Loredas, 21st of Last Seed, 4E 201

Woke up feeling blaergh. Went to the tavern for breakfast.

Anyway, I literally bumped into a courier as I was leaving. He handed me a letter from some girl called Cassia looking for help finding her brother at someplace called the Forgotten City. She said there were “Riches beyond imagining” if I should help her out.

I don’t know how she knows who I am or how she found me, but I can imagine quite a lot! I marked the location on my map anyway. Unimaginable riches or no, gold is gold. I can always check it out later.

Then I left for Whiterun, and gathered supplies and did a bit of hunting as I went.

The city was easy to spot! I had no idea Riverwood was so high over the plain. I got to where the road twists down the side of the mountain (hill?) and it was right there. It’s very dramatic, rising over the plain. The other buildings are on tiers, gathered around the castle like chicks under a hen.

As I walked around to find the city gate, I ran into a guard, who said they would be ready for a dragon!

Fools. An entire Imperial legion couldn’t handle one. What makes you think a city guard could do any better?

Speaking of guards, they wouldn't let me in at first, but when I said I was here on Riverwood’s behalf, they let me in to talk to the jarl.

Whiterun is very much a city, but doesn't feel like a city to me. It’s a lot smaller than what I’m used to, and lots of greenery that looks wild, rather than the carefully cultivated areas back home. There’s a forge right when you go in, and not far past that is a little market square with some shops and a few stalls. Random lady said I didn’t look so good. I know I wasn’t feeling great, but I tired to brush it off as not being used to the cold.

Luckily, the alchemist - Arcadia’s Cauldron - was still open, so I went there. She saw right away that I had Ataxia. I didn’t know I looked that bad! But she had a Cure Disease potion I could afford and let me practice a bit at her lab, too.

I’m really enjoying alchemy.

On my way to the castle (?) I saw two men arguing in the street with an old woman. Apparently her son is missing, and she’s accusing them of having something to do with it. The men laughed her off and left before I could say anything. One of them was an Imperial soldier of some rank, and the other looked liked just a guy and he joked(!) about having her son tied up in his basement!? I went to see if she was all right. She was fine, and said that her name was Fralia Grey-Mane, and that I should meet her at her house if I wanted to help her. I said I had business with the jarl, but I’d keep her in mind.

I’d found some respectable clothes with the bandit’s stuff in the barrow, so I changed out of my armor and magician’s hood into a simple yellow tunic. People in town don’t seem to pay you any mind if you’re walking around dressed for battle, but back in the Imperial City it’s bad manners to approach royalty or other people like that fully armed.

I took maybe three steps before I ducked back into the alley and put my armor back on. I have an Imperial body piece, and while it doesn't match the rest of the leather stuff I have or the enchanted hood, I figured it looked more "official" than the magician's robes I've been wearing.

It's strange. I normally like getting dressed up, but walking around without armor or magician’s robes (Apparently mine are from the College of Winterhold) feels weird. I’d never worn anything like that before I got here, but without it I feel naked. At least wearing daggers on your belt is universal, here. Even the children have little ones!

Then again, given the wolves and skeevers all over the place, it makes sense. I’d give the kids daggers, too.

I made my way up the stairs to Dragonsreach, at the top of Whiterun. Almost as soon as I got into the great hall, a red-headed Dunmer lady in full armor came up to me with her sword drawn. She said that she was the Jarl’s housecarl (guard captain, maybe?) and that the Jarl wasn’t accepting any visitors. I tried to tell her I had a message for him, but she wouldn’t hear of it. That annoyed me, so I said that I was told to tell him, and him alone.

She was angry, but the jarl told her to stand down to hear it from me directly, and I told him that Gerder was looking for help for Riverwood, should the dragon return. I also told him about what I saw in Helgen. I left out the part about almost being executed, though. Just that I was there, and that I saw the dragon with my own eyes.

