There wasn't much to do in Windhelm. Endoura had to do a job for the Jarl which Gray explained was like the head honcho of this whole place well more like this piece of territory. I still don't get all the stuff about this place. But I will admit that magic seemed to seep out of the ground and made me feel energized. I spent most of my time watching the blacksmiths work their forge and follow Gray around.

Mostly the only things we talked about was the different races that walked this land. He said that we've met most of them and that he was going to show us another one today if they were even here. Apparently, they were supposed to be cat people. But like the Argonians which had lizard everything but walked like a human these people were cats and they mostly were just merchants.

We walked out of the city and walked across the bridge and turned left. Walking a bit a small campsite was set up with tents made out of animal pelts and held up by thick sticks. And there they were just as Gray said. We just stood awestruck at the cat people as Gray just smiled. He giggled and said that Khajiit, as they are called, had the best way of talking.

He walked up to the one that was sitting on a rug at the opening of the big tent. And the cat spoke.

"Tools, wears, and weapons. All for sale at fair prices. Does this one need something?"

The voice from what looked to be the oldest of the little group spoke with a soft purr in his voice.

"Yes, I was wondering if you had any salts on you."

"I might have just what you want. Take a look."

Gray just smiled and looked into the bag the khajiit placed in front of him. When Gray nodded at the contents the cat pulled out a small dark brown bowl and scooped out some bright orange grains.

"Thank you."

Gray pulled out a small bag that jingled with the coins Endoura left them to buy what they wanted. The amount for the content of that small bowl, whatever it is, is the whole sack. The cat took the money and handed Gray the bowl. As he left he said one last thing.

"May the road lead you to warm sands."

With that, we went back to the house. In the house, it looked like Endoura was back and was packing up the bags ready to go. With the bags packed they left the city and rode the horses to the next closest city. The city of Winterhold.

"So Endoura could you tell us a bit about Winterhold was it?"

Everyone was slowly starting to embrace Endoura and that made her smile. But she then started to tell of her tales.

"Sure. There are two things to know about the hold. There is a large statue carved from a mountain. It is of a woman holding a sun and a moon. A rose flower wreath crowns her head. And she is draped in a flowing cloth dress. The thing to know about Tamrial is that there are two types of gods we worship and each province has it's own pantheon for the eight divines. They can have different names and different way of how they created the world.

But the statue we will likely see is the shrine to the Daedric goddess of dusk and dawn Azura. I actually have one of her artifacts on me right now. It's her star."

Endoura reached around inside her pack and pulled out a gem the size of a man's waist from the bottom of the sternum to the bottom of the groin and it was just as wide. The gem was black in color with metal bands along it and in the shape of a sun.

"You will not believe what I had to do to get this. But long story short I had to fight a whole coven of necromancers then have my soul placed in the star in order to kill the Dunmer's soul that was already in there. I will admit though it was quite beautiful inside. All bright blue crystal and ethereal glow."

She looked at the star then placed it back in her pack. But Lucy interjected.

"Did you say necromancers?"

"Yes, I did. You know they raise the dead. It's not all that uncommon here in Tamriel. In fact, if you wanted me too, I could take you anywhere just to show you that sometimes the dead don't even need a necromancer in order to rise from the grave. Whether the corpse still has rotting flesh on the body or not."

The ride along the road was silent from then on. The thought of just the dead getting up and walking about was unnerving. But the knowledge of the magic that filled this land was interesting.

"Hey, Endoura what kind of magic do you use?"

"Umm . . . I don't really use magic. All I need is my bow, arrows, and my sword. But I could tell you the different schools of magic mages study."

"Schools of magic?"

"Oh, right you call it types of magic. Well, here all magic falls under a certain school. Destruction is the easiest to understand. That school is for all spells that will lead to destruction. Restoration is healing and magic that harms the dead. Conjuration is summoning creatures from another plain and soul trapping.

Illusion messes with the senses. And finally Alteration. Where the user alters the world around them. But there is one bit of magic that is slightly different and that is enchanting. It's where you can bind different magic to weapons, armor, and clothing.

My sword and bow, for example, are enchanted. Along with Lucy's boots and Erza's armor. Depending on what you´re enchanting it will take different enchantments. Such as on armor you will only get resistance and fortifying enchantments. You thinks that make something easier with that enchantment. And for weapons it will cause damage of some kind."

