The Tale of Zooryuvokogan
Disclaimer: I don't own Skyrim or anything involved with it.
Murky gray. Hazy black fog. I'm dead. A woman with black hair and green eyes approaches me. "What happened this time?"
"Arrow with poison in the neck, mom." I give my mom a hug because these meetings are always brief.
"Who was it?"
"Well, I was teaching this guy a lesson and I got shot in the neck because of some plot from before. These people were out to kill me and this guy. I guess they finally caught up."
"Is the guy your age? Is he handsome."
"Mommm!" I moan. "He's 24 and yes. But he seems to want to do everything to get a woman in bed."
"Ah, do you want him?"
"I don't know! I have to go. The pull is back." My spirit leaves this realm and I am back in my body.
"Huuuuuuuhhhhh!" I gasp for air and heal the hole made by the arrow. The place is clear of people except for the dead Thalmor. Now I know why I come back to life. I have a dragon soul and the only way I'll die is if the Dragonborn kills me.
I get up and wobble. Then I quickly brace and right myself with the back of a chair. The pool of blood at my feet is mine and it isn't huge. Right now I could use that makeshift cane. Brynjolf comes rushing out of the side room and scoops me up. I start to protest but he shoves a sweetroll in my mouth.
"Now's not the time lass. Everyone saw you die. You can't just magically be alive again. I need to get you out of here." Brynjolf rushes out of the Ragged Flagon and the Ratway. He doesn't stop and he heads out the door in his Thieve's Guild armor. I look as everything and everyone flies past me. Brynjolf finally stops when we get to the end of the docks where he sets me in a small boat and starts to row.
"Why are you helping me?" I ask after spitting the sweetroll into the water.
"Remember when this happened before but it was just with you and me? I want answers." He stops in the middle of the lake and I sit up.
"You already know about my family's curse. Well, since the dragons have returned, the curse has become active." I pause to see if he's getting it. "I'm a dragon. Well, I can turn into one, so, yeah, I'm a dragon."
Brynjolf doesn't do anything at first but then starts to laugh. "Okay, you got me. Really, why is this happening to you?"
"I just told you. If you want proof, dock the boat or I'll jump over." He doesn't seem to want to dock the boat so I jump. I resurface and swim to the edge of the lake.
"What? Are you going to tell me you're a mer now?" Brynjolf jokes and docks the boat after I climb to the beach, soaking wet. I glare at him. Then I look around and change.
Since I've been changing more, the pain is less and there is no more burning. And it's faster. I might have to try changing into a dragon after jumping off a mountain. My golden skin and wings are back and I flap them as evidence. It's hard not to see a huge dragon in the woods.
Brynjolf is startled. A lot. "Now I get it." Is all he says and I change back. "That's freaky." I roll my eyes and say goodbye to him. "Where are you going?"
"I need to find Nonvul." I shout at him and am already starting to run.
"He found Esbern! You might know where he went because I don't!" Brynjolf yells to me and we distance ourselves. It takes a few days of walking, running, and slaying animals but I get to Riverwood. I walk into the Sleeping Giant cautiously and ask where Delphine and the others went. The bartender says Sky Haven Temple.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat, I run for a secluded but large area and change into my dragon form. I fly to the place the bartender showed me on my map and land in the upper courtyard. Thankfully, no one is outside and I change back. I run inside and collide with Delphine.
"Nonvul said you were dead!" Delphine grabs my shoulders and we right ourselves. She takes me over to an old man and I guess he is Esbern. "Esbern. This is the other Dragonborn." Delphine introduces me but I cut it short.
"Where did Nonvul go?" I say, being a bit rude.
"He went to ask the Greybeards about the Dragonrend Shout." Esbern answers and I run out of the door again after saying thanks.
I change again and fly to High Hrothgar. As silent as I can be, I land at the base of the monastery. Changing back is no difficult task but the switching from human to dragon is tiring. I swallow a potion that helps me regain some stamina and head into High Hrogthar.
"Hunbrii. You're back. Have your travels taught you anything?" Arngeir greets me and I quickly bow to him in respect.
My words rush out and Arngeir tells me to slow down. "Where is Nonvul?"
"We just taught him the Clear Skies Shout. He is on his way to Paarthurnax." I thank him and head out the back doors into the training yard. The gate where I practiced the Whirlwind Sprint Shout is still there and so is the fire that marks the entrance to the top of the mountain.
