Special thanks to Pint-sized She-Bear, Golden Naginata, Annonimous4862, Blinded in a bolthole, Fallon-Idalia, melgonzo and Wicked Lullaby for your reviews! I'm so glad you all seem to like this story so far. And of course, thank you to everyone else who has been reading!

And the Scrolls have foretold, of black wings in the cold, That when brothers wage war come unfurled! Alduin, Bane of Kings, ancient shadow unbound, With a hunger to swallow the world!

- Song of the Dragonborn

Fenris lurched to his feet and rushed to pull on his boots, gauntlets and breastplate as Evelyna was doing the same for her own furs and leathers. She was quicker than he at this, and in the back of his mind he wondered if she often had to get dressed as a dragon brought the world down around her.

There was nothing quite like waking up to this, he thought, deciding he would ignore the blisters on his feet from wearing the Orcish boots. He'd be used to them eventually. And no pain bothered him quite like getting his markings. He had become skilled at ignoring scrapes and blisters.

The dragon screamed, and he and Evelyna shared a brief look of alarm. She wasn't frightened half-to-death as he expected, however. She had a determined look in her hazel eyes. She had done this before, he reminded himself, and he had promised to help her.

Fenris scrambled outside after Evelyna, who had her bow tight in her left hand. Rain fell onto Skyrim from thick, dark clouds above, washing away the thin layer of snow. Small puddles were beginning to gather in the street.

Fenris saw that it was chaos already for this small town. The guards were drawing their bows, if they had them, and so were other men and women in a different kind of armor, the Imperial armor. Evelyna leaped from the porch of Four Shields, and Fenris followed, drawing his sword. His hands gripped the leather hilt with ease, partially with thanks to the adrenaline that swam in his veins. The pre-battle rush was not new to him, nor was it negligible even after all these years of running and fighting.

The heaving sound of a great animal breathing drew his attention. He saw the creature atop the tavern with its long and thin, leathery wings spread like a minatory bat. The dragon was white, like the one that had attacked the ship and perhaps killed his friends. But this one had a horn that had broken off. Was it the same one?

The dragon's hind legs gripped the tavern, long and curling claws digging into the thatched roof. Fenris vaguely heard Faida screaming for them and the guards to save her inn. He also heard Evelyna hiss beside him, and the strain of the bowstring as she drew an arrow.

The dragon roared, the claws on its wings flexing. The arrow flew to the creature and pierced its breast. The dragon hardly seemed to notice as it roared again, and drew its long, reptilian head down towards them all. A rain of arrows fell upon the animal from all directions, most missing their mark.

Fenris wasn't in the direct line of it, but a cold more frigid than ice seemed to shoot through the air towards a handful of guards, straight from the dragon's maw. They either shouted out in pain or staggered away from the blast, and Fenris felt a shiver trickle out from his chest. How powerful were these things, truly?

Evelyna shot another arrow at the dragon, but it pushed off the tavern with immense force, snapping a beam on the roof. Luckily, Four Shields was built with enough integrity that it withstood the blow, like it had withstood the dragon's weight in snow for years, he was sure.

The dragon lifted into the sky, rain dripping off the creature in sheets as it flapped its wide, menacing wings.

"Come down here," Evelyna growled at the dragon, "Get down here."

Fenris watched the dragon as it circled the town, roaring and snapping its jaws violently. Evelyna sprinted to her right, and Fenris jogged after her, unsure of what she was doing. The dragon circled overhead, and Fenris got a sinking feeling in his gut as the dragon spotted Evelyna, standing in an open spot before the Dragon Bridge.

The ground seemed to shake as the dragon came barreling into the ground, landing heavily on its hind legs, the claws on its wings digging into the soggy soil. Evelyna was only roughly twenty feet from the dragon's face. He heard its jaws snap shut before it roared, a sound that seemed to shake the walls of the buildings.

He had fought dragons before. In the Bone Pit. In the Deep Roads. He could do this. He moved off towards the side as Evelyna sheathed her bow and drew out her axes. He would try to flank the dragon, taking it off guard. If he killed it quickly enough, he wouldn't get too hurt in the process.

