As the duo limped their way through the gates of Whiterun, Jenassa told Lars that she was going to head to the temple and to not wait up on her. Lars acknowledged this and made his way towards Dragonsreach: The seat of the Jarl.
"Lars you look like you went through shit." a man remarked.
Lars looked towards Adriana's forge and saw Ulfberth with his wife working on some steel.
Groaning, "Yea… I have gone through worse. Me and Jen went on some tomb dive for Farengar." as he pulled out the dragonstone from his backpack.
"So that wizard made you go into an ancient, dangerous nordic tomb for some old rock?" he questioned.
"Ahh, that's where you're wrong Ulfberth. The dragonstone is a known ancient artifact that was created after the time of dragons. It was used to mark old dragon burials across Skyrim's plains." Lars answered.
"Don't mind my husband, Lars. I am sure whatever Farengar asked you to get was rather important." nudging her husband to get inside.
Lars getting the hint, moved on from the forge and continued his way back up towards Dragonsreach.
When he arrived at the palace, he pushed open the large wooden doors and was greeted to the same warm interior as before. He made his way to where Farengar usually stationed and was greeted by an unknown woman talking to him. She was dressed in leather armour from head to toe and had a hood draped over her face to hide any noticeable features about her.
"You see? The terminology is clearly from the first era or even earlier. I am convinced this is a copy of a much older text. Perhaps dating back to just after the Dragon War. If so, I could use this to cross-reference the names with other later texts." Farengar excitedly said.
"Good. I'm glad you're making progress. My employers are anxious to have some tangible answers." the woman responded. She sounded older, well at least much older than Lars was.
Oh, have no fear. Jarl himself has finally taken an interest, so I'm now able to devote most of my time to this research."
"Time is running, Farengar, don't forget: This isn't some theoretical question. Dragons have come back." the woman retorted.
The woman then noticed that she wasn't alone and looked up to see the long haired nord in monk's robes standing there.
"Yes. yes. Don't worry. Although the chance to see a living dragon up close would be tremendously valuable… Now, let me show you something else I found… very intriguing… I think your employers may be interested as well…"
"You have a visitor Farengar."
Looking up and noticing Lars was there, he was surprised and said, "Ah, yes Lars! Back from Bleakfalls Barrow? You didn't die, it seems."
The woman used this opportunity to make a quick exit before Lars had a chance to talk to her.
Lars and Farengar discussed philosophy for a while before the housecarl of Jarl Balgruuf interrupted.
"Farengar, you need to come at once. A dragon has been sighted."
Before she turned towards Lars and said, "You should come as well Lars."
The court wizard practically giddied in glee as he pestered her, "A dragon? How Exciting! Where was it seen? No. What was it doing?"
Irileth, clearly annoyed, sighed and said, "I would take this a bit more seriously if I was you. If a dragon was spotted near Whiterun and attacks. I don't know what we'd do to defend it."
As they made their ways up the back stairway of the palace, they were greeted with a simple battlements room with a map. A ways away from it was the Jarl himself and a Whiterun guard.
"So, Irileth tells me you were stationed at the western watchtower. What happened."
The guard spoke up, clearly having ran quite a bit because he was out of breath, "yes, my lord. That's right. We saw it from the south. It was fast. Faster than anything I've ever seen."
The Jarl, clearly disturbed, responded with another question, "What did it do? Did it attack the watchtower?"
Clearly ashamed, he replied with, "no my lord. It was just flying above when I left. I have never ran so fast in my life… I thought for sure it was going to come after me." slumping his shoulders.
The Jarl walked up to the man and placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled, "Good work son. We'll take it from here. Head down to the barracks for some food and rest. You've earned it."
This is why Lars had always loved Whiterun. The Jarl wasn't just just and fair but a good man and understood his men.
The guard made his exit and the Jarl turned towards his housecarl and said, "Irileth, you'd better gather some guardsmen and get down there."
"I've already ordered my men to gather near the main gate." Irileth remarked.
"Good. Don't fail me." and turned towards Lars, "I am sorry Lars, there's no time for ceremony. I need your help once more."
Lars got on one knee and replied, "No need for more, my Jarl. I will help you."
Pulling him up to his feet, the Jarl scorned at him and retorted, "We are friends, are we not Lars. Friends don't bend knees to one and another."
Lars nodded.
"Thank you my friend. As a token of my appreciation, I grant you this piece from my personal armoury." as he handed him an enchanted skysteel mace.
"I had this made for you for your contributions to our city. When and if you slay this beast, come back and I shall have another reward waiting. I won't accept no as an answer this time, old friend."
As they crouched down behind a rock with Irileth and 8 guards, the former standing walled tower was now in complete ruin and burning. You could definitely tell by one look something came through here.
"No signs of any dragon but it sure as hell looks like he's been here." Irileth whispered to her men and Lars.
She continued, "I know it looks bad, but we still have to figure out what happened and if that dragon is still sulking about somewhere."
She then finished with, "Spread out. Look for survivors. We need to know what we're dealing with here."
As the group approached towards the burning ruin, Lars made his way towards the tower itself. There an unhelmeted guard appeared from seemingly within.
"No! Get back! It's still here somewhere. Hroki and Tor just got grabbed when they tried to make a run for it." the guard said and he sounded terrified.
Not one second after saying that, a distant roar of a beast was heard. The guard looked towards his right and Lars followed his gaze and noticed it. The beast was flying towards them. Brown and silver wings glistened in the sun as he approached the group.
"Kynareth save us! Here he comes again…," before he slunk back into the tower.
"Hold fast men! Make every arrow count,' before drawing her sword in one hand and magic in her off.
