Okay, first of all, there have been 46 views of chapter 1 but only 5 reviews. come on people! I don't care if you totally bash my story, just review. I want to know what you guys (and girls) think, how I can improve my writing. if you like it, hate it, don't understand it, whatever, review! Like with the first chapter, I will not update until I get a decent number of reviews(probably just 5). I'm not trying to be mean, I just want to know people are actually READING my fanfic.
Now then, I do not own Eragon, Saphira, Alagaesia, etc. Christopher Paolini does, I only own the characters, places, and plot not found in the books. but if Chris were to read this fanfic, I don't mind him using this premise for the third book.(just mention me in the acknowledgements)
ENJOY!!!
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For a moment, neither moved. As far as Raven knew, Galbatorix and his apprentice, Murtagh, controlled the last of the dragons. She had heard rumors in the underbelly of Urû'baen of a Dragon and its Rider joining the Varden in rebellion against the powerful king. But, like all rumors, she dismissed it until she had hard proof. This kept her from focusing on common hear-say and gossip instead of important news. When she thought about it, though, if Galbatorix had one dragon egg, which had hatched for Murtagh within the last year, it made sense that he had another just waiting for its Rider.
The baby dragon now flipped itself right side up and turned to stare intently at the thief. She lowered her small blade slightly, but remained ready to defend herself. Dragons were uncharted territory to her after all.
For a moment she simply admired the beauty of the creature's shiny copper scales. Cautiously, she reached out with her left hand to pet the small creature.
The dragon took a slightly unsteady step forward and craned its neck forward to sniff the proffered hand.
Faster than Raven could react, the hatchling bit the outside edge of her palm. A pain ripped through her arm. She fell backwards as the world blacked out around her.
When consciousness returned, Raven noted an uncomfortable weight on her chest. She opened her eyes just enough to see the copper scaled face not an inch from her own. A groan escaped her lips.
"Get off." She shoved the dragon off her chest and sat up, steadying her head.
"You had better not have poisoned me, ya winged rat!" she said as she examined the wound. The dragon come up and nipped at her pants leg. Raven's hand swatted the small mouth away.
"I'm not food. If you're hungry go find your own food." The dragon obediently ran off into the trees.
"If you're not back when I'm ready to leave, I'm not coming after you!" she began repacking her modest encampment. She, like any normal person, thought the baby dragon was cute, but in her line of work, it doesn't matter how cute something is, but rather how much it is worth. If she tried to sell the baby dragon, though, she would definitely be caught.
Opening the pack, she pulled out the remains of that beautiful shell; now just jagged shards, they, too, were worthless. Intending to grind them to indistinguishable dust she set the pieces on the ground and stepped on the largest with the heel of her boot. Lifting her foot, she saw that the eggshell was still intact. She stomped down hard and twisted her heel on the amber shard.
Raven stomped on it, banged it against a rock, even took her knife to it, stabbing repeatedly. Her only results were a broken knife and a very much intact dragon egg shard.
Maybe these can be useful after all. She dug through the pile selecting two almost identical shards, and peeled the sticky membrane from the insides. She then placed the now clean insides together, lining up the edges as well as possible.
"Merge," she commanded in the Ancient Language. A talented washerwoman had taught that spell to her master; very useful for patching clothes.
The two shards appeared to meld together forming an amber blade. Picking up her ruined knife, she gripped the handle in one hand and the blade in the other.
"Losna," the blade slipped out of the handle's hold. She picked up the eggshell blade and, using the merge spell, replaced the broken steel. The new blade wasn't very sharp, but Raven was sure that she could get a smith in Dras-Leona to sharpen the edges. Or maybe the dragon could by chewing on them. It definitely had the teeth for it.
She laid the knife across her fingers, examining her work. The shell blade fit into the handle as if they were made together.
She noticed an odd silver mark on her left hand. It was oval shaped but with small silver tendrils reaching from the oval to the dragon bit. The tendrils weren't as bright as the oval, almost as if they lay under the skin. Raven groaned.
She fished out a long, white strip of cloth from her pack and began wrapping her left hand with it. Collecting the rest of the eggshell pieces, she folded them neatly within a spare piece of cloth.
Just as she finished packing up, the baby dragon returned, a small bird disappearing into its mouth.
"Didn't want to be left behind, huh?" the dragon simply stared up at her. The thief squatted and looked back in those golden eyes.
"Well, come on," she reached out to pick up the copper creature when the dragon reached out to nip at her fingers. The fingers retreated before the sharp teeth closed on them.
"None of that! You bite me again and you'll regret it!" she said pointing a finger at the dragon. Either not understanding or not caring, the dragon lunged for the appendage.
Raven pulled it back, placed her middle finger under her thumb, and flicked at the scaly nose. It didn't make contact, but a small spark of electricity traveled from the tip of her finger to the tip of the dragon's nose.
The hatchling recoiled and rubbed its sore snout with one of its little claws.
"Ha, that should teach you1 now come here." she scooped her new companion up before it could object. It squirmed until she dropped it into the saddle bag, causing the horse to nicker in protest. The thief calmed her steed, and then went to push the small scaled head down into the bag. Another attempt at tasting her flesh and another spark to the nose. The dragon grumbled a complaint.
