"So you're just trying to foist this problem on others?"

"What would you have me do? Let it lie? Ignore it? If it's not anyone else's problem then it's my problem. I couldn't do anything else."

"And yet you would not even ensure that the fort you wish to hold is held, yourself."

"Look, if you can only give me men on the condition that I command them, then you can't give me men. I cannot command. I'm sorry to have wasted your time if that's what you wanted. You can go back to whatever it is you do when you're not judging people for trying to give a fuck, like oppress some elves or—"

There's a deafening roar, suddenly, loud enough the walls literally shake, loud enough you feel it more than hear it, feel it in your bones and under your skin. The understanding of what the source must be dawns on people one by one, and can be seen in their reactions: terror, resignation, excitement.

A dragon is here.

"Fucking timing. Excellent timing. Let's find out if being Dragonborn gives me an advantage at killing dragons," he says, summoning an aetherial bow.

"—what?"

"Find Erandur," Ruby tells Onmund. "See if you can't figure out what element that dragon is."

"Yes, Dovahkiin."

?????

He could get used to this.

Ruby ignores Brunwulf and tries to triangulate the dragon's location from the roaring and the flux of people fleeing or trying to go after it.

Dragons are fast. At least on air, while flying, this dragon can cross from one end of the city to the next and back in a few seconds. And it's properly attacking, too, breathing fire (so it's a fire dragon then) at people and buildings, though it's too far to really cause any damage.

Which means that it'll only be a threat if it's close enough to be fought. Not that that means he won't try to attack it anyway, but he won't beat himself up if nothing happens. He gets a frost atronach out and starts to take aim with a bound arrow.

It does in fact need to get grounded to be a proper threat; if it flies too close its filmy wings become easier targets, so what it does is nose dive onto the top of the Palace, using its wings to arrest its momentum only for a second just before landing.

It's not Alduin, though. About the size of a house, its scales a deep scarlet and its horns (relatively) short nubs, but it's dangerous all the same: from this close it can, in fact, incinerate its targets.

Not if Onmund has anything to say about it. His atronach is already out and throwing conjured blocks of ice at the creature while Onmund himself is shooting jets of frigid air to intercept the dragonfire.

And Erandur has been fetched and can help to heal the people unfortunate enough to run afoul of the dragon.

It's not just a dumb creature, though; seeing reasonable resistance from range, it can just as easily jump down onto the patio in front of the Palace doors and go on melee. Its scales are magically tough but also regularly tough, too, and it moves with much more agility than its size would suggest.

Ruby doesn't seem to have any particular advantage fighting it for all that he's Dragonborn, but he's still a powerful and skilled mage. On the ground, the dragon is an easy enough target

The locals aren't slacking either, though. Ulfric Stormcloak, himself, is leading the non-mages, wielding an enormous axe and clad in enchanted armour that can take one hell of a beating, too.

The dragon isn't acting like it expects to lose, though, and it's clear that even while being overwhelmed by numbers it can put up a good fight.

It has the Voice.

"Ven. Gaar. Nos," it breathes, and a whirling cyclone appears out of nowhere in the middle of its assailants, strong enough to throw them away bodily for all that it's small and localised. "Zun... haal viik!" it says next, and almost everyone in a twenty foot radius around it finds their weapons ripped from their hands and thrown out in random directions.

That's insane. Ruby wants that, the ability to command reality using language. He can just say what he wants and have that happen, bypassing spells and magicka and everything else...

...but for now that makes the dragon a formidable opponent. Ruby pulls away from the fight and tries to find his party.

"Any brilliant plans? This thing is vicious."

"Nothing brilliant, no. My best thought is try to go for the wings even while it's grounded so that it has to stay grounded and then just overwhelm it with numbers."

"Its Shouts are far too potent. I fear even that may not be enough, and we should be aiming to get it away from innocents."

"We cut its throat. If it can't Shout we have a chance."