Jarl Bulgruf was outraged, and ordered Irileth (the Dunmer lady) to dispatch some men to Riverwood immediately. His steward, Proventus, I think, was against it. He was afraid that any troop movement would be seen as an act of war, but the Jarl wouldn’t back down. Can’t say I blame him – He just wants to protect his people.

Then the Jarl rewarded me with some armor for bringing such an important message to him, and said that I might be able to help him some more. Farengar, his wizard, has been researching dragons and was in need of some assistance.

Farengar has a workroom just off the great hall. He’s very snobbish about his intellect, like most wizards I’ve run into. Skinny, too. If they’re all so smart, why do so many of them look like they forget to eat?

Anyway, Farengar said that he was looking for an artifact, something called a Dragonstone. It might be able to help him figure out the rumors about dragons returning to Skyrim.

Dragons. As in, more than one. I wanted to ask him more about it, but then he said that the Dragonstone might be in Bleak Falls Barrow. Yes, where I had just been. I hadn’t sold that strange stone tablet I’d found in the treasure chest by the magic wall, so I asked if that was it, and he was overjoyed!

Farengar didn’t get a chance to examine it, though. Irileth burst in and said that we both had to come with her at once.

A dragon had been spotted nearby.

Just hearing that made my stomach knot. I literally spent my first day in this country running from one, and now there’s more. We followed her upstairs to what looked like the Jarl’s study. A guard was there, red-faced and panting, like he’d run a long way to get to us. He said that a dragon was spotted by the western watchtower. When he ran to alert the Jarl, it was circling. He’s lucky it didn’t go after him!

The Jarl was barking orders, to me as well as his guards, but Farengar was nearly beside himself with excitement. He wanted to go out and see the dragon!

That man is all brains, no smarts.

Jarl Bulgruf ordered Farengar to stay. As an expert on dragons, he was too valuable to risk. But then the Jarl handed me some armor from his personal collection, and said that were I to help them and survive, I would be permitted to buy a house in the city. They wanted my help fighting the dragon because I was the only one with experience.

If by “experience” you mean running as fast as I could away from said beastie, then sure, I had plenty. LOADS of it. But fighting? I’ve barely fought people before I came here! The worst animal I ever faced off against in the Capitol was an angry mule, and it was tied up!

Still, I managed to fight back the panic and agreed to help. I mean, Irileth had already sent a bunch of people off to help Riverwood, so they were short on fighters for the time being. And they were looking at me like I was some sort of hero for just surviving a dragon attack. I had to help them.

I got my weapons ready and went to follow Irileth out of the city. I ran into a man arguing with his wife about his father’s missing sword. Some sort of family heirloom that thieves got their hands on. I was trying to go past them and then she left in a huff. He asked me for help, and I was in so much of a rush with the dragon attacking that I said Yes.

Good gods, what’s wrong with me?

I’d lost track of Irileth by the time I got out of the city, but the Western Watchtower wasn’t hard to spot – It was on fire and the area surrounding it was covered in smoke. Irileth was rallying the handful of guards she was able to muster at a rock outcropping nearby, and ordered us to look for survivors. I found a guard, scared out of his mind, in the tower. Two of his companions had been lost when they tried to bolt from the safety of the ruin. Then I heard shouting – The dragon returned!

I ran up the tower so I could shoot as many arrows into the beast as I could.

But it was a different dragon. This wasn’t the gray, spiked giant that laid waste to Helgen. This was much smaller, and a very bright, pale green.

I think we got lucky. The Eight had pity on us, and the dragon landed in the road. Irileth’s men were able to fight the dragon on foot while it breathed fire at them, and I was above, shooting it with my poisoned bow.

It tried to fly away, but I shot it when it got close.

Then it spoke.

It looked right at me, said, “Doh-vah-keen!” and sounded enraged. It was enough of a distraction, and we all started filling it with arrows. It cried out “Nooo!” before it fell back on the road.

