The caverns lead to some long-forgotten part of the keep. As the group walked, the path became cobbled one more, and an arch appeared at the end of the path. Voices echoed from through the arch, and a cool, blue light fell in through holes in the ceiling. There was the sound of rushing water, the crackle of yet more braziers in the dark. The chamber was a mix of cavern and keep, with neat bridges and railings, but a lumpy, root-filled ceiling, and plants growing in the soil dotting the center of the room. The imperial influences were mostly to the left of the chamber, with a little bridge spanning rushing water that pooled and flowed through the right of the area. Several imperials talked in the center, standing in the water, and others quietly waited off on the cobbled path. The Khajiit looked up to the far side of the chamber and flicked his ears forward to hear the tension of a bow being drawn. He ducked as an arrow soared overhead and charged across the room, knocking over one of the legion soldiers as he jumped up and over the railing to kick and swipe at the bowman with his sword and free hand. The stormcloaks filled the chamber behind him, clanging and ripping sounds joining the rush of water.
What the Khajiit had not noticed about the walkway was the thick coating of slick oil. The bowman, and the two others that ran into viewing range, stood neatly on the other side and out of the spill that the cathay-raht unknowingly landed in. His paws slid out from underneath him, he crashed down and slipped down the slight incline. There was a clang behind him and he rolled onto his belly to see that one of the legion soldiers had tossed a lit brazier onto its side into the oil, hot coals spilling into the fluid and lighting it. S'Rukoh's fur stood on end as he scrambled up and away as quickly as he could, eyes trapped on the advancing flames. He wasn't quite quick enough to get his big body out of the path of destruction, and screamed out in pain as the fire lanced over his leg, then up the oil on his back. The red cat panicked as his skin blistered and the fat underneath melted, rolling away across the floor in an attempt to quell the flames. The screams echoed through the room, and in what felt like an age Jori and Ralof sprinted over and started stomping and flailing at him. The flames were out, but the damage had been done. The vampire slowly expended all the blood he had drank that day to heal the wounds, but it was not enough. He sizzled and sobbed as he sniffed at the air to locate the nearest corpse, slowly pulling his massive body toward the scent of blood.
Jori seemed to understand what he was doing, and ran for the body to roll and kick it closer to the big cat. Ralof, however, did not.
"What good is a dead body going to do? Does it have a potion on it?"
"He seems to want it, he saved me, so now I'm going to save him." Jori pushed the body past Ralof.
"He's not a cannibal, is he?"
"Well this isn't exactly a Khajiit…" Jori didn't sound very confident at all.
Ralof tapped his chin. "Then… he's a vampire!"
"Shh! Do you want the others to hear you? They might kill him. I didn't see him hiding under any ice so maybe he isn't a vampire." Jori finally kicked the legion soldier's body over the burned cat's face. S'Rukoh clambered up onto it and struggled to find a place to bite in before tearing a patch of armor off and slumping, head down.
"I'm pretty sure that's a vampire."
"He's not a 'that!'" Jori hissed. "Don't you dare tell a soul. Or I'll help him get you."
"We're all just trying to get out, here, I won't say a thing… unless he does something dangerous."
The vampire rolled off the corpse, gasping as his skin knit back together completely. He stood shakily, leaned up against the wall, and rubbed his face with both palms. Jori and Ralof stood quietly by as the other stormcloaks called up, indicating that they were staying. Jori tugged the Khajiit's tail slightly and gestured up a small set of stairs, leading to a well-lit corridor. The cobbles were overgrown in some places, and smashed into fine dust in others. There was a wooden wall ahead of them, and a lever off to the right. Ralof, getting there first, pulled it, and the wall fell to become a bridge. The three walked carefully over the wide-spaced slats, the walls of a cavern visible on the other side. A great hollow roar could be heard overhead, and S'Rukoh looked up to see the shadow of the dragon above. He pushed Jori off the bridge and ducked to roll away as heavy stones fell in through the hole, crushing the bridge and blocking the way back.
The next area was a large natural chamber, with only a small set of worn stone stairs leading down from the keep into the cavern itself. Water rushed down a slight incline off to the left, coming from under the stairs and from a hole somewhere in the wall to the right. Several earthy platforms reached up for a hole in the ceiling, providing light to the chamber. The Khajiit could see fine, of course, but his companions were not so lucky. To them, the cavern was fairly dark, light glinting off the peaks of the water and barely lighting the way. Jori walked alongside the stream before walking into a wall and stepping through the stream instead. Walking through the water led them to a dry path off to the right, lit by a dropped torch. Ralof picked it up.
