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THE CHRONICLES OF FINALGAMER Love in the Time of Chorrol

"Love is the true antithesis of fear. It expands where fear constricts. It embraces where fear repels." Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness, Marion Woodman and Elinor Dickson

Raindrops shattered upon fern leaves and deaf ears. In the midst of a stormy late afternoon, he could not even feel his jeans soaking against the grass. Sleep was not his saviour, oblivious to the danger of hypothermia that existed. As his body struggled to keep warm within his unconsciousness, the sound of hooves came nearby. Clumping through a muddy trail, the hooves slowed down to a stop. The rider gazed out at the strange brown and blue shape within the cluster of flax seeds under the trees, the path itself cutting neatly through the great forest. The rider contemplated between returning home sooner or carrying the waylaid stranger, before compassion won with the sound of dismounting. Clawed feet tenderly shifted through mud-streaked grass, while flax stroked against a cloaked dress. It was never a struggle to help another stranger out of the cold.

Upon his next awakening, James' heart almost stopped when he saw a strangely familiar roof over his head. He didn't even want to move his head, for he had the most terrible thought come to his mind. To even acknowledge it in the slightest would suddenly turn it into an all too real dilemma. For the tiniest beat of a moment, from the feel of the comfortable spartan bed and the oaken-structured room, he thought he was back in Glenn's world. Had his adventures in Eagleland and with the Kremlings been a complete fantasy? Did he still have to train a few years more when he had been through so much in his mind!? Thankfully he soon realised he was overreacting when an unfamiliar face came to greet him. A reptilian creature, with dark amber serpentine eyes. Horns came from its head, composing a snout that was a mixture of summer green, wheat yellow and a small gamut of orange to pale fuchsia. It also wore strangely medieval clothes befitting of a maiden. White sleeves and a brown linen shirt shaped like a bodice, complete with laces woven through holes. As they gazed at each other, it gasped with a toothy smile and cried out to someone nearby in a foreign language, its voice oddly raspy, yet youthful with joy. Coming into James' view next was a similar creature. Taller with the same amber eyes, but with brighter green skin, shorter horns pierced with rings, and a robe of black and burgundy. The other one spoke a deeper rougher voice, the language taking its time to pierce into the raptor's mind. "Uhhh...hi there." They smiled at the reply as they continued to speak, curious and concerned for their guest. The older one examined him while the younger gazed with fascination. "Uhhh listen I...I dunno where I am so...maybe you can help me out? Please?" Despite how much they talked, nothing came from their mouths that he could understand. Eventually the older reptile gave up and spoke to the younger, who nodded happily and sat beside James. With the elder gone, the younger scaly smiled and began talking tenderly to the raptor.

He tried his best to guess what it was saying, or at least by the tone, not able to make out a single recognisable word, his mind clicking away the syntaxes and inflections all towards a resolution. In that time he had to remember what Slippy said. He wasn't learning a new language. This was purely automatic. James was none the wiser for it, listening to the hopelessly banal chatter, sighing with a courteous smile. Some might consider this creature's beauty to be...debatable. But James had to admit, she was very cute. At least he assumed it was a she judging from the look of her clothes which contained a modest cleavage. 10 minutes later of random talk, there came something recognisable from her lips. "-heard of such a thing. I mean, really, even you must know how absurd it would be for a room like THAT to exist." "Ohhh I can imagine." She gasped at his words and almost fell from her chair in surprise. "You...you can talk!" "I can do a lot more than that miss, haha." "Oh! ...b-but...w-why didn't you say anything earlier?" "Iiiiiit took me a while to get used to your language, I uh...had to figure out what it was before I could understand you." "O-oh...I'm sorry, should I have said something?" "You said a lot of things and I didn't understand a lot of it, sadly." "Oh..." She blushed with slight embarrassment, turning away softly before looking back towards her guest, her voice strangely sweet despite the raspiness within it. So...can you understand me now?" "Loud and clear. You can talk about all that stuff you were saying before, if you want." "No no no, that would be terribly rude of me. Um...maybe we should introduce ourselves. I am Dar-Ma. What's your name?" "I'm James. Pleased to meet you."

