Sonata moaned as she picked herself off of the strange wall that she and Kree had been leaning off for what seemed like the last hour, though she had no way of actually knowing how long they had actually been there. Her body was still exhausted from the fight, which told her that whatever fraction of her power that she still had in her body would come at a price when she used it. Still, her former power had allowed her to defeat the powerful draugr that was guarding the wall that they had been leaning on, and whatever treasure happened to be located in the massive chest near the coffin.
"Ugh," Kree moaned, opening her eyes as she stretched for a moment, during which she noticed Sonata standing nearby, "Tell me something Sonata; why did we nearly die earlier?"
"Because I wouldn't stand for bandits stealing from a trader?" Sonata replied, shrugging her shoulders for a moment, "Look, I understand that we were ill equipped and ill prepared for what we found in this barrow, so I'm proposing that we don't do it again until we're certain that we're ready."
"I'm not sure I want to enter another nordic barrow after this one," Kree admitted, though she pulled herself onto her feet and weakly walked over to the chest, "but, seeing how we're already done with this one, we might as well collect any treasure that we can find and be on our way. I'm sure that there's something inside the chest we can either use later on or sell to one of the shopkeepers when we get to Whiterun, provided you actually stay on track this time."
"Sorry," Sonata said, rubbing the back of her head for a moment as Kree opened the chest, to which she immediately became interested in what they had found, "So... what's in the chest?"
"Twenty gold pieces, a pair of iron gauntlets, and a steel sword that's enchanted," Kree replied, sighing as she moved the loot into her pack, "not really much worth talking about... what do you have there?"
Sonata had searched the body of the draugr she had killed, while Kree was telling her what she had found in the chest, and found some sort of ancient stone that seemed important. She looked down at it for a moment, trying to decide what importance it could possibly have, before turning it over and finding what appeared to be a map of some kind... one that had what appeared to be burial sites marked everywhere. She had no idea why this had been buried with that powerful draugr, but eventually shrugged her shoulders as she looked back up at her friend.
"Some sort of ancient stone tablet," Sonata admitted, though she knew that she looked like she had no idea why she was so interested in the stone, "I know that this is important, but why I don't know."
"Maybe we should show this to the Court Wizard in Dragonsreach," Kree commented, staring at the stone for a moment, as if she was also trying to figure out what purpose it could serve, "I hear that he's always interested in researching new things, be it actually something new or something forgotten that recently come back, so I have no doubts that he'll take the stone from us. Who knows, maybe we'll even get some sort of reward for turning the stone over to him... anything would make up for this near death experience."
Sonata agreed that they should hand over the stone to someone who might actually want to study the thing, but when it came time to leave the area she quickly discovered that there was a secret entrance above the massive stone wall. The path then led them through an opening that took them out into the fresh air, to which they discovered that it was already midday, telling them that they had wasted half the day inside the barrow. Kree took a moment to make sure she knew where they were, which she openly admitted was a guess on her part considering she had never been away from the Legion for this long, before she determined that they were on the other side of the mountain that Bleak Falls Barrow rested on.
With their location now known to them they began the journey around the mountain, so they could return the Golden Claw before making their way to Whiterun... for real this time.
-----------------------------------
When they arrived in Riverwood, for the second time, Kree walked into the Riverwood Trader and dropped off the claw that Sonata wanted to recover, though when she walked out she was carrying an addition four hundred septims. With the delivery made they got underway once more, though this time when they reached the fork in the road Kree directed Sonata to the right, so that they could actually reach their destination this time. While they walked Sonata looked around her, taking in the sights of the running water, the animals that ran away from them, and just about anything else that was around them. She was just taking her mind off of the fact that a small fraction of her power actually rested inside of her, but she was uncertain if she should be overjoyed about it or fear what she could do with what little she had left.
When they rounded a corner and got their first look at Whiterun, as neither of them had much experience outside the fortress they had been in, Sonata stopped in her tracks and stared at the city.
"Is something wrong Sonata?" Kree asked, as she had walked a little further down the dirt road before realizing that her companion was standing still, staring at the city.
"Oh... my... god..." Sonata breathed, anxious to get inside the city now, "Its Rohan!"
Kree had no idea what Sonata was talking about, but seeing the look on her face told her that whatever her friend was remembering would be good for her, so she decided to simply nudge her friend towards the path once more. After a few minutes Sonata finally snapped out of it and they could really get underway, allowing them to come to another fork in the road and make the turn that would take them to the gate.
Not a few minutes later they saw a group of warriors attacking a giant, to which Kree growled and loosed an arrow into the giant's side, causing it to stumble for a moment. Sonata, seeing that they were getting into another fight, called what magic she could spar into her left hand and threw a small lightning bolt at the giant's head, causing it to turn towards the two of them. That opening it presented, however, gave the warriors behind it the opportunity to cut its legs out from under it, dropping it to the ground as the archer of the group planted on last arrow in the creature's head. The giant shuddered for a moment before going still, causing the trio of warriors to cheer as they collected any discarded items and healed whatever wounds they might have endured.
