The Elder Scrolls: The Battle for Gryphus

by Urimas Ebonheart

Chapter 1

I fly towards the town with my sword at the ready as griffins fly past me towards the ship in a panic.

One of the ten guards following behind me breaks off to guide the panicked civilians.

I reach the village and assess the damage. The marketplace is burnt to a crisp, some houses are burning and there looks like bodies in the streets both burnt or torn apart.

My anger rises as I look up at the dragon, it's a dark red colour and looks bloodthirsty. "DOVAHKIN!" It roars out.

"SPREAD OUT! SURROUND HIM BUT DON'T MAKE A MOVE UNTIL I SAY SO!" I order the pegasi who do as I ordered.

The dragon is now getting closer, a good fifty metres or so. As it gets closer, I hover in place ready to fly over and freeze his wing with a thu'um.

Just as he was about to hit me, I flap my wings and fly over him and inhale, just like the time when Luna was a suit of armour the faceplates slides to the sides exposing my mouth. "Fo Krah Diin!" {50%} I shout and a cloud of ice blasts the dragons right wing, it gets frozen solid and he plummets to the ground, the faceplates then slides back into place.

As he soars past me the wake he pulled behind him pulls me along as well. He impacts the snow and his wing joint shatters causing him to roar out in pain, I correct myself and dive down after him, the pegasi are still circling the dragon.

Before I get to him though, he looks up and prepares to breathe fire at me, I can't turn in time so I fold my arms in front of my face and brace for impact, but the dragon roars in pain again as I see a cyan blur followed by a rainbow trail slam into the dragon's head from the gap between my arms and bounce off back into the sky, the fire breath was deflected to my right.

I take the chance and keep going, sword held to my left side ready to swing.

Just as I reach about fifteen metres away, I spread my wings to slow down a bit. When I reach him, I swing my sword with as much strength as possible at his neck {80%}.

He manages to avoid it and I land to his right, I roll forward avoiding a swipe from his claw.

I turn around with my sword raised and at the ready. 'Was that Rainbow Dash?' I think to myself.

'Looks like it,' Solnara replies.

The dragon gets ready to breath fire but is once again stopped as Dash slams into the top of his head causing his mouth to close and embers to flicker out between his teeth and nostrils.

Dash is off again barely a second after hitting him, the dragon looks up to try and find her which I take advantage of the distraction. Using the enchantment of my leggings I burst forward and jump for his neck {65%}, he hears me coming and twists around slamming his tail into me {80%}.

I'm sent crashing into a tree {70%} but my armour reduces the impact a little, though my back will be very sore.

I look up to see the pegasi guards doing hit and run tactics, mostly trying to jab a spear or two into his eyes, they managed to get his right eye but two of the guards are swatted away and don't get back up, but they’re at least twitching and groaning.

I get back up and take out my bow, I then notch an arrow and take aim. After a few seconds of aiming, I release the arrow but it bounces off his chin, he looks at me as I ready another arrow, he roars and starts to charge at me, again I take aim and fire.

The arrow goes right into his nostril causing him to grab his nose making him trip.

Again Dash flies right at him and collides with the side of his head causing him to roll over, I drop my bow and grab my sword off the snow and run for his exposed neck as he's trying to pull the arrow out.

I raise my sword and once again use as much strength as possible with a vertical swing and a battle cry {40%}, I make contact and slice his throat open.

'LOOK OUT!' Solnara yells out a warning.

The dragon swipes me with a claw hitting me with great force {47%}, I feel something crack as my left arm bends in the wrong way as I roll and slide across the snow {34%}. I lose my grip on my sword as well as it flies off in another direction.

The dragon falls limp to the ground as his scales start to dissolve, I'm lifted off the floor and his soul flows into me.

After five seconds I drop onto the snow groaning in pain and dizziness, Rainbow Dash then rushes over to me.

"FARENGAR! Dude are you alright?" she asks.

"Dash... What are you doing here?" I reply with a wince.

"Oh erm... Never mind that for now! You need help!" she says as she wraps her legs around my torso.

She takes off back up to the airship, as she's flying I can feel a wet warmth run down my cheek from within my helmet. After a ten second flight, she lands on the deck and places me down gently.

"DOCTOR!" Dash calls out.

Two unicorns run over to me and start casting healing spells, I guess they learned them from the copies Celestia took, I can feel my arm and head start to heal but very slowly {56%}, I open my eyes and can see the strain on their faces.

