//------------------------------//
// Wanderings: Whiterun 
// Story: Skyrim: The Faces of Death 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

As Amaryllis walked away from White River Watch, after landing outside the entrance, she couldn't believe how easily she had gotten away with pretending to be Rodulf, with little to no information on her disguise, and had made her way to the location of the gang's leader, who even thought that she was the bandit he had asked his uncle to talk to when Rodulf had entered the cave again, but in the end it all worked out and she was pleased with what had happened. She had the goods that had been stolen from the previous merchant groups those bandits had robbed, what was left of it anyway, and had taken out both the small group that had been acting as their scouts and their leader, meaning the remaining bandits who were inside the cave would be at each others throats in no time, once they realized that their leader and scouts were dead anyway. That also meant that a few of them were going to be around in the next few hours, as she was sure that some of them would end up dead once the fighting started, which would give the Jarl of Whiterun the ability to devote more of his guards to either protecting the roads or keeping the people inside the walls safe, something they would be happy to hear when she delivered the news. Either way she was sure both the people that were visiting the city and those that lived there would feel much safer once they learned that the bandit leader she had taken out was dead and his gang was going to self destruct without him, allowing her to focus on walking down the dirt path and heading in the direction of the city, given the fact that she had news for the Jarl and his guards. One thing she remembered to do, before she got too close to the bridge that lead to the outskirts of the city, was make sure that she changed into the leather armor that she had picked up, which would make it look like she was a wanderer and not a soldier, just in case she spotted that khajiit from earlier, and made sure to change into the form of a female nord that would go unnoticed, meaning that she would be able to slip away once the bounty was collected.

As she drew closer to the city she noticed that the building she had seen earlier, which was now on her left, was called the Honningbrew Meadery, no doubt a place where the owner made alcoholic drinks for the people of this province to buy and drink from time to time, where she learned its name thanks to the sign that was outside the building, though for the most part she didn't care about it and decided to ignore as she continued walking. Also to her left were a few houses and some plants, meaning that this had to be one of the farms that existed outside the city, though it was hard to confirm or deny that thought since it didn't appear that anyone was working at the moment, even though she did pause again when she saw something weird, even though there were plenty of weird things in this world and part of her was sure that there were plenty more for her to see. There was a large humanoid creature that happened to be laying in a heap near one of the small stone walls that made up the farm she was standing near, where the creature, which she assumed was dead and not sleeping, seemed to be wearing only a loincloth and had been carrying a large club, though judging from the cuts in it's arms and the arrows sticking out of it's chest she had to assume that a group had taken the creature down rather recently, since it didn't look like it had been killed in the last couple of days. Another reason why she thought that a group had taken it out was because there were three warriors, two ladies and a male, that happened to be further along the road that she was traveling and while two of them were definitely warriors, based on their armor and weapons, the other was an archer, meaning they had to be the ones who had brought the creature down, and she noticed that the male warrior and the lone archer were nords while the female warrior was an imperial, something that interested her a little since they seemed to have some decent skills and could bring down some rather powerful foes.

Amaryllis decided to follow the trio of warriors to the front gate of Whiterun, though as she did so she kept her distance from them and noticed that there were four khajiits near the stables, right outside the stone walls that lead the way to the main gate, though it appeared that they were merchants and had set up a temporary camp, no doubt because they were planning on leaving at some point in the near future. One thing she quickly determined was that the khajiit she had seen earlier wasn't with them, otherwise she was sure the lady in question would have been sitting near the rest of her kind or would have been on guard duty, or rather that would be the case if she was part of the caravan, before she focused on the walls and the fact that there were several posts where the guards could keep an eye on what was going on outside the city, just in case bandits tried to attack the city and rob those on the other side of the large wooden walls. It wasn't long before the three warriors reached the main gate and headed inside without a word from the pair of guards, who were apparently protecting the gate and were allowing those that lived inside or outside the walls to pass as they wished, but visitors, on the other hand, had to talk with them before they were allowed inside, and the reason Amaryllis knew that was because there was a familiar khajiit standing near the guards with an annoyed look on her face. One of the guards, the same one that allowed the group to enter without a single word, stepped away from the khajiit and made sure that his full attention was on Amaryllis, which meant that she'd have to answer a question or something to get inside the city, even though it did look like the khajiit was a little annoyed by what was going on, but she kept her tongue as she tried to find a way to get by the guards so she could enter the city, making her wonder what in the world she had done since escaping Helgen, since she had been with that one Imperial soldier she had seen earlier, before she focused on the guard.

