The Lost is Found.

After we fly for almost 30 minutes we come across a massive stone wall with the dragon language written all over it sitting in the middle of a clearing back in a huge pine forest. As soon as we see this we both go on the defensive and start scanning the area for any threats, because a word of power wall sitting this far back in the woods literally seems to good to be true. We circle the word wall for a solid 30 minutes and I cast Azura’s Whisper constantly checking to see if there was anything significant hiding nearby. When we determine that whatever made the roar earlier is not around, Alduin lands in the front of word wall and I dismount and jump down to the ground. After taking another look around the area, I turn back towards Alduin.

“You keep a look out from the air and if you see anything that looks even remotely suspicious you hit it with a shout.” I say quietly while still looking around. When I turn my head back to Alduin he nods his head and with a flap of his wings he takes off into the air and starts to circle roughly 65 feet above the word wall. Then knowing that I had an extra pair of eyes I relax slightly and start to tread slowly towards the word wall, making sure if I step on a trap that I can use either evade or lessen the damage. Every foot that I place in front of myself I feel my heart beat rapidly and my stomach do flip flops, making it hard to keep my balance.

Even if I am inside Daedric armor and have a 5,000 pound demon circling my head, I still feel uncomfortable as if something really evil and powerful is watching my every move from the shadows. Then that is when in the corner my eye I see something move. Instantly I grab the hilt of my great sword and pull it in front of my face in a defensive manor. I then blink hard once and my eyes instantly light up and I can see in the dark as if it was day time. I see the source of the noise. A massive black skinned xenomorph is crouched over behind a fallen tree and is looking straight into my eyes. He then starts to advance really slowly towards me in a stalking stance on all fours, hissing lowly with its tail waving erratically behind it.

“What the hell is going on here?” My heart is racing and time has slowed down and my vision is blurring in and out so badly I can barely seem to focus when I suddenly lose my balance and fall backwards onto my back. I then look back up from my prone position and I can see that the xeno has stopped and is looking like it is about pounce. Realizing that if he pounces I was as good as dead my dragon instincts kick in and my vision instantly refocuses. As soon as that happens, the xeno launches into the air and comes flying towards me and my full attack mode kicks in. “Fus Ro Da!” The shout tears through the air and impacts the xeno in midflight launching it back in the other direction. The xeno screams as it comes into contact with the same tree it was hiding behind, its head impaling itself on a branch. My breathing is heavy and erratic as I get back to my feet and put my great sword back into the sheathe on my back and then call Alduin. He swoops down quickly and lands right beside me without haste. “You could have given me a little warning about the xeno in the bush!” I shout angrily at the Dova. Alduin recoils slightly at the sudden outburst and looks at me confused.

“There was an enemy? But I could see nothing and Azura’s shout did not detect anything living, so how did it get by us both?” He says with a questioning voice. I consider this for a second and then face palm as a sudden revelation dawns on me.

“It is because that shout finds living things based on their souls, xenomorphs have no soul so they are invisible to the shout and because of there black as Hell shadow skin they cannot be seen without light and then to make it worse because they can instantly change their body temperature, they are also invisible to your range of thermal vision.” I finish raising my head and looking out into the night with my vision. Alduin grunts slightly in acknowledgement and continues to speak.

“Nuz til los tul saak laan do kolos nust came nol.” (But there is still a big question of where they came from.) My attention continues to jump from place to place, wondering if there are anymore out there.

“I have no clue, xenos need a living host to grow inside and when they reach a certain size they come bursting out of their chest then they grow into a very large lizard like creature with black skin, killer claws and a second mouth instead of a tongue that they can shoot out at will with enough force to smash through titanium.” I say while still scanning the surrounding area. When I find that there is no more movement I refocus on Alduin. “I am going to get that shout and then we are going to get the hell out of here, sound good?” A slight nod from Alduin confirms that he heard what I had said and I then start step lightly towards the wall, not knowing if anything else was lurking in the darkness.

After a minute of heart pounding steps, I finally step up the small stairs that lead to the massive word wall. In the center I can see three of the dragon words glowing a bright blue and pulsing with energy. I step cautiously closer, making sure to occasionally scan the edge of the wall and floor for any surprises. But I am completely caught off guard when the pulsing energy from the three dragon words suddenly shoots from the wall and into my eyes, causing me to recoil slightly as the light is bright and…makes me feel as though something is boring straight into me.

Staggering half blind towards the light, I can feel the effects growing in power and in intensity. But when I get to where I am only one more step from the words the intensity peaks for a brief second and then suddenly ends. As m eyes clear the words that were momentarily glowing a second ago are now a white color and displayed no longer in dragon, but in English. The three words on the wall read PORTAL, UNKNOWN, TIME and then as soon as I read them they turn black and fade back into dragon and then the light that they were giving off stops glowing and the world around me returns to darkness.

