Chapter 21 - Fall
Yang sat at the edge of the mountain, staring at the spot of empty air where Alduin and Jaune had been, and wordlessly waited.
Behind her, Serana was babbling uncontrollably, about how the spell was untested, experimental, and they should have been back by now.
Behind her, Paarthurnax moved, slowly lumbering towards the edge, before he finally stood next to her, also watching the empty skies.
Behind her, the Greybeards ran up the mountain, demanding to know what had just happened.
Yang ignored all of them.
All Yang did was wait.
She waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, after what felt like well over an hour, an orb of black-and-purple flames suddenly manifested itself on the horizon, in the patch of empty sky Yang had been staring at.
Yang jumped to her feet immediately, heart hammering in her chest, as she found herself hopeful.
A black dragon materialized in the heart of the orb, and as the flames died around it, the dragon began tumbling uncontrollably, before finally crashing into the ground.
Yang still clung on to hope; she'd seen Jaune survive such falls before, after all!
Paarthurnax called to her, gesturing to his back, and she saw Serana was already waiting for her.
Yang wasted no time.
As Alduin slowly emerged from the smoke and dust he'd thrown up, crawling out of the crater, Yang took a moment to study him, before shaking her head.
Alduin quickly spotted them (dragons were hardly the most stealthy of creatures), and flew away as fast as his wounded wings could take him, but Paarthurnax was already descending down towards the site of the impact, at Yang's direction.
Alduin would get away for now. Yang had bigger priorities.
She hadn't spotted Jaune on Alduin when he'd flown away, escaping the impact site, and if Jaune wasn't on Alduin, then he had to be in the crater, probably rendered unable to continue fighting from the fall.
She couldn't fault him for letting Alduin escape; the World Eater had clearly been even more injured by whatever had happened while they'd been gone, she knew Jaune would have kept fighting until he physically couldn't, and he'd probably be beating himself up for losing more than she ever could... or would. Personally, though she'd never admit it, she'd just be relieved by his return.
As soon as Paarthurnax drew close to the crater, Yang recklessly jumped down into the cloud of dust, calling out for her friend: "Vomit Boy?"
Serana, still on Paarthurnax, sniffed the air, and her unbeating heart felt even stiller than normal. Fortunately, some of her magicka had recovered during the wait, and she quickly channeled it into the strongest Detect Life spell she could manage.
"Vomit Boy?!" Yang continued on uneasily. "Come on, this isn't funny!"
"Yang..." Serana called out, her voice trembling, as Paarthurnax landed gently, and cleared the dust around them with a powerful flap of his wings. "Jaune's not here..."
Yang looked wildly around the empty crater, finally having a clear view for once, trying to spot any sign of her companion.
All she could see around her was dirt and blood.
"VOMIT BOY!"
Serana landed next to her, and gripped her shoulder before she could try calling out a fourth time, saying: "Yang... Jaune's..."
"He's not dead!" Yang snarled, wheeling around to face Serana, her eyes blood-red.
"I didn't say he was." Serana pointed out placatingly, unwilling to face that possibility either. "But he's not here."
"Then where is he?" Yang snarled. "What did that spell do?!"
"It was just a teleportation spell!" Serana hastily explained. "It should have just brought him to wherever he was thinking about!"
"So he could be anywhere in Skyrim?!" Yang angrily pointed out, unaware of Serana's increasing guilt. "What should I do, then? Ask everyone in Skyrim if they've seen a black dragon and a blonde boy fall out of the sky?!"
"..." Serana couldn't look Yang in the eyes. She knew that, at that moment, it was a very real possibility that Yang would do that, if she said "yes". Instead, she set aside her guilt for the moment, and focused on what she could do. Finally, a wild idea came to her, and she murmured: "Well... we do know someone that knows where he went..."
"Who?!" Yang demanded, desperate for any hope to cling to.
Serana wordlessly pointed in the direction Alduin had escaped towards.
Yang followed her finger, and looked towards the mountains Alduin had flown towards, before turning to Paarthurnax.
Paarthurnax noticed the young Dovahkiin approaching him, and with much sympathy in his voice greeted her: "Lot krongrah. You truly have the Voice of a dovah. Not even the heroes of old were able to defeat Alduin in open battle. I am... sorry, about your fahdon, your friend."
"I need to find out where Alduin went." Yang said bluntly, too impatient to indulge in the old dragon's hunger for conversation.
Paarthurnax didn't take it personally, and complied: "Alduin had many ancient fanes, that allowed for travel to Sovngarde. But, seeing where he was flying to, the most likely location would be Skuldafn, the greatest umriid of the dovah, high in the eastern mountains."
"And how do I get there?"
"You cannot." Paarthurnax answered bluntly. "It's location is only accessible to those with wings.
"And I cannot take you there either." Paarthurnax warned, before Yang could open her mouth. "If he is truly there, that is where his remaining strength will be marshalled. And I am a well-known vax, a traitor. I would not be able to fight off his dragons, not in my current state."
