#although i personally headcanon them as mesothermic but thats getting into the weeds a bit

[falmerbrook]

Warm Blood

For @tes-summer-fest Day 6: Blood. It's sort of a stretch of the prompt, but I wanted to write this little OC interaction and then realized, oh hey, that kinda fits, so here we are.

Also there's a little companion art piece at the end!

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Summary: An ashlander boy wakes up early and gets a lesson on Argonian physiology and what it means to have warm blood.

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49071244

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Chanu, despite his recent run of sleepless nights plagued by disturbing dreams, had made a habit of waking before his family and the rest of the tribe. It meant less sleep, but it was the only time he was allowed to wander off away from the camp and explore lately—well, he explicitly wasn’t allowed, actually, but rather it was the only time he could get away with it. It’s not like he would be able to sleep much anyway. His nightmares had made Nibani Maesa strangely nervous, and she had ordered him to stay within sight of someone at all times and remain within the camp. Whatever. Bad dreams didn’t mean bad things would happen in the waking world. She was just stressed, and justifiably so with the recent commotion in the tribe and the strange outlander having recently been living among them.

With carefully placed steps, the boy slipped from his family’s tent and into the crisp early morning air. The summer sun had already risen slightly over the horizon, and its rays cast yellow streaks over the hills guarding the shaded camp. Chanu paused, pulling his shawl tighter over his shivering shoulders, and took a moment to survey around the camp and figure out his adventure of the morning. Despite the chill, the air was still, and visibility was low, with an ashy haze obscuring the lands around the camp. In the distance, a silt strider cooed, but there were no intriguing sounds close by. The only unusual object within Chanu’s view was the outlander’s meager tent south of the camp, although at this point it had been there so long it was starting to feel usual to him. Of note, though, was the flap at the front hanging open. Bingo—adventure.

The rest of the tribe had wanted very little to do with the outlander, let alone his belongings, but Chanu was fascinated with him. He talked weird, he walked weird, he acted weird, and he looked very weird. But despite his weirdness, and the fact that the tribe regularly reminded him of it, he insisted on sticking around. Chanu enjoyed his presence though. He had been one of the few sources of relief from Chanu’s boredom during the long summer days, playing games with the boy, and more than once intercepting Chanu from one of his sleepwalking bouts during his nightmares. There was no way the boy would miss out on the opportunity to dig through his stuff.

Chanu slithered over to the tent, taking a glance to the left and right as he approached, and peered within. Inside was a simple sleeping matt, a pile of cheap furs belonging to animals Chanu had never heard of, a backpack, and a haphazard mess of random junk strewn about. Slowly, Chanu pulled the open flap to the side and reached his free hand towards the backpack.

“Are you not tired, kid?”

The voice echoed from Chanu’s right, and he nearly leapt out of his skin. He whipped his head in the direction of the sound, only to see the outlander peaking his snout from over the edge of a rock at the top of the hill looking over the boy. He seemed relaxed, but Chanu could only stare up at him with wide red eyes and a guilty stiffness.

“You can barely sleep through a night, and you get up this early? Where do you get all that energy you always have like that?” His voice was uncharacteristically slow and lethargic, raspier than his usual Argonian growl.

“No, I'm not tired. I mean, a little. Kinda. But I’m fine,” Chanu replied with a shrug, realizing the outlander wasn’t mad. Change of plans: his new adventure was figuring out what the outlander was up to. He stood and wandered up the hill with an energetic curiosity so he wouldn’t look as tired as he felt.

“Are you not tired?” the boy teased, “Why are you awake? You told me two days ago you also get nightmares and don’t sleep well too.”

Chanu had reached the top of the hill to the rock the outlander was lounging upon. His clothes had been tossed beside him, and he was laying on his stomach with his arms folded under his chin and his legs and tail sprawled out behind him.

“What are you doing?” Chanu asked, moving to sit next to the outlander’s head.

“Sunning myself,” he mumbled, eyes closed with a relaxed expression, “I do this every morning.”

