Chapter Eight

Adventures in Dragon-sitting

Somewhere Between Lakeview Manor and Riften

Ghorbash, Scouts, Samuel and the field hands were sitting in the carriage heading towards Riften. Gunjar was driving the carriage at a steady speed, at the rate they were going it would be there within two days, right on schedule.

Odahviing flew low and a few miles behind, for he was expecting the change at any moment. He was passing over Helgen when the portal opened, Mara was standing before him.

"Land" she commanded simply. Odahviing did so and looked down the path; the carriage was nowhere to be found.

"I am ready Lady Mara" Odahviing exclaimed, "Bestow upon me the precious gift that you have offered and I will be forever grateful."

Mara nodded, "Be warned Odahviing. Your quest is noble and just. But should you find yourself...falling in love-"

Odahviing laughed, accidentally cutting her off, "My Lady" he replied, "I know my place. It is improper for me to want such things as complex as true love. No, my desire is simply to understand, to know if I can feel such things, I do not expect to develop an attachment."

Mara shook her head, "To love is to develop an attachment Odahviing. You must understand that. Love is not something easily given, for it requires complete and total trust."

Odahviing sighed, "I know" he answered, "But still. The thought of it, of loving someone completely and wholeheartedly intrigues me Lady. I want to feel breathlessness, to understand both a heart full of love and pain, even if this is a failure I will take it as a personal victory. I understand the terms, human for day for the purpose of understanding the human emotion of love. I take it upon myself any and all consequences that may become of this and I ask that you fulfill your end of the bargain."

Mara disappeared and gave her answer by striking Odahviing down with a ray of burning sunlight so powerful that it killed him instantly.

Odahviing woke up in the middle of a field. He didn't any different at first. He looked at his hands. They were not claws, but hands, human hands. Odahviing noticed that he was wearing a red tunic; a knapsack was at his side, an iron sword at his hip. Odahviing sniffed the air; thankfully he still had the nose of a dragon. He smelt himself and realized that he was a Nord.

"Way to be original Lady" Odahviing thought to himself, "I mustn't complain" he continued berating himself, "After all, this is a gift and one to be spent wisely."

Odahviing looked around and noticed that he was directly across from the Battle Born Farm in Whiterun. It wasn't exactly where he wanted to be, but he supposed that Mara had a plan and simply decided to roll with it.

"Hold it!" a voice cried, "Don't kill it, not yet!"

Odahviing turned a full 360 to discover that the voice was coming from a nearby tree. Running towards it Odahviing discovered Aela the Huntress, Farkas and Ria cornering a dragon up a tree. The dragon was considerable smaller than Odahviing in his true form, a little more than a kid and relatively harmless.

"How is that possible?" Odahviing thought to himself, "There hasn't been a youngling in..."

Odahviing thought about the last time that he saw a dragon as the one he was looking at in the tree and realized that he hadn't, Odahviing being the last dragon to be born before the Dragon War in the Ancient Times.

"Hey you" Aela called, speaking to Odahviing, "Get over here!"

It took Odahviing a few minutes to realize that Aela was talking to him, when it figured it out he ran as fast as he could, stumbling a little bit, for he was not used to having two legs, for normally he would be flying everywhere. Reaching the tree, Odahviing's first thought was to try and speak to the dragon, but Aela had a different plan in mind.

"Take this" Aela commanded, handing Odahviing a sword

"What?" Odahviing asked, "You're going to kill it?"

Aela huffed, "Yeah, what do you think we were going to do? Set it free?"

Odahviing nodded, "It's a child! Would you kill one of your own children?"

Aela shook her head, "Listen I don't know who you think you are, but these things are monsters. It's going to grow up, eat, sleep, have babies and then wreak havoc across the nine holds killing everything that even so much as looks at it funny."

Odahviing huffed, "Obviously you've never been around me then" he thought to himself, "I would never do such a thing as-"

Odahviing was cut off by the dragon, who was now crying as it contemplated it's inevitable death.

Aela and the others tied a rope around the top of the tree, as they began to pull, bringing both tree and dragon closer to the ground, Aela gave Odahviing the order to kill the dragon as his first opportunity.

"What's your name kinsman?" Aela asked curiously

Odahviing searched his mind for a name, any name that he thought would suit him, he could only think of one.

"Ralof" Odahviing answered, "From Riverwood, just up the road."

Aela nodded, "Alright then, Ralof here's what I'm going to do-"

Aela pulled out a burlap sack with her off hand, pulling the rope with the other; Farkas and Ria were beginning to struggle.

"Throw it in this burlap sack" she continued, "Then slit its throat while it's trapped."

Odahviing took the sack and stretched his arms as far as they would go towards the dragon.

"Look into my eyes" Odahviing replied, speaking in the dragon language, "I am a friend. Trust me little one, I will keep you safe."

The dragon gave a smile and immediately jumped into the sack, putting complete faith in Odahviing. Aela and the others let go of the rope and looked on in disbelief as Odahviing closed the sack and put it on his back.

"What are you doing?" Aela exclaimed, "Kill it already and be done with it!"

Odahviing shook his head, "I will" he lied, "Just...not right now. We don't want to make a scene of things now do we? It's better that we kill it when no one is around."

Farkas huffed, "Why? The whole point is to earn honor, how can we do that if no one sees it?"

Odahviing rolled his eyes, "Is it honorable to kill the innocent? I should think not. But if it is a monster and if monsters are to be destroyed, let it be destroyed while no one is looking."

