Woah, did not expect inspiration for this to strike this fast and hard. Generally, it takes at least a week for me to churn out 3k words for any of my other stories :/
Anyways, I didn't expect this half-assed attempt at a crossover to get this much attention, so it looks like I'll have to actually try with this story as well. Although when it comes to suspension of disbelief, hell that had better be suspended beforehand before reading any kind of crossover.
"Owwwww!"
A foot to my face disrupts my peaceful slumber.
"Wake up, you lazy good for nothing dog!"
Ah, damn, for a moment I forgot I'm now a familiar to this Louise. I recoil in pain for a moment before pushing myself into a sitting position.
"Ehh? What time is it?" I ask.
"It's already 9 AM! You have to help me get ready for class, you dog!" Louise yells.
Looking up at her, she's wearing on a light pink nightgown. And of course, like any other male, man or mer, my eyes drift to her chest. Nope, flat as a plain. My stare is interrupted by a swift kick to my chest.
"Stop looking at me with those perverted eyes and get my clothes!"
"Well that's two phrases I'd never thought I'd hear in the same sentence. You shouldn't be asking perverts to get your clothes." I joke. Sighing, I stand up, walking towards the wardrobe Louise is pointing to with her hand.
I pull out a folded uniform set similar to what Louise was wearing yesterday and toss it in her bed.
"I need my underwear as well. Bottom drawer." I hear Louise order from behind me.
"Oyy, don't you think that's a bit too much! Even if I'm your familiar!" I complain indignantly.
"No food for you if you don't get it."
Ah, my one true weakness. Hunger is something I especially hate, and without any hunting grounds, I'll have to rely on my 'master' for food...for now, anyways. I should probably make finding alternate sources of food a priority though. Opening the bottom drawer, I find a large stack of neatly folded female underwear. I gingerly take one at random and toss it at the bed.
"There, you happy now?" I grumble.
"For now."
I turn around, intent on getting my dagger from the hay when I see Louise start to strip.
"Hey hey hey, aren't nobles supposed to have decency?" Startled, I quickly turn away again.
"Why should I be worried about that. You're only a familiar. And a crappy one at that." Louise rationalizes.
Covering my eyes, I look down at the floor and guide myself to my pile of hay, equipping the Blade of Woe. I carefully peek behind me again, lest I see more than I want to see...well not that I DON'T want to see Louise naked, but still, she's definitely high on the flat meter. And I'd probably receive a kick to the nether region. Luckily, she's already in her uniform.
"Come, let's get some food." Louise orders.
"About time I get some food around here." I follow Louise out of the room after.
"Why do you carry those weapons on you all the time?" Louise inquires once we get outside.
"It's standard for me. I used to be an adventurer...until SOMEONE summoned me into this world." I reply.
"Like I said before, I don't want you for a familiar anyways! Tsk, you're no different from commoners, using swords and bows."
I don't bother replying to Louise's complaint. Sometimes it's best if people underestimate you. My magic may not be this world's magic, but by Oblivion it's still magic. Not to mention Shouting.
The dining hall where all the students eat is as fancy as the halls of the palaces of Skyrim like Dragonsreach. I pull out a seat for Louise before taking a seat next to her. But Louise stops me with her hand.
"This table is for nobles only. Familiars eat on the floor."
"Come on, there are free seats everywhere!"
"Rules are rules. Now get down, or no food for you."
My food turns out to be a small loaf of stale bread and a cup of cold water. Ahhhh, damn it, I think I left the hall even more hungrier than I was when I came in. I glare daggers at Louise as she leads me towards one of her classes, but she doesn't seem to notice. At the classroom, Louise takes a seat smack dab in the middle, pointing at me to sit on the chair next to her. Ah, at least the chairs here aren't limited to nobility.
Resting my head on the table, I voice my complaint to Louise.
"Oy oy, why am I here again? I'm not even a mage."
"T-That's because other students have their familiars with them. It would be unsightly if I failed to bring mines as well." Louise shoots back.
Looking around , the creatures I saw back in my first moments here seem to be present in the classroom as well. The plainer creatures like dogs and cats were lying next to their masters, while other, more fantastic creatures like the giant snake and a dragon(?) could only make do with peering in through the windows. I swiveled my head to see what other beasts these mages have summoned when a pair of soft globes obscured my vision.
"Oh, hello there Louise the Zero. I'm surprised you had the dignity to come to class today." A voice above the globes said.
"Go away, Kirche! And get your obscene breasts out of my familiar's face!"