He slowly sat up, feeling more confident of himself as he offered a hand to shake, which was gladly received by the maiden. Her scales were warm to the touch, which soothed the raptor before he noticed that she had five fingers unlike his three. She also noted it in turn. "Forgive me for saying, but you are quite the unique Argonian." "Argoni-wha?" "Uhm...Argonian? Like me?" "Ohhhhh...no no no I'm not an Argonian." "Really?! Then, what are you, if I may ask?" "I'm a raptor. I know, we're both scalies and all but hehe..." He rubbed the back of his head modestly as Dar-Ma's eyes widened. "Oh! I have never met a raptor before, or even heard of one! This is wonderful! I love meeting new and interesting people! Where do you come from, James?" "Uhhhh pretty far away." "Far away? Perhaps Morrowind? Skyrim even?" "Uhhh yeah, yeah I'm from that direction of Skyrim." "By the Nine! That's...quite far away!" She was rather excitable, already fascinated by her new guest. "W-well yeah I...I kinda got lost on the way though." "Oh? What happened?" He slowly weaved enough of a story to her, hoping that with enough geographical reference it was believeable. "I...well I was at my home, and I got attacked by...people from Morrowind, they took me captive and dragged me far far away." "Oh how terrible! I have heard about Morrowind and...their treatment towards us." "Really? You mean that's kinda common over there?" "We are practically slaves in Morrowind, they would not even dare look at us, which is why most tend not to pass between Morrowind and Cyrodiil." Oh awesome, thought James, there's scaly prejudice here, fucking perfect. "I got that impression yeah...and I bet you did too from all my bruises." "Yes...did they do that?"

She pointed tenderly towards James' exposed wounded left shoulder. The shoulder-guard had been laid out with his jeans, satchel and scissors, still in their scabbard, on a nearby table. He looked towards his shoulder, still with a small but terrible blackened wound. "Yep...I tried to escape and they stabbed my shoulder, nearly ruined my arm." "Oh...I'm sorry." She looked away slightly, feeling as if she had committed a faux-pas, but James reassured her with a hand to her shoulder. "Heh, it's okay...at least I got away. Now I just have to find my way back home." "That must be difficult, what with Skyrim's enclosed mountain peaks. Nobody I know has even seen it." "Well I live on the outer rim of it waaaaay to the uh...west of Skyrim...kinda how I got caught in the first place by those slavers." "West of Skyrim? But...that's next to Hammerfell, far away from Morrowind." "Wha?" Oh shit I fucked up, thought James. Quick, just pretend you're confused from slavery. "R-really? ...o-ohhh..." He fell back against the bed, pretending to feel light-headed all of a sudden. "Oh, are you alright!?" "Yeah my...ngh...I've been walking for ages so I'm pretty tired and...confused. Had to really fight my way up here." "I'm glad you managed to survive so long. I was worried when I found you out in the forest." "Yeah? Actually...where was I?" "I found you in the Great Forest near the Gold Road leading towards Skingrad." The Argonian maiden smiled at remembering. "You were in such a terrible-looking state out in the rain that I was worried you might freeze to death, so I put you up on my horse, Blossom, and rode back home to Chorrol, where you are now. I would have dropped you off at an inn on the way but I was afraid they would not treat you right." "I...really? Dammit I must have passed out from exhaustion, I didn't even think...thank you...uh Dar-Ma." She bowed humbly with a sweet smile. "The pleasure is mine, sir James. I must admit, I did have a bit of trouble when one of the Imperial guards asked me about you. He said if he didn't know who I was, he would have thought I kidnapped you!" She laughed at the very thought as well as the little misunderstanding. Her chuckle was raspy, yet sweet and bubbly, a most unusual chortle that made James laugh with her in turn before asking: "Soooo uh...is this your house?" "Yes, my mother and I run a general store for trades and goods. I must ask you not to take any of our produce unless you are able to pay, but you are free to rest here until you recover." "I think I'm recovering well enough actually, so uh...I don't wanna be a hassle-" "No no not at all I-...o-oh..." She looked away as James got out of bed a little too hastily, forgetting the fact that he was naked. His unusual semi-anthro malehood was exposed briefly before he covered himself in a flash.

