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[dovahbro]

Gideon huffed out his nose, blowing dust from it after opening a door he didn't think had been touched for centuries. How someone's family heirloom was hidden away inside this crypt was anyone's guess, but he wasn't here to ask those kinds of questions. He was here to get a job done, get paid, and get back home to Jorrvaskr.

He'd already dispatched some draugr, and anticipated many more rooms full of them before he got to his goal. It always seemed to work that way. He sometimes wanted to go back in time just to tell the ancient Nords to stop mummifying themselves so he wouldn't have so many damned undead to wade through to get half his jobs done, but again, he wasn't here to complain. He enjoyed fighting, even if fighting undead was near the bottom of his list of enjoyable encounters. They unnerved him, with their stench of death and lack of a heartbeat, only the sounds of their creaking bones alerting him. He was so used to using his lycan hearing to track his prey that the draugr always threw him off, no matter how many times he fought them.

So, if this crypt was full of undead, why could he hear the faint, but unmistakable sound of a heartbeat in the next room?

Preparing himself for the worst - likely some kind of necromancer or cultist, he assumed - Gideon lifted his skyforge steel greatsword into position and kicked the next door open, ready to swiftly cut down whatever horror awaited him.

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[iceveins]

Lilja had done the intelligent thing and perched herself on top of one of the upper-level gates in said-next room in order to stay somewhat concealed and out of the way. She'd spent the past twenty minutes or so sniping down the draugr from her post in an attempt to clear them so that she could just go in guns blazing after the skeletons wandering around in addition. This was the tactical way of doing things, she'd figured.

However, this method had proven ungodly slow to the point where she couldn't even stand it and had begun thinking of alternatives. Lilja had never been great at casting, but she did have a couple of spell scrolls in her pack, so if worse came to worst, she could always pull one of those out.

She was just about to hop down from her spot and start swinging when the door slammed open suddenly. It actually startled her -- something that had only happened once or twice while on missions -- and she lost her footing, falling off of the gate with little to no grace.

She dug the end of her war hammer into the stone of the cavern wall in an attempt to scale it and regain composure, landing on the ground with a metallic thunk. Without skipping a beat, she slammed the head of Volendrung into the abdomen of a lunging draugr and messily split it in two, the upper half careening into the stone pillar nearby.

Snapping her head around to the entrance of the chamber, she growled, voice muffled by the mask she wore on her face. "Who's there?! Show yourself!"

[dovahbro]

Gideon’s head immediately turned to whoever had just fallen next to him, taking in her form quickly before twisting his body halfway around and cleaving a draugr in half. They’d all taken notice of the ruckus and while he kept an eye on the hammer-wielding woman next to him, it seemed neither one of them wanted to fall prey to the undead.

“Who the hell are you?” he barked in between attacks, moving fluidly with the large weapon as he held his ground. He had no idea what to think of the woman, except that they were fighting the same enemy and she didn’t look like a necromancer … aside from whatever mask she was wearing.

When they finally cleared out the immediate area, Gideon balanced his sword on his shoulder and took a longer look at her, his brows furrowed underneath open-faced helmet. He wore the wolf armour of the Circle, marred with the dirt, dust, and general grossness of the fight they’d just won, but otherwise well cared for.

“I’m on official Companions business in this tomb. Go raid something else.”

[iceveins]

"Shut your mouth and focus!" she snarled, gaining momentum and decapitating two draugr with one swing before kicking a skeleton apart. Lilja had no intention of sharing any more information with this intruder than she had to. What if he were here for her? No way.

Chest heaving slightly after the onslaught, she caught her breath before slinging her hammer over her shoulder, remounting it across her back. It was practically as big as she was.

Companions? Was she honestly expected to care? Other than the fact that that meant he most likely wasn't here to dispose of her, anyway.

She let out an indignant snort, folding her arms across her chest. "Like hell I will. I was hired to clear out this waste of space and I intend to finish what I started."

[dovahbro]

Gideon opened his mouth to protest, but his voice caught in his throat. He frowned deeper, closed his mouth, and seemed to think for a moment before he straightened up a little. “Hired?” he asked, his frown darkening by the second.

He stared at her intently, but it was hard to read any features behind a mask. Still, she wasn’t trying to kill him and certainly seemed confident about what she was here for. He grunted, adjusting his grip on the hilt of his sword. “Family heirloom? Lost for centuries?” he asked, trying to get to the bottom of this. If they were hired for the same job, that was a direct breach of contract with the Companions, and not something they took lightly. It was a waste of time for him to be here if he couldn’t complete the job thanks to someone else being hired to do it, and Gideon was not a man that enjoyed his time being wasted.

