Dustman's Cairn

"Looks like someone's been digging here. And recently… Tread lightly" Farkas said as I entered the chamber behind him.

The old tomb was damp and cold, it reminded me of a potato basement. The air smelled heavily of dirt and moss. I had never seen one of these old tombs before, much less ever been in one. Hearing the stories as a child I always believed them to be holy, divine. Like some old temple to the Gods. Bu know that I was inside one, I saw nothing of the sort. Only old damp stone, dirt on the floors, brown roots growing out of the walls. Yes. It did look like an old potato basement. It was kind of... disappointing.

The first things I noticed were the burning torches and digging tools in front of the pile of rocks that used to be the stone door opening to the corridor inside. I drew my bow and nocked an arrow on the string. Gave Farkas a nod, and into the corridor, we went.

The next corridors, hallways, and rooms we moved through were filled with ancient Nordic burial urns and offerings, and thick layers of cobweb covered pretty much everything we saw. Burial stones stood along most walls, and if the stories I heard as a kid were right, they contained the mummified dried-up corpses of ancient Nords. Other than the burning torches we encountered here and there, there were no signs of anyone having been there for the last thousands of years.

Minutes went by as we moved along the dark tunnels and we hadn't met any resistance as we entered a larger, circular, chamber. In the middle of the chamber, the floor was elevated, almost like an altar or ritual spot of some kind. Water dripped down from the ceiling, the sound amplified by echoing stone walls, above the elevated area, which was covered in wintergreen lush. To the left were a number of old bookcases and shelves. On the far end was a lone room and there was a large metal gate to the right of the room, blocking the only way to get further inside the tomb.

"Be careful around the burial stones. I don't want to haul you back to Jorrvaskr on my back." Farkas said as he sheeted his greatsword and walked for the bookcases.

"Sure…" I said as I walked towards the elevated area. I couldn't help but smile as I tough on what Farkas had said. What a story that would make. The newest Companion! Defeated by a stone block!

I looked into the lone room. It had burning torches on the walls and I could see white papers on the tables in the far end of the room. They must belong to whoever has been her recently. I walked into the room to take a look, but I was quickly disappointed when I met with the empty papers. Nothing of importance… There was however a lever on the wall. Could it open the lowered gate? Couldn't hurt to try, I thought as I grabbed the lever and pulled it down.

The ratling of chains sounded inside the ceiling above me, followed by a loud thud as the gate behind me fell shut, locking me inside the room. Well this wasn't good. I tried to pull the lever again, to no avail, as Farkas came walking over and looked at me through the bars.

"Well hi."

"Now look what you've gotten yourself into. No worries. Just sit tight. I'll find the release." He said as he started looking around.

Farkas had barely taken more than a few steps before he stiffened and, by instinct and habit, took up a stance. His eyes searched the pitch-black tunnels and I could hear him sniff the air, like an animal searching for danger. I had seen him do that once before. It looked odd, but I could tell something was wrong. It didn't take long before I noticed it too. Footsteps. The metallic sound of armor and gear. Suddenly there were many noises running towards us.

"It's time to die, dog!" A man shouted out of nowhere as five men rushed the chamber.

"We knew you'd be coming here!" One of the men said as they surrounded Farkas.

It was a trap. I lifted my bow and aimed an arrow at the closest man, between the gate bars. Farkas had drawn his greatsword and, without me noticing him move, taken up a more defensive stance. Why would they want to trap us? Who were they? Were they here searching for the piece of Wuuthrad as well? It didn't seem so.

"Your mistake, Companion." Another one of the men said as he lifted his torch, throwing light over Farkas.

They knew we were Companions? Why would they choose to ambush two Companions?

"Which one is that?" A woman said.

"It doesn't matter. He wears that armor, he dies!" One of the men abruptly answered her.

"Killing you will make for an excellent story." The woman said, pointing her sword towards Farkas.

Wait?... Did they? I started to realize the truth of the situation. This trap wasn't for me, or us. It was intended for Farkas. They hadn't come here to ambush two Companions. They had come here hoping to ambush one. Why?

"Too bad none of you will be alive to tell it," Farkas said with a stern voice. As the men slowly closed in on Farkas.

He can't handle five men alone! There had to be something I could do.

One of the men charged for Farkas in laughter. But Farkas didn't move. Why didn't he move?! I quickly changed my target and let my arrow lose. It punched the man in his chest plate, with no other effect than slightly pushing him back to a stop, interrupting his attack on Farkas.

