This is part of an original fiction series using an altered version of an established continuity, commonly known as fan fiction. No claim is made to ownership of the original content used for inspiration, and no permission is granted to republish this new work elsewhere. The story takes place in an alternate timeline of Tamriel from the The Elder Scrolls series of games.
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The Body
Phan-xu stared at the body. It was not one of her kind: no scales, no prognathous snout, not even a tail. She had seen dead bodies before. Birds, small lizards, even aged members of her own people who had returned to the soil. But never had she seen anyone, living or dead, who wasn't one of her people.
The sun was low in the sky and all was quiet except for the buzz of the insects busying themselves on and around the corpse. Phan-xu stayed at a distance. The sight was intriguing but unsettling, and scavengers would soon be drawn to that spot. Large birds were already pecking at it. In the marshlands bodies disappeared quickly, and interested beasts such as snapjaws would not pass up an additional meal that might be lingering about.
The sight of death never failed to fascinate Phan-xu. Worse still was seeing an injured animal and knowing it would struggle in pain before its end. Members of her village would put such animals out of their misery, but Phan-xu was certain she could never bring herself to do it. The talk of birth and death and the endless cycle of life didn't change how she felt about such things. Each moment had its own meaning and value, even if it was one of desperation and misery.
The smell had brought her here, to this small hill in a clearing. The pungent, disturbing odor of death. She had expected to find one of the larger animals native to the area, such as those they used to guard to village or to carry their goods. Those sometimes passed away from illness or injury rather than falling to predators. On one occasion she had managed to edge close enough to the body of one of the more ferocious beasts that roamed those parts to touch it. She had been scolded for her carelessness, a lesson which still had enough strength to overcome her curiosity about this new discovery.
The basket she had been carrying to gather leaves and berries sat idly behind her. She was old enough to go out on her own now, and she felt pride in that. She sat looking at the stranger and wondered why they had come here. Outsiders were rare and considered dangerous nuisances. Her people still told stories of the many troubles the outsiders had caused them, the grief. After the world changed, her kind retreated to their homeland and took up a simpler way of life. Phan-xu had heard of camps where some of her people traded news and goods with outsiders under the protection of warriors, but the camps were nowhere near her village.
A zizat bird called out as a light rain started, abandoning a piece of rotten fruit a few feet from Phan-xu. The rain changed the weight of the scents in the air, disturbing and dispersing them. Drops ran down Phan-xu's brownish-green face, and she wondered what it would have been like to live in the world that had been, unaware of the presence that crept toward her.
Hrrska-Tra bent to examine a set of tracks in the mud. While not a hunter, he had learned enough to spot and recognize such impressions. Rain had started to fall, but not hard enough to obscure the trail he was following. A young one had lingered too long in the wild, and the wild was not forgiving. Packs of kagouti that charge with their horns, giant wamasu that could bite a person in half, and a host of other deadly beasts prowled about this land.
A spear and a small shield made of a large tortoise shell bounced against Hrrska-Tra's back as he jogged ahead. Like all saxhleel, he had learned to use weapons for self defense at a young age, but he had rarely used them against anything living. Contests between villages for strength and accuracy helped to build and sharpen reflexes, but his people usually traveled and worked together in small groups so that those better in combat could keep an eye on those to young or weak to fight. Hrrska-Tra had noticed that Phan-xu was late in returning and had hoped to find her before her tardiness brought another reprimand from the elders.
The sun was just below the horizon as Hrrska-Tra stopped to check for signs of recent passage. He noticed an old frog crawl under a rotten log while beetles waited patiently in a nearby bush for the rain to stop. A snake moved near his hand, looking like one of the many vines crawling up the trees that seemed to grow ever-taller all around him as their shadows lengthened and blended into the coming dusk.
Vespertine critters began to wake and stir, preparing to emerge in search of food. The bats would normally have been out by nwow, but they waited like the beetles for a break in the rain. The muddy, mossy colors of Hrrska-Tra's home were punctuated here and with patches of brighter verdant shades that would dominate the area in the season about to begin, a favorite time of year for most in his village, featuring an abundance of swimming and fishing. As a saxhleel Hrrska-Tra was a strong swimmer, but he would be focused on catching an old fish that had stalked the nearby stream since he was a hatching.