"You two seem like you can handle yourselves well." the archer, a female nord Sonata realized, said to them, after separating from her team for a moment, "The both of you could make decent Shield-Sisters."
"Shield-Sister?" Sonata asked, not really understanding what the women was talking about, though she had the feeling that it was something like what she had seen from the soldiers when they were training.
"An outsider, eh?" the women commented, raising her eyebrow for a moment, "Never heard of the Companions? An order of warriors. We are brothers and sisters in honor. And we show up to solve problems if the coin is good enough."
Sonata, still confused about everything she was learning about the Companions, followed after the trio of warriors and Kree, who was telling them that they had urgent news to deliver to the Jarl. The archer, Aela, simply nodded her understanding and led the way to the gate, where she tried to explain the Companions to Sonata in five minutes of time, leading to the former Siren being confused. When they reached the gate Kree told the guards, who had stopped her and Sonata from entering immediately, about the dragon they had seen at Helgen, to which they were allowed to follow Aela's group into the city.
Once inside the city Aela made sure that they reached the stairs that would take them to Dragonsreach, the massive castle that happened to overlook the entirety of the city. The instant they began to ascend the stairs Aela's group bid them farewell and returned to their home, the mead hall that they called Jorrvaskr. It took them a few minutes to climb the stairs, but when they did they walked across the bridge and entered the castle, where they hoped to tell the Jarl about the dragon attack.
Inside the castle the two of them found a man, one dressed in fine clothing and wearing a circlet around his forehead, sitting on a throne that happened to rest beneath a dragon's skull. On the man's left was another man that was dressed in fine clothes, who Sonata assumed had to be an adviser of sorts, while on his right was a dark elf, though she appeared to be a warrior of some kind. The warrior noticed them approach the massive fireplace, so she drew her weapon and approached them, causing them to stop before she decided to attack.
"What is the meaning of this interruption?" the elf asked, narrowing her eyes at them, "The Jarl is not receiving visitors at this time."
"We have a message for Jarl Balgruuf," Kree replied, though Sonata nodding her agreement to her friend's statement, "Its about the black dragon that flew over Bleak Falls Barrow. The same dragon that destroyed Helgen earlier today."
The elf stared at them for a moment before the Jarl called to her, wishing to hear what his visitors had to say, which cased the elf to mumble to herself before returning to her Lord's side. Bjorn nodded and the two of them approached Jarl Balgruuf, stopping before the throne as the Jarl turned his full attention on his new guests.
"So the two of you were at Helgen?" the Jarl asked, resting his eyes on them, "So you saw this dragon with your own eyes?"
"Just as they were getting ready to execute Ulfric Stormcloak," Sonata replied, retelling what had happened at Helgen in the hope that the Jarl would believe their tale, "The dragon burst out of the sky and started wrecking the place, killing Imperials and Stormcloaks without a care in the world."
"By Ysmir Irileth was right," the Jarl exclaimed, looking at both Proventus and Irileth, who in turn glanced back at their Lord, "What do you say now, Proventus? Shall we continue to trust in the strength of our walls? Against a dragon?"
"My lord," Irileth spoke up, diverting the Jarl's attention to her for a moment, "we should send some troops to Riverwood at once. It's in the most immediate danger, if that dragon's still lurking in the mountains..."
"No," the other man, Proventus, countered rather suddenly, as if what Irileth said was wrong and would worsen the situation, rather than make it better, "the Jarl of Falkreath will view that as a provocation! He'll assume that we're preparing to join Ulfric's side and attack him."
"Enough, both of you." Bulgruuf commaneded, causing both Proventus and Irileth to stop bickering among themselves, "Irileth, send a detachment to Riverwood at once. I'll not stand idly by while a dragon burns my Hold and slaughters my people."
Irileth nodded before heading towards the door, clearly heading to the barracks to inform a few guards of their new assignment, leaving Proventus to hang his head down as he walked over to a chair, sat down, and pulled out some papers to look over.
"Well done," the Jarl said, turning to face Kree and Sonata once more before beckoning for a guard to come over, to which he whispered something before sending the guard off, "The two of you sought me out, on your own initiative. You have done Whiterun a service that we won't soon forget, but perhaps there is something more that you can do for us. Come, let us find Farengar, my Court Wizard. He's looking into a matter related to these dragon and... rumors of dragons."
Farengar, as it turned out, happened to be deeply involved with one of his experiments when they walked over to his portion of the castle, which Sonata could see was a workplace. The Jarl cleared his throat and the wizard turned around, where he discovered that he had guests and had to pry himself away from his work for a moment.