"You never said who Alkosh was." Jori stated quietly.
"Alkosh is the guardian of time, the first child of Ahnurr and Fadomai, and a very, very big cat."
"I thought Akatosh was a dragon."
"Others may believe as they wish, but Alkosh is just a very big cat."
"But who is right, then-" Jori was interrupted by walking face-first into a very thick spider web. S'Rukoh bounded over and tore it from her face, and gestured down the path to the left.
"There are many webs in there, Khajiit sees. This province is not known for… big spiders, is it, hmm?"
"Frostbite spiders. Keep an eye out, they spit." Ralof stepped slowly into the chamber before charging off out of view. Jori and S'Rukoh followed, entering a large, fairly rounded cavern with an uneven floor, and a number of stone steps leading up to holes in the walls and the ceiling. There were several pillars, and what Jori and Ralof may have assumed to be stalagmites and stalactites, but the Khajiit saw that they were bundled up corpses, hanging from strands of spider silk and in heaps on the floor. Something moved in the dark, and the cathay-raht froze. Ralof grunted somewhere, and the cat peered around a pillar to see him beating on a very, very large spider with his axe, cleaving the top of it's head.
"This one does not see any more."
"I don't, either. How do we get out?" Jori gave a loud shriek as a spider dropped onto her from the web above. S'Rukoh jumped on top of it and began to tear its legs off, one at a time. Ralof sprinted over and chopped at it's head while Jori clambered out from underneath it. The Nord gave it another few chops and the spider dropped. S'Rukoh slid off its back and dusted himself off with a little shiver.
Jori yelled from a little ways off to the left of the entrance, and the two men quickly ran over to join her at the exit. There was a steep slope, weathered by wind and water, that led down to another raging stream. High stone shelves greeted their eyes, and led them to the right, which opened up into a large chamber a little ways down the stream. It was split in two by the water most of the way down, but it eventually flowed toward the left wall as they walked down. S'Rukoh stopped. There was a large mound of a living thing ahead, breathing low and slow in the faint light. It laid in the center of a rounded portion of the chamber, and occasionally murmured or moved.
"This one sees a bear." He dropped into a crouch and held his hands out to stop the others.
"We should let her sleep. Stay off to the left." Ralof spoke with some quiet reverence.
S'Rukoh nodded and led the way, pointing out loose stones as they passed the bear and slid down yet another steep, curved pathway.
"We're almost there," Jori whispered, confident. I remember this particular cave from when I was little." She sidled past the Khajiit to take the front, standing and walking to peer about corners before darting into the light of the entrance. "It's up here!" She scrambled up the incline and out into the sunlight.
"Wait a moment!" Ralof called out, dragging Jori down behind a rock with him. The sky rumbled with that terrible hollow sound as the dragon drug its shadow over them before flying off into the distance.
"It's gone, you can let me up." Jori scrubbed invisible dirt off her ruined armor. "And I hope that's the last we see of dragons."
"From here we need to go to Riverwood, the closest town. My sister Gerdur runs the mill, there. She'll know what to do." Ralof poked his head out over the top of the rock and examined the skies before standing. He turned in a circle and smiled, arms wide. "I'm just glad we made it out alive. I couldn't have done it if it weren't for you two."
"Where is Riverwood?" S'Rukoh asked, looking around at the unfamiliar woods. "Khajiit does not have a map, after all."
"Just in case we split up, you follow the marked road down to the river, and just keep going till you reach the gate. You could even swim if you think it would get you there faster." The Nords took off down the road at a light jog, the cathay-raht walked fast to keep up. "You know, you should go to Windhelm and join the stormcloaks. If the imperials have a dragon, we'll need more people than ever."
Jori bristled visibly. "You know, I don't even know what to think about this civil war anymore. I was a good legion girl. I was supposed to make my family and town happy, but now they're all dead and I'm…" her tone lightened, "stuck here with you two, instead." She frowned and slowed her pace to a brisk walk. "You know, I don't know if I'd ever be comfortable going back to the legion, after they… well I guess I turned on them first by offering to let you free." She scoffed. "Regardless, let's just say you wouldn't have liked me very much a week ago, Ralof."
