong,"
It took them a while to find the camp, which was partially hidden by a thicker clump of trees. A small rocky outcrop was overlooking the camp, and the group watched the camp from behind it for a few minutes, until they were sure that there were only 4 bandits.
"Alright, you three stay here. I'll be back as soon as I can," Erissa went down to the camp.
"Hey! Bandits! Show me that she is unharmed!"
A muscled Breton walked up to her with an air of confidence.
"Sending a woman? You're prettier than the other, so if a trade is what you had in mind…"
“How about this, you let her go and we all walk away?”
“The money first,”
“No. You don't understand, do you? That woman you captured, that was a very bad idea. Poking a dragon with a stick only makes it angry, and you don’t want to make me angry.”
"Scary. I have a new deal. Why don't you give us the money and leave? We'll put the woman to good use," He said.
"No deal. Let. Her. Go..," Erissa replied, her voice fierce. He simply laughed and swung his sword at her. His blow crashed into her side, knocking her to the ground. "Hah! Hand it over, elf [censored]!"
This was too much for Erissa. As she got up, her blood was boiling. She was going to show them why she had taken the name Fireblood. White-hot fury seemed to course through her veins, and she punched him squarely in the jaw with a gauntleted fist.
"HOW DARE YOU! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?" she roared at the top of her lungs, and her palms burst into flame. She sent the bursts of fire at him, charring the leather hide armour and crisping his skin as he tried to get up. A bolt of lightning sent him back down, and her war axe was buried in his skull.
His screams had sounded like music to her ears.
"Yol… Toor Shul!" Erissa's shout became a whirling torrent of fire. A second bandit, this one a short-ish Nord, screamed as his flesh burned and melted.
He fell onto the snow, alive but horribly burned. After a few moments of pathetic wriggling, he stopped moving.
One of the remaining bandits whimpered "Dragonborn!" and ran.
The final bandit, a heavily armoured Redguard woman carrying an axe not unlike Erissa's own, and a shield on one arm, looked at her with hate. Erissa struggled to rein in her beast blood, driven wild by the frenzy.
The Redguard let out a war cry and swung her axe at Erissa. She stepped out of range, then back in with a downward swing, which the Redguard woman caught on her shield.
"That the best you can do?" the bandit sneered. But her sneer turned into a grimace when a sword appeared in her stomach.
"Urk… uh," The woman fell over when Kerdo pulled one of his pitch-black swords out of her guts.
Wiping the woman's blood off of her cheek, Erissa walked away from the dead bandits.
Aela was trussed up inside a lone tent, almost unconscious.
"Aela!" Erissa cut the ropes and shook her awake.
"I'm fine…" She muttered, and Erissa helped her up.
"What did they do to you?"
"Nothing, except for beating me around a bit when I tried to bite someone's hand. I'm fine," Aela said.
A nasty gash in Aela's left leg made walking difficult, so Erissa helped her walk back towards Kerdo, Raven and Alexander.
"I've got her. She's hurt and probably hungry, but otherwise they haven't done anything to her," Erissa said, and wrapped her arms around her. "I was so worried," the Altmer muttered. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, the bruises Erissa had received were hurting. The sword blow had been stopped by her armour, but had left a large bruise on her side and a dent in the metal.
The group of five made their way back home. When they arrived at Lakeview Manor, Erissa looked around the property.
"I think we should hire a steward. Someone to keep an eye on this place while we're away,"
"You mean, to keep an eye on me? I can handle myself," Aela said.
"No, although it would be reassuring if you weren't alone out here. But we've got a few days for ourselves while Delphine makes some arrangements, so I can keep an eye on you myself, dear," Erissa said warmly.
"Shouldn't you be healing her leg?" Alexander broke in. Erissa frowned at him for interrupting and then nodded. "I suppose. It looks bad, I don't think I'm going to be able to heal it with magic very much."
She started by directing Aela to sit down, then telling Alexander to boil some water to sterilise bandages. She used one of them to clean out the wound, and then applied a healing salve that Raven assured her wouldn't poison anybody this time. Wrapping a bandage around the now clean wound, she fastened it and then told Aela to try standing up.
With Erissa's help, she was able to stand, but she needed to lean on someone to walk.
Erissa, of course, offered to help her with this.
"It will take a day or two before you can walk normally again, and there will be a scar, but you're not going to die of infection," Erissa said, then gave her a mischievous smile. "You can barely stand without help, so you're completely dependant on me. That means I can pay you back for bossing me around so much when I first joined the Companions," Erissa said, laughing in anticipation. But Aela seemed so vulnerable with the bandage and being unable to walk without assistance, that Erissa knew she wouldn't exploit her weakened state. Instead she just wrapped her arms around her lovingly.
