Tales of Skyrim IC

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Rura looked at him and thought a moment. "That should be fine for us to start with. If it needs to be changed I'm sure we could arrange a meeting for such."
 
"So 1000 septims a month, then. So, just to start the deal already, here is your first payment. " He placed a somewhat big bag of coins on the table, next to the assassin. "Now, unless you have something to request or ask from me, I think we should call this a meeting." Si'Basha got ready to stand up, but he awaited if the woman had anything to ask from him.
 
Rura keep a non-emotional look as she took the bag of coins. "Yes I believe this were done here." She stood and nodded at the man then walked to go on her way for the next contract.
 
Si'Basha nodded and stood up, heading to the counter to pay his drinks. When he was finished, he headed outside and walked down the busy streets of Solitude towards his home.

(To be continued...)
 
Rura went on her way. She left Solitude and began on foot to the ruins Astrid had said her next client with the next contract would be. Her location would be between Dawnstar and Whiterun. She traveled slowly keeping an eye out for wolfs or bandits that might appear along the way.
 
"Blessed are the bonemen, for they serve without self in spirit forever." Brenn spoke as his dagger carved a way through the flesh of a recently killed bandit in order to get to the bone underneath. "Blessed are the mistmen, for they blend in the glory of the transcendent spirit." The blood that found its way out of the body he was cutting open was still quite warm even though he had killed what was formerly a nord some time prior. "Blessed are the wrathmen, for they render their rage unto the ages." His chant continued. It had become increasingly difficult to acquire proper skeletons ever since he had cleared out Hamvir's rest, but he made due with stormcloak patrols, imperial remnants and bandits like the one before him. "Blessed are the masters, for they bridge the past and span the future." When his chant was done, so was his task. He ripped out the last of the bones still located in the flesh and placed them in a bag for one of his skeletal minions to carry.

It was funny, really, he had come to Solitude to discover the latest news about the empire and to import some aged Breton cheese from the East empire trading company, after all he might live alone, but that does not mean he should eat like a rat. Yet along the way between Dragon bridge and Solitude, the fellows now scattered as bones in sacks carried by his undead minions decided that just because he was alone he was a valid target for a robbery. They should have known nothing is ever that easy and a mage always has another trick up his sleeve. It was also exceptionally hilarious how the last one begged for his life even after Brenn had removed all the bones from the brigand's legs. He was dead anyway, why not simply let Brenn continue working?

With a sigh of annoyance, Brenn gave his hands a short but violent shake to splatter off some of the blood before grabbing some of the still clean clothes of his latest victims to wipe his hands. Once clean, he gave the surrounding area a quick scan, it was true the stormcloaks don't patrol the roads as well as the Imperials did, but perhaps it wasn't the smartest plan to dissect his new experiments in the middle of the road. Still though, it was evening and the road seemed mostly quiet, no one will have seen.
 
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Kararq's eyes were filled with worry. He didn't know whether to chance the giant, or the wolves. However, he did know that this woman he was with was daft. "What do you mean you WANT TO HUNT a giant? Have you been knocked in the head? A giant would absolutely decimate you! " Kararq began to mutter to himself, "I think we'll chance the wolves, a giant is way too much for the two of us. Maybe a Companion, but not just a raggedy sellsword and a crazy foreigner." He directed his attention back to Yiva, "Our best bet is the wolves. We can probably take 'em on, or maybe intimidate them. Should we be dismounted, stay behind me." At the look of outrage on the woman, little more than a girl to him though they were around the same age, Kararq quickly gave an apology. "Sorry, but you seem kind of naïve and inexperienced to me. Plus I like keeping my clients alive, gives me more confidence and the word spreads about Kararq the Great." A wry smile played on Kararq's face at the mad up title, but he quickly sobered. He drew his scimitar, laying it across his legs as he guided Nightmare with his knees. The howling drew closer, and the giant loomed up to the right of the two humans, dwarfing them in comparison to its' size. A herd of Mammoth lazed near the Giant, but they were farther away. Kararq kept his head on a swivel, not wanting to be taken by surprise, as it could mean life or death.

