A Dreamer in a Dream (chapter 14)

As the light show came to an end and Skadi digested Murmulnir’s soul, her surprise turned into something… well, something very intimate. And I would know.

Who knew dragon souls doubled as party drugs? Sanguine, probably.

It didn’t last, leaving her on her ass and staring at all that was left of Mirmulnir. His skeleton made even her look tiny.

I had to hobble my ass over to help her. Even if my body was made of stone right now, it still spent some time inside a dragon’s maw. 

All it took was someone whispering ‘Dragonborn’ and it snowballed from there. Even Lydia was staring as she approached.

Skadi looked at my hand like it was something alien, her brows scrunched up cutely. “Russ?”

“The one and only.” I had thought about what I would say when the time came, but now that it had, you could probably see a tumbleweed tumbling through my mind like a Western.

“It’s true,” she whispered, taking my hand. She looked like she had just figured out the answer to all of life’s problems as she stood. “The World Eater, the war, the Thalmor. It’s all made me doubt and forget what I knew all this time.”

I wasn’t sure if she even stopped to take a breath, and she took both my hands now.

“And you, you magnificent man.” Her eyes that had already been a vivid blue almost seemed like newborn stars in that moment. Then just as quickly she was scowling. Talk about whiplash. “The spar. You held back.”

“I think it would be more accurate to say I’ve taken the lessons Skyrim has taught me to heart.” It wasn’t even a lie. And now that I knew just how fragile my presence here was, I was even more determined not to rest on my proverbial laurels.

More than that, I refused to go back to that lonely place where my only company was the sound of me occasionally screaming into the abyss.

“Then we’ll just have to spar again, and often,” she told me, more statement than question. Then she leaned in, a husky whisper on her lips. “But first I think we lay low every bed in Dragonsreach. A fight like that one demands no less.”

Not that long ago either of those would have had me giving a ‘I’m in danger’ look.

“Spoken just like a dragon,” I teased. Then I took advantage of her leaning in to whisper in her ear. “I’ll just have to remember to duck when I make you scream now.”

I relished that I could make a woman like her blush. “The way the legends speak of it, it isn’t just shouting,” she swiftly informed me.

I already knew as much, and all thanks to the book that had given me a few new existential crises for eating it. The Thu’um wasn’t the words, it was manipulating sound in just the right way to force the world to listen to you, and more.

Dragons just had an easier time of—

My train of thought was interrupted by her suddenly covering her ears, her eyes shut tightly.

“Skadi?”

“I hear him,” she bit out. “Mirmulnir.”

The fucker was still in there somewhere? I watched as she turned her head up at the sky as blue as her eyes. “FUS!” The word tore from her throat so violently that some of her blood went with it, and with enough force that I was thankful I was more a slab of stone than a man right now.

It kept going as well, eventually tearing a cloud apart.

That prompted another swarm of whispers from the crowd around Mirmulnir’s skeleton. Her fingers were softly massaging her throat as she looked back down at me. “How’s that?”

Somehow she managed to make it sound cheeky despite sounding like the mother of all chain smokers. My fingers soon replaced hers, the shine in them making her sigh. It was a tender moment that saw her making eyes at me.

Irileth smothered it with her bare hands. “Seventeen men buried or dust on the wind,” she muttered.

“They are in Sovngarde now,” Skadi replied, her voice returned to normal. “None would bar them entry after they had fallen in glorious combat against one of Alduin’s kin.”

The Dunmer woman looked at her doubtfully as I took a look around. Lydia was still digesting something while Bright-Like-Dawn had turned back up to poke at Mirmulnir’s skeleton, looking even tinier next to it.

The real question was where my bandits turned minions went. These bones weren’t going to carry themselves back to Whiterun.

I downed another potion to fuel the spell that led me right to them, hiding behind some rocks a ways away. “You can come out now. All that’s left is a pile of bones.”

