A/N A new chapter. Enjoy. Thanks for reading. I know it's been a while but I've been really busy. Thanks for the patience.
In the eerie glow of the cavern's bio-luminescence the three stood silently, staring awkwardly at one another. It was Fundor that at last broke the mental silence by sending his questioning thoughts toward Eragon.
"Are you well? He asked cautiously. "Did Candasar do the right thing by speaking this word?"
Inwardly the elf was rather surprised at the force the female had used to wrest the internal energy that supplied the power for such things away from him in the first place. . As far as he had known, the water dragons of the lake had no magical abilities. In spite of this Candasar seemed to have incredible natural talent in that area.
Eragon had been chosen for his job as a warden, at least in part, because of his natural talent in the ways of living things. He had an exceptional gift and even among those of his own kind, his powers of perception and control among both plants and animals was exceptional. Using his gift, he could see now, burning brightly within the body of this female, the three remaining unfertilized ovum, shining with a magical light. A glow that made them stand out to him like blazing stars in a deep night sky. Next to them, still smoldering like an extinguished coal was the fourth. Its magical fire cold and dead. The power it had held now pouring through his soul, giving him back his life.
He had never seen anything like this before. Candasar must have been slowly feeding magical energy to these eggs for most of her life. Changing them in her own body as she carried them. A dawning light of his own, began as Eragon realized that this female was single handedly trying to undo the magic his people had performed upon the dragons so long ago. That's why she had rescued Fundor. He was the closest thing she could find to a dragon of old. It was exciting and terrifying! Lifting his hand from where it had touched the side of the female, the elf finally answered Fundor's question.
"That which your companion had accidentally taken from me as been returned" Eragon sent to both of the dragons. "She meant no harm"
"This is good" Fundor replied, "I believe there is much we can learn from each other"
"Candasar has revived me" he sent to the dragon. "Although it has cost her a great deal. One of her unborn children has perished because she helped me."
Confused Fundor looked at the her with a strange light of recognition dawning.
"You were in heat!" he said at last. "That is why the males attacked you and that is why I've been feeling so confused and protective!"
Candasar hung her head, perhaps in embarrassment, perhaps in way of apology before answering softly.
"It came as an unexpected surprise to me" she said, "I have always had more control of my own body and have previously been able to control such things better. The meat I have eaten has awakened something out of my control. It was not my intent to begin this so soon"
"So soon?" Fundor replied icily. "Is that why you saved me? As a way to fertilize your eggs?"
Looking at the female water dragon, Eragon could almost see her blush, if that were possible for a dragon. Looking at the elf, she avoided the question. Instead she asked one of her own.
"Tell me Eragon, what right did your people have to destroy and take from my people what we once were?" she asked angrily. The power of her thoughts reverberating in anger in the elf's mind.
Eragon paused, suddenly considering what a vulnerable position he might find himself in if one, or both of these creatures decided to settle an age old score. He had left his bow and even his clothes back on the lake shore.
"What was done to your people, by mine, an age ago, was done during a period of war and misunderstanding. " He said quietly, sending the sincerity of his belief along with the words. "Your kind were feeding on elves and the method that was used was in desperate times and done in defense. "
"You have your excuses, but now yet again, saving the life of an elf has taken the life of a dragon!" Candasar, screamed in mental rage, her feelings of grief and frustration over-riding all sense of logic.
"The war is not over elf! Dragons will return!" Candasar said menacingly as she thrust her long neck forward, her teeth snapping on air as the elf ducked quickly, trying to get some distance.
Suddenly Fundor was between them, roughly shouldering the dragoness backwards and into the water, the force of his passing pinning Eragon himself to the wall of the cavern, knocking the air from his lungs.
"Candasar stop!" Fundor cried, angrily resorting to dragon snarls and barking squeels
"Do you side with this elf against me?" Candasar snarled in return, a sense of shock filling her voice
"I have made a bargain with him because I need his help" Fundor answered, "We both do!"
"I leave you to him then!" Candasar replied bitterly "I do not need or want the help of those that enslaved and crippled me!"
Gasping for breath Eragon wriggled out from behind Fundor and tried to speak but the dragoness whirled and dove into the water disappearing from sight. Fundor stepped forward as if to follow but then stopped and turned back to the elf.
