Cearbhail: Ok, back to the story now. Can't really say what goes on here, other than you know, finding out why Cecilie had to decieve her own family into thinking she was killed.

Dear journal,

What the hell just happened? I'm writing in you at the very second that I found out that Cecilie was still alive. Here we were, attending her funeral when all of the sudden, she comes walking through the backdoor unharmed. She was dead. Yet, here she is…wearing a new dress, smiling like a Daedra, glaring up at me with her sparkling white eyes, and talking…

I just saw her head get lobbed off last night! What the heck happened? I don't know, but I want to find out, like right now.

Lydia..

…

Asger walked in front of me, pushed me a little off to the side as he glanced at Cecilie. I heard him sniffle a cry and then he charged past me. He ran up to Cecilie in the girliest method I've ever seen a man run in. If I could put a moment in slow motion and write 'girly' all over it…this would have been it.

But it was a Kodak moment. He ran up to her, scooped her into his arms, and spun her around in circles. Both of them were laughing. Everyone else, myself included, continued to stand here by the memorial site that was built just for her. I actually saw a few people look over at the statues and then back at her. There were a lot of confused people.

Finally, Rikke stepped forward. "Ok, ok…what is going on? Who is that? Is that really Cecilie?"

Cecilie nodded. "Yes, captain. It's me."

"Prove it." Rikke said, crossing her arms in disbelief. I wanted to see this too.

Cecilie smiled evilly. "Just remember that you asked." She stepped forward and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Legate Rikke has a crush on Galmar Stone-Fist…and Had…"

Rikke lowered down and muffled Cecilie. "Ok, ok, ok. You've proven it. You're her." She released her hand but Cecilie wouldn't be silenced.

"var!" She finished, flashing her bright white teeth to Rikke in an innocent smile.

Rikke's face turned brighter than any face that I've ever seen before. She looked down at Cecilie in a possible stare that I thought could have killed her. Cecilie only continued her ridiculous smile and eventually got Rikke to give up the frowning contest.

Hadvar walked up beside Rikke and said, "So…want to get an ale later?"

Rikke jabbed her elbow into his side, making him double over in pain. She placed her boot on top of his head and said, "You never address a superior like that never like that. Got it?"

Hadvar nodded, grabbing his stomach in pain. "Yes…ma'am."

She cleared her throat. "That being said…" I saw her blush. She looked away and said, "Yes, I would like to have an ale with you. We'll have one before we leave to give our report to General Tullius."

I continued to stand there, completely dumb-founded. She was really there. She looked exactly the same, only bruised and very pale. She didn't have any lines around her neck where her neck was cut. She was like how she was right before she was thrown into the ocean. I wanted to go talk to her, to embrace her, but my feet seemed like they were glued to the floor.

Esbern actually nudged me forward. When I turned to look at him, and pointed his eyes at Cecilie and said, "Go say hi already."

So, I stepped forward, surprised how fast a slow crawl could turn into a near flash. I ran down, scooped her up, and hugged her close. I never wanted to let go of her ever again.

"Mommy…a little less? You might do what the Thalmor tried to do…" She cried out in a muffled gasp.

So, I released her from my hold and settled for asking, "How?" Oh, heck I didn't really care. I was just glad to have her in my arms, breathing and alive.

She smiled. "Oh…that was the plan the whole time. I'm sorry I had to deceive everyone. I'm sure your plan of feeding me an herb to fake my death was good, but I already knew he was going to cut off my head. So…after I jumped, Madena swapped my body for one she had been working on all day. The body had been altered using a combination of Illusion and Alteration magic. It was made to look exactly like me. Funny enough, it was a goat when she started. So, I pulled off my dress and placed it over the goat's corpse and just…admired my tactical mind. Then, we swam off to a tent that she had set up. An Imperial camp that Rikke was using to housing her Imperial takeover from. I warmed myself next to the cinder pit and changed into my new dress."

I shook my head. "So that Thalmor believed that you had died, but the entire time he was inspecting a dead goat."

"Mm-hmm." She nodded.

And then I looked up at Asger. "And you didn't tell us, why?"

