Bash's Mission in Cyrodiil

Warning: Possible Plot Spoilers and Trigger Warning for Violence!

OOC:

Spoiler

Please excuse how long this story is! This should explain what happened during Bash's absence from Vulkwasten for those two weeks or so. So this is backdated. Also excuse my attempt at writing action and war stuff. I gave it my best shot!

“Can you send this out for me today?” The orc asked, after folding his final letter and sealing it. He had bags under his eyes and there was dried blood on his heavy armor.

“You don’t want to deliver it yourself? I thought you were leaving today?” A young mer asked, taking the letters and two packages from the orc.

“I’m not going straight back to Vulkwasten. I have to go back home and deliver the news to my aunt and sister first. I might be there a day or two. I don’t want my friends to worry a day longer, if I can help it.”

“Alright. I’ll make it priority then. Travel safe, friend.” The bosmer took more letters from other soldiers and then headed out of the tent.

The orc tapped his fingers on the table and then stood up. He was about to grab his helmet when someone came running into the tent.

“Bash! BASH! Come on, someone found something from your father!” The man yelled, waving his arm at the orc and then running back out of the tent.

Bash grabbed his hammer and followed the man out of the tent and to a small group of soldiers. When he got there, he was handed a letter that was written by his father. Bash recognized the handwriting right away. Blood stained most of the note, making him concerned.

“We found the courier dead. He was...not killed by the enemy, that’s for sure. Some kind of animal, my guess is a bear. We think he was traveling with a group of soldiers, possibly with your dad. They might have tried to find shelter in a cave somewhere and ran into the bear, maybe a mother trying to protect her cubs. We hope that the others ran off and got away. Poor bastard must have ran in the wrong direction.”

The orc carefully folded the letter and put it in his pack. “Alright, take me and my men to where you found him and we’ll try to track them from there.”

“I tried to get here as fast as I could. I knew you were leaving soon. Glad I caught ya.” The man gave him and smile and then rounded up a few of his men to go with them.

It was nearly half a day’s travel to get to the spot where the courier was found. Bash was to first one off his horse and running to the blood stained grass. Looking around, he didn’t see signs of anyone else. Only bear tracks. The men followed the tracks in the direction they believed the bear came from and about an hour later, they spotted a cave.

After tying the horses to a few nearby trees, the armored men walked to the cave, slowly and quietly. Or at least as quietly as full grown men could move in heavy plated armor. It seemed quiet and undisturbed from the outside of the cave. It seemed safe enough to enter. At least two feet into the cave, nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for an awful smell. But finally, one of the men spotted a gauntlet inside. There was blood all over it. Now, tense and even more alert, they decided to go further into the cave in search for their missing men. But soon enough, they were walking in pitch black, unable to see anything in front of them. One of the men from Bash’s group conjured a flame from a spell he knew, and as soon as the cave was lit up, they found their men. Dead. Butchered. Some had even been eaten.

Panicking and possibly in shock, some of the men at front tried to push their way back, causing a few of the others to fall down in the path or be pinned against the cave wall. Bash yelled at them to stop and to calm down. But all the noise had gotten the attention of something in the area. The men that had nearly trampled the others in their path found themselves face to face with a very large and furred beast, snarling it’s teeth and roaring at them. Bash only heard the roar as he was too far deep into the cave to see what the others were seeing. But it sounded like a bear, possibly the very one that killed their men. The orc was unable to search the bodies for his father, instead, he had to fight off this animal with his men and hope they all survived. For a split second, he thought of his family. His missing father. His sister and his ailing aunt. And Zalya, the Khajiit he had come to think of as his daughter. This helped push him into his survival mode, and the orc held his hammer defensively, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Several men went down in just seconds. Bash could hear the beast knocking down his fellow soldiers, swiping at them with it’s heavy claws. He heard the crack of bones breaking, the tearing of flesh, and the horrible screams. What had he gotten them into? He was no stranger to death on the battlefield, but this was even more brutal than most battles he had seen. Finally, he was given that moment to strike. There didn’t seem to be any men in his way. He could hear the monstrous animal making its way toward him. The roar that came from it echoed in the cave. He still couldn’t see much of what was in front of him, so the orc blindly swung his weapon in the direction of the roar. He felt the swing hit it’s mark. The end of his hammer must have connected with the bear and shoved it into the wall of the cave. He heard the ‘thump’ and a cry from the beast. But it fought back, swinging its sharp claws at Bash’s leg and knocking him down. Bash felt pressure on his leg, like it was being crushed. It had his leg in its mouth! The orc tried to get free from the grip of the beast’s jaws but there was no letting go. He heard his own bones being crushed by the force of the bite. The pain was excruciating.