What the hell just happened? Stumbling around briefly, I manage to make my way back to the steps of the wall and I sit so I am facing into the darkness of the night. My head is throbbing form the experience of having so much energy come through my eyes and place my hands on my forehead.

“Are you alright Thuri?” Alduin asks with concern in his voice. Taking my hands off my head for a moment I look up to Alduin and stand.

“Yea, let’s just get the hell out of here.” I say extending one leg to step down to the next step. That is when a loud shriek breaks the silent of the night followed by several other shrieks and howls. Instantly I grab the sword off my back and sprint over to Alduin who is now facing the tree line and looking all around us. I quickly get behind Alduin and turn and face away from him watching the tree line for any movement. The night has now come alive with the roars and shrieks as footsteps echo in the night that I know are headed straight for us. My attention keeps hoping from side to side and to the tree tops.

“More xenos Thuri?” Alduin says rapidly.

“Yea I predict about 10 shitloads.” I say without taking my eyes off the surroundings. “And a queen.” Alduin just grunts and gives a loud roar.

“Let them come, I will happily wipe every one of them out!” At this point I can only wish that I had his confidence. Being Dragonborn means that you fear nothing and take on any enemy, but right now I can’t help but shake slightly as I listen to the advancing horde. The roar is now defining and are surroundings thunder with the footsteps of many. Slowly I start counting down.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.” Then I raise my sword and prepare to assault incoming attackers, but as soon as I do everything goes quiet and still. “Fus Ro Da!” The shout radiates outward towards a single tree closest to me tearing it out of the ground and sending it flying back into the darkness before the entire tree line erupts into chaos. “Shit, Contact!” I yell loudly to which Alduin takes in a breath and exhales fire. I can hear xenos scream in pain before a pop and then more screams.

The xenos are everywhere, jumping down from trees and swarming over the ground in front of me while continuing to charge head long at us. I am so focused on the xenos charging at me from the front that I barely notice the one who is about to pounce me from an overhanging branch. He leaps at me from the tree, but is smashed by Alduin’s tail and splits in half, its acid blood and insides flying everywhere.
“Shit I forgot to tell you they have acid for blood, so watch it!” I say as I quickly duck just in time to see Alduin's tail rocket over head and slice another xeno in half, sending his mutilated body flying.

“It does not harm me, sometimes being from Hell is an advantage!”

“You lucky bastard!” I say as I side step a xenos tail slash and lop off its head. The acid sprays all over me, but it does noting and that is when I realize Daedric is forged in Hell, so I guess it has the same resistance. With this new revelation I charge headlong at the foes, completely forgetful of my fear. “Su Gra Dun!” (Elemental fury!) I shout and my arms and legs instantly are supercharged with howling wind and my pace increases.

I then start to spin very rapidly and soon enough I form into a small tornado. Rushing into a massive crowd of xenos I stick out my sword and as soon as I impact them the world becomes a spinning mass of blood, guts and screams. All the xenos are now trying to run from me, but the speed of my spinning is causing them to get sucked right into me and they are quickly are killed. After what feels like an hour of blood, guts and screams I come to a complete stop and take notice of my handy work. Xeno corpses litter the ground knee deep and the surrounding landscape looks as though a massive battery had leaked onto it with entire trees being cut in half from the acid and massive holes in the ground where I predict that the blood had pooled. With my enemies dead I then look over to see Alduin has one still living trapped in his massive jaws. The beast is screaming in pain to which Alduin only slightly bights down to cause more pain.

“Didn’t someone ever tell you to not play with your food?” I say while laughing at the spectacle. Having heard me, Alduin suddenly opens his jaws wide and quickly snaps them shut causing a sickening crunch and then swallows the xeno whole.

“Yea, but I just could not resist.” He says in his demonic voice. Then the good times end, an ear wrenching roar breaks the night and once again I get into a defensive position this time to the right of Alduin. This one sound different somehow, bigger, faster, stronger and really pissed off.

“I think we missed one.” I say blandly to which Alduin chuckles. The screams and howls grow louder as do the footsteps and then they instantly die off as if hesitant. Wasting no time Alduin inhales a large breath and then an inferno erupts from his mouth that sets the entire tree line on fire. Then a large amount of wailing and screams and something crashing through the inferno then dead silence. I wait hesitantly for something to happen, any sign that the beast was still alive so that I may finish what Alduin had started. But after a minute or two passes I relax slightly and sheathe my sword and just look to Alduin with a triumphant smile.