"Ah, he looked bored, so I decided to give him something to cheer him up. But still..." The globes pulled away from my head. Twisting behind me to find the source of the newcomer, a buxom woman is giving me those eyes, the eyes that yell "I want you". To summarize her appearance, she's basically the opposite of Louise. While Louise is pale and flat, this woman (It'd be rude to call her a girl, given her appearance) has breasts that burst out of her open shirt and is a shade of brown, not unlike the Redguards.
"But where are my manners? I'm Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst, a fire mage."
"Oh. Salien Sventor, Thane of the seven Holds of Skyrim, at your service." I manage to sputter out. Having a beauty like her come to you doesn't occur on a daily basis, so it's natural I'd be a bit flustered. That last bit was a lame attempt at trying to look important.
"Thane? Skyrim? Ahh, yeah I forgot you're from another world. You certainly don't look like an elf from Halkeginia...not that that's a bad thing, of course." Kirche winks at me.
"Zerbst! Stop trying to seduce my familiar!" Louise butts in, pushing Kirche away from me.
Kirche looks like she wants to argue back, but the teacher walks inside the classroom, cutting off any chance for a rebuttal. She contents herself with giving Louise a glare before taking a seat a bit of a length away from us.
"Class starts now!" The teacher declares, silencing the small conversations. Looks like it's the same one from back at the summoning. "You students already know me as Mr. Colbert, but today we'll be learning about fire, one of the four elements. The others consist of wind, earth, and water."
Ugh, fire. Even the most novice mage knows Flames, a concentrated burst of fire that comes out of your hand. I'm a bit unsure about the other three elements though. The closest thing we have to water is ice, but Tamriel mages have no way of air or earth manipulation...yet. I should probably stay awake so I can see how these mages manipulate it in this world. Resting my head my hand, I watch Colbert with a bored expression.
"Fire only has one purpose: to destroy. To incinerate all in its path." Colbert explains, pulling out a large wooden block from behind the desk he was leaning on. "Can someone here demonstrate its power on this block here? A simple fireball spell will suffice."
Tch, even in different worlds, our fire spells have the same names. Really? Maybe when I get back to Winterhold, I'll get the teachers together to come up with new names for spells.
"I can. After all, my runic name is Kirche the Ardent." Kirche volunteers. She walks down towards the desk and pulls out a small wooden stick. Wonder what that's for?
Kirche chants a few words of an unknown language before a fireball spews out of the stick, burning the wooden block into ashes.
"Well done, Zerbst. Since she is a Triangle class mage, even her Dot spells' potency have amplified. A Dot mage wouldn't be able to completely incinerate the wooden block like Zerbst has done. You may take your seat now."
Nodding, Kirche goes back to her seat. I'm intrigued by the stick she used though. My guess would be that it, along with whatever chanting she just did, is used to channel their magicka (Don't have a better term right now) into a spell. Hmm...I wonder what's the talk about triangles and dots though?
Intrigued, I awaken a bit at the prospect of learning how magic works here. Unfortunately, the rest of the class is basically a lecture on the properties of fire. There's really only one thing you need to know about fire: It burns stuff! Simple as that. Bored by Colbert's lecture, I zone out for the rest of the class.
My trance is broken by Louise, who shakes me violently to rouse me.
"Wake up, you lazy familiar! We're going training." She orders.
"Training? A Zero like you training would be useless."
Kirche reappears out of nowhere, Tabitha next to her...Tabitha! Well this is certainly the odd pair, hell it's weirder than Jarl Balgruuf and his Dark Elf Housecarl Irileth. Those two look like polar opposites of each other, Tabitha being even flatter than Louise and a lot more reserved than Kirche..
"Shut up, Kirche! I'm not a Zero, I just happen to m-make mistakes a l-lot!" Louise stutters. Ooh, looks like Kirche's homed in on Louise's weakness.
"Well, for the sake of Salien over here, I might as well warn him: Be prepared for explosions, lots and lots of explosions." Kirche says. Now this, I should probably check into.
"Wait what? Explosions? What does she mean by this, Louise?" I ask. I'd rather not risk dying thanks to some awry spell. I've already been involved in enough accidents with students experimenting with magic as it is.
"It's nothing, really! And why are you questioning your master? You're just a lowly familiar."
A sharp pain assaults my legs, knocking me to the ground. Unable to get up, Louise drags me out of the classroom and away from Kirche and Tabitha. While I lament my fate, I feel Tabitha's eyes boring into me again. Why is she so interested in me?
