Chapter 20

Mia Tuk Gets Sick

"Without anxiety and illness I should have been like a ship without a rudder."

-Edvard Munch

We made up camp out in the fields that night with some supper we purchased from the shop. My funds were nonexistent, for I had also stopped at the blacksmith to get my armor repaired and my blade sharpened. I could not afford everything I needed done, however, and so I offered my services to the smith of Warmaiden's on a rainy day. Her name was Adrianne. She agreed to my IOU. I would pay her back with a few hours of assistance upon my return to Whiterun.

Lydia and I ate in relative silence and bedded down. The comfort of the fire was very welcome.

The fever struck me that night. I had woken up dreadfully thirsty and shivering violently, but I had broken out in a cold sweat. I was reminded of the first time I suffered the flu. Mother did not let me leave home, and my recovery put a dent in our already meager sums.

I did not feel nausea, but my head was pounding and my joints were like lead. It was a clear night, though our fire had gone out. Lydia slept soundly in the tent beside me and I wrapped my blanket around myself tightly. No effect; I was still cold. I lay awake for a few hours before I finally willed myself to retrieve another blanket from my pack. It took considerable effort to make my body move.

As soon as the blanket was over me once more, I passed out again. Still shivering. Still sore. Still sick.

My illness worsened.

By daybreak, I felt like the dead. My thirst was terrible and to my shame I had to request Lydia's bladder of water for myself. She gave it without hesitation.

"My thane, if you'll forgive me for speaking freely, I believe we should return to Whiterun for a few days. Call in a favor from the Jarl. He would gladly have a doctor look you over."

I shook my head. "If I am to die in this dungeon, it makes little difference if I am healthy or sick. We continue."

She frowned, but nodded. "As you wish, my thane. If you change your mind, I will accomodate you."

I said nothing. My symptoms were dreadfully annoying, but I believed them to be little more than a minor inconvenience. Sure enough, once I got to my feet and stretched my legs a bit, my body loosened up some and I could move without severe aches.

Every so often, however, the plains would spin a bit. My throat was no longer sore after I drank, though I did still feel thirsty.

We continued on after packing up our camp to Lydia's poorly hidden chagrin. My walking speed was somewhat slower, but we were still making good time.

We were fortunate in that we encountered few bandits on the trip. The ones we did encounter were disinterested in a fight at that moment and so we all gave each other a wide berth.

It wasn't until we found our way to the tomb that we began to encounter trouble. Draugr. Many of them.

A good number of them were at rest still. They had their hands clasped over their hearts as if there wasn't a chance that they would get up and attack the living at any moment. By what I sincerely hoped was instinct and not fear of my incompetence, Lydia held an arm out to me.

"My Thane, these damnable creatures have an air about them. I do not believe they are like any other draugr you may have encountered before."

I was silent, instead putting a hand over my breast, where I had been wounded what felt like so long ago.

"I recommend we return to town and seek additional bodies to help us here. It may turn out to be nothing, but I think we should err on the side of caution."

I stared at her. "You're aware I have no more money, yes? I can not pay a mercenary to join us, and I'm not turning around now."

She stared back at me, irritation hidden poorly behind a mask of stoicism. "And if you die?"

"Then I dine in Hades. You can leave if you wish, but I will not."

"And I will not leave you."

"So, it's settled. We continue."

She was silent now, likely wondering if there was any way to counter my flawless logic. The draugr in the front of the tomb did not stir, and we made sure to creep past them.

It wasn't until we entered and began down the steps into the darkness below that things took a turn. I remember Lydia had lit a torch she had on her person for this very occasion, and every few steps lit a sconce hung on the stone walls around us.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs took us twenty minutes or so, as we had to light our way, lest one of us misstep. When we did, however, the room opened up.

There were hundreds of bodies in these catacombs. There must have been. So many bones. Thank the divines not all of them were animate. We would have been cut down in short order otherwise, additional bodies or not.

The ones that were, however...

A steel blade that looked like new clanged against my shield, and the draugr holding it pressed forward. I looked for my counter with my own blade, but it grabbed hold of my arm and prevented my move. Not too far away, Lydia was busying herself with two others. The ones she was battling appeared to be less combat inclined. They had allowed her to back them against a corner and were less aggressive and precise, though they did have the numbers game.

