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Wandering through this forest reminded me how different Skyrim is from the Black Marsh. Where are the great protective impenetrable Argonian swamps, the great inland waterways, and the Hist trees? How can we be 'people of the root' when we are so far away from our origins, and in fact our very roots? I thought to myself, in all seriousness, how could I, Shiala, protect my tribe here, in this ever so exposed countryside and hardly-dark forest?

It made no sense. Then again, very little that has happened in the past several months has made sense.

As I traversed through the lush countryside and towards the dark woods, all I could do was think about the reasons for my exile here in Whiterun. While I appreciated its sanctuary, and was grateful to have it, I was livid at the reason for our needing it. It was all because of those miserable Black Tongues.

I am a warrior, in either of my life phases, and not someone's plaything either as male or female. That is not going to happen. When I have sex, it is not because some slobbering idiot, with too many spikes and not enough brains, decides to find me desirable. My whole attitude towards the Black Tongues' misdeeds always made me one of their favorite targets anyway, but we survived in peaceful co-existence - until their guild leader's lout of a son tried to rape me.

Oh yes, there were some incidents where I, shall we say, thwarted their plans, but still, I hope they heeded my warnings. Leave my family and myself be, and never threaten us, or there will be consequences.

Yes, perhaps I was a bit too hasty when I knocked him unconscious. From what I heard, he stayed that way for three days. Perhaps my reaction that crippled several other guild members was a bit extreme, but to threaten not only myself but the hatchlings just back from the Hist tree seems to call for the excessive. These cretins made it so that even Helstrom was not safe for us. We had to flee, and that really angers me the most. I am a warrior and I do not like giving ground to pond scum. I know, intellectually, that retreating and regrouping is a sound military tactic, but still...it seems beneath me to employ such tactics.

I wanted to stay, but decided that the good of the family superseded my own taste for revenge. So, not taking any chances with the vindictiveness, and more importantly, the reach of the Black Tongues, moving us all here to Skyrim seemed the logical outcome. Besides, it is a great opportunity to learn something more than our inherent guerrilla tactics from the Jarl of Whitrun's Companions.

The one good thing that came about after the Black Tongues' attacks upon my family was that my destructive, quick-tempered reaction and my fighting skills were touted all over Tamriel. By the time we arrived, Jarl Balgruuf was already predisposed to trusting me and offering me training within his own guard. I suspected he thought because of my skills I was a Shadowscale, but I am not saying one way or another.

I do appreciate his trust though. That will be good and I will start this service as soon as I have everyone settled. I know I should be house hunting, since right now we are all crowded at an inn that caters to Argonians, but I need to scout out my surroundings. This is the first time I have been away from Argonia, and it is a new and startling environment. I guess the Inn is satisfactory, although a nice dank house would be better. My hatchling mates will find us something suitable, and in the meantime, I should not complain.

I guess that is lucky, since we do have special needs. I have seen other places where all those Nords, and mer, and men congregate and there is not a dank, musty room in the place. How can they expect to sleep? I am spoiled, I admit it. We live in the shadow of the Hist, and it colors how we look at and think about other peoples.

I am still so angry that we have been driven out of our home by those nefarious Black Tongues. I have an urge to take an axe to one of these trees and just chop at it. I will not do so, but that is how agitated I am.

It is not always easy being Argonian, or as we call ourselves, Saxhleel. For so long, we rarely interacted with other peoples, except to capture and drown them, or sell them. Hells, even the Knahaten Flu will not affect them. What good is a plague that can wipe out whole peoples but not one's enemies? I think the shaman should have arranged some sort of fail-safe so we could rid ourselves of peoples like the Black Tongues.

These woods are lovely. I just wish it were darker and wetter. But I suppose beggars cannot be choosers. I have to keep reminding myself that my skills are going to be upgraded and by the time I get home, I will be able to take them all down. Maybe I will even do a total life phase shift and be completely male for the occasion. Who knows? I have so many choices.

The people of Whiterun told me that these woods were magical, and if I was very lucky, the spirit that dwelled here might make itself known to me. I do not know why it would. I am an Argonian. I do not have any relationship to men or mers, so why would a Nord spirit take the time to even talk to me? I will just explore the woods. Maybe luck will be with me and someone hid a Hist tree here. Not that I expect it anywhere but in the Black Marsh, but it would be good to have something to remind me of home here, surrounded by all these Nords.

I was at the market yesterday with a couple of family members, and there were all sorts of them and others there. Balguuf's open neutral city is really remarkable. No one looked twice as we strode along down the street. We were able to buy weapons, foods, and Argonian-style clothes, without so much as a twitch or a comment about our gills and scales. Children did not even point at our obvious mixed genders. This place is a good refuge and the Black Tongues will be hard pressed to find us here. I even saw a Khajiit and it ignored me completely.

