The New Red Rider (Inheritance Cycle fanfiction)

Ch.1 The Egg

I wanna thank KaylaSeraYorth for her help with this <3

Heather crept through the woods, the warm autumn morning sunlight on her back as she tugged the black hood of her shawl off her head, allowing her blonde strip to shine against her dark hair. The blonde strip ran through her bloodline; as long as the Dragon Rider of the family had children. The last Hargreave Rider was her father, and he left when she was a child, with his dragon, her mother and her brother. And no one had seen or heard from him since—hence why Heather lived with her aunt, uncle and triplet cousins.

Dry leaves and sticks crunched as she walked through the soft moss of the forest. She had brought a dagger with her into the woods—her uncle's finest, and he'd kill her if she lost it. Not that he'd notice until he needed it. She took the dagger into her hand, feeling its smooth wooden handle against her skin as she held the strap of her satchel around her torso.

It's around here, I just know it is, she thought to herself. She saw a doe with her head low, inspecting something.

When Heather stepped around a tree to get a better look, the doe ran, leaving Heather alone with a small crater in the centre of the small clearing, smoke rising from it in faint wisps. She inched forward, scorched dirt filling her nostrils. She peered over the rim of the crater, seeing what was inside. There inside the crater was a brightly polished red stone, about a foot long, webbed with silver veins.

"No way!" Heather gasped in a whisper. "A dragon egg!" She moved back, barely keeping the dagger in her hand. She could hear some noise come from the campsite; the others were packing up.

She glanced toward the wagons, then back to the egg. She questioned why the egg was here and not at Mount Arngor, where the Dragon Rider academy was. It had to be here for a reason. She thought to herself.

Magic.

Magic had to have brought it here.

Heather scanned the surrounding trees; could she risk leaving the egg here? With wolves and the odd mountain lion lurking nearby, would it survive?

She could almost feel the egg pulling her towards it, begging her to take it.

She looked around one last time and took the egg, tucking it into her satchel to avoid greedy eyes. She rose to her feet and bolted off towards the arched, tarp-covered wagons. They left two of the fifteen wagons; her family's and another family's wagon.

Heater's aunt, Hillary-Cassidy, stood with her arms crossed at the end on their wagon, a grey headscarf wrapped around her head as looked out for Heather. Heather pulled up the hood of her cloak, her aunt's words ringing in her head.

Keep it hidden, and no one will know you are cursed.

"Sorry, Aunt Cass!" Heather called as she jogged up to her aunt, pulling up her ruby red skirt—which she hated wearing.

Hillary-Cassidy—or Cass, as most people knew her by—smiled at her, lifting her own black skirt so she could climb the steps into the wagon. "Just get inside so we don't fall behind."

Heather jumped up into the wagon, smiling at her triplet cousins; Peter, Quinn and Rose, sitting on the benches at the back of the wagon. She glanced up at her uncle Corse at the front of the wagon, smoking his pipe in front of the barrels of food, boxes of clothes, and the mattresses and blankets at the front.

"Did you catch anything?" Peter asked as Heather dusted off her skirt and removed it to reveal her trousers and boots underneath.

"No, not today, Peter," Heather replied, taking off her cloak and brushing her white shirt of any bugs. She hesitantly took off her satchel and tucked it under the bench. She saw Aunt Cass give her a curious look, but she said nothing.

Cass looked around the wagon before sitting down beside Heather and Rose. "We're ready to go!" She called to Corse.

*-*-*-*

Heather looked at the vibrant flames of the campfire in front of her, watching as they flickered in the centre of the travellers' camp.

No one else was around, most were in bed, or hiding away in their tents and wagons before going to sleep. So Heather was sitting by the fire alone, watching the fire dance in front of her.

She glanced down at the satchel between her feet. It held the shape of the dragon egg inside; the leather hugging the hard shell of the egg.

Heather looked around the campsite one more time, checking no one was around, before opening the claps of the bag and picking up the scarlet red egg.

Its polished shell reflected the light of the fire perfectly as Heather held it between her hands. She followed each of the white, webbed veins on the shell with her finger, caressing the surface as she ran over the pale stripes.

Heather became so entranced by the beauty of the egg, she didn't hear her aunt leave the wagon.

"I had a feeling you found something special," Cass mused, coming closer to Heather.

Heather jumped in fright. "You did?"

She nodded, siting down beside Heather on the log. "I just wasn't too sure what it was." She looked at the scarlet egg. "And the next Hargreave dragon is supposed to be a red one."

Heather glanced at the egg. "You mean it was meant to reach me?" She looked at the egg, unconvinced.

Cass nodded. "Absolutely. You are Hiro's second born."

"And only second born's are Riders, I know... But—"

"I'm sure that whatever reason he had for leaving you with me, it had to have been for your own good." Cass placed her arm around Heather, pulling her in close.

"Are you sure? I've never heard of any female Hargreave Riders."

"Because, they had the most secrets, and they were the most powerful." She looked at the fire. "And every one of them was named Heather, with a red dragon named Torcher."

"You're certain?" Heather asked. "I'm only fifteen."

"And wasn't Eragon Shadeslayer that old when he first found his dragon's egg?"

Heather sighed. "What am I going to do? I don't know anything about dragons, especially with what Riders we have being so secretive."

"I can teach you, but you must take care of that egg, and make sure no one finds out about it or finds it. They may think it's an expensive stone and try to sell it to one of the Traders in the next town."

Heather nodded. "I will. To keep him safe—" she looked at the egg in her hands, "—I will."