Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-27783182-20140316151420/@comment-3293219-20140321001224

(Well, maybe it wasn't the scene I planned but I wanted to do some build up first and get C'laro out of limbo.

I hope that Sith doesn't mind me using C'laro for this bit but he has been away for a while and I assumed that keeping him alive was better than just keeping him out of the story, especially when he's so tightly linked to Manja.

I hope I do the character justice here.)

C’laro awoke in Manja’s fort, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the light and blinking, repeatedly, for several seconds as he tried to remember his dream, that he had the night before.

He looked over to see that his bed was empty and a saddened look grew on his face, he expected her back last night. It was rare that Manja left the camp and the khajit often worried about her, when she did. She was strong but at the same time, sort of fragile. She had come a long way, since the aftermath of Red Mountain and her time in Cheydinhal but still, she often hopped between coping and breaking point, which there was very little, by way of middle ground.

The worst part was that C’laro just didn’t know what to do any more and it killed him, not being able to help her. He knew loss, better than anyone and he didn’t exactly cope well with it himself but he had strong friends, who always forgave him and supported him…

Ukawi, Nish, Eilo…

All coincidentally had died, following him, like he was some sort of plague and anyone he got close to perished, usually in a horrible way. It almost destroyed him, when he lost Lila and he believed her to be dead, during the Imperial raid in Elsweyr.

He found her, a few months after and he’d never cried so hard in all his life. It was as if the divines had shown him mercy that day, even if it was just a small mercy. He brought her back to the camp, not long after and Manja allowed her to stay, though he knew that she couldn’t just turn the poor girl away, it was nice to know that she truly wanted her around. Lila never had any siblings and Manja became the closest thing she ever had to a sister.

They bonded over several lute lessons, after Lila confessed that she wished to be a travelling bard. Manja was always supportive of letting her have her independence but C’laro was still unsure. She was only in her mid twenties and he still saw her as a child…

That was the thing about being a father, no matter how much his little girl persists, no matter how many kids she’ll have, no matter what career she takes up and no matter how much C’laro will hate the man or woman she marries, she’s an adult now and she didn’t need her ‘Daddy’ poking into her affairs and stepping on her dreams anymore. She had to learn lessons the hard way now, or else she’ll never live.



The Khajit sighed and rolled out of bed, he had to be up early to coordinate Manja’s men to avoid disaster. They were like dogs, in the nicest possible way…

Stupid, totally lacking in initiative but incredibly loyal and full of love…

He was a bit nervous, allowing Lila to stay here. A camp full of young people, mostly boys, who may be a bad influence on her, sounded like a recipe for disaster to him but everyone was surprisingly polite, especially around her, it was like she was loyalty.

Well… She technically was…

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro found himself warming up to Manja’s group as he spent more time with them, though he loathed staying in this place for too long. He often went out, looking for supplies or hunting and gathering, hoping to let Manja run this thing by herself. She needed the distraction and he loathed the idea of being made leader of anything, he’d turned down two offers before, even when it could have cost him his life.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Khajit emerged from his tent, glancing around as he saw his workforce wake up, to face the day. A lot of them were patrolling, carrying stock and loot from previous raids. Because they were so young but mostly, because she didn’t believe it to be ethical, she tried to keep robberies and thefts to a minimum these days. Back in Riften, they were essential to surviving but out here in the wilderness, they were more trouble than they were worth.

<p class="MsoNormal">A few lads held up an Imperial T3, a few years back and Manja had to pay to get them out of jail, posing as an incredibly embarrassed single mother. Normally she despised being called ‘Mother,’ even though she accepted it more these days, she still loathed how old it made her feel. That day, however, she put on a great act and got quite a bit of sympathy from the jailor.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh, where did I go wrong?” She repeated, over and over again as C’laro stood behind her, struggling to keep a straight face.

<p class="MsoNormal">“C’laro!” One of the boys called.

<p class="MsoNormal">A Breton came running over to him, short on breath.

<p class="MsoNormal">Shit… I knew I shouldn’t have had that lie in…

<p class="MsoNormal">“What is it?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s Jomar…” He panted, doubling over and clutching his knees. “He’s missing!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Missing?” The Khajit looked around as the camp seemed to be functioning as normal, so he must have gone missing on a hunting trip.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Y-Yeah… Millen was the last to see him…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Take me to him.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Right…” The boy responded, instantly regretting it as now he’d have to run back now and he was way too tired to make the trip again.

<p class="MsoNormal">-

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro entered the common room, where Millen slept, looking around for the Bosmer, who was hunched over his desk.

<p class="MsoNormal">Millen felt incredibly guilty for losing his friend, for not even knowing what happened to him… He could have fell, got attacked, got lost or kidnapped or anything and the worst part is, that he could never find out what truly happened.

<p class="MsoNormal">The boy buried his head into his hands, sighing a broken sigh as tears built up in his eyes and another wave of guilt hit him.

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro stopped as he heard, placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder and pulling up a chair. Though he never wanted to be labelled as ‘The Father,’ he always tried to be supportive of the recruits as it’s what Manja would do.

<p class="MsoNormal">“How’re you holding up?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Millen glanced up, his eyes shimmering with tears; he looked into C’laro’s eyes for several seconds before looking back at his desk. He didn’t want to dignify that question with an answer…

<p class="MsoNormal">The Khajit looked away; he was never very good at this supportive stuff, like with Manja before. Lila was much better at it, which always made him wonder where she got it from.

<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s my fault…” Millen finally said, hanging his head and dragging his thumb and fourth finger across his eyelids to wipe away the tears.

