Chapter Sixty-Four:

The Last Dragonborn

Seconds, minutes, and hours passed in a blur. Fire scorched the plains and the trees while ice clung to the stones of the mountains; blood stained the grass and the land, man, mer, and Dragon. No civil war could ever match the battle that was undertaken in Sovngarde, in a hundred or even a thousand years.

Too bad nobody ever thought to give me a medal or anything like that.

The moment that the ghost army exploded into Sovngarde, I managed to wriggle out of the grasp of the Dragon who pinned me as it was swarmed by the ethereal warriors. Mages of all races cast their spells of fire, frost and lightning, and protected the soldiers nearest to them with powerful wards and healing magics. But rather than make my way towards them for healing, I found Dragonbane nearby and continued the fight. Wounds or no wounds, blood needed spilling. And I needed to find Kodlak.

I joined a few groups to take down about four Dragons before I finally managed to glimpse Kodlak in the midst of the chaos. I stepped over ethereal bodies and limbs to get to him, but was slowed vastly by the overpowering number of Dragons. Just as I was about to reach him, I suddenly found myself blocked by a Dragon corpse that nearly fell on me. I was about to go around when I saw Alduin hovering in the sky, his good eye fixed on me.

"This is no show of power, Dragonborn!" he chortled. "This is desperation!"

"Really?!" I retorted. "Then I guess you were as desperate as I was!"

Alduin dove towards the ground. I leapt out of the way and started running into the fray, where he would be less likely to find me. I wasn't ready to face Alduin yet. I needed to make sure Kodlak was all right first!

But in my moment of distraction, a Dragon's jaws nearly clamped on my body. I was saved by the timely arrival of a woman dressed in leather armour that looked like it was made in Cyrodiil. She wielded twin steel swords, and both of them found blood in the Dragon's skull.

"Haha!" the woman cheered. "Let's go for a ride!"

With incredible skill and force, the woman veered the dying Dragon off into the ground and landed on the grass before it hit. She spun her blades and grinned at the dead monster.

"How'd you like that, you oversized Argonian?!" she shouted. "You've got no balls!"

"That's because that one was a female!" Kodlak chipped-in, grinning while he hacked at another.

She shrugged with a care-free sense of actually not being in the middle of an unlife-or-death battle in Sovngarde. "What? I happen to enjoy insulting these things, even if my base is off!"

Kodlak managed to break away from the Dragon and hurried to the woman. And in one swift motion, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. Whatever surprise she was supposed to have, I got, and I cringed violently, my mouth twisting.

"It's good to see you again, Elana!" Kodlak grinned at her. "I thought we might never be together again."

Elana Victus patted her husband's cheek. "Oh, Koddy. Now if you'd managed to kiss me like you just did in the past, maybe I wouldn't have died as easily." When Kodlak's brow furrowed and his face turned grim, she kissed him again. "Just kidding, love! Please don't hate me..."

"Excuse me!" I marched up to the two swooning lovebirds and pried them away. "Can we please just kill Alduin before you two make-out?! It's gross!"

Kodlak grinned. "Taryn..." He let go of his wife to come and hug me, oblivious of the war going on around him. "Thank-you. All you've done... It's helped me. I only wish there was a way for us to—."

"This is her?" Elana's eyebrow quirked upwards, like the corner of her roguish mouth. She looked like a typical Imperial, but her skin was less tanned and her brown hair was a tad on the lighter side. But she had green eyes identical to mine. It was about that time that I realized Kodlak had been making out with his wife... who was my mother.

It was the first glimpse of my mother that I'd ever had, and I'd first met her on the plains of Sovngarde when she saved me from a Dragon, killing it single-handedly.

Elana grinned and pinched my cheek. We were nearly the same height, I realized. "Wow. She's a cutie!"

That annoyed me more than it should have, but I had good reason for it. "There are Dragons trying to eat souls to heal and become more powerful to help Alduin enslave or eat the world—whatever he wants to do!—and you're telling me how cute I am?!"

Elana tutted and shrugged to Kodlak. "Yep. She's ours."

