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-2nd of Heartfire, 4th Era 201-
A day after their arrival to High Hrothgar, Rahgol and Lydia were awakened early and now stood in the main hall near the entrance, with Rahgol standing in the middle while the Greybeards surrounded him. Lydia stood off to the side, sitting in a chair to watch Rahgol's training begin.
"Now then, Rahgol, we shall begin the first stages in your training and this is to learn the Unrelenting Force Shout. You must grow the strength and power into your Shouts in order for them to be of formidable use to you." Arngeir said, Rahgol nodding as he was ready. "As you master each Word, your Shout will become progressively stronger. Master Einarth will now teach you "Ro," the second Word in Unrelenting Force. Ro means "Balance" in the dragon tongue. Combine it with Fus - "Force" - to focus your Thu'um more sharply."
Einarth quietly Shouted towards the ground. On the ground burn marks began to form in the Dragon's writing. Rahgol stared at the word and suddenly felt himself absorbing the energy around the marked word.
"You learn a new Word like a master… you truly have the gift." Arngeir said with a small smile. "But as I said yesterday, your training will not be easy. You must unlock the meaning through constant practice in order to use it in a Shout. Constant studying and practicing, that's how the rest of us learn Shouts. As Dragonborn, you can absorb a slain Dragon's life force and knowledge directly; his or her soul. As part of your initiation, Master Einarth will allow you to tap into his understanding of 'Ro'."
Rahgol nodded and began to concentrate while looking at Einarth, and again that energy appeared. He suddenly felt the meaning forming of Ro.
"You seem to have found the meaning. Now, let us see how quickly you can master your new Thu'um." Arngeir said as another Greybeard, Wulfgar, step forward.
"This is Master Wulfgar." Arngeir said to Lydia, who nodded.
"FIIK LO SAH!" Wulfgar Shouted. Suddenly a spectral clone of Wulfgar appeared in front of him and the Greybeard stepped back.
"Now, Rahgol, show us the power of your Thu'um." Arngeir said.
Rahgol nodded and gave a deep breath before Shouting. "FUS RO!" A larger shockwave came out of his mouth that blasted the spectral Wulgar, and Wulfgar himself a few meters away.
"Your Thu'um is powerful… not as strong as ours, at least not yet, but you master it so quickly. Eventually the power of your Thu'um will definitely exceed ours. Now, let's try again. Master Borri will do the same as what Master Wulfgar just did." Armgeir said, looking at Borri who used the same Shout, and a spectral copy of him appeared.
"FUS RO!" Rahgol roared, while releasing another powerful shockwave. The same thing happened again. Then Rahgol had to do the shouting again and he groaned as he rubbed his throat.
"Impressive, your Thu'um is powerful and precise. You show great promise, Dragonborn." Arngeir said.
Rahgol coughed while rubbing his throat. "That's going to take some getting used to."
Arngeir gave a small chuckle. "Our throats are not made to Shout like that, but eventually you won't feel it anymore. Until you Shout too much of course, then you will feel it, but eventually you don't feel pain anymore." Rahgol nodded. "We will perform your next trial in the courtyard. Follow Master Borri."
They went out into the massive courtyard, where there was some steps that led towards a gate with amazingly powerful wind. Rahgol stared at it for a while before sighing and following the Greybeards towards another door, with a small path in front of it.
"Now let's see how you learn a completely new Shout. Master Borri will teach you 'Wuld', which means 'Whirlwind'." Arngeir said. Borri proceeded to do the same what Einarth did, and again Rahgol absorbed the power. They then walked towards the closed door with the small path and Rahgol had to follow Wulgar's example in using the Shout to get through the gate that closed down quickly.
"All right, let's see. WULD!" Suddenly with amazing speed, Rahgol ran towards the door which he heard close behind him.
"Woah..." Rahgol said with a blink while Arngeir walked towards him.
"Your mastery of the Thu'um is… astonishing. I'd heard the stories of the abilities of Dragonborn, but to see it for myself…" He said. "But do not let the idea of this being easy go to your head. I assure you, it will only become more challenging for you before your training is complete."
"Guess I should be glad I can be patient at times or else the gods made a mistake giving me this power." Rahgol remarked.
"You were given this gift by the gods for a reason. It's up to you to figure how best to use it. You are now ready for your last trial. Retrieve the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, our founder, from his tomb in the ancient fane of Ustengrav. Remain true to the Way of the Voice, and you will return." Arngeir said. Rahgol nodded but turned his gaze upwards, to the mountain which the monk noticed. "Something troubling you?"
Rahgol was silent for a few seconds before speaking. "Did he know? Is that why he found and took me in?"
"Did Master Paarthurnax know that you were Dragonborn? I believe so. Was it the reason for him saving you and bringing you here, raising you and teaching you the Dragon Language and the Way of the Voice? I cannot answer that. Only he can." Arngeir said softly, getting a sigh but a nod from Rahgol.
