III: Draugr

"I had forgotten how much I hate caves," Lokir sighed as we emerged into glorious daylight at the other end of the cave. It had been a long walk filled with spiders and skeevers, but we had all made it in one piece.

"They're not so bad if you can se in the dark," I said lightly. I turned to Ralof. "So, which way to the nearest village?"

"My hometown of Riverwood should be just up the road north of here. My sister Gerdur runs the lumber mill. I'll take you there."

"I hope it's not too far," Lokir grumbled. "I'm about ready to collapse."

"Don't worry, we'll be there within the hour."

I threw one of Lokir's arms around my shoulder. "I'm all out of stamina potions. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can rest."

Ralof walked in front, keeping his hands free in case we were ambushed. Lokir and I followed slowly. After a thankfully short walk, I saw small houses on either side of the road ahead.

"Ralof!" I heard a woman call. A Nord woman came running down the path. Ralof ran to meet her and they embraced.

From their excited chattering, I gathered that she was his sister Gerdur. After Ralof introduced us, Lokir and I wearily followed them to the house Gerdur shared with her husband Hod.

A faint rustling woke me. I picked my head up reluctantly, sensing it was still before dawn. Lokir was slowly rising from his bed on the other side of the room.

After Gerdur and Hod had taken us in and let us share their supper of apple-and-cabbage stew and goat cheese, they had rented a room at the inn for us. We insisted we would be fine sleeping on the floor, but they had insisted right back that we had helped save Ralof's life, so it was the least they could do to repay us.

"Something wrong?" I whispered.

He shook his head and whispered back, "I thought I heard voices outside."

"So, what's the plan for today?" I asked as I laid my head back down. With the stress of yesterday and Lokir's injuries, we both hadn't had the energy to do anything more than eat supper with Ralof's aunt and uncle before retiring for the night. The straw mattress was so much softer than the piles of deer skin on stone cave floors that I was used to. "Are you coming with me to Whiterun?"

"You can hardly go there yourself right now," he pointed out. "They don't let Khajiit inside the city walls. You'll stand a better chance of getting past the guards with someone beside you. And you could use some training with your sword." He pushed himself up with a grunt. "And speaking of which, we're both awake and we can't leave until we unload our extra gear at the shop, so we might as well get started on your training."

"So you're fully recovered now?"

"Yeah, good as new."

I growled softly, but I wearily rose, collected my gear and followed him outside. It was still dark outside, though the sun was just beginning to lighten the horizon.

He lit the goat-horn sconces on the back of the inn and turned to face me. Only then, with the only light source shining in my face, did he really notice my eyes. "Whoa, what happened to your eye?" he asked, then winced as if realizing that wasn't the most tactful way to ask.

I shrugged, absently rubbing the left side of my face. "I was born like this. I've never been able to see out of it."

"Are you sure this is a good idea…?" he began.

"Yes!" I snarled. "I can see just fine without it!"

"Oh," he began uncertainly, then regained his composure and grinned, shifting into a battle stance. "Let's see you prove that."

By the time the sun had risen along with the rest of the little village, I was ready to go back to sleep. My arms, legs and back ached from the rigorous exercise Lokir had put me through. But at least I felt a little more confident in my ability to defend myself with a sword.

We finally broke off our training session when we heard Gerdur calling us to breakfast. I sheathed my sword and turned away from Lokir.

"Hold on," he called to me. I suddenly felt his hands on my shoulders, and before I could ask what he was doing, I felt the magic of Healing Hands coursing through me, healing my strained muscles.

"Thank you," I sighed. "I don't suppose there's any way you can teach me that?"

He sighed sadly. "I'm afraid not. You'll have to find a spell book."

"Do you think the general goods store here would have one?"

"Not likely. Nords frown on the use of magic. They'll learn healing spells, but they don't usually stock spell books. You might not find one until we get to Whiterun."

We returned to Gerdur and Hod's house, where they had cabbage soup, bread and goat cheese wedges laid out on the table. Ralof was still there. We sat down to eat and discuss our plans for the day.

"Are you coming with us to Whiterun?" I asked Ralof.

