Best Laid Plans
A D Gray-Man and Skyrim Crossover
"I am Master Arngeir," the old man introduced himself. "I speak for the Greybeards. Now, tell me, Dragonborn: why have you come here?"
"I'm... not completely sure," Allen admitted with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
"Hmm... I suppose that such an unexpected fate as yours would take some time to grow accustomed to. Very few ever wear the title of Dragonborn, especially at so young, and it is indeed a large responsibility. You must have many questions."
Too many, were Allen to be entirely honest. He took the words as invitation to have them answered, though, and took a preparatory breath.
"I guess I'm here to find that out, then. To find out what it means to be Dragonborn..."
"Well we are here to guide you in that pursuit, just as the Greybeards have sought to guide those of the Dragon Blood that came before you. There have been many with the Dragon's Blood throughout the ages, ever since Akatosh first bestowed that gift upon mortalkind. Whether you are the only Dragonborn of this age... that is not ours to know, but you are the only one that has been revealed thus far. In any case, we will help in any way we can to teach you how to use your gift in fulfillment of your destiny."
"My destiny?" Allen questioned, eyes confused and wary. "And what is that?"
"That is for you to discover. We can show you the Way, but not the destination."
Allen let out a slow breath, glancing back at his companions, Lavi and Lenalee nodding at him reassuringly.
"Then show me," he decided, glancing back to Arngeir. "Please."
"You have shown that you are Dragonborn," Arngeir began, turning and walking to the side of the room. "You have the inborn gift. But do you have the discipline and temperament to follow the path laid out for you? That remains to be seen. Without training, you have already taken the first steps towards projecting your Voice into a Thu'um, a Shout. Now let us see if you are willing and able to learn."
Allen merely nodded, following the man to the side of the room and listening intently.
"When you Shout, you speak in the language of dragons. Thus, your Dragon Blood gives you an inborn ability to learn Words of Power," the Greybeard leader explained. "All Shouts are made up of three Words of Power. As you master each Word, your Shout will become progressively stronger." He paused and motioned to one of the other robed figures. "Master Einarth with now teach you `Ro`, the second Word in Unrelenting Force."
"Unrelenting Force?" Allen questioned, brows furrowing.
"It is what we call the Shout you used earlier, Fus."
Allen nodded, falling silent and letting the lesson progress.
" `Ro` means balance in the dragon tongue. Combine it with Fus - 'Force' - to focus your Thu'um more sharply."
Einarth stepped forward, cupping a hand around his mouth, and in a hushed voice, uttered "Ro!", where Allen could see a small shockwave like his own Fus had mad hit the stone floor. There was a sharp crackle, dust momentarily spreading away from the spot on the floor where the shockwave hit, and then fiery red marks appeared in the stone.
Lavi recognized it as similar markings to those that had been on the wall atop Skyborn Alter, his interest piqued and momentarily casting a glance back at Kanda, who caught his eye and glared silently.
Allen approached with some hesitance, and the fire of the markings faded just as he was hit with an odd sensation in his skull that made his head dully ache, before it turned into a warm sensation that crept through every part of his being, all the way to his fingers and toes. All the same, he felt... good. Almost euphoric in the warmth that filled him up.
"You learn like a true master... you truly do have the gift," Arnbeir commented, catching Allen by surprise.
"How can you tell I learned anything?"
"The words faded," Arnbeir told him simply, Allen glancing down and noticing that the etchings had entirely vanished. "However, learning a Word of Power is only the first step. You must unlock its meaning through constant practice, in order to use it in a Shout." He paused, before correcting himself. "Well... that is how the rest of us learn Shouts. As the Dragonborn, you can absorb a slain dragon's life force and knowledge directly."
Allen paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Um..." he began, before Arnbeir could continue. "After we slew one of the dragons, I called Kanda something in what I think might have been dragon language, but I don't recall knowing it. It just sort of slipped out."
Arnbeir merely stood watching, patiently waiting for him to continue.
"Does Meyhahdrim mean anything to you?"
Arnbeir looked amused for a moment, a smirk playing at his lips. "Well... that certainly is interesting. Mey-hahdrim is two words. Mey to mean 'fool', and hahdrim to mean 'mind'." Allen could almost feel Kanda's eyes burning into his back right at that moment. "In the common tongue, it would be much like calling someone stupid or soft in the head."
"Oh..." Allen mused softly, unable to help but smile slightly, though he did his best to contain it. From the barely contained snickering behind him, he guessed Lavi was a little less concerned about letting his amusement be known.
