The Dragonborn Arrives (Skyrim)

Before the Storm

Ralof makes for a pleasant companion as we follow the road to Riverwood. We passed by three standing stones (which my map marked for me) and I left a prayer at the Warrior Stone for some extra strength with my sword-fighting. Looks like I'll need it in Skyrim, it looks like it's just as dangerous as the world beyond the Bulwark. 

"You know," Ralof looks at me intently. "You should go to Windhelm and join the fight to free Skyrim. You've seen the true face of the Empire here today. If anyone will know what the coming of the dragon means, it's Ulfric," 

"You think Ulfric knows where that dragon from?" I don't even try to keep the disbelief out of my voice. 

"Well...maybe not," Ralof admits. "Dragons haven't seen seen in Skyrim for an age or more,"

"Same in Solstheim," I recall some of the burial sites I came across, plus the creepy temple littered with dragon skeletons. Marco never liked it whenever I had to go past there and neither did I. Something about that temple reeked of death and everything wrong.

"But wherever that dragon came from, and whatever it wants, Ulfric will get to the bottom of it. You can count on that. Besides, you have your own score to settle with the Empire now...and with that dragon," Ralof doesn't give up trying to convince me that Ulfric knows everything. 

He raises a fair point. But that being said...my mind wanders to the treatment of the Dark Elves and the Argonians in Windhelm. Where Ulfric is from. Nords for the Nords? I'm not even Nord, this isn't my fight. But considering Ralof is letting me travel with him and stay with him at his sisters place, I should probably play it safe. 

"I'll have to think about it," I tell Ralof. 

"Yeah, sure, I understand," Ralof doesn't look understanding, but rather puzzled that I wouldn't immediately raise a sword for his precious Ulfric. "No need to decide now. But I know that after you think about what you saw today, you'll realise that Skyrim deserves to be free,"

***

Riverwood is a quaint enough little town with a mill, cobbled roads and chickens and children running about. 

"A dragon!" an old lady calls from her porch. "I saw a dragon!"

My ears prick up and overhear their conversation. Ralof notices it too and lingers alongside me. 

"What? What is it now, mother?" a handsome but bored-looking young man looks over at her with an expression of annoyance on his face. 

"It was as big as the mountain and black as night. It flew right over the barrow!" the old woman points in the direction of some old ruins. Bleak Falls Barrow. Ralof had pointed it out to me on the way here. 

"Dragons now is it? Please, mother. If you keep on like this everyone in town will think you're crazy. I've got better things to do than listen to more of your fantasies," and, with that, her son saunters away from her and gives me and Ralof both dirty looks. 

"You'll see!" the old woman calls after her son. "It was a dragon! It'll kill us all and then you'll believe me!"

"We should get going," I murmur to Ralof. "Where can we find your sister?"

"Gerdur should be at the mill," Ralof leads me in the direction of a big lumber mill by the river. I pass by a wood elf carrying some logs in his arms and he flashes me a bright and cheery smile, which I return. I always felt comfortable around elves, especially the Dunmer. 

"Is that-"

Before Ralof can answer me, he runs up to a pretty Nord woman with the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Ralof. She's wearing a dark green dress and looks unimpressed.