He shook his head. "Jarl Balgruff hasn't officially declared a side, but he's not very sympathetic to the Stormcloaks. I doubt he'd let me leave the city. He'd probably throw me in the dungeon and call the Thalmor on me."

I frowned. "Who are they?"

"You don't know who the Thalmor are?" Gerdur asked incredulously.

"No, I… I've spent most of my life in the wilds of Cyrodiil, and never paid attention to gossip" I admitted. "I really don't even know what a Stormcloak is or why the Imperials are after them."

They all exchanged glances, then Ralof cleared his throat and said, "Well, first you'll have to understand what the Thalmor are. You've heard of Altmer, I'm sure?"

I nodded. High elves.

"They went to war with the Empire years ago," Ralof continued. "Fought each other to a standstill, I'm told, though the Altmer insist they were about to win. But they agreed to a peace treaty with the Empire. This treaty is called the White Gold Concordat, and the Altmer call their government the Aldmeri Dominion. Part of the treaty required the outlawing of Talos worship."

I frowned. "What do the Altmer have against the worship of Talos?"

"Talos was the original name of the Nord emperor Tiber Septim, the one who founded the Empire," Gerdur said. "Before then, there were eight divines. Legend says Tiber Septim was raised into the heavens to become the ninth divine after his death. The Aldmeri Dominion couldn't stand the thought of a man becoming a god over the elves. They think the Altmer are the noblest of all races."

"The Thalmor are an organization of Altmer devoted to stamping out Talos worship," Hod said. "They abduct and torture those they suspect of worshiping Talos. They have the right to execute them without question. And the Imperials can do nothing about it."

"Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak objects to this," Ralof continued. "He thinks an Empire that can't protect its own people is no Empire at all. He wants to drive them all out – the Empire, the Aldmeri, and all others, and leave Skyrim to the true Nords."

"All outsiders?" I asked warily.

"Ah… Well…" Ralof faltered, as if just remembering there was a non-Nord in the room.

"I'm sure he'll allow all those who support him to stay, not just the Nords," Hod said. "He let Dunmer fleeing the last eruption of Red Mountain settle in Windhelm."

"You could come to Windhelm and ask him yourself," Ralof said.

I shrugged. "Maybe I will. But first I need to go to Whiterun and warn them about the dragon."

"While you're there, could you ask Jarl Balgruuf to send some guards down here?" Gerdur asked. "We'd be defenseless if a dragon attacked us now.

I nodded.

"What about you?" Hod asked Lokir, who had been listening in silence. "Did the dragon bite out your tongue?"

"I… I don't know, the Empire was doing just fine before the Stormcloaks came along and ruined everything…" he trailed off.

Ralof snorted. "You still believe the Empire is just and the Stormcloaks are evil, after your precious Empire almost executed you for nothing and you were rescued by the Stormcloaks?"

Lokir looked away. "I don't know anymore. I need some time to think about this."

Ralof nodded. "I'll be headed to Windhelm. That's where Ulfric will have fled to. If you ever get there, I'll put in a good word for you."

"So," I said slowly, "why can't Ulfric make his case to the other jarls? Surely they don't approve of forsaking Talos and allowing their people to be tortured to death by outsiders?"

"Well, he did try," Ralof said, starting to look uncomfortable. "He made his case before High King Torygg…"

"And?" I prompted.

"When the king refused to see reason, Ulfric accused him of being a traitor to his people and killed him in honorable single combat," Hod said proudly.

"…Oh. No wonder the Empire is after him."

Hod snorted. "A king who cannot protect his own people is no king at all, if you ask me."

I fell silent as we finished the meal, while the Nords continued discussing things I knew nothing about. I suddenly realized just how alone I was. Maybe once I warned Whiterun, I could head back to Cyrodiil or Elsweyr. I could prey on bandit camps and sell their gear, and maybe I'd have enough to start my own caravan one day… Or buy my own shop…

Gerdur and Hod said we could help ourselves to any supplies they had, so I collected a few cheese wheels and stuffed them in my knapsack before Lokir and I headed off to the general goods store.

