Chapter 4 - A Fallen Hero

The following morning, as I left with Kaira from her cottage, it was immediately apparent that something was happening in town. The excitement of Dragonborn's slated arrival had spread to nearly everyone, it seemed. People were talking about him, singing songs about him, children were running around and making pretend that they were Shouting, and I could have sworn that some of the guards even had an extra skip in their steps as they patrolled the streets. Others seemed more on edge than excited, interestingly.

We quickly made our way towards The Bannered Mare, hoping to find the others there. I assumed that they had rented a room, and I was sure they'd be wondering where I had gone overnight. As we walked into the inn, the atmosphere was completely different from the night before. The place was nearly empty, Hulda was not behind the counter, the fire was more of a pile of ash and embers rather than the roaring fire that it had been last night, and there was a woman who I had never seen sweeping the floors. I wondered if she was the one who replaced Saadia after her disappearance.

In the back-right corner of the room, Borrin and Cal were sitting at a table eating breakfast. They were the only people that we could see in the inn besides the woman who was cleaning. I also noticed that, instead of smelling like body odor and alcohol like the night before, the inn now smelled of firewood and the aromas of food wafting in from the kitchen.

"Good morning," I said as we approached their table.

Cal looked up at us, smirking and noticing that Kaira and I were holding hands. Borrin smirked at us for a moment too before returning to his breakfast. Cal spoke, still smiling, "Good morning. And a good night as well, I presume?" I glared at him, but he just kept smiling as he continued eating his meal.

Kaira responded promptly, "Yes, it was a very good night. Did you enjoy sleeping on the floor of a dirty inn?"

Cal laughed, "Actually, we made Garren sleep on the floor. They've got an extra bed upstairs now, and they've expanded the room into two, so Borrin and I took the beds. Garren wasn't too happy about it, but we figured since he was the youngest he'd be alright."

Kaira and I chuckled, and then I asked, "Speaking of Garren, where is he?"

"He went off into town, likely looking for trouble," Cal said as he chewed a mouthful of food, "Wouldn't be surprised if he's got himself in trouble with the guards already."

"I believe he's looking out for Dragonborn," Borrin added.

I asked, "Should we go do the same? I'm very interested to see this fellow. Seems everyone in town is ready to see him."

"We'll catch up with Garren soon," Cal said as he scraped up the last bits of his food from his metal plate, "But first, you have to try Hulda's buttered potatoes. I don't know how she makes 'em, but I'm about to ask for a third plate." Kaira and I sat down with Borrin and Cal and chatted for a bit, eventually being served the same hearty meal that they had.

After filling up on potatoes, bread, and some jazbay grapes, we all headed out into town. As we walked, I asked Borrin, "So, what do you think we can expect from Dragonborn? Do you know anything about him?"

Borrin answered as he skimmed the town, the same way he had done in the forest on the journey to Whiterun, "Aside from all the rumors and stories, not much. He's a Nord, he can Shout, and he's left quite the impression throughout Skyrim, as far as I can tell. He's made many friends, and I suspect as many enemies, if not more."

I thought about that last remark, then questioned, "You think he has a lot of enemies?"

Kaira answered instead of Borrin, "Of course he does. Anyone that's revered as a hero will have enemies." Borrin nodded in agreement with Kaira's statement.

"I thought his only enemies were the dragons? Which he put a stop to, according to the rumors."

Borrin responded, "First of all, boy, he didn't take care of all of them. The worst of it is over, but there are still dragons out there. And he had a hand in many other affairs. Of course you've heard about his involvement in the Civil War, but he also had dealings with the College, many of the Jaarls, the Dawnguard, the Dark Brotherhood…"

I nearly tripped over my feet when Borrin said that. I said incredulously, "The Dark Brotherhood? You think that Dragonborn was involved with the Dark Brotherhood?"

Borrin made a motion with his hand as he signaled for me to be quiet, "Don't go blurting that so loud. It's just a rumor, anyhow."

"Still," I said, "It sounds like you've heard some more interesting rumors than I have." I also thought it was curious that he mentioned the Dawnguard, as even that itself was just a story as far as I was aware.

Just then, Garren came running up, speaking excitedly as he always seemed to do, "He's here! He just came into the gates! Dragonborn is here!" Kaira, Cal and I looked at each other, each of us unable to hide our childish grins, and with that we nearly ran towards the gates with Garren. Borrin didn't quite go at the quick pace that we did, probably trying to conceal his excitement somewhat, but he was not far behind us.

