Dovahkiin POV:
The monster roars as the arrow enters his eye, the dragon instantly shaking his head like wild. When he can't get the arrow out he stops fighting, opening his remaining eye and takes aim. The gigantic lizard opens his mouth and a fiery ball flies from his throat. Serana and I instantly flip away, the projectile harmlessly hitting the ground. The beast leaps from his tower, taking to the sky and flipping around so he's coming at me. His jaws snap open and he bathes the ground in fire, but I'm already running. I'm barely able to stay ahead of the trail of death, but somehow I manage it. The beast is forced higher in the air, and has to cut off his stream of fire.
I dig my heels into the ground and load Auriel's bow, turning around and taking aim at the beast. My arrow finds his side, cracking the scales and shredding the flesh beneath it. Blood splatters the ground a few feet away from me, but I pay it no mind. I'm already reloading, but the monster is angling himself to the ground. The entire area seems to shake as his weight hits the ground, the monster turning around and snarling. He opens his mouth and lunges his neck towards me, but Serana is already prepared for that. A spike of ice finds the animal's one remaining eye. The dragon screams in pain and begins shaking his head like wild, then desperately tries to take off into the air to escape.
He's screaming all the while, and I carefully take aim at his open mouth. My arrow finds its mark as the dragon is just taking off. The monster gags and falls to the ground, his tremendous body doing a sick dance that rips up the ground around him. Serana and I both back away, allowing the creature to die without us huddling around him. Right before he dies the creature swivels his head at me (I'm not sure how he knows where I am, but he does) and screams, "Dovahkiin, nid!". Then, he lets out a roar of death. When he goes still I take a step forward, but Serana grabs my arm and says, "It could be dangerous, we should wait for the guards.".
I shake my head and tell her, "I just need to get my arrows back.". My lover looks hesitant, but allows me to go. The thing about the arrows was only half true. I also wanted to inspect the dragon before the guards get here. I have no idea why, but I have the urge to see the dragon. I'm only a few feet away from it when I hear what sounds like the crackling of fire. I instantly freeze and look at the dragon. His skin is slowly burning away with a strange glow, and tendrils of crackling white energy seem to come from its corpse. I'm not too concerned until the tendrils latch onto me. I scream and back away, but the energy follows me. That's when the pain starts. It's like fire is filling my veins, roasting me from the inside out.
I feel my body connect with the ground as I go into a horribly twisted jig, screaming in pain as the energy continues to cook me. Two strong hands flip me onto my back and I look up at Serana's face, the woman saying something I can't understand as she coddles me. It doesn't ease the pain, but eventually the energy stops. I whimper like a dog and curl up in Serana's arms, my body still shaking with aftershocks. My lover wraps her arms tighter around me and whispers in my ear. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm here.". I slowly regain my breath and whisper to my love, "What happened?". Serana's face goes grim and she points my body in the direction of the dragon.
I can't hold in my gasp of surprise. The dragon is just bones, nothing else remains. I try to stand, but another wave of pain comes over me. I roar and fall onto my hands and knees, something coursing through me. The energy inside of me seems to twist in on itself, rushing to my head until it feels like my skull is going to burst apart. Suddenly, the energy seems to burst. I fall to my side, exhausted. However, Serana is already there and helping me up. When I'm standing the woman says, "Come on, we need to get you to the healer.". I shake my head, my instincts telling me what to do. I turn to the dragon's skeleton, open my mouth, and release the tiny amount of energy I still have.
"Fus.". The creature's skull bounces a few feet away, my shout causing the skeleton to shiver before going still. I turn back to Serana and see her standing there in shock. She swallows and whispers, "What did you do?". Insecurity washes over me and I explain, "I don't know. It's like something deep inside of me knew what to do, and I just felt the need to do it.". Serana slowly walks up to me and asks, "Are you okay?". When I nod she takes my hand in her own and promises, "That's all I care about.". I smile at her, but hear the thunk of metal falling on stone. Serana and I both turn to the path that leads back to Whiterun, and see ten people looking at us.
Irileth and nine guards are staring at us with wide eyes, and one of the men dropped his sword. I take one step towards them and eight of the guards have their weapons draw, but one pushes his way through. The man turns his back to us, raises his arms to stop his fellows, and screams, "Stop! Stop! She's the Dragonborn!". The Nord men all stop, and understanding seems to dawn on all of their faces. Suddenly, one of them screams, "Was that what the red sun was? Was it a sign of her coming?". The guards all mumble and Irileth seems to snap out of her trance. The Dunmer screams, "Secure the tower! Watch for dragons! I'm taking these two back to Whiterun!".
The elf forces our hands apart, stands in between us, and grabs both of our necks like we're dogs. She begins forcibly walking us back to Whiterun. If only she knew she was holding two powerful vampires by the back of the neck. When we're far away from the tower the woman releases both of us, yanking us around so we're looking at her. The Dunmer in only an inch away from me and gets in my face as she snarls, "I'm going to explain something.". She points towards the sun. "That has everyone terrified of what's going to happen or what it means.". She points back at the guards. "They think it predicted your coming.".
