Spoiler alert: I still don't own Skyrim.

You should still expect wacky sentences and plenty of spelling errors. Enjoy.

Now I'm my biggest fear writing this chapter was to I wouldn't really catch the essence of the characters and in the attempt to do so I fear I may have overdone it a bit. ^^'

Not really sure but whatever be the case I hope you all like the chapter.

Chapter 2: A remarkable discovery

Onmund looked to his left, just in time to see Tolfdir launch the last bandit off the mountain with a telekinesis spell. The old man visibly flinched when he heard a crack and the screams stopped.

He found himself feeling sorry for Tolfdir. He had a good heart and took no pleasure in taking life; the fact that it was self-defence helped in his book, but he could still see how uncomfortable he was with the situation.

"Everyone alright?" he half-shouted. They were a group of five, from the college of Winterhold.

Tolfdir was the official leader of the expedition, a kind old man who was the Master of alteration magic at the college. Jana, a female imperial with sharp features and long red hair. She was an experienced mage who was about as enthusiastic about old ruins and forgotten history as Tolfdir. Then they had Carl, a young male breton with short brown hair and blue eyes who was quite passionate about restoration magic.

And the last beside himself was Belrand. A stocky built imperial battle mage with a specialty in enchantments, the one they brought for protection as ruins like the one they were looking for were rarely uninhabited. Not to mention the danger one could face at the hands of common outlaws like the ones they had just dealt with.

And then there was Onmund, a male nord. He had discovered his talent at magic at a young age, and with it came fascination and a desire to learn. His family, however, hadn't shared his interests. He liked to think they were more of a… traditional sort, for lack of a better word. He loved them, but they were convinced that he should spend his life as a hunter or a farmer like them; it took him years to convince them that this was what he was meant to do. And even then, after years of discussions and insisting they had still thought it was a death sentence for him to go to the college.

He loved them, he really did. But sometimes it felt like a blessing to get away from home and into the world.

They had made their way up the mountain on a barely existing trail, the howling winds and thick snow fighting them every step of the way.

"Hey!" Jana shouted over the winds. "I think I found something!"

He took another deep breath and started climbing towards her. Many moons back they had searched an ancient nord tomb and found some half burned, half decayed books that, with a few complex restoration spells, were somewhat readable. Most of them had been irrelevant, at least for Onmund.

History was never really his thing, however Jana and Tolfdir were all over them. They took mountains of notes and wrote off a bunch of things for later use, in case they lost the books on the way back.

One particular book had proven much more interesting though. It spoke of a dragon temple, one that wasn't mentioned in any of the maps they had looked through at the college. Either it didn't exist, or it was so well hidden that no one had found it before.

They were all hoping for the latter.

As he climbed the last rock, he saw Jana and Belrand looking at a stone wall. He pulled his cloak a bit tighter while he pushed himself through the heavy snow. Onmund had to admit, the wall was a little too alike some they had seen in other ruins. There were carvings in it, but they were too old and windblown for him to make out any details.

Tolfdir, having reached the plateau was looking at it with nothing short of wonder.

"It must have been there for centuries at least, for the weather to have worn it down so much!" He exclaimed excitedly, while trying to catch his breath from the climb.

Carl, looking slightly disappointed with their discovery asked, "Only a wall? I thought the text said there would be a temple?"

Tolfdir looked at him, using the same voice he would on a particular impatient student "There may very well be" He looked thoughtful for a moment as he considered the wall. "There must be an entrance somewhere in the area"

Jana caught him to it "Look here, behind this rock" She said pointing to the right of the wall.

The wind was howling, so cold it felt like it was biting into his skin. Onmund pushed his head against the wall in order to look behind the rock. "A door" He couldn't help getting a bit excited as well. They may very well have found something that had been untouched for thousands of years. He wasn't much for digging around in graves, his ancestors should be allowed to rest in peace. However it was a unique opportunity, to search the temples of the ancient nords, to learn of their magic and the fate that led to their downfall.