Ria shook her head, "You're missing the point Ralof, it's all about-"

"You are blinded by your own codes that you do not see what it would bring" Odahviing replied with a laugh, "It would ruin your Companions' reputation, what little there is, and you would be reduced to nothing more than a ragtag group of barbarians who will just as easily kill one of your own for even a tiny bit of recognition!"

Aela drew her bow, arrow notched and pointed it at Odahviing's neck, Farkas, in response, drew his sword.

"Insulting one of us is one thing" Aela began, "But insulting the Companions is another thing entirely. Now...apologize and all will be forgiven."

Odahviing shook his head and slowly backed away, unclipping the bag as he went. Aela and Farkas slowly moved forward, Ria remaining where she was and simply watching Odahviing run, and rather awkwardly, towards the falls, Aela and Farkas giving chase, turning into werewolves on the way.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Odahviing screamed as he continued running, "I did not sign up for this."

The dragon inside of the sack peered its small head out, upon seeing the werewolves, immediately took to the air, its left foot getting caught in the fold and unintentionally sending Odahviing up in the air with it.

"What are you doing?" Odahviing cried, "Put me down!"

The dragon, being but a baby, happily complied with Odahviing's request, dropping him to the ground. Unfortunately, Odahviing, still not accustomed to having two legs, tumbled down the road that ended at the falls. Head over legs, legs over head, wolves still giving chase and the dragon, above him one second and below the next, laughing it's small laugh as it watched Odahviing head towards the falls only to be saved by the grace of a precariously felled tree.

Odahviing, hanging quite literally on a limb, could only scowl at his misfortune. The dragon jokingly landing on Odahviing's end of the branch, adding more weight and causing it to crack, a single movement would send the tree falling to the falls below and bring about Odahviing's certain death.

"Don't move" Odahviing pleaded, "And keep quite! Here they come!"

Aela and Farkas reverted back to their normal forms and looked around, they could smell both the dragon and Odahviing nearby but they did not bother to look down the falls, for they rationalized that no one could survive such a fall.

"Come on this way" Aela said excitingly, "Down the path. They've headed towards the mill!"

Farkas laughed and ran ahead, unnatural joy overtaking him at the thought of killing the dragon and bringing "Ralof" to justice. Aela gladly followed him, the hunt beginning once again.

Odahviing took a sigh of relief, "Humans" he said to himself, "They're so gullible it's almost...sad."

Looking up at the dragon Odahviing saw that it was sucking on its tail as if it were a bottle, flapping it's wings periodically to stay stable.

"Stop that" Odahviing demanded, "You're going to ruin your teeth!"

The dragon ignored him and continued about its business. It then began to jump, rather annoyingly, on the branch, causing Odahviing to lose his grip only to be saved by the dragon, who caught him with its talons, grasping the branch with its teeth.

Odahviing screamed, it was shrill and almost girlish, but it was a scream all the same.

"Don't move!" Odahviing repeated, "If you so much as breathe wrong this branch is going to break."

No sooner did Odahviing saw this did the branch crack again, it was barely hanging on. The dragon, seeing Odahviing's plight attempted to swing him over to the edge. This only made things worse, causing the branch to crack even further.

"Stop helping, stop helping" Odahviing cried, "You're only making things worse. Just let me do it..."

Odahviing attempted to reach for the branch, but only managed to cause the branch to fall towards the bottom of the falls. As he fell he began to pray that he would live to tell the tale, thankfully, our dragon turned human friend landed safely, but not happily, in the water below.

Sitting on the bank of the river Odahviing wringed out his shirt, his pants and his shoes, the dragon meanwhile, sat on the sand and went back to sucking its own tail.

"You're more trouble than you're worth" Odahviing exclaimed, "I should have just killed you, or better yet have them kill you."

The dragon ignored him and continued sucking its tail as if it were the only thing that mattered.

"Stop it" Odahviing commanded, "Stop being so cute!"

The dragon turned towards him, took the tail out of its mouth, at the same time revealing it to be a girl, smirked and immediately went back to sucking.

"Where are your parents" Odahviing asked, once again speaking in his native language.

The dragon gave no answer, only the sound of sucking and the calmness of the stream could be heard.

Odahviing looked up at the sun, he wondered how much time he had left, he figured at best he had seven hours of daylight remaining.

"Let's see" Odahviing began, thinking to himself, "How to get to Riften? Oh if I had wings this would be so much easier! Think Odahviing think, how do humans travel Skyrim..."

Odahviing looked up, instantly he found a compass looking object that had Skills, Objects, Magic and Map. Selecting Map, Odahviing moved his hand over to Riften and selected it.

"Let's face it" Odahviing said to himself, "Skyrim is full of impatient people, but since I don't have time for horses and currently lack wings, fast travel it is!"

Odahviing disappeared and reappeared just outside of Riften, now in his true dragon form. He looked around and upon finding the dragon to be nowhere in sight, breathed a sigh of relief. A small nip on Odahviing's neck caused Odahviing to look on his back to find the dragon playing with Odahviing's scales, managing to pull one of them off and casually toss it to the ground as it let out a small laugh.

"Stop that!" Odahviing pleaded, "I only have so many of those and I'd like to keep them thank you very much."

Looking towards Riften, Odahviing could hear the sounds of a party, Paarthurnax was sitting on top of the Bee and Barb, a worried look on his face. Odahviing rolled his eyes and lifted the dragon off of his back with his tail, hiding it in a hollow log.

"Stay here" Odahviing commanded, "I'll be back later okay?"

The dragon nodded and gave a small coo, which Odahviing ignored, as he flew up to the Bee and Barb to explain his situation to Paarthurnax.