This is completely new to me, not having to fight for my right to thrive.

I just wish I was not so agitated. My mind is racing all over the place and I cannot seem to settle on a clear path. I wish something could calm me before I have to report to the Companions. I cannot decide if I want to stay in the between state of my life phase, or choose a gender and stay with it for a while. There are advantages to each option, I guess. As a full male, I would be bigger, stronger, and more colorful, but with limited brain capacity. As a full female, I would be duller but brighter. If I stay a herm, I would have the best of both, I guess, but am not sure of my satisfaction.

Sometimes I wish...

"What do you wish?"

I heard it, a soft voice, almost a whisper, floating on the wind. I pulled my cuirass and looked around me for the speaker, but saw nothing.

"It must be my imagination..." I started to walk again, when I heard a laugh, more like a musical trill actually, and this time I saw light flickering all around me.

And then the melodic voice spoke again. "If I am in your imagination, I am in good company. Your musings are interesting, Shiala. I rarely get to see an Argonian in these woods. Your peoples seem to prefer their forests damp and murky."

"Who are you?" I was getting concerned. Perhaps there were spores in these woods that could penetrate even my natural Argonian immunity to most diseases and drive me mad. Odder things have happened.

There was a bright light ahead of me. I thought it was the sun coming through the trees, but then I realized that there was a dense canopy overhead and very little sunlight penetrated to the ground.

Then I remembered. When we were in town yesterday, I inquired about the countryside and the lands around Whiterun. One woman warned me that the forest on the west side of the city was haunted by an ancient spirit. When I asked for more details, all she said was that the unworthy only need fear it.

"The unworthy?" Again that laugh. "I suppose she was right. I am only drawn to the truly noble of spirit, whose causes are just and for whom I can bring an inner peace and joy."

It never occurred to me that I had not spoken my past day's recollection aloud, yet somehow whatever being this was had heard it very clearly. "And what about those who are not noble?" I ventured, tightening the grip on my cuirass. "Just what creature are you?"

The light began to solidify and then form a shape, and it appeared to shrug. "It all depends on who you ask. I am a myth to frighten small children. I am a wraith that will set upon those who are consumed with evil. Mostly however, I am forgotten altogether and I merely abide here waiting for someone of whom I approve and who deserves my gifts."

"Gifts?" Now I was suspicious.

"From your thoughts and demeanor, I sense inner turmoil and impotent rage. Those can be unsettling, and for a warrior, a deadly distraction." By this time the light had consolidated into what I thought was a male - tall, vaguely elfin in appearance, and powerfully built. And the hair, there was so much hair. It flowed and waved, brilliant strands of silver glowing and swaying in an invisible breeze, so silky, smooth and...I admit it, I am very fond of hair, what with not having any of my own, and only scales. "I can give you respite and peace. All you have to do is trust me."

I could not make out his features, as they were obscured by the hair and the light that glowed from his eyes, but I did perceive an overwhelming sense of peace radiating from him. I wanted him in the worst possible way, not the least of which was the thought of that hair touching me. Still I hesitated. Letting down my guard...seemed so...wrong.

"Beautiful Shiala, do not fear. No one, not a Black Tongue, or a thief, a casual traveler or even a member of your family can see us or attack us. You are safe in my magics. Let me give you respite and joy. It will succor you in whatever you have to do beyond these forest walls, and lift you in times of trouble."

All the while, his silver tendrils were undoing my top, so that my breasts spilled forward. Instead of fighting and squirming over my vulnerabilities, I found myself becoming aroused and excited. Another tendril untied my loin cloth and it fell forgotten to the ground.

I stood there in all my mixed gender glory. The spirit brightened and laughed, and I felt a surge of happiness flow through me, unlike any I had ever felt before.

"Lovely Shiala. You are well gifted. You are the paragon of the Skahleel and are so fine an example of the Hist's gifts, that I am quite awed you wandered into my forest."

I laughed. It sounded a bit flowery to me, but then what he was doing with his hands and those tendrils had rendered me speechless.

At first I found myself completely embraced in the light. It felt like strong arms surrounding me. As hands held me against him, I felt the brush of the hair wave up and down my body. It felt exactly as I imagined hair would feel like, warm, smooth, silky. Shivers ran up and down me and as I shook, desire started to rise.

The spirit laughed, a low sexy sound, and I closed my eyes and forgot that I was being seduced by light. He felt so real. Then rising from the ground below, tendrils of light and magic surrounded me.

"Oh my....that... that feels..." I admit it, I was speechless. Naked, aroused, my shaft hard and pulsating, my breasts engorged and heavy, nipples erect, I felt...bigger, stronger, and more powerful.

