Chapter 4 – Bleak Falls Barrow

The morning that Cloud and Zack set out for Bleak Falls Barrow was cold and foggy. Zack wasn't too pleased about the chill, complaining in a more-or-less good natured way as they headed for the edge of the plains. Cloud remembered that this was a very normal morning for Whiterun and assured him that the fog would burn off by noon. He wasn't put off by the weather, finding the chilly morning pleasantly nostalgic. He had lived in Southern Cyrodiil for seven years, and never really become accustomed to the damp heat. Eating dinner by a roaring fire and curling up in a bed with another person more than made up for the cold, in his opinion.

He put his hand on the hilt of the new sword at his waist. It was well-made, and worth every minute of the grueling day of work Adrianne at Warmaiden's had put him and Zack through to earn it. He couldn't say she'd been an unfair employer, though, since she'd decided their work was also worth the new steel gauntlets Zack was wearing.

Cloud smiled a bit. Now this was how the world was supposed to work. Zack and he would work hard for fair payment, and maybe gain a little glory for killing monsters and catching criminals with bounties. No lunatic mages to put them in cages and torture them for years. They were free, and while he may have needed Zack to use the calming spell when he woke from nightmares, everything seemed to be going quite well.

"It's good to be back to this, isn't it?" Zack said, apparently thinking much the same thing as Cloud.

"I could have done without the condescending court wizard, but yes," Cloud agreed, "It is."

"It's not like we've never worked for people like that before," Zack said, "But hey, we'll get the job done and make him eat his words and it'll be great."

"Right."

They passed through Riverwood on the road to the Barrow, and Zack paused outside of a smithy and smiled widely at the smith, who was bending over the grindstone working on an axe.

"Hello, Alvor!" Zack called brightly.

The smith looked up in surprise, and nodded when he saw Zack.

"You're back."

"I thought you ought to know I told Jarl Balgruuf about the dragon," he said.

"I guessed when he had extra guards sent to the village. Thank you. It helps me sleep easier at night," he looked at Cloud, "Looks like you're doing much better. I'm glad to see it."

At Cloud's confused look, Zack said "We spent the night on his floor after we escaped Helgen. You were pretty out of it."

Cloud blushed a little, annoyed that so many people had seen him in that state. He'd spent most of his life being thought of as small and weak, and while he had occasionally made it work to his advantage, he hated every second of it. Well, it wasn't like Zack had had much of a choice, and the blacksmith didn't seem to have any pity in his expression.

"The healers at the temple cured me. I'm fine now," Cloud said, "Thank you for your hospitality earlier, even if I was too sick to remember it."

"No true Nord would ever turn away a man in need," Alvor said, and Cloud resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He'd heard a lot about the things a 'true Nord' did growing up, and he had no idea how anyone managed to do all of them.

"What brings you back to Riverwood?" he asked.

"We're going up to Bleak Falls Barrow," Zack said, "Someone hired us to retrieve some kind of ancient artifact from it."

"Up to the Barrow, really?" Alvor said, "You should talk to Lucan Valerius before you go. Apparently some thieves stole a family heirloom from his shop and he thinks they're holed up at the Barrow. He's offering a reward."

Cloud looked over at Zack, who seemed to be thinking it over, "Zack..."

"What? We're going up there anyway, and we could use the money. We've got fourteen septims to our name right now, Cloud."

Cloud sighed, "Oh, all right. Let's go find this man."

Zack beamed at him and ruffled his hair. Cloud most assuredly did not pout.

As it turned out, Lucan was across the street in the Riverwood Trader and the family heirloom that had been stolen was large and fairly noticeable – a dragon's foot with gold claws. He was positive that the thief was one of the bandits that had been camped up by the Barrows for the last month. The Jarl didn't usually send any guards to clear out bandit dens unless they started raiding the towns or trade caravans, so he had little hope of it being returned to him without asking people to go after it.

His sister insisted on walking them to the edge of town, and Cloud tried not to let him irritation show too much when he was treated to another show of Zack flirting with every pretty woman he laid eyes on, but fortunately it did not last too long, since Riverwood was a small town.

"You never change," he sighed, when she had waved goodbye and turned back to town.

"Would you really want me to?" Zack asked.

"No, not really," Cloud admitted grudgingly.

