If you are reading this... Congrats! Welcome to an unplanned test to see if I can send alerts to my readers for REPLACING chapters.
Token Disclaimer: I no ownie, so shooie.
Brushing her fingertips against her lips in a kiss, she then pressed them to the picture tucked into the frame of her vanity mirror. "Still missing you," she whispered softly. With a sigh, she finished pinning her curls out of her face, except for those she purposefully left loose. Grabbing her school bag, she made sure that she had tucked her notebook full of compositions back inside after taking it out last night to do homework. Looking one last time at the picture, she opened the door without looking behind her and stepped backwards.
A scream quickly followed.
Eragon, did you see that?
Jerking his mind away from the welcoming presence of the trees, the young Rider thought back to his dragon, What?
A person just fell out of the sky, Saphira said matter-of-factly, even as she angled her wings so they could approach the spot where the dragon had seen the person fall. Finding a clearing she could land in, she came to a gentle stop and looked back at him. You should go find them.
Of course, of course, Eragon replied good-naturedly, too happy to be returning home to take her command badly. Undoing his leg straps, he released the barriers around his mind. At first, all he found were the thoughts of animals and the plants. But then…
"I'm restless and wild, I fall but I try. I need someone to understand. I'm lost in my thoughts and baby I fought for all that I've got. Can you hear me? Hear me, I'm crying out, I'm ready now…"
A dancer spun across a wooden platform, her dress of blue silk catching the light. Beside him, he heard a man whisper, "She's beautiful in her own way, darlin'. You've got something more special. You've got a heart of gold, and music of an angel in yah."
"Don't scream anymore my love cause all I want is you. I can't save your life, though nothing I bleed for is more tormenting. I'm losing my mind and you just stand there and stare as my world divides…"
…a blue dragon stood curiously in the middle of the clearing below, a man standing stock still not far away…
Eragon!
Saphira's mental voice finally yanked him out of the vortex of thought. Where did you go? she asked him curiously as his head pounded from the overload.
He shook his head and thought back, I don't know, but I never want to go there again.
"Hey down there!" a by-now familiar voice said. Scowling, Eragon turned to look at the source of the headache he now had, only to feel his breath leave him a loud whoosh.
Delicately framed with a thinness that wasn't from exercise, she had pale skin that looked like it had been touched by the sun only rarely. Intelligent green eyes with a gray shade mixing in looked almost jade in this light as they overlooked a thin nose. The fuller lower lip was quivering a little, parted from the thinner upper lip. Amazement could be read in every line of her body, though he dared not go into her mind again. Self-conscious under his intense gaze, she tugged on the hem of her evergreen-colored shirt so it came further over the strange skirt she wore, understandable since it was indecently short, though she had leggings on underneath it which kept him from wondering what kind of girl this was. Her shoes- or shoe, seeing as the other wasn't in sight- was a simple brown slipper, but it didn't look to be leather or cloth...
"Take a picture, it'll last longer!" she finally snapped at him.
She's a feisty one, Saphira commented.
More like rude, he thought back to her, then spoke allowed, "How did you get up there?"
"If I knew that, I would be down on the ground by now." She made it sound so obvious that he couldn't help bristling.
Calm, Eragon. The girl is terrified, and her words are sharp because of it. Come with me to get her down, Saphira encouraged.
Fine. But then we're pressing on to Ellesméra. Arya and Oromis are waiting, don't forget. With a scowl, he climbed into the saddle again, though not bothering with the leg straps as Saphira took to the air. Once they were level with the stuck teenage girl, he held out his hand. When she only stared at it, he snapped, "Well, grab hold."
"Are you insane? I'll fall," she protested.
I told you she was terrified, Saphira chided.
Fine! Now thoroughly irritated, Eragon reached over and grabbed the girl, yanking on her without warning. Instantly, his mind was bombarded again.
