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The Diary of Zahrassa Barahir: Act 1, Chapter 7

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Middas, 20th of Last Seed, 4E 201

Dear Diary:

Let it be known that I, wimp extraordinaire, survived the crawl through Bleak Falls Barrow! Crazy, right? Well, I wouldn't have been able to do it without Faendal. There were some bandits camped out in front of the Barrow and I accidentally made enough noise that they knew where we were, so I turned and ran away. This lead them right into range for Faendal to shoot them with a bow and arrow. They never knew what hit them!


I ended up taking some of the armor that they had been wearing before Faendal killed them all. I dropped the Stormcloak armor I have been wearing right in the middle of their tiny camp and put on the fur armor I looted from the ringleader. It was far too big for me, but it was the only one I could take because the other bandits were wearing armor that provided almost no protection against other people or the weather. No wonder they're bandits, they aren't smart enough to realize that a fur loincloth will not protect you from anyone coming after them! Meanwhile, the leader, a giant, burly Nord, was wearing fur armor that covered everything, so of course I went for that. Faendal helped me use the laces I bought yesterday to tighten it up enough that it would be a more reasonable fit. I look really silly now, but as long as it keeps me safe, I don't care.


I really should invest in a shirt and a pair of pants, though. It isn't exactly easy running around wearing armor over a dress, y'know.


We did have a very interesting encounter inside of the barrow, too. Remember last week, when the owner of the store in Riverwood was arguing with his sister about something being stolen and how they were going to get it back? Well, guess who and what Faendal and I found in there?


The thief who stole it, and the thing in the first place! It was this golden dragon claw-like object, and the thief said that it would unlock something that was extremely valuable.


We didn't exactly get the chance to ask him what exactly was locked away, because once we freed him from a Frostbite spider web, he tried to run away but stumbled into a trap that released a spiked door. It was pretty gruesome, to be honest.


Faendal got rid of the Draugr that were in the room the thief got knocked into and I went through his stuff, taking the golden claw and his journal. I let Faendal play around with the claw while I read the journal. It said something about the clue to unlocking the valuables being in the palm of our hands when we held the claw, which took me a while to understand...


&%&%&%&


“What is that...thing?” Zahrassa asked as she and Faendal came to a stop in front of a hallway that contained several swinging blades.


“A swinging blade trap. Very deadly.” Faendal observed.


“How do we get through it?”


“Very carefully.”


“Now is not the time.” Zahrassa muttered, rolling her eyes.


“If I remember correctly, there's usually some sort of lever or chain that makes them stop swinging on the other side.”


Zahrassa placed a hand to her chin and rubbed it, thinking. “Too dangerous to try to run through?”


“Yup.”


“What about crawling through?” She asked, slipping her backpack off and letting it land on the ground with a soft thud. Faendal gave her a quizzical look, cocking an eyebrow. “I mean, I think I'm small enough.”


“You just might be.”


“Well, then that's what I'll do.” Zahrassa stated, dropping her satchel on the ground and undoing the clasp that held her burlap cloak to her throat. With that, she got on her knees. “There's health potions in the satchel. Have them ready in case I get cut.”


“Be careful, kid,” Faendal said, picking up the satchel as Zahrassa laid down on her stomach and began to inch forward. Her ears were completely flat against her head and she wriggled forward, trying not to flinch every time she felt the wind caused by one of the blades swinging less than in inch from her neck.


Don't think about it...don't think about it... She screamed in her head, almost feeling the heat of the dragon's breath on her face as she slid along the cold, hard ground. She flattened her cheek even harder against the ground as she started to hear falling rocks off in the distance. “Am I almost through?”


“You're almost there!” Faendal yelled back. Zahrassa squeezed her eyes shut and dug her claws into the cool rock as if it would root her back in reality, carefully starting to inch forwards once more. It was taking every fiber of her being to not launch forward and run away screaming as if the dragon was looming right over her once again.


Almost...there... she thought, twisting her neck in such a way so that she could see where the trap ended. As she righted it and began to crawl forwards, she felt the wind of a swinging blade pass right over her neck, and she let out a strangled cry. On the verge of panic and once again hearing the falling rocks, she began to scramble forward as fast as she could, ignoring a sudden sharp pain in her shoulder and feeling the wind pass over her tail as she staggered to her feet and threw herself at the chain. With a loud noise, the blades stopped swinging, and Zahrassa leaned against the wall and slid to the floor. “Got it!”