"Halt. Jarl Balgruuf as asked that the gates only open for official business today," the guard stated, though that statement caused Amaryllis to raise an eyebrow for a moment, because that made her wonder what in the world had happened to cause something like this to occur, while at the same time she had to wonder why she had bumped into the same khajiit twice in the same day, the latter being the weirdest thing she had seen so far, "State your business, or wait until tomorrow to come back."

"I'm here in regards to your bounty on the leader of the White River Watch bandits," Amaryllis replied, where she held out the sack that contained the head of the bandit she had killed at the summit of the camp in question, though it appeared that her statement had caused the other guard to stop what he was doing and look over at her as well, almost as if she had done something remarkable in their eyes, before she opened it to show them what was inside it, so they could see she was telling the truth, "as you can see I killed their leader and I'm here to collect the bounty."

"Aye, that's old Hajvarr Iron-Hand alright." the guard remarked, having looked into the sack that Amaryllis was holding at the moment, confirming her thoughts that this guy had been a real nuisance for the guards and for the Jarl, giving her the name of the individual she had slain, before he backed up and jerked his thumb towards the gate for a few seconds, as if he was indicating that it was okay for her to enter the city, "Very well, you may enter Whiterun and head to Dragonsreach, the large castle at the highest point of the city, to tell the Steward about your success."

"Thank you." Amaryllis said, as she was happy that she had the thought to bring the head of the bandit leader with her, to show the guards that she was telling the truth and not making up a lie to get into the city, but before she headed through the gate, and made her way to Dragonsreach, she glanced to her right and noticed that the khajiit was still thinking of how to get into the city, causing her to turn to the guard for a second, "Um, I know it isn't my place to ask what's going on, but is there a reason why you aren't letting her enter the city?"

"She claims that she's coming from Riverwood and that she saw a dragon destroy Helgen," the guard replied, though his tone told her that he didn't seem to believe what he had been told, meaning that the guards either didn't notice the large black dragon that flew over the mountain that was to the south, which had to be impossible considering how big it was, or he believed that it was a fragment of his imagination and happened to be ignoring anyone who told him otherwise, while it looked like his partner didn't seem to care at all.

Amaryllis paused when she heard that, because while she didn't know the people of Helgen all that much, given the short period of time she had been inside the town and its fort, she did think the pair of soldiers that helped her deserved more than what apparently happened, being wrecked by the same dragon she had seen earlier, and probably being burned to death in the process, before she decided it was time to say something and hoped that the guards believed her and didn't call her a liar.

"Well, that's because she's telling the truth," Amaryllis said, knowing that it was possible that the guards might think less of her for saying something like this, though at the same time the khajiit seemed surprised by that news, that she might have seen the same dragon that she had seen earlier, hence why she focused on revealing what she knew on the matter, even if she wasn't planning on tracking the beast down or anything, "I was passing through Riverwood earlier this morning and saw a dragon that was as black as night fly over Bleak Falls Barrow, where it seemed to be heading this way, but this is the first time I've heard of it destroying anything."

She only knew the name of the barrow because Lucan mentioned it while he was talking to his sister, since that appeared to be where his golden claw had been taken, though as she said that the khajiit seemed to be thinking about what she had just said, meaning she might be trying to place whether or not they had seen each other earlier, while the guards seemed to be whispering to each other for a few seconds, before they separated and faced the pair, causing her and the khajiit to focus on the guards.

"Very well. One person saying they saw a dragon is usually taken as someone being high on skooma, but two, in the same day, is hard to ignore," the second guard said, where he moved out of the way and beckoned to the gate, where the khajiit lost the slightly annoyed look that had been on her face, which had been replaced by a smile, though Amaryllis knew that the guard was returning to his post so they could wait for more visitors or new orders, "You should head to Dragonsreach as well and report this to the Jarl... he'll want to know about a dragon that's flying around his Hold and attacking whoever and whatever it pleases."

Amaryllis nodded her head as she and the khajiit headed through the gate, where she finally got her first glance at the city of Whiterun, where buildings that were similar to those in Riverwood rested in front of her, while she had to walk over a stone bridge to reach the streets of the city, giving her a chance to see that guards were keeping the peace while the rest of the city's citizens were wandering around, going about their daily business, though for now she had one destination and she wasn't about to stop until she reached Dragonsreach.

