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The Prodigal Son - ch04THE PRODIGAL SONIV - Moment OverThe next morning Alvor and his family prepared bags of supplies for Lucien, Ren, and Signy, enough to last them a couple of days in case anything were to go wrong, though as Ren pointed out, no amount of food and water would save them if the dragon attacked again. Suited for travel and dressed in considerably less conspicuously Imperial clothing, they set out to the North, toward the opening of the valley.By the time they left it was already quite late in the morning, at least by everyone else’s standard; Lucien had slept in and felt considerably less headachy than the day before. But this meant by the time they reached Whiterun they would not have much time to look for somewhere to stay. Alvor seemed convinced the Jarl would grant them room and board for free, and at first Lucien was unconvinced but decided maybe the culture of Skyrim was fundamentally far different than anything he knew.After what felt like an eternity of walking along the riverbank on the cobblestone road, which was still rather narrow, they reached the mouth of the valley. The mountain ranges parted to reveal a wide open expanse of flat grass below them, which must have stretched half the length of the province. At its far end the mountains joined back together, cradling the valley in a Skyrim-sized bowl. The mountains on the far side were just barely visible, looking more like anthills than cloud-touching walls of stone. Comparatively much closer was a large city seated amongst farms, seeming by its clean containment within high sturdy walls to be an island in the vast ocean of grass.“That’s Whiterun,” Signy said.“Have you been?” Lucien asked her.“No.”He frowned to himself.Once they climbed down the steep winding path to the plains below, the distance to Whiterun seemed much farther. They marched onward along the path through the grassy fields, passing by the farms, continuing to follow the river until at last they drew close to the collection of guard towers, farmhouses, and meaderies that huddled up to the fortified city walls. Closest on their left, one watch tower was crumbling and smoking.“Divines! Not the dragon again,” Ren cried.“Relax,” Lucien said, “it’s probably an accidental fire or someth...” as he said this, a screech echoed through the sky.“Gods-- get to cover!” The three hurried to a nearby cluster of trees a few hundred meters from the tower, as some guards who’d been standing near the tower ran toward the trees as well.“You won’t believe us, but--” one of the guards began.“Black dragon? Yeah, it’s been following us all the way from Helgen, I swear,” Ren growled.“Black? It’s not black at all.”“What?”It screeched again, this time much closer. Everyone turned their heads to the sky to see a smaller, yellow dragon flying in their direction.“Shit, there’s two?!” Lucien cried.It flew straight over them, sending an air current that nearly blew them off their feet, and breathed fire at the tower. Screaming and shouting could be heard as the dragon circled above it and breathe more fire. One guard at the trees stepped out from under them and readied his bow.“You think you can kill it? Are you stupid?!” Ren shouted.“You said black dragon?” the other guard asked nervously.“Yeah, whole town of Helgen and a Legion cohort fired at it and it didn’t even flinch.”“Then... by Kyne, we’re toast!” the guard said. But as he did, he dragon let out another screech and fell to the ground. It cried again, then made a series of noises which sounded to Lucien almost like language.“Hey, maybe this one’s weaker!” the bow guard called, and ran toward the dragon. The other guard followed.“Don’t tell me you’re going to-- oh Gods, they’re going to die,” Ren said.Before they could reach the tower, the dragon noticed them, and began awkwardly hopping in their direction. It said some more in its language in what somehow seemed to be a frustrated tone, before opening its mouth and blasting the guards and those by the trees with freezing air. The ground, and their bodies, were covered in a sheet of frost, and snow swirled in the air around them.