Epilogue

There were a lot of things I expected after the end of the war. Being betrothed to a Dragon Rider was not one of them. Nor was escorting Dragon eggs to Ellesméra as my first official diplomatic mission.

I sat in front of the fire leaning against Saphira rubbing my thumb against the eggshell I had picked up the last time I was in Ellesméra. I stood up and as had become my ritual for the last few days, looked at the eggs. Well not really looked at them, more like looked at the space where they were supposed to be. I had seen them at the beginning of the journey and had gleefully studied the variety of colors and sizes and couldn't resist touching a few.

My skirts were waving slightly in the breeze and I had my sleeves pushed up my arms. Eragon was somewhere by the river and Saphira looked sleepily content. And then Saphira didn't look all that sleepy anymore. There was a rush of something and a single violet egg lay on the ground free of the spell.

I stared at it.

Saphira stared at it.

I took a step closer and then froze when the egg began to shake.

The staring continued.

"Um, I think it is hatching."

At some point I had ended up on the ground. Cracks appeared on the surface of the egg. Finally, a head poked through. Within a minute the hatchling was free of the egg and had tumbled out onto the forest floor. It shook the last remnants of eggshell from its wings and then decided to stare at me. The hatchling was roughly the size of a full grown cat and started making its way on wobbly legs to me, still sitting on the ground with my mouth wide open like an idiot.

I called for Eragon

I nodded once in acknowledgment.

The violet Dragon stopped short of actually touching me and looked at me expectantly. It took longer than it should have for me to get with the program and offer the hatchling my hand. Immediately the Dragon touched my palm with its head. The resulting experience was exactly as Eragon had described.

When Eragon arrived at the campsite it was to see the hatchling playing with the laces of my boots and me cradling my right hand with my left, the gedwëy ignasia on full display.

"You missed the show," I said.

"Saphira showed me." He stepped carefully towards me and settled on the ground next to me. His face was full of joy.

The little Dragon had looked up at his entrance but had dismissed him as uninteresting and had gone back to its game.

"So is it a requirement that I have to carry a sword because my weapons skills are atrocious."

He laughed. "We can worry about that later." He lifted my hand and pressed a ghost of a kiss to my fingertips.

I relaxed my body and leaned in to his side, far less worried now that he was here.

She needs a name.

I looked up. Female, you're sure?

Saphira sniffed. Of course I'm sure.

"Okay names. Um, Themis?"

She snorted.

"Taliesin?"

She abandoned my shoes and curled up in my lap. I was taking that as a yes.

"Now, Taliesin. The Elves are going to go crazy about you because you are a Dragon but I don't want that to go to your head, okay?"

She opened one violet eye lazily before curling up in a tighter ball. The first dragon born in the new age, or so I thought.

A/N This story is officially finished! Thank you so much to everybody that has taken the time to read this. Most of you guessed that Raisa would end up a Dragon Rider and I hope that I did it justice. Do you guys want me to write a sequel to this? It would be a series of interconnected one-shots. I do have plenty of ideas… Let me know in a review!