Edited 1/29/22 - all chapters are getting a overhaul. Things might not match until this process is complete.
I do not the Inheritance Cycle
Enjoy,
Of Sweetbriars and Thorns
At that moment, she looked over the crisp, brown sedges and dried mosses and broken reeds. Rose took a deep breath smelling the strange blend of moldering clay and freshening snow. She looked down at the dragon and said cheerfully, "We're almost there, little nuisance, just over the ridge and through the forest. After that, I shall feast on bread and berries, and perhaps you can swallow another squirrel, if it fits your fancy."
The dragon looked up at the sound of her voice and flicked its tail across the fine snow. She felt a notion of voracious hunger from the dragon and her stomach complained greedily. Rose cast the dragon a look of dislike; believing that perhaps the dragon was taking some strange pleasure in her discomfort, but another thought from the dragon told her otherwise. The dragon was as hungry as she and it did not understand her resentment. Puzzled, Rose frowned, turning away from the dragon and hastened her step, scrutinizing the incline for any signs of her earlier mishap. The dragon tumbled behind her but kept close to her heels.
Rose and the dragon continued until evening when, at last, she saw trodden brushwood lazing flatly against the gradient. The hill was spotted with twisting tanned stones that jutted from the snow blanketed earth, and tufts of wrinkled lofty grass which heaped deadly against trucks of white-barked trees. She rubbed her wrists and stared at the spiked sweetbriars, noticing small pieces of shredded cloth sticking to barbed undergrowth.
The delight she acquired from finding her trail was dampened by the realization of how treacherous the terrain that she had fallen was. It was a rare and lucky chance that Rose had not walked away from the tumble in a worse state than what she had, and that she had walked away at all.
Rose took a deep breath and looked about for another way up the hillside. Perhaps, she could lead the dragon back a ways, and take their chances on a different part of the precipice. Rose shook her head knowing that would take far too long for her liking; they had passed a long mile that was little but a cliffy overhang.
In the end the dragon made up Rose's mind for her, it strode over to the hill and began to cautiously scramble its way up. The dragon jumped onto a large rock, at the base of the ridge, and proceeded to climb into the heart of the tousled sweetbriars. Rose paused, daunted by the sharp thorns and bristles, and realizing that she had little choice hurried after the dragon up the hill.
The thorns prickled at her skin and tore at her trousers and snow slipped under the soles of her boots, more than once she slipped and grabbed at the briars or occasional tree to steady herself. Meanwhile, the dragon scampered ahead effortlessly evading the worst of the knotted undergrowth.
When the dragon was at the peak, it crawled onto a stump of a tree and rested there inspecting her struggle, its claret tail thumping. It watched her for a long moment before it lay down its head and closed its eyes. A short moment later, a puff of dark smoke coiled out of its nostrils.
Not long after the dragon reached the top, the snow under Rose's boots gave way and she slipped down the hill, unthinkingly she clawed and grabbed at the briars to slow her fall. Thorns tore into the skin of her hands and arms and she cried out. She threw herself at the broad branch grasping it both her arms. Rose clung there for a moment allowing her breathing to slow, when the dragon sent her a tendril of eagerness.
She huffed at the dragon and scurried around the base of the tree, not quite willing to release her grip on the branch. "I pray you can comprehend what I have to say, dragon," Rose told it in exasperation, "if not than I shall say nonetheless; you have four legs whilst I only have two. So, please, almighty lord of the skies; be patient!"
After that the dragon bothered Rose little more and instead it lay on the stump watching her battle the brushwood with keen interest.
When the sun touched the earth and the long shadows lengthened until the woodland was dim as mist began to creep in, Rose stopped climbing having at last reached the peak. The dragon blinked at her lazily in greeting. She sighed tiredly and, ignoring the beast, walked over to the stump and sunk down onto the ground leaning heavily against the wood. The dragon stood and stretched, its back arching. It circled the serrated base twice before leaping down into a pile of snow, fluttering its wings, shaking off the snow and then crawled to her earlier footpath. It turned and squeaked at her sending her a wary thought of impatience. Rose wiped her bloodied hands on the snow, leaving behind long red smears, and looked up at dragon when it squeaked at her once more.
