SO. After abusing you all with a lack of chapters, here's the fourth chapter! It takes place... 5 years from the third chapter, I believe. Stories not going the way I had originally planned, but ah well. v.v I'll see what I can do. And as a quick note~ The new additiion to the story is from a species I personally designed. ^_^ And I'm not demanding you all love him or accept his new place in the story, but I AM curious as to what ya'll think of 'im.
The basic idea for him might seem unoriginal at first, but as the story progresses, this Enmalian (As I've titled the species) will show plenty of differences between what you normally see, and what has yet to be seen. ^_^ (I hope at least!)
And sorry if the chapter seems crappy. ;.; I haven't written in a while thanks to an addiction to Minecraft, AND Key of Awesome, a group from YouTube. I especially love their parody of Grenade. =3
"I'd chop off my head for you!"
And everything probably seems quaint and rushed, but I'm trying to get my skills back in writing! Honest! I am NOT trying to get pity from ya'll so that you can say "Aww... It's okay! You'll get your skills back!"
. . (Hinthint) =P
JKing.
Time to stop procrastinating and let ya'll read now! And give me HONEST feedback. ^_^ I appreciate honest reviews that tell me where to improve and what I'm doing wrong. =3 And Inheritance Cycle knowledge is a tad bit rusty, so please excuse my lack of knowledge!
Chapter 4
Evera was sleeping in her bed, her newest place of residence completely different from when she had been thirteen. At the age of eighteen, she had lived with the method that her family had used since the age of ten, a method that had taught her various skills in the line of work. Her dragon, Gin, was curled up next to her, the occasional drift of smoke, just low enough the smoke detector couldn't notice it, coming with her breath.
The dragon in question had barely grown several feet over the years, but had confided in Evera the way she felt physically. Both puzzled over it, wondering at how such a tiny dragon could possibly feel like she was a thousand times larger than she was at the moment. Her family, more than well aware that Gin was in existence, had welcomed the dragon with some apprehension, unsure of what to do with her.
Slowly, though, the members had come to appreciate her for various skills. Evera was able to prove herself by encouraging the members of the household into various duties, and also proved some use in the more historical pieces of homework. She didn't have all the knowledge, but her egg had traveled within the perimeters of several of the various Civil War wars.
She had also witnessed some history outside of America, proving to be knowledgeable in the ways of various countries, whether they were well-known or not. She was even close to some World War one and two battles. Nowhere near them to the point of injury, but close enough to get quite a bit of knowledge on them.
However, a gentle wind entered the room through a once-closed window, and a human shape fluttered onto the bed with a wing beat. Only the dragon stirred, raising her head only slightly to the disturbance. Evera continued to hug the dragon, her becoming a less heavy sleeper forbidding her to hear the entrance.
The figure could be seen rummaging through the room, a bag held in its hands, gently lifting various objects, examining them, and then putting the object either into the bag, or back in its place. No noise was made in this process, as the figure continued the pain staking raid of the room.
Appearing to finish its job, the figure then laid the bag with Evera and Gin, before his wings flew onto the bed railing. Looking at the odd pair, he tapped the dragons nose gently, clawed fingers slightly scratching the tough scales. In an instant, Gins eyes were opened, and the figure had barely calmed her before she had woken Evera.
In an instant, without the need for a mental connection, she knew immediately what he wanted. Somehow worming her way out of Evera's grip, without waking her up, she flapped towards the windowsill, perching on it, waiting for the figure to grab Evera. She turned her head towards the figure, seeing him prick something delicately into her fingers, before he picked her up gently, and walked to the windowsill with her.
When he nodded his head, Gin took flight into the sky, flying and deeply breathing in the air of the land they were in. The figure followed on wings that looked to be longer than his body, beating fiercely against the wind. Stretching her mind towards the bird-like human, Gin sent her thoughts to him.
What did you do to her? Give her a drug that keeps her sleeping?
The mental reply came back, the figure having perfected his talking to her mentally over the years. Of course.
It was short, but he couldn't handle transmitting his thoughts beyond more than a few words. If he did so, then he'd become unbearably sick. He could throw up a mental wall that rivaled hers, but he had shown obvious incapability in handling real magic.
Gin almost started, seeing him fly down lower, preparing to land in the middle of a field. Landing shortly after him, she saw him lower the girl to the ground, before turning around and, with almost unseen movement, create the oddest phenomenon she had ever seen.
