Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim belongs to Bethesda Softworks. I'm simply an author who loves playing around in fictional worlds. I do not make money from this nor do I want to. I write these stories for myself and for others to brighten their day.

Warnings: Male/male relationship with sex. Male/female relationship non-explicit. Killing, gore, and some torture.

Book 1

Finder's Keepers

7th of Heartfire, 4E 201. Sundas

Katla pulled her orcish greatsword out of a Forsworn's dismembered body. The sun was rising over the nearby mountains signalling the start of a new day. She wiped the blood from her blade before fastening it to her baldric. Amber eyes looked out over the camp. It was built upon platforms over the southernmost part of Karth River.

Over by a set of tents she could see Ra'shall.

He was a Khajiit that had joined her after a somewhat embarrassing failure – on his part. He had attempted to steal from her. Pick her pockets as a matter of fact. She hadn't been too thrilled about the whole thing, and being the hot-blooded Nord she was, the first thing she'd done was tackle the little creep to the ground. Then she had pulled her then rather massive iron battleaxe. The sneaky feline had tried to persuade her not to kill him. Like he'd thought that would actually work on her. She knew her way around honeyed words just fine.

She had been about to kill the little thief when a band of not so intelligent bandits had decided to show up. Figuring that the thief would be happy enough she let him live, Katla had turned her attention to the approaching thugs. The fight that had followed was short, but what she hadn't noticed while fighting was a man that snuck up behind her. She had, however, heard him as he'd let out a gurgling noise. Turning around she'd seen the Khajiit standing behind her with a dagger buried in the man's abdomen. "You willing to earn some coin helping me?" she'd asked the feline-man.

Teal eyes had studied her for a moment before he'd responded, "Beats getting my head chopped off."

In the beginning it had been a purely professional relationship, but as time went on, it had developed into friendship. Ra'shall had eventually decided to hang around because he'd felt like it not because he'd gotten paid. He'd even refused payment only a fortnight after joining up with her.

"Found anything interesting?" Katla asked the man as he came walking up the stone steps towards her.

"Not really. Forsworn never have much," Ra'shall answered as he held out a potion bottle to her. "It's a stamina draught. You have more use for it than I do," he said.

Katla accepted the bottle and pushed it down in a pouch she was wearing so she could access it past her Dwarven armour. "Hopefully Delphine and Esbern are waiting up ahead," she said. "Considering we took a detour they should have had plenty of time to get here."

"Without alerting the Forsworn?" Ra'shall said disbelievingly. "They might be good, but they're not that good."

Katla snorted. "O.K. so maybe we'll have to go slow in there and hope they catch up with us then," she said.

"What did they call this place anyway?" the feline asked.

"Karthspire I think," Katla answered. She looked up towards the mountain. There was a set of stairs leading up just a bit further. A cave entrance was located to the right. "This will be fun," the brunette woman said as she placed a hand against the cold stone of the entrance.

"Want to bet there are draugr in there," Ra'shall said.

"You know I never strike bets with you," Katla answered. "I'm not dumb. Even if you're wrong you still manage to come out on top somehow. I know how you work."

Ra'shall laughed as he entered the cave. He could see a faint torchlight some way in. 'Hn, there are probably more Forsworn in here,' he thought as he moved down into a crouch. He could hear Katla slow down behind him. She was probably taking her bow out. They'd worked together for some time now, and their general tactic for caves like this was for him to sneak up first and get around their enemies before she started firing arrows at them – drawing their attention. After that it was only a matter of practised ease that had heads rolling.

He slipped up a ramp and moved up behind one of the horn-adorned men. He could hear as an arrow came buzzing through the air taking out a woman in front of him. Quickly he reached up and sliced his knife across the man's throat. The female body fell down from the small bridge she'd been standing on before hitting the ground below. The outer guards of the cave seemed to wake up at the noise. They didn't live much longer. Another arrow and a few quick steps was all that was needed to end their lives.

"You loot and I'll go on ahead," Katla suggested as she walked up the ramp leading to the upper level of the small cave.

They tended to switch roles up while exploring just to make things more interesting. Since both of them were experienced fighters, it didn't make much of a difference anyway. They simply went about things differently.