“Shor’s balls, it can breathe ice, too?” Signy muttered, struggling to break her feet from the frozen ground. At last, a large group of guards led by a Dark Elf arrived to the scene. While Ren, Lucien, and Signy de-iced themselves, the new band of guards combined with the original, singed and frosted few to make relatively quick work of the clearly weaker yellow dragon.Finally, it could no longer move, and its head thudded to the earth. In its last moments it spoke, and though Lucien knew nothing of the dragon language, he felt sure it was congratulating them on winning the fight. Then it turned to look directly at Ren, Lucien, and Signy, and with wide eyes, whispered “Dovahkiin?!” Then its eyes rolled back, and the dragon ceased movement altogether.“Divines... please let this be the last bloody dragon we see,” Ren sighed, as the guards cheered and rallied around their leader the Dark Elf.The Elf began to make an announcement, but as she did the dragon’s corpse began to hiss. Everyone turned nervously back to it. Suddenly and violently it burst into a fireball. The crowd hurried away and watched in confused terror as flames hurled into the sky, sending pieces of scales and flesh into the air with it and reducing the dragon to ash within minutes.The fire appeared to calm, revealing only the dragon’s bare skeleton remaining. But before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the skeleton began glowing once again: this time not with fire, but an eerie yellow aura which swirled and swayed as it grew before suddenly making a beeline straight for Lucien. It swirled around him until it was all he could see, creating a whirlwind so strong and loud the noise pierced his very skull. Through the deafening noise he thought he almost heard voices-- deep, powerful voices which spoke harshly in tones he could not understand-- but the wind drowned them out before he could make out what they were saying. Eventually this too dissipated, leaving everyone in stunned silence.To his left, Ren lay on his back in the frozen and now windswept grass. “I’m... not even going to question it anymore,” he mumbled defeatedly.Some guards approached the three. “Dear Talos, that was incredible!” one exclaimed.“What was that?” another asked.“Did you just absorb that dragon’s soul?” a third said, and the other guards quickly rallied around this question. Before Lucien could reply, the Dark Elf spoke up.“Shut up, all of you! That’s not a thing that can happen. Leave the poor travelers alone. Come now, we must report back to--”“Party pooper!” a guard shouted.“Yeah, what do you know?” another added. They all booed her.“I did hear the Dragonborns of legend could kill and absorb dragon souls,” one guard piped up. The rest cheered and gathered around to hear more.“They’re like lemmings,” Ren said, incredulous, and stood. He approached the Elf as the guards were distracted, and explained with Lucien why they had come to Whiterun.“I see,” she said. “You must come with us to the Jarl. He will need to hear exactly what happened at Helgen. And, of course... that at least some dragons can be killed!”“And that he’s a Dovahkiin!” a guard added, followed by the cheers of his comrades.“Shut up!” the Elf yelled.“Dovahkiin?” Lucien said. “I heard the dragon say that, too.”“YOU DID?!” another guard cried. They all nearly dogpiled Lucien in excitement.He managed to dig himself free before asking: “Is that another word for Dragonborn?” The guards confirmed with various ‘yes’es and nods. “Hold on,” Ren announced, “How does this make any sense? The Septim royals died out centuries ago. How can there be any Dragonborns?”To this, nobody had an answer.“Enough of this mythical Dragonborn nonsense. You humans can be so thick-headed,” the Elf sighed. “We’re going back to town.” With this she turned on her heel and began marching back down the road toward Whiterun. The guards reluctantly followed, many sparing a glance at the dragon skeleton or giving excited winks and thumbs-ups to the trio. Ren gestured, and the trio followed along as well.Lucien had stopped fully registering what was happening at about the time the black dragon first appeared in Helgen, but still, he wondered what that glowing whirlwind was. Had it truly been the dragon’s soul, like the guards said? Why did it go toward him instead of anyone else? Could he really be a Dragonborn?No, of course not. It was probably some ancient dragon spell it’d cast on itself, dissipating after its death, and it flying off in his direction was nothing more than a coincidence. That had to be it. Ren was right; the Dragonborns had been dead for hundreds of years. Right?They and the guards continued down the road, passing by carts, farms, breweries, and houses, as the road at last grew to the wideness Lucien expected of a city. Many of the buildings’ inhabitants and customers had come out to see what that screeching was, and as they passed by, they were asked all sorts of questions. The Elf captain brushed them off with vague answers and ‘shoo, we’re busy’s interchangeably, and they marched onward.Near the city now, the path met up with a stream running next to the city walls. “Nirnroot down there,” Ren pointed out. “I know you hung out with Arcane University students in college, no need to brag,” Lucien joked.