Death of a Wanderer Content . " The Death of a Wanderer " The last time I saw the old Argonian , I was taken by how alive he seemed , even though he was in the throes of death . " The secret , " he said , " of staying alive . . . is not in running away , but swimming directly at danger . Catches it off - guard . " " Is that how you managed to find this claw ? " I asked , brandishing the small carving as if it were a weapon . I had found it among his possessions , which I was helping him to divvy amongst his beneficiaries . " Should it also go to your cousin ? Dives - From - Below ? " At this , his mouth widened , exposing his fangs . If I hadn ' t known him as long as I had I would think he was snarling , but I knew that to be a smile . He croaked a few times to attempt laughter , but ended up wheezing and coughing , his rancid blood spraying across the bedsheets . " Do you know what that is ? " he asked between coughing fits . " I ' ve heard stories , " I answered , " the same as you . Looks like one of the claws , for opening the sealing - doors in the ancient crypts . I ' ve never seen one myself , before . " " Then you know I would only wish that thing upon a mortal enemy . Giving it to my cousin would just be encouraging him to run into one of those barrows and get split by a Draugr blade . " " So you want me to have it , then ? " I joked . " Where did you even get this ? " " My kind can find things that your people assumed were gone . Drop something to the bottom of a lake , and a Nord will never see it again . Amazing what you can find along the bottoms . " He was staring at the ceiling now , and but the way his fogged eyes darted around , I could tell he was seeing his memories instead of the cracked stone above us . " Did you ever try to use it ? " I whispered to him , hoping he could hear me through his fog . " Of course ! " he snapped , suddenly lucid . His eyes widened and fixed on me . " Where do you think I got this ? " he barked , tearing his tunic open to show a white scar forming a large star - shaped knot in the scales beneath his right shoulder . " Blasted Draugr got the drop on me . Just too many of them . " I felt awful , since I knew how much he hated talking about the battles he had been in . To him , it was enough that he had survived , and any stories would amount to boasting . We both sat quietly for several minutes , his labored breathing the only sound . He was the one to break the silence . " You know what always bothered me ? " he asked . " Why they even bothered with the symbols . " " The what ? " " The symbols , you fool , look at the claw . " I turned it over in my hand . Sure enough , etched into the face were three animals . A bear , an owl , and some kind of insect . " What do the symbols mean , Deerkaza ? " " The sealing - doors . It ' s not enough to just have the claw . They ' re made of massive stone wheels that must align with the claw ' s symbols before they ' ll open . It ' s a sort of lock , I suppose . But I didn ' t know why they bothered with them . If you had the claw , you also had the symbols to open the door . So why . . . " He was broken up by a coughing fit . It was the most I had heard him speak in months , but I could tell how much of a struggle it was . I knew his mind , though , and helped the thought along . " Why even have a combination if you ' re going to write it on the key ? " " Exactly . But as I lay bleeding on that floor , I figured it out . The Draugr are relentless , but far from clever . Once I was downed , they continued shuffling about . To no aim . No direction . Bumping against one another , the walls . " " So ? " " So the symbols on the doors weren ' t meant to be another lock . Just a way of ensuring the person entering was actually alive and had a functioning mind . " " Then the doors . . . " " Were never meant to keep people out . They were meant to keep the Draugr in . " And with that , he fell back asleep . When he awoke several days later , he refused to talk about the Draugr at all , and would only wince and clutch his shoulder if I tried to bring them up .