Not Alone (A Skyrim Fanfiction)

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

    

     I returned to the inn after the meeting in the Palace of the Kings, mulling everything over in my mind. 

     Needless to say, I had not expected to be granted command of Whiterun.  I sincerely doubted that Brunwulf had come up with that idea on his own.  More than likely Ulfric had contacted him during the time I had been north and passed on some of what I had revealed.  It was true that I knew more about dragons and defending cities from dragons than all the other officers and generals combined, but men?  I knew about as much of battle tactics as I knew of Restoration magic. 

     Restoration magic would actually be an extremely useful skill….  I had discovered it did nothing for the headaches, but I often got into scrapes on my adventures.  Potions worked to some degree, but a Spell of Healing could sew the worst wounds up in seconds.  With that ability I might even have been able to save Aetra….

     I shook my head of those thoughts.  I didn’t need, want, or have time for them right now.  One day, and one day soon I would have to deal with what had happened, but right now I needed to focus on the task at hand.

     I packed up the few belongings I had left around the room, then took out the pieces of my Daedric armor and laid them on the bed.  I stared into the empty eye holes of the helmet, imagined the chestplate dyed crimson with Miraak’s blood.

     Too bad the set wasn’t entirely complete any longer, not now that I had been forced to replace my lost Daedric sword with an ebony blade.  When I had a little time I would need to rectify that.

     It took me several minutes to get all the pieces of armor on and buckled securely, but by the time I did I felt like a warrior once again.  Glancing at myself in the slight reflection of the window, I had to admit that I looked impressive.

     I laughed at myself a little bit for looking in a mirror like a housewife. 

     Packing my Thieves’ Guild armor into my pockets, I adjusted one last buckle on the armor. 

     “Let’s go call a dragon,” I told myself.

     “You require what of me?” Odahviing asked again, sounding quite annoyed.  Annoyed dragons acquired a bass tone to their voice that set the ground thrumming as though it were angry as well.  It was quite intimidating, actually, and far more effective than any human voice.

     “I need you to first fly me to Whiterun, then run a scouting mission over Helgen,” I said for the third time.  “You don’t need to do much, just give me an estimate of numbers and look for a central command tent and try to identify the commander.”  I remembered from my own… adventure in Helgen that the keep had been destroyed too thoroughly for anyone to inhabit it.

     I glanced back at Windhelm, which was about a mile distant.  I knew Odahviing wasn’t hostile, but the people and guards of Windhelm would panic upon sight of him, so I had walked out a ways from the city to perform the Shout.

     “I am not a scout, Dovahkiin.  I carried you to Skuldafn, not because you requested it of me, but because I sensed that you had become the stronger in the fight against Alduin.”  He pronounced each syllable in the name, playing with the sounds and separating them into Al Doo Een.  “This does not mean that I shall assist you in your pointless squabbles.”

     I hadn’t expected him to just help me with no questions asked.  I could still use Bend Will on him, but I knew that then I would lose whatever respect he had for me.  Right now I could use less enemies and more friends, so I didn’t even consider that an option.  “This is no pointless squabble,” I said grimly.  “You might remember the name Miraak from the First Era?”