Then I forgot everything but the pleasure I was experiencing.

I opened my eyes and realized that the forest was different. It was no longer a green and dry woods, with sunlight dappling the ground through the openings in the canopies of the trees. Now it was the Black Marsh, murky, dank, and so much like home, I felt a sob escape me. There in the distance was a Hist tree, and even the ghostly outline of branches.

"Are you not pleased?" The spirit's voice asked. "I thought a sense of home would make you happy."

My passion caught fire and I reached out to the spirit and touched the light. He was solid and hard, muscles gleaming, and like warm steel beneath my hands. As I reached for him, I felt the tendrils surround me again and stroke my breasts, caress my rear, and tease up and down my shaft. I groaned with pleasure and again closed my eyes.

I felt water around me and swishing through my gills. It felt so good to be immersed in the dark waters of the marsh. The ancient laughed at my reaction and continued to stroke and kiss me. My tail swung lazily from side to side, allowing the water to encircle it, and it set all the nerve endings alight. Anywhere the spirit's tendrils touched, or his magic reached, sparked my desire and set me aflame.

My heart was racing and yet I felt extremely sated. The spirit held me, and we swam together beneath the dark waters, illumined by his light. The tendrils never stopped their strokes and they were reaching parts of me I never knew could be aroused. It was an enlightening experience.

"Beautiful Shiala, I give you peace." He said this and I felt an inner harmony calm all my anxieties. He restored my love of my marsh, taking away the anger I felt from my experiences there. I knew that I was still going to confront the Black Tongues, but instead of with unthinking rage and hostility, I would meet them head on, with a clear plan and cool head.

As we surfaced again, I clung to his warmth. "Thank you, spirit," I gasped. "You were right. I needed respite."

Then that laugh surrounded me again. "Oh, my dear Shiala, we are not finished. I have much more to share and show you. I rarely meet such a noble spirit as yours. I want to make sure you have everything I have to offer."

With that, the world shifted again and we were back in his woods. The tendrils kept touching me, and exploring across my tail-base, along my breasts, and squeezing and pulling at my shaft. My erection was already pulsating when suddenly another tendril surrounded my member and held it still and upright.

I found I was lying on my side, my tail behind me swishing in the fallen leaves, making that crackling sound. The spirit lay beside me. A ghostly hand reached my breasts, a pallid mouth, filled with light and warmth kissed me, its tongue doing masterful things inside my mouth. I guess being an immortal spirit, with centuries of experience with giving peace and respite gave him more than adequate practice at what pleases a fem.

Then, even as he concentrated on my breasts, his tendrils made their way towards my nether regions. One tendril focused on the base of my tail, where it met my spine and sent trembles up and down. He knew exactly where to touch me, the perfect spots to caress and stroke, as if he had much practice with an Argonian's pleasure spots. Perhaps he had spent eons doing so. I did not actually care at this point. What he did with that tendril was astonishing, and if it had ended there, I would have been a very happy Skahleel, I can tell you.

But it was not over yet. I was on the verge of yet another orgasm, and feeling so impassioned and empowered that I could barely contain myself, when he raised up on a shadowy elbow, using his hand to gently push me onto my back, my shaft extended upwards and pulsing. He drew that translucent elven hand down my body, with tendrils following and playing at each sensory location. Then his spectral hand grabbed my erection tightly, and began to push and pull it. It drove me wild with ecstasy but even then he was not through with me.

A light-filled tendril - I still do not know if it was one of his flowing locks, or one of those that rose from the ground, although I do not suppose it really matters - floated over the tip of my shaft. With gentle touches, and whispery strokes, the tendril played with the tip, providing ghostly kisses and shadowy caresses. This tendril seemed larger and brighter than many of the others.

It hovered for a bit longer, almost as if contemplating, as his hands and his other ghostly appendages did their best to bring me to a zenith. Then, in a swift and sure move, the tendril plunged into the tip of my shaft, and inside me.

I have never, ever felt anything like it, and I probably never will again...but...by Sithis, it was the most amazing penetration imaginable. It entered me, and with it, a brilliant soft light filled my whole body. "Shall I give you another gift, beautiful Argonian?" it whispered.

"Y-Yes, please." I could barely speak. The intensity was so profound. I felt myself start to change. Not in a gender-shifting life phase sort of way, but my breasts grew larger, rounder, and firmer, my tail stronger and longer, my hips curvier and more capable of balancing my tail and robust new buttocks and my shaft. My sex swelled and grew to proportions to my taller, stronger, and more powerful self.

And it glowed. I had been glowing since my encounter with the spirit, but it was really glowing, so brightly I could scarcely look at it. And it felt....amazing. I felt myself climax again and again until I cried out in total surrender.

