(This has been on my a03 for a while.)

Title is a wip – I got no idea what to call it.

So, my copy of Skyrim stopped saving and now my PS3 is whack; this is the result while I wait for it to fix. (if anyone knows how to get rid of corrupted game data on PS3 PLEASE let me know.) I'm thinking a lotta my SU readers haven't played Skyrim, so here's a glossary for some things mentioned so you don't get completely lost. (I was debating doing this but oh what the heck.)

Dovahkiin (Dragonborn) – A person mentioned in legend with the body of a mortal and the soul of a dragon. Who you play as in Skyrim.

Nord – Anglo-Saxon-like race of humans

'Eight'/'Nine' – Refers to the Divines, a pantheon of gods with a debatable number due to worship conflict.

Skeever – Dog-sized rat

Ataxia – Contractible disease

Redguard – African/middle-eastern-like race of humans. Amethyst is half Redguard.

Black-Briars – Shady rich Nord family that owns mead farms/breweries.

Septim – Gold, coin, money, cash, currency…you get my drift.

Frostbite spider – Giant spider with nasty poison eww

Dark elf (Dunmer) – Grey-skinned and red-eyed elf race.

Draugr – Undead warrior from ancient times.

Hopefully it's accessible to most people? I found it great fun to write.


The raging blizzard howled violently, as if trying to dissuade anyone from reaching the entrance to the barrow. It was freezing and icy, inhospitable to even a brave fern outfitted for the conditions the weather set. The snow whipped up and made it hard to see, their map thrashing madly in the wind. The gale was incredibly angry, a force wanting to be known, thirsting for a fight like the Nord spirits undoubtedly entombed in the crypt it gave shelter to. Amethyst's noise of astonishment could barely be heard over the shouting.

"Whoa…"

Peridot shivered in her leather armour, keeping the licking flames she held in her hands close to her body, but not close enough to singe her gear. "S-So, just up t-these stairs?"

"Heck yeah. Bleak falls Barrow." Amethyst affirmed, an excited spark in her eyes as she gazed upon what she could see of the impressive black arches the burial location possessed. They bent far into the sky and came back down to meet the earth again, framing the entrance like a majestic gateway.

"Good. G-Great. Excellent." Peridot muttered under her hood. "Let's get inside."

"Yeah. We gotta be careful though." Amethyst warned. "I smell more blood."

The two, while making their way up the treacherous mountain to reach the menacing barrow, had come across several bodies, all rogue bandits. They had seemed to be holding out in an abandoned tower outpost a little ways off the beaten track, and when Amethyst and Peridot had come across them, they had been stabbed with something sharp, multiple times. The culprit was unknown.

The climb was steep up to the not-so-welcoming ancient architecture, but it was nothing they weren't already used to, travelling by foot being their expertise. Feet hitting solid ground in the form of steps was a relief from the sludgy, tedious snow, causing less energy to be expended walking – and leaving more available for fighting.

When they reached the top of the first set of stairs, Amethyst grabbed Peridot's wrist. "Something went down here. Stay low."

Extinguishing her flames, Peridot quietly slid her hunting bow from her back as they crouched, entering the courtyard-like area and slinking to a nearby pillar for cover. Amethyst lifted her head to scent the air for more clarity while Peridot readied some arrows from her basic quiver.

"Don't think there's anyone or anythin' with a heart still beating here. At least outside."

She stood up, Peridot reaching for her as she stepped out into the open. Peridot listened to her booted footsteps as she explored further, and then got confirmation.

"Whoa, yep, dead bodies. Come out Peri."

Her leather boots clacked as she caught up to where Amethyst stood in her plated ones. She joined her in following a trail of blood and slashed bandits up the several sets of stairs to the heavy crypt doors, the wind still whipping in their ears.

"Someone's gone on a killing spree." Peridot remarked as she took a few unused arrows from a Redguard corpse. 'The dead won't be needing it anytime soon' was their philosophy when it came to looting bodies, especially as nomadic wanderers or 'adventurers' as they liked to romanticise themselves. They took all that they could get.