The harsh wind is blowing past the standing arc gate and I can hear shouting from the top. I look to the side of the cliff of the mountain and decide to try something. It's now or never and I jump off, changing into a dragon mid fall and the wind catches under my wings.
I fly to the top in record time and Nonvul still isn't here. Paarthurnax greets me as one of the dov and I greet him back. I change into my nord self just as Nonvul reached the top. Without him expecting it, I run over to him and knock him harshly into the snow. "Traitor!" I shout in his face.
He looks up at me astonished. "I thought you were dead!"
Paarthurnax tells us to stop in his wise and grumbly dragon voice. "You two have come here for a reason. Speak it."
"You were dead! I saw you die!" Nonvul ignores Paarthurnax completely and gets up. He pulls out his dagger again and I roll my eyes.
"Let's put this behind us until we save the world from Alduin okay? Then you can try to kill me all you want." I say and Nonvul gives a nod and puts his pathetic dagger away. We approach Paarthurnax and he gives us his wisdom. Part of it is in his language and part of it is in our own.
"You need to find the Kel. The Elder Scroll that sent Alduin forward in time. You may be able to learn the Dragonrend shout from the ones who made it." Paarthurnax doesn't know where one may be found but he tells us to ask either Arngeir or Esbern. We decide to ask Arngeir and he directs us to the College of Winterhold.
We reach the college in a few days and begin our questioning. Someone directs us to an Orc Mage named Urag gro-Shub. He gives us two books about the Elder Scrolls and we learn about a crazy man named Septimus Signus. "Where do we find him?" I ask politely.
"He's somewhere in the ice fields north of here." Urag gro-Shub lets us keep the books and we leave the college.
The ice fields are really cold and we get attacked by ice wolves and snow bears often. I take a few down and so does Nonvul. This sort of truce doesn't sit well with either of us but we put that aside and work together.
Nonvul sees a boat and we head inside a snowy lair in an iceberg. There is a man in black robes ranting crazily about a golden box the size of a house. He continues his confusing and crazy rant as Nonvul questions him and yes, even threatening to chop his head off.
Septimus walks over to me after annoying Nonvul and gives me two items. "The cube is for inscribing Dwemer secrets and the sphere is for tuning Dwemer music." I don't get what he is saying but we go on ahead to the place he told us to go to. Alftand.
The trek to the tower is snowy and hazardous. Skeletons of buildings reside around us and we make our way across a planked bridge that goes down into the glacier's mouth. I loose my footing on one of the bridges and Nonvul is quick to haul me back up. "I still need to kill you myself so don't die." So much for chivalry.
We head in and the place is a mess, not to mention cold. Beams support the walls and we delve deeper in. This must have been a research camp because of all the bed rolls. Next we see a blood trail that leads to the larger area of the ruins. Large golden pipes and snow lines the walls and the sound of someone talking reaches our ears. Deeper and deeper we go down and fight a machine that looks like a golden spider.
"I've never seen one of those before." Nonvul comments and we come to a larger room with two inactive spiders on a stone desk. A bared doorway keeps us from going one way so we go the other. Another spider attacks and I swing at it using my axe.
"This weapon sucks." I grasp the sharp end of it and pull down. Not a scratch. "I bet it wouldn't even cut butter." The weapon hasn't been sharpened and there is no way I can sharpen it here so I chuck it at a wall. I pull out my sharp dual daggers and decide to fight with those until I find a useful weapon.
"Come on." Nonvul says impatiently and we continue. He dispatches another Dwemer spider and a Khajiit attacks us mumbling something about his brother. I kill the cat and he lies in his pool of blood with a dead Khajiit next to him.
We walk into a much larger and elaborate room with gold grating and gears. Killing spiders as we go, the place seems to get eerier and eerier. I take care of one machine that looks like a man on wheels and Nonvul takes care of the other. Their weakness is to either stab or shoot the round wheel like part in the middle.
Then we head north into the vent chamber and through a gold door that leads to a long passage with some spiders. We use the same tactics and kill them.
"So, how would you want to kill me?" I ask as we both jump over moving pistons. My question takes him off guard and he is pushed off the side. I grab him quickly, pulling him back up.
