A DRAGON'S BEGINNING
THE MANY ADVENTURES OF ELSEBET KIND-HEART BOOK 1

CHAPTER 6
SOME KIND OF CHOIR. WITH CHANTING

Elsebet and Risorallen stood in front of the circular door at the end of the Hall of Stories, several nicks and and scratches on their arms and faces, and there were several holes in Elsebet's cloak. She'd either have to ditch it or get a clothier to sew it up. She pulled the golden claw out of her bag and looked it over, then at the wall in front of them as Risorallen placed the torch he had found earlier in the ruin in an empty brazier.

"How do we open it?" He asked, rubbing one of his cuts on his neck.

She shrugged. "Is there anything you found in that journal?"

When they had rested in an antechamber he had read the journal, saying that the guy was dead, he wouldn't mind. Plus he wanted to read, and he couldn't find any reading material. Elsebet had then pulled all her books from her pack and set them down next to her, and waited for him to see them. When he did, he hmfed and turned around, continuing to read the diary as she replaced the books in her pack.

He pulled the journal from his own pack and opened it to the last entry. "My fingers are trembling. The Golden Claw is finally in my hands, and with it, the power of the ancient Nordic heroes. That fool Lucan Valerius had no idea that his favourite store decoration was actually the key to Bleak Falls Barrow.

"Now I just need to get to the Hall of Stories and unlock the door. The legend says there is a test that the Nords put in place to keep the unworthy away, but that 'when you have the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands.'"

He closed the book and looked over at his companion. "What do you think that means?"

Elsebet furrowed her brow slightly as she thought. "the solution is in the palm of your hands…" Her eyes widened and turned the claw over to see three carvings on the palm, a bear, a moth, and an owl. She looked up at the door and saw the three stone bands, each with its own carving on it. She placed her hand on the bottom one and experimentally turned it. The sound of stone sliding on stone filled the air, and she let out a cry of happiness. She turned all of them so it matched to carvings on the claw and set the claw in the spot under all the bands. She pressed it in and turned, and when she pulled it out the door slid into the ground.

They walked through the open door and ascended a set of stone steps. The main chamber was more like a cavern, with how large it was, and because the ruin had started turning into a natural cave. Bats flew above them, and sunlight filtered through a crack at the top of the cavern, and a bridge led over a chasm and a path led over to a stone platform, with a curved wall on it.

"Do you hear that?" Elsebet asked.

The faint sound of chanting filled the air and got louder the further into the cavern they got.

Risorallen looks at her, confused. "Hear what?"

Each step they took towards the platform, the chanting got louder, until it was deafening and Elsebet had to cover her ears.

"I think it's coming from the wall!" Elsebet shouted.

"Why are you shouting?" He asked, but she didn't hear him as she ascended the stairs next to the stone platform and slowly made her way to the curved wall. There were strange marking on it, looking like they were gouged into the wall with claws, and some of the markings were glowing. She lowered her hands from her ears and reached one out as she stepped closer and closer to the wall, like it was dragging her towards it. When she stepped into the curve of the wall, the carvings seemed to reach out of the wall and surround her, pulling her forwards more. Her fingertips touched the cool stone, leaving a tingling sensation throughout her body, and when she placed her hand on it she gasped.

The carvings—words, she realised, in a language she didn't know—brightened and jumped off the wall and into her chest, sending her stumbling back. She would've fallen to the floor if Risorallen hadn't caught her. Her breathing became laboured as her eyes rolled back into her head, and then everything stopped suddenly. The ecstasy she was feeling, the light coming off the wall, and the chanting, all stopping so suddenly she almost fell again.

"What the hell was that?"

She looked over at Risorallen, who had a bewildered look on her face, as the sarcophagus sitting on the edge of the stone platform opened up, the lid flying through the air and falling off the side of the platform.

Elsebet drew her bow and knocked it as Risorallen pulled his battleaxe off his back as the draugr climbed out of the sarcophagus. This one was different than the other ones in the ruin. For one, it had more armour, and the helmet it wore had horns on it.

