Random Encounter (Phlegyas)

[Phlegyas Ulfgar]

Same way you kill anything else? There wasn't anything in the world to fight that was quite like this. There were no books on how to fight dragons, since there hadn't been any in hundreds of years. Fighting a wolf, or even a frost troll, was nothing compared to the flying beast... no wonder people hated them so much. Dragons seemed like mindless killing machines, hell bent on devouring ever living creature that moved or dared to stand up to them. Only a Dragonborn could actually kill a dragon for good and there wasn't one anywhere nearby.... or so he thought. Phlegyas didn't know anything about Ande beyond a tiny bit of his history... perhaps there was more to the elf then what met the eye...

Phlegyas kept shooting lightning at the dragon, only stopping to recover for a moment or two. The more they kept attacking the dragon, the weaker it's attacks seemed to become. It was rather odd to see such a mighty beast slow down so much, but it seemed to become more vicious than before. When it landed, Phlegyas nearly lost his balance. But he took the chance to get up close and personal with the dragon. Phlegyas struck the dragon in the face with his iron war axe, but was met with rows of sharp teeth. The dragon clamped down on his arm, picked him up, and flung him away. He landed not too far away from the scene of the battle, but didn't get up right away. The nord lay there in a heap, trying to catch his lost breath. Phlegyas' arm was pretty messed up and he was trying to heal it as much as possible. When he looked up, Phlegyas saw that the dragon was still trying to eat Ande. He would have never forgave himself if he didn't get up to fight again, so the nord managed to get to his feet. While his one arm was rather useless at the moment, he could still cast spells with his other hand. The dragon seemed like it was losing ground... the end of the battle was near.

[Ande]

Luckily for both of them, this was one of the weaker dragons. Ande flung another ice spike at the dragon from a greater distance, other hand summoning a one handed sword as he followed Phlegyas's approach of the dragon. When the Nord was flung aside, Ande yelled after him, "Phlegyas!" before looking back at the dragon and throwing up a ward with his other hand. He hissed as the heat of a very close 'Yol' wrapped around him, leaving him rather toasty but functional when the fire breath came to a stop.

Ande summoned another one handed sword and stepped in close while yelling, "SU!", immediately feeling his arms become lighter and faster as he began to slash. He'd become very proficient at dual wielding one handed swords over the years, and he sidestepped an attempted bite before driving both swords down behind the back of the dragon's neck. Both swords dug in and caused a roar that Ande could feel in his own chest.

The dragon surprised him by tossing its head, the side of it smacking right into Ande and sending him flying a few feet (about three or four) before he hit the ground. He'd dropped both of his summoned swords in the impact, and they dissolved into nothing before hitting the ground. While Ande recovered from the unexpected impact, the dragon turned its attention to him and hissed loudly, adjusting its whole body to face Ande and taking the one and a half steps required to get closer. The elf gasped and rolled aside to avoid getting bitten, getting up mid-roll and summoning both of his swords again.

The dragon followed the roll, roaring and opening its jaws wide as it reached for the elf. Acting on a split-second opportunity he'd seen, and not on self-preservation, Ande rushed forward to meet the attack and shoved his left arm and sword right down the dragon's throat, using the right arm to jam the sword up into the beast's neck. He screamed when the dragon bit down slightly on his arm, and dragged both swords out of its neck at as great an angle as possible to cause the most damage he could. The dragon let go, and Ande stumbled backwards, letting both swords dissolve and clutching his left shoulder.

What happened next was just as surprising to Ande as it would be for Phlegyas. The dragon's head impacted the ground and its entire body went limp, great wings and tail sagging. A sudden light and wind rushed out of the great beast and toward the elf, making him panic for a second purely because he wasn't sure what was happening. He calmed after a second though, suddenly aware of knowledge concerning a certain Thu'um he had found. It was over in seconds, leaving a stunned and bleeding Altmer in front of a pile of dragon bones.

[Phlegyas Ulfgar]

After getting thrown by the scaly skinned monster, Phlegyas must have hit his head on something and had gotten up too quickly. Everything was starting to become fuzzy as his vision blurred, he felt light headed and shaky on his feet. But one thing was very clear, no matter how confused and strange he felt, there was something very... odd about Ande. Phlegyas wasn't quite sure what to think, maybe the High Elf had fought with dragons before or perhaps he was just incredibly lucky. Suddenly, Phlegyas felt really worthless. He had hardly done a damn thing to help fight the dragon and pretty much just kept getting in the way. But it didn't matter anymore, in an instant, everything ended. Phlegyas had never seen anything like it before, the Altmer sliced the dragon's throat open and the dragon collapsed.

