Dragontooth Crater

31st of First Seed, 4E 203. Tirdas

The sky was filled with heavy gray clouds.

Harry and Katla were sitting by a small fire set up next to the murmuring water of Karth River. They had boiled some mud crab legs for supper earlier. Now they were slowly packing things away so they could go to sleep.

Four days earlier they had arrived in Markarth. Since then, they had travelled to two different dungeons filled with draugr. They had found three Word Walls. The third one they had found earlier that same day. Harry was glad for the three new passages he now had in his book. He'd also picked up several strange items that seemed to hold power of their own. He had a crooked bladed knife made out of some kind of golden metal. There was something about it. He couldn't quite put his finger on what, but he figured he could always just store it at home until he realised what it was for. The second item he had was a walnut sized stone. It was black but not completely so. There seemed to be like a thin veil of mist moving slowly within the stone.

The raven placed his items back in his bag next to the strange pink stone he had found. Ra'shall was looking for those so he had picked it up for the feline. He pushed the bag away from himself before lying down. Katla put a little more wood on the fire before she too lay down. "Goodnight," she said softly.

"Goodnight," Harry responded.

1st of Rain's Hand, 4E 203. Middas

The river of Karth played its unique music. It had calmed a lot since the mountains. Together with the song of the birds and the occasional roar, it made for a calming atmosphere.

As Harry and Katla had passed by the road to Karthspire a Dunmer had attacked them out of nowhere. Neither of them knew why. She had been too strong-minded for Harry to control her with his magic so the only option left to them was to beat her down. They rendered her unconscious before pulling her armour off her. Then they had tied her to the road sign located just off the twin bridges. It was a busy enough road that someone would come across her eventually. The armour was thrown to the side.

"There that should be good enough," Katla said. She walked back up on the road. "She won't bother us again unless she is really stubborn about it, and in that case we might have to do something more permanent to deal with her."

Harry nodded. "I know," he said.

They made their way up the road they had taken towards Markarth a year and a half earlier. They would not go by the city this time though. They were heading north. Rumours had been travelling around that there were dragons living in the mountains north of Karthwasten. Figuring that there might be a Word Wall up there somewhere, they had decided to travel there and see for themselves.

Only about half a mile after passing the crossroads they had taken up to Markarth last time, they came upon several dead Forsworn bodies. A man came walking up to them as the crossed a bridge. "Excuse me," he said. "Are you Katla?"

The brunette nodded as she answered, "Yes my name is Katla."

"I have been looking for you. Got something I'm supposed to deliver. Your hands only," the man said as he picked a letter out of a pouch by his belt.

"Thank you," Katla said as she accepted the sealed note.

"That concludes my business here. Have a good day," the man said. The two travellers responded and the man continued up the road.

"What does the letter say?" Harry asked.

Katla looked down at the thick parchment as she broke the seal. "It is another letter from our mysterious friend," she said. "He or she says that we should check out Mount Anthor." She folded the letter and handed it to the raven as he let his backpack fall down so it hung from his right arm. He packed the letter down before pulling the pack back on. "So who do you think took out all the Forsworn?" he asked.

Katla looked down at one of the dead men. He'd had been taken out with a precise cut to the throat. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a set of long gashes along his shoulder. "Good guess would be Ra'shall," she said. "Unless there are more skilled Khajiit assassins moving around Skyrim."

"That was what I was thinking," Harry said. "They have this smell to them that just screams of kaazaak."

"You can smell poison, huh?"

"Mmhhmm."

Katla shook her head. "These seem to be fresh so he can't be far off," she said.

Harry grimaced. 'Great Katla,' he thought. 'I don't want to know how you can tell they are fresh.' He averted his eyes from the dead men. It might have something to do with the smell.

They headed down towards the house on the other side of the bridge. The front door stood slightly ajar.

"Laas yah nir," Harry whispered softly. A single red aura appeared before his eyes. "There is only one person in there," he told Katla.

The brunette nodded slowly. "If it is Ra'shall he should recognise us by scent, but you should probably stay down here just to be on the safe side," she said quietly. The teen nodded, and she walked up onto the porch of the house. "Vulkaaz," she called out. "Is it you in there?" She moved to the side so she wasn't standing right in front of the door.

The hinges creaked as the door was pulled open.

"Really Ra'shall you don't have to be so tense," Katla said in a bored tone.

"Fuck you Katla," a shaky voice said.

The brunette rolled her eyes. "Language Ra'shall, language," she said. "So are you going to try to kill me and Harry if we try to walk in the door?" She heard a snort. "No, I won't," the feline said. Katla turned to wave Harry over before she walked into the small cabin.

Ra'shall was sitting in a chair next to a dusty table. He looked worse for wear. He wasn't injured but there were tears in his armour. He also spotted bags under his eyes that told Katla he hadn't been sleeping properly. Behind her, Harry walked into the cabin before closing the door shut. He raised a hand and conjured a small ball of light. He looked over at the feline-man. "You look like shit," he said.

Katla rolled her eyes and Ra'shall scoffed. "You'd look like shit too if you hadn't slept more than eighteen hours in the past week," the man said.