She huffed at it and stood up mde her way to the dragon, and placed the tips of her finger on its head marveling at the smoothness of its scales. When a light tingling ran up her arm Rose abruptly turned away, breaking their contact, and started down the trail.
Numbly, she walked down the path, wishing that there was light to see by, with the dragon just ahead of her. They were both stumbling over loose stones and roots hidden by both night and snow. Rose did not know how long they walked, only that the dragon took a slight lead and that it never strayed from the footpath.
Since discovering her earlier trail and the lightened joy it gave her, Rose felt her mood toward the dragon slightly shift and she began to pass time by telling various tales of her past and legends she heard as a child. It was a demanding task as the dragon would offend interrupt her in its own primal way to press for details, like how silk felt or the taste of candied chestnuts. There were many things Rose could not find the words to describe and so she resorted to their mind-touch to express the feelings, tastes and smells. Sometimes she felt that the dragon was amused at her attempts but it remained interested all the same.
At last she could take it no more and she called for a rest. Rose dropped heavily onto the ground where she stood and tucked her knees under her chin. The dragon did not protest and it too lowered itself onto the snow. It no longer whisked its tail or fluttered its wings about playfully, no, the dragon was far too tired to exert its energy in this way, and lay completely still in the snow.
Rose sat, staring unseeingly ahead for a long moment and when she decided that perhaps it was time to continue she heard a clatter in the distance and felt something warm brush against her leg. Shocked she looked down at the dragon and saw that it was standing rigidly looking ahead, it was producing a strange gurgling sound. Rose hushed it and crawled off the path and into the brushwood behind a tree, the dragon grudgingly following after her.
It seemed a long time before Rose saw a figure that the soft padding of footsteps belonged to. The figure steadily worked its way up the broken path toward them, a lit lantern swinging low to the ground.
Bending down Rose placed her hands on the bare earth, cringing as her cuts stung from the pressure, on either side of the dragon so that she was hovering over it. With determination, she sent the dragon a message to stay in place, it took her a long moment to come across the correct sensation to do so, and even longer for her to convince herself that the dragon understood her. Rose untied the knife from the cloth belt at her waist with one hand and she stood almost embracing the tree, watching the figure closely.
As it drew closer, she thought that it wasn't a man after all but most certainly a woman. Her first thought was that the figure was Ailis, they were of the same height and stature, but Rose was not going to take any further risks, not with a newly hatched dragon about. The closer the figure got the more certain Rose was that she was pursuing Rose's footprints. The figure slipped and Rose heard her curse under her breath before straightening herself, hoisting the lantern above her head. Rose at last saw her face. It was Ailis. Rose tiredly warned the dragon to remain behind the tree once more and then she lousily staggered out onto the path.
Ailis' head snapped up in her direction and her hand went to the hilt of her shortsword. She stepped forward and the muffled glow from the lantern reached Rose's face, blinding her. Rose shadowed her eyes with her hand and squinted in Ailis' direction.
She heard the woman gasp audibility and sprint towards her, dropping her lantern into the snow but she did not seem to notice. Without warning Ailis threw her arms around Rose embracing her passionately so that the breath was driven out of her, after a short moment Ailis kissed the top of her head. Rose remained still, puzzled over Ailis' passion, and then she hesitantly returned her embrace, wrapping her arms around Ailis' back. After a lengthy time, the woman stood back and held her at arm's length. She looked over Rose struggling for words.
"I don't know whether I ought to strangle you or not!" Ailis growled at last.
Rose swallowed loudly, her throat was scratchy and dry.
"Not, I think," she said.
"You do think, then?" Ailis demanded heatedly, "I thought that, perhaps, you lost your ability to do so."
Rose glared at Ailis, her ill mood from earlier that day returning. "I'm truly sorry-"
"Apologizing does not change what has transpired," Ailis retorted in a low voice.
"Neither does reprimanding me as if I were some child!" Rose said, matching her tone.
Ailis started to say more but she stopped and looked away toward the cloud streaked sky, she took in a deep breath calming herself and looked back at Rose studying her. Ailis smiled tenderly though her eyes still flashed with anger and then calmly said, "You look as if you've been dragged through a mountain of briars."
"I have," Rose said snappishly, still irritated with the woman.