Zack was outgoing and friendly and liked everyone, which was how Zack had become close friends with the shy Nord boy who was too nervous to reach out to people. Cloud had been terribly unhappy when his mother had brought him to Leyawiin - it was hot and humid and people had made fun of his northern accent. The number of Khajiit and Argonians had bothered him, too, although he had mostly gotten over that since then.

Zack had made it better when he decided to become Cloud's friend, and Cloud had never forgotten it. Putting up with the teasing and hair ruffling and constant flirting with women of every species was a small price to pay for the kind of friend who would risk his life many times over to save yours.

He walked closer and nudged Zack's shoulder with his own, "But I thought you liked the elf."

"Who, Aerith?" Zack asked, "I do like her, but she's not interested in anything other than a little flirting. I can tell."

Cloud privately believed Zack was wrong about that, but kept his mouth shut as they climbed the mountain. As long as Zack didn't think it was serious, Cloud wouldn't lose him.

Bleak Falls Barrow loomed above them, rising out of the fog, the snow on the buttresses looking like the ribs of some long-dead creature. Zack gave a low whistle.

"If it looks like that in ruins, it might have been a real sight in its day,"

Cloud nodded vaguely. He'd seen ancient Nord constructions before, and they all seemed more or less the same to him, majestic and unsettling reminders of a time lost long ago. He was more concerned with whatever traps or dangers might be hidden inside. He pointed up in the direction of the entrance.

"Does that look like smoke to you?" he asked.

Zack looked where Cloud was pointing, then nodded, "Yeah. Looks like someone's got a campfire up there. Probably our bandits."

Cloud nodded, "I'd think it was bandits even if we hadn't been told about it. Hunters don't set up camp in the ruins around here. Game avoids them."

"Good to know," Zack said, "I'll go up and see if I can talk to them, but if they attack, you come and back me up."

"Got it." Bandits tended to be cowardly, and Zack was sometimes able to intimidate them into giving up before he even had to fight. They both preferred that option when it worked.

They picked their way up the hill. The snow clung to the mountains at this height, crunching under their boots. It was a very loud sound in the stillness of the air. When the ground flattened out and the Barrow was directly ahead of them, Zack held up a hand to signal Cloud to stop. Cloud nodded silently, and crouched behind a snow-covered bush. It wasn't much cover, but they'd probably be well-distracted by Zack. He wished they'd been able to afford a bow for him before this job. A well-aimed arrow could change the tide of battle.

He saw a woman in fur armor descend the stairs. Zack's posture was tense – no chance he was going to try and flirt with her to ease their way. They spoke for a few moments, and then she drew her sword, and Zack drew his. Cloud waited until he heard the clang of two swords hitting each other, and burst out of his hiding spot to help Zack.

An arrow whizzed past his ear, and he turned to look for the spot it had come from. There was an archer on a broken stone pillar, and Cloud didn't take any more time to consider his actions before he rushed the archer. Zack would never take an arrow in the back on his watch.

He made quick work of the archer once he had backed him into a corner, then turned back to see Zack putting down a bear of a man. The woman he had first spoken to seemed to be fleeing down the mountain, an obvious stumble in her stride.

Zack straightened up as Cloud approached, "Where'd the second one go?"

"She made a break for it down the mountain," Cloud said, "I wouldn't bother going after her, she looked like she was hurt pretty bad."

"I asked her about the claw, and she let slip that someone called 'Arvel' took it inside," Zack said, "Which is, coincidentally, where we need to go anyways."

Cloud nodded. He retrieved the bow from the man he had fought and took his quiver. Only nine arrows. Unless he was lucky enough to find more inside, he'd need to be sparing with his shots for a while.

"Think there will be more bandits inside?"

"Probably just the one she mentioned, if he's even still alive. Undead tend to get really protective of their burial places."

"Right," Zack said with a laugh, "You know, we're really lunatics to make our living this way."

"It was your idea in the first place." Cloud reminded him.

"You never said no."

They pushed open the ancient door to the Barrow just a crack, just enough to slip inside without much of a chance of alerting any undead that might be lurking in the first chamber. There were a number of rats, and evidence that the bandits had camped inside, but no undead and no sign of 'Arvel' as they descended into the ruin. The tunnels were worryingly empty. Cloud was always suspicious when they went too long in a ruin without running into some kind of difficulty other than rats.

There was light towards the end of the tunnel and Zack gesture for him to stop.

