Dovah ahrk Od

I

The sound of coin-trading hands.

That was the only sound he lived by.

His whole life was made from the sound—either by traders in the market or by his friends in the Thieves Guild that gave their share of coin to his mother, Maven Black Briar.

The snow elf lived his life by that noise and name. He would walk the streets of Riften, eyes glancing upon him. The people there knew who he was but were terrified of his mother's wrath. The only friends he had were those in the Thieves Guild and the ones in his family.

However, this trip of his was going to change that forever.

Today, he was leaving home—taking a carriage to a small town known as Riverwood, or so the mer was told. He heard that nearby, the town of Helgen was going to be holding an execution a few days later, and he told his mother he would be going in order to see the nords' customs upon criminal punishment.

Maven wanted to protest, but she could not deny her precious child from doing what he wanted any longer. It was time for him to move on with his life.

She walked over to her child and handed him a peculiar mask as he sat down in the carriage.

"Take this with you, my child—protect your identity from the nords you will encounter,"Maven said, attempting to gaze in the silver eyes of her special and rare son.

The elf leaned down to grasp the mask and study its design. It was crafted of ebony, and its engravings were of gold...it was beautiful.

He put it on—fitting him perfectly. It was obvious that his mother had this mask specifically crafted to fit only his frame.

Pushing his new mask over his head, he glanced back at his mother.

"Thank you, Mother," the elf said as he patted the back of the wagon, letting the carriage driver know to move on.

"Be careful, Jokul! Return to me safely," said Maven as she watched her adopted mer-son ride away, shrinking as his distance grew further.

It took two sunrises and a sunset for the carriage to arrive into the town. Once Jokul arrived there, he hopped out of the wagon and slipped coin to the driver.

"What about all of this stuff back here?" asked the driver, pointing to all of Jokul's luggage.

"Take it back to my mother. Tell her that I didn't need it all," said Jokul as he handed extra coinage to the driver.

Jokul watched as the driver trudged along, away from this quaint town.

The lengthy elf began looking around at everything he saw—noticing only a small number of buildings—a trader, an inn, and a blacksmith.

However, he couldn't stay here yet. Today, he had to go to Helgen and see what Nordic punishment consisted of...for research purposes, he told himself.

"Good day, traveler! Welcome to Riverwood," greeted the local blacksmith that stopped Jokul in his tracks.

The blacksmith walked over to Jokul and put his hand out.

"Been a while since anyone new showed up. Here in Riverwood, we rarely get visitors," said the man as he shook Jokul's hand.

"Yes...I came here before I finish my journey to Helgen in order to watch the execution. Admittedly, I'm a bit new to Nordic customs, and I wanted to witness what sort of punishment rituals the natives of Skyrim use," Jokul explained as he let go of the blacksmith's hand.

"I see...well, before you go, let me give you some protection on your way up to Helgen. Sidgrid! Grab my old sword," the blacksmith yelled.

A thin woman with long, fox-colored hair ventured outside and gave the blacksmith a rusty, iron sword.

"Here you go, my love—just as you requested," said the woman.

"Here, my friend. And if anyone asks where you got that sword from, tell them Alvor of Riverwood crafted it," he chuckled out as his wife, Sidgrid, grinned at the elf.

Jokul nodded and carried on his way until suddenly, everyone in town took notice of the sky. It began to turn dark—the clouds swirling around each other.

The town stared helplessly as some sort of creature, black as a moonless night, flew over Helgen.

Not only that, meteors from the sky began to crash down into the vulnerable town. Many smaller ones began to fall outside of Riverwood's perimeter, but one, deathly enormous falling-rock began to crash towards the town and, unfortunately, Jokul.

He stared at the flaming rock while many people ran inside their homes, including Alvor and his beloved wife, Sidgrid.

Jokul held his hands high and began to freeze the rock with a powerful frost spell. It slowly extinguished the flames, and the force of the spell began pushing the meteor slightly away from Jokul, landing right outside of town.

The snow-elf fell to his knees. Over-using his spell drained him a bit, but, sadly, it was not over.

He peered into the sky to see another meteor racing down at an alarmingly rapid rate. This time, its direction was the home of Alvor and Sidgrid. Jokul watched in horror as this kind couple who so warmly welcomed him into Riverwood met their sudden demise. The rock crashed into their house, landing in their basement and squishing the duo dead.

A moment passed, and the skies slowly morphed back to normal.

A child, a little girl with light-brown hair, ran towards the home, but Jokul grabbed her, keeping her away from the flames.

"Let me go! Mama! Papa!" she screeched through her sorrows, bringing everyone outside to see the horror of what had so suddenly occurred.

Jokul held the girl close to him, feeling her tears seep into his white robes. A sudden cry into the air alerted him, causing the mer to look above, watching as the creature soared over the town.

He removed his mask to get a better look. The creature, without a doubt in his mind, was something he only heard legends about. The townspeople were too shocked and afraid to even bother facing the direction of this creature.

"A dragon..."