Skyrim and the Journey of Cerise Ch. 02

Immediately stopping, I looked over my shoulder at him as he pointed to the wall. Looking to my right, I saw what appeared to be some sort of gate, only with multiple spikes protruding from it. Wondering at its significance, Faendal told me to step back, which I did.

Moving to where I had been, he pulled out his bow and tossed it in front of him. Immediately the gate I saw swung forward at great speed, flying past the body of the thief.

Had I took one step, I would have been as crushed as the thief I realized, thanking Faendal for his keen eyes.

Looking more closely, we found a pressure plate next to the thief's body. Again I thanked Faendal for his yell knowing I would have stepped right upon the plate, the force of the gate crushing me as easily as the thief.

Making our way around the gate, we slowly crept into another crypt, similar to the first. As I looked, I saw several desiccated corpses in alcoves. Sneaking forward, I crept upon the supine body, not sure if it were undead as the others or not, but not willing to take a chance I thrust my blade into its side.

Immediately it opened its eyes, as bright blue as the others as it uttered a death rattle, falling back limp.

Before I could feel any satisfaction I heard a noise behind me, seeing another of the draugr, yet this one was different as it hissed, banging its sword against its shield. It had bright glowing red eyes and as it charged, I realized it had breasts, being female.

My surprise did not last as we crossed blades, slashing at each other a few times. As with the other, its slow speed was no match for mine as I spun around, slicing it cleaning through the chest as it fell to the ground.

Another creature suddenly came running at us; however, it immediately collapsed with an arrow through its forehead. Turning around, I saw Faendal lower his bow, nodding my thanks as we listened for any other sounds before we both crept further into the tomb, not wanting to speak for fear of waking more of the creatures.

Ahead of us we saw another room. Within we saw yet another draugr, standing near the corpse of yet another; however, this time surprise was on our side. Pulling my bow, Faendal doing the same, we both fired simultaneously, my shaft embedding itself through its pelvis, while Faendal's once again went into its throat as it collapsed to the ground.

Kneeling by the dead undead, Faendal pointed to my shaft sticking out of the creatures crotch, "Trying to tell me something?" he chucked as I grinned back before we moved further into the dungeon.

We began to hear a continuous hissing as we moved forward, wary of what was ahead. Coming to a straight section of corridor we found the source of the noise. The hallway had three large scythes swinging back and forth, passing through the entire hallway to slice at anything that passed through.

On the other end of the hallway we saw a switch, presuming it may be to stop the blades.

I stood there a few minutes watching the blades, my mind thinking about how to get by, for I knew we needed to move further in; the sense of urgency pressing upon my consciousness.

Finally reaching a decision, I handed my bag, bow, and quiver to Faendal as he looked at me questioningly.

"Stay back," I told him as he suddenly realized what I was about to do. Before he could say anything, I sprinted down the hallway, narrowly missing the blades, the breeze of their passage passing both in front and in back of me as I reached the end of the hall.

As suspected, the switch stopped the blades, and making sure nothing came at us, waited as Faendal joined me.

We came into another crypt, this one looking older than the first couple we had gone through as I wondered how deep the Barrows extended.

These crypts were more passageways, the walls lined by open alcoves similar to the previous ones. One difference I noticed were several alcoves where the mummified bodies of other corpses were erect, uncertain as to how they were standing.

Moving closer to one, it suddenly opened its eyes as I realized it was another undead! This one was more armored than the others, holding a wicked two-handed axe as it swung wildly at me. Without thought I raised my hands, uttering the Word of Power as I incinerated the creature. Unlike most creatures I had flamed, this one burst into a conflagration, the dried shriveled skin igniting like wax paper as the draugr collapsed to the ground.

Turning around, we saw a similar standing corpse so I slowly moved to it. As I stepped forward, my foot stepped into a puddle of slipper fluid. Kneeling down, I stuck my finger in the liquid realizing it was oil, a sudden though entering my mind as I told Faendal to step back.

With a word, my palm shot a flame into the oil, igniting the entire hallway. As I suspected, the corpse in the alcove stepped forward, immediately being engulfed by the burning oil. As we watched it burn to the ground, another draugr ran into the hallway, also igniting in flame as it collapsed to the ground.

Eventually the fire died down, so we slowly moved down the hallway, careful not to touch the still heated walls.

We came across one more of the standing sleeping corpses, easily killing it from a distance with our bows as we moved deeper into the crypt.

