{"id":462,"date":"2021-01-27T21:55:25","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T04:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baakay.com\/Snow\/?page_id=462"},"modified":"2021-02-05T12:52:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T19:52:12","slug":"chapter-17","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/baakay.com\/Snow\/volume-1\/part-1-moonlight\/chapter-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 17"},"content":{"rendered":"
Home<\/a><\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was red.<\/p>\n

Everything was red \u2013 or at least bathed in a hazy red light that gave the place an ominous atmosphere. He stood in a shrine of sorts; the wall directly behind him held the same carved symbol that adorned the front of Hircine\u2019s altar in Solstheim. He\u2019d arrived on an elaborately-carved summoning circle between a pair of carved hawk effigies, all nestled in a semicircle of walls and trilithons \u2013 the familiar ancient, square-topped archways common to Tamriel\u2019s northern reaches. Sheer cliffs stretched out behind the walls, at least as far as he could see before forest obscured the view.<\/p>\n

Over Chip\u2019s left shoulder Masser hung low and full above the mountains, its ruddy light coloring the skies and everything around him. He peered up at it and blinked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like the blood moon I saw when I went to find Sinding.\u00a0 This is definitely Hircine\u2019s domain.<\/em><\/p>\n

He tasted the air. It smelled like\u2026<\/p>\n

The Hunt. It smells like the hunt. I sense human, and animal, and bird, and\u2026 blood. <\/em><\/p>\n

The part of him that was wolf wanted to grin and howl. But he felt none of the urges that suggested the extremely full moon was about to turn him, only excitement and wariness that had him drawing his bow and dropping into a crouch before he proceeded. Down from the summoning platform he moved, and forward into a thick, dark forest. A path led through the trees and beneath a series of moss-laden triliths toward a clearing; at least he thought it was a clearing, because it seemed brighter ahead. When he reached the end of the forest path he gasped.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was a clearing, and a fairly large one at that. The brush and low growth that spread out on both sides along the path gave way to soil and dropped needles, completely open and barren of growth. On the far side of the clearing were five altars, each in a niche topped by a carved replica of the horn that had brought Chip here. He couldn\u2019t quite make out what lay atop each of them, but he was certain that was the source of the blood he\u2019d sniffed out.\u00a0 It was going to be risky, crossing that expanse of open ground; but it was the fastest way to get to the shrines. He could neither hear nor sense any enemies nearby; so Chip rose from his crouch and dashed across to investigate the offerings.<\/p>\n

As he neared the shrines, Chip slowed and stared at them in awe. These were no simple animal sacrifices.\u00a0 Or, rather, they were \u2013 <\/em>the first altar he approached at the far right, for instance, held a common bristleback boar, and the one to its left displayed a saber cat \u2013 but at the front of each altar was a tall, sharp spike. At the far left he saw what looked like a bird of prey, and next to that was a bear.\u00a0 It was when he neared the center-most shrine that he understood the aura of energy he\u2019d felt from this place. It was a timber wolf; but impaled upon the spike was an enormous, fleshy heart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chip walked back and forth before the shrines, considering the implications. It could be that this hunting ground was full of wild beasts like those before him. If that was the case, he had only to hunt as he had been hunting, and take down the trophies as they appeared. But he didn\u2019t think that was what these represented. Merely hunting saber cats would prove only that he could do here what he did back home.<\/p>\n

If the tales of Hircine are true, he commands more than just werewolves and werebears. These could all be just symbolic.<\/em><\/p>\n

He paced before the altars once more, again coming to a halt before the wolf\u2019s altar with its impaled heart. He could sense that this had been the heart of an alpha wolf, strong and fierce; even in death it radiated raw power.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a wolf, come here to prove the strength of my own heart to my lord Hircine. I\u2019d be willing to bet that if I had come here as a werebear, like those I killed on Solstheim, there would be a heart on the spike before the bear, instead.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

If I\u2019m right, that means I have my work cut out for me, hunting werebeasts. I\u2019d best be careful.<\/em><\/p>\n

He backed up into the center of the clearing to get his bearings. There were more triliths leading to forest paths, in addition to the one he\u2019d come from. He turned around twice, to be certain he knew which one led back to the summoning circle, and then tsk\u2019d at himself.<\/p>\n