I managed to force the draugr accosting me back a few steps. It wore what appeared to have once been armor that had stood up to many an attack save for that of time.

He shoved me back a few steps in response, and I brought my shield up once more. A violent strike at my shield caused my second stumble. That combined with my nagging dizziness knocked me off my feet to my back.

The draugr did not stop. I brought up my shield and tucked my legs beneath it to limit my exposure, and not a moment too soon. The draugr had begun an all out assault on my shield. The clanging was unbearable and caused my head to ache, but he could not pierce my shield.

As he continued to strike, I reached for my sword. It wasn't easy. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to successfully draw a blade while balled up and being protected only by a shield?

When I finally managed to draw, I stabbed upwards between the draugr's strikes and caught its neck. Were it a living creature, the strike would have caused it to bleed out.

Instead, all it did was stop the flurry of attacks and allow me to roll out of the way. Draugr do not have any blood. My shield arm was throbbing but I was mostly uninjured.

I called upon one more skill mother taught me. It was one that worked on the morale of the enemy. Mother told me it was very effective when employed by the Shadowscales. They called it the no-sell, and it goes as follows:

When a Shadowscale is knocked to the ground by an enemy, it can take away from the illusion that Shadowscales are unstoppable demons sent by Sithis himself.

Whenever possible, in the event that a Shadowscale's back finds the floor, (s)he first ensures the finishing blow is not about to come, and then sits up as if nothing at all happened. The manuever is simple but requires a lot of discipline to pull off, especially when one is actually injured.

Nonetheless, it was effective at completely levelling the morale of most combatants unlucky enough to do battle with them. Then, it's a matter of finding your feet and resuming the battle with an enemy that is now unsure if you can even be killed.

It's the same manuever I used that day in the catacombs. The draugr had recovered from my counter attack and was approaching me again, only for me to sit up quickly and look at him. He betrayed little in terms of surprise, but it did cause him to stop in his tracks. I took the moment to find my feet again and we resumed our dance.

I spared a look at Lydia again. She had dispatched one of the two accosting her but neglected to pull her blade free from its body. As such she was using her shield to beat the remaining draugr down. The problem was, it kept moving around no matter how many times she hit it.

Another misconception about the draugr is their weakness. Many seem to consider them to be like zombies written about in popular fantasy lore: If you remove the head or destroy the brain, it dies. The notion is only half accurate. If you remove the head of any creature it will die, but killing a draugr isn't as simple as an arrow through its skull. Because they are such good fighters, it's best to use a holy weapon or sever the spinal cord.

The issue with holy weapons is how expensive they are. Even the smallest dagger sells for prices that would make Alduin think twice about eating this world. Attacking a draugr until it finally falls is extremely dangerous, as many of them are ferocious or crafty fighters. The longer the fight goes on, the better the odds of the creature of the night leaving as the victor.

Severing the spinal cord is quick if you surprise them and efficient. The problem was, I did not know this at the time.

Each attack I delivered was deflected with its blade. It seemed to know that I was the type to use my shield as a weapon, for when I attempted to it would leap back out of the way, or to one side. To make matters worse, my dizziness kept causing me to stumble.

"My Thane!" called Lydia. "Shall I take over for you?"

"Stay out of this," I growled. This was my opponent.

The draugr attempted to strike me with its blade again, at which point I did what was probably the smartest thing I'd ever done at then in my life.

First, I blocked the blade with my own. Then I swiftly parried with my shield. I managed to hit its arm with enough force to knock the sword from its grip, and that was when I thought the battle was over.

What I meant to be the final move was a swift blow to the neck to lop off its head if possible. Instead, it responded with a clap.

Suddenly my blade was held inches from its neck in its hands. It shook its head at me and jerked the blade from my grip.

Now I was being attacked by my own weapon, and it was making me angry. I was on the defensive once more, and with each attack deflected I found myself being backed into a corner. I spared a look at Lydia, who had finished off her attackers and was all but chomping at the bit to get to my quarry. I shook my head at her.