"A giant? No! What would I do with a giant? The mammoth, I was talking about the mammoth. It would feed many mouths, for many days. Not to mention the glory of taking down such a beast; it's beautiful." Ylva wasn't feeling particularly threatened She'd hunted her fair share of wolves before and she'd never experienced a giant before. Kararq seemed to on edge however and although Ylva knew following his orders would be wise, she still felt a small spark of defiance in her. It was snuffed out the second she felt the ground shake however. Up close, the giant seemed larger than before, his gigantic club looking like an entire tree trunk. He opened his mouth, bellowing an ancient guttural phrase which Ylva did not understand but his comical shaking of his fist she recognized as the universal signal for "back off". Unspoken words which she took to heart, even going so far as to sheath her bow.

Upon hearing the howls grow increasingly in volume, Ylva turned around just in time to see the wolves burst from the wilderness. They were gaining on them. Her frustration at not being able to defend herself beat her patience in the end - who was the mercenary to tell her what to do? "I'm shooting them!" was all she yelled before sliding off Nightmare in an undignified manner. Riding through the day had turned her legs to jelly, something she realized too late as she lay on the ground. Growling, Ylva slid her bow off her shoulder and nocked an arrow aiming towards the wolves. Ylva hadn't taken into account the giant however, who seemed even more aggresive than usual seeing her weapon out. It didn't seem to be attacking her for the moment, instead simply choosing to continue it's threats. Ylva let loose an arrow, the stahlrim point piercing the wolf and incapacitating it. It was one out of many however, a fact Ylva acknowledged only by nocking another arrow.
 
Lachlans eyes widened when he noticed that he had eventually caught her attention. He turned his head back to Ketty and nodded his head quickly, lost for words.

"I was just checking up on you," he smiled when he had regained his mind. "Who knows if you were dead or not at the bottom of some random cave surrounded by tigers and eaten by skeeters. Haha."

His laugh was unnerving and made Ketty frown. He moved closer to her and peered over her small and curvy figure to look clearly at the man in the room. He gritted his teeth before storming away, his arms swinging over dramatically by his side.

"Clearly you're a bit busy right now," he muttered, as he exited down the hallway in a rage.
 
"A giant? No! What would I do with a giant? The mammoth, I was talking about the mammoth. It would feed many mouths, for many days. Not to mention the glory of taking down such a beast; it's beautiful." Ylva wasn't feeling particularly threatened She'd hunted her fair share of wolves before and she'd never experienced a giant before. Kararq seemed to on edge however and although Ylva knew following his orders would be wise, she still felt a small spark of defiance in her. It was snuffed out the second she felt the ground shake however. Up close, the giant seemed larger than before, his gigantic club looking like an entire tree trunk. He opened his mouth, bellowing an ancient guttural phrase which Ylva did not understand but his comical shaking of his fist she recognized as the universal signal for "back off". Unspoken words which she took to heart, even going so far as to sheath her bow.

Upon hearing the howls grow increasingly in volume, Ylva turned around just in time to see the wolves burst from the wilderness. They were gaining on them. Her frustration at not being able to defend herself beat her patience in the end - who was the mercenary to tell her what to do? "I'm shooting them!" was all she yelled before sliding off Nightmare in an undignified manner. Riding through the day had turned her legs to jelly, something she realized too late as she lay on the ground. Growling, Ylva slid her bow off her shoulder and nocked an arrow aiming towards the wolves. Ylva hadn't taken into account the giant however, who seemed even more aggresive than usual seeing her weapon out. It didn't seem to be attacking her for the moment, instead simply choosing to continue it's threats. Ylva let loose an arrow, the stahlrim point piercing the wolf and incapacitating it. It was one out of many however, a fact Ylva acknowledged only by nocking another arrow.
Kararq muttered a curse "Damn girl....Going to get us killed." He ripped his scimitar and his knife from their scabbards and he whirled into action, only a glint of steel could be seen. Soon enough, the entire pack was dead, some littered with arrows, others with gruesome cuts on their heads and necks. Kararq sighed and knelt down, to begin the tedious task of collecting arrows. He glanced at Yiva "You had better help me." After a pause he looked towards her again. "Why would you want to hunt a mammoth? It'd kill you." He raised an eyebrow at her.
 
With a raised eyebrow Loïc watched as Lachlan headed out of sight all the while wondering what that was all about. He got up and walked to the door "I see you have something to take care off," Loïc said to Ketty as he began to close the door "I'll head out first thing in the morning. Get out of your hair and all that." With those words spoken, he closed the door and crawled back into bed. A quick casting of frostbite to extinguish the torch later and the room was pitch black and perfect for Loïc to doze right off to sleep.

