"Fuck!" Rand cursed for the millionth time. He had stepped on another rock.
Shoes are so underrated.
"We're only a day away." Eragon said, worry clear in his voice. "Are you sure you don't want to stay and camp here? I can run back to the village, and come back with some people and carry you out. Get you a proper set of clothes?"
"I'll die if I stop moving." Rand said, snuggling even closer to the white egg he had tucked in the shirt Eragon had lent him. He was convinced that its warmth was the only thing that had kept him alive in the winter chill. Well, that and Eragon.
Every so often, he would rub the white egg all over his body, paying extra heed to his extremities, to ward off the ever present threat of frostbite. Two days in, there wasn't a single part of his body that was spared the treatment.
I'm probably the only human to ever touch an egg this thoroughly. Depending on what Arya got up to with Saphira's egg in her down time. Still… it was necessary, but–
Frowning with guilt, he leaned over his belly and began to whisper. "Sorry for rubbing you on my dick and balls little friend. And on my feet. And for sitting on you that one time… It's not been easy."
Eragon stiffened, but kept leading the way, pretending he hadn't heard a thing. Rand smiled in appreciation. He knew that little escaped the hunter's ears, but it was better for all of them that they not dwell on what had occurred over the past couple of days.
Two hours later, when the sun began to dip over the horizon, they suddenly stopped.
"This is a good place to camp." Eragon said, immediately getting to work making a fire.
Rand searched for a nice log, and promptly sat down. Pulling the egg free from its spot in his shirt, he rested it on the ground, and gingerly planted the bloody soles of his feet onto it, and sighed as waves of warmth traveled up his legs. In the process, leaving bloody and muddy footprints on the pristine surface. It would need to be clean again.
"Sorry." He muttered to the dragon within the egg again. He didn't know where Rob had gotten it from or even if it would hatch for him considering the obscenities he had subjected it to. One thing he was sure of was that the dragon didn't deserve this level of defilement. Alas, his survival depended on it, and Rand would do what he had to. His survival was worth more to him than an unborn dragon's pride.
"Can the dragon really hear you?" Eragon asked, once he had the fire started.
Here we go again. Rand sighed. Eragon, understandably, had a lot of questions, and barring those that were especially sensitive, he obliged him.
"I'm not certain, but I think so. They have to pick their riders somehow, so they'd need some way to know what's going on outside their little shells, wouldn't they."
"Oh, dragons must be pretty clever then, right?"
"Smarter than me and you, if the stories are anything to go by."
"All the stories I've heard just say that they're beasts."
"You've heard the wrong stories. When that blue egg hatches for you, the dragon will be having proper conversations with you in weeks!"
Eragon eyed his pouch, where he had kept Saphira's egg, doubt and wanting plastered on his face. Rand couldn't blame him. Both emotions were understandable, and he could tell Eragon still didn't know what to make of the situation. While Rand's magical means of arrival lent a lot of credence to his words, the past two days had been nothing if not undignified. Were there positions reversed, not even he would think of himself as anysort of authority on anything. But, magic held a lot of sway.
And I bet he thinks I'm just some soft magician from some big city or something. Hah.
Truthfully, Rand was just a twenty-first century couch potato. One who knew little to nothing about the wilderness. Were it not for Eragon's expertise in navigating the Spine, he wouldn't have even known the way out of the forest, let alone how to find humans after.
"How big do dragon's get?" Eragon asked.
Laying down next to the warmth of the fire, Rand started answering his questions as they came, and often asking his own. The books could only reveal so much about Alagaesia after all. Not to rouse Eragon's suspicions though, he mostly asked about life in Carvahal, and only Carvahal. Willingly leaning into Eragon's misconceived notion that he was just unfamiliar with the small farm life, while carefully dodging questions about his own past.
He'd decided, about as soon as he got here, not to keep things secret. It just seemed like too much of a headache, but that didn't mean he would spill his guts about everything.
_
A loud cracking noise woke Rand up in the middle of the night. Feeling the smooth stone wobbling at his side, he felt his heart pound in his chest.
It's happening.
The timing could have been better, but this was good! Really good. He was going to become a dragon rider.
"What is–"
"Shhh, my dragon's hatching!"
"Wh–"
"Shhhhhhhhhh." Rand glared at Eragon, and resumed watching the pearly white egg. With agonizingly slow speed, cracks spread over through the smooth surface as an infant dragon wobbled inside, struggling to break free.
Rand reached out to pick apart its shell, before abruptly stopping himself. Some unknown instinct told him that it wasn't his place.
It proved to be true, for only a handful of seconds later, the egg wobbled one more time, and a tiny, angular head poked through. A piece of a white shell, stubbornly stuck to the tiny dragon's head like a funky hat.
WHY IS IT SO CUTE?
With its tiny golden eyes, the dragon glared at Rand, and almost haughtily, tore apart the rest of its eggy cage. Finally free, it didn't immediately jump towards Rand's hand and link the two of them together. Much to Rand's chagrin. Instead, it took its time wandering their campsite. Every so often, puffing white smoke from its nostrils, staring at every leaf and every insect with inborn imperiousness.
Rand's heart swooned every time it inched towards him, and threatened to give out for the brief second the dragon looked at Eragon, then swooned again when it gave the teen a dismissive snort and turned away and resumed its inspection. Even as a newborn, its curiosity was plain as day.
Unreasonable thoughts full of doubt churned in Rand's head.
What if it chooses Eragon for some reason, and then Saphira picks Eragon too, and he becomes this Super Dragon Rider. Fuck. What if this is some kinda swinger shit, and Saphira hatches for me, and this dragon bonds with Eragon. Rand glared at Saphira's egg, still in Eragon's pouch. I don't want you, you blue bitch.
Actually, that's racist and I didn't mean it, and I don't know why I thought that. You're going to be a fine dragon, it's just that your personality is borderline insufferable. I can't have anyone calling me little one, you know?
Eventually though, the dragon circled back to Rand. Reverently, he held his right palm forward. Then, in a surprising feat of agility, the little white dragon jumped, and slammed snout first into his waiting palm.
Tingles traveled up through his arm and ran through his entire body. He could feel a connection in his mind, linking him together with his dragon.
Tears welled in his eyes.
We're gonna be immortal, spell slinging, sword dueling, lady banging, badasses!
A sense of primal hunger traveled between him and his newly bonded dragon.
Right. Food first.
"Eragon, change of plans. Leave all the food, and find a man called Brom in your village. Tell him that there's a dragon rider in the forest that wants to talk to him. Tell him that he needs boots, a warm coat, healing, and all the meat he can carry.
Oh, and if, and only if, you think he's not going to come… Tell him that my name is Oromis and that it's an emergency."
"What, who's Oromis?"
"That's not important. But remember, only say that thing about Oromis if he seems unconvinced. Under no other circumstance should you ever repeat that name, or the Empire will have all our head. Oh, and don't tell him, or anybody, about your egg. Brom's a good guy, but he might have his own ideas on who it should hatch for. But, that doesn't matter. At all. It's your egg. Got it?" Rand asked.
Eragon didn't really look like he did, but he nodded anyway. He spent a second or two staring at the newly hatched white dragon, and then his eyes drifted longingly to his pack, and nodded. A few minutes later, he disappeared in the dark.
Seeing him go, Rand unreservedly fed all their remaining rations to his new companion. When even that wasn't enough, he picked up the shell, and fed that to his dragon too.
Thankfully it was enough.
Now we just have to hold out for a day or two, little buddy. Brom will be here fast, and who knows? I might not even die of infection with him around!