Chapter 48: Sorting out the trophies pt4
A couple of days later, Alduin and the Occult Club members stood at the threshold of a brand-new two-story cottage with a small plot of land as a backyard.
"What a nice house. And just for me!" Alduin theatrically exclaimed, visibly touched.
"Yes" confirmed Rias with a smile, enjoying the excitement on Alduin's face.
"Yay! Koneko, can you come over here for a sec?" Alduin called his classmate, and when she approached, he playfully pushed her into the house. She stumbled slightly but quickly regained her balance, turning to face Alduin with a furrowed brow, clearly dissatisfied.
"The first one to cross the threshold of a new house must be a cat" said Alduin.
"How did you know?" asked Rias.
"I have my methods," replied Alduin mysteriously, before bending down to scratch Koneko under her chin. She let out a soft purr but quickly came to her senses and pushed Alduin's hand away. "See?" he added, chuckling.
'Also, the green aura of werewolves and the scent of Khajiit were dead giveaways' he thought.
After they entered the house, Alduin felt his spirits rise even higher.
"Wow, there's even furniture here!" he exclaimed.
He approached the couch and gave it a pat. The couch didn't shatter into pieces, and Alduin let out a chuckle, impressed by its sturdy construction.
"Devil's work" Rias hinted with a smile, acknowledging the couch's exceptional quality. "And my personal gratitude" she continued, remembering her brother's words about building relationships.
"My first home in a millennia. I suggest we celebrate" he said, pulling out his phone and dialing someone's number.
"Hey, Kaicho, we're throwing a housewarming party over here. You should join us" Alduin suggested to Sona.
"Tatsumi? I've got student council business to deal with" Sona sighed over the phone.
"Student council business, huh? Guess that's a no."
"Don't act so innocent. You have student council duties as well" Sona reminded him with a stern tone.
"What? I've got student council business too? Well, I guess it'll have to wait."
"Tatsumi..."
"Don't worry, I'll make up for this later."
Alduin closed his phone and tucked it in his pocket.
"Well, it looks like Kaicho isn't going to make it, so let's head to the store. We don't get to do this very often, so grab whatever you want."
---
After a trip to the store, where the entire Occult Club had to pull a struggling Alduin out of the alcohol section as he was about to get into a fight with the cashier, the group returned to enjoy some tea and cake. They parted ways for the evening, leaving Alduin alone.
He sat down on the couch and, closing his eyes, began to search for any foreign magical energies within the house. However, the house was clean, so Alduin took another look around the place before setting off to find Morgana, who should have been finishing her metamorphosis by now.
He also contacted Walburga and tasked her with setting up protective spells around the house.
---
Somewhere in Sovngard
"Argh, I feel so terrible. Someone, please kill me" groaned Morgana as she regained consciousness and found herself lying on a hill in one of Sovngarde's plains. Alduin had transported her there from the Hall of Valor, but she couldn't remember how or why.
"That can be arranged, but it would be a waste of my time" Alduin complained, poking Morgana with a stick.
"Alduin, what have you done to me?" Morgana demanded an answer.
"I've given you some of my blood, so your body would become somewhat closer in properties to that of a Dovah" replied Alduin, setting the stick aside.
"Like with vampires?" Morgana asked, recoiling at the comparison.
"A distasteful comparison, but it's not far from the truth" Alduin admitted.
"Why?" Morgana asked. "You could have turned me into a dragon. Just like you did with Xuelan."
"I could have, but you wouldn't even become a lizard with wings. Xuelan, unlike you, was a Dovah before her rebirth, and her soul remembers her previous body. Now that Xuelan's soul is whole again, her body will start adjusting to her soul. You, on the other hand… even though mortals from the past were stronger, even such a body couldn't withstand the power of a Dovah. By the way, the side effect of the transformation has already manifested."
"A side effect?" asked Morgana, casting a puzzled glance at Alduin. She examined herself, and her face lit up with joy.
"I have breasts! And I've grown taller!" she exclaimed happily, but seeing the sullen World Eater, she coughed and asked with a serious tone "So what were you saying about the blood?"
"By using my blood, your body was able to rebuild itself to resemble that of a Dovah rather than a degenerate offspring of an Argonian and a sparrow" Alduin explained. "But that's not all. Unlike you, Dovahs have perfect control over their powers, not to mention their ability to fly. And that's what I'll be teaching you."
"Why can't Odahviing teach me?" Morgana asked.
"He doesn't know how to train young Dovah. Once, when the world was still young, I raised all the Dovah. I gave them everything they know when they were still nestlings, not yet able to fly."
"You mean Dovahs had children?" Morgana asked.
"No, we never did, and I don't know if we ever will. Even I, the oldest Dovah, didn't know my gender until I was reborn. Concepts like 'male' and 'female' are foreign to us. We were created by Akatosh. I was the first, then Paarthurnax. After we grew up, Akatosh created the rest of the dragons. And I trained all the newborns as Akatosh commanded. I taught them everything he taught me, and everything I had learned on my own." Alduin reminisced.
"So it was your doing that dragons consider mortals to be inferior creatures. You were just annoyed with hundreds of screaming infants," Morgana concluded, nodding in understanding.
"When I was born, the world of mortals was just a rumor. Paarthurnax was born after the creation of the mortal world and the death of Lorkhan. Then almost three thousand powerful beings appeared, and I had to raise them all by myself. All that time, Paarthurnax just stood quietly in a corner."
"Hmm, come to think of it, he was rotten from birth; I should have bitten his head off back then," Alduin mused.
"As for your training, it will happen in three stages. First - control. You'll learn to channel power into Words. Second - learning. To know the Words, you'll have to learn the Language. Dovah of my level, Odahviing, and Viinturuth can turn any Word into a Shout. But the ability to Shout doesn't make you closer to being a Dovah."
"The third stage - you'll need to train your throat." Alduin said with a smirk. But before Morgana could respond, he continued. "However, you can do this without my involvement. All you'll need to do is learn how to sing. Just not like the way you screeched in Windhelm."
"Did you hear that?" asked Morgana, feeling embarrassed at the memory of the first time she tasted Honningbrew mead.
"Everyone heard it" Alduin chuckled, trying to remember the song. "How did it go? There once was a hero named Ragnar the Red, who came riding to Whiterun from ole Rorikstead?"
"Stop it!" Morgana exclaimed, punching him lightly on the arm and blushing. "Just tell me what I need to do."
"Do push-ups" Alduin instructed.
"What?"
"Get into a plank position!"
"Is that all?" Morgana asked, following Alduin's command.
"No. While doing push-ups, repeat the translation for Unrelenting Force."
"Force. Balance. Push. Force. Balance. Push..."
"Now, in the dragon language!"
"Fus!" The moment the word left Morgana's lips, she was flung high into the air.
"She really needs to work on her control" Alduin remarked, watching Morgana fall from the sky.
"Aaaaaagh-ghug" Morgana fell with a thud. "What just happened?!"
"That was a vivid illustration of your lack of control over the power you instinctively imbue into the Words. Landed already? Assume the plank position!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone