Pyrophobia

Within the hour, Hadvar had me so-so healed and able to stand without falling again. I'd refused help constantly, hating his overly-caring tone and how he seemed to just want to help. He was treating me like a child, saying that he was too dangerous for 'someone like me' to come up to the Barrow alone.

"What do you mean 'someone like me'?" I hissed, flashing my fangs and narrowing my eyes. Hadvar's face looked horrified as he realized he'd said the wrong thing to the wrong person.

"Just…you're…not as strong as a full-Nord, Goddy," The nickname rolled off his tongue and I was on him in an instant, pinning his shoulders to the ground and hissing, curing at him in my father's language.

"Don't you ever call me that again you scum," I snarled. "And don't you dare underestimate me. I let my guard down for one moment. If I hadn't, you wouldn't have needed to come to my rescue. If you ever patronize me like that again, you'll have your throat ripped out!"

Hadvar nodded frantically, looking fearfully at my fangs and feeling my claws dig into his shoulders. I glared one last time and let him up, not offering to help him stand when he remained sitting on the floor. He was a strong full Nord. He could get himself up from the floor.

"I'm going to come with you," Hadvar said, standing uneasily. "You need protection. That's not patronizing, it's a fact."

I hissed, "Fine. But only because you'll stalk me anyway. Give me back my axe. I'll have to wash the Imperial stink off of it before I use it again."

I washed the blood off of the axe, cleaning the wrapped grip thoroughly before I was satisfied, hefting it over my shoulder and holding it there with one hand. I motioned for him to continue into the cavern and he stepped into the passage first. I let him lead because if he were to find a trap of some sort, it would mean he'd be out of my hair and would die thinking he actually helped me somehow.

We ventured into the dusty rooms and I wasn't surprised to find unrest among the dead in such a place. The drunkards seemed to have gone too far and a group of Draugr. Hadvar seemed too shocked to see the cursed Nords devouring the bandits, but I'd seen far worse in my lifetime and simply went in to kill them. They were more difficult than game or bears, but nothing compared to a dragon.

I found that if I compared each battle I had to a dragon, it seemed much easily in comparison.

When the Draugr were dead, I heard a gurgling sound and looked around for another, only to see one of the bandits hadn't died yet. She seemed to be in a lot of pain, her eyes having lost the glazed look of intoxication and become sober and agonized. I leaned down, dropping my axe on the ground and taking her head in my hands.

"May the Nine bless you," I whispered, my hands moving quickly and snapping her neck. I closed her eyelids and set her head back on the ground, looting her and her partner's bodies for gold.

"That's good morals," Hadvar said coldly. "A mercy killing, a Divine's blessing, and then stealing from the dead. Is that a skill the Stormcloaks taught you?"

"My dead mother, actually," I said calmly. "You know, the one whose death was caused by the Imperials?"

We were quiet after that, not even speaking when another group of Draugr attacked. We just killed them silently, trying to avoid looking at each other. Unfortunately, Hadvar was smarter than I thought and threw a Draugr axe on anything that looked like a trap. They were always things I could've spotted and avoided on my own, but he always smirked like he'd saved my life. Maybe he hadn't seen the dagger on my thigh…? I think I could get away with stabbing him and blaming the undead.

"Wait," I said, stopping him. "Look at that."

We stumbled upon a large room with pots hanging from the ceiling just above pools of purple liquid. The Draugr in the room had heard us coming and attacked in the corridor, so it was empty save for Hadvar and I. What had those hired men said when they returned?

"Purple fire," I muttered. I ordered Hadvar to step back and took the knife from my other sleeve. I aimed carefully and threw it at the rope holding the pot over the floor. The pot fell and the purple liquid ignited, burning bright and hot. "It's best to let it all burn off. We don't know if it's caused by flame or impact."

Hadvar agreed, lending me his bow so I could knock all of the pots down. We climbed the steps, stopping every few minutes to wait for a fire to put itself out, and all but wandered around until we came to a hall. There were spider webs everywhere, so I took my axe and held it defensively.

"Frostbite Spiders," I muttered. "Damn creepy. Too many eyes."

