Luke Skywalker woke to a dark night sky, and the crackling sound of fire beside him. He frowned, realizing this was not where he had fallen asleep. He could sense the presence of another life form sitting patiently nearby. In one quick motion, he leaped to his feet, twisting so the hilt of his lightsaber was in his hand, without activating it.
The life form he had sensed was human, in a sense. He was too, well, pretty, to be a regular shmo. The person looked to be about 16 or 17.
Luke looked at him. "Who are you? You are certainly no one I have ever seen. Are you an assassin, sent by the Empire?"
"As far as I know, the Empire isn't looking for you; so why would they send an assassin after you? And as for your question as to who I am, I will not tell you, until you tell me who you are," the person replied.
"My name is Luke Skywalker, and I am a high ranking member of the Rebel Alliance, which is a group of multiple races that have allied themselves to bring about the end of the Galactic Empire."
"Well, first of all, Luke, the Empire isn't Galactic, whatever that means. It's actually called the Broddring Kingdom, not the Galactic Empire. And second of all, to answer your original question, my name is Eragon."
Luke returned his still deactivated lightsaber to his belt. Sitting down by the fire he asked, "Can you tell me where I am, Eragon?"
"Somewhere between the enormous forest of Du Weldenvarden and Surda. If my calculations are correct, we should be almost out of the Hadarac Desert, unless, of course, you're going the other direction."
"Those names mean nothing to me. What system am I on?"
"System?" asked a quizzical Eragon.
"You know, planet."
"Has the moon addled your brain? The only planet someone has ever been on, and ever will be on, is here: Alagaesia."
"Alagaesia? I have never heard of that system."
"You haven't? Really? Where have you been the past 10 millennia?" asked Eragon.
"For the last 23 years I have been to multiple planets, including Tatooine, Yavin IV, and even Dagobah."
"Well, I don't know if you're lying, or just plain crazy, but you're here, now. In the real world. But, may I ask where you're going?"
"I don't know! I've never been here."
Eragon shifted uncomfortably. "You can follow me, if you like."
Luke shrugged. "Well, I have no where else to go, so I might as well."
Grimacing, Eragon said, "There's one problem. I had hoped to run, but you won't be able to keep up with me." Eragon sat back, an expression on his face that indicated he was trying to think of a solution.
"I can run, too, you know," said Luke.
"I know. Everyone can run, but not everybody can run as fast."
"Ok, I challenge you to a race."
Eragon snorted. "Riiight. Okay, why not?"
"How about first one to that dune and back?"
"Which dune? There's so many," scoffed Eragon.
Luke rolled his eyes. "Fine. How about first one to that dead tree and back?"
"All right, then." Eragon stood up, getting into position. Luke quickly followed suit.
"On the count of three, then?" asked Luke. Eragon bobbed his head in affirmative. "Ok. One… Two… Three!" They burst into an all-out run. Luke, seeing that Eragon was, indeed, the faster, called upon the Force to reinforce his limbs, granting him the speed he needed. He soon overtook Eragon.
"What the—Hey!" Eragon yelled.
Luke reached the finish point before Eragon could even get to the tree. Eragon turned and ran back.
"I have never seen anyone move so fast…." Eragon said, dumbfounded. A thoughtful expression (yeah, right) crossed his face. "Are you—Are you an elf in disguise that has been following me?"
"A what?"
"I guess not. Forget it. Well, I see you can run fast enough to keep up. That's a relief," said Eragon.
"So, when do we—" said Luke, stopping mid-sentence. He sensed something. Jumping up, he drew his lightsaber. He looked around. Eragon was looking at him strangely. Then Eragon seemed to notice his lightsaber.
"What's that?" he asked, interestingly not seeming surprised.
"This," said Luke, looking down at it, "is my lightsaber."
"Your life saver?"
"Lightsaber," corrected Luke.
"I've never seen anything like it… May I?" he asked, holding out his hand.
"Yeah… Just—Just don't touch the blade, okay?" responded Luke, handing the lightsaber to Eragon.