"Thanks for the assist back there." the khajiit said, as she was happy to be inside the city at long last, given that she had a very important piece of information to hand over to the Jarl, though at the same time she turned towards Amaryllis for a moment and patted her on the back, as if it was another way of saying thanks, but Amaryllis didn't mind the gesture, even if it was clear that the khajiit might have something else to say before they left the area the gate was in, "So, you really saw the same black dragon that I saw?"

"So it seems." Amaryllis replied, though at the same time she started to walk forward and left the area that the main gate was resting in, as she wanted to reach Dragonsreach and inform the Jarl, not to mention his Steward, about her deed and get the reward for Hajvarr's death, but once that was done there was one other thing she needed to know before she even though about leaving the city, which was when she thought of something else as she glanced at the khajiit, "Did it really wreck Helgen?"

"Yeah, I got a good view of it as it landed on one of Helgen's towers, just before the executioner was about to cut my head off and end my life," the khajiit stated, reminding Amaryllis of the fact that she had been brought in by the Thalmor, on the charges of being a criminal that needed to be executed, or something like that, but it also told her that everyone she knew in Helgen had either died in the attack or managed to escape before they perished, though the only thing she was happy about was that she had escaped before that happened, before the khajiit sighed as she considered something, "I'm still mad over what happened to me, as those guards just arrested me and accused me of being a thief, when I've never stolen anything in my life, and confiscated all of my stuff, especially the swords that I was carrying, before the Thalmor had me sent off to Helgen... sorry, I shouldn't bother you with what happened to me earlier. Anyway, the answer to your question is yes, the black dragon wrecked Helgen and burned it to the ground, or at least I assumed it was burned to the ground since it was on fire when Hadvar and I fled the town, especially since it was clear we couldn't hurt that dragon, though I'm hoping that it was just my imagination and that he flew off because he was hurt."

"Hey, its fine, something bad happened and you felt the need to vent." Amaryllis commented, though that made sense to her, as the dragons back home, from what she knew, were hard to take out when they got into a fight, which was a reason why she and the rest of her Hive had tried to avoid getting in a fight with them, but, with how different her world was from this land, there was no telling what was different about the dragons, not counting the size of them anyway, though she still had to wonder why the Thalmor were so interested in executing this one khajiit.

"Anyway, my name is Za'kera," the khajiit said, her tone indicating that she was willing to share her name with someone who was a total stranger, especially when she considered that the person in question had helped her get into the city so she could speak with the Jarl, since she needed to tell him about what she had seen in Helgen, the fact that a dragon had destroyed it, and that said dragon had flown in the direction of Whiterun, or at least it sure looked that way when she had emerged from the burning town, before she glanced at Amaryllis, "What's your name?"

"Kirsta," Amaryllis replied, because from what she had seen so far there weren't many people in Skyrim that had first and last names, so giving the khajiit, Za'kera, a name like that seemed to be fine, at least in her mind anyway, and, at the same time, she turned up the stairs and headed to the district of the city that was ahead of them, one that had what appeared to be a dying tree, a temple of some kind, and an overturned boat that seemed to be where the three warriors from earlier were entering, even though she continued towards the massive wooden castle.

"It's nice to meet you." Za'kera stated, though at the same time it didn't appear that there was much else she wanted to talk about for the moment, but, even as they reached the other side of the district and started up the stairs stone stairs that were in front of them, she seemed to think of something else to ask, like she was killing time before they reached the large building that was where they were heading, "You know, you have very unique eyes... I've never met anyone that has one red eye and one yellow eye."

Amaryllis knew that someone would have noticed her different colored eyes at some point in time, because the strangest thing about her was happened to be the fact that her eyes stayed the same color, regardless of the form she took, and it was something that only the most observant noticed for some reason, so even if she tried to take on a disguise with blue eyes it would come out in her unique colors, but she knew what to say in this situation, as it was something she said when this came up in the past.

"I was told that my eyes meant I was destined for greatness, but so far I'm inclined to disagree," Amaryllis replied, as that was something she felt was never going to come true, regardless of what she had been told in the past, but it was the best thing she could say in this situation, especially since no one had ever questioned her statement and tried to get a clearer answer from her, though based on what she could see it appeared that Za'kera was just fine with her statement, which she was happy to see.

