This was a request made by the lovely, Emerald_Parrish, and I must admit that I rather enjoyed writing this. Due to the length of the request (and the fact that I got carried away, as I usually do 😆), this story will be divided into multiple parts. Hope you enjoy part one!

-------

21st of Hearthfire, 4E 201

I ground my teeth as I marched into Riverwood. Gods, was I irritated. It was bad enough that the Greybeards sent me into an old tomb filled with Draugr and other horrible things. But to reach the end and find that the object I had been sent to retrieve had been stolen? Worse still, the thief wanted to meet up with me. I had been stewing about it for days now, and had a lot of time to debate on what I was supposed to do with the thief when I met them.

I stepped into the Sleeping Giant Inn, still silently fuming, and marched straight to the innkeeper. She was a middle-aged Breton with a tight face and an even tighter blonde ponytail pulled behind her head. She was tall for a Breton, standing only a couple inches shorter than me. She wore a blue work dress with a leather corset fastened around her torso.

What is her name, again? Delphine, or something like that.

"You look weary, traveler," she said in a somewhat wary voice. "Here to rent a room?"

"The attic room," I growled, thinking of the letter I had ripped to shreds back in Ustengrav.

"Attic room?" Her eyes showed her confusion, as did the downturn of her lips. "We... we don't have an attic room. But you can take the one on the left. Ten septims, please."

Great. The thief tricked me into thinking he was going to give me back the horn. I was never going to find him.

"Miss?" Delphine held out her hand.

Begrudgingly, I fished out the money and left for the room. I shoved the door open, slammed it behind me, and threw myself into the roughly-hewn chair by the bed.

Gods, I felt so weary. All the frustration I had been feeling lately was just another weight on my already-burdened shoulders. How could I, a dirt-poor mercenary, become the world's savior if I could not even catch a thief? Why was I condemned to bear this? I never wanted this. I never wanted to be anything more than a woman with a normal, comfortable life.

My brooding was interrupted by the door to my room creaking open. I turned in my seat to see Delphine striding into my room and shutting the door behind her.

"Hey, what in gods' names are you—"

"So you're the Dragonborn I've been hearing so much about."

I shot up from my seat, the chair falling to the floor with a crash behind me. "What're you doing in here? Do you make it a habit to barge in on your guests?"

She harrumphed. "You're the exception. Come with me. We need to talk, and I would rather do it somewhere more private."

Against my better judgement, I followed her across the inn to a larger room with a double bed, nightstand, dresser laden with various papers and foodstuffs, and a tall wardrobe. Delphine walked straight up to the wardrobe, opened it, and pushed against the back. The panel slid open with a grating sound.

"Come with me."

I shook my head and followed her down the set of stairs and into a small underground room filled with weapons, armor, and potions. A strong set of leather armor occupied one table, and one of the weapons racks held five identical swords, the likes of which I had never seen. Just one of the potions at the far side of the room would fetch a price fair enough to set me up for weeks. I could not believe this. I had stayed in this inn before, a few years back, and I had no clue that this innkeeper was more than she seemed.

I started from my reverie to find Delphine standing opposite of me at a table laden with maps and books. In front of her sat the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. She slid it across the table to me, and I quickly put it in my travel satchel.

"The Greybeards seem to think you're the Dragonborn. I hope they're right."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I am the Dragonborn. You said so upstairs."

"I hope so. But you'll forgive me if I don't assume that something's true just because the Greybeards say so. I just handed you the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. Does that make me Dragonborn, too?"

"Wait, you? You took it? But you're just an innkeeper."

A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "Surprised? I guess I'm getting pretty good at my harmless innkeeper act."

I huffed and crossed my arms. "You're not what I was expecting."

Her smile widened by a fraction. "Good. The whole point of being in hiding is to appear to be someone you're not." Then she looked me up and down. I could not help but feel like she was judging the bloody rips in my armor, my dented sheath, and my muddy boots. "In all fairness, Dragonborn, you're not what I had in mind, either."

"Sorry to disappoint. What's with all the clandestinity?"

"You can't be too careful. Thalmor spies are everywhere."

The ever-burning fire I had for the Thalmor sparked in my heart. I forced my face to stay neutral, even though the very mention of those blasted elves made me want to kill something.

Now was not the time. I had to find out what Delphine wanted. "Here I am. What do you want with me?"

"I didn't go to all this trouble on a whim. I needed to make sure it wasn't a Thalmor trap. I'm not your enemy. I already gave you the horn. I'm actually trying to help you. I just need you to hear me out."

