Chapter Twelve
Alinja wanted to scream and run. Draugr were real and she was staring into the cold dead eyes of three. She glanced at Erik.
"What do we do?" She asked fearfully. "Can we kill something that is already dead?"
"Only one way to find out." Erik replied, drawing his sword.
The draugr did the same, drawing their dark grey ancient nord weapons. Even though the dead looked lumbering and off balanced, they were surprisingly strong. The first draugr charged towards them, but was distracted by Meeko who leapt forward in an attempt to knock it off its feet, but the dead man simply gripped the dog and threw him across the room with amazing strength.
"Meeko!" Erik and Alinja shouted in unison.
They were about to hurry to their companion's aid, although they were stopped by the other two zombies. The nords held their weapons in front of them.
"Dir Volaan!" One of the draugr spat and lunged towards Alinja. "Kren sosaal!"
She blocked the attack and kicked as hard as she could against her attacker who only stumbled back a few steps instead of falling over like she expected. The second draugr went to attack her as well but was foiled by Erik who used his shoulder to push it back. His foe turned to glare sinisterly at him.
"Dir!" It hissed and raised its ancient nord great sword above its head and crashed it down to Erik, who struggled to block it.
"Volaan! Volaan!" Alinja's opponent screeched and pushed her towards the blades trap.
She gasped in surprise but was able to stop herself before she became shredded meat. She breathed out and thought for a few seconds. This dead person was stronger than any living human she'd ever encountered. She had to think of a way that she could get rid of it. Behind her, the grinding metal of the blades rang out and an idea popped into her mind. She turned and faced the blades trap, timed her move and ran through the swinging danger and burst out on the other side, unscathed. She faced her undead foe and beckoned it to follow her, taunting it. It growled and unsteadily ran into the blades trap, however it was not as fast and as nimble as Alinja and fell victim to the sharp edges of its own trap, falling down dead almost instantly. Alinja turned her gaze to the lever that was situated on the wall next to the trap. She gripped it with both hands and heaved down, to her relief the trap ceased.
"Erik! Meeko! Run!" She cried.
Erik glanced to where he heard Alinja's voice and called for Meeko to follow him. The two ran passed the un-operating trap and stopped by her side. The two draugr left followed them and Alinja gripped the lever again and pushed it back to its original place. The blades triggered once more and swung left and right, killing the remaining zombies.
Breathing out Erik sheathed his sword. "Well, now we know we can kill them."
Alinja sighed. "Yeah,"
Moving on, they fought passed another four draugr. Eventually, they came to a large round iron door.
"This must be the door that Arvel's journal mentioned." Erik commented. He took the golden claw out of his pack and held it up against the door. "It looks like it goes here." He matched the claws up to three holes in the centre of the door and was about to push in, when Alinja stopped him.
"Wait!" she cried. He took the claw quickly away from the door.
"What is it?"
"Look at these symbols." She pointed to the animals engraved on the door. "It's like the stones from before."
"You're right." He looked at the symbols. "The first one looks like a moth. Then an owl…and another moth."
"Didn't the journal say that the claw was the key?" Alinja asked, taking the claw from Erik and turned it over. "Look, there are symbols here too."
"What do the symbols on the claw say?" Erik inquired.
"Bear, moth, owl."
Erik reached up and turned the outer ring on the door until it showed a bear symbol. Then he turned the other two until they matched with a moth and an owl. Alinja gave the claw to him and he fitted the claws with the holes and finally pushed it. They key clicked and turned. The rings suddenly creaked and moved by themselves and turned until all symbols were depicting owls. The door shifted and dust fell from the ceiling, but despite the ancient protest, it ground into the floor, leaving the entrance clear for the three companions.
Cautiously they stepped forward and gazed at the enormous room. It was more cave-like than it was an actual room. A short bridge arched over to a small island-like plateau. A small stream trickled around it with a short waterfall falling from the top of the cave. On the plateau was a tall wall with strange symbols written on it. Not too far away from it was a black stone coffin. They walked over the bridge and up to the wall. Alinja looked at it. A group of symbols were glowing in a bright purple-blue light. It seemed to be calling to her. She breathed out as she felt her chest grow warm. Her heart steadied to a slow pace. Her eyes were fixed on the glowing words. Strange chanting filled her ears.
"Do you hear it?" She whispered. "Do you see it? Erik…"
"What do you mean?" Erik's voice seemed far away. "It's just a wall with weird symbols on it. Let's move on, we need to find the Dragonstone it has to be in…" Alinja could no longer hear anything but the chanting.
She seemed hypnotised by these symbols. And suddenly a translation flashed into her head. Force.
"Force…" She repeated.
She walked up to the wall and raised her hand to touch the light, but just as her finger tips brushed against the stone, she was forced onto her back.
"FUS!"
"Alinja!" Erik exclaimed, kneeling by her side. "Are you okay?"
The warmth in her chest heated up before it disappeared. She opened her eyes and sat up.
"I feel…kind of strange." She answered.
"What happened?" He pressed, looking up at the wall. "You looked like you were in some sort of trance. And when you touched the wall, your body lit up with this weird purple glow. Are you sure you're okay? Do you need a moment to rest?"
"No, Erik," she replied, "I'm fine… I think."
He helped her up to her feet. At that moment, they heard a loud crack. Behind them, they heard something clank to the ground. They spun around to see that the lid of the coffin had popped off.
"That can't be good…" Erik murmured.
Suddenly, a draugr sat bolt upright. It leapt out of the coffin and drew its sword. It was taller than the other the draugr they had encountered. It had a helmet on with two long horns. It looked like a demon from the darkest pits of Oblivion. Its glowing light blue eyes pierced their souls.
"Come on," Erik said, "we can do this."
