"My Thane, I'll wait here." Lydia said as they climbed the steps to High Hrothgar.
"In the blizzard. Great idea, Lydia." Esil said.
"I don't think they'd exactly welcome me." Lydia told her.
"So you're sending me in alone. Glad to know I'm appreciated." Esil muttered.
"No, I—fine. I'll join you. But I'm staying as far away from those Greybeards as I possibly can." Lydia sighed as Esil pushed open the doors.
—
"Anyone in here? Someone caused an earthquake down near Whiterun." Esil said, rapping her staff on the ground. It echoed, and Esil could just make out braziers and several grey figures.
"Dovahkiin." Someone said.
"Yeah. Hello?" Esil asked.
"So it is true… We did not think anyone would answer our summons. I am Arngier." A hooded man approached her.
"Hi. Esil. What—who's Dovahkiin?" She asked.
"You are. Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn— someone who can absorb the souls of dovah: dragons. You have the soul of a dragon." Arngier said.
"I have a what?"
"Soul. Of a dragon."
"And this benefits me how?" Esil asked.
"You can save this world from Alduin."
"The crap is that?" Esil was getting confused. Having new words thrown at her and having a fuzzy grey man saying she had a lizard's soul all in one day was making her want to go lie down and sleep.
"Alduin the World Eater. He is supposed to bring about the end times. But for now, we wish to teach you the ways of the Voice."
"How about the ways of the Sight while you're at it?" Esil asked.
"I don't understand." Esil waved her hand in front of her face.
"You're a fuzzy little man to me. What's the 'voice'?" She said.
"The Voice, or Thu'um, channels your words into a physical output."
"That makes complete sense." She said flatly.
"I'm glad it does. Come, follow me. We must teach you."
—
Lydia followed Esil on their trek down the mountain quietly.
"Well that was fun. Let's go get drunk." Esil said.
"You're not going to find their horn?" Lydia asked.
"Why should I? I'd just have to climb back up this stinking mountain. And I have no desire to do that. What I do want to do, however, is go down this mountain, go to the inn in Ivarstead, and get completely trashed. That sound good?" Esil asked.
"Anything you want, my Thane." Lydia sighed. Esil hummed.
—
"I have no idea where we are." Esil said. She stood outside a cave, looking into where a ghost had just run.
"Who was that?" Lydia asked.
"Who knows. Let's go in!" Esil said happily. Lydia sighed and followed the elf into the Barrow.
Esil pulled back her bowstring, watching the ghost examine the walls and floor of the cave.
"This guy looks bright. I'm gonna shoot him." Esil said. Lydia hit her forehead with her palm.
"It's a ghost."
"So? I won't hurt it." Esil told her confidently, and loosed the arrow.
It got stuck in the ghost's shoulder.