Sevria's Travels: The Will to Survive

  • Adrenaline and terror raced through Sevria's veins as she fell helplessly through the darkness. Deeper and deeper she plunged into the nebulous void, desperately flailing her limbs in search of something -- ANYTHING -- to grab onto, in the vain hope that she could break her fall before hitting the ground below. But there was nothing to be found; no vines, no rocks, nothing but thin air surrounding her as she plunged deeper, and deeper, and deeper... finally the ground came rushing to meet her, and Sevria's body landed with a chilling snap! -- pain, unbearable pain, coursed through her legs -- she cried out in unbridled agony as she went limp to the ground, utterly defenseless and alone in the dark. She screamed and cried like a frightened child, unable to move and blinded by the tears that filled her pitch-black eyes. She shook her head from side to side, looking desperately for any signs of help, but none came to her. Pain consumed her body as she wept quietly for several minutes, succumbing to the gravity of the situation; though she'd been fortunate more than once before, this time there would be no hero to save her from this peril. This time she was on her own.

    Minutes seemed to blend together into hours, and time became immaterial in the shadows of her entrapment. Finally Sevria took a deep breath and opened her teary eyes, taking in the environment around her; it appeared to be an ancient tomb of some sort, with walls portraying Nord history through elaborate carvings. Up above her she could see the hole where she had fallen; in hindsight it was a miracle that she'd even survived at all. She tried leaning up and getting back up onto her feet, when the pain shot through her legs again. Taking some more deep breaths she looked down at her legs and beheld what had happened: both of them had been broken in the fall. Bloody splintered bones protruded from her upper legs, and the lower halves sat limp and lifeless on the ground. Sevria became nauseous at the sight and immediately turned to her side before vomiting on the ground, struggling to regain her composure in the midst of her panic attack. Now she lay on her belly, and the pain in her shattered legs only worsened the horror pumping through her veins. Her face became wet and reeked of vomit, and a gruesome blend of saliva and bile covered her mouth. When she could feel the sensation begin to subside, she looked up in front of her and beheld a sight that warmed her soul with hope: a small red glass bottle sitting on an old shelf, topped with a cork and covered in cobwebs. Could it be one of those 'healing potions' employed by Tamriel's alchemists and wizards? she wondered. She weakly dragged her broken body toward the shelf with her arms, and studied the bottle; it still held a formula of some kind inside it, and clearly had not been used in centuries. Was it even effective anymore? Not at all likely. But it was her only hope. She gripped the cork and began to pull, when a thought raced across her mind: what would it do about her bones?

    According to hearsay, she thought to herself, these 'healing potions' temporarily quickened the body's healing process, thus giving the appearance of undoing any bodily damage... but if she drank this potion now, it would cause her bones to heal in this state and thus leave her permanently crippled. It would stop the pain, no doubt, but it would also seal her doom. Though she dreaded the thought of what she knew she had to do, there could be no escaping it: she had to reset her bones by hand, and hope that the potion took care of the rest. She immediately thought about the pain she felt when her legs had broken in the first place, and dreaded the thought of putting herself through it again by, in effect, re-breaking her bones back into place. She wanted desperately for this moment to seem a nightmare to be woken from, but this was not the case. This was something that had to be done, or else she would suffer a far worse fate in the void that enveloped her. And so she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, bracing herself for what had to be done. This was it, she thought to herself as she leaned her back against the wall; this was the day when she would make the great transition from girl to woman.

    Taking her right leg's upper bone into her hands, she squeezed her eyes tight and pushed the bone back into place with a gut-wrenching snap. She cried out in pain again, but this time was different; this time she gritted her teeth and restrained herself as best she could. She couldn't afford to lose control of herself again; if she did, she knew she would never find her way back to safety. Now she put her hands on her left leg as she felt where the bones had been damaged and misplaced. She shut her eyes again, gritted her teeth in anticipation, and again came the sickening sound of her bones snapping again. She yelled again at the pain, and again she took control of her outburst with deep breaths and staying perfectly still. She felt her legs again to make sure nothing felt broken or fractured, and now it seemed that everything was in order. She leaned her head against the back of the wall and took deep breaths before looking one more time at the potion; it looked very much like a healing remedy, but there could be no telling if it was or not... or if it would even work at all. The bottle was clearly ancient, and the potion inside... who could say if it was poison or not? But there was no other choice; she had to risk it. And so she pulled the cork from the top, lifted the bottle to her lips, and drank the potion.

    The liquid tasted of herbs and mundane plant matter. Though Sevria could discern its remedial qualities, there was no enjoyable flavor to the potion; not even a hint of sugar or sweetness. In fact it reminded her of the grass of Valenwood: bland, plain, and unpleasant. It was difficult for Sevria to swallow the potion, as her life under the Green Pact had conditioned her to consciously reject the taste of plants, but she forced herself regardless and gulped down the dusty concoction. Immediately a sensation of relief overcame her; she could feel her wounds healing at an astounding rate, and the bones of her legs reforming. This sensation lasted for a paltry five seconds, but to Sevria it felt as though it had taken a full minute. And when it had subsided, she lifted her legs... and felt only a minor ache as she slowly and steadily rose to her feet. Though the potion did not heal her completely, it had at least granted her the ability to walk again.

