//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The Equestria Scrolls 
// by Speven Dillberg 
//------------------------------//

	The Dunmer groaned and covered her pointed ears. This was the third time the Khajiit and Redguard had started arguing since they had arrived in this strange place, and their bickering was getting on her nerves. “I swear, the next one to blame someone else will be set on fire,” Llevana said, standing up and drawing on her majicka, fire filling her hands.
“Fine,” Qa’Dar grumbled. “I still say going into those Ayleid ruins was a bad idea.”
Avik rolled his eyes and lowered his axe. “Look, fur-ball, I didn’t know touching that button would open that portal. And neither did you.”
As Qa’Dar let out a string of Khajiiti curses, Llevana extinguished the fire. “Thank you. Now that you two have stopped acting like children perhaps we can try and figure out where we are.” She turned to the Redguard.
Avik shrugged. “Could be a Daedric realm. I remember reading about Camoran’s Paradise. The Champion of Cyrodiil said something about it looking very beautiful.”
“That same champion also said how the Realms of Oblivion were dangerous hellscapes.” Qa’Dar yawned. “For all we know we’re somewhere in Valenwood or the Summerset Isles.”
“So you think the Ayleids had a method of teleporting people over distances that would take us weeks to cross?” Llevana asked, the dark elf turning to her colleagues.
“Certainly a possibility.”
“The Khajiit is right.” Avik drew his axe again, looking around. “If we are in Valenwood or Summerset, we should try to find a town. Standing around here won’t do us any good.”





Avik, Llevana and Qa’Dar were a small group of spelunkers, diving into unexplored ruins to take whatever treasure they could to sell to the highest bidder. Together they had delved into Nordic, Dwemer and Ayleid ruins. Almost every time they had come out with a precious relic worth more gold than they could carry, which was usually spent on supplies, alcohol and, in Qa’Dar’s case, Skooma, the highly addictive narcotic made from Moonsugar.
Each member specialised in a different area. As befitting a Redguard, Avik was trusted with the main fighting, and as such usually carried both silver and ebony axes while clad in a set of Dwarven Armor. Llevana was the mage, skilled in both the Destruction and Restoration schools. Though she only wore enchanted robes she was incredibly formidable, as many a dead bandit had found out the hard way. Qa’Dar had incredible skill with lock-picking and sneaking, leaving him with the dangerous task of disarming traps and killing bandits without them noticing. He was the best-armed of the group, armed with a pair of glass daggers.
Their most recent escapade had seen them exploring an Ayleid ruin north-west of Anvil in Cyrodiil. They had encountered the usual obstacles, each one bypassed with the ease born from experience. Their goal had been deep within, behind a series of locked doors and swinging axe traps. They had expected a number of Ayleid statues and relics, but instead had encountered a simple button, carved in the typical Ayleid fashion. Avik had simply pressed it without thinking, opening up a portal that had sucked all three explorers in.





“Well, fur-ball, what do you see?”
“It looks like a town,” Qa’Dar replied from above, his tail the only thing visible to the others from his vantage point in the tree. “Can’t see much else, though. We’re too far away.” The Khajiit jumped down and landed on his feet, turning to the Redguard. “And if you call me fur-ball one more time I will claw you,” he threatened.
“Enough, both of you,” Llevana interjected, pushing in between the two before anything could happen. She hated how, despite being the youngest by about three years, she had been relegated to the role of ‘team mom.’ She turned to face the town, hidden by the thick trees. “We have a destination now. We should hurry. Something about this place really unnerves me,” she muttered, looking around uneasily.
Avik and Qa’Dar glanced at each other. It was quite hard to scare a child of Morrowind, and Llevana was the toughest dark elf either had the fortune to know. If she was worried about this place, it was reason for them to worry as well.





“Shh,” Qa’Dar whispered, putting a finger to her lips. “I heard something.”
“What?” Llevana asked, the dark elf calling on her majicka.
“It think it might just be an animal.”
“Nothing we can’t handle,” Avik scoffed. He drew his ebony axe and looked around. “Where is it?”
A loud roar sounded from behind them, making all three jump. “A mountain lion?” Llevana asked, concentrating her majicka into fire.
Qa’Dar drew his daggers as the thing burst through the trees, growling at them. “That’s not a lion,” the Khajiit muttered. “Lions don’t have wings or tails like that.” It had wings like those of a bat’s on its back, as well as the tail belonging to a scorpion, though only Avik recognized it as such.
“A mage’s experiment, maybe?” Avik asked, glancing at his companions.
“Either way, it doesn’t seem friendly.” Llevana concentrated the fire into a ball, ready to unleash it at a moment’s notice.
The thing leapt at them, claws bared to tear them apart. Llevana unleashed a stream of flame at the beast, making it scream in pain as its mane was set alight. As it swatted at the air to put out the fire, Avik took his chance to cleave at it with his axes, gouging great chunks from its flesh. It roared as it tried to turn to rip into the Redguard, but it didn’t get the chance as the Khajiit seemed to appear from nowhere, a set of daggers being driven into its throat, ending the beast in a moment. Qa’Dar removed his daggers and wiped them on the ground of get rid of the blood. “That was quite easy,” he commented.
“I expected more of a fight.”
“I hope there’s not too many of them,” Llevana muttered. “Still think we’re in Valenwood or Summerset Isle?”
“Not anymore,” Avik replied. “Can’t think of any mages who’d do anything like this.”
“Necromancers, maybe,” Qa’Dar muttered. “Those sick freaks will do anything.”
“I don’t think we’re in Tamriel anymore.”
“A Daedric realm, then?” Avik asked.
“Seems the most reasonable explanation,” Llevana replied. “Better not eat anything here. For all we know everything might be poison to us.”
“Hang on,” Qa’Dar said, raising a hand. “If this is a Daedric realm, why is there a town? I thought all the Daedric Lords were all insane. This place seems...”
“If you’re going to say ‘sane’, Qa’Dar, I will hit you. We just got attacked by a crazy lion thing,” Avik replied. “Sounds like something Sheogorath might do.”
“No, Sheogorath would put together a wolf, a deer and a fish. And give it a voice so it could scream.” Llevana shuddered at that mental image. 
“I don’t think we have much of an option at this moment. After all, a town at least promises to be slightly civilised,” Qa’Dar said.
“You know it’s time to panic when the Khajiit makes the most logical argument,” Avik responded.





Author's Note:
I don't know if I should continue this or not.