Andlátkyn; Vandr Sanses unin Alagaësia

The Price of Souls

((Decided to be extra nice and give you a chapter early! Warning though, it is a bit cringy in my opinion...))

One day, Eragon returned to the hut from his hour of meditation and spoke. "Master, I have done as you told me to. I listened until I heard no more." Blue faced him curiously as he stopped at the door, ready to take the human's place as had been the schedule. Oromis considered the words, then said. "Tell me."

For more than an hour, Eragon went on and on about the lives and attributes of every plant and animal within the glade of the stump, smiling like one would when talking about their own family. He told the tales of the creatures, the omnipresence of the plants, the thoughts or animals and impulses of insects.
Until Oromis stopped him with a hand.
"I am convinced; you have heard all there was to hear. But did you understand it all?"
"No, Master."

"That is as it should be. Comprehension will come with age…. Well done, Eragon-finiarel. Well done indeed. If you were my student in Ilirea, before Galbatorix rose to power, you would have just graduated from your apprenticeship and would be considered a full member of our order and accorded the same rights and privileges as even the oldest Riders."
Oromis slowly heaved himself to his feet. "Uniter, go to the glade and meditate as planned. Eragon, lend me your shoulder and help me outside. My limbs betray my will."

Hesitating, Blue watched as Eragon helped Oromis out of the hut, feeling a strange sense of sadness. Then he sighed, putting up his supplies and merely teleporting to the clearing. He stared at the stump blankly.
Why am I hurt like this? Blue pondered.
Eragon has achieved something amazing! So… why am I sad..?

He sat down on the aged wood, drumming his phalanges on the dead material as he pondered.
…. I'm afraid of being left behind. He slowly realized.
They wouldn't do that. I'm included with them. We're included. Aren't we? He patted his sternum thoughtfully, considering the dragonchild in his Soul.
He only felt a spike of fear.
…
I need to catch up. I'm somehow behind, I need to get ahead again. He concluded, shaking his skull to dismiss his pounding Soulbeat.
Working out the kinks in his neck vertebrae, Blue slowly forced himself to relax, his bones cracking as he let his half-form out, tail slapping the wood as it elongated.
Curling up on the stump, Blue kneaded the air as his mind spread out through the glade, emptying of thought as he both focused and unfocused, drifting in the currents as his sockets slid shut, leaving him with nothing but the energy and auras and minds of the world.

When he finally returned to himself, Blue curled up in a tight ball, utterly disappointed in himself for not doing any better than before.
He'd experienced no changes for several weeks and now Eragon had gotten past him, and was likely to leave him behind.
The possibility terrified him.
He didn't want to be left here.
He didn't want to be lesser.
Blue struggled to hold back tears.

A croak from inches away from his skull startled Blue from his mind. He flinched, turning around to see.. a Froggit. A grey, shimmering shadow of a Froggit, but one of the frog monsters nonetheless. He could see the vivid aura of Horror's magic enshrouding it as it croaked at him.
It turned and hopped off the stump, waving a foreleg for Blue to follow.

Forgetting his previous state, Blue sat up in curiosity, staring as it hopped away.
.."Wait, come back." He called out, still in a half dragonic form.
It glanced back at him, waving impatiently.
Blue scrambled to his feet, stumbling as he made to catch up. The toad proceeded to hop off, moving faster and faster as he got closer, it's form blurring and turning to smoke in it's speed. He briefly wished he'd learned frogspeak when he had the chance, but brushed the thought aside as he ran.

He only slowed in his pursuit of the froggit when he realized he heard voices.
Dozens of voices.
Maybe even a hundred or so.
They all drifted in the wind, like the murmurs of echo flowers in a acoustic cavern. They whispered as though caught on the rivulets of moving water. They faded in and out like they were spoken down a long, long tube.
Yet all the same he could hear them.