[i]‘’Live or die?’’[/i]

While Sadri had been in this situation before, the answer had always been live. Dead Argonians couldn’t work as well as live ones for obvious reasons. Here, however, the difference was that, while the headcount still mattered, it was better to bring them in without the bodies. He didn’t like executing defenseless people, but a job was a job, and he had signed up. He thought of giving the man a proper execution for a moment, out of common courtesy, but figured that getting it over with would be better for all parties involved. Nodding for Tennant to get off the man, Sadri pressed the tip of his sword against the back of the man’s neck softly, and forced the sword down with his body’s weight. The man went silent after that.

However, the rest of the group broke the moment of silence by breaking down the double doors leading into the mine, and the rather abrasive sound brought Sadri back into his senses. There was still a job to do, and he could feel hollow about killing helpless men later. Sadri ended up at the rear of the group – Tennant had left the scene of execution quickly, perhaps because of just how melancholically it had played out. Or maybe he just didn’t want to lag behind.

Sadri simply watched from his crouched position as the young lad (or lass, he wasn’t [b]entirely[/b] sure), Lucex, shot an arrow into the dark. He hadn’t heard what the target had said, but ended up confused when the archer asked about a Smokey. It appears the quartermaster herself did not know. The name itself wasn’t very scary in itself, but for all Sadri knew, it could’ve been a damned fire atronach, and he didn’t want to bother with anything like that. This wasn’t the Companions now, was it? He was here to kill amateurs.

Yet fate seemed to take the group to the opposite direction as the dimly lit mine revealed to them rather gruesome and foreboding contents, with what seemed to be taxidermy equipment placed upon a table, and a huge heart. Its previous owner was obviously not human. It could belong to a bison, or one of those ape-men of Valenwood. Whatever it was, Sadri didn’t want to know. Then Lucex decided to throw whatever Sadri wanted out of the window, and decided to show the party that its previous owner was just right there, at the bottom of the pit.

Thankfully, a fellow Dunmer, Relmyna, decided to voice Sadri’s thoughts. Sadri had seen bears fight before, and it was not a pleasant sight. Hell, often special weaponry would have to be used to keep the animal from just sliding into your blade and mauling you apart. And those were regular animals. Regular boars, regular bears. Not this thing. This thing looked like something Hircine’d shit out after an eons-long bout of constipation.

But Edith, having a mindset as hard as the steel she often worked with, would not bend, and decided that they could take it on as a group. Maybe, just maybe, Lucex could shoot its heart out from his safe spot, and finish it right then and there. Then he went and missed, and woke the damn thing up instead. [i]‘’Oh, for fuck’s sake,’’[/i] Sadri thought to himself as the creature rose from its spot and roared, bellowing out a sound that would put Greybeards to shame. [i]‘’I’m asking for double my pay after this.’’[/i]

Thankfully, Tennant decided to take it on bare handed, the absolute madman, and this meant that Sadri could get into what seemed to be a very ill-fated melee some seconds later. He hadn’t fought a bear before. He had the [i]common sense[/i] to avoid bears. [i]Who the fuck[/i] would fight bears? You [b]shouldn’t[/b] fight bears. Tennant proved this statement to be true by getting flung out like a small rock from a sling and hitting his head on a rock. Sadri hoped that he was alive – he wanted to have a meat wall around in case he needed to hide from projectiles. But damn, that looked bad. 

The situation escalated when the Dunmer woman provoked the creature further by embedding a dagger in the beast’s belly, and was subject to full assault by the bear. If not for Edith and her good use of the shield, Relmyna probably would have been mincemeat by now. The quartermaster attempted to regain initiative by striking back at the bear, but somehow the bear managed to deflect the woman’s strike. [i]‘’Yup, I’m getting out of here,’’[/i] Sadri thought to himself, eyeing the chains on one side of the pit. He had done his share of free running before. He could lift himself out of the pit by using those chains. He hoped.

As Sadri moved, unfortunately towards the bear, to get closer to the chains and thus his escape, Lucex let loose another arrow that managed to pierce the bear’s spine, or so it seemed. The effeminate boy shouted for Sadri to take the creature down, and Sadri, suddenly filled with romanticism from the damsels in distress (!) and the fair maiden (?) cheering his name, decided to try and take the bear down, and brought down his blade with all his strength, landing it underneath the bear’s armpit. The heavy and well-tempered blade cut straight through the bear’s side, cleaving through ribs and letting loose embalmed organs. Following his strike, the bear turned its attention to Sadri, raised itself and attempted to let loose a roar, but its cloven lung allowed it to only give out a whimper before it landed itself flat on the ground on its side, and a briar heart, cloven in two, spurt out of the creature’s gaping wound with the impact.

‘’Well, that just happened,’’ Sadri mused after a few seconds of silence.