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Burn the Nest for DrakeHavok by Draconicon

The last Falmer died with its heart exploding in the Argonian's hand, and he shook his fingers a few times to scatter the flecks of heat-dried blood to the floor. Arga glanced over his shoulder towards his companion. His...employer, he supposed, though he never saw any money from their arrangement.

"I don't know why you wanted to return here. Falmer never have anything worth looting."

"Oh, they have a few things sometimes. Ooh, a ruby!"

He shook his head at Serrek. The other Argonian was always looking for new things, and half the time, he grabbed things that weren't even of any high value or use. Arga frequently wondered if his companion was more of a kleptomaniac than that strange Nord he'd seen back in Windhelm, gathering up everything that wasn't glued down.

The near-naked Argonian sat down on one of the opened chests in the area, taking a small rest as he looked about the area. It hadn't been much of a fight for the two of them, but the number of bodies made it look like a combat out of some legend of the Companions. Adjusting his loincloth to keep the prickles of the chest from getting into more tender areas, he glanced at the number of dead around them.

It had to be over three dozen, at least. Perhaps as much as five, which was troubling. Arga knew that the Jarl of Whiterun wasn't particularly wealthy in manpower at the moment, but the fact that so many of the blind 'elves' could come so close to the surface and the city without him knowing...

"Serrek."

"What is it? I'm kind of busy here."

"Did you notice any tenders among them?"

"A few."

Arga grumbled under his breath. He didn't want to hear that. Glancing away from the bodies, he glared at his employer until the other Argonian turned his way.

"What?"

"This was the whole point of coming here, wasn't it?"

"Well -"

"And here you were talking about treasure, and maybe something to help me out, and this is the whole reason we came here? For the Chauruses?!"

This was not what he wanted to hear. Leaning back on the chest, he looked towards the ceiling, his mind already coming up with how many they would be finding down below. The Shimmermist Grotto was a deep cave, reaching far enough for the Falmer to come up without anyone knowing, and with something this size, that meant a LOT of the damn insects that worked as labor beasts for them.

Serrek looked at him contemplatively before shaking his head. Something had obviously been decided, but what? Arga looked at him suspiciously as his employer nodded towards the path leading deeper into the cave.

"Look, I came here specifically so I could burn the things out. I thought, maybe..."

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe you'd like to join me. A little therapy, burning those fuckers out of their nest. After all, I bet you've gotten snuck up on by just as many as me, huh?"

"I was underground for more than a month before I met you."

"...Oh."

Click click click.

The two of them whipped their heads to the side at the familiar sound. In the dim cavelight, Arga could only just make out the silhouette of one of the smaller chitinous creatures poking its head upwards. The thick claws and the sharp mandibles kept clicking as it looked around, as if curious what had happened to its masters.

Serrek was fast, he had to give him that. In seconds, the bow-wielding Argonian was on his feet, his hand blazing with fire before a bubbling ball of heat was loosed from his palm. It exploded against the creature, making it shriek before rolling over. The stink of its burning body brought up memories for him that were best left forgotten. Fanning the air, Arga slowly shook his head and stood up.

"This is one of the most idiotic ideas you've ever had."

"Come on, it'll be good for us. Besides, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to burn these things up."

"I've got a fairly strong clue."

"Really? How long has it been since you saw them the first time?"

"Long enough."

"Well, try walking into this place without any idea of where you're going, just looking for a few bits of food, and ending up in a Falmer ambush and finding a hatchery."

He winced. That would have been pretty terrifying, he had to admit. Though he still put his month-long forced sojourn underground ahead of it. Serrek forced a grin.

"Besides, you know you can't just leave it here. After all the stuff that we've found, you know some other Falmer are going to come looking for the free animals, or the damn things are going to go out on the surface and wreak havoc. You can't just leave it here, can you, Arga?"

You know I damn well can't, the Argonian thought. He glared at his boss for a bit longer before sighing.

"Fine."

