The Last Dragonborn

Chapter 16

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The leader of the Grey Beards was a dragon.

At this point I had been fairly convinced I had seen all Skyrim had to offer. Call it cynical, but I had traveled back and forth across the land more times than I could count, had faced endless monsters and every type of evil spoken of in myth and legend. But this...this I had not...could not have guessed if I walked the roads of Skyrim for a thousand years.

The Greybeards were the guardians of the way of the voice, Dragonborn's commanded the voice and fought dragons. How could a dragon have been responsible for safeguarding The Way of the Voice?

The fact that Parthanaxx had turned out to be a dragon continued to overshadow the purpose behind my visit until I was well on my way down the mountain. Ten thousand steps and I had used every one of them to come to grips with this new reality.

The ancient dragon had been civil, sad even, and a bit funny at times. The fact that he had watched the ages of the world slip by on top of that mountain spoke to his strength of character. Strangely when he had greeted me in the dovah tongue I had, for the first time, not been inclined to attack a dragon on sight. I had never encountered a thu'um from a dragon that hadn't hurt in some way or another.

After our meeting, as usual, I found myself back on the road with Stenvar trailing along behind me. He had enjoyed the hospitality of the Grey Beards and stayed wisely in his quarters where I left him until I returned. Now, he was keeping up a running monologue about the things we were passing or stories they reminded him of. He didn't seem to need my input to keep the conversation going, and I appreciated the time to sort through my thoughts.

Parthanaxx's advice had been surprising. He did not know the shout Dragon Rend. Although he had an idea of where I could find it and as ridiculous as it was, I didn't honestly have a better idea. Dragon Rend had been lost to time, so I needed to bend time to find it. An elder scroll was the only thing strong enough to do so. Most of those had been lost to time as well.

Parthanaxx had suggested I ask the mages in Winterhold about it. He had suggested it offhandedly, as though the secretive mages would just welcome the opportunity to help me. In my experience it was never that easy, and everyone always wanted something from the Dragonborn.

I needed to speak with a mage before I ventured into the College of Winterhold blindly. Unfortunately, I only knew two well enough to ask the questions I needed answered. One of which was the court mage in Riften, it was both out of the way, and Wylandriah was a forgetful thing who wasn't likely to understand the subtlety of my questions. The other...I sighed and led the way down the path back towards Windhelm...and Ulfric.

I was as unsure about how I felt about returning to Ulfric's city as I was about taking advice about defeating the dragons from an actual dragon. I glanced over my shoulder at Stenvar who was chatting about a cave nearby and felt a deep stirring of loneliness in my chest. I missed Mjoll, even if she was a little slow on the road, I could have confided in her about my thoughts about Parthanaxx and maybe about Ulfric. Well...probably not Ulfric, but she more than likely would have already noticed and brought up the subject herself. Stenvar was too new. He was here for the adventure with the Dragonborn. He didn't care about the uncertainty in Freyja's heart.

We stayed the night at a camp a few hours outside of Windhelm. We could have pushed on through the night, but it wouldn't make any difference. Wuunferth wouldn't see me in the middle of the night. In fact, I would be lucky if he would deign to see me the first day of our arrival. No doubt he would be upset about my sudden departure and continued absence from Windhelm.  He was going to want that favor.