They both sent me sheepish looks as they crawled out, not that I cared. Even Skadi only succeeded in annoying Mirmulnir, and her bow was something a giant could probably use.

“None of Yanadz’jo’s litter would believe she faced down a dragon and lived to tell the tale.”

I snorted. She certainly looked smug for not having done shit.

“You can tell them about how you helped carry its bones back to Whiterun as well.” I continued despite the stink eye she was giving me. “I wouldn’t want you to get fat.”

“Yanadz’jo is not…” I already tuned her out as a thought struck me.

My eyes found the collapsed watchtower as I cast the spell again. Survivors. Three, maybe.

I told Irileth as much after making my way back, and she grimaced. “We’re just as likely to bury ourselves with them digging around. We must return to Whiterun. Jarl Balgruuf keeps a few giants on hand.”

That was news to me. I quietly asked Lydia and she even knew their names.

“Careful with that!” Skadi was admonishing Bright-Like-Dawn for trying to take a bite out of one of the bones. “The last time a Nord could get their hands on these…”

She was over the moon as she took laps around the skeleton, inspecting every part of it. Seriously, were those stars in her eyes?

I wasn’t sure how she would react to the news, but ‘girl with a new toy’ energy wasn’t on my Bingo card. Or maybe it was. Either way, I wasn’t complaining. I fucking loved this side of her.

She noticed my watching her, dragging me over. “Old Gray-Mane’s heart might give out at the sight.” Leaning down, she snatched some of the gargantuan scales beneath the skeleton, raising them up to the sun. “As light as a feather…”

“And the ebony?”

Skadi gave me a look like I was hopeless. Which, yeah, at most I had done some soldering once upon a time.

“They complement one another, you silly man. You’ll see.” She let the scales clatter back down on the ground before poking and prodding at the damage my cloak took. “Something that won’t tear or burn as easily. You’ll be the envy of every man in Skyrim.”

I tried not to look terrified. “I am already the envy of every man in Skyrim!” I quickly assured her. “Who else can say they’ve made a wife of the Dragonborn?”

One of us being a crime against fashion was already too much.

“That is exactly how you must meet my family,” she told me seriously, though the smirk on her lips told me otherwise. “I won’t have you embarrassing me in front of Eir.”

Eir? Just as suddenly she had turned nervous.

“She’s going to be furious with me for thinking I kept it from her.” A sister, maybe? Or a cousin.

“I doubt it,” I tried to soothe. “You’re a terrible liar.”

She snorted. “That only proves I am a great one.”

I gave her a suspicious look, but she had already started barking orders at the men and even my housecarl and minions. Irileth was the only one who pushed back, arguing that her men still buried under the rubble took priority.

Everyone there and even the world stilled as a voice, or four voices speaking as one, blew across it like a wind.

“DOV… AH… KIIN.”

The earth and the sky creaked at its passing, and even after it was only Skadi who dared to break the eerie quiet with a whisper. “The Greybeards…” She turned back to Irileth after a moment. “If time is of the essence, stay here and do what you can.”

Not even waiting for a response, she immediately took off in a sprint in Whiterun’s direction, vanishing amid the fields.

That’s one way to deal with the conundrum…

That’s around the time I suddenly remembered something important. The Flame Atronach. In all the chaos, she kinda slipped my mind.

I didn’t see her in the sky and feeding some magicka into that spell for a third time today pointed me everywhere and nowhere. Hopefully that meant she was back home in Oblivion and not going around lighting people on fire because they looked at her funny.

I noticed Lydia had sat down, staring listlessly at the charred ground. I joined her. “Penny for your thoughts?”

It wasn’t hard to tell what was bothering her; that’s twice now she found herself helpless against some overpowered monstrosity. But what could I say? Don’t worry about it? Try harder?

“You could learn magic?”

Her stormy eyes met mine. “If you will teach me, Thane.”

And suddenly I regretted saying anything at all. Not like I could throw some books at her and tell her here, eat these…

“I still intend on heading to the College of Winterhold,” I commented meaningfully. But she was stubborn.