Spinning around like a lost rabbit right here in the middle of the opening. What a good way to become the hunted. I\u2019m an idiot.<\/em><\/p>\n

He chose the opening to the right of the beast altars, and crept toward it. The moonlight illuminated the path well, but not very far; he\u2019d only walked a few paces before the forest was as dark as Falkreath Hold at midnight. It was also silent, a fact that worried him. Oddly silent, without so much as a bird chirping or a wolf baying at that moon. He relied on all his senses to hunt, and right now two of them were basically useless. He took a moment to poison his bow, for any advantage he could give himself might turn out to be crucial.<\/p>\n

His head swiveled from side to side as he crept along. It was important to find high ground, if he could, but the corridor of forest was contained between sheer cliffs. There were large rock outcroppings here and there, nestled in the dark; but they didn\u2019t give enough elevation for him to see any movements. With every moment that passed, Chip felt his tension mounting.\u00a0 He tried to breathe deeply, but didn\u2019t want to make noise and give his own position away.<\/p>\n

As he emerged from a stand of particularly large trees he caught the moonlight illuminating an angled section of carved stone. He\u2019d seen the huge pointed arches near ancient ruins in the southernmost parts of the Rift; this looked like the lower part of one of those. He moved ahead, pushing through the thick brush, eager to see whether his guess had been correct.\u00a0 In his hurry, he gave himself away.\u00a0 Suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of an armor spell being cast.<\/p>\n

Chip froze for a moment, his heart pounding from the surprise.<\/p>\n

Not just werebeasts. I\u2019m to hunt man as well? Just as it was with the hunt for Sinding, it seems.<\/em><\/p>\n

He slipped backward into the undergrowth again, drawing out his bow and straining to see anything at all in the ruddy gloom. He found one of the boulders he\u2019d passed and hopped up onto it; it wasn\u2019t much, but he might be able to shoot over the tops of the bushes from here and that might save his life.\u00a0 He caught the sounds of movement, branches brushing against each other, and his nose picked up the scent of a man. Then there was nothing, for a moment, except for the sound of his heart in his ears.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess I was just hearing things,\u201d a distinctly Nord voice said.<\/p>\n

Chip swiveled to track the man, and readied an arrow. His eyes hurt from trying to part the gloom with his gaze. Finally he caught the shifting of shadows between two of the great trees and loosed a shot toward where he thought the man would be.<\/p>\n

The shot missed, the arrow likely burying itself into one of the trees; but the hunter was alerted and started moving around less carefully.\u00a0 Chip was able to track the man\u2019s passage by his sound.\u00a0 As he neared, Chip hopped down behind the boulder and readied another arrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody there?\u201d\u00a0 The voice was right in front of him, and yet he couldn\u2019t see the man in the dark.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s probably a werebeast, just like me, otherwise he wouldn\u2019t be here. I have to be careful.<\/em><\/p>\n

He shifted position, wincing as his boots crunched atop the needles and sticks underfoot. The hunter moved closer; and Chip was just about to release the shot when his heart caught in his throat. A pair of glowing amber eyes emerged from the darkness just in front of him, the sounds of heavy breathing revealing their owner to be a werewolf.<\/p>\n

Gods, no! A werewolf too?<\/em><\/p>\n

He turned right and then left trying to track the werewolf, his bow extended and ready, his arms beginning to burn with the exertion of holding the shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs someone there?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The voice just to his right startled him. The arrow leapt from his control, hurtling through the woods to strike a tree trunk and clatter to the ground. The hunter turned and ran toward the place he\u2019d heard the arrow; but Chip heard the werewolf turn to face him and fired once more in the direction of the glowing eyes. The beast growled, and Chip saw the shadows shift as it dropped to the forest floor. He couldn\u2019t tell whether he\u2019d killed it or merely wounded it gravely; but he didn\u2019t have time to worry about it as the hunter ran out into the open near him.<\/p>\n

This time the man was close enough that Chip could see the magic of his armor spell glimmering on his bare midriff.\u00a0 Chip shot over his head, toward a patch of open ground, drawing the hunter\u2019s attention away again; once his back was turned, Chip felled him with a single arrow through his chest.<\/p>\n

