Chapter Two
As they walked Hadvar chatted about various things, he pointed out a place he called Bleak Fall Barrow. Hadvar told tales of how as a kid he had nightmares of the place and that Draugr would come down and attack the village. When Harry asked what Draugr were Hadvar gave him a side glance before he explained that it was an undead creature who liked to roam the crypts.
As they continued on they came across three standing stones that Hadvar called the guardian stones, these stones apparently helped people learn certain skill sets faster, Harry picked the wizard stone since that was what he was.
Soon enough they arrived in Riverwood where Hadvar led him to his home where Hadvar's parents were kind enough to let him stay for a few days to get over the ordeal of the dragon attack before he made his journey to the Riften Orphanage, or be a beggar if he so chose. They did mention they would have someone deliver a message to whiterun's Jarl. Whoever that was.
That night he fell asleep on the bed, which wasn't the most comfortable, though he supposed it was more comfortable than the bed he used to have in his cupboard. Though that wasn't hard, even with this bed being made of straw. The next day he woke up and was allowed to take part in the breakfast. Then they suggested he go explore the town. So he went out and started exploring. A couple hours later he had a pretty good layout of the place, though he was still confused by just how medieval the village seemed.
Eventually he ran into a guy with blonde hair who was holding a letter, the guy blinked and Harry apologized as he had been distracted by his thoughts. "It's no problem kid, say could you do me a favor?"
"Sure," Harry agreed easily enough.
"I have a letter from Faendal, that needs to be delivered to Camilia."
"Camilia?" He questioned the guy idly wondering what kind of instrument was on the man's back.
"The sister of the general good store owner."
Harry nodded, "Alright, I'll deliver the letter for you."
So he was handed the letter and then he went off to the general goods store. As he walked in he heard an argument between two people. Apparently something had been stolen from them. He waited for the argument to stop before he went to Camilia, "Excuse me miss, but I was asked to give this letter to you."
"Oh? Who by?"
"A guy with blonde hair said it was from someone called Faendal."
"Really?" She hummed as she took and read the letter. "Oh dear…"
Something in the letter seemed to upset her. "You said a guy with blonde hair asked you to give this to me?"
Harry nodded.
"Did he give you his name?"
"No ma'am."
She frowned before asking, "Did he have a lute on his back?"
Was that what the stringed instrument he had seen? Assuming so he answered positively. Camilia frowned, "What is Sven playing at, to fake a letter from Faendal? Does he really think he can win my affections with deception?"
Harry stood there awkwardly not wanting to leave without being dismissed, but also not sure what to think about what she had said.
"Would you please find Faendal for me and bring him here?" She asked, giving him a small smile.
"What does he look like, and where can I find him?"
"He should be around the sawmill, he is a bosmer archer so he shouldn't be too hard to spot."
Silently Harry wondered what a bosmer was, but decided he would find out if he just searched around. He didn't want to ask too many questions and annoy people. Exiting out the building he went to the sawmill area and started looking around for anyone with bow and arrows.
After ten or so minutes of wandering around he finally spotted someone with a bow on his back. The man though had pointed ears… was that what Camilia meant by Bosmer?
"Pardon me sir, are you Faendal?"
The man smiled, "Yes I am."
"Camilia requested that I bring you."
The man's smile became wider if possible, "Well let's go then."
So they went back to the general good store, though Harry wondered if he really had to be there. He half listened as Camilia told him about the letter that Sven had tried to forge.
He then overheard her telling Sven about the break in, that some thieves had stolen the ornament, and that her brother wouldn't let her go after them. Sven then offered to go get the claw for her.
Immediately her expression turned worried, "By yourself?"
"Sure, I'll be fine, I'll keep my distance and just take the claw back."
"I don't know… I don't want you getting hurt…" She replied worriedly.
Faendal gave a smile, "I promise I'll be safe."
"Oh alright, but take someone with you to watch your back."
Faendal gave a nod and exited out. Camilia turned to him, "Thank you for your help so far, here are a few coins for your help." She said handing him a small pouch that jingled, she hesitated a moment before asking, "Can you please make sure he takes someone with him?"
Happy to be able to help he agreed. He turned and left and looked down the road to see Faendal heading off the road. The man went right past the gate, not stopping, nor was anyone else with him. Harry sighed and jogged to catch up to the man who looked surprised to see him. "Camilia asked that I make sure you have someone with you."