“I swear to Talos, if we’re hired for the same thing, I’m going to choke the bastard with his own heirloom.”

[iceveins]

"Did I stutter?" She pushed the mask to the side then, revealing her face and the bored expression tinged with the slightest hint of irritation that it wore.

She didn't like her time being wasted either and she especially didn't like other people showing up after she'd already cleared out half of a crypt on her own trying to claim her well-deserved reward.

Nodding, she heaved an aggravated sigh. "Some smarmy old bastard who could use a bath and a new set of teeth? He promised me a hefty sum, but I'll be damned if I have to share it."

She cocked a brow briefly at his mention of Talos; that wasn't something one normally went around being so candid about. It actually made her smile slightly, however fleeting.

[dovahbro]

Gideon resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her quip, instead narrowing them as she pulled the mask aside. His gaze took in her face as soon as it was out of the way, both taking in her features and looking for any hint of deception in her eyes. He saw none with his brief glance, and was already growling with irritation at the realization that they’d both been duped. This was going to be even more trouble than it was worth, but they were already here, and he wasn’t going to walk away empty-handed.

When she reacted to his mention of Talos, Gideon’s thoughts were interrupted for a moment as he wondered what the look was for, and then remembered. He was so used to being around like-minded folk that it sometimes slipped his mind that there was a civil war going on over this exact thing, and seemed a little relieved that she was on his side of it. From what he’d seen, she wasn’t a person he wanted to get into a fight with.

The little boost of confidence given by them having something else in common lowered his guard a little further, and he shrugged his shoulders as he came to a conclusion. “Since neither one of us wants to leave, why don’t we finish the job together and make him pay double? It’s only fair. Idiot shouldn’t be hiring more than one person at a time and he’ll be lucky if we don’t take more.”

[iceveins]

Turning her back to him, she made her way to the next chamber's door, stopping in front of it and cracking her neck. This entire quest had become a pain in her proverbial balls. She sighed before throwing a hand in the air, waving him off. "Whatever. As long as you don't object to my beating his head in when I return."

She pressed her free ear against the stale, ancient wood trying to hear anything from behind it before she turned back to him.

"Try not to get in my way, yeah? I'm not picking up any slack."

[dovahbro]

"The only thing I'll object to is if you stop me from doing the same thing," Gideon replied, huffing slightly out his nose and rolling his shoulders.

He stepped close, watching her try to listen through the door. He could easily tell her that there were at least seven different draugr roaming around on the other side, but that would quickly betray his status as something not quite human - he clearly wasn't a mage, so it wasn't like he could pass it off as magic either. Instead he just lowered his sword from his shoulder and adopted a fighting stance.

"Likewise," he growled at her statement, his nose flaring slightly. Just because they'd agreed to work together didn't mean he planned on slacking off. He wanted this done as quickly as possible and he wasn't a pushover when it came to battle. In fact, if she didn't move on in the next two seconds he was about to bust down this door too.

[iceveins]

She rolled her eyes. It was so easy to get under his skin.

Before she could even push open the wooden slab of a door, he kicked it open in much the same brutish fashion as he did the previous. She didn't even have time to call him an idiot before the draugr awoke and started flowing towards them.

Shooting him a look full of venom, she pushed her mask back into place and grabbed Volendrung off her back, muttering, "you've got to be fucking kidding me..."

[dovahbro]

Gideon ignored her sour look and words - he wanted to get this done, and he didn’t want to waste any more time. He knew what he could take and a room full of draugr was hardly of any danger to him in such an enclosed space. One sweep of his greatsword took out multiple enemies, sending them crashing into their comrades and forcing the others to have to climb over them, buying him more time to twist and swing again, following the weight of his blade. Not only that, but the woman would be able to use her large weapon similarly - having the draugr clustered up was a boon to both of them, and it really didn’t take too long to finally kill them all. Or re-kill them, as it were.

Gideon flashed her a look, eyebrows raised as if to say, ‘Look, that wasn’t so bad,’ before he stepped over the corpses and made his way toward the end of the room.

He suddenly froze, and had a strange inkling that his cocky look was about to cost him.