"Though, if you want to properly call someone an idiot, hefhah works just as well," Arnbeir offered up, doing his best not to appear somewhat mischievous. "At any rate, now that I've answered your question, let us resume with the lesson."
Allen nodded, too entertained by his discovery to look apologetic for interrupting it, simply to learn an insult that he was most definitely going to remember for later.
"As part of your initiation, Einarth with let you tap into his understanding of Ro."
Just then, a faint red glow encircled the other man, Allen hearing a noise almost like the beat of a drum in his ears, and then the whistle of a sharp wind as the reddish aura that filled the air flew from the other elderly man and to him, swirling around Allen and vanishing inside him, filling him with a familiar warmth like the one from earlier.
"Now let us see how quickly you can master your new Thu'um," Arngeir stated without delay. "Use your Unrelenting Force Shout to strike the targets as they appear."
On that cue, one of the fellow Greybeards stepped forward from the row, uttering, "Fiik-Lo-Sah!". A blue, ghostly figure like that of the Greybeards standing by appeared in the center of the room, while everyone took steps back to make sure they would be out of the path of Allen's Shout.
The youth stepped forward, tapping into the Words he'd learned on instinct, letting it fill him like before. The pressure in his chest was sharper and heavier than the last time, making him feel almost as if his lungs would pop inside of him.
"FUS-RO!"
The apparition faded, while the quaking thunder of his Shout created a cloud from the dust that cluttered the surface of the building's inner surfaces and rattled loose stones, and Arnbeir looked approving.
"Well done! Again."
Allen's throat felt scratchy afterwards, his lungs a bit strained, but he nodded without complaint as another of the Greybeards stepped forward to create an ethereal clone for him to blast with, then a third one. He had to resist coughing after the third try as his throat stung and breathing became a bit harder, swallowing a few times and wincing, but didn't say anything.
"Impressive," Arnbeir praised. "Your Thu'um is precise. You show great promise, Dragonborn. We will perform your next trial in the courtyard. Follow Master Borri." He nodded to one of his fellows, who turned and began to walk towards the back. Allen followed, and his traveling companions then in turn followed him, Lavi trotting to catch up and match pace beside him.
"You okay? Looked a little like you winced at that last one," Lavi noted quietly.
Allen nodded. "It's just... not that easy on the throat, but I'll get used to it."
Lavi merely nodded, not pressing the matter, and they headed through a pair of metal doors at the back and onto the open mountaintop, the howl of the wind almost deafening, though only the faintest trickle of snowflakes fluttered down from the sky. Ahead and to the right, Allen could see the peaks of the mountain rising even higher above High Hrothgar, and there appeared to be a great stone gate, though the wind blew so fiercely just behind it that it was likely anyone trying to bypass it would be blown straight off the cliff side.
"We will now see how you learn a completely new Shout," Arnbeir said, interrupting Allen's thoughts as the rest of the Greybeards joined them outside. "Master Barri will teach you Wuld which means whirlwind."
Like before with Einarth, Borri created more of the scratch-like words in the ground with his voice, and Allen stepped closer to "learn" it, and then take in the Greybeard's "knowledge" of it. Afterwards, they walked towards a set of stone posts in the ground, and an iron-wrought gate.
"Master Wulfgar will demonstrate Whirlwind Sprint. Then it will be your turn."
Allen merely nodded as they stood by, drawing his cloak around himself with one hand to stave off the bitter chill. The metal gate was opened, and in little more than a blink, the old man - Wulfgar - uttered the word he had just learned and crossed the distance past the gate before it closed, making his eyes widen in disbelief.
"Now it is your turn. Master Borri will open the gate. Use your Whirlwind Sprint to pass through the gate before it closes."
Allen looked at Arngeir, then glanced back at Lavi, pursing his lips.
"Is something wrong with what I'm asking?"
"Before we came here, Allen was injured by a dragon," Lavi explained. "Some of his ribs were cracked or broken. Movin' at that speed could have him get injured again and set back his recovery."
Arnbeir hummed, looking as though he was thinking about whether or not to argue going ahead with their test.
"I'll do it," Allen decided ahead of him. "There's no way to know that'll happen. Let me give it a shot."
"Very well," Arnbeir replied, nodding to Borri.
"You sure about this?" Lavi questioned, brows furrowing in concern.
Allen merely nodded, offering a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine."
