Domination

Chapter 1 - A Dwarven Devil

Note: This is an Eragon Fan-Fiction. All content except for most of the characters in this belong rightfully to Christopher Paolini and I retain no copyright over anything over than many of the names in the book.

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Velinna’s tail flicked through the air behind me as I sat astride her saddle.

Her sky blue scales glinted in the sunlight and the smoke that spurted from her nostrils was black with rage.

I craned my neck to look behind me. A black dragon weaved through the air behind us, dodging the constant streams of fire that Velinna sprayed in their direction.

Gorm, her dwarven rider – who was of the Durgrimst Knurlcarathn clan, and distant grandson of Grimstborith Nado – sat astride her, waving his black sword around in menacing manoeuvres. His knotted grey beard rustled as he roared in annoyance.

“Brisingr!” I yell, as I point my open palm over my shoulder, not bothering to turn and see if it hit target or not as I can hear the black dragon’s menacing growls of pain.

I urge Velinna forward, hoping that the filthy black dragon will tire before Velinna. Gorm shoots fire and whatever else he can bring to mind at me, all matter of projectiles and damaging objects. The sandy desert floor lays leagues below us, making the mighty dragons look like flies in comparison to the enormity of the desert.

We travel in the same fashion for many leagues, both dragon’s dodging assault from one another and Gorm and myself in a battle of both physicality and of the mind. The barriers that surround my mind don’t weaken but it is still a strain to defend myself. I never once go on the offensive, lest he manages to overpower me.

Velinna! Dive!

I’m on it Amerik!

Velinna dives towards the desert floor, her snout pointing straight towards the ground. Gorm didn’t anticipate the manoeuvre and he flies straight past the spot where we were. They veer around and join us in our perilous nose dive.

Gorm and his filthy black dragon, Skarn, manage to come level with us as we plummet towards the ground. Skarn locks his grimy claws onto Velinna’s hard sky blue scales and snaps at her neck. Velinna tries to stretch out of his reach but he is locked onto her to tight. She has nothing to do but try and damage him in his soft underbelly.

Whilst the two dragons are snapping at each other as we plummet to the ground I am barely holding onto the saddle as the wind threatens to pull me off. I had not enough time to tighten my leather leg straps so my legs were quickly slipping further and further out of the leather loops.

Gorm shoots fire at me and it singes the top of my short cut hair. I withdraw my sky blue sword, Adurna, from her scabbard and hold it in the air in front of my chest, ready for anything that Gorm dares throw at me.

The dessert floor comes ever closer and I urge Velinna to veer out of the dive.

Veer up, Velinna!

I have a plan little one, trust me!

I found no human, elf or dwarf more trustworthy than Velinna. From the moment that I had touched her sparklingly smooth egg in my home town of Teirm we had been bonded for life, and that had been over four decades ago.

“Adurna!” I yell, and a stream of water spurts from a canteen at my waist and weaves through the air to freeze on Gorm’s face. Gorm almost instantly made the water disappear and I seemed to have made him angrier instead of actually discouraging him from attacking him.

The ground was getting closer and closer still and I resisted the urge to tell Velinna to veer out. I had to place my trust, and my life, in her claws. The two dragons were still locked in a death grip and I braced myself as we nearly reached the ground. 

I felt a draft of wind as Velinna pushed the grimy black dragon away and veered out of the way. Her winds scraped the gritty sand and we tumbled over and over the desert floor. Her wings folded and creased and made sounds that no Dragon Rider should have to hear.

Velinna! Are you okay?

I am certainly not well, but I am alive.

I sighed with relief and slipped out of the saddle. Adurna had slipped out of my hand in our descent and she was lodged in the sand a dozen metres away. I limped over to my sword and lifted her from the sand; she was still glinting with wonderful blue light.

Across the sand, quite a distance away, were the grimy black dragon and Gorm. My elven eyesight allowed me to see exactly what was happening, even if to the mortal eye they were mere specks on the horizon.

Gorm was hunched over his dragon’s large, lifeless form. They had obviously not anticipated that Velinna would pull away at the last moment and they had plummeted at maximum velocity into the ground.

The dragon was most certainly dead and Gorm was furious, he yelled and screamed and roared over his dragon’s body for minutes. I watched on in pain. Gorm might have been my enemy, but no one deserves to lose the dragon that they have had as a companion for most of their life.

Gorm turned my way; he looked right into my eyes and lifted his sword from the sand. With inhumane speed, he lunged off of the ground and sprinted towards me, within a few seconds our swords had collided in a flurry of sparks.

I stepped back and then forwards, jabbing my sword at his chest. He swiped it away easily and I withdrew to a defensive position. We circled each other silently, our eyes doing all of the talking for us.

He swipes at my feet and I jump over the blade and lunge at his head. He manages to deflect it into his calf and the sword leaves a long gash. He doesn’t even notice the wound that I inflicted upon him.

He lunges at my head just as I had him and I block the blade. We push the blades against each other for a few long seconds until I move my blade in a circle and fling Gorm’s sword out of his hands into the sand near Velinna. She places her massive foot on top of it and growls at Gorm.

My sword is instantly at his neck and I kick him to his knees.

“It doesn’t have to end this way, Gorm. You can still pledge allegiance to Melahadu. All of your crimes will be virtually non-existent. It will be as if you had never joined Dauth Domia.” I plead.

He snorts. “I have nothing to live for, Amerik! My dragon is dead! And more importantly, that bastard Melahadu doesn’t deserve to sit upon the throne of Alagaesia. The throne rightfully belongs to the Dragon Riders!” He argues.

“We are the keepers of peace and prosperity in Alagaesia! It would upset the natural balance of the world if one of us were to take control.” I yell in his face.

“You always say that, Amerik. Dragon Riders need more respect, and we can’t be respected properly when we are simple keepers of peace in the land. We need to be leading the mortal peoples!”

“This is why you deserve to die, Gorm. The world needs to be rid of you. You taint it with your foul thoughts and evil actions!”

Gorm spat blackish blood at my feet. “So be it.”

I had heard enough. The point of the sword drove straight into his neck and within a moment he was dead. The world had been rid of a foul person. He was the first of many foul and evil people to die. His death was the first action that brought about the beginnings of peace and prosperity to Alagaesia.