Rand was shirtless and sweaty, doing pushups next to Brom's fire, while the old man inspected his form. Twice he had called Rand out for having his butt too high or two low. Rand was determined not to have a third time.

"Adurna!" The former rider suddenly yelled. He wasn't casting a spell.

"Water," Rand panted through the burning pain in his arms and chest. He was regretting not being in better shape. Some time spent at the gym on Earth would have made this way more bearable.

"Deloi!"

"Earth."

Brom smirked, and suddenly changed his pattern. "Shield!"

Rand thought for a moment, all too aware of Brom's judgemental gaze. "Uhhh… Skolir?"

Please be right, please be righ–

"Stop." Brom said.

"Letta," Rand said, resisting the urge to let out a sigh of relief at getting it correct. Brom wouldn't have moved on if he had gotten it wrong. Not that he would be punished for getting it wrong or anything. No, the old man would just sigh in disappointment and correct him.

Something about the way he would sigh though grated on Rand's nerves. It was a mix of exaggerated sadness and resignation that made it seem as if Brom had expected him to fail all along.

Rand was pretty sure the reaction was on purpose too. He hadn't done it when they first started training three days ago, and Brom was nothing if not perceptive. A little emotional manipulation to get better results wasn't even out of place considering the stakes at hand. Rand needed to learn, and he needed to learn well.

His life was literally at stake– and the fate of Alagaesia, but Rand tried not to think too much of that.

Part of the reason he had told Brom everything he knew was to avoid carrying that burden, and now that he had successfully passed it on, he would focus on what he wanted to do. Which was getting stronger. A lot stronger.

Alas his arms were at the limit.

Ten more pushups later, Rand collapsed on his belly into the puddle of sweat he had left on the coarse wooden floor. Silently, Brom laid a hand on Rand's back, and muttered a healing spell to accelerate his recovery, and stepped back. It was time for squats. Then when Rand could do no more of those, he would be healed again, and move to sit ups followed by more healing. Then, they would circle back to doing pushups.

This would continue the entire day, and at night, Brom would teach him more words and phrases in the ancient language.

They didn't have enough room in Brom's house to adequately practice with swords, and going outside would cause too much of a commotion, otherwise Rand was certain that would be a part of their routine as well.

"The storm should break tonight." Brom said suddenly, an eager glint in his eyes.

"Really, are we finally gonna go then?" Rand asked.

"Mhm– we'll see, tomorrow might be better."

A winter squall had shat enough snow that Brom had decided it was best not to sneak out and visit the newly born dragon. Rand figured Brom could have used magic to make the trip more comfortable, but he seemed unwilling when Rand brought up the idea, so they waited it out. Both of them took some small comfort in that she had Rand's dragon keeping an eye on her in her most vulnerable stage.

Even so, and in spite of his seeming indifference, Brom was chomping at the bit to go– desperately wanting to confirm her existence– the rebirth of the riders, with his own eyes. Which made the fact that he stayed to wait out the storm, even more suspicious.

Rand suspected that the former rider just wasn't ready to face all the changes that were on the horizon.

He's been sitting in this little village and telling his tales for the better part of fifteen years. He's also far past his prime. His lifespan may have been augmented by being a rider, but he was bonded for what, only a handful of years? It was long enough to see him healthy at a ripe one hundred and twenty, but that seems to be it. I bet his age has been catching up to him for a while now, too. It's only normal for him to be a little nervous, I guess.

Honestly, it's a bit of a miracle he's even lucid enough to train me.

Which, frankly, was going a lot better than Rand had anticipated. He had tried to learn French back on Earth. After who knows how many semesters and even a summer of living in Montreal, he could barely string two sentences together.

Admittedly, he had never been as motivated as he was now, nor did he ever live with any of his French teachers. None of whom had made it their life's mission to pass on as much as they knew to him. Even so, his natural aptitude for learning languages had skyrocketed. Something Rand attributed to his dragon.

He should have guessed, given the speed that his bonded companion picked up English, or Common as they called it here, but dragons had a bit of a knack for learning tongues. A strange talent for beings who couldn't actually speak, but dragons were kind of bullshit that way. Some of that magic had already rubbed off on him.

Maybe because I actually rubbed myself with the egg, and then spent the next two weeks barely a foot away from Whitey.

Somewhere far into the reaches of the Spine, a white dragon made his displeasure at both his rider's thoughts and his place holder name known by breaking a tree in half with his paws. A sudden action that spooked a little blue dragon at his side, causing her to flutter her wings and let out a quiet yip.

Rand, sensing his dragon's bad mood, sent feelings of indignance shooting back through their bond. "I gave you like a million options, it's your fault for not liking any of them, bro. My balls are in your court."

"That's not the phrase, and you know it. Now, stop thinking about rubbing my egg on your tiny penis."

"That is so uncalled for, you know as well as I do how cold it was. Shrinkage is a thing, and you know what, at least you can see my dick. Yours is all tucked away somewhere. Are you sure you even have one?"

Amusement tricked through the bond, followed by a brief flash of a long and thick white appendage. Longer than Rand's entire leg.

"What the fuck dude!"

"Suck on that." The dragon said, before abruptly slamming their bond shut.

This mother fucker.

"You're a dragon! Obviou–" Rand tried and failed to get the last word in.

Cheeks burning with embarrassment, Rand nevertheless did as his dragon asked him, and stopped thinking about defiling his egg. It was surprisingly harder than it should have been, but eventually Rand's mind wandered back to his training– his physical training.

It too, was going leagues better than he had thought it would. Part of that success could without a doubt be attributed to Brom healing him after every session. Except, even on his first day of doing pushups Rand had noticed a sizable improvement from what he remembered. Namely, he had been able to do push ups. That, rather shamefully, had not been the case on Earth.

No wonder Eragon went from farmboy to world class dueler and magician so fast. Being a dragon rider is like having a permanent growth modifier to every skill. Combine that with his natural aptitude with magic, and the dragons maximizing his growth at the Agati– whatever its called, it explains the powerhouse he became at the end of the series.

That, and I bet having Oromis just give him every secret of the Rider Order probably helped too, but still.

I need to beat that somehow. What I'm doing is definitely a good start, but how do I get more oomph?