After 2 days of travelling when the sun is up and camping when night falls due to reasons for avoiding hostile contact, we finally reached Conrithe. The change of view from the seas of sand to the lush green tropics was a welcoming idea to me, fruit was the first thing that came to my mind. Sweet fruit.Yes, I happen to have a sweet tooth. I just can't avoid sweet foods, my mother says I'll get toothache. Toothache, my shin.
"Wow! This place is so green! I didn't expect Elsywer to have a jungle like this, in fact I didn't know Elsywer had jungles at all! I've never seen anything like this- oh! A pretty bug! I like it's stripes blue and red and orange, what is it? It looks like a wasp, hope it doesn't sting, I mean wasps sting right? It doesn't look like it has a sting, look at it, I don't think it evens know I'm here, it-" Jalian was cut off when the wasp like insect extended a sting from its abdomen that was almost as long as my middle finger. She jerked her approaching hand away from the wasp, and urged her camel forward, the wasp just spun lazily away from Jalian's direction and went on it's way. I placed my palm to my face for a moment, not because of Jalian, but from the mild headache I've suddenly got. I guess this was what the Khajiit called a 'Sight Shock'. When you're used to seeing the same thing over and over again, when you see a new thing you get a slight headache, most of my life I've lived in the desert, I suppose that explains it. Along the way we passed a herd of wild therium, it's like a rhino, with a thinner body and longer neck and legs. Some Khajiit dub it as a 'moon cow'. I suppose it's the South's equivalent of a cow. They're not a threat, the zahilisk raptors are however. They're like scaled wolves, ugh what's with the theme of wolves like animals in this province? At least we know that they usually decide to stay away from caravans with 2 elephants in it.
After a few hours of moving through the humid air, as well as keeping Jalian away from excessively pretty insects, we finally reached the city, most of it was built on the trees, a bit like the Bosmer, so I've read. The guards at the bottom made us drop off our mounts at the stables, the elephants were too big however, so they stayed outside the stables while our camels strolled in. It was obvious we weren't going to carry everything up to where the main market would be, instead Conrithe had a pulley system that allowed us to unload most of it and have it pulled up, but not before one of the Khajiit placed a rune spell on it, a Shock Rune, that's gonna hurt. Precautions must be taken, especially when the Khajiit have been know for their sticky fingers. The Khajiit leader of the caravan paid me and Jalian our fees, 250 gold each. Now to blow it all away by buying some treats! Kidding.
Jalian looked at me and said "Wow, my first pay! Now to keep this in a place where people would least expect it! They'll never see this coming!"
As soon as she finished she dropped her coin purse into her satchel, and swung her satchel behind her. What was wrong with this girl? Is she really that stupid? I looked at my coin purse and sighed. Out of fear and maybe because of common sense, I decided to hold on to the coin purse. If money was to be gone then the money would have to be traded for something else. If there's anything I know about the Khajiit is that no matter what kind of Khajiit they are, they tend to always be one who cannot keep their hands off shiny things. As Jalian and I entered the city, we saw a bunch of Khajiit on the bottom of one of the staircases to a house, their bodies shivering uncontrollably, some were dancing, one was singing a song. Moon Sugar.
We ignored them. Well I ignored them, Jalian tried to find out what was going on and was offered some by one of them, I pulled her away before she could say anything. I don't want an even more hyperactive Redguard walking with me, neither do I want to see an addiction. When we reached the city marketplace, which happened to be nestled between two gigantic jungle trees, we saw the Khajiit of the caravan we were guarding selling, Siligonder honey? Well, that explains the attack, I was tempted to try some, but then I realized we almost died from that honey if Jalian didn't have her extremely lucky shot.
Out of the blue, an Alfiq jumped onto Jalian, she had no choice but to hold on to him. "Gods! What in the-Oh! It's a cat! An actual cat that doesn't walk on it's hindlegs, that's a first, haven't seen a normal cat since I came here. Does the kitty want some milk? I think I can buy some for yo-"
"Mroaw" said the Alfiq with an unenthusiastic meow. He looked at me and tilted his little head, I nodded and said, "Jalian, that's not a cat, that's one of the Khajiit subspecies, that's an Alfiq."
"Oh," said Jalian with a small voice. She then proceeded to tickle the Alfiq's head. "Merow," said the Alfiq as he dodged the fingers and jumped from her arms. He leaped onto a bunch of crates and said "Meiw,"
I didn't know if Jalian understood him, but I understood him completely, I smiled as I've realized who I'm talking to, "My my, you have grown since I last saw you, you have her brown fur, how's your grandmother eh?"
I think you all would know who I'm talking about. The one I had complications with. I'm talking to her grandson it would seem. The Alfiq blinked and show me his tail, there was a ring on it, two rings, one was the one I gave to his grandmother a long time back, the other meant that he was married. I remember the ring clearly, it's slightly duller that the new looking gold ring he has on but, it still had those two amethysts on there. She still remembers me, the thought made me smile, yet it made me frown as well, if he had the ring does that mean...
That was the complication, I live longer. The Alfiq saw the change in my facial expressions, and decided to say something else, "Meorw"
"What did you say? That's smart? That's the dumbest idea I've ever seen!" I exclaimed. He was talking about Jalian's 'hiding spot' for her money. Jalian looked at me weirdly, "What's going on? Who is this she you're talking about? How do you two know each other? How do you even understand him?"
"I've lived with Khajiit for over a hundred years, I think it would be shocking if I wouldn't understand him, by the way, he said that your little trick was a smart one, according to him, you satchel smells horrible to him. It smells like lilies, lilies kill Khajiit. Oh I know him because he's a friend of mine, now shush, and let the adults talk."
I felt a bit mean for saying that, but...it's sort of true, she's 19. The Alfiq, Ra'hoor is 38 and I'm about 218. She still a child to me, and a child to a lot of other people as well. Ra'hoor did his version of a smile and said "Meirow, meuw,"
He's inviting us to his house, I nodded and said, "I don't see the harm in it, why not?"
He nodded and leaped off the crates, followed by me and a really confused Jalian.
