Free Riders

Author's Note: I do not own any part of the Inheritance Cycle. The only characters I own are Blaster, Char, and a yet-unnamed dragon.

Chapter 3: Gifts of Fate

That night, Blaster sat on his bed, meditating like he normally did. His mind suddenly became aware of a strange squeaking noise. He did a once-over of the room, but failed to see anything, and went back to meditating. Another squeak pierced the silence and caused Blaster to bolt upright. He opened the shudders just enough to let in the moonlight. While Blaster wasn't really accustomed to the darkness, he was able to see in as little light as possible as if it were broad daylight.

Another squeak sounded, and Blaster, using what was working on his wrist computer, managed to find the source of the squeaking. It was his own silver stone. A grin crept across his face as the stone squeaked again. No, something inside the stone had squeaked again. Blaster's first thought was that this thing wasn't a stone, but an egg. However, he was curious to find out what secret the egg hid. Was it a really large bird, or was it something else?

At least half an hour later, the egg began to rock back and forth violently, stirring Blaster from his meditation yet again. The squeaking and rocking picked up, faster and faster. It was so much that Blaster had put up a temporary sound-proof barrier around him and the egg. It suddenly fell to the floor and rolled towards Blaster. Curious, the alien got down on his stomach to watch.

A crack appeared on the egg, meaning that Blaster was moments away from seeing whatever was hatching out of it. Another crack appeared, then another. All the cracks met up at the top, and a small piece wobbled on the top. It slowly rose, then toppled to the floor. Another series of squeaks followed. Then, a small, dark head poked out of the hole, followed by a weirdly angular body. It didn't take long for it to completely emerge from the egg.

"Well, look at you," Blaster said, speaking to it as if it were his own newborn child. "Aren't you a beauty."

The creature stayed put for a second before scurrying to the moonlight. Blaster looked at amazement at the animal before him. What sat there, licking the remains of the membrane that had once encased it, was a dragon. It was just shorter than his forearm, but seemed rather dignified and noble. Its scales were a bright silver, the same color as the egg. The wings were several times larger than the dragon, and they made it look distorted in the moonlight. They were ribbed with fingers of bone extending from the front edge of the wing, like long talons. The head was roughly triangular, and the mouth held two diminutive fangs, white as the web on the egg. The claws were just as white, and just as sharp-looking, but more so on the claws because they looked serrated on the inside curve. A row of dark-silver spikes ran down the dragon's spine, with an abnormal gap, or hollow, in the spikes where the neck met the shoulders.

"Welcome to the world," Blaster said, not knowing if the dragon could hear him. "Not sure if this is a good idea. I mean, seriously, you could be dangerous. Then again, comparatively, I look relatively dangerous to you at the moment."

The dragon wasn't interested in Blaster. Instead it was busy exploring the area, squealing any time it managed to run into the furniture or a wall. It managed to get on Blaster's bed with a fluttering of its wings, and curled up on the pillow. It opened its mouth like a chick's, showing rows of sharp teeth. Blaster approached, let it smell his hand, nibble at his sleeve, and pull his arm back. Blaster smiled and placed his right hand on the dragon's flank. A blast of icy energy surged into his hand and raced up his arm, burning in his veins like it was liquid fire. He fell back, holding back a scream. He heard an iron clang, and heard the soundless scream of rage. He was unable to move, but struggled anyway. It seemed like hours before he regained warmth in his limbs, leaving them tingling. He pushed himself upright, shaking slightly. He looked at his palm and noticed it shimmered and formed a diffused white circle. The skin seemed to itch and burn as if it were a bug bite.

Blaster then felt something brush against his mind, like it was a finger trailing over his skin. This feeling wasn't new to him in the way that he had felt something similar before. However, he did know it was something brand new to him. This tendril of thought was of growing curiosity. He wanted to touch the mind of the dragon, but decided against it. He threw up a temporary barrier, hoping the dragon would understand that he needed a few minutes to adjust.

A scaly leg scraped against his side, but he didn't feel the energy again. He began to rub the dragon's head with his right hand, sending a tingling up his arm. The dragon nuzzled him, arching its back like a cat. He felt the thin membrane of the wings, still slightly damp, but they felt like old parchment. Again, Blaster had a tendril touch his mind, but it was more of an overpowering, ravenous hunger.

"You're hungry, aren't ya?" Blaster asked. He pulled two strips of dried meat from his pack, and, as he cut it up, he watched as the dragon fluttered over to the windowsill, watching the moon. Blaster cut the meat, then whistled for the dragon to come closer. He offered a piece of meat, and the dragon sniffed it cautiously before jabbing its head forward and snatching the meat out of his hand, swallowing it whole with a peculiar jerk. It then prodded Blaster's hand for more food.

Blaster continued offering the dragon food, all the way up until there was one small piece left. At that point, the dragon's belly was practically bulging, fit to burst if much more food was added. Blaster offered the last piece and the dragon considered it for a moment before lazily snapping it up, licking it's chops as it finished. Now done eating, it crawled up onto his arm and curled up against his chest. It snorted, releasing a puff of smoke from its nostrils. Soon, Blaster heard a low humming coming from its vibrating throat, similar to a cat purring. He gently carried it to the bed and set it by the pillow. The dragon wrapped its tail around the bedpost contently, leaving Blaster to ponder his dilemma.

He knew that if he would raise this dragon, he would probably become one of those Riders that Brom had mentioned in his stories. However, he had heard that, unless he joined the king, if the Empire had discovered the dragon, he would be killed. Blaster smiled, glad he didn't have to worry much about death, but he still was cautious when it came to getting himself killed. He couldn't kill the dragon. It had just hatched, and it needed to see the world for what it was, not be killed the moment it emerged from the egg. His next issue was where to keep it. He couldn't leave it in the tavern because he didn't want it to grow and have others find out about it.