…hand clapped over his mouth, keeping him from screaming even as everything seemed to hurt…
…the pain again, though by now he had learned how to ignore it and tune out what was happening…
Gasping as he felt real pain, he found that he was now on the ground, Saphira's teeth only gently pressing into his arm. The girl stood nearby, obviously confused.
"Whatever you were just thinking about, don't," he unexpectedly growled at her. "Your mind is like a hurricane, it sucks me in whenever you start focusing on something too strongly."
Her eyes grew wider and she nodded, then her eyes started scanning the ground. She hopped over to a large tree root, keeping her bare foot of the ground, and luckily found her other shoe. Sitting down on the same root to slip on the shoe, her eyes didn't stop looking around.
"What have you lost?" he asked, even as he started to strap his legs to the saddle.
A scowl tugged at her lips as she said, "My bag. It fell with me."
Fell? Fell from where? Saphira asked him, baffled. He repeated her question to the stranger.
"Don't know. One minute, I was walking out my bedroom door, admittedly I was doing it backwards. Next, I was falling to my doom. I luckily managed to grab this tree's branch and pull myself up. However, I still haven't found my bag." Her hands were on her hips as she looked around, obviously annoyed.
"What's so important in it?"
"None of your business," she said testily, finally standing to walk around and try and find it.
He scowled at her. "Are you always this pleasant?" he demanded.
She refused to comment, focusing on clearing piles of leaves in search of her still missing bag. Saphira was refusing to take flight, obviously curious. Finally, she stumbled and went down with a loud thump. The dragon rider was out of the saddle and walking back towards her before he even thought about it. Eragon was impressed when she didn't cry out, even though he could see that she had seriously skinned her knee. She glared at the offended appendage, though she picked up a brown bag made of a strange material and swung it onto her shoulder.
We should take her with us, Saphira told him unexpectedly. There is something about her…
Oromis will be upset that we are so late.
He will forgive.
Very well.
"Come with us to the next city. Perhaps we can arrange for you to be taken home again," he said firmly. It was by no means an actual request, but a demand.
She tilted her head to the side as if she were really considering saying no. It only rubbed him the wrong way further. Finally, she shrugged and said, "Sure, why not? Though is there any way you could bandage my knee first?" She pointedly gestured towards her skinned knee, which was bleeding down her calf.
Evaluating his energy level, he nodded and said under his breath, "Though I hope we don't face much on the way…" Muttering the correct words in the ancient language, the skin on her knee instantly healed. She stared at him in amazement—obviously, this was her first encounter with magic—and then smiled at him thankfully, and he wondered if there was actually some pleasantness under that sarcastic personality.
Perhaps we should walk, Saphira suggested, She might not be settled after her apparent fall… He reluctantly nodded, and took off, expecting the girl to following. She grumbled, but did so, keeping pace with them even as her feet caught on common forest debris they walked, it was complete silence. Eragon tried to keep his mind from drifting towards hers. Even Saphira had admitted that her mind was inhospitable, even for a dragon, for longer than a few minutes.
Trying to fill in the space, Eragon decided to find out more about this girl, and asked, "So… My name is Eragon. What is yours?"
She adjusted the shoulder straps of her bag instead of immediately answering. Her expression just screamed she was purposefully being difficult. He waited impatiently, till she finally said, "Amy."
Relieved at finally getting an answer, even though it was a nickname rather than her true name, he easily guessed what it stood for as he said good-naturedly, "Well then, Amelia, what were you-"
His comment was cut off by her grabbing the back of his tunic and yanking him to where he was looking into her eyes, which were now perfectly resembling pieces of jade. "My name isn't Amelia, moron. I go by Amy, okay?"
"Which is short for Amelia," he argued, yanking free of her hold with narrowed eyes of his own. He hadn't been manhandled in years.
"Only if Eragon translates to idiot in some other language," she snarled, "It's short for Amalthia, okay? I got sick of being mocked as a kid, so I started going by Amy. Got it?" Stunned by her suddenly violent temper, he nodded and watched her stalk off. "Good. Now can we keep moving? I don't like this place," she called over her shoulder.
