vvardenfellcat

brothersofthedominion:

For once, Icarus actually learned his lesson. He nearly grasped the lever  before pulling his hand away. Deep sockets neatly lined down each corner of the room. The mer was at least capable of catching on this time.

As the mer observed the room for more signs of a trap, something caught his eye- deep in the very back of the alcove, small indents could be spotted, too smooth to be natural weathering.

A… parrot? hawk?? bird-thing???

The Altmer leaned on the stone in front to observe a closer look, but found himself leaning a little too fast as the stone began to rotate under him. Followed with the sounds of excessive Altmeri surprise, Icarus nearly cracks his skull on… divines know whatever this bird stone-doodle was supposed to be.

Recomposing himself, he studies the rotating stone- Nah, that had to be a pillar of some form. It shifted far too smooth and easy to be natural at all. And there it was- animals on each side of the pillar- fish, snake, and bird.

Then it clicked in that advanced Altmeri brain of his.

Looking back and forth between the pillar and the wall, the mage shifted the pillar just as the bird hieroglyphs matched each other. Ready to pull the switch, he noted carvings on the other wall- A whale- or fish or something.

Right. There was a fish on the pillar from earlier.

After adjusting the pillar that it would match with the wall, he checked the previous rooms-  noting that another bird hieroglyph was already matched- someone was already here most likely and messed it up perhaps?

Though really, how could anyone mess up something this simple?

Finding three more pillars and correcting them to their wall, the high elf eagerly made a beeline for the lever, giving it a impatient yank.

The justiciars eyes lit up when the gate lifted and a overly proud grin took over his elven features.

He stood up straight, hands clasped behind his back as he glanced at his Khajit partner.

“A-hem”

The Khajiit had stared levelly at the mer with terse patience as he fiddled with each column in turn, ears pulling back a touch more when the Altmer flipped the lever and looked back at him as if expecting praise when the gate retracted up into the wall. J’hasi pushed past him with a slight scowl.

“Congratulations, you can match shapes.” he muttered, heading around the bend in the hall down to a set of doors that led further into the barrow, not caring if the whelp followed or not. At this point he just wanted to get out of this place.

The next room was larger, more open, but unfortunately reeked just as much of death as every room and hallway prior. The Khajiit was starting to wonder just how far into the ground this place went. ‘Tolfdir did mention that this used to be a city…’ his mind recalled unhelpfully, grimacing at the thought. Who would want to live underground like this, with stale stagnant air and…? He’d just trotted up the wooden stairs that reeked of rot, only to catch the barest hint of movement and a groaning shudder, startled by the swing of an axe from a draugr.

He was glad that he didn’t squeak (though his breath did hitch sharply in his chest) as J’hasi let himself fall backwards through the next set of doors, hands touching the ground and springing him back up to his feet in the next room. The axe screeched against the door’s surface as the undead stumbled after him, following until he lunged forward and sliced into it. A hand snatched it by the side of its face, the Khajiit’s thumb digging into the underside of its jaw as he slammed it into the wall, hearing and feeling its neck break under his fingers.

He didn’t turn to look at the whelp, knowing that he had to calm down from the scare fast, lest that thrice-damned Altmeri brat catch on to his puffed tail and general unease about every undead thing crawling around in this place.

Even if the Thalmor whelp hadn’t noted his little…issue with the denizens of this undead city-turned-crypt, he’d been distracted enough with the appearance of one draugr (eyes firmly fixed on another body laying in a recess of the wall he needed to pass ahead of him) to neglect noticing the violet lines glowing softly on the floor in the next hall. Or the one right after he sprang onto it in sharp surprise from the first, though the second didn’t tingle so much as make his muscles seize, stealing the breath right out of his lungs, legs and stomach and everything jittering and twitching with hot pain as J’hasi fell against the wall, panting and squeezing his eyes shut.

He cracked his eyes open to see more stone pillars ahead on the other side of the room, gritting his teeth at another jolt of pain from the rune, wondering if he honestly preferred facing the undead in this place alone over with an audience he loathed.