Every part of me aches, but thankfully, it hurts less than before. I feel something warm almost cuddling up against my body. My eyes flutter open to see Karnwyr keeping me warm in the cold night. I gently brush my fingers on his head, glad that he's alright.
"Finally awake, Princess?" I hear Bishop's voice behind me, keeping watch as always.
"How long was I out?" I ask, almost worried about the type of questions he may have or how angry he is.
"A few hours. You put up quite a fight." He stirs the fire as I try to sit up. "Care to tell me what those markings are, now?" He finally asked.
"It's complicated." I try to cover myself up.
"Try me."
I sigh and look straight in his eyes. "My father was an elven slave to a powerful mage. He was branded with markings made from an element called lyrium. My father broke free from the mage and allied himself with another mage, my mother. They got close and when I was born, my markings were smaller. They grow as I do and it hurts when I use them. They're even changing my hair color." I look away and continue. "The markings give me strength, make me a living weapon. However..." I bite my lip. Why am I telling him? I owe him nothing.
"However?" Bishop growls, telling me to continue.
"If I'm right, the markings that my father was branded with, the markings I was born with, could very well be the death of me if I'm not careful."
I feel a hand jerking my right shoulder to make me turn around. Bishop looks angry.
"Then why in Oblivion are you here? Why did you come out here to help me? Do you have a death wish?" He yells all these questions and then catches himself. "Not that I care or anything."
"I needed a guide and a ranger knows the land better than anyone. You needed help and I figured if I helped you find your wolf, you'd help me find my way back to my family!" I'm getting so frustrated that I let slip my true reason for being here.
Karnwyr approaches me as though he knows what I need. "Smart wolf." I say to him as I pet his soft fur.
"He likes you." Bishop tells me, as if to avoid the previous conversation. "You know why?"
"I got him out of the cage? I'm nicer than the ranger? I have a presence that reeks danger just like him?"
"That last one isn't too far off. You understand him and he understands you. You know what he is. And most importantly, and this is the most important part, you know what he's capable of and you still don't fear him." Bishop looks at me serious, but a little sadness in his eyes.
"When you understand an animal by relating it to yourself, you don't need to fear the creature before you. Besides, seems to me that Karnwyr is a big sweetheart." As I finish my statement, Karnwyr wags his tail and licks my face. It tickles.
I laugh a little and hear Bishop say, "Get some rest, Princess. I'll stand guard."
I look at him. "Weren't you already standing guard?"
"Yes, but I need some time to think and you still look a little worn out." He cuts me off before I even get a chance to offer switching shifts. "Go to sleep. My answer will be in the morning."
I nod and crawl back into my tent. Karnwyr follows me and lays down, head on my waist. The warmth from the gentle wolf coaxes me to sleep. I wonder what Bishop will decide.
...
"So this is Bleakfalls Barrow?" I say in front of the ruin and turn to speak with my companion. "Just one question. Are you crazy?"
Bishop decided to come with me after all. However he had a few conditions. He gets to train me any way he wants so that I can use weapons that aren't my marks. We don't order each other around. Finally, I don't feed Karnwyr a sweet roll. With his "training" that means that we have to take jobs that not only win us favors with many people, but also puts some coin in our pockets for the inns and taverns.
The only job that I had was from the court wizard. Bishop thought that would be a great place to start. So when we reached Riverwood, the local trader had conveniently been robbed of a golden claw and the bandits went up to the Barrow.
Now we're here at the door and we already had to fight a handful of bandits. Who knows what else we'll face once inside.
"Your skills with a bow are impressive, I can't deny that. However, you swing like you're trying to swat a fly, you stomp around like a swamp boar, and I can continue to list all the things you can not only get yourself killed, but whoever is dumb enough to follow you."
"And what does that make you?" I smile.
"Break time is over, Princess." he growls and pushes me through the door.
Just as I suspected. Bandits, giant spiders, big rats called skeevers, and most importantly, undead nords called drauger. And a whole bunch of traps! The bandit who stole the claw from the trader even ran after we cut him out of a giant spider web. Of course, he died from stepping into a trap that woke up a few drauger in the room. Why did he think this would be easy? I just need to get this over with before I strangle him.
We're now in a large open cave in the ruin. As we approach the other side, I hear voices.
"Do you hear that?" I ask.
"This is no time to be a scardy saber cat, Ladyship. Let's just get this stone tablet thing, then we can get out of here." Bishop teases me.
True, not a lover for caves, but something felt strange about the wall next to the stone coffin. As we approach, a carving begins to glow and the voices get louder. Bishop starts to look in the chest next to the coffin as I get closer to the wall. I touch the glowing carving and hear a work rush through my head. FUS! What does that mean?