This time Belrand spoke. "The mountain must have collapsed on the entrance"

Tolfdir nodded a few times, before seemingly getting an idea. "Stand back everyone" he held his hands out. A soft glow barely visible because of the heavy snow storm appeared around the rocks.

Slowly, one by one he moved the stones to the side. Revealing a door of solid metal covered with rust and dirt. He looked back at Belrand who nodded moving towards the door.

As he tried to push it open, it became apparent that it had not been used in a long time. The rust was bad, the hinges so old the door didn't even budge. He ended up whispering some unknown spell that caused the door to break open with a bang that caused one of the sides to break off its hinges and loudly tumble down the stairs. The old air and dust flew out and nearly choked him before he moved to the side. He looked back making sure everyone was near.

"Light some torches" he ordered in a gruff voice. They all did as told and one by one entered the old corridor.

The air was musty and stale, the floor was covered with dust and dirt. They slowly and carefully wandered through the corridor, passing several small rooms as they went. Onmunds mind kept jumping to some of the deadly traps they had found in previous ruins. Toxic darts, pits and even soul crystals that launched firebolts wildly at any and everything that moved. He had learned to always think twice about what you touch.

And, judging by the slow cautious movement of the group and the way they looked at everything like it might blow up, they had the same thoughts. After a few more minutes of walking, they found the first real thing of interest. It was a large and somewhat empty hall, with a curved roof and supporting pillars along the sides. The room was filled with piles of dust and broken pieces of decayed wood. Tolfdir called for them to split up to search for anything that might be of interest.

The Old mage had cast half a dozen candlelight spells that now illuminated the hall, and before long they had found and collected a small pile of burned books, none of them intact enough to read.

"It must have been a library", said Jana whose voice echoed across the empty room from where she talked to Tolfdir. He nodded in silent agreement "Imagine the knowledge that must have been here..." He said, voice trailing off as he looked around the hall.

Onmund rummaged through a few piles of things. The place was a mess.

Onmund couldn't say he was impressed. It was a miracle that they had found it, but the place itself wasn't really worth writing home about.

He put the torch into a pile of rubble where it stood somewhat stable and proceeded to push aside a wooden beam, revealing what looked to be another door. He threw the wooden beam to the ground, which had the unfortunate effect of throwing ash up everywhere. He coughed a few times as he waved a hand through the air in an attempt to clear it.

He picked up the torch from the pile of ashes, to take a close look at the door. Same material as the last one, solid iron. There was however one difference. This one had a massive dent in it, a dent from the other side.

He pushed slightly with his free hand and, to his surprise, the door swung right open. Old hinges screaming all the way. This was also what seemed to get the others attention, as they all suddenly stood beside him staring into the next room.

He took a few steps in mouth open, the air was heavy. Not so much from the old air like in the last few rooms, but magic.

Onmund could practically feel the magic simmering in the air. And he wasn't the only one, judging by the looks on their faces. Belrand made his way into the middle of the hall ahead of the rest.

"This must be the main chamber" He heard Tolfdir whisper behind him. He was about to ask him to summon the candlelight again, but they were already silently trailing them from the library into the main chamber.

Onmund looked on in quiet fascination, as the room was slowly lit up by the spell. The main chamber was massive, it reminded him of Dragonsreach in Whiterun only bigger and underground. There were by the looks of it 8 stone pillars who were holding up the curved ceiling. Only 5 were still standing. The others seemed to have collapsed. There were cracks and dents in the walls, small craters in the ground and the tables were broken. Bones and pieces of rusted metal littered the ground. It looked like a battlefield. One where both sides were hurling destructive spells at each other.

One of the candlelight's reached the end of the left part of the chamber and as it did Onmund found himself nearly choking. There was a dragon, the skeleton of one. Small pieces of hide and scale were still clinging to its body. It was lying on its side, wings spread out and mouth wide agape.

Tolfdir and Jana pushed past him towards the bones, this...well, he wasn't really sure what to think.

Tolfdir crouched down near one of the wings looking at the bones.

"Well now... would you look at that? I never imagined we'd find something like this. What would a dragon be doing here?"

A good question, Onmund thought as he cast his gaze one more time across the room, there were so many bones in here. It could've been a graveyard.

