Skyrim: Rise of the Dragonborn

Chapter 27: Dovahkiin

"To be a Dovahkiin, is simply to be the balance between the dragons and mortalkind," Paarthurnax explained after several days of them talking. Beric had explained everything that had happened over the last five years. Paarthurnax seemed quite interrested in everything he was saying. The dragon was a good listener. He seemed to understand everything Beric felt. It didn't take long for Beric to open up about his father. The dragon was the only one he had met that seemed to understand it all.

"I had thought it meant to be one with the dragons," Beric said remembering what the Greybeards had told him, "Dovahkiin, means Dragon kin. I was told that I was supposed to become one with the dragons," As long as Beric had been learning of the Way of the Voice, he didn't really know what it meant to be a Dragonborn. He knew he had abilities that others didn't, but he didn't know all of them, nor did he know the origin or meaning behind it.

"Ha, ha," Paarthurnax laughed, "In a manner of speaking. You are to become as one of us, but not exactly in that way. Ideally, you are to be the perfect balance between the Dovah and the Jorre. Few dragonborns have actually achieved this, though. While every Dragonborn has the soul of a dragon, all of you have had the heart and mind of a mortal. But at the core, being Dragonborn means that you are to even out the conflict between dragons and mortals. That is your intended purpose. Potential taken into consideration, you are more powerful than any single dragon. Akatosh bestowed on you great power that would help you kill any dragon permanantly without much difficulty. In the end, you are the ultimate weapon against my kind,"

"What do you mean by permanantly?" Beric asked.

"You have already slayed one dragon, correct?"

"Yes, just one,"

"Do you remember what happened after it died?"

"Yes, I was told that I absorbed the dragon's soul,"

"Only one with a soul of a dragon can do that. While conflict among dragons is common, we don't war against each other often, and never for mortal causes. You are the fighting chance for all mortalkind. Especially now," Paarthurnax said somberly.

"What do you mean?" Beric asked detecting bad news.

"When I told you that dragons were meant to destroy the world, that wasn't completely true. We were meant for many purposes, but in the end, we were to aid in the apocalypse of this world. There is one of us that leads this apocalypse. His name is Alduin. We are all sons of Akatosh, but Alduin is the firstborn of our kind. He was banished from this dimension by your kind using an Elder Scroll. That was toward the end of the Dragon Wars, just before the rest of us were hunted to near extinction,"

"So, where was he banished to?"

"I'm unsure. Elder Scrolls are mysterious things. Just when one thinks they understand one, it proves itself to be unknown. There are a few that are clearer than others, but the warriors who banished Alduin only knew that Elder Scrolls had some sort of divine power. They banished him, but weren't very clear as to when and where he was banished. I'm afraid that they may have made a grave mistake,"

"What kind of mistake," Beric said holding back the horror rising in his gut.

"I'm afraid they might have just sent him forward in time," Paarthurnax said with a deep breath, "I'm afraid Alduin was sent to our time," Paarthurnax said quietly, "Five years ago, I felt something that I haven't felt since the Dragon Wars. The tremor all of the dragons felt when Alduin was banished revisited me shortly before you were summoned by the Greybeards,"