"Good, now -"

"But we need one more thing if we're going to do this right."

#

"I don't know why I didn't think about this."

"Because you were thinking of how to have fun, not how to get this job done right."

Arga shook his head at his boss. The number of times that he'd had to save the other Argonian staggered his mind. It wasn't that Serrek was incapable, as he'd proved a number of times how well he could shoot and sneak. It was just that he was so eager to enjoy himself that he didn't put much thought in how to get things done properly.

And he wouldn't have thought of bringing the oil over to the nest because it was heavy, and it wasn't worth a damn in terms of currency. Arga patted it a few times before pulling out his dagger. He used it to yank the cork free, and then rolled it so that it could point towards the chute leading down to the nest.

"This won't get all of them -"

"No fun, otherwise."

"- but it will get most of them. The flyers will still get away, though."

"Hold on. Flyers?"

Arga smiled. It was a bit cruel, but he turned with a toothy grin for his boss. So there was something he didn't know.

"Nastiest of these little things. Makes everything else look like a cakewalk."

"Uh, maybe..."

"Backing out?"

"No, no, of course not."

"Good."

Without another word, Arga upended the barrel down the chute. A line of oil ran all the way down, and they could hear it hit the bottom and explode. He turned to Serrek with a smile, gesturing at the slicked-up chute.

"Together?"

"Sure."

Their hands lit up at the same time, and they threw two fireballs down the chute. One of them exploded on the way down, sending a blast of fire back up their direction, while the other - as far as Arga could tell - was going all the way down to the nest below. The second plume of fire and the echoes of screams from beneath told him he was right.

He backed away from it as fast as he could, already picking out a few other chutes along the walls. It wouldn't be long now; in fact, he could already see one starting to poke its little head out of a spot above Serrek. His boss didn't see it, eyes on him instead.

"What are you -"

"Down!"

No questioning, just action. Arga launched an Inferno spell towards the wall, which caught the creature before it could take flight. The crispy body landed right beside Serrek's head, and the other Argonian rolled away from it, hugging his arms to himself.

"Aaaaaaah! Gross gross gross gross no no no no!"

Serrek was still shaking as he got to his feet, and by then, the other pests were already taking flight. In the dark cavern, it was nearly impossible to see them, and the constant buzz of their wings and the clicking chitter of their mandibles and long, sharp 'arms' drowned out all other sound.

Arga pressed his back against his boss', making sure that they couldn't be taken by surprise. Both of his fists were glowing red now, and he could see the same fiery burn in Serrek's hands.

"Got plenty of magic?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Enough for the Master spell, if I have to."

"Good..."

Despite himself, Arga felt a grin coming on. There'd been too many times when he was still learning when these assholes had been a problem. Flying too fast for him to flee from, spitting poison at him from across dark chasms, crawling up behind him and taking a chunk out of his tail when he was trying to sleep.

But no more.

"Let's teach them to fear fire."

They finally had to flee the caverns, but more from the stench of burning bodies than anything else. Both Argonians were coughing and hacking from the smoke-filled air as they returned to the surface, and Arga still couldn't shake the smell from him as they took a seat.

"Nasty little things..."

"Particularly the flying ones. Ugh...I thought I was used to them, but those? No. No, thank you, but no."

"Heh, try it when you don't have magicka, arrows, or anything but a knife, and are having to run for your life."

"Please, Arga, no...I don't need those nightmares."

He chuckled, leaning back a bit as he looked up at the clear sky. It was a mark of how much the two of them had grown, before and after meeting each other. Once, they would have been killed by the Falmer, let alone getting to the nest. Now? They'd cleared something out that would have taken an entire garrison of the watch, or even something like the Companions to do. And they'd done it -

"Ooh, an emerald."

Blinking, he glanced back down, seeing Serrek still rooting through his stuff. Some of it was new, too. Arga groaned.

"Tell me you didn't grab the pouches blindly while we were walking out?"

"Uh..."

"You're hopeless."

The End