'The next hold he was spotted in was Falkreath, to the southwest,' said Drelis, finishing his ale and putting the mug back on the table.
The candle was guttering and spitting; Lalaine blew it out as they left. 'And the dragons?' she asked. 'When do they turn up again?'
'Oh there was one before he reached Falkreath hold,' said Drelis nonchalantly. 'In Riverwood as a matter of fact.' Phane and Lalaine looked at the dark elf incredulously. 'Oh, I don't have the documentation with me for that.'
'Documentation!?' Phane spluttered.
'There was a dragon at Riverwood?' Lalaine spread her hands and grimaced. 'Why didn't you say?'
'Like I said, I don't have the journals and accounts of what happened. Well, not on me. I mean I know what happened but...'
'Damn your accuracy, Drelis!' Phane shouted, a little too loudly as left the tavern. 'Tell us what happened!'
'Oh, very well.' Drelis was clearly uncomfortable relating the events in the story without a journal or record to back it up. 'But any mistakes I make in the retelling are your fault.'
'Granted,' allowed Phane. 'Besides, you already said that the story was somewhat unreliable regardless of the source. We can't know for sure what really happened, so make your best guess.'
Drelis sighed. 'Let me think for a moment. Khargol left Whiterun before dawn, I know that much from Lydia's diary. She also mentions news that Riverwood was attacked by a dragon, although it took a day or three for word to reach Dragonsreach.
'The jarl had sent soldiers to stand guard in Riverwood, just as he had promised. There were not many soldiers, but how many men do you want to spare to guard a woodland village on the hold's outskirts? Dragons can fly, after all; they do not need to follow roads like an army, so Riverwood was not necessarily the next place to be attacked after Helgen.
'The dragon attacked in the early morning. The archers took shelter where they could, loosing arrows at the beast to deter it from coming too close. Many houses had to have their roofs repaired afterwards though - the dragon was not intimidated and burned the hovels at its leisure.
'But that's when Khargol turned up, as close as I can estimate. He helped the last of the villagers get to the inn, which had not yet burned. The dragon did not land to fight the soldiers directly, though. The village might have been small, but it was a community with little space between its buildings. The dragon did, however, land on the roof of one of the structures and proceeded to breath its deadly flames on the lumber mill.'
'The village's sole industry,' remembered Lalaine. 'How horrible. To have your life's work destroyed out of the blue like that.'
'The mill survived mostly intact,' Drelis reassured her. 'It did require some attention to repair, but most of the damage was done to the lumber waiting to be sawed. I'm sure it was devastation nonetheless, but the villagers all escaped with their lives.'
'So how did Khargol slay the dragon?' Phane asked pointedly. 'That's what is important!'
'When he saw that there was no way to reach the dragon from within the village, and that the houses would be burned down if the monster stayed there much longer, Khargol ran into the woods. He used his shouts to lure the dragon away, taunting it and goading it to follow him from Riverwood into the forest.
'Now the battle itself is certainly conjecture,' he warned. 'No one actually saw it, only the aftermath. Sounds were heard, assumptions made... this is the best estimation we have. When he was sufficiently clear of the village, Khargol made his stand. He had never been a particularly good archer and I doubt he was prepared to wager his life on his skill with a bow. The dragon flew overhead, breathing fire on its orc opponent, but the foliage of the woodland's trees kept most of the flames from reach Khargol. The dragon was forced to swoop down to attack!'
'Swooping is bad!' Lalaine exclaimed.
'Well, it turned out to be a very good thing for Khargol. The dragon could only dive at him at certain points where there was space between the trees. After that it would have to land or fly back up into the sky and circle around. As it was, Khargol managed to hack at the beast once or twice as it passed, until the dragon became so infuriated that it abandoned all caution and rushed at him when it should have paid better attention to its surroundings.
'One of the dragon's wings must have been battered against the trunk of a tree when it attempted to pull up out of its dive. It careened into the ground with an earth-shaking impact that could be felt back in the village. There was one final, defiant roar, and then silence. Khargol had taken advantage and slain the dragon where it lay.'
'Amazing!' Lalaine cried.
'Now that's a story worth telling,' agreed Phane. 'Why can't you tell us more stories like that instead of the travelogue Khargol's legend is in danger of becoming?'
'There is more to the story than just dragon-slaying, Phane,' said Drelis with a touch of impatience. 'Hopefully you'll realise that by the end.'
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