But he glanced at Evelyna, and saw a determined, fearless look in her hazel eyes. Her lips curled as she snarled at the beast, almost an animal herself. Fenris felt the wind against his face as the dragon's wing slammed down, driving its claws into the dirt.

"Fus..." Fenris paused to see if she was yelling at him, but she was staring at the dragon, approaching it with her axes dripping from the rain, "ro dah!"

Fenris felt the power of the voice rumble in his chest. Even the grass shivered before Evelyna. But more than anything, to his complete and utter amazement, the dragon flinched. It's reptilian head lowered to the ground cowering, yellow eyes squeezed shut as the creature trembled.

If he ever had a chance, this was it. He forced his amazement down, he could come to that later. Fenris ran forward, avoiding the thin wings and drove his sword deep into the dragon's side. The tip of the blade met resistance - the dragon's hide was tough and scaled, but it broke beneath the pressure. He buried the steel to the hilt as the dragon roared out in pain, screams seeming to echo through the tundra of Skyrim.

Following his lead, the other guards were attacking the dragon's sides, some others still shooting some arrows. Fenris even felt one narrowly miss his ear. He twisted the blade, and tried to hang from the pommel to move the sword around inside the dragon.

The creature's scream was horrific, and he almost felt bad for killing such a thing. The dragon lurched forward, and Fenris stumbled away, cursing. A massive, scaled tail smashed into his hip and he was brought to his hands and knees from the impact. Ahead, Evelyna was jumping backwards as fast as she could, trying to stay out of reach of the creature's teeth.

Why didn't she use that power again? Fenris wanted to scream at her as she slashed, her axes spinning in her hands. They weren't enough to scare the dragon. It had met its match, a fellow speaker of its language, and it wanted her dead.

Fenris staggered to his feet as the guards tried to drive their swords into the creature's belly. Evelyna chucked one axe and turned, running as the dragon's teeth snapped only inches from her.

The axe shaved a thin layer of scale from the dragon's face before skittering across the dirt street.

The dragon's roaring was now a groan of sorts, a mourning cry that was weak more than it was anything else. The dragon turned its head, now focusing on those that attacked its sides. Evelyna turned on her heels, sliding in the mud, and ran at the dragon, an axe in her left hand.

The dragon leaned into the building beside it heavily, as if it knew it was going to die. It snapped at a guard who was too busy slashing at the creature's shoulder to even see its jaws close around his waist. Fenris heard the man scream, but he watched Evelyna swing onto the dragon's neck and drive her axe down into its scaled skin. The dragon shuddered as she hacked at it, and it roared out a mournful cry as its body slumped to the ground, claws and horns on its chin dragging grooves in the mud.

Fenris took a few steps towards the dragon as it's last groan left its jaws. Evelyna climbed off the dragon's neck, limping as she took a few steps and put her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

Then something happened. The energy changed, a shift in the air, in the world. Fenris froze in his steps and could only watch in amazement.

The dragon's body began to glow as the rain fell down heavily. A light as warm and bright as the sun radiated from the dragon's body, and flaps of its scales and hide seemed to float into the air like ashes from a fire. The guards and Imperial soldiers all backed off, panicked, but Evelyna didn't seem surprised. She pushed away her wild, black hair that stuck to her forehead, and met eyes with Fenris.

The orange energy swirled away from the dragon's corpse taking with it everything but bones, and whirled around Evelyna like a tornado meant only for her. It made her hair dance, and the fur on her armor shiver like a breeze sighing over a field of grass. She sighed and took a few steps away from the dragon, but the energy followed her, swelling up like a storm around her before it disappeared while drawing into her, as if sucked into her skin.

Fenris could see that the other townspeople hadn't expected this either. They all stared at her almost horrified.

"It's like the ancient legends... Dragonborn?" He heard one man ask. Evelyna said nothing as she gathered up the axe she had thrown and hooked it to her hips.

"It may be dead now... but where did it come from?" Asked another.

She then seemed to remember something, and she ran to the man that had been bitten. As if remembering this as well, the other guards rushed to his aid. He didn't seem to be alive, though, and Fenris knew that he could do nothing for him.