Elsebet let the arrow fly as the draugr stood on both his feet. It hit his knee, but it didn't seem to faze him as he took the ancient battleaxe off his shoulder. Risorallen ran up to him and buried his own battleaxe into its side.

"FUS RO DAH!"

The shout had come from the undead's mouth, and Risorallen flew across the room and landed hard against the curved wall. Eyes wide, Elsebet knocked an arrow and aimed it as the draugr ran at her, battleaxe raised over his head, ready to strike.

Everything seemed to slow down as she breathed. She aimed at its head and let the arrow fly. It landed between the eyes, and it fell into a heap of rotting flesh on the stone ground. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, but the breath soon left her when she head Risorallen groan.

She turned to him, dropping her bow on the ground and running to him. She knelt down next to him, her cloak billowing dramatically around her, and pulled a healing potion out of her pack.

"How much does it hurt?" She asked, uncorking the bottle, letting the sweet smell curl into the damp air of the chamber.

"A lot," he groaned.

She gave him the bottle, and he tipped his head back and gulped it down. His face contorted in disgust as he threw the bottle away from him, which shattered against the wall.

"How can something that heals taste so bad?"

Elsebet shrugged. "Dunno. Guess it depends on the ingredients." She stood up and offered her hand to Risorallen, who took it. He let go when he was standing upright. "So, do we need to go through the whole ruin again or is there a way out?"

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye as he walked over to the dead draugr. "This is your first dungeon, isn't it?"

She walked over to him and nodded. "Yeah. Helgen was the first taste of adventure I'd ever had, if you don't count sneaking into the College of Winterhold to read."

"You snuck into the College of Winterhold to read?" He asked, picking up the ancient battleaxe the draugr had used to fight them. Elsebet noticed there were white lines snaking the hilt and blade, meaning it was enchanted, most likely with a frost enchantment.

She nodded, opening the chest next to the sarcophagus and pocketing everything inside. "Yup. I was a little book nerd. Got an honorary membership for me and my parents because they were sick of me sneaking in and having to escort ma and pa while they looked for me."

She didn't tell him the last time she snuck in was eight years earlier, when her father left just after the Great Collapse—except, of course, to get the books for her journey.

"Are you going to go back to Winterhold?" Risorallen asked, moving to stand next to her.

"I don't know. I want to, but… my mother's a retired mage, only retired because she hurt herself too much, and my brother and sister want to follow in her footsteps in joining the College. My brother, Istah, was in the middle of putting in an application when I left, and though I'm a lot closer to my sister, Hjolma, I couldn't stay in Winterhold any longer."

He furrowed his brow. "Why not?"

She rubbed her arm. "My other brother, the eldest of the four of us, Jorten, died during the Great Collapse eight years ago. I was eleven then, I couldn't leave." Not like my father did.

She turned to hide the tears that were threatening to spill onto her cheeks when something caught her eye in the sarcophagus. She furrowed her brow and went around the side of the sarcophagus to see it better. Sitting in the middle of the sarcophagus was a stone tablet, about a metre wide and tall and a couple inches thick. She reached down and picked it up. It was heavy.

She heard Risorallen walk up next to her and whistle. "That would've been uncomfortable."

She glanced at him before looking back down at the tablet. "Why was it in the sarcophagus?"

Risorallen shrugged. "Important stuff is buried with important people, aren't they?"

"Yes, but why is it important?" She looked over at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Well, we're going to Whiterun, right? We can get the-"

"We?" She asked, raising the other eyebrow.

He sighed. "Yes, we. You honestly wouldn't expect me to accompany you through one ruin then let you out by yourself, did you? You hired me, and I expected I'd stay with you until either time runs out or you dismiss me." He glanced at her, a playful smirk on his lips. "I hope you're not dismissing me."

She elbowed the Imperial. "I just thought it was just for the one dungeon, is all. Now, what were you saying?"

"We could take it to the court wizard at Dragonsreach and get him to check it out. We're going there, anyway."

She thought for a second, then nodded, smiling up at the man that towered a heat taller than her. "Sounds like a plan. Now, back to the original question; how the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"

Hello everyone! How are you? I'd really appreciate it if you review, it really makes my day!

Enjoy reading! Bye!