New Legacy

Ch.4

So unfair~! “No, no! Back straight, shoulders loose! You’ll get nowhere trying to use a spear like that!” Brom shouted at me and I flinched away from him in fear.

“S-sorry!” I yelped and tried again to follow the stances Brom had shown me.

Next to me was my sister, Saphira, going through the motions of a twin-dagger form Brom had shown her just before he’d shown me how to properly thrust with a spear. Only, unlike me, she was executing it flawlessly~! No fair~! I’m a historian, not a warrior!

“Don’t be so harsh on them, Brom. They weren’t born in these bodies.” Eragon said from nearby, where he had moved on from practicing with a wooden sword to an actual one. Even though Brom couldn’t spar with him since he had to divide his attention between us all, Eragon was getting very adept at the motions and Brom had more praise than chastisement for my sister’s Rider lately when it came to his motions.

Meanwhile, I’m stuck here without my beloved Roran, who is still working on the palisade around Carvahall for most of the day. At least according to everyone else but me, all that hard work was good muscle memory for swinging a mace and moving larger, more awkward objects. That second fact would make his adaptation to using a polearm like I suggested easier.

“Hmph, I’m feeling more like a spartan without their shield.” I huffed as memories of the Greeks came to me.

“Shields are for guards, skirmishers or pikemen, you’re neither. Keep practicing until the scales on your hands split!” Brom ordered me and I grit my teeth at the indignity of being ordered around by someone other than Roran. I really wanted to take this weighted staff and shove it up where the sun doesn’t shine in this old nag!

It didn’t help that my mind was going over war tactics, weapon theory, blueprints and fortification designs which bled over to Roran. Poor dear was even trying to implement some of the more advanced stuff, but is being shoved off by the adults. Well, except Horst who somehow figured out a blunderbuss from Roran rambling about handheld cannons. They don’t have black powder for the primitive firearm, but Horst invented it.

*Boom!*

I jumped in shock when Roran’s senses overrode mine from the sudden sensory spike and subsequent ringing in Roran’s ears. Judging by the scene, he and Horst had just fired a spray of stone pebbles. They both looked at the huge hole in Horst’s house as Ms. Belle worked on powders nearby, who was now hiding under her table and looking at the hole near her.

“Ow!” I rubbed my head and glared at Brom, the old unicorn sternly leering at me and shaking the stave he’d bopped me on the head with.

“Do not be so easily distracted! Were I your enemy, you’d be dead! Get back to it!” Brom ordered me and I snarled before I obeyed. If I get good enough, maybe I can kick his ass!

🥚

The air was warmer, the snow was light. Winter was ending and with it our grace period to prepare.

Carvahall now had a full palisade around it. The driven tree logs gave no gaps aside from the road south, the road east to the farms and the game trails west leading into the Spine that only existed as a formality. Each gap had improvised ‘gates’ made from carts with their wheels deeply entrenched in ash-cement tracks, so the only way through them was to smash them or have someone inside pull them away.

If their enemies were Yaks, they’d have some trouble getting into the fortified village. As it was, it was just a formality for the pegasus-dominated army of the Broddring Empire. At least if you didn’t account for Horst’s Blunderbusses with gunpowder packets provided by Rarity Belle, the local seamstress. She was actually a master of mineral manipulation, which her Talent truly was. I wondered why ponies had those odd colorful brands on their thighs.

That said, she knew how to use her magic to extract sulphur from the local surface mine’s galena deposit and nitre from the local river water. All it took was blending these two minerals with ground-up charcoal to get rudimentary gunpowder. That this was all suggested by Roran, who between his work cutting down trees and piling them into the ground, practically begged Horst or anyone to listen to his almost insane-seeming ideas.

This meant that they even knew how to make wood-ash cement, which would help revolutionize construction. How to make a trebuchet, which was almost a lost art in this world. Roran even wrote down recipes and designs in his resting periods, only knowing how to write because I knew how to write. He was practically turning into a fantasy version of Leonardo Da Vinci!

“I don’t know if this is good or bad.” Brom said with a look at the village as he finished my saddle.

“It’s good. Don’t be an idiot. The fact that it’s 8000 AC and you’re all still mucking around in the dirt instead of living in space is disgusting!” I snarled as I examined the leather saddle that would keep my scales from damaging Roran’s precious flesh.

“Space?” Eragon asked before Roran showed him a sketch of a solar system. “What is that?”

“Our world is likely just a small speck in the grand scheme of reality. A whole universe out there stretches beyond us, forever into infinity. Yet we’re still here, fighting over petty things.” Roran grumbled, having clearly adopted my own bitterness for how history continuously repeats itself to a point of hindering the future.

“I didn’t know that.” Brom said with a look at me in shock as Saphira started laughing.

“Sister is a terrifying source of knowledge. The less you know, the better for your sanity.” Saphira playfully warned him and I glared at her for possibly convincing the old stallion to ignore my knowledge.

“Would you like to know how many joules of energy are in a mud brick?” I threatened her with my knowledge of physics, which is not really all that much. Which was just as well, considering aside from the basics, magic threw a lot of physics out the window.

