//------------------------------// // 9: High Hrothgar // Story: Sonata's Crazy and Wacky Adventure in Skyrim // by Sonata Blaze //------------------------------// The innkeeper was grateful that Sonata and her companions had taken care of the 'specter' that had been haunting the nearby barrow, though he was upset that they had been so easily fooled. He was also annoyed by the fact that a pair of strangers came into his inn, demanded to know where Sonata had gone, and then stabbed the bed that he rented out to travelers. Sonata had spent a few minutes talking with the innkeeper, trying to calm him down to the point where he wouldn't call the guards on them, but thanks to Kree coming to her aid they managed to calm him and get away with paying a few gold for the broken objects in the room. With that done talking to him the two of them had returned to the room, helping Lydia restore it to how it looked before the strangers trashed the place. Sonata was annoyed that the mysterious strangers had come out of nowhere, declare that she was somehow a 'Deceiver' and a 'False Dragonborn', and then try to kill her in cold blood. She had absolutely no idea who Miraak was, or why he apparently wanted her dead, but she knew that the two of them would likely meet one day. "Apparently those Cultists came from Solstheim," Kree commented, having returned from looting the strangers and handed Sonata a note she had found, one that revealed that the men they had slain had come to Skyrim under specific orders from their master, "It seems that this Miraak feared that you, as the next Dragonborn, would eventually come looking for him and decided to remove you from the equation. If he had left you alone he could have gotten away with whatever he's doing, but now that he's attacked you I doubt either you or Lydia will let him get away with this act." "I will once I finish with the dragons," Sonata replied, staring at the inn's ceiling as she laid on the bed, unsure of what was happening to her life at this point. She sighed as she reflected on her failure back on Earth, the loss of her sisters, her arrival in this strange world, and the constant threats that seemed to appear everywhere she looked. As far as she could tell there was a list of people who wanted her dead, each of them having their own reasons, though it was constantly growing as she tried to save the world. The dragons wanted her dead because she was apparently the only one that could stop them, bandits wanted to kill her and steal everything she had, and this new guy, Miraak, wanted her out of the way before he started his invasion of Solstheim. Despite the fact that people wanted her dead, for their various reasons, she was determined to do everything in her power to save the world... even if it meant falling in battle to the dragon that wanted to end the world. --------------------------------- When morning finally arrived Sonata climbed out of the bed she had fallen asleep in and stretched her arms, though her movement cause her sleeping Housecarl to awaken from her slumber. She looked around for a moment and tried to locate Kree, but she could tell that her friend wasn't in the room they had rented out and immediately moved out into the inn to see where she went. As it turned out Kree was wrapping up her purchase of their morning meal, to which Sonata smiled and helped carry the food into the room as Lydia finally woke up. Once they were all awake they started eating what Kree had purchased, which was a loaf of bread, a few bottles of milk, a few apples, and some meat strips that they shared. "So, I guess High Hrothgar is our destination," Sonata commented, receiving two nods to her statement, "then I hope that we don't run into anything dangerous, like those Cultists from yesterday..." "Listen up meatbags," a voice in the common area of the inn said, "this village is now under the authority of Lady Vespula, so as of now your blood belongs to our mistress." "And now we've got vampires to deal with," Kree sighed, though Sonata could tell that her friend was quickly getting annoyed with all the interruptions that were popping up, "Well then, we had better remove these vampires before we head up the seven thousand steps." Sonata nodded and silently drew her sword, to which her companions drew their weapons, before they walked out of their room and entered the main area of the inn once more. There they found three people, each of them wearing a strange red robe of some kind, standing near the door to prevent the rest of the townspeople from leaving the inn. Two of them were definitely male, though Sonata could see that they were armed with strange bronze colored swords, but the third person, the women at the back of the group, seemed to have an air of authority around her. She started to wonder how Kree could have known that they were vampires, but then she saw their blood red eyes and the small fangs in their mouths, informing her that they were definitely vampires. She had thought the same thing was true of Vinyl Scratch, until she discovered that the DJ walked around in the sunlight and actually didn't have blood red eyes. "Ah, I see there were more people than what the report said there were." the women said, turning to face Sonata for a moment, as if she was ignoring her friends and giving her full attention to the former Siren, "Take all of them into custody... the Mistress will want to 'speak' with them once we've returned to our lair." Sonata, officially done with the vampires talking as if they were merely cattle, which she assumed was what the creatures thought of them, tapped Lydia on her shoulder and let the battle commence. Lydia charged forward and swung her weapon, allowing the blade of her sword to bite into the arm of one of the male vampires and forced him away from the people he was terrorizing. Kree, on the other hand, merely drew an arrow and loosed it into the other male's head, preferring to take the creature out before it had a chance to hurt anyone. Sonata rushed forward after Lydia drove the vampire back, her sword meeting the one that the female vampire carried before she pressed with all her might and forced the women's back against the wall. "Well, what do we have here?" the vampire asked, staring into Sonata's eyes as if she was searching for something, all while she made little effort to push back, "I can see that you have some strength to back you up, but is your mind as strong as your brute force?" Sonata could feel the vampire trying to take control of her