He finally came to a decision. Blaster figured that he'd ask Eragon to see if he knew a good hiding spot when morning came. The alien went back to meditating before the dawn broke. When it had, he noticed the dragon was sitting on the bedpost, welcoming the new day. The silver scales shone like polished steel, but without the reflection. Blaster took a look at his palm and saw the shiny circle from where he touched the dragon. He knew it was a good thing to start taking up the black fingerless gloves he got in his second adventure because they would help with trying to hide his new mark.

Blaster grabbed some meat as the dragon glided to the floor. He then carefully picked up the dragon, his dragon, and hid it in a side pocket. After poking in its mind, which was much more alien than he had ever anticipated, and telling it that it should stay quiet for a while, he left the town towards Eragon's. When he got there, he noticed a fresh set of tracks leading to the woods. Thinking Eragon's dragon had hatched as well, Blaster followed the tracks, moving his dragon to his shoulder. He finally spotted the boy standing by a rowan tree that stood alone in the knoll. He had already harnessed his dragon, which was exploring the snow around the tree. This one was as sapphire as the egg it was housed in.

Eragon was busy making a makeshift hut in the higher branches. He slipped at one point and ended up crashing to the ground. Blaster couldn't help but chuckle, causing Eragon to whip around, thinking Blaster was one of the townsfolk.

"You think you could build enough room for one more?" Blaster asked. At that point, the sapphire dragon noticed Blaster's silver dragon, and the two glided towards each other to investigate. "Yours hatched too, I see."

Eragon nodded, then explained how his had hatched overnight, same as Blaster's. They then compared their new marks. While Blaster's was completely circular, Eragon's was a silver oval. The two began their work on the little hut to protect their two dragons. Satisfied with their work about half an hour later, they put their dragons in the hut, then instructed them to stay. Eragon was having a harder time trying to convince his dragon to stay put, but Blaster managed to explain the situation to his dragon clearly enough that it nodded as if to say that it understood. That was something coming from a barely twelve-hour old dragon.

The two went their separate ways, trying to hide the remains of their eggs. Blaster, simultaneously, became suspicious that someone might know that two new dragons have hatched. After finally getting through a majority of the interference, albeit temporarily, Blaster was able to have Alice beam him a special bag. Inside the bag was an assortment of clips and bullets. What was special about this bag was that it looked like a small money pouch on the outside, but held at least a million times what it looked like it was capable of, without weighing him down.

Finally glad he had extra ammo for his weapons, Blaster pulled all his guns from the bag he came with. He had already loaded all of them, but he thought it would be best to make sure everything was in working order. Two police-issue pistols, a double-action revolver, a shotgun, an AK-47, and a high-powered sniper rifle were his other armaments besides his powers, and his trusty crystalline blade, Cratona, or Defender in Blaster's native tongue, Torillian. He also found a bow and some arrows, something that would come in handy at this point if he wanted to do long-range attacks without using his "modern" weaponry.

The day went quickly as Blaster loaded some of the spare clips for his pistols, rifle, and submachine gun. When he was done organizing both bags, he went back to the rowan tree. Eragon was already there looking into the little hut. Once again, Eragon thought Blaster was another one of the residents of Carvahall, but soon relaxed when the silver dragon tried its best to get out of its harness.

"Well, it's good to see you, too," Blaster said, taking off the harness and lifting his dragon up onto his shoulder. He turned to Eragon and added, "I take it everything is in order."

"They can get their own food," Eragon said, pulling a few feathers out of the little hut.

"Good," Blaster said. "This means we don't have to worry about swiping food from anyone to feed them."

"Indeed," Eragon said simply. Then, he seemed to have a revelation. "Are they he's or she's?"

"I have no idea," Blaster stated. Eragon lifted and turned his dragon over, trying to find distinguishing marks, ignoring the dragon's squeals of displeasure. Blaster thought about doing the same, but decided to ask when his dragon was ready to tell him. In fact, he actually dove into the mind of his dragon to ask that question, only to have it remain silent, as if begging him to find out for himself. Tricky little thing, aren't you? Blaster thought, only to have his dragon seemingly smile at his failed attempt.

Eragon likewise ended his search, unable to find any way to figure out whether his dragon was male or female. Eventually, he too released his dragon and set it on his shoulder. The four then went to explore the woods. Eragon showed the other three what he knew about the forest, not caring that the dragons could understand his meaning. He seemed to talk constantly. Blaster took in much more than he thought he should, just in case. Unfortunately, the time came when the sun began to set and both Blaster and Eragon had to head home.

Blaster, once again, told his dragon to stay there, and possibly explain why they couldn't come along to Eragon's dragon. That night, Blaster barely meditated, keeping an eye on the dragons just in case they somehow managed to get attacked by a bear or something. He could sense Eragon's worry as well, his thoughts about ice storms not helping any. In fact, at one point, Blaster thought about actually physically going to the rowan tree in order to protect the dragons more.

When the sun began to rise the next day, Blaster was out the door quicker than anyone, some spare meat of his in hand. He ran into Eragon as he exited his house with food and some scraps of cloth to insulate the shelter. The dragons were both awake and safe, sitting near the top of the tree to watch the sunrise. As the two approached the tree, their respective dragons glided down towards them then lept into their arms. Blaster could sense their fear, even though the cold had not affected them. They all sat together, the "humans" warming up their dragons, until they crawled onto their partner's shoulders. They soon began to play after feeding the dragons, horsing around until it was time for Eragon to return to his home to do his chores.


NEXT TIME: What will become of the dragons? What will Eragon and Blaster have to learn in order to sustain them? And why am I asking so many questions?