Rabdom gave another heave, placing a foot on the door frame in order to gain some type of leverage. He gave a push, and pulled again. This time, the Centurion Sphere wouldn't budge; it was stuck in the doorway itself. Curse it all! He'd managed to drag the Automation from its original 'resting' place to the door; however it seemed a bit too big to actually get through the door. His muscles ached, and his breathing was more than labored. He was sure that his lungs were burning right out of his chest.

Letting the Sphere drop – though not far, considering that he couldn't lift it up too much anyhow – the elf stumbled back and leaned forward, resting his hands on his legs as he tried to regain his composure. He was sure to pass out later on when he went to bed. Once he was sure that he wouldn't die from lack of oxygen, he stood and looked over his little task.

The Automation was stuck at some sort of angle in the door, and it didn't look like it was going to budge. He didn't feel like climbing over it to retrieve the items he left behind, either. But he also didn't feel like the thought of leaving them behind. He rather liked his bow, thank you kindly! With an exasperated sigh, Rabdom stepped forward and resumed attempting to pull it out again. Sticking his foot back on the door frame and grabbing at the Sphere's shoulder, he began to pull and tug at the Centurion Sphere in a fruitless attempt to get it out. Maybe he should get some oil to help it slip out? Or maybe -?

Something on the Automation snapped and broke; ever so slowly, the beast lurched forward as Rabdom tugged. The Dunmer couldn't help but give a squeak of victory as it slowly began sliding forward. Maybe he had done better then he thought this time! Now all he needed to do was actually get it down to Dolniir once he got it out of the doorway. But that seemed rather tricky, considering that it took a lot of effort just to get it to the door in the first place.

Rabdom was ready to let go so he could return to the room and retrieve his objects before he could go any further, however once the better part of the Sphere was out of the door, he realized that the Sphere wouldn't stop moving as he wanted it to. It took him a few seconds, however he finally put the pieces together in time: on the way to this room, Rabdom had been going up hill, which meant the way back to Dolniir would make him go downhill. The Automation was too big to make it stop moving, especially when Rabdom wasn't too strong to begin with.

Turning, the elf did the first thing he could think of: he fled. He nearly flew down the slope and turned a corner as the Sphere picked up speed, praying that at the corner, the Sphere would crash and stop. He was not so lucky; the Automation merely crashed into the wall and then kept on going, losing a few pieces along the way. Rabdom could feel his lungs begging to burn again, but he really couldn't stop at this point. Going into a full on sprint, the elf made a beeline for where he had last left Dolniir. This, sadly, was a good half forty or more feet away, and a good part of him said that he was going to die.

His luck wasn't fully horrible, he quickly came to realize. The door was still open, and Dolniir was still there. His back was turned to him, and he had to wonder why he hadn't heard him coming already. Speeding his pace – could he ever go any faster? – he nearly flew into the dimly lit room.

"Hi, Dolniir!" Rabdom squeaked in greeting.

The man barely had time to acknowledge him before he quite literally jumped and flew over the table. Something escaped the Nord's throat – a question or exclamation, maybe? – however was lost in the crash the Sphere made as it wedged its torso in the door. Rabdom turned in time to see Dolniir's face fall, and ever so slowly turn towards the door. Instantly, the items in his hands were dropped and his jaw slacked as he stared at the mess before him.

"By Shor's bones!" the man exclaimed after a moment, looking from the Sphere to Rabdom and then back again. "Rabdom, how did you – When did you – Why?" Rabdom merely grinned widely from his perch on an old Dwarven bed.

"I found it!" said the elf. "Or, rather, it found me! And it tried to kill me! But I killed it before it could, no worries! And it had a shiny thing in it! But I couldn't get the shiny thing out, so I brought it to you."

Dolniir stood silent, arms still frozen in place and jaw still slacked, for a good several more minutes. Rabdom was starting to get worried that maybe he'd broken him or something. That wasn't really uncommon with him, he'd learned. He knew how to break people, but he didn't mean to do it, honest! Finally, after some time, Dolniir hesitantly walked over to the Sphere, items forgotten, and reached for the creature's chest where the gem lay. Rabdom was ready to warn him that it was pretty tough to get it out, when –

Click!

The little dome easily as the Nord pressed something near it, and the gem plopped out with ease.

