If you like the story a review would be greatly appreciated or if you think this story is a load of shit then also go ahead and review it. Also you might notice that was a lot fucking faster then the last update, a whole four months faster.
Word count.
Original: 2,155
Re-write: 2,520
Chapter XIX
The Betrayed
Mortis
We walk through the cave slowly, trying to keep the noise to a minimum as we do. "He said they trapped them in the valleys and chantry itself." Serana whispers, speaking as lowly as she can. "How far until we reach them?" She mutters to herself.
"How long do you think it's been since he's been down here?" I ask her lowly, she looks like at me over her shoulder. "I wouldn't put much faith in them still being isolated to the valleys and chantry." I put my foot down and it slips slightly in some thick mud. I lift my foot up and the mud squelches with the movement, it sounds louder in the mostly silent cave. "We'll have to move slower."
I hear Serana sigh heavily. "The Falmer wouldn't have made it this far in." She mumbles, she looks at me again. "We're wasting time moving this slowly." She tells me.
I grab the hilt of my sword, tapping one of my fingers against it slightly. "We don't know that for certain." I tighten my grip slightly. "We don't want to get caught in a fight with the Falmer." I tell her, she stops walking and turns around properly this time. "They do more than just kill."
We move forward through the near pitch blackness, the darkness is oppressive, the only light source are clusters of glowing fungus. I try to keep an eye out for the tell-tale signs of the Falmer, Serana probably makes a better job of it then I do though. She moves almost silently, the only sound of her movement is the mud and grit that clutters the cave floor. Falmer may be blind but they react to any and every small sound that they hear and attack with extreme aggression.
There's a quiet scrambling noise.
"Stop." I whisper to Serana, I crouch down lower, letting my knee sink into the mud slightly. "Keep very still and very quiet." I tell her lowly, she looks at me and I mouth "Chaurus" to her. I see it stop at the end of one of the tunnels, its silhouette illuminated by the dull light coming from the plants. It's big, its tail reaching high up as it arches it over. It makes a quick clacking sound with its pincers before moving forward again.
We wait until the scrambling can't be heard before we begin moving again, still keeping very low. "Have you faced the Falmer before?" She asks me quietly, whispering close to my ear.
"Only stories." I tell her. "Very true stories." I look at her. "I try to give them a wide birth."
She opens her mouth to answer but shuts it at the sound of splashing water, a Falmer stands up in the water, it's hunched over form mostly hidden by shadows. It raises its head and opens and closes its mouth quickly, like its smelling the air through its mouth. A low grumbling comes from its throat, it turns its head and looks blindly in our direction. I hold my breath and tighten the grip on my sword, a small choking sound comes from the Falmer. Its lips pull back over its gum, showing the sharp wide spaced needle like teeth. Another step forward and its nails scrape along the rock. I edge away slightly, signalling Serana to head the other way round. The Falmer breathes heavily as its head whips around the room, searching for whatever it heard before.
I draw my sword, moving it slowly and edging the blade out to try and stop it from making any noise. It has its own weapon, a piece of bone snapped and sharpened at one end. We move as quickly as possible, making our way through the tunnel, it leads into a large cavern too dark to see the ceiling or most of the walls, just points lit up by those strange plants and fungi littered around. I edge round one of the walls, the Falmer growling slightly before doubling back on itself, there's more Falmer in the cavern, scattered around. There's a small fenced off pit in the middle of the cavern, chaurus inside, this is a very bad place to be.
Serana makes her move into the cavern properly still trying to keep as silent as possible, the Falmer crawls in as well, keeping very close to her as it does. The others turn at the noise it makes, the one behind Serana lets out a low guttural grunt. I let out a short breath as I try and move closer to keep up with her, the Falmer turns towards me, letting out a short high pitched squeal. I stand up straighter as it comes towards me, it brings its face close to mine, the spider web of veins covering its useless eyelids more noticeable this close. It opens the eyelids, the veins preventing them from opening fully, I can see its eyes now, milky and grey with a thin film of mucus on them.
It leans its head even closer, mouthing opening and closing again, its jaw shaking slightly. I bring my sword up slowly, get ready to strike. The sword lightly taps off the wall. It stops moving, takes a step back. I swing the sword down and embed the blade in its shoulder, close to the neck. It lets out a loud squeal and goes to stab with the bone, I pull out my hunting knife and stab it up through the eye. Its body seizes up and twitches a few times before it slumps to the ground with a loud thud.
Another squeal, followed by two more and before I can even register what's happening properly the cavern is filled with the deafening sound of the Falmer's squeals and Serana's grabbing my arm trying to get me to move. We move quickly as the cavern bursts to life with the Falmer's movement. The first one charges us head on, there's no sense of tactic not even a sense of self-preservation as it throws its body at me. It hits me hard, its superior weight winning as we both hit the hard stone, I manage to kick it off and scramble away as Serana grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet, the Falmer swinging wildly with an axe made of sharpened stone.
Serana tries to put the thing out of its misery but is attacked by another that jumps off of a bridge, it lands it front of her and swings a club down at her. The other gets up properly and swings the axe at me, I move back out of the way and try my best to parry the wild and frenzied attacks but I get caught on the defensive. This is bad, very fucking bad. We can't afford to get split up down here, I try to move around its attacks and get a few of my own in but three more of them close in around me, I can just make out more of them surrounding Serana.