"Farengar, I found two people who can help you with your dragon project," the Jarl said, turning around to make sure that Kree and Sonata had followed him into the study, "go ahead and fill them in on all the details. Maybe they can help you in your research."
"So the Jarl thinks the two of you can be of some use to me?" the wizard asked, staring at the two of them as Jarl Bulgruuf returned to the throne area, "Oh yes, he must be referring to my into the dragons. I could use someone to fetch something for me, which really means that I need someone to delve into a dangerous ruin in search of an ancient stone tablet that may or may not be there."
Sonata had the strangest feeling that the tablet that Farengar spoke of was actually the one she was carrying, but she wasn't one hundred percent certain and wanted to make sure she was correct in her assumption before even mentioning that she had it with her. Kree seemed to be thinking the same thing that Sonata was, but she gathered herself and decided that it was time for them to see what the wizard wanted them to do.
"Just tell us what you need us to do," Kree told the wizard, wondering if they'd have to go through another barrow if the stone Sonata carried wasn't the one that Farengar had mentioned.
"You are eager to begin your adventure. Excellent. The sooner begun, the sooner done, eh?" Farengar commented, though it was clear that he liked the idea of them being gone and starting their adventure, "I, ah, learned of a certain stone tablet said to be housed in Bleak Falls Barrow - a 'Dragonstone,' said to contain a map of dragon burial sites. Go to Bleak Falls Barrow, find this tablet - no doubt interred in the main chamber - and bring it to me. Simplicity itself."
Sonata, upon hearing that the stone that Farengar required was located in Bleak Falls Barrow, threw her doubts aside and approached the wizard, before placing the stone on the table.
"There you go," Sonata smirked, actually pleased to have found the item he wanted before even been asked to recover it, "The Dragonstone of Bleak Falls Barrow... so do we get some sort of reward for finding this?"
"You'll have to bring that up with the Jarl," Farengar said, touching the stone as he began to study it, completely ignoring the fact that the two of them were even standing there.
The next few minutes went by quickly as Irileth returned to the castle and dragged the three of them up the stairs, saying that a dragon had been sighted near the city and was attacking a watchtower. One of the guards told the story of how it came out of nowhere and attacked them, though he swore that it didn't notice him as he ran to tell them about the beast. Farengar seemed excited about the idea of experimenting on a dragon, though both Kree and Sonata knew that whatever forces got sent to fight the dragon might not return alive. The Jarl, however, declared that the two of them, having survived Helgen and thus had more experience than anyone else, would accompany the soldiers and fight the dragon.
Their reward for delivering news about the destruction of Helgen was a golden sword that had flames dance around it every now and then, though Sonata learned that it was of dwarven make. The reward for recovering the Dragonstone, on the other hand, was a pair of leather gloves that gave the wearer more magicka, which Kree handed to Sonata, seeing how she had some magic inside of her. As the two of them followed Irileth and her guards, unwillingly Sonata mentally added to herself, she removed the gloves she had been wearing and slipped on the new pair, not really understanding the purpose of the enchantment, but took it anyway.
Twenty minutes later the three of them, and the squad of ten guards that had been assigned to aid them in defending the city, stood beside a bunch of rocks and looked out at the ruined watchtower. Sonata could see that the tower was damaged, though she had to wonder where the dragon responsible for the damage was located. Irileth told them that they would be marching on the tower, so they could scout for survivors and see if they could find the dragon, before she and her guards broke ranks and moved forwards. Kree sighed and drew her bow, knowing that it would be the best weapon for dealing damage, though Sonata stuck to the sword that she had been given earlier, though she knew she could use her magic if need be.
As they approached the tower Sonata turned towards the mountain that Bleak Falls Barrow rested on, watching as a winged creature appear in the sky and begin to descend on the tower, before she realized that it was the dragon they had been told about.
"Kill it!" Irileth shouted, drawing an arrow back in her bow before loosing it at the dragon, "Slay the dragon!"
The dragon stared down at them and gathered its power in its mouth, giving Sonata and Kree time to get several of the guards behind parts of the ruined wall, before it loosed a fireball at the ground, scattering those that were still standing near the beast. Kree then stuck her head out from where she was hiding and loosed her arrow at the dragon, where it hit its side as it continued to fly around the tower, as if it had taken no damage. Seconds later a lightning bolt arced through the air and hit the dragon in the side, making it tip for a moment before it corrected itself and sought out who had struck it. Kree turned to Sonata, wondering if it had been her, but she shook her head and pointed at Irileth, who loosed another bolt at the beast's stomach.
As they fought the dragon, whenever it decided to come near them and the guards, Sonata tried several times to duplicate the power behind Irileth's lightning spell, but all her attempts ended with a small blast that continued to miss the dragon. She actually expected to miss the dragon, as she had absolutely no experience fighting the creatures, which meant that this was her first time actually trying to kill one, something that she didn't want to admit to the others. She knew that it was Kree's first time fighting a dragon as well, but she was more used to fighting than Sonata was, so she had a greater chance at hitting the beast than Sonata had.
