And now, time for Neka to meet a dragon :D
Empress of Death
Tylermech66
Neka stared as three Nords battled a giant.
She had of course heard about giants, but she hadn't realized, even when she knew she was in Skyrim, that she'd ever see one in person.
Watching it- no him fight, she realized how much potential giants had.
He was obviously intelligent like the common races, but such strength!
He was slow though, and that was his downfall as the scantily clad female warrior dashed into his guard and stabbed into his spin, making his legs collapse under him.
A deep wailing cry echoed out as the giant felt that crippling blow, and the warrior put him out of his misery by stabbing into his eye.
A few victory calls when out.
"Yes, the beast is dead!" Neka narrowed her eyes, of course, these were Nords, she'd forgotten their racism again.
Though to be fair, most of the common races were just as racist about beings such as giants and similar beings.
She had managed to converse with a goblin shaman once, traded a few necromancy techniques even, so she knew they were intelligent too.
She never claimed she was perfect, but racist she was not.
And Neka demonstrated that mentioned imperfection again by not noticing the female warrior was already in front of her.
Blinking and not showing her shock, she looked her over analytically.
Why wear such armor? The only thing it looked to be useful for would be distraction and possibly protecting from brambly branches.
"So, you were too cowardly to join in on the fight eh?" Neka blinked again, and narrowed her eyes.
"That giant hadn't done me any wrong, I saw no reason to join in." The woman snorted.
"Neither has a troll yet anyone would fight that, coward." Neka's eyes narrowed even further.
"Well then, I believe you should leave this coward alone." The Nord snorted again and walked away back to her companions, she spoke with them a bit and they laughed and made their way to the city.
Neka let out a huff and looked to the giant.
Yes, lots of potential.
Making her way through the ruined outer battlements of the Nordic city, Neka was about to go for the gates when a guard stopped her.
"Stop, no one can enter the city, there are dragons about." Neka's eyebrow twiched in annoyance. She glanced around and saw that there was dozens of guards about the walls and sighed.
"I've got business with the court wizard, so let me through, Unless you want to answer to one of the Jarl's court?." The guard hummed in thought before nodding.
"Alright then, open the gates!" The gates opened and Neka quickly made it in before the guards changed their minds.
Entering the city, Neka was surprised at the hustle and bustle of the city. She hadn't expected there to be so many people living up here in this frozen wilderness, especially since crops couldn't grow very well.
But she guessed that was why Skyrim was part of the Empire, Cyrodiil provided food and legitimacy, and Skyrim provided great warriors and protection from the north.
Anyway, she made her way through the city, selling off her loot at the various appropriate stores. She bought a sweet roll from a vendor and continued up the steps.
When she heard of a famous blacksmith though she couldn't help but be distracted. So she changed course and found herself at the Skyforge.
It was a wondrous piece of machinery. The large forge glowed with so much heat that it seemed to slightly melt the stone eagle above it. A large grey-haired Nord was tending the mighty forge, making steel weapons.
But then she noticed something that any decent mage would.
"This forge, there's so much magic flowing through it." This caught the attention of the blacksmith as he quenched the blade and stood up.
"What was that elf? About the Skyforge." Kneeling down by it, Neka could feel the massive amount of magical power.
"There's so much magicka flowing from this forge, in fact I haven't felt this much magicka in one place... ever!" Fascinated Neka stood up. The Nord though just shrugged.
"Yes, it is built atop a great source of ancient power, it allows me to forge mighty weapons of Nordic steel." Wincing, Neka lamented on the wasted potential. This forge could make so much more than steel.
"Have you ever tried ebony or other such stronger metals?" The man grunted.
"Steel is dependable and sharp, what do we need mystical metals for?" Sighing, Neka walked away back to her task.
Walking up the steps to the keep, a guard or two asked her a few questions then allowed her to continue, basic security and such, surprisingly she was allowed to bring her weapons, but this was due to, apparently, trust in their Jarl's Housecarl.
Entering through the massive oaken doors, Neka looked around in amazement.
A massive long hearth ran the length of the great hall, she could see a tree had been brought in and just dumped on it, such was the size of it. Two long tables lined the hearth and at the end of the hall was a wooden throne, but that wasnt the impressive part.
The impressive part was the massive, reptilian skull hanging above the throne. It had four horns and very thick bone.
"Amazing." A servant to the side giggled but went back to her task quickly enough, but Neka got the jist. All newcomers are impressed.
Walking up the steps, Neka grew nervous as she realized what she was doing. Her, a practiced necromancer, was approaching the law of the land. She had to be careful.
A Dunmer approached her as she was trying to figure out where to go.
"Who are you? What is your purpose approaching the Jarl's court without announcement." Neka rose a brow.