“That is the end of that!” I say as I step over beside Alduin’s head. Alduin then slightly cocks his head to the side and just sighs.

“Let’s go home.” He says blandly while bending his head to the side to allow me to mount him. Wanting to go home and get some grub as quickly as possible, I take one step up and throw my legs over his neck close to his head.

“Yea before more show-” is all I could say before a loud roar shoots from the inferno. I snap my head over to the flames and as soon as I do a massive xeno jumps through the flame towards Alduin.

“Look out! Alduin screams before bucking me off of him and sending me flying. While flying through the air I see the massive xeno come crashing down on Alduin’s head and then my vision goes hazy as I hit the ground and all the wind is knocked out of me. Wheezing on my back, I try with all of my power to stand up, but the combination of wheezing and blurred vision is making it impossible to get to my feet. Alduin’s sounds of pain and the loud screech of the xeno is the only thing that I can hear as I scramble to get to my feet and protect Alduin. With all of my strength I manage to turn my head to the side and what I see through blurred vision scares me. From what it appears in my vision, the beast has Alduin pinned and is relentlessly pounding his skull with its second mouth. Blood is leaking out of Alduin and I can start to feel that weakness when a dragon is close to death. My heart is beating rapidly and my insides are coursing with adrenaline and fear that are the only thing that are allowing me to move even the slightest amount.

“Alduin!” I shout at the top of my lungs while starting to tear up. The massive dragon then looks over to me in pain and holds my eye sight.

“Get out of here, Thuri!” The words weakly leave his mouth as the xeno relentlessly tries to penetrate his thick scales. Knowing that I was not going to be able to get up, I try and use a shout on the xeno and I realize that there is no way to safely hit the xeno and not kill Alduin in the process. So I lay on the cold hard ground unable to move, unable to do anything at all to stop what I know would be the inevitable. So I did the only thing that I could do... yell.

“Come and get me you son of a bitch! I know you can hear me, come and take me if you think you can! You are going to end up like your friends hear soon so come on!!!!” This grabs the xenos attention and he releases Alduin and he flops to the ground like a heavyweight boxer and then turns its attention onto me. “Yea you see all of these dead and mauled bodies of your friends…I did most of this and your lucky that I got my wind knocked from me otherwise I would do the same to you.”

The alien just stares at me with a look of hate, but neither advances on me or goes back to Alduin. I am trying to keep this up for as long as possible to by some time until I might be able to use a shout, anything that might make this situation escapable. “Shit, better use a really powerful shout because if I don’t then it won’t die, anything that can resist the full force of Alduin’s fire shout…Hellfire, is nothing to laugh at, but if I am not careful then the xeno may be able to kill both of us." I think while continuing to shout profanities at the xeno trying to hold its attention.

My power is slowly returning and the air around is starting to hum with energy. The xeno must have sensed this because it starts backing up slowly and slightly hissing at me trying to warm me to keep my distance. Upon seeing this weakness, my power level spikes and instantly my body shoots up to its feet without any problem. My confidence is being restored and with it all of the power that courses through my body from the demon princes inside of me. My face now takes on one of pure anger and hatred for the beast that is in front of me. “You will die, Volcalene Galandor!”

Wait I don’t say that. My breath is hard and deep with primal rage, but the xeno is frozen in place not responding at all to any of my movements or threats. What is going on, this is not the thuum at work. My hands start to glow a bright red and I can feel a great power rising from inside of my chest, a power of untold magnitude. The xeno stands there as if it is in a trance and continues to do nothing, as if it can no longer tell its self what to do. Seeing this I without even thinking start to advance towards the terror stricken xeno with one thing on my mind…revenge! “I am losing control, my body won’t respond to what I want it to do, my mind is to clouded by anger". I yell to myself while trying to retrain myself, but find that my body refuses to listen.

The xeno continues to do nothing and taking two more steps I launch myself at the xeno and with superhuman force knock it to the ground and proceed to grab my sword off of my back while raising it above my head and with a hard thrust downward impale it straight in the face. The xeno immediately screams in pain and starts to flail around grabbing at the sword in an effort to remove it. “Forfeit your mind!” Instantly my mind is hit by a hard influx of memories…memories of the xeno. Memories of all the humans it had killed, all the screams…the deaths…the looks of horror on their faces.

