Scales and Hearts | A Skyrim Fanfiction

Chapter Five: Prisoner of the Falmer

Druthza

Upon going through the iron doors, I traversed into darkness, squeezing my way through a narrow, rocky passageway before finding myself in a flooded tunnel partially clouded by fog. Dark roots hung from the dark, wet stone ceiling, the air was stale, the water chilling, and indistinct noises rippled throughout the dark tunnel. A faint light could be seen up ahead, and I made my way forward, sword drawn and breaths light. I could feel my heart drumming in my chest, my body tensed and my vision sharpened as I went down the tunnel, my eyes landing on an old, broken yellow urn and a chest just up ahead, right where the tunnel turned into what appeared to be a cave.

I opened the chest, finding a few septims at the bottom of the chest and what appeared to be an amulet of sorts, the purplish-grey pendant shaped like an arrowhead and dangling from a cord of leather tied at one end to keep it together, a brilliant blue sapphire embedded in the pendant. An Amulet of Kynareth, I suppose? It's quite... pretty. If I remembered correctly, Kynareth was some "God of Wind" to the Nords.

As I held up the amulet and turned it slightly, I could see that there was some sort of green sheen to the pendant, but despite my desire to put it on and the curiosity gained from the sheen, I left it in the chest. I instead gathered the gold and shut the chest quietly before turning around to slowly head into the cave, which appeared to be even foggier than the tunnel, the ground pebbly and covered sparsely by ferns and other cave undergrowth. The ground rose off to the right, a small stone bridge leading up to a platform up ahead-

A guttural rasp tore me away from my examination of the cave as a pale, sickly form crawled out of an odd, primitive structure stuck to the cave wall. The figure dropped to the cave floor, as did an odd, dark blade which the being quickly snatched up. I swiftly backed up into the tunnel, my heart pounding heavily as I examined the figure from my crouched position in the tunnel.

The being was humanoid, with pale, discolored skin that was stretched between rather unsightly, thin limbs, which had pronounced, knobbly joints. It was clothed in a primitive metal loincloth with darkened, tattered pieces of fabric hanging from it, its forearms covered by some chitin-like gauntlets. Its fingers and toes were tipped with sharp, filthy nails and their respective joints were especially pronounced in the thin extremities. The being's head was bald, its ears like that of an elf's, its face wrinkled and its nose a simple pair of slit nostrils above an ugly, toothy mouth accompanied by jutting cheekbones.

I also realized a few important details, particularly focusing on the lack of eyes on this creature's face. It's blind, I realized, it's... a Falmer.

A part of me remembered reading somewhere that the Falmer were especially sensitive to noises due to their enhanced senses and lack of sight, enabling them to focus on a target within seconds. I could see the Falmer turning its head and sniffing the air, as if trying to figure out if anything out of the ordinary was present.

Unfortunately, due to my subtle movements causing my drawn sword to scrape lightly across the cave wall, the Falmer raised its weapon and stormed towards me. It was preparing to take a swing at me, only to narrowly miss as I swiftly shuffled out of the way, using the opportunity to take my iron sword and thrust it through the Falmer's side, severing flesh and piercing organs as the elf-like being let out a gurgled, raspy shriek of agony.

As I ripped my blade from its body, the water around us took on a sickly shade of red as the Falmer's blood spurt from its fatal wound, its gags and gasps for air doing little to nothing to save it as it collapsed in the water, and the Falmer soon went still.