//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: The Elder Scrolls: The Battle for Gryphus // by Urimas Ebonheart //------------------------------// The Elder Scrolls: The Battle for Gryphus Chapter 4 The moon looks brighter than usual as I look out of the window. I head over to the foot of my bed and remove my armour and place it on the floor, I place my weapons against the wall and the amulet on the bedside table. With a yawn I lie down and close my eyes, now that I think about it, with Luna pregnant, I probably will have to marry her now. I drift off to sleep with those thoughts in mind. Dreamscape I open my eyes to a grassy hill with a bright moon high in the sky, I see Luna sitting on a cushion looking up at the moon. She turns to look at me as she hears me walking over to her, she smiles at me and I sit beside her. "Hello, my love," she says giving me a kiss to my cheek. "And hello to you too, so how are you feeling?" I ask her. "I'm feeling okay, I seem to be a bit moody lately though with the castle staff... and I'm also starting to crave... meat... Although eggs and fish seem to be sating that," she replies. "Sounds normal, I've met a few pregnant women back in Tamriel. They were very emotional, happy one minute, angry the next. Even some strange cravings such as apples dipped in butter." I tell her. She scrunches up her nose at the thought, but then raises an eyebrow at the idea, I just shake my head with a chuckle. "What do you think will happen to Razor Beak once his father finds out?" I ask her. "He'll most likely place him in the dungeons for treason against the crown and endangering relations between our nations. The griffins show no mercy to traitors, even if it's their own family," she replies. I couldn't help the small smile on my face, I'd rather I had the chance to just get rid of him myself since he threatened me, Luna, and Moonbeam, but that's an acceptable outcome. I look up to the moon as it shines brightly. I then look back to Luna. "I've got something to ask you," I begin to say and she looks at me with a curious expression. "Once this is all over and I return to Canterlot..." I pause as a small blueish silver necklace with a deep blue sapphire in the shape of the moon appears around her neck. "Will you marry me?" I finish saying. She just stares at the necklace for a minute as tears start to fall from her eyes, she looks at me and with a shaky smile and lunges at me with a bone crushing hug. "YES!" she yells as she starts crying happily. I hug her back as she starts to calm down, she pulls back and we look into each other’s eyes. With a thumb, I dry her cheeks. "Also, when I get back, I'll have a real version of that necklace made for you," I tell her. She sniffles a bit and nodded with a happy smile. For the next hour, we enjoy each other’s company. I've told her a few Nord names such as Erik, Fenreld, Torban, Doria, Jyta, and Kirstina, she tells me that although she's thought of a few names herself, a foals name just comes to them when they're born most of the time. She also says something called the summer sun celebration is coming up but I'll miss it by the time I would be back. As usual, a red mist appears next to Luna, she sighs. "Not much time anymore," she says goodbye as she steps into the mist. I say goodbye as well and look to my right, the house I made is still there. I stand up and walk over to it, I notice Sheogorath's statue still here to the left side of the house. Once inside, I remember the staff on the table and pick it up. After examining it for a few seconds, a light zap to my hand from the staff makes me grunt from the mild sting and I drop it, before it hits the floor it vanishes. I blink a few times trying to figure out what just happened, I step outside and look at the statue but nothing has changed. With a frown, I step back in and lay on the bed. After a few seconds looking at my hand, I drift off. End Dreamscape I'm awakened by a loud thud and I bolt upright, I look around and see nothing different. I rub my eyes and turn to stand up, but feel something under my foot, looking down, I see Sheogorath's staff. After staring at it for a few seconds I cautiously pick it up, I'm not zapped this time and grip it with both hands. I frown as I have no idea how it got here. I place it in a closet to keep it hidden for now, I'm going to have to keep an eye on it and tell Luna later. I get dressed and go to get washed up in the ship's shower room. To me, it's a rather good size, but to a minotaur, it might be just big enough for them. Once clean, I use the toilet, which thankfully had smaller ones since the minotaur ones were quite big. I head back to my room, passing a few guards also just getting up where I greet them and they return the greeting. Once back in my room, I equip my armour, weapons and amulet. 'Good morning, Solnara,' I say in my mind. 'Good morning, so are you ready for today?' she asks. 