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The Dovah of Alagaesia

Part 2

Aslan -was that his name still? He hadn't thought about a suitable name for the moment he would be reborn- was panicking. He was in an unfamiliar place, with trees too large to be real, mountains he'd never seen before, a river that shouldn't exist and, more importantly, he didn't understand why his body was different.

He knew all there was to know about dragons. Akatosh, his father, created Alduin at first and then all his other brothers. The more a dragon proved himself in the eyes of their father, the better chance to obtain their own name, until then they were considered 'lesser dovah' in the eyes of the others. Nameless beasts of less importance. Akatosh created them from his thoughts and they found themselves in the physical world of Nirn, where they would start their journey. He personally mentored a couple of newborns in the way of the Thu'um, they were little bigger than a horse, and would grow with age and experience. Dovah also were immortal. Well, not strictly immortal, they could be killed, and only a Dragonborn could kill them for good, but they didn't feel the passage of time. Dragons literally didn't feel it, they didn't understand the concept of their own death. That's why Dragonrend worked so well on the more vicious of them, it forced them to feel the way any mortal would, the way time makes their body grow older, more frail and less powerful.

That's why he really couldn't comprehend what was going on with himself. His father should have made him anew, in the body of a Dovah, to assume his place as the Thur of his kin, not put into an egg and with two new appendages never seen before in the body of a dragon!

And suddenly he felt it. He couldn't explain what, but he felt a presence so powerful and so familiar at the same time he began to relax. His muscles unclenched and he slowly lowered himself to the ground, his eyelids feeling heavier with each breath. The presence didn't speak at first, seemingly content to let him recover from his bout of near hysteria and when it did, he understood.

Aslan understood why he felt so comforted, why it felt so familiar, why he could relax even in this dire situation he couldn't make head or tails of.

It was his father. Akatosh.

"Are you calm, now, my child?" The voice was soothing, carrying across warmth and affection and reverberated in his head.

He bowed his head as much as he could and thought his response. "Father. Fos koros…? Where am I?"

"You are no longer in Mundus, my son. You are in another plane of Aetherius" He replied with an amused tone.

Aslan instantly shot to his feet. "Another plane? Why have we never heard of it, father? Druv los Zu'u het?"

Akatosh released a long sigh. "Mundus isn't the only world the Aedra reign over. It is true that Mundus was the first, but since then we created multiple other worlds, where our creations roam and we watch over them"

He frowned, or at least he tried before realizing he didn't have a face to so so anymore, and asked. "Fos los dii nuft het? I thought I would be in Nirn, with my brothers now."

"Even here, my son, there are dragons, and their situation is dire, to say the least, and I needed your strength to save your kin"

"Dovah? Here? But, why am I different? Are they your children also?"

"Of course there are other dragons here and of course they are your kin. They may look different, but they come from me. In a different way, maybe, as you have just experienced, but they come from me as well. And your purpose is to save them, my child. Dovah have suffered greatly in this land. Wars with a specie of mer, then wars against some of their kin, but they persevered. Until one of their own betrayed them and with their Riders-" Here Aslan let out a muffled cry of outrage. Riders?! These dragons let themselves be ridden like some beasts of burden?! How ridiculous. His former brothers let him on their backs oftentimes, but only because they recognized him as one of their own. They knew he would be their Thur in the future and they did it to let him experience the feeling of flying, even if not with wings of his own. He tried to let his father know of his feelings, but Akatosh kept going, as if his inner turmoil didn't even faze him. "-they laid waste to the land and now only two dragons remains alive, one a cripple, the other nothing but slaved to the will of his master. There are three eggs unhatched in possession of this Rider, and others that were secreted away before the end of the war, along with the Eldunari of their elders, a kind of Soul Gem you are familiar with, containing the consciousness of your kin. Your task is to destroy this foul mortal who thinks so highly of himself to dare control one of my children, along with killing most of the others. I will not tolerate his existence any further and you will be the instrument of my Will, the one to accomplish this."

Aslan would have died of sheer terror and then came back to life to crawl in some cave deep, deep, deep, in the ground at the sheer rage that entered his father's voice when he spoke of the mortal, if he were the insolent joor Akatosh was talking about. Fortunately, he wasn't and he got away with a slight shaking of his knees.

