Disclaimer: the world of the Inheritance Triology belongs to Christopher Paolini. Any original characters you meet in the story, are mine, unless they decide to rebel or run away.
Built to be a gathering place for humans, dwarves and elves alike, and even those urgals willing to enter with peace in mind, the Aiedail Hall was a place of great beauty. The work of builders from the three races, it held arcitectural aspects from all of them, stone and metal merged with living three to create a building greater than any seen in Alagaësia before.
And inside, it was capable of admitting close to five thousand people at any given time in the room that took up nearly all of its interior. There marble of many shades covered floor and walls, as well as the ceiling, glistening in the light of countless lamps. In the center of this room, was also a tall dais, constructed to let anyone standing on it be seen by all, even when the hall was completely full.
Like it was now.
Standing side by side-- dwarves, humans and elves filled the hall, and their eyes were fixed at the four standing at the dais. Just a step ahead of queen Arya of the elves, king Roran of the humans and king Orik of the dwarves, stood a rather nervous-looking young elf.
A bit short for an elf, the young man had rather frizzy auburn hair and his dark brown eyes were currently fixed at a object laying on a nest-like structure right in front of him. Feeling quite anxious due to the attention he was the object off, looking at what was in front of him was preferable to looking at the crowd by far.
Just a little while ago, less than half an hour in fact, Cian had been one of many young elves and humans walking by the large, gem-like stone that was a dragon's egg. Taken from Galbatorix's palace after the war had ended, this egg was the last of the three eggs that had remained after the fall of the Riders hundred of years ago.
Now however, the hatchling would be born into a world where it would likely be one of the only two dragons in existence. After the sacrifice made by the new Riders and their dragons to end the war, only Shruikan the black was still alive, and as the adult dragon had fled after being freed from his unnatural bond with Galbatorix, his whereabouts was unknown.
No matter what, even if Eragon and Murtagh had survived the war, being a rider would be a huge responsibility, and to be honest-- Cian was not the least sure about that he was the right person for it. But it was him that the last, green egg hatched for, and he had to try at least..
Before him, a wide crack yawned open in the shell of the egg, and moments later-- a dragonet was sitting at the 'nest' in front of him. Still moist from the egg fluids, the scales of the dragonet had a almost oily appearance to them, but already they were reflecting light in the same way that he had seen the scales of Eragon's and Murtagh's dragons do.
This dragonet's scales however, was a deep jasper green.
Blinking against the light, the dragonet's eyes-- a pale green-gold, glittered at she turned her head towards him. And trying to prepare himself for the pain he had been told would come when the bond between them was forged, the young elf slowly reached out with a hand to stroke the dragonet's head.
Feeling like his limbs were about to fall off, Cian collapsed onto the couch in the quarters he had been assigned after he had became a Rider. Being an elf, he was no weakling, but there was certain limits to what he could handle..
His training has began easily enough-- weeks spent at getting familiar with using a sword and various other weapons. The repeated excercises had been somewhat boring, but certainly better than what he was going through now.
His trainers-- Gashild, who was a kull warrior, and the elven fighter Sorun, were both quite merciless when it came to his training.
:You are a Rider, the only one still in existence. It's only right that you are to become a skilled fighter as well, take a warm bath-- that will loosen your muscles:
Wings rustling as she stretched her wings, a slender green dragon stood up from the leather-padded floor where she had been resting. And her green-gold eyes blinking as she woke completely, she turned her seven meters long body towards Cian.
Having grown a lot during the months since her hatching, the young dragoness was far from the tiny and rather ungainly dragonet she had been. As was typical of dragons, her jasper scales almost seemed to glitter with a inner light, and she was a source of endless curiosity.
Not to forget a source of annoyance to Cian at times, as she had a tendency to be a bit too meddling, always making sure to have a word in just about everything he was doing.
Still, despite the hardships, there was nothing that would have convinced him that it would ultimately have been better if she never had hatched for him. They had become too close for that-- she already was and would always be his greatest friend and champion, as he was hers.
"What I would really love, Jasper..., is a good massage" he said, closing his eyes as he really felt too tired to keep them open. If Siv had still been around, she might have been willing to give him one, but his fellow goldsmith apprentice had went back to Ellesmèra two weeks ago. It would have been nice if she could have stayed though, but he understood that she had chosen to go back to her studies.
In the process of being rebuilt, Vroengard was a rather desolate place still. As he was a Rider, he could consider himself lucky to have been given proper quarters. Most of the warriors and workers living there as well, had to make do with barracks and unfinished quarters.
Jasper shifted her wings in a dragon's equialent of a shrug:in the absence of someone to give you that massage, a warm bath is still the next best thing. I fear that my claws would do a poor job..:
The dragon's eyes glittered with unveiled humor as she looked towards the inner exit of their quarters:and I believe that we are getting a visitor. Two actually, Gashild is coming, an elf who I have not met is accompanying him:
Cian forced back a groan.