“Thank the Divines...” Faendal sighed as he came through the now-safe corridor. He knelt down next to Zahrassa, who had slumped against the wall and was breathing heavily, gently pouring a small amount of a health potion on her gashed shoulder.


“Didn't notice that it got me...” She said wearily, watching the wound seal itself shut as the red liquid of the potion mixed with her blood.


“You started writhing on the ground after one of the blades passed close to your neck and tried to get up. I got worried that it had cut you there-”


“Stop. Stop talking.” Zahrassa demanded, flattening her ears against her head as if it would shut Faendal's voice out.


&%&%&%&


I felt bad for snapping at Faendal like that, but I couldn't stop myself. Ever since that place, I've been extremely protective of my neck. I don't like hearing blades swing through the air, I don't like things touching my neck, I can't sleep properly, and I can't talk about anything relating to That Place without my stomach knotting itself up. Even writing this down is giving me a stomachache! I know I'm terribly wimpy, save for when I have a size advantage and can reach places where it hurts to be hit, but this is just a whole new level of pathetic. I need to sleep for, like, a week straight to feel better. I'm sure I'd be fine if M'zami were around, she'd be joking about it so much that it would twist itself into something hilarious. I can't do that on my own, just sit there and try to forget all that happened.


That wasn't the only swinging trap that we had to go through, either. Faendal and I came across a second one, and we tried jamming it with the bodies of draugr and everything else that was laying around and movable. It worked for just long enough for me to scramble through and pull the lever that shut it off, which I was pretty glad for.


I'm never fantasizing about going into those old Nord tombs again! They're just too weird, especially with what Faendal and I found when we finally reached the Dragonstone Farengar asked for.


&%&%&%&


“Would you look at that!” Faendal said as the duo walked into a hallway with extremely detailed carvings on the wall and a large, circular...thing at the end of the hallway.


“It's pretty,” Zahrassa said in wonder as she looked at the carvings on the wall, “but how do we get through? I think it's a dead end.”


“Unless this thing is some sort of door.” Faendal stated, knocking on the circular carvings at the end of the hallway. Zahrassa came to his side to also look at it, noting the four rings. The three outer rings had a single, small carving of some sort of animal at their highest point, and the fourth ring had three small holes on the upper part and a image of some kind of claw in the centre. Zahrassa idly placed one hand on the second inner-most ring and let her weight rest on it as she studied the circle in the middle. Suddenly, she felt the ring move.


“Woah, woah, woah, what in Oblivion...?” She gasped, withdrawing her hand as if it had been burned and stumbling away from the wall. The ring groaned as it spun around, the carving on top moving away and being replaced with a carving of a different animal.


“It's a puzzle!” Faendal declared.


“Oh, great, more puzzles...” Zahrassa sighed, flashing back to the spinning pillars that the two had spent a half hour, possibly longer, trying to figure out back when they first entered Bleak Falls Barrow. Faendal pressed on another ring, and the carving on top was also replaced with a different one.


“Maybe we need them to all match?”


“That might work.” Zahrassa shrugged, jumping up and slapping the outermost ring so that it shifted as well. They worked together to get all of the rings moved so that the symbols were all the same, and then Zahrassa pushed against the big circle in the middle.


Nothing happened.


“Maybe you didn't push hard enough? Here, let me try,” Faendal offered, shoving his hands against the circle as hard as he could. When nothing happened again, the two stood there staring at it in confusion.


“Maybe it wasn't the right combination?”


The sounds of stone scraping against stone filled the wide hallway once more as the rings shifted to match one set of animals, and then another. The two even tried different combinations, but the central circle still refused to budge, even when they threw their combined weight at it.


“Kador?!” Zahrassa snapped, angrily kicking the circle. “Kador, Khenthari?!”


“Maybe there's some sort of key around here...” Faendal muttered, kicking a pile of rocks out of the way. “I'll look over here, you look over there.”


Zahrassa knelt down, feeling along the cold, damp ground that probably hadn't been touched in centuries, her mind reeling. She dug her tiny claws into the small cracked in the stone, felt along the wall, and shoved loose rocks aside in search of anything that looked remotely like a key. “Didn't that thief guy say something about a 'Hall of Stories'?”


“...now that you mention it, yes, he did.”


Zahrassa straightened up and wiped her gloves on the front of her armor, then pulled the thief's journal out of her backpack. Widening her pupils so she could see the jagged writing better in the dark, she reviewed one of the paragraphs over and over in her head until something finally clicked.


“The claw!” She gasped, standing up as soon as the realization hit. “They claw is the key! Here, let me see it!”