"At the very least, we shall have plenty brushwood for the fire tonight," she said quietly, eying Rose's snarled hair.
Rose inwardly groaned. She had thought little of the sad state her hair was certain to be in and the thought of Ailis having pick out and untangle the briars and barbs within, was tormenting. Rose shuddered; knowing sleep would remain far from her this night.
Ailis released Rose from her grip and picked up the lantern she had dropped before. Turning back to Rose, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are you coming or do you wish to remain here?"
"I'll come," Rose said diffidently, she felt out to the dragon and found that it still remained beneath the tree, "but I must tell you of something beforehand."
Ailis turned her head to the side and shifted. "Go on, then," she said.
Rose bit her lip, straining to find words to explain what had occurred, and not finding the correct words to do so, she slung the rucksack from her back. She unfastened the rope hatch and looked down at the bag. Simply handing the sack to Ailis, she said, "I found the lost dragon egg."
Ailis looked at her in shock, her eyes shadowed brutishly in the flickering glow of the lantern. Wordlessly she took the bag from Rose and peered inside. Ailis quickly dug through the bag and her look of mere shock turned into disbelief and then uncertainty. Silently, she pulled out a large fragment of the dragon egg and turned it over, examining it from all sides in the light. Ailis glanced up at Rose and back to the egg fragment where a large crack splintered down in the middle intermitting light from the lamp. Dropping the fragment back into the bag, she grabbed Rose's unwrapped hand and turned it over in the light. She hissed out a breathy curse.
Rose watched Ailis' reaction mutely chewing on the inside of her cheek.
"What happened?" Ailis asked.
"Which are you referring to, the egg or my hand?"
Ailis looked up at her met her eyes urgently. "Both."
Rose yawned and pulled her hand away from Ailis, rubbing her eyes.
"The egg hatched, Ailis," she said with another yawn. "Can we talk about this elsewhere?"
"Yes," Ailis said after studying her for a moment as if seeing her for the first time, "yes, of course."
Rose nodded tiredly and called the dragon through her mind. The dragon answered back after a short pause and Rose's stomach rumbled in response. Once she assured the dragon that there would, in fact, be food soon the dragon clawed out from the underbrush and it tottered to her, eying Ailis warily.
Ailis watched the dragon mutely, her face blank and expressionless except for her eyes which were wide in either bewilderment or anger or perhaps both, Rose did not know. When the dragon came to a halt in front of Rose, Ailis walked forward and stooped down in front of it so that they were level and to Rose's shock she addressed the dragon.
"Well met, little one," she said, a hint of irony in her voice. Ailis then stood up and looked Rose in the eye. "I suppose, you have not fed him, have you?"
Rose looked at her in exasperation. "I have no food to feed it!"
Ailis lips twitched and she pulled a shoulder bag in front of her, swinging Rose's rucksack over her shoulder, and she prodded through it. Silently she handed Rose a cloth bag filled with berries and she looked down at the dragon. "I apologize, little dragon, but I carry no meat," she told it.
The dragon blinked and swished its tail in response.
They then started down the trail, the dragon swaying next to Rose.
"Where's Tornac?" Rose asked, between mouthfuls of the waxy berries.
Ailis looked at her out of the corner of her eyes. "He stayed behind for fear that you may, by some rare chance, find your way back there on your own. In which case, he did not wish for you to arrive at a vacant hovel. He's in quite a dire state."
Rose looked away into the silhouetted forest. "It was not my intention," she said softly.
Ailis exhaled noisily through her nose but said nothing more.
.
Ailis pushed the pace as they walked in suborn silence, wrapped in their own thoughts.
The next few hours passed in a blur of tiredness. Rose was too weary to notice much of anything in the night only that it was a dark and punishingly cold night and she would be quite glad to sit beside a fire soon enough. Her feet and back ached her but the rest of her body was numb. The dragon was beginning to lag behind and more than once they had to slow their pace to allow it to keep pace, its head dripping close to the ground and its tail dragging limply behind it.
"You'll become ill if you keep consuming those berries," Ailis said. Rose started, not recognizing that she was still eating the dried fruit and handed the almost empty bag to Ailis.
At last they reached the edge of the woodland.
