Shorter chapter this week, sorry guys. Exams and final projects are coming up for me, so if I go get a chapter cranked out next week it'll also probably be pretty short.

ForeverFictional: Oh Onmund indeed...we'll have to get back to that later.

Minerva

Minerva grunted a bit as she pushed open the heavy stone doors leading to High Hrothgar. She'd lost count of the steps around the two-thousand mark, especially after that troll had attacked her.

"Occasional wolf pack, my arse...thanks a lot, Klimmek," she muttered. Another question for the Greybeards, she supposed. Hey, did you know a freaking frost troll is living on your mountain?

Onmund had been right, it was quiet inside. Dark, too. Everything seemed to be made of the same gray stone. It was almost like a cave.

It seemed deserted, too. "H...Hello?" Minerva called.

"...lo...lo...lo?" answered the echo. Minerva shivered and let the door close behind her. It must have been well-oiled, because it didn't so much as creak. She took a step forward. Had they left for some reason? They had called her here, right?

"So, a Dragonborn has appeared." Minerva jumped and stifled a yelp as a voice came from beside her. Four old, bearded men in grey robes had appeared. Minerva hadn't even heard them walk up.

Minerva gulped and waved. "Um...hi." Great start, Min, way to be respectful. "Um...I'm...I'm answering your summons. My name is Minerva."

One of the men stepped forward, his beard tied in a knot. He examined Minerva, looking her up and down. Minerva felt like his grey eyes could see into her soul. Grey stone, grey robes, grey, grey, grey...no wonder they were called the Greybeards. "We will see if you truly have the gift." He spread his arms. "Show us. Let us taste of your Voice."

Minerva's eyes widened. "Taste of my...so you want me to..." she pointed at her throat, "at..." she pointed towards the men in front of her. Oh, no way in Oblivion was she going to shout at these guys. No way, no way.

The man in front smiled. "Do not be afraid. Your Shout will not harm us."

Tell that to the poor guard she'd flung halfway across the tower when first testing her Shout. But, if that's what they wanted...

Minerva took a deep breath. "FUS!" A wave of force emitted from her, aimed right at the Greybeards.

To Minerva's surprise, they weren't flung across the room like that poor guard. They did flinch a bit though, and the force rumpled their robes a bit. The Greybeard in front looked up at Minerva again and nodded, apparently satisfied. "Dragonborn. It is you. Welcome to High Hrothgar." He gave a small bow. "I am Master Arngeir. I speak for the Greybeards." He gazed at Minerva again. "Tell me, Dragonborn. Why have you come?"

Because you called me, Minerva snarked internally. But it was a seriously heavy question. Minerva took a deep breath and sighed. "I came because...because I honestly have no idea what's going on." She looked at Master Arngeir. "I'm just going to be straight with you: I have no idea what being a Dragonborn means, other than Tiber Septim was one and it means that I've been blessed by the Divines...or something? I don't know what that means, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing..." She took another deep breath. "And I've got a couple of other issues which, gods forbid, I won't go into right now, and you guys called for me and you apparently know a lot about this stuff, and I was hoping you could help me figure all this out." Another deep breath. "So...yeah."

One of the other Greybeards side-eyed the one next to him. He made a few gestures with his hands, and the other Greybeard jabbed him in the side with his elbow, shaking his head.

Arngeir, on the other hand, seemed almost surprised. Then he smiled. "Well, you're certainly forthright."

Minerva shrugged and looked down. "I know you guys were probably expecting some kind of Tiber...er, Talos-kind-of person. Gods, I'm probably the last person anyone expected, least of all me. But it's no good pretending to be something I'm not."

Master Arngeir extended a hand. "Maybe you're not Talos. But even Talos Stormcrown had much to learn when he first arrived here. Are you willing to do the same, Dragonborn?"

Minerva looked up, then gave Master Arngeir a determined nod. "That's what I came here to do."

Master Arngeir nodded back. "Then we will help guide you, as is our duty. Come, let us begin." And with that, the other Greybeards retreated into the monastery, and Arngeir gestured for Minerva to follow them. So she did.

"By the way, did time actually freeze when I was climbing up the mountain? Or am I going crazy?"

Master Arngeir sighed. "We did feel a disturbance a few minutes ago. It would seem the Psijic Order is meddling in things again..."

Sissel

There hadn't been a new person at High Hrothgar since Sissel had arrived a few months ago. She had arrived wearing mage robes. Mage robes! Like from Winterhold! She'd changed into Greybeard robes a day or two after she'd arrived, but she didn't really act like a Greybeard. She kept talking very loudly, having to be reminded almost every day to keep her voice down. Or her Voice, Sissel thought. It had taken Sissel upwards of a month to fully understand the first word of the Whirlwind Sprint shout, yet after only a few hours of training the new girl was zooming back and forth across the courtyard like a leaf in a strong breeze.

