Beorning Saga pt3 - Ch5 - Girlfriend is Better

Otalo broke some bread, Beorning looked at Otalo and Timo "So yes I was an outlaw, a bandit but we only ever robbed Altmer, Khajit and  Bosmer although there were precious few of those man eaters up in the Jeralls.   Did you ever hear of us?  The Talons?"
Timo and Otalo shook their heads "We were too busy fighting our own battles, we heard there were rogue groups of Talos worshippers in the Empire, but paid no attention really."
"It's funny I suppose, all this trouble from Talos and yet I always favoured Kynareth, like my mother.  Every chance I got I would visit her  
shrines, although it was rare enough when we dropped out of the mountains into a town for supplies.  I fell into the pattern of life with the Talons, every third day was my turn to be Lookout, usually with either Golnak or Yulie.   If we spotted someone or a caravan we'd signal the alarm.  The others would come.  If they were men, or women, then we'd look at their wealth and usually demand a couple of gold pieces, per Talon, as a donation to the support of Talos.  Poor people we usually just let pass, really poor people we'd give them a hearty meal and send them on their way."
"Mer on the other hand, well apart from Orsimer, we robbed.  Altmer and Bosmer we often killed, there were a number of traders we could sell the loot to.  Marcel even had contacts in the Thieves Guild for rarer items.    This way we kept well fed but without upsetting too many locals, particularly those Nordic Jarls in Skyrim.   Most Nords we stopped were glad to supplement our cause, especially after a couple of stories about us killing Thalmor scout parties.  Yulie was a fine Bard, she'd even trained at the Bards College in Solitude so some Nords tried to find us just for the songs.   But those Thalmor scout parties made us move every few days, always around the Jerall Mountains and near to one of the main trade routes between Skyrim, Cyrodiil and Hammerfell.   We had to move to stop the Dominion being able to hit us en-masse.   When a Thalmor raid did turn up too big for the nine of us to handle we'd hot foot it, using secret footpaths, into Hammerfell and lay low for a few days.  The Crown Prince of Elinhir didn't like us raiding whilst he was 'hosting us' in case it started another war with the Dominion."
Beorning snorted, "Then there were the adventurers... poor sods most of them.  Solitary or with a follower, we had traps set up.  We'd imprison them in a dead end ravine with a single narrow footpath out, Rumi would act as bait due to his high speed with both feet and curved sword.   At the end Rumi and Valkrim would block the footpath.  Once trapped men would have a chance to buy their freedom, for mer we'd use range attacks to take them down from a distance.  One or two against a disciplined, organised nine is just not good odds."
Otalo laughed "Well it was for you!"
"Then there was this day, hmm it must've been Second Seed as I remember the blossoms where we'd attacked an Altmer merchant caravan it was not unusual and we were looting the bodies when, nearby we saw a group of women with not a man among them, riding by a river.  There were beautiful, no, no don't laugh... there was this Orc Maiden... stop it... riding in the company of the host.   They completely ignored us" 
"No surprise..." laughed Timo
"and the carnage of the caravan, they just kept on riding.   Golnak was particularly keen on following them but Valkrim told us to clear the 
bodies, honour the Aedra and burn them on the wagon.  It took a few hours, always a messy job, so it was sundown by the time we headed back to our camp.   We were marching through the Juniper trees, crossing various streams when we saw an old Orc, a vagabond knight, walking towards us.   Golnak hailed him with the usual Orsimer greeting 
"I am Sir Orfeck gro-Oluash seaching for my girlfriend, the wife promised to me ten years ago. The length and breadth of Tamriel, damn the Daedra!   I 
am an Orc, bare earth for a bed, berries for supper and bark for breakfast is no hardship but no wife and no forge wife, hah."
We offered him bread and some cooked venision steak in return for his story.
"It was ten years ago that my promised bride, Lashakh Lashakh Gra-Lurgbakh...
Golnak cut it "The granddaughter of King Gortwog gro Orsinimum?"
"Yes, the beautiful daughter of Queen Urzoar.   She fell asleep under the flowering Ymper trees in the gardens of the Orimer Palace but when she awoke she was inconsolable but would tell no one why.  I was one of the Knights called to restrain her, a proper Forge wife and strong she was.  She eventually told us that Boethiah,  Prince of Daedra, Mauloch curse himm had visited her.   He'd claimed her as his and that he would claim her the next day.   Immediately after telling us she fell into a deep sleep.
