UPHILL BOTH WAYS – vvardenfellcat

therunawayscamps:

‘The money ain’t for the favour, it’s so you don’t ask questions,’ said the Dunmer introduced as Azzie. The first Dunmer smacked the back of his head, knocking the hat askew.

‘Look, here’s the thing. One of our shipmates had an unfortunate incident with the guards. Nothing serious, you know, just a misunderstanding involving a chicken and some missing clothes and mebbe a few bottles of sujamma. Could’ve happened to anyone. All we need you to do is distract them guards while we help out a friend. Not too difficult, aye?’

Well, now he wanted to ask questions, just not the ones that they’d probably think he’d ask. Starting with where in Oblivion did they manage to get ahold of sujamma in Skyrim. J’hasi flipped a page, though he had long stopped reading and instead was focusing and keeping track of where each guard was.

“I’ll bite. Where d’you want them, and how long do you need?”

boarchasers:

‘Oh, I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried.’

Going into details of the fiasco, however, seemed unnecessary. Trond couldn’t see any reason for this Khajiit to know about the hours in the barracks archery range, fighting to nock an arrow only to miss the target by several feet and land the arrow in the commander’s lunch when he finally succeeded. That was classified information of the city guard.

‘But I guess you got a point,’ he conceded instead, before the line of conversation could be pursued any further. ‘In a way. A wrong way, but… well, I can see why it might be useful. Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.’

J’hasi shrugged, unsure how to respond to that, looking up at the grumbling skies. The pattern of clouds overhead resembled Ghost’s hide in places where the sun attempted to shine through with minimal success. His tail swished, a small arc of rainwater flitting off the end of his tail, unintentionally splashing the guardsman with cold drops.

“Whatever she chooses, giving her some skills to work with seems like a good plan.” he said, briefly breaking the silence, only to let it resume shortly thereafter. He had no real desire to hit the road just yet, a little reluctant to travel all the way back to Winterhold, and the guard wasn’t quite unbearable enough to prompt a retreat to the stables outside. His ears pricked.

“So…if you were an adventurer, what sort of work did you do?” The Khajiit was still doubtful about that little ‘fact’, but giving the guard a chance to reveal his lying tells could be useful.