-

For some reason, Elle was feeling strangely… light headed? Not in the way that signaled dehydration or hunger. No, this felt different, but at the same time familiar. It didn't make any sense, but she had a sort of buzz, the kind she got if she drank too much. But that wasn't right, she hadn't had any ale or anything of that sort. Although, the air did smell strangely of a brewery that featured a smelter full of iron. She had absolutely no idea where it came from. Maybe it was like those voices she had heard and she really was just going crazy.

Now, I think it might be important to point out that Eilonwy has an extremely low alcohol threshold. She's a lightweight and then some and can handle about as much as a twelve year old. It doesn't help that she's 5'2 and her mother had an intolerance to it. If it's a strong brew, she doesn't even have to drink it for it to give her a buzz, smelling it is enough. There was one time she was in a tavern with a couple friends and she barely made it through half a regular sized glass of wine before feeling not only drunk, but sick too. She wouldn't really have minded too much, except for the fact she was an honest mopey drunk and was no fun in such a state. Or very intuitive for that matter.

The Breton scrunched her lightly freckled nose at Nil when he tried to get up, putting a hand on his arm to stop him, "You should probably rest for a moment. You'll be fine in a few minutes," she said, her words ever so slightly slurred, standing up and kicking the bloody rags to the side. She didn't comment on the strange smell on the air because she was still convinced that this place was really affecting her brain. She wanted to ask him about her encounter with the dragon runes, at least, that's what she guessed they were, but she didn't think he would have much to say about it or think she was going crazy. She decided to keep it to herself for the time being.

Now, she was walking, a little sluggishly, to one of the tables to inspect one of the ancient, dusty vases. She brushed the loose grime off of it, checking for cracks, and surprisingly, finding none. She knelt down by the stream that trickled through a smooth, rocky bed, only to be lost underground somewhere that she couldn't see. When dipped in the water, the vase revealed itself to be a handsome blue color, now free of dirt. While she was there, she rubbed all of the blood off of her hands and any that and run down her arms before bringing the water back to Nil so he wouldn't have to move. A wound like that, no matter how many healing potions he had, was going to need some time to close up properly so it wouldn't tear and become ugly again.

-

Elle raised her eyebrow and gave him a strange look. The way she had interpreted his suggestion was probably not even close to what he meant, but she didn't know that. To her, he was implying that she was attracted to him, and her fuzzy mind was too sluggish to realize that was not what he was trying to say. She scoffed with an offended frown and crossed her arms, "Excuse me, but this," she used her free hand to lazily gesture toward him, "Is not 'influencing' me at all and I have no idea what would make you suggest that," she retorted, looking down her nose at him with disapproval, "But, if you insist."

She set the jar down on the ground loudly before turning around as she tossed her hair over her shoulder and marched away to go through that chest again. Of all the nerve! she thought to herself, nearly tripping as she sat down in front of the ancient chest and pried it open once more. Maybe all that blood loss had gone to his head or something. Influencing me, yeah right. She dug through the chest and pulled out the useful things, a little puzzled when she picked up an odd looking rock thing. It had runes, like the shrine, but they were much smaller and these didn't glow, thankfully.

-

"La la, I can't hear you over how interesting this is," Elle snapped childishly, not bothering to turn around as she sat cross legged studying the tablet. The weird smell was starting to go away, but she still felt like she had been swigging some drink or other. This had probably been the weirdest day of her life, even more so than yesterday. A dragon was more believable than all this, in her opinion at least. Walking dead, golden claws, glowing symbols, flying swords, mysterious smells that made you drunk? How much weirder could it get??? (Actually, a lot weirder, but we'll save that for a later date.)

The Breton continued to run her hand over the odd stone tablet, but her mind was too muggy to make sense of it or even recall if she had read anything about something similar. She huffed grumpily, but decided to keep it. Maybe someone else somewhere would know /something/. That's a lot of 'somes', she thought, but was soon distracted by the sound of Nil yelping like a kicked dog.

She turned around just in time to see the sword fly to Nilovas's hand before he dropped it as if it were scalding hot. She snickered at his misfortune, before stumbling to her feet with the things she had acquired from the chest, dusting herself off as she said, "Alright, le's get outta here, I've had 'nough Barrows for one day." With that, she started toward the staircase off to the left of the shrine, trying not to fall flat on her face as she went up them. She wasn't feeling near as dizzy as when the strange smell was strong, but the effects were still wearing off, and again, she's such a light weight it's almost pathetic.

Eilonwy didn't pause to wait for Nil because she was already going pretty slow as she walked down the passage. It was dimly lit, and she was starting to get a headache again. Between all the smacking around it had gotten yesterday and all the weirdness from today, she probably needed to take it easy for a few days. After this, hopefully she would be able to. She needed a vacation from her vacation.