She tilted her head to the side. "They knew who I was. I know I'm somehow related to you and the Dragonborn. I don't know how they know, but I think it's the seers. So, I had to make it seem like I really died, even when you guys were trying to save me. I knew real expressions of loss and hatred would make him believe that he won. That's why I didn't tell you. I knew you wouldn't truly express loss unless you thought it was real. I'm just upset that I couldn't come out in the open until the next day. I wanted to tell you all that I was still alive, but we don't know how many Thalmor were watching. This site has been cleared. I looked ahead. They are convinced I'm dead. I'm safe for now."

I shook my head again. This was way too wild. "How long have you been planning this?"

She cocked her head to the side again and started thinking. "The night I told you that I was going back to Dawnstar. I had a vision of the Thalmor killing an innocent person. The Thalmor had heard rumors of the Dragonborn coming into town, so he wanted to know where he went. So…I thought if I showed up, it would give him someone to pick on. True enough, he picked on a little blind girl. The Thalmor have a big hatred for seers and I knew this. If I went back down, I was sure to be his target. I knew I could take it. I did not know how hard it would have been though. Some parts of that punishment were scary. Luckily, I already told the Jarl about everything that was going to transpire and he played his part to the letter."

She chuckled and put her hands behind her head. "I love being a seer."

I hugged her into my chest. "You know how much you scared me?"

She sighed. "You know how much of that went according to my master plan? Now mommy might become pregnant two years early. Yay!"

Everyone in town heard that. I looked over at their faces, most of which were looking at me now. The bartender that I had talked to earlier smiled and started chuckling. "Oh…that explains a lot."

Asger scooped us both up in his arms. "I'm just happy we're all still alive."

Ruby smiled and shook her head. She looked back at Esbern and said, "Are they always like this?"

Esbern shrugged. "I've only been with this group as long as you have, Ruby. You know them just as well as I do."

Ruby smiled and crossed her arms. "And I wouldn't change it for the world."

…

Dear journal,

I have some time to actually write in you now. So, we kept the memorial site up, but now there have been statues of the goat added to the site itself. It was now honored to the goat who saved Dawnstar. I could not think of a better thing to do but to hold a funeral for the goat…but we really had to get going.

I am happy to announce that we're finally on the right road to Riverwood. Legate Rikke is still on her way to report to General Tullius over the attempted murder of Seer Cecilie. Asger was not kidding when he said that we were still going to get the Thalmor for what they did. My daughter went through Oblivion for no good reason. The worst part is, I won't let her out of my sight because I'm afraid that she'll morph into a goat's body and end up being the person who really died the whole time. Or maybe I'll just wake up from this dream and attend her funeral again. I don't know. The shock needs to wear off first.

As much as I hate to say it, we're actually almost there. It's normally around this time that something…

Have to go

Lydia.

…

I closed my journal in a hurry and looked up to the sky. I heard that roar. I knew what that was. There was no hiding a dragon's roar.

Asger smiled and said, "Oh yeah. Haven't fought one of these in a long time. Not since Riften."

I looked back at him. "That was only three weeks ago, Asger."

He nodded back. "I know. I once fought three dragons in one week. Only killed one, though. The other ones flew off. Bastards!" He screamed at the sky. "I want your soul. Give me your soul!"

A giant fireball flew over our heads and exploded behind us. Asger looked back and then up at the mountain and trees in front of us. "Afraid to fight us man-to-dragon?"

I looked over at Asger and said, "Hey…maybe we shouldn't. I mean, we just got our daughter back."

He nodded. "I know…but I'm just so tense from living through that oblivion. I need to loosen up. I need a good fight."

Cecilie wrapped my arms around her. "I'm sorry I caused so much trouble."

Ruby laughed and said, "It's fine." She looked up at the trees and said, "I wonder what dragons taste like."

Asger smiled. "Just think about this, Ruby. They eat gold and their scales are worth hundreds."

I could see the sparkle in Ruby's eyes. She reached in her bag and pulled out two daggers. She nodded to Asger and said, "Let's go kill a dragon!"

The two of them screamed out,
charged up the hill, and into the trees. I stood there with Cecilie wrapped in my arms.

"YOL TOOR!" I heard in an alien language. All the sudden, I saw trees light up on fire and something further back exploded.

"Oh my gods…your leg!" I heard. It was Ruby.

"It's a flesh wound, I swear!" Asger called back.

"Wuld!" I heard Asger call out.