As we neared the front of the town, we found ourselves making our way into a sizely crowd. It seemed that the whole town had caught wind of Dragonborn's arrival. As Borrin caught up with us, the five of us slid past people in the crowd so that we could try to get a closer look, Garren still leading the way. Just as we reached the center of the crowd, I saw everyone turning to watch as a man walked up the steps that lead to the Drunken Huntsman. The moment I saw this man, I knew it was Dragonborn. He was wearing the most elaborate, exotic looking armor that I had ever seen. It appeared to be made of scales and bones, and after a moment I gaped as I realized they had to be dragon scales based on their size.

The man turned around to face the crowd after reaching a suitable height on the steps. People were cheering and chanting "Dragonborn! Dragonborn!" He let them chant for a minute, waving at people and nodding, before he tried motioning for everyone to quiet down. Someone yelled, "Do a Shout!" This caused even more cheering to erupt.

Dragonborn took another minute to let the crowd calm down, and then he turned his head towards the sky. Instantly the crowd was silent. Dragonborn clenched his dragon-clad fists, and bellowed in a deep, thunderous voice, "Yol-Toor-Shul!" It sounded as if his voice had come from all directions, echoing back from the mountains from miles away. A bright, blazing fire exploded from his mouth and rolled towards the sky, fountaining from deep within his being with an unfaltering rage. I stared in shock as the flames whipped and lashed aggressively through the air. I briefly looked over at Garren, Cal and Kaira to see that their faces were lit up with both shock and the glow of the fire that Dragonborn was breathing. I couldn't quite see Borrin's face, but I was sure that even he would have the same look of awe.

Just as quickly as the fire had appeared, it rapidly cut off and dissipated as Dragonborn closed his mouth. He looked back at the crowd, and bowed. Everyone cheered yet again, this time louder than before. I even joined in on the cheering, and Cal looked at me with the biggest smile I had ever seen him have. We both laughed, clapping and cheering with everyone else.

Kaira was cheering along too at first, but then she tugged on my sleeve to get my attention. I had just barely turned to look at her worried expression when I saw from the corner of my eye a masked figure holding a bow. An arrow loosed, and time felt like it slowed to a crawl. I watched the arrow glide over the crowd, and it struck Dragonborn between the space of his armor right on his upper shoulder.

The entire crowd stopped, many people gasping and some screaming. All of the guards seemed to jump into action at the same time, two of them approaching Dragonborn as he pulled the arrow out of his shoulder. "I'm- I'm alright. I can heal it." I turned back to where I saw the figure with the bow, but no one was there. I could have sworn I saw something moving over the top of the stone wall in the distance, and then I turned back to see what was happening with Dragonborn again. As I did, I saw that he was pointing almost right at me.

One of the guards assisting Dragonborn yelled, "Them! The Redguards! Arrest them immediately!" The crowd started to move out of the way as five guards pushed their way right to where we were standing.

Once they reached us, one of the five guards pointed directly at me and said, "You, place the bow on the ground!" I remembered that my bow was slung on my back, and then realized that they thought the arrow had come from me.

Kaira yelled, "No, it wasn't him! There was a man—"

"Silence!" The guard yelled, "Please step out of the way!"

I argued, "You've made a mistake! I didn't even have my bow in my hands! I would never—" Before I could get my words out, I felt the hilt of a sword get driven into my back. I was completely winded, and fell to my knees. I saw a guard pushing Kaira away as she yelled at him, and saw two more guards grabbing Cal by the arms. At this point the crowd had fallen back out of the way, and despite the fact that I was on my knees, I was able to see Dragonborn up on the stairs pressing his hand on his wound. He still looked to be in a lot of pain.

I looked back at what was happening right in front of me. "Get… Get your hands off her! And don't hurt my brother! We had nothing to do with this!" I yelled as the guards continued to hold Kaira back and Cal tried to tear free from their grips. As this was happening, I saw Dragonborn suddenly fall to the ground as he began to convulse aggressively. There were now several people running up to him, and more screams and shouts came from the surrounding crowd. The chaos only seemed to keep escalating, and then I watched as a guard thumped Cal on the back of the head with his sword hilt, knocking him out cold. I cursed at them, trying to jump up, but I suddenly felt a thump on the back of my own head. I fell to the ground again, this time feeling my face bounce off of the stones of the cobbled pathway. I felt the world spinning, and I tried to keep my eyes open, but I quickly faded out as I heard more yelling and the heavily armored boots of the guards rushing up to me.