6 A New Threat

Day 55

Flames ate hungrily at the dry timber that was placed within the circle of rocks. The campfire lit up the cave walls, making every crack and chipped piece visible. It also made any protruding rocks look more menacing as their shadows cast grizzly images. I stared at the flames in silence, the others around me did the same. Where do I begin? I guess I should start on the day things went from bad to worse:

After the dragonborn had disappeared, Kharjo and I had scanned the area for the others. We made our way across the road where the supplies had been burned. It was hard for me to ind any cluse but Kharjo had found an area that looked like the others had rolled out of the way in time. "So Ahkari and the others are still alive?" I had asked as he pointed out the dirt and moved rocks.

"I'm not sure, but they went this way." I followed after him while he continuously examined the ground and area around us. We went on for a few minutes before Kharjo gasped and fell to his knees near some large rocks. When I caught up to him my shoulders felt heavy and my voice caught in my throat, Dro'marash lay on the ground with his own sword plunged into his back. I looked around and noticed two other bodies, dressed in furs and leather armor. One, a rather large orc and the other looked like a nord woman. I didn't see Zaynabi or Ahkari though and hope coursed through me.

"Bandits or slavers maybe? Thry could have taken Ahkari and Zaynabi." I knelt by Kharjo and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We need to try and save them. From what I've seen you have tracking skills. I think you need to use them so we can find where they are." He raised his head to look at Dro'marash's body and nodded. I wasn't sure where this courage inside me was coming from but I hoped it wouldn't leave me.

Kharjo had agreed that we needed to find them and pulled himself together. We had searched the bodies for any kind of sign of where they could be based at and also for any kind of supplies they might have had. We found some food and water pouches in a backpack that a bandit had been clinging to. Lucky for us there had also been a note that updated their group on a guard shift in a place called Mistwatch, a fort that overlooked much of the area between Riften and Windhelm. In fact on the map it looked like it was right in the middle of them.

A fit of coughing had interrupted my writing, I gave my pouch of water to Zaynabi who eagerly accepted it. It was probably best that she had interrupted. I'm not entirely sure that I wanted to write down what Kharjo and I had found inside the fortress.

I gave my full attention to the khajiit next to me while the cave we were in stayed a comfortable temperature wich was a great respite from the weather outside. Zaynabi's face was unreadable as, without prompt, she started to talk of her past and how she had come to join the others.

"I had been a trader before this. Not just any trader, one that sold and bought stolen goods." Zaynabi held a monotone voice and blank expression as she spoke. I could tell that she wasn't used to speaking to other people as she struggled to find certain words and couldn't look at me at all. "It was, difficult for me to live in such a way. I had been constantly dodging the guards and even the imperial army for a time." She sighed when she finished speaking and sat up a little straighter. She seemed as if a weight had been lifted or something as she tossed a few twigs into the fire. Kharjo groaned in his cot behind us, the potion we had given him must have worn off by now. "I will check on him." Zaynabi said as she stretched and went to his side. He had taken a deep hit that probably would have killed most but luck had been on his side. He had avoided internal bleeding and being stabbed in anywhere vital. However, he would probably not wield a weapon the same way.

As Zayanabi looked over his bandages and adjusted the makeshift pillow, I thought to write a little more on the past events:

It had taken us days to try and figure out a way into the castle. But by the time we had worked things out, our plans had changed drastically when we where inside. The good news for me though is I believe I have a lead on the conjurers that brought me here. The bad news is that I would need to go back to Mistwatch keep in order to find anything new out.

"D-Darius!" Kharjo called out wich made me jump. Setting down my book, I rushed over to his side. He clutched his shoulder and tried to sit up.

"No Kharjo. You must lay down." Zaynabi placed a hand on his shoulder and tried to convince him to rest. Kharjo reluctantly agreed and lay back down, his face twisted with pain.

"W-where is Ahkari? Wasn't she with us?!" He tried to look around again but seemed to only confuse himself more. "How did we get here?"

