04-07-2007, 01:18 AM
Dreugh-jigger?s Rest
By Khalad Mothryon
Collected from the oral histories of Bitter Coast Velothi and Aidanat Tribesmen
By Khalad Mothryon
Collected from the oral histories of Bitter Coast Velothi and Aidanat Tribesmen
It was a calm day on the Inner Sea and three Dunmer set out on a raft. The waves quietly buffeted the vessel as the three prepared their gear. Adairanat, a Velothi fishmonger, grabbed a large clay pot and dumped its contents into the sea. Pieces of fish sunk slowly into the briny waters and the dark red blood spread all around the boat. A few large slaughterfish came as they always did, and Briras yelled to his son to spear them as he prepared their Jigger masks. Obeying his father, Dalam Goboran quickly grabbed a harpoon and speared the fish. Soon it seemed a bloody stain was on the Inner Sea and the three sat on their raft and waited.
They saw a shark and despaired, for those vicious creatures would ruin their catch. The three warded it off as long as they could but soon got ready to sail back to the mainland. However they suddenly shouted in joy as they saw the shark fall prey to a multitude of sharp claws just under the surface. The dreugh had come.
Depending on the type and its age, dreugh hunting can be easily done or deadly. These dreugh appeared young, probably had not yet had their first Karvinasim. Thus they were curious but skittish and their carapaces not as hard as older ones. Adairanant and the father and son used nets and harpoons to capture four of them. However, though young, Dreugh are all very resilient, and they take much pain before killed. So the three dove in with chitin knives and killed the ensnared dreugh. Dalam saw deep in the murky water more Dreugh coming. And one had more than four arms ? a dreugh man o?war. He motioned quickly to his father who helped Asairanat bring the dreugh corpses into the boat and set sail. They got back to their small village and Briras? wife came out to greet them. After dinner they carefully scraped off the wax from the shells, boiled the flesh out of the bodies and left the carapaces to dry. Next week the armorer from Veranis Hall would come on his silt strider for the husks to sell to fashion into armor for Redoran warriors and Armigers. This was a tradition and had gone on for generations.
?Are the dreugh thinking creatures Paba?? asked Dalam as he hollowed out the head of one of the dead Dreugh and threw its brains into the water.
?No of course not. They are just dumb creatures who get big enough to be a nuisance? if they were smart they?d have killed me by now considering how many dreugh I?ve killed since my childhood??
?Then what of those tales where Vivec beat the Dreugh kings??
?Son, use a god?s name with respect, and I don?t know, maybe those n?chow dreugh used to be powerful, but thank the Three they are no longer. I thank blessed Vivec every night for when you were born, I swear an avatar of Vehk came and blessed your infant body as it lay in your mother?s arms. It is rare that our living-gods would walk amongst ? ?
?Serjo Goboran, there is a dreugh outside, quick!? yelled a breathless Adairanat at the doorway. A few yells and the clanging of weapons was heard in the hut next door.
?What?!?
?A land dreugh! He must?ve wandered into our village.. I?m going to go get the hetman!?
?Dalam, get the spears, and stay behind me!?
?Paba, I am a young man, I can hold my ? ?
?Do as I say!?
The hetman came out with a staff and the six villagers encircled with land dreugh and poked at it with anything long and sharp they had in their homes. The dreugh struggled and lashed wildly, but upon seeing Briras Goboran it maimed him with its chopping-claw and scuttled towards the seashore. A screaming Dalam put on his Jigger mask and, holding his chitin blade tighly, dove off the pier into the waters. This dreugh wasn?t going to get away. The villagers yelled at him to return and the wives gathered around Briras to inspect his fatal wound. But the voices quickly grew garbled and quiet as Dalam swam deeper under the waves.
Apparently land dreugh, while comfortable in water, were clumsy swimmers at best, as they were the dreugh that have Karvinasimed and adapted to life on land. Dalam swam after the dreugh who half crawled and half leaped its way across the ocean floor. He smiled quietly as he sensed the creature?s frustration. Normally a land-walker wouldn?t swim far to chase a dreugh, but this beast was being chased by a young dreugh-jigger. They?re experts at the art of hunting dreugh and known for their jigger masks, enchanted helms that allowed one to breathe water as if it was air.
The dreugh came up to a half-buried pillar of stone. It seemed to be shaped like a claw. The dreugh gurgled some strange words and the designs carved on the stone glowed. Instantly, the stone pincer opened and snapped shut and a strong current suddenly rushed along and swept the dreugh northward. Dalam considered a moment, if he followed the dreugh he would end up Vehk knows where, but if he did not, he would not be able to avenge his father. He moved towards the pillar and suddenly he too was sucked into the current. It seemed like he was in there for days. The occasional shimmer of sunlight above the waves told him that it was morning. Suddenly the current stopped and he looked ahead and saw a sight that he would never forget.
A mass of coral, pocked by holes and seemingly guarded by barnacles, was before him. The dreugh scuttled into one of the caves, and Dalam swam after him. Despite his fatigue, Dalam was an excellent swimmer. The large barnacles snapped at him as he evaded their beaks and ducked into a tunnel. He wandered about and suddenly bumped into a Dreugh. It tried to grab him but he sliced open its neck with his dagger. He frantically swam through the tunnels in the coral that seemed to go in every direction but up. Suddenly he dropped into a dome. On all sides was the coral, and in the center at the sandy bottom was a palace of glass. Trident bearing dreugh swarmed out and surrounded Dalam, and one was tugging a giant octopus out of a cave nearby with a rope of seaweed. The young dreugh-jigger prayed to his ancestors for forgiveness and asked Almalexia to give him the strength of a warrior.