'As ready as I can be,' I reply. Once done, I head up onto the deck and look around, I notice that the ship is pretty close to the ground as I walk to the front railing. Members of the crew are looking over the balloon and other parts of the ship. To the right is a vast field of snow and trees, to the left is a mountain face going up above the clouds, ahead there seems to be a woodland area and a city way off in the distance, I look down and notice something laying in the snow as wolves are circling it. I notice a small red trail leading from the tree line to whatever the wolves are stalking. After a few seconds of looking carefully, I notice it's a young griffin. I turn back and yell at the three pegasi guards standing on the deck. "GUARDS! ON ME NOW!" They start running towards me as I jump off the ship, I draw my sword and tuck my wings in to dive down, I hear the guards wings flap as they follow behind me. I see six wolves look up at me, I flare my wings out and land heavily on one of the wolves killing it instantly. I spread my legs apart as I get into a stance and swing at the closest wolf taking the top part of its head clean off. Another wolf leaps onto me and starts biting my neck making me drop my sword. The guards each land quite hard on the other three wolves impaling them with spears as nasty sounding squelches are heard. I grab the back of the wolf's neck and pull it away as it snaps at my face and swipes it's paws at me. I head butt it quite hard and then lift it up and slam its back down on my armoured knee. The wolf’s spine snaps and I toss it aside as a guard finishes it off, I put my sword away and turn to the unconscious griffin on the floor. Carefully picking it up, the guards and I fly back up to the ship where it's safe. Placing the griffin on the deck, I take my helmet off and check the wounds, it has a nasty bite on its right hind leg and its left wing is missing some feathers. The two medical unicorns rush over and start casting their healing spells and I join in as well. After about thirty seconds, {70%} the wounds are healed but the feathers will have to regrow on their own, the griffin groans as it starts to open it's eyes. It looks at me and screams as it tries to run away, an earth pony mare catches it and tries to calm it down, by the sound of the scream it's a young female. I walk over and speak softly. "It's alright, you're safe now. We healed your wounds already. What were you doing out there on your own?" I ask her. I can see she's trembling, she's silent for a few seconds but finally speaks up. "A d-dragon attacked our v-village, my m-mama and I got out, b-but a pack of wolves c-chased us. She... she told me to run while she d-distracted them." I can see tears forming in her eyes, sounds similar with my mother. I frown with determination, I stand up and look to the captain. "CAPTAIN! STOP THE SHIP!" I yell over to him, if there's a chance she's still alive I'm taking it. He nodded, then pulls a lever and the ship stops. "I need two pegasi, two earth ponies and one of you two," I say pointing at the two unicorn medics. "to come with me. We're going to find her mother!" Two pegasi step forward and I notice Fleetwind is one of them, I smile to her as two earth ponies and the unicorn mare steps forward as well. "Alright, we'll follow the blood trail back, stay together, we don't know how many more of the wolves or what else is in there," I tell them. The pegasi jump over board with an earth pony each wrapped in their legs, I walk up to the unicorn. "What's your name?" I ask her. "Private White Star, Sir," she replies. She has a white coat and a light pale blue mane and tail, her mark is a white five pointed star with a golden glow and small sparks of light around it. "Ready?" I ask her. Before she could answer, I wrap my arms around her midsection and lift her up. She yelps and then gives a startled scream as I also jump overboard. I land gently and set her down, she wobbles slightly but is fine after a few seconds. I then turn to the pegasi. "I want you two flying overhead and try to spot her or warn us if something is heading our way," I order them and they nodded. I then look to the others. "I'll take the lead, I want you two," I point to the earth ponies. "on either side of White Star and protect her." They both nodded. I now look to White Star. "Once we get there, I want you to start healing her if she's still alive. I'll help protect you if we're attacked, but if not, I'll help you with the healing." She nodded as well. "Alright then, let's go," I say and the pegasi take off following the small blood trail but staying above us, I draw my sword as do the earth ponies who wield a hammer each. {85%} We all run into the wooded area following the trail through the trees, I can hear howls and some sounds of a scuffle. The pegasi whistle down to me and I look up to see them flying off to the left. Following them, I run past some trees to see a griffin with some serious injuries fighting off a large pack of wolves with just her talons. Four wolves already lay dead on the snow, without a second thought I charge forward and tackle the two wolves that were pinning the griffin down. The pegasi dive through small gaps in the tree line and impale two of the wolves. The earth ponies rush forward and slam their hammers into another two sending them flying a good few metres with solid thuds. Two of the wolves try to jump me, but with great strength I thrust my sword into the right one and grab the left one with my left hand by the throat, I remove my sword from the now dead wolf and impale the wolf I'm holding in the chest. {100%} I see small bolts of fire fly past me hitting two more wolves, I look back to see White Star in a stance with her horn glowing and pointed at the beasts. The rest of the wolves howl and run away, White Star immediately rushes over to the griffin who has collapsed onto the floor and begins to cast her healing spell. I also run over to them and begin healing as well while the earth ponies and pegasi surround us. Unfortunately, our healing spells are just too weak to repair the damage she's suffered. Without any second thoughts, I take out my last healing potion and force her to drink it. After a few seconds her wounds, though not fully healed, have begun closing which allowed