"I am here to meet the court wizard." The Dunmer humphed and sheathed her sword.
"You will speak to the Jarl first, come, and show respect!" Neka reluctantly nodded and allowed herself to be led to the Jarl. Bowing awkwardly she spoke.
"I request an audience with the court wizard your, uh, lordship?" Balgruuf burst out laughing .
"Girl, there's no need to be so uptight here in Skyrim. we are a strait and to the point people, if you don't start insulting us we are pretty much good with anything." Relaxing her shoulders a bit, Neka nodded.
The Dunmer woman spoke up.
"You will say 'My Jarl', for future reference." Balgruuf waved her off and turned back to Neka.
"I will let you go to Farengar, he's been working on a project to assess the situation with the dragons, so speak to him about that too if your interested." Neka nodded and walked towards the side room, thinking.
Dragons, such mighty creatures could be... a wealth of potential knowledge.
Entering, Neka smirked at the messy assortment of books, potions, and scrolls. The man in question was mumbling to himself as he read a scroll with some strange lettering, Neka suspected it was daedric.
"Ahem, Farengar I take it?" Startled, the wizard tried to stand up but he caught the back of a staff and tripped over himself, falling on his ass he groaned.
"What is it! Don't you see I'm busy!" Chuckling, Neka reached for her satchel.
"I've heard you know about the stone walls that are found deep in Nordic ruins? With strange script on them?" Looking up Farengar looked much more interested.
"What do you have for me?" Taking out the tablet, Neka placed it on the table.
"I found this on the body of the head Draugr, it holds some of the same script as the wall, i also wrote down the writings from the word wall as accurately as I could, I was hoping you knew how to translate it?" Farengar snatched the tablet from her hands and quickly looked it over.
"This is exactly what I was looking for! How did you come to find it?!" Neka shrugged.
"I raided an ancient burial tomb, nothing too unusual." Farengar grunted.
"Well, I'll have to-" Before he could continue, the Dunmeri woman from before came rushing in, slightly panting but not gasping for air.
"FARENGAR! We have a situation. A dragon is attacking the western watchtower!" Farengar shot up.
"What! We must study it immediately!" The Dunmer growled.
"This is not the time for games Farengar, we need to secure the sight. Come with me to the Jarl, we'll make a plan of action." Just before she left, she hesitated and turned to Neka.
"You come too, we may need a few more hands for this, and I can smell the magic on you." Neka admitted to herself that she was curious, so she followed.
They went up the stairs into a large room designed for private meetings and also for war planning. It had a very large door on the opposite end.
The Jarl was addressing one of his guards.
"Ok soldier, slow down, we need an accurate report."
"Yes my lord, uh, the dragon came out of no where, none of us could see it coming. I got out of there before it even got to us, I thought it would eat me for sure. I could only hear the screaming and destruction from behind me." Balgruuf made a placating gesture.
"Good good, now go down to the barracks for some food and rest, you've earned it." The guard made his way back down and Balgruuf turned to the Dunmer.
"Irileth, we need to drive out this dragon." Irileth bowed.
"I've already gathered my men, we are ready at your command." Balgruuf nodded then turned to Neka.
"I believe that you could help me much, oh, and here, as a reward for the help with my wizard, a piece from my personal armory." He handed Neka a strange single bracer made of steel, it was obviously enchanted so she tapped it and felt its purpose. It was enchanted to make her blade skills better, nodding in appreciation, she removed her simple steel right gauntlet and placed this on before following Irileth out of the castle.
The group of soldiers and necromancer rushed through the city, occasionally knocking aside a haughty rich farm owner in their haste.
Neka was interested by the concept of a dragon. She of course knew they existed after the attack on Helgen, but still, to see one up close, perhaps, if she killed it, they would let her keep the corpse?
Neka smiled slowly as her resolve rose, if she got the corpse of a Dragon, imagine the possibilities. She didn't know if they were sentient of not, but even if they weren't, then having an uncontrollable beast of mighty power would be useful in its own way. (Animals aren't able to be easily controlled when undead)
They exited the city, and approached an area where smoke was rising. Stopping by a rock outcropping, Neka squinted over at the watchtower.
"Well, I don't see a dragon, but there is still the possibility it might return, we should probably stay together instead of spreading out." Irileth looked over to her, annoyed.
"I tell the orders here girl, just be glad I'm not an Imperial commander." Neka smirked but didn't say anything else.
They approached the tower, but as soon as they did Neka heard a roar in the sky.
A helmet-less soldier came running out.
"Run, get out of here! The dragon could come back at any moment!" Neka prepared her fire magic, letting the fireball build up between her hands for an extra powerful attack.
