Disclaimer: Skyrim and all its canon content are the property of Bethesda Game Studios. No infringement is intended.
Reksadonviing and any unrecognizable names are characters of my own devising.
Notes: Fav/alert thanks to GaarasMyBoyzz, kali yugah, and Winters-Dawn1221.
Another flashback chapter, more grounded and less vague than the first. Hope it further clarifies a few things.
They were different.
But as sentimentality was a concept that held no meaning for the Dov, it only gave the drakes all the more reason to taunt and ridicule them. So as a general rule, the females of the creche did not meddle in the feud that their counterparts waged with the Jul.
Since rekindling them, Alduin had only addressed the creche, his 'kaviir' the lesser drakes joked, once. They only numbered at a dozen, young females uninterred from a mass grave thought to have been buried in the Second Era, and it was the World-Eater's claim he intended them to stay in hiding until the skies of Keizaal were safe.
Safe from what?
Reksadonviing cared naught. She never asked for any of it. Brought back to a life of constant torment and second-guessing, she knew it was only her inborn desire for survival that kept her breathing from day to day. Or that had been the case at first, before Odahviing wormed his way into her affections.
What she lacked was rel - the desire to dominate - that Alduin and her fellows found so distasteful. Thought to be a side effect of mixing bloodlines without the proper precautions, the wrong blessings read and one too few sacrifies made, some said it was no wonder why her clutch-sisters' whereabouts, and therefore remains, were left unrecorded by the Dovah Zaag.
"Which begs the question," Keinlassrahgot went on, one afternoon while they lounged in the sunshine upon her altar. "Why were your bones buried alongside mine?"
Despite what understanding they had managed to reach, Reksadonviing dared not meet the larger female's eyes. She had no clear answer to give. A dead dovah, lesser drakes and especially females, typically had no will over what became of their bodies after death. Those that were slain, they were hardly responsible for what the Blades later did with their corpses, after all.
"Hinsk?" the gray finally supplied, managing a shy sideways glance in addressing her superior.
Keinlassrahgot's eyes, a vivid yellow, darted upward at the distant sound of a roar. Both females listened, but soon relaxed, as no familiar set of wings crested the valley walls. "That would be the simplest possibility. But as you and I both know, simple has no place in Dov lore."
"Jul have always been simple at heart," Reksadonviing muttered, noncommitted to the conversation at large, lying her head across a folded wing. The previous night's stay on the valley floor rendered her sore and cold. She wanted only to rest, melt the chill from her scales. But sharing a tier of Keinlassrahgot's perch came with its price. "Had they been more forethoughtful they would not have made it so easy for Alduin to find us."
"Perhaps. But things have changed a great deal since our elders' time. I've heard the drakes speak ill of why those who have fallen to the Dovahkiin perished so easily. The simplest mistakes made in each battle proved to be their undoing."
"Lore notwithstanding, perhaps it should be amended a place in battle tactics." Eyes closed, Reksadonviing heard a rasp of scales dragging on stone, claws clicking their way closer. She opened her eyes with a sigh. "Please, not again."
Keinlassrahgot nudged her insistantly. "Up. Your body has spent enough time resting."
Knowing the argument only grow less encouraging and eke more toward violant, Reksadonviing wearily unfolded her limbs and stood up. The creak of her scales and spines was audible as she stretched. "Yet another reason I envy you ruv sos."
"You don't give yourself enough credit, briinah. No joor sos I've known are as stubborn as you've proven yourself to be."
"And you've known how many besides me?" Reksadonviing's mouth quirked up in the barest of smiles.
Keinlassrahgot nipped at her shoulder in rebuke, teeth grazing her scales. The recipient hardly flinched, as it was only a subtle reminder to the younger female that backtalk would not be tolerated. "Enough of that. The winds are favorable right now. Better you keep your strength than to let it wane."
"Geh, dii reg."
Reksadonviing gathered herself and lept from the altar, indulging in a moment of freefall before swooping upward on the next chilly updraft her wings caught. She turned and saw her bully-turned-host also take flight, to circle and observe. Granted a moment alone, the grayscaled let her thoughts wander.
Joor sos - mortal blood. The term was one born of myth and supposition. It was used to summarily describe those few Dov in a generation who did not thirst for conquest with the same bloodlust as their parents. Mixing bloodlines were thought to be the primary cause, and why the other Dov thought of her as vomedass - different.
There were always a few variants. Keinlassrahgot, though a purebred fo dovah, ruthless as the harshest Keizaal blizzard, didn't fit her breed's own descriptors to a tee. The color of her scales beared that out, more a distant-ocean blue laced in black than slate gray and ghostly white. Her yellow eyes seemed more suited to less-sturdy greenscaled forest dragons. Her comformation was the same: a stout body with broad shoulders and ridged hips. Though he would never say as much, Alduin had to have taken a shine to her because of more than personality (something which had since proved more faceted than other females of the creche said).
