...Akatosh, looking with pity upon the plight of men, drew precious blood from his own heart, and blessed St. Alessia with this blood of Dragons, and made a Covenant that so long as Alessia's generations were true to the dragon blood, Akatosh would endeavour to seal tight the Gates of Oblivion, and to deny the armies of daedra and undead to their enemies, the Daedra-loving Ayleids. Those blessed by Akatosh with "the dragon blood" became known more simply as Dragonborn...

-Excerpt from The Book of the Dragonborn, by Prior Emelene Madrine.

Chapter Two - Riverwood

The sun was low in the sky.

Riverwood was a quiet town built, obviously, along a river. Its inhabitants seemed rather calm considering what had just occurred at Helgen, but judging from the two guards casually leaning against the gate, and a man's dismissive reaction to an old woman shouting about dragons, they clearly were just unaware.

"You'll see! It was a dragon!" the old woman retorted as Asuka and Shinji passed by. "Nobody believes me, but I saw it! I did!"

"I'll believe you at least," said Asuka. "We just came from Helgen. That dragon burned the whole place to the ground."

"Helgen is gone?!" The old woman clutched at her chest. "Jarl Balgruuf needs to know!" Before Shinji or Asuka could ask for clarification, the woman ran inside.

"I think that's the place Hadvar mentioned," said Shinji, pointing at a building on their left with a lit forge sitting under the verandah.

"Must be," replied Asuka. "Small towns like this would only need one blacksmith."

Stomping up the steps like they had offended her, Asuka raised a hand and rapped sharply on the door. Seconds later the door opened slightly, and a man stared suspiciously through the crack at her. He then threw the door open. "Ah, you must be the two my nephew spoke of! Please, come in! Sigrid!" he called out behind him. "Our guests have arrived!"

Asuka glanced at Shinji, still standing on the road, and motioned for him to follow. Stepping inside, they were greeted by a warm fire and a warmer smile on the face of a woman. A young girl sat on a bed, staring at them with awe.

"Please, have a seat at the table and I'll get you two some dinner," she said. " I want to thank you for keeping Hadvar safe. He told us about Helgen, and how the three of you had to fight your way out."

Plopping down onto a chair with a sigh, Asuka waved a hand. "Quite a few Stormcloaks seemed to take issue with the fact that we looked like Imperial soldiers, instead of doing the smart thing and just getting the hell out."

Shinji nodded. "Once we got out of the cave, she and I had to head back to Helgen to try and recover some personal belongings. I'm guessing Hadvar made it back here just fine?"

"More like just barely," Alvor snorted. "He was in such a rush to get here that he twisted an ankle on the slope. Foolish boy still tried to run, and got jumped by a couple of starving wolves along the way. He's resting downstairs right now."

"Still... dragons?" said Sigrid, placing a plate in front of Shinji and Asuka. "Are they really back?"

"They are, ma'am," said Shinji with a nod. "It stared me right in the eyes before it started burning Helgen."

Sigrid shivered. "Well. Hadvar asked us to give you what aid we could. I wish we could offer you a bed for the night, but we only have one spare and poor Hadvar is sleeping on it."

"Don't worry about it," replied Asuka between mouthfuls of food. "We'll just rent a couple rooms at the inn."

"In that case," said Alvor, reaching into his coin purse, "let me pay for them for you."

He held out some coins, but Asuka raised a hand. "Actually, would you be amenable to repayment in a different way?"

Alvor raised an eyebrow. "What do you have in mind?"

Asuka reached into the stolen knapsack and pulled out her family axe's blade, setting it on the table between them. Alvor picked it up and examined it closely.

"Some fine work on this. I'm almost envious," he remarked. "I take it you lost the handle during the dragon attack?"

"Yeah, burned up along with the rest of the wagon our stuff was in. I was hoping to get it replaced with something a bit more resistant to fire, if dragons are going to be paying us a visit."