"I don't know the land, father. How can you expect me to win against this foe without the necessary knowledge? From what I could glean of your explanation, there has to be some form of magic or other for this human to have taken control of one of my brothers and I know little of it, let alone the way this people use it in this realm. Vir vis zu'u prunt?!"

Akatosh let out a low chuckle. "Because your brothers will help you and teach you for the first few years of your new life. They are listening even now and they know of your task. Learn well and destroy the enemies of your race, my son. You did me proud when you destroyed Alduin, however much it pained me to see two of my children clash against one another, I know that you will not fail me. Farewell… Al-Zind-Kah, my son" And with those words he felt his presence fade from his senses, while another feeling rose within him. His Name! Euphoria flowed through his veins. If Paarthurnax ever heard that his father personally named him he would choke on Fus.

Names were very important for Dovah. They indicated what they were, their traits, their most important characteristics and could be used to call each other through their Thu'um. Al-Zind-Kah…Destroyer-Triumph-Pride, all would fit him well.

Soon, another presence entered his mind, but this seemed to be a collective, a union between single minds to form another. What's with all this mind tricks today?! He thought, exasperated. Couldn't people speak normally instead of intruding in his thoughts?!

"Greetings, brother, my name is Umaroth and I speak for all the Eldunari free from Galbatorix's control, we were contacted by our father with the task of teaching you the way of the world and we soon shall begin instructing you… after you fill your stomach" He concluded with amusement evident in his voice.

Aslan didn't even reply to the other dragon, settling with grumbling some unsavory things at the voice and started his hunt for food.

…

After feeding himself with a plump rabbit and already feeling full, he settled once again where the remains of his egg lay. They were the same color of his scales.

"Now that you returned, we shall begin in earnest your education regarding the land you currently reside in." Started Umaroth.

So it began.

During the following weeks, when he wasn't busy eating, sleeping, getting used to speaking again -apparently Dovah didn't speak here, what kind of dragon didn't speak?! They did everything with their minds, bloody telepaths everywere, he soon learned-, practicing his Thu'um with the stamina granted by his new body, eating, sleeping, more eating, getting used to flying on his own power -which was, by the way, magnificent, he'd never felt so utterly free in his entire life, seeing the trees passing below him, the peaks of the mountains above, his prey wandering the woods and eating unaware of his looming presence just around the corner, feeling the wind against his wings…-, eating and growing and finally more eating, he learned about the history of his kin in this land, Alagaesia.

The first skirmishes with the Grey Folk and the Dwarves, the only other native species of this land. The Du Fern Skulblaka, the war against the mer and the following pact, which gave birth to the Riders. Elves, and later humans, with a bond so deep with their partner that the death of one caused the death of the other more often then not. The Fall of the Riders, when a young Galbatorix, enraged that the council that ruled over the Riders refused him a second dragon egg after his first was killed, took up arms against his kin, along with his allies, the Forsworn, he stole an hatchling and laid waste to the entire order, accumulating power as he went along the way till he remained the sole Rider in existence, to his knowledge at least.

It was a sad tale, that of his kin. From being the most powerful predators of the land, to a species in risk of extinction.

In the midst of his lessons, he kept growing, and wasn't that a surprise? Apparently dragons here kept growing as they aged, well past the size he was familiar with. One of the biggest was said to rival the size of a small mountain.

It wasn't all flowers and daisies however. His relationship with the Eldunari of the 'tamed' dragons was strained at best. He felt he could relate more to the 'wild' ones, rather than the others. Aslan couldn't understand why they would give so much power to the joore, forming a bond connected through their Dovah Sil that the death of their partner meant their own, carrying them around like some horses. He felt his upper lip curl in disgust. It was well and good that they could have such a friendship with other beings, but the nature of such a bond didn't appeal to him.

Another thing that kept confusing him was magic. Dovah had magic. They practically were magic. Their Thu'um came from their very soul and they used their innate reserves of magicka to sustain flight. How couldn't they speak? How did they express themselves? He understood better now all this mental stuff, but Speaking with their own kin using their Thu'um with each other was an experience all in itself and no mental communication could reach the level he did when communicating with his old friends.