Perhaps he had not fallen asleep as quickly had he known what was lurking right outside the gates of Helgen. From the East and North figures crawled from the night, their dark armor and quiet feet hiding them in the night. Only their eyes, glowing and hungry, pierced the night's sky as they approached their prey.
Several of the more powerful vampires embraced the shadow to turn invisible and climbed over the lower parts of the palisade. The guards atop the gates only knew what had happened once they turned visible again and sunk their teeth into the necks of the bandits turning them into their thralls. Soon after that the gates flew open and in stormed a flood of nightspawn hungry for the blood of the bandits. No more thralls would be made, only death would be harvested and "cattle" led back to their respective hideouts.
 
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Ketty was a little confused as she watched Lachlan quickly hurry away from her, a little out of character, without any reason to his nervousness. Before she could make an inquiry, he had disappeared down the hallway and so she decided to turn her attention back to the Breton vampire hunter in the room. He had by this point stood up and spoken, closing the door in her face. Ketty's eyes widened at the speed of the event, but took his words in, heading in the direction which the anxious Lachlan had scarpered to. As she made her way out of the keep, she could hear the grunt of one of the men on the wall just thirty metres away and six metres up. It was getting quite dark and she couldn't quite make out the figures, but it seemed as if two of the guards had began a conversation. She continued to search for Lachlan, but then she heard a crash.

She quickly turned around to see more figures crowding around the walls, and the two torches which represented the guards on the walls went out on the north wall. She frowned, and silently rushed forwards a little bit to get a clearer view of what was happening. She caught sight of the blood. That was the first thing she noticed, the way that the blood flowed like a thick glimmering stream away from the corpse, whose face and body was left intensely wrinkled and disfigured from the fall. Was this a Stormcloak attack? She then noticed the two deep puncture marks on the man's neck, and her eyes widened, and she shuddered at the thought. The idea that there was a band of bloodsuckers somewhere nearby heading to Helgen hadn't really dawned on her as early as it should have, but it had definitely slapped her across the face in that moment. Her mind exploded with various ideas, both stupid and risky, of what she could do until she remembered. As if the divines had known this was going to take place, fate had sent a hunter, nay a Dawnguard, right into the city's walls. The gates burst open in an almighty crash and, hurrying over to a stall to grab an iron great sword, Ketty bellowed from the top of her voice, "Stormcloaks!"

In a matter of seconds, her fellow bandits who had heard her were gathered outside the keep with their swords ready, as if they were prepared to fight. Some of them were scanning their eyes to see where they were. She pointed her sword into the direction of the northern wall before hurrying into the keep to wake their only chance of survival. As she entered the keep, she heard the brave bandits charge, but little did they know that the supposed Stormcloak intruders they were so ready to clash blades with were, in fact, vampires.
 
Loïc had barely gotten several minutes of sleep or he was awakened again by the shouting of the word "stormcloaks" and the sortie of a pack of rowdy bandits. With a heavy sigh he rubbed his eyes and cursed undeaneath his breath, just when he was about to get some sleep, Ulfric's lackeys had to mess it all up. As he got up and sat on the side of the bed, his door slowly opened, he could not see in the dark room, but he could hear the soft creak of the hinges well enough. His hand reached underneath his pillow for his dagger and he thought to himself that one of the brigands was about to test his luck at Loïc coin purse. With his free hand he cast some flames on the torch to light it and as it illuminated the room he could see how mistaken he was; the light cast a very real look at the pallid complexion, the bat-like nose, the golden-orange eyes and the fangs, oh how the fangs potruded from the nightspawn's mouth.

In a fraction of a second the vampire was upon him in an attempt to sink his teeth in the Breton's neck, but Loïc was faster as he grabbed the beast by the chin and raised it to uncover his neck. The pale neck in which Loïc burried his dagger as deep as it went turning the vampire to dust in his hand and on his body. Coughing from the vampiric remains, he quickly grabbed one of his axes as well as his crossbow and bolts and stormed out the door, for his armor however there was no time. If the brigands thought they were in a clash with the stormcloaks they were in for a big surprise for vampires fight with more than just sinew and steel and he could only imagine the chaos that would errupt if they start fleeing after seeing their comrades being eaten in the middle of the battlefield.