“No, you don’t. I’ve never seen you do this before.”

The outlander laughed lazily at Chanu’s incredulousness, “Well, maybe if you were a bit more observant you would’ve. I’m always up here. It’s a good place to do it.”

“Well,” Chanu paused, searching for a retort, “you haven’t noticed me every morning either!”

“I have. You’re not very sneaky about it. It’s a miracle your sister hasn’t noticed yet.”

Chanu’s teasing attitude switched off in an instant, “Please don’t tell her!”

The outlander just smirked at his pleading, “I wasn’t planning on it.”

The morning silence filled the space again for a moment, but Chanu, in all his young boy-ness, was not going to tolerate it.

“But why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you ‘sunning yourself’? What does that mean?” Chanu’s questioning was growing increasingly exasperated.

“If I don’t warm up first thing when I wake up, I’ll be too tired to do anything for the rest of the day. Since the nights get so chilly here, I gotta use the sun.” The outlander opened his eyes and sat up on his elbows, facing Chanu.

“I don’t get it. We can get you some more blankets if you need them. I’m sure Shuri wouldn’t mind making you one.”

The outlander shook his head, “Wouldn’t help enough. Don’t worry about it, kid. It’s just a thing I do. It doesn’t bother me.”

Chanu was just growing more confused, “But why? I don’t know anyone else who needs to ‘sun’ themselves every morning. Why do you have to do it? Is there something wrong with you? Are you sick? Do you have some weird mainland sickness?” he interrupted himself with a gasp, leaning forward into the outlander’s face dramatically, “Oh no! Do you think you have corprus?!”

The outlander laughed, voice clearer than it had been earlier, “I’m not sick. You don’t know anyone else who does this because you don’t know any other Argonians.”

“Oh. So, it’s a lizard thing?”

“It’s an Argonian thing, yes.”

Chanu paused for another moment, thinking, but evidently nothing came of it.

“But w—”

“Why, why, why! If you shut it for half a minute, I can explain. So, you mer have warm blood, which means your body can keep you warm even when it’s cold.” The Outlander shifted onto one of his elbows, gesturing to Chanu with his other hand.

“But I feel cold when it’s cold. Am I not really a mer?”

“Well, obviously there are limits. But you didn’t need to wear extra layers in the shade down there compared to up here, yeah?”

Chanu thought for a moment again, hands reaching up to feel the woven shawl around his shoulders. He felt comfortable now in the sun.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, us Argonians don’t have warm blood, so it doesn’t keep us warm when it’s cold or chilled when it’s warm. When the air is cold, I’m cold, and I don’t have the energy to do anything when I’m too cold, y’know. So, I have to get myself hot in the morning so I can deal with the chilliness later in the day.”

Chanu had become enraptured, “Wow. You lizard folk—”

“Argonians.”

“—Argonians sure are weird. How do you deal with that all the way out here.”

The outlander shrugged, “I don’t have to eat as often as you. We’re from Black Marsh too, where it’s hot and humid all the time and this is less of a problem.”

 Chanu wrinkled his nose, “Ew. Sounds gross.”

“Maybe to you, elf,” the outlander scoffed with a smile, poking Chanu’s arm, “Sounds like paradise to me.” Chanu squirmed away from the attack and giggled.

“Well, if it sounds so nice, why don’t you go there instead of here?”

The outlander’s mood changed suddenly, his smile slipping from his face as if the warm sun had melted it off. His gaze shifted away from Chanu’s and to the rock beneath him. For a few moments, he opened and closed his mouth as if trying to form the words within it, but before he could speak, a voice rang out from the camp behind Chanu.

“Chanu!”

“Crap. I’m gonna be in so much trouble,” Chanu groaned.

“Well, you better run back then,” the outlander said, his smile returning as he ruffled Chanu’s hair, “You can tell them it’s my fault. They’ll probably find a way to blame me anyway.”

Chanu hopped up from his sitting position and ran down the hill, waving to the outlander as he went. The outlander watched as he disappeared among the tents but could still hear the scolding the boy received from the rock.