Here's another short Skyrim story. I got this letter while playing with Play-As-A-Dragon SE, and made a few posts on Bluesky about it. In the Sweet-Roll-Devour mod I actually wrote a way to bypass those quests entirely. But I also thought it might make a fun short for the Fahdonmul saga, so here it is.
I had a lot of fun writing Idgrod's lines and trying make sure they would sound like something she'd say.

Fahdonmul is the product of far too much time with the Play-As-A-Dragon SE mod.

Fahdonmul icon by  den-99

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Fahdonmul - The Jarl's Letter

Midnaasvos craned his bronze neck and watched as another dragon entered his territory. There was no doubt, the silhouette was heading straight for Skyborn Altar. The newcomer uttered an echoing call, and Midnaasvos shuddered. It was Fahdonmul's voice.

Alduin had rarely made such visits, and Midnaasvos was unsure about the etiquette. Briefly, he wondered if he should be leaving the word-wall so his lord could perch there instead, but the brown dragon gave no sign of caring and landed nearby in a cloud of snow.

"Hail, Thuri!" the dragon grovelled. "Do not eat me, Lord! Do not give me the True Death!"

Fahdonmul froze, eyeing his underling curiously, and then his wings drooped slightly. "I thought we had got past this," he complained. "Just because I am a leader doesn't mean I go around devouring the souls of my underlings. I would have no-one left to lord over, would I? There is strength in numbers, friend Midnaasvos... To reduce the number of surviving dov would be to weaken our own race. To say nothing of weakening my own prestige."

"Mmm," the dragon admitted miserably.

Fahdonmul made the dragon equivalent of a sigh. "You've done something, haven't you?" he said. "Look, it’s probably fine. If you have committed some unforgivable betrayal, I might execute you as a traitor. If you have eaten a fellow dovah, I would try to release their soul at the cost of your life, as I did with Miraak. But I would never wish to deprive you of your soul, for it belongs to Father Akatosh alone, and is not mine to covet."

"I have slain several joorre," Midnaasvos admitted fearfully, craning his neck to the side of the word-wall. Fahdonmul noticed a pool of dark blood, hardened and dry. The trail led to a heap of broken corpses neatly tucked behind the wall.

"Explain," the dragon-lord said tersely, his anger tempered by the fact that the other dragon was clearly regretting what he had done. "You know there is a truce now. Have you broken it...?"

"They came to the word-wall," the dragon grovelled. "They had weapons. They tried to kill and steal! I held the truce, but they did not!"

"And you didn't do anything to provoke them?" the dragon-lord asked, staring fixedly at Midnaasvos.

"I did not!" protested the dragon. "I am loyal tooth and claw to you, thuri. Once, under Alduin, I hunted mortals and sent their souls to Sovngarde for his sport. At the time, it seemed right and proper. Now... " he glanced at the bracelet of calming which Fahdonmul's allies wore. "Now, harrying mortals seems a waste of time. Why expend the effort? Mortals speak of disturbing a hornet's nest, and disturbing the joorre is much the same. Why risk being sent back to the long sleep of the little-death? Or worse?" he shuddered.

"If they attacked you first and would not listen, you have done the right thing," Fahdonmul said, the other dragon's posture altered, visibly relieved. "Of course, I will have to convince the Jarl of this. They rarely like it when their people are mauled by a dragon, self-defence or not."

Fahdonmul turned his attention to the dead warriors, poking one of them with a brightly-polished claw as if he was trying to check they were really dead. "Anyway, let us see what we have here."

The brown dragon shuffled a few steps back and then exploded in a flash of light, dazzling Midnaasvos. Where he had stood, a khajiit wearing shiny black leathers was now crouching, shaking slightly from the effort of the transformation. As the other dragon watched curiously, he examined the bodies.

"Adventurrrerrrs," he growled, still speaking khajiit-accented dovahzul for his underling's benefit. "That's something. Not the Jarrrl's men... Wait, what's this...?" he pulled out a letter, scanned it, and then vanished it into his inventory.

"Ruth," he swore, switching back to his true form. "Midnaasvos, my zeymah... Seek refuge at my palace. I think we have a problem."

* * *

Morthal could certainly be called idyllic, even if it wasn't exactly picturesque. Boring and slimy might be a better description. Either way, that slimy peace was shattered as an angry dragon landed on the roof of the apothecary and turned to face the longhouse.

"Jarl Idgrod!" Fahdonmul roared. "Come out and face me! I have words regarding this bounty you have put on my brother!"

There was a moment of silence, and then the door opened. An armoured nord emerged, sword in hand, two guards behind them.

"My Jarl!" Fahdonmul said, craning his neck to look at the nord. "Why, how you have changed! Twenty years younger, and now a man! Is this alteration magic, or are you an impostor trying to waste my time...?"

"I am Gorm, housecarl to Jarl Idgrod," the nord said stiffly. "You are disturbing the peace."

"That is the idea, yes," the dragon retorted. "Protests are usually intended to disturb the target of their ire. If you are here to challenge me to a duel over the bounty, I must warn you that I killed Alduin, so it will not be remotely fair. Speech is better for both of us."

"Dragons can speak fire," the one of the guards pointed out. "You could rob us of our leader with words alone. They say Ulfric murdered the high king with his voice! What could a dragon do...?"

"Slaying the Jarl would not be sporting or useful," Fahdonmul replied smoothly. "If I sought her death, I could destroy the longhouse. If the bounty is carried out, I shall. But if we can reason together, such a brutal and unfortunate reprisal will be completely unnecessary. Please summon her."