"WOAH-um..." He quickly grabbed his jeans and put them on with the slightest cover he could give himself, a wardrobe door nearby, while Dar-Ma tittered at having caught sight of her new guest in a handsomely naked form. She blushed as the tiniest of thoughts flickered across her mind, admiring James' physique as he put on his shoulder guard and scabbard. "Your clothes...they are quite unusual, what fabric is that?" "Uhhhh...denim I think." "I have not heard of such fabric, is it good?" "Uhhhh pretty good yeah, a little tight but rather smooth and it doesn't do too bad against water." "This is velvet." She plucked the top part of her quilted doublet, blushing as she drew attention to her cleavage, which James smirked at the sight of. "Very nice." "Hhehee!" "Wow you even dried out my clothes, they feel pretty warm!" "I'm glad you like! They seemed to dry out quite easily. Thankfully you weren't hurt either so we did not have to call a doctor." "Good good...feeling a li'l stiff, lemme just warm up a bit." He decided to tease the maiden slightly with a little flex of his arms, feeling out his muscles while Dar-Ma smiled bashfully at seeing the raptor flex his limbs, not entirely sure if he was being honest or not. Eventually he stopped, not wanting to make her too uncomfortable. "Theeeere we go, that feels better." "Heeheehee!" "Cute laugh you got there, miss Dar-Ma." "O-oh now surely it's not, you'd tire of it eventually." "Well that's gonna take a few years." She smirked and tried not to blush more from the compliment as James felt he was ready to leave. "Say, do you know if there's a quicker way to Skyrim or...?" "The fastest way to travel is by horse, there is a stable outside the town gates." "Alright, thanks...yanno...there is something else I need." "Yes, sir James?"

He realised that just going to the mountains would not actually help anything, but he needed someone able to take him home. And considering the environment he was in for how medieval it looked, he knew that either a remedial scientist or a highly-skilled wizard would be able to send him home, or at least assist him. "I don't suppose there's anyone with...certain skills around here?" "Certain...skills?" Dar-Ma cocked her head quizzically. "Yeah, I...I need a bit of help and I was wondering if there was someone I could...hire or maybe ask for something, not that you haven't helped but I need a specialist of more...stronger abilities." "Do you mean a mercenary? Like the Fighter's Guild?" "Ahhhhh no but on the right track, any others?" "Well...the Thieves Guild is but a myth and I am certain you would never associate yourself with such a crowd." James merely nodded and tried not to smirk at his minute hypocrisy as she further explained. "There's also a Mages' Guild that you might-" "Wait, mages?" "Yes. Magic and such, very mysterious stuff to me, I always settle for a good poultice myself." "THAT'S the kind of people I need! Is there one nearby?" "Of course, in the town square, you can't miss the sign on the front!" "Ohhh thank you, I definitely need to ask some mages about something." "If you...knew what you wanted before, why did you not ask directly?" "Well...there's some places I found when travelling that...don't know about magic or such...and they KIND of get really weird about you, with outsiders in general." "Ohhh...yes..." She looked away rather awkwardly as she spoke softer words. "I know..." James found it odd but ignored it as he checked his satchel to see everything was still inside it, pleased to see his inventory intact. He even still had the Starmen's monitoring device. "Well I'm gonna head off now, get out of your hair and all and see if I can get back on track okay?" "Alright." Dar-Ma smiled up at him, pleased that her guest had recovered so quickly, but a little wistful that he had to leave so soon. She had not seen such an unusual but handsome creature for quite a while. James felt it, and mistook it for rudeness to leave so soon. "OH...um...you know, I might be staying in this town for a while until I get my sense of direction so-" "Oh? Then, if you like, I could help you! Perhaps I can show you around the town as a guide, if you wish." "That'd be great! But...will your mum mind?" "Not at all, she tends to the store while I'm always heading out to get supplies so don't worry. I actually need to get some herbs, and also take down some of our customer's orders so, you can come with me...if you want to, that is." "I'd love to."

