Chapter Thirteen:

A Friend

Needless to say, going down the mountain was easier than going up. We were in Ivarstead in half the time it took to climb up to High Hrothgar, where we gathered a bit more supplies.

"Now, where'd the Greybeards say we were going to find this horn?" Milos asked.

I took out my map (one that I'd just bought) and studied it. "Arngeir said it'd be in Ustengrav."

"Ustengrav?" Aldren studied my map, and then pointed. "It should be in Hjaalmarch, I think..."

"Somewhere around Morthal," Hiemdall added. "What we can do now is head south to this road here, follow it east until we get into Riften, and hire a wagon from there. It'll save us a few days of walking."

I sighed and folded the map. "Let's get moving. If we want to reach Riften soon, we'd best not dally. I don't want to run into anything... unpleasant... after dark."

"It'll just be some thugs," Milos said, smiling as we started south. "And maybe a few Werewolves... or Vampires... Maybe some trolls too. Or we could run into Dragons!"

"You're not making me feel any better, Milos," I groaned.

"You can just Shout at anything we come across."

"I'm going to Shout you all the way to Black Marsh if you're not careful."

Milos held his hands up in defense and backed-off, though I supposed that he wasn't yet ready to let it go. Behind us, Aldren was smirking and Hiemdall was covering his mouth with his hand, attempting to hide his smile.

"D'you guys want a piece of me too?" I growled.

Hiemdall took his hand away from his mouth. "I'm fine. Don't want to land back in the Jorrvaskr after flying to the peak of the Throat of the World."

Aldren didn't answer, but whether it was because he'd burst out in laughter or just because he didn't want to, I wasn't entirely sure. We traveled for only a few hours before we reached the road we'd wanted to, after going around a small mountain and avoiding a few bears native to the area. We immediately turned east, towards Riften, passing beside the Treva River once and then watching as it connected to Lake Henrick, the lake on the very edge of Riften. Riften itself looked a little smaller than Whiterun, and just from the outside it looked a little less clean, but we weren't going in to see it. We walked around Riften instead, beside its eastern wall, in order to get to the stables. There, we found a wagon that looked ready to take us where we wanted to go.

The driver charged us fifty gold to get to Morthal, but it seemed like a bargain, so I paid for the ride while Aldren and Hiemdall were checking through our things. We barely even noticed the guards' eyes.

"Oh, Cha'qim apologizes. She will not be so careless again." I focused my eyes on where I believed the voice came from. A Khajiit in odd leather armour was apologizing to Aldren, since she had bumped into him. I smiled. At least the people are nice here.

Aldren grumbled something completely unintelligible and the Khajiit went on her way. My eyes lingered on the Khajiit for a moment longer, but it was lucky that I did. I recognized Aldren's coin purse in her hand.

"Aldren," I said, walking hurriedly over to him, "where's you coin purse?"

"Right h—." Aldren tapped his waist, and his eyes widened. "Damn! It's gone!" He whirled around. "That damn Khajiit! It stole my coin purse!"

Before I could stop him, Aldren charged into Riften. I asked the driver to wait for us and hurried in after him. We split up, sprinting through back alleys and even going plankside to find the Khajiit. I knew she was playing with us, because I would catch glimpses of her and hear her laugh.

I was finally behind her, sprinting with all my might while she danced around the alleys. I had absolutely no way to catch her!

Unless...

"Fus!" I shouted. The Thu'um caught the Khajiit, and she spun into a wall, effectively hitting her head. She was dazed, so I quickly ran up to her and grabbed her arms. "I'm so sorry, I really didn't want to have to do that!" I exclaimed.

"Well whatever you did, it was quite a surprise." The Khajiit smiled. "Cha'qim is awed."

"Don't be." I held out my hand. "Please give me the coin purse. I'll let you go immediately if you do."

"And what would make Cha'qim trust your words, Imperial?"

I released her arms and helped her to stand. "I have nothing to make you trust me. I'm just asking that you do."

"Trust is hard to find, especially in Riften." She shrugged and handed me the coin purse. "But here you are. Your friend's coin purse. Tell him that we target those who flaunt these things, and to be wiser as to where it is put."

"Thank-you." I grinned at her. "Oh, and I think that tiring out your opponent was a smart thing to do. Just do it fast so you can get back to your base."

"Ah, so the Imperial has knowledge of thievery?"

"I do. I ran with a few thieves back in Cyrodiil for two years. Be careful next time, Cha'qim."

"I will think on what you have said, Imperial." The cat was gone almost instantly, using her claws to scale one of the walls in the alley.

I sighed and went back to the wagon, where Aldren seemed to be pouting. I tossed him his coin purse and told him to keep it hidden next time. If anything, it was already an eventful day.

"We heard you Shout," Milos said as I climbed into the wagon. "Did that cat fall apart?"

"No, I just stunned her," I grumbled. "And probably half of Riften."

"Maybe all." Milos shrugged and slumped his shoulders. "I'm going to sleep now."

"Already?"

"Mhm. Wake me when we get there."