For a moment, Yang was tempted to demand Paarthurnax help her anyway, but reason quickly asserted itself. The Greybeards would never forgive her if anything happened to Paarthurnax, and, more importantly, Jaune would never forgive himself.
And besides, there was another solution.
Turning away from Paarthurnax before he could offer an alternative suggestion, she summoned Durnehviir, who cordially greeted her: "Qahnaarin. Do you have need of my services once more?"
"Do you know where Skuldafn is?"
"Of course! How could a dov not know of the great treasure?"
"Can you take me there?" Yang cut to the point.
Paarthurnax looked at the younger dovah, and at Yang, and warned: "It will not be an easy journey for him. Durnehviir made a lot of enemies, in the past, during his quest for power."
"My soul is tied to the Soul Cairn; the price I paid for my hubris." Durnehviir explained sadly, countering Paarthurnax. "Just as how Qahnaarin could not absorb my soul when she slayed me, so too can no dovah kill me."
"Then it's settled." Yang said, climbing up onto Durnehviir. However, as Serana came to join her, Yang shook her head, and said: "I can't take you along, Serana."
"What?! Why not?!" Serana demanded to know. "Jaune's my friend too!"
"You're still low on magicka, Serana." Yang pointed out, shaking her head. "It'd be too dangerous for you."
Serana gritted her teeth, but was unable to offer a rebuttal. She knew, too, that she would be dead weight right now. Instead, she offered Yang a piece of comfort: "Yang... the scroll could only have been activated by Jaune. Only Jaune could have brought Alduin back. Just... just remember that, in case Alduin tries to lie to you."
Yang nodded grimly, resolute in the idea that Jaune was still alive (not that she ever had any doubts, of course), before flying away on Durnehviir.
-SKIES OVER SKULDAFN, TEN MINUTES LATER-
"FUS RO DAH!" Yang Shouted at a dragon that was coming too close, blasting it away from her, as Durnehviir rolled in mid-air, avoiding a gout of flames.
Three more dragons broke through the clouds, flapping away as they climbed, trying to reach the dragon-riding Dovahkiin, and Yang sighed, wishing the dragons would just let her through.
Sure, riding on a dragon, and fighting other dragons mid-flight, as she prepared to breach Sovngarde and kill the World Eater once and for all, that was the stuff legends were made out of, and living through it was just as exciting as it sounded. Any Nord would've given their left arm to even witness such a battle, let alone enjoy in the thrill, the glory, that participating in such a battle would promise.
Yang didn't care about it at all. She would have traded all of it away in a heartbeat, if it meant Jaune was there next to her.
Beneath her, Durnehviir spotted the portal, and tucked his wings and dove straight down, as a Frost Breath harmlessly impacted his undead hide, before noticing a group of dragons below him, moving to intercept him.
"Qahnaarin!" Durnehviir called out to Yang. "I think this is as far as I can take you!"
Yang nodded, and gave his head a reassuring pat, as she answered: "I'll take it from here."
As Durnehviir spread his wings suddenly, cutting the speed of his descent drastically, Yang swung off his neck, and jumped down, eyeing one of the dragons below her.
The dragon noticed her, and was momentarily stunned, unable to process the audacity of the joor before him.
Yang didn't miss her chance, and instead gripped on to his horn, dragging him down quickly. As she did so, she climbed to the top of his head, and sighed. Really, if they hadn't been between her and finding out where Jaune was, she wouldn't have bothered. But they were in her way, and going through them was the fastest route.
The dragon roared in anguish, as Yang smashed Alduin's spike into the base of it's skull, before punching it in deeper, channeling all of her anger, her worry, her frustration, into the blow.
A smoldering dragon skeleton hit the ground, right in front of the portal.
Yang jumped off the bare skull, having ridden the dragon down, and as it's soul flowed into her body, she looked up at the glowing vortex in front of her, and ignored the floating draugr moving towards her as she Whirlwind Sprinted into the vortex.
The next thing she knew, a bright light had engulfed her, and she blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision, her disorientation.
Suddenly, she found herself under a purple skies, above a mist-filled valley, and she grinned ferally.
She was in Sovngarde.
"ALDUIN!" Yang roared into the skies, as she charged into the valley, looking for the World Eater, and Jaune's location.
Author's Note: One last short chapter, and that's all, I swear. This was just a short chapter, meant to deal with the aftermath of Jaune's disappearance.
The scene of Yang waiting for Jaune, and then searching for Jaune was partially inspired by a golden retriever looking for her lost owner. Honestly, I'd originally planned on making that scene longer, fleshing out the emotions more... but it was starting to actually hurt to write, emotionally speaking.
The Skuldafn section was a way for me to highlight both how Yang has changed from when she fought her first dragon, back in Chapter 5, and how things have changed from Two Worlds, One Arc.
Translations:
Lot krongrah - Great victory
Fahdon - Friend
Umriid - Treasure
Vax - Traitor
Qahnaarin - Vanquisher
