The Language Of Dragons-A Skyrim Story

7. Caves

I think I was dreaming, I was surrounded in darkness, a cloak of night wrapping around me. It didn't feel like other darkness where you can't tell if you are being watched, or if you are being preyed on by a creature. It felt safe, like being hugged as a child. Off in the distance of the darkness there was a tiny light, similar to the flame of a candle. I didn't know why but I had to get to it so I started to walk. There was no breeze where I was, no sound not even the sound of my own feet but I kept walking towards the light. As the light grew bigger I realised it wasn't a light at all but a dragon, a dragon with gold scales and wings so bright and metallic that they were not just gold but almost molten. The dragon was stood over what appeared to be a body. As I took a step closer I realised the body was Miraak.

I ran to them, Miraak's body limp on the floor, "MIRAAK!". As I got to him he looked as if he were sleeping. I dropped to the invisible floor beside him but it seemed as if there was nothing wrong. "Wake up!"

The dragon stepped closer to me now, and let out a breath as if frustrated, "He isn't going to wake." the dragon voiced. "Why not?" I asked as I looked up at the golden dragon. "He is trapped, his soul is splitting between this world and another."

"How do I stop... stop his soul splitting." The dragon simply tilted his head towards Miraak and then towards me. "That young dovah, is for you to find out." Suddenly I felt myself being transported, as though I was emerging from icy water.

I awoke to the smell of smoke and the cold of the iron shackles that bound my hands. I was contained to a cell at the back of a cave, a cave where all I could hear was the drip of moisture from the stone ceiling and the cracks of a fire I could only assume came from around one of the corners where a warm light originated. Miraak was know where to be seen, I was completely alone. I still had my armour but my weapons and equipment had gone, including the skeleton key and my lock picks. I always kept a few spare lock picks in my boot but I was unable to reach because my feet were also bound. I managed to shuffle across the floor to the edge of the bars to get a better look of where the light had come from. All I could see was the orange glow flickering against the rough rock of the wall. I had to get out now, I had to get out before  anyone came. If maybe there was something heavy near by I could slam it into the chains.

Just as I was about to search the cage and the room itself an earth rattling scream echoed off the walls coming straight from the orange light.
I knew who it was before I saw him. Miraak.

Around the corner came body being supported between two guards. It was Miraak, his face was bloodied and his shirt ripped as if he had been dragged across the floor by it and he was shackled at his hands. The guards opened the rusty gate and threw him in. That was my time to leave, trip up one of the guards, steal his knife and take them both out but if I did that I wouldn't be able to take Miraak with me. I just sat there frozen as they locked the gate and walked back out through the path in the cave. Miraak lay there, face up on the floor and unconscious. What had they done to him. I went over to him and just as I was about to shake him he opened his eyes.

He sat up slowly and stared at the gate in front of him for a few seconds. "They told me you had sold me out to Mora." He said, a blank look on his face. Slowly he turned to look at me. "They said you had made a deal, me for your freedom." I didn't know what to do, what to think. He was so broken now from what ever they had done to him that all I could say was. "I would never do that, I think...I think we're in this together now." He just nodded.

"I thought you were dead Alye, when they shot you, and you collapsed. I don't know why but I had to get to you, even though I hated you and still do to some extent, I had to make sure you were ok." The words hit me like a blow to the head, he actually seemed to care, care about wether I survived, but he couldn't actually care about me could he, because he hated me, he probably only cared because he needed me to get his thu'um back. A bead of bright red blood ran down his face from a cut on his eyebrow. "Are you ok? You are bleeding from your face."

I think he had concussion, nothing he had said seemed right, he was far to calculating to believe what the cultists would say normally.
"Can you heal yourself?" I asked shuffling closer, and moving his raven black hair out off his eyes with my hand. "No, but I think you might." I looked at him and I knew there was a puzzled look in my eyes. "I think that poison on those arrows was both damage magica poison and a paralysis poison," he stated "and you are an alchemist aren't you?"

"What makes you think I am an alchemist?"

"You think I didn't notice you picking up deathbell from the bushes we passed when we were walking?"

"I am an alchemist yes but what does that have to do with anything." He let out a huff and replied "If you are good enough you might have the blessing of snake blood meaning that you are partly resistant to all poison, so in theory" I cut him off, "I might be able to use magic."
He just nodded. "But I don't know much magic, not enough to get us out of here, all I can do is conjure a bow." He didn't even answer. He did however put his hand inside his jacket and pulled out a pice of paper. "There is a reason I picked a thieves guild jacket," he gestured to the inside of his coat, "hidden pockets."

I was stunned, so stunned when he opened the pice of paper and in it was written a restoration spell, it read at the top of the page in black letters, heal other. "I tore it out of a book in Apocrypha." He said. I knew what I had to do. I slowly read over the paper, it's torn edges rough in my hands. As I got to the end the page started to turn bright in colour and in a flash of light it was gone.