The silence between them only grew as they rode on. Nate turned to drinking as a way to dull the voices in his mind. While Dumbuk resorted to sharpening his Orcish dagger... over and over. The sharp squeal of the blade getting under Nate's skin with each passing minute. Finally, when Nate couldn't take it anymore, he whirled around on his horse to snap out a bit sloshed. "Will you stop that! You can't make it any sharper!" Dumbuk sheathed his dagger on his hip, retorting flatly. "You drink anymore, and you'll fall off your horse. Is he really worth the damage you are doing to yourself?" Nate pointed a wavering finger at him, growling out. "What I do to myself is none of your fucking business!" Walter hoped over a small fallen branch that looked like a snake on the road, causing Nate to fall from the horse with his complete loss of balance. Dumbuk pulled his horse to a stop, staring down at Nate with a smug expression. Nate groaned as he stiffly sat upright on the dirt road. Dropping his head into his hand, he tried to keep the world from spinning around him. Dumbuk dismounted from his horse, walking over to him as he gruffly told him. "You're right. It's not. But you humans are a confusing bunch... You get your feelings hurt and you destroy yourselves. And over what? How is THIS going to fix the problem?" Dumbuk grabbed Nate's arm to help him up onto his feet.

Nate tried to pull from him, but he was so strong, and the world just wouldn't stay still. Once he was on his feet though, Nate shoved Dumbuk back from him and yelled out bitterly. "Don't fucking touch me! I'm sorry that I don't blindly throw myself into battle to DIE a pointless death! If you can't stand to see my shame then LEAVE! I didn't ask you to stay!" All his yelling made his stomach heave and Nate barely turned in time to throw up in the grass. Falling to his knees, he hugged his stomach as his stomach emptied itself of its liquid contents. Behind him, Dumbuk told him in a cool deep tone of voice. "At least I'm fighting for something. What are you fighting for, Bard? The difference between us is that when life kicks me down, I get back up and fight to my last breath. I don't choose to stay down on my knees." Nate spit, then growled over his shoulder in a scratchy voice. "Go fuck yourself. You have no idea what life has done to me... What it is STILL doing to me." Looking out into the woods, Nate strained out in a broken voice. "You have no idea what it's like to always lose... to be used and thrown away. To not belong anywhere because of what you are... To have no one to go home to. To want something so bad and repeatedly be told that you aren't worth the investment..."

Nate bowed his head, feeling tears brim his eyes. He didn't want to cry but his body was too drunk to fight it off. Dumbuk put a hand on his shoulder and Nate tried to flinch away from it but failed. Dumbuk's grip on his shoulder tightened, telling him in a firm voice. "We'll rest here for the night." Dumbuk then slid his hand off him to take the horses off the road to a nice grassy field surrounded by the thick trees. Nate stayed where he was and cried. He'd been resisting the urge for so long that now that he started... He couldn't stop. The hours seemed to pass, and the sun sank below the treetops, but Nate couldn't motivate himself to move from his spot on the road. Even when his tears had dried, and his stomach growled, he ignored everything around him. His mind was too busy reminding him why he should be crying more. He felt numb. When Dumbuk's hand grabbed his arm, he was jarred from his thoughts. Dumbuk helped him up, taking him over to a spot by the bonfire as he told him gruffly. "Alright. I've waited long enough. Time to get out of the road before someone runs you down." Nate dropped weakly down by the fire and glanced at the tents. Dumbuk poured him some soup into a wooden bowl, giving it to him as he told him firmly. "Eat."

Nate turned his head away, refusing to take it. Dumbuk groaned, dropping the ladle in the pot loudly as he growled out. "This is why I hate kids... Eat!" Nate didn't look at him or respond. Dumbuk grabbed his jaw to make him look at him, stating out sternly. "You wanna drown yourself in booze and misery, do it on your own time. I don't need people thinking I killed you. So, eat. Or I'll pour this down your damn throat!" Dumbuk shoved Nate away by his jaw, then held out the bowl. Sitting up, Nate accepted the bowl and started stirring the spoon absently in it. He wasn't in the mood to fight with him. Dumbuk dropped onto a tree stump by the fire and began to pour himself a bowl as he muttered out to himself. "By the wraith of Malacath! Humans are so dramatic. No control. Like fucking children..." Nate glared at Dumbuk, grumbling out to him in a numb voice. "I thought Orcs abandon their young. Is that why you don't feel empathy?" Dumbuk set the ladle down, turning to lock eyes with Nate as he snapped back calmly. "Funny. Orcs aren't treated any better than any other race that isn't Elf or Human. So, stuff it. You think I live like this because life has been kind to me? No. Do you hear Orcs complain and bitch about it? No! Why? Because we learn to survive through hardship. The more people tell us 'we can't do something,' the harder we work to prove WE CAN. We teach our sons and daughters to NEVER give up without a fight. To give up is to dishonor your Tribe!"