As he exited the keep he witnessed the the clash between nightspawn and brigand and could taste the bloodlust in the air from either side, but he didn't take long to shoulder his crossbow and skewer a vampire about to pounce on a bandit straight through the eye causing his vampiric dust to be scattered all over the floor. Loïc rearmed his weapon, but didn't have the time to fire as a vampire attacked him with a steel axe. The Dawnguard however had little interest in being cut open at the moment and bashed the nightspawn in the face with the butt of his crossbow, momentarily causing him to stagger before shooting a bolt straigh in the chest. After that he tossed his crossbow to the ground and scanned the battlefield and saw Ketty battling with an iron greatsword against the flood of vampires. Loïc cast Stendarr's aura, lighting him up brighter than both moons in the night's sky, and sprinted toward the female brigand all the while casting sun fire at every human figure he saw. He could afford to seeing as sun fire is harmless to normal humans, so even if he hit a bandit by accident, nothing would happen.

Just as he reached Ketty he decapited a vampire sneaking up on her and her comrades before standing behind her so they would cover each other's backs, though his stendarr's aura did that already. "Lovely night, isn't it?" Loïc quipped to Ketty as he made sure no one attacked them as he did.
 
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"You took your time!" she quipped, as she lifted both of her arms into the air and brought it down heavily onto an armoured creature, carving straight through and into his skin. "I was just about to come and find you actually, I figured you would know how best to handle this situation. Judging by that flame on your hand, I think it’s safe to say I was correct."

Ketty could hear a loud scream and span around, watching as a vampire stood at the tower’s second floor’s large window; a window which was in fact created by the dragon attack during the begin of the Dragon Crisis. A long wooden pole had been driven through the vampire’s spine and a silver blade had sliced through his skull from between his eyes, and she could only look on as the vampire was thrown back by the strength of the blows, bringing the deliverer of the spearing down with him. The man’s beard and angry roar could easily be recognised as Carwyn’s, and she smiled a little when she noticed that he had used the nightspawn to cushion his fall and continued, almost unscathed, onwards to battle with a chilling chortle and a slight limp in his left leg. Ketty returned her attention to the four vampires making her way towards her. A line of about two dozen bandits had formed behind her, waiting for her direction.

"Miss Ebonheart," one of them said, stuttering on her name. "What should we do?"

"I thought you said they were only Stormcloaks?" wailed another.

"I said what I had to say to get you all out here," she told them, turning her head to face the one who had last spoken. "If I had said they were vampires, you all would have ran straight out the gates and we’d lose our homes. How many of you are there?"

After counting for a short time, one of them shouted, "Twenty-seven."

"I want ten of you to go and assist Carwyn," Ketty ordered in a loud voice, pointing at him with her sword, before slamming her blade into another vampire who had closed in and slashing his face, knocking him a few metres away and into the dirt. "Another ten must head to the eastern walls to secure defences there. Three of you head back to the keep to search for survivors, two of you leave the city through the tunnels and request back up from Whiterun, and the other two stick with me."

The men hastily moved to perform their orders, but not before Ketty shouted out, "We have faced enemies far worse than this in our time! We are not cowards. Remember how Carwyn the Fierce took you all in when nobody else would. We are family now, not bonded by the blood we share but by the blood we spilt!"

Having finished her speech, the men stomped their feet and clashed their blades against their shields, shouting out the phrase 'Blood we spilt' over and over again as they headed off to their given objectives. The other three vampires had by now closed in, with reinforcements seeping through the alleys and gaps between the ruined houses and the newly built stalls. Ketty gazed upon the closest vampire and charged at him, both hands hurling forwards at her fullest strength and brutally slashing the creature.
 
Lachlan had made his way to his secret room, but hearing the uproar outside led him to drop his books and hurry to the outside. Seeing the vampires and hearing the speech from Ketty motivated him and he rushed towards Carwyn since Ketty seemed to be performing well on her own. His mind was dizzy with crazed thoughts – why were there vampires, who sent them, who was that man in the room with her… No, it wasn’t time for that. Lachlan sped towards his father and threw a fire spell on a vampire, burning his left arm and upper torso.

