Chapter Five:

Word Wall

I shoved my blade deeper through Arvel and pierced through to the corpse's body. It roared again and reached out for my face, raking its skeletal hands against my cheek. I firmly placed my boot against Arvel's back and pulled my sword out of the two corpses, and then spun around, meeting with the corpse's battleaxe. I got under it after parrying and spun around again, this time cutting its head off. It fell to its knees and then to the ground, deader than before this time.

Milos put a hand on my shoulder. I realized then that I was shaking. I looked at him and saw two other corpses, but they were just as dead as Arvel now. Milos had taken care of them.

"Draugr," he said simply. "Legends say that they served Dragons in years long past, led by a Dragon Priest. They were betrayers, and some say that they were cursed into un-death. But whatever the case, one of them that I fought here was a woman." When I was wondering what Milos could have meant by that, he added, "And she had a beard."

I had to go and look for myself. It turned out that she did. "I hope not all Nord women are like that."

"Only the ones that live in the mountains," he said lightly. "We should press on. Grab the claw and we can head back—."

"But I want to explore some more!" I exclaimed suddenly. "Aren't you a bit curious?"

"I am, but I'm not so keen to run into more of these."

I grabbed the golden claw and Arvel's journal off of the Dark Elf's corpse. "Hey, if there's a good reward at the end, it'll be worth it!"

Milos sighed, but didn't argue any longer. The next time he spoke, it was to warn me of an incoming pressure plate, which would have activated a nasty little wall covered in spikes. I could see a few corpses still stuck on it as we walked past.

As we walked, I opened Arvel's journal and surveyed the contents. He was an interesting man, to say the least, but obsessed with whatever laid behind the door in the Hall of Stories.

"My fingers are trembling," he wrote. "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 favorite 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'."

This may come in handy, I thought as I stuffed it into my pack.

We heard some movement and instantly had our blades in our hands. Draugr slowly sat up in their graves, moaning and roaring. Instantly, we were attacking them like no tomorrow, not even waiting for them to grab their weapons. Only one actually managed to try and hit us back, but he was taken care of swiftly.

We pressed on, looting what we wanted from their corpses. It seemed that they had a few gold pieces each on them, so it was useful.

"Blades," Milos said suddenly. "Looks like we're not getting past without a few scratches."

Pendelums swang in rhythm in the corridor ahead of us, probably activated by something we hadn't seen earlier. I was just surprised that they were still in working order.

"One of us can go through and maybe find a switch to shut it down," I suggested.

Milos stepped forward. "I'll go. You should just relax for a second."

"And how can I relax knowing that I might be finishing this dungeon alone?"

"Very well." Milos timed each step, only being nicked once before he made it to the end. He was more nimble than I gave him credit for. As he pulled the switch on the other side, he snickered. "Looks like you're stuck with me for a while longer."

"Well, at least you're a good distraction for any monsters we see on the way," I quipped. "Better than them focusing on me all the time."

We passed more bodies, but most of them were skeletons, and none jumped up to attack us. Well, until we went down the steps. Then a draugr stepped down from his resting place and ran at us with a battle axe.

Milos rammed his shoulder into the draugr's chest, knocking any breath it probably didn't have out of its lungs as it hit the wall. I sank my blade into the draugr's face, and that was the end of that.

Continuing on, we encountered yet another draugr, but I saw a trap. Stopping Milos, I pulled my bow and shot an arrow at an overhanging lantern. It first fell onto the draugr's head, but it shattered once it hit the floor. The floor ignited as the flames licked the oil on the floor, and the draugr, being about as dry as parchment, caught fire almost instantly. The draugr panicked, but couldn't put out the flames. It met its end.

But two more came around the corner. That was when Milos lunged forward, leaping through the flames, and brought his blade down on both of their skulls at the same time.

"Good hit," I commented.

"You're not so bad yourself," he replied with a grin.

We'd tred a bit more carefully after that. When we emerged into a cavern with water cascading down a wall, a draugr broke out of its stone coffin. Milos saw an axe beside us, picked it up, and tossed it at the draugr. It was dead before the battle even began, and I was grateful for that.

We opened a portcullis opposite the waterfall and followed the stream, careful not to make much noise. The next room we entered had some strange plants glowing on some of the rock formations which lit our path. As we neared another waterfall, I peered over it. A draugr was patrolling a make-shift bridge, so I made quick work of it with my bow. When we found ourselves on the bridge, we took what gold was on its body and continued onwards. That was when we came into a last, well-lit chamber.

It was just as ruined as the rest of the barrow, but the doors at the other end gave it a feeling of importance, as if it guarded something. My curiousity piqued, I quietly made my way into the room.

A draugr saw me, and before I could react, its greatsword was in its hands. I fumbled for my blade, now sheathed, but Milos was there for me. Milos locked blades with the draugr, both pushing at each other with equal strength, despite how fragile the corpse looked. They pulled away from each other and began an onslaught of attacks, Milos even leaving himself open a few times in order to deliver stronger hits. When I'd finally pulled my blade from my sheathe, the draugr was dead.

