Then I Took An Arrow In The Knee

Chapter 3

"You see that ruin up there? Bleak Falls Barrow. When I was a boy, that place always used to give me nightmares. Drauger creeping down the mountain to climb through my window at night, that kind of thing. I admit, I still don't much like the look of it."

The barrow up ahead indeed looked like stuff of nightmares. The tall archway and the dark stone making no effort to make it look welcoming.

When we got out of the cave, we came across a small group of bandits and I was able to stock pile even more items. A few more bandit campslike that and I should be able to get some decent supplies for training and the journey to Winterhold.

I came to grouping of three standing stones. One had the image of a thief, another a warrior, the last an elder wizard. I wondered if I put my hand on the stone what it would do.

I walked up to the warrior stone and place my hand on it and a light shot from its center and into the sky. I felt instantly like I imagened my father did back in the Summerset Isle. He was a blacksmith there, and very good at handling a sword. It felt like everything he ever taught me about blacksmithing made sense.

Hadvar and I continued further on down the road until we came to a town called Riverwood. There we were met with an old blacksmith that was supposedly Hadvar's uncle.

He called us inside like a good loving uncle and even offered us aid. He asked me in return to go to the Jarl of Whiterun and plead for his aid. Although I had a quest of my own to fulfill, it shouldnt cause me anymore grief then fighting a dragon again, right?

I was able to take anything I thought I needed, so I took anything that I could sell off quickly. I felt bad for doing that but I needed to hurry. The dragon appearance lit a fire under me to hurry and get stronger. I needed to be able to defend myself against another dragon attack.

I went across the street to the general store and went inside....

"Well one of us has to do something!"

Drama.... Where's my sweet role.

"I said no! No adventures! No theatrics! No thief chasing!"

There were two people in the room besides myself. One looked like the shop owner and the other would look almost exactly like him if it weren't for the fact thar she was a girl for one and the other was that her face was COVERED in makeup. She looked as though a child took a rolling pin and went to town on to her face. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing.

It wasn't a moment later when I squared my face that the shop keep noticed that I was there and welcomed me in.

"I don't know what you overheard, but the Riverwood trader is still open. Feel free to shop." That caught my attention. Had this place been broken into? It didn't look like it had been.

"Did something happen?"

He then began to tell me how they still had plently to sell, just that they had lost a particular item. An ornament in the shape of a dragon's claw.

"I could help you get the claw back." I offered.

"I've got some gold coming in from my last shipment. It's yours if you bring my claw back." He said almost leaning his entire body over the counter. "By the way you should look for those thieves at Bleak Falls Barrow just Northeast of town."

A shiver went up my spine when I heard where the thieves were holed up. Why did it have to be in the creepiest area I've come across so far?