<p class="MsoNormal">“No…” C’laro whispered, trying to appease him, “you aren’t responsible…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I should have been watching his back, I should have…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“We all make mistakes…

<p class="MsoNormal">And I’m not talking about you either…”

<p class="MsoNormal">The bosmer glanced up at him, wondering what he meant.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Maybe he’s just… wandered off, maybe he’ll find his way back here or one of our search parties will find him in the woods.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“And if he doesn’t? You sound incredibly invested on a ‘what if?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“My daughter was lost in another country and I found her…”

<p class="MsoNormal">Millen sighed and looked away, he could see what he was trying to tell him but he still couldn’t rest, until his friend had returned to him, safe and sound. He had been gone all night and the others had been out searching since then. If he was in the immediate area, they’d find him soon…

<p class="MsoNormal">-

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro left the common room and adjusted his cloak as it had gotten misshapen as he sat on it, making him regret wearing one sometimes. He stopped as he heard footsteps, running towards him, prompting him to look up as the boy from earlier ran over to him, once again, out of breath.

<p class="MsoNormal">You’d think he’d be more physically fit by now…

<p class="MsoNormal">“I…” He gasped this time as he didn’t have time to catch his breath. “We found him!”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Jomar?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Y…” The messenger, Edrin, stalled… he looked saddened, which didn’t fill C’laro with confidence.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yeah… We found him…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Is he…?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yeah…” The messenger sighed, glancing away. All of them were so close, almost like the Dark Brotherhood; they were a family, a single unit that stuck together. Any losses, no matter who it was, were hard hitting and the fallen were always mourned like a true brother or sister had fallen.

<p class="MsoNormal">It was rare that this happened, it had happened three times in ten years but Manja found herself crushed, every time it did.

<p class="MsoNormal">Especially when that Bosmer girl fell in the well but that was hard on everyone…

<p class="MsoNormal">The Khajit just nodded in response and glanced away, ready to see how bad it is this time… Hopefully he’d be able to arrange the funeral and burial before Manja got back.

<p class="MsoNormal">He followed Edrin to one of the spare tents, which were heavily guarded by two doormen, who stopped the younger kids from seeing the state of the body.

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro stepped inside, raising the tent flap and allowing Edrin, who was much shorter than him, to enter before letting it fall down behind him. He sighed, painfully as he saw the condition of the young Imperial’s body, both legs had been brutally beaten and something had been driven into his skull…

<p class="MsoNormal">God… Poor fucking kid…

<p class="MsoNormal">The Khajit buried his hand in his face, even he was disturbed by the sight of it. Who could do something so brutal, to someone so young? He had a lot of enemies, most of them were thankfully dead but he couldn’t even see D’llaro or The Heretic pulling this kind of stunt. He lowered his hands and glanced up at the others, they seemed even more disturbed than he was.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Where’d you find him?”

<p class="MsoNormal">They looked at each other, obviously it was quite traumatic, finding and having to retrieve the body.

<p class="MsoNormal">“A… Shack…” One of them finally got out, unable to hide how fearful and ill it made him. Another one drew a map and placed it on the table, pressing finger against it.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Here… There were footprints leading away from it, so he must have been murdered a few hours before we arrived.”

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro took a look, this wilderness was known to be full of evil, people, monsters, daedra…

<p class="MsoNormal">“Do you have any idea who could have done this?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“None… They don’t live there or at least, they don’t leave any possessions there…

<p class="MsoNormal">And they didn’t leave any trace of their presence either.”

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro continued to study the map, finding himself more enraged as he wanted to catch the bastard who did this.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You said that there were tracks though…”

<p class="MsoNormal">“There were…

<p class="MsoNormal">They went north, towards the camp…” The boy sounded incredibly fearful of this, like this guy was some sort of boogieman.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I’ve increased patrols around the walls.” His friend informed them, “If this creep tries to enter the fort, he’ll get an arrow in his balls.”

<p class="MsoNormal">C’laro nodded; it sounded like all necessary precautions had been taken but as long as this monster was still out there, nobody was safe...

<p class="MsoNormal">“Right, make sure that everyone is called back to the fort, nobody leaves on their own and as soon as Manja gets back, we’re going to go out and make this son of a bitch pay.”

<p class="MsoNormal">This seemed to boost moral but everyone was still afraid of this guy turning up on their doorstep and killing them all.

<p class="MsoNormal">Still… it was the best that C’laro could do, people run faster and fight fiercer when they’re scared.

<p class="MsoNormal">He turned around and left the tent, stepping out into the center of camp as he watched everyone prepare for the day ahead. Those in the dark gathered equipment together for day to day tasks and those in the know readied for war.

<p class="MsoNormal">The Khajit continued to watch them, slightly worried about the outcome, because this could be an all out war, with a rival clan…

<p class="MsoNormal">And in war, people die…

<p class="MsoNormal">-

<p class="MsoNormal">As the people of the camp tended to their duties, a dark figure watched over them from the hillsides. He slowly mapped out their strengths and weaknesses, chipping away at every possibility in his head, until he found the route to success and a plan to destroy their leader.

<p class="MsoNormal">Kaizen felt the breeze pick up, taking the tails on his coat along with it as it flew in the wind, it didn’t break his concentration as he was too focussed on the khajit, who had just left one of the tents.

<p class="MsoNormal">So he is real… Kaizen thought with a smile.

<p class="MsoNormal">He then turned his face away, glancing behind him for a few brief moments before turning around and walking away, getting ready for his assault.

<p class="MsoNormal">(Time for bed, cyas tomorrow. :))