"It's here! It's finally here!" Abigail trembled with excitement beside him. Walker had always admired his twin for her longing to be great and her determination to do so. Ever since he could remember Abigail had talked about how she would become a rider and do great things that would be sung about for ages to come. She never once doubted herself. An attribute he admired.
They were edging closer and closer to the front of the line. Only about five people were in front of them, waiting for their chance to touch the dragon egg. The egg had traveled through almost all of the other cities in the Empire, as well as Teirm, and now finally it had arrived in Carvahall a few days earlier. Practically everyone over the required age of fifteen and less than thirty years of age was eagerly awaiting their chance of touching the egg. Fifteen was rather young since a person did not reach adulthood until they became sixteen, but Queen Nasuada, who had reigned long ago, insisted that the age limit be extended there because Saphira had hatched for Eragon when he was only fifteen.
Walker looked over at his sister as she rotated standing on the balls and heels of her feet. He could tell that she could barely contain her excitement. "Can you believe it!" She said to him. "I'm finally going to become a Rider."
"Don't get you hopes too high up, Abby. There's still a chance that it might not hatch for you." He told her.
"No, there isn't." She stared at him with a dead serious expression. Frown lines showed up on her forehead as they had always done since she was little. "It's going to hatch for me. It has too. This is my only chance. If it doesn't hatch for me, another dragon egg won't come back here for years. The day I turn sixteen Father is going to marry me off to that pig-headed Tomsson, Mandel. That cannot happen. This is the day I will be able to change my destiny. I'll be able to take charge and do what I want to do. No one will be able to stand in my way, especially not Father. This is my only chance." Her gaze seemed far away as she gazed at the violet dragon egg sitting on its pedestal.
"I just don't want you to get crushed if it doesn't hatch for you, that's all." He said in a low gentle undertone. Walker loved his twin with all of his heart. They were connected somehow. He would be crushed if she got crushed and so it was the other way around also. If something happened to one of them, the other would know about it. There was a bond between them unlike normal twins.
Abigail's head snapped back to look at him. Anger could be seen clearly in her eyes. "You're just jealous." It came out as only a whisper.
"What–." Walker drew his head back in shock. "No I'm–."
"Yes, you are. You're jealous that you have to stay here to take on Father's blacksmith because you're the next man of the family. And you don't have the guts to try to change your destiny either. You don't want me to be a Rider because you can't."
Walker reached out to touch her arm but she wrenched it away from his grasp. "Don't touch me!" Before he could say anything one of the men standing by the egg said, "Next," and pointed to Abigail. She stepped away from Walker and proceeded toward the dragon egg without a single glance back at him.
Abigail intertwined her fingers together to keep them from twitching with excitement. Here was her chance. She lifted her head up high and walked confidently to the pedestal with the egg sitting upon it. The egg was a deep rich violet color with shades of black stitched into it like an intricate design. When she touched it, its surface was cool and smoother than silk. This is it! A smile twitched at the sides of her mouth.
She stood there touching the egg for almost a minute. Nothing happened. Slowly the beginnings of the smile evolved into a frown. Why is nothing happening? Why isn't it hatching for me? Frown lines creased on her brow. She looked toward the man who had called next. The man just looked at her with a dull expression and jerked his chin up indicating that she should move on. He had no idea that the woman standing before him had just had her dream shattered.
Abigail didn't know what to do. This wasn't suppose to happen. No! It wasn't suppose to go this way. That egg was going to hatch for me! She could feel the urge to cry coming. Along with everything else, she felt more embarrassed than ever before. Her legs seemed to twitch with pent-up energy that fueled the urge to run. So she did. She ran. She ran out of there like an idiot and she didn't dare look back.
Walker watched her run out. He had feared that this would happen. He was about to run after her when the man by the egg said, "Next," and pointed at him. Walker had only wanted to be there for his sister when she touched the egg, he hadn't meant to touch it himself. The man must have thought that he wanted to touch it. Walker was dumbstruck. What should I do? Before he could think of an answer, the man said, "Next," again a bit more loudly and with a hint of impatience.
