A/N: Warning: underage drinking

Rian leapt up over the railing and into the water in a smooth and practiced motion. His feet hit the lake floor within moments, and he pushed off the rocks to propel himself back up again. A few powerful strokes of his arms later, he broke the surface underneath the wooden docks. Somewhere up above, his aunt called out for him, but he stayed where he was, quietly treading water, until her voice faded into the distance. When the coast was clear, he silently began swimming for the shore just outside of Riften, weaving around the moored boats and posts.

Rian felt no guilt for stealing away from his aunt in the middle of the day. She was used to him skiving off to see his friends once or twice a week, so she wouldn't worry about him. She would punish him upon his return, and he would promise to work extra hard the next day to make up for lost time, and all would go on as normal.

When he reached the shore, he twisted his clothes between his hands to drain the water from them before, still drenched but no longer quite as bogged down, making his way to their usual meeting place. It had been a piece of good luck, really, that Rian had stumbled across it by accident while running an errand for his aunt. The little clearing was close enough to the city proper for them to be able to easily sneak in and out while still being far enough off the road to keep them out of sight of passers-by.

As he approached the clearing, Rian made the series of quiet chicken noises that they'd chosen for a password. To his delight, Cordon and Jim were both already there, leaning against a thick tree trunk with a few bottles of skooma sitting around them. They both had a drink in hand, but they seemed too alert to have been drinking for long.

"Where'd you get those?" he asked as he crouched down beside them and examined one of the unopened bottles with unbridled appreciation. The strong narcotic was illegal in Skyrim. While there were always people who were able to procure it for a high enough price, it was rare for people like them to ever get their hands on it, let alone that much of it at once. Rian had no doubt that Cordon, the most streetwise of the three, had been the one to bring it, but he hadn't thought even he would be able to find that much at once.

"Nicked it from my brother the other day after he passed out," Cordon replied, confirming his suspicion.

Jim looked up from his drink in concern. "Didn't he notice? We could all get in serious trouble if – "

"Oh, grow up. When he woke up, he thought he'd drank more than he had, that's all. As long as we keep it quiet, no one will ever know any different."

Rian clumsily uncorked his own bottle and took a few sips. The drink was vile, but it wasn't as if any of them drank it for the taste. His only concern was pacing himself enough to get the rush of the euphoria and heightened physicality without having one of the fits that often came with it. "I would feel bad for him if he weren't hoarding it all for himself."

Cordon raised his drink in a toast. "I'll drink to that. You'd think he'd give some to his own brother, but no. So he leaves me no choice but to steal it. If he just gave me a bottle every now and then, I wouldn't have to steal any."

Rian focused on sipping the foul liquid instead of responding. From what he knew of the ruthless boy whose family was a little more connected to the Thieves' Guild than Rian's aunt would like, it was clear that being given a bottle occasionally wouldn't be enough for him. Cordon would always continue to want more, whether it was for him to hoard for himself or to share with his friends.

The bitter taste grew more palatable as time wore on and they worked their merry way through the drinks. By the time they were on their last bottle, which they'd agreed to split between them, they felt like they were flying, both due to the ecstasy it gave them and due to the sense that they could lift or outrun absolutely anything while under its influence.

Anything might have been a tall ask, but they certainly could have outperformed almost all of the young men in the city in that moment. And that was a heady feeling.

"What's your greatest fear?" Jim asked, stumbling over his words. He could still speak, but Rian didn't think it would be long until the skooma stole his voice entirely. The image of a literal thief creeping in during the night to nick people's voices snuck into his mind, and he fought to subdue the urge to laugh, instead forcing his alcohol-addled brain to focus on his friend's slurred words. "Mine's dragons. Pa says a guard saw one flying overhead a few nights ago. They're back, he said. If there's one, there's more."

"Me ma said so as well," Cordon agreed. "Said I have to stay inside the city from now on. Just in case, you know?"

"Looks like you listened." Jim smirked as he gestured to their surrounds.

Cordon shrugged, the movement quick to the point of being almost feverish. "Dragons can pick me off just as easy in there as out here, can't they? Besides, if I have to go, I'd rather it be by a dragon than by something stupid like… like…" His voice trailed off, and he frowned. His mouth continued to move silently, as if he were trying to figure out what a stupid way to die would be but couldn't.

"Mine's an arrow to the knee," Rian admitted, growing bored with his friend's antics. "Ma said some adventurers become guards because they get shot there and can't pay to get all the pieces out. Did you know it costs per shard? I'd hate to have to become a stupid guard because some idiot got me in the knee."

Even though his face scrunched up in distaste at the idea of being something as mundane as a guard, Jim replied, "Still, it's better than death, isn't it?"

Rian scoffed. "Not by much. Can you imagine having to follow the rules all the time?"

"Looks like someone will be working at the docks forever, then." In Riften, the only respectable career choices for a young boy were becoming a guard, a dockworker, a fisherman, or a shopkeeper. And none of them had the good fortune of having been born to a shopkeeper.