As I try to shake it off, the lid of the coffin bursts open. Bishop jumps back looking at me as if he were asking "What did you do?" I shrug. All I know is that we have to fight a Drauger Deathlord.
The creature swings it's axe down on me. I block with my sword, but I can still feel the chill of the axe. I push back and swing at the knees. It colapses and growls right before I cut its head off. I pick up the axe, thinking that it could be useful or worth something. I seach the officially dead creature and find a stone tablet with strange writing. Almost the same writing on the wall I touched.
"See, what I tell you? This was easy." Bishop sounds like he's sighing from relief.
"Yes, well, next time you decide to give me a training lesson, let's do it like normal people. You know, showing me form and the like."
"Easy there, Your Worship. A man might get the wrong impression." That wolfish grin is back.
I blush and back away from him. "We better return this claw to that trader and head to Whiterun. That mage, Farengar I believe, is going to be very excited to see this tablet."
Bishop shrugs and follows me out of the ruin.
...
"I'm what?"
For the record, I tried staying out of the big fights, the politics, the wars, and just anything that would interfere with me getting back to my family. However, with recent events, I now have no choice in the matter.
It took Bishop and me a while to get back to Riverwood. Needless to say, the trader was pleased to get his golden paperweight back and his sister kept giving us looks like she was mentally proposing to us. Before Bishop would gladly give her an answer, I pulled him out of the shop and had him run with me to Whiterun. Especially since someone thought it was a good idea to build up my endurance by selling the horse.
Anyway, we get to Whiterun, give the mage the Dragonstone, turn around to get paid, and a guard shows up alerting everyone that a dragon was attacking a watchtower. We got paid an axe, but the Jarl wanted us to go with Irileth, a dark elf as well as his Housecarl, and his men to defeat the dragon. Bishop gave me an angry look, like it was my fault. A swift, painfull reminder helped him remember that had he not suggested finishing the job, we wouldn't be in such a mess.
The tower was a mess, just like Helgen. Stone, blood, and bodies everywhere. A dragon had definately done this. Irileth ordered all of us to search for survivors, I felt sick the whole time.
"You alright, Princess?" Bishop asked almost concerned.
"It's just like Helgen. These soldiers didn't stand a chance." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I'll check the tower-"
"No, get back! It's still here somewhere!" a survivor ran out before I even looked inside. "By the gods, here it comes again!"
A dragon had indeed returned to the tower, but it was not the black one that I saw in Helgen. It's scales were nearly as pale as snow.
When Irileth gave the order to attack and I ran up the tower for a better vantage point. The dragon flew around the tower, breathing fire, and killing many men. I saw that the dragon was flying in a pattern, which gave me the most idiotic idea I ever had. Once the dragon nearly reached position, I put away my bow, draw my sword, and jumped on it's back.
I don't know who was more angry with my plan, the dragon or Bishop. Either way, it was too late. I struggled staying on the dragon's back, so I took my sword and stabbed near the spine. I knew that it wasn't going to be enough. I casted a frost spike spell at the a wing. As the dragon went down, I landed on a nice patch of grass. The dragon was down, but it was nowhere near over.
"Look out, Ranger!" A soldier yelled to Bishop, who was about to be fried.
Without really thinking, I ran at the dragon from behind. I ran up the tail and spine, retrieved my sword, and held on tight to the head.
The dragon yelled "Dovahkiin? No!"
Before I even realized that it had spoke, the end of my blade reached the bottom of it's skull. As it collapsed, I fell off.
"You..." Bishop tries to yell while breathing hard, "...are one... crazy... woman!"
I laughed until Irileth and the soldiers started to panic. Something was happening to the dragon corpse. It looked like it was burning away the scales and flesh, turning into some sort of energy. That energy went inside of me.
Images of the wall back at the Barrow flashed into my mind. The word drowned everything out. I had not felt such power since I was sent here. I raised my head to the sky in agony and opened my mouth to say the word.
"FUS!" Everything around me shook so much that I fell to my knees, breathing harder than I did after the battle.
"Ladyship! Are you ok?" Bishop rushed to my side.
"What just happened to me?" I felt panicked. Bad enough my skin will kill me, but whatever had just happened, felt worse.
"You..." a guard came up to us, "You are Dragonborn."
"I'm what?"
This is where I am. Near a ruined tower, next to a dead dragon, in shock while the guards talk about how I'm their legendary hero as Irileth just focuses on the fact that it is dead and Bishop looking like he regrets his desicion about being my traveling companion.
I now have a duty to Skyrim and I didn't even have a choice. I have built up a wall against the world's problems and with one "shout" they are my problems as well. I am the Dragonborn and I won't be going back to Kirkwall for a long time. Not until my job is done.