mind, as when she was with her sisters she had read that the blood suckers liked to do that to the weak willed people around them, but she knew something that the vampire didn't. Even if all of her powers were gone, and she still had a few of them left at the moment, she knew that she could be able to resist the vampire until her opponent finally gave up. It was one of the perks of being a Siren, and that apparently included being a former Siren, as it meant that she couldn't be mind controlled by anyone... no matter how much training they had in that particular field. She found it funny that her old abilities were coming to her aid once more, though it also made her wonder if her powers were still there or if she was imagining things. "Sorry, but it seems that you have overestimated your abilities," Sonata chuckled, pulling her left hand back for a moment to allow lightning to gather around it, "and now you'll pay the price." She cast the spell and let the lightning tear into the vampire, effectively ending the life the creature had been trying to create and allowing Sonata to see how her companions were faring. Lydia had, with some assistance from Kree, dealt with the vampire that she had been fighting the entire time, which, judging from the pool of blood around the body and severed head, had ended when her Housecarl had beheaded the vampire. Kree had taken to dragging the two bodies outside, where she had already started a pyre to burn their bodies, just in case a necromancer tried to revive the corpses once the three of them had left. Sonata sheathed her sword and helped her friend out, moving the two remaining bodies outside, and the severed head as well, before she ignited the pyre and started burning away the undead creatures. As the pyre burned outside Iverstead, the guards having forbid the burning inside the small village, the trio returned to the inn and collected their gear, before meeting outside the bridge that laid at the base of the Throat of the World. Once the three of them were ready, and they definitely were after what had happened at the inn, they crossed the bridge and began the journey up the Seven Thousand Steps. --------------------------------- As it turned out they spent the next couple of hours climbing all the way around the mountain, doing battle with bears, saber cats, a frost wraith, and even two frost trolls that happened to be standing in their way. Along the way Sonata was beginning to get worried that there was too much standing in their way from reaching their destination, but when she spotted the massive monastery she knew that all of her worrying had been for nothing. As she approached the monastery she turned back and noticed that her companions, her friends, were still waiting at the base of the stairs, so she marched down to them and pushed them towards the front door, indicating that she'd rather have them see all of this with her and not freeze to death. The three of them stepped inside the monastery, where Sonata was the only one to actually continue passed the stone pillars as four monks gathered around the central area, apparently having been waiting for her the entire time. "So a Dragonborn appears," one of the monks, the closest one on Sonata's left, commented, "at this moment, in the turning of the age. But before we begin let us see if you truly are Dragonborn. Let us taste your Thu'um." Sonata, taking in the monk's command for a moment, drew her breath in for a moment before focusing herself, accessing her power before loosing the only Word that she knew, Fus. The gust of wind knocked the monk back just a bit, but he straightened himself seconds later and dusted himself off, as if that did nothing to him at all. "Ah, it is you Dragonborn," the monk spoke, bowing to her just a bit, "Welcome to High Hrothgar. I am Master Arngeir, I speak for the Greybeards. Tell me, why have you come here?" "Why are the dragons returning to Skyrim?" Sonata asked, curious about the dragon's sudden return while trying to understand why she was the chosen one, though she had the suspicion that one of the Divines might have chosen her instead of one of the people who inhabited Skyrim, "Does it have something to do with me? Also, what does it mean to be 'Dragonborn'?" "Ah, I see that you have many questions. I shall answer them to the best of my ability," Arngeir replied, a slight grin appearing on his face for a moment, as if he enjoyed educating the younger generation and those seeking aid with the Thu'um, "I shall start with your first question. No doubt. The appearance of a Dragonborn at this time is not an accident. Your destiny is surely bound up with the return of the dragons. You should focus on honing your Voice, and soon your path will be made clear. Dragons have the inborn ability to learn and project their Voice. Dragons also are able to absorb the power of their slain brethren. A few mortals are born with similar abilities — whether a gift or a curse has been a matter of debate down through the centuries. What you have already learned in a few days took even the most gifted of us years to achieve. Some believe that Dragonborn are sent into the world by the gods, at times of great need. We will speak more of that later, when you are ready. But first we shall teach you the second Word to Unrelenting Force, the first Word to Whirlwind Sprint, and then tell you about the final trial we have planned for you." From that point on Sonata followed what the monks had to teach her, learning the second Word of Unrelenting Force, Ro, and the first Word of a new Shout, Whirlwind Sprint's Wuld. She still had no answer as to why she, an outsider, had been chosen to be the Dragonborn, but she still had to wonder if it was because it had something to do with her being a Siren. The monks, and her friends for that matter, were impressed by her rapidly growing skills, despite the small amount of Words that she actually knew, but she was glad that she had some change at defeating the dragons. Even as she finished her training, and learned that she needed to retrieve something from an old ruin, she knew that the vampires were quickly growing in power... along with the dragons and whoever Miraak was. She now had three forces she needed to deal with, which was only making her life in Skyrim much harder than it actually needed to be at the moment. She knew that she'd have to remove all of them, but her primary focus was on the dragons and their leader, which meant that she'd be heading towards the ruins of Ustengrav.