Rian took another swig of the bottle before shaking his head animatedly. As much as he loved the lake, he didn't want to be tied to it forever. "Not me. As soon as I have enough money, I'm going to buy my own sword and shield and take a carriage to Whiterun. Join the Companions. Go on noble adventures."

A roar reverberated across the countryside and, a moment later, a large shadow passed overhead. All three boys looked up in horror, only to see a large scaled body floating in mid-air. "Is that…?"

Cordon swore and hurriedly started digging into the dirt, carelessly flicking clumps of earth everywhere in his haste.

"What are you doing?" Rian demanded, leaping to his feet. "We've got to go!"

"Hiding the bottles! If someone finds them, we're dead. They'll cart us all off to prison!"

"If that thing finds us, we're dead!"

"Shut up, both of you," Jim hissed as another roar rang out. "We have to keep quiet." Glancing at Cordon, he sighed and dropped back to his knees so he could dig as well. "Come on, Rian. He won't leave until it's done, and we can't go without him."

Reluctantly, Rian set to helping them. The ground was cold and hard beneath his fingers, but the skooma gave him the strength to chip away at it. Within minutes, the bottles were safely buried. The soil above it looked freshly turned, but it was subtle enough that it wasn't obvious unless you were searching for it. "Can we go now?"

Cordon didn't even bother replying as he sprang to his feet, the other two boys following shortly behind. The three ran, crouched down low, out of the clearing and through the thicket that lay between them and Riften. The dragon seemed to be focused on something in the distance, so they bolted for the familiar gates, pushing themselves to their limits to get inside before it spotted them. For all of their earlier bravado, none of them wanted to face a dragon on their own. Fortunately, the skooma that laced their bloodstreams made them faster, and they sprinted quicker than they ever had before.

They slipped through the gates just as the dragon started to turn back around.

"Dragon!" Jim bellowed. "It's a dragon!"

The guards had already been roused by the strange noises, so they sprang into action immediately, unsheathing the weapons as they called for the townsfolk to return to their houses.

"Let's get to the sewers," Cordon suggested. "Its fire won't be able to reach us there."

Rian shook his head. "I've got to get home – my aunt will come looking – "

"I should, too. Cord, you should come with me."

Cordon hesitated before nodding. "Alright. See you tomorrow, Rian. Don't you die on us."

"I won't if you won't," Rian replied as boldly as he could. Then, without another word, he sprinted off for home. He stuck to the cover of buildings as much as possible, trying to keep out of the dragon's sight. Another roar echoed through the city as the monstrous beast flew overhead, and Rian dove under an overhanging roof to get out of the way of the blast of fire it sent towards a group of guards.

"Split up!" a woman's voice called through the clearing. "If you spread out, it won't be able to target all of you at once!"

Peering around the corner, Rian saw a stocky woman standing under a roof across the way. She held an ornate bow in a light grip, as if she were so used to using it that it had become an extension of her own body. Her black armour stood out amongst the brown and purple of the Riften guards, marking her as an outsider, but she interacted with them with ease. When she was certain that they'd heard her instructions, she turned back to the dragon –

– and shouted.

A burst of some kind of blue magic flew out of her mouth, hitting the dragon squarely on its side. It roared in pain before flying to the ground as if pulled down by invisible weights. When it landed on the top of a nearby building, she raised her bow and started firing arrows at its head.

"Rian!"

Rian turned at the sound of his aunt's voice and ran the last few metres home. He wanted to stay and watch the fight, but he couldn't risk having her come out to look for him. While his hiding place was relatively safe, he couldn't be certain that she would be able to stay out of sight if she tried to find him.

Dashing through the open doorway, he almost crashed into his aunt, who was standing just inside the house. "Aunt Elissa! It's a dragon!"

"I know, child. I saw it. Where are your friends?"

"They went to hide at Jim's."

"Good. They have a cellar, too." She swung the door shut behind them before gesturing him away from the front of the house. As they made their way to the trapdoor in the corner of the kitchen, she gathered a few supplies. "We'll wait it out down here," she told him as she motioned for him to climb down ahead of her.

As Rian hurried down the ladder, his thoughts wandered back to the mysterious archer. He didn't know anything about where she'd come from or who she was or how she had somehow cast magic simply by shouting. And, as far as he was aware, he certainly hadn't seen her around town before. All he knew was that the dragon hadn't even fazed her, as if she dealt with that sort of thing every day.

That's the sort of adventurer I want to be, he thought to himself. Brave and mysterious, showing up all over the country at just the right time to save the day.

Despite Jim's quip about him working on the docks forever, Rian knew better. He would leave Riften one day, and he would train until he was as strong as – no, stronger than – the woman he had seen today. And then he would spend his life travelling the world and saving people.

He couldn't imagine anything better.

A/N: I wanted to focus on the life of a random child growing up in Riften, but it just didn't seem complete without at least referencing the Dragonborn.