While I'm being dragged, I start to wonder why I ended up being Louise's familiar. If past events have anything to say about it, notably the whole Dragonborn business, there's definitely some sort of purpose I have here. Its pointless running from fate, so you might as well embrace it.
Louise drags me to her room and throws my knapsack at me.
"Get your weapons. I want to see what you can do." She orders.
"What?" I ask, confused.
"Did I stutter? Get your sword and bow and follow me outside! I need to see what you're capable of. I'm pretty sure those things aren't just for decoration."
"Yes, yes, whatever you say. I need to get accustomed to using a bow again anyways."
I pull out Chillrend and attach it to my waist. I'm about to put Frost Burst on my back when Louise wrenches it from my hands.
"Hey, that's mine!" I complain.
"Well, you're my familiar, and whatever the familiar owns, the master owns as well." Louise rationalizes. "Now move, lazy dog!"
"Back to dog, huh? Seems like I can never win." I mutter.
Back outside, I notice Louise inspecting the bow, feeling the smoothness of the bow's limbs and bringing it close to her face.
"Why does this bow glow light blue? I haven't seen a bow that glows before."
Looks like the concept of enchanted weaponry is alien to Tristain. Now how to go about explaining it to someone like Louise...?
"It's enchanted." I respond.
"Enchanted? The only weapons I know that are enchanted are mages' wands and staffs. How can a simple bow be enchanted?" Louise inquires, question marks appearing around her again.
"It's simple really, with a filled soul gem, knowledge of an enchantment, and the armor or weapon you want enchanted, one can create a custom piece designed specifically for their needs. There are a plethora of enchantments people back in my world can add to weapons, ranging from elemental damage to Soul Trap."
"Eh? Soul gem? Elemental damage? Explain it in simple terms, familiar." My explanation does nothing for the question marks surrounding Louise right now, although at least she's back to calling me familiar.
"That's about as simple as I can make it. You don't know about my world, so it's natural that some things would fly over your head." I shoot back.
"Hmph, just because you're from a different world doesn't mean I won't be able to understand how things work over there. But enough of this for now, go fetch a post and some fruit."
Under Louise's direction, I create a makeshift target post. A sturdy wooden post stands next to the wall, and the a random fruit (It's a pineapple right now) from the fruit bowl I took from the kitchen serves as the target, albeit a small one. Not that that's a bad thing.
"Now shoot. From here." Louise stands about 25 paces away from the target. I replace her at the spot and notch a Glass arrow from my quiver. Aiming slightly higher to factor in drop, I let my arrow fly. Of course, since I'm a master in archery, these actions took only about a second, which probably looked like a blur to Louise.
I don't even need to watch my arrow fly, as I hear the satisfying gush of the pineapple being torn apart by my arrow.
"Maybe you're not as useless as I thought you were..." I manage to catch Louise muttering.
"What was that?"
"Nothing! Do that again, except this time make the target smaller and stand 30 paces away."
I follow Louise's directions exactly, standing farther away and replacing the pierced pineapple with an orange. Again, distance and target size is no matter, although I do take slightly longer with the aiming.
Retrieving the two arrows, I return to Louise, who still looks unsatisfied.
"Hmph. so you can skewer fruit. What kind of skill is that?"
"It's a skill that allows me to kill enemies from long distances without being at risk myself?" I answer sarcastically. I receive a smack to my head for my insolence.
"Don't talk to your master like that!" Louise yells. "And what're you two doing here? Stop following us!"
Turning to where Louise is yelling at, Kirche and Tabitha walk up to us. Two creatures are following them, presumably their familiars. A salamander with a flaming tail tails Kirche while a light blue dragon (?) follows Tabitha. By Skyrim standards though, the dragon is a bit small though.
"Well excuse us!" Kirche says in a sarcastic tone. "Tabitha and I were going to Vestri Courtyard to bond with our familiars, and we saw your familiar training. So we hung around to watch for a bit."
"Ohhh, I forgot about that...Well, it's not like I need to go to a silly thing like that!" Louise says unconvincingly.
"Really now?" Kirche teases. "Or maybe is it because you didn't want to show off your familiar? I don't see a problem with him, even if he is a commoner. He's good with that strange bow of his and not bad looking to boot." She looks at me with seductive eyes. I feel myself falling for her trap before Louise's slap brings me back to reality.
"Stop looking at her, you dog!" Louise barks before turning her attention back to Kirche. "Anyways, we were just about to head there as well. Let's go then."