Sure enough, a second later he heard a loud crash that made him flinch. A few feet away, a tomb opened up and a much deadlier-looking draugr burst out, eyes glowing with malice. Gideon gripped the hilt of his sword tighter, adopting a fighting stance and briefly glancing over at the woman, checking if she was ready too.

His eyes barely left the draugr overlord before he heard a loud shout and was suddenly knocked back on his ass by the force of it, momentarily dazing him.

[iceveins]

She'd heard the rumbling of the tomb before he had, but her warning shout of 'get out of the way!' had fallen on deaf ears once the creature bellowed out in a language she didn't understand, no matter how many times she heard it.

This wasn't the first Overlord she'd encountered, though the times were definitely few and far between. She knew enough not to let the thing get enough time to cast or get too far away, but she knew not to get too close, lest the same fate the man recoiling on the floor happen to her.

Before the monster could recover from it's attack, she drew her bow and shot three arrows rapid-fire before lunging behind a pillar.

"Get off your ass and take a swing, unless you plan on dying today!" she hissed, stringing up another arrow.

[dovahbro]

Gideon pushed himself up with a grunt, shaking his head and willing his ears to stop ringing. He always felt blind when he couldn’t hear properly, and that shout hadn’t just been forceful on his body. He ducked behind a pillar as well, as soon as he was able to move. He took a moment collect himself, and frowned as he rubbed one of his ears quickly with a hand. Despite them ringing from the loudness, he felt like he could hear whispering off in the distance, creating a strange dichotomy that threatened to really put him off balance if he didn’t get a hold of himself.

He growled and dashed out from behind the pillar, trying to ignore the whispers as he charged at the overlord and took a great swing with his sword. Distracted as it was with the woman, his hit succeeded, staggering the undead creature. He had to duck a retaliatory swing of an ancient sword, but swung his own again as he came back up, the sound of steel clashing ringing through the room as the two blades met.

Gideon saw the creature’s eyes glow again, its mouth opening. Anticipating another shout, and not wanting to visit that on his ears again - especially in such close quarters - Gideon quickly let go of his sword with one hand and furiously stuffed it in the draugr’s mouth, thanking the gods that he wore tough gauntlets. The move, while successful in stopping the shout as well as startling and infuriating the draugr, left him open to retaliation, his sword not nearly as sturdy with only one hand gripping it.

[iceveins]

When the overlord took a slash at the man's face and chest, knocking him back again, Lilja took the opportunity to leap forward and twirl her war hammer with ease, driving the head of the weapon into the draugr's knees. When it fell to the floor, she drove it into the top of its skull, making sure to avoid the other fighter in the process. The last thing she needed was to accidentally maim or kill him; it wasn't something she wanted to deal with.

When she was sure that the monster wasn't getting back up, she retrieved the greatsword from where it sat on the floor, tossing it at his feet. Removing the mask, she looked at him completely deadpan, as if nothing had even happened. She did, however, kick him impatiently.

"Let's get the heirloom and get out of here. Hurry up," spoken somewhat as an order, but a soft one. There was maybe even the slightest hint of questioning in her eyes if he squinted, as she didn't really know why he was so thrown off. The shouts had never had that much of an effect on her, not for this long at least.

[dovahbro]

Once Gideon was certain the draugr was dead, he just kind of laid on the ground where he’d fallen and collected himself, panting softly. He was quite glad the woman had taken the opportunity he offered, as the creature was a lot easier to take down when it was distracted, and he didn’t mind being that distraction.

He grunted at the kick, punching her foot in retaliation. “Gladly,” he grumbled before he pushed himself up again, sheathing his greatsword and frowning heavily. Even with the overlord very much dead, he could still hear the whispers. In fact, they seemed louder now, and he couldn’t stop glancing in the direction he thought they were coming from. He tried his best to ignore it, because he was already getting weird looks from the woman and that certainly meant it was beyond human ears.

Yet, the closer they got to the treasure chest, the louder the whispers became. He started to see tendrils of light, and frowned even deeper as he finally looked at the wall behind the chest, the light seeming to come from a glowing set of runes. He looked sharply at the woman; surely she could see it too?

“What the hell?” he growled, stepping closer, his eyes darting around as the swirls of light intensified and the whispers turned to chanting and whistling wind.

[iceveins]

She was checking the draugr's body for anything valuable when she noticed his unbalanced stance. There was nothing particularly resellable save for a few unrefined jewels, so she deemed it unworthy of her time; there was more to delve into in this chamber, after all.