Faendal handed the golden dragon claw to Zahrassa, who took it up to the center circle, lined the claws up with the three small holes, and jammed it in. Again, nothing happened, so she tried jamming it in even harder, even twisting it a few times. There was a loud groaning noise as she pulled the claw out, and for a minute, it looked like the strange door was about to open.


“Watch out!” Faendal yelled, grabbing Zahrassa by the scruff of her neck and dragging her backwards as a row of spikes suddenly jutted out from the ceiling. Almost as soon as they had appeared, they vanished back inside of the tiny holes that neither of the duo had noticed before.


“...wrong combination?” Zahrassa suggested once they had finally caught their breath from the shock. Faendal let go of the back of her neck and smacked himself in the face, letting his hand rest that way for several seconds. Zahrassa idly turned the claw in her hands, suddenly noticing carving on the palm of the claw that looked similar to the ones on the door. “I think I found the combination.”


“If it doesn't work this time, we're leaving.” Faendal muttered as he helped Zahrassa move the outer rings so that they matched the order of the animal carvings that had been etched into the claw.


“I'll agree with you on that.” She huffed before realigning the claws with the small holes. “Cross your fingers.”


With a silent prayer, Zahrassa pushed the claw into the circle and twisted it. The claw immediately sprang back out and Zahrassa jumped backwards to avoid any potential spikes that would come jutting out of the ceiling. Instead, the stone rings groaned and spun around rapidly until all of the small animal carvings matched each other. Stone scraped against stone as the door slowly began to lower into the ground, revealing a dark staircase that had been hidden behind it for centuries.


“It worked! It worked!” Zahrassa cheered, turning and hugging Faendal before sprinting up the stairs.


“Be careful!” Faendal called after her as she ran up, skittering to a stop when she reached a large platform that overlooked a wide, brightly lit cavern.


“Woah...” she said, in complete awe as she craned her neck to look around as much as she could. There was a small, steady stream of water running along the bottom, with a large, curved wall with strange markings at the other side.


“The Dragonstone has to be in here,” Faendal mused as he arrived at Zahrassa's shoulder, joining her in her awestruck staring.


“Lets look near that wall,” she said, pointing at the curved wall with the strange markings. “That looks like a place someone would put something on display.”


Something strange began to happen as they approached the curved wall. Some of the carvings, which Faendal said were probably runes, began to glow, and there was faint hum in the air. The closer Zahrassa got, the louder and more defined the humming became, until it was full on chanting in a strange language.


“Do you here that?” She asked, coming to a stop in front of a sealed coffin and staring at the now-brightly glowing carvings.


“...no?” Faendal said after listening for a few minutes.


“I can hear this strange...chanting coming from that wall,” Zahrassa exclaimed, pointing, “and one of those runes is glowing.”


“I think you're just tired,” Faendal explained.


“Maybe you're right.” Zahrassa shrugged, but something just didn't quite feel right. A strange darkness started creeping from the corners of her eyes and she jumped over the coffin, and the glowing rune seemed to be stretching out as if it was about to rope her in and suck her into the wall. The chanting was almost deafening as she finally stood in the middle of the curve, the glowing words floating right in front of her field of vision and blocking everything else out.


Fus.


A sudden crash came from behind Zahrassa as she whirled around, the chanting and glowing stopped almost as soon as it started. A huge, armored draugr rose out of the once-sealed coffin, giving Zahrassa and Faendal barely enough time to ready their weapons. An arrow began to sail right at its sunken face, when...


“FUS...RO DAH!!”


Zahrassa felt the wind get knocked right out of her lungs as her back hit the wall when the blast of energy picked her and Faendal off of the floor and threw them backwards. Gasping, she slid down the wall and barely managed to stay on her feet, the arrow Faendal had fired embedding itself into the wall right next to her head.


“What in Oblivion was that?!” She wheezed as she oriented herself, getting a firm grip on her sword and staring down the draugr that Faendal had somehow managed to shoot full of arrows without even correcting his stance.


“I don't know!” Faendal yelled as the draugr turned its attention back to Zahrassa.


“FU-”


“Oh no you don't!” Zahrassa gasped, grazing its head with her own arrow. “Damn, I missed!”


“You'll learn!” Faendal cried, circling around and hitting the dragur in the back with an arrow. The decomposing being grunted and turned, raising its sword at the Bosmer and shaking it angrily like an old man would shake their cane. Zahrassa tried another arrow and it stuck into one of the horns of its helmet. It turned again, starting to lumber towards the Khajiit when another arrow stuck into its shoulder. When it turned, Zahrassa got an idea.