"You can come with me then, it shouldn't be too difficult."
"But… isn't it dangerous?" Harry questioned.
Faendal shrugged, "Not particularly, I will sneak into their camp at night when they've drunken themselves to sleep and take the golden claw back. It'll be fine."
"If you say so…" Harry dubiously agreed.
Harry reluctantly followed Faendal up the path, he was a Gryffindor, wasn't he? So he shouldn't be such a coward.
He followed behind Faendal and the man began to point out a few plants. Everything here was strange, about the only thing that looked familiar were the trees. Faendal suddenly grimaced, "Looks like some bandits took over the watchtower, we'll have to bypass them to get to Bleak Falls Barrow."
"How will we do that?" Harry asked following Faendal's example of crouching behind a rock.
"I'll snipe the watchers, that'll give us a minute or two to get past the tower before the realize what's going on."
"Wait.. you mean kill them?" Harry questioned alarmed.
"They're bandits, either we kill them, or they'll kill us," Faendal answered as if killing someone was acceptable. Was it though? This was an unknown place, somewhere he knew that was far away from Hogwarts. If Riverwood was any indication, then this place he was at was some sort of medieval place, which meant killing wouldn't be seen as wrong, at least not killing people who were considered bandits or outlaws.
Harry watched, his feelings conflicted, as Faendal took out the two bandits. The stronger part of him was horrified at the taking of a life, that it was wrong and illegal. Yet, a smaller part of him thought that if the bandits were not strong enough to survive then they should be hunted like the prey they were.
He followed Faendal as they quickly made their way past the tower, shoving away his feelings for the moment. Once they got the claw back then he could think over everything he had learned.
They continued up the trail, keeping close to the rocks and Faendal quietly pointed out the bandit sentries. There were two or three on watch that they could spot patrolling around, and Faendal said he was sure there was at least another two that were hidden.
The duo waited another hour as the sun fell before creeping closer to try and figure out which bandit had the golden claw. They listened to the bandits who were gathered around a fire, drinking. "How long do you think Arvel and the others will take with that claw?"
"Too long," Another grumbled. "If he doesn't hurry it up I'm going to cut that dark elf's ears off."
"Seems like the claw is inside of the barrow," Faendal whispered.
The two used the cover of the darkness to sneak past the bandits towards the door of the barrow, which they carefully opened a crack to slip through. Once inside they heard two voices talking.
"The dark elf wants to go on ahead, let him. Better than us risking our necks." A female voice spoke.
"What if Arvel doesn't come back? I want my share from that claw!" A male voice protested.
"Just shut it and keep an eye out for trouble."
"Harrumph, I don't trust that dunmer, I say we go in deeper."
"Do you think he has any other way to go besides coming back out this way?"
"I've heard that these places contain secret exits."
"If you want to get yourself killed going on in then go ahead."
With that the male bandit went through the door. Harry watched as Faendal notched an arrow and let it lose, piercing the female bandit through her neck. She collapsed to the ground gurgling a moment as she tried to breathe.
Faendal stepped forward and grasped a coin pouch that was on her hip. He dumped the small coins into his pouch, except for a couple which he handed to Harry. He put the coins in his pouch even as he watched Faendal pick the lock to the chest. "Here, put this potion in your bag," Faendal said handing him the red potion.
Harry nodded and put the health potion with his other in his bag. The two walked further into the barrow only encountering a few giant rats that Faendal called skeevers. Eventually they saw that the bandit who left the female was with another bandit and they were standing over a lever. "You sure that thing is safe to pull?"
"Yeah, it's fine, otherwise Arvel would have been here," The other bandit responded and pulled the lever. The two were dead soon as a bunch of arrows flew out of the walls and hit the two.
Faendal snorted, "Doesn't seem safe to me, there must be some way to get past though."
Harry eyed the walls and the carvings he saw, carvings with designs that seemed close to the ones on the pillars. Curious he went to the pillars and pushed one, finding that it could turn. Faendal seemed to realize as well as they quickly spun the other one to match the symbols that had been on the wall.
Faendal gestured for him to take a few steps back as he went to the lever. He pulled it quickly stepping back in case the arrows came out again. No arrows did as the gate opened up.
The two made their way down and soon came across webbing that gave Harry a feeling of dread, he was really starting to hate spiders. He couldn't even do anything to fight it off, he had no wand and he knew nothing about this place's magic. When they entered the room a giant spider, as big as Aragog had come down from the roof. "Stay back, I'll take care of this frostbite spider."
