Hail
I pull my hood farther over my face as a carriage full of nords rides past. I sigh as the sound of the horse and the rattle of the wheels blends into the whistle of the wind through the snow covered trees and other sounds of the night. I listen to the small rustling of animals moving. I hear many heartbeats that I drown out. I hear the pattern and speeds and make a game out of figuring out the animals.
I hear a strong, slow heart beat. A bear. I hear fast paced beats from small animals like squirrels, mice, and rabbits. Then I hear an unfamiliar faint pattern. I focus more on the direction and hear rough, uneven breaths. It sounds like a large animal, labored breathing and faint heartbeats usually mean injury.
I find myself drifting towards it through the woods. The deep freshly fallen snow packs under my light steps, I feel my heart start to pound as the faint heartbeat gets louder. I stop mid step when I see the object of my curiosity in the middle of the scarcely used road.
A large sabre tooth tiger lay its side covered in blood with a deep gash and an arrow in the tigers shoulder. The it's fur was a pale creamy white with black stripes, the thick coat covered in dried blood and a thin layer of snow. Its white silver mane long and disheveled with grass and brush tangled into it.
I walked up to it and a large puff of air and a weak but rumbling growl deflated it's chest. I got on my knees and kneeled next to the animal. I guessed the gender was male based on the thick muscular build and the mane. I hesitantly extended a hand to its muzzle I pulled away at first until it's bright different colored eyes made contact with my glowing amber ones. Both the ice you green and blue eyes looked at me with softness and caution.
I rubbed his cheek and his head, the tiger's pupils relaxed and he released whimper. I took silent notice of the numerous peircings in his ears. He leaned into my small hand and his injuries worried me even more. I put my right hand on him and pressed slightly and prompted the animal to roll over. He heaved his large body onto his back and pulled back his limbs. The well endowed evidence of his gender proving my theory.
I winced when his muscles clenched as I pulled the long stained fur out of the wounds. I looked in my bag and looked for the vials of hot liquid. I pulled out the four small bottles of healing potions with leather lanyards. Once I clear the fur out of the wound I open the first bottle. I look in his eyes and prepare myself to run once the burning of the potion sets in. "I'm so sorry for this." I mumble more to myself than the animal revealing it's vulnerability to me.
I tip and the translucent red syrupy substance drips into the wound. He growls and flinched but didn't make a move to attack me. I cringed as I pored the rest of the potions into the wound. I pressed the sides together as it mended and formed a shallow, thin cut running op his side. I smear aloe paste onto it and pull away.
The animal looks relieved that the burning from the potion is gone. He makes an attempt to roll on his front but it takes many failed attempts. He stands and I expect him to run but he stays and looked at the sky. I look around also as heavy snow begins to fall I see bits of hail starting to mix in and stand. The tiger still weak sways. I kiss my hand and press it to his head and he licks my wrist and rests a paw on it, careful to keep the large sharp claws away from my arm.
My specialized vision falls weak against the wall of moving snow and my sense of smell and hearing failing in their battle against the strong winds and the smell of frost. The big animal next to me stood way above my waist and huffed. He gestured loosely with his head to his back and dipped down to allow me to mount his back easier.
I climbed on skeptically and he strongly traveled through the painful cold winds. I held onto the scruff of his neck and put my body low to keep the hail of my face. The cold doesn't effect me but the sharp hail does, not even a little bit as compared to a human but the tiny sting enough to make me avoid it. For the first time I recognized a pink tender area of scarred skin. I run my fingers lightly over the skin around it. It looks like a scar from a shackle but on his neck. A beast fighter, maybe from an arena.
The next time I looked past his ears and mane I saw a dark figure morph into a mountain. He stops at the base before starting to climb. He travels guided up the side of the mountain and pulls into the small entrance of a cave.
He makes it up and I hop off eager to melt the frost that built on my smoothe pale skin. The muscled tiger at the entrance of the cave heavily walks over and lays next to me. He almost shyly moves towards me and lays his huge head on my lap. He wraps his large body around mine and pulls me in with his paw.
I rest my arms experimentally on his back and lay down my head, tired from the lack of blood. I loose myself to my exaustion, cuddling my face into the thick warm fur.
- - - - - - -
I slowly open my eyes and lift my sore neck. I try to lift my arm and rub the strained side where my neck rolled to the side in my sleep. I lazily looked at my lap where the heave tiger once was. In his place was a redgaurd woman with rounded off-white furry ears sticking through her platinum blonde shaggy shoulder length hair. Her peircings hanging from her ears.