When the wind and light suddenly rushed out of the dragon's body, Phlegyas lifted his hand to shield his face from the intense light display. Then the beast's soul flew into Ande. The Altmer was dragonborn?! The Nord could hardly believe it! He wasn't sure that it was possible for another race to be Dragonborn, but there was no other explanation. Phlegyas stumbled over to Ande, hardly even noticing the frame of the dragon sitting nearby. The Altmer was bleeding, everything had happened so fast so Phlegyas couldn't remember if the dragon had bitten him or not, but it didn't matter. By the look of it, Ande was stunned, more so than he was. Phlegyas just kind of smirked, the whole situation was rather funny to the Nord now. They had survived a dragon attack and Ande was dragonborn... everything else just seemed so damn... petty now.

"You failed to mention that you were Dragonborn," Phlegyas said with a chuckle, trying to make light of the situation. He knelt down next to the elf, looked over his bleeding arm, and whipped out a healing spell to fix it up. "Heh... Wouldn't want you to bleed out after all of that."

[Ande]

Ande's breaths were coming in slow and deep as he stared at the pile of dragon bones and tried to sort everything out in his head. He'd just killed a dragon. He had fought a dragon, and won. And he didn't die. He just absorbed a dragon's soul, and now he knew how to slow time with his voice. He'd fought a dragon, won without dying, absorbed a dragon soul, and now understood a Thu'um that would have taken a year or two to learn on his own.

Great Oblivion, this was the most exciting thing that had happened since he'd walked right into a Forsworn camp. And that had happened years ago.

"I... uh... didn't think it was important," Ande replied, shifting a little and removing his hand to allow Phlegyas better access to the wound. His arm felt almost numb right now, and the Altmer was pretty sure it was a bad thing, "Thank you. Are you okay?" he looked up at the vampire, and was immediately reminded that the Nord was a vampire. Ande swallowed a bit nervously, wondering if his wound was giving him any ideas.

[Phlegyas Ulfgar]

To say that the blood didn't tempt him would have been a lie. Just the very scent of it just begged him to lean in get closer.... His eyes were transfixed and Phlegyas was frozen, fighting his natural instinct within the depths of his mind. But the vampire had to remember that if he didn't heal the Atlmer he might bleed out and just die right then and there. Summoning up the courage to move past his urge and Phlegyas just closed his eyes and kept healing up Ande's arm. He held his breath, not wanting to smell it anymore... it was making him absolutely crazy and the nord wasn't sure how long he'd be able to hold out.

"T-The Dragonborn are a huge part of Skyrim's culture and lore..." Phlegyas replied, in hopes that it would keep his mind off of everything. His hands were shaking now, it took every ounce of his will power to not attack Ande while he was weak and wounded. Eventually, it became too much and Phlegyas quickly got up and had to walk away. The nord took in as much fresh air as possible and didn't turn back towards Ande for several minutes. Once he managed to regain his composure, Phlegyas turned back around. "Yeah... I'm fine. Just needed a minute..."

[Ande]

Ande could very much visually see Phlegyas's stress, and it was making him tense up for his own safety. He really couldn't use his left arm right now, and if this vampire went for him at this time with this distance, the mage would be done for. Not that he wouldn't put up a fight, and he would try to kill the vampire if he was attacked. It's just his odds of success were very very low if that happened.

He really hoped that wouldn't happen.

Ande maintained himself by showing as little fear and twitchyness as possible, eye locked on Phlegyas for any sign of attack. When he began to shake, the mage concentrated magic into his right hand, prepared to face-palm the vampire with all the fire he could muster if it came to that.

But the vampire left him, and Ande backed up away from him on the ground, trying to get back to his feet with only one arm to help him. He stood ready in case there were any second thoughts about eating him, and was still wary when Phlegyas returned, "True. But I am an elf, so my being Dragonborn is... odd."

[Phlegyas Ulfgar]

Phlegyas remained tense, fighting every urge he had to pounce upon the Elf and suck out all of his blood, but somehow managed to keep his composure. The Nord could practically feel Ande's eyes staring into his soul and it made him feel incredibly guilty. His intention had never been to cause the Altmer any pain or distress... and that was exactly what he was doing right at that moment. But the fact that Ande hadn't run away and left him there meant a lot to Phlegyas.. he was definitely the first to show him a little bit of kindness and that gave the Nord some hope that not everybody would shun him.

"I think that anybody can be Dragonborn, you just have to awaken the power," Phlegyas replied, looking away as the strong desire to attack welled up again. The vampire took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Talking did seem to help, so Phlegyas decided to keep chatting away. "Maybe you're one of the Dragonborn that will help defeat Alduin? That would be pretty amazing."

[Ande]

Ande kept his distance, side facing Phlegyas in a fencer's stance with his wounded arm facing away from him, "Perhaps. But I don't think so," he forced a smile for conversation's sake, still uneasy by how twitchy the vampire looked. This Phlegyas fellow seemed like a very nice, easy going person, so Ande wasn't that biased against him. It was the whole 'hungry vampire' thing right now that was making him the most uneasy.

"How long has it been since you've fed?" Might as well just put the issue out in the open, because his wound wasn't going anywhere fast.