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My blood was starting to freeze with the cold night air. But with the strange dryskin in danger I couldn't return to the Tundra Homestead just yet. Even though all I wanted to do now was pass out in front of the roaring fire.
Kodlak must have been more right about me than I usually imagined. What evil would really endanger themselves for something unknown?
I nocked an arrow and pushed away all thoughts of cold. I pushed away all feelings of it seeming like my scales were coming off one by one. That eventually I would look like a strange abomination that even the cruelest necromancers would dismiss.
The arrow flew through the night and hit one of the dark entities through the eye. Besides dark smoke blowing off the thing, for a brief moment the dryskin's face was partially illuminated. He was an older man with no facial hair and short hair on his head. He seemed more at home in a city than in Skyrim's harsh wilderness.
Though, I had to admit, he was handling his fear well. There was a determination in his eyes that would not go quietly. He would face his fears so he could return home. No matter how horrible home was.
I growled and hated how I was getting lost in his eyes. Now wasn't the time for deep reflection or feelings. Now was time for the hunt.
Yet self-reflection haunted me even as I loosed another arrow into a dark entity that was getting much too close for comfort.
The dryskin's clothing reminded me of odd dreams as a hatchling. Dreams that when I told them, I was laughed at. So eventually I stopped and eventually they left my mind. Though a few fragments would come to me every now and again.
"I'm out!" The man yelled and I was finally freed from my thoughts.
"Behind me!" I yelled and ignored how hard it was to move.
At least there were only two more.
I loosed another arrow just as the dryskin went behind me. The arrow stuck itself deep into the dark entity's throat. Blood and black smoke poured out of the body as the thing finally died. The Bound Bow of Light disappeared just as the final dark entity came towards us.
My Magelight went deep into its heart and it screamed in a way that was somehow wrong. I don't know how else to describe it. Just that it wasn't right that anything should make that sort of noise. It managed to get close before it finally died.
"****." I said while lighting another torch.
"Thanks." The dryskin said gruffly.
I bent down and saw that the dark entity had possessed a body with the same strange clothing as the dryskin I had just saved. Did these strange dryskins all come from the same place? The same plane of reality? The same place as my dreams in younger years?
"I am Kysnier." I said and made eye contact while making sure I didn't go too deep.
"Alex Casey." The dryskin replied. "I-"
"Lets get back to my house." I said. "You don't look like you'll last much longer out here. And I'd prefer not to rescue someone who is just going to die quickly."
Alex was barely able to nod as I let him use me as a crutch as we made our way back to the Tundra Homestead. It was hard to ignore the coldness that was now freezing most of my body. My vision wouldn't last much longer.
It was also hard to ignore the body pressing up against mine. Alex didn't just radiate heat. He radiated a way for my broken heart to finally be whole again.
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