One of them jumps at me and swings a large bone with a rock tied to the end at me, I raise my sword up above my head and get down lower, grabbing the blade with my left hand as the club connects with my sword. The force of the strike shakes my arms, my left arm drops down slightly with the weight behind the attack. It rears back to swing again and take my chance, my only chance and slash my sword into its stomach, the steel blade cuts through easily and spills its innards onto the floor between us. Its cries out and drops the club, grabbing me by the shoulders instead. It pulls me up with surprising strength for something with half its organs hanging out of its body, it opens its jaw wide as my face nears its own. I drive my hunting knife up through its throat and into the base of its skull. It stops moving as I push it away into two more of them and try to make a very desperate retreat.
A burst of flames flies between me and the Falmer as Serana uses her ice spears to keep them back. One of them charges through the flames and tries to swing an axe, I move out of the way of the strike and swing the blade only just missing my face. I swing my sword up and the blade connect with its chin, splitting its jaw open and throwing it down to the floor. Serana sends an ice spear through ones legs and makes it stumble into her, she quickly slams the dagger down into the back of its neck.
We back away from the group of Falmer I try and count them quickly, there's around twelve of them. My foot slips slightly and I move forward, I look behind us and see a ravine edge. Nowhere to run. I look around quickly, looking for any kind of escape route, there's a natural bridge made of stone that crosses the ravine. If we can make it that we might stand a chance of escaping. One of them lets out a blood curdling squeal and rushes to attack, I manage to move out of the way and let it fall into the ravine, its squeal echoing on its way down.
"We need to get there!" I shout to Serana pointing to the stone bridge, she nods and we start trying to make it, I hack at any Falmer that gets too close she uses any and all the spells she can think of to keep them at bay. If we can make it across we might just stand a fighting chance. One of them closes in very closely and swing my sword cutting straight through its neck, I fall down along with it, landing hard on my knees.
This is suicide, we can't keep going. I look up at the Falmer, there seems more than twelve now. They come out of the darkness and build up all around us, flames, ice and lightning keeps them back but only just and not forever. One gets very close it has a sharp bone its hand, I raise my hand in front of my face as it stabs down at me. I close my eyes as warm blood flies into my face, I open them slowly and the Falmer falls down with a massive tear in the bottom half of its face and the top of its throat. I blink a few times. "Mortis!" I turn my head and Serana's shouting at me, screaming at me. "Get up!" She screams. I grab my sword and climb back to my feet, I spit out the Falmer's blood and get ready to fight.
She drags me backwards onto the bridge, one of them stabs at me with what looks like a dwarven sword. I parry the attack and respond with my own, the blade cutting into the creature's skull and splitting the skull open with a sickening crack and a splatter of blood. The next two move up, I manage to sever one's hand and punch the other one as hard as I can. The one with the missing hand comes into attack with the other hand but I manage to kick it off the side. The other one goes to get up but I smash my pommel into the top of its skull to keep it down, I flip my blade round and stab down through the top of its head. I stumble back as Serana uses what must be everything she can summon up and collapses the bridge. I turn around as the rock starts to crack and crumble, I dive into Serana and throw us both onto the other side of the ravine as the bridge completely falls into the darkness below.
I roll over onto my back as the last of the Falmer tumbles down into the ravine, the rest of them on the opposite side squeal at us. I pant quite heavily Serana sits up next to me. "We should move." She mutters, I nod slowly.
We sit down by a small stream of water that's coming through a large crack in the rock. Serana cleans off her dagger and I pull my gloves off and wipe the blood off my face, there's a slight breeze so at least we know we're heading in the right direction. I pull my sword out and start to wipe the blood off the blade.
"Are you alright?" Serana asks me quietly. I look up at her, she's watching me closely. "Thought I lost you back there." She adds, I look back down and start wiping the blade again. "When you fell, I wasn't too sure if you were going to get back up."
I look up at this. "I got back up." I tell her shortly. This is path best not walked.
She nods slowly and I look back down to my sword. "Still time yet." She says quietly, I look up at her but this time she's looking down.
She's right there is still plenty of time for me to fall and the next time I do I might not make it back to my feet, still I have to keep trying. I look down at the bloodied sword blade, even with the blood gone it's never really gone. The wound can heal but you'll still be left with a scar, I clench my left hand into a fist, maybe it won't even heal.
"I won't." I tell her. "I can't promise I won't but I won't." She looks up at this, she nods this time with some more resolve. I told her I'd get her home, I'm going to follow through with that. It's all I've got left. I get back to my feet, put my sword away. "We should keep going." She gets to her feet as well.
We start walking in the direction of the draft. "I don't need you to promise." She tells me. "I trust you." She looks round at me, she passes me a small stone. "You might need this." She starts to walk away.
I hold the small whetstone in my hand, I think I will.
"Over here!" She calls, I look round to see her climbing around an outcrop of rock. I begin to walk over to her and she disappears from sight. I climb out and around to see her standing there, I can feel the cold wind on my face as soon as get out of the cave. "The Vale." She mutters.
I look out at the snow covered valley, there's some deer down the way. Now we just have to find the chantry. Hopefully we can find it before the sun rises.
If you liked that or hated it let me know in a quick review. Especially about the fight with the Falmer because I'm not so sure if I like it too much, I think it probably could've turned out a bit better but then again it could've been a lot worse.