"Hm. A metal handle would obviously be better for a fighting axe, but that takes time to make. You most likely need something right away. I think I still have a cedar wood handle left over from a lumber axe order. Wouldn't take me long to attach it." Alvor glanced out the window. "I'll get on it right away, but it's getting late, and the roads can be dangerous at night. Whiterun's quite a distance too. You should stay the night at the inn, and head off first thing tomorrow morning. Bring word to Jarl Balgruuf, he needs to get his men ready to protect this hold."

Asuka seemed hesitant to wait around. "It's a good idea," Shinji said to her. "After the long day we've had, we'd be lucky to make it there without falling asleep. No good sending a messenger that doesn't make it."

"Alright, alright," Asuka conceded. Her eyes flicked over to him. "Besides, you still smell like smoke. And burnt flesh. Didn't you heal yourself after you got inside the keep?"

"Yes, but there's only so much potions and spells can do. They can certainly bring you back from the brink of death, and help to close up wounds, but you still need to rest and let the body naturally heal the rest of the way. As for the smell, well..." Shinji grinned slightly. "You smell like smoke and blood."

"Smart-ass. Guess we both need a dunk in the river."

They finished their meal and bid Alvor and his family goodnight. Outside, Asuka was quick to warn Shinji against peeking while she washed herself. Shinji instead offered to stand watch, just out of sight of her, to ensure nobody else would try to peek. Asuka agreed, but kept looking over her shoulder at the tree Shinji was standing behind, sure he would try his luck. She wasn't sure whether to be satisfied or disappointed that she didn't catch him.

After they both got as clean as they could, and with the moon beginning to rise, they headed for the Sleeping Giant Inn. A large fire pit dominated the centre of the inn, and a drumbeat from a bard filled the air. Asuka was tempted to get a nightcap, but she overheard the innkeeper and barman talking about their ale going bad and changed her mind.

It wasn't like she needed one anyway. The moment her head hit the pillow, Asuka fell asleep.

XXX

The sun rose, and Shinji rose with it. He knocked on the door to Asuka's room, and eventually coaxed her up with the lure of breakfast.

Outside, they split up; Asuka went to the blacksmith to collect her repaired weapon, leaving the knapsack with Shinji who went to the trader to get some supplies for the journey. While escaping Helgen, Hadvar and Asuka had taken a moment to grab any coin purses left behind, but their own money had been either still on the burned wagon or in the pockets of the soldiers that had captured them. Stepping inside, he was immediately greeted with an argument.

"I said no!" the man behind the counter shouted. "No adventures, no theatrics, no thief-chasing!"

"Well then let's hear what you're going to do about it!" the woman shouted right back.

"We are done talking about this!" The man glanced over to see Shinji, and looked rather relieved. "Oh, we have a customer! Er, sorry you had to hear that."

The woman stormed off upstairs, not paying Shinji any attention.

The man cleared his throat. "Not sure how much of that you actually heard, but the Riverwood Trader is definitely open for business. The name's Lucan. How can I help you today?"

"Uh, is everything okay?" asked Shinji.

"Well... we did have a break-in last night. We have plenty to sell though, since the damn thief only stole one thing. An old ornament, solid gold, in the shape of a dragon's claw. My sister, Camilla, wants to run off and get it back, but it's too dangerous. I'm sure they escaped to Bleak Falls Barrow, in the mountain above Riverwood. There's apparently a bandit camp up there."

"I see." Shinji put the knapsack on the counter between them. "Well my friend and I need some supplies for a journey to Whiterun. Also... I don't suppose you have any spellbooks do you?" Without his mother's tome, he would have to find some alternative means of acquiring new spells.

Lucan looked around the shop. "I might have a few old ones laying around. Not much demand for them here. Your best bet is to talk to the court mage in Whiterun, or go to the College of Winterhold."

Fortunately, that was Shinji's ultimate goal here in Skyrim. "Let's see what you do have."

