A Stranger in Skyrim 4

Chapter Four: The Cave

In which the end is in sight.

They traveled down a narrow corridor. If this passage wasn't supposed to go anywhere, then why light it up with large braziers? Why would the braziers be lit? Apparently someone used this tunnel – pretty frequently, in fact.

“ – I don't know! Just give me a minute, all right?”

More Stormcloaks? Or would they run across some allies for once?

Nope. Stormcloaks.

The closest was a woman wielding a greatsword. Hadvar closed with her.

Mariah held her swords ready, creeping into the room. Two men circled around the other way – she found herself facing off with Warhammer and Greataxe.

Warhammer brought his weapon up, and time slowed to a crawl. She slashed out, desperately, slicing his throat with one of her swords. Blood sprayed, catching her in the face. She blinked, but it didn't really help to clear her vision. She pulled back instinctively, hearing the whoosh of the axe as it travelled past. She swiped her forearm against her eyes – not that it did much good – finding herself back-to-back with Hadvar.

Greataxe swung for her head, she scrambled out of the way. Big weapons swung slow – something that wasn't as true in Amtgard because foam weapons were lighter – she drove her sword into his belly while he was bringing his weapon to bear. There was a splurch as she ripped her sword free. He dropped the axe, clutching his stomach. Without thinking, she swung her sword once more, slashing his throat as well. She was completely covered in gore, and she found herself panting from exertion.

Suddenly, arrow! It whooshed past her head, clattering on the far wall. She ducked, after the fact, looking around. Hadvar, who had taken out Greatsword, was already on it. He ran towards the pair of archers, bashing one out of the way with his shield. He sliced out at the other one, snapping the bow with his sword.

She walked towards them, as Hadvar slashed the second archer's throat. He blocked an arrow with his shield, then drove his sword into the first archer's eye. The first archer fell with a wet thump.

“Well,” she said, panting a little bit. “That was … fun.”

She would not think about the fact she'd killed three people so far. She couldn't think about that right now, not if she wanted to continue living. So, she didn't. It simply wasn't a thing anymore.

“See if there's anything on these rebels you can use, but hurry about it. We need to keep moving.”

She nodded. Greatsword – she'd actually been trained, somewhat, to use a two-handed sword. Florentine was fun to play with, but she was mostly using the right sword only, and it was harder to block while dual-wielding. So, two-hander it was. She sheathed her two broadswords, then went to collect the weapon. The sheath strapped to her back; she had to take the backpack off, put the sheath on, then slide the pack back over her shoulders. She left the sword out. The odds were good she'd need it again in this pit.

Another hallway, this one with a drawbridge for some reason, and then they were in a cave. An actual, cave-like cave, and yet there was still a pair of braziers to light the way. Who cared that much about lighting up caves, anyway? Unless this was some sort of secret exit, which was of course the hope, but then why wouldn't the torturer know about it? It was just outside his domain, after all.

She shook her head, pressing on – and then, behind her, the keep fell in. “Damn it,” Hadvar said grimly. “No going back that way. I guess we're lucky that didn't come down on top of us.” He shook his head. “We'd better push on. I'm sure the others will find another way out.”

She nodded, heading down the stairs. It was chilly in the cave, but that was understandable as a stream ran through it. Following the stream seemed like a good idea, so she did, stepping carefully to avoid getting her feet wet. The stream led to a dead-end, but there was a side passage off of it, lit by a lantern – she walked down that way, taking the lantern with her and ignoring the skeleton it sat by. She wasn't going to die down here. No way.

And then spiderwebs.

She shuddered, just looking at them. They were overhead, they were everywhere. And the next room was full of them. It was just. A. Dream. She could handle spiders, in dreams. She could handle spiders in real life, from a distance. She could handle spiders in real life with Raid. There was no Raid. She could handle this anyway. She could –

It was massive.

She saw it from all the way down the hallway. It was crawling around down there, in the next room – oh gods there were two of them and she was not prepared to handle giant monster spiders. She could not – could not! – force herself to move forward.

“What's wrong?” Hadvar shook her shoulder gently, speaking quietly.

She swallowed heavily. “Spider.”

“Spider?”

She nodded slowly. “Spiders.”

He looked over her shoulder, then gently pushed past her. “We can handle them.”

When he walked down there to face them, she inched forward, covering her head with a hand. She shivered as she passed under a section of cobweb and oh gods she could feel them crawling on her arms and she couldn't think about it or she would completely freeze up – oh gods –

Two more of them crawled down from the ceiling.

Hadvar faced them down without fear. Or at least he didn't seem to be afraid anyway. She shuddered, holding her suddenly-shaking greatsword with both hands. Hadvar killed one easily, another climbed on top of him, mandibles snapping at his face. He shoved at it, trying to get it off. The other two advanced on her.

She swallowed heavily, holding the sword between her and the spiders.

One of them lunged for her and she sliced its forelegs off. It recoiled from her, chittering fiercely. The other lunged at her, and she slashed down on its hideous face.

Green blood oozed from it. The first one lunged for her again – she barely got out of the way in time. Bringing the sword up, she thrust at the spider. Even though they were both dead – they looked dead – she hacked at them repeatedly, until she'd completely exhausted herself, and she had to collapse near the greenish puddles of ex-spider.

Oh gods. She was covered in spider goop, and she swiped at herself, trying to clean it off and it wasn't working and they were still there – she scrabbled back away from the corpses, shaking.

“Are you all right?” Hadvar asked, stepping over the spider bits. One of their legs crackled as he broke it. “No, you're not all right,” he answered himself. “Come here.” He offered her his hand, and she took it, and he had to feel her shaking. He didn't comment on it. “So, spiders, eh?”

She nodded, mutely. He drew her into the room proper, and once she was inside, she couldn't leave fast enough. She ran for the other exit, dragging her sword behind her.

There was another longish hallway – she looked back to make sure no spiders were following – with more stream running through it. She walked a few steps down it, crossing the stream quickly – more distance between her and the spiders – and Hadvar pulled her up short. “Hold up,” he said quietly. “There's a bear just ahead, see her?” He took the bow off his shoulder. “I don't really want to tangle with her right now, but we might have to.”

She nodded slowly as he shoved the bow towards her. “Take this,” he said. So not only did he expect her to be a career criminal, but he expected her to be a master of all weaponry. She wasn't a great shot, but she wasn't terrible either …. “See if you can catch her by surprise, hey?”

He handed her his quiver as well. She sheathed the greatsword first, then took the quiver, hanging it awkwardly across her shoulder. Its strap was long enough, it hung down to sit comfortably against her butt. She could work with this. Drawing one arrow, she nocked it. She drew back to her ear, then slowly let the string return to its default tension. Another draw, she relaxed it again. Finally, she drew, shot – and to her great astonishment, she landed the shot. The bear roared in pain, standing up, then charging them. Oh gods. She reached for another arrow, putting it to the string. This one missed. Hadvar rushed forward, catching the brunt of the bear's assault with his shield with a grunt. He drove his sword up into the massive beast's belly, then dragged it up. The bear's innards splattered onto the ground in front of him. It grunted, looking down, falling to all fours, then falling to its side.

“Good shot,” Hadvar smiled at her again.

She nodded. “Lucky shot. You did good, yourself.”

He continued smiling, wiping his blade off on the bear's pelt. She tried to hand him his bow back, but he wouldn't have it. “Keep it. You might need it down the road.”

Another nod. “Okay.” She slung the bow over her shoulder, and continued onward. She could smell fresh air – this had to be the way out.

“We made it!”

They stepped out into the sunshine together.