[center][i][b][h3]Aboard the Courtesan[/h3][/b][/i][/center]

Meanwhile…

	Onboard the wounded ship, with the hole in the hull modestly patched with the sail, Bjorn, Halvar and Orvar struggled with the other greenhorn sailors to erect a makeshift sail, because, of course, Leif had so graciously cut it down, and then, there was the incident of the Nord woman, Solveig, crashing face first into the wooden mast. Surprisingly, she had survived the fall, and was carted off to the last remaining dinghy, how bad of shape she was in, remained to be seen. While the sailors worked in a hasty manner, Captain Atgeir called from the wheel that there was trouble afoot on the shoreline. Stopping in his work to scour the beaches, Leif spotted torchlight flickering in a cave, where mysterious figures in bonemould armor descended upon the survivors in the dinghy. Swearing vehemently, angered that he could not do anything to help, Leif simply kept himself distracted, it would do no good to worry over Sevine, or the others for that matter. Were he to try and jump ship, he would not make it far with his longsword, for he would certainly face an impending death in the swirling icy waters below. The sailors that had gone below deck to chuck the water overboard had retrieved the belongings of those that had left their packs behind, and brought it above deck to avoid any damage.

	Miraculously, as the [i]Courtesan[/i] limped into the beach, Leif could see that the attackers were Dunmeri in origin. More importantly, approaching from the inland, came a group of people dressed in curious, red and black leathers. His first initial thought emerged as that they were assassins, members of the Dark Brotherhood, but hadn’t they been erased? As the [i]Courtesan[/i] docked, more or less, ropes were flung aside the wooden railing for those that remained aboard to repel down. However, one particular Dunmer, Kattun, the priest they had rescued from the shores east of the College, acted in a rather heedless manner, for instead of climbing down the rope, hand-over-hand, he forgot himself and plummeted feet first into the water. Shaking his head in dismay at Cat-Kicker’s indignant words, Leif scaled the rope into the water, and helped the Dunmer to the dinghy. Kattun muttered a whimpered thanks to him as Leif delivered him to his companion, R’ihanna. When he had finished there, Leif trudged through the shallows, his trousers soaked to the knees, sloshing his way to the sandy beach.

“Sevine!” He called, scanning those that had engaged in battle. He knew Sevine to be one of them, for she was not in the dinghy like R’ihanna. Rather, he found her descending on the Khajiit that had healed her wounded leg in the riot at Windhelm. How could he forget his name? Do’Karth. 

[hr]

	After dispatching the armiger who lost his hand to her axe, Sevine whirled around looking for her next opponent, when she spotted Do’Karth. While she doubted that he could hold his ground for much longer, she was surprised to see him sweep his opponent off their feet with a quick swipe of his staff. She headed his way when she heard a familiar voice calling her. It was Leif. While she recalled that Do’Karth had a code against killing, she took it upon herself to deliver the final blow. With one clean swipe, cleaved the armiger’s head off. A bloody stump for a neck sprayed a fountain of blood onto the sand below. If she could help it, she wouldn’t leave any survivors, but it appeared that the new arrivals of people in crimson-black leathers did an excellent job of cleaning up their enemies.

“You made it!” She said, breaking out into a grin, noting that the [i]Courtesan[/i] had actually beached itself along the shoreline. Well that was a relief to be had, at least the ship hadn’t gone down. He embraced her with a surge of excitement, perhaps in a spiteful act to instill the fact that Do’Karth would never share the bond that he did with Sevine. 

	A cuff of her hand to the back of his head, and Sevine found herself on her feet. “Haven’t I told you not to pick me up off my feet?” She badgered, clucking her tongue in annoyance. With his pride hurt, Leif could only turn his gaze away from her, ok, so perhaps she wasn’t as accepting of his hugs as he would have liked. Then again, she never had been before.

“Who are these people?” Leif asked in a desperate attempt to regain control of the conversation.

“Dunno, they just showed up out of nowhere. Maybe they’re enemies of these blokes?” She stood with her hands planted firmly on her hips as she surveyed the carnage. Solveig, on the other hand, had rampaged across the sands, and withdrew her embedded spearhead from an armiger’s neck. Well, at least she had feeling return to her face. Sevine and Leif stood alongside one another, waiting for the chaos to subside.