Jul
Lucius
I stood outside of Darkfall cave, still angry. Serana and I, immediately after delivering Dorthe to her cousin, had gone off to collect the Runic Warhammer from its resting place. After events revolving around a haunted brothel and waking up naked, Maickally hungover, and chained to a bed with Serana sleeping next to me that, honestly, I don't think I'll get into with you right now, we finally completed our task. We had all three Runic weapons and made our way back to Isran by the end of the week.
He, in turn, alerted us that the bitch hadn't been back to camp yet. "They're planning something," Isran had growled.
"To betray us, no doubt," Serana had replied before I could. "Though, they are bloodsuckers."
Isran's mouth twitched at that one; he was starting to like Serana despite his attempts to the contrary. "Aye. Which means we should start to plan our betrayal," Isran had replied, glancing at me and expecting I launch into a tirade about honor.
I shrugged in agreement instead. "Honor around Thera usually ends with my friends dead," I had said simply. "So we go for the bow. If she isn't back yet..."
"That means she doesn't have it. Despite their desires to betray us, they would share that knowledge," Serana had finished, nodding her head as she did. "After all, as a Vampire, I can say that the creatures of the night want Lamae dead just as quickly as the mortals do."
"Then go get it," Isran suggested.
Which leads me back to here. Two weeks out from delivering Dorthe and wondering if I should risk going in and passing Thera on her way back out – thus losing our first, best chance at the bow. Or should I stay out here and wait for her, potentially risking that she had not yet arrived. "Well, if we go in and she's already been here, it means that she's killed everything that's ahead of us and we can catch up," Serana pointed out from beside me.
I nodded. That was true. "And if everything's dead, we'll be in and out a lot faster than she had been," Serana continued.
"You really want to go into the cave that badly?" I asked, staring sidelong at the woman.
"Hey, I'm getting a sunburn here, 'Mr. Mortal," Serana said, pulling her hood lower over her head. "Not all of us can have warm, delicious blood pumping through our veins."
"Well, that wasn't creepy," I said, earning a laugh from Serana. I sighed. "But you're right. We need to go in there – at least to find anything else Magickal and powerful that she would have passed over."
"Glad we're on the same page," Serana said, pulling her hood down and walking into the cave.
"We aren't on the same page about the blood thing, though," I called down.
"Hey, if I wanted your blood I'd be drinking it," Serana said. "Though, I haven't wanted any lately. Maybe you're rubbing off on me, you mortal weirdo."
"Oh, shucks. I bet you gorgeous psychopaths say that to all of us formerly insane assassins," I said, following her into the darkness.
"Ha. Nope, just you," Serana replied.
"Aw, I feel so special," I said as the shadows enveloped me.
Fahiil
Thera
That Snow Elf – disgusting. He wouldn't even keep the name of his people – the name of the Elf. 'Falmer,' the name an elf gives to their people. He had instead taken the name of Snow Elf, the bastardization of the mere translation of his people's name into Nibenese. I understand now why the Falmer were driven to extinction by the feeble fools that were the humans – they were weak and moronic fools that were so powerless and unworthy that they don't even deserve the smallest fragment of pity that I could possibly try and summon. Only a fool would hand over the superiority of our kind to the weakness of humanity. I had considered cutting him down then and there, but that would have only hampered my progress towards the Bow. He was apparently the guardian of the Path of Sun or some other nonsense named road like that.
So now I was walking through a sun-filled glade full of forest creatures. It looked like a gods-damned painting in a children's book. Just to clear my thoughts, I decapitated a deer as it ran by, taking in its blood as the red fluid shot into the air. "Better," I muttered to myself as I stepped past the puddle of blood on the ground and continued through the valley.
I'm sure that the valley was, ugh, "beautiful," but that didn't really matter to me. The bow was here – I could feel its all encompassing burn from all around. It felt as if it wanted me to leave, to run and hide and abandon any attempt at claiming it for myself. But that would not happen. Besides, this would make it all the sweeter to take the weapon and make its purpose that of darkness. To destroy the Sun with its own weapon – how deliciously ironic.
I made my way through the valley, easily scaring off the frostbite spiders that came too close. It wasn't long before I had made my way to the many shrines to "Auri-El" that scattered this first half of the valley's opening. Each one was guarded by the spirit of a Snow Elf – for they did not even deserve that I call them by their true name – who was annoyingly preachy and religious. Good for them they were already dead, or they would have soon found their heads separated from their bodies. Eventually, I approached a frozen lake on my path to the last few shrines necessary to opening the path towards the Bow.
