Chapter 1
Angela's story: Dragons and elements
2 years after Nasuada was crowned as queen of Alagaesia. Murtagh, Arya and Nasuada are waiting in Nasuada's room for Angela because they need to discuss about someone whose powers could bring Alagaesia in danger again…
'Why did you puther in the other room?' Asked Arya to Murtagh. ' because I thought it was safer for her and for us.' He said. ' Why would it be safer for her and for us, what's wrong anyway? 'Asked Nasuada but at the same moment Angela came in and said: ' What's so important that you disturbed my research about frogs? I was so close!' 'Could you tell us about the Benders?' Asked Murtagh and Angela looked surprised.' Yes I can.' she said. Everyone waited for the story but all they heard was silence. 'Well would you like to tell it us now?' Asked Arya with some impatience tone in her voice. ' Ah, now you're asking the right question, I will tell you.'
' This story goes back to ancient Alagaesia, when there were only Dragons, Dwarfs and the Benders. First of all the Benders were not Benders at all, they were a sort like human. Their real name is lost in time but anyway, they were peaceful people. But the Dragons and Dwarfs fought always about land and food. The benders suffered always of this war because their land was ruined by it and they couldn't do a thing because they hated weapons and refused to use it. So one day when the Dragons And Dwarfs were standing against each other a brave Bender came to them and begged for peace or otherwise his small city was going to get crushed by the battle. After that vow the Dragons saw they were wrong and showed mercy and they gave the Benders a gift for compensation: the powers to use fire and wind. The Dwarfs, who were scared that the Dragons were in favour by the Benders, gave them also a gift: the power to use earth. Now the Benders could defend their land if necessary. But a Bender can only use one element. To know which element you had, they looked at your nature. When times came by some people who had the nature of fire, mutated and the element lightning was 'born'. Later some of the Benders could use water, but I don't know how they did it because it was not mutated from the elements they had. But then something terribly happened. After ages the Dragons and Dwarfs stopped with fighting and then the Elves came. They conquered the land of the Benders and because the Benders refused to fight and instead wanted to talk about it, they were slaughtered. A few stayed alive and hid in the mountains and when the human came they hid under the human because they looked exactly like them. And so ends a story about second strongest nation in history.' Said Angela with a sigh.
' I can't understand why they refused to use weapons and their bending to fight, after all they had seen the war between the Dragons and the Dwarfs.' Said Arya. ' well I think they could fight, but because of the war between the Dragons and the Dwarfs they hated to use brutal force. after all the Benders had seen both sides suffering and didn't want that to happen to their people .' answered Angela. ' and the Elves had the advantage of knowledge about how to use their nature.'' I thought only Benders had a nature.' said Nasuada to Angela, who frowned and said: ' of course not! Everyone has nature. You can see it like a triangle. At the bottom of the triangle there stands the 'normal people'. Farmers, queens and so on. They are the largest group. They got a low amount of nature that's why they can't use magic. Then in the middle you got the magicians, elves and riders. Their nature is bigger than the nature of the 'normal people'. But if they want to use their nature they must know the ancient language because this makes the nature stronger. By riders their nature becomes bigger because of their bonds with Dragons and you can simply see which nature the rider has, you only have to look at his dragon.' What do you mean, you can simply see which nature a rider has by the look of their Dragon?' Asked Murtagh curiously.' Well, Dragons hatch by people with the same nature and abilities as they have. For example, Thorn is red, so your nature is fire. If Thorn had been black you had also fire and Arya has Earth, which is naturally for an Elf. For Dragons with Earth nature their colour is green or brown. And last but not least Eragon is water natured because Dragons with water nature have of course a blue colour, like Saphira.' ' Gleadr was gold, so Oromis nature was lightning?' said Arya hesitant.' Right!' said Angela with a smile. ' Dragons with lightning as nature have the colour yellow, gold or sometimes red and Dragons with wind nature have the colour white or grey. But let me finish the triangle. At the top of the triangle are the Benders, their nature are the strongest of all, it's like pure fire or earth or another element. But they're also the weakest because it's hard to control the power, you must train a lot and then they're able to control the power and are able to reveal their true form.' 'What do you mean by true form?' asked Nasuada, who had an uncomfortable feeling because she stood at the bottom of the triangle. ' the true form is that they can turn their whole body into their element.' Said Angela with an even bigger smile on her face. 'How do you know so much about these Benders? I've never read something about them in the old books.' Said Arya with a frown on her face. ' Well that's another story but I like to know how you know about the Benders.'' Well Maud said you knew more about Benders than she did.' Replied Arya. " that doesn't answer my question.' Said Angela and she looked at Murtagh and said with a mocking tone in her voice:' I have a feeling that it has something to do with you, isn't it Murtagh?' " You're right.' He replied and walked to a small door and opened it. and in the other room stood a little girl with big grey eyes that looked like silver and blond hair. ' did you hear everything?' asked Murtagh to her and she nodded yes.' No way…' stuttered Angela and gasped at the small girl who hid behind Murtagh. ' Yes, you're right. She is a Bender.'