"I always thought cheese wheels were a bit heavy," Lokir commented. "You might do better selling them and buying healing potions instead."

I shook my head. "I like cheese."

We heard raised voices coming from the store. I looked at Lokir uncertainly, but he just shrugged and headed inside, so I followed him.

"I said no, and that's final!" a man shouted as the door opened. Inside, a man and a woman - the shop's owner, Lucan, and his sister Camilla – were glaring at each other. It looked like we had interrupted an argument, and they had quieted down so as not to scare the customers off.

"Is there a problem?" Lokir asked casually.

"No," Lucan snapped before his sister could say anything. She just glared at him.

Lokir shrugged. "We've got some weapons and armor to sell. What kind of swords do you have?"

The shopkeepers relaxed as we set about selling our unnecessary gear. We exchanged it for a decent amount of gold, then turned our attention to what they had for sale. Lokir picked up an iron greatsword and asked, "How much for this?"

"I can't let it go for less than 135 septims," the shopkeeper said.

Lokir looked at his meager pile of gold, mentally calculated how much selling his iron longsword would add to it, then shook his head sadly. "Maybe next time."

"Do you have any experience clearing out old barrows?" Camilla asked.

"A little," Lokir said warily. "What do you have in mind?"

"Nothing," Lucan snapped.

"Well, are you going to get it back yourself?" Camilla snarled at him.

"Did you lose something?" I asked quickly, hoping to stop them from arguing.

"Had it stolen, more like," Lucan grumbled. He sighed. "I had a valuable artifact, a dragon claw made of gold. Some thieves snuck in here and stole it last week. I heard they're holed up in an old barrow up the mountain." He gave his sister a scathing glance. "My sister thought she'd sneak off while I was asleep and get it back, but neither of us have any experience fighting."

Lokir and I glanced at each other. Maybe that was what woke him up this morning. "And if we brought it back?" Lokir asked.

"I'll give you all the gold I made off my last shipment. 300 septims," the shopkeeper said.

"Where exactly do you think these bandits went?"

"Bleak Falls Barrow," Camilla said. "It's an ancient Nord burial tomb up the mountain. I can show you the way."

Lokir turned to me. "Well, Ra'Wati, what do you think? Should we make a detour and find their artifact?"

"Don't we need to hurry to Whiterun?" I asked.

Lokir shrugged. "We could, but the road there can be dangerous. Bandits, giants, mammoths, sabretooth cats… It might be a good idea to buy better weapons and armor first."

I thought about it. "What kind of enemies would we find in the barrow?"

Lucan shrugged. "Probably just the bandits. If they're still alive, they'll have cleared it out for you. Otherwise, just a few draugr. Nothing really dangerous."

"What are draugr?"

"Old undead Nord warriors," Camilla said. "Legend says they were put in the tombs as servants of the dragon priests or guardians of treasures. They had a spell put on them to make them immortal, but it didn't exactly stop their aging, They're still alive, but they're like dried-up zombies. Or so I heard." She shrugged. "They won't be any tougher than regular bandits."

I wanted to ask what a dragon priest was, but we had spent long enough talking already. I turned back to Lokir. "Okay, let's go see what's inside the barrow. I could use the experience."

"That's the spirit," he said, clapping me on the shoulder. He turned to the shopkeeper's sister. "Lead on, milady."

"How are you holding up?" Lokir asked as we took a break within sight of our goal.

"A little winded, that's all," I answered. It had been a long walk up the mountain, along numerous switchbacks and overly steep trails. I wasn't used to climbing that much. "I can still put up a fight."

We looked ahead at the entrance to Bleak Falls Barrow. Half-buried under snow, a multi-tiered set of stairs protruded from the mountain, carved out of the rock, leading to an enormous stone building. The doorway stood inside a recessed arch in the front of the building. There were many odd stone arches in front of the building and beside the stairs, some toppled from age. It looked like an old temple of some sort. Fresh tracks in the snow showed it was still occupied.

"So you're sure you're up to this?" he asked.