If he could see us now...
Reksadonviing veered away so as to give her companion space to fly, but to stay within visual range. There would have been Oblivion to pay. The gray dovah knew the World-Eater would rather see her perish altogether, and Keinlassrahgot should he ever learn of her 'treachery', weeded out by natural selection. Perhaps her recent growth of a backbone had impressed him, albeit in the wrong ways, or he found her antics a welcome bit of amusement as his campaign for domination went more and more sour.
The outcome was always the same as his patience would finally snap. With a cursory mauling, he would hound her from a given perch, then offer her the 'choice' to spend the night on the valley floor or repent for her words.
Typically, she would have submitted. But stubbornness and loyalty to the one being who had shown her geniality kept her from it. Whatever passed for love among the Dov had sunk its teeth deep into her brain. Even if she never saw Odahviing again, the memories of his actions were enough to make her believe there was another side to Dov society that could arise, but only under the right conditions.
Keinlassrahgot was case in point. Like Alduin, she would never admit to having a 'soft side', but Reksadonviing now knew different. The grayscaled had already made a pact with herself to never disclose what her once-superior had done under the cover of night, shielding her from the snow and cold.
They had spoken little of the matter as yet, and probably would not. Pride would keep Keinlassrahgot from it, and Reksadonviing's sense of self-preservation would agree.
Mind made up, she turned her attention to flight. The sun was high and bright today, alighting the stray snowflakes that wafted through the air with little glints. Reksadonviing flapped with several strong strokes of her wings, as yet untattered by true battle, and gained altitude, cresting one of the valley walls to look at the mountain range beyond. She forgot the ache of her mending wounds at the marvelous, sprawling sight.
The Jul knew this place as the Velothi Mountains. It was a peculiar place for the creche to hide, in hindsight, but Alduin had played against the expectations of their foes. While a pattern had emerged in what direction he unearthed his comrades, one by one, the Rekindled Creche were something of a trump card. Lesser drakes had been recruited to transport their skeletons to this valley, heavily wooded and only host to a few weather-worn temples, far from the burial site whose location had become a jealously-guarded secret.
Here was where they were to stay until further notice.
Those same drakes had become their unwanted guards. Squabbles for food and company were becoming more commonplace. Reksadonviing supposed it was fortunate Keinlassrahgot had decided to take pity on her, the outcast afflicted dually with mixed blood and emotions. With Odahviing gone, the older female was a passible substitute.
"Fo Krah Diin!"
Reksadonviing yelped and jigged aside as a stream of flying ice shot up from below. The cold air only managed to graze her tail. Keinlassrahgot, climbing sharply on an updraft, soared past her with a laugh. Wisps of frosty air wafted from her mouth. Pegging the game that was being played, the smaller dovah rolled away, wing over wing, and flapped to gain speed.
Keeping up appearances was the priority now. Testing each other's prowess in the air was a typical display of mental sharpness and physical fortitude. For the drakes it was a chance to show off. For the creche it was a means of stress relief.
"Let's see how long you can evade me, sahlo."
Reksadonviing spat a cloud of snow by way of reply, and dove through it, dispersing the flakes in a glittering veil.
A multitude of cries and roars rang out from ledges all around. Whether they were of approval or distain, Reksadonviing cared not. Their audience was dispersed far enough between perches that she did not think the other females join in. Keinlassrahgot was to them what Alduin was to what remained of the Dov. Her game, her rules, her players.
They flew low, brushing the stringy tops of pine trees, wings dipping as they made turns through open meadows. Bears snarled from their dens in outrage. Deer and wolves bolted in terror. Reksadonviing led her persuer on an entire circuit of the valley's forests, nimbly avoiding the bursts of frost that closed distances allowed. Her senses reeled with the speed of the chase, but for the time being she could forget her troubles.
One such meadow, rimmed with trees nursing broken branches, the imprint of where she had lain was still visible in the snow. Both females bypassed it without a backwards glance, focused only on the present as they were.
This was as close to fun as they could manage nowadays.
Author's Notes: I lied about the wait. Short chapter is short. ^^;
Keinlassrahgot, whose name was derived from the Dov translation of the loose meaning of my own, was spontaneously coined in chapter three. This was my attempt to further dimensionalize her (working out a possible role/fate for her in future chapters), as well as what life in the creche entailed.
Dov terms/phrases:
briinah - sister
dii reg - my lady
Dovah Zaag - the Dragon Cult
hinsk - ignorance
joor sos - mortal blood
kaviir - harem
rel - domination
ruv sos - pure blood
tuz - the Blades