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sosuaveh · 8 months

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Hil'Jit of the Burning Sands: Chapter One

Chapter 1: Smuggler's Oversight

"Tell me again, khajiit. Why should I believe you that you know the Half-Giant?" The nord before Hil'Jit was an inch or two taller than him. The 'Half-Giant' was almost two heads taller than both of them. Hil'Jit didn't know if Titanborn was truly a half-giant but it didn't matter. She was a terrific fighter who was known to clear a battlefield on her own.

"You do not have to believe this one, it would just be in your best interest to." Hil'Jit responded. If he knew anything about Lady Titanborn, she was standing behind him already.

The nords face dropped, as he looked at the figure walking up the dock.

"Wait, so you do know the Half-Giant? That's Lyris Titanborn! You weren't lying?"

"Of course not, now listen, if you go get the pommel of your favorite sword, this one can get her to autograph it for you." He smiled hoping it added just enough to the story to convince him.

"Really? You promise? Okay wait here!" The nord rushed off, his face a look of amazement as he passed Lyris. The way people looked at his larger than life companion always gave him a chuckle. Normally he was one of the tallest wherever he went. He was not a small man at just over six feet tall, but everywhere he went in skyrim the nords were his height or taller. Lyris was no exception, though perhaps she broke the rule. She towered over everyone.

"Let us go," Hil'Jit said, unlocking the door the nord had been guarding.

"What did you say to him?" Lyris asked once they were inside. "I thought things were going to be a little rougher than that."

"Let's just say, you have many fans in this kingdom," Hil'Jit said as he opened one of the boxes with the red paint on the side.

"Ashes? Again?" He said, his brain working like a dwemer machine. Maybe Lyris could even hear it turning.

"Something is not right here. All of these boxes have the same thing inside?" Her last sentence was less of a question and more of an oddly inflected statement. Before Hil'Jit could announce that he'd had an idea, the door behind Lyris opened and three nords walked in holding weapons. The one in front, a shorter woman that Hil'Jit had already seen before spoke up.

"Well well, looks like we caught some rats poking around in our warehouse." She growled, trying her best to sound intimidating, "Why don't we show them what we do to rats?"

"You're welcome to try," Lyris said.

The hair on Hil'Jit's neck went up from the comment and he stepped in front of the Half-Giant.

"Now, now, no need to fight," The khajiit flashed a smile at all of the parties involved, and got a slight grin from the usually stone-faced Titanborn. "We are investigating a murder and trying to stop an assassination here. What can you tell us about the crates?"

"Those ones are from Bankogai, someone paid us to transport the boxes." The leader said, apprehensive in her tone.

"And you never checked inside the boxes to see what you were smuggling?" Hil'Jit asked, opening another box to reveal a collection of ashes and crumbled bones. A threat on a king of skyrim, let alone the attempt Lyris has already stopped on the other king in Windhelm. Hil'Jit searched every possible answer he could find that his brain held. The Icereach Coven was involved, that much they knew.

"In my line of work they generally pay us NOT to look into any of the shipments, this one particularly well."

"Fair enough. Well you've got to know something. Where were these shipments headed?" Lyris cut in.

"They were headed to Kilkreath Temple. That was our next destination." The leader responded.

Lyris' face crunched as she thought. The temple of Meridia? Hil'Jit had passed it on his way to Solitude. The priests and pilgrims of Merida had been in a tough spot when he passed by. A storm of sorts had caused havoc the day before and separated, even killed worshippers.

It was there he would meet the vampire Fennorian, another whom Hil'Jit would count as his friends as far as things went since Molag Bal's invasion started.

It was outside Kilkreath Temple that Hil'Jit met Fenn. The vampire was rather easy to spot, despite Hil'Jit only knowing what the Elsweyr strain of the disease looked like. His eyes had an unnatural discoloration to them and when he walked outside during the day, he tended to wear a coat and hood.

"Kilkreath was more of the same, a lot more questions than answers." Hil'Jit said, already having passed through the old shrine to Meridia once. "This one helped some of the priests there recover worshippers and pilgrims earlier. There were others, though that I didn't have the time nor foresight now that I think of it."

"You head to the temple, I'll meet you there after I have a talk with King Svargrim. See if you missed anything."

Hil'Jit nodded and walked out of the small warehouse.

The cold northern wind blew in from the Sea of Ghosts to the north, bringing with it more grim news. A ship holding a great amount of money and valuables was lost somewhere among the ice flows. The rumors say that the Ice Queen was the culprit, but even Hil'Jit thought she was a legend. Something the nords told their children so they wouldn't stray too close to the ocean.

With the chill seeping in, Hil'Jit headed west past the Solitude Stables. The verdant forest of Northwestern skyrim was blooming and busy during the summer time, and he took in the many smells around him. To the north, not far away he could smell a large creature, not exactly unpleasant but certainly something that could use a bath.

"Boar, come on now, you know this one has a nose just as sensitive as you," Hil’Jit said aloud as he walked down the cobbled path. His friend was always close, the bear that he had raised since it was a cub. Boar, as Hil'Jit called him, never let the khajiit far out of his sight for very long. They shared a bond, one that Hil'Jit suspected was connected to the ancient magic of Hircine. He could feel all of Boar's feelings and was sure Boar could feel his.

Rather silently the bear padded through the forest and joined Hil'Jit on the trail. He held a rather feral look in his eye at the moment and Hil'Jit knew the bear had been hunting for food. And by the looks of things, found something.

A shadow cast on the ground as Hil'Jit thought about the bear's lunch and what it could have been. He looked up to see the familiar outline of a cliff racer against the skyrim sky.

"And I knew you were keeping watch the whole time, Uril." The creature gave a squawk and closed its wings, diving towards the ground. Just above Hil'Jit's head it opened its wings again and floated down onto the khajiits shoulder. Hil'Jit brought his hand up and gave the racer a little scratch under its chin, then slid it a piece of mammoth jerky from his pack. The cliff racer swallowed the meat whole and nestled itself into the pack Hil'Jit was wearing.

"Alright, I guess it's nap time," he continued to march on. Kilkreath Temple was a few hours away from Solitude, further north and west where the snow was still fresh on the ground.

"Go on ahead, Boar. Let me know if those fiends are still around." Hil'Jit said and the bear bounded off down the trail.

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