His claws had dragged through the air, but instead of nothing happening, a light, almost clear blue hole had appeared. It appeared to be like a thin rip in a fine, velvety cloth, just wide enough for her to slip into.
Seeing him nod his head, she walked towards it, sniffing the scentless portal as the oddest of energy swirled around inside of it, a few wisps occasionally coming out of it, but disintegrating in the air like mist. Feeling his encouragement, she entered it, careful to ensure that all her limbs were within the odd barrier of sorts.
He had certainly never explained this to her.
However, the moment her eyes were past the barrier, her body felt a sort of release as she entered the portal, the release not activating unless her body was past it. Before she was fully through it, wing-wise, she noticed that she was purely in the air. And beneath her, were trees of a miniscule size. As soon as her wings entered completely through the portal, she began to flap them, the rest of her body soon following her.
Flapping through the sky, she went towards the ground, perching herself in the miniature forest, her breath drawing in the clean, unpolluted air. Upon landing her eyes turned towards the portal once more, barely seeing the figure jumping through it, wings grandly flapping. The sight was far more grand in the daytime than it was in the nighttime, beautiful wings resembling that of a bald eagle, the ears of a white tiger perched proudly on his head.
His tail, while it was like a bald eagles tail feathers, was colored black and white, showing his other heritage proudly. Whiskers twitched on his face, despite the fact that it was covered in feathers. Gin opened her mouth to talk in her native tongue, something she hadn't done in a while.
"So where are we?"
Her jaw almost dropped as she realized that he wasn't getting larger fast with every wing beat he took that took him lower. Realization dawned on her that she was far larger than she had thought, and she didn't even notice.
He landed while grinning, noticeably glad she didn't force him to speak in a regular voice. "Your original home. Normally, one cannot survive returning back to their home dimension, but if you were in the womb, or an egg, then there are exceptions."
He rubbed her scales, "I see being in a new world was locking away your ability to grow, something that is typical of those who left their home in a different form. You still grew, obviously, but physically, it was at a pace that was slower than the slowest growing plant life."
His attention turned to the girl, "However, unlike you, the portal finished her growth for her."
Gin turned her attention towards Evera, noticing that, while the girl was still unconscious and held in the feathered grip of the man in front of her, she had noticeably grown several more inches, had lost fat in some areas, and had grown in various other areas.
"Tuari," Gin started, speaking once more in her native tongue, "What was that? You never told me about it."
He could sense her slight anger, but he chuckled, "You'll find out once I feel both of you are ready. Some things are meant for both Dragon and Rider to find out about simultaneously. You know the basics about us, who we are and what type of danger we pose to this land, and that's all that's required for now. Until then, I hope you will tell your Rider about this.
"And in the mean time, I expect you to tell her at a suitable time, not when she'll already be overwhelmed by this entire world."
Gin nodded her head in understanding, wings flapping powerfully, dwarfing the size of wings that Tuari had. Her body was easily the size of a semi-truck, the tail in equal length, if not slightly shorter, than her body. Her long, trunk-like neck glistened as the sunlight beat down on the silvery scales, making them shine brightly.
Her Rider now seemed like a toddler in comparison to her, despite the fact that she had grown some more, her body now taller than six feet. Gin lifted her head to examine the area, unsure of where she was.
Almost as if he knew what she were thinking, Tuari spoke. "You are near the entrance to the dwarves home, in the Beor Mountains, near the mountain of Farthen Dur. Do not alert anyone here, no matter who they are, outside of your Rider, that I exist. Woe knows what kind of information that could due to them, if Galbatorix knew about us."
With that, he turned and flew into the sky, doing a roll in mid-flight to open another portal, before disappearing into that. Almost instantly, the portal closed, unlike the first, which had closed far more slowly.
Gin sighed, wondering what she should do next. Her Rider was still deeply asleep, and she had no clue when Evera would wake up. Tuari hadn't told her much, but fortunately remembered enough about the Inheritance Cycle, a book Evera had been reading when the pair had first met, to know the basics.
Unsure of what to do, she picked up the bag that Tuari had dumped next to Evera, and dragged her under the shade of a tree, wing draping around Evera to shade from what little sun beat down through the leaves that were causing the shade.
Closing her eyes, Gin drifted back to sleep, albeit an uneasy one.