The dunmer boy stood up from picking trama roots for a second to feel the fresh wind on his face. Wind without a host of sand was rare, so he enjoyed the calm while he could. I should get home. he thought. He picked up the chitin bow his now dead father made and his basket of trama roots before beginning the three hour walk back to the yurt he, his baby brother, and his mother shared. Little did he know of the eyes watching him from behind a mound of rocks.
The boy turned around quickly, not knowing what the noise behind him was. Chuckling at his own paranoia, he quickly launched an arrow into the rat's face. He scooped up the dead rat and put it in the basket with his mothers alchemical ingredients. The boy sat down for a quick rest. He rest his head on a rock and gnawed half-heartedly on a trama root. Soon the boy had drifted to sleep.
He awoke to loud screams and the sound of steel ringing against steel. As soon as he thought of his family, he grabbed his bow, and notched an arrow to its string. He ran to a high cliff looking over his camp. He spotted his fellow Urshilaku fighting off yet another organized group of rogue ashlanders for the third time in one month. The boy gritted his teeth and let fly his arrow. A rogue ashlander suddenly felt his head explode before lying down for the last time. The boy quickly notched another arrow ready to let fly until he spotted his mother in the corner of his eye.
The boy's mother, Zaldin, cast a large fireball at the largest gruop of enemies. She looked in satisfaction as they beat themselves frantically trying to beat out the magical flames. She turned from the spectacle to see a dagger flying at her exposed throat. The boy looked in horror as his mother fell to the ground, a dagger in her throat. He began to run towards her, tears welling in his eyes, but he remembered his baby brother. He changed his course and ran to his yurt to find his brother. He opened the door to find a man looting his yurt. The man didn't notice the small, skinny boy and the young dunmer didn't hesitate to put an arrow in his skull. After searching the dead man's body and taking his chitin dagger, the boy frantically searched for his brother. He threw open chests, urns, tossed away bed rolls, and pushing over tables, he eventually found his baby brother crying under a mound of blankets. He used the table he knocked over as a shield and waited for someone, (anyone!) to walk through his door.
(c)2005 Dantrag
On to the next chapter