As he expected, the spellbooks were of no use to him. Instead, he bought some food that would last a few days, as well as a second pack, since the knapsack wasn't very large. His mother's burnt tome and that book from the torturer's room, along with a few potions and herbs, were enough to fill it almost completely.

"You're going to try to send him up there to get the claw, aren't you Lucan?" The woman, Camilla, had come back down the stairs and was glaring at Lucan with folded arms. "I can tell. You're about to offer him some septims or a small discount if he retrieves it. Right?"

"Er... well I guess so..."

"Uh, wait," Shinji nervously interjected. "My friend and I need to get to Whiterun to tell the Jarl about-"

"We'll do it."

Asuka was standing at the door, an axe resting on her shoulder. "We'll get your trinket back," she clarified, walking up beside Shinji.

Shinji turned a surprised look on her. "We will? What about Whiterun?"

"This won't take too long. It's basically just up the road."

"Good!" said Camilla. "I can show you the way there."

"Wh- hey! No you... oh fine!" Lucan spluttered. "But only to the foot of the mountain! You come right back after that!"

Camilla dismissed his order with a wave. "Yeah yeah, I'll be back soon, Lucan. You two finish up and I'll meet you outside."

Once the door closed, Lucan's head met the counter top. "I swear, my sister will be the death of me one day. Ahem." He swiftly stood up straight. "Anyway, anything else I can get for you?"

Shinji checked the bags. "No, I think we have all we need for now. Better not keep her waiting."

"Alright. Just..." Lucan glanced at the door and lowered his voice. "Don't let Camilla follow you to the barrow. She wants to go on an adventure, but she doesn't know the first thing about how to actually fight."

"Relax, we'll send her back as soon as we reach the mountain," said Asuka, before heading outside with Shinji in tow.

Camilla pointed up at the mountain behind the blacksmith; the same one the dragon had flown past. "That there is Bleak Falls Barrow. Don't know why bandits are hiding up there, the place is littered with traps, trolls, and Divines know what else." She took off town the road almost at a jog, seemingly excited just to be outside.

"Any idea why they would only pilfer a trinket after breaking into a shop?" Asuka inquired. "They could have taken a lot more."

Camilla shrugged. "There's other stuff worth at least as much as the claw. Lucan won't even say where he got the thing."

"Perhaps they think the claw was the most important thing," Shinji mused. "Guess we won't know until we get there."

Camilla came to a halt once they had crossed the bridge out of Riverwood. "Follow this winding trail," she instructed. "You'll know you're nearly there when you see an old watchtower. I'd better get back to the shop before my childish brother throws a fit. Good luck, you two."

Asuka nodded and Shinji waved goodbye as Camilla headed back into Riverwood. Together, they began the trek up the mountain. Half an hour later, as they reached the snowline, they could see the tower Camilla had mentioned. However, they could also see that there were people in the tower. Asuka decided they were bandits and that it would be foolhardy to attack a fortified position head-on. They crept past the tower when the sentry at the door went inside, and continued on.

As the wind picked up and blew snow in their face, they came upon the entrance to Bleak Falls Barrow. Stone spikes jutted from the ground around a large staircase leading up to a doorway. This time, there was no avoiding the bandits. A sentry spotted them and called out, then immediately nocked an arrow and loosed it at them. The wind immediately caught the arrow and Asuka smirked, not bothering to even try and dodge.

"Amateur. No point using bows in this weather."

Two more bandits came to the top of the staircase, and they seemed to know this too. The sentry took aim again, but a couple of ice spikes from Shinji soon eliminated that problem. Meanwhile, Asuka easily dealt with the other two with a few swings of her repaired axe.

"Hmm. The handle's not quite right," she commented, giving it a few more swings through the air. "Not sitting in the hand as well as it could. But then again the handle was made for chopping wood, not skulls."

"Will you get another one for it?" Shinji asked as they proceeded to the door.

"Probably. This will tide me over until then though."