A cry roused Hrrska-Tra and he bolted in the direction of the sound, leaping over and stepping around the many roots, rocks, and patched of deep mud that he had been running through his entire life. A whiff of death and decay briefly announced itself as he approached the top of a hill, and he heard laughter and squeals of joy.
Topping the hill Hrrska-Tra wasn't sure what he was seeing. He knew what he was seeing but he didn't understand it. Phan-xu was on the ground with her family's guar, Mimso, nosing her and softly licking and nibbling her stomach. Nearby were the remains of an outsider. Mimso stood on his two thick short legs, waving his smaller, stubby, and thinner front limbs about. Like the kagouti, guar walked bipedally, but guar had no bony frill at the backs of their heads nor tusks protruding from their faces. Guar had round, smooth, domed heads and large, soulful eyes. Both wild and tamed guar were normally docile unless threatened, yet their appearance belied their fierceness when pressed to attack.
Mimso, though, was being very gentle with Phan-xu. Hrrska-Tra walked to them, keeping an eye on the body and the treeline. "Hrrska-Tra!" Phan-xu got to her feet and looked up appreciatively at a familiar face. Short rows of horns ran across the top of Hrrska-Tra's head, a faded and pale purplish color. His light grey complexion, spotted with black, was marked on his cheekbones and forehead with lines of red paint. His eyes were the color of yellow amber.
"Did that startle you?" Hrrska-Tra asked while pointing to the dead body.
"No," Phan-su said pointing to the guar, "Mimso did that." She looked pensive for a moment. "What do you think an outsider was doing here? Have you ever met one before?"
Hrrska-Tra shook his head. "No, I've never met one. We need to return now, it isn't safe here. The outsider may have had friends, or may have been fleeing a dangerous animal or even another outsider. Come, quickly. Get your basket."
Phan-xu knew he was right, but soon the whole village, and not long after the whole tribe would know about this. The strange secret and its moment of discovery she had been savoring would be gone. She hesitated. Hrrska-Tra pointed to her basket and repeated himself. "Come."
As she bent over to grab her basket a large furry beast came bounding into the clearing near the hill, its eyes on the body. They shifted in a blink to the two lizard-folk standing on the small hill. The kunduk moved between the dead body and the pair of saxhleel, its dark fur rising along its spine as it growled in defense of its newly discovered meal. It howled.
Mimso made a sound somewhere between a growl and a trilling hiss, then snapped his head as he gnashed his teeth. Hrrska-Tra grabbed Phan-xu's arm and pulled her slowly backward. The kunduk leaped forward and bared its teeth, and Hrrska-Tra pushed Phan-xu behind him, grabbing his spear and shield. Hrrska-Tra bashed the spear against his shield and shouted, ending each shout with loud hiss. He continued to back away with Phan-xu. The kunduk kept an aggressive posture but didn't pursue them.
Hrrska-Tra made a clicking sound and Mimso, who had not moved since offering his own warning, retreated back to the others. Hrrska-Tra knew that other kunduk were nearby and would be arriving soon in response to the howl. They rarely came this close to the village, and their appearance had been almost as much of a surprise as the body. The hunters would need to cull them or drive them off. But for now he and Phan-xu needed to run.
As soon as they were back over the hill and out of sight of the kunduk, Hrrska-Tra lifted Phan-xu into Mimso's back and slapped the guar's back side. Phan-xu wrapped her arms around Mimso's neck as the guar took off at a gallup back toward their home. Hrrska-Tra turned and sprinted after them. He could feel every inch of the ground his feet touched vividly -- the shape, the firmness, the wetness. His heart gave a fire that joined the panic in his belly and it was like he was feeling someone else's body running and leaping through the marsh. The light was very dim now, and even as familiar as his feet were with this terrain it was dangerous to move so quickly.
A howl came from Hrrska-Tra's left. The kunduk's pack had indeed been close. He didn't slow or look around. He hit a branch and it knocked him down. Only it wasn't a branch. It was a paw. A kunduk had caught up to him and swiped him while trying to pounce. Landing on the shield helped dampen the impact but Hrrska-Tra had lost his breath. Glowing eyes regarded him as a howl when out. Quickly other eyes moved in all around him.