I sighed but nodded. "Bandits killed my parents. This group might kill travelers too. But I don't enjoy the thought of killing."

"I know what you mean. But I know people who have cleared out a lot of bandit caves, and they say after you find a few of their torture chambers and stashes of dead bodies, you'll stop feeling bad about killing them."

"Until then, I'll just remember my parents. What about you? Are you sure you're fully recovered?"

"Absolutely."

I drew my sword. "I'm ready when you are."

I let Lokir lead the way as we entered the barrow. We found ourselves in an enormous chamber. I had expected it to be dark, but part of the roof had collapsed, allowing sunlight into the room. Rather than a man-made structure, it appeared to be a natural cavern, with the temple facade built over the entrance. Someone had carved a pathway into one of the walls leading to a higher level.

"Who's there?" I heard a woman call from the top of the path. Three bandits appeared with weapons drawn.

Lokir ran to meet them, but I held back nervously. This was my first real battle. I found myself wondering if we might be able to talk our way out of this. We just wanted the golden claw back and we would be on our way. Surely that wasn't too high a price to pay for sparing their lives?

That train of thought ended when an arrow struck my abdomen. Unlike last time, I was wearing armor now, but it still punched a hole through the armor and drew blood.

For a second, memories of the terror of the first bandit attack washed over me, drowning out everything else, and then that was replaced by a rage of an intensity I had never experienced before. I saw my mother falling to the bandits' arrows, my father sacrificing himself to save me, the first bandit standing over me and leering…

Before I realized what was happening, I had charged the bandits, passing Lokir. I met the archer first. She tried to hold up her bow to block my sword, but in that intense, rage-fueled instant, I leaped into the air and brought my sword down, striking with more force than I thought I had. One blow was all it took. My sword went right through the bow and kept on going, right into the side of her neck.

As she collapsed to the cavern floor, I spun around to face the next bandit. He was armed with a sword and shield like me. I didn't give him a chance to prepare himself. I rushed forward and bashed into him with my shield. He blocked it partially with his own, but it still staggered him. He took a step back, dropping his guard to regain his balance, giving me an opening to his torso. I took it, lunging forward and impaling him.

I turned to Lokir, who was fighting the last bandit. Lokir had a wound on his arm and was staggering slightly. Without a second thought, I ran at them. As I neared the bandit, I twisted my body away from him at the waist, leaped into the air and spun the other way, swinging my sword at the bandit's neck, cutting his head clean off.

With no other targets, the rage disappeared, and I found myself staring numbly at the headless body at my feet. I looked up at Lokir and saw him pressed back against the cave wall, staring at me with fear in his eyes.

"Was that supposed to happen?" I asked weakly, lowering my sword. I looked down and realized the arrow was still in my stomach. "I had a flashback to my parents dying, and this rage just took over…" I trailed off as I pulled the arrow out.

Lokir laughed weakly. "I've never heard of a Khajiit berserker before." He gingerly put one hand on my arm so he could use Healing Hands.

"Don't worry, I knew who you were the entire time," I assured him. "I didn't really lose myself… But I liked it. I didn't want to kill them, but I liked it."

Lokir gave me a sympathetic look. "Maybe you were always meant to be a warrior."

I sighed. "I suppose if I have to dispatch bandits, it's better to enjoy the battle than be unable to kill."

He nodded and turned to the corpses. "Might as well see if they have anything of value on them before we head on."

I looked at the tunnel. "Won't any other bandits be headed this way now?"

He shrugged. "They never seem to notice. I wonder if they think it's the other bandits fighting over something. They're not usually bound together by friendship."

We slowly made our way through the barrow. It was larger than I had expected, but there were far fewer bandits than I expected. The tunnel started leading down, deeper into the mountain. Stairs were carved into the floor of the steeper tunnel sections.

We found three more bandits farther into the cave, but they were easily dispatched. I felt an odd excitement at the prospect of another fight, but the rage didn't come again.

"None of them have the claw either," I sighed after we had searched the bodies.

"Don't get frustrated so soon. We haven't explored all the tunnels yet."

"I know, but this place is huge. What if they're not carrying it? What if they hid it somewhere?"

