Eragon
The Depths of Sorrow
Disclaimer: I do not own Eragon or God of War.
Author note: After beating God of War, an idea came to mind for a short story about Eragon.
Eragon stood on the bluff overlooking the ruin of Carvahall, the thunderous sound of the waterfall beside him. Misery fell over him in a great wave and tears rolled down his cheeks. The fall of The Empire had cost him something he could not live without. It cost him Saphira. The battle was near its end when she had been captured and taken within the dungeons of Urû'baen. Once they had breached the walls, people told of what had happened. Galbatorix had slain her himself by tearing out her heart in a public spectacle and her body was burned until only ash remained.
Rumor however told of another story that she was alive and had been taken out of the city by a secret passage. Eragon looked for years all over Alagaësia without success. He searched every city, village and valley. All the time he could not contact her. And then at last it had settled upon him that she was truly gone. The feelings he had suppressed for so long had all came upon him at once and he left every one behind. For months he wandered the Hadarac Desert alone and in madness until at last he realized a way they could be together again, in death he would be set free of his madness and be reunited with her once more.
He set off at once from the desert to Carvahall with that thought in mind. He would die in the place where it had all began. He traveled to the plains where he was sidetracked by a band of marauding thieves and murderers that had been set free during the attack on Urû'baen. He followed them in secret for several days before he found the ruin they left in their wake.
Homesteads that had been built to supply the new kingdom with food had been desolated. The people slaughtered and food stolen. Men and women and children all bore the force of the thieves. Their mutilated bodies had been destroyed and eaten by the wolves which the marauders rode. With that act upon helpless people Eragon's sorrow turned to rage and his sword was drawn.
For two days he ran after them and then at last he caught up. He fell upon them like water on fire. He slew them all in a bloodbath that left the very earth in ruin. The men, women, and children of the band were not able to escape his wrath. The anger that he had felt drove him to destroy everything in sight. With a single word he lit the sky ablaze with a light seen from even Urû'baen.
Eragon continued his journey through the plain with the blood of his foes on his hands. The scene haunted his dreams. He had become a monster. In his anger he had become the very thing he sought to destroy. He often woke drenched in sweat and sword drawn during the night when none were around from that point on.
Eragon took a breath long and deep. None of it mattered anymore. He was to die this day and at last he felt it was time. He stepped to the edge and looked down upon the valley below. He drew breath again. "Saphira I have failed you," he said with a tremble in his voice. "I do not deserve to live for what I've done."
And Eragon cast himself from the place where it had all begun. After years of suffering, he would finally have his peace. But even as he fell the memories that haunted him would not cease but intensified to the point that they became unbearable. Even in death he was not free. He wept truly for the first time since the battle. The faces, the faces of those who he had slaughtered were burned into his memory. Their blood was on his hands and no matter how much he washed, it seemed never to come off, he felt it their always.
He saw the jagged rocks below seem to grow into tall spikes ready to spear him. The sound of the falls was defining but suddenly everything fell silent, and his mind was quiet. He felt as if he were being slowed by something beyond his knowledge. And then he felt it, a gust of wind struck him like a hammer and sent him wheeling into the river just past the rocks. The cold coursed his body and he was pulled under. He swam desperately for the surface but the current was too strong for even him in his weakened state. He began to see stars and then a shadow passed over the water and a voice rang out clearly in his mind as everything turned dark. "Eragon!"