Chapter 11
AN: As promised!
Smoke streamed endlessly from My nose as I made my way to the bank and flopped down on its muddy shores. Grumbling to myself as I stared at my reflection in the flowing river. Who was I kidding, thinking this would be a fun adventure? Sure, going to one of my favorite worlds, meeting my favorite characters is anyone's dream.. But I really wasn't ready for all the seriousness that comes with reality.I gave a sigh, I needed to relax, I needed music. Ducking my head out of the loop keeping my bag and with the utmost care, opened it and pulled out the pouch containing Fiori's Eldunarí, unwrapping it from the now rotting bear pelt I had wrapped her in way back when I first came to the spine, then dumped the bag out. Grinning at the ziplock bag I had my electronics in. careful to not break them, I tore the bag open and then gave a defeated groan. There was no way I could use these now. They were small when I was human, now I feel like I could break them just looking at them. Glancing about and feeling with my mind, I sensed everyone still at camp, my mentor and I were the only ones here. Taking a deep, calming breath I closed my eyes and triggered my element. A second passed, then three more until the ground under my left claw started to boil as if it turned to a liquid. I slowly lifted the paw and as it did, so did a stoney human head rise followed by a torso and legs. I then moved it to my stuff, turning on the MP3 and plugging in the earplugs.
I was aware that my mentor was watching closely counting the minutes before it would expire like the others I made during training. That was fine, I only needed it to live long enough to choose the song and stick the earbuds into my ear canals. Have to say the magi that summoned me knew his stuff, it changed the plugs to fit a dragon. Lowering my head for my golem to put them on, I had it hit play on "Courtesy Call" and dismissed it into dust as the Song started. Oh how I missed my tunes, the almost 2 years were too long for my liking. I felt my mentor's consciousness listening, and her reaction was surprising. Who knew an old timer would like rock and metal. Then again it's a bit violent like dragons. I just laid there, eyes closed and humming to the music and tried to ignore the three now missing scales on the inner portion of my upper left foreleg. Afterall, creating a controllable golem required a piece of myself. Well worth it though. We laid there listening to the songs, my mentor's pouch cradled in my forelegs as "Reckless" ran through and into "Can't Hold Us". Ignoring the world around us for the time being, I didn't notice when Saphira came up and laid beside me. Only when the song ended did I hear her trying to imitate my humming. I did not flinch and I definitely didn't give a slight bellow of fright, nope. After I managed to keep my hearts from leaping out of my chest did I realize my indulgence cost me. Of course there wasn't music like what was playing here and nor were there the devices I was using. Her questions didn't seem to have an end and out of all of them, the one I dreaded most was the last.
"Who are you Wrathion,truly?". Gods damn it, Mom told me that you should never lie to a girl, especially if it was a friend.
With a sigh I asked my teach for advice but all she said was don't reveal her and my guess is the others. So with a resigned sigh I told her some of the truth. I was frustrated at myself at being found out so early.
"Look.. I will tell you but please keep it to yourself please?"
She stared intently at me for a long moment before giving a nod and so I spilled the metaphorical beans. Starting with the fact I wasn't always a dragon. Boy did she give me a weird look and when I felt her get angry with me thinking I wasn't taking her seriously, I gave in and started to share my memories. I started with my earliest I could recall when I was 5. Of course I skipped a few things, like the books I got. The first having her rider's name and though she currently couldn't read she could learn when He does and recall the letters later. My life flashed before both of our mind's eyes, growing up, my mother's lessons, first days of school, walks through town, unrelated books read, ..mother's passing, having to give up home. Then the times of me living on my own, the repairing of the ramshackle cabin, the distance and wariness of the rest of the town kept for me. When it got to the magic that brought me here, I skipped to the part of me looking around the ruins of Doru Araeba then at my far younger dragon self in staring back at me from the fountain. I stopped the memories there and watched her. Her expression was one of pure disbelief, sitting straight, wings spread and raised and her lower jaw hanging open.
"Y-You're not..I thought.." It would have been amusing if it wasn't for the pit growing in my stomach. I ended up looking away from her. "Yea.. I know I'm not what you expected."
She didn't say anything else, Just leapt into the air and took off back to the others. Once she left it felt like I ran a full lap of Alagaësia, my body felt utterly drained making my collapse on the bank, my paws covering my head. Soothing thoughts flowed into me and my mentor's presence seemed to surround me. I almost felt like a specter of a dragon was giving me a hug like I did Saphira not too long ago.
"Oh little one, do not despair, your secret is safe, she just told them you wanted to be alone."
"She hates me now, finally told a friend and I lost her for it.." I huffed, blowing a cloud of dirt and dust out into the water.
"Enough of that, She doesn't hate you neither have you damaged your friendship. Yes she's confused and feeling lost but that is for other reasons. She is thinking hard about all you showed her and let her have time to take it in." I sighed and growled an affirmative then turned my attention back to my MP3 player, I tuned out the music during the confrontation and I groaned at the irony of the song playing now. "Highway to Hell"
The next morning I had rejoined the others, Doing the best I could hiding the discomfort of three more missing scales, these being under my back right paw. I had to use another golem to pack up my now dead MP3 and everything else back into my bag. Saphira greeted me, but that was all.