"Well, I've never heard of something like that, but I'll take your word for it," Za'kera said, where she shrugged as the two of them headed up the longer set of stairs and approached the large castle that was their destination, though while they did that they walked by a few more guards, who were patrolling the area and were making sure the people were safe as they went about their day, so if something happened, like someone broke the law in some manner, one or more of them would rush towards whoever did the deed and arrest them.

Amaryllis said nothing as they reached the large imposing door of the castle and pushed it open, where they found a large open room in front of them, with some stairs that would allow them to reach what appeared to be an eating area of some kind, though she did find a number of nords standing around, going about their business, a female dark elf that happened to be staring at them, and a dragon's skull that was resting on the wall above the area that the Jarl seemed to be sitting in, which she felt was very dangerous in case it fell, but before she could do anything the dark elf approached them.

"What is the meaning of this interruption?" the dark elf asked, though what worried Amaryllis was the fact that the dark elf had drawn the sword that had been sheathed on her belt, almost as if she and Za'kera had walked into the castle at the wrong moment or something, especially since she was staring at them, though she hoped that a fight didn't break out, as the guards would run to aid the dark elf and not her or Za'kera, "Jarl Balgruuf is currently in the middle of talking to his Steward, about matters concerning the rest of the Hold, and is not receiving visitors right now."

"I'm here about the bounty on the leader of White River Watch," Amaryllis replied, where she tapped the sack that she had placed the head in for a few seconds, something that caused the dark elf looked at it and raised her eyebrow as she did so, but the one thing she was happy about was the fact that there was no blood dropping from the sack, otherwise she was sure that someone would have screamed at her for ruining the floor, "but I can wait for them to finish whatever they're discussing, before telling them that Hajvarr Iron-Hand is dead."

"I see. Well, they'll be happy to hear that bit of news, given recent events," the dark elf commented, almost as if she was indicating that something bad had happened recently and it was bothering both the Jarl and the Steward, which had to be pretty bad if both of them were focused on it, something that Amaryllis thought about and considered the fact that they might be talking about the dragon, though she followed that up by switching her target and looked at Za'kera, "What about you? What brings you to Dragonsreach?"

"I'm here because a dragon attacked and destroyed Helgen earlier today," Za'kera answered, though at the same time the dark elf and all of the people around them paused what they were doing, which told Amaryllis that, despite the fact that the pair of guards at the front gate didn't believe them, everyone in this building instantly believed what she had just said, and even she was surprised by their reactions, which was good news since they would be able to accomplish their tasks with ease, before leaving to do whatever else was on their minds.

"Are you referring to the black dragon we spotted earlier, who flew over Bleak Falls Barrow and disappeared after flying off into the distance?" the dark elf inquired, confirming Amaryllis' thoughts that someone had seen the dragon that she and Za'kera had seen, though the look on the Jarl's face indicated that he might be stopping his conversation with his Steward to listen to what was going on in front of him, where the Steward did the same thing and focused on them for a time, like they were waiting to hear the information that was coming towards them.

"I am. That is the same dragon I saw earlier today, and who my new friend here saw at some point this morning, as it flew over the barrow," Za'kera replied, though this was good for her, since it meant that those guards she had been stopped by must have been inside one of the buildings inside Whiterun and hadn't seen the dragon in question, meaning they had no idea it even existed in the first place and that whoever had seen the beast had likely come to the castle to tell the Jarl the news, which had to be why he and the Steward had been talking when they arrived.

"Irileth, stand down. I wish to speak with them about this matter." the Jarl, Balgruuf as the dark elf named him, stated, to which the dark elf, who was called Irileth, sheathed her sword and backed away from where the pair was standing, so she could take her place to Balgruuf's left, as the person Amaryllis assumed was the Steward stood on his right, which let the pair approach the Jarl of Whiterun and come to a stop when they were on the same level as his throne, "So, is it true what you just said? That you were at Helgen and that you saw this dragon with your own eyes?"

