10. Lockpicking
Although Draco is excellent at sneaking and pickpocketing, he is not really that good at lockpicking, so he most of the time ignored the chests with 'master' locks he encountered. Well, except for the chests and containers in Falmer dwellings. Who knows what kind of things the Falmer could have stored in their chests. Draco had been very interested in Falmer tomes and artefacts ever since he was young, and he is bent on clearing out the entire dwelling to make sure that he did not miss anything out, which includes lockpicking Falmer chests with 'master' locks. About how the Falmer exactly made their locks, Draco was not really that interested.
Draco motioned for his housecarl, Lydia (Which he did not really want her to come along, but he needed someone to carry some of his items), to keep watch for any Falmer nearby while he focused on picking the lock of the Falmer chest.
After breaking six lock picks, Lydia heard aggressive snarls coming from a group of Falmer moving towards their direction raising their weapons. Apparently, the Falmer detected them due to their keen sense of smell and hearing.
"My Thane, Falmer are approaching!" Lydia warned Draco, who was still busy trying to unlock the Falmer chest.
"Shut up. Can't you see I'm busy?" Draco hissed as he broke another lock pick. "Damn, this is so frustrating," he muttered.
"They are going to attack us!" Lydia said. "I'm serious!"
"Then keep them busy while I (breaks another lock pick)... confound it, not again… while I try to unlock this chest, twit! I thought you said a few weeks ago that your job was to protect me with your life?"
"Fine, fine, fine," Lydia sighed as she drew her steel sword and charged towards the Falmer.
"All right, easy… easy…" Draco muttered as he broke three more lock picks, ignoring the clash between Lydia and the Falmer.
Ten minutes later…
'Just a little more… damn not again!' Draco thought as he broke another lock pick. 'All right, this time I got this. Just a little bit here and turn it towards the right and… there!' The clicking sound of the lock was heard.
"So you finally unlocked it," Lydia said as she returned to Draco's side, with blood stained on her armour, weapons and her face. She finally managed to fend off the Falmer attacking them. "Whenever it comes to Falmer dwellings, why is it that you must scavenge the entire cave?! You never do that in bandit camps and Nordic ruins and… you know."
"Shut up Lydia," Draco retorted. "You are supposed to serve me, not the other way round. I am not obliged to answer your questions."
Lydia sighed, whenever he needed her to come along, she usually had to carry tons of items for him, had to listen to his commands, and she was hardly given a chance to ask Draco questions.
Draco opened up the chest and looked at the contents inside. He frowned immediately. He had used up a total of thirty-seven lock picks and all he saw inside were four chaurus eggs and an alteration spell tome. He sighed and placed the eggs in his alchemy satchel. 'Why did they store these eggs in a master chest anyway? I wonder what's going on in their minds, very interesting indeed. I wonder what that spell tome is,' he thought. Draco picked up the slimy spell book and took a closer look at the title.
'Alteration spell,' Draco read silently. 'Unlock master… locks?!' He had the urge to punch something immediately, and that 'something', was Lydia's face.
"Ow… what was that for?" Lydia whined as she rubbed the spot on the face where Draco's fist landed.
"Nothing," Draco replied. "Stop asking questions and just move on, remember your place."
"I wish I hadn't volunteered to be his housecarl," Lydia muttered to herself.
"I'm sorry, but can you repeat that?" Draco asked loudly upon hearing clearly on every word Lydia muttered.
"Nothing," Lydia replied quickly.
"Good."
Upon leaving the dwelling, Draco thought, 'Time for me to focus a bit more on alteration magic.'
A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update this. And another thing, from now on each chapter will only have one or two points written.