After a good few minutes they stop and start panting from the exertion {77%}, my arm still hurts though as I stand up feeling a bit dizzy.

'Are you alright?' Solnara asks.

'Yeah I'll live, though that hurt quite a bit,' I reply.

{100%} {85%}

"Dude, you feeling better now?" Dash asks.

I look to her but answer with a question of my own. "Why are you here? This is a battle! Not a vacation!" She flinches slightly from my outburst.

"I... I overheard you and the princesses talking about Gryphus and the war that's started while I was delivering a weather report, so I followed your ship here. I have a friend at the capital, even though we left on bad terms she's still my friend and I want to make sure she's okay!" Dash replies.

I frown as I shake my head a bit to clear the dizziness, I look around and see a lot of the griffins on board are injured or just scared senseless.

"Fine, but don't pull a stunt like that again!" I tell her. "Better yet, don't get into a fight again!".

She looks down ears folded back and I sigh. "Dash, I just don't want you getting hurt, Twilight and the others would never forgive me if something happened to you." She then looks up at me, her ears are still down but a smile is on her face.

Before she could reply, I'm swarmed by the griffins from the village.

"Oh thank you so much, stranger! We thought it was the end for all of us," an elderly white griffon with dark grey feathers says while shaking my right hand, the shaking jostles my left arm making it ache even worse.

I wince from the pain but they can't see it through my helmet, he lets go and I grip my left arm to steady it.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, are you alright?" he asks.

'No, you're not, your arm is broken,' Solnara tells me.

'Yeah I thought it might be, I just hope I can heal it,' I reply. A pegasus guard lands on the deck with my sword dangling from his teeth.

"I'll be fine, I just got to heal it is all." I ask a unicorn to help me remove the armour on my left arm as I sit down. Once it's off, I see a nasty lump in the middle as I place my right hand on my left upper arm and start to slowly heal my wound, I wish I still had the ancient magic at my disposal {90%}, it was so much faster.

After another minute of healing {60%}, my arm ain't healing like it should be, guess the spell isn't strong enough to fix a broken bone, I pull out one of the three healing potions I have left and drink it, a few seconds later I shake my left arm and the bone is fixed {100%}.

The griffins gasp and mumble between themselves while the unicorn reattaches the armour, a tan coloured griffon with golden looking feathers walks up to me with a limp.

"Excuse me, but could you heal my arm as well please?" she asks. I recognize her, she's the one I bought the bow from in Ponyville!

"Nice to see you again," I say to her. She looks confused and I remove my helmet.

Her eyes widen. "It's you! Wow, I didn't recognize you with those wings and... Rather morbid but cool looking armour, What's it made from?" she asks.

I smile at her. "Dragon bone," I reply.

She gawks at me as if I just told a lie, but then again she did just watch me kill a dragon.

"That's so cool! By the way, you still got that bow I sold you?" she asks.

I reach back to grab my bow only to find it missing, I look back to see it gone and only three arrows left, I groan as I look back to her.

"Seems like I just lost it," I reply, and grumble at my misfortune.

She chuckles slightly at me. "Well, I'll make you a deal, you heal my arm and I'll give you a new one with a full set of arrows free. Oh, the name’s Theia by the way."

I chuckle as well. "Name's Farengar, and you got a deal." I place both hands on her slightly bruised right arm and after ten seconds it's healed {45%}.

She moves it around and smiles. "Thanks, that's so much better than grandmother's herbal remedy." She makes a gagging expression which makes me chuckle again, an elderly griffon with a fading tan coat, grey feathers, and a smile on her beak playfully slaps Theia's head. "Alright, now for my end of the bargain, follow me down to my store." I put my helmet back on and pick up my sword, I then let the others know where I'm going.

Me and a few other griffins and guards fly back down to the village, they all marvel at the remains of the dragon's skeleton in the snow. I look to the griffon village and see much more now that I'm closer, off in the distance are some well kept fields of barley and hops as well as other crops growing just fine despite the cold environment.

{100%} {100%} {100%} {100%}

In the village, about a quarter of the buildings are destroyed or burning as well as the market stalls. Me, Theia, and the elderly griffon land in front of a building that looks almost identical to a nordic style home, just with griffon head carvings and such.