Katla walked through a tunnel laid with wooden planks which indicated that the Forsworn had been there for some time. Lanterns were placed out to chase the darkness away. Roots and spider webs hung from the ceiling in tatters. Up ahead a faint light made the woman wonder if the cave didn't open up to the sky. It didn't look like any kind of fire light she'd ever seen. Walking onwards slowly, her suspicions were confirmed. There were even trees growing down there. Though, they were small and sickly looking with a gray almost translucent bark. They might have been juniper trees if they'd grown where there was more light. She scanned the area as she moved around. There seemed to be no one there.

There was an old broken staircase along the right wall of the crater. The brunette was moving up it when Ra'shall joined her. "They had a decent amount of coin in there," he said as they walked up to a platform with a set of three pillars at the end of it. Two bowls filled with coal had once upon a time lit the area up, but now they had long since burnt out. "It's a puzzle," the feline stated. "Do you think we should wait for the crazy old man? He probably knows how to get past this."

Katla moved forward. "There are three symbols here," she said. "If we assume all of them should show the same symbol we can just try it out. If that doesn't work then we can wait here for Esbern and Delphine." She reached out and turned the pillars around. Once all of them showed a set of what could be dragons with an arrow pointing down between them rumbling could be heard echoing through the canyon as a bridge lowered down beside them.

"That is so secure," Ra'shall said sarcastically. "All you need to get in is a bit of patience."

Katla rolled her eyes. "Hopefully there are better protections further in. I'd have to start wondering about the Dragonborns of old otherwise," she said.

Dragonborn. That had been a bit difficult to believe to begin with. Even after she'd first absorbed a dragon's soul. She didn't recommend it. It was quite unnerving to have the powers of an ancient dragon meld with your own soul. Though, the Greybeards had been easily convinced that she was one. Just take a look at the weird text and … she had no clue how she could understand that stuff. She obviously didn't understand the language very well, though, since Alduin had tried to speak to her in it, and she hadn't understood very much. She could shout in an imitation of what dragons could do, but she couldn't fully understand the language.

They moved over the bridge and into a tunnel that led up and to the right. Chances were that they would end up back in the canyon.

"Wait," Katla said as she grabbed onto Ra'shall's arm. The tunnel had led out in a small cave, but the floor was covered with pressure plates. "That's the same symbol as down on the pillars," she said as she pointed down on a plate in front of them. She looked up and scanned the room.

"There is a switch over there," Ra'shall said as he pointed towards the opposite wall. His eyes were much better at picking up details in the dark.

"I better go over in case this thing can tell if you're of dragon blood or not," the brunette said before she stepped out on the tiles. She moved slowly across the room. They had no reason to hurry, and she didn't want to know what happened if she took a wrong step. Reaching the opposite wall, she reached out, grabbed a small iron band on a chain, and pulled it.

More rumbling and sun light spread into the room from an opening in the cave wall.

Ra'shall, figuring that the floor would be safe to walk on now, made his way over to the opening and walked outside. They made their way over another bridge and through yet another tunnel filled with roots. Once back out in the sunlight for the third time, they could see into an obviously man made room. The carving of a head adorned the far wall, and strange symbols climbed the walls. The floor had once been covered in stone tiles but big areas had overtime been reclaimed by the general dirt of the cave.

"Here I think it would be better if we waited for Delphine and Esbern," Katla said. "While I believe I know how to get past this, I'd like to know what the old man has to say before attempting it."

Ra'shall nodded slowly. He had noticed a chest standing almost in the middle of the room on a raised dais. He walked forward and pulled the lid open. There was an assortment of things in there. Some were completely useless while others disappeared down into various pockets and pouches. An amethyst, some gold, a couple of lockpicks, he lifted a spell tome out of the chest. It belonged to the School of Restoration. 'Oh well why not,' he thought. He could always find a buyer that would pay good money for it. He lifted a pair of leather boots out of the chest and noticed a glint of silver. It was a ring adorned with a garnet. 'Now we're talking,' he thought. Rings were easy to carry and generally sold rather well. He smirked. It was enchanted. That just raised the value. He stood up from the chest after emptying it of everything that was easy to carry and/or paid well.