"I found the cave while we were running. With the storm outside it would be almost impossible for anything to follow us." I tried to reassure him but it only made him panic more.

"Storm? Darius, where is Ahkari? We saved her too, did we not?" He was confused, more so than I would have originally thought. He probably had some trauma and memory issues from being slammed in the head. Kharjo had been brave to take on the creatures we found in the tower and I was surprised to see him alive at all.

"Ahkari is-. She didn't-." Zaynabi couldn't finish the sentence as she knelt by Kharjo's side. He stared at while his eyes began to regain their focus and his breathing began to slow. His whole body shook when he squeezed his eyes shut and bared his fangs in grief.

"At least, we survived..." Kharjo let tears fall down his face as he lay his head down. Turning back to tend the fire, my gaze was set towards the entrance of the cave. There was a small crevice the lead to a little 'hallway' that led back outside, it turned a corner that cut off vision to the area around the cave. I could hear the storm rage on as the three of us attempted to recover from the recent events

After looking over my journal again I felt I needed to clarify a little more. For a small recap which I will go into detail at a later time: We had been running for hours after escaping with Zaynabi. Strange creatures I had never seen in the game had began pouring out of Mistwatch keep and wreaking havoc on the nearby areas. Some looked to be undead, like zombies from previous games. Not the draugr that you normally see in Skyrim but the groaning and limping hunks of meat you saw in a game like Oblivion.

The only reason I knew that the conjurers might have been involved is that I had found another empty spellbook with the same symbol on it. I had gathered that maybe after the spell within the book was used, it seemed to no longer hold any power. Meaning that there could be a chance that I could trace what kind of power was in the book if I could get to the college of Winterhold or find a master mage that wasn't hostile.

Fatigue reared its ugly head as I continue to stare at the fire and occasionally write. Zaynabi was already asleep and Kharjo had passed out again, I would need to keep first watch. Sleep would be impossible for me right now anyway I believed I was coming close to some answers but there were still many questions.

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Day 56

Another day in the cave had left us with fewer supplies. Zaynabi had used the last of our potions to try and ease Kharjo's pain and there wasn't anymore ingredients for her to make them. The storm was still raging outside as we kept huddled inside the cave. I had gathered up the courage to squeeze out of the crack that was the entrance to the room we where in and into the small hall like cavern that lead outside. The air cut into any exposed skin on my face as the snow fell on the land of Skyrim. My mind went back to the first day I woke in this world, still no closer to knowing why I had been brought here or what those conjurers had been trying to summon. I wanted to recall their words or their voices to maybe give me some clues as to what their race could be but I couldn't recall anything even after reading through my journal.

The snow continued to fall as I kept watch over the land around the entrance to the cave. Zaynabi had continued to keep watch over Kharjo. If the storm continued on into tomorrow then one of us would need to brave the storm to try and find more supplies to make a potion or something that could ease his pain. He had suffered many injuries but the major one had almost severed his arm.

I cursed myself as I turned to head back into the room. He had gotten hurt trying to defend Ahkari and I. Even after that I couldn't save Ahkari from being taken by those "things." I wondered now what was happening out there. There was the war between the empire and stormcloaks, the threat of the Aldmeri Dominion and now some kind of menace had been unleashed. Riften and Windhelm would be in the most immediate danger.

The last few days had been a nightmare and I believed that the future would hold worse things. The events at Mistwatch Keep had kept me from any real sleep. Kharjo and I had planned to rescue Ahkari and Zaynabi then leave to take refuge in Riften. But it is believed that someone summoned something inside the Keep that created more monstrosities. A blank book had been found in the main room where prisoners had been kept. It held the conjuration symbol and had the same binding as the book I had found near me when I had awoken. Why had it been there? Was it really the conjurers?

After squeezing my way back into the room I set a few more logs onto the fire and sat down. Both Kharjo and Zaynabi lay sleeping in their cots as the fire raged.