Inside, Shinji and Asuka were greeted by the sight of a ruined temple and numerous dead skeevers, along with a dead man who had apparently been overwhelmed by the rodents. Further in, they could see the flickering of a campfire that also cast shadows of two people on the wall. Seemingly not having noticed the door to the temple being opened and closed, they were easy to ambush and eliminate.

With the immediate threat of bandits clear, Shinji called for a brief stop so that he could prepare some defensive spells.

The temple continued down a long and winding corridor, full of little more than cobwebs and urns. Eventually they came to a doorway, but Asuka quickly halted and crouched down, gesturing for Shinji to do the same. In the room ahead, a bandit looked around at the room he was in, before pulling a lever set in the floor. To Shinji's shock, he was immediately killed by a storm of arrows.

"There's one of the traps Camilla mentioned," said Asuka, slowly heading into the room. Shinji followed, staring at the man who had taken an arrow through the eye; at least his death had been swift. Tearing his gaze away, he looked around. There was a gate ahead, three small pillars to the left with pictograms on them that could rotate, and two more pictograms in the mouths of stone faces on the wall above the gate. Another face was laying on the floor, apparently having fallen to neglect over the centuries.

"So. Any ideas?" asked Asuka.

The solution was already forming in Shinji's mind. Three pillars, three pictograms above the door -at least originally- and a threat of death if wrong. Luckily this was simple. "We need to make those pillars match the ones on the wall."

"Oh, is that all? What kind of puzzle is this? Whoever made it clearly didn't think anybody trying to break in would have a brain."

Together they rotated the pillars. Asuka went to pull the lever, but paused and looked at Shinji. "You are sure about this, yeah?"

"Of course!" said Shinji, almost offended that she didn't trust him.

Asuka pulled the lever and immediately hopped backwards. All she got for her efforts was the sound of the gate opening and a smug look from Shinji, to which she responded with a snort.

"Admittedly," said Shinji as they passed through the gateway, "the mechanism could have malfunctioned and been impossible to open."

Asuka glared at the back of his head and rolled her eyes.

After a spiral stairwell going down, inhabited by more skeevers, and a tunnel choked with more cobwebs, Shinji held up a hand to signal a stop. "There's someone ahead," he quietly said.

"I hear footsteps!" came a plaintive voice. "Please help me!"

With all the cobwebs about, it was apparent that somebody had become trapped. As they came into a large room covered floor-to-ceiling in webs, a giant frostbite spider descended from the ceiling, intent on adding more victims to its larder.

Asuka cursed and jumped in front of Shinji, raising a shield looted from a dead bandit to block the spider's initial charge. With its attention taken away from him, he stepped to the side and took the opportunity to dual-cast an ice spike directly into its thorax. That attack gave Asuka an opening to lop off two of its right legs. Working together like this, the spider was soon reduced to a pile of ichor and twitching limbs.

"Thank the Divines that thing is finally dead!" said the Dunmer trapped in webs at the other end of the room. "Now cut me down. Er... please!"

"First, tell us where this damned claw is," replied Asuka.

"The claw? Oh, you're after the ancient Nord treasure too. I know all about what the claw can do." The man struggled a bit in the web but quickly gave up. "Get me down and I'll help you out."

Shinji stepped forward, his hand glowing with fire energy. "Hold still," he ordered.

Flames greedily ate away at the webs. The man dropped to his hands and knees on the floor, finally free. After a moment he stood up... and immediately began to sprint out of the room. "Hah! Why should I share the treasure w- urk!"

An arrow took him in the back and he dropped to the ground. Shinji turned around to see Asuka putting away her bow. "Knew the bastard would run. Saw it in his eyes. He was going to either run away or lure us into a trap." She looked at Shinji. "Don't just trust blindly, idiot."

Shinji took a deep breath and let it out. "Fine, fine," he muttered. "Does he actually have the claw though, or was it another trick?"