He gave me a pained look, but before he could say anything, we heard a faint voice coming from up ahead.

"Is that someone calling for help?" I whispered.

"Sounds like it," Lokir said, raising his sword and heading for the tunnel in a crouch.

We rounded a bend in the tunnel and came to a room with a circular hole cut into the floor. A wooden spiral staircase had been built into the hole. We descended and saw spider webs coating the walls and floor up ahead. I had never seen so much web in one place before.

"Giant frostbite spider," Lokir whispered, then crept forward faster.

All of my hair stood on end as I heard the sound of something huge rustling the webs in the room at the end of the tunnel. Lokir continued advancing, but I put away my sword and drew my bow.

I thought I had seen large frostbite spiders. I had encountered ones as high as my waist. But the one that dropped from the roof of the cave must have been taller than me. I didn't rush in to make sure, though. I stayed in the tunnel and filled it with arrows while Lokir fought it with his sword. It went down quicker than I expected for a creature that size.

Lokir gave me a withering look as I emerged from the tunnel and said, "Maybe, since I'm the one who knows the healing spell, you should be the one who leads the battle charge."

"I… uh… I don't like spiders," I said weakly, shuffling my feet uncomfortably until I remembered how much web was on the floor.

We were interrupted by someone calling, "Hey, could you cut me down from here?"

We turned to face the other side of the chamber, where a mass of web covered the other way out. A Dunmer was stuck in the web, wrapped up in a cocoon with only his head visible, hanging several feet above the floor.

We approached him, listening for any enemies hiding down the new tunnel, but everything was silent. "First, do you happen to know anything about a golden artifact in the shape of a dragon claw?" Lokir asked.

"We took it from a local shopkeeper. Rumor has it there's a great treasure hidden in the barrow, and the claw is the only way to reach it," the Dunmer said. "I came down here to check, but that spider caught me."

"Do you have the claw with you?" I asked.

The Dunmer looked at us for a moment, seeming to weigh his options, then said, "Yes. I'll give it to you if you cut me down."

"No, give us the claw first, and then we'll cut you down." Lokir said.

"How do I know you won't just kill me?"

"Because if we wanted to kill you, we'd do it now and take the claw off your body," I pointed out.

"Okay, okay, just cut me down first," he said. "I can't exactly reach it right now."

I stepped forward and quickly sliced through the webs restraining him. He landed on the floor heavily, but as soon as he got to his feet, he turned and dashed away down the unexplored tunnel.

"Hey, come back!" Lokir shouted. We both took off after the Dunmer down the tunnel as it sloped downwards. Thankfully the spider webs did not continue far down the tunnel.

Up ahead, I heard a strange growling sound, followed by the Dunmer screaming. We came to the end of the tunnel just in time to see him collapse dead on the cavern floor up ahead.

Three human figures stood over him. They had been Nords once, thousands of years ago. Now they barely looked human. They still had hair and beards, but their skin had turned to old parchment, and their ribs and muscles showed through where their skin had worn away. They gave off a horrible scent of musty, dry decay. Their weapons and armor were in much better condition. Their eyes glowed blue in the dim light.

"Draugr!" Lokir hissed as the three figures noticed us.

I crept forward cautiously. I had heard zombies were clumsy, but Camilla had said draugr were not reanimated corpses, just Nords who had aged oddly over several thousand years. They didn't look like they would be clumsy opponents.

The rage did not come as the draugr approached. I felt cold and frankly scared, having never faced an undead creature before. But I steeled myself and ran to meet the one in the lead.

He was armed with a two-handed greatsword. I held up my shield and approached him cautiously, but he showed no such caution. He raised his sword and swung it at me once. I jumped back out of the way, but he came forward and swung again. This time I caught the blow on my shield. It was heavier than I expected from such a desiccated foe and I found myself staggering back. He raised his sword for another blow, and I lunged forward, going beneath the blow and striking his leg as I rolled past. He let out a sound that was more animal than human and turned to face me. As he raised his weapon, I took a risk and darted forward to strike his unguarded left side. He recoiled, and I struck at his chest. He blocked my blow with his blade, but I quickly struck his left side again. He was too slow to block this one, or the next, and then he collapsed.