Whatever his teacher's reasons for bringing a visitor at this time, it was unlikely that it included another bout of training. But as exhausted as he was, he really didn't want to have to deal with the warrior and a guest, as it undoubtely meant that he would have to stay awake for a while longer.
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Doing his best to sit up straight without showing too much of the exhaustion he was feeling, Cian winced as Jasper made her dislike of Gashild known with a low growl as the urgal and the elven visitor entered the room. Cian inclined his head in a greeting, looking at the two as his mind raced with possible reasons for their visit this late.
"Welcome to my residence; warrior Gashild, Lady", he paused as he looked over at the auburn haired visitor, "if I may be honored with your name.."
He decided not to ask why they had came, knowing Gashild, the urgal would no doubt inform him of the reason for their visit soon enough. Although.., he could not help but wonder about the stranger-- the way she was dressed suggested that she had been traveling, likely quite a distance if the worn state of her clothes was anything ot judge by.
With a rustle of her dark wings, Jasper moved silently to stand beside him as Gashild returned the greeting, and then spoke.
"This is Tasun, she is one who have been traveled far to study old archives, something that may be of outmost importance to us all" Gashild said, the shadow of a smile at his face as the elven woman subtly signaled that she wished to speak. Even before Tasun began speaking, both Cian and Jasper felt strongly that what the elven woman was about to say would bring a significant change to their lives.
Adjusting the metal circlet holding her hair gathered in a tail, Tasun closed her eyes briefly as she pulled a chair away from the table nearby to sit down on. Taking a deep breath, she raised her head to look at him as she spoke.
"For many years, I have traveled through elven, human and dwarven lands, even the land of the urgals a few times, this to make records of significant events-- but also to look for any clues to what happened with the wild dragons. Then, a little less than a year ago, I found something in an old stronghold of the dragonriders, nearly halfway across the world".
Tasun paused suddenly as Jasper made a strange sound, and the two looked at each other for a long time-- something passing between them. Then the elven woman straightened herself, a look of what might have been joy on her face as she continued speaking.
"What I am bringing back, is certain proof of that a small group of dragons and their riders took certain actions to ensure that their kind would survive, before also they were found and murdered by the Forsworn. Taking a great risk-- these riders took the dragon eggs available to them, some were from their own dragons and others were among the last given by the wild dragons, and they spread them across the world by the means of magic".
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Slowly sinking into Cian's mind, the information just given by Tasun made him stare at her and Gashild with a look of mixed surprise and disbelief on his face. And behind him, there was the sound of something falling as Jasper's tail gave a involuntary twitch-- knocking something over.
:Do you have proof of this?: Jasper asked, her green-gold eyes bright as she brought her head within a few inches from Tasun's face
:I would very much like to see it. If proving true, it is a discovery of great significance...:
The dragon retracted her head, and there was a strange look at her long face as she stared into the air.
Twining her fingers together, clearly nervous about having a dragon's head only inches from her own, Tasun hesitated for a few moments before putting the sack she had been carrying on her back, onto the floor.
"These are only copies, I left the real records in Ellesmèra before they sent me here to inform you of my discovery. Those elves and humans who accompanied me on the journey will confirm this if you choose to question them".
With that, a number of scrolls were handed over to Cian, each of them sealed with wax and bearing the marks of the elven queen and the kind of humans. Barely managing to keep his hands from shaking, and not sure if he dared to hope, Cian opened the scrolls and started to read. And as he did so, a unspoken agreement grew between him and Jasper, they both knew that they would have to do.
:Six eggs...spread across the world. It has been decades, so who knows what their fates are, or if any of them even hatched. I want to hope, but I dare not, when after all this time we haven't heard any rumors about them. They could have been hunted down and destroyed if they ever hatched, or the eggs are lost-- scattered in faraway places where we will never be able to find them...:
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Cian reached up to place a hand gently at Jasper's chin, stroking the smooth scales.
"But if we don't look, how will we ever know? If there's even the slightest chance..."
Sharing a moment of hope and the fear of finding that they would truly be the last-- dragon and elf stood still, and then they knew that the time had came to act on the information they had been given.
Forgetting aching muscles and tiredness, Cian turned back to Gashild and Tasun, his gaze unwavering as he met theirs.
"Send out a summon to everyone living here, and dispatch a messenger to the leaders of the elves, dwarves and humans. Let them know about Tasun's discovery, and...also tell them that I and Jasper will search for the missing eggs. If there are even the slightest possibility that there are more eggs, or even dragons living elsewhere, we must find them".
Gashild grunted his disapproval, but to Cian's relief, the urgal did not immediately demand that he abandon his plans-- not in front of Tasun at least. And within Cian's mind, a great number of thoughts were spinning-- the hardships he and Jasper were likely to face, the need for equipment and the fact that he would have to bring along a number of people on his search.
As they exited the room, there were just such things that Gashild demanded that he consider. Within moments after that, the urgal was well on the way to plan the likely journey ahead of them, much to Cian's surprise.
He would never have thought that the kull warrior would approve of such a, by all means, snap decision.