Golden Claw Part 1

'This was a bad idea, a terrible idea, why did I agree to this again?' Jaune was thinking to himself as he slowly made his way.

'It's because you're a good guy, and dad taught you to help others' another voice inside his head answered. 'Also, because that girl was cute and giving you that puppy dog look you can't resist'

"Yeah... that's true" Jaune muttered aloud to himself. He shivered from the cold as he flipped his hood over his head.

It had been a week or so since Jaune had found himself almost executed in this strange new land. Since then, he had been taken in by Gerdur and Hod, the town leader and her husband.

He had been in denial for several days, especially after questioning everyone in Riverwood and finding out that none of them knew anything about Vale or even Remnant. Instead, they had told him of Skyrim, Tamriel, and Nirn.

He was on Nirn, not Remnant, and unless this was some extravagant, elaborate hoax, he truly was stuck here with no way to go home, he didn't even know how exactly he had come to land in Skyrim in the first place!

Jaune would be the first to admit that he hadn't taken that news well. He had shut himself in the room given to him and had remained in there for several more days.

It was not until yesterday that Jaune finally left his room. Gerdur and Hod were unsure of what to expect from the resurfacing young man, but what they were most certainly not expecting was the young man to smile, and thank them for their hospitality. He then proceeded to offer to help around the mill or the town, even to chop wood to compensate for his room and board.

Gerdur had jumped at the chance for an extra pair of hands at the mill, and instantly placed Jaune to chopping wood.

It was during his delivery of firewood to the Riverwood Trader, that he walked into the middle of an argument.

The brother and sister were arguing of a recently stolen object from the shop, and were arguing if it was worth the trouble of retrieving.

Jaune had once more jumped headfirst at the chance to offer his help.

So that's how Jaune found himself currently on the side of a mountain. Where the scenery had changed just as fast as the temperature, the lush green grass and trees giving way to snow and rocks.

The path up to Bleak Falls Barrow had been long and tedious as it wound its way around the mountain.

Along the way, Jaune had passed the ruins of a stone tower. Where a couple of the thieving bandits had taken refuge and were acting as a lookout.

Luckily for Jaune, they were located just out of sight of the other bandits already at Bleak Falls.

The two bandits there had attacked him with neither skill nor tactics, making it fairly easy for Jaune to defeat them one after the other, knocking out the first one by smacking the flat of Crocea Mors against his head, and disarming the second one and holding her at swordpoint for questioning.

Apparently, the woman thought that Jaune was going to kill her, so she spilled the beans as fast as her mouth could move. Telling him that their group of eight had been hired to aid a Dunmer (whatever that was) steal a solid gold claw. But after the job had been done, the dark elf had offered them even more in helping him get inside the crypt of Bleak Falls where something even more valuable was located. They had agreed and that is how they found themselves currently.

Jaune thanked the women before using a bit of Aura to overpower her mental barriers, sending her unconscious next to the other defeated bandit.

Jaune was now left with the perplexing question of now what to do with a couple of unconscious bodies. He couldn't just kill them, and he couldn't just leave them lying around to wake up and come back after him.

So Jaune did his best to truss up the two bandits. Making sure the knots were extra tight and that any sharp object was far, far out of reach. He placed a couple more logs into the fire pit to keep it going for a while before he left to continue on his way to Bleak Falls.

Jaune hid behind a wall as he stole covert looks up the steps to the entrance of the crypt proper.

He counted at least three guards outside with him, a couple of voices were conversing above him, but he couldn't tell what they were saying though, the blowing wind was a great nuisance.

The voices stopped, and Jaune was left unsure where the bandits were now. He poked his head from around his cover and then instantly retracted it; one of the bandit guards was making his way across the threshold of the steps.

Jaune laid himself as flat as possible against the cold stone wall, waiting for the guard to pass. And when that sucker did, Jaune knocked him over the head with his shield. Luckily, the sound of impact and the sound of his body crashing to the ground was muffled by the harsh winds.

Jaune grabbed the unconscious bandit by the boots and quickly dragged him out of sight before resuming his original position against the wall. Taking another peek, he saw the coast was clear and so made his way up the steps as stealthily as possible in armor.

He was halfway up the steps before all of his careful planning was proven worthless as a guard rounded the corner and came face to face with Jaune.

"Intruder!" the guard cried as he drew the bow from his back and notched an arrow.

Jaune was left in a precarious position; halfway up the steps, there was no safe direction for him to run to, and the archer was standing less than five meters in front of him.

'Too late!' Jaune thought as the archer let loose his arrow. He brought his shield up and crouched down, making himself a small of target as possible.

He blocked the arrow, but the force behind it still pushed him back, making him lose his footing upon he snow and stone. Jaune slipped and painfully rolled backwards down the stairs, bumping his head against several steps.

He was left dazed and confused with stars and little beowolves floating around his head.

Jaune unsteadily stoop up, just as an arrow flew by, grazing his cheek and drawing a sliver of blood before his Aura healed the cut.

He shook his head before dashing forward up the stairs, serpentine all the way up.

Jaune dodged a third arrow before reaching the archer, but before he could land a knockout hit, Jaune was forced to move back and block as a great sword swept through the air and clashed against his shield.

Stepping back to reassess the situation; there were now two enemies, the archer, and the guy with the great sword, but now the archer had pulled out a long sword of his own, and had joined his partner in trying to skewer Jaune.

Jaune was going through some of his previous combat spars that he could draw from, but he need not to.

The two of them came at him with wide, unrefined swings, easily impeding each other in their attack, and both at the same time, causing the archer to backpedal in order to not be struck by accident by his partner.

The guy with the great sword came at him with a charge with his sword held overhead. Jaune casually sidestepped his swing and kicked him down the stairs. Turning back to the archer just in time to parry his thrust.

Jaune stepped well into the archer's range and struck the man across the face with the guard of Crocea Mors. Stunning the man long enough for Jaune to transform his shield into its sheath form and knocking him over the head with it.

With that one down, Jaune once more rotated a hundred and eighty degrees to face the stairs, but he lowered his sword a second later when he saw the guy out cold at the foot of the steps.

'That was convenient' Jaune noted to himself as he sheathed Crocea Mors and made his way to the unconscious bandits to tie them up.

Author's Note: Yay, stuff being written! But sadly, this has been lying finished for a while now. I just never uploaded it to Doc Manager on this site.