Author's note:
I didn't reread Eragon before writing my story and I don't remember all the details. I really liked the Eragon universe but I'm not a hardcore fan knowing every detail so there will certainly be some minor inconsistencies with the story.
Take the example of Egan: he learned to fly at the age of about one year but from memory, Saphira flies much earlier in the original story. For this kind of inconsequential details, I would arrange the events as it suits me for the smooth running of the story. In addition, I could easily justify such a difference between them so if I make a major mistake, I would be happy to discover it via your comments and try to repair my mistake as best I can, however if it is an insignificant detail in my eyes, I 'd ignore your review. With that, we can go back to follow the story with our two heroes.
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Egan now spends his time flying as soon as his wings allow him to and very often I take these moments to relax and experience his flights mentally by his side.
I'm not sure of the time that passes because I stopped counting the days a long time ago but it must surely be a little over a year since Egan was born in view of the passing seasons. Although I'm surprised how long it took Egan to learn to fly, I'm not disappointed. He had to hunt on his own to survive and flee for his life from predators almost from birth, while other dragons his age sleep for weeks before being active. Moreover Egan did not have dragons to guide him and teach him anything.
Egan could not have his rest phase until much later. I don't know how a dragon's instinct works or when it is usually possible for a dragon to fly but the life Egan lived from birth is definitely out of the ordinary and his growth phase has been delayed since he was only able to take advantage of his quasi-hibernation phase later.
Moreover, his period where he spent his time sleeping was lengthened because of the digestion of the surplus energy that I transmitted to him each day. In short nothing was normal for him so it's not very strange that he learned to fly later when I think about it.
For my part, I got a little tired of my magical and spiritual training and I am currently in a phase where I favor physical training until muscular and respiratory exhaustion. It was only in these moments of physical weakness that I resumed my magic or spirit exercises.
I quickly got stronger physically and now I go further and further and faster.
Two more seasons passed during which we continued our training, our explorations, our flight sessions, our duels and everything that made our routine.
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I broke my record again. I am at the farthest point of the village that I could reach on foot. I can now run all day if I'm not constantly sprinting. I had to start climbing the small mountains to increase the difficulty of the exercise and keep getting stronger.
Egan concentrates on his wings by multiplying the flight sessions. I was able to ride on his back with a leather strap I made a few weeks after his first flight but flying with me on his back is really difficult for him so our flight sessions were very short. He works hard to gain stamina even if talking about work is exaggerated, he loves to fly! He enjoys it a lot and his mood has always been excellent lately.
Thanks to his relentless efforts he quickly gains in endurance and he can fly for several hours if he alternates with gliding phases to recover. He is currently in one of his flight sessions while I am on my record location of the furthest location from the village. I savor my progress taking in the view of the scenery but suddenly my feel-good bubble bursts as Egan's roar echoes in my ears.
I didn't have time to wonder what was going on before I found myself in Egan's shoes.
Birds, lots of furry birds as long as I am tall with a wingspan 4 times my height. Egan had one of those birds in his mouth that had been stupid enough to approach the dragon but there were many others around Egan. Vision blurred as a severe headache hit us. I immediately understood what was happening.
'Egan I'm sure those birds are the ones that can attack with their minds, you're particularly vulnerable to those attacks with our mind link wide open. Close everything! Mentally withdraw into yourself. Close your mind to everything, even me. Just use your physical skills and fly to me I'll join you as fast as I can'
I was violently kicked out of Egan's mind. Panic ran through my veins, it had been a long time since I had felt this emotion. These birds are extremely dangerous, we haven't really trained our minds and therefore we are completely vulnerable to them. I didn't know there were these birds here or I would have warned Egan.
Even though he has closed his mind, I still feel our connection, so I know which way he is.
I start sprinting with all my might in his direction, it couldn't have come at a worse time, I physically strained a lot today and I'm already tired from being really far from Egan.
After a few minutes my breath is already difficult and my muscles burn me because of the frenetic rhythm that I impose on them. My panic is growing, at this speed I'm sure I won't be able to reach him before tomorrow and Egan won't win alone against these predators.
A crazy idea crossed my mind: During my forced rest, I already redirected my energy to parts of my body to help them heal, maybe it will also work to recover from fatigue. When I did I was totally calm, totally focused and under Egan's watch but desperate cases, desperate measures.
I took a few minutes to send as much energy as possible through my legs and into my respiratory system without it becoming painful at the risk of hurting myself and getting stuck. I prayed that my idea wouldn't kill me and when a few moments later my breath calmed down and the burning in my muscles disappeared, I resumed my run, running at my maximum speed at the risk of breaking my neck with every step I take in the forest.
Keeping control of my energy has come naturally as I've been training, but doing it during a frantic race in a state of panic is a whole different challenge. I lost control several times and had to stop each time to recover.
Realizing that worrying only makes things worse, I focused on my mind and tried to block out all my emotions. Pushing the exercise further than Egan who simply closed his mind to others. I only thought about my race and the distribution of my energy. All emotion left me. When I reached this state I resumed my running, I forced myself to remain in extreme concentration by not allowing myself any distractions.
I found myself in an absolutely unnatural state, letting myself feel absolutely no emotion, just focused on what I need to do and 100% focused on that task, blocking out all other information. In this state, I did not feel the passage of time or pay attention to my surroundings during this race. Anything could have happened that I wouldn't have reacted to. An adult dragon the size of a mountain could have passed before my eyes that one could not have found the slightest fluctuation in my gaze.
I could compare this state to that of a magically constrained slave who blindly and fanatically obeyed the order he received without any other extraneous thought.
During this period, I hardly remember what happened. This time it wasn't because of my memory, no it's more like time didn't really have a hold on me anymore in this state I was aware of everything but time became a value abstract and for me, the journey seems to have lasted barely a few minutes. I was at the top of a cliff when I saw Egan completely exhausted and forced to land on the ground, even though it looked more like a hard fall than a landing.
In that same state I saw these birds flying around Egan and saw a few take their chances and stab and claw at Egan's motionless body. My emotional void suddenly burst as easily and violently as a soap bubble and my world turned red!