The Leader of the Greybeards

Alduin's Wall is, you guessed it, a wall. Apparently it contains both history and prophecy. Esbern points out the last Dragonborn, me apparently, right down the end. I'll be honest, as flattering as the thought is, I really don't see the resemblance. That's a male, holding a weapon, covered in armour, fighting a dragon.

Still there's an undeniable stirring in me... to run away. It seems my heroism is wearing off.

Esbern believes that there's a shout that can defeat Alduin, and it seems that my Blade friends know my Greybeard friends and seem to think they can help us out. I try to explain that the Greybeards are a rather dull, hermit-like group and likely want nothing to do with all this, but Delphine gives me that stony look and I know I've got no choice...

I leg it back up the mountain and try to track down Arngeir. It's not an easy task, as I keep getting lost in the place and I still can't tell these men apart.

Arngeir tells me it's time I met their leader, who lives at the very top of the mountain. They teach me a shout that improves the weather and I'm on my merry way.

Just as an aside, this is possibly the most useful thing I've learned thus far! The weather here is terrible, but now I can banish any snow storm or bad weather back into the sky and pretend that I'm on the Summerset Isleagain! A cold, snowy Summerset, filled with dragons and weird humans... and dead goats too.

Poor goat. I'm not sure what caused his demise, perhaps he leapt too boldly from his rocky perch. I take pity on him (her?) and grant him (her? or at least his (her?) body a little more precious life. He can't do me much good, but we can hang out before he crumbles to ash.

Spoiler alert! Turns out that Paarthunax, the leader of the Greybeards is... here we go again. Yup, he's a dragon. He comes swooping down out of the sky and calls out after me as I run for cover. I suppose it worked out that I can't attack him, because I would have and that would have made our introductions more awkward than they already were!

He does a lot of talking (I see where the Greybeards get it from) and says 'Dremyolok' quite a few times. Then all of a sudden he's breathing fire! Geez buddy, thanks for the warning.

Oh gods, now he wants me to breathe fire in return. I learn the word and he unlocks its power in me, but I'm too nervous... I just stand there, the new word feeling foreign and unfriendly on my tongue. He tries to encourage me, using eloquent variations on 'What's wrong with you, just breath the damn fire!' I use the shout, but at the last second turn my face away so the fire goes shooting across the empty snow. Paarthunax just looks at me. There appears to be no way out of it. But he's a dragon right? Fire won't hurt him, so it's not really dealing damage...

'YOL!' The fire rushes over my tongue again and sizzles across his scales. He seems adequately impressed and the conversation continues while I nurse my guilty conscience...

Apparently the shout to defeat Alduin is lost in time, but an Elder Scroll holds the answers! Great, I'll just get me one of those then. Really Paarthunax, what are the chances of actually finding an Elder Scroll? He suggests visiting the College of Winterhold to ask one of the loremasters there.

The College! I suddenly remember that I abandoned everybody in that Nordic excavation days ago while I went on my merry way. It seems that heroic fate has turned my footsteps in that direction once again. I'd best be off. Nice, um, chatting with you, Parthy. He 'hurumph's and relocates to a nearby stone structure and roosts like only a dragon can. Perhaps they're not all so bad after all.