Skyrim One-Shots (FT: My Travellers Of Tamriel)

The First Dragonborn Meets The Last Dragonborn

Erlirria, Inigo and Lucien entered the chamber at the end of the winding tunnel, Frea dispatching the last draugr and joining them.
Before them sat a pedestal made of some otherworldly material, the floor beneath them covered in fiery ash.

And upon the pedestal...
Was a book.

"What is that?" Frea asked as they entered. The group approached to make it out, when suddenly Lucien held out his hands to stop them.
"Stop." He stated. "Check out the cover and the colour. Erlirria, what is the Daedric prince of knowledge?"
Erlirria paused for a moment before realising, turning back to the book.

"Hermaeus Mora." She said.
"Yes! Think about it, he already gave us the Oghma Infinum, this would be a great way to lure us into another trap."
Lucien said.

"But, at the same time... what is it doing here? I thought this temple belonged to the guy who sent those cultists?" Inigo questioned.
"Miraak, yes." Frea said. "This is his temple, though, so I am not sure what one of Mora's books is doing here."
Erlirria reached her hand up to the book, tapping it.

The cover pulsed green suddenly, jumping into the air and flipping open its pages, displaying Daedric writing.
"What did you do?!" Lucien shouted.
"I don't know! I just tapped it!"

The book glowed a brighter green and an inky tentacle shot out, binding her arm.
It began to drag her in, the tips of her clawed fingers beginning to be swallowed by the pages.
She screamed, Inigo jumping to her aid to try and wrestle her away from its grip.

"I will save you, my friend!" He promised.
Even with his help (and later with Lucien and Frea's, too) it wasn't enough.
Erlirria was swallowed by the book, her vision went dark and she started feeling sick.

...

When her vision started to clear, it was blurry and unfocused.
Her hearing sounded like she was underwater.

"The time comes soon, when..." she managed to make out a voice as her senses became more alert.
She noticed a figure straight ahead of her.
"What...?" The voice asked, the figure spinning around.

Erlirria's nerves jolted with the touch of lightning as she felt her knees buckle and her armour assist in bringing her down.
She felt almost face-first towards the ground, catching herself at the last second.
Still dizzy, she craned her neck up to see the figure had become clearer now.

"Who are you to dare set foot here?!" He asked, clearly angry.
Erlirria regarded him a moment, figuring out what he looked like.
He was remarkably tall, six feet at least, swathed in old-looking gold and murky-coloured robes.

He also wore a mask, distorting his voice slightly, akin to that of a dragon priest's.
Wait... could he be...
Erlirria could feel something from him, she wasn't sure what, but it was made clear soon enough.

"Ahh..." He began. "You are Dragonborn, I can feel it. And... yet."
So he is Dragonborn...
Erlirria was silent as she tried to make sense of all of this.

"So you have slain Alduin." He brought up.
Erlirria's ears drew back.
Ok- how could you possibly know that?

"Well done." He congratulated. "I could have slain him myself back when I walked the earth, but I chose a different path."
So this is Miraak... the disgraced Dragon Priest
Erlirria snorted.

Miraak must've been interrupted in his thrilling monologue as he growled under his mask.
"Is something amusing to you, puny Dragonborn?" He asked.
Erlirria's laugh grew louder at his taunt. "Puny?!" She echoed mockingly.

"I killed Alduin, and y'know why? Cause' apparently when the nord heroes came calling for your help, your ego got in the way."
"How dare you-!" He grumbled, lightning crackling between his fingers.
Erlirria's tail bristled behind her, curling up towards where her knife was stashed... just in case.

"The Scrolls had to revise the prophecy, and Akatosh had to send me to clean up your mess." She stated.
"I'm your replacement, and apparently the Last of us. All because your arrogance turned you away from what you were supposed to do."
Miraak was silent for a moment before chuckling quietly.

"You have no idea of the true power a Dragonborn can wield!" He announced, splaying his arms out.
Erlirria furrowed her brow.
What's he doing?

"Mul...Qah...Diiv!" He Shouted.
A burst of power erupted from his very soul it seemed, armouring him in ethereal orange and blue scales, adorning his mask with dragon horns.
That was a shout? *Sigh* why do my enemies always have the cool stuff?

"This realm is beyond you." He announced after he finished flaunting his dragon scales like some Thu'um-wielding peacock.
More just cock in this case-
"You have no power here." The lightning in his hands vanishes as he walked up to her, the ethereal scales around him pulsing with light.

He knelt down, placing two fingers under her furred chin to lift her head.
"And it's only a matter of time before Solstheim is also mine. I already control the minds of its people." He said smugly, she had a feeling he was smirking beneath his mask.
"Soon, they will finish building my temple, and I can return home."

Do all villains monologue or does this smug bastard love the sound of his own voice that much?
Shing!

Miraak visibly flinched as a dragonbone knife-point almost made contact with his mask, the handle gripped by Erlirria's prehensile tail.
She held it tightly, narrowing her gaze and looking down at his fingers before back to his eye-slits.
Erlirria heard him growl as he got up, eying the tail-dagger one more time before removing his fingers.

"That will be short lived, I promise you." Erlirria spoke up.
Miraak paused.
"You made a mistake by enthralling my sister into your horde of mindless zombies...Miraak." She mocked.

"We shall see, Last Dragonborn." He hissed over his shoulder.
"Send her back where she came from." He said to the creatures beside him, floating masses of murky fur, tentacles and hands. "She can await my arrival with the rest of Tamriel."
The creatures began zapping Erlirria with some kind of magic as Miraak walked away.

She watched him mount a-
A-
A motherfucking DRAGON- WHAT-?!

And ascend to the skies and away of wherever that place was.
The creatures zapped her more and more under her vision fuzzed into nothingness and went black.
And again, she felt the need to be sick.

...

The book glowed and jumped into the air, flipping open again and practically spitting Erlirria out.
She landed face-first on the floor, gulping in lung-fulls of air like she'd just been underwater.
Inigo was at her side immediately, helping her to stand.

"My friend! Are you quite alright?" He asked.
Erlirria coughed and spluttering a moment longer before turning to him, nodding.
"Yeah, thanks, Inigo."

She then turned to Frea.
"We have... a problem."