"Thanks," I breathed. "I owe you."

"I owe you more. That just makes us even for one time. I have tons more to go."

I snickered, but we headed to the doors. Pushing them open (with our shoulders, as they were stubborn), we emerged into another cavern, and continued on until we reached another set of deadly pendulums. Milos didn't wait for me to offer to go; he just went, and deactivated them easily enough.

But we were soon face-to-rotting-face with several other draugr. We hacked our way past them, avoiding any incoming arrows and praying to the Nine that the glowing eyes were just for show. Apparently, they weren't. Before we could take down the last archer, it buried an arrow in my right shoulder. Pain exploded down my arm about as fast as my blood was falling, and I had to bite my lip to avoid crying out in pain.

Milos killed the archer and then came over to me. He deftly pulled the ancient arrow from my shoulder and looked at the wound. I was looking too. It was pretty nasty.

"I'll just... cast a spell!" I said, gritting my teeth. "Give me a moment."

Remembering my lessons about healing magicka, I calmed myself down and summoned it into my palm. I pressed my hand gently against the wound, and it was fine in no time, if a little sore.

"I prefer to keep the scars," Milos said.

"Yes, well, the only scar I'm keeping is the one on my face, simply because I didn't get to it in time." I got to my feet and grabbed my fallen sword. "Let's go; I'm sure we're close by now."

Climbing the stairs in the room and passing over bridges, we'd treaded carefully, desperately wishing that there weren't any more draugr to fight. And then, finally, we reached another set of double-doors. When we opened this set, we felt as if we were being invited into the hall revealed to us. Pictures adorned the walls of the hall, and I found myself drawn to them. One I was studying depicted many draugr bowing to another one, but it was clad in a long robe and wore a mask on his face.

"The Hall of Stories..." Milos breathed. "The Nords definitely weren't compensating for something."

"I'd hope not," I remarked. "Pretty extreme to build something this big if you were worried about something so small."

Milos and I finally got to the end of the hall, and were faced with a strange door. It had three dials on it, each longer than the other, and a place that would seem to fit the claw at its centre. I fished the claw out of my pack and inserted it into the hole, but it didn't get in far enough, and nothing happened.

"And how the hell're we supposed to get past now?" Milos grumbled, crossing his arms.

"Well... 'when you have the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands'," I recited. "Arvel's going to help us after all."

I looked at my palm, and then realized that there were two palm that I needed to look at. One being the palm that held the claw, and the golden claw's palm. Sure enough, it had a few symbols etched into it.

I moved the dials, putting the owl symbol at the bottom dial, the moth at the middle, and the bear at the top. I then inserted the claw again, and the door moved. The puzzle-door groaned as its ancient gears got to work, and then the door slid downwards, out of our sight.

"Well, what do you know?" Milos remarked. "You've gotten good at problem-solving."

"I had to learn, or else the Madame would hit me with her damned stick," I replied. "Hag."

Milos was laughing as we stepped into the cavern. It was huge and spacious, with a waterfall, many other rock formations, and some odd wall opposite us. Milos and I crossed the bridge and climbed the stairs, eyeing the stone coffin warily. I touched the odd wall in curiousity. It had markings scratched into it, but they seemed to mean something. A language, probably.

I used a piece of charcoal that I found by the coffin and some large parchment and started to bring the words onto the page. I didn't want to write them down for fear of getting them wrong. Milos, meanwhile, was sifting through a chest beside the coffin. When I'd finished, I looked at my work and nodded in approval. I glanced at the wall once more, but this time, something caught my eye. One of the words were glowing.

I approached it carefully and looked at Milos. He was still looking through the chest, and I didn't want to worry him by pointing at a glowing word. We had already dealt with corpses that had glowing eyes.

I studied the word, running my hand across the rough stone surface. Its glow increased for just a moment and blurred my vision, but it remained abstinant of hurting me.

"Force..." I muttered.

Wondering why that word came to my head, I shrugged and started back to Milos. Suddenly, the top of the coffin ripped off and came flying at Milos. He was slammed into the trunk and toppled over the edge of the platform, landing roughly,

I drew my sword and ran at the draugr. I met it, blade for blade, and kicked my leg out. Its own leg broke as mine connected with it, but it seemed undaunted. The draugr's sword cut my left arm, but only slightly. However, it sent insant pain through my arm as ice settled on the wound. Its sword was enchanted. I leapt back, grabbed my bow, and loosed an arrow as the draugr came close. It hit the draugr in the eye, and I could take a breath of relief.

Milos got to his feet and cracked his back. "I think we're done here," he mused.

"Hells yes." I sheathed my bow and fallen sword, and we headed upwards, following a path. "Let's hope we don't have to come back here."

Milos suddenly stopped and ran back to the corpse of the draugr. When he came back, he showed me a funny tablet.

"This may come in handy later," he told me. "I think we'd better keep it."

I nodded, remembering the words from the wall that were now in my pack. "Well, as long as we came out of here with a lesson."

"And what lesson would that be?" Milos asked, obviously entertained.

"Get better weapons before you traverse into dungeons."