I suddenly heard the sound of metal falling to the floor. Farkas had dropped his greatsword and was oddly hunched over. Froth bubbled from the corners of his mouth, dripping to the floor, and his breathing had turned irregular, almost lethargic.

I got a bad feeling. Something was really wrong. Had he been hit?! I scanned the room for any archers I could have missed but quickly found no one. I looked back to Farkas to try and see where any arrow could have struck.

Suddenly Farkas shot his arms back with a spasm. His chest shot forward and his head bent backward so forcefully it was frightening. Everyone jerked back in surprise, including me, as he let out an inhuman roar and I fell backward, down on the floor, in fright. He fell to his knees, still bent over backward. His arms and neck bent in what could only be described as "wrong directions" and I could hear the popping sound of joints dislocating and twisting as they reformed, skin tearing as the muscles beneath expanded. I felt fear race up my body as I crawled back, away from the gate. Almost like fog, a thick black fur grew out from between his armor plates and his body started to bulge out of the armor as it expanded. Armor pieces fell with heavy thuds to the floor as they broke and tore from his body. And when Farkas arose his body was unrecognizable. It had become that of a horrid beast. Like a mix between man and wolf. It was... horrifying.

The beast let out a bone-chilling roar that deepened as it echoed through the stone hall. The surrounding men lifted their weapons and in response let out their battle cries as they charged towards the beast.

It was a one-sided slaughter…

I sat covering in the far side of the lone room. Watching the men outside get… massacred, torn to pieces by razor-sharp claws. The horrid sound as one of the men's screams turned silent as his head got crushed between the beast's jaws. Stomachs torn open spilling their guts on the floor, intestines wriggling like a pile of worms. I watched a grown man soil himself as he cried out for his mother… I saw the woman… get squeezed to the floor until her insides shot out of every opening she had… and after all the screams ended… there was nothing but silence.

I sat in shock, shaking in the corner for minutes that felt like hours. Their torches had already gone dark against the cold moist stone floor. Only the lantern resting on my belt spread a dim light, narrowly reaching the still closed gate imprisoning me in the room. For a while longer I was left alone with the silence. Suddenly the gate opened as loudly as it had closed, startling me to fright. Footsteps approached the opening and Farkas came in view of the light. He was completely naked as he walked up to the opening of the lone room.

"I hope I didn't scare you." He said as he reached for his backpack on the floor and pulled out a dark yellow tunic and pair of gray pants.

Didn't scare me? He said that? Didn't… scare me?... I was still frightened to my bones! I slowly tried to rise, holding the bench behind me with both my hands as my legs still shook beneath me.

"What… was that?" I managed to ask as Farkas was dressing.

"It's a blessing given to some of us. We can be like wild beast. Fearsome," Farkas said as he walked around, collecting and reattaching his armor pieces.

Fearsome… that's a word for it… "The Companions,… are werewolves?" I asked leaning back on the bench, trying to get my legs to hold my weight on their own.

"Not everyone, but all in the Circle are. It's a secret to everybody," Farkas answered surprisingly honestly, but that was the way he always was. Honest.

He walked over and picked up his greatsword of off the floor and for a moment I just stood there, looking at Farkas as I tried to make sense of it all. I started to feel calmer, heartbeats slowing, legs steadying. No matter what I had just witnessed I knew Farkas was on my side. He must be. After all, we're both Companions.

"And... these men?" I asked, slowly gesturing my still shaky hand towards what could only accurately be called ¨remains of men.¨

"Silver hands. Bad people who don't like werewolves. So they don't like us either," Farkas said. "We should keep moving."

Reluctantly I gathered myself and followed the man. After all, I had to trust him.

As we continued through the tomb I couldn't help but feel the silent, awkward atmosphere between the two of us. But perhaps it was one-sided. Farkas sure showed no signs of being bothered for revealing himself to be a werewolf to me. I had so many questions. But I knew we had work to and so I bit down and decided to save my questions for later. After all, the tomb could still hold many dangers and none of us needed the distractions that came with conversation.

Suddenly Farkas stopped in his tracks and tilted his head as if focusing his hearing. He signaled for me with his hand and I approach him, dimming my lantern. Around the corner were a few men standing guard. At least three men could be seen in the light from the torches they had mounted on the walls. Farkas bumped my shoulder with his fist as he walked past me towards the men. The grin on his face said only one thing; no honor in fighting the unknowing. Let's introduce ourselves.

