Ashes to Ashes Chapter 3 : The Bonding Ceremony
Story by MaxFR68 on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
isclaimer : I hereby state that I DO NOT own the Inheritance Cycle or any of its characters ( It is the property of Christopher Paolini ) but I do own my OCs.
And now that the legal mumbo jumbo has been taken care of,
On with the story !
PS : Thoughts, telepathy and computer script will be in italic
Aylin was quietly sleeping in her room. She was dreaming about various things such as tomorrow ceremony, how her future dragon will look like or even how they were going to explore Alagaësia together, living great adventures...
Suddenly, she felt a chill that sent shivers down her spine. She shrugged it off as you would with an annoying mosquito, knowing you could do nothing about it and that you just had to wait and let it go...
Little did she know that this chill was not because of this night cold weather, no, it was caused by the great burst of magic that was sent off when Max's ashes "bonded" with the deep purple dragon's egg...
* * ( Aylin Pov ) * *
The sun was starting to rise at the horizon when Aylin awoke. She wanted to be up earlier than usual since this day was probably going to be the most important in her life. She was wearing her most precious dress, one that she only wore on formal occasions : it was a long white dress made of the purest silk that could be found in Alagaësia. It was also trimmed with some gold and silver threads and it gave her an almost regal look.
It was one of her most cherished treasures because it was her mother's favorite dress...
When she was sure that everything was ready, she headed towards the main hall where she and the others would get their dragons...
* * ( Main Hall, Max's Pov ) * *
Max awoke from his "nap" when he suddenly "sensed" more of the feelings that he had received earlier pouring into the place he was resting in.
What the heck _! Just wh__ y are there so many people here_? Where am I? And what's this strange place I'm in? I can feel some heat radiating from it, it's great, it's a sensation that gives you some kind of strange soothing vibes. But what's stranger about it is that this sensation is familiar, almost like...
NO way _! It can't be! I'm in a womb?_ Is it some k_ ind_ of rebirth? I'm not even Buddhist! Hmm, maybe it's like in one of th __e_ se movies where the main character is reborn into something and must do some great heroic deed_ to get his ticket to heaven or something like that. But that's impossible! My ashes are supposed to be on a module drifting in space! Not on Earth!
Wait a minute, is it possible that my module has landed on an inhabited planet? If that's the case I hope I'm not in an alien's womb, that would be rather awkward...
And I still can't see a damn thing!
Eragon was calmly standing on the main hall stage. He was clad in a formal looking deep-blue robe that was trimmed with gold and gave away his position as the head of the Rider Academy.
Behind him were the eggs, standing on their pedestals. He was rehearsing in his head the ceremony, recalling the names of the apprentices and the order that they were going to be called in.
As Eragon was preparing his "show", Saphira was sitting in a corner of the stage and was cautiously eyeing one of the eggs, a deep purple one. However, before she could voice her worries about it to Eragon, the apprentices opened the main hall door and were starting to fill the room in an orderly manner, quietly chatting between themselves. As soon as they sat, Eragon cleared his throat and started his speech, the one that he was rehearsing before.
<< Today, we are here to take Alagaësia forward. This day will be marked as the one that has seen the rebirth of the Rider order and the beginning of a new era: one of peace and prosperity. In the following months you will experience many hardships, some of you may even die but never forget this: you will carry Alagaësia towards the path of fate. The people of our land are counting on you to protect them.>> As Eragon was never fond of long speeches ( _AN__ :_ neither am I ;) , he decided to move the ceremony to its next step and talked again to finish the current "step".
<<But for now all you will do is learn how to fight and train your dragon which will be your best friend and ally on the battlefield. I am going to call each of you: when you hear your name come to the stage so that we may begin the bonding ceremony.>>
He then began to call them, one by one. As the ceremony was nearly finished, only two eggs were left, a black one and a deep purple one. Nearly all of the Riders apprentices had left with their dragon, the only ones left were Aylin and a 20 year old boy, Damian Haleth. He was a noble and a skilled swordsman. He had long dark hair, was rather tall and got deep green eyes. He wasn't as skilled as Aylin with magic because he rather focused on his strength and his skill with a sword to triumph on the battlefield.