I had to cut through a thick layer of web and stopped. We'd stumbled upon a nest. It was different from the one I'd seen in Helgen Keep, where it was a little larger than this, because there was no spider that I could see. Usually, the infantile spiders would attack you as soon as you approached their nest, but nothing moved.

"Help me! For the love of Mara, get me down from here before it comes back!"

I stepped forward, "Arvel? What in Oblivion?"

"You know him?"

Arvel looked up hopefully, "Godrael! Thank the Divines, you're here! Save me, it's coming back!" He looked up at the high ceiling and whimpered.

A large Frostbite descended from a web built high into the cavern. It landed in front of me and I hit it with my axe on instinct. It had already been injured, but I still didn't let it get near me unless I had my axe ready to swing. It fell once I got a hit to its head, and I resolved to clean the spider gunk off of my blade later.

"Hadvar," I said, seeing he was still standing near the entrance.

"You know a thief."

"You know a Stormcloak," I replied, moving forward to free Arvel. I started working at the webs, slowly but surely getting him out. "How'd you end up here, Arvel?"

"I stole something from a shop. The owners were so stupid, keeping a Golden Claw for decoration."

"You have the Golden Claw?" I asked calmly, sounding like I was making conversation. "Do you know what it does?"

"Not off the top of my head," I don't doubt that. Arvel was never that bright. "But I wrote it down in my journal. If I get good coin off of it, I'll give you some. Since we're partners and everything. What've you been up to all these years?"

"I've lived in a village near the border of Cyrodiil. Hunting. Fishing. You know, the whole deal."

"How's your mother?"

"Dead."

Arvel tsk'd, "Such a shame. She was a good woman. Your father still locked up?"

"They probably executed him, Arvel. It's been what…ten, eleven years? But yeah, if he isn't dead, still locked up."

"Damn shame."

"Hm."

I finished loosening the webs and Arvel fell. He grinned when I helped him up and pulled me into a hug, which I returned.

"Arvel, this is Hadvar. He's an Imperial bastard that followed me down here. Hadvar, this is Arvel. We knew each other as children."

"How?" Hadvar asked, seeming to not believe I knew a criminal.

"We were both refugees and my mother made friends with his mother. I taught him how to sneak, he taught me how to pick locks. Friendship."

"Yeah, you were always good at that. We'd better get moving, those eggs look suspicious."

Arvel was probably being paranoid, but we continued anyway. I hoped Hadvar was shocked enough to just stand there and eventually be devoured by baby spiders, but he followed. Arvel and I caught up while we walked. Apparently, he'd gotten into quite a bit of trouble after we parted ways and he ended up in jail a couple of times. A guy in jail gave him a book—he was insane, and had said it would protect Arvel from the ear mammoths—that talked about the Golden Claw. One thing led to another and he stole the claw from Lucan, and came here. His mother, apparently, was still in a refugee village near the mountains, but Arvel was slightly worried that a dragon might attack the settlement.

"By the way," He said. "Where'd you get that fancy axe?"

"I killed a dragon for the Jarl of Whiterun and he made me his Thane."

"You mean his bitch."

"The words are interchangeable."

We both laughed and Hadvar made a noise behind us. I didn't acknowledge him and just kept talking with Arvel.

"What did you find out about this place?"

"Well," He said, scratching his chin. "There's a special hall somewhere near here that has a puzzle door. The claw has the pattern that's needed to open it. As soon as I get that door open, I'll be able to find out what's so special about this place."

We eventually reached that door. I aided Arvel in opening it and pushing on. Hadvar continued to make disgruntled noises, but he was ignored. I started to tell Arvel about the drunkards in the entrance, and he sheepishly admitted that they were with him, before he got ahead of them, that is. When I got around to my attempted rape/homicide, his face drained.

"If I'd known that you'd be here, I would've called him off," Arvel said.

"I know."

Arvel, despite his less than honest background, had never done a friend bad—unless they were never really a friend, that is, but we'd been partners since we were kids. He was loyal, which was a good quality in a criminal if you didn't want to be found floating face-down in a river. Arvel had, obviously, learned this early on. Any mention of betrayal I mentioned from my past, he scoffed at as if it were the only law that mattered anymore.

