D.K.R Year 7 Elder Part 1 The City of Slaves

  • As the Crimson Fang neared the isle of Akavir, a ship appeared out of nowhere like a phantom; at first Quinchal thought it was a

    Tsaesci ship. he couldn't have been more wrong. It was a brown ship with red sails upon it and, Quinchal had to squint to see them

    properly, were several grey skinned people clad in netch leather armor. Hasir got up from his seat and looked in the direction of the

    ship and saw the sigil of two crossed black whips on the largest main sail, his heart sank,

    "Quinchal, a ship is rapidly approaching us," He called, in a frightened voice not knowing that the golden serpent already knew

     

    Quinchal beckoned Hasir to him and spoke in an undertone,

    "Hasir, that is a slave ship, I do not knew who masters that vessel but many ship inhabitants have mysteriously vanished around the

    same time that ship appears." Hasir gave him a look that clearly said what in Oblivion are you talking about? 

     

    Quinchal groaned audibly, "Listen," He said a tad annoyed as if Hasir were some kind of stupid hatchling, "When they find candidates

    ripe for what they call 'forced labor' they take them back to Morrowind, specifically Sadrith Mora to wait for the auction to start." 

     

    The ship came up so fast that Hasir could read the ship's name embroidered in golden lettering on its portside that read 'The Black

    Adder.' The ship's inhabitants boarded the Crismon Fang using a gangplank which the dunmer slavers used to board. Two dunmer

    men lept aboard the ship and grabbed Hasir by the arms. The frantic Argonian kicked and struggled against his blue skinned bonds.

    The golden scaled Tsaesci drew his thin curved sword, a staple of the tsaesci warriors, and leapt at the dunmer.

     

    Before the enraged Tsaesci could leave so much as a cut on the dunmer holding Hasir's left arm, a burly male dunmer walked the

    gangplank to the ship. He grabbed Quinchal's arm and forced it behind his back causing him to drop his sword, it clanged loudly on

    the deck behind him. The leader of the crew barked his orders to his two lackeys who dragged Hasir, still struggling to break free,

    onto the ship. They dragged him to the lower level and forcefully threw him into one of the empty cages that stood in the bottom of

    the ship.

     

    Hasir was crammed inside a cage that was no larger than a small cardboard box. Hasir sat up and tried to look through the

    pinholes that served as his cage's windows but the crampness of the cage prevented him to do so. All he could see was small

    portions of the ship's interior. Hasir pressed his eye firmly against one of the pinholes and he could see lines of six black cages set

    against one wall, all of them were a size too small, much like his. He saw that the cages were empty. 

     

    He screwed his face up in thought as a horriblee idea occured to him,

    probably to hold more unsuspecting victims like me He thought.

     

    He looked to his left and right and saw equally empty black cages. Hasir heard a trapdoor open and footsteps come down toward his

    cage. The man, named Aldreth Hlaalu, opened Hasir's door and forcefully removed the Argonian's clothes off, carelessly throwing

    them in a corner of the room and shoved an offwhite miner's shirt and tan trousers at his feet and yelled at him to put them on.

     

    When Hasir pulled the shirt and trousers on, the dunmer sneered,

    "Yeah, you still look like swamp scum to me, scaleskin." He said, laughing. He beat his fists against the bars causing Hasir to shrink

    back in fear. Hasir asked him where he was going to sleep.

     

    The dunmer laughed and sneer at him again,

    "You think I give a fuck where you sleep?" He gestured to a haypile at the corner of Hasir's cage,"Use that, perfectly suits a stinking,

    mud-for-brains scaleskin like you." He laughed as he ascended the steps again. At the top step, he paused and turned back to the

    'swamp scum' in the cage, "Oh and don't try to escape, we will be at Sadrith Mora soon, you will be a wonderful addition to the

    slave trade.

