New Legacy

Ch.24

So. My eggs are immediately being used as political currency. They were to be taken through the Beors, north along the rivers to the east, then to Du Weldenvarden where they will be kept safely considering Tronjheim’s recent invasion by the Empire.

I was quite piqued in fury by this. As their mother, I should have some say about what is done with my precious eggs. I don’t much care if they need to meet their Riders, I don’t appreciate them being carted like treasures to be distributed! Oh no! I just realized that because of this, Arya might never bond with Firnen! I may have doomed Arya not to achieve her potential!

“You fret too much, Shimmer. If Firnen will hatch for me, then he will. If not, then it is not meant to be in this reality.” Arya dismissed when I had promptly cornered her in a room to vent my worries to her about this, especially since the moment the battlegroup arrived, a contingent of them would be formed into a caravan exclusively for my eggs and we’d be leaving. Arya would be staying as the representative of the elks.

“But…” I mewled and hugged her, the stoic elk freezing up before awkwardly hugging back. “I’m sorry if I screwed this up for you.”

“Don’t be. You’ve done something incredible. I know it is not quite equitable, but you’ll be causing a rapid resurgence of the Riders.” This caused me to clench my teeth and hiss through them.

“That isn’t a good thing. To be perfectly honest, Arya, as bad as it got, Eragon was the sole surviving free Rider not in negative standing with the people. He would begin the Riders again, but with a sober and down-to-earth mindset about it. If the Riders return in force now, high on power and heroic privilege, then nothing might be different from the old Order. Especially with a member of the old guard like Oromis around.” No way would he not want things to return to the status quo.

“That is a disturbing thought. It was the lofty distance the Riders held themselves over others that led to their downfall, much like how my people have suffered for our hubris many times before.” Arya closed her eyes and sighed out her nose. “Perhaps this is not as good a thing as many would immediately assume. Know that as their mother, you do have a say in their care. Although I believe it won’t be much, but you can at least try.”

“I can only hope it’s enough.”

🥚

After I parted ways with Arya, hopefully not for the last time, I decided to indulge one of my past-life’s favorite pastimes of reading to relax and destress. I sought out the library, but when I arrived I just about turned and left at the sight of Kalameet with an owl on her shoulder while she was reading a book. Or rather, trying not to read it.

“Damn it.” Kalameet huffed at the book in her hands as the owl glared and hooted at something while pointing at the book with a pinion. “Why the fuck were these guys so arrogant? And their drag-“

The owl slapped her head and hooted at her point at more pages. “History is important, or do you want to be ‘lost’ in my library.” The owl told her, skipping on the hoots she was doing before and kalameet went back to reading.

“Why is this history full of elks?” Kalameet huffed in complaint, but the owl patted her head.

“An actual question. Good.” I was about to leave when the owl turned her gaze upon me and those large soul-penetrating eyes froze me. “Hm? I know that presence. You’re one of Dongo’s, huh?”

“Who?” I asked in bemusement, wondering who Dongo was.

“I’m the owl here! I’m the one who goes ‘hoo’! I’m talking about my sister, Dongoruas. We Displace people as a bit of a hobby to help other worlds we’re branching out into, or planning to. Odd though, since Dongo doesn’t often do it much herself aside from helping Eris and I drop them in the correct dimension.” The owl explained, as if I would understand any of that.

“Uh...okay. I’m just going to go.” I turned to leave, but yelped when my snout ended up deep in the cleavage of a massive bust easily as large as basketballs while a serpentine feathered creature looked down at me with disturbingly all-knowing eyes.

“You’re a scholar, or used to be, yet you don’t have the patience or the drive to seek extra knowledge anymore. Tsk, Dongo and I will be having a long chat about how to properly synchronize old souls to new bodies later.” The tall alien avian serpent woman thing poked my brow and-.

Why am I here? I should be getting ready to leave, not moping around! I may not be in a good place right now, but damn it I have things to do! “Excuse me, I need to get ready to go and be ready to stab some people to protect my eggs.” I backed away from the tall hyper-busty avian snake woman and idly wondered if my own breasts will ever go back down to their current physical size again, or if I’m permanently hyper-busty in reality.

“Ah much better. Now, you, I’m going to quiz you on their history and magics until you can tell me more than just their flaws! I have all of their knowledge after all.” The serpent snarled at Kalameet. Wait what? No, later, find the librarian later.