We stopped talking only to kill one of the residents of the crypt or to navigate treacherous bridges. When we came upon the main chamber, Arvel stopped me.

"Might be something valuable here, let's look around."

I searched around the raised platform with him, sniffing around the coffin to make sure nothing would pop up. Nothing smelled too living, so I continued to search. I looted the chest and walked over to the great stone wall. I heard Arvel climb onto the platform and start searching around, attempting to break into the coffin.

The closer I got to the wall, the less control I had over my own body. My legs had begun to move on their own, dragging me closer and closer to the carvings. They were meaningless slashes and lines, but I felt like they were something to read. Something that was to be understood for centuries to come. Something alive that had to be kept alive.

The lines in front of me glowed when I stopped, and I felt something hit my chest. I was breathless, unable to move as I heard wind rushing in my ears. I couldn't hear anything for what seemed like hours. Eventually, the wind subsided and I could hear. I turned to see that Arvel had stopped trying to work on the coffin and was staring at me.

"What was that?" He asked. I saw Hadvar entering the room, brought on by the noise from the wind.

"I'm not…Really sure."

There was a crack and Arvel backed away from the coffin as whatever was inside stirred. Too late did I realize that a large and powerful Draugr had hidden itself away. It threw a weapon and Arvel fell, blood pouring from the wound on his back. I ran to him, but he was already dead.

I wanted to stop and get his body somewhere safe, but the Draugr no longer had an interest in him. It stared at me for a few moments before it stumbled forward and let out a horrible, inhuman noise. I drew my axe and moved forward to meet it. I hit it in the neck, and it caught my hip with its sword. I repeatedly beat it with my axe without knowledge of what I was really doing. I just wanted it to die.

I felt the tip of the sword pierce my leg and inhaled. Without meaning to, or even really knowing what was going on, I spoke a work I'd never heard before, and it felt powerful.

"FUS—" A powerful blast of air came from my throat, and the Draugr fell, stumbling off of the platform and cracking its neck, severing its head from the rest of its body. It was dead.

"What was that?" Hadvar asked breathlessly.

"I'm getting really tired of that question."

Hadvar nodded, but didn't approach. I stood shakily, hissing when I felt the pain in my leg, and limped to where the Draugr had fallen. I looted the body for all it had, and found a strange tablet. I stuck it in my bag and stood again, walking to Arvel's corpse and kneeling beside it.

"Arvel, my friend," I said quietly, removing his bag and coin purse. "I'll see you in the afterlife."

"You're just going to take his money?" Hadvar asked. I didn't like the edge in his tone, as if I were below him.

"This was a deal Arvel and I made as children, you fucking idiot. If one of us dies, the other will take his possessions and do what he wishes with them. What's he going to do with them now? He's dead."

Hadvar didn't talk. I stood and walked away, finding the exit.

"If you're coming, I'd get a move on," I said, looking at the distant light that showed the outside world. I heard Hadvar move towards me, so I left the cave. The fresh air felt good and I felt the blood trickle down my thigh. I could get patched up at home, but I still remembered Hadvar's attitude in the beginning, and refused to show weakness. I didn't need a dim-witted Nord doting over me like a crazy mother.

Well, at least I didn't like it when Hadvar did it. He always made it seem like I was something to be pitied and coddled. Ralof made it seem like he was making me take help, forcing a meal into my hand and telling me that if I kicked him while he bandaged me I'd pay with blood. He never made me stay in bed more than a day or two, and always made me get up and move around the moment I could.

"I'm going home," I said stiffly. "No one is to know that you were with me. Don't talk to me. Don't even look at me. And so help me by the Divines if I hear you talking about Arvel to anyone with an ill tone I will slaughter you myself."

Hadvar seemed to get the message and sat down on a rock, waiting patiently for me to get a head start so we wouldn't enter town together.

"And thank you. I didn't want or need your help, but I accept that it happened. Just don't do it again."