"Yes, it's all true. The Imperials were executing the Stormcloaks they had captured, right in front of their leader's eyes, but before they could get too far the black dragon landed on one of the towers and started attacking Helgen," Za'kera stated, though while she said that Amaryllis was silent, because this really had nothing to do with her, given that she had been nowhere near Helgen at the time of the attack and had no idea what had happened to the town until she encountered the khajiit, and she suspected that Irileth already knew that the one they wanted to talk to was Za'kera, which was just fine with her, "I managed to get away from Helgen without getting seriously hurt, along with a few survivors, but the last time I saw the dragon it was headed this way."

"By Ysmir, Irileth was right!" Jarl Balgruuf stated, his tone revealing that, while he might have been skeptical of a dragon being sighted by the dark elf, he had taken her word for it and hadn't questioned it, but now, however, he knew that what he had been told was correct and that now was the time for them to do something about it, before he turned his head a little and stared at the man to his right, "What do you say now, Proventus? Shall we continue to trust in the strength of our ancient walls, against a dragon that attacked and wiped out an entire town?"

"My lord, we should send some guards to Riverwood at once." Irileth commented, showing that her position, whatever it was, meant that she took the safety of her Jarl's people into consideration and made sure they were safe, even if the cause of all of this was a dragon, something that Amaryllis assumed had been gone for a long time or something, based on how everyone was reacting to it's arrival, meaning Balgruuf had to be grateful to have her as part of his staff, "It's in the most immediate danger, out of the other villages and towns that are scattered throughout our Hold, especially if that dragon is lurking in the mountains..."

"No, we shouldn't be doing something like that, as the Jarl of Falkreath might view that as a provocation!" the Steward, Proventus as Balgruuf called him, exclaimed, almost as if he was worried that sending a few guards to Riverwood would cause more bad things to happen for him and the rest of Whiterun, even though Amaryllis and Za'kera, despite not having a plan to do this, raised their eyebrows in surprise, since he didn't seem interested in protecting anywhere else that wasn't Whiterun, "He might assume that we're preparing to join Ulfric's side, by posting more guards to a smaller village or town near the border of his Hold, and that we might attack him when the time is right. We should not..."

"Enough!" Jarl Balgruuf snapped, his tone revealing that he was used to Irileth and Proventus arguing about what they should be doing, regardless of what the situation was, and that the only way he could get them to stop this was by raising his voice at them for a few seconds, as both of them bowed their heads a little and waited for him to speak, to which he sighed for a moment before thinking about what else he wanted to say to them, "I won't stand by while a dragon burns my Hold, attacks the settlements under my care, and slaughters my people! Irileth, I want you to send a small detachment to Riverwood at once, to help protect them from future bandit attacks and to keep an eye out for this dragon, just in case it shows up again."

"As you wish, my Jarl." Irileth replied, though Amaryllis was sure that the dark elf was happy that Balgruuf was willing to go along with what she had said, especially since she wanted to keep the people of his Hold safe from whatever dangers they might be up against, even if one of those dangers happened to be a dragon that was capable of burning an entire town to the ground and kill a bunch of Imperial soldiers that were in the middle of executing some Stormcloaks, and she gave her Jarl a slight bow before leaving to fulfill the order.

"If you'll excuse me, I'll return to my duties." Proventus said, though his tone suggested that he still didn't agree with the idea of sending a small amount of guards to Riverwood, to protect them and aid them from any other future attacks, as if he was worried that the Jarl of Falkreath might take it the wrong way when he heard the news, while also showing that he wasn't going to pursue the notion anymore, as he also bowed his head a little and seemed to be a little lost as to what he needed to do next.

"That would be best, especially since this warrior over here has something for you." Jarl Balgruuf stated, where he took a few seconds to gesture to Amaryllis, indicating that he must have heard what she had done, killing a bandit leader that had been a plague on the travelers in their Hold, before that Za'kera had said anything about the dragon she had seen, hence why he allowed them to approach his throne, "As for her new friend, I think there is something else you might be able to help us with, if you're willing to lend us your aid for a few more hours."

"I'd be more than happy to lend you guys a hand," Za'kera replied, to which Jarl Balgruuf nodded his head and got up from where he was sitting, where he headed over to one of the side rooms that Amaryllis had noticed earlier, where it looked like a mage might be living and working in the chamber in question, and Za'kera followed after him without delay, where Amaryllis stayed where she was standing and silently wished her new acquaintance luck in whatever the Jarl wanted her to do, even though it likely had something to do with the dragon.