"Someone in that room," he whispered, pointing at the silhouette of a shadow on the floor.

As they slowly approached the room, they heard the loud thunk of some ancient mechanism being triggered, and then the hiss of darts. Cloud rounded the corner just in time to see a man collapse with a soft cry. Darts were being fired from all over the room, but they stopped after a moment.

Zack stepped into the room and checked the body. "Dead," he declared, "There must have been some nasty poison on that trap he triggered. Watch your step in here."

Cloud nodded vaguely, examining the room. There was what looked like a locked gate, some carvings on the wall, and three stone plinths with carvings that seemed of a similar design. The dead man's body was slumped next to a lever, conspicuously in the center of the room. "I don't see any tripwires or pressure plates. He must have pulled the lever."

"Damn fool thing to do," Zack muttered, "It's in the middle of the room, it's obviously a trap."

"No..." Cloud said, looking at one of the plinths more closely. He reached out and pushed it, and it moved easily, spinning on its base. He reached out to one of the other ones, and it spun as well.

"I think it's a puzzle," he said, "I bet we have to get these three plinths aligned to get the door open. One combination will open the door, anything else triggers the trap."

"That makes sense," Zack said, "Anybody supposed to be down here would already know the right combination, and poison darts do tend to discourage your run-of-the-mill grave robbers. The question is, what's the right combination?"

Cloud looked up at the carvings on the wall above the door. The middle one had fallen sometime in the last several centuries, but it was still visible. "I think it's probably those three," he said, pointing at the carvings, "See? Snake, snake, whale."

Zack looked up and frowned, "Why would the ancient Nords carve the answer to their puzzle on the wall?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Cloud said with a shrug. He walked to the pillars and turned them to match the carvings above. "I have a rope in my bag. Let's tie it around the lever and pull it from the hall so we'll be safe if I'm wrong."

"Good plan," Zack said brightly, "This is why I keep you around."

When the door opened and no darts fired, Cloud couldn't keep himself from giving Zack a very smug look. "Told you so."

He didn't even mind the hair ruffling he got in response.

Zack could tell that Cloud was back to normal, or at least what counted as normal for Cloud. Cloud had always been good at finding traps and getting around them safely, and Zack was thrilled to have his help once again.

There was an old chest with a few coins in it in the next room, which Zack and Cloud divided evenly before they took the spiral staircase down into the ruin. The corridor at the bottom of the stairs was covered in cobwebs, which Cloud commented on.

"Ugh. Probably going to be frostbite spiders down here," he said with a shudder, "I hate those things."

"I'm with you there," Zack agreed. Regular-sized spiders were totally fine, but the giant ones were a little much.

"Is someone there?" a voice came from deeper inside, "Soling, is that you? I need your help!"

"Who's there?" Zack called.

"Help! It's coming back!" the panicked voice screamed.

Zack didn't take any more time to consider it and rushed forward, clearing the web blocking the door with his sword. There was a Frostbite spider inside the room, and Zack wasted no time taking one of its legs off with his sword. Cloud came up from his left with a flame spell, and the creature let out a hideous shriek as it died.

"Yeah, the giant spiders are my least favorite thing about Skyrim so far," he said to Cloud, "I'm going to avoid them whenever possible."

He was trying to clean the sticky web off of his sword, when the person who had cried for help spoke again.

"You did it. You killed it. Now cut me down before anything else shows up."

Zack turned to see a dark elf partially suspended in spider webs, "Woah. Yeah, hang on a minute there, I'll have you down in a jiffy."

"Sweet breath of Arkay, thank you," the dark elf said.

Zack considered the way he was hanging and quickly determined that cutting him loose with the buster sword would be more likely to cut the poor sap in half. He stepped aside.

"Cloud, I think you should do this," he said.

Cloud glanced at Zack's sword and laughed, "All right, I'll get him."

"I have a dagger if that will work better," the elf said, eying Cloud's sword and the flame spell still prepared in his hand warily.

"No, this will be fine," Cloud said, holding his fiery hand up, "Don't worry, I'm very good at fire magic. I can even summon flame atronachs."

"What's your name, friend?" Zack asked.

"Arvel," the dark elf said, "They call me Arvel the Swift."

"Are you the one who has Lucan's golden claw?" Zack asked.