He almost relaxed. Almost. Raspy breath sounds alerted him to the presence of a werewolf near the hunter\u2019s body; and with his heart pounding in his throat he fired and heard the beast snort loudly and move away.<\/p>\n

Chip poisoned his bow again and peered out through the trees towards the few shafts of moonlight.\u00a0 There it was \u2013 no, that was just the top of a spruce sapling. He thought he heard movement back in the direction of the beast shrines, and turned in that direction, waiting.\u00a0 After a few moments, he hopped back down off the boulder he was on and moved in closer to the sheer cliff face.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the smartest move in the world for him to make, but it was the only one he had.<\/p>\n

At least nothing can come out from behind me if my back is against the wall. <\/em><\/p>\n

Rustling and panting sounds neared him. He readied an arrow and held his breath, waiting; and the werewolf came out of the shrubs to pause directly in front of him, but looking in the other direction.\u00a0 It was so near that if there had been light, Chip thought he might have been able to count the fleas on the beast.<\/p>\n

How can it not sense me?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He shot, twice in quick succession, and the werewolf fell, limned in the sick green of the poison.\u00a0 Chip froze, and listened; but he heard nothing else in the area.\u00a0 He blew out a deep breath and then used his sense of smell to direct him to the carcasses of his kills:\u00a0 two werewolves and the hunter, who wore an intriguing set of boar-hide clothing and carried an interesting shield as well as some heavy-duty arrows. Chip used the moments it took to stow his prizes to calm himself.<\/p>\n

This is going to be much harder than I thought.<\/em><\/p>\n

The moons had shifted enough that light was filtering down into the trees at a different angle, allowing a bit more visibility. Chip moved back down the path as silently as he could, past the base of the broken archway he\u2019d seen before, and around a bend in the canyon. He could see another trilith ahead of him.\u00a0 Something moved near it \u2013 or at least he thought that something moved; he backed up quickly and crossed the path to the deep shadows next to the other canyon wall.\u00a0 Try as he might, he was not able to find a place to hop up into the cliffside; but at least there were more large boulders behind which he could hide or atop which he could climb.<\/p>\n

He did just that \u2013 jump up onto one of the outcroppings \u2013 and almost cried out in surprise as a dark brown shape shuffled out from behind the tree just in front of him, into a small shaft of moonlight. It was another werewolf, this one a tawny color that was slightly easier to see than the black pair he\u2019d killed before. The beast was completely unaware of him, moving slowly through the woods.\u00a0 Chip followed its movements, watching as it entered another clearing of sorts, with a henge made of huge clustered post-and-lintel stone structures.\u00a0 He pulled out his bow and readied a shot, but stopped as his gaze caught more motion. There was at least one more hunter out there, moving around in the clearing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s flush them out, eh?<\/em><\/p>\n

Chip pulled out one of the wolf arrows and lobbed it into the middle of the clearing, toward the werewolf.\u00a0 The conjuration flared noisily and the wolf emerged, howling. And chaos erupted.<\/p>\n

Chip heard the sounds of the werewolf howling and slashing at the conjured wolf. He also heard at least two humans, and something else that he couldn\u2019t identify. He ran back to, and up onto, the nearest stone outcropping he\u2019d found and stopped, his mouth dropping open in awe and horror as two werebeasts ran past him.\u00a0 One had enormous, ugly tusks on both sides of its head.\u00a0 The other was huge, and feline.<\/p>\n

Wereboar \u2013 and werelion.<\/em><\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have time to draw his bow, though, as flames erupted in his face.\u00a0 One of the hunters was also a mage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cShor have mercy on you!\u201d the man shouted as Chip began to singe.<\/p>\n

Things seemed to move in slow-motion, then; and yet far too quickly at the same time.<\/p>\n

Chip jumped backward, reflexively, and found himself blind. He was caught between the rock and the cliff face, his night vision having been ruined by the flash of flames. He turned this way and that, jumping and flailing until he found an opening, and then started to run in a complete panic. Both of the human hunters were shouting at him, and he could hear one of the werebeasts panting just behind him, close enough that he didn\u2019t dare slow down.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t see, his body was shrieking at him from its burns, and his heart was pounding so hard that he felt sure the creatures after him would be able to track him just by following its sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll carve you into pieces!\u201d<\/p>\n

