King-Fall

VIII. Swallowed

Paarthurnax Jr.'s pov

I was laying on my daddy's bed crying into the lavish pillows. Sheet lightning struck outside during high noon. I just want to watch the rain and how the wind tossed the ocean from the balcony like father would but I already snuck into the market the other day.

My friends from before wouldn't even look at me.

What did I ever do to them? I didn't do anything to them! Wait... what if daddy had done something? Is that what he was always sad about? Was that why he had to leave? "Ugh!" I threw a pillow at the wall, "I just want my daddy back!"

"Paarthurnax~" a watery voice called causing my blood to grow cold. Goosebumps went up and down my arms and when I thought I was hearing things it called again, "Paarthurnax~"

"Who's there?!" My palms began to feel sweaty and my brow began to feel moist. I leaned over the bed and looked underneath. Besides dust, there was a chest, a small personal chest underneath. This time the voice was louder, closer, "Paarthurnax~"

I regarded the box for a moment but curiosity was getting the best of me. My hand shook as I reached towards the box until it spoke again causing me to recoil. Before I could flee, the watery voice said, "Paarthurnax, I can get your father to come to you."

After hearing that, I tentatively grabbed the chest and pulled it out from under my father's side of the bed. I even grabbed Dragonbane and set it next to me, just in case. Opening it, I saw a wooden Dragon Priest mask and a big black book. Distant thunder drummed in the distance when the book said, "Hello, Paarthurnax~"

"Who," I shook with confusion and disbelief, "are you?"

"I am a book your father read when he was younger and he learned many secrets from."

"What..." I glanced at the door, thinking that I heard someone coming, "kind of secrets?" I heard a smile in the books voice,

"Useful ones."

Well that's cryptic as all hell and Oblivion, I thought.

"Paarthurnax?" Mother called, "who are you talking to?"

It appears someone was coming.

I pulled the book from the box and said, "How do I get my father back?"

In response tentacles latched onto my wrists. "He will come," the voice cooed, "we just wait."

Once the book opened and tendrils grabbed my head I screamed, "Mother!"

She came in and the last look I saw in my mother's eyes was horror as the book sucked me, Dragonbane and the mask into it.

The short ride back to Solitude was riddled with rain. The sky was grey and our horses kicked up mud as we went, not wanting to get more soaked than we had to. We passed the bodies of the highwaymen and I didn't look at how the blood mixed with the rain, or how bloated they were, nor did a pay attention to my horse stepping on something strung from their bodies from being viciously popped like zits.

I had an impossible mission, and it was one that if I didn't overcome the odds my life and that of my family was on the line. I tried remember the last time I had something so personally involved with a quest in the past but came up null. Maybe it was the fact that I had nothing to lose before, I mean Skyrim would've most likely been turned into glass by Alduin but I would've been dead or died trying to stop it. Now, if I die, Elisif will be a widow and High Queen. Paarthurnax would grow up without a father and the possibility of him becoming a monster would be increased. Then he would become High King and then-

A wolf crossed the road and caused our horses to rear back and I yelped a curse. The wolf, intimidated by our size in our horses ran into the brush and out of sight. I cursed my beating heart and tried to concentrate on the road and calming my soul. Serana gave me a weary glance as we stopped there, calming our horses before moving on. No doubt the question of 'are you alright?' was on her lips but she didn't ask it. She didn't need to. She probably dealt with the chance of her family dying for years and years and knew what I was feeling more than I did.

"Oh," Serana broke the silence, going to untie the axe on the side of her horse, "did you want your axe on your horse?"

"No," I answered, snapping the reins of Frostheart, "you're going to need it."

When we entered Solitude the sky was almost black at high noon. The streets were void of life except for the guards staying close to shade from the rain as water slapped at me and Serana sideways on the wind. The water soaked the cloth of my shroud and made it stick to my coif and the wind whipped it about.

Arriving at the Blue Palace I heard my wife's scream. He's here, I thought, that mage-thief carved through my guards. I jumped off Frostheart and shoulder rammed my own door.

Glancing around frantically I screamed, "Elisif!"

Guards rushed to where she screamed and I followed them. I slipped and caught myself on the wall as I hurried up the stairs while the guards let me take point. "Don't worry Paarthurnax," Elisif cried, "I'll get you out!"

"Elisif!"

I rammed the door into my chamber and the pain in Elisif's eyes as she shook head in disbelief. The book in her hands glowed green as a watery laugh filled the room. "No!" I screamed as the book swallowed my wife.

Once the book clomped into the marble floor I scooped it up, willing myself inside but the book did nothing.

Hermaeus Mora wasn't letting me in. The guards just stood around me perplexed at what they had just witnessed. No one uttered a sound, the rain provided ample background before I slapped the book closed, bagged it, and went to the balcony.