"Oh. Wow. You're hilarious." The way Ena's rolling her eyes is practically audible in her voice.

"I try," Lianda says, then elbows her sister. Or tries. Ena just dodges and sends her an unamused glance.

"I hope you have a travel plan, and aren't just wandering?" she asks, voice a bit sour.

"We're fairly sure about our destination, yes. And the route's even relatively clear - there's probably some threats on the way, enough to discourage idle wanderers, but nothing we can't handle," Lianda says with a shrug. "Might have some problems with the Thalmor fort we'll be passing, but we'll see."

Ena nods, and lets the conversation lapse.

Four days later, as it's getting close to dusk, they reach a cave mouth that opens to the north, with a path winding down the mountain to their right. Lianda calls for a halt, then says, "If my information about this area's right, this should connect at the base of the mountain - and it'll cut two days off our journey."

"You're insane," Ena says, voice flat. "Do you have any idea what types of monsters like to make their homes in Skyrim's caves?"

Lianda waves a hand. "I go delving all the time. These areas might have stronger creatures - they're not traveled as frequently, so the place isn't cleared too often - but I'm familiar with trolls, bears, and the like. There's a risk, but I think the time saved is worth it, especially since there might be a time crunch in Markarth."

Ena rocks back, and seems to be thinking.

Ena glares a bit, says, "I really don't think two days is worth the risk… But I know how stubborn you are."

Lianda grins. "Knew you'd say that. Come on, where's your sense of adventure?"

Ena stares blankly at her, then says, "I agreed, didn't I. And I don't want to see anything you think is an 'adventure'."

(Serana's definitely snickering at them. Ena can't hear it. But she can tell.)

"I'll go in first, you can take the middle and pelt them with arrows, and cover Serana," Lianda says cheerfully, completely ignoring Ena, who rolls her eyes and follows Lianda into the monster's den.

The cave is at least less bone-chillingly cold than the outside wind, but that doesn't change the numbness of Ena's fingers even under her gloves. Shooting in these conditions - frigid cold, thick gloves, and short, narrow, and irregular corridors with uneven cover - is going to be a nightmare. She goes ahead and takes her bow out, stringing it - best not to save that for when they're being attacked.

The footing's mildly treacherous, and the cave itself is long and windy and branches often - though they keep to the largest branch, which is in Ena's opinion suspiciously walkable compared to the jagged paths leading off. Bones of animals - small and large - occasionally peek out of the ice.

There's a grumble from up ahead, a deep bellows sound. The path drops a bit then rises, curls under a beam of ice -

And there's a monster up ahead. Enormous, larger than giants, with blue skin and clothes made of fur and bone, a mammoth-skull mask upon its face. Its back is turned to them, as are the backs of two of the three enormous white wolves sprawled around it. The one wolf facing them appears to be asleep.

Serana goes very, very still and quiet. She taps Ena on the shoulder, then, and yanks her thumb over her shoulder when Ena glances back. Her eyes, though, are fixed firmly on the monster, some concern in them.

Right. Above their pay grade, Ena's guessing. She taps Lianda's shoulder in turn, shuffling forwards as softly as she can. Lianda raises an eyebrow, but seems to take both her companions' concerns seriously, and begins backing up.

The monster twitches. Turns around, and then surges to its feet with a roar, brandishing a club made out of a metal anchor. Its beady red eyes are set too low and wide apart on its wrinkled face, glaring out of the gaps in the skull mask it wears.

Definitely time to go. Ena turns to run -

And there's a wolf the size of a horse blocking their retreat.

She doesn't waste her breath on cursing, instead starts firing arrows at the wolf.

Serana gestures sharply, purple energy wreathing her hands, and the numerous skeletons reassemble themselves and take up the defense.

Lianda, being the world's biggest idiot, darts in to attack the titan.

It misses her by a tremendous margin, and her glowing sword cuts through its knee, burning the flesh there. It smells far too sweet, like charred fruit. It roars, shaking the cave, and the wolves around it leap up, snarling.

Lianda apparently has some sense, because she summons a flame atronach before throwing herself back into combat. The atronach starts focusing its attacks on the wolves, driving them back, while Lianda duels a titan. She's at least faster than it, able to avoid most of its attacks with ease.

Ena and Serana are having a bit more ill luck, neither of them being melee focused. The skeletons seem to be keeping back the first wolf well enough, but it's barely injured, and another is doing its best to circle around Lianda, eyes focused on the two women in the tunnel.

Serana curses, then -

What happens next doesn't make a ton of sense except in retrospect. Something primal in the back of Ena's head starting gibbering in terror. The wolves all whimper, and the titan snarls.

And Serana bursts into swirling shadows, and emerges as something - else.

Something apparently fully capable of going toe-to-toe with giant wolves, though Serana opens with a spell that starts draining the largest wolf of life.

Ena wisely turns to focus on the ones harassing her sister. It takes all of ten seconds for the wolf behind them to slump over, dead, at which point a swarm of bats flies over her shoulder. The titan stomps, creating a whirlwind of ice shards, and the bats resolve into the bat-monster Serana had turned into.

Serana's apparently fully capable of ignoring minor damage like that, as she strides forwards, her skeletons surging down past her to tie up the other wolves, and she starts draining them, too.

(Ena's not jealous, except how she utterly is.)

Lianda takes a few blows in the time it takes Serana and Ena to drop the wolves, but the titan's apparently weak to the flames wreathing her sword, because she's able to kill it within seconds of the last wolf falling. She staggers over to lean against one wall once it's dead, healing herself, and then glancing over at Ena. "You injured?" she asks between gasps.

Ena shakes her head. Technically, she has a few minor cuts from the flying ice shards, but it's nothing that can't wait. Lianda's far worse off, going by the amount of blood on the ground and how gingerly she's moving.

"Next time?" Ena says, as Serana starts shrinking back to a pretending-to-be-human shape, "We're not taking the shortcut."

Lianda laughs a bit, mutters 'ow', then straightens. "I can finish healing while we walk. Come on, let's get out of here."