//------------------------------// // Chapter 13 - Adventure of Two // Story: The Dragonborn Chronicles: Part 1 - Ponies in Skyrim // by Barix123 //------------------------------// Chapter 13 - Adventure of Two          Rarity wakes up, still warm and snug inside the sleeping bag. She wanted to stay inside a little longer but curiosity of knowing where she was had grabbed her and wouldn’t let go. She pops her head out of the warm sleeping sac to instantly regret it. The cold, frigid, morning air greeted her with a tiny spike of pain and the heat all but staying with her. “Oh my goodness! Where are we?” She is scooped up by a large furry claw and surrounded by more fur. “At a place called Folgunthur.” “Barix?” She saw he was in his werewolf form and quickly realized it was to stay warm, it was starting to warm her up again so she wasn’t about to complain. The white mare also noticed that the carriage was near but without the two horses to pull it. “What happened to Arvak and Shadowmare?” “I let them go before I turned into a werewolf.” “How long have we been here?” “A few hours now. I didn’t want to wake you.” “Oh you’re so sweet. As much as I would hate to cut this little warming get together short we really must get the next, uh, whatever is inside.” “Agreed.”         It was slightly awkward for Barix to walk because he was holding Rarity carefully against him. Once inside he put her down, even though she wasn’t to thrilled by it, he needed to. Moving behind a wall he waits for the werewolf blood to loose power, which was only another minute. He is then able to put on his armor and the two start exploring the empty ruins. The first thing they come across is an adventurer dead on the side of the tunnel along with a few draugr. “Wait!” Barix stops Rarity from moving forward. “What’s the matter?”         Barix steps on a tile just a step in front making several spikes jut from the sides. Rarity jumped slightly from the shock of this. Traps were still a new concept to her. Even so she made a mental note to stay behind Barix for this trip. At the first room it was made even more clear someone was here not too long ago. What ever they did they must of had a dragon claw. An open door was in front of them just behind a stone table and podium that held three small holes were a dragon claw would most likely fit. Small, stone columns were on both the left and right sides of the room as well as stone tables on the wall that depicted animals. “Barix, what are those blocks with the symbols for?” “It’s a puzzle. Ancient nords set-up puzzles to activate traps and doors to protect their treasures when they died. This one was touched very recently. And by a dragon claw no less.” “How can you tell?”         Barix points to the small podium that had the three holes. Remembering what a claw looked like, one could easily fit inside. Pressing onwards through the halls, Barix stops moving. Before Rarity could ask what it was this time he puts his hand up to his mouth in a hush motion. She stand there as he pulls out his bow with an arrow. Aiming it ever so slightly behind the corner without looking he makes some minor adjustments before letting go. The arrow flew forward audibly hitting something less than a second later. Peeking out a draugr was laying on the floor with an arrow out of it’s chest. Again, moving on it wasn’t long before they came to an opening. This time is was a large room spanning multiple floor’s. Coffins lined the wall and some rested on small inclined plateau’s along the wall. “Something isn’t right.” Barix stated. “What’s wrong about this place now? I mean other than the obvious need for a complete makeover of course.” Forgetting herself for a moment, Rarity takes a step forward. “Stop!”         A very familiar sound of a crypt opening is heard. Heads turning to the source the two are witness to a reawakening to many more draugr. There must have been about five or six visibly present getting up from their rest ready to fight the intruders. “By the nine. Rarity.” Irritation very much present in his voice. “Um, oop’s.” The elegant mare offers up a sheepish, apologetic smile. “But look at it like this, we can get rid of them all now before one sneaks up on us later.” “Works for me. Help me take them out.”         Barix was the first to pull his bow out shooting one right in the head. Aiming for the second shot he was cut off by a different arrow hitting his target in the throat. Pausing he then noticed Rarity had a sly grin. “I’ll still get more than you.” “Oh, I highly doubt that darling. Good luck trying though.”         It was on. A race to the high score. Body after undead body fell from the small cascade of arrows, both dragonbone and elven alike. Barix was confident in his abilities and had experience. But it was Rarity who had all those practice sessions as well as the number of bow enchantment’s on her armor. In the end the total was eight to nine, Rarity coming out on top. The grand prize - temporary bragging rights. “You know, you’re lucky you have all those enchantments. There was no way you would have won normally.” “Do I detect a hint of jealousy. I don’t blame you darling. It just goes to show that practice does indeed make perfect.” “Let’s just get what we came here for.”         Checking for anything that would be of any use they searched among the open multi-story room. Barix was stuck with the bodies as Rarity wouldn’t touch them, not even with her magic. Something about being too uncouth but he wasn’t really in the mood to listening either way. The first floor had nothing but the usual gold old books and useless weapons. It was on the second floor they found what they were looking for. Another dragon claw next to the dead body of a dark elf. “Yes! Oh yes, this is good news indeed.” Rarity was cheerful for a split second before she realized what the claw was next to. “Do you think he suffered?” “Probably not, either way he’s dead. Not much we can do. On the other hand it would seem that each of those locations on the map lead to a dragon claw. Let me think...we have five claws if we include the one in Riverwood, and there were…,” Barix began counting the marks that were on the map in his head, “...four marks on the map. That means they are three more dragon claws to collect.” “Um, not to rush you or anything dear but do you think we can leave? This place is not sitting right with me in the least.” “That might be best. I don’t want to stick around to find out what happened to this poor soul.”         