"Quickly!"
Eren shivered as he followed the orderly line of guards through the tangled grasses of the plains west of Whiterun. The numbing cold crept through his fingers, stiffening them, and he resisted the urge to bring warmth back into them with his breath.
Mikasa will make me go back to Dragonsreach if I look like I'm having a hard time.
"Come on!" Ireleth commanded from her position at the head of the line. "And keep your eyes open! That dragon could be anywhere."
Eren tilted his head to view the black void hanging over the barren plains of Whiterun like a shroud. Thick clouds had begun to loom over the distant horizon, blotting out the stars' pale light.
"Eren…."
The young cadet scowled at the sound of Mikasa's voice.
"If you're not feeling well, you need to let me know," the dark-haired girl whispered. "We can leave right now and go back to Whiterun. There's probably a carriage outside of the city walls we can—"
"The Jarl said I had to come. I'm the only one here who saw the dragon at Helgen." Eren never turned to face her, only continued to race after the guards in front of him. "I got through Bleak Falls Barrow, didn't I?!"
"And you almost died!" Mikasa shot back. "That draugr would've killed you, if I hadn't been—"
"If you hadn't been there to save me! I don't need looking after, Mikasa! I've been through military training, and I've killed titans before! As soon as I figure out my powers, I'll stop this. All of this!" the chestnut-haired boy retorted. "I don't know why you can't—!"
"Quiet!" Ireleth's deep hiss sliced through the air like ODM blades through a titan's nape. "We're here…."
The Dunmer woman pointed at a fiery ruin in front of her. Large chunks of stone lay scattered about a stone tower, knocked from the turreted fortress by a malevolent force of nature. Reddish-orange fires dotted the area, blazing through the dry foliage with ease. Burning smoke billowed into the air, enveloping the hellish wreckage in a thick, putrid haze.
Eren gagged as the scent of charred flesh filled his nostrils. Human cries, muffled by the choking haze, assaulted his ears. Squinting, he began to make his way toward the distorted humanoid figures racing frantically in the carnage.
"I'm coming!" he called as he stumbled toward the inferno.
They'll die if they stay in the smoke for too long!
"Eren, stop!" Mikasa's fingers clamped around his shoulder, jolting him backwards.
"But they won't make it! The smoke will kill them, if we don't do something!" Eren growled. "Let me go!"
"It's dangerous!" she cried, tightening her grip. "You don't know what's out there!"
"She's right." Ireleth walked toward them. Sword drawn, she nodded toward the smoke. "A dragon has certainly been here. I don't see him, but he could still be out here lurking about." She turned to face the line of guards behind her. "Be careful. If you see or hear anything, you are to say something immediately!"
Ignoring the guards' obedient replies, Eren gave the air another tentative sniff. The air still carried the acrid scent of burning foliage and flesh, but….
There's another smell.
The sharp tang of blood hit his nostrils, and he retched.
Why is this getting to me? I should be used to it by now. I fought at Trost! Why does this smell so much worse?! …And familiar? It's not human blood. Too musky. Maybe it's a titan…or a—
"Get back! All…of you!" A thick-set guard raced out of the smoke, coughing. Dark brown eyes widened like full moons, he pointed at the sky with a quivering finger. "He grabbed…Hroki and Tor when they tried to…make a run for it! He'll…take you, too! By Shor, here he comes again!"
An earth-shattering roar echoed above them, and Eren tilted his head to the night sky. An enormous figure swept over the desolation and landed on the tower's crumbling top. Spreading his bat-like wings, he blocked the waning moons from Eren's view. His mud-brown scales glistened in the starlight, splattered with dark blood from his maw to his chest. The beast's nostrils twitched once…twice…before his amber gaze locked onto the young cadet.
"Eren!"
He felt Mikasa's hands against his shoulders and the sense of weightlessness before collapsing onto the coarse tundra grasses beneath him.
"Yol-toor-shul!" a deep voice bellowed from above him.
Then came the blast of searing heat and a sharp growl, as if….
As if he's cursing us—me!
The insult rang as clearly in Eren's ears as if they had been spoken in his native tongue: "Bormahu ofan hi qahliiv, lir!"
"Akatosh give you scale-rot, worm!"
Eren clenched his teeth and gave a deep growl. Leaping from the ground, he unsheathed his weapon and pointed the iron blade toward the beast's dim form. Fierce heat consumed his heart, surged into his fingertips.
"Feeble lizard!" he snarled. "Come fight me like a true dovah, or are you too afraid to do that?!"
For him to speak to me like that….
"Eren, stop!"
"By the Nine!"
"What in Oblivion—?!"
Every word blended into an endless roar as he lowered his sword and marched into the thick smoke. The intense heat stung his eyes, and every breath burned his lungs. Squinting, he stalked among the reddish-orange flames, head held rigidly.
Lifting his eyes upward, the chestnut-haired boy caught a glimpse of the larger of the two moons he had viewed on his first night in Skyrim. The celestial body's light flared through the dense smoke, as red as his own eyes.
