Walking with Alesan, S'Jul-Dar inhaled the morning air, and smiled abit. "You know, pa..." Alesan started, "It is always odd to find you smiling in the morning. You are usually more active at night." Jul chuckled, "It is the time in my life to enjoy the wonders of this realm."
"Oh? You grown tired of the bloodshed and adventuring?" Alesan asked, "Got shot in the knee during one of your 'excavations' in the Dwemer tombs?" "Never, my son. The spilling of blood is as natural to me as breathing." Jul responded with very light humor. "Of course, that must be why you chose to live in this frozen land." The Redguard chuckled.
"One of the reasons." Jul replied with a knowing smirk. As he walked up the hill, he could see Gregor pulling his sword out of a caught Forsworn with two of hold guards. Knowing his territory is now secure, Jul relaxed very slightly.
"Do you know what I am most thankful for?" He asked and Alesan looked at his father with curious eyes, "What?"
Reaching at his neck, Jul pulled out a necklace lined with teeth and claws, and in the middle of it was a probe and lockpick. "These two things are the reasons I am here now, or I would probably have my skull piked on Solitude's walls." He answered.
"Really?" Alesan asked in slight disbelief, "You've been caught before?" Chuckling dryly, Jul looked at the slightly bent lockpick with a deep reverence like the day he escaped, and started his story...
***
Rain's Hand 14 4E 201
One lockpick...
That's all I had, one last lockpick. The one that could have gotten me that new set of clothes or get me out of the stinking cell in Solitude. I've always had a probe with me, it was the sister to the equally-important brother pick. Together, I could get out of there and return to the outside world. However, I didn't know it will be the beginning of a new life for me.
As the young Khajiit, with filthy fur that was once a rare winter white and markings of midnight black, looked at his pick with almost godlike reverence, a arguably mad smile crept on his feline face with a few missing fangs, thanks to the lack of hygiene and the cruelty of the ever-righteous guards.
Creeping to the bars, he moves his ears slowly to catch the slightest sound of another living being in the circling wall of cells. Young S'Jul-Dar knew there was at least a Nord murderer here as well. They've talked once or twice, but never of each other's lives. Then there was the bane of his existence here, ol' Hulgard.
Cruel, abusive, and man of many...tastes, to which the poor juvenile is quite familiar with, but this gave him the insight of his schedule with almost instinctive awareness. Right now, he is gone getting dinner. With this, the Khajiit begins to work on unlocking the cell lock before he returns.
With concentrated ears and keen eyes, Jul got to work. Putting Sister probe with her brother, he raked the pins to test their position before moving them to their unlocked state, when his ears caught the last click, he smiled and twisted the cell lock open. Taking his tools back, the Khajiit opened the cell, and looked around to find his fellow prisoner.
S'Jul-Dar wanted nothing more to do but to run and sing, but there wasn't time to celebrate. Creeping over to the cell nearly across from him, he kept a eye on the hall leading outside. He could make a fast sprint to freedom but he wasn't going to leave a possible ally in the near future. A personal rule is to always to be prepared to make influential allies for the future.
The Nord was sitting down in a corner, always meditating, and despite the distance between them, the Khajiit knew he was large. Wearing nothing but torn pants, his skin was a unnatural pale, hair just as white as the snow, and when he sniffed, his eyelids lifted to reveal cold gray-blue eyes. Hesitating for a moment, Jul would have thought he was a ghost of the prisoner here, just wanting for the cell to finally open.
Swallowing abit, he continued to pick and prod. Blinking at the noticeable difference of cell lock, it had more pins and complexity to it. Panicking for a moment, he felt his heart thumping louder, but he concentrated and worked with it. When the miraculous click was heard, he almost thought it was the lock breaking, but then the cell lock turned.
"You're free, friend." Jul whispered in almost disbelief and the man grunted. Just then, he felt a rough hand grab his shoulder and thrown him away from cell, "Get away from there, cat! You trying to get us all killed!"
Hitting his head on a pillar violently, Jul's vision blurred for a moment and sickness came to him quick. "Gods..." He groaned and when the guard turned to lock the door, the cell busted open, knocking him clear off his feet.
The Nord came out, standing a head tall than anyone that Jul knew. "By Stendarr..." The legionnaire whispered through bloody teeth and petrified in fear of the giant. Jul stared on and started to move, when the Nord looked at him, "Get out." He said with a deep rumble before returning his attention to the guard and reached down to grab him.
Without a second thought, Jul crawled up, grabbed his lockpick, and started to run as fast as he can up the stairs. A Solitude guard spotted him but the Khajiit knocked him over, running so fast he was little more than a blur to the man's eyes. The retreating Suthay-raht could hear battle and screaming behind him.
He didn't turn around, he just kept running, evading the guards and came out to the beautiful world of night as if the cold star-lit void caressed his fur. He didn't waste time, the guards outside didn't quite recognizing him yet in the darkness, but when he ran up the stairs and towards the edge, they started to realize the escapee.
You won't catch me...ever again!
With that silent vow, Jul jumped over the edge, and tumbled down the mountainous side into the waters leaving the Sea of Ghosts. The Khajiit felt a couple rib broken and ankle hurt, but more importantly, he was alive.
Spitting out water as he tried to swim away from Solitude, knowing when the Imperials caught wind of his escape, they might hunt him down like hounds. He wasn't going to allow himself to be captured again, so he swam to the best of his ability to the shore, and began his escape from Haafingar.
***
"That was quite lucky of you, Father." Alesan said in amazement, "To escape Solitude's guards isn't easy." Jul nodded, "In fact, the next chapter in my life was lucky written down." Alesan blinked and realized they were already at the house. Opening the door for his father, they walked inside, and through the main hall where Oriella practiced her flute, "Good morning, you two." She greeted with a smile.
"Morning, Oriella." Jul greeted pleasantly. The woman smiled gently and continued to play her flute as they walked into the bedroom. The Khajiit turned around and properly regarded the nordic woman before closing the door. "Now...where is that old book, so I can tell you the rest of my sad life." He said, abit jokingly, as Alesan sat at the table with a grin.
Walking to his bookshelf, full of his favorite books and personal ones, he finally find a leather-backed book with a I on it. Looking at the aged pages and diagrams of previous locations, he smiled, "Ah, here it is." Walking to the table, he sat across from his son, and opened it. Running a claw on the first few pages. "After finding this book in a shack, I took it, and started to record my evasion of the guards as I escaped out of Imperial territory. It took several days, but I barely made it out to Whiterun's hold..." He said, starting the continuation of the tale.
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