After about an hour, not coming across any other undead, we heard the sound of running water slowly drawing closer. Still wary of what to expect, we came into a room with a waterfall.

As we entered, we noticed two sarcophagi which immediately flew apart, two draugr rushing us!

Now familiar with their fighting, we quickly disposed of them. Our initial fright at the undead was now gone, knowing their weaknesses and that they could be killed.

Searching the room, we saw the waterfall formed a small stream that ran down the exiting passageway. The passage was blocked by an iron gate, but after looking around for a few minutes, Faendal found a pulley system which opened the gate.

We followed the stream-passage further in, the path no longer becoming hewn from stone but a natural cavern, with the stream running through it.

The cave reminded me of my escape from Helgen, and once again moving forward, the sense of urgency became almost unbearable as I began moving a bit faster.

We came across one more of the female draugr, quickly killing her from a distance with our bows.

Seeing light ahead, we moved forward, finding a small room. Looking up, we appeared to be at the bottom of a well, the light from the sun shining into the hole. I could see the crossbeams where the buckets could be lowered down, wondering what was above us as we moved forward, the passageway still extending deeper into the mountain as we followed it to the unknown.

The area was covered with snow, obviously drifting from the opening below and I wondered if we were beneath some ancient ruins. We had been traveling for hours, so who know how far we had come through the mountains, or in what direction; however, my curiosity had to wait, knowing I had to move further into the crypt.

Eventually the naturally created cave turned once again into man-made passages, the roots of trees again covering the walls as we had seen earlier upon entering. I realized we were probably close to the tree line of the mountain as it opened into a larger room.

On the far side of the room we saw another draugr, shooting similarly to how we had earlier, both our shafts entering the creature's chest.

Surprisingly, the creature ran at us as I shouted a Word of Power, flames engulfing the creature—and yet it still came at us, swinging its large two-handed sword! Both Faendal and I slashed at it with our weapons, wearing it down eventually.

This creature had been different. Although it looked like the others, the difficulty we had of taking it down caused us both concern, wondering what awaited us further into the room. As we slowly entered the area, we came upon a large door. As Faendal stood back, his bow drawn, I opened the door, which led to another passageway angling steeply down into the earth.

Following the path, we noted this entire area was even older than the previous crypts we had come through, wondering if the age of the area had anything to do with how powerful the undead creature was we had fought.

Soon we heard a familiar hiss, not surprised coming to another hallway with similarly swinging blades as before. Not even discussing it, I gave Faendal my pack and bow, sprinting down the hallway, easily avoiding the blades this time.

I had barely been able to pull the switch on the opposite side to let Faendal in when I was set upon by three draugr. Seeing liquid on the floor like before, I spoke a Word and set it on fire, the oil—as I suspected—burning quickly. As the fire burned, the mindless draugr walked right into the flames, collapsing before they could even reach us.

It took longer for the flames to die down; however, once it did we proceeded deeper into the room, which we saw had stairs going up. Climbing them, we found yet another passageway which led us to another door. As before, with Faendal covering me, I opened it, revealing a larger passageway, bigger than any we had found before.

The hallway was immense, so big even the dragon I had seen in Helgen could have fit through. It seemed so out of place, and yet I felt a familiar memory, as if I had been here before. The urgency I had felt earlier was even worse, the pressing need so strong I actually ran down the passageway, coming to a strange door.

The door was bronze, three symbols down the middle with a center locking mechanism depicting a picture of a dragon's claw. Without thinking I pulled out Lucan's golden claw, feeling another surge through my body of something momentous about to occur.

Faendal went to open the door when I shouted for him to stop. Looking at me in surprise, I walked up to the door, suddenly knowing what to do. I recognized the symbols—a moth, chrysalis, and bear, and pulling out the dragon's claw, turning it over to observe three symbols on the 'arm' of the claw—a bear, moth, a chrysalis.

Touching the door, I found the symbols to be on a wheeled panel, and moving one of them, revealed another symbol. Quickly I matched the symbols on the door to that of the claw.

As the last symbol was put in place, there was a faint click. Taking the dragon claw, I inserted it into the door and pushed...the door suddenly falling open!

Faendal looked at me, "How did you know?" he asked.

I merely shrugged as I looked at a stone staircase the door revealed leading up.

Climbing, we came upon a large natural cavern, several waterfalls and underground streams running through it. In the middle of the room was an extremely unnatural altar or monument. Stairs also climbed up the left side of the, monument or altar structure.