-14th of Heartfire, 4th Era 201-
The journey to Ustengrav was anything but quiet or easy, mainly because of the various predators that dote Skyrim's landscape. Rahgol and Lydia had encountered bears, wolves, Sabre Cats, trolls and Frostbite Spiders along the paths that they took to get to Morthal, which is the closest place to Ustengrav. But to get there, they'd have to go through Morthal and then into the marshes.
As they entered Morthal, the first thing they saw was a few people angrily yelling at a man, probably the steward, that they want a wizard out of town.
"Looks like something's going on." Lydia noted, getting a hum from Rahgol in response. She looked at him. "Aren't you going to see what's going on?"
Rahgol gave her a look. "Why should I? It's their problem, not mine. I may be the Dragonborn, but that doesn't mean I'm going to solve everyone's problems. I ain't that type of person. Besides, whatever the problem is... I could care less." With that, he walked on and shoved past the arguing people. Lydia sighed and jogged to catch up with him.
By the time they made it to Ustengrav, the sun was setting and night would be rolling in soon. At first sight, it didn't really look that special. It was just a barrow. Rahgol and Lydia walked inside the barrow and then walked down a set of stone stairs. Suddenly, they noticed a few bandits clashing with some mages. The three bandits were hit by ice spikes and they were hanging on the wall right now. The mages didn't have the chance to attack Rahgol and Lydia, however, because Lydia and Rahgol silenced them with arrows and magic.
Afterwards, they walked through a narrow passage and saw some more mages fighting against Draugr. "I swear, there's trouble everywhere we seem to turn." Rahgol shook his head.
"Hey, least there's things for us to fight compared to the predators we've dealt with on the way here." Lydia pointed out, getting a 'fair enough' shrug from the Dragonborn before the two of them rushed into battle and proceeded to quickly dispatch the Draugr. From there, they went further into the barrow, fighting more Dragur that they dealt with quickly and efficiently.
They walked through more halls again, getting up the stone stairs until they came across a door. When Rahgol opened it, he saw bluish light at the end of the small path. There were vines that blocked his view a bit, but Ihe saw a deep valley with a lot of stone bridges.
"What a sight." Rahgol said with a whistle, Lydia nodding in agreement.
"Tell me about it." She said.
They walked further down, while jumping over a fire trap. When they came in a dining hall, they saw a lot of Draugr running towards them. "Oh, can't there be places that DON'T have these guys?" Rahgol groaned in frustration before charging with Lydia, unsheathing their weapons. It wasn't a hard battle in dealing with the Dragur, as they were easily killable. Had it been Restless Dragur, then things would've been tougher.
They walked through small corridors and big halls, until finally they arrived at a platform with a stone bridge and a path that lead towards the bottom of the valley. Hearing a sound behind him, Rahgol turned but saw Lydia destroying some skeletons.
"Okay, skeletons are a change that was needed." The Dragonborn remarked before he looked and his eyes widened when he saw a Word Wall below them. "Hello, what have we here?" He made his way down to the Word Wall, quickly joined by Lydia, and stood in front of it as he heard the chanting and felt the knowledge of the word be abosrbed into his being.
"What did you absorb?" Lydia asked.
"A Word of Power." Rahgol replied then began to concentrate. "FEIM!" Suddenly everything became a bit bluish and when he looked at his body, he noticed that he was spectral. He looked at Lydia, who's jaw had dropped befopre she tried grabbing him only for her hand to go through him.
"Okay... that;s weird." She remarked, pulling her hand back. Suddenly the effect died down and Rahgol was back to normal again.
"Useful though." He said.
They walked back up and decided to ignore the fire traps with treasures and walk straight towards the stone bridge. They came across a long hall with three doors and three weird stones standing next to a path. When Rahgol walked next to the stones, they suddenly activate and the doors began to open. However, they quickly closed in again.
"Well, any ideas Dragonborn?" Lydia asked.
"Just one." Rahgol smirked then began to activate the stones and shouted "WULD!" Suddenly, he was through the gates and on the other side before they could ever shut. It seemed to wor as the gates didn't go back down, allowing Lydia through. They came across a lot of fire traps with a pattern. Rahgol quietly walked on the plates that had a strange marking and nothing seemed to happen. Lydia followed his example.
They arrived at a platform with a lot of webs, which meant that they arrived in a fucking Frostbite Spider lair. Rahgol just groaned and looked up before rolling out of the way to avoid a spider from landing on him. "Fucking spiders..." he groaned then sucked in a deep breath before Shouting. "FUS RO!" The blue shockwave knocked the spider off it's legs, allowing Rahgol to unsheathe one of his Skyforge Steel Swords and charged, driving it into the spider's face while Lydia dealt with the other spider before they dealt with the bigger one together.
Rahgol then slashed his way through the thick thread and they finally arrived in the last chamber. Pillars suddenly came out of the water as they walked towards an old stone coffin with a metal hand in the middle. On the metal hand was not the Horn, but a letter. Rahgol picked it up and began to read out loud.
"Dragonborn, I need to speak to you. Urgently. Rent the attic room at the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood and I'll meet you."
And that's it for this chapter. Sorry if the part in Ustengrav was terrible and rushed.
