"I Would Stand At Her Back, That The World Might Never Overtake Us..."

The Crawly Ones

They made fairly good time through most of Dustman's Cairn, but they still hadn't found the altar room. Then Aylin heaved opened a door that was stuck with sheets of spider web. Farkas swore. He hated frostbite spiders...
Aylin charged straight at them, so Farkas followed. She took down most of them, but one was bigger than the rest, and it got past her and pounced on Farkas. Farkas quickly swung his great sword and cleaved off two of its legs, but it was still coming. Damn those Silver Hand... keeping control of his wolf transformation had tired him out, and he was just a little too slow. The giant spider's fangs sunk into his shoulder and it felt like ice poured into his veins. He hefted his sword up and into the creature once more and it fell off of him, dead, but the damage was done. Farkas dropped to his knees as the room got darker... cold... he was so cold... Nords weren't supposed to feel cold... it was all wrong. He heard his sword clatter to the floor but he couldn't feel his arms... he just felt ice coursing through his veins. His eyes found Aylin as the darkness encroached on his vision, and her beautiful, confused, concerned face was the last thing he saw.
"Farkas?!" She sounded so far away... "FARKAS!!!" Her scream was barely audible... and then there was nothing.
Bitterly, Farkas braced himself to meet Hircine, knowing he'd never see Sovengarde now...
But Hircine never came... instead there was a warm, golden light... it was like sunshine... it smelled like a bright, sunny forest, full of flowers... like honeysuckle... Aylin...
Farkas opened his eyes as the golden light faded. The puncture wounds on his shoulder throbbed and he hurt all over... and he was cold, freezing cold. As his senses slowly came back to him, the first thing he heard was Aylin, panting and out of breath as she rummaged frantically through her pack. She was on her knees at his side... Farkas watched, confused as she pulled the cork from a small blue bottle and chugged the bottle's contents. Then she turned back to him, placing gentle hands on his wounded shoulder. The golden light came back. He started to ask her what she was doing, but the warmth of the magic flowed through him... the pain faded and the warmth felt wonderful... he realized he'd said so out loud when Aylin jumped with a slight start.
"Gods, Farkas," she breathed a sigh of relief, turned back to her pack. As soon as she stopped casting the healing spell the awful cold settled back in. Farkas groaned. Moments later she was back beside him. Farkas was surprised by her strength as she hoisted him to an almost seated position, propped up against her.
"Drink this," she instructed, pressing the rim of a bottle to his lips. Farkas obeyed as she poured a thick liquid into his mouth. He barely registered its flavor, as he was too preoccupied by how close he was to her. With his head leaned against her chest he could feel her ragged breathing and racing heartbeat. It worried him. Then, once he'd finished the bottle she took a deep breath and began casting the healing spell again. Once again he felt the magic seep through him, and the cold was gone. His strength returned slowly and he knew he should get up, but he felt so good, he didn't want to... but then Aylin finished casting and slumped against him in exhaustion. He was immediately aware of her heavy breathing again, and then he was alarmed to notice her heartbeat didn't sound as strong as normal. He gently sat up, afraid she'd passed out, but once he shifted she sat up on her own. Farkas turned to look at her in concern, placing both hands on her shoulders and looking over her for injuries... had she been hurt by the spiders too, or had she done this to herself trying to heal him?
"Aylin?" He said gently. She was covered in cold sweat and still breathing heavily, but she opened her eyes and gave him a tired smile.
"Ok," she whispered, "that time you scared me."
"Sorry," he replied, relieved to hear her voice. He could hear her pulse evening out and regaining its normal strength. He brushed a sweaty strand of hair out of her face and she smiled back at him. "That was definitely not how I wanted to make you scream my name..." Farkas chuckled.
Aylin's face quickly turned bright red, and Farkas realized he'd actually said that last part out loud.
"Farkas!" She had a shocked, scolding tone but she was still smiling. She blushed so much her ears and neck were bright red as well, and Farkas could hear her heartbeat speeding up again.
"I'm just teasing you," Farkas said, trying to recover casually as he got to his feet. He was surprised to notice none of his injuries hurt...
"You ok?" He asked, offering her a hand up.
"Yeah," she replied, still red in the face. She wouldn't look at him, but she took his outstretched hand. Farkas pulled her easily to her feet and held her steady for a moment. "Or at least I will be in a few minutes," she sighed. "Are you ok?" She asked, gently pulling away from him as she collected her pack.
"Yeah," Farkas nodded, "whatever you did fixed me up good." He smiled at her, but she was still avoiding eye contact. Farkas thought it was cute how flustered one comment had made her. "I'm good to go when you are. We should keep moving," he added.
"Right," she agreed. She gathered her gear and weapons, and Farkas picked up his sword.

The next room was the altar room at last. They entered carefully, but nothing moved. Farkas watched in fascination as the word wall in the back of the chamber lit up as Aylin approached it. A moment later the light flew out of the wall and seemed to fly into Aylin. Farkas was alarmed for a moment, but Aylin seemed totally unphased, and turned back from the wall a moment later.
"That's going to be useful," she commented casually as she began to look around the room.
"What was that?" Farkas asked, eyes still fixed on her.
"I... uh... might have just learned firebreath," she replied with a smirk. Farkas let his surprise and confusion show on his face... he knew she was Dragonborn... he knew that meant she had some grand, complicated destiny... he had read that the Dragonborn was the only one who could master the dragon shouts without training... but he hadn't ever actually thought about Aylin having the powers of a dragon. He just stared at her for a moment in awe as she scanned the room.
"And look what else I found," she said with a grin. She picked up the fragment of Wuuthrad from the altar.
Suddenly, there was a crumbling sound as several draugr burst from sarcophagi around the room. At least they weren't spiders, Farkas thought as he drew his sword. Aylin swore as she hastily tucked the fragment into her pack and then drew her swords. Farkas charged the draugr nearest Aylin and sliced it clean in two before it could touch her, then he turned to see three more approached behind him. Aylin darted forward and a shout of "FUS RO!" came booming from her like thunder. The draugr all staggered backwards, giving Aylin enough time to slice each of them down. Farkas blinked in amazement, but the sound of more sarcophagi opening pulled his attention back to the fight.

In the end there had been seventeen draugr in total. It had turned into one of those adrenaline fueled fights that Farkas loved. Even better, was after the first six or so draugr, he and Aylin had gotten into a routine, standing back to back, making quick work of the rest. Farkas loved seeing the adrenaline filled grin on Aylin's face. He realized she might enjoy proper battle as much as he did. When it was finally done, they made their way back to the exit.