Orthan looked at the destruction that was once his village. He needed to escape. He heard a leaf crackle to his left. Orthan looked up as someone started to talk. "Magician, join Galbatorix willingly, or we will force you to." The shade said.

"I will never join Galbatorix. I will kill him." Orthan said coldly. He tried to find a way out of this situation. Damn, I can't beat a shade, he thought. "I think we should have a magic battle. After all, that is why you want me right. If I'm not good enough for you, let me go." He knew there was almost no chance that this would work, but it was the only thing that he could think of. If he lost, they would most likely take him to a prison somewhere. Then, he could escape.

The shade raised his hand. Orthan showed no sign of resistance. "Brsingr!" Orthan's cloths were set aflame. He tried not to scream in pain, but couldn't stop the groan of agony that came out. He slowly let the darkness overcome him. As the shade watched, the boy fell to his knees unconscious.

Arya's POV

Arya's head snapped towards the prison door. She saw the shade carrying a human boy on his shoulder. The boy was red everywhere, with blisters all over. The shade dropped him onto the floor, causing him to groan in pain. Then the shade looked at her. "The offer still stands, elf. Join Galbatorix or tell us where the elves are, or you will die."

"I will never join Galbatorix. I will kill him." Arya said coldly. Those were two things she would never do.

The shade feigned surprise. "That was exactly what the boy said" he said evilly. Arya's eyes widened and turned to look at the boy. This human had defied a shade. Said shade watched as she examined the human. He sneered in disgust.

After the shade left, Arya looked at the child more closely. He had a well muscled body, dark brown hair, and scars everywhere. She decided not to wake him up and wait instead. She glanced at him one last time before she closed her own eyes and slept.

Orthan's POV

Orthan opened his eyes and groaned. He felt horrible. Catching on fire was definitely not the smartest thing to do. He looked at his surrounding and tried to figure out where he was. His eyes darkened as recognition hit him. He was in a prison cell. "Damn shade." He whispered to himself, not knowing that someone was watching him. That is until he saw a shadow move. He turned his head to the left, much like he had done with the shade. What he saw surprised him so much that he almost fell on his face.

An elf! How the hell had the shade gotten an elf? Though she looked like she had taken a beating, she was still the most beautiful person he had ever seen, but he had learned long ago to hide your feelings and not to trust people that you don't know.

He looked at her with no emotion on his face and he blocked his mind with his strongest barrier. "Who are you." They both asked at the same time. Their eyes narrowed in caution as they watch each other. Orthan decided to answer first. "I'm Orthan, and you are?" was his reply. "I am Arya." She answered. Orthan nodded his head painfully and looked at her wounds; it looked like there were thousands of little scars and scabs across her skin. "How did you get those? It looks like a whip mark. I could heal them if you want." He said. It could have been personal to her, but he was too curious. Had she gotten them in here? Her eyes widened a fraction and she stared at him.

Did she think I would have just left her like that? If so, she must have been in here for a while now, he thought. She looked down at the floor, whispering something to herself. Finally, she nodded her head. He was surprised that she accepted his offer and she didn't even know him.

Orthan slowly walked up to her and placed his hand on her arm. Her smooth skin was comforting and warm to the touch. "Waise Heill" he said softly. He then healed her other arm. He hesitated to heal the rest of her body though, he did not know if she would like it if he saw her bare back. His hand started towards her leather shirts strap, and she made no move to stop him.

When Orthan reached the strap, he unlaced it and watched as Arya grabbed the front part of her shirt and held it to her chest to stop it from falling on the ground. He looked back at her back and put his hand on where the scabs were and healed them just like he did with her arms. Once there were only a few wounds left, Orthan stopped healing and laced her shirt back up. Then he plopped down on the bench near the wall, exhausted. He could hardly move, it felt like he had been running for miles.

He didn't notice that Arya looked relieved. She looked at him, "Thank you" she said it so softly that Orthan almost didn't hear her. Orthan was too tired to reply, but he did manage to nod his head. "I think I might be able to heal your wounds now that you've healed me.

This time, it was Orthan's turn to be surprised. He started at her, not quite believing what he had heard. He was speechless, so he just nodded his head in acceptance. She walked towards him, and started with his arms, just like he did. Then she moved to his shirt and started to take it off. It came off easily and she put it onto the bench next to where he sat. She placed her hand on his back and healed all of the wounds there. Orthan relaxed a little; for he felt better then he had in weeks. "Thank you" he said, almost as softly as Arya had.

"Now is the time for questions. You defied the shade, why?" she asked him. "Well that's easy. First of all, he burned my village, Second of all, he asked me to join Galbatorix. That's never going to happen. Third of all, I will never bow down to a shade." He said the last sentence coldly. "So, what did you do to get in here?" he asked. "I refused to tell him where the elves were, I had a dragon egg stolen from the king," at this Orthan perked up a little. "Now I have no idea where the egg is, hopefully safe though." She answered.

How did she get a dragon egg from the king? That would probably be almost impossible. Imagine if it hatched for a rider that was against the king. He voiced his thoughts out loud. "How did you steel a dragon egg from the king? It seems like that would be impossible, and what if it hatched for someone?" He asked her in one big breath.

"The elves sent a dragon rider to take the egg before the fall of the riders. When we got the egg, two companions and I brought it between the dwarves and the elves to see if it would hatch, which it didn't. If it has finally hatched for someone, then we can only hope that he or she is not evil." Arya said.

Orthan smirked, "I was going to wait until something important happens to escape, and I'd say this was important. I think I could be ready to escape in a week or so. Also, I know this is kind of a big favor, considering that we don't even know each other, but will you teach me magic before we escape? I know hardly any magic at all other than a few words, and I'm okay at using a sword but I could definitely use improvement." He asked hopefully, but really not expecting the answer to be yes. Then of course, she said yes.

Orthan smiled happily when he heard her answer. "Great, when can we start?" he asked excitedly. "Well we can start with jierda. This word in the ancient language means break, okay. We can start by trying to break the bench and then I'll put it back together so that we can do it again. My only condition" she said impatiently "is that you have to listen to what I say. You can try it now." She said this as if speaking to a child. Orthan nodded his head.

Orthan looked at the bench and pushed on the barrier that was hiding the magic. In less than a second, he felt the magic flood his head and said the word that Arya had taught him. "Jierda." He said firmly. The bench broke a little bit. It splintered to about half way through. "That's good for a first try. Most people only manage to get a few splinters out of it at first." She fixed the bench and told him to try it again. He once again got his magic ready and concentrated on the bench. "Jierda" he tried again. This time it was so close to fully broken that he was slightly disappointed. There was only about one millimeter left of the wood that wasn't broken.

They had tried it two more times before he finally managed. He smiled a little to himself. Maybe prison isn't so bad after all. He thought.

Please read and review, I know the chapter is kind of short, but I'm not very good at writing long chapters, Hope you like the story though.