As it turned out, the dead Dunmer did indeed have the claw, as well as a journal.

"'... 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.'" Asuka tossed the journal aside and looked at the claw. It certainly felt heavy enough to be solid gold, but it was more likely to be gold plated over iron or lead. She turned it over, and saw three pictograms embedded in the palm.

"Well if this 'test' is anything like the last one, I think we already have the solution," she remarked, passing the claw to Shinji. "We could go back right now, but I kinda want to see what else is in this place."

Shinji nodded and stored the claw in his pack. "I'm curious too. Hopefully this test doesn't mean we lose the claw though."

"Only one way to find out."

The next room of this ancient temple was a burial chamber. Dozens of horizontal alcoves were carved into the walls, many with desiccated remains, mummified bodies or mere skeletons filling them. As Shinji passed by one, a cold hand snatched his wrist. With a shriek he turned and sent an ice spike directly into its owner's head, shattering it instantly. Asuka began to laugh at his reaction, but more corpses began waking up.

"Draugr!" Shinji exclaimed. He ripped his arm free as two of them, eyes glowing bright blue and armed with greatswords, charged. Centuries of decay dulled the abilities these warriors had in life; Shinji was easily able to backstep away from a clumsy swing and retaliate with another ice spike. One more sealed the corpse's fate as Asuka's axe removed the other one's head from its body.

Further ahead, they sidestepped a rather obvious trap that would have sent a spiked gate swinging around and through any hapless tomb raiders. More draugr were sent to their second death, and immediately afterwards was something that made Asuka angrily exclaim "Really?!"

It was a narrow hallway filled with axe blades swinging like pendulums. Asuka stared at it for a moment, trying to work out if it was actually passable. "Don't suppose you can... I dunno, freeze the mechanism or something?" she suggested.

"I think the only way through is with timing, or breaking the blades," said Shinji.

"Well, nice as my axe is, I'm not about to pit it against a device that's apparently been operating without fault for hundreds of years." Asuka set her axe and shield down, then removed her pack. "Alright, I can see a pull chain on the other side. Hopefully that stops it. Wish me luck!"

"By the nine Divines, I can't even look!" Shinji moaned, covering his eyes. He could hear the sound of the pendulum blades, as well as footsteps on stone. However, after a few seconds he realised he couldn't hear a sound that he was dreading: the sound of flesh being rent asunder. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes.

Asuka was standing on the other side of the trap, hands on hips and a victorious grin on her face. "Easier than it looks, you worrywart!" she said. "Wanna give it a go?"

Shinji emphatically shook his head. Asuka huffed in amusement and pulled the chain. The blades stopped, and she beckoned him forward. Picking up her discarded equipment, he gingerly passed through the hallway, expecting at any moment for the trap to restart. He gave Asuka her stuff back with a small scowl on his face.

Next came more draugr, more tunnels, and more draugr. Then came a small room with a waterfall feeding a small stream that Asuka used to wash away some of the corpse grime that had built up on her. After a few minutes of rest and eating, they continued on through a gate and along the stream where it exited into a cave, to Shinji's relief. That relief was short-lived however, as the cave simply ended at another part of the temple.

Eventually another narrow hallway filled with pendulum blades blocked their path, which Shinji let Asuka handle again. As she disabled the mechanism, a draugr on a walkway above attempted to shoot her in the back but narrowly missed. Shinji rushed forward and put up a ward to block its attacks while Asuka dispatched a draugr crawling out of a nearby coffin. Two more came from upstairs but, having noticed a suspicious patch of oil on the ground, Shinji set it alight to burn them both.

The smell was absolutely horrible. This was why he normally shied away from fire and shock magic.

Up the stairs, across the bridge and through an iron door, Shinji and Asuka finally discovered what appeared to be the 'test' mentioned in the thief's journal. As predicted, it was merely an alternative form of the pillar puzzle, and to their relief the claw could activate the door and still be kept.