“Before you four get to bickering over nothing. Again. I would like to remind you that I need you ladies in your birth forms so that I can get these on you. You won’t be needing to be in your alternate forms aside for possibly bedding in this leg of our journey.” Brom reminded us and I joined Saphira in sighing. Being anthro was like putting on an old set of clothes for me, while Saphira appreciated the convenience of being able to be inside and away from the cold when we weren’t practicing or exercising.

“Fair enough.” I sighed and promptly began to disrobe, enjoying how flustered Eragon and Roran got from watching Saphira and I undress. Considering their feelings for us are strictly platonic, it still felt good to know they had physical attraction to our bodies. Saphira too revelled in this. She enjoyed teasing Eragon and told me once he was so cute when flustered.

Once we were done getting naked, we shivered from the cold before we instinctively transformed back into our birth bodies. Thank gosh our default forms are more resistant to temperature! “Alright ladies, I need you to stay still and let me adjust these for you.” Brom threw Saphira’s saddle over her back, specifically at the base of her neck over her shoulders and above her wings. “Pardon if they chafe a bit, they’re your Rider’s first attempt at making a saddle.”

“I had no clue how difficult it was to work leather beyond strips and buttons.” Eragon commented as the saddle he made was strapped to Saphira, which he closely watched being put on her and Brom even quietly explained the process.

“Then it is good that you have learned something from this. It is quite comfortable.” Saphira said with a shimmy of her shoulders after Brom had finished tightening the straps crossing over her chest and around her forelegs. He then approached to saddle me. Dear gosh, I never in my wildest fantasies considered I’d be wearing a saddle. Then again, I never imagined being the dragon, I had always fantasized about being the princess.

That said, having a saddle on me felt both unusual and yet right. I felt a sudden surge of pride and joy that soon my Rider would take to the sky with me. “It feels nice, Roran. What did you do? You wouldn’t let me peek on you when you were working on this.” I questioned curiously and he scratched his mane with a sheepish smile.

“I may have taken your advice and ensured the saddle had secure, but quick-release loops to carry more than just saddlebags. This loop here will be for a polearm, whenever I get my hands on one, this one for a bow or crossbow, then this one for a back-up mace or hammer.” Roran pointed out for me as I examined the ironically horse-like saddle he’d made me, unlike Eragon’s more frumpy one. Then again, Eragon can fly unaided, so having a quick-dismount saddle like that one was better for him.

“You aren’t considering making a musket or other gunpowder weapon?” I asked in a mixture of curiosity and disappointment, which he responded to by sending me his feelings of apology.

“No, I’m afraid not. Since such things aren’t widely available, equipping myself with something I would be unable to stock up on would be folly. It’s risky enough leaving Horst and Miss Belle the designs and chemical compositions. I gave them to ponies I trust, but should the Empire take them, things will get much worse before they will get better.” Roran sagely replied and I nodded in understanding before I looked at Brom with a leer before he could speak.

“Change is good, Brom Holcombsson. Yes, it is volatile, it is dangerous, but without change, nothing will ever improve. Things will always be stuck in an endless cycle of misery and melancholy.” I lectured the ancient unicorn, who huffed and deigned not to comment, likely knowing I had a point, but unwilling to concede it.

“Well said, Shimmer.” Roran praised me and I preened at my Rider’s pride in my worldly views. “Now then, I must be saying goodbye. What of you, Eragon?” Roran asked with melancholy, the pain he felt at leaving Katrina stabbed me in the heart too. I wish I could promise he would return, but with my intervention in his fate, I cannot do such a thing.

“I have already told our friends that I have chosen to leave now. Best I disappear before the King’s soldiers come to enslave me. I have also told them that you are coming with me with Garrow’s blessing.” Eragon visibly wilted, his ears and wings drooping. “Marble even kissed me goodbye…”

“I am sorry, Little One, but your spirit needs to soar before you allow your heart to be bound to one stuck on the ground.” Saphira nuzzled her Rider and he pet her snout in appreciation.

“That is for the best. Riders can find love, but it is as painful as it is wonderful. That said, with the situation as it stands, you would endanger those you fancy too much to be fair to them. I cannot promise you will return here, or that this place will still exist as you’ve grown to know it, but you can always hope and you can still find happiness in the strangest places.” Brom sagely said to the boys, who nodded as they absorbed the old stlalion’s wisdom.

I nudged Roran’s back to urge him to go and tell Katrina the bad news. Once he was away, Saphira and I morphed back to our anthro forms and hurried to get dressed. We wouldn’t be able to fly yet, not until we were away from the village and past Therinsford. Then Brom gave us stone amulets engraved in runes of what had to be the Ancient Language. “Are these the charms you mentioned would make us unseen at more than 50 paces?” Saphira questioned skeptically as she traced the runes with her claws.

“Yes. Be grateful that my Talent is going undetected. There’s a reason I’m still alive after all these years.” Brom picked up our saddles and stuffed them into a satchel far too small for them. I didn’t know the Ancient Magic could be used that way, but then again unicorns have their own inherent magic.