He was actually rather pleased she offered to be a guide, wanting to not look so lost and out of place more than he already was in these other strange new worlds. He also found Dar-Ma to be strangely adorable and any time spent with her gave him quite the uplifting feeling in his chest. Letting her walk before him, the raptor headed out with the Argonian maiden into what appeared to be the front room of the house, a stairway leading upwards directly above them with miscellaneous items of storage nearby all neatly piled up in the shade. "Mother, our guest is up!" The other inhabitant of the store came down the stairs with a courteous bow, her older wrinkled features giving her a benevolent aura. "Are you feeling well sir?" "Uhm, yes, thank you miss. And thank your daughter too for saving my life." "Very good to hear. I am Seed-Neeus, owner of Northern Goods and Trade." She offered a hand which James shook pleasantly. "Pleased to meet you miss Seed-Neeus. Must be lucky to find myself rescued by two beautiful maidens." "Ho ho, you flatter us good sir." "Just the truth miss. Is it okay if miss Dar-Ma guides me around the town a little, just to help me get my bearings?" "But of course, please, both of you. You have your list Dar-Ma?" "Yes mother." She waved a parchment before her that she had kept in an unseen pocket before placing it back. "Good good, now both of you, come along, let this old mother be to tend to her business." "You got an old mother around?" asked James with a charismatic smirk. "I didn't see anyone old, did you?" "HAH! Your tongue is sharp stranger, but don't push it." She still smiled at the compliment and closed the door after bidding them adieu, with Dar-Ma taking James' hand eagerly to guide him through the town of Chorrol. For what was meant to be a town, it had a very packed yet small village atmosphere, the houses clustered together like hens in a coop, surrounded by fortified walls branching out from the castle eastwards. Strangely he felt he was in a more medieval place than when he was with Glenn, now that he was in a proper castle town rather than a forest home. The young argonian maiden lead her guest around all of Chorrol. Firstly was the Oak and Crosier Inn opposite of her mother's store, the wide street between them leading west towards the town's chapel where a bookstore and several houses laid in a semi-circled around its entrance steps. Dar-Ma dropped into Renoit's books, greeting the proprietor before taking down her orders and leaving with James in tow. He tried not to touch any of the books, surprised to see so many in immaculate condition. Next he was guided back towards the town's entrance, seeing the Castle of Chorrol itself within the east, before being lead northwards around the inn to another thoroughfare. They passed an armoury named Fire & Steel which intrigued the raptor, but was not on his guide's list of places to go. Soon they reached a focal town square where the Mages and Fighters' Guilds were situated, as well as a rather stately home for sale, practically a small mansion.

"I need to visit the guilds," said Dar-Ma, "so we can find someone at the Mages' Guild to help you with your questions." "That'd be great." Smiling, they walked into the Mages' Guild, a rather sharp-roofed home that certainly gave the impression of wizardry to the newcomer. The interior was immaculate, warm and tingling with a mystical aura that could only be accompanied with a robe and wizard hat. A few chairs and tables stood at the walls underneath windows and display cases with various strange and mystical crystals. James struggled to not stare upon their shining allure. What truly caught his eye however was the huge golden circle upon the floor, bright like the sun with a gazing large eye within the middle of it and framed with several odd symbols upon the points. Dar-Ma soon approached a rather intimidating brown scaled Argonian with large horn-frills. His back was turned away from them behind the reception desk, wearing a dull green robe. "Um, excuse me, sir Teekeeus?" "Hmm?!" Turning to reveal his face, which was bright green on both of his cheeks from the tip of his eye to the piths of the nostrils, he snarled at first before realising who it was. "Ah, miss Dar-Ma. How may I help you?" "I'm here to take your orders from my store?" "Oh, but of course, please." He offered his hand to take the order sheet and write down several things in his own hand upon it before it was handed back to her in a rather elegant hand. Dar-Ma merely smiled before further asking: "Also, if it is not too much trouble, I have a friend of mine from faraway who wanted some questions answered about your craft." "Oh? I'm sorry but we are not able to train anyone at the moment." "Oh I'm not here to train sir," replied James as he stepped forwards. "I wanna ask something." "Well, what is it?" Jeez, chill out a bit dude, thought the raptor as he tried to word his question in a way that could be understood, without betraying his origin. "I wanna know something about...uh...other places of existence?" "....you are talking of Conjuration correct?" "Uh, yeah?" "You should have said such in the first place, I am quite busy." "I'm not a mage, gimme a chance okay?! Is this Conjuration anything to do with like, portals and uh...summonings and-" "Oh by Arkay..." the lizard mage facepalmed and sighed grumpily. "If you're here to ask about Oblivion then NO." Teekeeus slammed his desk with frustration. "We do not know what is causing them, we do not know WHY they keep sprouting up like weeds across the land and we most CERTAINLY do not know how to deal with them in a more hasteful fashion. Does THAT answer your question?" "...no."

