I didn't elaborate on my disturbing dream the other night to Laurenna, choosing instead to just dismiss it as a coincidence.

We decided to check the local bookstore for the 4 books that Hasphat had recommended to me for research.  Unfortunately, she didn't have any of them.  She suggested that we check in Ald'ruhn or Vivic.

Since Ald'ruhn was closer, and we had a dragon to chase down, we figured that we would start there first.

We headed to the stiltstrider and spoke to the driver about passage to Ald'ruhn. "Ah, I remember you." he said. "I must tell you about something important." I asked him what it was, and he said "I saw a red dragon, and it looked like it was flying north from Caldera to Ald'ruhn." I told him we were indeed searching for this dragon, and that it might be in that area. He agreed, and said he would take us there.

Once we arrived, the local stiltstrider driver confirmed the incidence of the red dragon that attacked Caldera had been seen in the area. He seemed glad that we were there to search it out and destroy it.

As we left the strider, we were stopped by a dark elven child, named Ehani. "Did you see the dragon?" he shouted. "It was big, and, and, huge, and, had big, sharp teeth, and it was roaring, and stuff, and it flew down and grabbed one of the guards, and bit his head off, and, then, uh, it ate him all up! It was scary!!"

"When did all this happen?" I asked. Suddenly, I could hear people shouting. "Just now, it's right over there!" He pointed to the center of the village.

We ran around the edge of the Mage's Guild offices and froze in horror as we stared directly at a thing of both beauty and terror.

It had grabbed and killed a second guard, tossing his body casually to the side, like a child's toy.

Just as quickly as it had arrived, it jumped into the air, flapping his huge, leathery wings and flying towards the east.     

I spoke to one of the guards on duty at the scene. "What can you tell me about this?" I asked him.

"The attack came quickly." he said. "No one even heard this creature coming down from the sky. Usually, we have cliffracers in the area, but they rarely invade the 'city space' we have here, but this was ugly. A fellow guard, ripped to shreads, and eaten like that. It's just terrible." I asked him if he might know about attacks on the traders going between Ald'ruhn and Caldera. "Yes, there is one at Fort Buckmoth nearby. I hear he was attacked by this thing and it ate one of his pack animals.

I thanked him for his information, then headed to the merchant area of the city.

We checked in the local bookstore but didn't find the books we needed.  I told Laurenna it looks like we will have a good excuse to go to the grand old city of Vivic and check with the local bookseller there. I had purchased a few books from Jobasha in the past, and he seemed to have just about every book in the land.

 We decided to go to the clothing stores and see what was for sale there. I found a beautiful red dress for Laurenna to wear. "I bet you want to see me both in and out of it, huh?" she teased. "Let me see you in it," I teased back, "and I'll show you a little magic in return." That put a smile on her face.

"What should we do now?" she asked. "Well," I replied, "we need to go to the fort. I believe that's where the latest vicitim of this dragon is to be found. He may be able to give us pointers as to where this beast may be hiding."

We went out the back gate of Ald'ruhn, and made our way down the dusty backroad to the Buckmoth Legion Fort.

We had two things going for us: It was a pleasant day, no ashstorm going on, and the cliffracers we could see were too far away from us to notice our presence. They are very territorial, and often fly down unexpectedly to attack.

It was just a short walk until we saw the signpost for the fort's location.

We arrived at the fort and found the merchant we had been told about, tending to several severe wounds to his pack guar.    

"Excuse me." I said. "I understand you had an encounter with a dragon near here?" The merchant looked up from the wound on the guar's leg he was wrapping. "Yes, I am Elmar Thaneris, a merchant in these parts. I was bringing goods from Vivic and Caldera to Ald'ruhn when the attack happened."

"How did you survive the attack?" Laurenna asked. "It was by a stroke of luck." he replied. "The beast flew down from the sky, quietly. I never heard it coming. Suddenly, the creature started attacking one of my two pack guars. I knew a frost spell or two, and used it, but it barely affected the dragon. It seemed more interested in grabbing something to eat. As you know, guars have very strong legs, lots of meat on their bones." I'm not sure if my frost spell did any good, but it seemed to just grab my other pack guar and fly off with it into the sky. It was just outside the main gate of Ald'ruhn, and it flew east, probably right over this fort, then dropped out of the sky. I couldn't see it after that. Some of the guards here saw it, and they seem to think it's hiding either in or near the Daedric ruins just east of the fort."

After hearing his story, we chatted with several of the guards there and confirmed they all felt the dragon was hiding either in or just east of the Daedric ruins near the fort. "How far is it?" Laurenna asked. "Follow me, I've been there before." I said. It was true - I had been to this place once before, just hunting and raiding these places of evil.

It was not more than 5 minutes walk when we encountered the ruins.

"What makes that smell?" she asked.

"Oh, as I understand it, we are near Ghostgate, that surrounds Red Mountain. Lots of Corpus beasts and infected people there. It's probably rotting flesh you smell."

"Ewwww, I don't think my nose can handle that. I'm sure glad we don't have to go there!" I smiled and agreed. This dragon would be quite enough, thank you.

We found a few daedric creatures, there, all of which tried to kill us. Lucky for us, we had other ideas. After taking care of them, we searched around for evidence of a dragon in the area.