Lars quickly casted double thunderbolts in his hands and started flinging them at the dragon when he got closer. The dragon flew overhead and blew a scorching fire breath that instantly burned to crisp two of Irileth's men. The wailing cries as their skin burned and bubbled was heard throughout the burning skies of the scene. This caused some of her men to falter in morale but still held fast, fearing what would happen if they left this monster to its devices. It took a big path east before coming back around for another run. As the brown dragon got closer, Lars shot off, in quick succession, two thunderbolts that made their mark and caused the dragon to wail in pain and anger as it refrained from grabbing one of the guardsmen it was planning to grab with its horrid and jagged jaw and proceeded to circle back around from the western side of the tower. As it landed on the crumbling tower, the tower shook and fell. The screams of men were quickly extinguished by the sound of falling rock and stone.
"Daar los aan lotnir." the dragon said delightedly before he took off again before anything could get a shot off on it.
It circled back around from the north side and landed on the ground next to 3 guardsmen who would withdraw their bows and swords now drawn. The guards took swings at the dragon before the mouth of the beast clasped down on one of the guards head down to his torso and bit down, removing the upper half of the man as the dragon chewed the man's upper half. The other men dropped their swords and immediately began to panic and run away from the beast but that also, like their friend, was short lived as the dragon breathed fire on one of the guards and grabbed the other in its mouth. The sounds of the screaming man on fire as his skin bubbled and crisped and the muffled scream of the man caught in its mouth as it took off in flight about 120 m before dropping the man's body. The screaming of the man rang throughout the battlefield before a sickly crunch sound was heard as the body landed right next to Lars.
Lars looked on in horror as the man's body was disfigured and bloodied beyond any healing that he could do. The rumours on dragons were true: Dragons were nothing but hungry, evil monsters. Filled with a new found anger, Lars let off a multitude of thunderbolts but found himself quickly running dry in his magicka reserve.
"Shit, I am running out," he cursed.
The sound of a dragon landing broke him out of his thoughts as he looked up to see the dragon land in front of Irileth.
"Aanol fah zu'u lost dunmer." the dragon smiled wickedly.
"No!" Lars yelled as the dragon brought his mouth down on her. Before the dragon could rip her in half, Lars charged up a super thunderbolt in his hands that arched across the face of the beast.
The dragon wailed in pain as he let go of Irileth and looked at the small monk in front of him.
"Nid. Hi los fin kul gein." As he walked his way towards the small monk.
Rage and anger burned in Lars' heart fiercely at this moment as the dragon made his way towards him.
"Dir nu. Die now in vain." The dragon smirked as he reared his head back to bite down on him but Lars was ready and swung his mace into his mouth before quickly letting off an ice spear with his offhand.
This attack caught the dragon by surprise as he recoiled in pain.
"Foolish mortal. Hin krif. Your fight is meaningless. Die now!" as he let off a breath of fire soon after he finished. Lars quickly jumped and rolled over to the side and brought up a ward as the dragon moved his mouth to try to burn him.
"Hin krif los balaan nid" roared the dragon as he took to the skies again. Lars quickly made his way over towards Irileth who was bleeding profusely.
"Irileth. Irileth. Wake up!" Lars pleaded.
"Ughh.. kill that thing Lars.. Save Whiterun…" her voice faded.
"No No No No," as he used the last of his magical reserves to heal Irileth so that she wouldn't bleed out. He dragged her close to a piece of fallen debris from the tower and said, "Just rest up Irileth. I will put an end to this monstrosity."
The dunmer woman, with a pained expression, just nodded her head, closed her eyes and was faintly breathing but still alive and not bleeding out anymore.
"I will end this beast if it's the last thing I do! If I die from killing it… then so be it!" Lars thought.
He stood up from her and started to walk forward into the open field. He looked around the battlefield before him as he made his way and saw burnt and half eaten corpses litter the view before him. He knew what he had to do even though he swore to himself that he would never do it again, he knew that it was the only way he was going to defeat this beast. Lars dropped his mace and sat on the ground in a meditative position and outstretched his hands forward. He tapped into an ancient power he did so many years ago.
As the dragon swung around to finish off the rest of these foolish mortals when he saw the monk sitting in a meditative position and said, "Ful hi koraav fin vahzen. Dir nu Joor." and swept down to burn him. His breath attack made contact as he flew past the burnt monk and circled around to see his kill and when he did he noticed the monk was gone. He suddenly felt a weight on his back and turned his neck to see the monk: his hair was now stark white and eyes glowing a bright blue.
"What! What Grahmindol is this?" as he landed and tried to reach around and bite the monk off his back. The moment he did this, the monk grabbed his head, climbed on top of it, held onto its horns and his fists began to spark with electricity and quickly after the dragon began to convulse with electricity sparking in and out its body. Few seconds passed before Lars jumped off the dragon, charged a huge thunderball towards the dragon and slammed it into the dragon's face as it's head began to implode.
"Dovahkiin? No!"
Pop
as the dragon's head spontaneously exploded out and chunks of dragon meat and bone sprayed across the field surrounding him.
Minutes passed before a voice was heard behind him, "What manner of hell was that."
Lars turned around to see Irileth clutching the side of her stomach with blood running down the top of her head.
He just smiled before his hair and eyes changed back to their normal colours and collapsed but before he did, the last thing he heard was, "Fus."
Daar los aan lotnir- This is a great hunt
Aanol fah zu'u lost dunmer- Awhile since I have had Dunmer
Nid. Hi los fin kul gein- No. You are the one.
Dir nu- Die now
Hin Krif- Your fight
Hin krif los balaan nid- Your fight is worth nothing
Ful hi koraav fin vahzen. Dir nu Joor- So you see the truth. Die now mortal.
Grahmindol- Trickery