Then he made me have one more orgasm, something so powerful I-

I must have passed out at some point. When I awoke, the woods around me were dark, but the bubble in which I found myself in the embrace of the ancient forest spirit was aglow with an unearthly light. I had my head ensconced on his shadow shoulder and he was caressing my back, my scales, my spines one by one, and even my tail again. Another hand held onto my breast and tickled my nipple as a tendril gently caressed my shaft's tip, more in friendly play than in any passion.

"I do not usually allow someone to spend the night here in my woods, but you are always welcome, beautiful Shiala. I hope you visit often." The spirit sounded almost shy. "I grow tired of always being considered a myth."

I smiled softly. "I will be happy to visit you, ancient one." Then I hesitated before asking. "Why do you call me beautiful? Most other species do not find Argonians lovely. You should hear what the Khajiits call us."

"You are beautiful. You are the perfect example of your species and you are blessed with being able to be both male and female, without having to life phase. What is more spectacular than that?"

I was touched and reached out to caress his non-existent cheek. He raised his hand and bid me sleep again.

When I awoke again, it was morning. There before me was my favorite breakfast and the spirit was again a ghostly light. I ate and conversed with him as if he was a corporeal lover and we had spent a joyous night together. We laughed and talked until the sun was high in the sky. I did not want to leave, but we both knew that for now our time was over. I needed to get back to my tribe, and help them get settled before my new role as a Companion commenced, and he needed to get back to doing whatever it was that ancient forest spirits do when they are not pleasuring and comforting random Argonians.

I dressed, put on my cuirass and was about to depart when he spoke again."Before you leave, lovely Shiala, I have one more gift for you." His spectral voice surrounded me. A beam of light, and a tendril rising from the ground pointed to a small cairn a short ways away. There on the cairn lay an enchanted Akaviri katana. Once again I was speechless. This was a truly amazing gift and one that was invaluable to my quest.

Before I could thank him, I knew he was gone. The light, the tendrils, everything had vanished and I was alone in the forest once more.

I stored the katana and I came home.

**

"That's quite a story," the Jarl remarked, as he and his Companions listened to the reason Shiala had been away all night. A panicked message from her tribe had come to the hall that she had been gone, and they feared that the Black Tongues had followed and killed her. The Jarl had summoned the Companions to the hotel, so when the Argonian had strolled into the inn she found not only her family, but the ruler of Whiterun and his most fearsome warriors about to embark on a search and rescue mission for her.

"It is true, my lord," Shiala said shyly. Balgruuf had the ability to make anyone one in his presence feel like a small child. The captain of the Companions knew exactly how she was feeling and gave her a sympathetic smile. He was looking forward to having Shiala join them, and this adventure was just going to add spice to their evenings as they teased her about it.

The Jarl chuckled. "There have always been tales of an ancient, benign spirit dwelling in those woods. Most of my people avoid the forest because of those tales. They already have too much magic and mystery to contend with." His eyes studied the Argonian's, and there was warmth in them. "But then again, an Argonian would gravitate to the forest. You must be quite homesick for your Black Marsh," he added sympathetically. His patience and forbearance were so antithetical to his usual quick tempered reactions, that even the captain realized that some magic was still at work.

"The spirit is real, yes." Shiala unbuckled her shoulder harness and carefully laid her cuirass and the second sword, the enchanted Akaviri katana, down on the table. The elegant one-handed weapon resembled its non-enchanted version, but somehow there was an aura of magic that surrounded the blade. Even the Jarl was impressed that the spirit had entrusted Shiala with such a magnificent gift, and secretly envied his newest Companion. He also realized that this weapon was a physical manifestation of the trust he had already placed in her, and he congratulated himself for his own ability to recognize the nobility of her character. That old mythic being had just confirmed his trust.

"You know, of course, that you have changed physically?"

"I do realize that, Lord Balgruuf. The night with the spirit made me taller, stronger, and faster. I even have more endurance." Shiala grinned proudly, "I ran all the way back, and I am not even winded."

"Good. That will only help in your training." The Jarl stood to leave. "My steward has found a house for your tribe, near a small lake on the west side of town, actually not far from your forest. Take a day or two to settle them, and then report to the captain here to get started."

Shiala thanked the Jarl again and watched as he and the others mounted their steeds and returned to their respective halls. She liked the idea that he was that concerned with a simple Argonian to drop everything to come look for her.

Then like a whisper of light, she felt surrounded and a ghostly tendril reached out and touched her. A voice only she could hear murmured, "Come and visit me again soon, beautiful Shiala. I can teach you more than any mortal is able to do."

She smiled, lifting the enchanted katana in a silent salute.

END