Fenris went to the dragon, which lay as only a skeleton, slumped against a building. Fenris' great sword fell to the ground from where it had been lodged between two ribs. He sheathed his sword and put a hand on the dragon's rib cage which protected no organs. Where had the body gone, he wondered?

He walked to the face, where its maw was opened to reveal sharp and long teeth nearly the length of his fingers. He crouched down and grabbed onto one of the horns on the dragon's nose, turning the dragon's head so he could see the mouth better. The length of the teeth told him that the man would die if he wasn't already dead.

In the end, the man wasn't saved. Fenris still wondered if the same dragon had also taken the lives of his friends. He turned away from the beast, disgusted, and went to stand on the porch of Four Shields, out of the rain.

Evelyna made her way to him when all hope for that one guard to survive had left her. All the blood that had gotten on her, the dragon's blood, was dripping off her fingertips because of the intense rain. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and limped slowly up the steps to the porch.

"You're injured?" Fenris asked.

"No, I'm fine. Just bruised from the dragon's spikes."

He frowned and nodded, looking at the corpse of the great white dragon. "That's what you were telling me about. The Voice."

She nodded, lips pressed together tightly.

"And you're the only one that can do that?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm the only one that doesn't need to meditate for years to speak it. But even Jarl Ulfric of Windhelm can speak it."

"So you can just... learn the language?"

"Yes," she nodded. "It's quick, for me."

"And why is that?"

"I don't know."

Fenris scratched his cheek. "You should have used it more than once."

The rain fell down the dips of her collarbone, and dripped down beneath her leathers and furs. "I would have hurt a lot of people if I did that."

He narrowed his eyes at her, confused. "That man died -"

"You don't want me to ever use that shout if you're in the way, I promise you that." She was angry, he realized. But it could have easily been him instead of that guard. "The dragon only flinched, because it's a bloody dragon. Anyone our size would have gone flying off the cliff into the river to die."

He took in a breath, nervous. "I am sorry," he said sincerely. "I do not know much about your... skills."

She wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms, glaring out at the village around her. "That man's death is not my fault."

"It would have been much worse if you weren't here," he offered, and it was the truth.

She nodded.

"Does the dragon know that you're... kindred, almost?"

She chewed her bottom lip, unsure. "I couldn't say. I believe so. They're smart."

"And where... where did it's body go?"

Evelyna scratched her head in thought. "The dragons are being resurrected. They aren't being born, like other animals. It's a Shout. When they rise from the dead, they are skeletons, and when they die, they go back to it. But Fenris, we have to go. We can't stay here. We could get to the next town if we leave now, and push the horse hard."

The last thing Fenris wanted to do with the weather so treacherous was travel by horseback. The ride into Solitude had been a harrowing experience, and he didn't want to replicate that again. But he had pledged his temporary allegiance with Evelyna, the Dragonborn, and he was a man of his word if nothing else. Loyal, even to Hawke when he had made all those bad decisions to help the mages.

Besides, Evelyna was his best chance for survival, and for finding his friends. He had to follow her if he wished for those things.

So he did not complain as he climbed onto the horse within the hour, Evelyna perched in front of him. The townspeople did try to get her to stay. They felt as if a prophet had blessed them, Fenris imagined, sending the Dragonborn to Dragon Bridge the day before a dragon attack. Honestly, he felt similar. He was not a Maker-fearing man, generally, but it had crossed his mind that perhaps there was such a thing as fate.

For a wood-elf to find him washed up on the shore, a woman who seemed more alike him than not, to save him and offer so much... it was truly something to be grateful for. Fenris still had moments where he wondered if this were all some strange dream.

But it couldn't be. The rain was cold, chilling him to the bone. It let up as they left the town over the ancient and beautiful Dragon Bridge, but he was already soaked at that point, and already feeling miserable. At least he had been able to run and fight, though, and for that he was glad.

"What will they do with the dragon?" He asked, leaning back in the makeshift saddled with his hands on the horse's rump to hold him in place. He didn't feel comfortable to wrap his arms around her again, not since the horse was only walking.

"Burn him, likely."

Fenris glanced over his shoulder, could still see the massive corpse that was the dragon. "Are they all exactly like that one?"

"No," she answered quickly. "They have different colors, different abilities."

"And how many are there?"