The rotten stench of dragon breath assaulted his nostrils, and he resisted the urge to gag. He had been introduced to the scent of death at the destruction of Shigonshina, had been bathed in the sickening smell in Trost.
But this! It's so strong!
The impact of a heavy object shook the ground. Lurched forward by the earth's vibrations, Eren felt a feverish rush of adrenaline course through his arms and face. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade as a dark shape emerged from the thick smoke.
"Mirmulnir." The name came to him as easily as those of his fellow cadets.
But how?
The mud-brown dragon only bared his blood-stained fangs in reply. Growling, he crept toward the chestnut-haired boy.
"Dinok, joor! Yol-toor-shul!" Fire shot from Mirmulnir's mouth, blackening the grass in its pathway.
Dodging the deadly flames, Eren raced toward the beast. Though his lungs ached from the foul smoke, he forced himself to maintain his speed.
"Die, damn you!" he snarled, driving his blade into Mirmulnir's shoulder.
The mud-brown dragon bellowed and reared onto his hind legs. Eren clung to his sword with both hands, gritting his teeth as the hilt's grip dug into his palms. Heartbeats before Mirmulnir could lift the young cadet from the ground, the iron sword snapped.
Eren felt the sense of weightlessness before the jolt of the ground against his back. Gasping for breath, he could only watch as his adversary stumbled backward.
Come on! Get up!
No matter how fervently his mind screamed, he could not even move his fingers. Paralyzed, he lay on the coarse grass, as defenseless as a deer. Mirmulnir's deep growls reached his ears, dripping with bloodlust….
"Archers!" Ireleth's command rang out over the chaos.
Eren watched as a barrage of arrows sped through the air above him with fatal accuracy. The blood-curdling scream that followed gave testimony that the deadly projectiles had hit their target.
Struggling to his feet, the young cadet locked eyes with his hunter.
He's limping!
Mirmulnir stumbled toward Eren, savage fangs bared. Dark, sticky blood gushed from the deep gash in the dragon's shoulder and around the quiver-full of arrows lodged in his chest. Even the beast's rumbling growls faltered as he drew in ragged gasps of air. His amber eyes had widened to almost twice their size, and his limbs had begun to quiver underneath his bulk.
"Dovahkiin…no…." he panted before collapsing at Eren's feet.
Then came a final cough, followed by silence.
Eren stared wide-eyed at Mirmulnir's body, unable to move as the dragon's lifeblood pooled around his feet.
"Eren."
The Voice!
"Haalvut ok qah." The deep-throated tongue vibrated through his chest, filled his mind with one thought:
"Touch his scales."
Eren stretched his hand toward Mirmulnir's forehead, cocking his head at the fallen beast. The body still emanated heat, and the young cadet's palm began to sweat as he placed it on the natural armor with which the dragon had been endowed.
Every one of his muscles locked at the sound of crackling beneath his hand. Flecks of scales and skin lifted from Mirmulnir, each blazing fiery orange before disappearing into nothingness. A surge of almost unbearable heat washed over the young cadet, and ethereal streams of pale blue light encircled him before entering his chest. The ghostly wisps murmured strings of words into his ears: long-forgotten memories and hidden knowledge stretching centuries.
One word rose above the others, demanding his attention with its endless clamor. One meaning entered his consciousness, ready to intertwine with his speech. Humming to an ancient tune, it burned in his mind like dragon fire, a force unlike any other.
Force! The drive behind nature's movements. Change itself.
He could not keep it contained within him any longer. The word had already begun to spring from his tongue.
"Fus!" Goosebumps rose along his arms as he lifted his head and shouted the word to the night sky.
Eren smiled as a plume of ocean-blue energy rushed from his lips and into the darkness. An unstoppable gust of raw power that flung anything in its path.
Power….
His heart thudded wildly in his chest, and his hands curled into fists. Dropping his head back to Mirmulnir's carcass, he found only a smoldering skeleton. The skull's eye sockets stared back at him lifelessly, devoid of even the overwhelming fear in the dragon's last moments.
"Eren!" Mikasa's cry rose above the sound of smoldering grass and flesh. "Can you hear me?! EREN!"
"What?" The young cadet shook his head and turned to face her.
"Eren! Are you all right?! Can you—?!" The dark-haired girl emerged from the smoke and halted in front of him.
"Mikasa? What is it? What's going on?" Eren asked.
His companion said nothing, only glanced at the thick smoke behind her. The faint clanking of chain armor drifted through the destruction, increasing in volume with every clank of steel and wood. Fifteen guards emerged from the smoke, swords drawn and bows pulled taut. In the center of the line stood Ireleth. Her own blade unsheathed and ready to kill, she lifted her free hand to stop her advancing squad.
"Whatever you do, don't let them see your eyes," Mikasa whispered. "Please."
"But I'm wearing my—" Eren paused and felt the top of his head, only to find his thick hair.
The remains of the hood that he had donned in Riverwood now hung in shreds around his shoulders.
"I can't believe it!" A single guard broke from his position and raced toward them, halting in front of Mirmulnir's skeleton. "You're…you're Dragonborn!"