“Did you know Martin Septim attended the Arcane University? It’s no laughing matter, Luc,” Ren teased back.“Attended, and got expelled!”“Pah, baseless rumours!”“It’s true; Grandmaster Sadrys said...”“Grandmaster Sadrys says a lot of things.”Lucien shook his head indignantly, and Ren laughed.Whiterun’s walls towered high above the countryside and surrounding buildings, and more walls in its interior split the city into increasingly higher tiers. It looked like its own tiny mountain: a baby, being protected on all sides by its older brothers the mountain ranges. It was at this point in the trip they passed by a group of carts labelled as taxis, and Signy stopped. “Good luck,” she told them as the boarded a cart to Solitude and whatever that meant for her. Lucien waved goodbye as the cart took off, and he continued with the guards to Whiterun.They passed under the gate to the outer defenses, after which the road inclined upward and snaked back and forth toward the city’s actual entrance. Like Bruma, several trade caravans and individuals waited outside the gate, down the defensive path, and outside the town. But upon closer inspection, these were not the Imperial import shipments of Bruma, but ragged Khajiit travelling merchant bands. Lucien had no idea there were this many Khajiit in Skyrim. Perhaps it was an effect of the war.The Elf captain greeted the guards at the gate who pulled levers, allowing the massive gate doors to slowly roll open, and chains and gears strained and turned on either side heaving the portcullis up into the wall, allowing them entry into the city of Whiterun. There is more to him, but I haven't spoiled it yet, so I'm not going to start now. Read it when it happens in the fanfic. Or don't.

Description
The Prodigal Son - ch04THE PRODIGAL SONIV - Moment OverThe next morning Alvor and his family prepared bags of supplies for Lucien, Ren, and Signy, enough to last them a couple of days in case anything were to go wrong, though as Ren pointed out, no amount of food and water would save them if the dragon attacked again. Suited for travel and dressed in considerably less conspicuously Imperial clothing, they set out to the North, toward the opening of the valley.By the time they left it was already quite late in the morning, at least by everyone else’s standard; Lucien had slept in and felt considerably less headachy than the day before. But this meant by the time they reached Whiterun they would not have much time to look for somewhere to stay. Alvor seemed convinced the Jarl would grant them room and board for free, and at first Lucien was unconvinced but decided maybe the culture of Skyrim was fundamentally far different than anything he knew.After what felt like an eternity of walking along the riverbank on the cobblestone road, which was still rather narrow, they reached the mouth of the valley. The mountain ranges parted to reveal a wide open expanse of flat grass below them, which must have stretched half the length of the province. At its far end the mountains joined back together, cradling the valley in a Skyrim-sized bowl. The mountains on the far side were just barely visible, looking more like anthills than cloud-touching walls of stone. Comparatively much closer was a large city seated amongst farms, seeming by its clean containment within high sturdy walls to be an island in the vast ocean of grass.“That’s Whiterun,” Signy said.“Have you been?” Lucien asked her.“No.”He frowned to himself.Once they climbed down the steep winding path to the plains below, the distance to Whiterun seemed much farther. They marched onward along the path through the grassy fields, passing by the farms, continuing to follow the river until at last they drew close to the collection of guard towers, farmhouses, and meaderies that huddled up to the fortified city walls. Closest on their left, one watch tower was crumbling and smoking.“Divines! Not the dragon again,” Ren cried.