Once they were no longer in the same area, and Irileth left to get some guards to reassign to Riverwood, Amaryllis focused on Proventus and informed him that she was there for the bounty on Hajvarr Iron-Hand, along with the fact that she had proof to show she was telling the truth, but the interesting thing was that Proventus didn't seem to care about the sack, he actually seemed a little frightened by such a thing, though that didn't stop him from handing over a sack that contained one hundred gold coins, which she accepted with a smile on her face. With that in hand she walked away from the Jarl's throne and headed towards the door so she could head outside, though as she did that she noticed that Za'kera and Jarl Balgruuf were talking to someone who was dressed in mage robes, like a court wizard or something, but she paid it no mind as she slipped outside once more, showing the guards that while they had seen the same dragon both of them had come under different reasons, so since hers was done her time in Dragonsreach was at an end. She was sure that the Jarl wouldn't ask Za'kera to do anything stressful or really time consuming, or at least she hoped so, but at the same time she didn't want to get dragged into a quest to figure out how to take down the dragon that she had seen, as she assumed that such a thing would be hard and potentially pointless, to which she pushed it out of her mind and focused on what she was going to do next. She could easily head outside and use the carriage to travel to one of the other Holds, to speak with one of the other wizards the lived in this land, but it made her wonder why there wasn't a school for that or something, where someone could ask a number of masters about whatever was on their mind, though as she walked down the steps, and returned to the district that the dying tree was in, she spotted a pair of redguards, a man and a lady, that appeared to be arguing with each other.

As she reached the tree, however, the pair seemed to have reached the conclusion of their discussion, as the lady walked away from who Amaryllis assumed was her husband, or at least significant other, who seemed unsure of what he should do at the moment, giving her the chance to approach him and see if she might be able to help him out, if she was inclined to do so, and right now she was since it gave her something else to do while she looked for a way to get back to her home world so she could resume her search.

"Is something wrong?" Amaryllis asked, where she came to a stop near the reguard for a moment, mostly due to the fact that she knew that the city's guards would be busy for the foreseeable future, given that they would be keeping an eye out for the dragon who had wrecked Helgen, who Irileth had seen and who both she and Za'kera had reported the existence of to Jarl Balgruuf, meaning that none of them would be able to help him out, so she was interested if she could aid him in some manner.

"Oh, not really, it's just that my Saffir doesn't like the fact that I've been spending so much time looking for the sword that my father used while he was alive." the redguard replied, though his tone suggested that, while he was annoyed by the outcome of the conversation he had with his wife, he didn't want something bad to happen to her, before he sighed and turned his head to look in the plains to the west of the city, even if he couldn't see them thanks to the stone wall that kept that side of the city safe, "It's an incredibly important sword to me, as my father was able to feed his entire family with the gold he made, by using that sword to kill bandits and make his home a better place for everyone, and I'm not about to let it gather dust in some thief's trophy room."

"Do you have any idea where the sword might have been taken?" Amaryllis inquired, because if the redguard had an idea as to where the bandits that had taken the blade might have run off to, like she assumed he did based on everything that he had said so far, she would be able to head to the location in question, use a disguise or her skills to slip in, take out the bandits so they didn't bother the rest of Whiterun, and claim the sword for him, which she would then return to him once she was done with whatever cave or ruin the bandits were holed up in.

"I managed to track them to a small cave that's called Redoran's Retreat," the reguard said, though at the same time, since he determined that Amaryllis might not know the area in question, he gave her specific directions that would allow her to find the cave in question, where she had to head to the west and turn to the north at the fork in the road that was near Fort Greymoor, before turning to the west again after crossing a stone bridge, which would be around the time that she could see the cave off to her right.