She scoffed, pushing away some hair from her face. "I don't know. Alduin is resurrecting them from their burial grounds."

"Alduin?"

"The... he's the harbinger of the end times. The World Eater." She cleared her throat. "A long time ago, the dragons wanted to enslave us all. Alduin is like... the king of the dragons."

Fenris thought on that for a time, trying to keep his mind off of the cold mist. He realized just how big of a situation he had walked into, or sailed into rather.

By mid-afternoon, the rain began to beat down heavily again, and Evelyna cursed under her breath.

Fenris caught a glimpse of something slinking in the woods to their left. "Evelyna," he said, pointing, "look."

She stopped the horse and stared, and Fenris realized it was a dog of sorts, watching them with pale yellow eyes. Its gray fur was shaggy, but the animal was enormous. Taller than a wolf, perhaps, but thinner.

"A wolfhound," Evelyna observed, turning the horse towards the forest. She wasn't planning on leaving the road, was she?

But she did. Evelyna led the horse beneath the overhang of the pine trees, so that Fenris had to duck to avoid low-hanging branches. The wolfhound would run ahead and then stop to look at them, barking, until they came upon a small cottage, a shack really.

Fenris growled low in his throat. "Someone probably lives here," he said, voice low and dark. Evelyna was already dismounting gracefully, careful not to kick him. She grinned up at him, though water fell in her eyes and made her blink furiously.

"I want to see. I can't stand this rain any longer."

He got off the horse as well. If the stubborn elf wasn't going to play it safe, then he wasn't going to wait and sit on a horse that he didn't know how to ride. He tied the horse to the nearest pine tree and drew his sword while Evelyna readied her bow.

The wolfhound was clawing at the door to the cottage. They approached quietly, sure that the rain was muffling any sounds their feet had on the soggy ground. Just as Evelyna was about to open the door, Fenris grabbed her elbow.

"Allow me," he said. After all, he was the warrior. Always the first one into battle besides Aveline or Hawke. He stepped in front of the elven woman and opened the door quickly, sword readied.

And then the smell hit him. He took a step back, bumping into Evelyna. He coughed and turned to face her.

"There's a dead man," Fenris said. "I'll move the body."

"You'll move him? We don't have time to bury him."

"Then we won't bury him." Fenris leaned his sword against the wall and stepped inside. He pulled up the sheets the body laid on, atop the small bed, so that he didn't have to actually touch the body. He brought it outside as Evelyna began lit a fire in the fireplace. Wood had already been stacked, as if the poor fool had been planning on having a nice fire before he died.

The wolfhound followed Fenris as he dragged it out a bit further into the forest. He turned and headed back towards the shack with the wolfhound at his heels still.

"The dog's name is Meeko," Evelyna said as Fenris stepped back into the shack, pushing his sopping white hair out of his eyes. The dog cocked its head at her. "Meeko?"

"Meeko?" Fenris repeated. "That's almost as bad as Ser-Pounce-a-Lot."

Evelyna snorted, as if she didn't even believe that someone would name an animal that. If only she knew, he thought. Fenris eagerly sat before the fire and crossed his legs, his need to feel warm and dry taking preference over his hunger.

"He wasn't dead very long," Evelyna observed, looking in the drawers of the end table. Fenris shook his head and rubbed his hands in front of the fire.

"No. Only a few days."

Evelyna paused and looked down at Meeko. "Poor boy, he's probably hungry."

Fenris looked over his shoulder at the dog which sat watching Evelyna with curiosity in his yellow eyes.

"Is it wrong to eat the food the man left behind? In his note it said he had been expecting to die, that he had been sick for a while. I don't think anything would be poisoned." Evelyna asked, lip curled in a half-smile as she lifted a bowl of tomatoes, leeks and onions to her face and sniffed.

Fenris arched an eyebrow and scooted slightly closer to the fire. "He won't mind, I'm sure."

She grinned. "That's the answer I was looking for." Evelyna rummaged around through the dead man's belongings. At last she sat a couple feet from Fenris, near the fire, as the wolfhound plopped down between them, curled up. Fenris and Evelyna met eyes, and the elf smirked at him before she began to prepare some food. Fenris stood after a moment and removed the steel pieces of his armor so that he could dry more quickly.