The raven's eyebrows furrowed. "Why haven't you been sleeping properly?" he asked concerned.

The feline sighed. "I ran into some trouble in High Rock," he said. "They were quite persistent. Since Katla doesn't like me involving you in my shady business I won't say more than that. You are safer that way." He rubbed his eyes. "They didn't follow me to Skyrim. I managed to shake them off before the border. For safety's sake I didn't stop moving though."

"Have you been through the house?" Katla asked.

Teal eyes looked up at her. "Yeah, why?" he said.

"Are there beds downstairs?"

A nod.

Katla looked at Harry "Will you get him down there? Force him to bed if you have too, please. I'm going to see if I can't get some fish from the river. We might as well stay here for a while," she said.

"Sure I can do that," the teen answered. He walked up to the feline-man. "Come on get up," he said.

"What is this?" Ra'shall said tiredly. "You send our cub to tuck me in."

Katla rolled her eyes. "Just do as he says," she said. She walked out of the small cabin leaving the men inside.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the feline. "Come on kaazaak," he said. "If you haven't gotten downstairs by the time Katla is back she might do something drastic." He held a hand out.

Ra'shall sighed as he reached out and took the hand. "Thank you," he said as the raven pulled him up on his feet.

They headed down to the basement. There were two beds down there, a table with two chairs, and a closet.

"You should take this off," Harry said and poked the armour. "It needs repair work and Katla can probably do something about that at least. I know we have the tools with us." He walked over to one of the beds, took his backpack off and removed his fur blanket from it.

"Mine is upstairs," Ra'shall said. He grabbed the clasps that held the torso of his armour together. He pulled them open one by one.

Harry had gone back up to grab his backpack. It didn't take the teen long to come back down. He removed the feline's fur blanket as well and dumped it on the bed. Sitting down, he pulled his boots off. Since Katla had said they would stay for a while and Ra'shall was in such a bad condition, he figured he might as well change out of his armour. He switched clothes and looked up at the feline-man. "Come here," he said. "I'll give you a massage. You're so tense I can feel it from here."

Ra'shall chuckled out a snort.

"What?"

"You really have grown cub," the man said.

The raven rolled his eyes. "What did you expect… that I would shrink?" he said sarcastically. He moved slightly so the feline could lie down.

Ra'shall folded his arms under his head and closed his eyes slowly. For the first time in a month he felt completely safe. A weight settled over his lower back before strong hands started rubbing through his fur.

Slowly but surely he relaxed.

Soft purrs filled the cabin's basement.

…

When Katla came back and walked down the stairs, she could see Harry sitting on the same bed that Ra'shall seemed to have fallen asleep on. "How come you are sitting there?" she asked quietly.

Harry shrugged. "I gave him a massage so he would actually relax," he answered. "But by the time he'd fallen asleep his tail had grabbed on to me. I don't want to remove it since that might wake him up."

Katla closed her eyes and shook her head amused. "Well I guess you're stuck then," she said.

"Could you give me A Game at Dinner, please," Harry asked. "It is in my backpack over there." He pointed.

Katla walked over to the pack and picked a book out. She checked the title before walking over to the raven with it. "Here you go," she said. "I'll be back down with some food in a little while."

"Thank you," Harry said. As Katla walked up the stairs to deal with lunch, he looked down at the book. He had been reading it a little to and fro. He was on page ten or so. He read through the pages until Katla came back with a plate filled with food. He placed the book to the side. "Thank you," he said as he accepted the plate. The grilled fish smelled heavenly. His hands let off a light frostbite to cool the food just enough for him to eat it. He opened one of the fish up and started picking the pink meat out. He hummed softly in delight.

Katla smiled softly. It was such a gratifying feeling to hear that hum. It showed how much the raven was enjoying the food. She looked back down at her own plate. Pale fingers broke the fish apart before it was raised to rosy lips and eaten.

…

After they were done eating, they spent some time going over what they'd learned so far. Harry translated the text he had copied down from the Word Walls. He wondered briefly just how he understood the dragons' written language. Sure, the written language was most likely man made; he somehow doubted that dragons could write. Their feet weren't really built for that.

Ra'shall didn't wake up at all during the evening. Harry had eventually managed to get away from him. As soon as he returned, however, the feline's tail had grabbed onto him once more. It was obvious that the man would feel …safer? ...more comfortable? – with Harry right there. He didn't mind. He'd have to remember to give the man the gem he had found the next day.

2nd of Rain's Hand, 4E 203. Turdas

Harry turned around in bed carefully. Ra'shall's long black and white striped tail was wrapped around his torso. He wouldn't be able to sneak up this time around. The question now was if he should wake the man up before getting up or get up and thereby wake the man up. "Ra'shall," he said calmly. He reached out and shook the man's shoulder. "Ra'shall it's time to wake up."

Red tinted ears twitched. Teal eyes opened slowly.

Harry could feel the tail wrapped around him move. "You awake yet?" he asked.

The feline chuckled deeply. "I'm awake," he said. "So you ended up with me instead of Katla, huh?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't let me go. You've been holding on to me with your tail since you fell asleep yesterday," he said.