“Come, my son, lets kill these rotten bastards,” Carwyn growled as he leaped into the air and slashed a vampire in his jaw.

“Father I need to tell you something.”

“What is it?” he asked without looking at his son, his gaze fixed on the battlefield. “Is it important?”

“Yes, very,” Lachlan nodded, as he pushed a smaller vampire back by less than an inch and set his face on fire in an aggressive way.

“Go on, son, be quick,” his father had wandered off a little. He didn’t seem to be paying that much attention and his eyes remained on the vampires as he cut them down one by one.

“I think I’m in love with Ketty,” he confessed. That seemed to put Carwyns mind off the vampires and he frowned, shaking his head.

“Shes off limits,” Carwyn said, as he turned to face his son with sorry eyes. “I’m sorry, boy but I won’t let you do that. She’s going to be the next leader, I tell you, and petty romances is gonna get in the way. Keep your feelings to yourself, I’m sure theres plenty other women out there for you.”

“But Father, I know its her I really want…”

“No, son,” Carwyn said more forcefully this time, more assertively. He could feel his heart being
wrenched into two, but as his father turned to continue the fight, a large vampire creature barged into him and threw him to the floor. Lachlan watched his large father being thrown from his feet and lit up the flame again, ready to burn the vampires face. But a fought flashed across his mind. As the vampire and his father struggled, with the undead thing trying to sink his teeth into Carwyns neck, he closed his hand and clenched it into a fist. His father kept struggling to push the thing off him, but the armor was too heavy to lift off him and he was entrapped under the vampires weight. He tried to pull out his dagger and stab the vampire in the side and succeeded but, trying to push the thing off forced him to raise his body and the vampires head remained in place and buried its teeth into his neck. Carwyns eyes were filled with pain and anguish as the vampire did so. Lachlan watched his fathers last moments of humanity, before his eyes glazed over and he walked off slowly back to the keep, having ensured that nobody had witnessed his failure to act. Nothing was getting in the way of him and Ketty – not even his dad.
 
As Ketty was giving her speech, Loïc kept the vampires at bay with sun fire and the sharpness of his axe. Even those that got close enough to bite or slash felt their skin burn due to his Stendarr's aura spell. Once the orders were given, Loïc grabbed Ketty by the shoulder "We need to kill the master! If we kill the leader, the brood will flee!" What he said could be true, but there was no assurance. Truth was, Loïc was worried that there were too many vampires for them to handle, they had come to turn the bandits into their own cattle so it made sense that they sent a quite large number of vampires to secure their meals but this amount was almost absurd.
"Once we find the leader, take your strongest comrades and follow me; we'll carve a way through the brood to him while using my aura as cover so be sure to stay close to me. As far as the rest of your men go, send them in the keep and make them hold it until daybreak!" Once his words were spoken he turned back to the battlefield and fired a firebolt in the face of an attacking vampire who fell screaming to the ground as his face burned before turning completely into vampiric dust. He had to find the master, but with all these nightspawn crawling from every nook and cranny, it was anything but easy to find which one led them here.
 
Kararq muttered a curse "Damn girl....Going to get us killed." He ripped his scimitar and his knife from their scabbards and he whirled into action, only a glint of steel could be seen. Soon enough, the entire pack was dead, some littered with arrows, others with gruesome cuts on their heads and necks. Kararq sighed and knelt down, to begin the tedious task of collecting arrows. He glanced at Yiva "You had better help me." After a pause he looked towards her again. "Why would you want to hunt a mammoth? It'd kill you." He raised an eyebrow at her.
The action had lasted only a few moments but the thrill of the hunt wasn't something so easily satisfied. She grunted as she pulled out each stahlrim arrow, making sure not to break the shafts. Ylva rubbed off the blood on the beasts' fur, almost with regret that it was all over. She frowned. Even now her Skaal heritage and beast blood refused to coexist with each other, giving her two reactions to every hunt. Instead of dwelling on things, she stood up and struggled back onto Nightmare's back. "Perhaps. However, death is not something to be feared and I would rather meet the All Maker from a mammoth's doing than age or sickness." The words felt stiff to her, but they were what a Skaal would say, weren't they? "Besides, you fight well. I think it would be no harder than slaying a family of Netch. The sun is setting," she pat the saddle in front of her, "we should be going."
 