Katla had sat down some distance away and was seemingly studying the walls. Her amber eyes trailed the strange symbols as her hands cut pieces of an apple that made their way into her mouth. Ra'shall walked over to her and sat down. "See anything interesting?" he asked.

The brunette shrugged. "Most of it makes no sense what-so-ever," she said.

…

Thankfully the two didn't have to wait long before the echo of steps could be heard in the canyon outside.

Katla stood up as the footsteps came closer. She smiled softly as Delphine came walking inside. "Everything went well?" she asked the blond woman.

Delphine nodded. "As well as could be expected," she said. She raised an eyebrow as Esbern walked past her mumbling to himself. He stopped by a series of circles laid out in stone on the floor. "Ah… here is the blood seal," he said. "Another of the lost Akaviri arts. No doubt triggered by well … blood." He turned towards Katla. "Your blood Dragonborn," he said. "Look here. You see how the ancient Blades revered the…"

Ra'shall tilted his ears away from the man and tried to just shut him out. 'Baan Dar make him shut up,' he thought. He knew that the man was necessary for now, but couldn't he just get to the point? The scent of blood reached his sensitive nose suddenly. Katla had cut her hand over the seal in the floor. Little red droplets fell to the ground. Light spread from the circles as they started turning one at a time. The giant stone-head in front of the seal moved back before it was pulled up revealing a staircase.

The feline-man moved forward as he pulled a potion bottle out of a pouch. He held a hand out towards Katla after removing the cork from the bottle with a pop. He poured the clear liquid over the cut in her hand and watched as it healed leaving fair unblemished skin behind. "Thank you," the brunette said with a soft smile. He shrugged. "You can't wield a sword or handle a bow with a cut like that," he said.

Katla chuckled warmly. "Yeah, 'cause that's the only reason you helped me," she said teasingly. "Let's get going." She bent down and picked up the steel Nordic gauntlets she'd taken off so she could offer blood to the seal. Strapping the gauntlet back on, she walked up the stairs to a pair of thick black iron doors. She reached out and pushed the doors open as she stepped through. Quickly she made her way up the stairs beyond the door, Ra'shall following closely behind her.

The stairs led up to a big hall. A great long-table was placed in the middle of the room. A grand staircase travelled into darkness. Light shone in through cracks in the ceiling.

Ra'shall moved up the grand staircase as Katla walked over to a big ornate wall twice as tall as her. It did not, however, reach the cave ceiling high above them. The feline knew that Katla would learn something important, but he couldn't care less. Oh, he care about her learning so she'd be alright… but the knowledge wouldn't help him any. He walked up the steps of the stair silently until he'd made it to the top of the wall that Esbern and Katla were studying. His teal eyes narrowed as he saw a strange lump of something unknown lying on the ground in the shadows of a stone arch. He moved forward slowly. His sharp ears picked up on the gentle sound of breathing. Whatever that lump was, it was alive. Pulling a dagger out of his belt, he reached out towards the figure and moved it carefully.

He froze. It was a human. 'Probably a Breton by the look of it.' He could hear Delphine and Katla speaking in the background. He wondered if he shouldn't call down to them, but he didn't want to wake the young human up. Messy dark hair covered the boy's head. His pale skin was dirty where it had touched the floor. He was wearing some sort of strange black cloak. Next to the boy lay a golden scroll with green stones adorning its cover. Ra'shall reached out to grab the scroll, but he couldn't seem to reach it. Something was keeping him from picking it up. "Who are you?" he wondered out loud. "How did you get in here?"

He shifted the boy to lie on his back before his quick fingers searched through whatever pockets the kid had. As he did so, he noticed just how thin the boy was. He could feel ribs. It wasn't the first time he came across a child who hadn't gotten enough to eat. Both he and Katla highly disliked that the youth had to suffer for grown-ups' mistakes.

He placed out the items he'd picked from the boy on the floor. A piece of parchment, some kind of candy by the smell of it, a strange silver coin and a piece of wood. Nothing that helped him identify the boy. He stood up slowly and looked down from the wall. Katla wasn't down there. Chances were that she was on her way up to him so he opted to stay put.

.

