Star-Gazer Temple: By far the highest and most unattainable Temple in Craglorn. Very few people ever got to see it, let alone live in it. Yet, there were four priestesses that had made their way, protected it, and everything it stood for all their lives. Each of them had a rank that dignified what their purposes and burden was. The High priestess protected all of Mundus, the other three stood for Nirn, and each of the two moons respectively.
They were all healers of a sort, but each of them mastered in different pools of magic; storm, healing, fire, and ice. One day, Astrid, the High priestess ventured out of the temple, and into the wild. Little did she know, that when nightfall would come, her fate would change forever.
Astrid was an Altmer, or what lesser races called High Elf. She did not mind what others called her, for she knew who she truly was, or did she..? Time passed as the beautiful, tall, blond-gold haired, blue eyed Elf cared for the plants, gathered ingredients, water, and fished for several hours. When she finally looked up, both moons were full, and darkness covered the land. Packing up the fish and everything that caught her eye during the day, she heard howls in the distance. Her movements flowed like water, the High priestess' footsteps took a silent haste, and made her white dress laced with gold move with the wind as she made her way back to Sky-Gazer Temple.
The silent bristling gave away Astrid's position, soon enough her backpack dropped, tumbling down the hill, and a colourful battle took place between herself and a pack of werewolves. The thundering sound of the magic from her staff mixing with the angry roars of the beasts, and then one last roar from what she could only assume was the Alpha of the pack made the ground shake as he launched himself at her in a final attempt to avenge his fallen betas. Her dagger pierced the beast's heart, but too late, she had been bitten.
The High priestess healed herself as much as she could, retrieved her fallen items, and stumbled her way back to the Temple. The doors would not open for her, she had forgotten why, and so she banged on the high doors pleading to come in. The three other priestesses looked at her with what seemed like pity mixed with something else, and only shook their heads as the barrier would not open for Astrid. They turned their backs on her closing the doors behind them; she was now an outcast.
Realizing in horror what had just happened, the beautiful High Elf fell to her knees, her back against the wall of the temple, shivering from the cold of the night, and the cruel new reality. Her dress was a bit torn up, her backpack barely had anything left, and she had nowhere to go. Astrid wandered down into the wilderness again; trying to find a way to shelter herself, and keep others from finding her in this condition.
The High Elf finally came upon a lake she believed might be Shada's Tear judging from the shape, and the memory of her map. Watching a small waterfall feeding the lake, her sorrow was briefly lifted away, and her eyes gazed upon an abandoned mine: "That will have to do for the night" Speaking to herself. The mine was blocked from the inside, and none of her magic worked to open it.
Sitting down on top of the hill next to the mine, her mind grew hazy, but she spied what seemed like an abandoned small camp to the west. Astrid crossed the stream, and carefully went down the hill to get a closer look: "Thank the Gods..." She sighed heavily and made the rest of her way to the tent and abandoned fire-pit which she lit with a spell. She looked inside the tent; a few wine bottles laid about, one was still full and untouched. Sitting down on the rudimentary bedding, the High Elf opened it and drank it all. She fell backwards on the furs, drawn in a drunk, exhausted journey of dreams; where she haunted a troll in a dense forest on four paws, tearing it apart, howling with others, sharing the meal, and the daedric lord Hircine's voice resounded in her head: "Once a pup, now wolf. Once a prey, now a hunter. The blood of a true hunter, and the pack, is now yours. They are your only family, your only allegiance. Hunt well." Astrid jerked awake; she was still in the tent, with the taste of blood in her mouth, and the bite's wound had disappeared. This could only mean one thing; this wasn't a dream. She had been bitten by an Alpha werewolf, cast away from her temple, and in her sorrow the blood of the beast within her had pledged allegiance to the spirit of the hunt.
The High Elf was disgusted with herself, but she had no choice but to keep on living, surviving with her new burden, for she knew the fate of werewolves upon death: Eternal hunt in Hircine's domain. Astrid promised herself to keep on going until she found a cure, but for the time being, she needed to find something to drink to wash off the taste of blood in her mouth.
Her senses enhanced as time passed by, and she found another wine bottle in another abandoned site. She proceeded to drink it all, letting her mind go numb, she was warm, so she hadn't noticed that her dress had disappeared, and she had been naked all this time. When she did notice, the High Elf didn't even care, she found another bottle, drank the whole thing, and ate some raw fish before falling asleep in the grassy patch.
Across the lake; a Khajiit was casually fishing, whistling joyfully what sounded like a bard's song he must have heard in an inn, and Astrid grew annoyed at the sound. She struggled up to her elbows barely holding her off the ground, squinting her eyes at the sun, and looked in his direction: She saw an unusually tall male Khajiit, looked very much like a tiger standing on hind legs, dressed in an elegant black suit, embroidered with red and gold material. His head had a short faux hawk adornment as hair, and she thought to herself "Handsome, for a cat" before dropping on her back again.
The Khajiit beamed with a triumphant laugh mixed with a roar; Astrid propped herself up again, and saw that he had caught quite a large fish. She smiled slightly and let herself fall back again. The tiger looking, two legged walking, whistling cat, started cooking his big catch over the fire she had lit with a spell two nights prior, and the smell of his food caught her attention. She propped herself up again, her stomach grumbling, and wished she would have done the same with the fish she had eaten before she fell asleep again. Astrid sighed heavily, assessing her situation; her hair, usually in a perfect long cut with braids on the side tied to the back of it, was now a golden mess, she had no clothes, and she couldn't find her backpack.
The striped, dark orange, Khajiit had covered his meal and was packing it in another compartment of his own backpack. To her surprise, he jumped in the water, and swam her way. "Whatever happened to cats hating water?" she thought to herself as she tried her best to cover her naked body.
"Smart cat" The High Elf silently commented, she saw he had tied his suit to his shield, which he had on his back, nothing but his fur got wet, and to add to her surprise, he casually walked out of the lake towards her, with only his Khajiit adjusted boxer briefs, and proceeded to untie his things, unpacking others just about a meter from her. Astrid held her legs against her body to cover herself as much as she could, to add to her surprise; the 'cat' unpacked a blanket, and silently covered her with it. He looked around, seeing all the empty wine bottles around her, she felt herself blushing in shame, and he said:
"Rough night?"