The tunnel stopped at a dead end, or at least, what looked like one. It took her a second to realize that there was a handle on a pedestal to her right. After pulling it, the stone wall slid away to reveal one of the earliest passages they had gone through only that morning, even though that seemed like it had been forever ago. This place was one big circle. The realization excited her, the ingenuity of the ancient Nords pretty impressive, in her opinion. But at the moment, she could barely form a coherent sentence let alone babble on about the structure of tombs.

Still not terribly bothered with waiting for her half-mer companion, she walked back towards the front doors, pushing them open and emerging into the sunlight with a sigh of relief. The fresh air and cold breeze was a welcome change to the dank, stuffy underground. She decided she didn't want to go through another any time soon, if she could help it. The change to a healthier atmosphere also helped her headache, which was a relief. She then took a moment to turn around and make sure Nil actually followed her out.

-

Elle turned back around and stared at him blankly for a moment before two things registered in her mind. One, his words, and two, that he was probably going to freeze considering the lack of clothing. She nodded, then pulled the cloak off her shoulders and tossed it to him. "And don't say you don't need it. I'm sure you wouldn't want to go parading in like that in front of whatever her name is," she said before he could protest, starting down the mountainside back the way they had come.

Now that her sense were clearing, she was starting to realize how silly and embarrassing her behavior had been. She had acted like a child and was mentally kicking herself because of it. Thankfully, under normal circumstances, she wasn't a very proud creature and decided to apologize and clear the air a bit. "I'm sorry for the way I snapped at you," she said, looking over at him, "I'm not usually like that. I don't know what came over me." Well, she had a theory, but it would sound about as crazy as the glowing runes. Between the past two days, she figured she had dealt with enough crazy to last her a life time.

The journey back down to Riverwood didn't take nearly as long as the trek up, much to Elle's relief. By the time they reached town, it was starting to grow dark, the sun sinking below the horizon and the stars beginning to emerge. They would have to go to Whiterun tomorrow, but that was alright with her. She was bone tired and ready for a good night's sleep. Hopefully the dragon could hold off another day and go sleep in a cave somewhere or something. Or maybe just not come back at all.

She still got chills whenever she thought about the great black beast. It had looked right at her, red eyes seeming to stare into her very soul and say I know you. She didn't know why, and she wasn't even sure that was the case, but that's what it had felt like. Maybe it had been looking at someone behind her or something of the sort, because surely it hadn't singled her out. She was probably one of the least important people there.

Eilonwy opened the door to the Riverwood trader just as the sibling pair was starting to close up for the night. The girl shot Elle a quick disapproving glare before sending a dazzling smile Nilovas's way while the brother brightened up at their appearance and hurried up to the Half-Mer and Breton. "Well?" he asked, hope clearly written on his face, "Did you manage to find the claw?"

-

Elle knew that she had a very low alcohol tolerance, but she didn't know that it was that low. She really could hold as much liquor as a toddler, as an old friend used to tease. As embarrassing as it was, she couldn't help but laugh at herself a little bit, "Well," she said, "At least I'm not the only one."

The rest of the journey passed without conversation and very few words shared. Not that she minded. She was already tired and the descending darkness looked beautiful from their vantage point on the mountainside. She hoped the auroras would be out tonight. True, she had seen the before, but their beauty never ceased to amaze her. There were volumes that she had read dedicated to theories on what and why they were, but there were no definitive answers.

Once they reached the Riverwood Trader, Lucan took the claw from Nilovas and smiled, "Thank you so much for this! You didn't run into much trouble?" he asked. Elle smiled sheepishly and glanced at Nil, "Nothing we couldn't handle," she assured him. The siblings look at Nil uncertainly, but seemed to decide against commenting. That was probably a good thing, because Nil wouldn't have been very happy about it. "I'll get your pay then," Lucan volunteered, stepping behind the counter to return the claw to its to hiding pale and retrieve a bag of gold. Meanwhile, Valeria took a few steps too close to Nil and smiled charmingly. “Is there anything else we can do to repay you for your kindness?” she asked.

“No, thank you,” Elle said, accepting the money from Lucan and passing it to Nil, “We best be on our way now. Glad we could help.” With that, she smiled pleasantly at both of them before turning and leaving the shop, sure that Nilovas would not be far behind. “Well,” she sarcastically, “Looks like you made a friend,” she chuckled with a smirk, then look up at the sky. The sun was gone completely now, and stars were starting to appear. She looked back at her companion and asked, “So, do you want to go back to the inn, or start towards Whiterun and camp somewhere along the way?” Hopefully the city wasn’t that far. It wasn’t terribly late yet, but she was pretty tired after walking and fighting all day long. It had just been a weird 48 hours.

