A 6-month-old baby boy was crawling up and down a bear skin carpet in a well-furnished living room, expertly carved wood and metal tables and ornaments littered the floor and walls, and a grand painting of a sunset was set proudly on the fire place, so realistic and intense that a passing glance could leave one believing they were looking out a window. The baby crawled up and down while looking down with an intense look of concentration in his face. Anyone watching him would jest that he was waiting for an important meeting, though to their surprise, they'd be right. The baby continued his crawl from one end of the carpet to the other, moving along the edges in an ovular fashion, eventually he hear what he was looking for, and sat back moving his head up to see the latch to the windowsill of the room open, a young boy with slanted, cat-like eyes and thick shaggy black hair, he was twiddling a piece of holly woven into his hair. The child blinked and when he opened his eyes the figure at the windowsill was gone, though the windowsill left open. He turned around smiling at the large black cat laying down beside him and leaned back into him, letting his mind wander.

Hello Solembum. The child projected his thoughts towards the cat, after what seemed an eternity the cat seemed to almost smile as it yawned.

Hello, human kit.

The child, Faris, or Damien, smiled at this. With Solembum here, it meant that Angela would arrive in a few days, she always arrived at least once a month to check on them. His mother was recovering from the birth, but it was still slow going and Angela wanted to make sure both of them survived, but Angela was Angela, and busy as always, so she only visited once a month or if she was contacted to come earlier. He only remembered the first and last time she was around, all the other times he was too young and in too much of a haze just trying to keep his memories intact. Solembum was a good help, he was interested in the boys memories of his previous life and all the things he experienced, and was a good help in reminding him of even the most minor details, like the page numbers of the many books he had read at his library. A baby's smile was contagious and the faintest of purrs could be heard from Solembum.

So, what is your plan? Solembum queried with his blue eyes, a deep blue like the midday sky.

The child raised his hands, waving them towards the ceiling in an up down fashion as his mind reflected. The last time Angela had been here, he had tried to project his mind towards her, not on purpose, but after the time he had spent communicating with Solembum, just like how a child can easily learn language, he learned the language of communicating by thoughts, his young mind was extremely flexible, and mixed with the reasoning and memories and intelligence he had in his previous life he was able to pick up on it. The first thing he did was communicate with the animals around him, the few chickens and cow his parents owned, and some villagers who passed by, through them he learned that his parents came to this village two or three years ago, and that while they were still relatively new faces most of the villagers had warmed up to them. The next people he had tried to communicate to where his parents, to his surprise and alarm both of them had shielded minds, luckily the force of his projection was extremely weak so they had not noticed his attempt. He resolved to one day ask them if they knew magic. As for Angela, he did it by accident, absentmindedly trying to listen to several things at once, he brushed her mind, which was continuously open much to his surprise. Her mind attacked and had held his in a literal vice holding him down, a vice that both cut into his mind and drilled deep, while hammering away at his feebly put up defenses, she had been literal seconds from killing him when his screams of terror caused her to recoil out of him. What had followed was his unaware parents coming to console him and a confused, somewhat distraught Angela. She had left shortly after that and hadn't arrived at the appointed months' time, Faris had feared she would never return but Solembum's arrival had accordingly filled him with relief, as it meant Angela would return soon.

He had by then realized that he was in Alagaesia. He hadn't known how, and he hadn't known why, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. And while he missed his old family, they hadn't been particularly close. In opposition his new family was much closer, even if life was much harder as far as he knew it here, everyone seemed to tackle things with a strong spirit, almost as if a shackle had been broken and removed. Which was unsurprising, the information he gleaned led credence to that. It had been 3 years since Galbatorix was slain. And as if even the land was relieved of the burden of his evil crops had begun to grow in greater abundance and trade had begun to open again between the nations. Meats, fish, and crops like wheat and corn, and produce like milk where traded for specialty spices and salt from Surda, and wood furnishings and silk cloths and linings traded for expert stone, wood, and metal workings from the Dwarven kingdom, most likely specifically from the clan Durgrimst Ingeitum, as that was where Orik was from. Taxes were down and many new reforms had been made, including the removal of forced conscription, town magistrates in charge of keeping the peace and ensuring that the towns where governed fairly no matter how they where governed, and schools dedicated to educate the populace. Magic was also slightly more common, not so much that more people where born with magic but that people where more learned about it, registration had been under way for quite a while now and government sanctioned magic users far outweighed the rogue ones hiding out. Of course, most human magicians still could barely heal a broken bone or two before being spent for the day, but every town of 50 or more could boast of having at least one healer to help them during an occasional accident, this town's healer was actually once a member of the Varden, he had earned the towns trust and respect after over the course of a month slowly fixing the broken leg of a town elder, who had believed he would be crippled all the rest of his life. All government sanctioned magicians had a tattoo of a dragon's head on their dominant forearm. A feature he didn't notice on either of his parents.

You have been quiet. You are normally more obnoxious than the rider had been.

Faris giggled at that.

I'm sorry Solembum, I was just wondering about everything again, and what would happen when Angela returned, I'm scared she's going to hate me.

A coughing sound emerged from Solembum as he closed his eyes and turned from Faris. Faris at first turned concerned, but what he sensed from Solembum wasn't pain or discomfort, but mirth!

It isn't funny! He exclaimed in his mind. Solembum continued his laugh for a bit, before opening one eye, now a bright gold.

What is it?! Faris asked. But Solembum made no comment, merely yawning, stretching, and bounding out the window. The noise must have startled his mother, who came rushing out the window roller in one hand kitchen knife in the other, looking on the floor to see her son she smiled in relief and put down her items, picking him up.

"well little Faris what have you been up to?" She asked smiling

Faris smiled back, saying "Mama!"

This elicited a slight chuckle from his mother. And he giggled in response, it may have been a slight exchange but he truly loved his parents in this world, as Damien his old mother only held him once, and that was the day he was born, she was a dedicated politician and had no time to raise a child, his father was no better, as a well-known writer he was always away on book sales and talk shows, this left Damien to deal with sitters who more often than not cared more about the money they got from raising him and letting any resentment against his parents for their affluence and wealth be projected on him, he grew into a quiet and repressed boy until high school where some friends introduced him to boxing and various other martial arts, which were great stress relievers when the books he often escaped into weren't enough. Here his mother, a beautiful golden-haired woman known as Haya loved and raised and nurtured him. And his father, Bergan Briarson, was an exemplary metal smith, both his parents were well educated and were delighted that their child was able to say mama and dada within the first 3 months of his life. Faris wanted to begin communicating his love and care for both his parents immediately and only recently had gained the ability to put what went on in his mind into his words. There were so many things he wanted to do and say but couldn't yet form the words, his body was still developing and he'd be able to say the words soon though, he could just feel it.

As his mother carried him up the stairs the rhythm of her footsteps and heart beat began to lul him to sleep like a gentle lullaby, before he could barely stay awake 3 hours before falling asleep due to the sheer amount of thoughts and movements he tried doing with his inefficiently sized body and mind, over the course of these months his body had developed a bit faster than the average child, with him continually exercising his mind and body, both with his experiences and education from his previous life and the interesting bits of information he gleaned from the people and children, he had also been able to trade a lot of his life experience and a lot of the stories he read as Damien to Solembum in exchange for the few words in the Ancient language he bothered to learn and remember. This coupled with the ones he already knew from the books and mixed with Solembum gently allowing him to reference his mind to refresh his memory, he found himself almost bilingual, or at least as bilingual as an infant could ever be, trilingual if you included the ability to speak in minds. As his mother carried him up the last flight of stairs his last thoughts were of hope that everything went well when Angela arrived.