Turning his attention back to his task, he exhaled, his breathe spiraling as a thick white cloud and disappearing. When the gate opened, he lunged forward to run, ignoring the pang in his side and speaking out, "Wuld-Nah!". The wind whipped by his face so swiftly that his skin stung and he squinted against the harsh wind. He wasn't quite prepared to stop, his feet skidding on snow and ice, and he toppled over onto a pile of rocks just beyond, landing hard enough to make him see white as pain pierced through his torso.
All he could do for several seconds was struggle to draw breath as his sides burned with renewed pain, still trying to recover even after Lavi reached him and helped him up with a hand on his upper right arm.
"Oi! You okay, Allen? Hey!"
"F-fine..." Allen gasped, grimacing as the redhead helped support him on his feet, coughing and further wincing at each heave his sides gave. "I'm fine, Lavi... 'just... need a moment..."
The cold didn't help him regain his breath, especially not with his hacking and wheezing. Lavi put a hand to the back of his head to press his face against the other's shirt, and it at least kept the frigid air from further aggravating his airways as he tried to catch his breath and let the pain subside.
When his breathing finally returned to some semblance of normal and the pain in his ribs dulled, he stood up and approached Arnbeir again, coughing faintly as the ice in the thin mountain air made his airways itch once more.
"Your quick mastery of the new Thu'um is... astonishing. You were taught only one Word of the Whirlwind Sprint, yet you used two. I had heard stories of the Dragonborn's abilities, but to see it for myself..."
"I... don't know how I did that. It simply happened," Allen shrugged, raising an arm to stifle another rattling cough, glancing sidelong at Lavi appreciatively as the redhead lightly rubbed a circle in his upper back.
"You were given this gift by the gods for a reason. It is up to you to determine how best to use it. You are now ready for your last trial. Retrieve the horn of Jurgen Windcaller, our founder, from his tomb in the ancient ruin of Ustengrav. Remain true to the Way of the Voice, and you will return."
Allen nodded, though he was not so eager to go running off straight away.
"You will let us stay and rest through the night, though?"
"Of course we will," Arnbeir assured, looking almost startled that he would even suggest they would shoo them out the door without providing such accommodations. "We would be honored to provide bed and sustenance to you and your fellow compatriots, Dragonborn. I am sure that, up to this point, you have had a long and taxing journey. Consider High Hrothgar your home for as long as you need prepare to set out."
Allen nodded, the mention of food and bed more than tantalizing. Another cough made him eager to retreat out of the open air as well, and they were quick to head back inside, Lavi tagging along close at his heels in concern despite that he looked as though he was at least trying to hide it somewhat.
Even though the inside of the building was frigid in its own right, the rock walls radiating cold, the difference in temperature was startlingly warmer than outside, even more so when they neared braziers on the wall or the hearth in the meeting hall in the far corner of the place.
The food that the Greybeards had to offer was humble, but satisfying. Salted fish, hot stew of vegetables and goat meat, fruit that had been stored frozen on the mountainside and were recently thawed, breads, cheeses, and some better varieties of aged wine that made them at least forget they were cold if not actually warm them up.
Afterwards, they set up their sleeping bags in the center room where the horses had been left, since the Greybeard's had no excess beds to offer and were unwilling to give up their own, even for the Dragonborn himself.
They holed up for a few days of rest and recovery, two of which Allen had an incessant cough that bothered him throughout the day and night before finally subsiding on the third day. The Greybeards were hospitable, and raised no complaints, but the more days passed, the more it could be seen that they were somewhat impatient with the extended stay, even more so with the horses and other three companions than with Allen himself. Clearly they had not intended on housing and feeding four people and their mounts for so many days in a row.
No doubt they were relieved to see the party finally leave after almost a full week, when the unspoken tension became almost palpable. Heading down the mountain was a little easier than going up it, and slightly faster, though not by much. They managed to reach Ivarstead just before sun-down to take rest in the inn. The next morning, they were preparing to head out, when Kanda stopped them.
"We're not heading to Ustengrav."
"What? Why?" Lavi, as well as the other two, stopped to look at the swordsman in confusion.
"Because the Horn isn't there."
"How do you know? You been through that place before?"
"No," Kanda gruffed. "But I know someone who has. We're going to Riverwood. That's where we'll find it."
Allen blinked and exchanged a questioning glance with Lenalee, who merely shrugged. When he looked to Lavi, the redhead appeared equally as confused, as well as suspicious.
"That man is hidin' something," Lavi contemplated when Kanda was out of earshot, staring at the raven-haired male intensely and looking like a dog that had just sighted a cat and was getting ready to chase it down. "An' I'm gonna find out what it is."