Which reminded her of the glowing dragon runes. What did that mean? Why was she the only one who could see them? Where had those voices come from? Should she tell Nilovas? These question and many more weighed heavily on her mind, but she decided against saying anything. Maybe she had knocked her head around one too many times and had been seeing things.

-

Elle simply laughed at Nil's revulsion and shook her head, "I'm happy to inform you that what she was doing is not traditional behavior." At least, in her experience. A bit of harmless flirting was one thing, but this girl had all but thrown herself at him, and as much as it annoyed her, it was rather amusing to see Nil's reaction to it. His perception of "mortal" behavior was quite funny as well, having this preconceived notion of despicable creatures who stabbed each other in the back constantly. While that was obviously true in some cases, it wasn't for all of them. There were definitely good people out there. She knew, she had met them. Nil's dealings with people must have strictly been through word of mouth, or with the scum of Nirn.

Speaking of which, she was quite curious about who her companion really was, but she didn't think they had been acquaintances long enough for her to ask. She could guess by his general behavior and appearance, but she didn't want to assume anything. It was plain to see that he was closely connected to the Daedra, that was clear through his summoning of Jyma-what's-it and his familiarity with the rather disagreeable dremora, but how, she didn't know. The horns were not characteristic of a normal Dunmer, that she was sure of. Maybe he was a half-prince? She had read about something like that when she went through her Daedra phase.

"No complaints here," she said in response to his answer, "Plus you probably need stitches for that wound. I don't think those healing potions fixed it as much as we hoped," she mused as they headed back towards the inn. And she was really tired, but that went without saying. Now that she thought about it, she was pretty hungry too. A warm meal and some water didn't sound too shabby at the moment. It was warm inside the inn, and the drone of quiet conversation buzzed in the rather tame atmosphere. It was certainly a welcome change from the hostile and cold environment of the Barrow.

In all honesty, she had absolutely no idea that Nilovas was suspicious of her. She wasn't exactly a very suspicious person or even intimidating, so the thought never even occurred to her. She was a terrible liar and neither deceptive nor manipulative, so no one was ever suspicious or distrustful of her. Now, she was not so naive as to readily trust other people; she had a fairly good judge of character. It was pretty clear to her Nil had no intentions of hurting or hoodwinking her, so she never dreamed that he would suspect that of her, even though they hadn't known each other long.

The small Breton walked up to the counter and smiled at the man behind it in greeting. She got herself a room and a meal, then added, "You wouldn't happen to have some spare needle and thread? I seemed to have damaged my cloak." He nodded and replied, "I can check for you," handing her the room key and turning away to speak with a blonde woman. Elle turned back to face Nil with her arms crossed and said, "I know what you're going to say, and I'm going to tell you that stitching yourself up is a bad idea." She had tried it before, and it hadn't exactly gone very well. Unless the injury was in a fairly convenient place, trying to give yourself stitches usually only made things worse unless you were an expert.

-

"My mother was a healer, so I'd like to think so," Elle informed him, her tone much less harsh than it had been in her first statement, letting her arms drop to her sides when she realized he wasn't in the mood to argue with her. She was glad he hadn't put up a fight over it, because divines knew neither of them had the energy nor patience for that at the moment. The look on his face and his tone of voice was a pretty clear indication that he did not want or think that he needed her help. She had stitched up her fair share of wounds, and she knew from experience that doing it yourself wasn't particularly wise.

The auburn haired girl turned back around when Org returned and handed her a key and some thread, a needle tucked in it. "Will this do?" he asked. Elle nodded with a smile, accepting both and dropping some money in his hand, "Yes, thank you." He nodded as she stepped away from the counter to let Nil get his room, walking to hers to unlock the door and deposit her findings from the barrow in the wardrobe so that she could stitch up her half-mer companion. He may have made it down the mountain with little complaint, but she had a feeling it was still hurting him, and she didn't want the wound to get infected.

After setting her things aside, she walked back out into the inn, needle and thread in her hand and room key in her pocket. The place was fairly quiet at this point, a few people here and there, a sleepy bard tuning his instrument. Other than that, whatever hubbub had been here earlier had died down considerably, leaving a peaceful lull over the warm atmosphere. She stood there for a moment, relishing in the familiarity of it, before approaching Nil to see if he was done getting a room.

She stood off to the side to wait for a moment, crossing her arms and leaning against one of the wooden pillars that supported the roof. It seemed that every time she closed her eyes now, she saw the stare of the black dragon, its crimson gaze boring into her golden one. I know you. It had looked right at her, she was sure of it now. The more she replayed it, over and over, the more she was convinced. That moment she had locked eyes with it, the beast seemed to have reached into her very soul. I know you. How could it? Maybe she had hit her head one too many times. The black dragon, her dreams, the claw, the shrine? They were all connected somehow, and for some reason, only she could sense it.