“I don’t want to wait until the worst happens again. If you could find the time…” God, not the puppy eyes. You would think a woman as serious as her couldn’t pull it off.

Fine. Whatever. “Just so long as you don’t expect too much of me.”

“Yanadz’jo also wishes to learn from mad thane how to set herself on fire.”

I sent the cat a miserable look, but she just gave me a shit-eating smile again. At least Tolfi gave one of her ears a good flick.

When Skadi did return, it was ahead of a small army of men and giants, six of them, and everyone got to work.

The three men the giants pulled out from the collapsed watchtower weren’t in the best shape, but they hadn’t gone to Sovngarde just yet. It took just as many magicka potions to get them back on their feet, but that wasn’t the end of the world. I could just restock in Whiterun.

Mirmulnir’s skeleton was divided into five parts under Skadi’s stern eyes, each given to a giant to carry. The scales meanwhile filled a massive knapsack for the last giant to sling over an equally massive shoulder.

This time we actually entered Whiterun as conquering heroes, to a crowd and everything. By the time we ascended to Dragonsreach to find a feast in our honor, the stories had become unrecognizable.

I was now either the Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold or a retired Imperial Battlemage. There were even arguments over it, and at least one fight.

Skadi didn’t let me get more than a taste before she dragged me off to one of the rooms to make good on her promise. And even after breaking three beds in quick succession, she still would not quit, her eyes roiling tempestuously as she rode my poor hips into dust.

Seriously, what did they put in those dragon souls?

Still, I survived. That was one of the perks of having a body straight out of one of Lovecraft’s fever dreams. And I could tell she appreciated it with how loveydovey she was being after, snuggling into me.

“You’re going to come with me to Ivarstead.” It wasn’t a question. “You will at least distract them.”

“Is that all I am to you?”

She snorted as she traced a circle on my chest with a nail, one of her legs thrown over me possessively. “You won’t find me ungrateful.”

Her brows suddenly scrunched together, and the next moment she was at the door, a voyeur in her hands. Bright-Like-Dawn went as still as a rabbit in her hands as Skadi brought her back to our bed.

“Not the first time either,” she informed me. Though I didn’t expect her to drop her on me. “She’ll keep us warm.”

The tiny Argonian didn’t protest at being made into a comforter, only curling up on my belly in response, her claws tickling me. Skadi soon snuggled back up to me, throwing the sheets over us for good measure. Cozy.

My eyes were already heavy, but my mind never slept, so it wasn’t long until I found myself back in Oblivion. The tower had stopped rising higher, the top of it poised just beneath the rainbow of Aetherius.

I knew I could change that if I so wanted to, but yeah, no thank you. Even a shadow of that loneliness was still fucking with my head.

I watched Akatosh do his thing for a time, paid Sanguine a visit myself this time, but otherwise I felt kind of listless. What was my fucking game plan if Molag Bal or Mehrunes Dagon decided to try and knock my tower down?

I thought about that problem for a good long while, but eventually I felt my body back on Mundus waking up. It wasn’t until I was at the proverbial wheel again that I noticed something stranger. That something stranger being a certain part of me buried in something impossibly warm as something under the covers bobbed up and down.

I thought it might be Skadi at first, but seeing as she was staring intently into my eyes instead… “Morning?”

“Morning,” she husked, her nails tickling my chest.

I could have questioned it, but again I matched her energy instead. I had to if I wanted to make a wife out of a dragon.

“You’ll do anything not to do it yourself,” I teased.

“Hmph. With the bottomless pit this one has for a stomach, I felt it appropriate. But we could always ask that housecarl of yours?” Uh… “Mmm, but then she’s the kind of woman to misunderstand. Or worse, get ideas she shouldn’t.”

Now she was looking at me very possessively. Kind of hot, but I was also beginning to suspect that devouring Mirmulnir’s soul might have affected her more than I thought.