I thought about the the horn, now safely tucked away in my bag. About the long journey I would have to make back to High Hrothgar to return it. Just the thought of those steps made my legs ache. "Look, I don't have time for this. I have things that I—"

Delphine scoffed, and her gaze hardened, an unearthly fire burning in it. "I'll explain what I want when I want, got it? You'd already be dead if I didn't like the look of you when you walked in here. But I had to know if the rumors about you were true...."

She sighed, calming down, and gave me a softer look. "I'm part of a group that's been looking for you... well, someone like you, for a very long time. If you really are Dragonborn, that is. Before I tell you any more, I need to make sure I can trust you."

"Trust me? How do I know if I can trust you?"

"If you don't trust me, you were a fool to walk in here in the first place."

I sighed. She had me there. I may not have trusted her as well as I could have, but I trusted her enough to follow her into a secret room where she could have easily killed me. "All right. How did you know I would be coming after the horn?"

"I knew the Greybeards would send you there if they thought you were Dragonborn. They're nothing if not predictable. When you showed up here, I knew you were the one the Greybeards sent, and not some Thalmor plant."

There she went again, bringing up the one thing that threatened to undo me. "The Thalmor are after you?"

"Yes. We're very old enemies. And if my suspicions are correct, they might have something to do with the dragons returning. But that isn't important right now. What is important is that you might be Dragonborn."

I bristled. Might be? While I did not want this kind of responsibility, I was not about to let anyone belittle me or doubt me. But I pushed my anger aside and focused on the task at hand. "Why would someone like you be looking for someone like me?"

"Because we remember what most don't: the Dragonborn is the ultimate dragonslayer. You're the only one that can kill a dragon permanently by devouring its soul. Can you do it? Can you devour a dragon's soul?"

"I think so. In Whiterun, I helped kill a dragon, and this energy washed over me after we killed it."

"This is no time to play the reluctant hero. You either are or aren't Dragonborn. But I'll see for myself soon enough."

"What do you mean? And what's all this about dragons coming back?"

"Dragons aren't just coming back, they're coming back to life. They weren't gone somewhere for all these years. They were dead, killed off centuries ago by my predecessors." She ducked her head, shoulders tight and arms crossed. "Now something's happening to bring them back to life. And I need you to help me stop it."

"You need my help, do you?" I shook my head. "This is all crazy."

A sort of humorless smile appeared on her lips. "Ha. A few years ago, I said almost the same thing to a colleague of mine. Well, it turned out he was right and I was wrong."

"What makes you think the dragons are coming back to life? How do you know these dragons flying around aren't the next generation?"

"I know they're coming back. I've visited their ancient burial mounds and found them empty. And I've figured out where the next one will come back to life. We're going to go there, and you're going to kill that dragon. If we succeed, I'll tell you anything you want to know."

I did not like all this "you're going to kill a dragon for me and prove you're Dragonborn," stuff. I was a mercenary, sure, and used to doing other people's dirty work. But I was usually paid for such labor. This woman had yet to offer me anything in return.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and ducked my head. All this talk about dragons and Thalmor and soul-absorbing was giving me a headache. "How do you know all this?"

"You should know. You got the map for me. That dragonstone you got for Farengar, remember?"

By all the Divines, I had almost forgotten about that. That felt like so long ago, before I knew what I was. Before the name "Dragonborn" held any real meaning to me.

Delphine continued, "The dragonstone was a map of ancient dragon burial sites. I've looked at which ones are now empty. The pattern is pretty clear. It seems to be spreading from the southeast, down in the Jeralls near Riften. The one at Kynsgrove is next if the pattern holds."

"So we're headed to Kynsgrove?" Gods, I hope not.

"Yes. There's an ancient dragon burial near there. If we can get there before it happens, maybe we'll learn how to stop it."

I sighed heavily. Going to Kynsgrove will mean, more than likely, that I will be forced to pass by my old homestead. I had vowed to never return there. There was nothing for me there. The farm girl Ylva died in the fire with her parents. The mercenary Ylva had no reason to return to Eastmarch.

Unfortunately, the Dragonborn Ylva had every reason to return. If half of what Delphine said was true, then a dragon was going to attack soon. I may not have wanted to be the Dragonborn, but I knew how to kill dragons. I owed it to the people in Kynsgrove to go with Delphine.

So, with a heavy heart, I gave Delphine a nod and said, "All right. Let's do kill a dragon."