Abandoning our makeshift shooting range, the three familiars (Me, the salamander, and the dragon) follow our respective masters towards Vestri Courtyard, which turns out to be the west one.
There, a bunch of students, most of whom I recognize from my first day here, are either running around and interacting with their familiars or sitting on tables near the shade drinking and eating. A couple of servants run around ferrying drinks and food to them.
"So what else can you do, familiar?" Louise inquires, leaning in close to peer at me.
"Ehh, well you've already seen me with my bow. There's also my work with daggers, swords, war axes, basically any one-handed weapon." I unsheathe Blade of Woe and take a combat stance, holding it in a reverse grip. "Then..." I falter off, unwilling to reveal my stealth or mage capabilities, let alone my ability to Shout.
"And that's it!" I grin, sheathing the dagger and hoping to end this conversation. Tabitha, who's been quiet the whole time, suddenly pokes me with her staff.
"Liar." She declares, drawing suspicious glares from Louise and Kirche.
"What are you hiding from me, lying familiar?" Louise snarls.
"Nothing really, I swear! I'm only a mere warrior! I don't know what Tabitha is talking about!"
"Ehhh? You've already met Tabitha?" Kirche asks, intrigued by my suspiciousness.
"Yeah, she helped me with some directions. But seriously, I can only use bows and swords so stop bothering me about it." I try to turn away in a decisive manner when Tabitha stops me with her staff.
"Duel."
"Did you just say 'duel'?"
Tabitha nods as confirmation.
"But I didn't even do anything to you! It's not like I sullied your honor or anything like that."
Tabitha jabs me with her staff again.
"You're a liar."
Really? So that's her reason for dueling me? There are reasons I'm not showing my full potential, but it looks like Tabitha isn't going to take that lying down. She probably wants to see my full potential I guess, even though it really is none of her business. Or maybe she just doesn't like me lying about what I can do? I have no idea what's going on inside that head of hers.
"Tabitha! I take it you have a reason for fighting him?" An astonished Kirche asks.
Tabitha nods, turning towards Louise.
"Can I fight him?"
"Hmph, do what you want with him. He's just a lowly, lying familiar after all. Familiar, I order you to fight Tabitha!"
Damn it, looks like I have no way out of it even if I wanted to disobey Louise's order. The commotion we've been making has attracted a bit of a crowd around us, who starts to whisper amongst each other when Louise gives the OK.
"Huh? A Triangle-class mage challenging a familiar?"
"This is a strange turn of events."
"But still, they said he's good with that bow of his."
"What's an arrow going to do against magic?"
"Her magic's pretty strong after all."
There's that mention of triangles again. I guess it's some form of classification to how strong a mage is, similar to our labels of Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and Master. Judging from the student's chatter, a Triangle mage must be pretty strong. Well that's good in it's own way since I can get a feel for how mages fight.
The crowd of students back up near the building, leaving Tabitha and I plenty of space to work with. Even the familiars sense that something is going to happen, trying to get near their masters. The biggest familiar, Tabitha's dragon, has to make do with hovering above us. But before we start, I feel I should clarify something with Tabitha first.
"So what kind of duel is this? Surely it won't be one of those 'To the death' kinds, is it? How about if either one of us gets incapacitated or chooses to yield? Obviously we're not going to kill each other, right? Right?" I propose, making sure to emphasize the 'Not killing' part of it.
"Sure." Tabitha replies, still as quiet as ever.
"You know I'm going to use my swords and bow right? I have no intention of holding back against you." I warn.
Tabitha takes a moment to figure out what the implications of what I'm saying are, mainly that I won't hesitate to sink arrows into her limbs to disable her or slice and stab with my sword. While obviously I won't shoot to kill, you can't just expect me to stop when I'm about to land a strike. If she wants to see how good I am combat-wise, I won't hold anything back! Although I'm pretty sure Tabitha wants it this way, so it doesn't surprise me when she nods.
"Do what you must. Expect the same towards you." Tabitha says the longest sentences I've heard her say so far.
With that all sorted out, I move away from her, giving her a fifteen pace distance between me. Hopefully, I can take her down quickly, before I'm forced to do any severe damage to her.
"Let the duel between Tabitha and Louise's familiar, begin!" Kirche declares before dashing away from the line of fire, her salamander following her heels.
Pulling my bow out, one thought sneaks into my otherwise combat-ready mind: I already gave you my name, so why are you referring to me as 'Louise's familiar'?
Muhaha, cue the long hiatus as I work on the other fics I take srsly, but no one pays attention to D: