11 Hammerfell- Another Step Forward

Day 105

"H-help!" A young man screamed as he ran from two horse sized beetles. They scurried after him at an incredible speed. My sword had already been drawn as we had seen the encounter long before we heard the man. Sand kicked up behind me as I tried to run through the shifting material. Kharjo and I had abandoned most of the metal on our bodies due to the extreme heat from the Alik'r desert that made up of most of Hammerfell.

The man ran as quickly as he could and began to wave his arms when he saw us coming towards him. As he was trying to shout something to us he was caught in the foot by one of the creature's large legs. One of the beetles had lunged at him but had only managed to trip him. It scrambled to get it's footing on the sand again and in that time Kharjo and I had positioned ourselves in front of the young man.

"T-thank you!" He shouted and began to run away again. Zaynabi came up behind us and readied a spell in her hand. I brought up Dawnbreaker and charged forward, Kharjo went around to flank the large creature while it's attention stayed on me. It lunged forward with large mandibles, I moved to the side just in time and brought my blade up to clip it's right mandible. At the same time Kharjo had dug his blade into the creatures body, leaving green ooze coming from the gaping wound in it's shell.

"There's another!" Zaynabi shouted and threw a large ice spike at another beetle that had crept up behind Kharjo. The sharp icicle sunk deep into it's head and felled it.

"Nice work!" I shouted and turned my attention back to the wounded beetle before me. It was making an awful screeching noise as it tried to back away from us.

"Should we finish it?" Kharjo asked, a little winded from the fight and our sprint through the sands.

"Let's leave it." I decided and sheathed Dawnbreaker. The thing had given up and was trying to escape. I couldn't bring myself to kill it, my body just wouldn't let me. I was so accustomed to killing undead that killing a living creature just felt wrong in every way. That and the weird vibe I was getting from Dawnbreaker seemed to emphasize that feeling.

"It seems that man has run off." Kharjo looked around and shrugged. "We best keep moving though, we need to find shelter before nightfall." Both Kharjo and Zaynabi had never traveled through Hammerfell but they had heard much about it in their travels.

"We could have stopped in Dragonstar in the North or even Elinhir when we had crossed the border. But someone insisted we keep moving" Zaynabi groaned and brushed sand off her spellbook.

"Meridia showed me that the piece was somewhere south. You pointed it out that it was near the port city of Rihad." I waved my map around and grumbled angrily. "We need to get out of this heat." I stated and simply started to walk away. I followed the hurried steps I had taken before to get back to the worn solid parts of the desert that resembled a trail. "This is considered a main road?" I sighed and tried to move my feet within my boots to avoid chaffing. There was a ton of sand in my boots and clothing. I would be grateful for a place to get all of it out of my equipment but I knew that would probably still be a far ways off.

"I wished for warm sands, but maybe I had spoken too soon." Kharjo sighed and I could hear both he and Zaynabi following behind me. I had originally been excited to see a part of Tamriel that I hadn't seen before. But the large bugs, scorching heat, and roaming desert bandits made my excitement jump off a cliff.

"Here! Their over here!" A familiar voice could be heard behind us as we turned around. The young man from before ran ahead of a group of hooded figures. Kharjo placed a hand on the hilt of his sword while Zaynabi held tightly to her book, her finger slipping between the pages to the spell she would need. "Peace friends!" The young redguard raised his hands in a surrendering manner. Kharjo relaxed slightly but Zaynabi still stayed ready.

"I hear you saved our friend here." A large man approached us as the group caught up to the young redguard. He lowered his hood and showed a gruesomely scarred face and large jaw. He was an orc with dark green skin and large tusks jutting out from his lower lip. His bald head shone with a glare from the sun as it looked as though he was smiling. "I wish to show thanks and maybe offer you all some relief from the sun."

"That's a tempting offer." I eyed the man and his group. They all wore cloaks that made it hard to make out their faces, let alone what weapons they carried. I knew it would be a simple task for them to kill us and take whatever they wanted. "We're in a hurry to get South." I replied, not wanting to give away exactly where we were going but hoping they could help us there.

"Our encampment is a little ways South from here, it should be closer to where you want to go." He pointed along the road. "We offer drink and rest. You could be on your way in no time while feeling much better than I'm sure you do now." I looked over at Zaynabi and Kharjo. They both nodded, exhaustion clear on their faces.

"We accept. Thank you for the help." I was also very tired, I had started to become used to the weather of Skyrim and now I find myself in a completely different climate. I wondered if maybe my immune system would become affected and I would fall ill.

"Mind telling me where you're from?" The orc began to start conversation right away as he began to walk past us, motioning for us to follow.

"We have just arrived from Skyrim." I replied and adjusted the cloak around my shoulders, my body was sweating and it made the clothes I was wearing very uncomfortable.

"Skyrim huh? Should have guessed, not many choose to come from anywhere else recently." The orc grumbled and looked off into the distance.

"There have been others from skyrim?" His tone had indicated that many people had been coming through.

"There's been a lot of rumor about an undead horde. Lots of refugees from Cyrodiil and Skyrim have come through Hammerfell." The orc continued on as the sun began to reach it's highest point in the sky. "Looks as though we'll need to pick up the pace." He began to walk faster, the others following suite. It wasn't until we got to large cluster of rocks along the main road that we stopped. I was about to ask why we where standing there when one of the hooded figures knelt down next to one of the rocks and slipped their hand into a small hole. There was a loud clicking sound and a passage opened up on the face of the ceramic colored stone.

