Author's Note: So, after all this time missing, I'm back! I never really gave up on this, but I took all this time to update mostly due to a combination of procrastination and way too many hobbies for my own safety. Still, at least I've came back.
So, before I can actually move onto chapter two, I felt like this first one needed to be done again. I wasn't satisfied at all with the original, and to be honest, it originally wasn't made to be posted here, but instead for another objective for which I had a pretty strict amount of words. And then I posted it here to see how would be the public reaction to the idea. And since I was pretty satisfied about that part, I decided to work properly on this chapter and make it what it deserves to be (more or less). Again, it's still not a high-quality story since it's still my first, but I honestly believe it is better than the original. Now the chapter is bigger (duh) more detailed, more explained, better overall writing, and now includes a poor attempt for a joke and an (mostly failed) attempt for an internal conflict (I may have been too aggressive on that one, but I really felt like it was worth a shot). I did also actually describe the fight this time. And since equipment matters a lot in the game, I describe exactly what Dovahkiin is using on this event.
And to be honest, I kinda feel bad for taking so long to actually name Odahviing in this chapter :P
One note about the dragons: the dragons in Skyrim are Wyverns, but I am actually much more fond of the Classic European dragon (the one with four legs and two wings, all separate, while a Wyvern has the wings embedded in the forearms), so I am pending to use that model instead. Still, if people think that would be going too far away from the game, I will just stick with Wyverns. Note that this chapter doesn't really has anything on that part. Also, on the Author Note on the next chapter I will specify some stuff about Dovahkiin (perks, equipment, questlines completed, that stuff). I need to do that on a note because I can't think of a way to put those neatly inside the actual story (especially perks).
Now I'm pretty much clear for chapter two, HOWEVER, first I must outline the rest of the story, and that will take quite a lot of research. Especially because I'm still very far from beating the game (heck, I still barely started the main quest. But that one is because I have the the habit of doing everything else first and then breezing through it :P). Still, how long it takes will depend on how often I will fell like working on this during my upcoming summer vacations (yes I live in the southern hemisphere). I swear I will try not to take another year, tough.
And it seems I forgot the disclaimers last time :P Note that it's a bit complicated in this case, because I will actually use existing characters from the game but I will completely overwrite the personality of most, and some of them will have their appearance changed (like Odahviing). I never saw some of them in-game anyway.
So basically, Skyrim, its locations, items and characters are © to Bethesda Studios. The personalities (and appearance of some) of the characters are different from the game and created by me.
I don't know what I was smoking last time when I said I don't want bad reviews. Any kind of feedback is good, even negative. That's how we improve, right? Note that with this I mean Constructive Criticism, not the usual "hur dur your dumb hur dur" you see around the internet.
Trolls, you have been warned. *Loads Railgun*
"Our sentinels spotted the dragon landing at the mountains. The risk of it coming to the city is way too high. That's why I called you. Take it down, and you will be rewarded."
Dovahkiin stood still as Balgruuf the Greater gave him his mission. It was understandable why the Jarl decided to give him this mission. Not only had him done a similar thing once, but he also got quite the fame as a dragon slayer through his adventures.
"There is no need for a reward," replied, "consider it as a favor from a friend."
"Are you sure? I know this is an easy job for you, but I still feel that I should give you something for your effort."
"Thinking about it, it has been a while since I last had a decent meal, so I wouldn't say no to a nice dinner." said Dovahkiin, a smirk starting to appear on his face. "After all, who needs payment when you can have roasted goat and beer, right?" continued, Balgruuf reflecting his facial expression before both men burst into laughter for a few seconds.
"A feast shall be waiting then!" exclaimed Balgruuf once they calmed down. "Just be careful, my friend."
"I will."
The sunrise in the next morning found Dovahkiin nearing the top of the mountains northeast of Whiterun, close to where the dragon had apparently landed. He had learned a lot of interesting information through these past years, and one of those was the fact that dragons usually were sound asleep at this time of the day. So, unless he was terribly unlucky, he would have a great advantage over the beast, at least in the beginning of the battle.
He knelt down for a moment, having a rest from the climb while re-checking his equipment. Since this was a short mission, he hadn't brought much; he wore his Daedric armor, a matching shield strapped firmly on his left arm; sitting on the left of his waist was his Daedric sword, a greatsword of the same type crossed his back, the handle pointing over his right shoulder; his Daedric bow and arrows parallel to the greatsword, left of it. Around his neck he had a golden necklace and a golden ring in each of his hands. These were the only pieces of jewelry he usually wore, all forged by himself and incrusted with flawless diamonds he found while mining. None of them was useless tough, since they all carried enchantments; the necklace was imbued with Fortify Health and Health Regen; one of the rings had Fortify Magicka and Magicka Regen, while the other had Fortify Destruction and Restoration. In his pouch he brought only a few pieces of food and some health and magicka potions.
