Rattlesnake (Isabelle)

 “Oh please, it’s just a snake- it’s cute!” Never, in my entire life, have I ever found a slithering reptile cute and Baurus holding one up casually like it’s some kind of strange cat will not change my mind. “Could that be poisonous?” The redguard simply laughs and turns the snake toward him, looking at it “This little guy? No, it’s not a rattlesnake, they’re just a little friend.” As he speaks the snake seems unconcerned by his presence, preferring to watch the ground to look for things to eat most likely. “However it can constrict things” he adds, placing the snake down carefully “so we’re just gonna let it slither on off back to what it was doing” Once down on the ground the sand snake slithers its scaly self off back into the desert, burrowing itself beneath the sand. An interesting camouflage technique, and way of staying cool, I will admit…now if only we could get out of this heat.

Finding refuge for the night Baurus and I go over the day's travels and information gathered: first and foremost being my dislike of reptiles of most kinds, argonians not included as while still lizards of a sort they’re quite close to the average human or elf physiologically. Second being the Alik'r desert is a treacherous mix of sand dunes, the occasional settlement, farm, or city, and a surprising amount of things to possibly kill you- if I wanted a harsh environment surrounded by dangerous beasts I’d go to the ashlands of Vvardenfell, not Hammerfell. The last being that while there are hints of activity in the area, there’s not much when it comes to intelligence, and in terms of crisis recovery well there wasn’t much in need of recovering in the first place. Baurus says more places were probably swallowed by the sands than destroyed by Daedra, I have some doubts about the true range of destruction, but he probably knows better than I do in this particular case. After a meal and plenty to drink to avoid dehydration we part ways for the night, after a long day of walking beneath the scorching sun I think I’ll sleep well tonight- a rare occurrence.

Unfortunately my sleep is interrupted by a less than welcome guest, waking in the middle of the night as a result of all the water consumed earlier I notice something at the foot of the bed and once a cloud passes letting the light of the moons in through the open window again I notice what it is- a rattlesnake hissing and poised in the position as if it were to strike and I don’t even realize I screamed until Baurus comes bursting through the door, sword drawn. Upon realizing the situation he calmly tells me to carefully get out of bed, which I do as quickly but as carefully as possible as he explains that rather than being out to get me, the creature is more likely standing its ground after I noticed it, hoping I would go away. Hiding behind him in the doorway we watched the snake for a few minutes unmoving while waiting for the innkeeper to come, who Baurus had yelled downstairs to earlier upon my joining by the doorway. Carefully the innkeeper takes the snake and relocates the seemingly scared critter back to a more comfortable place for us both, it seems that training in that sort of skill comes with the territory, not unlike dealing with the mountain lions outside Chorrol.

After a disturbed night's sleep and an unlikely encounter that will not exactly help with my fear of reptiles I end up falling asleep once again curled up on the bench in Baurus’ room and am rudely awoken by the bright sunlight streaming through the window and already suffocating heat. At least a nice meal and interesting day of intelligence gathering stands ahead of us, that makes being a blade worth it, though at the end of the day I’ll take daedra, necromancers who refuse to die, and invasive mountain lions over cranky camels, lost rattlesnakes, and potentially fatal sandstorms any day