Hours were crawling by slower than a mudcrab while we were in the wagon. It occurred to me that I had barely anything to talk about with my companions, but they were dying to ask me questions. Well, Hiemdall and Milos were, but Milos was asleep, and if Aldren wanted to ask me something he masked his desire well.

We reached Morthal before nightfall, and I could still see the Throat of the World. Just staring at its peak made me want to explore it a bit more, past the monastery, and the Greybeards. Maybe that was where this "Paarthurnax" would be. I found it odd that he could still be alive, since he'd been mentioned on the etched tablets, but it was harder to believe that it could be a Dragon. He probably wasn't anyway. Kyne must have given him an extended life to teach the Greybeards.

We disembarked the wagon and didn't stop in Morthal. I wasn't the only one who wanted to get this over with. So, we headed north-east, towards where Ustengrav was, according to the wagon driver. We crossed the marsh, and eventually found mound above the ground.

We found three bandits and a necromancer, too.

Acting quickly, Hiemdall, Milos and Aldren charged forward, swinging their respective blades, while I hung in the back for fire support. I didn't allow the necromancer to swing one spell. He went down quickly, courtesy of my bow. When the bandits were dead, we took a moment to loot their bodies for any gold they would have. Milos even found a lockpick, which he gave to me.

We descended into the mound via its spiraling stone steps. A bandit corpse was slumped against some barrels, and after searching both him and the barrels, we opened the wooden door into Ustengrav.

The tunnel we came into was misty and sloped downwards. We snuck in carefully, sticking to the shadows of the flickering flames around us and looting another bandit corpse. We all emerged into a chamber at the base of the tunnel, and spotted movement.

Aldren put a hand on my shoulder when I drew my arrow and pressed a finger to his lips. With incredible stealth, he sped forward without a sound, drawing one of his glass daggers. We held our breaths when the two necromancers turned to face Aldren, but couldn't see him. I briefly wondered if the necromancers had tested their own brains lately. When a necromancer passed by Aldren, the assassin stood, covered the necromancer's mouth and ran his blade over his throat. The necromancer crumpled to the ground, dead, while I loosed an arrow at the other, who had noticed him once her companion was dead.

We rejoined Aldren and pressed on into the ruins, killing one more necromancer as we passed (Milos ran his blade right through the necromancer's chest while he was sneaking). The tunnel we entered had several other corpses, and some looked freshly dead.

For good reason, too. When we emerged into a smaller chamber, three draugr were there to greet us. I drew my sword and stabbed one through its gut as quickly as possible, but I preferred those zombies over the Dragons any day. Aldren and Milos double-teamed one of the remaining draugr, and Hiemdall was quick to slay the other. It was much easier killing things with other people, not like I'd throw any "Let's kill things!" parties any time soon.

For the next hour, we would delve into a tunnel, only to meet more draugr. Though killing them became easy for us all, it was the repetitive growls of the undead that sent me on edge. Once, a draugr had taken a while longer to break from its stone coffin, and minutes after we slaughtered the most recent wave of draugrs, it popped out. We'd all been taken by surprise, but I'd been surprised enough to Shout.

"Fus Ro!"

The draugr slammed against the wall and erupted into bones, dying instantly. I'd groaned in frustration, pissed that I was using the Shouts so naturally. I really, really hated it, especially since I'd surprised my companions even more than the draugr.

We marched on, mostly in silence so I could brood and despise the damned twist of fate that brought me to Skyrim. Milos knew that I'd give anything to not be able to Shout at this point. It was annoying and frustrating, and gave me horrible images of Dragons and Men attempting to... you know.

When we entered a door inside Ustengrav, a blue light was on our right at the bottom of the stairs. We headed left and ignored the glow, though if I didn't want this entire thing to be over with so quickly I'd have examined it.

We followed the tunnel and fought off a few more draugr, along with some walking skeletons. Skeletons. I didn't bother using my bow against them, and opted for swordplay instead.

Milos fended off another draugr while I was taking on a skeleton. "Why don't you just Shout at them and dismember them that way?" he called over the fighting.

"No way in hell!" I replied fiercely.

Once they were dead (for good), we found ourselves in a room full of more draugr and a lot of rotten food. I didn't know what smelt worse.

Once the draugr had been dispatched, we hurried onward. I could feel that we were close to the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, and I didn't want to delay. The sooner it was done, the better. But then there were more skeletons to fight. Aldren seemed adept at slicing their waists and making them have to crawl, but it was more creepy than it was effective.

One of the crawling skeletons grabbed my ankle. I raised my sword above my head, ready to properly kill it, but with unnatural strength it pulled my ankle towards it and made me lose my balance. The good news? I kicked it in the head with my other foot as I fell. The bad news? I fell off a ledge.

When I hit the ground several seconds later, my breath was knocked from my lungs and I thought some of my bones were broken. I groaned, feeling lucky that the pain hadn't hit me yet.

"Hey, where's Taryn?" I heard Milos ask.

"Down here," I called.