All through the night we consulted with Queen Urzoar and promised we'd be by Lashakh's side to protect her with our lives.  Two of our shield maidens slept with her all night.   At midday Lashakh awoke, but in a trance and walked back to the same tree, followed by us knights and her shield maidens.  We daren't stop her, when she got to the tree she lay down and then fell back to sleep.     We formed a circle, nervously around her.  No one saw her vanish but vanish she did.  No one came or went but Lashakh had gone.  At that moment I walked out of Orsinium to find her.   The road has been hard, with no end in sight."
Beorning continued "And so our adventure began as Golnak mentioned the ladies we'd seen earlier.   Sir Orfeck became very excited and persuaded Golnak, who then persuaded me, to take him back to the place and see if we could find them.   So we camped and went back to the burnt caravan to watch.  At the same time these Ladies appeared all on horseback riding in a line again, we saw them and followed at a distance until they came to a cliff-face and just rode straight into it!     When we got close we saw it was a false cliff wall that curtained an Oblivion gate shimmering round the edge, behind the roack wall.    I looked at Golnak but the two Orcs just went straight through, without fear or hesitation.
"We emerged into a kingdom of Oblivion, a flat expanse of red, black rocky countryside presided over by a magnificent castle, built from darkly angular ebony, with searing jasper merlons and soaring crystal towers.   A monstrous Xivilai was the gatekeeper and he took some chopping to bring down, the three of us did it in short order.  We ran into the huge courtyard but when we got inside  lying inside these castle walls, were people who had been thought to be dead, but who were not.    Some were headless, others seem to have been drowned or burned.  Amongst the bodies Orfeck suddently saw his girlfriend Lashakh, asleep again.   He sprinted forward before Golnak and I could grab him, as he was running towards her Boethiah appeared before us....
Boethiah "You reckless adventurers have dared to enter my kingdom?   Uninvited?"
Orfeck "You have detained my bride-to-be, uninvited!"
Boethiah "I have offered her immortality as one of my brides."
Orfeck "Immortal sleep, it seems, with occasional dreams."
Boethiah "You criticise me?  A child of Mauloch?"
Orfeck "Malacath is my Aedra, Daedric liar."
Boethiah "Hmm I see you have his favour,  perhaps a wager?"
Orfeck "My price is our return to Nirn, with my girlfriend all better!"
Boethiah "Agreed, my price is your eternal servitude.  You must defeat all here to win...."
At which these Dread Zombies started to move, all except Lashakh who remained in deep sleep.  Joining the Zombies came the Xivilavi guard.   
Orfeck stepped back, Golnak stepped to his left and I to his right.  Orfeck had a great hammer, Golnak a two handed Axe and I my Greatsword.   Step by step we retreated to the curtain wall and took our stand.  There was no sun with which to measure time, our weapons swung in desperate pendulums; smashing flesh, crushing bones, severing limbs.  The zombies and Daedra seemed innumerable.  After the first age our breathing was ragged, yet still they came.  After the second age our muscles trembled as we climbed on top of the pile of bodies and after what seemed an interminable epoch everything was exhausted.  Our feet slipped in the gore, each strike seemed to be the last we could muster until the next blow was needed and in our minds there was a weariness of pain.    The mind numbing effort continued sweep, block, hack, slash until, finally, we could see the last of our enemies and a surge of survival ardour swept like a spring tide through our weary bodies.   At the final Zombie death Sir Orfeck ran to his waking girlfriend and they clung together as lovers do.
Boethiah "That sword price was worth the wager!  Begone until our next time...."
We dropped, as if from a high cliff, when the world of Oblivion disappeared.  Appearing behind the curtain stone, facing an anonymous blank cliff high in the Jerall Mountains.
Beorning looked at his audience "Golnak and I bid the twain goodbye, returning to The Talons and a fine berating from Valkrim for our adventure, Uller could not believe that we gained nothing from the encounter.  Marcel and Yulie, however, thought it was a fine and romantic tale that should be told and set to writing a ballad.  A later bard told us a fine tale about their return, Sir Orfeck's disguise as a beggar, how the good and the bad of his household treated him and culminating in the wedding of the two."
Timo clapped his hands "Indeed I have heard those ballads of Sir Orfeck and his bride Lashakh, but thought them some of those fancy Breton tales.  Yet you are telling me they are true!  Hah, I knew there was more than fate in our meeting."