This was quite confusing but also really simple this place was strange I don't think I'll ever get used to it, and I don't care too. I mostly came to see the dragons and so far we've only seen two. Not that that isn't amazing in and of itself I just wanted to see more.

As we rode the sword on Endoura's hip caught my eye. It was very strange. The blade was white gold in color. And near the handle was a rounded guard that had an orb of light shining. It also seemed to glow with power. Didn't she say it was enchanted? I wonder what that enchantment could be.

"Hey, Endoura?"

"Yes, Natsu."

"What's the enchantment on your sword."

"Well, first I'd have to tell you the story of how I even got my sword. Then I could tell you about my bow too. But that'll have to wait. This is Winterhold. We won't be staying long I just have to sell some things first."

Endoura got off Arvak and went into the general store. As I looked around I was quite surprised. This place looked horrible. There were barely any building not left in ruin. the only thing that looked intact was a large building over the frozen sea.

I got off of Blaze and just stared at the small town. How could this have happened? Just as I started to look around a bunch of screaming could be heard. When I turned around, a group of people was attacking guards and the citizens. Their eyes glowed a bright fire red and red magic came from their hands and seemed to suck the life right out of their targets.

I rushed up to try and help but suddenly I felt a hand grab my arm. When I turned to the person holding me I saw it was Gray with a wide-eyed look and quickly shaking his head.

"Gray why are you stopping me we can help!"

"No don't get to close. Those are vampires. If they target you with that spell you're likely to get vampirism. And you really don't want that."

Wait did he just say vampires? Just as I was in shock at what Gray said a flash of light caught my eye. Endoura had run out of the shop and drawn her sword. The sound of the metal splitting the flesh and stopping at the bone then slicing through the flesh as it was pulled out. What I didn't expect was the so-called vampire to be coated in flames then explode in blue fire. The person next to the vampire, who looked like those bandits she killed, was caught in the blast and turned to a pile of ash.

The commotion died down as the threat was neutralized and the guards thanked her. She gave a small smile and walked back to us. She then motioned for us to follow her to the large building in this crumbling village. It was apparently a college for aspiring wizards to learn and develop their skills. She didn't have much to say about it having barely any use for magic.

It was another long ride to the city of Morthal. We, of course, had to rest the horses, eat, and rest ourselves. But it was worth it. The scenery was as beautiful as I remember from my youth. Even if it was just marshy tundra and swamp lands in Morthal it was peaceful. The first time we rested the horses by the water a small group of Mudcrabs came by to attack us.

Everyone was quite surprised but fascinated when giving them a closer look. Lucy and Erza remarked on their rock-like appearance and Natsu just watched as Endoura was cooking up the legs for a quick meal. She went on to explain the sizes of the Mudcrabs, how they came in three different sizes. And then about another animal that had four different sizes.

Lucy looked utterly terrified at the thought of spiders as big as a horse. As we sat with the horses nearby the sky was starting to darken. The tents were already set up in case we stayed this long. Everyone was slowly going to bed. Only Endoura and I were still awake. Her being on watch and myself just wanting to enjoy her company.

As I looked over at her the firelight casting shadows across her face and body. She was writing in a worn leather-bound book. That must be her journal. She never let me look inside. My guess was to spare me the heartbreak of what happened to her when she came to Skyrim.

She's told me her past. How she was the daughter of the leader of her tribe in Valenwood, her training, meeting her best friend Fenrir who was a large white wolf covered in ice blue markings and could control ice, how she was to be married off to ensure peace with a noble, who later betrayed her tribe.

But I never got the full story. Endoura was pretty private and only shared little tid-bits just so that I wouldn't ask her about it anymore. But from all the time I've been with her I've never seen her wolf Fenrir. Whenever I ask she just looks sadly towards the general direction of her home province. After a while I just stopped asking figuring that the thought of her beloved wolf just left a bad memory she wanted to forget but couldn't.

She finished writing after a few minutes and just looked out into the darkness as her pointed ears twitched at all the sounds around us. Her eyes seemed to focus on everything in the dark besides the torchbugs and lunamoths flying around us. And with the silence I look out too. But she then started to speak.

"I know that you want to know my past Gray but I don't want you to have to deal with it. My lifespan is much longer than yours. I've dealt with it and I always will."

I simply just stayed quite and continued to stare into the night. Till she spoke again.

"I feel like I know what you're worrying about. Is it your due date?"