"I don't know how you did it," said Dolniir as he turned to face Rab, "but you've found something that I've been looking for, for ages. " Dolniir's expression twisted into that of confusion. "What's with the face?" Rabdom vented through his nose in annoyance.

"Because!" Rabdom whined, though it was surprising that he got anything out with how much pouting he was doing. "I spent over an hour trying to open it, and you did it just by pushing a thing!" Rab squatted and crossed his arms 'angrily.' Dolniir could only shake his head as he approached his table.

"You're lucky you didn't break the damned thing," he said. Pausing, Dolniir rolled the gem around in his hands. Finally, he sighed. "But I guess you did good work," Dolniir said with a nod. "I could really use this. I'm actually rather grateful you found it."

With an almost happy squeak, Rabdom launched himself off of the bed and towards the table. "I found lots of other good things, too!" he said as he began rummaging through his satchel. "Like these Dwarven oils! They kind of taste funny – kind of like green! - and they gave me weird burps. Ooo, and these metals, too! I noticed you were wearing Dwarven armor, and I thought that these looked like they were the same color as them, so I thought that they'd be useful. Oh, and -!"

Dolniir sighed and returned to his work, setting the gem on the table as Rabdom rambled on about what he found and began setting such things on the table. For a race of elves who generally did not like outsiders, this elf talked way too much.

Attempting to get out of the room was very trying, as Dolniir seemed hesitant to pull apart the Centurion Sphere just so they wouldn't have to climb over the damned thing. On the upside, Rabdom had named the thing correctly; something that seemed to surprise Dolniir to no end. After some much needed – though much unwanted on Dolniir's part – teamwork, the duo managed to move the sphere just enough to slide through. The table Dolniir had used became fairly barren; Dolniir took only what he truly needed, though to Rabdom, that seemed like a lot.

It was obvious that when they exited the room, Dolniir expected them to go their separate ways. Rabdom had to go back and retrieve the items he'd left behind, and Dolniir, as Rabdom recalled, had to set out on the next part of his 'knowledge seeking.' What Dolniir hadn't seemed to expect, however, was for Rabdom to surprise him when he finally managed to exit the Dwarven ruins via the way he had come in; which was, in all entirety, far away from where Rabdom was heading.

He'd just stepped out of the ruins, the late afternoon sun slowly setting on the horizon, when some pebbles tumbled down from above. Dolniir didn't think much of it, and went on his merry way.

He probably should have, considering that, not seconds later, a figure dropped down almost right beside him, almost out of nowhere.

"So I was thinking," came the squeaky voice of Rabdom just as Dolniir startled and went to reach for his dagger, "I like adventures, and I like helping people. And you seem really nice! Can I come with you to do the thing? It sounds fun, and I like adventures. Plus, I'm pretty good with a bow!"

"By the Nine, Rab," Dolniir cursed under his breath as he let his dagger fall back into place. "For one," he continued, speaking louder now, "don't ever scare me like that again. Second, why in Akatosh's name would you want to come along with me? And who said I wished for you to come along?"

Instantly Rabdom's face fell, and Dolniir had to hold back the urge to grimace. For a grown man, the elf could sure make himself look like a sad puppy when he wanted to. Rabdom took a small step back, and bowed his head.

"B-But….. I thought we were friends," Rabdom said very sadly. "Friends help each other, right? You said it yourself th-that this was gonna be hard."

For the longest time, the only sound heard were the songs of the birds as they attempted to find their nests before the sun fell. Neither moved, though Rabdom shifted on his feet every few seconds. It looked as if Rabdom was about to turn and flee of sadness when –

"You're insane, you know that?" Dolniir sighed. He placed a hand on his forehead and bowed his head in frustration. After a moment, he looked up and said, "It'd be easier to drag you along, since you seem so sure of yourself with that bow; less food to buy." Rabdom spun around and seemed about ready to hug him, but Dolniir cut him off. "But -!" Rabdom began pouting at this, "- you're just following me to Winterhold. Got it?" Rabdom pouted, but nodded along. "Good," Dolniir nodded. "Now let-"

"Eeeee, thank you!" In a matter of seconds, the Nord was nearly tackled by the elf and hugged. It was lucky the elf was smaller than he; else he might have fallen over. "This is gonna be so much fun! I know a lot of stories! Oh, can we get sweet rolls? I love sweet rolls! I even know -!"

Dolniir mentally groaned as he began walking, the elf following close behind and talking nonstop. This was going to be a long trip.