The two humans glanced between us both, clearly aware something happened but since neither her or me were saying anything on the matter, didn't press us. Though in my case, they probably didn't want to trigger me, great.. Now I felt like a time bomb. Brom stated they still needed supplies and so he and Eragon decided to try again in the next town called Daret but it was a good way from where we were. The river was a steady supply of water and Saphira and I agreed we could hunt for them but that could go only so far. We then set off, falling back into a routine with us dragons on the wing and our humans going at an easy pace and us joining them on the ground in the evenings. For Eragon, magic schooling was included with his swordsmanship lessons and history of the riders. Unlike in the book, no one ever mentioned the Urgals when I was present and it was a minor change I didn't mind. Saphira had blocked me from her unless it was required and That made my mood plummet further and I caught glances from Eragon with him frowning in my direction. Brom had hardly changed from his gruffness although he accepted a lesson I imparted of Eragon during one of his lessons that I felt he needed to learn now instead of later.
"Magic" I began from my now known position of overwatch, turning my head from the darkness to my companions and seeing I had all three's attention, continued.
"Magic also requires you to know the exact pronunciation or else the result could be anything from negligible to catastrophic. For example, 'Atra guliä un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waíse skölir fra rauthr' and 'Atra guliä un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waíse sköliro fra rauthr'. By messing up the verb conjugation and using the word for "shield", as opposed to "shielded" by replacing the "-rö" suffix with an "-r" turns a blessing into a curse."
"That is completely correct Wrathion, I'm impressed with your knowledge" Brom's praise was appreciated but I only mentioned what Eragon had done in the book but I couldn't tell them that.
"Experience is a good teacher, Was someone who blessed someone with the wrong version.. That person became cursed to feel the pain and evil thoughts of everyone around them. Turned the person from an innocent soul to a dark, twisted being full of hate. Another unexpected side effect was they could see everyone's fears and used that to terrifying success."
I turned and glared straight into Eragon's eyes.
"You are the sole free rider. That alone puts you at a status above everyone else and there will be a time when the common folk will seek your blessing. Do not do as they did, If you must give one, then I would suggest the Elven greeting. If Brom knows it he can teach you, and never use magic when giving a blessing." I kept my eyes on him as he squirmed under my gaze, only relenting when he agreed. With my piece said, I lept to the skies to fly patrol. Night Vision was another advantage I had over the others of my kin and often I'd use it to hunt when camp was made after nightfall. Fiori would often find it fascinating when I used it to hunt but tonight she was distracted by the story, and I told her of how I heard of it.
It appalled her to hear the 'vision' of what a version of Eragon did to an infant and how proud she was of me for "biting it on the tail". I chuckled at the very draconic wording while my mind started to think about how to fill in the void of Elva. Obviously the castle's traps would be easy for me,knowing and being able to sense them. It was the assassinations I was worried about, but for the moment, I put it out of my mind. The next morning we were moving again. You know, In the books the time spent on the road didn't really seem like much but in reality? I was almost tempted to get Saphira to swoop down with me and airlift both humans and horses just to speed them up. By now we've been traveling for half a month. To pass time, I tried engaging Saphira in riddles which I would like to think I did okay at, she was far better at it than me. Or I'd listen in and watch Eragon go through his magic exercises with the pebble followed with more sparring in the evenings. Days turned into weeks and changes were made to us. Eragon gained muscle, confidence, and a fighter's speed during their spars and the magic lessons grew more challenging as he mastered them. Saphira and I grew more although her change was more than mine. Her constant flights and hunts kept her sleek form fit and many times I began to catch myself from staring. I couldn't help it though, when she was in the air it was like the world lost all color save for her. Teach would often laugh when she caught that thought in my mind and it made me glad dragons couldn't turn red with embarrassment.
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Few things ppl asked me in private DMs I wish to clarify
His illusion of his giant wolf is just that, an illusion. If people had the bravery of even approaching to touch him then instead of petting fur they'd touch hard scales even if it looked like fur. Also It's impossible for him to enter cities with our humans because even if they aren't visible, people can still collide with his wings and longer tail. Also the glamour doesn't let him make any canine like sounds. No whining, sharp barks, or howling. Nor can he do canine body language I.E swiveling or laying back of ears, or wagging tail (could do the last but the visuals would be stiff and he'd be knocking stuff over with his hidden true tail)
Panting might be possible but what self respecting dragon would pant just because? And growls he might be able to pass of as wolfish.
No, he couldn't heal Brom with his healing spell, it only works on dragons. I thought It through and with his magical reserves that would have been too op.
Yes I could have had him use his abilities to kill the Urgals but dragons Are very physical fighters preferring their teeth and claws, beside he'll only use them if he must remain hidden.