Little Italy

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

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?"

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Lmao still gets me XDD Geez Elle

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

"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.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Me too omg i forgot about this part tho XDDD

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

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.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

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.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

UUUUGH

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle shot him a venomous glare when he tried to shoo her off, otherwise ignoring the gesture. "Nil, you just had a freaking sword driven hilt deep into your midsection, you're not fine," she stated bluntly, "just stay still, I know what I'm doing if you'll just let me." She hadn't really thought about it when she called him by the nickname she had given him in her mind, it had just kind of slipped out. She didn't care how hurt his vanity was, she wasn't going to just let him bleed out all over the place. At this point, she wasn't sure what had suffered more because of all this: his pride or him. Either way, he wasn't going to die, not on her watch. She figured he would hate being killed by a draugr more than being saved by a human.

She tossed away the now useless wrap and quickly replaced it with a new one. Hopefully there were more of these things lying around. I mean, it is a giant tomb, there should be a ton of them. She would look around in a bit when she went searching for potions. Both of her hands were now covered in his blood from applying steady pressure to the wound, but she didn't really care. What mattered right now was making sure he didn't die of blood loss.

"We've got to at least slow this bleeding first," she replied in response to his suggestion, "Otherwise they won't do a damn thing." She grabbed yet another piece of the ancient cloth to join the one she already had, "Hold these on there and I'll take a look around," she said, making sure he had them before letting go and rushing over to the chest, leaving bloody handprints on its lid as she opened it and dug through its contents. There were definitely some useful things in here, and she made a mental note to grab them later, but she was more focused on finding a potion. Her search yielded one potion of major healing, much better than what she had before, and she quickly brought it back to him.

She placed the potion in his hands and took over applying pressure to the stab once more, lifting the cloth away from the wound slightly to see if it was still gushing blood. Thankfully, the bleeding wasn't nearly as profuse as it had been before, which was a very good sign. Between that potion and her magic, he had a good chance of walking out of here still breathing.

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

UUUGH SO TRUE SOMEONE APPRECIATE US

Sᴋʏʀɪᴍ ᴘʀᴘ w/ Lɪᴛᴛʟᴇ Iᴛᴀʟʏ

Elle hesitated when the blade dropped, turning to see that Nil had literally smashed the creature under a slab of rock and proceeded to fry it in an inferno that he had generated. She immediately snatched the enchanted sword from the ground and stumbled away from the searing heat as she did so, The flames were furious and hot, and she couldn't see a single thing through the fire.

Her eyes were round with anxiety as she watched the blaze die down to leave behind smoke, ash, and a basically dying Nilovas. He was bleeding badly and looked like he was about to collapse. She dropped the swords, both blades clattering to the ground and echoing around the chamber as she rushed forward, putting one of his arms around her shoulders and pressing her free hand to his side to try and slow the bleeding. She was muttering something under her breath as she guided Nil to a chair and sat him down.

"Hold on, just hold on," she said, remaining calm as she rummaged through her pack for a healing potion. It wouldn't do much, but maybe it would at least relieve some of the pain. She found one potion of healing, handing it to him before looking around for anything to use as a bandage. She had none with her, the Imperials had taken all those supplies, so she would have to make do with something here. All that was available were a few embalming wraps tied neatly in paper to protect them from the elements. She picked one up, expecting it to crumble at her touch, but surprisingly, it didn't. They would have to do for now.

She rushed back over after grabbing a few of the makeshift wraps, setting to the side for a moment as she carefully, but quickly, undid the straps of his breastplate and gingerly slipped it off so that it wouldn't get in her way. "It's not that bad," she said, but her tone was rather hollow. She had said it more to comfort herself than him. She picked up one of the old cloths and pressed it to the wound in an attempt to halt the bleeding, but the rag was soon becoming drenched in blood.

She looked up at him, expression calm, but blue eyes filled with worry. "You're going to have to lay on your side so you don't bleed out," she said, "My restoration magic isn't strong enough to stop it." If she could at least get him out of mortal danger, she would be able to heal him enough to where they could get out of here and get him real medical attention. Oh why hadn't she paid more attention when her mother was trying to teach her healing magic?