Once he made sure his armor was in check and that any item he might need was at hand, he got up and finished the climb, going over the peak before once again climbing down until he reached a relatively large platform, densely covered by tall trees. He moved into the woods, looking for the clear area he saw when he was climbing down, while making sure to make the minimum noise possible.
After walking for a few minutes, Dovahkiin finally reached the clearing. Right at the center, laid down on the short grass, was the dragon. The slayer carefully looked at the dragon, analyzing his foe. The dragon sported red scales, but this one was slightly bigger than the other ones he had found of the same color, and the color of his scales seemed to be more of a ruby-red rather than the usual copper-red, even though they were somewhat filthy. He also seemed to be in a bit worse health state than the others, as it could be seen by the cracked and missing scales in some spots, when the others he had seen seemed not to lack even a single scale.
Even tough, Dovahkiin fought enough battles to know no opponent should be underestimated. The slayer slowly walked closer to the sleeping creature, his sword coming out of the scabbard without a single sound. He aimed for the dragon's wing, trying to make as much damage to it and the flesh under as he could. If he did enough, not only would he wound the dragon, but also prevent it from flying, thus taking out its biggest advantage. Most people would try to quickly kill the creature striking its throat; but he knew it would take way more than that to kill the dragon; no mortal could deal a blow with the power to cut through the scales and muscle of a dragon sufficiently deep to cause a fatal wound in one strike.
Only after he had absorbed every detail of his foe, once the subsequent battle was planned out in his head, did Dovahkiin finally restarted moving. The Dragonborn silently approached the dragon, step after step, his shield prepared to block any attack it could give back, his sword raised high as he prepared to bring it down with full force… Just a few more feet…
"What the heck do you think you're doing?" a gravelly voice suddenly asked.
Dovahkiin stopped dead on his tracks, backing a step and tightening his grip on the sword handle, looking around, unable to find where the voice came from…
…Until he looked back at the dragon.
The dragon's eyes were now open, revealing emerald-green irises and deep black pupils, now contracted into a vertical slit because of the strong light from the rising sun. And those eyes were now boring into the Dragonborn, who stood frozen at the spot.
"Are you going to answer or what?" the dragon spat, its voice taking a tone of impatience. "Do I have to wait all day?"
'This can't be true…' thought Dovahkiin, his mind still trying to process what just happened. 'It is… is…'
"Are you talking?"
"Are you seeing someone else?" the dragon answered. "Yes, I am talking. What's the big deal?"
"But you are a…"
"A dragon? Yes I am, so what? Oh, yes, I forgot what you humans think of us. Tell me, did you honestly believe that we are only a bunch of mindless animals?"
"Aren't… they?" Dovahkiin muttered, trying desperately to find any way to refute what he was seeing. All his life, every story he heard depicted dragons as the most savage beasts, destroying everything that came into their sight, every communication attempt a failure. These showed him that dragons were nothing but mindless monsters, and there is no chance that they were just lies! Or is there? "It changes nothing, you're still going down!" He finally said, his anger rising while he tried to push back all the thoughts that ravaged across his mind, his grip on the sword tightening.
"Here we go again…" the dragon sighed, rolling his eyes. "May I ask you, why exactly do you want to kill me?"
Dovahkiin stopped, immobile for the second time as he tried desperately to prevent his mind from caving in, resisting the barrage of questions that were making him doubt everything he knew and believed so far. He had never thought of any of those before, and now they came so violently that it was almost maddening.
"Well, I won't let you attack the city!" the Dragonborn came up, answering himself at the same time he answered the dragon.
"And why the heck would I do that? Food? I've got plenty here. Loot? Like if I cared for gold or jewels, contrary to what some of you think. Fun? Well, the last time I checked, being hit by some dozens of arrows isn't exactly pleasuring."
"What if Alduin ordered you?" Dovahkiin said, remembering what the Graybeards had told him months ago, giving him somewhere to step in all this mess that became his mind.
The dragon closed his eyes and shivered deeply when he heard the name, and Dovahkiin guessed he wouldn't have this support for long.
"Why would I obey him? I owe nothing to him." The dragon answered, but Dovahkiin couldn't avoid noticing a certain… tremble… in his voice that made it look like as if it he was… afraid of that name.