Then he felt himself being swung from side to side, as if the bear was shaking its head. Bash couldn’t free his leg or reach his hammer, which had slipped out of his grip when he was knocked over. The only other things he could think of to do was to remove his greeves and hope he could slip his broken leg from them. The orc undressed himself faster than working girl on a good night. It took a lot of work, painful work, but he managed to free his leg. It was now dead weight to him, but at least he wasn’t constricted or weighed down by his heavy armor. He struggled to get to his hammer, feeling around for it in the darkness. Finally he felt the handle and grip it tightly. Before he swing, the beast landed a painful swipe to his mangled leg! He cried out in pain, but his growing rage was now what he fed off of. He held his hammer over his head and swung at the bear. He missed. He heard it roar again, giving up its position in the cave. Bash then swung in the direction he heard it come from and felt the hammer land on its victim. He pulled back and swing again. And again. And again! He continued to swing even after he heard no more movement. He swung until his arms were too tired to swing again.

Breathing heavily, the orc dropped his hammer and crawled his way towards the opening of the cave. He didn’t feel the fur of the bear or the men that lost their lives as he made his way out. He only focused on getting back outside and to the horses. But he didn’t make it that far. The moment he felt grass under him, the orc blacked out.

He smelt something burning.

No, cooking. He smelt something cooking. It smelled so good that he felt and heard his stomach growling. He blinked his eyes open and saw only a blur. He blinked several more times and finally it focused. He saw a fire. And something cooking over it. It looked like small game, possibly a rabbit. The orc tried to sit up but he felt so heavy and stiff.

“Whoa, woah! Be still. You’re going to make yourself pass out again if you move too quickly and hurt yourself.” he heard someone say. A female voice.

“What is...where am I?” He laid on his back, only able to see the sky above him. It was dark, nighttime.

“You’re at my camp.” the woman said to him and he heard her moving closer. Then he saw her face. She was human, young. She had honey blonde hair. “I’m going to try to help you sit up. Slowly, alright?”

Bash nodded. He waited until he felt her hands on his shoulders and then rose up just enough so she could help push him up. It took a lot of effort from them both. He wiped sweat off his forehead and glanced around. He was near the edge of some woods. The spot was secluded enough to not be seen right away. He figured they must be on friendly lands or else she wouldn’t have started a fire. Or perhaps the woman wasn’t very smart. He wasn’t sure yet.

“Want some food? It’s not great tasting but it will help you get your strength back.” she asked as she walked back to the fire.

“Yes...please. How long was I out for?”

“I found you a few days ago. I was coming out of the woods and I spotted you lying face down. I thought you were dead. Everyone else in there was-” she frowned. “I’m sorry. They were probably your friends, weren’t they?”

He nodded and stared at the flames.

“I felt for a pulse and you surprisingly had one. I wrapped your leg and then used my horse to get you to my camp. It took me nearly a day to do so. I cleaned your wound the best I could and wrapped it back up. Unfortunately for you, I don’t have any medical supplies on me. You’ll just have to be careful on it until you get back to...wherever you came from. You’re a soldier, right?”

He cleared his throat and took the water skin and cooked rabbit that she offered. “I was, yes. I came back here to look for someone and then we ran into trouble. I thank you for all that you’ve done for me. My name’s Bashzug.”

The woman smiled. “I’m Joane.”

“Joane. A pleasure to meet you, madam. Though I wish it were on better circumstances. I should...probably get going.” The orc nearly scarfed down the cooked meat in one bite and washed it down with the offered water before he tried to get up, a bad decision and his body let him know that. He grunted in pain and fell right back down.

“Be still! Look, you’re going to hurt yourself even more. Bashzug, try to rest. You’ve been out for days and you need to work up to moving again. Rest here for another night and in the morning, I’ll help you get back to where you were going.” Joane tried to help him lay back and get more comfortable. She offered him a warm blanket. Her only blanket. At first, he refused but she didn’t take no for an answer. The orc was stuck with her soft and warm blanket until sunrise.

It felt like he had only shut his eyes for a minute when he heard that sweet sounding voice again. Opening his eyes, he tried to sit up and thankfully succeeded in doing so without assistance from Joane.

“I went into the woods and found this for you.” she was holding a large stick and durable looking stick. “You can use it to keep you balanced when you get that leg properly mended. And it will help me get you on the horse without putting all your weight on me. I’m stronger than I look, but not that strong.”

“Thank you. That will be helpful.” He used her offered hands and his good leg to get to his feet. His busted leg felt more numb than painful. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. Bash had to take a moment to get his breathing under control before he attempted to get on the horse. Finally, after what felt like hours, the two were ready to start travelling back to his home base. He couldn’t wait to get there and be around familiar faces and structures. But the orc was dreading bringing back the awful news of the dead men. His men.