"I sure hope you haven't developed a taste for human flesh," she mumbled, "Behave yourself and I won't do that." When the dragon looked back up at her, Raven caught a glimmer of mischief similar to the one that often shone in her own blue-grey eyes. This thing is gonna be trouble, she thought.
"Stay," she commanded in the ancient language, just in case the copper imp got any ideas. She buckled the flap of the pack, mounted the steed and headed out at a full gallop.
They followed the river, stopping for the night directly east of Dras-Leona.
Throughout the day, Raven had felt felling drift across her mind. At first irritation and boredom pressed against her mind, then hunger around midday, though she wasn't hungry. She had figured that since Riders and their Dragons needed to communicate and they didn't always speak out loud, they must have another way to communicate; she suspected that this was it.
She quickly set up camp, grabbed a bar of soap and her normal clothes, and walked far enough downstream that the soap wouldn't contaminate the water she intended to drink.
Finding a section with decent depth, she stripped off the pages livery, unbound her chest and waded into the river. The current wasn't very strong so she didn't have to constantly swim upstream to stay with her things on the shore.
After finishing a relaxing bath, she rubbed as much water from her body as possible, rebound her chest, but not as tightly, and put on the blue-black clothes of The Raven. Pulling a braid of hair that matched her own perfectly, she held it up against her own short hair.
"Merge," she commanded. The braided hair intertwined itself with the living hair so that it matched perfectly. If any suspected her of stealing the egg now would be disappointed. No one would believe that someone could grow hair that fast. The braid wouldn't release until she commanded "release," so if someone felt inclined to check for a wig, they would be fooled.
She gathered the soap and the livery and headed back to camp.
Everything was a mess. Her bedroll was rumpled with several long, thin gashes in it; the wood she had gathered for a fire was strewn everywhere; and half of her food was now crumbs. The horse would have bolted it hadn't been tied to a tree. In the middle of the mess a copper ball lay on its back, belly close to bursting.
"'Ey! You little…" the thief proceeded to use some of the foulest street talk she knew. The dragon rolled over as fast as it could, which with a full belly wasn't very fast, and tried to hide in the saddle bags. The roan, still uncomfortable around a dragon, shied away from the sharp claws and fangs. Several sparks caught the dragon's hide before it could reach safety.
Raven grabbed the scaly tail and lifted the dragon attached to it. The hatchling definitely wasn't as light as before. She glared angrily into those mischievous gold orbs.
"Listen, you. I'm a thief, so I don't take kindly to being stole from." She tried to enforce the message mentally. "I'm low on funds, and you were supposed to pay for a months worth of food and lodging. But now I have to make a theft in Dras-Leona before I starve. And since you've eaten half of my supplies, I have to ration out what's left so I don't run out before we reach the city!" she sighed, released the hatchling and dropped to sit on the ground.
"You're more trouble than you're worth, dragon," she said, absently stroking the angled head with her finger. A sorry feeling touched her mind. She looked down into sad, sorry eyes.
"Oh, no," she pushed the dragon away, "I know what you're trying to do. You're not fooling me." The dragon's lip curled into what she interpreted as an impish grin. She reached into her pack and pulled out the eggshell knife.
"Here, make yourself useful." She dropped it in front of the dragon and got up to clean the campsite before it got too dark.
As she kicked the logs back into a circle, a sort of warble sounded behind her. She turned. The dragon sat looking up at her curiously.
"I need it sharpened and you may be the only one who can even dent that stuff." The dragon looked down at the blade, cocked its head to the side, then gripped it in its teeth.
"Just be sure it's still usable as a knife when you're done." Raven continued cleaning.
By twilight, the camp was cleaned, a steady fire blazed in the ring of stones, and Raven was mending her bedroll. The hatchling trotted over and dropped the knife from its mouth to the ground next to its guardian. Setting down her work, Raven examined the knife. Both edges and the tip were sharp. She lightly touched the tip of her finger to the tip of the blade. The finger came away with a drop of blood forming on it. Mentally communicating her approval, she smiled at her companion. When it bounded off into the thicket, she returned to sewing up the cuts in her bedroll.
In a few minutes, there was a rustle in the undergrowth. The thief dropped her sewing and grabbed her knife. The light from the fire burned across the amber shell-blade. Another rustle, this time closer. A small shape bounded into the camp. It was the hatchling carrying a limp rabbit in its jaws.
The prize was dropped at her feet and the little hunter sat, scaled tail twitching proudly.
"Thanks." The thief picked up the rabbit and, using her now sharp knife, began to skin and gut it. "A good thief always repays his debts," she quoted a lesson her master had drilled into her.
Once the meat was well cooked, Raven tore into the warm flesh, savoring the freshness. When she noticed her companion looking longingly at the meat, she pulled off a fat leg and gave it to the dragon. A feeling of pride and satisfaction touched her mind. She replied with thanks, petting the dragon while its mouth was otherwise occupied.
After dinner, Raven fed the fire just enough wood to keep it alive through the night, and lay down on her half-repaired bedroll to sleep. In a moment, a hard, warm body pressed against her, curling into a ball. A soft humming emanated from the little throat. Raven draped an arm over the cat-sized form and, smiling, drifted to sleep.
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Isn't the dragon a cutie? I just wanna grab it up and hug it to death(you'll find out more about the dragon in the next chapter). Okay, now you have a mission to complete. REVIEW!!! Please...it helps me. and stay tuned for chapter 3!