Dumbuk snorted at him, adding sternly. "My parents were killed by vampires and my Tribe was wiped out by a giant. Do you see me bitching like a child that life was unfair? You humans... You forget that just because you are top of the food chain doesn't mean life owes you anything. It's still a world where survival of the fittest rules. Just because you aren't hunting for your dinner and you have nice warm homes. It doesn't change the fact that the people with the money make the rules and nature doesn't accept money as the means to give you a perfect life. You want something. You have to fight for it. Otherwise, get out of the way because no one wants to hear you piss and whine." Dumbuk slurped his soup as he drank straight from the bowl. Nate turned his eyes to his bowl to eat more quietly with his spoon. There was a logic behind his words, but Nate didn't know how to feel about them. Dumbuk burped loudly, grunting out as he refilled his bowl. "And frankly... I don't understand why you are so choked up about that fanger. You're a good looking guy as far as humans go. AND you're a Bard! There are plenty of people that desire you. After all, everyone knows how good Bards are in bed. Better than any brothel whore from what I'm told. Cleaner too."

Nate's stomach turned at that. Lifting his bowl to finish it off, he got to his feet and set the bowl down. Thanking Dumbuk under his breath, he headed off to his tent. Dumbuk straightened up, asking a little confused. "Did I say something?" Laying down on the bedroll, Nate told Dumbuk after a heavy sigh. "Maybe the reason I like him is because he's the only one that doesn't call me a whore. Maybe I love him because... he didn't leave because he wanted to. But because he thinks he's doing the right thing for me. Maybe because... it took a vampire to see that I wasn't ok. That I've never been ok." Sniffling, Nate pulled the blanket over his head and muffled out against his pillow. "I'm tired of fighting. I just want to be happy again..." Nate closed his eyes, his drunken stupor helping him to fall into a deep sleep. In his dream, he sat alone before a piano in one of the old rooms of the Bard college. He was pressing keys to a slow song and grimacing every time he hit the wrong one. Sighing, he tried again. He was tired and his fingers were sore, but he kept replying the song. His heart had never been in it and it showed in how he played. Growing frustrated, he slammed his hand on the keys and buried his face in his other hand that was propped up on the side of the piano.

Feeling fingers slide along the back of his hand and between his fingers, he parted his fingers to look. The long pale fingers lifted his and moved them over the smooth ivory keys. Then slipping under his hand, the pale fingers began to play the song perfectly. Nate's fingers stroked along the cold fingers and whispered softly to the man leaning over him. "Escher...? Are you really here?" The large figure behind him kissed his neck and Nate bared his neck better for him. He wanted to feel his lips on his skin. The figure kissed up his neck and stopped over the vein. Nate reached up to touch the figure's cheek, when the figure grabbed his wrist in a tight inhuman grip. Nate inhaled sharply, his other arm hitting the piano and causing the roll top to drop over the keys with a loud musical 'BANG.' Looking into the large mirror across from the piano, Nate gasped loudly. Standing behind him was a human looking white bat with large wings and bright red eyes. The bat opened its mouth to reveal long fangs, before hissing as it bit his throat. Nate screamed, his body jerking awake in fright. Grabbing his neck instinctively to protect it, he panted loudly. The horses shuffled their feet uneasily and snorted outside the tent. From outside, Dumbuk asked him through a deep chuckle. "Bad dream?" Nate looked to Dumbuk and cursed under his breath. Dumbuk had meat sizzling on a pan over the fire that sounded like the hiss in his dream.

Groaning, Nate laid back down. Pulling his hand away from his neck, he looked at his fingers. There was blood coming from a cut on the pad of his index finger. Had be bitten himself in his sleep? Putting the finger into his mouth, he sucked on his finger to keep from bleeding over everything. As his coppery blood coated his tongue, he absently slid his hand down his thigh to rub Escher's bite along his inner thigh. Removing his finger from his mouth, he bit his lip as his leg tensed from the sore bite. It had been just a nightmare. Escher had only ever bitten his thigh. Clearing his throat, he asked Dumbuk curiously. "You know a lot about Vampires... Is it true that they don't cast a reflection in a mirror?" Dumbuk snorted lightly like he had something up his nose, before answering casually. "That is only true if the mirror is backed with silver. Silver has always been used to deter evil and the unnatural. So, if you hold up a mirror backed in silver, the unnatural creature won't cast a reflection because the silver will burn its likeness away. Otherwise, Vampires cast a reflection like any normal person. Why do you ask?" Nate rolled onto his stomach, trying to drift back off to sleep as he mumbled out. "No reason. Just a bad dream." Nate drifted back off and when he next awoke, it was morning. Suffering from the worst case of dry mouth, he stumbled to his horse to get his waterskin and practically guzzled down the whole thing.

