FIRST CHAPTER!! YEAH!!! I am so pumped to see where this series leads, and i really appreciate all the feedback I can get for this and other chapters. I really want to make this OUR story, so dont refrain from voicing your opinion. And also, let me know how OC this chapter is, because that is something I truly intended to refrain from.

So, um, iet me present chapter 1!! The song is Elements by A Fine Frenzy

*insert witty disclaimer*


As the roll of distant thunder echoed around in the confines of her skull, the torture continued. The battering, ruthless, soulless, pityless torture that dragged its ragged claws against the raw flesh of her mind. Its path of distruction exposed the thick, dark blood of her memories and experiences, and she felt that the Shade's spectors tore through them at a frightening pace, twisting even pleasurable times in her life into dispicable nightmares. Her family turned into strangers, her friends into enemies, and her victories into miserable losses.

Her singular question was a simple one, or at least it should have been. Where did I go wrong? Almost as if in response, the spirits thrust a series of memories to the forefront of her mind, blocking out all other thought, and the pain they released flooded through her in drowning torrents.

Foalin being struck down from his horse, a noble warrior brought low so easily...

Her mother shunning her from her homeland... her people...

Sending away the egg... helpless to change the hopeless circumstances...failed...

Crashing through the Star Saphire... seeing Eragon's back rent in two... fountains of blood...

Losing the Urgals... cant run fast enough... breaking a promise...

Rejecting my friend... my best friend... seeing his tears...

His father... oathbreaker... traitor... he will not become his father...

Alone... he is alone... a lamb amongst wolves... I must find him...

He spares a man... but condemns another... his wisdom has grown...

Breathe... impossible to breathe... the Shade's grip tightens... together... we slay him...

My master... his master... our hope... slain... we weep for the light that has been extinguished... the world is darker...

I reach for him... he takes my hand... I press myself into him... our tears mix... the world shifts... the peices come together...

A thunderclap resounded high above the encampment. The booming, tremendous noise was so enexpected, she bolted upright out of her cot, snatched her dagger from the table, and was in a fighting stance in a matter of mere seconds. Her eyes darted left and right, scanning the small hovel for the slightest sign of danger. She released a pent up breath when she sensed none, and, with an effort, rose from her crouch. Her hands remained tightly clenched around the heavy dagger, her back as tence as a drawn bow, and her eyes wild and dusted with a bruised lavender from exaustion.

She shook her head slowly and closed her eyes. If every Shadeslayer must endure this, then I can see why they are so reveared. This is absurd.

The table shook as the dagger clattered onto it and, with a sound like cracking wood, she pryed open the scantly hinged door to her residence. She was met by a tremendous blast of moist air that whipped her sweat-dampened hair around her in an ebony whirlpool. The only light came from the moon which was hidden behind a thick blanket of impending stormclouds, which were so foreboding, she was forced to look away from their oppressive forms. The clouds continued far into the horizon, out over the city of Feinster, all the way to... the sea...

She had heard the effect the sea had on her people, the tales of her ancestors who had fallen captive to the charms that bodies of water weaved upon their minds, and how the very roots of their race began across the vast expanses of salt water.

The barely audible sound of her foot steps became more rapid and fleeting as they carried her away from the stifling scent of gore and death that pervaided the very air, and towards the savory scent of salt water and the roar of water pounding against the cliff faces. The sound was fresh and clear and innocent and so delightfully tempting.

Her pace slowed, and then eventually halted, as she approached the edge of what seemed to be a stone cliff edge, and she began to curse her lack of shoes or cloak, because the first drops of bone chilling rain had begun to beat down upon the earth, and the cold rock beneath her was abbraisive and harsh on the soles of her feet. But all of her complaints were dwarfed in importance to the spektacle unfolding around her.

White misted brushed delicately along the skin of her face as water was forced up and over the top of the stone precipise, and the air around her seemed to hum and tingle her nerve endings. She felt as if a veil was lifted from around her, and thoughts that had haunted her mind for decades didnt seem to trouble her so terribly, while some complexities of her past that had previously escaped her, now made better sense.

I have been a fool. she thought shamefully. And blind...

You show up like a hurricane, all hungry-eyed and weather-stained
The clock forgets to tick and I the same

A single person effects me like this? Why should I except something like this to happen? Someone so much like you left me broken before...

I died the day you disappeared, so why would you be welcome here?
Ride the wind that brought you back, away...

No, you are a weakness, a liability, something to be avoided so that you will not be taken away once you are cherished.

No you can't come in
No you can't come in

Best to ignore you, spite you, so that I save myself from further pain and regret.

I cannot stop my rebel hands from pulling out the pots and pans
I left you in the cold until you shook

An untested swaddler, a child by every regard, who had grown old before his time...

You're gentle now, but I recall
Both tender fire and bitter squall,
A history so deep it hurts to look...

I pity you, you beautiful, stupid boy, for the lot in life you have been cast. To kill ruthlessly, and to also be a kind and smart leader. I wish... I wish I could save you from the world. Take you away from all the death and lies and hurt that has become your life. You and I could ride this wind away, rescue ourselves from this wretched place.

If the sea should swallow up my house
I will turn my rooftop inside out and the wind will be wailing,
But I will be sailing faster...

She let her voice ring, high and determined, speaking the most truthful words she had ever heard a being utter. And she felt the world shift. She had been lying to herself. All lies. She had tortured him, herself, denying them both what they needed most in this dying world. Each other.

"Oh, the elements I do not fear, but I fall apart, when you appear! Because you are the greatest... the greatest disaster of my life!" and she let a tear join the torrential downpoar of rain.


Wow, ok now that THATS done, how about some suggestions for a couple of new chapters??!! I think I'll take suggestions for pretty much anything, as long as it's relatively coherent. OK, strike that, ANY suggestion is welcome, so please....

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!