"Yes, I have it," Arvel said, "I know how it works. The claw, the markings, the door in the hall of secrets. I know how they all fit together! You won't believe the power the Nords have hidden away in here. Help me down, and I'll share it with you."

Cloud looked at Zack, who nodded. Arvel sounded grateful enough that he'd probably agree to let them have the claw if they asked, and he'd have a hard time getting out of the ruin past the two of them.

He reached up and carefully began to burn the web holding Arvel in place. After a couple of minutes work, Arvel was able to free himself from the rest of the web. He dropped to the ground and looked up at them. Zack recognized his expression, but was surprised when Arvel instead bolted deeper into the ruin instead of for the door.

"You fools!" he shouted over his shoulder, "Why should I share the treasure with anyone?"

Zack ran after him, but they had barely reached one more room before he heard Arvel scream. He rounded the corner and saw an odd-looking zombie. It seemed dried out instead of rotting, and it was advancing on Arvel with a battleaxe.

Arvel dodged the blow and ran for the way out, but apparently triggered a trap on the way, for a row of old timber and spikes swung forward and hit him. Arvel crumpled to the ground and did not rise.

He didn't have time to waste on worrying about the now-dead elf, since the undead had now noticed him and Cloud. Cloud was attacking with his fire spell, which seemed very effective on these odd, dry zombies.

"What are these things called?" Zack asked, bringing the blunt side of his sword down on the zombie's neck and shoulder. The crushing blow crippled it.

"Draugr," Cloud said, turning his spell on the draugr, "The ancient Nords preserved their dead with salt."

"Neat!" The draugr was dead, and Zack relaxed, "Weak to fire, huh?"

"Most undead are, but draugr especially so," Cloud said. He walked over to Arvel's body and shook his head, "Idiot. We would've shared with him, and he would have made it with our help."

"Check him," Zack said, "We'll need to find that claw."

Cloud bent over the body, then straightened up holding what could only be the claw, "Right here. It was tied to his belt."

He handed the claw to Zack, who examined it. It was an ornate old piece of art, obviously gold-plated rather than solid gold, to judge by the weight. "How it all fits together..." he said musingly, "I wonder how it does fit."

Cloud reached into Arvel's pouch, then pulled his hand out with a grin, "Looks like he kept a journal. Maybe he wrote it down."

Zack took the book and flipped through it. On one of the last entries, he saw the words "golden claw" and he stopped to read it. There was a bit of bragging about how clever he had thought himself, and something that looked like a riddle.

"'When you have the golden claw, the solution is in the palm of your hands'," Zack read, and shook his head, "I hate riddles."

"We'll figure it out," Cloud said reassuringly, "Let's push on."

It was fairly straightforward from that point on. They fought a few more draugr, and Cloud crawled on his stomach under a trap of swinging blades to reach the mechanism that shut it off. It was very much like exploring the old Ayleid ruins in Cyrodiil, though the architecture was different, with lots of narrow passageways between small to medium-sized rooms. The passages made Cloud noticably nervous. He had never liked enclosed spaces to start with, and after his ordeal at Hojo's hands, he was even less comfortable with them. Zack worried that he might have to use a calm spell on Cloud before they left.

Fortunately, they found themselves in a wider corridor after clearing a large room, and Cloud's building panic seemed to be lessening.

"Hey, look at that," Zack said, pointing at an elaborately carved wall at the end of the corridor. There were arches with symbols on them embedded in the wall, and beneath them, a depression which looked like it was in the shape of the claw.

Zack lifted up the claw and put it into the depression, and the whole thing sunk into the wall and twisted, but nothing happened.

"Great," Zack said, "Looks like we've got another puzzle to figure out."

He touched one of the arches and discovered it was actually a ring which spun around to another symbol.

"Does it look like any of those carvings conveniently tell us what the right combination is?" Zack asked waving the claw around in vague frustration.

"No, but..." Cloud caught Zack's wrist and turned his hand around, "I think this does." He pointed to the symbols on the bottom of the foot.

"Huh," Zack said, looking at the claw more closely, "I hadn't noticed those."

Cloud chuckled, "You never do. Details are not your skill."

"Thanks," Zack said sourly. He examined the claw. "All right. I think that's the bear on top, then the moth in the middle, and the owl on the bottom."

Cloud nodded, rearranging the rings as Zack had said, "Okay, try it."