"Still ready to find that claw?" Amethyst checked, to which her partner nodded. As 'adventurers', the two had set out to find a merchant's prized possession – a 'golden claw' – that was stolen by bandits who had made camp at Bleak Falls Barrow. With the promise of gold, their tight food budget convinced them to agree to the task of getting it back to him.

With that, they pulled at the adamant metal doors against the gusting wind, and shut out the cold as they closed them. The atmosphere was a lot quieter and darker, the only prominent sound being the echo of the door booming shut. There was a crackle of lit torches, but otherwise, the crypt felt untouched and eerily empty. The bandits were pretty brave to be living here.

Amethyst's thick hand immediately went to her nose as Peridot slipped off her thin hood to reveal blond hair, cradling a small flame in her palm. "By the Eight, I freakin' hate the stink of these tombs. I've only ever hid in their entrances before and even then I couldn't stand 'em."

"There's tail-less skeever bodies littered everywhere." Peridot's disgust reverberated around the huge open room. Sure enough, there were stiff, ragged remains of the foul, overgrown rodents lying around on the disintegrated stone. Possessing no tails meant that they had been cut off, cooked and consumed, possibly by the bandits.

"Watch out for that Ataxia dude." Amethyst warned, holding a hand out to Peridot as she examined a carcass. "It's still on their teeth when they're dead."

"I wasn't going to touch—ooo, more dead bodies."

Amethyst passed a pillar and caught up to Peridot, finding a campfire with an unattended cooking set, surrounded by pelt sleeping bags and completed by bloody, lifeless bandits.

"Mercenary? Looks like brute tactics for some of 'em."

"They have dagger wounds in their backs, Amethyst."

"I said some of them. Pshh." Amethyst folded her gauntleted arms and rolled her dark eyes.

"Whatever. Let's keep going deeper. The claw isn't going to be out here." Peridot turned to make her way down into the dusty catacombs.

Amethyst's grin turned wolfish, her eyes already laughing as she grabbed Peridot's waist. "Ohoho Peri, you know I can go deeper." Her hands slid over Peridot's wide hips as she pushed her metal front to Peridot's leather back. She pressed her lips into her partner's revealed ear teasingly, professing a lusty tone. "And I can slip my claws down and in-"

"Tempting, but not the time or place." Peridot brushed her off, Amethyst releasing quickly and fake pouting. "Definitely not the place." She gave a small shiver as the deceased atmosphere started to dawn on her. Amethyst re-placed her hand on her button nose as the smell of death and decay got worse as they continued.

"This place is so yuckyyy." Amethyst complained, her steel armour clunking as she walked through the well-lit cavern. "I mean, rolling in dead things is fun, but I don't like walking amongst dead things, y'know? …Hey, don't look at me like that, there's a difference! 'specially if the dead worshipped dragons and cult junk like that! An' are funky and super old. Ooo, burial urns!"

Amethyst could have no inhibitions at times. As she ran up to a beautifully chiselled table to fiddle with equally beautiful Nordic burial urns, this was one of them.

"Amethyst, that's not advisable!" Peridot cautioned with obvious alarm. "The riches left in those are to honour the dead. And I don't have access to your thoughts, but I really don't desire angered warrior spirits on my tail in my near future."

"Man, if the Black-Briars want some easy cash, they should just come pay this place a visit." Amethyst seemed to not hear her partner's fright, instead digging her hand into the hollow center of the pretty ceramic container, blabbing on. "If there was outrage, they'd say they're entitled anyway 'cause they're Nords and these are their ancestor's belongings." She pulled her hand out to open her palm, displaying three gold. "Three septims for the Ame-bank. Whoop." Her hand slipped into a satchel somewhere around her waist under her armour.

"Let's just-keep going, okay?" Peridot pulled Amethyst's flabby arm along with her, making her stumble along. "We're going to receive plenty reward when we find the golden claw."

"Somebody's scared of ghhooosstsss." Teased Amethyst.

Peridot ignored her and walked stiffly ahead. She walked so far ahead in fact that Amethyst lost sight of her beyond the invading overgrown roots and dankness of the underground ruins. Her heart accelerated and she raced forward when she heard a high-pitched yelp. Admittedly, she tripped over an embedded root as she came to find Peridot standing in the doorway to a new room, which made an unnecessarily loud crash and caused Peridot to jump. Amethyst picked herself up and came to Peridot's side, slipping their hands together.