As Farkas walked in front of me, taking the lead with his greatsword, I prepared my bow. Like last time I'd give him support from a distance. The men saw us as we came into the light. I lifted my bow and let an arrow loose as Farkas began to charge them. My arrow struck true, hitting one of the men in his chest. He screamed angrily but didn't go down, at least he was injured now. Farkas was upon him fast, making it look easy to finish him off.

I nocked another arrow, but the second man was to close to Farkas now. I couldn't risk a shot.

He charged at Farkas with a warcry, slashing his sword as he did so. Blocking a shortsword with a heavy sword is close to impossible, considering the difference in speed. But Farkas easily nullified that weakness with his armor, as anytime the Silver Hand delivered a blow that Farkas would be unable to block he simply tilted his body so that the Silver Hand would strike plated armor. Farkas wore and used his heavy armor as skillfully as he wielded his sword. And so Farkas quickly made done with him, as he had done many times before. He fought fearlessly and almost with joy, I could almost feel his disappointment in his opponents' skill.

As we stepped over the bodies and continued moving forward I looked at Farka's back, and suddenly a thought hit me.

Hadn't his armor torn and broke as he transformed earlier? How could he still be wearing it? I looked closer at the armor. But I could find no broken pieces, no torn leather strips or pieces of fur that had ripped.

Was this the true mastery behind Eorlunds design of the wolf armor? *It looked as if Eorlund had designed it so the armor would ¨unbutton¨ itself as the wearer transformed, and expanded inside the armor. Leather strips had, instead of torn, slid open. And rather than break off, the armor had fallen off. Piece by piece. But that meant given enough force the armor could be ripped straight off the wearer? didn't it. But I suppose enemies would seldom try to ¨unclothe¨ you during battle, so it was a weakness only those with a true knowledge of the armor would even consider using to their advantage.

The quality of the steel might be Skyforge, but the design was pure Eorlund.

The Tomb had turned dark and silent as we went deeper. It was eerie, to say the least, and any noise we made seemed to be swallowed up by the pitch-black hallway in front of us. There were no more torches on the walls, I guessed the Silver Hands hadn't come this deep. I moved in the front now, bow in hand, since I was the one with a lantern in my belt. But the air was damp and cold and the flame in my lantern flickered weakly, from the lack of oxygen in the air, and we could barely see more than a few meters forward. Hadn't it been an oil lantern, I figured it would've gone out by now.

Soon we entered a large chamber. It was too large for my lantern to lighten the whole room at once so most of it was as dark as the hallway behind us. As we walked forward along the wall, I saw they were covered with large burial stones. And as we moved up the room a large table came within or sight, and a large wall behind it. The wall was in the shape of half a circle, bending around us, and there was an inscription on the wall. The letters were large and looked as if they had been carved into the wall by some large, sharp, tool. Almost as if they had been, clawed?... into the wall.

I didn't recognize the writing and symbols, I had never seen anything like it. Yet it seemed oddly familiar. I got a weird feeling looking at the inscription. Almost as if I was drawn to its meaning. I drew my fingers across the letters as I slowly walked along the wall. They seemed so familiar. Almost like a half-forgotten memory, or something. Something I had forgotten. But I didn't know what.

"Yol…" I mumbled as my fingers stopped on a specific letter. How did I?...

"Found it!" Farkas said out loud, interrupting my thoughts.

I turned my head towards Farkas in the darkness, but I couldn't help but gaze back at the inscription. I almost had to draw myself from the wall as I turned and walked over to the table where Farkas stood. He was holding an old piece of dark metal in his hand.

"This is your trial," Farkas said. "So you'll take it."

When I grabbed the piece from his hand a sudden uncomfortable warmth spread in my body, like saddened anger. I almost started to feel angry as I found myself clenching my teeth.

That dirty elf holds no place with the Companions. Who let him join in the first place? He'd be better off dead in the aches he so brag-fully crawled out from!

The thoughts rushed my mind as my knuckles turned white by how hard I had clenched my fists.

A metallic sound rang through the hall as I dropped the piece to the stone floor. Farkas gave me a surprised look as I confused lifted my head up at him. The Anger within me had soothed as quickly as it had arrived. I held no resentment towards Athis? Why had I for a second wanted him dead? Hadn't Farkas felt anything? Touching the piece?

Suddenly a loud slam interrupted us. Like a large stone plate falling over in the darkness and crashing to the floor.