With that, I turned away. I could feel Hadvar staring after me until I was out of his line of vision. I shot a few wolves and caught a deer for meat and some new leather. I'd promised Frodnar a new bow, so I found a flexible tree and broke off a branch. I would shape and carve it later, and bow string wasn't that hard to find. Gerdur would appreciate some plants to go with dinner, and Hod might like the special Mead that Arvel had given me…

I spent the rest of the night picking edible plants and skinning the animals. I didn't get into town until the sun rose, so I'd be on time. I also wanted the cut on my leg to at least clot before I went home and Ralof saw blood pouring. He'd probably be pissed enough when he saw the wound on my chest, rib cage, throat and face. Damned if I let him see the little cut.

The sky tinged pink and I threw a skinned deer hide over my shoulder and stuff the wolves into my pack. I suddenly wished I'd brought my game bag, but it would've been difficult to work with while I was escaping Draugr left and right. My axe hung on my back comfortably and I let a smile crawl over my face as I entered Riverwood. Ralof had been waiting for me, but had failed to stay awake, and was sitting in front of a tree near the entrance of the village, his chin resting on his chest and his eyes closed. I laughed into my hand and approached him, careful not to make a noise.

Ralof, as I've mentioned before, looked different in his sleep. His face was relaxed and he didn't look like he was constantly trying to keep himself controlled like he did when he was awake. He always looked so pressured and uncertain, but he wasn't at that moment.

I lifted my hand and ran it through his hair. It was a little rough, but not horribly so. His braid was loose and falling apart, so I gently pulled apart the hair and re-braided it. It looked cleaner, and Ralof hadn't felt me pulling on his hair at all. Ralof was a deep sleeper, apparently, and I filed that information away for later use.

The sun was rising and Ralof needed to get into a proper bed to sleep in before he hurt his back. I put his arm over my shoulder and lifted him up.

"Mmm…Goddy?"

I laughed, "Yeah, it's me."

Ralof leaned his head on my shoulder, "You actually came home on time for once…Gerdur was worried, and Hadvar's uncle came by saying he went off somewhere without telling anyone."

"I saw him on the road. He was just wandering around the mountains," I lied smoothly.

"I'll tell his uncle," Ralof yawned. "Did you get the claw."

I swallowed and pursed my lips, "Yes. I did."

"Not to be mentioned?" Ralof asked, still leaning on me and not even attempting to walk fully by himself.

"Not to be mentioned."

Ralof nodded and felt his braid, "You re-did it."

"I did. It was looking ratty."

Ralof laughed, "You're an ass."

"You're an ass."

"You're a piece of ass."

I stopped, blinked, and looked at him. He'd obviously realized what he'd said and covered his mouth.

"I-uh…" Ralof stuttered, standing on his own and looking down. His eyes were wide and he looked like he couldn't quite believe that he'd said that. "I didn't mean…"

"There's another way that can be taken?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Ralof's face was bright cherry red and he was messing with the end of his shirt nervously.

"Could we forget I said that?" He asked meekly. I laughed and nodded.

"It never happened. To recap, you're an ass. Let's go home."

Ralof smiled and nodded, trailing behind me and offering to hold some of the game. I gave him the wolves and informed him they still needed to be gutted and skinned. He seemed to be relieved at the level of normalcy in my voice, but inside my mind, a single thought trampled over all others.

Ralof thinks I'm a piece of ass. Fantastic.

And for once, not a single hint of sarcasm was found.

END

Do people in Skyrim use the term "Piece of ass"? Do I care?

Well they do now. You're welcome. And the two last sentences are genuine, not sarcastic. It was brought to my attention that they might seem sarcastic, but Godrael sincerely enjoys the fact that Ralof finds him attractive. But he's a man. I want to make that clear.

HE'S A FUCKING MAN. That likes fucking men. It's cool.

(And I couldn't stand the thought of Goddy killing Arvel. It was supposed to be that he was acting all friendly to him, then he stabs him in the stomach, and Hadvar's all horrified, and Goddy's all, "I don't give a fuck,", but I chickened out and the Draugr did it. YOU ALL SAW IT.)

By the by, this chapter is a love child between me and the video "Ten Hours of Skyrim's Theme Song!" So…Yeah. I was in a Dovahkiin mood. Shut up.