Needless to say, Sissel was quite curious about this new girl. But what with her newness and her abilities...well...Sissel wasn't quite sure what to think. Besides, she had this...aura about her. An intimidating one.

The intimidating new girl was sitting in the library now, flipping through one of the Greybeards' many, many books. Sissel had been in the library for the reading that Master Borri had assigned on the Battle of Red Mountain, picking up every book that seemed to be tangentially related. Most of the Greybeards' books were old, actual accounts of what had happened. So not only were they delicate, the relevant information was usually scattered through several books.

Sissel was holding about five semi-hefty books, but had stopped at the door to observe the stranger. The stranger turned a page, then suddenly flinched back, swearing and sticking her index finger in her mouth. "Fu...friggin'...stupid thin pages..." she muttered.

Sissel winced. Okay, time to go, she was obviously annoyed.

Sissel tried to sneak away, but unfortunately, the books she was holding blocked her view of the floor, and therefore of the uneven stone in the floor that she tripped over.

Minerva

Minerva looked up with a start as she heard a yelp. Right after the yelp, there was a loud thump, and then some smaller thumps. Looking over to where the sound came from, Minerva saw a small figure laying on the floor near the library's door. Several large, thick books were scattered around them, a few laying open.

Minerva jumped up from her chair. "Are you okay?" It was only then she remembered Greybeards' thing about silence and quiet. "Shit...are you okay?" she whispered.

It was too late though. The small figure looked up, and Minerva saw the face of a young Nord girl, with long hair and tears in her eyes. "I...I'm sorry!" the girl gasped out, and suddenly she was running.

Minerva swore under her breath and ran after the girl, picking up two of the books as she passed. She tried to follow the girl through the monastery, but soon lost her. She did, however, nearly slam face first into one of the Greybeards.

She stumbled back quickly, nearly dropping the books herself. "Ack!" The Greybeard raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeesh, sorry about that Master Borri. Um...you haven't seen a little girl around here? She dropped these." And Minerva held out the books.

Master Borri hummed noncommittally, then turned to look behind himself. Clinging to the back of his robe was the girl, looking incredibly frightened. Minerva felt her heart ache. What had she done? Had she done anything? She didn't think so, but when could she ever trust her gut on that?

Minerva knelt down, trying to appear warm and friendly. Like Gildas would be. Like Onmund would be. Like Brelyna would be. Like J'zargo would...act. "Hey there. You dropped these." She held out the books in the girl's direction.

The girl looked up at Master Borri. He nodded to her, making a sign that Minerva recognized after a week with the Greybeards as "safe".

The girl looked back at Minerva, back at Master Borri, then back at Minerva again. She quickly snactched both books from Minerva's hands and darted away into the halls.

Minerva sighed, feeling her heart ache again. I'm not really that scary, right? Master Borri hummed sympathetically. "I said that out loud, didn't I?" Minerva asked sheepishly. "I don't think I did anything to scare her...I was just reading, I think..."

Master Borri shook his head and signed again. "It's not you. She's scared of all of us."

Perhaps that should have made Minerva feel better, but it didn't really. "She's scared of everyone? How come?"

Master Borri shrugged. "A hard life. A scary life. Her father was..." He trailed off and shook his head.

Minerva felt bile build in her throat. She thought about Onmund. Was the girl from a similar situation? "Her father? Who is he?"

Master Borri tilted his head, then shrugged his shoulders and shook it. "Dead?"

That made sense to Minerva. She doubted that the girl would have been able to stay up here, otherwise. A confrontation between an abusive father and the Greybeards would have been big news for sure. That was some comfort at least. "Master Arngeir wished to speak with you," Master Borri continued.

Really? Minerva hadn't met with Master Arngeir one-on-one since the day she'd arrived. She'd peppered him with questions about what it meant to be Dragonborn, but some of his answers had been pretty non-committal, saying that she'd have to find out for herself. Frustrating, really. It reminded Minerva of that guy that showed up in her dreams occasionally. Though he hadn't shown up since Whiterun. Odd.

Well, no time to think about that now. Minerva decided to go see what Master Arngeir wanted from her.

I tried to do a bit of research on how to represent the Greybeards' sign language in writing, so I hope I portrayed it well/respectfully.

Next Chapter: Onmund seeks out the Augur of Dunlain, and J'zargo gets mixed up in some Solitude-related shenanigans.