Disclaimer: Not mine
Rating: T, to stay on the safe side
Warnings: deathfic, but only if you know the situation
Pairing: hints of kind of onesided Brom/Eragon
Summary: Brom has no regrets
A/N: First in a three-part series about different character reflecting what Eragon means for them (Brom, Murtagh, Arya)
Music to go with this ficlet: John Denver "Flying for Me" (Makes me think of Brom, Saphira and Eragon)
My Dream
Have you ever had a dream? A dream so great and deep that it defines your whole being? A dream so immense it eats up everything you are and it's still not enough because there's almost nothing you can do to make it come true? And at the same time it feels like it doesn't even have to come true - as long as you still carry the dream in your heart?
Mine was of dragons.
I remember the time they soared in the skies of Alagaesia. I remember the freedom of the flight, the joy of discarding the bounds of soil and rising above the earth, together. I remember being a part of the whole.
Not the end of Galbatorix's rule, not the victory of the Varden, not the freedom for the people of Alagaesia - no, my dream was the return of the dragons. And for that dream I was ready to sacrifice everything. Everything - the lives of the people of Carvahall, the life of the princess of Ellesmera, my own life - what was left of it. I think that if it would have made my dream come true I would have sacrificed the Varden.
All for them. The Dragon and her Rider. Saphira. Eragon. I would have sacrificed everything for Saphira for she was - almost - my dream come true. I would have sacrificed everything for Eragon for he was the Rider and the only hope for Alagaesia. They were important for me because of that.
If you tell yourself something often enough, you will finally, perhaps, start to believe it. At least I almost did. It was easier than to face myself. My heart.
When my Saphira died my heart died with her. I lived for revenge and when I killed Morzan there was nothing left to live for. The Varden and their words about three eggs gave me my dream and at least some hope for the future - but nothing could give me my heart back. I was so sure of it until a boy growing up under my very eyes did that without even noticing it. He was a child still then - and I was afraid. Afraid of what was happening, afraid of what I felt, afraid of what might be though if I slipped - even a little. So I kept away. Avoidance is always the easiest way eve though it never solves a thing.
He was the light in my darkness and when my eyes saw his light I burned. I watched from afar until I saw him become the embodiment of my dream and the choice was taken from me. He needed me - and I went.
I spoke the truth of my soul when I told Eragon his life was the most important thing there was. I just was not talking about the Varden. Oh, for them, too, the life of a Rider and his dragon were of great importance, but for me it was the life of Eragon... His life is the most precious thing to me in this world. Not only because he is the Rider, but foremost because he is Eragon.
I was ready to sacrifice everything, to do everything in my power to make sure he lived. And in this, my final task, I succeeded. There might be many failures in my life, greatest of them the death of my Saphira, but Eragon lives. He lives - and so does his Saphira.
In this I am luckier than most people - I have seen my dream coming true. I have seen the dragon flying in the skies of Alagaesia again.
I have no regrets - Eragon and Saphira will go on living and one day my dream shall be truly fulfilled.
Still, I am sorry I won't be there to see what they will become.