'Dovahkiin'
A collection of booming voices tore through the silence of Skyrim overhead.
Ashr was back on the road, wandering through the early morning mist. He had travelled all night. Leaving Riverwood, he headed towards the Throat of the World, a little east and south.
He had to travel around the mountain to Ivarstead to begin up the stairs, to find the greybeards at the top of High Hrothgar. A trek that Ashr had made many times, and never particularly enjoyed.
After battling the winds to the top of the mountain, he looked to his left to the open plains of Skyrim, and like each time before, he couldn't see a thing. The wind was howling, it felt as if he'd fall off the world with one false step.
He climbed the final set of stairs and opened the old decrepit doors. He expected to be greeted by warmth and a sense of belonging, or hospitality. Instead it was cold. The main chamber was dark and gloomy.
Ashr did not speak, he dare not. He unhooked his bow from his quiver and nocked and arrow into the string. With his right hand, he took out a single gold coin. He threw it across the room.
The gold coin clanged against the hard rock. It echoed through the building. The sound piercing through the eerie silence. Any monster would've heard it and come searching.
But nothing came. Ashr tossed another coin and had the same result.
Surely one of the Greybeards would come and see what the noise was?
He checked the building and there was no sign of anyone. He checked outside in the courtyard, nothing. He went back inside and waited. Hours passed. So Ashr decided, why stay conscious? So he slept.
He woke up the next day and still no one had arrived. Strange.
He searched through drawers and under beds and finally under one he found a journal. It was a diary. Ashr skimmed through some and got to the end.
The Dragonborn has not come. The dragons want us. They know we will teach her the ways of the Thu'um. She will destroy them all. Alduin wants us. We cannot stay here. We must flee.
We will return. But not until she is ready.
May Alduin be kind and may the Dragonborn come seek us quickly.
Ashr stared at the final entry of the journal for some time. Reading it over and over. The Greybeards helped heal Ashr's curse. His body was conditioned to last. Wounds healed slower, but healed they did. It was his mind that suffered. The longer he put off his healing, he suffered from headaches. Some so bad he couldn't stand.
He would be all right for a few more weeks. He just hoped the Dragonborn did not waste time.
Ashr searched through more journals and found that Alduin became stronger when there were more dragons alive. They gave an aura, like when there was more Dragon tongue being spoken, he soaked up the energy.
He left high Hrothgar. He could do nothing until the Dragonborn returned. So he'd keep his ear to the ground and keep an eye on the mountain to search for a woman climbing the steps. What more could he do?
He reached about halfway down the hill and the wind picked up in bursts. He heard a flapping of wings. Strange that birds would be in this wind. He made the connection and started to run. Out of the blizzard came a thunderous roar and a crash. A dragon had been watching the mountain. Smart.
He ran, nocking an arrow he turned and fired it at the dragon. The shot was lucky, it stuck just below the beasts eye.
The dragon roared. It spread its wings and flew back with the wind. In an instant it was gone.
Ashr didn't believe the fight to be over so he kept running, he needed clear skies.
He managed to reach the bottom beside Ivarstead and kept running along the river. No need to bring innocents into this doomed battle.
The dragon was circling above and swooped down, screaming fire at the Redguard. He dove into the water just in time, even in the cool water the fire burnt. The heat –for a moment- was immense.
Ashr rose and nocked another arrow, he swam to the shore and saw a collection of his arrows had fallen from his quiver. He only had five left. Really?!
He sighed. His shots had to be perfect. Dragons could be unpredictable with their flight patterns.
At the shore, Ashr broke some grass and held out his hand for the wind to catch. He figured out the wind and then he waited for the Dragon to return. It was coming up the river. An arrow below its eye bleeding.
Five arrows. He drew the first one, aimed higher than necessary, and released. The arrow flew into the dragons other eye. Piercing it and continuing against the blood and burrowing into the dragons skull.
Four arrows left. Quickly Ashr took another one, nocked it and fired again aiming for the dragons mouth. He wanted the arrow down its throat. The Dragon had screamed but Ashr had been too slow, the arrow bounced off the dragons teeth.
Three arrows. Come on. Die. Dragonborn had to usually go for the Dragons head. Their heart was arguably located in the base of their throat. Some in their chest. So it was easier to go for their head.
Ashr was running down the river. Downwind, he had some more speed but so did the Drake behind him. That was the point. He had hoped the dragon wouldn't breath his fire, but instead try and catch his prey in his jaws.
Ashr was right, he unsheathed a small iron dagger on his hip in his right hand and continued running. The dragon saw it as sport, he caught up and snapped his giant jaws at the Redguard.
Ashr dodged right and grabbed onto the arrow in the dragons eye lid. He quickly hoisted himself up onto the dragons skull. He plunged the dagger into the last remaining eye. The Dragon bellowed.
Don't fall off.
Ashr was on his knees, half riding the dragon. His bow on his back, he took the dagger with both hands and stabbed into the scales on top. He stabbed four times, and pried back a scale revealing the dragons flesh beneath. The dagger shattered, the blade falling to the wind.
The Redguard did his best to stand. His feet uncertain. He drew his bow and an arrow. He aimed for the flesh and fired. The arrow pierced through, but the dragon survived. Ashr fired another. And his final one. The Dragon still flew.
The arrows were grouped together. Ashr stomped on them all and the arrow was driven far into the Dragons brain.
Ashr screamed, 'Die! You have no place in this world!'
The Dragon screamed and plummeted to the ground. Ashr hugged the dragons neck and waited for the inevitable crash. It came, he was thrown far from the dragon.
Ashr awoke moments later in a haze of dust and pain. He stood, and waited for the dust to settle. As it did he saw his belongings strewn about. His elven bow had broken in two places. The string had snapped too, no point in repairing. Might as well find a new one.
The dragon was moaning, attempting to stay awake. As soon as darkness took him he would not be back. The dragonborn had slain him and he would not survive.
'I underestimated you, Dragonborn.' The Dragon moaned softly, 'I expected to catch you off guard. Alduin would've been proud.'
This dragon thinks I am Dragonborn? No need to put his mind at ease.
'You have kept me from what I need, Dragon. With you and your kind around I cannot find a moment of peace.' Ashr replied calmly.
'Your precious Skyrim will never have peace.'
'Maybe not, but at least we have honour, you just seek to slaughter us like cattle.'
The dragon chuckled. 'It seems you have experience with us, Dragonborn.' He continued to chuckle, it grew softer, as the Dragons mind passed back into Akavir.
Ashr knew if the Dragonborn did not visit here within a month, the dragons soul would pass and he would be able to return. He took out his map and wrote a letter D over where he was in coal. He put a small X over the D.
If Ashr helped kill the dragons, the less work the Dragonborn would do, and the Greybeards could return.