"Oh, but you're so cosy," the feline-man said. He watched his cub as the boy sat up. He knew why he'd been holding onto the teen. It had been so long since he'd been with his family that he had wanted to keep at least on of them as close as he could. Even though it had all been subconscious. He'd been asleep after all. He probably wouldn't have slept half as good if it hadn't been for Harry.

The boy had walked over to the small table in the middle of the room and sat down. He'd pulled his backpack with him and was rummaging through it. Ra'shall moved to sit on the edge of the bed. He felt a lot better than he had the day before. With a few more days of restful sleep he would be back on top. Standing up, he grabbed his own pack and moved over to the table. He had some things for Harry, and he might as well give the teen those now. He reached down into his somewhat cluttered pack glad that the things he was after were quite large. He found one of them and pulled it out. The stone was white with light-blue speckles. The reason he had grabbed it was because it held magic of some sort. He held it out to the raven. "I found this down in Cyrodiil," he said as he handed it over. "It holds some kind of magic, and I thought you might be interested." He smirked as the teen handed a pink stone over to him. "Well now that is nice," he said. "Thank you." He looked back down in his bag. "I have another stone for you. It is different from that one," he said. He found the teal stone and handed it over as well.

"Thank you," Harry said. He looked down at the two stones. They seemed to pulse with power. 'Well they definitely hold magic,' he thought. Hopefully he could figure out something to do with them eventually. He would have to figure out what they could do on their own first though. But he would have to be careful so the stones weren't used up.

"It's as far as I could find out a Welkynd Stone and a Varla Stone," Ra'shall said.

Harry nodded.

The rest of the morning went by in normal fashion.

…

The company, once again complete, made their way towards Karthwasten once they were done with their morning routine. Katla and Ra'shall helped the leader of the small town, Ainethach, get rid of some bothersome Nords, and they stocked up on food before heading off towards the dragon's lair.

They found a path leading east. They'd walked around the mountain north of the small town they'd had set out from, trying to find a path up the mountain.

Smoke was rising from a broken tower. As they made their way up the hill, they could see blood colouring the ground. Someone or something had approached the dragon's lair and died. Old mammoth rib bones lay next to the road. Blue mountain flowers grew within the bony cage.

Harry's eyes widened and he hurled as he saw the fresh remain of a burnt human. His stomach turned again and he bent over before throwing up his lunch. 'Why couldn't it just burn down properly when the dragon attacked him?' he thought. He raised a hand and sent off a bolt of fire towards the burnt corpse, before throwing up again.

A hand landed on his back as a bottle was held out for him. He reached out and took it. "Thank you," he said. The hand started rubbing his back soothingly. He uncorked the bottle and took a sip of water. Swirling it around his mouth for a few seconds, he tried to get rid of the bile taste before spitting the liquid out.

"Feeling better?" Ra'shall asked.

Harry nodded slowly. "A little," he said. While he had gotten more used to death in general throughout his stay on Nirn, he had not been ready to see that.

Standing back up slowly, he did his best to keep what little he still had in his stomach in place. Ra'shall's hand left his back. "Will you be alright now?" he asked.

Harry bit his bottom lip before answering, "I think so just give me a second." He reached up and removed his ebony bow from his back. An arrow was taken out of his quiver. "We can go on," he said. He really needed to pull himself together. He followed Katla slowly as Ra'shall moved on ahead of them.

There was more blood on the ground and another dead body. This one looked like he was an imperial.

Up ahead a dragon was lying on the ground. The two archers stopped as the assassin sneaked forward. The feline reached the scaled beast. He stabbed through the tough hide twice before the dragon started flapping its wings and taking to the air. A roar rose to the sky. Aligned arrows flew through the air and pierced the big leathery wings before burrowing in its side.

Fire spewed down over the ground. What little grass still remained around the lair caught fire.

Another set of arrows flew through the air. The dragon turned towards the people that hurt her. "Dir," she called out.

The two jul lowered their stick shooters. They gathered their breaths. "Fo," they called out together. Their frosty breaths hit her and she could feel how the cold seeped into her very soul. 'Well played Dovahkiin,' she thought as her wings gave out. Her eyes blinked close, and she felt a small presence touch her side. "Praan ko drem dovahreg," a soft voice said.

"Nox," she whispered.

Harry stepped away from the dragon. Her magic would take care of her eventually. He walked up next to Katla and they headed towards the Word Wall.

Qethsegol vahrukiv kril

Thjodrek wo dir zohungaar

ko grah do vith okaaz

The raven read.

'This gravestone commemorates the brave Thjodrek who died heroically in the battle of the Serpent Sea,' he translated. He sat down on the ground in front of the stone wall. Taking his backpack off, he went searching for his notebook. He wanted to make sure he wrote everything down right.

As the teen sat there, Ra'shall searched through the immediate area. He didn't want to leave any stone unturned. Anything that could sell for good money was packed down in his knapsack. Katla on the other hand was standing by big parts of the ruined tower. She was looking out over the road.

They were going to travel back towards Markarth next. She had heard rumours of another ancient Nordic ruin that might hold a Word Wall since she had heard it had once housed a Dragon Priest.

They were heading for Ragnvald.