Dezhahnu 1

A cold wind gracing her face caused the khajiit to open her eyes, and she stumbled backwards after taking in her surroundings but was brought to a stop by the rock-wall a foot behind her. She stood on a ledge that was a few feet wide, overlooking the northern part of Skyrim from above the clouds, and her heart beat frantically as she looked around for a way to get out of there.

Then a rumbling chuckle reverberated through the air, and a dragon came into her view, perched as he was on an odd pillar a short distance away. Though Ekali dared not believe it, she knew as soon as she saw him what his name was, and stared at him in shock.

"Mirmulnir?" She blinked a few times, reluctant to believe the fact that the dragon she'd killed herself sat in front of her.

"Drem Yol Lok Dovahkiin. As I recall it, we were never properly introduced. I am Mirmulnir. Your inner mind is, amusing, I think," the dragon said and bowed his head to her. The woman was startled by his willingness to speak, but dared to dislodge herself from the wall to see him better.

"My name is Ekali. What do you mean when you refer to my inner mind? Where are we?" she asked, looking around once again. Stars covered the sky above her, and though her sight was mostly hid by clouds beneath, she could see the faint outline of buildings. It was with a start that she realised that the river going by far beneath them was the White River, and that the cluster of buildings was Whiterun.

"Then I greet you Ekali Do Strunmah Diin. And that is where we are, your inner mind. Everything in our close presence, is here because you wish it. Though I wonder why that is here, Nau Monahven," Mirmulnir said, and she looked at him.

"My inner mind... What would happen if I fell of the mountain?" Ekali asked him.

"You would loose it, your inner mind. Or go mad, as you mortals say. Nothing here can affect your mortal body. No, injuries that are sustained here, they will affect your mind. So tread carefully, briinah." The woman looked at him in shock, and looked at her surroundings with a completely different view.

"How do I get away from here?" Her voice shook as she spoke, and the dragon sighed as he cast his gaze against the horizon.

"By no choice that is yours, Dovhakiin. You will wake when the sun rises, or when someone wakes you in the living world," then he looked at her, and she sunk down on the ledge as dread filled her body.

:-:-:-:-:

When the moons had shifted slightly on the sky, and Mirmulnir had circled the mountain a few times to see the magnitude of the dreamscape, the khajiit stood up again to speak with the dragon. He perched on the pillar when he saw her new stance.

"So, have you any idea of what to do, briinah?" the dragon spoke to her, and she furrowed her brow. A light snowfall had begun a while ago, and so a light dusting of white covered her armour. She brushed it of her face before she spoke to him.

"Is there any way for me to get higher up the mountain, or make this ledge larger?" she asked, causing a smile to come upon the dragons face. She frowned when she saw it, and stepped back towards the cliff wall.

"I wondered when you'd begin to ask the right questions. Zu'u ahst hin ahmik, dovahkiin. Come," he said and flapped his wings so that he left the pillar and came to be just next to Ekali. She flinched when she realized what he intended.

"You want me to ride on your back?" she burst out, and the hunter chuckled.

"There's little else to do, briinah," he answered and held himself as close to the ledge as he could. Still, it was quite a distance between the two of them, and the khajiit was doubtful of whether she could make the jump to his back. Taking a deep breath, she took the few steps she could quickly and threw herself across the open space that laid between her and the dragons' neck.

Wide eyed and gasping for air, she seated herself with one leg on each side of the dragons neck. And when Mirmulnir was certain that she wouldn't fall, he flapped his wings faster to carry them forwards and upwards through the air. She clung to his scales for dear life as the two ascended, and looked down against her better judgment. The khajiit female whimpered as she saw the ground far beneath them, causing a chuckle to issue from the dragons' maw. He beat his wings harder against the chill air, and ascended at a sharper angle.

"Haalgron hau Golgronfron! You do not want to follow Pelagius!" the dragon called out to her, just as a cold wind hit them and caused him to veer to the left, so that the khajiit leaned away from the mountain. She gasped in surprise and clung even harder to his scales, squeezing her eyes shut so as to not see the danger beneath them. Then, a few moments afterward, her body shook as Mirmulnir touched down on a large plateau on top of the mountain. "Aam, nid Monahven."