Katla muttered grumpily as she made her way up the grand staircase. They'd travelled all this way only for her to learn that she had to travel back to High Hrothgar.

"Did you learn anything interesting," Ra'shall asked her as she came walking up to him.

"Apparently they used a Shout to defeat Alduin all those years ago," the brunette answered. "Unfortunately we don't know which Shout." She made a disgusted face. "So now we have to go see the Greybeards and ask them if they know anything about it," she said. She didn't seem too enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Ra'shall shook his head incredulously. "Back and forth, back and forth. It's a good thing we don't have a time limit," he said. Then his head turned towards the boy. He doubted Katla could see the Breton where he lay. It was probably too dark for her. "I found something else though," he said as he walked over to the boy. He reached down and lifted the kid up carefully. "Or rather someone…" he said as he walked back out in the light.

"By Kyne what is a child doing here," the brunette breathed. She reached out and placed a hand against the boy's cheek carefully. He was cold. "Poor thing is freezing," she said. "We should find somewhere to rest and warm him up."

Ra'shall nodded slowly. They had been travelling since long before sunrise. They could do with a warm meal and some rest. "There is cold air coming from up there so I'm guessing those doors lead outside," he said as he turned towards the general darkness he'd picked up the boy in. "The path over there seems to lead back down to the main floor, but there is a corridor going that way I haven't checked in yet," he said as he turned back the way Katla had come from.

The brunette nodded. She walked up in front of the Khajiit so she was the one to walk first just in case there was something sinister hiding in the darkness. They had travelled through way too many tombs filled with undead for her not to be on the alert.

A smile spread over her lips as they found what must have been the living quarters of the temple. There was a wooden table and some chairs in the middle of the room, but best of all there were beds and a fireplace.

"You think they are still usable after all these years. I don't want to place him down only to have the thing break beneath him," Ra'shall said quietly.

Katla moved up to the bed closest to the fireplace and sat down on top of it. She bounced a bit and then she looked up at the feline with a cheeky smile. "What do you think? Will it hold?" she asked.

Ra'shall rolled his eyes at her before ordering her off the bed so he could place the boy down.

Katla moved over to the fireplace and pulled out a scroll from her small bag. One never knew when fire could be crucial to survival, and the scrolls were far easier to work with than flint and steel. She opened the scroll and activated its magic before tossing it on the dry wood in the fireplace. Standing up once more, she started removing the straps that kept her weapons and then her armour in place. She wanted out of the heavy thing as soon as possible. "Will you help me lift this off so I don't wake him up, please," she asked Ra'shall.

The feline moved up to her and grabbed the backplate so they could lift the armour off her. They placed it down on the floor next to her weapons carefully.

"That's better thank you," Katla said. Taking her gauntlets off, she moved back in front of the fire. She looked over to the boy. "How could he possibly have ended up in the temple?" she asked softly. "The only way here is the one we took, and that can't have been used by anyone else in centuries."

Ra'shall shrugged. "I have no idea. But he can't stay up here," he said. He was searching through his pack for something edible. He found some potatoes and some dried venison. "Care to place these in the fireplace," he said. Katla turned towards him, and he threw the potatoes over to her one by one. He stood up once he'd pulled a water pouch out of the bag together with two bottles of Honningbrew Mead. "Should I try to wake him up or will we just let him sleep. He could really do with some food. He's way to light for it to be considered healthy," he said.

Katla stood back up after placing the potatoes down. "You might as well try, but I don't think that we should force it," she said.

Ra'shall moved over to the table and placed the things he was holding down before moving back to the boy. He kneeled down next to the bed and reached out. "Hey, young one wake up," he said in a normal conversational tone.

Nothing happened.

"We can just not be so careful," Katla said. "The general sound we make might be enough to bring him back. Though, he might need to get warmer first."

Ra'shall nodded.

…

Soft voices and the smell of burning wood.

Cold finger twitched slightly.

A deep breath was taken slowly.

Darkness.

.

.

.

There was only one voice sounding now. It was a woman. She was singing:

"Oh, there once was a hero named Ragnar the Red

Who came riding to Whiterun from ole Rorikstead

And the braggart did swagger and brandish his blade

As he told of bold battles and gold he had made

But then he went quiet, did Ragnar the Red

When he met the shield-maiden Matilda, who said;

"Oh, you talk and you lie and you drink all our mead

Now I think it's high time that you lie down and bleed!"