[BCOLOR=transparent]Si'Basha woke up in the middle of the night to the almost inaudible sound of footsteps coming from outside his room. Cautiously, he stood up from the bed and grabbed the glass dagger he constantly kept on him, just in case. Then, he got closer to the door and approached his ear towards it, trying to hear anything. After a few moments, he sighed and opened the door with the master key that was hanging from his neck as a necklace. As he has expected, there was a hooded woman crouching in front of the door, apparently trying to pick its lock to get into his room before it was opened by the Khajiit.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"By the Divines, Sapphire," Si'Basha scolded her, annoyed, while sheathing his dagger in a pocket inside his jacket. "Couldn't you just knock on the door? You know that the locks inside my house are unbreakable, so why did you even try picking them?"[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Just wanted to see if that was true." the nord thief woman stood up from her crouching position and pulled her hood down. "Besides, it's always helpful to train your skills from time to time."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"Just- whatever! The thing concerns me the most right now is what are you doing here?" he asked in a more calmed down voice.[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"I'm here to deliver you a message. Brinjolf wants to meet you as soon as possible at the HQ; there has been some problems during our latest operations, and we suspect that someone is sabotaging us from the inside of our group. He knows that you have an affinity for this kind of stuff, so that's why he has called you."[/BCOLOR]

[BCOLOR=transparent]"I don't know... It has been a long time. Are you sure you didn't find anyone better than me?"[/BCOLOR]

"Well, I'm talking to you right now, so what do you think?" Sapphire teased Si'Basha, with her left eyebrow raised.

The khajiit briefly closed his eyes and sighed. So he had to help them again..."Well, I suppose that I can't avoid my past." he thought.

"In that case," he has finally replied to Sapphire. "He might need to wait for some time, since I am waiting for my cousin to arrive in the next two days. He has something to deliver to me."

"Okay, but don't linger for too long. The tensions among us are growing fast, and people might start to cut each others throats sooner rather than later."

"Will take that into account. Now, is there anything else you want to tell me?" he asked with his arms crossed.

"No, that was all I had to say. See you, Whiskers." Sapphire said with a smirk, before pulling up his hood and going down the stairs.

"What did I tell you about using that nickname?" Si'Basha said, annoyed.

For some reason, Sapphire loved to call Si'Basha as Whiskers, due to the unusually hairy snout he had. Which is strange, because Sapphire is usualy a cold person who doesn't like to joke around with people. Even weirder, she seemed to be softer when she was talking to the Khajiit, but Si'Basha tried to ignore that. Yes, they've been working together for a quite long time, but he still didn't understand why she behaved that way when he is around. "Humans are weird creatures..." he thought once.

Sapphire, smiling, shook slightly her head, and then she left the house through the back door, which was the one the Guild had an access to. Meanwhile, Si'Basha sighed and went back to his bed, meditating about the Thieves Guild' situation.
 
The action had lasted only a few moments but the thrill of the hunt wasn't something so easily satisfied. She grunted as she pulled out each stahlrim arrow, making sure not to break the shafts. Ylva rubbed off the blood on the beasts' fur, almost with regret that it was all over. She frowned. Even now her Skaal heritage and beast blood refused to coexist with each other, giving her two reactions to every hunt. Instead of dwelling on things, she stood up and struggled back onto Nightmare's back. "Perhaps. However, death is not something to be feared and I would rather meet the All Maker from a mammoth's doing than age or sickness." The words felt stiff to her, but they were what a Skaal would say, weren't they? "Besides, you fight well. I think it would be no harder than slaying a family of Netch. The sun is setting," she pat the saddle in front of her, "we should be going."
"Um.... What's a Netch? Anyway... I'd personally like to die an old man, with a brood of grandchildren at my knees asking for stories of my ventures. Then they'll be inspired to continue the legacy of Kararq!" He stood, and dusted himself off. He trotted over to Nightmare, and climbed up into the saddle. "We won't go far, but I'd prefer NOT to sleep with a bunch of dead wolves, or any wolf for that matter. We'll probably srtop for the night near a spring." The two humans rode along for awhile until night began to settle. Kararq squuinted in the darkness, and found a nice ltttle spring, guided by the moonlight.He slid off of Nightmare and upacked the camping equipment from the saddle bags. He quickly and efffeciently set up a camp. He had two chairs by the little fire and a HUGE tent. Then he realised..... "We only have one tent." He scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed. "We'll figure it out after dinner." He pulled out some of the food he'd been storing, a load of bread, an apple, and some cold chicken. he looked at Yiva. "Don't worry, the chicken won't be bad. I have my ways for keeping it fresh." He winked. Then he dropped the chicken in the pot over the fire and commenced cooking.
 