Fuelled by Erik's encouragement, Alinja held her sword tightly and faced their new opponent. She moved first, swinging her sword lowly and tried to hit the draugr with the side just above its hip, but the armour it was wearing, although it was ancient, it was surprisingly sturdy. Her sword bounced off the armour and the draugr kicked her down.
"Alinja!" Erik moved forward driving his sword through the draugr's stomach. "Gotcha!"
"Ha ha ha ha!" The draugr taunted and ripped the sword from its gut and threw it across the room. It then proceeded to lift Erik up by the neck and threw him across the room as well. Walking over to where he lay, the draugr held its sword in front of Erik. "Bolag aaz, Mal Lir!" it hissed and raised his sword above its head and swung down.
Before it could reach Erik though, there was a vicious growl and Meeko came charging at the attacker and gripped its wrist between his teeth and thrashed his head around savagely. The undead screeched in pain and anger and tried to shake off the dog. Realising it couldn't shake the canine off, it gripped the dog with its other hand and threw him into the stream.
"Dir!" The draugr screamed as Meeko landed with a splashed thud, yelping when he hit the rocks.
"Hagh!" Alinja gripped the draugr's arms back. "Erik! Cut its head off!"
Erik stumbled to his feet, ripped his sword out of his opponent and took a mighty swing. A crunching and slicing sound filled the air and the head of the zombie toppled off crashing to the ground. Alinja let go of the body and let it roll down to the stream. She leapt after it to see to Meeko.
"Meeko, are you okay?" she asked. She looked over him, there was no major injuries. He was a true war hound. "Good boy." She then stood and walked over to Erik. "What about you? Are you okay?"
"I've been better," he replied with a smile. "Nothing but a worse headache." She smiled as he sheathed his weapon. Suddenly, he gripped her hand and pulled him to her, pressing his lips to hers in a sweet and loving kiss.
"I guess you really are okay." Alinja said, slipping her arms around his neck.
He replied by kissing her again, deeper this time, opening her mouth with his. He held her tightly, letting her know his sheer passion for her. He quickly moved his face to her neck and gazed his teeth on the sensitive skin there.
"E-Erik…" Alinja breathed as he chewed her earlobe. "What's gotten into you? You're…ahh…!" She was cut off as Erik bit down harder on her neck. All she could do was try to maintain her unsteady breathing as he assaulted her neck.
He moved back to her lips and placed his hands on either side of her face, then around her neck and finally moving once arm around her waist, keeping the other hand on her neck. She lifted her hands and threaded her fingers through his hair and around the back of his head. They held each other as if they were about to be split up forever. When Erik finally pulled back, they breathed quickly and placed their foreheads together, staring into each other's eyes, examining the passionate love they had for one another.
Erik planted one last soft kiss on her lips before finally letting her go. "I'm better than okay."
The three, tired companions made their way back to Riverwood. They found the Dragonstone in the coffin the powerful draugr was resting in. By the time they made it back to Riverwood, the sun was setting. They stopped by the Riverwood Trader and revealed to the Imperial shop owners the claw that they had missed.
"Y-you have it?" Lucan exclaimed. "Ha, there it is! Those robbers finally met their match, huh? I'm going to put this back where it belongs. I'll never forget this!"
"It means so much to us to have the claw back!" Camilla said, affectionately.
"You will always be welcome here at the Riverwood Trader." Lucan added.
They farewelled each other and Alinja, Erik and Meeko were back on the road hurrying to Whiterun before it got too dark. Arriving at Dragonsreach, they hurried to the Court Wizard's quarters. They stopped at the entrance as he was talking with a woman who was wearing leather armour and a leather brown hood which cast a shadow over her face. She was short, so Alinja guessed she was a Breton.
"You see?" Farengar was talking to the Breton woman. "The terminology is clearly First Era or even earlier. I'm convinced this is a copy of a much older text. Perhaps dating to just after the Dragon War. If so, I could use this to cross-reference the names with our later texts."
"Good, I'm glad you're making progress." The woman replied. "My employers are anxious to have some tangible answers."
"Oh, have no fear," Farengar continued, "the Jarl himself has finally take an interest, so I'm now able to devote most of my time to this research."
"Time is running, Farengar, don't forget. This isn't some theoretical question. Dragons have come back."
"Dragons?" Alinja whispered to Erik. "There are more of them?"
"I'm not sure." Erik answered.
"Yes, yes," Farengar was talking again, "don't worry. Although the chance to see a living dragon up close would be tremendously valuable…"
This sparked fire within Alinja. He had no idea how frightening dragons could be up close.
"…now, let me show you something else I've found," Farengar muttered, "very intriguing…I think your employers may be interested as well—"
The woman suddenly snapped her head up and looked at Erik, Alinja and Meeko each with a hard stare. "You have visitors." She mumbled to the wizard.
"Hm? Ah, yes, the Jarl's protégés!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up in an excited gesture. "Back from Bleak Falls Barrow? You didn't die, it seems." Alinja handed him the Dragonstone. "Ah! The Dragonstone of Bleak Falls Barrow! Seem you are a cut above the usual brutes the Jarl sends my way. My…associate…here will be pleased to see your handiwork. She discovered its location, by means she has yet so far declined to share with me." He turned his attention back to the woman, grinning widely. "So your information was correct after all. And we have our friends here to thank for recovering it for us."
The woman raised an eyebrow at Farengar and then knotted them together when she looked at the nords with their husky. "You went into Bleak Falls Barrow and got that? Nice work." She causally and expressionlessly looked back to the wizard. "Just send me a copy when you've deciphered it." With that she left the room, passing the dark elf steward, Irileth.
"Farengar!" She cried. "Farengar!" She burst into the room, looking flushed. "A dragon has been sighted outside of Whiterun."
*Dedicated to my best friend , who has always been there for me when I am at my lowest*