Through the unlocked door was a large cave, with some kind of altar surrounded by a moat fed by multiple waterfalls. Light shone down from a hole in the ceiling high above onto a curved wall with ornate lines and symbols carved into it.

"Wait," said Asuka, putting a hand on Shinji's shoulder. "Do you hear that?"

"Huh?" Shinji strained his ears, but heard nothing except the waterfalls and the occasional screech of a bat. "What are you hearing?"

"A sort of... chanting?" Asuka rubbed her forehead. "Like a group of people performing a ritual."

They slowly headed up the steps towards the wall. As they drew closer, they could see what appeared to be ancient writing in the centre of the wall. Asuka's eyes suddenly widened. "Shinji! Something's coming out of that wall and..." She looked down. "Flowing... into me. Some kind of energy?"

"And you're still hearing the chanting?"

"Yeah."

Shinji looked around carefully. In front of the wall was a coffin, a chest, and some miscellaneous objects on a table including a soul gem. He couldn't see or hear anything that Asuka apparently could, but he could feel a great amount of magicka in this place. This was a place of power, but what kind he could not say.

Asuka slowly approached the wall, one hand raised in front of her. Just as she was about to touch it, she squeezed her eyes shut and violently shook her head. She dropped to her knees, breathing heavily as Shinji rushed over to her. Before he could say anything, the coffin lid exploded upwards and a draugr, better equipped than anything they had yet faced, climbed out and glared at him.

Asuka was unresponsive, but the draugr seemed intent on attacking Shinji alone. He just barely got a ward spell up to deflect its swipe, and with his other hand he gave his typical response to a threat: an ice spike. Retreating from the wall, he drew the draugr away from Asuka as he continued to hammer it with ice.

Fus... Roh Dah!

Strange words, similar yet different to those the dragon at Helgen used, echoed through the cave right before a powerful wave of energy struck Shinji. He staggered backwards, falling on his back and almost slipping off the small bridge above the moat. Seizing the opportunity, the draugr swung its weapon, a rime-covered axe, directly at his head.

The contingency spell activated; in an instant, Shinji's body was encased in a layer of stone. The axe struck, sending his head snapping backwards and bouncing off the ground. It felt like a piece was chipped off his forehead, and hurt like Oblivion, but he was still alive. As the draugr raised its axe for another swing, Shinji quickly put his hands together and released a dual-cast ice spike. The draugr stumbled backwards-

-and an engraved axe blade cleaved its head vertically in half. The glow in its eyes faded as it slumped down, and Asuka put a foot on its back to help wrench her axe free. "You okay there, Shinji?" she asked, pulling him back to his feet.

His head was spinning, his vision was blurry, and the magic he had put out had left him drained, but... "I'll be alright. Thank you." The Stoneflesh spell faded, and he could immediately feel blood flowing down his face. He uncapped a health potion and, after quickly sniffing it, drank it down. "But what about you? You seemed out of it back there."

"Yeah, I know." Asuka glanced over her shoulder at the wall. "I don't know what in Oblivion is going on, but the chanting and energy... stuff has stopped. I couldn't see or hear anything for a moment."

Shinji headed up the stairs and walked over to the wall. He couldn't make sense of the writing, and had no way of copying it down. He made a mental note to buy a journal as soon as he could.

"Hang on!" Asuka stepped forward, pointing at part of the third line. "I can read this bit here. It says... Force."

Shinji gasped. "You can read this language?!"

"Sorry to get your hopes up, but no. Just that one word. Fus, force."

Fus... Roh Dah!

"That was one of the words the draugr shouted, just before I got knocked over by an energy wave," said Shinji. "Fus, Roh, Dah." He paused. When Asuka said the word 'Fus', it echoed strangely in his head. But when he said it, nothing happened.

"Huh. Let me try something." Asuka turned to face him. Before Shinji could stop her, she leaned forward and shouted, "Fus Roh Dah!"