The roof is a bit damaged, but other than that it looks fine. We all enter and the walls are lined with bows and different kinds of arrows. "Wait here," Theia tells me as she goes into a back room, I remove my helmet and attach it to my belt on my left hip.

The elderly griffon coughs and I look to her. "My name is Garuda. On behalf of her father, I thank you for saving Theia and the rest of us from that terrible dragon. I've already lost my son, I couldn't bare the thought of losing my granddaughter as well." I'm surprised when she rears up and hugs me.

I smile and lightly hug her back, she drops down as Theia returns with a rather long box, she opens it and shows me the contents.

Inside is a magnificent bow made to look like two griffins facing each other. "It's made from a rare type of wood from a golden sitka tree. It was made by my father, he told me to not sell it unless the buyer was worthy of it." She looks up to me with a smile. "Well go on then, pick it up."

I reach out and carefully pick it up, it feels light, but that's probably due to my armours enchantments. I pull the string back and the wings bend easily with only a mild creak, I release the string and it twangs with hardly any vibrations.

"It's a very nice bow, but seems a bit too big for my setup, that's why I bought a shortbow last time," I tell her.

She giggles as she points to the bow. "See the trigger on the grip?" I look and nodded, there's a small button. "Press it." I do so and the wings fold inward making it look like it's furling its wings.

My eyes widen as the bow is now small enough to hang off my hip by a small loop on the grip.

"See, now you can hang it on the back of your waist when you're not using it, oh and press the trigger again to fold it back out." I do so and the wings unfurl back out into place.

"How does it do that?" I ask.

"Father had a unicorn enchant it, not cheap either," she replies.

I frown. "I can't accept this for nothing, this is too well made to just give away," I say as I look from the bow to her.

"You saved us from a nasty fiery death, I say saving our lives is payment enough," Theia says and Garuda slowly nodded in agreement.

I look back to the bow again, Solnara speaks up. 'I agree with them, I say you've earned this.'

I close my eyes and reply. 'But how often do I use a bow? This would be wasted on me.'

'She's decided you're the one to have this bow, you'll insult her by refusing.'

With a sigh, I open my eyes and look to Theia. "Alright then, Thank you, but I will return it once I'm done in Gryphus," I tell her.

She smiles. "Sure, I'll even give you another shortbow when you come back." I press the trigger again and hang the bow off a small hook on the back of my belt. Theia gives me thirty arrows and a longer quiver to fit the arrows in, I take off the old one and give it to her.

I place the new quiver on my back next to my greatsword. "How long will you be staying before you head off again?" Theia asks me.

"Probably a few hours, seems the guards want to help out around here," I reply looking out the window.

Looking outside I see ponies and griffins are running about putting out fires and calling out for survivors.

"Then would you like to stay for supper? You eat meat right?" she asks.

My head turns quickly with a surprised expression. "Yes," I reply.

"Ah good, was not sure since you live with the ponies, we're having seasoned wild rabbit with some mead." My eyebrows rise and a large smile is on my face.

"Mead?" I ask, just to make sure I'm not hearing things.

"Erm yes, I take it you don't get a lot of it over in Equestria."

"More like none, last drink of mead I had was in a dream, all they got is cider and mild ale."

"Well then, shall we go get you a mug now then?" she asks with a sly smile.

"Praise the nine," I whisper to myself. "Lead the way!" I then say with a grin.

We all go through the back to a kitchen area, I take a seat at the table while Garuda takes a seat in a rocking chair, what's with old people and rocking chairs anyway? While Theia gets two mugs and fills them from a keg, I can already smell it as the mugs fill with the frothy beverage.

Once filled, Theia hands me a mug and I gratefully take it, I take a deep inhale of air through my nose and sigh. I take a large gulp of the drink and groan from the flavour.

"By Akatosh that's good stuff," I say as I take another swig, causing Theia to laugh.

I bring the mug away from my lips. "Let's see you laugh after nearly a month with no mead!" I say in a teasing tone.

That stops her laughing and she cringes at the thought. "Fuck that!" she says and a pillow is thrown at her head from Garuda.

"Watch your beak! Your parents didn't raise you like that!" she scolds her.

I look back to Theia to see a bit of mead got knocked out of her mug and onto her face, I chuckle while she wipes it off with a cloth. "Sorry," Theia replies to her grandmother. We all wait for ten minutes and chat about what village life is like here as the rabbit is cooked. Once it's ready, we all sit at the table.