Though the man and his stink of death was gone from the shack, neither Fenris nor Evelyna could find it in them to sit on the bed. They remained on the floor in front of the fire, listening to the beating of the rain on the small roof, to the howling of the wind, which was a nice respite from the wolves.

They ate the vegetables, as well as some jerky Evelyna had left over. She and Fenris both gave Meeko some as well as some bread that was beginning to show signs of mold. The dog fell asleep curled up near the fire, and Fenris sat back leaning against the bed while Evelyna laid out a damp fur for her to lay on.

"What do you think of Skyrim?" She asked as the fire crackled. The rise and fall of Meeko's chest was slow, the rain on the roof steady. At last Fenris almost felt dry, but he did certainly feel warm.

"It's different, I'll allow." He sighed. "I still don't understand your magic."

"What do you mean?"

"Where does your mana come from?"

"Mana?"

"I mean, magicka, you call it. Where does it come from?"

Evelyna stared blankly at the fire for a moment. "Aetherius. Our Immortal Plane, our afterlife. Why?"

"There are people in Skyrim, mages, that have more power than you?"

She snorted in laughter. "Almost everyone, Fenris, has more magical ability than I do."

He gestured as he asked, "So why is it that the mages are not trying to use their powers to manipulate everyone else? To control people?"

She arched an eyebrow at him and leaned back on her palms, crossing her ankles and wiggling her now bare toes at the fire. "They have before, across Thedas. You don't have to be a mage to want power over others. But here? In Skyrim? We would never let it happen. Not here, anyway. I think you still haven't seen how proud the Nords are."

"But you aren't a Nord." He crossed his arms, perplexed. "I know the difference now. I just don't understand... how does this all work?"

She cocked her head at him, almost mocking but in a kind way, if possible. "Why do mages in Thedas need to be shepherded around by Templars?"

"Because mages will always be tempted to have more power, no matter the cost."

"And that... Tranquility Rite that you talked about, do you think they all deserve that?"

"It would be safer, yes."

Evelyna frowned, turning back to the fire. "To never feel emotions... I can't imagine. To feel nothing when your lover embraces you, to not mourn the loss of your loved ones... You wouldn't want your enemies to even feel pain?"

He scowled, thinking of particularly Bethany who had perished in the Deep Roads. "Not every mage is my enemy. But every mage is a threat."

She waved her hand dismissively. "I'm more of a threat than half your mages, I'm sure, with my damned voice. Should I be tranquil?"

Fenris shook his head. "You aren't tempted by demons to do things that only hurt others for your own gain."

Evelyna leaned forward, hands on her knees, and stubbornly tried to comb her wild hair with her fingers. "No, I suppose I'm not." She winced as she found a knot and shrugged. "Your home sounds... interesting, but... I don't think I'd like to ever go there."

Fenris scoffed. "It is not a good place for an elf."

She nodded thoughtfully and then glanced at Meeko before running her fingers through the shaggy fur on its neck. The animal's animated eyebrows rose and it blinked at her. "You said..." she began, looking at Fenris almost in shame, "you said that your lyrium markings... that they do things? Did I understand you correctly?"

Fenris' expression darkened as he met her gaze, but she didn't flounder like he expected. "Get to your point."

"What things?" She asked. "You know what I can do now. What can you do?"

Fenris' lip curled in irritation. "Must you know?"

Evelyna shrugged. "You've seen mine."

"If Skyrim is truly as dangerous as you say, then you will see it soon."

She sighed, but seemed to understand that it would be no use bothering him more about it. His shoulders sagged in a brief moment of surrender.

"Very well," he said. "I can rip a man's heart from his chest, or squeeze it in my fist without harming anything else."

Evelyna didn't squirm when he said that. Her gaze flitted over his markings briefly before settling and meeting his stare. "You control it?"

"Well, yes." For the most part.

"And the... the pain of getting them erased your memory?"

Fenris didn't realize he was scowling. "Exposure to lyrium causes memory loss in elves and humans. I think it was both the pain, and that. Or my former Master took them from me, which I believe is the most likely cause."

"Why would he do that?"

