Robin Smith: a Skyrim Story

Unbound Part 6

We pressed on through the cavern. After taking a short detour through what looked like a sewer system, I was fortunate enough to find a healing potion and a coin purse beside a long dead skeleton. I pocketed both prizes.

I joined Hadvar again after my little discovery and looked at the trickling stream going through the way ahead, slipping in between large rocks that we had no way of surpassing.

"No going that way," Hadvar stated. I rolled my eyes and took the obvious path to the right.

We descended a slope and came to another opening. However, this one was different. It had no traces of human construction. And it was covered in thick spider webs.

I skidded to a halt. This was definitely not good.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and drew his dagger anyways.

Hadvar came up behind me. "Something the matter?" He looked ahead. The question was answered for him.

Skittering noises echoed from above. I gripped my dagger so hard that my knuckles probably started turning white. As I had dreaded, five or six dark masses dropped from holes in the ceiling, each of their eight legs touching the ground silently. These weren't any ordinary spiders. They were Frostbite Spiders.

Frostbite Spiders were infamous for being ridiculously huge, although their size varied with age. Living up to their name, the poison that came from their fangs was said to freeze your blood to the bone, and, if it overran your system, would completely paralyze you.

I started to shiver a little, as if the poison had already seeped into my body.

They quickly began their advance towards hs. I quickly backed up and bumped into Hadvar. We both grunted lightly in surprise, but soon after, we were dealing with arachnids.

I violently slashed my dagger around as I felt stinging bites penetrate my skin. The venom I felt coursing through my veins utterly disgusted me. I shivered again, from both the thought and the effects of the poison.

Finally, I ran my dagger through the last living spider, and it thumped to the ground. Green blood oozed all over the place. I took a gulp of that horrid-tasting healing potion to get the poison out of my system and sighed in relief.

"What next, giant snakes?" Hadvar joked. I chuckled half-heartedly.

I looked down and saw venom drip from the fangs of one of the spiders. A thought suddenly came to me.
I had read a book in the library (the same one at which I purchased the spell time) on harvesting Frostbite Spider venom. It wouldn't hurt to have some poison with me. I knelt down and drank the healing potion to the bottom, then put the bottle underneath the spider's fang and cut it off with my dagger.

Almost immediately, a thin black liquid began to trickle out and into the bottle. I winced in disgust, but allowed the venom to drain into the bottle before pulling it away. I popped the cap back on and stowed away my new treasure.