I was not afraid of this draugr as I was of the one who nearly felled me before. This particular draugr was both irritating and amazing to me. It just didn't want to stay down.

It swung at me wildly such that my head would have been taken had I not fallen backwards once more. Beside me lay its discarded blade.

It only took me a second to kick it hard in the gut and retrieve its weapon. I scowled.

It uttered something in its language as it eyed me. I cannot be certain what it was exactly saying, but I like to think it was muttering about how awkward things were becoming between us.

My dizziness aside, I was hoping to see the end of this battle soon. I swung at it once more, but it blocked with my blade and threw a punch that connected with my jaw. The counter was enough to make me stumble back. I narrowly avoided being stabbed thanks to my shield.

It wasn't until I had tried once more to shield bash him that I came up with an idea.

As expected, he simply leapt back and avoided my attack. Before he could return to me, I closed the distance myself. I took a breath to steady myself and clear my head of the dizziness for long enough to do what I was about to do.

I began a flurry of strikes, many of which were very sloppy and would have caused little harm had they connected. The goal wasn't to kill the draugr; it was to force it to retreat a few more steps.

It was doing its all to block or deflect my strikes, though one or two made it through the defense and the creature recoiled. It was retreating unknowingly and while it tried to strike back, it was having no success.

When its back kissed the wall, I shield bashed it again, and while it recoiled, I ran it through.

It did not fall. It attempted to continue the fight and struck at me once more.

My next slice was to the leg, and it buckled, but the draugr was still not letting up. It kept attacking, even as I gained the upper hand and inflicted more injury. As it was dying, it kept fighting.

When it fell to both knees it was still fighting.

When it fell to its back it was still fighting.

When its head left its shoulders, the blade slowly sunk to the ground beside it. Had that particular attack landed, my neck would have been taken, and I would have died quickly.

As I retrieved my stolen blade and rejoined Lydia, it dawned on me:

We were barely ten minutes into the catacombs.

Neither of us could believe our eyes.

It took us six hours to get into the main burial chamber, where the Horn I was told to find supposedly lay.

Six hours of trudging through uneven terrain in the dark. Dizziness, nausea, a headache, the chills, joint aching, and the like were all accompanying me in addition to Lydia.

Six hours of fighting through draugr just like the ones in the beginning, though as my illness seemed to progress Lydia insisted on covering me.

Six hours of fearing becoming lost and then one with the ancient bones buried there.

All of it culminated to the final room, where I speculated a draugr not unlike the one I received the Last Kiss from would lurk.

The draugr therein were all dead.

There was not an ounce of blood adorning the rocky floors. The draugr, however, were all but cut up. Only one was in one piece; it possessed armor not unlike the one that nearly felled me what felt like so long ago. It was unmoving like all the others.

The horn was nowhere to be found. In its place (a statuette holding up its hands) was a note. Lydia grabbed it before I got to it. It was just as well. The words inscribed on it would mean nothing to me anyway. Just behind the statuette lay an empty open casket, the lid lying against it.

"Dragonborn," she recited. "I have need of you. Urgently. Instructions will be sent to you. I fear who else may eye this note."

No sooner had she finished reading, I fell to the ground with a shove. My equilibrium already sorely tested, I could not save my head from an unfortunate meeting with the ground. It was not too hard and my helmet protected me, but it did throw me for a loop.

I looked up at the armored draugr. Whoever had killed the others in this room clearly hadn't bothered to check their work. The only one that I had any qualms about fighting at all was the only one that had awoken.

It did not carry a blade. Instead it possessed a mace. It struck Lydia in the back of her head and used its momentum to throw her into the casket. I did not know then if she had even survived or not, for it quickly lifted and shut the lid with virtually no effort.

Then it turned back to me. My gut told me to raise my shield, and I did so. It was a wise move, for the battle opened much the same way as my first with one of these master draugr. A throwing knife thudded uselessly off my shield instead of embedding in my body.

I couldn't even regain my feet, for the draugr charged me and knocked me to the ground. It swung wildly with its mace and once again I hid my entire body behind my shield. It was striking hard enough that the impacts were rapidly causing bruising in my arms and legs, and I could feel the shield beginning to bow under the pressure.