When he heard Eragon calling his name, his heartbeat started increasing and adrenalin started pumping through his blood. When he was on the stage, he looked at the two remaining eggs and choosed to bond with the black one because he felt drawn to it _. When he touched it, cracks started appearing all over the surface and a small black dragon that was as black as night started emerging. His eyes were orange and he_ happily chirped. He then started to head towards Damian and touched Damian's palm with his muzzle. Immediately, an intense white light appeared and disappeared seconds later, leaving a brand new Gedwëy Ignasia that marked his status as a Rider on his palm. After that, the dragon was so weak that Damian had to carry him towards his room to tend to him.
The only one left was Aylin. As Eragon called her name, she mentally sighed with relief : she was finally going to have her dragon ! Saphira was still cautiously eyeing the deep purple egg, wary of the "vibe" it was giving...
Aylin was heading towards the egg. When she touched the surface of the egg, cracks started appearing at his surface, much like with Damian's dragon egg.
* * ( Max's Pov, moments later after Aylin touched his egg ) * *
Huh, what's this ? There's some light pouring from "above". Does that mean that I'm going to be "born" shortly ? I just hope I'm not ripping someone's torso open...
Aylin was watching her dragon's birth. He was beautiful ! His scales were a deep purple and his eyes were plain gold with no irises. ( AN : he looks like the dragon that's in the cover )
That was when things started to get strange: instead of heading towards her as a normal dragon would do, the little dragon started sniffing the air around him, unsure of what he should do next...
She started calling him but to no avail, each time he heard her he looked in her direction and tilted his head to the side as if she was speaking a language that was foreign to him.
Seeing that Aylin was having trouble with her dragon, Saphira headed towards him to see what was wrong.
-Do you hear me little one? What is the matter?
Upon hearing this strange voice in his head, Max started looking for the owner of this voice. He then noticed a big blue dragon that seemed to look straight through his soul with big blue eyes.
-Huh? Just who are you? Are you a real dragon?
She let out a small chuckle before answering
-Me? I'm as real as you, little one.
-Wait a minute, what did you mean when you said "as real as you"?
Max then looked down, hoping to find the answer to his question. He couldn't believe what he found: he had the body of a baby dragon! He was in such a state of shock that he let out, unconsciously, a powerful cry of despair before fainting and falling to the ground because his mind could simply not "process" this "fact", causing his brain to initiate a "Shutdown" to protect his neurons from being overloaded (AN: _ _kinda like when a fuse destroys himself to protect the electrical installation from frying) Unbeknownst to him and everyone around him, this "cry" would have great consequences in the future...
* * (Hadarac Desert, Nuclear Thrust G __enerator crash site, a moment after Max let out his "cry"_ ) * *_
Max's cry of despair held such a special frequency to it that it started to make the remains of the NTG's on-board computer go nuts once again. The part of the module that it activated this time was a distress beacon that Eternium Space Co. had installed prior to the launch of Max's module : they wanted to retrieve this valuable prototype once it had landed. However for them, the NTG module experienced an unscheduled solar flare that sent the module off course...
<< Beginning initialisation of NTGmodule#001.................................................
Beginning system check..................................
Upper module..............Missing
Client status........................Unknown
Structural Integrity............................Down to 10%
NTG integrity...........................Down to 10%
Radioactive fuel container....................Breached
Warning ! Critical error detected !
Windows C.E. must send an error report .
( _ AN : _ if it was Ubuntu this s*** would never have happened _ ; _)
Preparing error report.........................................................Done
Gathering position....................
Done.
Sending..................................
Done.
Shutting NTGmodule#001 down....................................................
Done. >>
And then the report was sent to Eternium Space Co. main HQ in California.
Luckily for Max, the report was going to have to travel a great deal of time to get to its destination since it was not even emitted from our solar system but from another that was several light-years away. Plus right now he had bigger problems...
END OF CHAPTER 3