Then something pops up that I never hoped would pop up. In a quick flash of memory the faces and screams of my mom and dad proliferate through the memories. The looks on their faces spell on of great sorrow, of one who never would see their son again. “ENOUGH!” I scream inside of my head while starting to break down on the inside. “Almighty Divine Heavenly Father please give me strength and help me to control the power inside of me by any means necessary…in nomine Patris Amen!” Then as soon as I say this, a great white light enters my body and instantly I can feel my control over my body return and my power level decreases to the normal legendary level along with most of my anger.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I look back over to Alduin and see that he is still motionless, but that I can no longer see his chest rise or fall. Upon seeing this something terrible realization dawns on me, that Alduin was dying. Sounds of the xeno impaled on the end of my sword catches my attention for a brief second and I quickly look over to the xeno. Its cries have now gotten softer and he is struggling to even reach the blade of the sword. A mix of both pity and fresh anger suddenly well up inside of me and they momentarily over whelm me. In one swift motion, I withdraw the sword from his face twisting it on the way out and then with two hands I quickly raise the sword and bring it down hard on his neck, instantly decapitating it.

The head pops up in the air and lands beside him while facing up a huge hole where the sword had impaled him. Seeing that the xeno no longer breathes, my anger eases and immediately I rush over to Alduin and quickly observe his head. There are massive holes in his head and some of them are deep enough that I can see parts of his brain. The blood from his head has run down all over his face and into his mouth and eyes, causing him to choke whenever he draws a breath from his mouth or nostrils. Seeing this horrible sight in front of me tears start to relentlessly pour from my eyes as I get down on my knees and hug Alduin tightly and whisper in his ear. “What do I do, I already lost my parents…I don’t know what to do if I lose you!” I say burying my face into the side of his head. Alduin lays absolutely still for a minute then he takes in a sharp breath and speaks softly.

“I will always be a part of you Chris.” Upon hearing this I bring my head out of his face so that I am looking into his big red eyes.

“What do you mean?” I say trying to hold back the onslaught of new tears that threatened to spill out.

“You…are…d-Dragonborn and…sin-since I am a dr-dragon then you w-will absorb my so-soul and that…can never die.” He says weakly while gasping for air and spitting up some blood. This causes me to panic and makes the tears I was holding back earlier come rushing out as I watch the last bits of life drain from Alduin. He continues to gasp for air for a few more seconds and then his chest stops rising and falling and his massive head goes limp and falls to the ground, his usual red colored eyes no longer glowing with life, Alduin has just died in my arms.

“ALDUIN!” I shout at the top of my lungs while a whole new set of tears washes over me, making me fall to my knees by his face. I cry there for a minute or two before looking at the lifeless body of Alduin and speaking softly. “I will…before God and before all those hero and Dragonborn who came before…that I will never give up fighting and that when the time comes for me to die…I will carry your soul to Heaven with me.” After saying this statement, I release his head and stand up and face the lifeless corpse of my best friend. Somehow, even in death his body seems to show a sense of calmness about it that makes me somehow feel slightly better and my downpour of tears becomes less of a downpour and more of a slight shower.

Then I start to hear a crackling, as if fire was burning something and then I see that a trail of flames has started to consume Alduin. The fire gets louder and more intense as it spreads out over his body, burning away his scales and insides along with all of his wounds and blood on the ground. After a few more seconds the fire has consumed all of him and he now stands as a burning skeleton. A stream of energy starts to come off of his body and goes flying towards me. The energy surrounds my body like a vortex and starts pouring into my body. The energy once inside of me starts to flow to the center of my chest and then settles inside of my heart, warming my inside and making a sense of happiness wash over me, knowing that instead of going to my stomach where I assume the rest of the evil things I absorb go so they stay imprisoned, Alduin will find sanctuary inside my heart.

After 5 seconds of continual energy input, the stream of energy stops and the glowing skeleton of Alduin stops glowing and fades to normal color while smoking profusely. Then I look away from the skeleton and wipe a tear from my face and start to move towards the word wall. “I have lost everything, my parents, my best friend and now I fear that I am losing myself…so I want to leave this place and never come back.” I step up the steps and stare at the dragon words written on the wall. “I have no clue where this shout that I learned will take me, but at this point is does not matter, because I will be ready for the challenges and any who stands against me shall fall."

My breathing is coming in hard as I prepare to open the portal. After a few seconds of hard breathing, I look on more time back over at the skeleton and then back to the word wall and shout at the top of my lungs. “Miiraak Tiid Vomindok!” (Portal travel!) A massive wave of energy comes shooting out of my mouth and strikes the word wall and a bright flash of light erupts. After the light clears enough for me to see, where the words would be now stands a massive blue swirling portal. “Divine Father protect me!” And with that I run and jump straight into the portal and am instantly blinded by light so intense that it causes me to pass out before being swallowed by the portal.