Amaryllis nodded her head and stepped away from the redguard, Amren as he called himself, and focused on seeing what else the people of this city had to offer her, just in case someone else had a task of some kind that needed to be done at some point, before she headed outside to explore the plains and see what they had, as her current plan was to get a few more gold coins, to put her closer to a thousand, before leaving the city. There was a nord near her position that seemed to be preaching in front of an impressive statue, which seemed to be of the Divine known as Talos, though as she stood by the dying tree for a moment she decided to listen to the priest, even if no one else was near the statue, where he spoke of how Talos used to be mortal and that he ascended to being one of the Divines, turning the Eight into the Nine, and that he had reshaped Cyrodiil for the warriors that had followed him in the past, or at least that was what she gathered from what the priest was saying. What was impressive was that the priest had the nerve to declare that the elves, who she assumed were the Thalmor that some of the Imperials had mentioned before she fled Helgen, couldn't tolerate such a thing, hence it likely being a reason behind starting the Great War and them forcing the Empire to outlaw all worship of the new Divine, while stating that the Stormcloaks needed to rise up and restore Skyrim to what it had been, before the sermon appeared to be over, allowing her to leave before he started his entire speech again. Once she departed from where the priest was standing she headed down into the market that she and Za'kera had walked by earlier, since they had focused on getting to Dragonsreach and telling the Jarl about the dragon that wiped out Helgen, but now that she didn't have to worry about that she focused on the people that were around her and the buildings that were nearby, to see if there was anything she could use or any stores she needed to head into before she departed from the city to resume her mission.

There were a few merchants that owned some of the stalls, where they sold jewelry, meat, fruit, and some odds and ends that anyone might need, while the three major buildings that were near her contained The Bannered Mare, which she had to assume was the inn, Arcadia's Cauldron, which appeared to be an alchemy shop, and Belethor's General Goods, a shop she might want to stop at before she left the city, to see what sort of goods it had and if she might be able to offload some of the stuff she had picked up earlier.

Once she figured out what the other buildings were, and noticed that there were a few houses around the market area for some of the residents of Whiterun lived in, she decided not to bother stopping at one of the shops and headed down the street once more, where she neared the main gate in time to see Irileth giving her orders to a trio of guards, who nodded their heads in acknowledgement before departing from the city, and a few seconds later the dark elf headed up another set of stairs so she could return to Dragonsreach. Since it appeared that everyone else in the area was busy focusing on what they were doing, be it beating on some metal with a hammer, walking down the street, or trying to sell something to visitors, Amaryllis headed for the main gate and focused on what she was going to do once she was on the other side of it, as there were several things she could do and needed to come to a decision soon, even if most of her focus would be on her primary mission. Interestingly enough neither of the guards who had stopped Za'kera earlier, and prevented her from entering the city until she arrived to confirm her story, said anything to her as she passed through the main gate, as if the city was back to normal or something, where she turned to her right and headed back down the path that had brought her to the front gate of the city, even though Amaryllis figured that they were entirely focused on making sure no bandits approached the city and no dragons suddenly appeared around the nearby area. As such she was able to walk away from the gate without interacting with anyone, though not a few moments later, when she reached the first arch that lead up to where the main gate rested, she found that there were a few people standing near the four khajiit she had seen earlier, as one of them, who she assumed had to be the leader of the group, was sitting in front of the main tent while the remaining three were either doing chores or were protecting their leader, though it was nice to see that some people were currently in the middle of trading items with him, either buying something that he had or selling an item to him, meaning some did understand that not all khajiit were thieves or criminals.

Just seeing the khajiit again made Amaryllis think about something, where she jumped over the small wooden fence that was off to her left, near a building that rested near the stables, a structure that had to be a house, and headed behind the building in question, where she would be out of view of everyone for a few seconds and would be able to do what she was thinking about without any distractions. Once she was sure that no one could see her, if even for a few moments, she let the flames wrap around her for a few seconds and her form shifted once more, though this time around, instead of taking on the form of the imperial lady she had worn earlier, or any of the other forms she had used so far, she took on the form of one of the khajiits that the citizens of Whiterun were talking to. She remained in her original gender, though she used a brown fur color, with a number of black spots here and there, and had similar markings to what Za'kera had, but she did leave the scars out of this disguise, as she didn't want anyone to confuse her with Za'kera, even though the only ones who knew anything about the khajiit were back in Cyrodiil, but given that the Thalmor had arrested her, seemingly on charges that were completely false, Amaryllis felt it was best to alter the form and create her own disguise from what she had seen so far. While she made sure that her armor adjusted to having a tail, for when she decided to return to her normal form, she had to admit that her new form made her feel more agile, and she honestly had no idea why she thought that, but in the end she stopped messing with her armor and walked out from behind the house, where she headed towards the road and continued walking into the distance, as she had the feeling that taking some time to explore the plains that rested all around Whiterun was going to be rather exciting, but once she was done exploring she would continue with her quest to find a way back home and resume her search.