"Wow," Faendal said in awe, "would you look at that."

It was impressive. The monument was a curved wall, with a dragon's head depicted upon it, and in front of the wall was a sarcophagus.

Immediately the feeling of time running out hit me again, as I started moving towards the wall, speeding up until I was running.

Faendal called out, but all my attention was upon the wall as I passed by the sarcophagus, the wall completely harnessing my attention. As I stood in front, I saw runes etched into the wall as my vision became cloudy.

In my mind I began to hear chanting, a steady thrumming filling my head. As I stared, the lettering—dragon runes I knew suddenly—began to glow, one word standing out.

As the letters glowed brighter, I felt my body heat up—not in terms of temperature, but in passion. I felt my skin tingle, my breasts tightening, my breathing labored. I knew without doubt if I placed my hands between my legs, they would come back slick with my desire. The passion was like the Frost venom spiders, only much different, and much more intense. Whereas the venom gave me almost an uncontrollable lust, this was much more.

I felt alive, my body filled with love as well as desire. This was the feeling of pure unadulterated pleasure. It was not just carnality, the feeling I got with the frostbite venom, but also of sensuality. Whereas the frostbite venom caused physical lust, the feeling I felt was not only that, but also emotional desire.

And still the words became brighter and brighter, my body alive, all else in the room ignored as I stared at the words. Suddenly one became clear, echoing through my head—FUS.

As soon as I recognized it, the wording faded back to normal, the sounds of the room coming back to me. I was still caught up in the pure feeling of not only passion, but of love and desire as I heard a scraping behind me.

I heard Faendal cry out, but could not move as my body readjusted itself. I felt like every piece of me was rearranging somehow, being invigorated as I had felt after sex. I knew the sound was the sarcophagus opening without even turning around, but I still could not move.

Immediately memories began to fill my head—watching as my hands forged the sword at my side; uttering a language I now knew to be dragon, the words leaving my lips as if I had grown up speaking it; my body entangled in a pile of women, the sounds of desire and passion filling the room; the current room came into focus, a handsome man kissing me passionately before I stepped away, seeing the contempt in his eyes. All that and more filled me as I became acutely aware of everything within the room.

Hearing the slide of leather against stone, I knew there was a draugr standing behind me; however, it did not attack, and remembering the vision, I know it was not just any draugr, now recognizing the smell of it as an Ancient. Too caught up to understand what was going on, my mind momentarily wondered how I could know the smell of something so old as to have almost no smell as I slowly turned around.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Faendal shout out, drawing his two-handed hammer. Before I could say anything I heard the draugr standing before me utter a Shout, "FUS!"

At the sound of the words I saw Faendal fly backwards, as if a great wind had picked him up, throwing him against the wall where he crumpled. I realized I could somehow hear his heart beating, so was not worried whether he was alive, too caught up in the sensations filling me to even wonder how I could hear his heartbeat several feet away.

"Human," I heard to the side of me, the voice sounding like sand sliding over glass. "I know not how you could absorb the Word; you must have at least some daedra in your blood, as only a Higher Power can hold such strength to do so. It's a shame you will not live to fathom its use," the voice chuckled. "For now the only way I can absorb the power is to kill you," he said as I heard the rasp of steel, knowing the creature was drawing its weapon.

I finally turned around, prepared for everything. I had battled the draugr of this Barrow, so was prepared for any type of attack, a dark spell, whatever power had thrown Faendal across the room. I was ready for those and a hundred other possibilities.

What I wasn't prepared for was shock registering on the creature's face, its eyes opening wide, its mouth falling open.

And then the second thing I was unprepared for happened.

"Cerise!" the creature cried, shouting my name.

Now I knew my face registered shock, "How?" I tried to get out, but all I could do was stand there, wondering how the creature knew my name.

My mind flashed to the moment of remembering this room, me kissing a man, knowing without question the creature before me was him.

"Once again you dare meddle into affairs best left alone," the creature said after its initial shock wore off.

"How do you know me?" I finally asked, the surprise of the creature knowing my name finally lessening so I too could speak.

The creature looked at me, and then began to laugh.

"So that is it then," he laughed. "Your Mother finally found a way to intervene without breaking the charter," he said. "So simple, for you cannot break a rule you have no knowledge of ever forging, having no past to remember. And by the time you do remember it, things would have been set in motion that even the charter could not question. It is a shame by the time She finds you the world will be in ruins," the creature said.