Getting outside they saw it was still daytime. They must not have spent an hour inside considering almost everything was already solved, killed, or near the entrance when they arrived. They settled on making their way to Solitude, being it was the closest town. Rarity wanted to go there herself ever since she heard the description from Pinkie Pie. Summoning his two steeds once again, Barix hooked them up to the carriage as Rarity went back to getting warm. It was about late afternoon when the duo got to the city. Rarity felt right at home in the big city. She went off to do her own thing as Barix did his, shopping, selling, and giving his additional claw to is demon butler for safe keeping. The pair met up at his manor in Solitude, Proudspire Manor. “So Barix, how are we going to link up with the other’s later on?” She began as they both sat at the dining table, just having finished eating. “We’ll head out tomorrow. Using the spell Clairvoyance we can track them and hopefully meet up halfway. Let’s just hope they found a claw as well. If everything goes well then we can split up again and continue to cover more ground.” “Yes I agree completely. The sooner we can get those magical item’s the better.” The thought popped up from the back of her mind. She needed to test the water’s and if need be, come up with a little white lie. “Before I forget what do you think about my friend’s?” “What do you mean?” “How do you think they are faring out here? How close would you say you are to them and so on? Just curious.” “Well they all have their up’s and downs. Rainbow is brash but quick. Applejack is more headstrong than is good for her but is definitely the strongest of the group. Pinkie’s...Pinkie I’m not sure what to make of her. Fluttershy is, well i don’t want to say weak but she is. Although she is clever about what she does and how she does it, plus she has all you as friends to back her up. But still I can’t help but fear for her the most. Twilight is smart, tactical, and possesses the best magic ability I’ve ever seen. I’m thinking she should head over at the College of Winterhold one more time to learn from the best mages before she leaves for good.”         Just as she thought, not one bad thing about Twilight. A crush was confirmed. Now all she had to do was make him realize it. “But I must say she doesn’t have a drop of common sense.” Well who said it was going to be easy. “What makes you say that? Surely Twilight isn’t all that bad. Maybe she just needs a good teacher like you.”         All night she got him to talk about her lavender friend. The white mare even saw a dreamy look on his face for a second. The night was uneventful, as was the morning that followed. The two adventurer’s set out on the carriage once they were packed and ready to move. Following the trail of the spell, Rarity was organizing the jewelry she collected and Barix got to work with some catch-up reading on an old nord tale.         It was about an hour before they left when an explosion rocked the ground. Barix nearly fell off the cart as he wasn’t expecting anything like that. Even the two steeds were spooked enough to stop moving. Rarity was all too familiar with that type of sound. What followed was always a rainbow ring and a rainbow trail. “A Sonic Rainboom. Barix that’s Rainbow Dash!” “Wow. So that’s the legendary rainboom she’s been going on about.” Barix was so transfixed on amazment called the Sonic Rainboom. “It’s so beautiful.” “You can stare at it more later if you really want. Signal her.” “Oh yeah, right.” “YOL! TOOR! SHUL!”         Even though it was morning with the sun beaming, a giant fire ball lit up the sky as it flew straight up. The best signal he could come up with, but one that didn’t fail to produce results. The rainbow trail that was moving away from them was changing direction, now heading straight for them. Before long, a very out breath Rainbow Dash practically crashed into the cart, her stop only softened by the sleeping bags that were still conveniently in the back end. The unmistakable object in her hooves was that of a dragon claw. “Rainbow darling, what happened?” Rarity was more than a little shaken from the sight of the exhausted friend. “Claw...fight...vam...” The stunt flyer could barely give a word before taking in another deep breath. “Rainbow calm yourself. Breath, then focus on talking.” Barix advised. She did so before continuing. “Ok, so we ran into these vampires and-” Cut off Barix had to ask. “Wait so you fought vampires, but obviously living, non super powered, normal people you can’t fight off? I’m seeing a big flaw with this picture.” “To be fair they didn’t have me to help them.” Rainbow was puffing out her chest. “It was me, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. Our best fighters are Applejack, Twilight, Rainbow and you.” Rarity ignored her cyan friend for now only talking to Barix. “It would take a lot more to get them down and out.” “Yeah sure they helped but listen, so we ran into some vampires, about four of them, beat them up, took this claw they were carrying, and got some info on them.” “...Which was…?” Barix waited for an answer. “I’m not sure, I was really only trying to beat up the scum bag we captured but Twilight said you two need to meet up to get a plan going. Something about the other claws.” “Great, more vampire activity. I was sure things would have calmed down after the Dawnguard incident.” “The what?” “In short vampire hunter’s. We hunted down the ancient ones to extinction, if they’re back it spells nothing but trouble. Arvak! Shadowmare! Move on the double! Heya!”         With a jerk of the cart they moved with the speed of a scared elk running from a saber cat. The three warriors were now making a B-line for Twilight’s group with the spell, Clairvoyance, leading the way. Hoping and praying to the divines that everything was alright and that Twilight was safe, Barix kept his resolve to make it to her not letting anything or anyone get in his way.