"I will never catch her, she's too fast in the water" he said glumly.
Staring at the ripples in the dark water, Eragon sent magical tendrils of thought out into the underwater passageway. Candasar was indeed gone.
"I think" he said at last, sighing, "It would be best to be gone before she gets back"
"Agreed" said Fundor with a strange tone in his voice, and then with a strange tone in his thoughts,"
"She wanted to mate with me!"
"Yes, I do believe so, Fundor" Eragon replied still shocked at how fast things had a habit of getting out of hand when dragons were involved. "She wants to resurrect the flying dragons and restart the war and I'm right in the middle of trying to save the male she wants to accomplish it with!"
"She's not in heat anymore" Fundor replied slowly, "I can smell that much"
"No, saving me with her magic threw her system off, it will take some time before she is ready again" Eragon answered.
"Then there is still time to get her to change her mind," Fundor said.
"I'm glad you agree!" Eragon said, a little surprised. "Re birthing the flying dragons is far too dangerous"
"Oh we are going to do that," replied Fundor confidently, looking back over his missive shoulder as he began to wade out into the pool and toward the exit. "I meant the part about going to war. We are going to learn to get along"
Shaking his head, Eragon followed. When they found out, he didn't think the elves were going to like this. Not at all.
Fundor and Eragon made it to the beach and after retrieving his clothes and weapons, the elf led the young dragon deep into the forest. For hours they picked their way slowly, ever upward, climbing from the basin of the lake toward some caves part way up the mountain the elf knew about. Eragon tried to be patient as their path was slowed as the dragon had to go around the thickest brush and largest rock piles as they climbed. Eragon would scramble up a small cliff, or slip through a narrow place between thick trees, then wait, brooding and thinking as the dragon made his way around the most recent obstacle.
They had been unable to take the risk of trying to find the second dead water dragon's body. Fundor insisted that his swimming was just not up to it. Eragon had really wanted to find the one with the arrows, his arrows, sticking out of it. Find it and hide it. The elf could only hope that it would stay sunk long enough for a deep current to take it far from the area. Fundor seemed to think that there were fish in the lake that would eventually eat it, bottom feeders, but Fundor also admitted to knowing far less about the swimming inhabitants of the lake than he ought to. The dead dragon had been large and the elf thought it was wishful thinking that it would just diappear.
Finally they arrived at the caves that Eragon had been trying for, but by then it was late evening. Finding one that was large enough to hold both the dragon and himself, Eragon propped himself against a rock and tried to sleep. In the rear of the cave, he could already hear the sounds of Fundor's breathing as it switched to the slow deep breaths of exhaustion. Climbing all the way up here had been hard work for the dragon but he had not complained, not once. He seemed, already to implicitly trust the elf that he had just met, and Eragon wasn't even really sure why. For some strange reason, as well, Eragon realized that he seemed to trust the dragon. Fundor had surely stopped Candasar from killing him, and chosen the elf, even over one of his own. Was this the bond that had caused one of the elves to risk everything to save the few dragons that he could from certain death?
Finally, Eragon felt sleep beginning to overtake him. It had been a very long day. Through half closed lids he could see the moon rising over the tops of the trees and the gentle warm evening breeze of the promised spring pushed his hair across his forehead. What would Candasar do for a mate, now that he had taken Fundor so far from the lake. Eragon felt a tinge of worry as he remembered the magical grip she had used on him to drain him of the remainder of his magical energies. She was an unknown factor. He was glad she didn't know any more magic than she already did. He didn't think she could get into too much trouble with just a healing spell. Not if she wanted to keep her eggs in tact. She just wasn't that powerful. With that the elf drifted, at last, off to sleep.
Across from the cave entrance, high up in the branches of the pine tree, the young elf woman watched as Eragon at last closed his eyes. She had followed them silently, unseen during their entire journey to this place. The hastily scribbled message she had tied to the leg of one of her pigeons was no doubt already in the hands of the elder council. Tomorrow at first light she would return to find men at arms ready to follow her to this place. They would deal with this fool and that monster that he had brought here. Then Relanda would have his place among the Wardens. She would be at last recognized for her skills of woodcraft and no longer passed over as a mere woman. Tomorrow she would be known as the one that saved her people, again, from the dragons. This time, they would be certain to finish the job in the lake as well.