He snorted at how little she seemed to know, or understand of slavery. "It is easier to have a passionless, empty vessel as a slave than one who can remember their family or how they've been wronged."

"That's true," she allowed. "I'm sorry, I can't imagine people being... enslaved." She adjusted as she sat, pulling her knees up to her chest. "In Skyrim, we take our freedom so seriously that if even the smallest liberties are threatened, we will revolt."

"Even the most proud people can become servile."

She let one hand rest on Meeko's head. The dog groaned a little, and then stretched. Evelyna stared at the fire. "Slavery has been illegal for a very long time. A Dunmer helped to bring it all down."

Fenris shoved down the images of Danarius and Hadriana as they appeared in his mind. He didn't like talking about this sore subject. But Evelyna seemed fascinated by it.

"I bet you'd be capable of leading a rebellion. In Thedas?"

He scoffed, shaking his head. "You don't understand how powerful they are. Besides, I would never go back there."

"No?" She put another log in the fire. "Even if we can't find your friends?"

"What ship would bring me back to Thedas?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure if you convinced a ship captain that you were from there, you'd be able to talk him into sailing there. It would be a remarkable journey. To be the first man from Tamriel to reach Thedas? He'd be immortal, spoken of as the first great explorer."

Fenris crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at his new Orcish boots that reflected the firelight off their steel. "There is nothing left for me in Thedas."

"But you said..." she paused, glancing at him, "You said you had a family. Wouldn't you want to try to find them?"

It felt like a blow to the stomach. He was speechless, for a moment, and then his gaze darkened as he scowled at her. "How little you know."

"What?"

He waved his hand dismissively, frowning at her.

"You said that you had a mother and sister-"

"I know what I said," Fenris growled. "All I know is that my mother is dead and my sister is a backstabbing mage that doesn't deserve the life she has, the life I only spared because Hawke told me to. She led me into a trap where my former master was waiting for me, to capture me and take me back as a slave."

Evelyna's hazel eyes softened as they flicked over his face. "I'm sorry, Fenris. Your own sister... really?"

"Yes," he said icily. It shamed him enough for that to have happened to him. He had been so eager to meet her, so nervous and anxious. And the entire time Varania had been scheming, if reluctantly, to throw him to the wolves. It made Fenris sick just thinking about it, thinking of how badly he was deceived.

She turned solemnly towards the fire, looking disgusted. The rain poured heavily onto the little shack, that was now warm and smoky from the fire. Evelyna hugged her knees and though Fenris was irritated, he wasn't exactly angry with her. He knew he took his anger out on whoever was in his path. He had made countless apologies on behalf of his temper to Hawke. He sighed and her eyes flitted to him.

"What if your friends wanted to go back to Thedas?"

He was glad at her attempt to change the subject, though it did not mollify his shame and anger. "It's far too early to tell. On the one hand... those are my companions. They've helped me for seven years. On the other... this... this Skyrim is a place I never would have imagined." He always knew that someday he'd leave, but every day he pushed it back a bit more.

"No wife on the ship with you? Merrill? Isabela?" She asked, chin perched on her knees. Fenris could swear she was smiling, or smirking, but the shape of her mouth was hard to tell in the dancing firelight.

"No," he told her firmly. "Isabela and Hawke are together, and Merrill is stupid and naiive. I would never."

"Varric?" She jested, and Fenris couldn't help but snort in light laughter.

"That's a terrible joke," he said, shaking his head before running a hand through his snowy hair. "And you?"

"And I what?"

He didn't balk. "Do you have a wife?"

"Ahh, you can be funny," she grinned and stroked Meeko's head. "No, I have no wife, though Aela in Whiterun would be quite the catch. Nor a husband."

Fenris chuckled. "Aela, you say?"

Evelyna laughed and threw her head back before shaking her head. "If I were married, I don't think I would be out doing this bullshit. Living in dead men's shacks and breaking into embassies."

Fenris' lip curled in a half-smile. "It must be somewhat profitable. You said that you raid bandit camps as well."

She shrugged. "It pays for what I need, and some of what I don't."

"And you do it all alone?"

Her mouth broke out into a grin, half-wild in the firelight. But she didn't seem as wild anymore, than when he first saw her. More... untamed than anything. "Not always. You'll meet Lydia. Talos bless her, but after a while she wears me down."