James slammed the desk in reciprocation. "I wasn't GOING to ask about Oblivion. I was going to ask about something ELSE, if you just LISTENED, you desk-jockey prick." "What!?! How DARE you! I am the the head of this Guild and you will treat me with respect, young hatchling!" "I will treat you with respect when you stop making assumptions about me, SIR! Now...does anyone here know about sending creatures to other worlds?" Admittedly, the question threw off the guild head, who merely sighed and let himself calm down before replying with a professional tongue. "My apologies. Alberic Little knows of summoning creatures and such. You will find him in the basement, the Breton mage." "Thank you...sir." With a slight but nevertheless polite bow, he made his way to the basement. Dar-Ma followed from behind out of intrigue to the point of asking: "Um, forgive me for asking sir James-" "Hey now, it's just James." "James, yes-" "What is that guy's problem anyway, someone shove a stick up his ass?" "O-oh don't mind him, he's a very dutiful and wise mage. He's just been having some problems lately." "Oh?" "I heard a rumour that an old enemy of his was seen nearby, and he is not happy." "Hah, I wouldn't be surprised."

They made their way to the basement, finding themselves amongst many stores of shelved goods and barrels with a perfectly circular red rug in the main entrance of it. Sitting on a bed in the adjacent room, was a grey-haired human in a cheap green robe, reading a book. "Uh...scuse me?" "Hmm?" He placed a bookmark humbly upon the page before closing. "Oh, hello there." "Are you Alberic Little?" "That I am good sir, how may I help you?" "I have a question about uh...Conjuration and your boss upstairs said you were the man for it." "Well I admit I know quite a few things, do you require some teaching?" "Actually no, just I want you to answer a few things. Uh..." He turned to Dar-Ma with an embarrassed expression. "Miss Dar-Ma...could you give me a bit of privacy? This is a kinda personal thing I wanna ask and..." "OH, of course James, my apologies!" She bowed and walked out of the basement before the raptor sighed with relief. "Alright, that's better." He moved closer towards the Breton to murmur his secret. A mage would be able to handle this better than anyone else. "I'm not from this world. I got lost when I was travelling and I ended up here. I don't even know what this place is, and I REALLY would appreciate it if you or someone else can send me back to where I came from." At first Alberic merely let his eyes widen with disbelief, before the knowledge slowly sunk in and he nodded. He began to ponder over what could be done, raising a finger to his chin. "A stranger of another plane hmm? ...perhaps a Daedroth?" "Nope, velociraptor sir." "I never heard of such a thing...so you are not Daedric?" "Nope, never heard of 'em." "I see...quite a predicament as that is all I know, but you say you were brought here?" "Sorta...I kinda got lost when travelling between worlds and got lost here. I don't want li'l miss Dar-Ma to know in case I scare her, I just wanna leave and get back home." "That's quite alright sir...James, was it?" "Yes sir." "Hmmm...I do know how to summon creatures, but to summon them AWAY can only work if I have bound a contract with them through Conjuration. In your case as a free creature, I cannot be able to do such a thing." "Dammit." "However...I did hear that there's a powerful conjurer off in the woods someplace, worshipping Molag Bal. Olyn Seran, I think his name was. I personally wouldn't go looking for him myself, but you might keep it in mind if you ever run across him." "Really? Olyn Seran?" "Precisely." "Huh...so I should go looking for anyone worshipping this uh...Molag Bal, and maybe he can help?" "If you are desperate enough to do so, sir, but like I said, I personally wouldn't go looking for him myself." "Well alright...I suppose that'll do for me. Thanks for the help, mister." "Not at all my lad." With that, he left the basement and returned to the Argonian maiden, standing outside the door humbly. "Everything alright James?" "Yeah...I didn't get what I wanted to know though." "I'm sorry to hear that." "It's okay. Lemme help you with the rest of your route." "Certainly, if you like!" As they left the Mages' Guild, James could only wonder on where he could find the conjurer that Alberic mentioned. For now however, he was content to be within Dar-Ma's presence for just a little while longer.