     

    Hasir slumped to the floor with his hands covering his eyes. He did not forsee this horrible turn of events, he expected to be back in

    Akavir by now. He began to think on how Quinchal was getting on aboard the other ship. He did not fully get to visualize the thought

    when the ship began to move. The sound of water sloshing against the sides could be heard from his cage thanks to his heightened

    sense of hearing. He lowered his hands and wondered how long the journey to Sadrith Mora would take. He had not set foot in that

    city when in Vvardenfell. He had not known that the city was best known for the slave trade; a trade in which he would soon be

    participating in.

     

    He tried bursting out of his cage by bashing his bone spikes into the locked door over and over. It was no use; Hasir did have the

    beginnings of a headache though. He slumped down, curled up and fell asleep. When the Argonian awoke he looked out of the hole

    in the ship that served as the sole window to the outside world. His eyes widened as his bones cracked and bones doubled their

    length and mass. His skin stretched over his lupine bones. Bloodfang and Frost got up, shook theit head as if he was ridding himself

    of bothersome bits of hay. He ran on all fours towards the door to his cage and rammed his head into it. Bloodfang tried biting at the

    wrought iron bars but despite his strong teeth, the bars stood resolute. Annoyed, he howled in a mix of sorrow and anger. 

     

    A dark skinned guard came down as he had heard a strange noise and though he would investigate. He drew a long, thin curved

    sword from his sheath afixed to his hip and stuck it in one of the slits in Hasir's cage; Bloodfang lunged at the sword. The dunmer

    named Nereth Hlaalu scuttled back across the wooden floor on all fours.

     

    He banged into ones of the cages lining the wall opposite,

    "What the fuck? Away, away beast." He yelled, waving his sword at the wolf, "I've business with the filthy swamp scum not you, now

    go!" He yelled, pointing to the trap door, getting to his feet again. The wolf cocked his head as if he could not believe a human could

    be so stupid. He was in a cage where was he going to go? 

     

    Nereth smirked, his eyes scanned the caged wolf before him,

    "Ah, my mistake, you are a caged beast aren't you?" He laughed so loud it rang around the mostly empty room, "Why are you

    here, mutt? I thought we caught swamp scum, not a damn wolf." He slashed outwards with his sword, cutting deep into the wolf's

    shoulder. Bloodfang yelped in pain and growled at the elf. How could he be so stupid not to smell the silver saber as the dunmer

    came down the steps or hear the humming of the silver on the sword? The black wolf, too weak to act or do anything for that matter,

    transformed back into the Argonian.

     

    The dunmer smirked and jabbed the Argonian in his anus with his sword. Hasir just lay there because he was far too weak to move

    because of the silver flowing through his veins, just lay there as limp as a dead fish on the hay pile that served as the floor of his

    cage. The dunmer laughed madly as the Argonian struggled to turned around and look at his attacker. 

     

    The dunmer laughed even more as he saw the Argonian's eyes that were pathetically pleading for him to at least be civil. He

    shrugged this off like a bad job and kick the Argonian firmly in his chest, causing the Argonian to cough up blood,

    "Me? Help you? Ha, don't make me laugh, and why would I do that?" He asked, sneering at him

     

    Hasir struggled to his feet, pulled his lips back and snarled at the dunmer,

    "Don't do this...don't be the slaver's stooge." He laughed weakly due to from his broken ribs, "By the way, who is the evil person you

    are sending me to?" He asked as he spat another rivelet of blood into the hay.

     

    The dunmer raised his hand which Hasir saw was knotted and knarled with age and smacked Hasir hard across the cheek. He hit the

    side bars of his cage, which left criss cross marks where the bars had cut in his nose. He shook this off and got up to retaliate but

    the dunmer threatened him again with his curved silver saber asking if he was sure he wanted to do what he was thinking about

    doing.

     

    The Argonian opened his mouth to answer but with a huge lurching motion, the Argonian was thrown backwards into the wall as he

    heard the sloshing of waters stop its assault on the ship. The dunmer produced a golden key and opened Hasir's cage. He bound the

    Argonian's arms together with a length of rope that lay on the other side of the room. Hasir turned and snarled at him; Danveus

    stuck the sword in his back and told the scaly scum to move.