Chapter 15

Day 55

Flames ate hungrily at the dry timber that was placed within the circle of rocks. The campfire lit up the cave walls, making every crack and chipped piece visible. It also made any protruding rocks look more menacing as their shadows cast grizzly images. I stared at the flames in silence, the others around me did the same. Where do I begin? I guess I should start on the day things went from bad to worse.

After the dragonborn had disappeared, Kharjo and I had scanned the area for the others. We made our way across the road where the supplies had been burned. The area looked clean to me but Kharjo had found the spot where they had rolled out of the way.

"So Ahkari and the others are still alive?" I had asked as he pointed out the dirt and moved rocks.

"I'm not sure. They went this way." I followed after him while he continuously examined the ground and area around us. We went on for a few minutes before Kharjo inhaled sharply and fell to his knees near some large rocks. I went to his side to see what he was looking at and gasped. Dro'marash lay on the ground with his own sword plunged into his back. I looked around and noticed two other bodies, they looked to be bandits. One a rather large orc and the other looked like it was a nord woman. I didn't see Zaynabi or Ahkari though and hope coursed through me.

"Bandits or slavers. I don't know but it looks like they took Ahkari and Zaynabi." I knelt by Kharjo and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We need to try and save them. I don't know how you have these tracking skills but you need to use them so we can find where they are." He raised his head to look at Dro'marash's body and nodded.

Kharjo had agreed that we needed to find them and pulled himself together. We had searched the bodies for any kind of sign of where they could be based at and also for ay kind of supplies they might have had. We found some food and water pouches in a backpack that a bandit had been clinging to. Also lucky for us there had been a note that updated their group on a guard shift in a place called Mistwatch. It was a fort that overlooked much of the area between Riften and Windhelm. In fact on the map it looked like it was right in the middle of it.

A fit of coughing had interrupted my writing. I gave my pouch of water to Zaynabi who eagerly accepted it. It was probably best that she had interrupted my writing. I'm not sure exactly that I wanted to write down what Kharjo and I had found inside of the fortress. It had been home to a group of bandits and slavers. But something else had moved in.

Zaynabi had started to talk to me as we watched over the fire. She told me of her past and how she had come to join the others in their venture to Skyrim.

"I had been a trader before this. Not just any trader mind you, one that sold and bought stolen goods." Zaynabi looked at the flames as she spoke. I could tell that she wasn't used to speaking to other people as she struggled to find certain words and couldn't look at me at all. "It was, difficult for me to live that way though. I had been constantly dodging the guards and even the army at one point." She sighed heavily then tossed a few twigs into the fire. Kharjo groaned in his cot behind us. I did not think that the potion we had given him must not have worked all the way. "I will check on him." Zaynabi said as she stretched and went to his side. He had taken a deep hit that probably would have killed most but he had been lucky. He had avoided internal bleeding and being stabbed in anywhere vital. However, he would probably not wield a weapon the same.

It had taken us days to try and figure out a way into the castle. But by the time we had worked things out, our plans had changed drastically when we where inside. The good news for me though is I believe I have a lead on the conjurers that brought me here. The bad news is that I would need to go back to Mistwatch keep in order to find anything new out.

"D-Darius!" I heard Kharjo cry out to me. I had dropped the stick I had been fiddling with and went to his side. He clutched his shoulder and tried to sit up.

"No Kharjo. You must lay down." Zaynabi placed a hand on his shoulder and tried to convince him to lay back down. Kharjo reluctantly agreed and lay back down, his face twisted with pain.

"W-where is Ahkari? Wasn't she with us?!" He tried to look around the small cave we where in but seemed to only confuse himself more. "How did we get here?"

"I found the cave while we where running. With the storm outside it would be almost impossible for anything to follow us." I tried to reassure him but it only made him panic more.

"Storm? Darius, where is Ahkari. We rescued both of them right?" He was confused. More so than I would have originally thought. He was brave to take on those things and I was surprised to see him alive at all and out of the castle just hours later.

"Ahkari is-. She didn't-." Zaynabi couldn't finish the sentence as she knelt by Kharjo's side.

"At least, we got you out Zaynabi." Kharjo let tears fall down his face as he lay his head down again and closed his eyes. I rose, returned to the fire, and took my seat on the warm rocks by the fire. There was a small crevice the lead to a little 'hallway' that led back outside. I could hear the storm rage on as we all huddled here in the cave. We had some supplies left that would maybe last us a day or so and that was only if the storm lasted that long.

After looking over my journal again I realized I had yet to fill in the rest of the last few days. We had been running for some time. Creatures poured out of Mistwatch keep and began to follow us. Where the others had been going I didn't know. Some looked to be undead, like zombies from previous games. Not the draugr that you normally see if Skyrim but the groaning and limping hunks of meat you saw in a game like Oblivion.

The only reason I knew that the conjurers might have been involved is that I had found another empty spellbook with the same symbol on it. I had gathered that maybe after the spell within the book was used the book no longer held any power in it. Meaning that there could be a chance that I could trace what kind of power was in the book if I could get to the college of Winterhold or find a master mage that wasn't hostile.

Fatigue reared its ugly head as I continue to stare at the fire and occasionally write. Zaynabi was already asleep and Kharjo finally asleep as well. I would need to keep first watch. Even with the storm I was still wary of the constant dangers of Skyrim. I would sleep eventually, but I figured I should let those two get some rest and have a break from their grief and pain. There was too much on my mind to sleep anyway, I believed I was coming close tosome answers but here where still many questions.