Destiny (Volume I: Shur'tugalar)

Chapter Two Part XIV (ED)

As Niom swam back to shore, the waves started to pick up. It got harder and harder for him to make any progress. The viewers looked on as they saw Niom start to be dragged out to sea.

"The undertow grabbed him," Niaomi quietly narrated, "And then, he went under."

A huge wave reared above Niom. He shouted before it crashed down on him. On shore, his sister started screaming. A tall man came running into view from one end of the beach, bending down to take her in his arms. Eragon was somewhat surprised to see that the man was a younger version of Ajihad.

"My father asked me what had happened," Nasuada told them as she dried her eyes with a handkerchief. "I was frantic, barely able to tell him about Niom being out at sea."

In the image, the younger Nasuada waved her arms, pointing out at the ocean. Ajihad looked out, scanning the waves for any sign of his son. But there was none.

The image slowly faded and in its place was Niom. He was struggling to the surface, breaching it only to be slammed back under again. This continued for some time, but Eragon noticed that his strength was failing fast.

"Father told us that he thought he was going to die." Nia's eyes were slightly unfocused in her remembrance. "He was starting to get weaker and weaker, losing the strength to kick to the surface, until..."

As Niom began sinking again, a large gray shape came swimming beside him. It had a long, rounded muzzle, with two fins on its sides and a larger one on top. It also had a fin that split into two parts at the base of its tail, which moved up and down to propel it through the water.

"What kind of creature is that?" whispered Eragon.

"A dolphin," Arya said, speaking for the first time since the reminiscence had begun. "In my language, we call it a dėlpó. They are sea creatures, but breathe air and give birth to live young."

"A mammal," Eragon recalled from his teachings.

"And a very smart one at that," Niaomi added, smiling slightly. "This one saved my father's life."

The dolphin nudged Niom, and he opened his eyes. Softly, the animal slowly pushed the boy to the surface. He gasped for air and clung to the dolphin before another wave took him down.

Emitting clicks and squeaks, the dolphin began to swim forwards. Niom held onto its top fin, and the dolphin breached the surface often so that he could breathe. A hole on top of its head opened up every other time it surfaced, and Eragon saw a stream of water vapor expel from the hole before it closed over.

"Dolphins breathe through the holes on top of their heads, called blowholes," Nicholas explained. "They can hold their breath much longer than we can, up to ten minutes."

As the dolphin traveled, the waves became less choppy, and the water grew clearer. When it breached the surface again, the sky was split in two. Behind them, it was stormy with streaks of lightning running through it. But in the front, it was a cloudless bright blue sky.

"Niom at first thought he had died and was traveling into the next world," Rose told them, her eyes as clear as the sky in the mirror. "But he said he knew that couldn't be right, as he felt too sore to be dead."

The five briefly smiled at the memory before Nia continued, "He was not dead but rather entering through the magical barrier that separated the rest of the world from Alalëa."

"The ancestral home of the elves," Arya whispered. Eragon looked at her, and was shocked to see tears in her eyes; when she noticed him looking, she quickly blinked them away.

The image in the mirror zoomed out. Niom and the dolphin were swimming towards a beautiful island. A golden beach encircled Alalëa's curved southern edge, and to the west rose mountains in the distance. Forests spanned from the rocky eastern seaboard, slowly morphing into a vast plain which then became hillsides. The water was now so clear, Eragon could see the sea floor though it was far below the surface.

That floor grew closer as Niom approached a bay. To the right was a large cliff face that reminded him of the Crags of Tel'naeír (though these were dotted with ominous caverns), and the dolphin pulled the young man away from them towards the western side of sandy beach. It finally stopped when the water grew too shallow for it to move forwards, and Niom released his hold on the animal. Chirping, the dolphin nudged him one last time before swimming away.

"Father always described his first view of Alalëa as amazing," said Niaomi. "It's a beautiful place, the kind of island you would expect to find miracles and magic on. However, he never expected one would happen to him right when he stepped onto the shore. Or, more appropriately, tripped onto it."

Niom was walking out of the water, and as Nia finished speaking, he did in fact stumble and fall. Sitting up, he spat the sand out of his mouth and turned onto his side, rubbing his foot with a groan. As he did, he found that the scarf was there wound around his ankle, its silver-stitched markings flashing in the sun. Niom took it off and held it to his chest, bending over for a moment before tying the scarf around his wrist.

He stood up and walked back to the waves, searching for whatever object had tripped him. There, nestled in the sand, was a largish rock. Niom reached out to pick it up out of the sand, grunting a little at its unexpected weight. Sitting back down, he brushed off the rock, peering at it closely as he turned it around.

Eragon gasped. That's no rock... he said to Saphira.

She blinked once and finished his thought. It's a dragon egg.