Zack pressed the claw back into the keyhole, and the rings began spinning until they lined up. Then the entire carved wall sank into the floor, ancient mechanisms creaking, revealing a large natural cave beyond. Zack heard Cloud breathe a sigh of relief at no longer being so enclosed.

"Would you look at that," Zack said.

"Do you think this is the main burial chamber?" Cloud asked.

"That's my guess," Zack said. It didn't look like there were any more undead around, so he put his sword on his back and walked forward confidently. There was a natural stream flowing through the center of the cave, with a few ferns straining upward for the weak light from above. On the other side of the stream was an old table, an elaborately carved wooden chest, a coffin, and what looked like an old stone wall covered in some sort of runes.

"This cave is definitely the kind of place I would want to have my crypt built around, if I were an ancient king." He said flippantly as he hopped across the stream.

He turned back to hold a hand out to Cloud to help him cross as well, and Cloud took it. For all that he grumbled about being able to do things on his own, Cloud never refused help from Zack. Zack pulled him upright when his foot slipped on the wet stone and grinned.

"All right, let's see if we can find this thing," Zack said.

He approached the chest first, figuring it usually worked to start with the most obvious place first, but something about the rune-covered wall caught his eye. He looked again, and it seemed like one of the runes was glowing... Zack moved towards the wall very carefully, ready to spring away if it was a booby trap. As he got closer, the rune got brighter, and Zack could have sworn he heard some kind of faint chanting. It sounded like it was coming from very far away...

"Do you hear that?" he asked Cloud.

"Hear what? ... Zack?"

Cloud's voice, the rest of the wall, and in fact the rest of the room seemed to fade away as the rune glowed bright blue-white, searing itself across Zack's vision.

Fus. The rune said fus, but what that meant and how Zack knew it was a mystery. But he was absolutely positive of it. "Fus," he muttered. There was some kind of power in the word, he could tell, tickling at the back of his mind like a half-remembered thought.

As he spoke the word the rest of the world came back into focus and he heard a crash coming from directly behind him and Cloud's startled shriek, jerking him out of his daze.

He grabbed his sword off his back again and turned to see another draugr rising out of the now-open coffin. This one must have been an important person when he was alive, because he looked to have much finer armor than the others they'd encountered, and his sword glowed faintly blue with what Zack guessed was probably a frost enchantment.

Cloud was already attack with his flame spell and the draugr had turned towards him, leaving its back open to attack. Zack took his advantage, and brought his huge sword down in one mighty swing, severing its ancient spine. It fell to the ground and laid still, finally completely dead.

Cloud looked up at him, breathing hard. Zack caught his eye, and began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Cloud demanded indignantly.

"You screamed like a little girl!" Zack howled, laughing harder.

"I did not!" Cloud protested, his face going bright red with embarrassed fury.

"Fine, fine – it was – a very manly shriek," Zack choked out, laughing so hard he doubled over and braced his hands on his knees.

"Shut up!" Cloud said, "Anyways, what the hell were you doing? You were just staring at that wall! I had to scream to get your attention, it was coming right for you!"

Zack took a few deep breaths and straightened up, deciding to let Cloud get away with the little white lie to preserve his dignity.

"One of those runes was glowing," Zack said, looking back at the wall. He was feeling deeply unsettled now that the bout of hilarity had passed.

"Glowing?" Cloud said, "I didn't see any glow."

"It was that one," Zack said, pointing at the now completely inert rune. Experimentally, he touched it. Nothing happened.

"Do you know what the word 'fus' means?" he asked.

Cloud shook his head, "Not a clue."

Zack shrugged, "Oh well. I guess it doesn't really matter. Come on, let's look for the Dragonstone."

It wasn't in the chest, though they found a nice little pile of gold coins and a dagger with some kind of enchantment on it, but when they looked in the coffin the draugr had risen out of, they found they old, carved stone which Zack was certain was the stone they were looking for.

"Great!" he said happily, "Let's get out of here and go see how much of a reward we're getting."

"For the stone or the claw?" Cloud asked.

"Both," Zack said, "But either way, we've found enough loot in here to set us up at the inn for another couple of weeks at least."

Behind the wall with the strange runes, they found a handle which opened up a secret passage into more natural caves. There was a breeze blowing from the caves, so they decided to try their luck getting out that was rather than backtracking through the entire Barrow. A short while later, they came to an exit, on the side of the mountain, where the long evening shadows stretched from the trees.