"Didn't he brought the dragons back from extinction, thus bringing all, including you, back from the dead?" said Dovahkiin in an accusing tone, tough he didn't felt much confident saying this. The Graybeards told him exactly that, and he took no time to believe in it back then, but now he thought of something he hadn't back then. He had faced so may dragons so far, and so many still were at large... was it possible that a single being had enough power to bring so many of them back to life, even someone like Alduin? The amount of energy required was so great that it just seemed... impossible. "Unless..." he wondered, as a possibility he never even considered slipped into his mind. "Dragons were never extinct, were you?"
"So now you see." the dragon replied, seeming somewhat satisfied. "No, we were never truly gone. You humans just haven't seen us. That is, until that thrice-damned Alduin decided to appear and wreck stuff out, including other dragons."
"So you are telling me he kills other dragons?"
"Exactly. You see, most of us don't agree with his madness. The ones that agreed where indeed wiped out long ago, until he brought them back. And since Alduin doesn't get along very well with different opinions, he tends to use his free time to hunt down any other dragon until it is dead or chooses to help him, even though that second option is still to be chosen by any. I've had a few encounters with him, from which I barely manage to escape, not without a few scars."
'That explains his appearance.' Dovahkiin thought, remembering how he had noticed earlier that this dragon didn't look exactly healthy. "So, you're basically a fugitive?"
"Precisely. To be honest, I don't know how I managed to survive so far, since most dragons are killed in the first encounter. It just gets harder every time, so I don't know how long I can keep this up." the dragon said, sounding slightly hopeless on the last part.
The Dragonborn lowered his guard, once he was starting to believe the dragon, tough not much. This was all so... strange. This whole story, it gave an answer to his questions. All the pieces of it seemed to fit together perfectly. It just... made sense. Still, it was hard for him to accept it, to admit all those stories where nothing but lies. It might be just pure stubbornness, but he needed more.
"Can you prove that..." he started, only to stop when the dragon quickly deviated his sight to somewhere over to the right, a terrified look on his face. "Uh... something wrong?"
"It's... him..." the dragon replied, his voice barely audible.
"What do you mean by..." Dovahkiin then chose to look in that direction... to see the massive, black dragon flying in his direction. 'Oh shit.'
He backed up a few steps, closing himself to the red dragon. He didn't liked it much, but they would need to work together to survive this.
"Run away from here while you still can!" the red dragon said, surprising Dovahkiin. "I can hold him off for time enough so you can get back to the city!"
"Of course not!" came the immediate reply. "You said yourself that you can't escape him anymore. What kind of warrior would I be, running away from a fight and leaving someone to die?"
"...So be it." the dragon answered, a slight tone of relief in his voice. "Here he comes!"
Neither man nor dragon had time to think after that, as Alduin dove in their direction. Dovahkiin dodged, turning back to face the massive dragon that now was landed a few feet away from him and the red dragon. He put his shield and sword away, choosing his greatsword instead. A shield wouldn't be of any help against this enemy, so it would be a better choice to use a heavier weapon.
Alduin attacked again nearly a second later, now targeting the ruby dragon, who barely managed to escape his attacks. Dovahkiin used the distraction to give a few blows to the side of the black dragon. After a few, however, Alduin suddenly turned and tried to attack Dovahkiin with his claws, and he barely managed to escape, tough not without receiving a hit to his left arm, what surprisingly was enough to cut through almost all the layers of his armor.
Alduin continued to attack Dovahkiin, who barely dodged each of the strikes, until turning again to face the smaller dragon, who was trying to seize Alduin's distraction. He didn't manage to do too much damage unfortunately, but still it allowed Dovahkiin to rest for a few seconds.
The battle kept going for a long while, with the Dragonborn and the red dragon alternating in the roles of who was being attacked by Alduin and who was trying to strike his back in brief intervals. The situation wasn't looking good for the two, however. Dovahkiin noticed they weren't being able to deal a good amount of damage, since Alduin's reaction when one of the two attacked him were too quick, and neither of them could manage to land more than one or two hits before having to avoid incoming strikes. And to make it worse, it was apparent that they were growing tired faster than the dark dragon. If the battle kept on this way, they had nearly no chance of getting out alive.
Dovahkiin knew what had to be done. In the few seconds after he dodged Alduin's attack, he casted a glance at the red dragon, who immediately glanced back. Both Dragon and Dragon Hunter knew that, if they wanted to win this fight, they had to cooperate more than simply taking turns attacking. And they really wanted to get out of this alive.