Saphira nudged his shoulder in agreement with her. They were still far enough away from Ellesméra that an enemy could stumble upon them. Pushing his dark thoughts aside for now, he nodded at "Amy" and picked up his pace till he was in the lead again.
"Is it just me being new to this whole forest thing, or is it freakishly quiet?" the teenager suddenly asked, looking around her in innocent curiosity at the tall trees.
Eragon rolled his eyes. He could sense the minds of the other animals… far from here. None of them were within miles of them, and he didn't think it had anything to do with Saphira. Now on full alert, he also scanned the trees.
As if their change in mental state cued them, the arrows started raining on them. Knowing she was defenseless, Amy pressed herself into a curve of Saphira's body as Eragon withdrew his sword, fully intending on putting an end to this small group of fighters.
But the arrows didn't stop, and he couldn't get clear sights on the archers.
While a fearsome warrior, Eragon knew when was outmatched, magical exhausted and trying to protect a girl-child. Sharing a glance with Saphira, he thought, Take Amy on to Ellesméra and get help. I'll hold them off till then.
Are you sure, Eragon? They could be after her.
Judging from the look on her face, I don't think so. She looks just as baffled as us.
The dragon seemed to consider it for a moment, then nodded her head.
Unable to help the scream that came from her throat as Saphira easily picked her up by her shirt collar and swung her into place on the saddle, Amy scowled at the mass of blue scales in front of her. "What's going on?" Amy asked out loud, only to hear an unfamiliar female voice answer.
We are going to go get help. Strap your legs in, hurry.
Even as Amy's suddenly shaking fingers fumbled with the straps, an arrow came in past Eragon's defenses and became lodged in his shoulder. Even Amy knew he couldn't hold off so many attackers with an injury like that. Digging into her mental well of calm and strength as she ignored Saphira's sudden bellow of outrage, she grabbed his suddenly reaching hand and pulled him up behind her. She slid forward and easily buckled his legs to the side of the saddle, then used the arm straps to jerry-rig herself in.
"Revenge later, Saphira." Amy finally snapped, when the dragon was too distracted to notice they were both ready for flight. "Eragon needs a healer."
As if her words really snapped her out of her blood rage, the blue dragon took to the sky, her wings pounding the air fiercely to gain the much needed altitude. Looking back over Eragon's shoulder, Amy was relieved to see that their enemies were far behind her.
Dredging up her meager knowledge of any kind of weapons, she asked Eragon, "Can you tell if the arrow's poisoned?"
Speaking through gritted teeth, he said, "No."
Exasperated, she said, "No, you can't tell, or no, it isn't poisoned?"
The latter. Saphira answered when Eragon didn't. It was obvious to Amy, even though she had only been on the dragon once and that was for a brief dive that lasted five seconds, that she was trying to keep the flight as even as possible so she didn't jar her Rider.
"Well, we had better leave it be, then." Saphira snorted as if to say that her statement was the obvious. The dragon seemed to ignore her after that, and for that Amy was grateful. She was having trouble with her fear of heights again. She entirely blamed Clay. If he hadn't forced her into doing all sorts of stupid crap, she would have stayed with her feet on the ground and never known that she even had it. Now, though, she forced herself to take deep, calming breaths.
Look down. It's not so bad.
Glaring down towards the dragon at Saphira's amused suggestion, she said, "Thanks, but no thanks."
You know, Eragon was nervous when he first rode me.
"Oh?'
Yes. Bad experiences haunted him, but he soon learned to love it.
"I'm not like most people." She said simply, and left it at that. She tugged on her sleeves so they covered her arm a little better, gooseflesh appearing from the cold of being higher up. As Saphira began to descend, Amy knew that she was entering…wherever it was that they were taking her. While some of her friends who were fantasy freaks would probably kill for this opportunity, all she felt was air-sickness.