Two metal rings that had a chain running through and a tiny nordic cross hung from it, with small metal studs inbetween the rings. On the other ear there was a three ring spiral, a black stud and a white crystal ring at the bottom. Her caramelized brown skin and muscled but still slim figure curled up next to me.
I jumped up and pulled out my ebony dagger and spun a shock spell around my left hand. "Who the hell are you?!" She sat on the damp stone floor scratching her head and flicked her hair out of her face. She looked around dazed and her tail flicked next to her. I looked over her form and felt my attraction build immediately.
Her well developed muscles flexed as she tried to wake up and stretch her body. Her chiseled abdominal muscles had a thin strip of white fur trailing from her belly button to her- "what's that?" She woke up and followed my line of sight to her excited and unexpected friend. She shrugged and I tossed her my extra chest wrap and a pair of loose leggings.
She was in no hurry but put the clothes on anyway. Her unexpected member still stood at attention but less prominently. She looked like she was flexing inentionaly and puffed out her chest a little bit to make her already tall, wiry body look larger. I scolded myself for thinking how adorable it was to me as her tail swirled.
"I am Dynami, the Tiger."
"Why did you stay, I thought you would've left last night" I said confusedly after a few moments. She tilted her head to the side like a confused puppy but kept a completely serious face.
"You don't know?"
"Know what?"
"Nothing." I must have looked utterly confused, with the situation and the urges I was having towards the woman. "Well, you saved my life and now I will protect yours." I'm even more confused than I was. "You have my complete loyalty."
"What?"
"I am now your devoted protection, I will repay my debt. Io sono leali sempri. "
"What language are you speaking?" I say trying not to look at her body.
"Ta'agra. I am native to Elsweyr, I was brought here in...unpleasant circumstances. But that's a story for another day, ederra."
"What are you calling me?" She thought for a second and formed the words in english.
"arketá means pretty, ederra means beautiful. Both words fail to do you justice. What is your name, raiivana. That means gorgeous by the way." She said with a smile and if my blood hadn't turned to ash hundreds of year ago I would think I was blushing.
"Dynami, what are you?"
"I am a cathay-raht kahjiit hybrid. I am called a sankar in my culture."
"What is your culture? I've never seen anyone like you." I said fidgeting with my now free hands. I have long since put away my dagger.
"As I said, I am a hybrid. My mother was redgaurd and my father was a kahjiit with Felid Panthera Tigris Lycanthropy, my mother was exiled by her clan for laying with a 'beast' and allowing a vdél-, an abomination to grow inside her. So she went to my father and she formally joined his Tribe." I smiled a small bit when she stumbled and pronounced a word wrong but didn't correct her."Which is a lycan infected breed of kahjiit Panthera-Cathay-Raht born with the gift of the third form. My, his tribe spacificly is the strongest, I was born to be the future chief because of my rare coat and my strength greater than most if not all others, gifted to me by Hircine to repay my tribes undieing loyalty. I still have to train it because I have yet to not bend and warp my weapons during a fight" She picks up a stone to demonstrate and crushes it. "Sorry, if some of that was jumbled I'm not very used to the local tongue."
"Its fine, Dynami. We should get going, you need supplies and armour and we're not far from solitude, and i believe we can make it. And I don't believe you have any weapons."
"I have steel tipped claws and steel on my bottom fangs." I was taken aback for a second but recovered quickly.
"What kind of weapons and armour do you prefer?" She thought for a moment and played with the threads loose on her hide leggings.
"I can use a greatsword, longspear and a battleaxe with one arm so two handed weapons. And I'm used to not having armour at all so light armour I guess, arketá. Is the storm still going?"
I looked out the entrance to the cave.
"Yes, but it's lighter now. We should get going, c'mon Dynami." She got up and I realized how much she towers over me. She had to be at least six-ten and I was barely breaking five-three. She bent her neck and I crane mine, she smiled slightly but soon returned to her stoic face.
"Let us go then. Lead the way, Serana." I nodded and ran down the hill at full vampire speed and Dynami followed by leaping off the ledge and landing far ahead of me in a crouch. "You may be faster but my legs are made for jumping, arketá." Serana raised an eyebrow.
"Is that a challenge I hear in your voice?"
"Well, my dear vampire. If you are able." She let a cocky smirk pull at the corner of her mouth. Serana said nothing as she sped down the road, seemingly vanishing besides the black and red blurred figure. "CHEATER!" Dynami said as she crouched and sprung into the air and followed travelling through the trees.