Chip ran, and ran, his vision finally adjusting once more to the ruddy dimness. At last he spotted a sloped surface in the wall next to him that he leapt for.<\/p>\n

Whether it was his beast strength or the sheer adrenaline of panic that took him up the side of the rock, he didn\u2019t know; but somehow he managed to scramble up high enough to get out of the reach of the sharp tusks of the wereboar that had been about to gore him.\u00a0 It, and the nearer of the two hunters, ran away.\u00a0 Chip healed himself a bit, panting and shuddering, and took a sip of water.<\/p>\n

This won\u2019t do. I can\u2019t be letting myself get surrounded. And where am I?<\/em><\/p>\n

He\u2019d run from the flames in a sheer bolt for survival, and had no sense of where he\u2019d gone in relation to where he\u2019d been.\u00a0 He thought he could see the stone arches somewhere ahead of him; but were they the same stones he\u2019d seen earlier, arranged in a circle? Or was this the entry to another part of the Hunting Grounds? He didn\u2019t know. \u00a0He also didn\u2019t know where his enemies had gone.\u00a0 He had an idea, though, of how to flush them out, one that wouldn\u2019t put him in immediate danger.\u00a0 He had just enough magicka left to cast his wolf familiar; and as he\u2019d hoped, it dashed away toward the multiple enemies that had been chasing Chip.<\/p>\n

A few moments later three figures moved into Chip\u2019s visual range.\u00a0 The hunter was the easiest to spot, because he was making the most noise.\u00a0 Chip poisoned his bow and caught the man square in the heart, dropping him with a single shot.\u00a0 The wereboar and werelion came close enough for him to shoot at, but were moving quickly enough that Chip\u2019s arrows missed; and they then ran back the way they\u2019d come.<\/p>\n

Chip crept down from his rock and followed them to the edge of the clearing, finding that he\u2019d returned to the henge.\u00a0 He still had no idea which side of the place he\u2019d come from, or how to get back to the summoning circle, but he could see the werebeasts running around in the rocks.\u00a0 He shot the wereboar, twice.\u00a0 Then the light shifted and he saw that there were not just two werebeasts there, but three, all coming for him.\u00a0 He turned and scampered back to his high perch. He took a few moments to rest and collect his thoughts before returning to the forest floor.<\/p>\n

Think like a hunter. A real hunter, Hircine\u2019s hunter, not a Nord-Redguard archer out after single specimens of Kyne\u2019s guardian beasts. This is a real hunt, a true test.<\/em><\/p>\n

Somehow that realization took him out of himself, and into a place of calm.\u00a0 He stopped thinking about his own fears. It didn\u2019t matter that he\u2019d been afraid, before. Now he was focused completely on the sounds and sights around him.\u00a0 He pushed forward until he could see the henge once more. He heard the human hunter declare that there was no sign of him; and while he couldn\u2019t see the man, he could both hear and smell the wereboar moving around the perimeter of the area toward him.\u00a0 He readied his bow; and as it came into view he loosed the arrow, finally killing the creature. Three figures headed directly for him.<\/p>\n

Chip ran to his right, heading for the edge of the clearing, thinking to dive into the undergrowth.\u00a0 Two werelions were on his tail.\u00a0 He turned, ducked down, and rolled back to his left, then rose as the werelions passed him and bolted for the center of the henge.\u00a0 There was another raised, carved summoning circle there in the center, but he didn\u2019t have the luxury of examining it. Instead, he chose a path and ran down it, not knowing which it was.\u00a0 He hugged the wall and froze as two werelions \u2013 whether the ones he\u2019d narrowly escaped or a different pair \u2013 crossed directly in front of him.\u00a0 He mentally thanked Delvin and his parents for teaching him how to move quietly as he slid past the beasts and behind a tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I find you, you\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah. No doubt. But not if I find you first.<\/em><\/p>\n

He found his path blocked by the ruins of one of the ancient stone archways, but didn\u2019t know whether this was the one he\u2019d seen earlier from a different angle, or a completely different arch.\u00a0 He vaulted over it and followed the sound of the hunter\u2019s voice. The man was standing completely motionless, right in the middle of a clear portion of pathway.\u00a0 Chip grinned, drew an arrow, and once again dropped his adversary with a single arrow.<\/p>\n