Nate began packing up his stuff, then sat around the smoldering fire. Dumbuk slept in a bit longer, before finally getting up. He seemed a little surprised to see Nate up and asked curiously. "Well, good morning. Do you recall anything from last night?" Nate held his warm coffee cup, telling him honestly. "Yes. Unfortunately... Some of it is a little hazy. Look, about the things I said last night..." Dumbuk got to his feet, stretching as he cut him off to say promptly. "Don't worry about it. I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with. We Orcs are... blunt. We don't hide our feeling as much as you do and things like sorrow we don't dwell on." Nate nodded, but still felt bad about some of the things he did. Dumbuk moved closer to him, tapping his arm to get his attention. When Nate looked up at him, Dumbuk smirked and told him in a deep warm voice. "I'm sorry. I don't interact with humans much. I forget your people are not as... upfront as we are. Your business is your own." Nate nodded in response and Dumbuk moved into the trees. Finishing his coffee, Nate got up to help pack up Dumbuk's tent. When Dumbuk returned, he helped finish cleaning up the place and they mounted up.

During the ride this time, Dumbuk asked him curiously. "Ugh, I know I said your business is your own... but last night you said that your fanger didn't leave by choice. What did you mean by that?" Nate slowed his horse to ride next to him as he said dismissively. "It means that he has to do what his leader tells him too. And to protect me... He felt he had to leave." Dumbuk sat in thought a little, before asking. "Did he say anything about his leader? Where he is?" Nate slowly looked at Dumbuk, telling him in a guarded voice. "No. And even if he did tell me. I wouldn't tell you. Don't think I don't know what you are doing. Go get the information from someone else." Dumbuk exhaled softly, then grunted out under his breath. "That is the problem. There is no one else we can ask. The vampires are tight lipped. They tell us nothing. But we know they are after something. Something BIG. Your father knew and they killed him for it." Nate chuckled a little, sarcastically mumbling out. "And here we are. Years later. And they are still looking for whatever it is. If they haven't found it by now. I don't think they ever will." Dumbuk snorted a bit distastefully, before stating out sternly. "You wanna wait until they do? By then it might be far too late!"

Nate just shrugged in response, until Dumbuk told him a little calmer. "Ok. I get it. You are trying to protect him. The same way you claim that he is protecting you. Fine. I can respect that." Dumbuk leaned in a little, adding in a low firm voice. "Let me explain it to you like this then. A war is coming. The Dawnguard may be losing... but in the end... We will take hundreds of them with us to the grave. You want your fanger to be one of them?" Nate yanked Walter into a stop. Dumbuk pulled his horse to a stop with him. Both of them staring each other down as Dumbuk told him openly. "Do you think his leader will fight us head on? Or will he send his pawns first? How much love do you think the fanger's leader has for him? Would he die for him?" Nate didn't answer. Dumbuk sat up straighter on his horse, telling him bluntly. "I'll make you a deal. You help us win this war... and I'll personally make sure that your fanger escapes. Even if it costs my life to do it." Nate narrowed his eyes on him, asking defensively. "And why would you do that? Don't you want them all destroyed?" Dumbuk snorted, grunting out openly. "I want to keep them scattered. In covens as large as the one we are fighting... It's dangerous. Just think about how long they live. They keep recruiting and before we know it... Skyrim will belong to the Vampires. I may have no love for them, but one on its own is nothing to me. Help us level the playing field. Then we both get what we want. A fighting chance."

Nate sighed, coaxing Walter to walk on as he replied. "Let me think about it." They traveled on and spoke very little, until Riften's hold came into view. The place was old and dismal looking. You could tell it was the poorest place in all of Skyrim. It was known for housing thieves and shady people from all walks of life. A place where the skooma drug practically tainted the water supply. Stopping Walter a few feet from the hold's stable, Nate tried to think of a reason to lose himself in Riften. He wanted to get far from Solitude, but looking at Riften... It just made him wonder if he'd ever climb out of it once he went in. Dumbuk turned his horse to an overgrown dirt path that was barely visible anymore, telling him gently. "This is where we part ways, Bard. It's not too late for you to come with me." Nate looked back to where he'd come from. Part of him wanted to go back. Dumbuk's voice was almost soothing when he told him. "He won't be waiting for you. You know that... but if you want to go looking for him... We're the best chance you have." Turning back to face him, Nate asked him with a heavy sigh. "How good are Orcs at keeping their word?" Dumbuk removed his dagger and sliced his palm without flinching. Holding his hand out to let his blood stain the ground, Dumbuk told him seriously. "It's ironclad."

Nodding, Nate turned Walter to follow him, telling him lightly. "Fine. I'll go. But if I don't like it... I'm gone. Got it?" Dumbuk nodded in return, then nudged his horse to lead the way around Riften's walls. To Be Continued...