Irileth glared over at the sky where the dragon's form could be seen approaching.
"Everyone, spread out, I don't want you getting burnt to a crisp!" At her order, everyone broke up.
But Neka felt something stir inside her at the sight of the dragon, her gaze caught its, and she knew immediately that it wasn't a dumb beast, it was as intelligent as her or anyone else, possibly more so.
As she readied herself, it came close enough for her to launch.
Two fireballs hit the dragon as it neared the ground, quickly followed by two more. The explosive fire staggered the mighty creature ever so slightly, enough for it to make a landing.
Roaring in anger, it looked to Neka.
"Yol... toor SHUUUUUUU-"A stream of powerful flames engulfed Neka. But to no avail and she ran through them, the singing of her skin making her grunt in pain, and stabbed her sword into its tongue.
Getting under its neck, she tried to slice it along the throat, but cried out in frustration as her blade did nothing to get passed its scales.
He, for some reason she could feel that it was at the very least masculine, growled at her.
"Dovahkiin!" These words didn't cause any effect, so she knew it must have been a curse or something, ignoring this, Neka yelled as she instead of slashing tried to stab between the scales.
This actually got some success, but only marginally, the scales were rigid enough that she couldn't get her rather thick blade very far in.
Stepping back but losing her sword, Neka growled in anger.
The dragon spewed flame again, but she noticed his words were slurred from the injury, and this somehow made the fire less powerful.
She was still recovering from her last run, Dunmer don't get burnt quite like other races, but the heat still damaged them, she was sure that she had lost several layers of skin, and would be very sensitive for the next few days. The few blackened parts would have to be peeled off.
She glared at the dragon.
Readying her magic again, she ran at him again, but this time jumped on the dragon's back.
Reaching for the head, she grabbed a hold of his horns, and used her dagger to stab into his eyes.
Now shrieking in pain... deeply, the dragon bucked and she was sent flying...
For fifty feet.
She only saw the ground approaching before all was black.
...
And suddenly she was awake again, as a sudden feeling of overwhelming power washed over her.
Her eyes snapped open, and she got up, feeling her heart beating faster and faster.
She saw the aetherial energies swirling around her, and she stared at the rapidly decaying/burning corpse of the dragon.
Suddenly, an overwhelming urge took her over, just as her eyes widened.
She understood what Fus meant, force
"FUS!" With that simple but yet not simple word, her world changed forever.
A shock wave spread through the air, shooting forth rocks and grass. It even hit the far away Whiterun guards, whose eyes widened as they had to steady themselves.
Neka's eyes widening with sudden realization, she then grinned with a bloodthirsty glee.
I've got the VOICE!
The soldiers began yelling out exclamations and hurrahs.
"It's the Dragonborn!"
"The Dragonborn!"
"She's got the Voice, she must be Dragonborn!" Neka just kept grinning even as Irileth began to tear into her soldiers, but she felt for some reason that the title wasn't quite right.
Dovahkiin, that dragon had looked to her and said that.
Somehow she knew that they were one in the same.
Anyways, standing up fully now, Neka felt the power coursing inside her. It wasn't powering her magicka, but instead her soul directly. This wouldn't enhance her normal magics, but she had heard there were others that directly used the soul's energy, other, more primal magics.
She'd have to visit the Reach soon.
But anyway, with a new sense of confidence, Neka began walking back to Whiterun to get her reward.
"DOVAHKIIN!" Neka fell to the ground as the power of those words hit her.
They sounded loud yet muted, but the power still hit her, telling her the words were most definitely for her, as she didn't see anyone else collapsing.
Standing back up, Neka looked up to the large mountain in the distance, then back to the keep.
She'd get answers from one of the locals.
Neka sat cross legged in front of the Jarl, having gotten tired of standing seeing as how long-winded these Nords could be.
And finally, he was done. So, she was a legendary figure of lore and myth, the Dragonborn, or Dovahkiin, if her suspicions were right. But it was his next words that really threw her for a loop.
"Neka, I have decided that you are indeed of honorable strength, enough so that you may have the highest honor I am capable of granting. I thus name you Thane of Whiterun, a worthy title for the slayer of a dragon." Neka's eyes were wide, even as he described the pros and cons of the title.
She... she was technically nobility now. Even if one of the lower end of the spectrum. But still, now she actually mattered in the grand scheme of politics.
Standing up, Neka bowed.
"It is an honor my Jarl."
The power, she knew there was much money in those Nordic tombs, and she could easily get enough to pay for several houses and rent them out, and once your nobility, the more money and land you had, the more you mattered.
She began to feel a plan come together.
Yes, I will soon enough have politics come into play, but don't worry, there will still be action and adventure to come.
She isn't done with her journey after all.