When he shot her a quizzical, yet clearly aggravated look, she stopped and just gave him one back that read "what the hell do you want?" Shaking her head, she got up and pushed passed him.

She cracked open the rusty lock of a dusty chest with the hilt of her dagger out of frustration after breaking a couple of lockpicks, opening it up. The heirloom was nowhere to be found in this one, but there were some old books and scrolls inside amongst the coins and gems.

As she was stuffing her pockets, however, she heard the man grumbling and a heavy thud shortly thereafter. Turning around, she saw him sprawled on the ground, down and out. Maybe he was more of a stamina lightweight than she'd expected, especially after his big talk back in the previous room. She could just leave him there, but what would that say about her? On the other hand, she didn't want to dilly-dally with her thumb up her ass waiting for him to finally come to...

Of course, that's just what she did. She took a seat on the stone ruin of a throne that had belonged to the overlord and waited, absentmindedly sharpening her dagger against the armrest.

[dovahbro]

Gideon wasn't exactly sure what had happened. One moment he was looking at the glowing runes, trying to make sense of them, of the lights and the chanting. Trying to make sense of the fact that his female companion didn't seem to notice the extremely obvious spectacle. He was drawn into it, staring at the runes until the energy became too powerful, right at a split-second moment of comprehension.

The next moment, he was waking up on the cold stone floor, his vision blurry from a splitting headache. He tried to sit up, which only caused his stomach to roil. He groaned and laid flat, squinting up at the ceiling and trying to make sense of everything, all while wiggling his fingers and toes to make sure his limbs were all attached. He didn't seem to be in imminent danger, and as the moments passed, his headache began to ease off.

He slowly tried to sit up again, succeeding this time. He rubbed his face and slowly looked around, eyes falling on the word wall. He blinked, and stared, but it was quiet now. No glowing runes, no chanting, no whistling wind and light. He frowned deeply, casting about in his groggy mind for the understanding he'd come to right before passing out ... and after a lot of effort, realized he knew what the word was now, even though he'd never seen runes like that before and had no way of reading the others. He had no idea how he knew it, but he suspected it had something to do with all that swirling energy.

When his eyes fell on the other Nord, he took in her less-than-happy expression and grunted, "How long was I out?"

[iceveins]

After a while, Lilja had gotten bored sitting around waiting. She'd run out of chests to loot and there was only so much polishing and sharpening she could do without a proper grinding wheel and the right abrasives.

When the other had finally roused, she just continued to give him the same sour look before she squinted up at the ceiling, trying to get a sense from the small grated window in the center of it. It was hard to gauge the light outside, but judging by the position of the shadows being cast from the middle of the chamber around the space, she'd guessed that maybe two, even three hours had passed by now. "Long enough."

She noticed him eyeing the wall he'd passed out in front of once more and a soft, indignant huff escaped her. "What, you didn't get enough the first time? It's a wall." She paused before getting up from the stone throne she'd been sitting in, hip popping from the sudden movement. Making her way over to where he laid, she took a crack at the monolith with her warhammer, chipping off a piece of the side.

"Anyway, we've spent too much time here. I've got the heirloom, so let's go."

[dovahbro]

Gideon frowned up at the ceiling when he saw her doing the same, but his mind was so fuzzy that he couldn't get any real sense of time. Her answer wasn't exactly satisfactory, but he didn't suppose he really expected much more than that.

He winced when her hammer hit the stone, the sound reverberating through his still-pained skull. He grunted, rubbing his forehead and glaring at her. "It's not just a wall," he protested, slowly pushing himself up to his feet. "Do you think 'just a wall' would make me pass out like that? You're the one too blind to see all those runes," he muttered, dusting himself off and retrieving his greatsword.

He frowned as he stared at it, still thinking about the word he now 'knew'. He could see it in his mind's eye, and he had an idea of what the sound was ... but somehow he felt like he was missing something from it. How he knew any of this was a complete mystery to him, and the more he thought about it the more he felt his headache coming on stronger. He shook his head slowly and sheathed his sword, grunting as he started toward the exit. "Yeah, let's get out of this place. Hopefully we can make it to the village before dark."

[dovahbro]

Gideon grunted, biting back the words in his throat. He'd been about to snap that the runes were glowing but somehow he didn't think that was going to help his case at all. The last thing he needed right now was to fight with her even more; they'd gotten the heirloom, and they still had to deal with the idiot who'd contracted them both to work on the job.