"No problem," Harry replied with wide eyes as the spider went to attack Faendal. The man shot an arrow and dashed a few steps quickly notching another arrow and shooting before dashing away again. He kept this up keeping just out of reach of the spider.
Eventually it fell down dead.
"You. Over here! You did it. You killed it. Now cut me down before anything else shows up," the man shouted, his skin was dark and Harry could make out pointed ears. The bandits had referred to the man as a dunmer, a dark elf, did that mean that there were species of elves, and if so was a bosmer the name of another type of elf?
"Where's the golden claw?" Faendal questioned.
"Yes, the claw. I know how it works. The claw, the markings, the door in the Hall of Stories. I know how they all fit together! Help me down, and I'll show you. You won't believe the power the Nords have hidden there."
Faendal shook his head, "I don't care about the treasure, I just want the golden claw."
Arvel snorted, "Fine sure yeah, I'll give you the claw, just let me down."
Harry didn't believe the guy, carefully taking a sniff of the air he could smell the stench of nervousness coming off the elf heavily. Faendal seemed of the same mind as he carefully took out a dagger and started to cut down the man, keeping the blade close enough to strike if the man sought to attack them after being freed.
The man collapsed onto the floor and a split second later he took off running down the hall, taunting them as he shouted back "You fool, why should I share the treasure with anyone?"
Faendal and Harry rushed after the thief, Harry easily managed to keep up with Faendal's longer strides. They paused though as they heard a yelp and they watched as zombie looking creatures rushed after Arvel who fled running but was stopped dead as a spiked gat swung out and impaled him, his body sticking to the gate as it swung back. Blood dripped out of the man's body.
Harry flinched back at the gruesome sight, but he had larger problems to worry about as the zombie creatures turned to them. "Damn. Draugr."
Faendal quickly took to shooting them, the draugr falling dead one after another with his shots. After all of the undead were dead they made their way closer to Arvel, Faendal telling him to watch where he stepped. Once the two spotted the pressure plate they avoided it. Faendal grimaced as he searched through Arvel's bag finding the claw and a journal.
"We got the claw, we should head back now," Faendal stated.
Harry nodded. Both turned to head back the way they came when they heard voices. "Come on, we need to find that dark elf. He took too damn long and I won't have him trying to skip out on our payment."
Faendal and Harry glanced at each other, both thinking that it was the 5 or so bandits they had snuck past outside. The two started heading deeper into the Barrows. They came across more draugr, but the zombies were easy to take care of, fire from the oil or a couple arrows was enough to take them down. They soon encountered a swinging axe trap.
"We got to be careful and time our steps right," Faendal whispered.
Hearing shouting voices behind him and rushing footsteps Harry gulped, "I don't think we have much time."
"I'll go first, wait until I'm through, there might be a way to deactivate them on the other side." Faendal said eyeing the axes as they swung. He carefully rushed forward stopping in between the two swinging axes before continuing on. Once on the other side he turned to the wall and stopped the axes from swinging. Harry dashed through with quiet footsteps and Faendal reactivated the trap. The two quietly made their way through the large room, avoiding any of the coffin looking stones.
The two stuck to the shadows as shooting came from the axes and the draugrs moved to the bandits who were following after them. It cleared the path for the two of them to continue on, going through a few more halls and fighting off a couple more draugr. Eventually though they came across a large door that seemed locked. "This must be what that Dunmer was talking about, here, skim through his journal, I'll keep an eye for any trouble."
Harry nodded and grabbed the journal, trying to read it, but finding the handwriting it was written in hard to read. It took him longer than it probably should have to figure out that the markings on the door had to match the markings on the claw.
He spun the markings and then pushed the claw into the door and spun it, once he pulled it out the door made a grinding noise as it slid down. When it opened Harry paused stumbling a bit as he felt a tugging sensation, similar to the one he had gotten from the Chamber of Secrets.
A/n: I finally posted another chapter of this. I got into a bit of a mood to write this, and I hope you enjoy. I do believe Faendal has some serious apologizing to do to the adventure he accidentally got Harry into. One thing I want to make mention of is that Salazar's Journal was written in Parseltounge. Hope you enjoyed this update, and I will try to update this story a lot sooner than half a year. See y'all next update!