"All the more reason to join the true cause." Ralof said quietly. The path was steep, and their pace slowed further on the dirt path. The greenery was anything but verdant, with the threat of heaps of snow only a handful of yards uphill. Dull trees leaned this way and that, and even duller roots peeked at them out of the ground. Rabbits and mushrooms and pale, tiny flowers were seen in abundance. Jori picked them and stuck them in her dirty, bloody pockets, where their bright little heads shone against the black and red overtop of the stormcloak's usual silver and trio passed a large fallen tree and stepped out onto a cobbled road. A helpful sign post pointed out the direction to riverwood, and still had a friendly, well-painted sign pointing uphill toward Helgen. As they followed the road down the hill, things became slowly more colorful- purple headed thistles and a few other interesting plants grew more abundant as they moved further. They stopped a short ways down the cobbled road at Ralof's request, a thick arm pointed up at the mountain across the river. A series of tall arches, points reaching up for the sky and coated thick and white in snow, crested the peak. It was a dark sight, ancient and ruinous. It was also very frightening, as that was the direction the dragon had flown off in.
"See that ruin up there? Bleak Falls Barrow."
"Yea, I remember that. My mother used to tell me stories about that place. Gave me nightmares." Jori remarked. "Riverwood is awfully close to it, isn't it?"
"Too close for comfort, even at this age." Ralof patted his own belly and then took off walking again.
The group passed a pin hair turn and came even closer to the river. It could be heard at this distance, rough and dangerous in places, and calm in others. It stretched off into the distance, the west if the Khajiit looked at the sun and the shadows correctly. But what stood in the foreground was the cause of more concern. Ralof approached the small stone platform and its three stone sentries with a little laugh.
"The guardian stones! I've learned and forgotten many stories about the thirteen stones that dot Skyrim's face." Jori said quickly. She ran up to the platform and jumped the stairs to stand in the middle. "I never actually made it to any of the stones, even knew that these ones were here all along." She pointed to each stone. "My mother always said to pick what feels most true… and I think the warrior guides me!" She jolted forward and pressed her palm flat against the front of the warrior stone. A single beam of blue light shot from the stone and into the sky. She then turned and reached for S'Rukoh's arm, tugging him up onto the platform. He let her lead him as she unfolded his fist and placed his palm on the warrior, as well. This time, it did nothing.
"Can't choose for others, cub. He's got to pick himself."
Jori let go of his arm and it fell back to the cat's side. "Fine. What kind of cat are you, anyway? I know you're a big cathay-raht, but what's that mean?"
S'Rukoh turned to face the thief stone. "This one is a 'jaguar man.' He is a brilliant climber, strong and magnificent in the dark and high places. He is bigger than suthay-kind and cathay, and stronger than any dagi, but he may never touch great magics. Magica does not flow well for cathay-raht, and especially not for S'Rukoh." He placed the flat of his palm against the thief stone.
"So… why didn't you use a potion when you got burned? Why did you.. do the.." She stuck her index fingers near her mouth and made fangs with them.
"S'Rukoh does not know why, but potions do not work on him for a long, long time. Once, a strength potion worked after this one drank at least five bottles." He wrinkled his face, lip pulled up. "Khajiit should never drink five potions again."
They resumed the walk with some kind of frightened, nervous energy. Each of them fidgeted-Ralof tapped out music on the handle of his axe, Jori kicked pebbles and threw them ahead of her on the path, and the cathay-raht's tail whipped endlessly back and forth. A steep path with simple wooden steps approached to their right. Ralof waved a hand at the path.
"Bandits up there. Riverwood pretends to ignore them so they don't come out and raze the town. I'm not strong enough to deal with them right now. Not with a dragon on the loose." The path took a long, smooth s-curve closer to the river, so close the fish could be seen through the clear waters. The three of them smacked their dry lips, but passed on this particular opportunity.
"We need to lay low for a bit. This place will be crawling with imperials soon enough. If we get caught… just let me do the talking-" Ralof was interrupted by a brown-furred body falling onto his own from a rocky outcrop above. Another wolf darted around the same outcrop and rushed for Jori before being joined by a darker wolf. Ralof quickly dispatched his own aggressor before charging to help Jori, tackling one of the wolves while S'Rukoh jumped onto and snapped the neck of the last. Ralof dusted his palms off and sheathed a weapon to pick up a wolf. "Carry your spoils. We'll sell these to the wood elf."
S'Rukoh bristled slightly. He muttered "Bosmer" under his breath, the imperfect people, those not chosen by Azurah to have the secrets of the moons, and that was only the start of the divide between their peoples! They were also certainly not as pretty as his people. He hauled the two smaller wolves up onto his shoulders and marched behind the two Nords as the outline of the gate appeared through the boughs of the trees.