I watched the flames dance for some time before bringing out my journal to read. I was lucky to be alive through everything so far. Was it luck though or was something else going on? I had tried praying to Akatosh many times and even asked for a blessing to heal Kharjo but to no avail. I had believed that maybe I had been blessed with some form of restoration magic but it seems that I can only work minor "miracles" when my prayers where answered. Was I not believing enough? Was I doing something wrong now? Maybe I had done something to anger Akatosh? There where too many things going on around me and unless I wrote it down in a journal I don't believe that I could make sense of any of it. The divines, the daedra, magic, wars and much more. These things had all been foreign to me in my world. Something to only experience in games and movies. None of that though could have ever prepared me for it all to become reality. War and strife where in my world but nothing I had experienced first hand. Hopefully tomorrow would bring better events. We needed something for Kharjo and I could only pray that this storm would let up so we could venture out. Maybe find some help or get Kharjo to Riften if we could. Being behind walls would make me feel a little safer than just simply hiding out in a cave and hoping nothing stumbles in.

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Day 58

The silence woke me. After a few days of hearing the raging storm outside the cave, the earie silence made it seem as though there was nothing living outside. We had run out of wood and now only smoking embers rested in the firepit. I watched as streams of that smoke stretched to the roof of the cave where it seeped into the cracks. Crawling out of my cot, I moved over to the embers and stirred them around with the tip of Kharjo's sword. After getting a little more heat circulating off the embers I made my way to the crevice that lead into the room. Kharjo and Zaynabi where still fast asleep, more than likely exhausted after having a hard night with Kharjo's injuries.

After taking a few steps toward the entrance to the cave I realized how eerily quiet it was outside. There were no animals, no snow falling from trees, only silence. The snow also looked undisturbed as far as I could see. A chilling breeze blew in from the entrance and I did my best to keep my robe wrapped tightly around me.

I went back into the room and searched through the bits of cloth and managed to wrap some around my feet in makeshift boots. The ones I had would just get drenched and I couldn't risk getting sick. I also searched through a bag that Zaynabi had taken from the Keep and found some fur gloves. Slipping them on I savored the feeling of warmth they gave me. I hadn't realized exactly how cold I had become until my body began to warm up thanks to the extra cloth and gloves. I wrapped some cloth around my neck and stuffed the ends down my robe and pulled it over my mouth and nose. After putting on my hood I went back and took my first step outside.

I had brought Kharjo's sword as my dagger had been left behind in the keep. The blade felt awkward in my hand as I walked a few paces. My hands hadn't held any weapon larger than a dagger since being here. I had hoped I wouldn't have to use it, the events in Mistwatch Keep played fresh in my mind:

Kharjo and I had made it into the keep without too much difficulty but when we did we saw these strange crystals that grew on the walls. They glowed an earie purple color that illuminated the halls and rooms in the Keep. Bodies littered the ground, they looked to be bandit and innocent alike. We hadn't met a living person until we got down to the prison where we found Zaynabi and Ahkari. They looked worse for wear and there had been parts of their fur that seemed to be matted with blood. Zaynabi later told me how it wasn't their blood that had soaked their fur but the blood of other prisoners. I hadn't yet been able to get her to tell me what happened to the other prisoners as we had only seen bodies littering the floor of the entrance of the Keep.

Branches cracking jolted me out from my memory, My grip on the sword tightened as I looked around. I heard a few more branches break before a large pile of snow dropped next to me. I jolted backwards and fell into the deep snow.

The next hour or so was filled with similar scares and reactions. I was drenched by the time I returned to the cavern with as much branches and bits of wood as I could find. Zaynabi greeted me at the cave entrance as she and Kharjo had both panicked when I had not been there. I apologized again and again as I attempted to find the most dry pieces of wood and set it in the fire pit.

Zaynabi brought out her book and held it open, extending her hand in the process. She was still learning and needed the book as an anchor but she was getting the hang of the spell. Energy around the cave began to spark to life as a small flame ignited in her hand. She hadn't wanted anything to go wrong so intstead of expelling energy and sending out the flame she brought it to the fire and released it onto the wood. The timber ignited and began to crackle almost immediately. After marveling at this world magic a little I went over to where Kharjo lay and knelt down.