I turned my attention back to Lokir. The other two draugr had ganged up on him on the other side of the room. The draugr were clearly wounded, but Lokir seemed to be having a hard time fighting them both at once.

The draugr had their backs to me. I drew my bow and aimed at one of them. When the draugr held still briefly to block a blow with his shield, I let my arrow fly, striking the draugr in the back of the neck. He crumpled to the floor. With only one opponent now, Lokir soon dispatched the last one.

I walked over to the Dunmer and knelt beside him, feeling for a pulse, but he was dead. "You idiot," I growled, slamming my fists into his chest. "We were going to let you walk away. You should have given us the claw."

Lokir knelt on his other side and picked up the Dunmer's knapsack. He rummaged through it and pulled out a golden object shaped like a three-toed dragon's foot. "So this is the dragon claw," he said.

"Looks more like a paw to me," I said.

Lokir shrugged. "This is what we came for," he said slowly.

"So we go back now?" I asked hopefully.

Lokir frowned. "The Dunmer said something about his being the key to a great treasure."

"So you want to keep going?" I asked, frowning at the dead draugr around us.

"We've come this far, haven't we? Why not see if he was right?" He waved at the dead draugr. "If nothing else, we'll get more loot to sell."

I sighed and muttered, "I always wanted my own horse."

I walked over to my opponent and picked up the draugr's greatwsord. I swung it through the air experimentally. "I bet I could do a lot more damage with this, but it looked like it slowed the draugr down," I observed.

"Greatswords are much better for delivering blows, but their attack bonus is counterbalanced by a speed and blocking penalty," Lokir told me. "You can't use a shield with that kind of sword. Since you're just starting out with a sword, a greatsword or longsword will be equally challenging to master. I'd suggest you choose now which you want to focus on. It might be harder on you if you change your mind later on."

I swung the greatsword around a few more times thoughtfully, then shook my head and put it in my knapsack. "I like the idea of the extra damage, but since my visual field is limited on my left, I'd feel better with a shield on that side for extra protection."

"I hadn't thought of that," Lokir said. He picked up the two longswords from the other draugr. "These are in surprisingly good shape, given their age, but I think our current swords are better quality." He put the ancient longsword in his knapsack and held the other out to me. I took it from him and did the same.

We continued through the cavern. Up ahead it narrowed into a passageway that was lit by torches mounted along the walls, like most of the other rooms we had come through. This passageway had two-tiered rows of rectangular niches carved along each wall. Each of the dozens of niches held a draugr, lying on its back, seemingly laid to rest after death, but I could hear them breathing. Some were no more than skeletons, but most of them were intact.

I looked at the dozens of sleeping draugr, then back at Lokir. "Actually, I don't think I want a horse that badly," I whispered.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he whispered after surveying the scene for a moment in silence. "Listen. Draugr breathe very loudly, but you can only hear a few of them breathing. I think most of them have died."

I swiveled my ears, listening to the sounds of rattling breaths coming from the draugr. "You're right. Sounds like only four are breathing."

"Maybe we can sneak past them," he suggested.

I crouched and led the way, every hair on my body standing on end as I entered the hall between the rows of draugr. I shivered, imagining them all standing up at once. If we just kept quiet, we could slip by without alerting them.

I froze as I heard a rustling sound behind me. Then it turned into a metallic clinking. "Hey, this one still has gold in its purse!" Lokir whispered excitedly.

I turned my head to see Lokir rummaging in the items laid in the niche beside the first draugr on the lower left wall. "Lokir!" I hissed.

"If we don't disturb the live ones, we should be able to raid the others," he whispered back.

"You idiot!" I gritted my teeth and watched helplessly as he collected gold and weapons from the first few draugr. My tension started to ease off after he raided the fifth corpse without anything waking up. I looked at the rest of the drougr around us. I crept up to one and cautiously reached over it to the coin purse against the wall. There were six gold septims inside, which I added to my own coin purse. I picked up a bow and arrows next, which appeared better than my own hunting bow and iron arrows.