As Brenn sent his minions back to Labyrinthian with his new test subjects, he continued on down the road to Solitude, it had already become evening so he'd have to hurry a bit should he want to enter the city before they closed the gates for the night. It was regretable, but could not be helped seeing as he had to much fun playing with the bodies, both alive and dead, of the brigands that attacked him. They would eventually make a fine addition to his undead force.

The guards at the gates were dubious, but a simple calm spell set their minds at ease and allowed Brenn to enter into the city. Solitude was quiet, or at least as quiet as the capital of Skyrim can by, with the market closed down and most of the residents either returning to their homes or drinking in the Winking Skeever. Brenn would have to wait untill morning to visit the blue palace. It was, after all, Sybille Stentor that provided him with the official news of Skyrim and the empire aswell as new corpses. It was part of their mutual agreement they had; she would provide him with news and the corpses she made and he would keep her secret and make sure no one could see just how her victims from the castle Dour dungeons died. Turns out she had quite a bit of problems getting rid of the bodies before he came along and offered to take them off her hands. After all it wasn't hard for someone who studies undead and spends more time with the deceased than with the living to see that the court wizard of Solitude was a vampire.
For the time being he would have a bit of fun in the local inn. After all, what could be more enjoyable than to cast frenzy spells on innocents and watch as friends and familly literally tear each other apart while you sit by with a cool tankard of mead?
 
Ketty had felt her great sword run straight through a vampire and snap his spine. Thrusting her arm to the left, she tore a massive gap through half of his body, and then raising the sword above her head, she furiously brought it down again and severed the vampire into two clean halves. As his upper body slid onto the ground and landed with a heavy thud, the legs remained standing for a moment. Slowly, they fell to their knees. Just as the vampire hunter had grabbed her shoulder and stated his plan, Ketty nodded and prepared to dish out an order for her men, but a vampire clasped its grasp onto her and pushed its head against her shoulder. Trying to snap his jaws into her soft flesh, the vampire collapsed on top of her and pinned her to the ground, his legs on either side of her smaller body and the sheer weight of his armour preventing her from lifting herself up. Her arms were trapped under his knees and so she had no control of her great sword, and she felt the handle slip from her grip. Ketty intuitively headbutted the vampire right in his nose, but this seemed to only temporarily distract him as he leaned down towards her once more. Just as she could feel the vampire's mouth suck onto her neck and his teeth set against her skin, his eyes widened and he froze still. She could feel the blood trickling down the side of her neck and her breathing fastened, as her fear of transforming into a vampire consumed her. The pain of the sharp edge slightly penetrating her lower neck wasn't too bad. The vampire's head moved backwards as he had a sense of completion, however, she soon noticed the long silver blade protruding from his open mouth. It glistened marvelously in the light of the sun fire spells cast by Loïc nearby. She placed a finger on her neck and felt there was only one puncture mark present. The sword had reached her before that nightspawn's teeth had. She was alive. As the sword slid out of the vampire's skull, Ketty pushed the vampire aside and lifted up first her great sword and then herself, before taking a second to see her saviour. It was Leonidas Alder, Carwyn the Fierce's fourth son and Lachlan's younger brother. She smiled at him in gratitude.

"Think nothing of it," he told her, as he adjusted his grasp of the sword in his hand and lifted his shield too.

"I need you to gather the men for me," Ketty told him, quickly becoming serious again as she attempted to ignore the sting in her lower neck. "Lead them back into the keep and prepare them for a siege. I'm taking ten of us. If we aren't back here in an hour, lead them out through the caves and towards Whiterun as quickly as you can, but orderly. Do not stop for anything."

"And what if you do return?" he asked.

"It depends on what the situation calls," she replied, as he nodded in acceptance of his orders and hurried over to a batch of bandits battling a battalion of bloodsucking beasts. She turned to Loïc and said, "Dawnguard, I'm following your lead."
 
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