Chapter 3 - Hypothermia

Rustlief awoke with a barely contained scream. The nightmares had grown steadily worse over the past few days, and he felt that something was mocking him. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at his wife. It appeared that she too was having trouble sleeping. She twitched in the throes of a nightmare, clutching her pregnant belly. He shook her gently on the shoulder.

Seren blinked, looking around with wild eyes. “Oh, beloved!” she cried, reaching for him. “Our baby... I dreamed that they were going to cut it out of me!”

He held her tight. “I know,” he said, regretting his decision to return to Dawnstar. “I hope someone can so something about these nightmares soon.” The wind howled outside the house, and the fire was dying. Rustlief gave Seren one final hug then crawled out of bed. There was no point in trying to sleep again, so he added some more wood to the fire and began to get dressed.

He opened the door a crack and saw the faint light of dawn beyond the howling storm. Just another day in Dawnstar, he thought to himself. He latched the door again and went back to the hearth. Breakfast for the two of them was a stew made from wolf meat and cabbage. It warmed his belly as he sat by the fire, reading a book. He had plenty of orders to fill at his forge, but he wasn't going to get much done with the storm howling outside. Better to wait for it to subside.

Seren got up and ate her breakfast beside him. There was a silence between them as the Redguard woman patiently began sweeping the floor. Life in this new land proved to be harder than she had expected, and the nightmares only added to her misery.

From outside came a thump. Rustlief looked up from his book and his eyes went to the door. The thump against their porch came again. Seren went over to the door and cautiously opened it to see what had made the noise. “There's someone out there!” she said.

Rustlief got up from his chair and grabbed his sword from the mantle as Seren lost her grip on the door. It flew open, banging the outer wall hard enough to make the whole house shudder. Rustlief peered through the snow and saw a figure crumpled on the stairs in front of their house. Cautiously he advanced, his blade drawn, and saw that it was a Khajiit.

Ice clung to the cat man's fur and he looked nearly dead. Unlike most Nords of Skyrim, Rustlief had traveled a bit in his youth, and had prior dealings with the mysterious cat people. Without hesitation, he dropped his sword and reached for the man, grabbing him under the arms and hauling him into the house.

Seren pulled the door closed as Rustlief dropped the frozen Khajiit near the fire. “What is it husband?” she asked, looking down at the strange, still form.

“A Khajiit,” he said. “From the lands of Elsweyr.” He pulled the blanket off the bed and put it over the stranger, attempting to warm him up. “I traveled with a caravan of them once, long before I met you. You could say I'm indebted to them,” he said, throwing another log on the fire.

“He looks dead,” Seren said, feeling the stranger's neck for a pulse. “Are you sure we aren't inviting trouble by helping him?”

Rustlief shook his head. “If there's one thing I know about Khajiit, it's that they are usually loyal to those who save their life.” He paused, then stoked the fire a bit more.

Seren felt a weak pulse beneath the furry skin. The cat man began to shiver as the warmth of the fire thawed his nearly frozen blood.

Ra'Kam awoke to the smell of food. He blinked a few times, unsure of his surroundings. There was a fire nearby and for a moment he thought he had passed on to Paradise. “Looks like he's finally awake,” said a woman's voice from nearby.

His entire body felt sore from the ordeal he had just endured, and the warmth of the fire was wonderful. He looked around and saw that he was in a cozy house. A dark skinned woman was sitting in a chair next to him, and she watched him with cautious eyes. “Ra'Kam is alive?” he asked her.

She nodded, then stood up and knocked on the wall of the house. A large Nord man entered shortly after, and smiled down at him. “We weren't sure you would survive,” he said.

Ra'Kam returned the smile. “Ra'Kam is grateful,” he said, trying to sit up, but all of his muscles felt stiff.

“Take it easy there,” Rustlief said. “Hypothermia takes time to recover from.”

Ra'Kam relaxed, feeling the warmth of the fire reaching the marrow of his bones. “This one is in your debt, friend,” he said, his eyes suddenly feeling very heavy. Just a bit of sleep was all he needed.

Rustlief watched the Khajiit fall back to sleep, and under his breath he said “Consider our debts paid.” He looked at his wife and said “Let him sleep for a while. Hopefully the nightmares won't affect him like they have done to us.”

Chapter 2 - Shipwreck

The fury of the storm grew steadily as the Khajiits climbed out onto the main deck. Whiteness and wind-blown snow flakes blinded them. They were in the middle of a blizzard, and out in the water they saw mountains made entirely of white. None of them had seen snow before, let alone an iceberg.

They retreated back into the ship and began gathering up whatever supplies they could find. Dead crewmembers were scattered about, their bodies and faces strained in the same hideous way as the man who had freed them. Although the Khajiits seemed to be immune to the disease, none of them dared to tempt fate by touching the dead.

The ship began to shudder as the hull scraped against something. There was a loud crunch from the front, and the sudden stop flung the Khajiits forward. Usually nimble and light on their feet, none of them were ready for what happened next as the whole ship started to flip over. Up became down and everything on the ship that wasn't tied down shifted and flipped. A giant table from the galley crashed through the wall and crushed two of the dazed Khajiits under it's weight. Ra'Kam dodged to the side as a barrel flew towards his head.

Slowly, the ship began to settle and the water began rising. The other Khajiits searched around but the scant supplies they had gathered had been dashed everywhere. Ra'Kam crawled over to the table to check on his fallen companions, but there was no hope. “What should we do Ra'Kam?” said a very frightened J'Dron.

Ra'Kam looked at the ceiling that had once been the floor, then back down. “Khajiits must swim down to get free.” The water had already risen to his knees and he waded over to the flooding stairwell. The water was freezing cold and his legs were already going numb. He took a deep breath and dove into the hole.