The only thing remotely resembling the Voice was the usage of fire. They told him every dragon could spit fire when they reached six months of maturity and yet he could produce a flame hotter than any other with a Yol Toor Shul and he was barely out of his third month of life in this new land. He thought that they instinctively used their Voice and simply didn't know how to use it further… or had forgotten perhaps.

The most interesting thing they told him about was this 'Ancient Language'. The tongue the Grey Folk gave their life to bind with magic. Without it magic was wild and only the most experienced practitioners of the art could reach the desired results, but with it, one only need to speak their need and at the cost of their own energy they could speak their imagination into reality.

"Practitioners of magic have to keep in mind that they can do with magic only what they could do themselves. The cost of the magic is the same energy one uses when doing the same action manually, that's why one must be most attentive when using the Ancient Language. The Tongue does not permit to lie, so when the Words are spoken, the magic takes place, whether the caster has enough energy to sustain it or not. If one has enough energy, the spell takes form, if not the result is death." Concluded Umaroth, his usual teacher in all things magical.

Aslan mused over this in his mind. A language that cannot permit to lie? What a fascinating thing. The idea had merits, of course, but he knew all too well that humans, and mer, never forget those blasted elves, would find a way to circle around the issue and speak in half-truths and by omission. The fact that everything had a True Name in this language was curious, so much so that if one found the True Name of a person, they could control them, even order them around. It sounded so much like the Dovahzul that it was disconcerting at times. In the tongue of the Dovah, everything had a Word that corresponded to it, a Word that embraced its meaning wholly and it was only by meditating on the Word that one could use it in the Thu'um. Like Paarthurnax liked to do with most of his time.

"Can you teach me this Ancient Language Umaroth?" He asked.

The elder dragon gave a grumble of dissatisfaction at the lack of title, something which irked him to no end.

And served as a source of amusement for Aslan.

"Very well, young one. Let's begin"

oOo

A/N: The final part of this one-shot (two-shot?). I have a vague outline of events from here to go on, but I honestly have no idea how to make the interactions between Aslan, Eragon and Saphira and the Elves. Hilarity would ensue for sure because of Aslan's hatred for all things mer, but at the moment I don't know how to continue. Maybe someone can adopt the idea and keep going from this.

The last passage speaking of magic and the Ancient Language -speaking the imagination into reality- was loosely taken from 'To Train A Dragon Rider' of 'unwrittenlegacy', the second chapter to be exact.

The parts written in the language of the Dragons of Skyrim were created using the translator found at thuum. org

Translations:

Thur: Overlord

Fos koros: What happened?

Druv los Zu'u het: Why am I here?

Fos los dii nuft het: What is my purpose here?

Vir vis zu'u prunt: How can I succeed?

Dovah Sil: Dragon Soul

Dovahzul: Dragontongue

Al-Du-In: Destroyer-Devour-Master

Al-Zind-Kah: Destroyer-Triumph-Pride

The other words I assume you are familiar with. (Thu'um, Dovah, and the Words of the Shouts)

The timeline is set an indefinite amount of time before the hatching of Saphira, it could be years or months. If you noticed, it is mentioned two times that there are two dragons alive and a Rider that Galbatorix knows nothing about (Oromis, but he is aware that Brom is out there somewhere, lurking in the shadows ready to foil his plans).

I don't know how many of you played the Elder Scrolls Series, or only Skyrim (like me...) but some of you may not know what Aetherius is so here is a short explanation.

Nirn is the planet where Tamriel is located. Mundus is the term used to indicate Nirn, the Moons and the other planets orbiting around it. Around Mundus are the Planes of Oblivion, the various realms where the Daedric Princes reside. Around Oblivion is Aetherius, the realm where the Aedra reside. When Akatosh said that Mundus isn't the only world the Aedra created, he meant that in another plane of Aetherius reside the planet where Alagaesia is located, and it isn't surrounded by Oblivion this time, which means that the Princes probably aren't aware of it. Most of them anyway. I'm sure Nocturnal would find out somehow.

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