I groaned and clenched Dragonbane as I walked away, annoyed with the two. But they followed, and I soon found myself fighting for my life on a battlefield side-by-side with the mother and father I'd never known, each strong in their own right. Where Elana was fast with a blade, Kodlak was powerful with his warhammer and could easily crack a Dragon's jaw. I saw their strengths and weaknesses, and found ways to accommodate them. If I didn't, I was afraid there would be a second time I would watch Kodlak die—a second time I would have no chance with either of my parents. I was no longer scared of sitting down with them; my fears were losing them forever.

Those fears were somehow enough to grant me strength to fight the Dragons. Those who'd consumed the hapless souls became easy prey, since their gluttony slowed them down. They were no longer concerned with merely defeating the enemy, but devouring them. All the while Alduin watched, his frustration rising with each Dragon we killed.

Soon I spotted Gormlaith in the confusion and hurried over to her, Kodlak and Elana nearby while they enjoyed each other's brutal company. Blood from the mortal wound she inflicted on a Dragon spurted across the field and onto my armour, where it mixed with my own blood, but I was already covered and barely even cared. The minute she saw me approaching she began leading me to the edge of the fight, where Hakon and Felldir were.

"Damned worm!" Gormlaith thundered. "We must end this!"

I slid to a stop, ignoring the flaring pain of my wounds. "I have an idea! We could combine the Dragonrend Shout and force him to the ground! It'll give us more time!"

"His Dragons will defend him!" Felldir argued quickly.

I nodded. "Don't worry about them. Gormlaith, you can distract them with some soldiers. Meanwhile I'll find a way to Alduin. You'll just have to create an opportunity."

Gormlaith's brow knotted. "With hope, they will flee once they realize their master has fallen to the Dragonborn's blade. We will buy time, but too long and soon the Dragons will become even more powerful than they are."

"I have faith in you all. You're Tongues, and you've beaten Alduin before. Not a permanent job, but small victories add up." I grinned. "Let's do it!"

We waited for Alduin to soar nearby, and when we saw the black silhouette, we Shouted:

"JOOR ZAH FRUL!"

The Shout caught Alduin by surprise, and he crashed hard into the mountainside as he was struck with the overwhelming blue force of our combined Thu'um. He slid downwards and into the ground, and immediately three Dragons came to defend him from the soldiers running at the downed World-Eater.

Gormlaith charged forward, a crazed grin on her face. I waited until it appeared she was leading the soldiers into battle against the Dragons, then had to bide my time for an opening. Soon, the Dragons became overwhelmed while Alduin struggled to his feet, held in an iron grip by the ethereal light. Spotting my chance, I sprinted for him, hollering and hoping I could muster the last vestiges of my strength. The light disappeared around Alduin, so he unfurled his wings and leapt up to the air.

Using a soldier's shield as a spring, I barely managed to cling to Alduin's feet as he flew further into the sky.

Alduin huffed at annoyance at my display while I desperately tried not to slide from his blood-soaked scales. "Your persistence is both admirable and annoying!" he snarled as he shook his leg hard. I had to keep any smart remarks to myself, or else I'd risk biting my own tongue off. "Dovahkiin, facing me in the air will be your doom!"

Diving, Alduin flicked his foot again. I slipped off the scales, had about three heart-attacks and just barely managed to cling to the edge of his tail. He landed on the ground and pushed off hand, slamming his tail against the ground as he did. My ribcage shook violently from the impact, and I struggled to recover, but had no time. Alduin then swerved around the hill in front of the Hall of Valour and smashed his tail against the rocks, dragging me hard against the stone.

Blood blurred my vision as my grip slipped further. Steeling myself with Dragonbane, I stabbed the weapon through and opening to flesh in his tail and used it to drag myself up to his hindquarters. Alduin, none-too-pleased with my progress, began climbing upwards to the stars.

I held onto one of his scales and Dragonbane, trying hard to ignore the icy wind whipping at my face and stinging the new cuts I got from the battle. I couldn't continue my ascent, or else I'd surely fall. My fingers were practically frozen to his scales, anyhow.

"Let us see if your persistence to live is as great as your annoyance!" Alduin folded his wings close to his body and began the streaking fall back to Sovngarde. I felt like a kite taken away with the wind, and my grip was failing.

Alduin rolled in the air, and my fingers slipped.

I twisted and held on for dear life only by the handle of Dragonbane, but the blade began to jostle out of Alduin's flesh. With my teeth gritted, I helped it out as a plan began to form in my head. Dragonbane slid out of Alduin with a great sucking sound and crackled hard with lightning that streaked as I and the World-Eater descended. The moment Alduin realized I was no longer holding him in a death-grip, he spread his wings.