In this brief eye contact, it was like if they had almost read each other mind. Within that moment, they knew exactly what they had to do.
Dovahkiin dodged another attack before standing firmly in front of the massive dragon. Now was the time to use everything at his disposal and finish the fight.
"FUS RO DAH!"
Even for a dragon as huge as Alduin, the Thu'um was still a great force, pushing him back and disorienting him. Wasting no time, the smaller dragon landed on the junction of his neck and his body, applying all of his weight there, and at the same time used his teeth to bite the upper part of his neck and push his head down.
'This will keep him pinned, but not for long. I need to be fast.' thought Dovahkiin.
He immediately grabbed his greatsword, and used all his strength in a specific area on the side of Alduin's body. After a few blows, the scales there shattered, leaving a big piece of Alduin's skin exposed. After repeating the same thing a bit more to the side to open a wider area, Dovahkiin focused his strength in a heavy swing, leaving a wide, deep cut in the dragon's body.
The dark beast gave vent to a deafening scream of pain, but he was still being contained for now. There was still time to deal more damage. Without stopping for a second, Dovahkiin repeated this process wherever he could: legs, body, tail. He didn't try to attack the front part of his body, however, because he risked hurting the red dragon.
After he attacked Alduin a few more times and the blood of the black dragon soaked the ground, Dovahkiin started to think they could actually kill him right there. The hope was short-lived, however, as before he could strike again Alduin suddenly managed to get up, throwing away the red dragon, who landed on his side a few meters away.
The Dragonborn prepared to restart the combat, but to his surprise, Alduin, who was now badly injured, just growled deeply with hatred before turning back and flying away.
Giving vent to a heavy sigh of relief, Dovahkiin sat on a nearby rock, allowing his tired body to rest while using a spell to heal some bigger wounds.
He looked up, seeing the red dragon get up. This dragon had… impressed him. Not only was this dragon willing to fight a battle he had no chance of winning just so Dovahkiin could get out, but it was also impressing how well they fought together. And it seems he wasn't following Alduin after all. 'Maybe I was actually wrong about dragons this whole time. It is still confusing to think this way, but not as much as before…'
The sound of heavy footsteps took him out of his wondering, and he looked up to see that the red dragon had moved to sit closer to where he was currently seated.
"Do you still need evidence I don't follow that guy?" the dragon said.
"Ah, never mind…" Dovahkiin saw the dragon flinch, and moved to closer to examine his injuries. He saw some pretty bad ones as he moved around the dragon, but at the left side of his torso, Dovahkiin saw a deep, relatively large wound that was still bleeding. 'This looks bad. No wonder he feels pain.' He thought, before moving to heal the cut. "Stand still."
"What a difference from the guy that wanted to kill me not long ago, huh?" said the dragon in a slightly sarcastic tone.
"Yeah, you know, things change." Dovahkiin finished healing the bigger wound, before he moved to the important but not so big wounds.
"You fought well." the dragon said after a moment.
"Tanks, you too."
"My name is Odahviing."
"Mine is Dovahkiin. Honored to meet you."
"The honor was mine."
Dovahkiin sat back at the rock, and started looking at the sun, that was now setting, painting the sky with a reddish-orange color. He knew Odahviing was doing the same. 'What a busy day this was.'
"So, I was thinking…" Odahviing started, and Dovahkiin felt like he knew exactly what the dragon would say. "Alduin is still out there, so that means he will still hunt down any dragon that disobeys him. I always felt like I should do something, but I can't do anything alone. Would you… help me?"
'I knew it.' Dovahkiin stopped to ponder for a minute.
"Well, it's okay if you don't want to, then I…"
"Wait. I want to help."
"Really?" said Odahviing, his voice showing a hint of disbelief and happiness at the same time.
"Yes. If all you said is true, I probably killed various dragons that didn't actually deserve it, so this would be my compensation for that. Besides, any help we can get to finish off Alduin would be welcome. And I have to admit, it has been kind of boring around here for a while."
"I'm glad and honored to have your help. I'm not really sure where each dragon lives tough, so we will have to find them."
"That shouldn't be too much of a problem."
"So, when do we leave?"
"There are some things I need to take care first. Wait for me here, and two days from now, during sunrise, we will leave."
"I will be waiting."
Dovahkiin stood up and looked down the mountain. The sun would be gone soon and he had a lot of ground to cover, so he should leave now. He began his descent while looking at the setting sun. In two days, his next quest would begin. 'Things are going to get interesting.'