I nodded slowly and timidly. I was terrified. I could feel it clawing under my skin ready to explode. The heat in the pit of my stomach was slowly starting to boil and burn. My body was getting ready to go into heat. I was the appropriate age for breeding. The thing with dragons is that at a certain age we will go into heat. But those heats, they were nothing to compare to breeding heat, from what Isis told me.

A preliminary heat is just a series of heats that get the body ready for the years when breeding is possible. But breeding heats start when the body of a human reaches the age around eighteen to twenty. And they are very painful. The need to be filled and stuffed till you are expecting burns like an out of control fever.

And for dragon slayers going into a breeding heat they go so far into their instincts that they nearly become dragons themselves. Not many people know that there are five stages of Dragon Force. The first is when the slayer just gets imprints of scales on their body. Second the scales are pushed out of the skin.

Third is when the horns are grown out of their head and more scales cover the body. And fourth is the closest you can be to keep yourself from becoming a dragon and your sanity. Scales cover your hands and you have claws. The scales wrap around to cover all of the hands and forearms.

Your feet turn into actual dragon feet with talons. Scales covering your entire lower leg. The scales then are on the outsides of your upper arms and thighs. For males it basically covers the extremities and the same for women just it also covers the breasts.

And lastly wings and a tail are grown on your body. They are fully functional and can be used to deal massive amounts of damage. If the Fairy Tail guild thinks that Natsu and I are dangerous now without Dragon Force they better pray that Natsu never learns the fourth level of it. And Divines sakes I never have to use it much less the fifth level.

I looked to Endoura and spoke.

"I feel it getting closer. And it's faster than it has been in previous years."

She gave me a small smile that showed a bit of pity. The sound of a branched broke behind me and her ears and eyes twitched upward to look behind me. Whatever was behind me I wasn't scared. Before it could even reach the distance to attack me or her it would be dead with and arrow plunged into its corpse.

Or I could simply take it down myself. But for fear that using my magic would just speed up the impending doom of my approaching heat I wouldn't. Endoura was strong enough to take down most anything with her bow or sword.

She just grabbed the bow that was to her left and grabbed one of the arrows from the quiver to her right. And continued to talk.

"That makes sense. You were under the influence of an illusion spell. And with Natsu so close by. Your body can sense what is around you and what is about to happen. You just . . ."

With speed so quick she knocked an arrow and shot it right past my ear. I wasn't phased. I trusted her and her aim. The sound of a choked gurgle. When I looked back a man cloaked in black had an arrow piercing his throat. The dead didn't bother me. Especially here, it was just a way of life here. Society was different here, it was more wild and ready to chew you up and spit you back out if you weren't ready to quickly accept the reality of this world.

Endoura walked up to the dead body and started to strip it of its valuables. When she ripped out the arrow she held it by the shaft and spoke to me.

". . . have to learn to deal with and adapt to this."

The rest of the night was quite and Endoura got to eat.

We got to Morthal but there was nothing much happening here. The town was small and had houses on the water with some boats ready to set off into the marsh. With all the supplies we had and being in a kind of forest we just past through and headed to the capital of this place.

It was called Solitude and the way Endoura and Gray talked about it and it being the only place that had a clothing store Lucy was all to happy to get a move on. Erza was really interested in all the scenery of this land. But me. I was more focused on Gray.

As we were leaving our campsite that morning he gave me that small bowl of orange grains he got from that cat merchant. He called them fire salts. I didn't know what to do with them until he told me I could eat them. When I took a pinch and put it on my tongue I was amazed.

They tasted like the best fire ever condensed into a small bowl of tiny orange grains of salt. He giggled at my expression and told me about the other two salts that are found here. Those two are called frost and void salts. And he liked the frost the best while the void were supposed to be electric. I didn't care what they were they just tasted good and I wanted more.

He told me to he would talk about it later as we left the marsh and came into a lush forest and high mountains. As the horses walked we went past guards draped in red with shields picturing wolf heads.

As we crested a hill a great city that glittered white and blue sat over the sea. So this was Solitude.

(A/N: So how was it? Do you like the way this one is written over the other chapters. If not I'll go back. But I thought that I'd try something new. And I'd like to say that the next chapter will involve a quest to make it a bit longer. And after that chapter will be the awaited smut chapter. And I'd like to point out I'm not the best at writing that so please bare with it. I love you all for your positive feedback and I love Blue for their wonderful work on helping edit this series. So leave comments and feedback to tell me what I'm doing wrong or right. So I'll close off with my catchpharse. Enjoy the hunt. 0u~* That is a failed attempt at a winking emoji.)