We both tensed up, and stared into the darkness where the sound had come from. Farkas carefully drew his greatsword. Eyes into the darkness I leaned down to a squat, took a piece of cloth from my pocket and picked up the piece of Wuuthrad with it as to not let it touch my skin and placed it over my shoulder into my backpack. Whatever magic it held I didn't want it to enter me again.

As I rose back up I placed an arrow on the line and lifted my bow towards the darkness, focusing my senses and listened.

Something was out there. It sounded like footsteps… bare feet slowly walking in the darkness, one step at a time. ¨tap, tap, tap…¨

I focused my eyes and tried to see into the dark. Something was entering the light of my lantern. It looked like the contour of a man, but his outline was… to skinny.

Suddenly two dots of blue eyes glowed in the dark as the creature turned his head to stare at us. The sound of bare feet against the stone floor quickened as it suddenly came rushing towards us. As he came into the light of my lantern I could see it clearly. It was a man. But his skin was pale as snow, almost ghostly blue. He was all skin and bones, spine showing through his stomach, and except for some rags hanging around his waist, he was naked to his core. He had long bleached and dried hair waving over his shoulders and a thin beard hanging down his chest. His facial expression was dead. Yet his eyes were gaping open, piercing us with his glowing ice-blue stare.

I quickly took aim as he lifted his axe-wielding arm. He was still charging for us, surprisinlgy fast considering his skinny body. My arrow dug into his chest, but he kept running towards us as if nothing had happened. He didn't even flinch. I quickly pulled another arrow and let it loose. Again, piercing his chest to no effect. He was too close now, I could feel a sudden fear rush over me. I stepped back in panic as he was on top of me, tripping on a single stair step I fell on my ass and dropped my bow. The skinny man letting out a bone-chilling dry hollow screech as he swung his axe down toward me, mid sprint.

I screamed.

A greatsword swung over my head. Hitting the man in his waist, splitting him in two. His torso flew over my head as his legs fell in a pile over me.

"On your feet!" Farkas shouted as he stepped over to the torso, crushing the man's head with his heal.

Disgusted and afraid, I pushed the dry old legs aside and rose. My heart was hammering, the sound of smashing stone echoed in the chamber as more and more coffins fell open. The increasing sound of bare feet tapping against the stone floor could be heard all around us in the dark.

"They're Draugr," Farkas said with his back turned against mine. "Aim for their legs, break their skulls."

"Can you do that wolf thing again?!" I shouted. My heart was pounding as I drew my sword and stared into the dark, and I could feel a cold sweat break out on my forehead and back.

"No…" he answered as they all came into view.

They were everywhere. Toppling over each other as they came for us. Clawing at us with their bony fingers. Swinging old rusty swords and axes at us as their dried-up vocal cords summoning bone-chilling screeches and groans… They felt no pain. They felt no fear. And so they kept on coming.

I had lost count of how many Farkas and I had slain when we finally managed to fight our way up some stairs. Their degraded and dried up muscles had made them weak, and I found their light frame easily fell over from kicks and pushes. But their strength lied in numbers. Every time I managed to slay one, two seemed to have taken its place. And fearlessly they kept on coming.

Farkas shouted for me to run ahead as he lifted one of them up and threw the skinny body down the stairs, the others toppled down the stairs as they were hit by the thrown body. Falling on top of each other as they rolled down the stairs, giving us time to run.

As the two of us ran through the hallways towards the exit the sounds of tapping bare feet followed quickly behind us. Running in heavy armor made us slow, and the moaning and groaning were only getting closer.

We saw sunshine coming in from the tomb entrance. We were getting close. The drauger were toppling over each other so close behind us that I could feel them reaching for my back. And as they fell behind us, their bony fingers drew down our calves and heels. We sprinted out the door and quickly turned to shut it.

But they had stopped. The draugrs had all stopped in their tracks behind us. And for a moment they only stood there, looking at us with their icy blue glowing eyes and dead expressions. And in surprise, we looked back as they slowly turned and slowly walked back into the tomb. Still moaning and groaning, if slightly less so than before. Whatever necromancy had kept them awake, it had apparently done so with the sole purpose of keeping people out. And as the drauger had succeeded in doing so, they seemed to go back to their slumber.

Farkas and I looked at each other as we pushed shut the old Tombs stone door.

"We will sing of this." Farkas said with a smile. "You fought with honor, shield-brother."