Theia places a plate in front of me, Garuda, and one for herself. After she sits down, they Interlock their talons together, close their eyes, and lower their heads, I do the same.

After a few seconds I hear them pick up their knives and forks and I do so as well.

This is the first meal I've had in a long time with such good meat, fish is fine, but not really that filling. The rabbit is perfectly cooked with some herbs and a light sheen of mead glazed over it, I couldn't help the light groan I let out as I chew on it.

After a few more bites a knock is heard at the door, Theia gets up to answer it and I can hear Dash. "Hi, have you seen Farengar anywhere?" she asks.

"Yeah, he's having supper with us at the moment," Theia replies.

"Oh, well can you tell him that it's almost time to go and that the village elders want to see him before he leaves."

"Sure, I'll pass it on."

"Awesome, thanks!" And with that, I hear the flapping of wings and the door closing.

Theia returns to the kitchen and before she speaks I interrupt her. "I heard, so where do I meet the Elders?" I ask and take another bite.

"By the western gate is the large Gathering Hall where the village gathers for social events or meetings," Garuda replies still nibbling on her meal.

"Great," I say and down a large gulp of mead, oh Talos have I missed this.

I finish my meal and say my thanks and goodbyes, I leave the building and head for the western gate. After a five minute walk, I see the villagers and guards collecting the bodies and clearing the debris off the roads.

I arrive at a large looking building, I guess it's the Gathering Hall. I open the large doors and walk inside.

I'm greeted by five very old looking griffins in some robe like clothing. "Ah, welcome. We're glad you were able to come, the village has pooled together what we could spare for your aid." He pulls out a rather large bag full of coins.

I hold my hands out in a no thank you gesture. "No I couldn't, you'll be needing it more to help repair your village." But a thought then pops into my head. "but could you spare a few kegs of mead?" I ask with hope.

The male griffon in the middle chuckles. "That's very kind of you, and yes, we can spare a few kegs for you." I smile as he said that.

"Where will you head to now?" a female griffin asks.

"To the Capital to see the king and to deliver his insane brat Razor Beak to him as well." They frown at the mention of Razor Beak.

"Ah yes, the prince. News has spread of his attempt at killing Princess Luna and her Consort."

I also frown, but don't reveal I'm Luna's Consort. "Well, I'm needed back on the ship now, may the wind guide you," I say, and with that, I put my helmet back on and return to the ship.

I land on the deck as the crew work on getting supplies sorted, to my delight, I spot five kegs being loaded on board.

"Sir!" A unicorn guard salutes to me. "Once preparations are done, we'll be ready to go." I nodded and he goes about his business.

I spot Dash sitting at the front of the deck looking over the railings, I walk over to her and ruffle her mane.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier, it's just I wasn't expecting you to be here, and thanks for saving me as well... Just don't let it go to your head," I say with a light bop to her head.

She just laughs and thumps my hip causing her to yelp and shake her hoof making me chuckle.

"And I meant what I said, don't jump into a fight again," I tell her seriously.

"I know I know, it was a heat of the moment kinda thing," she replies.

The ship starts moving, signalling that everyone was back on board and all supplies were stored away. The ship starts to ascend above the clouds, Dash jumped overboard and began doing loops, tricks, and other stunts, a lot of the crew just watches as she shows off.

After a few minutes, the ship flies over the mountains and we can see a forest covered with snow to the right, to the left was an old temple like ruin and a few random buildings scattered about with a few griffins around them with bows, most likely hunters.

In the distance was another mountain range topped with snow and some areas with foliage on them, it'll probably take awhile to reach it, Dash lands next to me and I get an idea.

"Hey, Dash. Would you like to learn some magic?" I say with a smirk.

"What're ya talking about? Only unicorns can learn magic," she says confused.

"Twilight didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Not just unicorns can cast magic, apparently anyone can learn my magic. Even my friend Honour can use healing and levitation magic and he's an earth pony."

Dash's jaw drops at the news. "And I can learn that as well?" she asks.

"Sure, I got my magic book with me." Her eyes widen.

"Oh my Gosh, ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!" she says excitedly.

"Well then, let's go. It'll be awhile before we get to the Capital."

Dash and I head off below deck to get my book to learn a new spell as the ship continues to fly towards the snow capped mountains.