Nonvul deals with another spider and we walk into a greenish colored hall with the pipes and machines making their continuous noise. "Well that's an odd question." He rubs the back of his neck and we walk right into an ambush of Dwarven Spheres. One of them shoots their little cross bow bolt at my arm and it slices into the armor. I rip it out and side kick its head. The machine dies and the wires crackle from its missing body part.
I chug a potion and throw one at Nonvul. He drinks his and we continue on. "I would probably want to die by falling off a ledge or peacefully in my sleep." I say and he ponders it.
"What about being hung? Or drowned by being tied to boulders and thrown in the ocean?" We come across an obvious blade trap. I go first and walk on the slit so I don't hit the pressure plates. Nonvul follows in suit and he lowers the barred doorway at the end. "Here's your change to die from falling off a ledge."
"What?" I ask confused. Then he pushes me. I can hear the splintering of my right leg and arm as I land. Nonvul jumps down onto a broken gold pipe and then to the floor. He stands over my body.
"It seemed to do the trick for her." He points to a dead redguard and pulls my broken body to the middle of the floor. "How long do you think it will take you to heal?" Nonvul sticks a potent potion in my hand on the side of my body that still works.
"Physically, about a half an hour using the potion and magicka. Emotionally, never." I chuckle and drink the potion. A half hour of healing and bone readjusting passes while Nonvul is out of sight. I could constantly hear sounds of battle and high pitch screeching. Nonvul comes back and helps me up.
"I cleared a way to this one room that had an elevator thing. There are so many weird creatures without eyes." We walk down the path and I see them too. Their bodies are strewn all over the place.
"Those are Falmer. They use to be Snow Elves but disease and slavery in their colonies caused them to become savage." I have read a few books over the years about these disgusting creatures and what they use to be. They were the original elves in Skyrim but they were forced underground. Being underground made them blind but they have killer senses.
We walk through rooms and even a torture chamber where the elevator is. I don't bother using it because Nonvul said it lead to where we came in. There is fresh blood from an elf that lays dead on a table. We continue and kill a couple of Skeevers and head down into a snowy pit with a few Falmer and a Frostbite Spider. It poisons me but the effect wears off in seconds.
Then we move along a corridor with a claw trap that I avoid but Nonvul pulls the trip wire when we pass. The razor sharp fingers close on nothing and then reset themselves. We head through another gold door and decapitate a lone Falmer before stepping into the large and elaborate cathedral. More Falmer meet the end of our blades and we go to the top of an overhang.
"I think this retracts the spears." I see a lever and sure enough, the spears recede into the ground. We have free passage and walk up the steps. A monstrous bot of Dwemer craftsmanship roars to life and slowly hobbles after us. We run and the machine is still at its little station but is following. I have an idea and I run up to the overhang again. The spears slide up back in place and the monster is trapped.
It clanks as it walks down the steps and it shoots steam at Nonvul who made it out before I pulled the lever. He draws most of the bot's fire, or steam so to speak. I pull out my bow and rain arrows down on the golden form. The thing crashes to the ground just as I run out of arrows and I pull the lever again.
"That was a smart plan." Nonvul says without the least bit of sarcasm. I pick up my arrows from around the machine and yank the ones that stuck. Nonvul pulls out a key from under the Centurion's armor and unlocks the golden grate door. Two thieves appear from behind the back pillars. They start to argue and attack each other.
We decide to leave them be but since one of them dies, the survivor attacks. Nonvul distracts her and I slit her throat. Then I go over to the other bandit and pull the sword from his lukewarm hands. I flip it in the air and catch the handle. "This might work." As I examine the blade, I stick one of the daggers back in its little compartment in my boot.
I move over to the weird square in the middle of the room. It has the same design as the box in Septimus's little outpost. Gold with swirls and large sapphire gems. A strange noise reaches my ears and I look over at Nonvul. He can hear it to. I pull out the small sphere to see it is glowing and humming. "Oh, the sphere is for tuning Dwemer music. Now I get it." I place the little ball into its respective hole and the floor collapses down to make stairs.
We run down them and Nonvul pauses before opening a set of doors. "You ready?"
"As I'll ever be." I say and he pushes the golden doors open.
Author's Note:
Hey everybody! The Tale of Zooryuvokogan. Thanks for your continued support and views to this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter although it was a shorter one. There will be longer ones to come.
SPOILER ALERT.
The next chapter will be about them reaching Blackreach and the surprise they find inside. It will also include the Main Quests Aluin's Bane, The Fallen, and Season Unending. Even I can't wait!