And Dragonbane was there to slice into the soft leather.

With a great cry, Alduin's wing became as useless as a book to an Orc. The fall happened much quicker then, even though Dragonbane had slid backwards and nearly landed me back at square one, but I'd managed to latch onto the talon that tipped his wing. The red-orange colour that had been pulsing in his arms and chest before began to fade.

"FIEM!"

I hit the ground painlessly, but Alduin crashed with a loud boom that flattened many soldiers and smaller Dragons. I leapt to my feet, ignorant of the sudden dizziness I began to experience, but met with Alduin's tail flinging me hard into a dozen boulders. My chest was on fire with an agony I couldn't describe, and I could feel blood trickling from my mouth. Alduin, despite his unexpected attack, was still struggling to stand. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and slowly stood. The light-headedness I was experiencing threatened to keep me grounded, but if I fell I'd be nothing more than—.

"RAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Alduin's jaws clamped around me, digging into my arms, chest, legs—all of my flesh. The enormous, unrelenting giver-of-pain began squeezing me like a mouse to a snake. My ears popped as his grip hardened. I could feel my right arm snap from the force behind his maw.

Alduin flung his neck backward, which tossed me into the plains further back, towards the edge of the grassland and the beginning of the chasm to the Hall of Valour. I couldn't move. Even as Alduin stomped towards me, his victory within his claws, I couldn't find any way to force my exhausted, beaten, bloodied and broken body to stand. To die on my feet instead of being devoured like a piece of seasoned meat.

"This is your end, Dovahkiin!" rumbled Alduin, a snide tone in his voice. "Your prophecy lies unfulfilled, while I shall rise to glory!" Using the tip of his good wing, Alduin turned me over to face him. Just from the movement I knew I had several broken ribs, and I couldn't feel my right arm at all. I chanced a glance at it and couldn't see Dragonbane. Couldn't even move my fingers...

"But you were a worthy enemy. A mighty foe to test my skills." Alduin's blood from his wounds, inflicted by the Tongues, dribbled on me. "Feel honoured to be the testament to my power, Dovahkiin. Had you been one of the dov, you may have found a place at my side."

I closed my eyes. I didn't have a weapon. But the Tongues... Gormlaith...

"I was... like you, once. I guess... we Dragonborn... we have a... Dragon soul... who lived once before." I gulped some of my own blood down and looked directly at Alduin. "You... remember me, Alduin?" I asked him. "I'm... Britsaviikzii... Your fucking niece!"

Alduin's lip curled. "Then I will have the satisfaction of killing you twice, child of Paarthurnax, the traitor!"

"FUS RO DAH!"

The sudden Shout took Alduin by surprise, and while the shock was momentary, it was enough. The effort to Shout had ravaged my lungs and loosened ribs, but I managed to find something—some warm, unfamiliar thing that surged inside of me, pleading vengeance and justice—to hold onto. And that helped my left arm grab Gormlaith's sword, still plunged into Alduin's flesh, and with a bloody roar I thrust the blade under Alduin's jaw, into his neck.

The World-Eater froze, then writhed as I cut a line of flesh downward, opening his throat. Blood and bile spilled out and onto me, but I didn't stop dragging Gormlaith's sword until it met the scales at his breast.

Alduin gurgled. Blood that had previously pooled out and around his mouth surged and bubbled from his exposed throat. For just a moment, he seemed to look at me and acknowledge me. The red in his eyes no longer held malice, arrogance or hatred. Alduin seemed quite content that, if he was to die, I was the one to do the deed.

We were equals.

Alduin's body began to fall apart into the familiar blue-orange light of a Dragon's soul, but when it formed fully it shot upwards, into the stars above. His skeleton remained, like the Dragons that had fallen before.

I saw people cheering and celebrating, congratulating their victory and savouring their living souls. I grinned. It felt like the weight had been taken from my shoulders and deposited upwards, wherever Alduin's soul had gone. Familiar faces came to speak with me, and I could hardly remember saying anything to them, but I knew I did. Then the giant-man spoke Words of Power I was unfamiliar with, just as I began to crumple to the ground, my breathing finally ended.