I'm going to kill Maven. I'm going to slit her throat, reach inside, and rip her tongue out so when her children find her they'll be traumatized for life. The woman I love is completely broken, and it's clear who's hand did it. My lover's beautiful eyes are black and bruises cover the skin around them. Slashes litter her flesh and the blood steadily drips onto the floor boards. I feel my throat tighten and my vision begins to blur as I keep trying to take it all in. Her throat is what stands out the most to me. The fur is smashes and her neck appears twisted or broken or something is wrong with it. Lumps all over her body tell me where broken bones lie beneath her skin, chunks of fur have been ripped out all along her pelt, and burns adorn her stomach.

Slowly, the healer takes her from me. That's when I realize that she isn't breathing. I open my mouth to yell something at the priestess, but she's gone too fast for me to say anything. My love. My beautiful, kind, and too shy love. You aren't perfect. The gods are well aware you aren't perfect, but you don't deserve this. You don't deserve your life to be ended by some tyrant because you talked to their granddaughter. If I had my way you'd die old, loved, and by my side. But we don't always get what we want or deserve. I walk over to one of the benches and sit down. Then, I start to cry.

The priestess comes to me a few hours later and sits down beside me. I stopped crying a while ago, but my voice is still gruff. "How is she?". The Dunmer adjust herself beside me before answering. "She'll live. Magic has taken care of a majority of her injuries, but it appears she can't or doesn't want to remember what happened. She keeps asking for you, but we've had to deny her. We're still working on fixing her neck. Whoever had her was quite the strangler.". I'm about to snap at her when I see another priestess stick her head out of a room and motion at us. "Can I go with you?". I ask the Dunmer woman as she starts standing.

She nods and I quickly follow her. My lover is asleep when we find her, but she looks better than she did. One of her eyes is still black and she looks absolutely exhausted. I'll have to make this up to her somehow. If I hadn't sent her away, then she wouldn't be hurt. As I go over to her everyone besides the Dunmer leaves. When I take my love's hand the priestess speaks. "She wasn't breathing for a while. For a while we feared her body would start to turn cold.". I inwardly groan. "Look, there's obviously a reason you're here. Just tell me and get it over with.". The woman swallows and comes closer a little bit. "I think you need to know something. A while ago your lover came in here and saw me.".

She nervously swallows again and looks at the Khajiit. "I examined her and found multiple kinds of sexual diseases-". Anger instantly starts to bubble in my veins. My lover told me about the diseases when she came out and said the truth. She told about her stealing, murdering, diseases, and anything she'd hidden from me. This damned Dunmer didn't know that I know those things. She thought the Khajiit was still lying to me. My lover is on the table almost dead, and she decides now's the perfect moment to bring up my love's past sexual encounters. I know the Khajiit has probably given me a ton of her diseases, but that doesn't give the Dunmer the right to tell me.

I manage to calm myself down by looking at my love's face. Then, I practically snarl at the woman, "Get. Out.". She starts to babble, but a sharp glare from me sends her on her way. Good. I go over to the Khajiit and twine our fingers together. Slowly, her eyes open. When she sees me a small smile spreads across her face. "Mjoll?". Her raspy voice is a little quieter than a whisper, but I manage to hear her. I nod and slide down to my knees so I'm closer to her, then bury my head in her fur. Slowly, I pull back and look up at her. "What happened?". I shrug and whisper back to her, "Tell me the very last thing that you remember.". She squints for a moment.

"You sending me away. Is there anything I should know?". I panic. Should I tell her what happened? She was completely honest with me. But is it kinder to tell her the disturbing and horrid truth, or let her believe a lie? "Yes. You came to Riften and got jumped in the alley by some thug. You killed him, but succumbed to your wounds before you were able to leave. Don't worry about getting charged for murder, the Jarl has already lifted the charges against you. Anyway, I came back to tell you I reacted too harshly and wanted you to come back. I found you in the alleyway and brought you here. The priestesses treated you and now you're 'find' according to them.".

