Shyrim: Chapter 4

    While they carefully walked down the side passage, the smell changed from spider to something else. The odor was new to the ponies, but Arvid recognized it. He could smell the dead resting in their alcoves. He hoped they wouldn’t wake up. Arvid led the way down the stairs into the crypts. Twilight ran over to an alcove that just had a skeleton in it. Fluttershy did not like the crypts. The smell and look of the brown, pitted, aged walls and floor just made her nervous. Arvid was getting bored, but he knew better than to rush around without someone watching his back.

    “Yes, let us go,” Arvid said with boredom.

    A few steps further, they found the man they rescued from the webs. It seemed that he stepped on a trap and a spiked wall impaled him. Blood was still dripping from some of the rusty spikes.  The sight made the group pause.

    The stink of shed blood made Fluttershy’s stomach churn, but she managed to keep her breakfast down. Not for the last time she wished to be back home. Fluttershy didn’t know too much about crypts and traps, but she felt that something else happened to distract the unlucky man. She had no problems seeing the pressure plate. Arvid grunted as he pulled the body back with Twilight's help. He went through the man's pockets and read his journal. Fluttershy looked around to see if anything else was coming.

    “This man is a thief, and he stole this claw from a store in Riverwood. The dragon claw is a key that opens an area that has treasure,” Arvid said with a speculative look in his eye. He pulled out a golden dragon’s claw from the dead thief’s pocket so Twilight and Fluttershy could see it, then he pocketed the item. The gold was split three ways. Even though the claw key was pretty, Fluttershy had read enough adventure stories and knew treasure would not be lying around just to be picked up. Something nasty would be there guarding it.

    “Yeah, but I have you two, my friends to help me,” Arvid said, a wide smile covered his face. Twilight looked at Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked back.

    “If this treasure area is not far away and we are in good shape, we will give it a try,” Twilight said grudgingly.

    “Can we, um, move on now?” Fluttershy said with annoyance.

    “Oh my,” Fluttershy said with surprise. She stepped back carefully and got an arrow ready to shoot. Fluttershy wondered if these were the draugur that Hadvar talked about. Dead people with most of their flesh still on them, yes, these are Draugur, Fluttershy thought.

    Fluttershy warned,”Twilight, you need to run to me.” She wondered if they would survive this.

    Another draugur stepped forward, but it avoided the trap and shot a blast of freezing air at Fluttershy. The blast of cold felt like a spear had been thrust into Fluttershy's chest. It was so hard to breathe with her lungs almost frozen; her vision started to dim. Twilight hit the creature with a stream of fire from her left hand. It stopped attacking Fluttershy and fired a blast of cold air at Twilight. For a second, flames and frost fought for dominance until Arvid stuck his great sword through the chest of the mage draugur. The stream of frost faded along with the blue glow from its eyes.

    After a few minutes, Fluttershy got up and looked around. “Is it...” Fluttershy asked.

    Now, they knew what happened to the thief. The draugur scared him, and he stepped on the plate by accident when he was retreating. Fluttershy and Twilight followed Arvid into the area beyond the trap. He swapped his greatsword for one that the draugur were using because the blade looked sharper. Fluttershy looked at the silvery edge of the sword and got a chill. This time, no one approached the alcoves where the dead lay. They took some more stairs down. A few steps from the stairs was a large wooden door bound with iron around the edges.

    After a few minutes, they opened the door. Behind it was a large hall with a locked door at the other end. This door had three moveable rings, covered with carvings of animals, and a keyhole. Twilight walked up to the door. Arvid looked at the gold claw and the rings. Twilight and Fluttershy watched as he selected the symbols on the rings so they matched the ones on the claw. Then Arvid put the claw into the keyhole. They could hear clunking noises as the door started to move downwards. Bits of rock fell as the door slid down through the floor. Fluttershy hoped there would not be another one of those mage draugur waiting on the other side.

    “Fluttershy, can you fly around and see if there are any threats here?” Twilight asked while looking around. Arvid nodded. Fluttershy walked into the cavern and unfurled her wings then she took off.

    “No draugur or other enemies spotted!” Fluttershy announced.

    Fluttershy nodded. She had a smile on her face.

    “Ahh! The Voices!” He said with awe and then froze up.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

    Why won’t this thing go down,she wondered. Fluttershy swooped down to try to decapitate the draugur, but it ducked at the last moment. She flew around for another attack, but Arvid swung at the draugur and hit it first. The creature turned to face this new threat, and Fluttershy saw Arvid fighting a creature who was really good with a greatsword. He was holding his own, though, barely. Several bolts of flame hit the draugur, and made it stagger a bit.

    She could see that neither Twilight nor Arvid could handle the draugur alone. Twilight cast some more firebolts at the creature, but Arvid seemed to have problems. The draugur was pushing him back to the wall. The situation was dire; there was not enough space for him to dodge attacks. It would be very easy for the draugur to kill him. Fluttershy shot some arrows at the enemy, she hoped that her arrows could slow it down. Melee fighting did not seem to work for her. Two arrows sprouted from the side of the enraged creature, but it ignored them. She fired more arrows at the Draugur but they also had little effect. The creature just kept trying to kill Arvid. He looked good for a bit until the draugur knocked his sword out of his hand. Only a quick duck and roll saved Arvid from being skewered. Twilight hit the creature with some firebolts and set it aflame, but it did not fall.

    Arvid and Twilight traded glances as they watched Fluttershy’s show of vehemence. After a few minutes of kicking and howling, the rage slowly faded. Pain filled Fluttershy’s body and she started to stagger. Arvid rushed over and caught Fluttershy before she fell to the floor. Twilight was ready with some Heal Other spells to heal her wounds. When Fluttershy recovered, she saw the pieces of the draugur lying all over the ground. It made her happy enough to squee!

    “What happened to you when you stood at the wall?” Twilight asked with curiosity while she peered at the carved runes.

    He opened the chest to inspect the contents. There was the grey carved stone that Farengar wanted and some other items inside. Fluttershy got a new shield; her old one was too bashed up to be useful anymore. After that they climbed up the age-worn stairs. After a half hour later while they slogged up more time worn stairs, Arvid laughed.

    “I am still amazed how Fluttershy slew the Draugur Lord,” Arvid said. Fluttershy tried to remember what she did, and was dismayed to find out most of her memories were a red tinged blur. She could remember being hit by the roar of the undead thing. A thought suggested that she had been possessed again. Fluttershy dismissed that thought. When she was possessed, she saw and remembered everything. That led to the depressing thought that something was wrong with her. Maybe she wondered, she was becoming a monster?

    Twilight stopped and looked back at Fluttershy, “Really? You were very angry. The Draugur lord didn’t have a chance.”

    Arvid looked back, “Why are you so sad? Being a Berserker is quite an honor. Those who are able to channel the rage and strength of a Bear become mighty heroes!”

    Twilight and Arvid just faced forward, they had no answer for that statement. After a few minutes they continued up the stairs. Fluttershy struggled with her worries. The idea that she might become some sort of half pony half bear creature scared her. Right on the heels of that thought was another strange thought. The fact that she had to draw on some sort of strange power inside her to help her friends did not make her feel better. The quest came very close to failing before she did things that she barely remembered. Twilight’s mentioning of her squeeing while looking at the bits of the draugur also seemed to point at her change into something terrible. Fluttershy doubted that it was the behavior of a normal pony.