i was busy picking a lock to my target's house and all of a sudden the music changed, to the.. barbarian choir
at first i didn't really know why.... then as i pursued to pick the lock, i heard a SCREEEEEECH and omfg, when i looked up the thing was already blowing fire in my face
it took me ... 2 days and 1 night (in game time) to take it down with my bow....
i have to say, the best fight i've experienced in any game thus far.
the dragon AI was extremely adaptive, there was sort of a flight pattern but that changed a lot depending on if the dragon can target you or not, most of the time he'll be up there flying in circles and trying to roast you. He will though, in his pattern, hover and spew out flames and he will also perch on buildings to try to cook you up...
the hardest, or rather, longest part of the encounter was his flight patterns, i would have to wait for him to hover or perch to shoot in ONE arrow... and 2 if im use a certain technique.... after it landed however, since my sneak was so high, at 50, and he was relatively far away, he didn't really spot me... so i had 3x damage bonus sneak attack like.. 10 shots in a row... so that was pretty nice
i would have cried if i died towards the end.
p.s. while i was figuring out how to best defeat it or by coming up with strategies, i died by the bucket loads, it was terrible but in the end it was all worth it