I heard a draugr snarl and Lokir gasp almost simultaneously. I spun around and saw Lokir backing away as the draugr he had been leaning over started to rise slowly from its stone bed. I leaped at it and brought my sword down with all my strength, taking it out with one blow. I heard another snarl behind me, and once again leaped and cut the draugr down before it fully rose. My fear faded away, replaced by an odd excitement. Three more began to rise at the far end of the hall. Lokir and I ran to meet them. I cut down a third one just as it was drawing its sword. Leaving the fourth for Lokir to deal with so he'd feel useful, I kept running, jumped into the air, and spun around and decapitated the fourth one, as I'd done to the bandit earlier.

I turned back to where Lokir was standing over his dead opponent, staring at me oddly. "Are you sure you're a beginner?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I swear I have no idea where this is coming from." I looked back at the rows of draugr. "I thought you said they all breathed loudly."

"I thought they did. Maybe it's part of the decaying process, and that first one hadn't reached that point yet." He shrugged and went back to raiding the draugr along the walls.

I groaned and put my head in my hands briefly, then went to stand behind him with my sword drawn and guard against any other surprises. But we had no further problem with the draugr waking up.

We continued down the tunnel. We encountered a few more draugr, these up and walking around, but had little difficulty with them. We picked most of them off with arrows before they reached us.

As we headed down yet another tunnel alongside an underground stream, I suddenly stopped and put a hand on his shoulder. "Wait. Do you hear that?"

"That roaring?" Lokir asked. "Sounds like a small waterfall. That must be the source of the stream."

I cocked my head and swiveled my ears. "I hear chanting, but I can't make out any words."

He shook his head. "I don't hear anything. Khajiit must have better hearing than Nords."

I frowned at him. It sounded pretty loud to me. "Let's be extra-cautious with the next room," I suggested.

The tunnel suddenly doubled in width. This part had intricate carvings on the wall, though I wasn't sure what they represented. At the end, we found a large round door with three ring-like segments, each divided into four sections that contained one of four symbols. In the center of the rings was a panel with three holes in it.

I frowned at the door. I took out the dragon claw and pushed its three talons into the holes, but nothing happened. "I wonder how we're supposed to open this."

"Look at the back of it," Lokir said. "It has three symbols on it. Some of those symbols are on the door's rings. Maybe we can turn them."

Once we lined up the three symbols in the upper quarters of the rings to match the pattern on the dragon claw and pushed the talons into the holes of the central panel again, the door opened. We cautiously entered the tunnel beyond.

The tunnel led to another large rounded room. There was a dais in the middle of the room with a large stone coffin resting on it, illuminated by sunlight pouring in through a hole in the roof, but no draugr in sight. Across from us, there was a semicircular alcove carved into the wall. The alcove had odd runic writing carved into it. I felt strangely drawn to the wall. The chanting seemed to be coming from it.

With no enemies in sight, we rose from our crouches and walked into the room. Every step I took closer to the strange wall made the chanting louder. "Can you hear it now?" I asked

Lokir shook his head. "I still don't hear anything…"

His words were cut short by the crunching sound of stone breaking. The lid on the coffin on the dais slid off and toppled to the floor. A draugr rose from the coffin, larger than any other we had seen, wielding a huge battleaxe.

"He looks tough," I said through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, looks like an Overlord," Lokir responded. "They're much harder to kill. Stay on my right so I can guard your blind side."

The draugr approached us slowly, but I was feeling impatient, and the excitement washed over me again. While Lokir hung back, I stepped forward to meet him. I ducked away as the draugr swung his axe at me. Lokir came forward to strike the draigr, but the draugr swung his axe back the other way, striking Lokir a blunt blow that sent him reeling. I darted back in and landed a blow to his side, but the draugr spun around and hit me with the pole of the axe, knocking me down as well. I rolled out of the way just in time to avoid another blow and scrambled to my feet. I got my shield up and just barely blocked another blow, a glancing one. I struck the draugr as he drew his axe back again, and backed away out of range of his counterattack.