Forcing himself to roll over, Hrrska-Tra got to his knees and set his shield. He got his feet under him but remained crouched. His other hand waved the spear toward any kunduk that stepped forward. But soon the leader would charge and the rest would follow. Hrrska-Tra felt the fear and the fire rising again, and he guided and their flow to make himself stronger and steel his resolve.
A shape flashed by Hrrska-Tra's head and he pivoted around while setting the spear to catch a leaping kunduk. He saw the face of Xik-sa-Hosh, her eyes fierce and fixed while a kunduk yelped in pain. Whipping back around he saw Xik-sa-Hosh's spear buried deep in the one of the animal's sides. It moaned and cried as blood poured from the wound, wetting its fur and the ground. The other kunduk howled sadly in sympathy, but turned and ran as two other warriors now caught up to Xik-sa-Hosh, all of both of them shouting and hissing into the darkness.
Xik took a sharpened blade from her belt and walked to the wounded kunduk, whose breathing was labored as it whimpered. There was no malice here. The kunduk hunted for food and scavenged in the lean times. Times had been very lean of late. The kunduk was not evil, just hungry, and now that hunger had been replaced by fear and pain. The wound was fatal but the kunduk would linger a good while in agony. The warrior said a quiet prayer then quickly plunged her blade into animal, which fell silent.
The other two warriors came over the collect the carcass and carry it off as Xik knelt down to attend to Hrrska-Tra. "You are lucky, my friend. Mimso is fast, and we he heard you fall."
"I am lucky it was you who arrived first, and that your aim did not falter!" Hrrska-Tra replied as he continued trying to catch his breath.
Xik grabbed Hrrska-Tra's arm and helped him to his feet. Hrrska-Tra used his spear to push himself up, and once he was erect he saw the second inexplicable his eyes would show him that day. A metal blade was at Xik's neck, pressed just hard enough to draw a trickle of blood.
In the common tongue still used among many peoples, Xik gingerly but firmly said, "That isn't a wise move, whoever you are."
"Just give me what that one took from the body, the grey one in front of ya," a raspy and tired voice replied. "He hands it over, I let you go."
"I took nothing," Hrrska-Tra said, still breathing hard and now confused and wondering how he could help Xik-sa-Hosh. He cursed himself after the words left his mouth. The owner of the knife wouldn't believe him, and perhaps he could have used a rouse to buy some time.
"There's no one else but you lizards for miles around, who else would have it. I saw you near the body. You--"
A crash came from the darkness and cries of panic. Xik twisted and dropped to her knees, grabbing the arm with the knife and flipping her captor forward over her shoulder, causing Hrrska-Tra to stumble backward. Another few saxhleel, who had been following their comrades and saw the commotion from afar, emerged from the brush with two other strangers in their grasp. Their experience as hunters had taught them to always look for other members of a pack. Xik grabbed the knife from the ground and pressed her foot down on the chest of the man who had threatened her.
The short walk back to the village was tense and silent, except for a few calls to and from those who had gathered at the edge of the fence near the village entrance. Villages in this area were placed in a strategic location in the midst of a grove of old growth trees so that fences could easily be put up and reinforced to keep out the night predators. Night time was perilous, and many careless individuals wandering out alone in the dark had vanished, their remains sometimes found days later, or sometimes not at all.
The trio of outsiders had been bound and were led into small building just outside of the village. It had once been a place for trade, but it had fallen into disuse. The warriors who tossed the strangers inside weren't particularly concerned about the smell or the insect infestation the building had acquired. The mold and centipedes would have to keep the prisoners company for a while until the elders had decided what should be done.
In the clearing by the hill, the light from the two moons shone brightly. While the elders of the nearby village gathered to hear of the evening's events, an adept hand felt for the end of the rib cage on the dead body, then move a bit below and drew a remarkably sharp blade along the corpse's abdomen lengthwise, cutting through the skin, fat, and muscle. Two more cuts parallel to the first at either end created flaps that were pulled back. The same hand reached, pushing aside some viscera to uncover the stomach. Another cut was made, and the gloved hand felt around until it found what it was looking for. The glove and the recovered item were quickly washed in a clear puddle that had been enlarged by the earlier rain, leaving trails of blood and stomach acid. A silent figure then left the clearing quickly, headed north.
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