They travelled for several hours under the beaming hot sun. Even shirtless and in his cloth pants, the orc was still sweating. He felt like he was sweating even more than usual. His leg ached now. He tried to ignore it but the pain only got worse the longer they continued on. Finally, he couldn’t ignore the pain any longer and gripped his leg while yelling out. The horse slowed down and started to panic. Joane rushed to Bash’s side, trying to help him down but the horse tried to jump on its hind legs and threw Bash off its back. The orc landed hard on his shoulder, making a loud popping noise. His shoulder hurt, but the pain in his leg was much worse. He was now covering in sweat and looking pale.

“What is it? Your leg?”

“Yes, it’s…” he yelled out in pain again, “...infected! It’s infected, I can feel it! You have to...cut it off! Please! Just cut it off!” Bash spotted her small axe on the saddle of the horse and pointed to it. “Do it! Just do it now!”

The blonde ran to her horse and pulled free the axe. It was just something she used to cut up small branches into firewood. It wouldn’t be able to cut off a leg in one swing! But she held it up anyway, as it she were going to listen to his crazy instructions. But she hesitated.

“Do it!” he yelled, still in so much pain. It was unbearable! “DO IT!”

He felt himself blacking out again. His sight went from seeing total darkness to seeing the woman in front of him for only seconds. She was still holding the axe, ready to strike but she seemed frozen in that moment, a look of fear growing on her face. He was scaring her. And even as he was blacking out from the pain, he felt bad for scaring her.

The next time he awoke, it wasn’t to the smell of food. He felt something hitting his head. It felt like pebbles falling from the sky. He opened his eyes to the sight of the same woman, up in a tree above him, and tossing pebbles at his head. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. Looking around, he noticed they were in the forest now.

“Good, you’re awake.” Joane climbed down the tree and landed by his feet.

“What were you doing up there?” He asked, but in a hoarse voice.

“Scouting. I had to hide us here for the night. I thought I saw bandits coming our way.”

Bash nodded and slowly got to his feet. Feet. He looked down. He still had both legs. She didn’t chop one off like he had demanded. His bum leg still felt numb, but at least he wasn’t in pain. He leaned heavily on the walking stick she had given him. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I was-”

“In pain. I understand. You’re forgiven, Bashzug.” she said with a smile but it seemed forced. She turned her head from him quickly and walked to the edge of the woods. He felt tension between them. Maybe she didn’t forgive him. Or perhaps it was because he was dressed in the heavy blanket she had loaned him. The orc looked around for his pants and finally found them wrapped around his bum leg. It looked like she had torn them and tied them tightly around his wounds. They were damp and stained with his blood. He hoped she had been able to get rid of the infection. The orc felt his shoulder, the one he landed on earlier. It was bruised and sore. He had really injured himself in the past few days.

“This is where we must part ways. From up there, I spotted a camp that looked to have soldiers from there. I’m guessing their you’re soldiers but you should be able to tell better than I can. I’m going in the other direction. My horse took off when you fell and I have to track her down before she’s really gone. I cleaned you up and stopped most of the infection from your leg. I don’t know if you’ll lose it or keep it. I suggest you see a healer as soon as possible.”

“Thank you. I really do appreciate it.” Bash held out his hand for her to shake. She accepted it and then turned to leave, pulling up her hood.

“Good luck, Bashzug. I hope you make it home.”

Bash nodded and watched her disappear into the woods. He slowly turned to the area she pointed at and hobbled his way over to the camp. Luckily for him, she was correct and it was men that he recognized. They raced toward the injured orc and helped him to the camp. The gave him an extra pair of pants and boots, then let him use one of their horses to get back to where he had been ready to leave. To go home. He should had never left there.

Bash gave them directions to the cave, where all his fallen men lay. As he rested in the healer’s tent for a couple days, he was given an update on their search. They recovered their men, all of them dead except one, who was missing. Bash and the other soldiers figured one had escaped like he had and was on his way back, possibly even lost. A few were sent out to look for the missing man. The bear that had attacked them wasn’t found either, though there were tracks of one going into and out of the cave. They even saw claw marks inside. Bash wondered if it had escaped as well. He even wondered if he had mistaken hitting the bear and had really hit one of his men instead. The past few days seemed like a long blur to him, and he had been in so much pain, anything was possible.

Finally, he was able to walk enough to get out of that tent and travel back home. He didn’t feel any pain in his leg or shoulder, so he snuck out of the area before the healers could fuss more over him. He only wanted to stay long enough to get that update and now that he had received it, he was ready to leave that damned place. The orc didn’t even stop by his sister’s place first. His destination was to Vulkwasten. He couldn’t deliver that news just yet. He just wanted to go back to his job as a Guard and to his adoptive daughter, Zalya.