As it turned out the dragon was toying with them, as he hadn't actually killed anyone yet and was simply lighting everything around them on fire, as if he was enjoying the show that they were putting on.
"We're getting nowhere fast," Irileth growled, as she, Kree, and Sonata retreated into the tower, where they might be able to figure out how to slay the creature that was toying with them, "Please tell me that one of you has some sort of plan on how to kill that creature... otherwise we won't make it out of here at all."
"I don't know of anything that would help us," Kree replied, shaking her head as she looked out of the tower's opening, watching the dragon fire another fireball down at the guards, "I was trained to fight bandits and whoever else my enemy was, but I was not trained to fight a dragon. We'd need something like the Dragonborn to defeat this beast, yet I know that there hasn't been one of those legendary heroes in quite a long time. Sonata, do you have any ideas on how to stop this thing?"
Sonata, half listening to her companions, was staring at the sky, which had been slowly turning black and growing in size as the dragon loosed more flames into the surrounding area. She recalled a spell she had gleamed from one of the mages back in Equus before her banishment with her sister, which mage that was she couldn't remember, and recalled that the spell could potentially add a lightning storm to black clouds until they dissipated. It was an experimental spell, something that she had no idea if it had been proven or disproved, but she knew that if they could stick a sword into the dragon, anywhere really, then it would give the lightning someplace to strike.
Once she had a vague idea of what her plan was, which was actually all she had at the moment, she shared it with her companions, who both stared at her as if she had lost her mind.
"Its better than nothing," Kree commented, drawing a few more arrows as she prepared herself, "We'll signal you once there's something sticking out of the dragon's body... though I hope we don't get killed in the process of trying to save Whiterun."
As Kree and Irileth made their way outside, so they could figure out how to lodge something into the dragon's body, Sonata made her way to the top of the tower, where she could easily connect with the cloud and perform the spell... at least she hoped that she could. As she stepped out onto the top of the tower she stared up at the clouds, wondering if this mad plan was going to work at all, before she sighed and focused on connecting to her magic. Even as she concentrated on the task at hand she could hear the sounds of the guards fighting against the dragon, who flew around the tower several times and, for some odd reason, never seemed to notice that she was standing there.
"We're going to die, aren't we?" one of the guards asked, as he stood beside his commander and Kree, though it was clear that the thought of dying to a dragon scared him more than anything else he had fought in his time in the guard.
"Not if I can help it," Kree said, lifting the sword she had been given earlier up as the dragon turned itself towards another pair of guards, leaving its side exposed.
Kree mustered all of her strength and hurled the sword through the air, allowing it to spiral through all of the smoke and flames before it penetrated the dragon's side. The dragon, now aware that one of its challengers had somehow hurt it in battle, turned around and began to look for the one responsible for the damage. It stared at all of the guards, ignoring the fact that they were still loosing arrows at it, but even as it searched it was having a hard time looking for the person whose sword was in its side.
"Sonata, whatever your doing you had best do it now!" Kree called out, leaping off of where she had been standing and moved behind one of the walls, to which the guards and Irileth followed her example.
Sonata groaned as the lightning finally took form above the tower, to which she threw her hands towards the ground and watched as the sky burst open. Bolts of lighting tore from the sky, several of which arced around the dragon's body and homed in on the sword, before the mass of energy struck the creature in the head. The dragon roared in agony as the lightning tore into its body, knocking it from the sky and crashing it into the ground in the middle of the ruined watchtower. The guards, including Kree and Irileth, watched as the dragon eventually succumbed to the power that the lightning brought to bare against it, though when the deed was done Sonata cancelled her spell and watched the sly clear up.
Sonata sighed with relief that the plan had worked before making her way down the stairs, where she eventually walked out of the tower and rejoined the guards.
"Its dead," Irileth commented, turning to look at Sonata the moment she arrived, noting how weary she looked, "I don't know what made you come up with such a dangerous plan in the first place, but it definitely worked and I'll say nothing more until we tell the Jarl about all of this."
As the assembled group started to celebrate their victory the dragon's body shuddered for a moment, before it started to break apart as the outer skin broke away until the only thing left of the dragon was its skeletal body. They all watched the dragon's body a mass of energy rose from the corpse, but just as Irileth drew her sword to cut into whatever it was the energy moved around her and went straight towards Sonata. She barely had time to move out of the way as the energy barreled into her chest, nearly knocking her off of her feet before the energy settled down, leaving her confused as to what the energy had done.
"Umm... was that supposed to happen?" Sonata asked, as she had no idea what had just happened to the dragon and, more importantly, what had happened to her.