“Thank you for whatever you’ve done to lift the odd fugue I’d been in most of this time. I hope to see you again some other time.” I told the spooky sexy serpent and hurried from the library, intent on getting ready to travel and also to stand guard over my eggs, wards or not. I’m not letting anyone touch my babies without my consent!

🥚

Besides Roran. Because he’s my other half. “They’re so beautiful…” Roran praised with awe as he rubbed a metallic bronze egg with a rag to get any dirt off and reveal the shine to the light of the sun. Since I’d refused to allow anyone but Roran to touch my eggs, he and I were stuck on egg-sitting duty, which included Roran enchanting crates with warmth runes to keep them warm in the wooden boxes they would be contained in for transport.

I was initially against it, considering my own experience as an egg, but Brom, Oromis and Glaedr informed me that such a thing is unprecedented, so unless my eggs took on that trait, which was unlikely, they’d be nearly unaware of their surroundings until something piqued their interest, usually someone who could potentially be their Rider.

I was also told that a person who could potentially be an egg’s Rider will similarly feel an odd pull. Roran, Eragon and Twilight confirmed this, saying they were oddly attracted to their beloved dragon’s egg, like a light compulsion to protect and possess it.

So when a hippogriff in a maid uniform approached and looked incredibly longingly at a steel gray egg, I gestured for her to come closer. “M-may I?” She asked, the pink hippogriff seeming to be conflicted with herself and I gently smiled while gesturing for her to sit down. I then handed the egg to her and she gasped with incredible awe as she ran her talons over it. “It’s so warm and smooth…”

“Within is one of my many children. Children that I hope to see hatch someday.” I leaned down and nuzzled the egg, my Eldunari sang slightly and I smiled. “Her, Little One? Are you sure?” My Heart-of-Hearts practically danced and I looked at the pretty maid with a beaming smile. “Well, I hope you knew what you were getting into.”

“Huh?” She blinked and then gasped when my child burst from his egg in her lap and he keened happily up at the former maid, who squealed happily in joy at the cutie in her lap and hugged him to her bosom, which flashed. After the light settled, the Gedwey Ignasia was shown on the top of her left breast where he’d nuzzled her. “I-I’m a Rider?!” She squealed in shock, which was eased by my son, her other half, nuzzling her bosom and she crooned before nuzzling his crown with her beak happily.

“I swear, you’re going to cause us old bastards to drop dead with all the work you’re giving us.” Brom chuckled and stroked his beard with a happy grin when he approached. “Don’t worry, milady. Despite war on our doorstep, I’ll be there with you for the early stages of your training.” Brom helped the happy and almost dazed hen to her talons and led her away while speaking of the world she’d stumbled into.

It filled me with incredible joy to see one of my children hatch so soon. That he sensed the person who would be his Rider and she responded so easily filled me with hope. “I’m going with you.” I jolted and turned to see the speaker was Kalameet. She looked somewhat humbled, but still had this arrogance about her. “I, um, want to see your training in person.”

“So long as you refrain from lording your superiority over us oh great Kalameet, god-queen of the dragons.” I snarked acidically and Roran squeezed my thigh in disapproval, so I let my hackles fall. “Just treat us as equals and we won’t have any issues.” I grumbled before taking another of my eggs from the burrow and polishing the dirt from the amethyst egg spotted with jade. Oo~ this one takes a lot after their sire, I can tell.

“I’ll try. It’s part of my new orders to ‘learn how to not be a condescending bitch’ as Eris put it.” Kalameet snorted and looked at my eggs. “Your eggs are so beautiful. Ours are more like stone than gems or metals. Are they just as strong? Do you need to be careful with them?”

“Yes and no. Brom insisted that they’re stronger than most known materials, but a concerted effort with a heavy bludgeoning object will destroy them. So it’s advised not to drop or throw them, but they can take a good beating should they be jostled.” Roran answered for me and reminded me of how oddly durable yet fragile my eggs were. They weren’t about to be hurt from a drop to the grass, but a toss against a stone wall will kill them.

“Shame, our eggs are so strong we can just toss them anywhere, especially since only 10 percent of them will have life in them.” Kalameet muttered bitterly and I winced. I could sense life in all of my 108 eggs. To think that if I were her species of dragon, I’d be lucky to have 10-14 of them ever hatch. Heartbreaking.