As we gathered around the body, it started to glow, like it was burning from within. Irileth ordered us to get back, but I was too scared to move. Then, a swirling white light came out of it and wrapped around me. I heard roaring my ears, and I felt that strange feeling again, like I had learned a spell, but different. Except this time, I felt like I could do it.

Four guards and Irileth had survived the fight. One of them called me a “Dragonborn”. He said I had dragon’s blood in me, like Tiber Septim, and that I could use that power to “shout” like the dragons did.

Irileth was unimpressed, of course, even after I tried to “shout” and it worked! Well, she’s a Dunmer, she could be two hundred years old, so I imagine that it would take a lot to impress her. But the guards were excited!

Anyway, she told me to report back to the Jarl and let him know what happened. I took what I could from the dragon’s body, and started on my way back.

On the way, I noticed an elk. It was evening, and I decided to try adding to my growing collection of hides so I could make a good tent. I was about to shoot it when a voice rumbled from the sky so hard it shook the earth under my feet! It said, “DOVAKIIN!”

The same word the dragon called out as it died. I didn’t know what it meant then, but I ran as fast as I could back to Whiterun.  I would have run straight to Dragonsreach if I hadn’t almost run over two men being kicked out by the city guards. I listened in as I caught my breath.

Apparently they had been harassing women and were being expelled from the city. They looked like Alik’r warriors, judging from their armor. One of them stopped to talk to me on his way out. He wanted to know if I’d seen a Redguard woman in the city. He claimed she was a fugitive, but he wouldn’t answer when I asked why she had run. I don’t believe for a second that their intentions are good.

Still, they said they’d be in Rorikstead if I had any information, and that there was money in it for me.

There’s no way I’d tell them anything, even if I did know who they were looking for, but I just nodded and made my way to Dragonsreach.

When I got there, the Jarl’s brother (at least that’s what he called him) was talking with him about that voice from the sky. When I explained what had happened at the watchtower, they called me Dragonborn, and said that the voice we heard were the Greybeards calling me. “Dovakiin” is “Dragonborn” in the language of the dragons. Did the dragon recognize me as it fell? Is that why it turned on me so quickly?

MEN had made that sound. PEOPLE! I thought it was the gods or some sort of magic! But it was men, trained to use shouts, who had called out to Tiber Septim the same way.

Jarl Bulgruf said it was a great honor, and that I should go straight to the Greybeards home on High Hrothgar, wherever that is. He said that I should climb the seven thousands steps (that sounds sooo fun...) and see what they wanted with me.

I was tired, hungry, still bleeding a little, and now suddenly I’m a Dragonborn and I have some big destiny in front of me that I never asked for. I was just trying to get everything straight in my head when the Jarl came forward and declared me a Thane of Whiterun! He awarded me the Axe of Whiterun as a symbol of my rank, and said that I would be appointed a housecarl.

I could barely get out a “thank you” as I turned to leave with my new axe. I was considering running as far as I could as soon as the door closed behind me, but there was a dark-haired woman with a tattoo (or was it makeup? I’m still not sure) on her face and a HUGE sword on her back waiting there for me.

It was Lydia, my housecarl. She explained that housecarls are sworn to protect their masters and everything they own. I was still too dazed to think straight, so I told her to follow me and we came back here to the Bannered Mare.

I’m sitting in the loft and drinking wine while I write this. Lydia is below, drinking some ale and talking with some of the locals. One of the workers here is a Redguard lady. She waited on me, and said her name was Saadia. She’s sweeping right now, and flinches every time someone new enters the tavern.

I know that look. I’ve seen it dozens of times.

The Jarl told me to go up that mountain, but I’m already sick of climbing a bunch of stairs so that old men can tell me what to do. I’ll go up to the Greybeards when I’m good and ready. Besides, if they’ve really been waiting for another Dragonborn since Tiber Septim, they can wait a bit longer.

Right now, Saadia needs my help. Sisters before Misters! That’s what Dru and I used to say.

But first, I need to sleep. It has been A DAY.