Rona's Story: The Truth Beneath the Rose

Chapter 5 Ancient Knowledge

(The Background Music is Amon Hen, Twilight and Shadow, Minis Tirith, Ash and Smoke by Howard Shore)

The roar of a dragon echoed along the frozen and desolate spaces between the peaks of the Velothi Mountain Range. Another called out soon after and then another and another. Their guttural bellows clapped through the skies like a powerful thunderstorm, shocking the landscape repeatedly with endless bolts of lightning. Hundreds of dragons flew together, soaring over and around the snowy peaks, roaring their greetings and even their mockeries to one another as friends and foes alike joined together.

If there had been any mortal below, they surely would have died from the sight of them. The sheer number of dragons in the sky at that moment was enough to make one's blood run cold and their heart stop.

Odahviing joined them, picking up his pace to head to the front of the formation. The younger dov made way for the elders, knowing better than to question the authority of the wisest of them. He flew around the younglings, listening as they greeted him with reverence.

"[Peace, fire, sky, Lord Odahviing.]"

"[A good night my lord.]"

"[Fair skies, Lord Odahviing.]"

Odahviing was surprised by the number of young ones among them, some mere hatchlings, their wings not even fully grown. It seemed that Alduin had been very busy and putting the souls of Skyrim's dead Nords to use. Dragons knew not the ways of mating. They were immortal, sexless creatures, born from the fires of their father Bormahu and given the lands of Skyrim to rule over as their own.

But as humankind learned the way of shouting and fought against their dragon overlords, killing hundreds of the elders, their numbers began to dwindle and their power and presence weakened greatly.

It was Alduin who took it upon himself to seek out a method to increase their numbers. He meddled in the world of mortal magic, learning from the dragon priests of yore and they gifted him with two terrifying and unnatural shouts that would allow him to replace those they'd lost to the Dragonborn over several millennia.

With the souls he'd consumed from Sovngarde he would find a solid stone and carve at it with his claws and scales, shaping it smooth and round. Then with the power of his thu'um, he would shout at this newly created 'egg' completely changing its composition so that it acted as a soul stone. It was then that he would use another shout to deposit the souls of the dead into the soul stone and leave it to incubate. In a short month, the stone would crack, breaking open and unleashing an almost fully formed dragon into the world.

The elders called them the young ones or younglings and many of the old ones found them to be brash and unpredictable creatures, perhaps taking the worst traits from their father, Alduin, and amplifying them. They were highly territorial, aggressive and foolhardy. They hardly took to or understood the respectful formalities of the elder dov.

But it seemed that Alduin had been training them closely and teaching them the old ways as Odahviing was continually greeted with proper respect by each of them. He made his way to the forefront and found his place between two of his own elders, Rektuhah, an old Elder Dragon with fading orange scales and horns and Krozeim a Legendary Dragon with purplish smooth scales and two thick curling horns.

"[Brothers]," Odahviing rumbled to them, making his presence known.

They each regarded him and growled their own greetings and Rektuhah, the eldest spoke first, "[Tell me Odahviing... what are your thoughts on all these younglings?]"

Odahviing took care not to speak too freely in the presence of so many strange dovah, he kept his words vague enough to be understood by the elders before him, "[I suspect Lord Alduin has many plans for them. It seems he has rebuilt our numbers by a thousandfold. I imagine Skyrim will be... very crowded, very soon.]"