As they made their way out of the tomb, he felt his headache subsiding, even if his confusion didn't. As soon as he was able to breathe the fresh, evening air, he relaxed a little and felt the last of the pain subside. All his problems seemed to become smaller when he was out in the open, even if those problems included possibly having to set up camp on the way to the village. He finally turned to Lilja and raised his eyebrows slightly as he pondered this. "Camp now? Or try to make it?"

He knew with the sun already descending, it would be more dangerous to travel at night - well ... alone, he would be fine, but it wasn't like he could transform when Lilja wasn't looking and run to the village as a wolf. He really was going to kick this guy's ass for screwing up the assignment.

[dovahbro]

Just as Gideon looked up at the moons, he heard Lilja's reply and felt his jaw clench, eyes narrowing. "You're going to be the next one passed out if you keep talking like that," he grumbled without looking at her, already starting toward the town of Morthal. They really couldn't get there fast enough, and nothing short of death would make him stop at this point.

The night was clear, and there weren't too many obstructions as they travelled. Talk was thankfully sparse between them - he was honestly surprised it hadn't devolved into a fistfight yet, and couldn't wait to be rid of the annoying woman. Though, when he thought about it, he'd probably treat her the same way if she'd seen invisible runes and passed out for hours because of it, and neither of them were in a good mood about the circumstances of their mission.

Just as he was wondering if he should wait until the morning to head back to Jorrvaskr, or just pay a carriage and sleep through the night on it, he heard an unearthly screech far in the distance. He stopped in his tracks, the hair on the back of his neck prickling as he looked up only to see the trees swaying gently in the wind. Wondering if it had just been the wind itself whistling through the branches, he resumed walking, only to hear a much louder roar.

He looked over at Lilja, his antagonism briefly set aside. They were close to Morthal, but somehow he didn't think whatever made that sound was going to wait for them, and just as he unsheathed his greatsword, both of them were buffeted by the wind of a dragon swooping close.

[iceveins]

She rolled her eyes, dismissively waving a hand in response. She'd be more than glad to be done with this whole thing. The people she enjoyed traveling with were few and far between and Gideon wasn't proving to be one of them.

The booming roar that cut through the silence stopped her in her tracks and Lilja shared his unsettled look as she returned his glance. That was much too loud to be a bear or a sabrecat. Quite honestly, it wasn't anything she'd ever heard before.

She planted her feet, covering her face with the crook of her arm as the wind kicked up dirt and debris. When it cleared enough, she saw the creature soaring passed and roaring yet again, this time a stream of fire escaping its mouth in short bursts. Unbelievable. This was going to be really, really bad. "As if it couldn't get any fucking worse!"

Flipping down her Volsung mask, Lilja drew her bow and prepared herself, steadying an arrow. She traced its flight pattern and let it sail, hoping to land a hit. The dragon cried out as it embedded itself into its tail as it flew by and circled 'round until it began flapping its wings heavily as it landed. That was not what she'd wanted.

[dovahbro]

Staring with wide eyes at the enormous creature soaring around them, Gideon ducked and dodged behind trees to avoid the flames until the dragon began hovering to land. He quickly ran up behind it, using the foliage to his advantage so the beast couldn't turn quickly. Despite having never fought a real dragon before, he was already going through battle scenarios in his head, both to aid him in the fight and to distract himself from the very real fear he felt at being so close to such an intimidating beast. Sure, he lived for the hunt, and revelled in challenging battles, but this felt a little over his head ...

Something that large would need a lot of lift to fly, and attacking its wings would likely be the best course of action. After that, hampering its movement on land would probably be best, although as he watched the long, thick tail swing dangerously close by, he wondered if trying to cripple that would be even better. Despite already not being able to move much, the dragon certainly didn't look like it was lacking in dangerous limbs to attack with at close range.

With a yell and a mighty swing of his sword, his blade found purchase in the hard bone of the dragon's wing, but it didn't move further into the vulnerable webbing he'd been aiming for. His stomach lurched as he realized his sword may now be stuck in the bone with the enraged dragon quickly swivelling its long neck around to him, and he had to push with his boot on the bone before he could yank his sword free and roll to safety. He scrambled behind a boulder just as a jet of fire blasted in his direction, and prayed to Talos that Lilja was able to get some good attacks in with the beast's attention on him. With their proximity to Morthal, he also hoped that guards would be on their way to help, as he had no clue if they'd be able to take down such a huge creature all on their own.