I attempted to perform the same move that stopped such an assault earlier in my travels, in that I drew my blade and attempted to stab the draugr. As soon as my arm was out from behind my shield, it had pinned it under one foot and threw the mace down on it with great force.

Instantly I was beset by extreme pain, which then gave way to lifelessness. I did not give voice to the pain, but my face betrayed how terrible it felt. My sword arm was completely useless, but the draugr's manuever allowed me to knock a leg out from under it and reverse things, such that I was kneeling atop him with my shield holding his mace down. Had I my sword arm, I could have finished the fight then and there.

Alas, it was not to be. It took very little time for the draugr to react. It pulled loose a heavy brass colored dagger from a sheath on its chest and swiped at me, opening a sizable gash on my already injured arm. It was swelling up already and my arm down to my fingers were turning black and blue.

I could hear thudding, and I wondered if the draugr had called for backup. I feared looking behind me though, for one with skill of this magnitude would end me quickly if I showed a sign of distraction.

The draugr swiftly tossed another throwing knife at me, this time striking me in the chest. I was lucky. This particular knife had dulled considerably within the tomb and my meager armor was enough to deflect it.

The draugr charged me once more, and I called upon a skill taught to me by mother long ago. With a few leaps I managed to avoid the draugr, and I countered with my shield in a charge of my own.

I again knocked it to the ground and this time afforded it no time to retaliate. I began striking it with all the intensity I could muster with my shield, aiming for the head and throat. My attacks were limited by the lack of my other arm, but were still enough to cause considerable damage. I could see the helmet beginning to give under my repeated strikes.

"Fus..."

As soon as I heard the first Word, I dove off the draugr and rolled away. Not a moment too soon either, for the rest of its Shout reverberated through the tomb. It was loud, but not as loud as when you were directly in front of it. My hearing rang only a little and I was not sent flying.

Stones from the ceiling above, however?

One impacted just at the base of my neck and back and I fell to the ground in a heap. I could see the draugr writhing about a few steps away.

My hearing brought me the incessant thudding once more, this time becoming far more frantic and loud. This was followed by the clatter of a casket lid onto the floor. Lydia sat up from within, gasping and still very much alive, albiet quite dizzy. Her steel helmet must have saved her life. She climbed out of the casket, but could not keep her feet and collapsed to the ground herself. The fight skidded to a hault for but a moment.

Then the draugr sat up as if it were Shadowscale. It appeared not to have noticed Lydia's revival, and it regained its feet, mace in its hand once more. It approached me and uttered something in its language as I just managed to find my knees. I grabbed its ankle and stared up at it. The mace was held high.

All of it came down. All of it. The draugr and the mace itself. The draugr was thrown away from me while the mace thudded to the ground not inches from my head. I fell to one side as my dizziness took hold again and saw Lydia striking at the draugr in a fury. No weapon in hand. Just a shield. She quite literally did what I had failed to do- beat the draugr to death.

"My thane," she gasped out. "Forgive me. Are you well to walk?"

I was not interested in responding other than doing. I stood, albeit by holding myself up against the wall. Lydia returned to me the blade I had dropped upon my arm's injury and hissed at the sight of my wound.

"That does not look good at all. Let us return to Whiterun. It is clear what we need is not in this tomb. You need medical attention."

Lydia stumbled then and fell to her knees. She gave her head a gentle shake.

"As do you," I replied. She shook her head again, and appeared to gag as she struggled to her feet.

"I will be fine. It's nothing terrible."

I knew that was a lie. Her words, until the attack clear and articulate, were now slow and slurred. She appeared very disoriented and couldn't stand still. She kept swaying in place. When I saw the back of her helmet, I had to credit her Nordic stubbornness in her remaining alive. The helmet had quite literally bowed inward due to the mace strike. I could see some blood flowing from her ear.

We walked out of the tomb supporting each other, but not before I returned to the now dead armored draugr.

After all, that beautiful mace would fetch a good price at a shop.

End of Chapter

3,834 words.

Next chapter might be fairly short. It's due to be mostly comic relief. Friggin Lydia, going and getting a concussion and all.