Eragon seemed to marvel over the lightsaber hilt's graceful form. "This… Reminds me of Arya, in a strange way." He looked at Luke. "How do you use it?"
Luke extended his hand, using the Force to pull the saber back to him. "What the—?" exclaimed Eragon.
"I'm a Jedi. It's what we do." Ignoring Eragon's inquisitive look, he continued, "Now, I will show you what the lightsaber does. In no way is it like a vibro-blade, which most commoners just call swords. See this rock?" he said, pointing to a nearby boulder. Eragon nodded. "Now, observe." Luke proceeded to do a downward thrust right toward the boulder. The saber passed through, cleaving the boulder in two.
"Pssh, I can do that," said Eragon, drawing his own sword. He walked up to a different boulder (for there five boulders in the area) and did a likewise downward thrust, followed by a horizontal slice, slashing the boulder into four smaller pieces.
"Ah, but it required effort on your part, did it not?" asked Luke. Eragon nodded again. "Slicing with a lightsaber requires only so much effort as moving the lightsaber through the air with some…exceptions, of course."
"Such as?"
"Well, Sith swords for one. Lightsabers just can't cut through those. Period."
Eragon seemed to ponder this for a moment. "What about brightsteel?" he finally asked.
"What-steel?" interrogated Luke.
"I'm reluctant to try it, though, so let's not."
Luke stiffened. The thing—no, things—he sensed were still close by. Judging by the dark ripples in the Force, he could tell something malicious was afoot.
"There's something out there," declared Luke.
Eragon nodded. "Whatever it is, it isn't a n animal. Its thoughts are carefully shielded from me."
"You can read people's thoughts?" asked Luke, not believing him. Yes, some Jedi could, too, to a certain degree, but…
"Yes. It is part of being a Rider."
"A rider. A rider ofwhat? Swoops?"
"What in Alagaesia is a swoop?" asked Eragon.
"Oh, right, I forgot. I'm in an alternate reality now."
Eragon stared at him with his eyebrows raised.
"But, I've forgotten something again. The creature," Luke reminded Eragon.
"Right. We seem to be easily distracted…" said Eragon. "Like I was saying, though, I am a Rider. A Dragon Rider."
Then the creatures ran into the circle of light created by the campfire. They resembled humans, except they were easily eight feet tall, had gray skin, and had twisting horns coming out of the sides of their heads. Luke counted five. They bellowed in rage, or so Luke thought.
"Firesword! You're a long ways away from Surda!" the tallest growled in its guttural voice.
"So are you, Nar Garzhvog," said Eragon.
"Eragon!' Luke whispered franticly to Eragon. "Should I kill them?"
"No!" Eragon whispered back. "They are allies."
The tall one grunted. "Lady Nightstalker sent us to find you. New enemies, it seems. Fierce creatures. Not smart like you or me. Animals. Brutes. I've lost many rams. They are large. Very large. Big teeth. Big claws."
"And you've never seen them before?" asked Eragon.
"No, Firesword!" Nar Garzhvog paused as his sweeping gaze rested on Luke. "Who—Who is this stranger, Firesword? Do you wish for us to take care of him for you?"
Eragon seemed to consider the benefits of the monsters attacking Luke, then he shook his head. "No. This is Luke." Eragon looked at him. "Luke, these Urgals won't attack you. But only if you help with the monsters attacking the Varden."
"Now you're forcing me to help you? And if I don't help, you'll kill me?"
"I won't kill you; the Urgals will."
"By your command," said Luke.
Eragon nodded. "Pretty much."
"I don't like being forced into things, Eragon. Know that," said Luke, activating his lightsaber.
"Kill him," said Eragon.
The monsters—Luke guessed those were the Urgals—charged, weapons raised, emitting a fierce war cry.
Luke cocked his head. He didn't want to kill them. Realizing it was either stop them or die, he quickly extended his arm pushing them with the Force.
Eragon gaped at him. "The amount of energy that must have taken… You are no normal human, I see."
"No, really?" Luke replied, sarcastically. "You betrayed me. I trusted you."
Eragon looked at him, fear in his eyes.
Turning, he sprinted off into the darkness, leaving Luke behind.