The three of them peering over the edge at me was almost comical. "You okay?" Hiemdall yelled.

I nodded and painfully got to my feet. Surprisingly, nothing was broken, but I was in a lot of pain. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Hey, didn't we see something like that in Bleak Falls Barrow?" Milos asked, pointing towards a wall of words.

Word Wall, I thought absently. "Yeah. It has the Dragon language."

"Can you read it?"

I huffed. "I don't want to!"

"Maybe it'll have another one of those Words of Power for you to learn."

"Oh goody. Another reason for me to hang myself." I could feel Milos' disapproving gaze on me. "Fine! I'll see what I can do..."

I approached the Word Wall and examined it. I had no idea how I'd understand it, but I assumed a word would glow like before. At least that'd make it easier.

"There are two words jumping into my head when I'm looking at these symbols," I told them. "What ones do you want me to read?"

"The ones that come first!" Hiemdall yelled down.

I shrugged. "NONVUL BRON DahMaan DaaR ROT FIN; FODiiZ BORMah-Nii LOS HeyV DO ENOOK; MUN WaH LahNey VOTH ahKRIN ahRK ZIN; LEH ROK FeiM VODahMIN KOTIN VULOM."

"And how, pray tell, did you come up with that gibberish?"

"It's not gibberish! It's the first thing that came to my head when I read it!"

"And how're we supposed to understand what it means, lizard-girl?"

"Hey!" I snapped. "Don't make me come up there and shove an arrow through your eye!"

"Calm down!" Milos interjected swiftly. "Taryn, d'you know what it means?"

"Noble Nords remember these words of the hoar father—It is the duty of each man to live with courage and honor lest he fade forgotten into darkness," I recited. "Don't ask me how I know, because I don't."

The word "Fade" was jumping out to me, and it glowed, so I ran my hand over the word. Its glow intensified, like the one in Bleak Falls Barrow, and then it dulled. I guessed that it would be a new Shout soon enough, once I got the knowledge of how to use the word.

I found a way up to my companions, and when we crossed the narrow bridge to the other side I was glaring daggers at Hiemdall. Maybe we were both just tired and frustrated, but I had no idea why he'd start to call me names because of what I'd read. Maybe it was his time of the month...?

We were faced with three stones, one on our right, two on our left, and the one nearest to us glowed when we approached it. A gate opened across from us, but two were still down. Milos sprinted forward with incredible speed, all three of the stones glowing red as he passed, but when he reached the gates they slammed down. Milos hadn't been close.

"Damn!" he cursed. "How're we getting past this?"

"Ugh... I'll do it," I volunteered, though it was half-heartedly.

"And how do you suppose you're going to get to the other side of the gates without impaling yourself on them?" Milos inquired.

"Shouting."

"That Shout you have isn't going to make you go faster," Milos pointed-out. "Well, unless you look the other way and propel yourself."

"The Greybeards taught me a different Shout," I admitted. "Out in the courtyard. It'll come in handy." I stood stationary, waiting for the rocks to stop glowing. All but the first did, and only because I was standing next to it. I took a deep breath. "Wuld!"

I was propelled forward, the stones turning red instantly, and as soon as the Shout finished I was sprinting. I slid under the last gate as it came down and made it safely to the other side in no time flat.

"Good thing those Greybeards prepared you for this," Aldren remarked.

"No kidding." I pulled a lever and the gates opened, allowing the boys to come through. "Thank me later."

When we got to a room that had pressure plates absolutely everywhere, Aldren said he'd find a safe path. He carefully moved around the plates, and when he stepped on a wrong one fire would spew upward. I figured out the pattern after a while and followed after him, with Hiemdall and Milos close behind me. When we caught up with Aldren, he had already dispatched two frostbite spiders, and was working on a third. He killed it before we could draw our weapons.

We had to hack our way through some spider webs to get to the next area, and now that there were no more pressure plates, we walked freely around. Milos' upper lip curled at the sight of the frostbite spider corpses. He still didn't like those things.

Luckily, we weren't faced with any monsters once we got through the webs. Just a wooden door, and after passing through that, there was a portcullis, but there was also a pull chain to get through it. It was probably the easiest time we'd had of the entire dungeon.

The room past the portcullis had water on either side of a path in the middle, and pillars holding the roof up from the water. A tomb was on the opposite side of the room, and we were just a stone's throw away from the horn.

As we descended the stairs to the path, obelisks resembling what I thought were Dragons rose from the water. They weren't Dragons upon closer inspection, but I couldn't figure out what they were.

When we reached the tomb on the other side of the room, there was a stone hand created from the tomb stretching upward, holding a note. Milos, Hiemdall and Aldren searched around for the horn while I grabbed the note.

"Dragonborn,

I need to speak with you. Urgently. Rent the attic room at the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood, and I'll meet you.

A friend."

I crumpled the note, shaking in rage. Milos put a hand on my shoulder.

"Erm... Taryn? Are you all right?"

With deadly calm, I smiled at him. "Never better."

Milos backed-off immediately.