High in the mountains of Wrothgar, Che was seated on the edge of an immense cliff, haunches and palms resting on its stone as her feet dangled wistfully. From this perch, she carefully scrutinised a rocky gorge below, wherein a stronghold of Orsimer were settled and going about their daily business. With inexplicably keen eyes, she saw every face and expression of those in the stronghold, many of whom she recognised. Breathing out a deep sigh of contentment, the lone Orsimer mused on how amazing it felt being up so high, with nothing but soft blue sky and cotton cloud overhead. Up there in the silent calm, she felt free, as if nothing and no one in that valley could ever find her. She felt so incredibly... untouchable.
This feeling of tranquility was interrupted, however, as Che unexpectedly felt a warm, sticky sensation where her palms were resting. A quick turn of the hand soon revealed that each had become coated in a viscous red liquid which, quite obviously, was blood. Bewildered by this, the Orsimer stood up to glance about, only to find the lifeblood was actually oozing from the mountain itself, glistening in the sun light, as if it wept red from its pores. Stone that bled. Such a strange sight to behold, Che thought in awe, before peering down at her bloodied palm once again.
It was at that moment that Che's intuition warned her that something stood at her back, right out of sight. However, before she could turn to see what it was... the unknown entity blocked her from doing so. Its shadowy hand quickly seized her neck, firmly holding her in place; even as its other hand seized her wrist, with a near bone-breaking fierceness. The stranger forced her back towards the cliff's edge, the being holding her so tight that she could no longer move. She was also too frightened to speak, so a tense silence passed between them, before a single word was whispered in her ear:
Jump.
The stranger's ice-cold breath grazed her neck as it spoke, causing a shiver to run down her spine. Why did this thing want her to jump to the death? Resisting, Che shook her head no. This reply, however, displeased the stranger. Its iron grip tightened around her neck, and as her breathing became more laboured, the stranger calmly repeated its request with a cryptic explanation:
"Tamriel bleeds. Jump, or your blood will join that which surrounds you."
Once again, Che non-compliantly shook her head as best as she could, in untrusting stubbornness. So the stranger, utterly vexed by a second refusal, responded as such: it took her besmirched palm, and forcefully smeared lifeblood over her forehead, cheeks, and neck in a very slow, ritualistic fashion. Then, without further explanation, it abruptly shoved her aside, offering her full freedom to move. Her face now a mask of red, Che irately whipped around to confront the stranger, thoroughly disgusted by it and what it was doing to her.
However, upon turning, the Orsimer found nothing behind her but a void shadow that, oddly, seemed to be blacker than black itself. And then, ever so slowly, it began to fade into a physical form: it was the form of a young, fair woman. It was Elisif, Che saw, and she glared right at the Orc with fiery red eyes. "JUMP. Or you will die here. Do not make me force you, Chenin," the form of Elisif said with a voice that was both her own... and yet not.
Che grit her teeth, quickly deciding to end the harassment once and for all. Going on the offensive, she fervently paced toward Elisif's form, with the intent to mow her down. However, just as the Orc raised her fist to strike, Elisif shape-shifted back into the shadow, causing Che to stumble forward as her blow went straight through its ethereal shape. Then, with a mysterious and invisible force, the obscure shadow raised a defence against Che. It summoned a gale so strong that she was driven by its blast over the cliff edge, head falling over heels.
Now in free fall, it only took a few passing moments for Che to realise that she was in the process of plummeting to a very certain death. However, in spite of this, she refused to close her eyes to fate. The Orsimer kept both eyes open, wanting to savour every last view of the world below, while simultaneously grieving that she was dying so alone. So in her last moments, she considered every stone in the valley, and said good bye to the mountains that had reared her. She then looked once more towards the faces of the stronghold, not expecting anyone to even notice her; so it was no small surprise when she saw a pair of eyes, those of a male Orsimer, locked onto her as her fall came nearer and nearer to its finale.
And then, for a reason unknown to her, the plunge suddenly began to feel much less like falling, and more akin to soaring. Air began to whip around her body, almost as if the air current itself had began supporting her, enveloping her, swaddling her like a soft blanket.
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