The roads of Whiterun, Skyrim

-= One Month Later =-

After returning home from Riften, the construction of my home accelerated three-fold. Within a week the near mountain of sand bags had vanished insulating my walls, the windows went in without a hitch, the construction of my forge was flawless, the solid 3 inch thick oak doors were bolted into place, A solid stable had been built for Mace, all while Fenik's new puppy raced around beneath our feet with my still unnamed pup.

As work on the house slowed to a refinement pace, Frage, James, Anorien, and I took off on a cross country trip to Haafinheim Hold to claim what we could from the estate left to me by my brother in arms, Bjorik of the Moors.

We took along Mace and another heavy draft horse I took to calling "Sledge", after he stepped on a rock and cracked it in half with his weight alone, along with 3 other teams of draft horses and 4 large transport wagons modified into sleighs to transport anything of worth.

Apart from a few run ins with wolves and a Sabre cat or 3 we made great time. Upon our arrival we had to put down a small group of bandits whom had broken in and been living within the estate, not that it took much effort. We confiscated their food stores, and loaded up anything of use or value. Mostly chairs, bedframes, wall mounts, a number of armor mannequins, weapons trunks, a couple tables, some bookshelves, cooking supplies, barrels, forge equipment, some paintings, and other knick-knacks, statues, or scrap metal. Loading it all up we began our trek back across the countryside back to Skogurheim.

It was within the hold of Whiterun that I witnessed my first dragon. It was a giant of a beast in my eyes but Anorien informed me that it was actually a bit small compared to some. We had come upon it as it slept after having laid waste to another caravan and fed upon its crew. It slept deeply, far too deeply after having gorged itself upon what appeared to be 9 wagons led by some 18 horses. We found the charred bodies of 6 horse and 4 humans as we crept up to the comatose beast. It bore a savage wound to its side and had a massive greatsword buried in its chest but still it lived. I looked to the others and began to gesture a pincer movement to try and end the beast as effectively as possible but they went white with fear and began to back away to towards the sleighs.

The cowards. This beast had ravaged a near helpless caravan, lay gravely wounded on the battlefield and still they cowered from it? Their commander would hear of this cowardice! Drawing my Ebon broadsword I stalked forward as quietly as my heavy winter armor would allow. 30... 20... 10 more yards and I would be upon this giant harbinger of death and molten destruction, I could feel my nerves begin to fail me as the heat of its breath intensified... I was now 4 feet from the massive beast, I could feel my body tremble in fear as sweat began to bead up on my skin. Reversing my grip on the blade I raised its point over its skull.

Curse my poorly timed luck, as I raised the sword to its peak in preparation to plunge it down into the monsters skull my armor clanked, not loud, but loud enough. A reptilian eye the size of my gauntleted fist flashed open and I froze. Big mistake. It swept its head into me knocking me from my feet, and lurched to its feet. My sword spun away into the snow, but as it moved it presented me with a new option, the greatsword buried in its breast.

Rolling over towards it I snatched its cross guard and wretched it to the side in a spinning motion and ripped it from the beasts scaly hide. The monsterous beast let out a deafening roar of pain and surprise as fresh blood spilled from the new wound and the previous rend in its side. It lurched back away from me some 20 yards and bunched itself up, it looked to be getting ready to take off or pounce, not knowing its mind I righted the blade and prepared myself. It did not take off, nor did it pounce, but shouted at me with a mighty "YOL" and flames burst forth to envelope me with such speed I could do little but cover my face.

As the quick burst of flame washed past me my armor smelled of brimstone and burnt fur, but I had little time to worry over my smell, as the dragon lurched forward jaws wide. Not knowing why I did what only a fool would have thought to do. I lunged, blade at the ready.

The warm yellowy glowing blade sliced cleanly into the dragons maw, straight into its skull and wedged itself into its spine. The impact was just enough to push me back just outside of the jaws as they slammed shut around the blade. I slammed heavily into the charred side of a wagon and watched as the dragon collapsed and slide towards me, grinding to a halt with the pommel of the sword 2 feet from the souls of my steaming boots.

It was James who came first to my aid as I lay there dazed and dragged me from before the monstrous beast. My armor still steaming, charred black from being bathed in flame, reeked of the brimstone and burnt fur, as he dragged me away I slid over my blade with a and a metallic scrape. I watched in a daze as Anorien bent an picked it up, while Frage stared at the giant dragons corpse.

"Legitus you in there? You still with us Sir?! Frage get the fuck over here and be of some use damnit the Legitus is down!"

I lay there staring at the sky as Anorien leaned into view and waved his finger before my eyes, "He's fine. Probably just in shock is all... isn't every day you take on a fucking dragon, even a small one on your own after all. FRAGE! YANK THAT DAMN SWORD OUT WOULD YOU! THE LEGITUS IS PROBABLY GUNNA WANNA KEEP THAT ONE! No worries Sir I'll gather you some other momentos as well..." then he disappeared from my view and handed my blade to James, "Not a bad kill for someone whos never seen one before, even if it is small...."

"Legitus, sir, come on. Let's get you up..."

After Anorien had finished harvesting a collection of scales, teeth, horns, and meat from the dragon we mounted up and set out once more for home. The entire trip had taken us just over three weeks to complete, when we arrived at Skogurheim the others threw one hell of a celebration, they got drunk enough to make a hagraven look like Dibella and still got the house decorated and livable. It had been two days since the others had left, returning to the legion, all the while I sat silently before the fire watching the flames in what had apparently become my new favorite chair with the pup laying quietly at my feet. It had been just over a month since I was last in Riften. Perhaps it was time to head back and see what I could learn of these dragons roaming the world....

Rising from my chair I wondered downstairs to my armory, and began to collect my lighter weight heavy travel armor and began buckling it into place. Once done I moved on to selecting my weaponry, I took up my tried and true ebon broadsword and Legion issue xiphos, buckled on my quarrel of bolts, took up my lucky "Iron Dragon" shield, and grabbed my trusty crossbow. Returning upstairs I began packing up some trail food, a couple of journals, ink, and a wooden pen. My pup sat quietly watching me her head cocked to the side confused, "Come along pup, we're off to Riften," she bounced up with her tongue lolling out and raced over to the door. I opened it for her then, turned to make sure all flames were out, and began bolting the windows and doors from the inside. Stepping out of the house pack in hand I bid my home a fond fare well, "May your foundation never crumble..." and locked it up tight.

Collecting the pup I hitched up Mace to the sleigh and lead him from my small compound, Locking the heavy metal gates behind me before climbing up into the sleigh, "Right Mace, swift as the snows do fly, TO RIFTEN!"

With a crack of the reigns and a howl from the pup we were off.