There were remnants of a sword stuck in the left wing. Now rusted away like everything else. He walked around it, he had never seen the bones of a dragon before, he hadn't really considered their existence either. He thought he remembered having read about them in a book but never had he thought they would be so big.

Even without all the flesh and muscle the thing was intimidating. He ended his silent inspection at the head, teeth that were still sharp, mouth stretching wide enough to swallow a man whole, empty eye sockets staring blankly across the room.

He followed the way the head was pointing, just out of curiosity, and jumped out of surprise as he saw a humanoid figure standing not too far away. Tolfdir and Jana looked up from their inspection of the bones questioningly and all he could do was to point while he tried to get his breathing under control.

This time Jana was the first one to speak. "A... a dragon priest?" She sounded as surprised as he was. It was standing half hidden behind a pillar, which would explain why they hadn't seen it when they entered. It wasn't standing- He realized, it was impaled, a spear was jammed through its chest and into the wall behind it.

"This trip is proving more and more interesting," Tolfdir said, looking at the priest. Carl suddenly spoke up "W-what's a dragon priest?" Onmund couldn't tell if he was stuttering because of fear or excitement, probably both.

Tolfdir held a hand to his beard, rubbing his jaw in thought, thinking about how best to explain it. After a while, Onmund started wondering whether or not he was actually going to answer. When Tolfdir suddenly began "According to the few books I have read" he began making it clear that he was not sure if it was true or false "Back in the Merethic Era, Dragons ruled much of Tamriel and Atmora. During this time, there were men who worshiped the dragons like gods".

He looked at the dragon priest. He was little more than a decayed body, dried out. The armour was bronze in colour, shaped like big scales that covered most of the chest area and flowed down the arms. Underneath the armour was a robe, the colour had long since left it and it was so full of holes, it was barely hanging on to the body. The head was covered by a black mask shaped like the head of a dragon.

He looked at Jana, while asking silently "Can you imagine what it was like, living here so long ago? Dragons and humans, the first people in Tamriel, here..."

She shook her head before adding "I didn't even know dragons existed, thought they were just stories to scare children"

"This is simply fascinating." Tolfdir said. Before continuing "Never had I thought we would find something like this"

Onmund found himself agreeing with the old man, he had expected a few artefacts maybe a draugr or two but nothing like this. Looking around he suddenly realized something. "Where's Belrand?"

Both Tolfdir and Jana tore their gazes away from the priest and looked around confused. "I could've sworn he was here a moment ago" Tolfdir said, genuinely confused.

"I'm over here" Belrand called, waving a hand around behind the dragon bones.

Tolfdir and Jana immediately rushed over. Curious what had caught their battlemages attention. Onmund cast a last glance at the impaled priest, wondering if it must have been like back then. He would have to talk to Tolfdir after this, how could he not have known about dragons ruling Tamriel?

He would've thought such a major thing would've been all over the place and yet, had he never even seen it mentioned. He shook his head, it was thousands of years ago. There were other things that were more important than the life of some long dead priest right now. He followed the others.

They found Belrand crouching near what looked like a perfectly polished square cube of obsidian the size of a horse. The strange thing, and what Onmund presumed had caught Belrand's attention was the numerous glowing symbols carved into the rock. Said rock also seemed to be the centre of the magic they had felt when entering, whatever it was, it was powerful.

Belrand sat, hovering his hand near the symbols with his eyes closed. He said almost too quiet for them to hear "These markings are unlike anything I've ever seen before"

Jana was about to say something when Belrand continued, almost sounding he was in a trance "I thought they were Daedric first. But they don't match- Dwemer, Ayleid, Falmer...they're all wrong"

His hand approached the stone "It's almost as if…" His voice was weird, almost like there was a strange undertone to it.

Tolfdir moved to settle a cautious hand on his shoulder, a nervous expression on his face. He clearly sensed that something was wrong. But before he touched him, Belrand's hand drew back and then smashed into the rock. The sound of a stone cracking was followed by a bright flash and a blast of force that threw him backwards.

His vision went dark.