Dovahkiin (Discontinued)

Chapter Five

Bleak Falls Barrow. A black building built into a mountainside. It looks almost looks like a castle, but something is off about it that makes me shiver.

"You ever been to Bleak Falls Barrow Simon?" I asked walking up the obsidian steps.

"No, never." Simon shakes his head. "My dad always told me to never go up here. I never knew why he just said 'don't ever go up that mountain'."

We continue up the black steps that lead straight into the temple in the mountainside. The guard armor I'm wearing hits against itself, making a bit of a clanking sound. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see three people running towards us with swords and axes.

"Simon!"

"I see them," he says pulling out his bow and arrows. He loads the bow with three arrows and fires them all at once, killing them all.

"Wow, your pretty good with that aren't you."

"Nah, it was just luck."

"Say what you want. We should probably check the bodies to see if they have the Golden claw." I say walking up to one of the bodies.

"Yeah, I guess we should." He says also checking the bodies.

"Nothing," I say After checking the bodies. "How about you?"

"Nothing. Damn! They probably went in deeper."

"Yeah, we should check further in."

After we're done looting the bodies, we walk up the rest of the stairs into the temple. Upon entering the temple, we see a pillar of rock right in the center, with a few big rocks strewn about the floor. Looking at the walls, I find many cracks running through them like rivers. On the other end of the room, we see a faint glow of a fire and two more people. Simon pulls his bowstring back, loaded with an arrow. The arrow flies out of the bow and right into the neck of one of the people, killing him. The other spins around and fires an arrow in our direction. Simon and I separate and the arrow barely misses me. I run around the pillar of rock. I draw my sword and start running towards the woman. Simon sends an arrow in her direction, stunning her, allowing me to charge her and send my sword through her chest.

We check both of the bodies to find nothing but a bit of gold, not enough to be worth anything, but I grab it anyway.

We continue through a hall. It has webs housing every corner of it. The hall is long and smells like rotting flesh and I have to cover my nose to continue. Upon exiting the hall, I find myself in a room crowded with vines.

"This place is pretty big!" Simon exclaims.

"Yeah, it is ain't it." I gasp.

"Do you think this is a good idea?"

"What?"

"Getting the golden claw, do you think it's a good idea?"

"Well I could say it's not the brightest idea I've had, but I'm still doing it. And besides, we're going to get a lot of coins when we sell it."

"Yeah, you got a point there," Simon says.

We continue walking to the other side of the room, and when we get there, we have to go down some steps. The stairs are coated with webs and cracks. Little spiders run from our feet in all directions.

We continue descending the steps into another room. The room is completely empty except for a few spider webs scattered across the room and a big hole in the ground covered by a metal grate. On the other side of the room, there is a man bound up in webs.

"Hey, you two. Help me down from here before it comes back." The man says.

"Why should we help you?" I ask.

"Yeah, and before what comes back?" Simon interrogates in a flat tone.

"Because I have the golden claw." The man exclaims. "I know how it works. The claw, the markings, the door in the Hall of Stories. I know how they all fit together! Help me down, and I'll show you. You won't believe the power the Nords have hidden there. But you have to help me down from here first."

"Can we trust you?" Simon walks closer.

"Yes, you can trust me, because if you don't, you won't ever know what's hiding inside."

"Tempting." I pause. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Simon asks.

"Listen." Above me, I hear what sounds like a falling boulder right on top of me. I look up and see a giant spider crawling down from way above me. "Oh... shit"

"I think I did," Simon whispers.

"No! Not again. Don't let it get me!" the man squirms.

Simon and I jump back to see a giant frostbite spider land right in the middle of the room. The frostbite spider's frontmost right leg is cut up all over it.

Simon fires an arrow towards the spider but misses almost hitting the man hanging in the webbing. I charge it head-on, with my sword in hand. I swing at the spider's leg and hit it. The spider lets out a gut-wrenching cry and bites me right in the arm, so I let out a blood-curdling scream. Simon fires another arrow towards the spider, hitting it in one of its eyes. It lets me go and I take another swing, hitting it again in the leg, cutting it clean off. Spider blood gets sprayed all over me. The beast lets out another cry and I send my sword into its middle, letting out a fountain of spider blood, killing it, but also drenching me in blood.

I retrieve my sword and I sheath it.

"You did it, you killed it. Now cut me down before any more show up." The man exclaims impatiently.

"Alright, let me see what I can do," Simon says, pulling out a dagger. He tries to cut up the webbing, but it just deflects the dagger. "Damn, this is some pretty tough stuff isn't it."

"Well, it's definitely hard to break out of."

"Well, let me try this." Simon puts away his dagger and holds up his hands. Suddenly, fire starts to build up around the palm of his hands.

"Do what you have to, but don't kill me." the man demands.

"Can't make any promises," Simon smirks. The fire in his hands shoots out in a steady stream, almost looking like a river. The fire comes into contact with the web, burning it, and effectively getting rid of most the webbing in the doorway.

"It's coming loose, I can feel it. Keep i- ah that's hot." When Simon stops, the webbing is all burnt and is able to be ripped through. The man tears out of the webs and starts running. "You fools, why would I share the treasure with anyone?"

"My god, really?! We have to chase him too?" I sigh.

"Looks like it to me. Let's get after him." Simon says, running after the man.