Walker hurried up to the egg. He looked down at it. The light of the room reflected off of the glossy shell of the egg making it glisten. As he looked at it, something seemed to pull him to it. The color, luster, the shape captivated him. He felt a low thrumming in his chest. Without even meaning to his hand reached out and touched it.
At first it felt cold but then it warmed up underneath his hand and the warmth spread through his whole being. It reminded him of many winters where he and his family would crowd around the fire in the hearth trying to warm themselves by its heat. He closed his eyes and seemed to sink back into the memories as if he was there again.
The thrumming in his chest grew louder, louder, louder, until it rang in his ears. He opened his eyes as the egg started to move back-and-forth beneath his hand. This can't be happening. Walker quickly pulled his hand away in shock. His feet were frozen in place and his eyes were glued to the hatching dragon egg. It rocked for what seemed like minutes to Walker. The rocking increased in speed until it suddenly stopped. Everyone was completely silent as they waited. A cracking sound rang through the hall. Cracks started appearing first on the top of the egg and then spread until there were numerous cracks all over. Pieces of the egg fell to the floor as a dark violet snout poked through.
The dragon hatchling climbed out of the egg and then pushed the empty shell to the floor. It sat on the pedestal as it took in its surrounding. Its eyes were a dark shiny black and its claws and spikes were the same color also. The rest of its body was a very dark violet with shades of black here and there just like its shell. The dragon was as long as his arm and as tall as his knee. Soon the black eyes focused on Walker and the dragon extended his neck toward him.
"Touch him." said the man by the pedestal. His gaze pierced Walker now as if he was trying to find out everything about him.
Walker looked back at the dragon. This was out of the blue. There was no way it was true. Abigail has always been the one who wanted to have an adventure, not me. What am I going to tell her? The hatchling made a sound in its throat that drew Walker's attention back to him. Walker stepped forward with his hand outstretched and touched the dragon on the neck.
An icy cold sensation shot up his arm. He wanted to scream from the pain but he could not move an inch. It was the coldest feeling imaginable but it stung like fire. If he could have moved he would have collapsed in pain and his body would have shaken like he was having a seizure. As suddenly as it came the feeling went away. Walker let out a sign of relief when the feeling was gone.
The dragon hatchling was licking his still outstretched palm. On the palm of his hand was shining a circle, gedwëy ignasia. He felt sick to his stomach and he felt like his head was spinning. His body started to lean forward in a faint but he caught himself as he gripped the edges of the pedestal. The, no, his dragon stared at him. Walker extended his hand to it again and the dragon climbed up his arm and settled itself around his neck and across his shoulders.
The man came over to him and gripped his wrist and raised Walker's hand above his head. "Here is our new Rider!" The crowd cheered. Walker was sure though that he saw some people with very sour faces as they left. I can't believe this has happened to me. There were no other words that came to his mind to think. It was all just too unbelievable. He expected to wake up any moment now and know that it was all a dream, but he never did.
His dragon nuzzled its snout against his cheek. It felt as real as ever. This was no dream.
Abigail had always liked running. If something bothered her, she would go out to a deserted place in Palancar Valley and she would run for miles. The burning of her legs distracted her mind from whatever was bothering her. It never failed.
Running through the streets of the city was a new, and dangerous, challenge. She had to dodge people, buildings, animals, etc. which slowed down her pace. It seemed like that after every few feet she would trip on something. As she tripped over and over again she only got angrier and more frustrated than ever. Unlike it usually did the run did not cool her thoughts.
After a few minutes of running she felt a sharp pull on her mind. It made her lose her bearings and she tripped and fell down on the road. When she looked at her hands, a lot of the skin was scraped off and some parts of her palms where bleeding. She sucked in her breath as pain raced all over her hands. When she got back up onto her feet, she was careful to use her elbows to push herself up.
The sharp pull came back even stronger than before. It pulled her back to where the dragon egg was, and Walker was there too. Something was happening. I should go back. No! I can't face those people, and that stupid egg. It should have hatched for me! It should have hatched for me. Tears blurred her view and she wiped them away before they had a chance to fall.