us to finish the rest with the spells {50%}. She groans as she starts to come around. I help her up into a sitting position as she starts to fully awaken, she then looks at the ponies and me. "W-Who are you?" she asks confused and a little bit scared. "My name is Farengar, we found your daughter nearby surrounded by wolves..." I tell but she cuts me off. "WHAT! Is she alright!?" she asks in a panicked tone. "Yes she's fine, we healed her injuries and she told us what happened, we followed her trail here to rescue you," I tell her and she relaxes. "Come on, let's get you to the ship and to your daughter." I help her up and she walks with a slight limp, me and the others keep an eye out for anything else that might attack. We all make it back to the ship, it has landed with a ramp set up to the deck. We all board and the young griffin runs over to her mother. "MAMA!" she yells as they both hug each other. The little griffin then runs over to me and hugs my leg. "Thank you for saving mama and me," she says. I ruffle the feathers on her head. "You're welcome," I reply. I then turn to the mother. "What will you do now? We're heading to the capital right now, you're welcome to join us," I tell her. She looks back in the direction of the woods. "Yes, there's nothing left for us anymore, the dragon burned down everything," she replies. I frown, I just hope I can prevent any other villages or towns from getting destroyed, I walk over to the Captain as some guards guide the two griffins below deck. "Captain, we're good to go now, thank you for stopping," I say to him. "That's alright, it turned out good in the end," he replies. He stands behind the wheel and pulls a lever. "All hands prepare for take off!" he says into the funnel. The ramp retracts and the ship takes off and continues on its way. After we cleared the small hill in front of the ship, I spot a scorched area in the distance behind the tall woodland area, the remains of a small village. I stand watch for another hour as the city is getting closer, looks like it'll be another three hours before we reach it. A unicorn takes over watch and I head below. I enter my cabin and open the closet, the staff is still there and I pick it up and walk over to the bed and sit down. I examine the staff carefully, I remember what it did to my armour and to the unicorn during my battle in the Dreamscape, but I have a feeling it can do so much more than that. I decide to head back up to the deck and give it a test, I strap it onto my back and I tell the Captain I'm off to collect a few stones. Once gathered, I place them on the deck and draw the staff, I throw the rocks overboard and start firing off white orbs at the stones from the tip of the staff. The first few missed but the next shot hits and I'm surprised as the stone turns into an anvil and plummets to the ground. The guards and crew look at me with shocked expressions, I look to the staff and try again, this time the stone grew wings and flew off. Before anyone could say anything, a flash of light shines in front of me and blinds me for a second. When I open my eyes, I see a creature made of different parts floating in the air. "Alright, who's playing around with chaos magic then hmmm?" he asks as he looks down at me, is this Discord? He looks like how Luna described him. He then spots the staff in my hands. "Oh, well if it isn't Daddy's stick," he says the Daddy part in a sarcastic tone. "Oh, I know you, you're the one who turned the old geezer into a garden gnome." He lands on the deck and grabs my hand and shakes it. "I must thank you for that, I've been running from him for years, the only good thing about being turned into stone myself was he was never able to find me." He lets go and I just stare at him. He blinks a few times. "Well you're not very chatty are you? Also, you do know it's rude to stare at others right?" he says as his eyes bug out and get right into my face. My eyebrows go up from the unexpected action. "Err, sorry. It's just I've never seen anything like you before," I reply. "Oh that's quite alright," he says and retracts his eyes. "I am the only one of my kind as it is." He sounded a bit sad about that. "Well if it makes you feel any better, I'm the only one of my kind here as well, I think." I say to cheer him up. He smiles and chuckles. "Ah, two outcasts given a second chance aye?" He pats me on the back a few times. "Oh, but where are my manners? I'm Discord, the spirit of chaos," he says with a dramatic bow. I return the smile. "I'm Farengar, a Nord warrior," I reply. "Well I think we're gonna get along just fine!" he says wrapping his paw arm around my shoulders. As he finished saying that, Dash walks onto the deck and spots Discord. "Argh, what's he doing here?" she asks with a frown. "Why, Dashie! What a surprise to see you here!" he says floating over to her. "Everypony was wondering where you ran off too." "That's none of your business," she growls out and storms off below. I walk over to Discord who lands on his feet. "What was that about?" I ask him. Discord waves it off. "Oh nothing much, just a little prank I pulled on her and she couldn't take it. For a prankster herself, she should be able to take a prank in turn," he says and I raise an eyebrow at him. "Oh alright, so I turned her coat bright pink and put a frilly dress on her, it's not like I took her wings or anything else," he admits. That reminds me. "Speaking of pranks, you wouldn't know anything about me turning into a pony now would you?" His eyes widen and he chuckles nervously. "Well I, err, that is... Maybe?" he replies with a sheepish smile.