Walking slowly and tiredly they stepped through the snow into the darkened cabin and padded softly to the dimly lit grate. Ailis extinguished her lantern and set it on the earthen flooring next to her bags while Rose walked to the fire and added tinder so that they could warm their chilled bones. The dragon curled up beside her, its tail to its nose, and swiftly fell asleep when she sat down, its hunger forgotten.
"Do we wake him?" Rose whispered in the silence, looking at Tornac who was quietly sleeping close to the door.
Ailis shook her head. "He will wake soon enough."
Rose nodded and blinked tiredly.
Rose watched as Ailis walked over to the heap of bags and picked one up swinging it over her shoulder. Ailis then proceeded to walk past Rose to place to a pot filled with readily water which she set over the fire. Sitting down she turned and faced Rose.
"Let me see your hands," Ailis said.
Wordlessly, Rose set her left hand in Ailis' and waited. Instead of bandaging her hands as Rose thought she would, Ailis merely frowned and held her hand in both of her own. She searched her wounds on both her hands, as those were Rose's worse injuries and called for instant attention, with expert, gentle fingers and Rose struggled not to flinch.
"You are not going to bandage them?" Rose asked after a moment.
"There's no use," said Ailis, "I'm afraid that if I did so they would not heal well."
Puzzled, Rose frowned but said nothing more. When Ailis was inspecting Rose's hands, she pressed her hands hard over Rose's palms. She took a deep breath and then spoke in a soft voice, "Waise heill!"
Rose gasped as the felt the skin tickling as it mend back together renewing itself and the dulling pain vanished completely. She pulled her hands backing looking over them entranced, they appeared as if the thorns from the sweetbriars never scored them, save for a distorted oval blotch which shone a faint silver in the firelight on her left palm. Rose stared at the deformity intently wondering absently of its origin before she looked up at Ailis with both concern and distrust. "That was magic," Rose breathed.
Ailis' lips twitched and she said, "It was."
"You have not told me you wielded magic."
The sleeping dragon, beside Rose, stirred and puffed out smoke.
"With good reason," said Ailis, releasing her hands. Rose flinched away from Ailis' touch as the woman raised herself onto her knees to look over the shallow wound on her forehead. "Do not mistrust me because I have withheld information about myself from you, Rose," Ailis said seeing Rose's reaction. Then Ailis rubbed the wound with a sweet-smelling balm from a tiny jar she drew from her pack. She turned then to the boiling water and made a strong tea. Ailis poured the scorching water into two mugs and handed one to Rose, which she set down on the ground next to her.
"Are your abilities the reason why you were sent to Urû'baen to retrieve the dragon eggs?" Rose asked after a long silence.
"That was part of the reason," said Ailis pulling out a wide-toothed comb from her bag.
Rose yawned feeling thoroughly exhausted, however desperate to stay in the waking world, she asked, "And the other part?"
Ailis stood behind Rose, combing patiently through her hair. "I was rather adamant about the endeavor," she said guardedly, "and I was one of the few who knew about its existence."
For a long moment she sat contently while Ailis vigorously tackled her hair with a comb, the slumbering dragon on one side her and an increasing pile of sweetbriars and thorns on the other. Rose yawned, despite her tiredness she could not fall asleep. The sharp tugging of the comb kept her on the verge of wakefulness, and after a time she took to the tea. The herbal tea was both sweet and bitter, and it warmed her down to her toes allowing some of the chill to leave her bones.
A/N: Real quick; The Varden wound not have sent someone who did not have a least a small fighting chance in the capital to save the dragon eggs, and the elves would probably have enough problem sending a human to begin with, so, yes, Ailis would need to have the renowned and slightly over used, ability. Plus if she didn't I wouldn't be able to fit her into this story.
Also, the first thing that popped in my head to have Rose say when I was writing this part: … Dropping the fragment back into the bag, she grabbed Rose's unwrapped hand and turned it over in the light. She hissed out a breathy curse.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Which are you referring to, the egg or my hand?"
Ailis looked up at her met her eyes urgently, "Both."
"I decided to swing from vine to vine like Tarzan, only I didn't quite succeed and I feel into the briars below. As for the egg, well, I was hungry so I made an omelet."…