Even stronger than before she felt pulled back to where she had wanted to escape from. What if something happened to Walker? I just have to go back. Hesitantly she turned around and ran back. She took care to navigate through the city with greater care than before so she didn't trip as often.
Soon the hall where they kept the egg was in sight. She climbed up the steps two at a time. More people than before were crowding around the doors. What's going on? It made her anxious with all those people around. Something big must be happening and Walker may be in trouble. Abigail dove into the crowd and jostled her way through rather harshly to get to the doors. She ducked behind an arm to get to the front of the crowd and she was finally able to see what was going on.
"Here is our new Rider." The violet dragon hatchling was curled around the neck of the new human Dragon Rider. And that Rider was Walker! All around her, people raised their hands and cheered. She did not cheer along with them. That was suppose to be her. How could he? She had thought that her heart could not be shattered any more than it had been when the egg had not hatched for her. Now she realized that she had been wrong.
She turned around and fought her way out of the crowd and started to run again. This time she could not contain the tears begging to be spilled. She did not pay attention anything. That day she could not tell you where she was headed or for how long she ran. All that existed was the burning in her legs and in her chest as she felt her heart tearing at the seams.
When she stopped, she was far away from Carvahall out in the middle of a deserted field by a stream with a rocky shore. Her knees folded under her and she crumbled to the ground. For minutes or hours, she could not tell which, she cried and wallowed in her sorrow and anguish. Everything seemed too much to handle. A year from now she would marry that donkey-faced Mandel and she would be forced to live where the only importance of her life was to bear sons. She dreaded that life. Ever since she was born her father forced upon her the life her heart rejected. Her mother lived like an ideal woman to her father and by some miracle she was happy living like that. For fifteen years she fought after a dream where her importance was more than to merely marry and reproduce. Now all of those fifteen years of fighting were left wasted. Every remark, every look, every thought about how she wasn't strong enough or that it wasn't her place (he had many arguments) her father had had toward her all of those years were true. He had won.
Walker. That name plunged an icy dagger of hate into her soul. How dare he! All those years he had gone behind her back. I bet he was planning on stealing that place of a Rider from me all along. I trusted him and he stabbed me in the back. I bet he never believed in me any way. That's the real reason he was warning me about how it might not hatch. Not because he cared for me. Or he was trying to wear me down so I wouldn't try and be picked before him. Intimidated, is he. Yes! That was it. Her rage and anger ripped whatever love she had had toward her twin brother into shreds and replaced it with deep hate.
Slowly she sat back up and stared through the clear creak water at the rocks below. She did not cry anymore. Her sorrow and hate subsided but were still ever burning like a hot bed of coals ready to flare back to life at a moment's notice.
Now that she was calmer, the pain in her hands was as horrible as ever. She looked down at her palms. They were cherry red with dried blood all over and the cuts were beginning to scab. The hurt was unbearable to her. The pain was the stick that stirred the bed of coals. It brought back all of her pain and hate but this time directed toward her hands. The hands could do nothing about it of course but she could not swallow the hate down. Why don't you heal yourselves and I can be done with you? She wanted them to be healed immediately.
Abigail followed her hate back into the depths of her consciousness and this time she found something. It was like a wall that she could not get past. It reminded her of all that she could not do now that she hadn't become the next Rider. And it annoyed the sense out of her. She drew back from that wall and ran back into it with all of her might. The wall shattered under her force. Energy flowed into her and thrummed through her entire body. She felt powerful. She had power.
The thrumming made the pain in her hands intensify and once again she wished they would heal themselves. Suddenly, she felt as if the air had been knocked out of her and she had trouble seeing through black spots that were clouding her view. For some reason she felt exhausted. By instinct she let go of the energy even though she hated to do so.
Along with the energy the pain in her hands was gone. She looked down and the skin was newer and smoother than ever before. As she realized what had happened a mischievous smile spread across her lips. The world had dealt her some serious blows. She had been helpless. But now she could strike back.