“My species is the opposite then. Each of them have life, but they’ll only hatch when they find their Rider.” Which could take from mere days like with my precious steel-scaled boy now sitting in his Rider’s lap as she listened to Brom, Twilight and Eragon teach. Or it could take decades to over a century like with Saphira, Thorn and hopefully Firnen. “I don’t know how wild dragon eggs here work though.”

“The fact you consider them ‘wild’ is what disturbs me. Aren’t they just dragons who aren’t forced into a bond?” Kalameet’s words resonated with me. That’s right. I didn’t consider it before. For some reason it didn’t bother me before. Now, from whatever that sexy serpent lady did to me, my sensibilities seem to have restored a good bit.

“I’ll have to ask. I find it hard to believe that dragons didn’t have their own society before the war between them and the elks.” If they did, it’s been lost from the Dragon Riders forcibly ‘uplifting’ them from either potentially nomadic or tribal societies into a union of people who acted almost like they were god’s gift on the world just because a young elk bull and a freshly hatched dragon became best friends and unwittingly founded an order of asshats.

“I have rock tables from that time of my race’s development, but they’re so big.” Kalameet told me with an annoyed scrunch of her snout. “I wasn’t just boasting when I said my people get big. We get big. Like, stupid huge compared to every other race out there. Besides the Leviathans. Those assholes are like us, only psionic and underwater.” Kalameet grumbled with a look around. “Thinking back on it, being that big is a huge disadvantage, which is why our descendants have to wear magic collars to be able to live in society.”

“Sounds rough. Thankfully dragons, or at least Bonded Dragons, have the ability to swap between their larger forms and their anthro forms here. I’d never be able to take Shimmer anywhere if not for that.” Roran patted my back between my wings in jest and I sniffed with my snout raised to the air in a display of pride over my bulk. I am a big and beautiful dragon and I have nothing to be ashamed of!

🥚

The next day, the Varden arrived at last. The journey from Tronjheim with such a massive group along with being slowed to a jog at best took them two weeks. I hugged Katrina the instant I saw her, then gave her the bad news that after the journey here, she’d have to journey back and then beyond Tronjheim right away. “Why must travel dominate our lives? I thought it was Eragon who suffered wanderlust.” Katrina sighed in annoyance mixed with acceptance.

“Sorry. My body demanded I get bred the moment we arrived and I got knocked up.” I mewled in apology while Katrina, with my permission, ran her hands over the tops of the beautiful eggs.

“No need to apologize. It happens to a female now and then, that their body’s demand for offspring sends them into a downward spiral of lust and need. There’s a reason why Diane has three sisters. Her mother and father loved each other immensely. It was hard to see Miss Quartz fall into despair when Mister Rock died.” Katrina sadly reflected while she continued to rub the warm eggs in their safe and warm crates which were open to the air so they could get sun. though her eyes did drift to one egg more than most.

This filled me with hope and I moved to the opaque quartz-like egg. “Is it so? Will you?” Katrina looked at me oddly and I purred before I lifted the egg from the crate and held him out to my Rider’s beloved. “He likes you, but needs more time to get to know you. Keep him around and he may hatch.”

“W-what?” Katrina accepted my son into her arms and she cradled him to her bosom with her chin hooked over his shell. “Mm, he’s so warm. Is it okay if I snuggle with the little guy? I could use a nap.” At my happy gestures towards the castle, Katrina went inside and I hoped he did choose her. Right now he was hopeful and she had his interest. If he decided she was the one, then I wouldn’t have to worry too much for Roran’s health when Katrina eventually died of old age, since that wouldn’t be an issue.

“Slow down, Shimmer. I had thought we’d be spending months seeking even one more Rider, instead you find one almost right away and now Katrina might be one?” Brom huffed with a shake of his head while Eragon and Twilight continued with the hippogriff and my newborn son. “It’s been so long I forgot that a Bonded mother could more easily help her children find their Rider.”

“I had thought so. My Eldunari was guiding me along with my deductive reasoning. I just knew. I hope I can find my children’s partners. Gosh, having so many at once, this is seriously putting a strain on things. I almost wish I had a normal pregnancy rather than being such an egg-laying legend.” I just knew this made me a legendary figure and I was oddly proud of it. I would gladly do it again, but I need to be careful. Overpopulation could quickly become an issue.