"Golgronfron?" he asked, puzzled, after a little while of looking at her where she clung on his back. Then she opened her eyes wide and drew in a ragged gasp, causing a smile to come upon the dragon's eyes. The air was colder at their present location than on the ledge earlier, so the khajiit shuddered slightly when she finally managed to move of the dragon. "Cold, briinah?" he asked with a chuckle, and she threw a glare at him, but walked a few steps away and the stomped her feet a bit to get back the feeling in her feet.

"I'll get used to it," she muttered before she turned back to him, and this time she was the one who looked puzzled. "What was it you called me? Brina, and that other longer word," she continued, and Mirmulnir chuckled as he folded his wings in properly.

"It is my language, our language. You are dov too, but in different way. Briinah is sister. Perhaps not from same female, but sister none the less. Golgronfron is the name you have been given by us, the rest of the dov. You are kin, but bound to earth. This Golgronfron means," he answered in that slow way that she'd started to become accustomed to. Ekali frowned when he'd finished speaking.

"What do you mean with my being kin? And what's dov?" she asked, and the dragon tilted his head slightly, like a curious dog would sometimes. He had a very ponderous expression upon his face.

"You are kin, this I know. It is all I need to tell you. Do you want to know specifics? Then ask Alduin, he should know. The name was his idea. We are dov. I am dovah, and all dovahhe together is dov. You are not dovah, but dov none the less."

"Alduin?" If anything, the woman only looked more confused than earlier, and the dragon would, if he'd been able to, probably have furrowed his brow.

"You will meet Alduin. Not now, but soon. He is curious about you." Having said that, the dragon seemed contempt, and smiled at her again. Ekali opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again with a sigh.

"Would you teach me the dragon language?" She asked instead, though she didn't hold much hope that her request would be accepted. He looked thoughtful for a minute as his eyes covered the landscape around them.

"Yes, I will. Zu'u sizaan het, nid filok. It could be amusing, perhaps." He nodded to reinforce his words, and looked back at the khajiit. Snow was once again covering most of her armour. She seemed to remember something then, and open her mouth to speak about it.

"Earlier, in the air, you said that I do not want to follow Pelagius. What did you mean by that?" A grim smile showed on the dragon's face when she'd said it.

"Pelagius III, Pelagius the mad. So he is and was called. He fell of height in his dezhahnu, or so Zeymah said. You do not want to be mad, so you do not want to fall. And hence you do not wish to follow Pelagius," Mirmulnir stated matter-of-factually.

"Pelagius the mad was dragonborn?" Ekali asked with wide eyes and disbelief shining from every part of her body.

"Yes, his dezhahnu began though he had not absorbed a dragon-soul, and so he had no one to tell him of the dangers," the dragon said and laid down in the snow. Ekali who had nothing more to say, sat down as well, to ponder the things that she'd learned.

Author's note:

I've found nothing that indicates that Pelagius was dragonborn, except that he's related to Tiber Septim. This fact, and the part about the dragonborn coming to some kind of dreamscape when he or she sleeps, are both completely made up by me.

Translation for everything that Mirmulnir says in the dragon language in this chapter:

Do Strunmah Diin – of the Frozen Heights (lit. of mountain freeze)

Nau Monahven – On the Throat of the World

Briinah – Sister

Zu'u ahst hin ahmik, dovahkiin – I am at you service, dragonborn

Haalgron hau – Hold on ("Haalgron" is lit. "hand bind")

Aam, nid Monahven – Hmm, no Throat of the World

Golgronfron – lit. Earth bind kin. Used by dragons that acknowledge her as their kin, though they pity the fact that she can't fly, which means she's bound to the ground.

dov – dragonkind

dovah – dragon

dovahhe – dragons

Zu'u sizaan het, nid filok – I am lost here, no escape.

Dezhahnu – lit. fate dream, used to refer to the place that every dragonborn visit when they sleep, after their powers have been activated. Fate, since a lot of the point of being dragonborn is to slay dragons, and since it's after they've slain their first dragon that the dreams begin. There are exceptions to when the dreams begin, hence Pelagius the mad.

Zeymah – brother