“Keep it turning around!” She yelled, one of her own arrows grazing its side and forcing it to turn around once more. “It'll be too confused!”


The volley of arrows was exchanged, each one sticking itself into the draugr's armor and confusing it more and more as it kept turning, trying to focus on a single target but getting nowhere. Zahrassa soon ran out or arrows and the draugr finally had its focus on Faendal, who kept firing off as Zahrassa pulled out her sword and dagger. Ignoring the stench of the beast and the little voice in her head that told her to run away from the rotting Nord monster, not towards it, Zahrassa bolted forwards. Iron sword in her right hand and steel dagger in her left, she took a flying jump and plunged both weapons into a small gap in the creature's armor. The dagger embedded in its flesh, the draugr made a strangled cry and tried to turn around.


Zahrassa, using her grip and small size to her advantage once more, grappled on the back of the monster as it tried to find who had just stabbed it in the back. Faendal lowered his aim with his bow and arrow so that he would avoid accidentally shooting Zahrassa and started shooting at the back of its legs while Zahrassa climbed her way up its body and forced her claws out the fingertips of her fur gloves. With one quick, fluid motion, she reached her right arm around its and raked her claws across its throat, using her left hand to shove the back of its head in the opposite direction. Thick, black blood that had not moved in thousands of years coated her claws as she snapped its brittle neck and sent it flying to the floor, killed instantly. The sound its body made as it landed echoed through the room as Zahrassa climbed off, wiping her claws on the front of her armor and shaking her head to try and avoid thinking about just how gross the old blood was.


“Ew, ew, ew, ew!” She whined, flapping her arms when the wiping proved useless. “EW!


“That was impressive,” Faendal said as he put his bow on his back and rooted around in his backpack for a cloth. Zahrassa was still flailing as whining when he soaked it with a bottle of water and struggled to hand it to her without accidentally getting scratched with her bloody claws. “Here, here, calm down! It'll wash off!”


“I may have crawled on thousand-year-old moss earlier but that was just disgusting!” She wailed as she snatched the cloth out of Faendal's hands and started scrubbing furiously. “Fresh blood is one thing, thousand-year-old old draugr blood like that is just...ew!


“Glad to know you have standards in what blood can get all over you or not,” Faendal said, rolling his eyes and bending over the fully dead draugr.


“Well, I am a girl, aren't I? I'd be used to bl-”


“We are not discussing that!” Faendal gasped, turning bright red and becoming extremely interested in the rusted iron helmet that the creature had been wearing prior to Zahrassa's brutal assault on its neck.


“I'm just kidding. I'm too young.”


“Good to know.” Faendal muttered, refusing to look up. Zahrassa giggled, dropping the cloth next to him.


“Thanks, by the way. Now lets find that damn rock,” she said, turning and peeking into the coffin. There was a lot of jewelry and some kind of power inside, which she recognized from some of the alchemy merchandise Idhisa sold and hid from Dro'shuji. “Hey, gimme that empty bottle, I found some good stuff.”


Faendal handed Zahrassa the empty water bottle, then rubbed his hands together and started to peel the aging armor off of the draugr. Zahrassa started funneling some of the bone meal in the bottom of the coffin into the bottle, trying to figure out how much it would be worth. Each scoop with her hands took her farther and farther into the depths of the coffin, when she felt her hand strike something hard and smooth.


“Hey, I found something!” She yelled, setting the bottle of bone meal aside and leaning in to push the remaining amounts out of the way. The moved bone meal soon revealed a large, flat stone with several seemingly disjointed markings covering the top. Flipping it over revealed a small carving of a dragon on the the back. “It's the dragonstone the court wizard wanted!”


“Finally!” Faendal cried wearily, getting up to help Zahrassa drag it out of the coffin. It was a lot heavier that it looked and took a lot of teamwork to get it up and out of the coffin. After a while, they finally had it on the floor and were trying to figure out how to carry it. Eventually, they concluded that they could make a makeshift net out of Zahrassa's extra hide laces, then tie it to her back. It took even longer to manage that, and once it was secured behind her backpack, they began their journey out of the barrow, completely exhausted but alive and in one piece.

Finally she's not as much of a wimp.




The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim © Bethesda Softworks, LLC
The Diary of Zahrassa Barahir © Gracie Erickson

{<<< The Diary of Zahrassa Barahir - Act 1, Chapter 6} {CHAPTER 7} {The Diary of Zahrassa Barahir: Act 1, Chapter 8 >>>}
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