Two Graves - The Song of Nephiah and Brelyna

Chapter 19: Lie to Me

The sun had already set, it's orange glow still lingered on the horizon. Having retrieved and donned most of their items, the Dunmer stepped out of the cave, finally spotting the origin of the whispers they had heard a moment before reaching the exit. The Nord mother was still there, crouching in front of her son, softly talking to him to calm him down. As she noticed the heavy steel plate boots behind her, she turned and stood up, keeping hold of her son's hand. "I'm sorry...", she said, "Do you know where we are?" Nephiah let the two vampire corpses she was dragging drop. Brelyna stepped closer to them. "Well? Where do you want to go?" "Rorikstead?" "Ok? That's about a half day's journey that way." She pointed to the north-west. "Could you...", the mother hesitantly said after a moment, "Could you take us there? We never leave the farm, Skyrim is a dangerous place..." "Well?" Brelyna looked back at her warrior who stood motionlessly behind her. "It's a bit out of our way, but I think we can manage?" Nephiah neither confirmed nor denied the notion, Brelyna knew that to be a 'yes'. She looked back to the pair and smiled. The mother sighed in relief. "Thank you... I was sure you had a good soul."

A column of smoke shot forth from the cave. It made its way in between the Dunmer, knocking them both off their feet, shot up into the air and came back down behind the Nords. There the smoke compressed, revealing the shape of the Elder vampire, his skin burned all over. As soon as his form was solid, he grabbed the son and mother by the neck, then bit her throat and drained her dry, it was over very quickly. Nephiah looked up in terror as she saw her chance at redemption disintegrate in front of her eyes. She jumped back to her feet and charged him, unsheathing her sword on the way. She instantly stopped her charge as the elder held the boy up in front of him, exposing his neck in a way that made it easy for him to bite.

Brelyna had raised her hands to fire but didn't have a clear shot, the boy would burn just as badly as the vampire would. She looked at Nephiah, trying to figure out what to do. By the looks of it, her warrior wasn't sure either. The Elder's skin began to regenerate from the fresh infusion of blood. "Children's blood.", he began to speak "I must admit, I got a bit addicted back in the day. Nothing quite as pure, quite as energizing." Nephiah took a step closer but stopped again as he lifted the boy closer to his mouth in response. He noticed the fear in her eyes with sadistic joy. He wanted to see more of it, he couldn't help himself. He bit down and violently moved his head back, ripping out part of the boy's neck.

"Nonono...! Brelyna charged a fire ball, ready to release. Nephiah however left her offensive stance and lowered her sword as a tear fell out of her shocked eyes. Brelyna nervously looked at her and back at the Elder, scared she'd have to fight him alone. The Elder began to regenerate even faster, he let the boy drop to the ground. He growled loudly as he transformed back into the winged monster. His growl was answered by a scream, so full of pain and anger, it sent chills down Brelyna's spine. The scream was still leaving her lungs as Nephiah began to charge the monster, implanting her sword in its chest as she arrived. The blade didn't seem to cause the monster more than discomfort as it grabbed her with both talons, spread its leathery wings and lifted up off the ground. Brelyna began to shoot balls of fire at it but they were easy to evade for a creature in flight.

It was moving fast, left to right, right to left, up and down. Nephiah was pounding both her fists down at the giant claws that held her, giving off short screams with every hit. The monster smiled at her with blood red teeth. Left to right, right to left, up and down, it evaded incoming fire with every move. It opened its jaws and moved its prey closer. But before biting down it noticed its movement had found resistance. Nephiah had grabbed the fangs on its upper jaw as they had gotten close enough. The creature bit down but the steel plate was too tough to penetrate. She screamed again in pain, the emotion increasing her power, as she began to pull its teeth apart. It gave off a loud and deep roar as its fangs were ripped from its skull, its flight patterns becoming uncontrolled. It let go of Nephiah but she wasn't ready to be let go. As she fell, she caught its foot and held on as hard as she could, the momentum of rapid course changes violently swinging her around. Trying to lose its passenger, the creature drove to the ground, flying so low that Nephiah crashed into the earth. But she still didn't lose her grip. As she was dragged across the rough tundra, digging up clouds of dirt as they went, she began to grab it's lower leg, then its thigh, slowly working her way up to the torso. The creature took off to move high up into the sky. She grabbed the wings by their root, digging her knees into its back. Again she screamed as she began to pull.