She remained motionless, staring at the ground deep in thought, her brows knit and lip pursed in a frown as she mulled it over. Whatever was going on, hopefully she would have her answers soon. She needed them.

-

Elle finally shook herself out of her thoughts when she realized Nil was no longer at the counter speaking with Org. It took her a moment, but her subconscious had noted which room he had disappeared into, so she walked over to the counter and got some bandages from Orgnar, then went and tapped on Nil's door. She poked her head inside and then the rest of her followed, walking over and sitting down at the end of the bed while saying, "Alright, tough guy, let's fix you up so I can go to sleep," patting the spot next to her and looking up at him expectantly. Her tone was good natured and friendly rather than condescending or demanding.

She definitely wanted some sleep. All this running around and fighting for two days straight had tuckered her out. She was used to walking and sometimes running long distances, but she usually didn't do so much in the way of fighting or getting knocked about as she had the past few days. She was looking forward to a full night's sleep and then a nice walk to Whiterun in the morning. After that, well, she had all of Skyrim at her fingertips, and she was eager to explore it. It made her wonder what Nil would do after this. Despite that fact that they butted heads sometimes, she had to admit, she enjoyed his company. He was proud and cynical, yes, but also dependable, even if he didn't completely trust her. That was fine with her, though. Trust had to be earned.

She stood up and walked over to the wash basin, pouring water from a nearby pitcher into it and grabbing one of the available towels before returning to her seat and setting it down behind her. She picked up the needle passed the thread through its eye with little difficulty, unraveling a length of it before cutting it from the spool with her teeth. She had given her younger brother multiple sets of stitches when she still traveled with them. He was quite the troublemaker and a bit of a klutz, so there was hardly ever a time when he didn't have scars or stitches.

-

Elle set the needle to the side for the time being, gingerly unwrapping the makeshift bandages that were still crudely secured to his side. Thankfully, it had stopped bleeding long ago, but it didn't look much better than when she had first wrapped it. She dipped the towel in the water and wrung it out, gently pressing it to his side to clean up any blood and dirt. She could already smell the iron in the air again, which reminded her she should probably work quickly lest she should become pitifully intoxicated off of nothing again. Her cheeks colored slightly out of embarrassment at the memory of her conduct, still mentally kicking herself for acting like a five year old.

Once she was satisfied that the wound was fairly clear of dirt, she picked up the needle and thread again. She sat on the floor so that she was more eye level with the gash, planting on elbow on his thigh and the other on the bed to keep her hands steady. "This is going to sting a bit," she warned, lightly pinching together the corners of the gash and carefully beginning the stitching process. Considering the size and severity of the stab, it was going to take some time to sew it up right. "The good news is," she said, mostly to distract him from the bite of the needle, "that it's fairly clean, so we should be able to take the stitches out in a few days at least." Although, it could be less, since he wasn't exactly entirely human. A wound like that would put anyone in bed for days, and he had walked down a mountain within minutes of receiving it. It was pretty impressive, and it made her all the more curious about her half-mer companion.

"So," she began after a pause, "I gather you're not a native to Skyrim either. Where are you from?" she asked, all the while blue eyes focused on gingerly stitching the gash on his side. She figured he wasn't typically one for small talk, but she wanted to ask anyway.

-

Elle listened to his explanation with intrigue, her expression taking on a very interested look as she worked. So her suspicion of his involvement with the Daedra was correct. She had never really encountered anything to do with them before; all she knew was what she had read. There were a lot of mixed feelings about the Daedric Princes across the board, and she herself had been rather wary, but after the past few days with Nil, the news didn't really faze her. Especially after the dragon attack and all the other weird dragon encounters she had had over the past 24 hours.

She glanced up at his face for a brief second and nodded when he asked her his question, "Yes, I think I read something like that once," she replied, pausing for a moment before continuing, "So, if you're not a Prince, and you're not mortal, does that make you a half-prince?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. While normally, she wouldn't consider his tone exactly friendly, it was much more amicable than usual for him, which made her comfortable asking more questions. She didn't want to pry, but she was genuinely curious.

The breton continued to work carefully until she had finished neatly stitching up the entry wound. She tied off the stitches and used the wet and dry side of the towel to make sure it was clean one more time. Satisfied, she climbed on the bed to sit behind him to take care of the exit wound, making sure it was clean before threading the needle and starting the process of fixing it up like she did with the first.

"You wouldn't…" there was a pause before she frowned, biting the inside of her lip as she debated on whether or not she should ask her question, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about the dragon shrine we saw today, or anything like it, would you?" The glowing symbols, the war cries, that word, it was all burning in the back of her mind. She could hardly stand not knowing what it was all about, why she had seen and heard it and he hadn't.