“Relax,” Lucien said, “it’s probably an accidental fire or someth...” as he said this, a screech echoed through the sky.“Gods-- get to cover!” The three hurried to a nearby cluster of trees a few hundred meters from the tower, as some guards who’d been standing near the tower ran toward the trees as well.“You won’t believe us, but--” one of the guards began.“Black dragon? Yeah, it’s been following us all the way from Helgen, I swear,” Ren growled.“Black? It’s not black at all.”“What?”It screeched again, this time much closer. Everyone turned their heads to the sky to see a smaller, yellow dragon flying in their direction.“Shit, there’s two?!” Lucien cried.It flew straight over them, sending an air current that nearly blew them off their feet, and breathed fire at the tower. Screaming and shouting could be heard as the dragon circled above it and breathe more fire. One guard at the trees stepped out from under them and readied his bow.“You think you can kill it? Are you stupid?!” Ren shouted.“You said black dragon?” the other guard asked nervously.“Yeah, whole town of Helgen and a Legion cohort fired at it and it didn’t even flinch.”“Then... by Kyne, we’re toast!” the guard said. But as he did, he dragon let out another screech and fell to the ground. It cried again, then made a series of noises which sounded to Lucien almost like language.“Hey, maybe this one’s weaker!” the bow guard called, and ran toward the dragon. The other guard followed.“Don’t tell me you’re going to-- oh Gods, they’re going to die,” Ren said.Before they could reach the tower, the dragon noticed them, and began awkwardly hopping in their direction. It said some more in its language in what somehow seemed to be a frustrated tone, before opening its mouth and blasting the guards and those by the trees with freezing air. The ground, and their bodies, were covered in a sheet of frost, and snow swirled in the air around them.“Shor’s balls, it can breathe ice, too?” Signy muttered, struggling to break her feet from the frozen ground. At last, a large group of guards led by a Dark Elf arrived to the scene. While Ren, Lucien, and Signy de-iced themselves, the new band of guards combined with the original, singed and frosted few to make relatively quick work of the clearly weaker yellow dragon.Finally, it could no longer move, and its head thudded to the earth. In its last moments it spoke, and though Lucien knew nothing of the dragon language, he felt sure it was congratulating them on winning the fight. Then it turned to look directly at Ren, Lucien, and Signy, and with wide eyes, whispered “Dovahkiin?!” Then its eyes rolled back, and the dragon ceased movement altogether.“Divines... please let this be the last bloody dragon we see,” Ren sighed, as the guards cheered and rallied around their leader the Dark Elf.The Elf began to make an announcement, but as she did the dragon’s corpse began to hiss. Everyone turned nervously back to it. Suddenly and violently it burst into a fireball. The crowd hurried away and watched in confused terror as flames hurled into the sky, sending pieces of scales and flesh into the air with it and reducing the dragon to ash within minutes.The fire appeared to calm, revealing only the dragon’s bare skeleton remaining. But before they could breathe a sigh of relief, the skeleton began glowing once again: this time not with fire, but an eerie yellow aura which swirled and swayed as it grew before suddenly making a beeline straight for Lucien. It swirled around him until it was all he could see, creating a whirlwind so strong and loud the noise pierced his very skull. Through the deafening noise he thought he almost heard voices-- deep, powerful voices which spoke harshly in tones he could not understand-- but the wind drowned them out before he could make out what they were saying. Eventually this too dissipated, leaving everyone in stunned silence.To his left, Ren lay on his back in the frozen and now windswept grass. “I’m... not even going to question it anymore,” he mumbled defeatedly.Some guards approached the three. “Dear Talos, that was incredible!” one exclaimed.“What was that?” another asked.“Did you just absorb that dragon’s soul?” a third said, and the other guards quickly rallied around this question. Before Lucien could reply, the Dark Elf spoke up.“Shut up, all of you! That’s not a thing that can happen. Leave the poor travelers alone. Come now, we must report back to--”“Party pooper!” a guard shouted.