“Yes, which is why you going with your eggs is simply logical beyond the obvious fact that you’re their mother. What perplexes me...is that your firstborn was to a hippogriff.” Brom looked at the maid and I scrunched snout in confusion. “They aren’t part of the Pact, yet your son bonded with her anyway.” Oh...oh! That is big! Very big!

“Um...should we bring the troops to see my eggs?” Because if I somehow circumvented the Pact, then I’m not from the original Pact! Whoever you are, Dongoruas, you are a clever bitch! “If that’s the case, then my children are born under a new Pact. Maybe wargs or other races could become Riders now.”

“Cousin, what did you do?” Kalameet sighed as she rubbed one of my eggs, which zapped her from the wards, but she didn’t seem bothered. “These newborns are forced to link their minds, hearts and souls to someone to hatch. That feels unfair to them.”

“Many would agree, but the Pact was difficult to forge. Perhaps whatever entity reincarnated you, Shimmer, simply used the original Pact as a basis for how your children would function under it. Either way, I’m afraid that would be a tactical nightmare. It would be one thing to...actually. Hm. If they are willing to make the full journey to Du Weldenvarden, they can be tested. They’ll need to be taken there for their safety. I cannot train so many at once. A group, yes, an army? That needs several mentors, not just one.” Brom reasonably replied and I was about to cheer.

Then Kalameet squealed in surprise when a cobalt egg popped open and the little hatchling leapt at her cleavage, causing me to whine! No~! One of my babies just bonded to fucking Kalameet~!

🥚

“He’s so damn adorable!” I hate you. “Yes, rest in my cleavage all you want little guy.” I fucking hate you. “Hey, hey! He’s snoring! Look at him~!” Oh my gods, shut up Kalameet!

I can’t believe this! I know she was his choice, but why did he so quickly decide on her? Was it her tits? No, no. Nothing that shallow is reason enough for a dragon to hatch for them. Is he going to be a jerk and her abrasive nature resonated with him? I hope not. All I know is, my cobalt cutie was happily dozing away in Kalameet’s Gedwey Ignasia sporting cleavage.

This wasn’t helping me with my current task of helping the volunteers, of which there were many, to see if any of them resonated with any of my remaining 105 eggs. There were a lot of potential Riders who did interest my children, but none of them popped open like my cobalt and steel sons.

I did notice, however, to my amusement, that many of the eggs preferred a Rider of the opposite sex. I wonder why~. That isn’t to say there weren’t female eggs that were interested in a female potential Rider, or a male wasn’t interested in a potential male Rider. The ratio was still higher for opposites attracting each other. “So, that’s everyone?”

“Everyone willing to try and willing to travel so far for so long, ma’am.” One of the warg guards who helped keep things organized informed me. He wasn’t one of the ones willing to be tested or travel that much, so he was able to be impartial about everything.

“Oh, wait I’m stuck here.” Kalameet suddenly blurted out. “Ugh, they must have known this would happen! I hate my extended family! I find this little one adorable!” Kalameet nuzzled my tiny son’s head and he chirped with a nuzzle back before resting his head on her bosom again. He was genuinely using her cleavage as a bed and it was precious. “Uh-oh...uh...I better go.”

Before I could ask, Kalameet scurried off, but her long flicking tail trailed a familiar scent and I smirked. It seems being around eggs and getting one of my sons as her other half sparked her biological clock, however it works for her species. “Well, then we’re done, good sir. Get everyone to help consolidate the eggs to fewer crates and start preparing the caravan.” Only 15 of the volunteers were potential Riders and they were an uneven mix of wargs, griffins, hippogriffs, zebras and ponies.

“Oddly fortuitous it is that I have found myself following your company for longer.” Zecora said from next to me while cradling a carnelian-hued egg to her bosom. “I had planned to come with you regardless, but this turn of events has left me rather surprised.”

“I’m glad you’re coming with us, Zecora. I hope my daughter does decide to hatch for you.” She was one of only five who chose a same-sex potential partner. Which was interesting.

“I do as well. I strongly desire to have someone so close to my heart.” Zecora declared with a warm smile at her potential partner and I only faintly considered myself lucky. Lucky that Angela wasn’t joining us. I got shivers even thinking of that odd mare being a constant presence.