The world was still misty and blurred, even though Harry still had his glasses on. He was lying on the floor, he had an intensely throbbing headache, and his throat was still sore. Slowly, what had happened before he collapsed filtered back to him.

Oh, hell.

He sat up and experienced a wave of dizziness. Someone came to him.

"Finally, sleepyhead, Ron and Hermione were up ages ago." It was Amdesa, harsh voice trembling slightly. "Here, have a small sip of this mead. Not Nord mead, I'll have you know. The good Blackbriar stuff. That will wake you up, I guarantee!"

He tried a bit, and the strength of it woke him up fully, banishing the headache to a dull throb and restoring his blurred sight. Amdesa took the small bottle back, furry brow furrowed, and nodded to someone else. That someone came and picked Harry up taking him to a bench where Ron and Hermione were sitting.

"What was that verse?" The man seated himself opposite. He was wearing dark robes, and looked human.

"That was… I honestly don't know." Hermione confessed.

"Hmm. What is that?" He said, pointing at Harry.

"What do you mean? I'm Harr-"

"Yes, yes, I meant these." He tapped Harry's glasses, an expression of puzzlement on his face.

"Oh my gosh. You don't know what glasses a-" Suddenly there was an almighty thunderclap.

"DOVAKIIN!" a voice Shouted, followed by some more smaller thunderclaps. When all that had died down, they stared at the man opposite. He stared back.

"What does this mean?" Ron asked, scared.

"It means the Greybeards have summoned you." The man replied.

"Who are the Greybeards?" Hermione asked.

"They are a group of monks, trained in the power of the Voice. That's all we know, apart from that they live at the top of that mountain, in High Hrothgar, which is where you need to go."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because you cannot refuse a Greybeard's summon."

"Thank you, Farengar. I will take them now." Amdesa came in, tail swishing behind her.

"Very well. Thank you, Amdesa, children." He nodded to them, and left.

The next day, they were standing outside the gates of Whiterun, enjoying the morning sun. They were all looking towards the huge mountain in the distance.

"It doesn't look too far away." Ron said.

"The steps are on the other side." Amdesa said, coming up behind them. Harry cursed.

"My thoughts exactly." Hermione murmured.

They were all wearing the same nondescript clothes, and were carrying knapsacks apart from Amdesa, who was wearing leather armour, a hide helmet and wielding iron sword.

They walked towards the stables. "One more horse please." She said to a man.

"Okay. Thank you." He said, as she gave him some coin.

"Hermione, you are on mine with me, boys, you get on the other one." They mounted up, and settled into a walk. Harry was steering his steed, Ron clutching behind. They set off, down the road to High Hrothgar.

The horses ate up the miles at a loping canter, and they soon came to two towers, stretching over the river with a bridge in between.

"Valtheim Towers. Often inhabited by bandits, so let's ride as fast as we can!" They galloped past, and followed on down the road.

"Whoa!" Ron held onto Harry's shirt tightly.

A while later, they reached a small town known as Ivarstead, bottoms and thighs aching, stiff and sore from such a long time on horseback. "We will stay the night here." Amdesa said, and so they bought a room at the Vilemyr inn, and slept.

In the morning, they got up early and had breakfast. Then they left the inn and headed out, down into the village. They crossed a bridge and headed up some steps. Beyond that, there were more steps… and more steps… and eventually, the four of them were just mindlessly trudging up step after step after step. Here and there they paused to catch their breath, and the Khajiit was obviously really uncomfortable. When questioned, she said

"In my home, Elsweyr, it is a lot warmer. My people say as a goodbye 'May your road lead you to warm sands'. It is freezing here! Let's keep moving." It grew colder as they got further up. Snow and ice covered the ground, and the four of them were numb with cold. Here and there along the path were etched tablets, but they were very faded. Finally, they came to a castle with two stairways stretching out and round, and Amdesa stopped.

"I cannot enter here. You shall talk to the Greybeards alone. I will wait in Ivarstead." She said. They nodded, turned and entered High Hrothgar.