    Sevria stood proudly upon her two feet and looked back up toward the hole where she had fallen from; if she had been the girl she was back in Valenwood, she thought to herself, this place would have become her grave. But something had changed in her during her time in Skyrim; she'd grown stronger after facing death multiple times. She'd been chased, beaten, frozen, manipulated, and more... and she rose up from every one of the challenges that came her way. She could feel it in her heart and soul; there was a warrior spirit growing within her, and this day proved it. But she hadn't overcome this challenge just yet; she still needed to escape from this place, whatever it was. And so, re-lighting a stray torch that'd been left to rot on the wall, Sevria embarked on her journey to return to the surface and embrace the light of day once again.

    The walls around her were smooth yet bore a distinctly crude design. As she traversed through the labyrinthine hallways, Sevria observed many more carvings depicting ancient heroes, warriors, villains, and battles fought all throughout history. More than once her torch light would flicker across a particular figure, who appeared several times across the patterned walls. Cobwebs and dust littered each corner, and each footstep she took seemed to echo lightly through the darkness. Ahead of her there stood a wide doorway, leading into a space so pitch-black that even her torch could not illuminate it. Would this show her the way out? Feeling determined, she decided to at least investigate... and when she stepped into the nebulous space, she very nearly dropped her torch from sheer awe!

    Before her stood three mighty towers built into the cavernous wall, whose foundation stood so deep beneath the earth that she could not see where it began; three staircases united them at the base with a small platform surrounded by three mighty statues, representative of three Norse saints. Sevria walked carefully down the first staircase, making sure not to peer down its sides (as there would be nothing to stop her from falling over them!) and eventually made her way to the center platform so as to fully comprehend the magnitude of her surroundings. The towers surrounded her now and seemed even taller than she first thought, and their massive size nearly took her breath away. Looking upward she saw what appeared to be a dim sign of light... oh, how lucky she was not to fall from that height!

    "Sevria!" A voice called out from one of the towers as another light approached.

    "Yes? Yes? I'm here!" Sevria responded.

    Out from the tower came Mjoll, wielding a torch of her own. "You're alive! Thank Talos, I thought you'd met your end."

    "Almost... but not yet. How did you get down here?"

    "To be honest, it was a wild guess. I knew you'd fallen into an old Nord crypt, but I wasn't sure where to find its entrance. So I had to try the nearest one I could find, hoping I wasn't wrong."

    "You would go to so much trouble to help a stranger?"

    "Hey, I was there when you fell. Wouldn't be fair of me not to at least try to do something."

    "Well, you found me... now all that's left is to go back the way you came."

    "Ah... yeah... funny thing about that."

    "What? What is it?"

    "Apparently this place was built to shelter some kind of ancient Nordic artifact... and to trap anyone who dared to try and steal it. The front door's locked up tight, and so is the door that got me here. I'm afraid there's only one way out of here now..."

    "And that is?"

    "The third tower. If my hunch is correct, it should lead us straight out of the crypt... but I've been through enough of these things to know when they're guarded by draugr."

    "What are 'draugr'?"

    "The living dead... corpses of warriors that were once men, now damned to protect their burial grounds from any trespassers. They know nothing of eternal rest... only the agony of undeath."

    Sevria could not deny that she was intimidated by the idea... but she would not run away. "I've faced worse things during my time in Skyrim... we'll get through this, no matter the danger."

    Mjoll drew her sword. "Then we'll challenge the perils of this crypt together and either walk away victorious... or go with honor to Sovngarde."

    Sevria nodded and drew her knife, and the two adventurers stepped boldly into the third tower, neither knowing what life-threatening danger awaited them... but both more than willing to face it to the end.

Comments

9 Comments
  • MarkusMasterThief
    MarkusMasterThief   ·  March 31, 2016
    Thanks, Ben.  I take pride in writing grounded fiction, even in a fantasy setting.
  • Ben W
    Ben W   ·  March 31, 2016
    Can't win them all Markus; you were as realistic as you possibly were when you typed and posted this and to that I say good job
  • MarkusMasterThief
    MarkusMasterThief   ·  March 31, 2016
    Ah, thanks for pointing that out... you can probably tell I'm no expert on the subject. ^^" That's what happens when you don't do your research.
  • Ben W
    Ben W   ·  March 31, 2016
    Femurs do not typically snap back into place when pushed back into their original shape, they'd need to be tied in place with say rope or linen so they won't go back to their broken position. But as you has protruding bones, I'm not entirely sure I'm afra...  more
  • MarkusMasterThief
    MarkusMasterThief   ·  March 31, 2016
    Thanks. I guess it was kind of a quick tonal shift, but this is more or less the testing ground for later work; my intention is to have Sevria experience numerous hardships across the landscape, with everything ranging from physical injury to larceny and ...  more
  • Ben W
    Ben W   ·  March 31, 2016
    As someone who has broken his leg (right femur), she got lucky. Made me cringe and feel my leg for old times sake. *shutter* 
    Lovely nonetheless
  • Aaron Matthew Martin
    Aaron Matthew Martin   ·  March 31, 2016
    Wow, that got VERY gritty VERY fast.
  • MarkusMasterThief
    MarkusMasterThief   ·  September 21, 2015
    I figure that if potions are to be used at all, they should be imperfect and require some level of understanding in order to be used proper.  And yes, Mjoll is back! I'm considering having her stick with Sevria for the last few remaining chapters; there's...  more
  • The Long-Chapper
    The Long-Chapper   ·  September 21, 2015
    Love that you require bones to be set before taking a potion. I do this too. I think it adds something to potion-taking. 
    Great to see Mjoll again and I'm glad she's paired with Sevria.