And so then came clashing and slashing of steel

As the brave lass Matilda charged in, full of zeal

And the braggart named Ragnar was boastful no more-

When his ugly red head rolled around on the floor!"

Green eyes opened slowly. The song was confusing. What was Rorikstead? He'd never heard of a place like that. He blinked slowly trying to process what he saw. He was lying in a bed in a room made of gray stone. His gaze lifted slightly, and he could see that a fire was burning merrily. He pulled himself up slowly. He wanted to get closer to the fire. Most of the room was too dark for him to see anything. He could hear the scraping of a chair over the rough stone floor before a woman made her way into the light.

She was tall and fair with long brown hair and broad shoulders. She looked like she was made to fight. There were thin scars running up her arms which indicated that she was in fact a warrior. Her warm amber gaze fell on him, and he swallowed thickly. Then a soft smile grazed her lips. It lit her entire face up. "How are you feeling young one?" she asked as she came up closer to him.

The young raven-haired teen moved back a bit on the bed as she approached him. He didn't really know what to answer. Should he tell her the truth or would she get angry? He lowered his gaze. "I'm O.K." he said softly. He reached up and fixed his glasses. Oh, how he wished he didn't need those.

The brunette tilted her head to the side. She didn't believe that response for a second. "You sure?" she asked. "Not cold or hungry?" she added. Green eyes lifted from the boy's lap and met hers. "If you need something you need to tell us. We cannot read your mind young one," she said calmly.

The boy nodded slowly. He looked like he wanted to ask her something. "Where is this?" he asked after a moment of silence. He'd realised that the place he was in could not be Hogwarts. He'd never seen anyone like the woman in front of him in the castle.

"This is Sky Haven Temple," Katla answered to his question. The raven looked at her like that didn't say him anything. "It's located in the Reach," she said. The poor boy just looked even more confused. "We're in Skyrim," she said as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Skyrim?" the boy repeated. He was pretty sure there was no place on Earth called Skyrim. He had been decent at geography after all. He looked up at the woman once more when she asked him where he was from. He bit his lip. 'What do I tell her?' he wondered. She'd think he was crazy if he told her the truth, wouldn't she?

"Don't even try lying to us. We don't like liars very much," a male voice said.

Green eyes left the woman and moved over the room. They widened as they fell on the person that had spoken. It was a cat-man. The body was that of a normal man's, but the head looked like a feline. He had dark fur with white stripes and a swaying tail.

"Shush with you Ra'shall. You don't have any right to speak to him like that. You're the biggest liar I know," the woman said. She turned back to the frightened boy. "Don't worry about him. He won't hurt you." She paused for a moment. "But we are quite good at detecting lies, and it isn't very nice to lie," she said honestly.

Harry bit his lip. She seemed like a really nice person. He didn't want her to dislike him. "Last thing I remember I was at a school called Hogwarts in Scotland," he said. If they knew how to tell when people lied to them, they would know that he was telling the truth even if the truth was hard to believe.

Katla turned to Ra'shall an eyebrow raised in question. The feline shook his head. He'd never heard of a place like that. The brunette stood up. "Why don't you come and eat something," she told the boy.

The raven moved to the edge of the bed slowly before he let his feet fall to the floor so he could stand up. He walked past a solid stone pillar that seemed to hold the ceiling up and over to the table standing on the other side. He sat down uncertainly. He had no clue where he was or how he'd gotten there. The names of the place didn't really help him. Even worse the last thing he could remember was meeting Hagrid outside the man's hut at Hogwarts. After that it was black.

What had happened?

A plate was placed in front of him together with a fork. "Thank you," he said. There was a potato on the plate. It was cut in two and spiced with something. There was some kind of meat there as well. He lifted the fork up and poked at the potato. It was steaming hot. A goblet was placed down in front of him and he looked up at the feline man as he moved around the table and sat down. "Thank you," he repeated.

"My name is Katla by the way," the brown-haired woman said as she sat down next to the feline man. "And this is Ra'shall. He's a Khajiit."