I lean in and she leans in. Our foreheads come together and she closes her eyes in a relaxed position. "Does that mean you forgive me?". I shake my head and she pulls back a little. "Not entirely. We're going to need to work this out. I'll need you to stick around for a little bit and earn back my trust.". I swallow a building lump in my throat. "It'll be a lot of hard work. I love you. Trust me when I say 'I love you', but that's not enough. I need to know that you're willing to work on this relationship and patch things up. It might only take a week or two, or it might take ten years. I really don't know. Can you do that?". She bites her lip, then offers me a small kiss on the forehead. "Absolutely.".

I look out over the city of Markarth and take a deep breath of air. Then, I start hacking as the silver dust works its way into my lungs. My lover must hear me coughing because she joins me on the balcony. A cold wind stirs and I'm aware of my nakedness. My lover chuckles as I shiver, then wraps an arm around me. I nuzzle into the smaller woman's pelt and mumble 'I love you' into her fur. She kisses my head and whispers it back to me. Her hand gently rubs my shoulder as she begins to speak. "How's Dagmvar doing?". I pull back a little so I can look at her and smile. "Maven gave him his money and promised him further work. According to him Riften's still in the shitter, so that's good. Or bad. Depends how you feel about Maven.".

She offers me a little smile in return. I kiss her shoulder. "You ever find out what happened to Asbjorn and Valindor?". I inwardly consider telling her the news. Then, I decide it's for the best. "The two called it quits. Asbjorn became a smith in Dawnstar and Valindor went to Solitude to look for a 'better life'. Both of them promised to write.". The Khajiit seems a little upset the two split up, but then she starts cuddling up to me and forgets about her sadness. I decide it's my turn to ask the questions. "How are the horses and your cow?". She makes a 'hmm' noise before answering. "All of them are fine. Happy and clean I suppose.".

I decide that we've had enough small talk. "Hey.". She looks at me and says, "Hey.". back. I smile and kiss her. "You want to go find out what the map we found in that troll was?". She looks at the small home behind us. "Are you sure? I think I'm pretty set right here.". I scoff at her, "Is my best thief losing her taste for adventure?". She rubs her neck out of habit. "No. I'd just like to wait for a little bit before we go fight another dragon, okay? I mean, you know. Just take a few months. Relax, get to know the city, take a few rubies from that little shop down the street.". I playfully bump my shoulder against hers and she laughs. "Okay okay. No getting to know the city.".

I throw her a look and she smirks at me. "Fine. No taking rubies.". I smile and lean over to kiss her. Once I pull back I agree. "We'll relax a little, then get on with a next grand adventure. Sound good to you?". She looks up at the sky and goes 'hmm'. "Enough gold to buy whatever we want, a nice home, some so-called 'pets', and the woman of my dreams.". She turns to me, grabs my hips, and pulls me close. I lean down to reach my shorter partner and allow her to kiss me. It's a sweet and tender kiss that I can feel all her emotions in. Relief and love are the strongest ones. Finally, she pulls back and we rest our foreheads together. "Sounds perfect.".

The End

Note: And so it comes to an end. I really enjoyed writing this (although it went places I never thought it would). I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed and/or read this. Without anyone to read this and/or keep me going, then I might have simply stopped when I got stumped at multiple parts. I loved writing this, but I found myself backed into a corner more than once. Only through perseverance and the joy of others reading my work did I keep going. Without anyone to read this it would be just another story lost to the ages. Now, onto what I'm going to do next. First, power through 'A Life Across the Ages'. Second, start my next story. Both options are still on the table (the ones from last chapter), but one's shaping up and taking form faster than the other. So here's the most likely one.

The Spark's Reaper: Sera/Female Inquisitor. As the bards say, 'Sera was never an agreeable girl.'. Sera is instantly disappointed the second she sees the Inquisitor who followed her notes is just another 'elfy' elf. One who spits magic and has Dalish tattoos all over her face. At first, Sera reluctantly follows the Inquisitor on every mission. That's where she starts noticing something. The Inquisitor stands up for the little people, keeps mages on a tight leash (even though she herself is one), and does the 'right' thing. Slowly, Sera can feel herself falling for someone who's the exact opposite of her. Then, Corypheus fucks shit up. Again.

I need to work on the description and title, so any help on those would be loved. Anyway, thank you all and I hope you enjoyed 'Herding Love'.