"Where is she now?"

"Waiting for me in Whiterun, most likely. She's my... housecarl. I'm a Thane of Whiterun."

"Which is?"

"I'm... favored, I guess, by the Jarl. For doing the town a lot of favors, essentially. A housecarl is... a servant, I suppose."

Fenris' expression immediately darkened, and Evelyna noticed where his mind went. She quickly began to correct herself.

"I don't - I don't want a servant. But she sees after my house when I'm gone. More often than not, I take her with me when I go out adventuring. I don't ask her to do any of this, Fenris. She... she pledged her fealty to me. I never wanted her to."

He didn't notice how tense he had just gotten. Fenris relaxed slightly against the bed, uncrossing his arms. "Speaking of Whiterun," he began, deciding to leave the prior topic alone, "how many more days will it be, you think? Until we're there?"

"Three," Evelyna settled on the floor, laying down on the creaking wood. "We'll have to head straight through Morthal tomorrow if we don't want to lose time. All I'm worried about are the mountains between Morthal and Whiterun. There are dangerous creatures that live there."

"We'll be on our guard, then."

She smiled and laced her fingers behind her wild hair, looking up at the ceiling. "I think we'll be fine. And everything you've said about your friends... I wouldn't worry about them either."

She was asleep within minutes, and eventually Fenris got sick of being alone with his thoughts. His mind fell to his friends, and what they could possibly be struggling with in the wilds of Skyrim. Had they been back to Solitude? Did they know he was looking for them? Not that it truly mattered much now anyway. He couldn't look for them on his own now, especially not since there was a possibility of them traveling to Whiterun to Evelyna's home.

The cadence of the rain battering the roof brought Fenris into a long, dream-filled sleep. He dreamed of dragons, his friends in the wilderness, Evelyna's wild grin and tumbling hair. He dreamed of the way her Voice rumbled in his own chest as she took down that dragon.

Oh yes. Of all the people that could have found him washed up, half-drowning and unconscious in the tide other than his companions, he was glad that it was her.

The rain had let up sometime around dawn, when Evelyna's shuffling had woken up Fenris. He felt worn down, but he had no choice but to get back on the horse behind the elf woman, with Meeko trailing behind.

Morthal had been nothing special. They had reached the town mid-morning, stopping only long enough for Evelyna to buy some dried meat, enough to provide several meals worth. She also bought him wolf pelts that had been crafted into a type of shawl.

"You'll need it, where we're going," was all she had said to him.

They rode southeast of Morthal along the road, before cutting more directly south as a shortcut. When they were back on the road it was early afternoon, with treacherous mountains rising high in front of them. Their snow-capped peaks seemed to claw at the blue sky. Where snow had fallen away there were sheer stone cliffs revealed, stretching tall and dangerous.

Their horse snorted as they went up a tall flight of snow-covered, stone stairs, walking beside the hoofed animal. Meeko prowled ahead in search of smells, but never straying too far from them. Fenris' legs were exhausted by the time the sun began to yawn behind the western peaks.

They paused under a stone archway, set in the middle of a high wall. Cages hung from the arch in the stones and Fenris looked up, wondering what used to be held in their iron bars. Ahead were more steps across a stone courtyard, with tall statues scattered that appeared to represent eagles. The wind blew down from the mountain peaks ahead and to the sides, carrying with it a mist of snow. Fenris swallowed nervously, green eyes scanning the stone ruins of what looked to have once been a grand city.

"What is this place?" He asked, trying not to shiver in the bitter wind.

Evelyna glanced at Meeko, who was standing still between them, his nose twitching and tail between his legs. She splayed her fingers on her horse's nose. "This is Labyrinthian." The wind blew her black braid over her shoulder. She tugged her own wolf's fur over her shoulders on top of her leather vest. Even she was cold. Her hazel eyes flitted to Fenris, a quiet anxiety emanating from her.

"We must tread lightly here. There are things even I don't want to awaken."

I don't know why, but I struggled so much with the end of this chapter (at Meeko's Shack). After maybe three rewrites, I'm just going to wash my hands of it an move on.