The men are turning out to be the easiest prey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He was about to go examine the body when a sound behind him had him whirling.\u00a0 There was another hunter coming toward him.\u00a0 He scrambled back toward the downed stonework and up onto it, then lobbed a shot at the hunter, catching him in the arm rather than the chest.\u00a0 He drew a deep breath, and another arrow, and then had to stifle the urge to swear violently.<\/p>\n

The man was heading straight for him. So were the two werelions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whether it was his skill in hiding, or the fact that the three foes were moving out of a beam of moonlight and looking into a very dark corner, or some combination of those, Chip didn\u2019t know; but for the next few minutes the beasts and the man passed back and forth in front of him, sometimes close enough to touch. Then they would run across the canyon, back into the light.\u00a0 Chip took shots at them when they were away from him and froze when they were near. The hunter went down first. A short time later, one of the werelions died when it wandered away to the far side of the canyon. The final lion was snuffling about very near Chip, on the other side of the ancient stone monument; and he was able to catch it by surprise with a clean arrow to the heart.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes spent stripping everything of worth from his slain foes, Chip once again pushed down the canyon toward the ruddy glow of what had to be an open area.\u00a0 As before, he stayed next to the cliff face where he could. It seemed to him as though the canyon gradually widened, opening up space for more and more trees, until suddenly the forest stopped at the edge of an enormous, grassy plain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It was the oddest thing. The place before him was utterly flat, covered in thick grass, and completely devoid of trees.\u00a0 And out in the middle of it were werelions. They hadn\u2019t spotted him; they either wandered sedately or stood still. Chip scanned the nearer cliff face, hoping to find a vantage point; but seeing none he drew aim on the closest of the werelions and let fly. Then he calmly turned and slipped back down the canyon to a place where he had seen a slope in the wall, and climbed up to where he could see everything.\u00a0 The werelions didn\u2019t follow.<\/p>\n

Hmm. I guess it\u2019s a matter of not panicking, isn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/p>\n

Chip conjured his wolf familiar once more and scrambled back around the corner of the rocks until he could see the werelion.\u00a0 He readied a wolf arrow and fired it at the beast, thinking to distract it until he could find a good position from which to take it down. There was a large boulder just at the edge of the grassy field; he climbed up that and began shooting.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, where there had been one werelion there were four.\u00a0 They\u2019d been far enough away in the very tall grass that he hadn\u2019t seen them; and they all came rushing ahead to help with the conjurations. Chip settled himself and began firing one arrow after another.\u00a0 In what was an otherwise silent place, the roaring of all the beasts was utterly cacophonous.<\/p>\n

Then claws raked down his back in a row of parallel fire.\u00a0 He gasped in pain, whirled, and fired into the snout of another angry werelion, which ran around the boulder to join the others.<\/p>\n

Damn, I forgot about the one on the other side of the field! It snuck up behind me!<\/em><\/p>\n

He took a step back on the boulder, barely out of the claws\u2019 reach, and tossed a quick healing spell on himself.\u00a0 With the minimal amount of magicka he had left he fired flames at the werelions, just enough to back them up so that he could retreat.<\/p>\n

Once again they did not follow, preferring to stay near their grasslands.\u00a0 Chip found the sloped wall once again and scrambled up it, this time heaving himself as high up the side of the canyon as he could manage.\u00a0 He rested for a few moments and then inched painfully back toward the grassland, where he then began shooting the werelions he could see from his perch. Bit by bit he whittled the herd down, luring them with his arrows and with a wraith he conjured with Queen Frina\u2019s staff, until there were four corpses piled up just at the edge of the forest.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t have the heart.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He made his way out into the grassland, moving cautiously around the perimeter, sniffing the air for hints of another werelion, or the corpse of a werelion.\u00a0 He even circled the huge, slanted outcropping at the far end of the field, to see whether there might be a den beneath, or on top of it.\u00a0 There was nothing. It was dead silent.<\/p>\n

I must have gotten the alpha earlier.\u00a0 I\u2019d better double-check.<\/em><\/p>\n

He ran back to the place where he\u2019d piled up the werelions and checked them. None of them looked like the alpha or had the aura of an alpha.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s one I got farther down the canyon?<\/em><\/p>\n