"Something feels... wrong," I muttered to myself as I approached the edge of the ice. Light danced off of the surface of the lake, blurring my vision and burning my skin. Even still, however, I could see the large shadow that danced beneath the thin layer of frost. I instinctively took a step forward. "What... are y -" I screamed in surprise and anger as I was suddenly hit by a large, hard, scaly object. I slammed my fist, still – Bal be praised – clutching one of my swords, into the thing that had attacked me. I barely maneuvered out of the path of a ball of flames, sliding down the neck of the creature. "Dragon!"
This creature, I noticed as I grabbed onto one of the spines on its back so as to not tumble hundreds of meters to my death, was a different breed of dragon that the ones I had seen before. It had a thin layer of skin sticking out from the top of its body that seemed to catch the air and hasten its flight. Aside from a few spines running along its back, it was much smoother a dragon than the ones I had fought so far, made for quick movement. Swimming too, it seemed. Worse still, this creature was ancient and powerful, a clever being that had survived the aeons of the Blades and Men annihilating them. Still, it would be no match for me, I was sure.
I took the sword I still had in my hand and swung it around, burying the glass tip in the hide of the dragon where its wing met its back. The dragon shrieked in its language, "Ulfah ruth!" I hung on even as its wing flapped lamely, coming close to slamming me aside many times towards an icy, watery grave. However, I did not fall. We both tumbled downwards, crashing through a word wall that had been standing beside the frozen lake. I was finally thrown off the dragon's back, a block of the wall crashing into me and sending me skidding along the ice.
"Ruth!" I spat, scrabbling to stand. I saw my other sword nearby and dove for it, standing and turning towards the dragon once again. Unfortunately, just as I stood, the ice below me cracked and exploded outwards. Thankfully, this time I was not directly in the dragon's path and I was instead thrown aside on a block of ice that was thrown out by its body as it rose. This time, I was able to flip midair and land on my feet, sliding across the surface of the ice to glare at the two dragons. One – the injured dragon – shrieked at me and stumbled backwards, the sword in its shoulder unbalancing it. The other, so similar to the first that I was sure they were twins, launched a fireball towards me. I sprinted sideways, out of the flames' path. There was a hiss as the ice where I had stood melted then boiled into steam.
"So, Dovahkiin, you finally grace us with your presence," one of the two dragons hissed as I panted. It growled, low and shaking the ice below it. "So, I take it that this means Alduin is gone?"
I scoffed. "Almost two years ago, now," I replied, standing straight but ready to bolt. "He died like a coward and fool, running from a fight."
The injured dragon laughed. "Indeed?" he asked. He laughed again. "As we knew it would be – he feared your kind the most, Dovahkiin. He claimed to fear no mortal, but the mere thought of Dragonborn turned the king's blood to ice."
"Then he never changed, I suppose," I said. I frowned. "Why have you not yet attacked again?"
"It is not often we see another of our kind. Mortal you may be, but hi lost sil do Dovah."
I nodded. "Indeed. I bet it is," I remarked. Then I readied my blade for battle again. "But am no mere dragon – you are beneath me, pest."
The dragon shrieked in rage, firing off another blast of flames that I jumped over, running just in front of the cracks that erupted across the ice. I slid beneath the bite of the dragon – the injured one – and thrust my sword upward. The glass tip pierced the soft undeflesh of the dragon's throat, slicing through its neck and into its chest. The dragon shuddered for a moment, then its disappearing body collapsed on top of me. Hm. Perhaps not the best idea.
"No. It seems you are beneath my brother," the other dragon snapped, eyes wide and full of hate. It took in breath, the rumblings of Words in its throat.
Then a bolt of lightning flew through the air and the dragon's flesh melted away, its body flying through the valley and crashing into snow and stone on the ravine wall. There was an echoing crack as its bones snapped and rock cracked from the force of the blow.
There was only one who could do that. "What, you didn't trust me?" I asked as I maneuvered my way, slowly, from beneath the dragon's bones. The wind whirled as the second dragon's soul flowed through the air towards him, the movement whipping the woman's hair beside him into a frenzy.
"I trust you," Lucius growled, a Dragonbone sword burning in one hand and a storm of sparks flying in every direction from his other, "about as much as the Greybeards trust me."
I smiled at that. "Oh?" I asked, grinning evilly. "They still not like their extra Dragonborn who killed Paarthurnax?"
Atmoran's eyes flared and the lightning in his palm danced dangerously. "Don't test me."
"Why test one beneath me?" I asked, still smiling. I sighed and turned to point up the ravine. "We need to head up there to get the bow. Are you coming or staying here?"
AN: Sorry that was a bit shorter than usual, but this is just setup for the big fights in the next two chapters. Vyrthur, obviously, in the first. And I'll let you guess who number 2 is.
