Little Italy

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

HONESTLY THO WE ARE GOOD MAN

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

As the creature attacked Nil, Elle quickly circled around behind it, a horrified cry escaping her lips when the half-mer was stabbed. Now quite infuriated, she darted forward and delivered a heavy slash to its back, quickly getting out of the way as Nil blasted it with fire. But despite their efforts, it seemed relatively fine, albeit more charred then before.

It turned on Elle, and suddenly spoke two words, directing them at her. The were loud and strange and… familiar? Suddenly, she felt as if someone had forcefully knocked her back, something unseen causing her to stagger backwards. While temporarily off balance, the draugr rushed toward her, weapon raised, but she dodged, barely, the blade catching the should of her armor as she whirled out away. Her advantage was that she was faster than it. Other than that, she had nothing.

She thrust her blade at it again, but its armor got in the way, deflecting the blow. The undead turned and raised it sword, slashing it downward toward her with both hands. Elle raised her weapon just in time, the sharp end of the draugr's strange sword clashing against the steel. She pushed as hard as she could, but it had the advantage of strength, driving her backward until she felt something against her lower back. Chancing a look down, she realized she had been back against one of the tables.

She did the first thing that came to mind, grabbing something from the stone surface, which just happened to be a little soul gem, and driving the pointy end into the draugr's eye. But, that didn't seem to do much but make it angrier, although now it had a pink rock sticking out of its skull since the thing was wedged in there pretty good. It stumbled back, chattering angrily at her, before the telekinetic sword flew from its hand, aimed straight for her heart.

Suppressing a yelp, she was able to knock it away with her sword and jump away from the table. Should this be modern times, it would have looked like she was playing a very twisted game of American Baseball of an unconventional sort. But that did not deter the now floating sword. It righted itself in the air and attacked again, proceeding to fence with Elle despite lacking the person to hold it.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

IT REALLY IS DUDE I LOVE IT

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle remained motionless for a moment, watching as Nil tested to see if a draugr would appear before going about looting the treasure room. She hesitated, waiting for him to say something about the voices, but he never did. He must not hear them. Maybe she was going crazy.

With hesitant steps, the small Breton girl carefully walked forward, her eyes not leaving the dragon shrine. With every small stride, the chant became louder and louder. How could Nilovas not hear this? She wondered with amazement as she walked up the stairs. She paused once more, looking back at her companion as he examined a rather odd looking sword, clearly not aware of the war cry that echoed in her mind. She looked back at the stone runes carved into the smooth surface beneath the artistic dragon face, a light catching her eye.

At first, she thought that it must be a trick of the light, but as she took another step closer, she realized that a few of the runes were glowing, and now a faint whooshing noise accompanied the song that only her ears could hear. Now more fascinated than concerned, Eilonwy walked up to it, the chant reaching a loud crescendo, tendrils of light energy pulsing from the words and swirling around her.

"Um, Nilovas?" Elle called, walking up the the word and running her fingers across it. Suddenly, the light died, and the chant started to taper off. Her vision grew blurry and she felt rather dizzy, putting a hand on the carving covered wall to keep herself from falling. Then something in her mind clicked. The rune that had been glowing, she knew what it was. She knew what it meant. She didn't know how, she had never seen it before, but she just… knew. She couldn't speak it, she didn't know how to say it, but she could tell you what it meant.

It only took a second for her to feel normal again, normal and very perplexed. She turned around and was about to speak again, but her words instead came out as, "Watch out!"

The coffin had burst open, a draugr sitting up and grinning at them. This one was different, dressed in armor and possessing a heftier weapon. Whoever he had been before death, he had been powerful. Her bizarre experience suddenly forgotten, Elle drew her sword and prepared to attack it, glancing quickly around for anything she could possibly use to give her an edge.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Oops. Oh well.

YESSS THIS IS DEFINITELY ONE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS SO FAR

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

"Oh, just shut up and open the door," Elle waved off his smart comment, anxious to get inside. She was practically jumping up and down in anticipation as the stones clicked and locked into place before the door suddenly slid into the ground. She was too busy try to see around it to notice Nil stumble backwards, wasting no time in walking inside and looking around the cavern they had just entered.

Of course, the first thing that caught her eye as she emerged from the dark into the sanctum was the strange shrine like structure located at the weird, strange runes carved into the surface. A large stone face featured the center piece, depicting was she guessed was a dragon. In front of the shrine lay a coffin, all sorts of treasures surrounding it, making her immediately apprehensive. After trekking through this place, she had a feeling whatever was inside the coffin would bust out if she got too close.

But something felt off. As she got closer, she could hear voices, the sound of chanting. She stopped, furrowing her brow. The song didn't sound like it came from within the room, but from inside her own head. It was powerful, ancient, and she felt as if part of her understood it even though she clearly did not know what it meant. She remained motionless, deciding to wait for Nil. She wouldn't say anything about the voices unless he mentioned them. If he couldn't hear them, then she must be growing crazy. Maybe it was the chant of the draugr buried in the tomb haunting her mind or something. Maybe she just needed a nap.

Regardless, the closer she got to the shrine, the louder the sound became. She looked back to see if Nil had followed her, not so eager to continue forward now, though that wasn't revealed in her expression. Speaking of her mer companion, she had discovered that as this little trip had worn on, he wasn't acting as uppity toward her and they were starting to get along more like friends. True, he was still giving her grief if she did the slightest thing wrong, but it felt more like teasing than being critical.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

YOU'RE VERY WELCOME *aggresively compliments people because idk how to be nice???*

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle pauses her search when Nilovas started to laugh, turning around and arching an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" she asked, walking over to him to look down at the claw. Now she felt stupid. She shook her head and rubbed her temples with a heavy sigh, "Divines, I'm so dumb," she muttered.

The correct combination was neatly stamped on the underside of the claw. Somehow, Elle had failed to notice this the entire time she had been in possession of the claw. She had been far too excited by the rest of the Barrow to examine the unconventional key. Of course the answer to the puzzle would be engraved on it.

"Well," she said, "Let's get this door open. I'm dying to see what's inside," she said, her excitement winning over her embarrassment as she bottom ring, the only one she could actually reach, to the owl.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

UM YES IT IS TAKE THE COMPLIMENT CHILD

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

As the two of them would later discover, the animal was neither a bird or a dragonfly, but a moth. In all honesty, the pair were probably just looking for an excuse to argue over something, knowing them, but that information is currently irrelevant. Anyway:

Elle watched silently as Nil changed the combination again, once more placing the claw in the keyhole, but with the same results as before. She gave a frustrated sigh, stepping away from the door to get a better look at it, "Hold this," she said, handing him the golden claw as she did so." She planted her fists on her hips and stared hard at the door, like if she glared at it long enough, it would just open. Only, it didn't, so she gave an annoyed huff before walking over to one of the ornate walls again.

"I don't think we can," she said in response to Nil's suggestion, "I've read that the doors are made from solid stone that's quite thick. There's no getting in unless we have the right combination," she explained as she examined the carvings etched into the stone surface. Still, there was no information or any indication of the animals that comprised of the combo above the door. There had to be some kind of clue somewhere! They just had to be smart enough to find it.