The draugr said something in another language, then opened his mouth wide. His breath or voice seemed to form a solid object, striking me like a club. I was flung backwards, and I crashed unceremoniously to the stone floor of the dais, striking my back against the coffin. I held my shield up, but it was just barely adequate to block the draugr's next blow. I heard my arm break.

The draugr raised his axe again, but he staggered and turned around with a snarl. He had an arrow protruding from his back. I saw him flinch as Lokir fired another into the draugr's chest.

I heard the draugr say the strange phrase again. Knowing he was about to use whatever power he had just used on me to knock Lokir over, I steeled myself against the pain, rose to my knees and lunged at him. I mostly fell against him, sending him sprawling facedown on the floor.

Through the sudden roaring in my ears and blurriness of my vision from the incredible pain I was in, I saw Lokir bring his sword down twice on the fallen draugr's back. It finally stopped moving.

Lokir knelt beside me and put his hands on my back. My vision and hearing returned to normal as I felt the warmth of the healing spell course through my body. "Thank you," I wheezed.

"I'm not sure I could have done this without you," he panted. He healed himself as I pushed myself up again and tested out my arm, which was no longer broken. "A word of advice, though. You might want to try letting the enemies come to you instead of running to meet them."

"I'm a beginner. I'm still working on my technique." I pulled myself to my feet and looked into the coffin. Other than a bag of fifty gold coins, the only thing left inside was an odd pentagon-shaped slab of rock with some sort of map carved on it.

Lokir joined me and picked up the rock slab. "I wonder if this is worth anything?"

"It must be something special, if that draugr was guarding it." I looked at the odd wall again. "Or was he guarding that wall? I can still hear chanting."

"I still don't hear anything. I don't like this…"

I stepped around the coffin and approached the wall. The chanting kept getting louder. Suddenly one of the words on the wall started to glow white. In a dreamlike trance, I slowly raised my hands to touch the wall.

"Ra'watti, stop!" Lokir called, but his voice was drowned out by the chanting. A wind blew through the cavern, blowing my hair back and ruffling my fur. The word began to glow even brighter, becoming hard to look at. For a few seconds, the wind seemed to be blowing streams of light around me. As suddenly as it started, the chanting stopped, the wind settled and the glow faded, leaving me with a word in my head.

"Fus," I whispered.

"What?" Lokir asked shakily behind me.

I turned to face him. I probably looked as bewildered as he did. "I don't know. That word just appeared in my head."

He looked from me to the wall and back again. "What in Talos' name just happened?"

"I have no idea." I put my hand on the wall again, but it was just a stone wall now. "Was this the treasure? What does it mean?"

Lokir took a deep breath, let it out loudly and shook his knapsack and coin purse, both of which clinked cheerfully. "Well, whatever's going on here, I think we've been here long enough. We made out pretty well for our first bandit raid. I say we get out of here and head back to the shop." He pointed to the tunnel beside the strange wall. "Look at the light coming from that tunnel. That's sunlight."

We headed through the final tunnel. There was a heavy metal gate blocking it, but we found a handle on the wall that raised the gate. From there, the path sloped steeply downwards, opening onto a ledge about ten feet above the ground. We jumped down into the deep snow and found ourselves on the other side of the mountain, with a river visible at the bottom.

"That must be the river that flows past Riverwood." Lokir looked up at the sky. "Look at that. The sun's barely moved. We might be able to reach Whiterun by nightfall."

SOUNDTRACK: "E For Extinction" by Thousand Foot Krutch, "Invincible" by Pat Benatar, "Faster" by Within Temptation, "Another Way Out" by Hollywood Undead, "Whisper" by Evanescence

AUTHOR'S NOTE: As previously mentioned, I took extensive liberties with the layout of Bleak Falls Barrow. I'll be doing so with all dungeons/labyrinths, since writing them exactly as they appear in the game would get boring.

This story is my first real attempt to write graphic violence with death as the intended outcome. I hope it didn't seem too wimpy. I'm very squeamish, but I'll try to work up the nerve to get bloody as I go.