"What is it?" she panted, chest heaving.

"There's another dead body."

"Oh…"

"He has poison arrows embedded in his flesh."

"Oh. That's new. You're okay though, right?"

"Yes. I think that he set off an ancient trap." She walked further into the room, gesturing to the Nordic art that decorated it, which consisted of birds, snakes, whales and men's bearded faces. "There's these matching carvings all around the room that seem linked to those arrow dispensers in the wall there. I think he failed and our culprit succeeded. Since, well, the gate's open for us."

"Sweet. Let's go deeper, shall we?"

"I do want to examine these images, but it's best we keep moving."

The next room was an end to the boring tunnels they had traversed through, opening to another treasure-filled stone table and a strange descending staircase that seemed to spiral downward.

"Treasure~!" Amethyst bellowed with the voice of a bard, marching quickly to a big chest. "Smelly skeevers down the staircaaase!" she noted as she passed the crude flight of stairs. "Unloooockked~!" she sang, throwing the chest open. Peridot stood by as she threw out the contained objects, Amethyst singing the names of them too. "Arrows! Gooold! Potioooon thiing!"

"Are you sure you didn't have bard ancestors?" Peridot questioned, standing behind her. "You have such a powerful voice!"

"You can push it to its limits with that tongue of yours, Periiiidoooott~!" Amethyst warbled cheekily. Peridot just grumbled embarrassedly, picking up the looted items. She added the older arrows to her quiver. Amethyst followed her to the rickety-looking staircase.

"Eugh, those smell bad." Amethyst scented the arrows as they descended the tight, wooden staircase. "Like off meat. Or super dead flesh. Yeah, let's go with that. You gotta get rid of them 'cause they're gonna overpower your good smell."

"I don't care how an arrow smells. An arrow's an arrow, and I'm going to use them." Peridot stated.

"Yeah, but it smells like you've been grave robbing."

"We have been grave robbing, Amethyst. You have!" Peridot growled. They reached the bottom of the stairs and felt relieved to be on firm ground, even though it was several more meters underground than they were before. They trusted in the gods and the architects of the barrow that it wouldn't come down.

"You little bastard!" Amethyst roared, Peridot hearing her steel gauntlet crack something. She realised it wasn't directed at her when they were surrounded by fat, wiry skeevers. Flicking a hand to a sheath on her thigh, Peridot slashed at the face of a leaping rodent with her iron dagger, killing it and splattering its foul blood on the stone wall.

More snaps and squeaks came from behind Peridot, and she turned to find Amethyst beating the rats with her fists. She kicked one in its gut, breaking ribs before stepping on its head to put it out of its misery.

"Told you I smelled them." Amethyst panted, smirking at Peridot.

They continued on to another open foyer, passing through it quickly. Their feet started to stick and clump with something. Peridot lifted her boot to find its base thick with spider web, and Amethyst barely whispered 'frostbites'.

The women aimed to be lighter in their footing as they slowly approached an opening, adorned with wispy fine strands that marked a spider's residence. Luckily for them, the webs looked pre-cut, hacked with most likely a sword to make entrance to the nested cavern simple.

"It's dead." Amethyst remarked with faint wonder, looking over the great exoskeleton of a very big, very unmoving frostbite spider. She put a palm between its beady clusters of eyes and rocked the light body despite it being taller than her. Its legs seemed to creak and give way to her ministrations. "Gross…"

Peridot crouched next to Amethyst, not letting the creature's appearance bother her. "This is perfect" she muttered contently, holding a vial to the deceased arachnid's fluffy mandibles.

"Uuhh, what're you doing?"

"Collecting frostbite venom, of course. To apply to my arrows."

"Malicious." Amethyst commented, voice hinting pride at her girlfriend's sinister prospects. "Glad you shot me with a love arrow instead."

Peridot straightened her form, sealing the thin vial with a cork. She hid it away, sending Amethyst a wink and some kind of finger gun. "Pechuu~"

Amethyst grinned at her dorkiness, then returned her attention to the room. The walls were lined with eggsacs so large and spongy they could fit in them, and under the spider she realised there was a trap door. Behind the giant corpse was a dead Dark elf.