"You look terrible." Kharjo laughed and winced.

"Fell in the snow a few times." I admitted and dropped my hood. "How are you feeling?"

"I have seen better days my friend. But the initial shock has passed." I knew he was talking about Ahkari and Dro'Marash. He hadn't had time to grieve for either and now that he was calmer he was able to process things.

"The weather has cleared up. If it holds we might want to think about trying to get to a nearby village or even a city. Riften is relatively close I think."

"I think we ran far from Mistwatch. I believe we are just around what the locals call Shor's Stone. A small village." Zaynabi said as she tended the fire to make sure it was staying lit.

I went over to my cot and rummaged through what supplies we had. Luckily there was some clothes that had belonged to a member of the bandits at Mistwatch Keep.

The cold air sting on my skin as I tried to remove the wet and frosted robe. I no longer felt embarrassed as survival and health dictated over comfort. Being in the confines of this small cave there wasn't much room for privacy for any of us. I put on the dry clothes and placed my damp robe on a rock near the fire.

"I had believed grabbing something would be helpful." Zaynabi said with a small smile as she poked at the fire.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly. We ate and drank then rested to keep our strength. Zaynabi had been the first to wake up and ready the remnants of our supplies. I woke after just as she was checking over what measly food we had left. There was some salted meat,bread, a few veggies, and two more skins filled with water. If we weren't able to find any place soon to get some supplies we where going to run out within the next day or so.

The cold morning air greeted us as we made our way out of the cave. Fur rubbed against my neck as I adjusted the steel plates on my body. It had taken some time for Zaynabi to strap me into the layers of fur and steel but eventually we got it on and adjusted. I was smaller than Kharjo and his armor felt heavy on me. Kharjo was dressed in my now dry robe as it was much warmer and comfortable in his injured state. We had put his arm into a sling that hugged it close to his body, but he needed a healer and fast. The potions had sped the healing process enough that he wouldn't lose it completely. I checked the blade sheathed at my side, my satchel, and my small bag of supplies on my back then headed out. We made decent progress as we trudged through the snow, Zaynabi helping Kharjo along the way, me as the lookout by staying ahead of them.

After what seemed like an eternity we made it out of the wood and onto what seemed to be a major road. The three of us sighed in relief and even smiled as a watchtower was seen close by.

"That must be Shor's tower." Kharjo wheezed. He was exhausted, we needed to stop soon. Just a little more to the towe and we could probably get a guard to help.

I was the first to reach the tower and small walls around the road. There was no one in sight, I couldn't even hear anyone up the hill where the town should be. Turning around I ran back to help Zaynabi with Kharjo and told them.

"We will just have to see. Kharjo and I will set our sights on the tower. Darius, can you look to the town?" Though I wasn't too keen on checking out a "ghost" town on my own I knew there wasn't any real choice at the moment. I nodded then helped them the rest of the way to the tower where we found the guards, what was left of them anyway. There were limbs and organs littering the ground, blood had sprayed out across the doorway of the tower and the nearby trees. I drew Kharjo's sword and helped them inside.

"Zaynabi can you check up the stairs?" I asked as we set Kharjo in a chair near a desk. I closed the door to the tower behind us and moved a few barrels in front of it.

"It is clear!" Zaynabi shouted as she descended the stairs. "But I so not see anything in the town." She added when she sat down and took off her pack.

"It's going to be dark soon. We'll check out the town in the morning and try and find out what happened." I changed the plan from checking right away and took off my own supplies. Unhooking the metal chest-piece, I placed it next to the rest of our gear. I kept on most of the armor but it was rather difficult to try and sit down with the chest piece and shoulders riding up into my head. "I'll take first watch. With luck we won't run into whatever those guards did." The minute I said that I knew I was going to regret it.