The water was so cold he could barely hold his breath. He looked around and saw two possible ways to go. Directly in front was a small corridor and he swam towards it. It turned left and right so he swam left. It looped back around and provided no exit. He swam back to the stairwell and broke the surface with a gasp. The remaining Khajiits looked at him expectantly and he looked back at J'Dron.

“There is one possible way for us to go. Swim quickly my brothers!” he said to them, then took another huge breath and swam down towards the other corridor.

There was a great deal of damage in that corridor and the tunnel was tricky to navigate, especially with fingers that could no longer feel anything. He looked back and saw J'Dron swimming behind him. A body floated past which caused J'Dron to panic, the air in his lungs bursting free as he gasped.. He tried to swim back, but got himself turned around. Disoriented, he began clawing at the ceiling.

Ra'Kam tried to reach for him, but J'Dron kicked at his touch as if one of the dead had grabbed his leg. Ra'Kam felt the back of his head strike something and suddenly he had his own panic to deal with. He had to focus.....had to. J'Dron made one last spasm against the wood, then went still.

Ra'Kam swam back to the stairwell with J'Dron's body in tow and broke the surface, breathing in some of the little air that remained. The water had already risen to chest level and the remaining Khajiits were praying for a miracle. “There is one chance my brothers,” he said to them “but you must be brave. If you cannot follow, then hope to one day see you all in Paradise.” He took another deep breath and swam for the exit.

The exit turned out to be a hole in the hull of the ship. The ship disappeared into the murk below him as he swam for the surface. The storm was still raging, and there was no escape from the bitter cold. He felt his body starting to cramp up, and flailed around for something, anything, to hold onto. Luck was on his side as he managed to grab a piece of debris that was floating nearby. He began weakly kicking towards some unseen shore as his consciousness began to fade

Chapter 1 - Slaves

---Last Seed, 18th, 4E 201---

Ra'Kam slowly opened his eyes, then instantly regretted it. His dreams of basking on a warm beach were rudely ripped away, replaced with the creak and damp of a slave ship. He sat up and surveyed the holding cell. The slave hold was separated into two sections, one for the lizard-like Argonians, and another for Ra'Kam's kind, the feline Khajiits.

The journey had been harsh. From bits of conversations they had overheard from their captors, the ship had become lost when it's navigator and captain both succumbed to a severe case of Brown Rot that had spread among the crew. The food and water supplies were running out, and the slavers hadn't given them any in two days. Ra'Kam shuffled over to the Khajiit who was keeping watch and asked, "What news does this one have for Ra'Kam?"

J'Dron turned to him with a weak smile. "Not good news Ra'Kam. J'Dron thinks our captors are all dead. This one hasn't heard a sneeze or cough in a few hours," he said, then a look of sadness crept onto his face. "Ma'Rul passed on to Paradise while you were asleep as well."

Ra'Kam closed his eyes to honor the young Khajiit who had died. "Ma'Rul is in a better place than this at least," he said, then looked at the other 4 Khajiits who were sleeping in a huddle to share body heat. "If Khajiits don't get some fresh water soon, we may all be joining him."

He put a comforting hand on J'Dron's shoulder and said "Try to get some sleep friend. This one had a dream of Mara and believes it to mean our fortunes may be reversing soon."

"J'Dron hopes so," he said, laying down against the other four.

Ra'Kam crossed his legs and began to meditate. It was a state most Khajiits could enter with ease, though not all went down to the level of Ra'Kam. He was an apprentice shaman of Mara before all this. In addition to keeping him calm, meditation was also the best way to overhear even the tiniest of sounds. The ship was almost as silent as a tomb, with only the occasional creak of the hull and rattle of chains breaking the silence.

It had grown colder over the past few days, and he couldn't help but to assume they were drifting north. As he sat there, he waited for a sign from Mara like he had seen in his dream.

The subtle rocking motion of the ship began to increase, accompanied by the sound of thunder which woke up the other Khajiits. They rubbed their eyes and looked around, bewildered. There was a thump and shuffle noise from the main stairwell and they all watched in horror as a man in the late stages of Brown Rot slowly came into view.

"Never never......never should have," he began, sounding delirious. "I knew there was something....." He suddenly broke into a spasm of coughing. Bits of brown mucus sprayed from his mouth and dripped from his nose. He wobbled on his feet for a moment. "Something wrong with what we were doing, but I had no idea..."

Another painful spasm overtook him and he fell to his knees. He began crawling to the cell door after it passed, and held up the key. "They we're going to kill all of you at your destination. It was bad business and I told the Cap'n as much but he wouldn't hear of it." He stopped to wipe the brown crud away from his nose with the back of his sleeve. He was wheezing like a bellows, his chest sounding thick with phlegm.

"Now it seems we've been cursed with this sickness. Everyone is dead, but their eyes.......oh their eyes follow my every movement! I cannot bear it!" he screamed at the six Khajiit faces that were watching him through the bars. Ra'Kam reached towards him with his palm upturned and the dying man dropped the key into it.

The man stared directly into Ra'Kam's eyes as he did this. "Free yourselves. I regret being a part of the things I've seen," he said, his eyes wet with brown tears.

His body went into convulsions, his jaw clenched in a hideous rictus grin. His body appeared to bend itself backwards with a crackling of vertebrae. He gave one last death rattle, then fell silent.

Ra'Kam winced. "This one has never seen a worse death. Let us hope we can avoid a similar fate brothers!," he shouted holding the key up for the others to see. Thunder boomed from the skies above. The Khajiit slaves were free.