She pokes me in the chest. "I don't know if you're the 'Dragonborn' or not, but that's what you're going to tell everyone. I don't give a damned what the red sun meant, but now it means that your coming was predicted. Understand? As far as these people are concerned you started heading to Whiterun and the sun turned red. And, you don't leave the damned city until that sun returns to normal. Understand?". Serana is behind the Dunmer and is puffing herself up in anger. I even swear I see her opening her mouth to bite, so I quickly agree, "Okay. If it'll calm the city down I'll do it.". Irileth puffs up her chest like Serana is, and the Dunmer tells me, "Damned right you will. Now, come on. We need to get back to the Jarl.".
The Dunmer takes the lead and walks roughly ten feet in front of us, leaving Serana and I alone. My lover takes my hand and whispers, "What was that? You just let her walk all over you!". I chuckle and whisper back, "It's better this way. I put the sun out, so it's only fair I find a way to fix it. It's not exactly 'fixing' it, but at least it'll calm people down. Besides, I need some time to figure out what 'Dragonborn' means. Do you know what it is?". The older vampire furrows her brow before admitting, "I think I heard it in passing briefly, or saw it once in one of my books. I'll find a book about it up in Dragonsreach, but I can't promise you I'll find anything. Ask the Jarl or someone, he might know.".
I nod as Irileth opens the door to Whiterun. We're walking into the city when the entire world seems to shake and a voice screams, "DOVAHKIIN!". Irileth curses as she pushes our backs, screaming, "MOVE! UP TO DRAGONSREACH, NOW!". Neither of us argue as we sprint up to the palace, a screaming Dunmer right behind us encouraging us to go faster. When we enter the place the Dunmer practically carries us to the Jarl, constantly pushing against our backs and snarling, "Faster faster faster! Move move move!". When we reach the throne the Dunmer yanks my lover over to the side, but motions for me to talk to the man.
I step forward, but before I can speak the Jarl asks, "What happened at the tower?". I swallow and explain, "It was destroyed, but we killed the dragon that resided there.". Irileth speaks up, "She killed the dragon there, my men had nothing to do with it.". The man nods and says, "Impressive.". I clear my throat. "There's also another matter.". The man cocks his head and goes, "Oh?". I nod and go, "Oh. When the dragon died I absorbed something from it. After that, it was just like my instincts took over. I open my mouth and well, I guess you could say shouted.".
The man blinks and asks, "Can you do it again? It might help if I saw what you were doing.". I nod and try to summon up the energy again, opening my jaws and letting out a, "Fus.". The man reels backwards as the shout washes over him, then straightens himself in his chair and whispers, "Dragonborn.". I sigh and say, "That's what one of the guards claimed I was. What does 'Dragonborn' mean?". The Jarl stands and says, "It means you need to go to High Hrothgar immediately. That thundering scream we just heard was them calling you. You need to go, The Greybeards need to speak to you.". I scoff and ask, "Greybeards?". The man nods and explains, "What you just used was 'The Voice'. The Greybeards are the masters of it, and can teach you what it is and how to use it.".
I open my mouth to speak, but the man interrupts me by saying, "Go! The Greybeards should not be left waiting.". I hold my ground and ask, "What about my rewards?". The man freezes up, waves his hand, and says, "I'll give you a house and a housecarl.". He raises his voice as he yells, "YOU HEAR THAT LYDIA?!". Someone yells back, "YES!". I nod, but turn to the Dunmer and ask, "What about the sun?". The Jarl turns to his bodyguard and questions, "Yes, what about the sun?". The woman easily explains, "The red sun was a sign of the woman coming, and I don't think she should leave until the sun is back to normal. At the very least, it will help calm the citizens down.". The man nods and mumbles, "Smart. Smart.".
He turns to me and says, "Feel free to explore the town, but don't leave until the sun has returned to normal. After that, I want you to go straight to The Greybeards.". I nod as the man goes back to his business, completely ignoring me now that I'm no longer of use to him. The Dunmer woman does the same, only offering me the faintest of glances before going to do something else. I feel Serana take my hand in her own, intertwining our fingers. I look over at my lover and she asks, "What do you want to do now?". I shrug and say, "I guess we should explore the city until the sun is normal. Maybe we can find a book on what it means to be 'Dragonborn'.". My lover nods and says, "Good plan.". We both turn and walk, heading down to the main city of Whiterun. I can only hope the sun returns to normal soon.
Note: So, my other story (Revolting) is gonna wrap up next chapter. The sequel was a lot shorter than I imagined, but it's more of a 'tying up slightly loose ends' type of sequel. I still enjoyed writing is and am glad I wrote it, but in retrospect I feel like I should have just reopened 'Disgusting' and written this there. I suppose it doesn't matter now, and I'm still extremely happy that I wrote Revolting. Now, I already have another story planned. I can't reveal many details at the moment, but the title is 'A Life Across the Ages'. The idea is actually thanks to Atraxotax. I'll give more details next chapter. Don't worry, the idea is great and I'm going to pull it off to the best of my abilities.