He started to run across the mouth of the canyon to where he could smell another body and then suddenly hauled up to a dead stop as a growl sounded just to his left. He whirled to find one last werelion staring back down the canyon into the forest, snarling but not moving.<\/p>\n

The alpha. He was waiting for me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Clever.<\/em><\/p>\n

For whatever reason, it didn\u2019t seem to sense Chip.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t understand it; but he took advantage of the situation to move across to the opposite side of the opening and look for a good vantage.\u00a0 In the end he picked the spot he\u2019d been in earlier \u2013 just behind the base of the ancient broken arch, peeking out through the gap between its curve and the cliff face. It took him three arrows to finish the beast, which couldn\u2019t seem to figure out where he was firing from.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chip knelt and opened the werelion to harvest its heart.\u00a0 He breathed a deep sigh.\u00a0 Now it was time for him to go offer the heart to Hircine by placing it on the appropriate altar.\u00a0 That, he was certain of.<\/p>\n

He ran back down the pathway this time, away from the grassy field that had been the terminus of this part of Hircine\u2019s hunting grounds.\u00a0 He knew where he was going now, at least until he made it to the henge. It was important that he\u2019d done this, and he\u2019d learned some important lessons.\u00a0 First, he should never let his guard down, or assume that he was in complete control of a situation; for as soon as he had gotten sloppy, he\u2019d almost been killed.\u00a0 Second, it was important for him not to panic.\u00a0 All his panic had done was to confuse him more, get him lost, and put him in greater danger.<\/p>\n

He was trotting along, smiling to himself, and looking forward to a bit of a rest, when he reached the last of the triliths opening into the henge grounds. Every internal alarm sounded at once, and he skidded to a stop.<\/p>\n

There were at least three werebeasts patrolling the area. They were the ones he\u2019d run away from in his panic.<\/p>\n

He dropped into a crouch and swung left, into the near-black in the shadows of the trees, while pulling out his bow again. After waiting a moment or two and listening for sounds of pursuit, Chip used the bulk of a huge pine as cover while stepping to his right, just enough to see a werelion prowling near the henge, walking away from him. Given the other beasts in the area \u2013 and potentially a human as well \u2013 he decided to place a conjured wolf into the middle of the group as a distraction.\u00a0 He readied one of his wolf arrows and fired at the werelion\u2019s retreating form. As soon as the arrow left his bow, he shifted left, changing position.<\/p>\n

A wereboar rushed across the clearing toward where Chip thought he\u2019d landed the arrow.\u00a0 There were growls, but he couldn\u2019t see what was happening; then the wereboar and another shape ran back toward the center of the henge, where a human hunter was firing a lightning spell.\u00a0 Chip continued shifting left, around the edge of the clearing, keeping to the shadows. Once or twice he saw the conjuration magic of his arrow flare up into a purplish ball of light and then disappear; but he was too far away to tell what was happening, and the light level was dropping dramatically.<\/p>\n

He reached the far side of the clearing and found himself at what he thought was the path back to the shrines, and decided to take it rather than go back to finish off the beasts.\u00a0 He was exhausted, he was sore, and his armor needed repair after the slashing it had taken from the werelion claws.\u00a0 It was precarious going in the dark, with only occasional glances up at the level of treetops revealing the sliver of clear sky and dark red light that told him he was still on the path.<\/p>\n

At last he emerged, unscathed and apparently unfollowed, into the shrine clearing.\u00a0 He approached the offering tables quietly and took the great werelion\u2019s heart from his pack.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, my lord,\u201d he murmured as he forced the tough, muscular organ down onto the spike. \u201cI bring you the heart of the alpha werelion as an offering and proof of my devotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t expect a response from Hircine, not yet.\u00a0 He still had a long way to go.\u00a0 Smiling, he pulled out the war horn and put it to his mouth, blowing it in a great blast of sound that enveloped him in a sphere of mystic energies to return him to his home.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Home<\/a><\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home Previous \/ Next   It was red. Everything was red \u2013 or at least bathed in a hazy red light that gave the place an ominous atmosphere. He stood in a shrine of sorts; the wall directly behind him held the same carved symbol that adorned the front of Hircine\u2019s altar in Solstheim. He\u2019d … <\/p>\n

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