"Very clever." Kharjo whistled and smiled. Though we had no idea what was in store for us down there, Kharjo seemed to be excited. Zaynabi however still had her hands on her book and eyed each of the cloaked figures. I was also on edge but wanted to be able to trust them. We had saved one of their people, hopefully that meant something.

"Just down here, we'll be free of the sun." The orc lead the way, the three of us following close behind. The other figures followed behind though one stayed outside and closed the hidden door. Too late to back out now. I though to myself and sighed heavily.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 106

The previous night had been interesting to say the least. We had stayed in an underground lair that was home to a group of resistance fighters that were against the rule of the Aldmeri Dominion. The Dominion had taken over the major cities within Hammerfell through various means. Ironically enough the young man we had saved before was once in line for ownership of the city of Rihad, the place we needed to go.

"So Rihad is under the Thalmor's control." I mused as I looked over my map. I was updating it with locations that Morgran had showed me on his own map. Morgran was the large orc that was leading the group. He was friendly enough but it seemed to me that he was going to use the young redguard if they won the battle for Rihad. I wasn't sure though and I was hoping I was just being pessimistic.

I took in my surroundings after finishing up with the map, I was in a chamber that was given to me. Zaynabi and Kharjo had similar rooms, a chest to put our belongings, a table and a bed. The whole group had similar rooms though they seemed to hardly spend time in them at all other than to sleep. Though I imagine it would be difficult to find some down time while scavenging for supplies, recruiting members and plotting to overthrow the Aldmeri Dominion. The base itself that we where in was made up of a long hallway with small rooms going along both side of the hallway. At the end was a large meeting room which also made up their supply room. Altogether this branch of the resistance was made up of twenty people but there was still room for ten more to fill this base.

"Do you believe it right to help them?" Kharjo asked as he moved the large red cloth that made up my door. Zaynabi was behind him and they both took a seat on my bed.

"It could be our only chance into the city. If the Thalmor are monitoring everything that goes in and out we might be arrested right as we get near the gate." Though I had only been pursued slightly in Skyrim I wondered weather or not I would be recognized by any Thalmor. While I hadn't met one I couldn't help but fear that they had some way to identify previous "offenders."

"One of the other members here heard about the Thalmor arresting random people and interrogating them about the undead hordes. Refugees from Skyrim are turning south to Cyrodiil or North to High Rock. Morrowind is refusing to take any refugees from anywhere until they have dealt with their own problems." Zaynabi was listing off the things she had learned overnight from the members of this resistance group. Their ranks where made up of travelers or members of the cities that hated the rule of the Thalmor.

"Looks like we'll find problems wherever we go." I sighed sadly and added the last location on my map, rolling it up I placed it in my satchel and turned to the others. "Let's head to the meeting room. Morgran said he had things he wanted to discuss."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 110

We had believed that Hammerfell hadn't been affected by the undead menace. That only due to Morgran and his group not running into them we had hoped they weren't yet here. We were so naïve, so very wrong in even thinking that. Even though the entrance had been hidden so well, the base itself had been overrun in minutes. A necromancer had appeared in the area, the scouts that had been placed around must have been caught unaware and killed, otherwise we would have gotten some warning before the entry rock had been blasted away.

It took all we had to fight our way through the horde that fell over one another down the steps to the waiting rebels. Even though Morgran had recruited well beyond his hope in the past few days, it was not enough. We had seen our numbers rise to over forty, forced to double up the rooms in order to keep so many people down in the base.

"Darius! This way!" The large orc leader shouted as I lead the survivors down the hall. Zaynabi and Kharjo took up the rear in order to cover the hallway. There was an emergency escape route that took days to get out of due to it going down and through large beetle tunnels. The entryway into such a maze had been dug from the back of the base. The characteristics of the beetles reminded me more of large ants which normally might have made me laugh but now I wondered which was going to be worse, the undead or giant beetles.

"Morgran! Start leading them out. We'll hold them back as long as we can and catch up." I shouted and pushed others past me in order to make my way to the end of the narrow hallway.

"Don't die!" The orc shouted angrily before heading into the meeting room to open up the escape route. While he seemed the type that wanted to fight for glory he knew that we had more experience killing these things, he also had a rebellion to run.

Yesterday had seen us celebrating the rise in numbers, the three of us had agreed to get into the city for our purpose while helping the rebellion.

"Kharjo! Zaynabi!" I shouted and put myself between them and a group of undead. Dawnbreaker seemed to spark to life at the prospect of killing these pale creatures. I smiled uneasily, feeling the blade's power coursing through me. "Die!" I shouted and swung my blade again and again. Each time a pale body was enveloped in flame that didn't spread to me as I pushed my way past the burning bodies. "I'll kill you all!" My voice sounded deeper, almost distorted as I shouted with glee, tearing through the hordes of creatures coming down the hallway. Even now I still don't know what had come over me. I just remember feeling the sword in my hand and the feeling of euphoria that coursed through my body when I stabbed and sliced the pale creatures.

Before I knew it I had made my way to the stairs where the creatures where being called back by their master. Only one conjurer had come to flood out the rebels but he seemed powerful enough. I questioned weather or not I should charge up and end his foul existence before being stopped by Kharjo. The khajiit had wrapped his arms around me and began to pull me back down the hallway.

"No! I have to kill them!" I shouted in disgust. These things were a menace, a blight in this realm and the people who were raising them deserved nothing more than to burn for eternity.

"That's enough my friend! We have to follow after the others!" Kharjo grunted and huffed as he struggled to keep me in his arms. It was Zaynabi that finally was able to calm me down, a swift strike with a large book. All I remember after that is pain in my head and my vision going in and out.