Shinji flinched, then blinked rapidly. He looked down at himself, then back at Asuka. "Er. Nothing happened."

"Aw come on!" Asuka slumped over in exasperation. "Why can't I do it? Did I say it wrong or something?"

Shinji hummed thoughtfully, looking between Asuka, the corpse of the draugr, and the wall. "I'm sure your pronunciation was perfect. I can... sort of hear it in my head when you say it." Asuka raised an eyebrow at him. "I know that might sound dumb, but you... hang on, say it again."

The eyebrow went higher. "Uh. Fus Roh Dah?"

Shinji put his hands to his head and began pacing around the area. "Odd. That first word, Fus. You say that and it... it's like it skips my ears and arrives directly in my brain. Like I'm not hearing it but still perceiving it. The draugr and the dragon. Said words that did the same thing. Draugr said Fus Roh Dah and all three words had that effect. Yet with you it only happens with first word. Dragon said Yol Tor Shul and words felt like being thrown into brain. Didn't notice at the time because Helgen was burning. Had to escape. No time to learn-"

"Shinji!"

"Huh?" Shinji realised he was out of breath and took several gulps of air.

"Calm down, geez!" Asuka put a hand on his shoulder. "What the hell was all that? You just started talking weird."

"Oh, sorry," Shinji sheepishly replied. "It's something I seem to have gotten from my mother. We can get kind of... obsessed with things at times. Sometimes she would get up in the middle of a meeting at the Arcane University and just walk out, and they wouldn't see her again for days."

Asuka grinned and gently slapped his shoulder. "Well rein it in a bit there, genius. We still need to take the claw back to Lucan and Camilla. First, though, let's see what we can scrounge up from this place."

The chest contained a robe and a circlet, both with a minor enchantment to improve the School of Alteration. Asuka gave those to Shinji, who was grateful to get out of the Imperial armour. As he went behind the wall to change, Asuka took the septims and a strange ornamental stone that remained in the chest. She also claimed the dead draugr's frost-enchanted Nordic axe, and also found what seemed to be a stone tablet. One side seemed to be a crude map of the province of Skyrim, with numerous marked places and the same ornate symbol as the wall, and the other side had writing similar to the wall.

Shinji stepped out into the light from the ceiling, feeling much happier to be wearing something that actually fit somewhat decently. He would still need to find a good pair of boots, but at least now he didn't have to worry about chafing. He watched Asuka swing the Nordic axe a few times and hum approvingly.

"A little shorter than I like, but it's a proper handle at least." She put her shield on her back and began swinging both axes. She immediately pulled a face. "Okay this won't really work. The long handle on mine will just get in the way and is too heavy. I'll keep this icy axe as a backup or something."

"Good idea," said Shinji. He glanced up at the hole in the ceiling. "We've definitely been in here for a few hours, and we were supposed to head straight to Whiterun."

"Eh." Asuka gave an expansive shrug. "The dragon could have flown to another town and burned that one before we even reached Riverwood. Either people now know about the dragon, or nothing's happened yet and we have time."

"Oh, there's a staircase over there," Shinji remarked, pointing at it. "Could be a shortcut out."

It was indeed a shortcut. At the top of the stairs was a short hallway leading to an apparent dead end, but a nearby switch revealed a false wall that raised to let them continue. Further one was a small shrine and a chest containing some minor valuables, but the most important thing was the fresh breeze they could feel from an obvious exit.

"Praise the Divines!" Asuka exulted, raising her hands to the sky. "Felt like we were in there for the whole day!"

Shinji exhaled in relief, then took a look around and groaned. "Asuka? Don't celebrate just yet."

"What?" Asuka glanced at him. "What's the problem?"

Shinji pointed at the ledge they were standing on. There was no actual path connecting the temple's exit to ground level. "How are we going to get down from here?"

Asuka's hands fell to her side. She marched back and forth on the ledge, searching everywhere for a safe way down. She soon stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

"Damn it to Oblivion!"