"It's getting late," Zack said, "Do we want to try and find the way back to Whiterun tonight, or camp here and head back in the morning? I'm not quite sure where this dumped us out."

"Give me your map for a second, Zack," Cloud said, "I'm pretty sure we're west of the entrance."

Zack didn't bother to ask how Cloud knew. His sense of direction was impeccable. Cloud spent a few minutes pouring over the map in the dimming evening light before pointing at a spot on it, "We're here," he declared. "The river is down there. Let's get back to Riverwood tonight. No reason to camp out when we're so close to a town. Maybe your friend Alvor will let us sleep on his floor again."

"There's an inn in Riverwood, too," Zack said, "Let's stay there, since we've got the money for it now."

Cloud nodded his agreement and handed the map back to Zack. "This way," he said, leading the way down the mountainside.

As it turned out, they were barely a quarter of a mile from the river, and once they found it, it was a simple hike downstream until they reached Riverwood once more. The sun had set fully by the time they walked under the arch leading into town, but there were some lights coming from the windows of the houses. Zack knocked on the door to the Riverwood Trader and handed the golden claw to an astonished and grateful Lucan Valerius.

"I never expected you'd get it back so soon!" he said.

"It wasn't that hard," Zack said modestly, "Besides, we were going up to the Barrows anyway."

"Still, it's so good to have the claw back where it belongs," he said brightly, putting it front and center on the counter of the little shop. Zack privately felt that putting something large and covered with gold on such prominent display was pretty much daring thieves to come and take it, even if they didn't know it was a key to hidden ancient treasure, but refrained from saying so and happily accepted the fat coin purse as a reward. The kiss on the cheek from Camilla was quite nice, too, although it made Cloud scowl fiercely.

They arrived at the Sleeping Giant Inn a few minutes after Lucan finally stopped thanking them for long enough that they could leave, and got a room for ten septims and a hearty dinner of potato soup, cheese, and venison, which they ate by the fire. Zack would have been content to just sit and listen to the regulars gossip, but Delphine the innkeeper asked him about his trip to the Barrows and he couldn't help but brag.

"Well, we ran off the bandits that were camped up there," he said brightly, "and two of them are dead, so it should be a while before you've got a problem with them again."

"Hopefully it'll be a month or two," she said, "But brigands like that like to hang around abandoned places, though, so I doubt it'll be long before we get more of them."

"Well, if there are more the next time we come through town, let me know, and Cloud and I will run them off for you again," Zack said with a grin, "It's a rare bandit that can face us and come out ahead."

Cloud snorted at him, "Braggart."

"It's not bragging if it's true!" Zack protested, "You and me, Cloud, we're a great team and you know it."

"What was the Barrow like inside?" Delphine asked, "I've always been curious, but I've never been brave enough to go into one of those ruins."

So Zack told her all about it, the undead and the traps and Arvel's stupid decision to run away further into the ruins, making Cloud roll his eyes when Zack couldn't help but describe exactly how he'd defeated each enemy. But he blushed when Zack then switched to describing Cloud's solving the puzzles, especially when Zack gave overly elaborate praise to his friend's cleverness and bravery.

Finally, when they had finished their meal and Zack had finished the story, Delphine went off to help the other innkeeper clean up, and Zack declared it was probably time for them to get to bed.

"We'll get back to Whiterun tomorrow," Zack said brightly.

"I really wish you wouldn't make fun of me like that," Cloud said as they went to their room for the night.

"Who was making fun?" Zack asked, sitting on the bed and removing his boots. "Sure, I may have exaggerated a little bit, but you really are that smart and that brave. I'm always glad to have you as my partner."

Cloud flushed even more and sat down on the bed, not looking at Zack, so he threw his arm across Cloud's shoulders and pulled him close for a sideways hug, "You're an amazing person, Cloud. And one day, I'm going to make you believe it."

Cloud turned and hugged Zack back, squeezing him tightly, "Thank you, Zack."

"Any time, Cloud. Any time."

I know that I'm not exactly known for my quick updates, but I thought I should give my readers a heads up that the next chapter is probably going to be the last one that comes quickly for a while. My dad recently had a major surgery, and while he's recovering well, he'll need a lot of help and since I'm the only family member without a day job, I'll be nursing him a lot and I'll probably have less time to write. I don't intend to abandon this story, though, it's probably my favorite I've written in a long time.