-Bleaks Fall Barrow-
Pain made its way to his brain. The feeling of blood erupting from his wound was enough to bring him to tears. However, he had no time for that. The draugr was still just above him, preparing his battle axe for the next strike. Fortunately, it hadn't moved from the pool of water, giving him the chance to finish this fight. Quickly moving his right hand, he touched the water with his fingers and summoned sparks. The draugr didn't even have the time to react and was electrocuted to the point where his flesh was starting to burn under the sparks. He waited a few seconds, to see if the draugr was still alive, and stopped the spell, only to summon a healing spell focused on his left wrist, where his blood was quickly pouring out. It was almost worse than having his hand cut. The pain of the flesh regenerating enough to stop the flow of the blood was something he had never felt before. It left him panting, lying on the stone floor, unmoving, uncaring.
He stayed like that for a few minutes, maybe hours, he didn't know anymore: he had lost the notion of time. When he finally got up, he noticed the torches in the tomb were still burning brightly. Another mystery linked to these ruins, alongside the well-preserved walking corpses guarding the place. He grabbed his left hand and finally entered the large room he had seen earlier; when he still had both of his hands.
The room was full of spider webs, and yet he didn't see any spiders. However, a dunmer was kept prisoner in one of the web, begging for help. Metellus was about to help him, when drops of an unknown liquid fell in front of him. When he looked up, he only had the time to curse the gods in his head before he was crushed to the ground by a massive spider. His precedent fight with the draugr had left him exhausted, making him unable to match the spider in terms of strength. He managed to free his blade from the numerous legs of his enemy, and tried to hack one of the legs pinning him down. Although it was quite unsuccessful, it still prompted the spider to try to bite his neck, allowing him to quickly plunge his gladius in its mouth. The spider reeled back, obviously in pain. He took advantage of this moment of weakness and lunged forward, sword first, aiming at the head of the spider. His sword penetrated deep into its main body, and it fell on the ground, dead.
With the spider dead, Metellus could finally take care of the trapped dunmer. Hacking the web, he realized it was hiding another corridor. He watched the dunmer fall to the ground and get back on his feet only to see him start running.
"Fool! You'll never have the golden claw!"
Metellus didn't even try to catch up to him, as he knew he was too exhausted for that. He grabbed once again his left hand, which he dropped during his fight with the spider, and this time stuck it in his belt. He followed the corridor, and began to hear the sounds of a fight. The dunmer had woken up several draugrs and was now facing them. He had already managed to kill two of them but the last one had a moment of luck and sent his head flying across the room, which bounced off Metellus's chest. The draugr looked at him, and Metellus looked back. The two of them began to slowly walk toward each other. When they finally arrived close enough to hit each other, they waited a few minutes. Then the draugr struck first, a slash from head to knee, aiming for Metellus's fighting arm. He parried the hit with his gladius, and gave him a leg kick on its right leg, breaking the fragile bone. The draugr fell on the floor, unable to keep his balance, and Metellus crushed its head with his foot. He turned around and looked for the dunmer's body. The corpse, still hot, contained a journal, from which Metellus learned the dunmer's name was Argil, and a golden claw. According to the journal, it was some sort of key. Metellus took it, and walked toward the end of the corridor, announced by a large wooden door. He opened it, and saw a large corridor, its walls decorated with gravures. At the end stood a stone wall, with some sort of lock. He recognized in the holes of the lock the pattern of the fingers of the claw, but didn't know what to make of the rings above it. However, when he tried to fit the claw in the holes, which fitted perfectly, nothing happened. He waited for a few seconds, and then heard some kind of mechanism. He didn't even wait to see what it could be, he threw himself to the ground, and he was proved right, as several bolts flew above his head, right through the spot he was standing on a few seconds ago. Inspecting the claw more closely, he realized there were inscriptions on it, depicting a code. When he looked at the rings, he noticed the same inscriptions. Moving each ring one by one, he finally understood the usefulness of the code, and managed to reproduce it. This time, when he tried to fit the claw, the door slowly disappeared in the ground.
Behind the door was a cave. It was a clear change from the tomb behind him, as it had no manmade floor and looked natural. Deeper in the cave, he found a stone bridge, allowing passage across an underground lake, leading to a stone platform. At the top of the platform, Metellus could see a curved wall, and before it a tomb, just like the draugrs' tombs he had seen before in the barrow. He began to walk toward the stone platform, passed the bridge, walked up the stairs, and reached the top. He noticed that next to the tomb was a large wooden chest, surprisingly well preserved for a humid place like that. He took a step toward the curved wall and stopped right after. He was beginning to hear whispers coming from the wall, and now that he was closer, he could see inscriptions on it. One of them was softly glowing. He tried to get away from the wall, but he couldn't move his legs. He was now starting to feel a thirst for the word. How did he even know it was a word? He just did. Just like any dovah. Dovah? The word felt foreign to him and yet strangely accurate. When he finally focused back on his body, he noticed he was right in front of the word and that darkness was starting to surround his field of view. A few seconds later, he blacked out.
When he came back to his senses, he was still in front of the word. He thought to himself that he was lucky no enemy found him in this state, and right after that he heard the top of the tomb behind him falling on the ground. He quickly turned back, his gladius in his hand. What greeted him was the sight of a fully armored draugr, armed with a greatsword. This time, no pool of water to save him, and the draugr wouldn't let him get close enough to push it in the lake. His gladius was too short to deal with the large greatsword, which meant he had to use magic for this fight. He casted stoneflesh on himself, and summoned a firebolt in his hand. He could have used fire against the draugr that took his hand, but his magic reserves were too scarce to ensure victory. The draugr charged first, delivering a horizontal slash aimed at his stomach. Metellus dodged it by quickly moving backward, and released his firebolt right in the head of the draugr, blinding it. He grabbed his gladius and charged the draugr. He dodged another hasty slash from the now blind draugr and pierced its chestplate with his gladius, tearing the flesh behind it. Then, he summoned sparks while still holding the gladius, and let them run over the blade to burn the draugr from the inside.
With the draugr dead, he walked toward the chest and opened it. In it were a bag of gold, a few iron arrows, a leather armor, and some healing potions. He emptied the chest and walked toward the exit, located on the left of the stone platform. On the way out, he spotted a stone in the tomb, probably the stone he was sent to retrieve. He grabbed it, and left the cave.
-Skyrim-
Now clad in leather armor and richer by a couple hundred pieces of gold, he walked back to Whiterun, with the hope that the healer there, Danica Pure-Spring, could fix his hand. If she couldn't, then he would have to seek other means. A one-handed person in a region like skyrim wouldn't survive long. But he had heard that the dwemers created some interesting automatons, and he was no stranger to magic engineering. However, if that was beyond his skills, he thought, the daedric princes could be the only way for him to get back his left hand.