Although maybe I should worry about that later. It was getting harder to think straight.

Finally taking a peek under the covers, I found Bright-Like Dawn hard at work. Like a chipmunk with too many nuts in her mouth. It was a good thing she seemed to completely lack a gag reflex, as I was probably only a few inches short from poking something that probably shouldn’t be poked.

She also knew to keep her mouth open wide, otherwise her piranha-like teeth would have… yeah. Not what I wanted to think about right now.

I let my head fall back on my pillows with a soft groan instead, focusing on her almost too-warm mouth and the long and wriggly thing that had to be her tongue. I had seen it once or twice, but not like this.

When I cared to look again, Skadi’s other hand was also hard at work between her thunder thighs, her brows scrunched tightly in concentration. It was a pretty sight.

Fisting her long hair in a ponytail, I pulled her into a kiss, trying to show her how much I appreciated her surprise. It only had her groan into my mouth as the movements of her hand turned more desperate. Watching her soon reach her peak was a delight as always.

However I ended up in that lonely place, moments like this helped.

Though there was only so much I could take myself, so it wasn’t long before I was doing my best to try and fill that bottomless pit. Bright-Like-Dawn took it all happily, her tail thumping on the bed behind her. Adorable.

Unlike Skadi, she didn’t take issue with the part of me lodged in her throat moving around more than it should either. Instead she was more focused on making sure she got every last drop.

Argonian girls were something else.

The sun was shining down on us from the window by the time we were done fooling around. Bright-Like-Dawn wasn’t any more talkative either, but she was easily more clingy, rubbing her cheek against my skin happily. I assumed it was how Argonians showed affection.

By the time I escaped the two to try and satisfy another hunger, Lydia immediately accosted me.

All I could do was grab a sweetroll or two as she dragged me away to teach her magic. Which went about as poorly as I expected it to, but, again, she was stubborn.

I decided I was going to bully Farengar into giving me some tips before we left for Ivarstead. Yeah, that should work. I didn’t care if he thought I was a fraud.

I made a run for it as soon as Lydia was distracted with some homework I assigned her. I was starving.

There was still some food left on the two gargantuan tables, but apparently me being alone was an invitation for everyone to suddenly try and suck up to me. They were only distracted when Jarl Balgruuf and his MILF of a sister walked into the hall arguing, followed by an amused Skadi and said MILF’s daughter.

“I shall hear no more of it, Sigrun. He agreed.”

The guy looked absolutely miserable. More miserable than I had ever seen him, honestly. Which was impressive.

Somehow a chat with his sister was worse than dragons or Daedric Princes.

“He’s not ready,” she whispered back hotly as she tugged at her hair the color of beaten gold.

“I am of age, Mother,” her daughter insisted.

…Hold on. That’s not a girl’s voice.

Nah. Nope. I refused to feel bamboozled here. His hair was even longer than Skadi’s or his mother’s!

Skadi noticed me watching and walked over. “Meet my housecarl,” she whispered to me.

So Balgruuf made her a thane anyway. “I thought he was a girl,” I whispered back. That had her laughing loudly and even slapping one of her thick thighs.

“This amuses you?” his mother hissed at her. “Thane or no, you have no right to take my son from me.”

Skadi’s smile was all teeth as her son moved behind us, crossing his arms. “I will be the Dragonborn’s housecarl,” he seemed to insist. “I want to make a name for myself like Uncle Balgruuf.”

“Alfr—”

“Enough. I will have you returned to your room if I must, Sigrun.”

There was obviously some bad blood there with the poisonous look she sent her brother. Skadi again helpfully provided me with a whispered answer. “Their father named Balgruuf his heir despite her being the elder. The false crown upon her brow burns all the brighter for it.”

I assumed she was being metaphorical at the end there.

“With how she is,” she continued softly, “I do not blame him.”

Meanwhile all I was thinking was that this was all a lot more messy than I remembered it being.