"I shall take her a message," the houscarl said. "What she does then is her business."

"A bounty has been put on the dragon of Skyborn Altar, in her name." Fahdonmul said curtly. "This puts her in technical violation of the treaty, and this is a problem that must be talked out. She is wise and I am confident she will see sense.
"Now. I do not want to have to open the longhouse up and fish her out of there, but it remains an option if she refuses to negotiate."

"I do not see a dragon at Skyborn Altar," the warrior said stiffly, covering his eyes to stare at the dragon lair in the near distance.

"You think he would sit there and wait for more of your hired thugs to murder him?" Fahdonmul snapped. "Or kill them himself and give you the excuse for yet another bounty? Niid. I have warned him that the Jarl has it in for him, and he is currently in hiding."

"If the dragon has been driven away... it no longer threatens our people and livestock." one of the guards pointed out. "The bounty has been fulfilled. I shall fetch the Jarl."

Fahdonmul opened his mouth to protest, but then shut it again. After all, if it brought her out of the longhouse...

A few moments later, the door opened and the Jarl emerged.

"Strange days indeed, that I greet a dragon at my door," the old lady stated in a harsh voice. "Yet not unexpected. You are marked by fate, Fahdonmul... A worthy heir to the world-eater's lordship."

"You know my name?" the dragon looked surprised.

"The Divines have shown me many things, dragon lord. Now. What is all this arguing about? Surely my guards know better than to upset a dragon...?"

"This dragon has come to claim the bounty on the dragon of Skyborn Altar," the guard explained.

"I have not!" Fahdonmul protested indignantly. "That bounty should not have been issued in the first place! My underling has temporarily vacated his lair out of caution, but he will return.
"Under the truce, a complaint should have been forwarded to me, demanding the culprit desist and provide compensation. That would have sufficed, and that we would have done.
"Instead, you took it upon yourselves to order the execution of an endangered, intelligent creature without due process! What are you playing at...?"

"You will show respect to the Jarl, dragon!" the housecarl snapped angrily.

"And you will show respect to the slayer of Alduin, Gorm!" Idgrod snapped. Fahdonmul sighed and turned his head to the Jarl.

"Jarl Idgrod," he said at last, "You are wise and far-sighted. You are, if I may say so, my favourite Jarl in this land. But, as much as I respect you, this bounty is bullshit. You cannot sentence someone to death for scaring people, even if they are a dragon. That is not the law. And this bounty speaks of stealing livestock!
"You live in a swamp, my Jarl. There is no livestock here bigger than a chicken, and those things aren't worth it even as a snack.
"This whole thing stinks of a pretext! Why did you stoop to such an unworthy deed instead of lodging a formal complaint? If I am angry, it is because I am so deeply disappointed by your actions. I thought you were better than this!"

Throughout this tirade, Jarl Idgrod had maintained her usual poker-face, and privately Fahdonmul was impressed by her composure. Perhaps the gods had shown her this too...? Or perhaps she figured that it was mostly posturing... that if a dragon was truly furious with her, she wouldn't survive to see it.

"Wise you are in many ways, Fahdonmul," the old lady began. "Yet foolish in others. I cancelled the bounty once the truce was declared, just as I had seen."

Fahdonmul looked surprised, relieved, and then suspicious. "For that, you have my gratitude, and my apologies for doubting you. But why, then, is it still in circulation...?"

Idgrod looked at Gorm. So did Fahdonmul.

The housecarl shifted uncomfortably. "Would you have us sit and wait for the beast to turn on us?" he snapped. "For they will! Would you have Morthal become another Helgen?!"

"Those who attack first can no longer claim the mantle of self-defence," Idgrod remarked pointedly.

"You knew," Fahdonmul said, looking at Gorm with disgust. "You knew that there was a truce, and you posted the bounties anyway. You knew that I would blame the Jarl!"

"Dragons are vicious killers, all the old legends tell us this!" Gorm snapped, ignoring Fahdonmul and turning to Idgrod in protest. "The truce is a lie, and they will turn on us when we least expect it!"

"Dragons have also done great service to the Empire in times not long past," Idgrod retorted. "Those who so served kept their bargains and fought on our side. And that is history, mark you! In living memory for some, not crude legends twisted over a hundred generations."

"But this one arrived, making demands and threatening to burn down the longhouse!"

"Yet I have not," Fahdonmul said reasonably. "I was angry, yes. But even so I made my intentions clear, rather than attacking without warning as Alduin did. No... Even if I had carried out that threat or come to avenge the murder of a brother, I would have ignited the roof at a far end, yelling curses the whole time to alert the occupants. One can bring destruction without death, if one is careful."

"And this is what dragons call diplomatic?! Is that the way you would summon a Jarl?"

"A Jarl who deliberately violated the truce? Yes. I agree it is not a model of diplomacy, but the dov are not used to doing that yet. Since the Dawn Era, we have been led to believe that strength is rightness, that the powerful are intended to rule because they have power. It is not quick or easy to change a belief system that has endured for over six thousand years. Yet we are making progress."

Gorm looked furious, but said nothing. Fahdonmul craned his neck to face Idgrod again, and lowered his head respectfully.

"I see that this is now an internal matter, my Jarl," the dragon said. "My apologies for disturbing you. I shall inform my brother that the bounty is lifted and any who still seek it are fair game."

"You do that," the Jarl agreed. "Now, Gorm... You and I have things to discuss."

Fahdonmul fanned his wings for takeoff and wondered if his people might soon be claiming a bounty on the disgraced housecarl.