Mal Keyye Ko Keizaal

by Dragon Dreaming

Interlude - Arboreal Premonitions

“Oh, my, you poor thing. Come on now, let’s have a look at that paw.” The sabrecat yowled at her, tail lashing, but did not object to her hands on its paw. The Argonian inspected the wound with a careful intensity, cleaning it in a meticulous fashion. “Oh, did you cut yourself on a rock? You need to be more careful. Here, now, I’m going to put a bandage on it, and you need to leave it alone for a few days, okay.”

The enormous cat’s eyes met those of the girl, and then looked away moments later, the creature heaving a sigh. “Now, none of that. If you don’t leave it on, you could open it up even worse,” she said, her tone kind and motherly. Deft hands wrapped the paw in clean rags, and tied the bandage off at the top. “You can take it off in a couple of days. Now go on.”

The cat got to its feet, gave her a nuzzle, and slipped off into the forest, leaving her beaming with joy. She was a pretty thing, as Argonians went, her golden scales smooth and lustrous, the pattern of small, rounded horns upon her head adorned with what looked to be petals of a most glorious pink. Save for the bow on her back and the rough clothes she wore, she would have looked perfectly suited to noble’s court.

She looked to the sky, a wave of unease coming over her. There had been odd shapes in the skies of late, winged creatures that could not possibly be birds, and did not look like anything she knew of. Each time she saw those creatures, her heart began to race, and she felt the urge to flee, to run, to hide. Something was wrong these days. She just hoped that nothing tremendously bad would happen.