I guess even if they can’t really compare to anyone who endeavors to be a mage, even untrained unicorns have some cantrips that give them an edge up. “Don’t anticipate me carrying these for too long. Miss Belle’s magic with fabrics may be veritably fantastic, but this satchel demands a lot of mana to maintain its expanded storage.” Ah, so that’s the rub.

“I don’t expect you to carry my weight for long, Brom. I would carry it now if not for our need for secrecy.” Saphira declared and Brom nodded in approval. Moments later, I wavered and leaned against my sister, the despair and sadness filling me from Roran was overwhelming. Katrina was begging him to take her with him, that she’d prefer to live in the wilds with him than to stay under the oppressive thumb of her father.

“Shimmer, give me strength. I can’t…” Roran pleaded to me and I looked at Brom, Eragon and Saphira with anguish.

“She’s begging to come. She’d rather live in the wild than stay here.” I informed them and Brom grumbled, pacing a bit.

“True Love. Damn. Grr...fine! She can come, but she’s Roran’s responsibility!” At Brom’s reluctant approval, I relayed this to Roran with the express directive that she only bring the essentials, that we’ll be traveling a good bit.

Roran’s relief and joy filled me so much I choked and sobbed, wishing I could actually cry, but damn it, my body in either form doesn’t have tear ducts. “Sister, get ahold of yourself. This is no way for a dragon to behave.” Saphira chided me and I punched her in the shoulder hard enough to make her hiss and back away in surprise.

“Do not try to tell me how I should act because of what I am! You should behave how you want, not however it is you think you should. If I want to be a sentimental and emotional woman, I damn well will!” I shouted at her and Brom bonked us both on the head with his staff, causing us both to yelp and rub our heads while glaring at him.

“Hmph! Dragons, ponies, wargs or elks. All females from all civilized races are the same.” Brom huffed in annoyance and then fished out another stone from his pocket with a knife in the other, immediately getting to carving a rune. “Now I need to make yet another rune that needs regular charging.”

I was going to comment on his rude words, but gasped and urged the group to move. “Problem! Sloan found out what is going on and is threatening Roran in broad daylight with one of his cleavers!” I was about to sprint towards the village, but instead Saphira grabbed me around the waist and I snarled, kicking, spitting and fighting to get free while Eragon flew Brom into town. “Let go of me! Roran is-!”

“In danger? I know! Now you know how I felt in the midst of winter when you pinned me and stopped me from flying to Eragon’s aid. What is different this time? That Roran’s alone? That it is that little horror of a horse who everyone despises doing the threatening?” Saphira demanded and I stopped resisting, growling at my own hypocrisy. “Let us be away, I do not think it would be wise to stick around should leaving Carvahall result in the butchering of the butcher.”

“Grr, fine.” I didn’t like it. I really would like to at least break that bronco’s legs. He can still chop meat from a stool without working legs.

Saphira and I jogged along the road south, our minds seeing and hearing the events going on in the village through our Riders. Sloan had actually tried attacking Roran, but my beloved Rider’s ability to dodge made the short and unloved jackass look like more the fool than he already was.

By the time that Eragon and Brom had arrived, several of the other village stallions had dogpiled on Sloan and disarmed him of his cleaver. Most everyone in Carvahall knew that Roran was leaving with Eragon and Brom, so when Katrina explained the reason for Sloan’s attempted assault on the young stallion was because she had chosen to leave with them, the villagers all declared shame and disgust with Sloan, promising despite his pleas to his daughter for her to stay, that they would restrain him here and prevent him from leaving in pursuit.

To put it bluntly, Horst, the de-facto village leader in terms of how much everyone respected him alongside Miss Belle and Diane, declared that the only reason they weren’t going to lynch Sloan for this final straw against the people of the village was because they weren’t about to execute someone, not when no harm had been done other than hurt feelings. They would however have him detained.

With this, Sloan disowned his daughter in front of everyone. In response, she spat at his hooves and promptly left for the southern exit of the village with Roran, Eragon and Brom in tow. This strong will of hers was partly why I approved of her after my initial envy and subsequent jealousy. Roran loved the copper-maned, gray-coated, brown-eyed earth pony mare for her fire. Not to mention she was quite beautiful and...was still bustier than me.

I cupped my modest C-cups and glared over at Saphira’s tunic-covered DD-cups with envy. Why~?! Why am I average at best in the chest department in this life too~?!

My bust-envy had to wait, however, because Katrina was reasonably shocked when the guys approached us. “You’re lucky I didn’t run into town to butcher the butcher.” I snarled at Roran, my tall and burly Rider smiling at the protective and relieved emotions I was projecting. “So, Katrina. It’s good to finally meet the mare who has Roran’s heart. He’s an incredible catch.” I winked at the mare, who seemed to have come out of the catatonia meeting Saphira and I had caused.

“Alright, it seems there’s more going on here than we were all told. So why are you leaving Roran?” Katrina demanded and I snickered while Roran gladly filled her in.