#a different dragon

[phylaxery]

Instead of doing anything actually for artfight i'm gonna put these here because i worked way too hard on them and i think they turned out pretty cool. the only ref i did for any of my characters. My dwagon :)

[fences-poorly-blog]

Tirdas, 13th of Frostfall

Made excellent time to High Hrothgar today. Although the ride to Riverwood was pretty mundane aside from an encounter with an orc who decided to pick a fight, I'm really quite proud of myself— and of my horse— for getting to the top of the tallest peak in Skyrim as quickly as we did. I swear it didn't take me even two hours to make it up there. I don't know how my horse made it up some of the cliffs and slopes that it did, but I feel like I've really gotten my money's worth and more now with all the time I've spent in the saddle. (Discounting the time I spent in saddles on borrowed horses, which I haven't spent any money on at all.)

I suppose I should mention that I ran into a few people on the way up, in any case. They said they were members of the Companions, although I don't know why a group based all the way in Whiterun would be called out to kill what seemed to be just one wild animal halfway across the hold.When I made it to High Hrothgar, the monks were rather unhappy to see me. (If they had anything worth stealing that I'd taken before, then I might have understood it, but they didn't, so I was quite confused.) Apparently they didn't like the way Delphine and the crazy hermit from Riften had suggested that I stop the supposed end of the world by yelling at a dragon. "You're not ready yet," they said. They never really did give me a good reason as to why. They did admit that they don't know what I'd need to say to do so, though, and then they taught me a few neat new words to yell that I was supposed to use to run up to the top of the mountain so I could meet the head of the Greybeards. (I still just want to learn how to shout words onto the ground, like they do. It looks like a neat trick, if not too practical.)

As it turns out, the leader of the Greybeards is a dragon.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a bunch of people who dedicate their lives to learning the language of the dragons would have a dragon among their numbers, but he's been doing an excellent job of making himself scarce for a long time now if he's anywhere near as old as I imagine he has to be, considering what a novelty the arrival of a dragon was the day I showed up in Skyrim.

In any case, we had a fairly length conversation that involved me breathing fire (a surprisingly painless task), discussion of the Elder Scrolls (which I've only heard of in stories about the exploits of the Grey Fox— quite the well known figure in the circles I hung out in back in the Imperial City— and how I needed to go back in time in order to learn how to better yell at dragons and save the world.

I'm not sure if I'm any more sure of what's going on after today's events or not, or whether I'm just a lot more confused. I'm still not completely certain I've come to terms with being "dragonborn"! But honestly, when it was getting dark and I needed to head back down the mountain quickly to find somewhere to rest, I won't say that I felt a need to question much of anything. It's just too convenient to yell and become invincible. It makes getting down from high places a whole lot easier.