"Ah man, you just barely missed!" Ruby said.

"YOL TOOR!" That sounded like the dragon.

Another flame plumed up.

"Ruby! Oh my gods…Ruby speak to me." I heard Asger cry. "NNOOO!"

I heard the dragon bite something and I think I heard something being swallowed. I looked over at Esbern, who was looking up at the trees, hoping to see a hint of the dragon.

"No, spit her out. You spit her out right now." Asger called.

I looked over at Esbern and said, "I really need to go in there and save them." It sounded like Ruby had just been eaten by a dragon. I could not just stand here and wait for Asger to do something about it.

Esbern held his hand out to halt me from moving. "Hold on…I think I know where this is going."

"Don't walk away from me. Eat me…EAT ME." Asger yelled from the distance.

Then I heard some teeth clamp down on something else. Then I heard swallowing.

Then, there was no noise at all. Did…did Asger just allow himself to be eaten by a dragon? No…there was no way he'd do such a thing. I looked down at my daughter, happy to see that she was in fact, still alive. She glanced up at me and smiled. I bet she knew what I was thinking at that very second.

Esbern pointed up toward the top of the hill. "See…there? There's the dragon."

I looked up the hill and sure enough, I could see it. It was a giant lizard covered in black scales with wings that looked massive enough to knock down a building with. It was looking right at us with its dark red eyes. Even from this distance, I could see the beady eyes looking right through my soul. The dragon took off to the sky flying right down to us. It flew over our heads, spun around, and came right over to us. I could see a fire brewing in his mouth. Oh crap, he was going to burn us.

"IISS!" I heard from a muffled sound inside the dragon's belly.

Apparently, the dragon was confused. The fire in his mouth stopped forming, he looked down and then he hollered out in pain. Its wings folded and it fell to the ground. When it landed in the ground, the midsection shattered into a hundred pieces. I shielded my eyes from the gut explosion.

I heard a triumphant high-pitched call and looked over at the remainders of the dragon. Both Ruby and Asger were walking out of the stomach. Both of them were covered in green dragon slime. Ruby was holding a giant collection of gold in her dress, smiling up at Asger.

"Thanks for telling me he eats gold. That was so worth ruining my new dress over." She looked back at the dead dragon. "That must be at least 4,000 gold. I sure hope I have enough room in my sack for all that, what I already have, and some of these scales." She chuckled. "I can't wait to get to Solitude." She said that last part with a sing-song voice.

I looked down at her. She was covered in green dragon slime. But she looked so happy about it. I shook my head and said, "Did you plan on being eaten?"

She nodded. "Once I heard that he ate gold, I wanted to see how much gold. I couldn't risk Asger blowing up anything that I did not want to keep. What if he ate something extremely valuable, like a gold ingot? Or even some valuable crystals?" She reached down into the dead dragon and pulled out a large diamond. It was almost as big as her hand. "Like this diamond? I do. I really like this diamond. I'm keeping it."

Asger looked back at the dragon and said, "Now…time for me to eat." He opened his mouth and started inhaling. The dragon burst into flames, golden flames. The scales burned off like pure energy, energy that flew from the bones and straight into his mouth. Once the whole thing was done, he patted his stomach and said, "Oh, now I got a full belly."

Ruby shook her head and looked down at herself. She sighed and walked over to the river. She smiled and said, "Now…I need a bath, so do all my new gold coins. Who's hungry? I'm buying." She chuckled as she ran over to the river that we were following back to Riverwood.

Asger walked up to me and kissed me. I tried to fight against it, only because he was covered in goo.

He smiled and pulled me in. "Don't fight it. Just let it happen."

"No!" I screamed. I grabbed him by the arm, twisted free from his hold and pushed him into the river. He tripped over the kneeled over Ruby and took a dive. They both ended up in the river. When he stood up, he was laughing. Ruby crawled out of the water laughing as well. Asger waved for me to come join him.

He said, "You wanted a day at the beach, well…" He waved around. "Let's take a little break here and enjoy this warm weather."

For once I allowed myself to just relax. We just went through a horrible few days, I guess we needed a moment to just cool off.

Cearbhail: I have no idea what I should do next. Maybe I'll take this time to work on the Rouge Shadowscale for once or maybe even the Shoutmen. I'll probably post a new chapter in two days.