"Another one." She sighed, crouching to the faceplanted body. "He's got all spider webs on him."

"Did the spider get him?"

"Not sure, but he's bloody. Mystery murderer at it again, probably. Y'know, I really hope we don't run into them, but the further we get, the closer we are to them. Gods, they better realise we're not bandits."

"We have better armour and charismatic personalities, so they should be able to discriminate us from…him." She pointed at the poor dead elf.

They continued out of the web-infested area, hoping the large eggs didn't want to hatch anytime soon. Pillars that held tirelessly seemed to grow as the rooms got taller, and the walls here were neatly dugout, meant to be the resting places of fallen warriors. The crypt became more…crypt-like, with Amethyst having to cover her nose again.

"Ew, so musty. I can taste it in my mouth."

Peridot suddenly felt cold, and she moved close behind Amethyst, her heart feeling uneasy. Every sound, from pebbles tumbling to their own footfalls made her jump. She stayed away from torchless and unlit areas, fearful of what could be hiding in them. She reached out her lightly gloved hand and gripped Amethyst's strongly padded one, holding tightly. Amethyst was security in this negative air and creepy atmosphere.

Amethyst looked over her shoulder, blowing long black hair out of her face. "You believe in the rumours? Are you scared of the draugr comin' t' getcha?" she teased, wearing a smug grin. When she got no reaction from her smaller friend and witnessed her averted eyes, her expression changed to that of concern. She stopped plodding along, turning to face Peridot and taking her other hand.

"Aww hey, you okay?" she cooed, trying to meet Peridot's gaze. When she finally decided to look up, her mouth was thin and uncertain and her eyes were wide with anticipation and fear. The torchlight only seemed to amplify her features, and she whimpered.

"This place is intimidating." Peridot admitted, darting her eyes around warily and trying to lean towards Amethyst. "I'm f-freaking out a little."

Amethyst accepted her closer, their armour separating them from true intimacy but their gestures meaning much the same. "It's okay, Peri. I'm gonna protect you from any danger, okay? Draugr are harmless sacks of bones anyway. People are just scared 'cause of that story with the dragon. Yeah, a dragon burned down a village, but draugr aren't gonna 'resurrect' or whatever people say. They died a long time ago, no need to be scared of them now."

"Y-Yeah, okay." Peridot nodded, showing a little smile. Amethyst bought their lips together and kissed her, making her smile grow. They stared each other warmly in the eyes when they pulled away.

"Qiilaan us dilon!"

"What the heck was that?!" Amethyst yelped, eyes wide as her head shot to the next hall, where the grisly yell had echoed from. Peridot gripped onto the shoulder of Amethyst's gear in fright, blazing a small flame in a cage of her fingers and palm. The two crouched, not to hide (there was pretty much no place to), but to quiet their footsteps as they followed the path.

"Dir, volaan!" Came another gurgling shout, and as they hit a corner, they saw purple flashes and illuminated figures on the opposite wall. The grunts of a woman could be heard amongst inhuman speech and the clang of weapon against weapon. A body stumbled and fell into Amethyst and Peridot's view, ancient onyx armour torn open and chest cavity slashed.

Grey skin barely clung to bones as fermented blood struggled to seep out of large, sword-inflicted wounds. A helmeted head had fallen to look at them in hiding, but the eyes were unseeing and hollow, teeth in a permanent and unsettling snarl from lack of lips and gum to conceal them. Arms were long and thin like branches, muscles built up from swinging weapons somehow remaining on such an ancient corpse.

But this man had just died.

"It's a draugr!" Peridot whisper-screamed behind a ready to spring Amethyst. She lit another fire in her free hand as more ghoulish threats and determined shouting filled the caverns. "I-I'll turn the other ones to ash!"

"Hold on." Amethyst murmured, her mane frizzling a little as she held Peridot back. "Someone's doin' the job for us."

"How many are there?"

"From the sounds of it, one. I think the other person is the one who's been trailing bandits..."