"Like the boy hasn't seen a Khajiit before," the dark-furred man said.

"I haven't," Harry said in a spur of boldness. His bright green eyes showed no lie as he looked at them. "Not that it says very much there are a lot of things I've never seen or heard off," he said.

"O.K. I can accept that he's never seen a Khajiit but never heard of one. From beneath what rock did you crawl out?" Ra'shall said.

Katla rolled her eyes. "Hush with you," she said. "There is no need to be rude to him." Turning to the raven-haired boy she asked, "What is your name young one?"

"Harry Potter," he answered her. He almost expected the customary response to his name being mentioned, but there was nothing. The two adults seated at the other side of the table didn't react at all. It was strange yet relieving. It meant that they wouldn't have any insane expectations in regards to him. He ate his potato in silence while listening to the two adults talking about travel plans. He wondered what would happen to him. It seemed like they needed to go really far.

"… we can always go to Markarth and take a carriage from there," Katla said as she ran a finger over the map she'd placed on the table. "It would lessen the travel time and mean that we don't have to walk all the way."

Harry had placed his fork down and drank the water that his goblet had been filled with. He didn't really know what to do now.

Katla turned towards him. "Why don't you go explore a little? As long as you don't go through any doors you'll be safe," she said. "I don't think we'll leave until tomorrow. Be careful and come back if you get cold, but I think it would be good for you to move around."

Harry nodded slowly. He got the feeling that the two of them wanted to talk without him hearing. He didn't like people talking about him behind his back, but he didn't feel confident enough to confront them about it. He guessed the brunette was right. He could use a walk.

It was really dark outside of the room he'd woken up in. He reached out so that one of his hands touched the wall as he walked forward slowly. He found a set of stairs and walked down them. It was easier to see now. There seemed to be light streaming in through the ceiling of the temple they were in. There were two persons sitting by a big stone table when he reached the bottom of the stairs. He wasn't sure he wanted to talk to them. He wondered if they belonged to the same group as the other two but figured that since they weren't all together they couldn't be. Though, Katla had promised him that he was safe as long as he didn't go through any doors so maybe they knew each other.

He slipped into a small room located along the wall behind the two seated by the table and looked around. It was so dark in there he could barely see anything. Reaching into the pocket where he normally had his wand, he froze. It wasn't there. He'd lost his wand. 'Great job Harry,' he thought. There was nothing else he could do in there not without some sort of light so he turned around and went back out.

He wandered around for a while. In and out of light. Suddenly he hit something with his foot. It clattered away from him. He moved down as he reached out wondering what it was he'd kicked. Nimble fingers tightened around a cylindrical object. Colours flashed before his eyes. A voice sounded in his head. "Zu'u fent aav hi voth hin fron Dovahkiin." The shear sound if the voice made him call out.

…

"We can't take the boy with us Katla," Ra'shall said. "We should travel to Markarth and leave him with someone there who can take care of him."

Katla sighed. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea. I have this feeling we should bring him with us," she said. "I don't know why and it irritates me, but you know that no one will treat him right. Even if we pay someone to take care of him he's more likely to end up on the street than taken care of."

Ra'shall shook his head. "You'd rather he died because of the danger we're constantly in?" he asked her.

"Of course not, but we can teach him how to take care of himself. And we're not always in danger. Between the two of us we should be able to keep him safe," Katla responded. "I just… I don't know if I can leave him behind. There is something about him…"

"I don't think that a hunch is a good enough reason to drag him with us," Ra'shall said. "There is something really strange about that kid."

"AAARRHHHH!"

Katla turned towards the corridor leading to the rest of the temple. She was moving without even thinking about it. Had they been wrong? Was there something in the temple that could harm the boy? She was about to start berating herself when she reached the kid. She lifted him up carefully. He was holding something in his hands, but her attention was turned towards his face as he started mumbling. "Lost ek aak hi ahrk wahl hi mul. Ruz hi fen daal," he said.

Amber eyes looked up and met teal. "That's dragon-tongue," she said.

Ra'shall closed his eyes and turned his head skywards. "You win," he said. "We'll at the very least bring him to High Hrothgar. We can make any other decision once there."

"We're keeping him… you'll see," Katla said.