Suddenly, they scattered. An old dunmer with white eyes came out of the glass palace. The skin was past wrinkled; it was rubbery seeming and some of it flaky where small fish had nibbled at his hide. The Dunmer swam slowly, its pearl white eyes staring blankly at where Dalam floated and it?s salted and ancient, gaunt body glided through the water like a ghost. He greeted the frightened young Goboran.
?Welcome Serjo???
?Dalam Goboran?
?Welcome Serjo Goboran to Gormflang, southernmost dreugh-city in the Morrowind queendom of the Dreugh. I am Falvan Bereloth, I shall be your guide and friend. Don?t be worried, my affiliations are no longer with the Telvanni Bereloth clan, I think I have been here too long for that?. By the way, how are things in the surface world??
?Well I am only a fishmonger and dreugh-jigger, but I?d like to think I know much about the outside world. At least, I am the most curious clansman of my village??
?Go on, I am listening??
?Well I heard that the Orc-town of Orsinium was destroyed by the Redguards and Bretons. I think Vivec, blessed be the Three, had led Armigers to go save Kogo-Tel from a Nord raid? Kogo-Tel isn?t strong aside from the large tower? yes and I think the Malak Orcs in the Ashlands were driven into the northern end of Vvardenfell by Armigers and Ordinators? not too many people on Vvardenfell aside from the Ashlanders, its Temple land and they need to purge the cults and beasts there? and ? ?
?ah, that?s enough, I think I have grown another century older, anyhow, come with me, we go see the palace of the Trident-king!? laughed the wizened old man.
They entered the glass palace, an emerald maze as complex and yet as ordered as the inside of a snail shell. They passed a section where an old dreugh taught younglings about the surface world, an armory where a large man o?war was fashioning a long trident, and then a harem where lamia reached out seductively to the two as they swam by. Finally they reached a chamber with a magical wall. The man ushered Dalam in and he found he was dripping wet in a room filled with? air!
?Welcome to my humble abode young Velothi, I will go tell the Trident-king you are here, meanwhile take a rest. There is a meal on the shelf?, said Falvan as he took out one of his white eyes and wiped it as one would a pearl. ?I will find people to keep you company? and oh, they will teach you to breathe water. When you have gotten used to the sea, find your way to the throne room?
?Thank you Serjo Bereloth? ?, murmured the tired dreugh-jigger, slightly confused as to what the old man was doing.
Dalam found the plate, slurped up the squirming baby squid, collapsed onto the old sleeping mat and feel asleep. When he awoke he felt very weak, it seemed like all the air around him was compressing him, crushing him. He began to acclimate but continued to slip into unconsciousness now and then. He vaguely remembered nodding at the old man, being threatened by a dreugh guard, being seduced by a lamia, and someone saying that he wasn?t worth being an ambassador. When he had acclimated to the pressure he found himself breathing water in the room of Bereloth. He saw a scroll of greater paralysis on the table and crumpled it into his clenched fist as he turned to go find the throne room; it may be useful later he thought.
A monstrous dreugh clung to a throne made of shell. It spoke, and Dalam realized somehow he understood it?
?Your people have been hunting mine for a long time. You are a dreugh-jigger, a hunter of Dreugh. Son of Boethiah, you disgust me, a Trident-king, and you anger our father the Ruddy Man. You know him as Molag Bal.?
?Yes, one of the Four Corners of the House of Troubles??
?No, he is father of the Dreugh, gifter of monstrous strength, schemer against Boethiah the prince of schemes, and keeper of souls. Prince of Rape, he gives the power to take away from others. He has guided us well, but another Boethiah?s son? Vehk, had been thwarting our father for a long time? and now you come? come chasing my son who had changed to go on land? ?
?I am no god, I?that was your son? He killed my father!?
?You are blessed by Vehk, I can smell it, and so you must die? and your father was a great killer of my people, he deserved his death.?
?Why can I not be an ambassador like Bereloth? Replace my eyes with magical pearls and give me the hidden gills I beseech of you!?
?No mercy for you land-walker, your water-breath will run out soon so put on your mask and leave while you can. I will give you until i count to ten, then the hunt will begin!?
Dalam swam faster than he had ever swum. He tore past expectant dreugh guards, knocked over a sage, and pushed a lamia courtesan aside. He got out of the emerald green glass palace and into the dome. He saw dreugh coming up the tunnel behind him and more coming out of the coral. They surrounded him in a gigantic swarm, on all sides, and above and below? suddenly he used the scroll and all of the nearest dreugh were paralyzed. He squirmed past them, past confused dreugh still trying put push into the mass of frenzied sea denizens, and found his way through the coral.
He was out of the city, but it was still in sight when he saw the king glide out of the coral on his tentacles followed by a hundred men o?war. They saw him, and rushed towards him. He swam until darkness clouded his vision?
When he awoke he saw a fully armed Ashlander in war-regalia standing over him.
?I am a Gulakhan of the Aidanat Tribe, and you are the man who has come out of the sea??
?Where am I???
?You are on the Bitter Coast of Vvardenfell, we Aidanat were traveling northwards and then saw you. ?
?Are they? are they gone??
?The dreugh? No, they are there in the water, you can see them now, their heads peeping above the surface? watching? good thing it is low tide? stranger, why have you come out of the water? Have you angered the dreugh??
?f?lah? I am a dreugh-jigger, and I know I will soon die of my fatigue. But before I die, I wish to tell you my story? it was a calm day on the Inner Sea and three Dunmer set out on a raft?.?
Dalam Goboran died after his story was told. The Aidanat called the small cove Dreugh-jigger?s Rest, and added his tale to their oral histories. The dreugh claimed the body of their quarry, and their king tore the body into filaments. Centuries past. A Hlaalu boat carrying a noble and his entourage arrived on the spot. He called the place Gnaar Mok, and one of the citizens of this new town erected a shack and decided to name it after the old name of the place.