Before Peridot could reply, a lithe cloaked figure rammed the remaining draugr into the wall in front of them, roaring with effort. It gave them full view of the offending weapon that had tasted much blood today; a glowing, wispy sword, conjured by its wielder. Its purple, ghostly form flickered as it sunk into rotted flesh.

"A magic user…" gasped Peridot.

The sword stuck through the abdomen of the undead creature, pinning it to the wall as bony fingers wrapped around its sharp edges to struggle and pry. Bright glowing blue eyes stared down their mage enemy as its second life was coming to an end.

"Aav…dilon…" the stinking creature croaked, jerking its head forward to taunt its undoer. The cyan spirit disappeared from its being in a swift motion.

"Disgusting." The robed woman muttered as the corpse fell to the ground. Short, black hair flopped out of the veiling dark blue hood as she stepped back from her kill. Peridot and Amethyst watched in anticipation as the conjurer kept her eyes on the undead body, form-fitting garb settling as the fight slowly left her. Her covered shoulders relaxed and a sigh was audible as she turned to go the way Amethyst and Peridot had come from. The two flinched as her gaze came upon them, and the immediate visible glare on her face petrified them. They'd just seen what she could do to the undead…

The adventurers jolted upright, their armour luckily not jarring at the fast movement. Amethyst held her hands up in submission while Peridot held careful flames behind her.

"N-Not bandits!" she shouted nervously, keeping her eyes on the dark ones that glowered from under the obscuring hood. She'd be lying to say her attention wasn't darting to the blade too, which dangled in a sure grip. This mysterious woman could swing at any time, and Amethyst wasn't sure how much damage her armour could take against it. "We're…not bandits…is what I meant." The stall might not be effective at all depending on who this person was, but Amethyst gave it a shot.

"What are you doing here?" The mage demanded, voice low and careful. Amethyst suddenly realised how short she was in comparison.

"We're looking for the golden claw." Peridot spoke up, moving to Amethyst's side. The concealed woman was easily taller than both of them, but somehow she felt a bit smaller to Amethyst when Peridot did that.

A look of blankness overtook the obscured mage before comprehension dawned on her face. She reached into her ocean blue robe at the chest and fiddled before drawing out something sharp. They braced themselves, Amethyst's black hair poofing up in agitation and dark face crinkling in a snarl.

"You mean this?"

With an olive hand, she pulled out something glinting and golden, with three prongs and a long, thin wrist. On its palm were animal carvings. They hadn't been given a description of what to find by their merchant client, just that it was gold and claw-shaped. And that intricate hunk of metal looked awfully like a claw.

Amethyst was stupefied, features softening in surprise. "I-yeah, I think that's it!"

"I found it on a bandit. It activated a door deeper in the tomb." She explained, her voice without hostility revealed to be quite soft and quiet.

There was a short, awkward session where Amethyst and Peridot stared at what they had journeyed into the creepy crypt for. The other woman must've seen it on their faces, because she spoke up about it. "You two can have it if you want. I don't have any other use for it." She stepped forward and pushed it into Amethyst's hands. Her fingers were very thin and had remnants of conjuration magic on them.

Amethyst looked down at the claw, then up at the philanthropist murderer. "Uh, thanks?"

"It's nothing." She said nonchalantly, moving backwards fluidly, like a ghost as the bottom of her robe swayed in a non-existent breeze. "Farewell." She said, and she was already turned and dashing away.

"Did that just happen?" Peridot asked, easily as bewildered as Amethyst judging by the confusion in her green eyes.

Amethyst shrugged. "I guess?"

They found themselves gazing at the carnage the woman had left behind. The draugr were out of place in their own tomb, one slumped and sitting against the stone wall and one looking like it had been knocked out in a brawl, save for the gash in its chest. They were lucky that they didn't join the dead.

Amethyst turned to Peridot, holding the weighty claw. "Whelp, we got what we came for. Let's just get outta this place. I don't wanna see any more legends in the flesh."


Oh Amethyst…

We see more of Amethyst and Peridot's domestic life in the second chapter; what's really under their armour, so to speak (( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) (also im gonna smut it up I just don't know when).

I only have rough ideas where I want this to go, but there will be more chapters! AAAhh! (don't expect frequent updates but ahhh)

Please comment if you think I should continue defining everything at the start!