“Yeah, what do you know?” another added. They all booed her.“I did hear the Dragonborns of legend could kill and absorb dragon souls,” one guard piped up. The rest cheered and gathered around to hear more.“They’re like lemmings,” Ren said, incredulous, and stood. He approached the Elf as the guards were distracted, and explained with Lucien why they had come to Whiterun.“I see,” she said. “You must come with us to the Jarl. He will need to hear exactly what happened at Helgen. And, of course... that at least some dragons can be killed!”“And that he’s a Dovahkiin!” a guard added, followed by the cheers of his comrades.“Shut up!” the Elf yelled.“Dovahkiin?” Lucien said. “I heard the dragon say that, too.”“YOU DID?!” another guard cried. They all nearly dogpiled Lucien in excitement.He managed to dig himself free before asking: “Is that another word for Dragonborn?” The guards confirmed with various ‘yes’es and nods. “Hold on,” Ren announced, “How does this make any sense? The Septim royals died out centuries ago. How can there be any Dragonborns?”To this, nobody had an answer.“Enough of this mythical Dragonborn nonsense. You humans can be so thick-headed,” the Elf sighed. “We’re going back to town.” With this she turned on her heel and began marching back down the road toward Whiterun. The guards reluctantly followed, many sparing a glance at the dragon skeleton or giving excited winks and thumbs-ups to the trio. Ren gestured, and the trio followed along as well.Lucien had stopped fully registering what was happening at about the time the black dragon first appeared in Helgen, but still, he wondered what that glowing whirlwind was. Had it truly been the dragon’s soul, like the guards said? Why did it go toward him instead of anyone else? Could he really be a Dragonborn?No, of course not. It was probably some ancient dragon spell it’d cast on itself, dissipating after its death, and it flying off in his direction was nothing more than a coincidence. That had to be it. Ren was right; the Dragonborns had been dead for hundreds of years. Right?They and the guards continued down the road, passing by carts, farms, breweries, and houses, as the road at last grew to the wideness Lucien expected of a city. Many of the buildings’ inhabitants and customers had come out to see what that screeching was, and as they passed by, they were asked all sorts of questions. The Elf captain brushed them off with vague answers and ‘shoo, we’re busy’s interchangeably, and they marched onward.Near the city now, the path met up with a stream running next to the city walls. “Nirnroot down there,” Ren pointed out. “I know you hung out with Arcane University students in college, no need to brag,” Lucien joked.“Did you know Martin Septim attended the Arcane University? It’s no laughing matter, Luc,” Ren teased back.“Attended, and got expelled!”“Pah, baseless rumours!”“It’s true; Grandmaster Sadrys said...”“Grandmaster Sadrys says a lot of things.”Lucien shook his head indignantly, and Ren laughed.Whiterun’s walls towered high above the countryside and surrounding buildings, and more walls in its interior split the city into increasingly higher tiers. It looked like its own tiny mountain: a baby, being protected on all sides by its older brothers the mountain ranges. It was at this point in the trip they passed by a group of carts labelled as taxis, and Signy stopped. “Good luck,” she told them as the boarded a cart to Solitude and whatever that meant for her. Lucien waved goodbye as the cart took off, and he continued with the guards to Whiterun.They passed under the gate to the outer defenses, after which the road inclined upward and snaked back and forth toward the city’s actual entrance. Like Bruma, several trade caravans and individuals waited outside the gate, down the defensive path, and outside the town. But upon closer inspection, these were not the Imperial import shipments of Bruma, but ragged Khajiit travelling merchant bands. Lucien had no idea there were this many Khajiit in Skyrim. Perhaps it was an effect of the war.The Elf captain greeted the guards at the gate who pulled levers, allowing the massive gate doors to slowly roll open, and chains and gears strained and turned on either side heaving the portcullis up into the wall, allowing them entry into the city of Whiterun. There is more to him, but I haven't spoiled it yet, so I'm not going to start now. Read it when it happens in the fanfic. Or don't.