A/N: It's a bit on the short side, this chapter, but it was the right place to end it. Thanks go out to Restrained Freedom, CouldBe, justmeagain123 and The M H T of R for reviewing! Hope you all enjoy it and tell me what you think.

Vanir opened his eyes slowly; blinking against the cloud-like mist that prevented him from seeing before realising there was nothing there but indigo pressing down on his face.

Aura, do you mind?

Vanir! I thought you were-

I'm fine, I'm fine. Well I will be if you get off me, the elf amended.

Right, nobody needs a great dragon sitting on them.

Aura heaved her bulky neck off Vanir's chest, and he eased himself into a sitting position, testing how healed his body was. Surprisingly, he felt no pain around his ribs, although his palm stung painfully when he pushed it against the floor to lever himself up. His skin was blotchy red and ridged around the cut he had received from an enemy sword, though why the healers who had worked on his side hadn't healed it, he didn't know. It was the one of the easiest things to fix, so he took a deep breath and spoke the words, 'Waíse heill,' expecting his skin to ripple and tingle as it flowed together.

Instead a harsh light, tinged ever so slightly purple, blared out around the wound in just the way a Rider's gedwëy ignasia might when he used magic. The skin on his palm around it, burned feverishly as the skin struggled to close over the light. In the emitted glow, he could see the damaged skin on his hand stretching, turning pearly white. Finally, he severed his hold on the spell and turned to look incredulously at Aura, who in turn sniffed suspiciously at his hand, which now even more closely resembled a Rider's shining palm.

Now I know why the healers didn't do anything. It wouldn't work.

His palm still bore the jagged cut of a blade, in an angry red line, whilst the skin around it had smoothed and turned pearlescent.

I smell plant extracts… Aura murmured.

Could you be more specific? It could just have been something the healers tried.

I think, it's hard to be certain, but I think it's hemlock.

Poison on the blade then…obviously there wasn't enough in the wound to kill me. I wonder why it glows though.

Why don't you try another spell and see if it has the same effect, Aura suggested, deep in thought. Something else had occurred to her, something she wanted to keep secret from Vanir in case she was wrong.

"Brisingr!" Vanir exclaimed, causing a ball of purple flames to appear in his outstretched palm.

Did you normally direct magic through your palm?

No, Vanir gulped, wondering what else had changed.

Keep trying, Aura encouraged, nudging his shoulder with her snout.

A little ways away from him, Vanir spotted a sandstone boulder jutting out of the desert sand, and reached his hand out towards it. "Jierda," he commanded. Once more, purple light shone from his wound as the boulder crumpled into small fist-sized rocks.

What in the world… Vanir muttered to Aura.

I may have a theory.

Go on.

Perhaps, Aura began, feeling stupid for even suggesting it, the gods have realised our wish and made us true dragon and Rider for you have acted precisely how any Rider does.

Gods-

I know what you're going to say, Vanir – gods don't exist – but what if they did? What if I hatched for you because they told me to, because I needed you near me to save me, because we were destined to be together?

Aura…it sounds a bit far-fetched…and even Saphira and Groenur, you parents don't believe in gods.

No it doesn't. I felt the compulsion to hatch for you, an elusive pull towards you when it should have been nature calling to me. It didn't come from within me; it came from outside my body, outside my mind and soul. It came…from them, Aura insisted. Shall I show you what it felt like?

Without waiting for an answer, Aura pulled Vanir into her mind and into the memory of hatching.