Together for forever and beyond

Chapter I

Arya and I were sitting on a grassy green hill next the Ramr River. The hill was covered in flowers; it looked like a peaceful meadow. We were about an hours' flight outside Ilirea. It was beautiful. I realised that this wasn't far from where Murtagh, Saphira and me had crossed this river only a year before, it seemed like it had been several years since then.

I still can't believe that she and I were both dragon riders. Two years ago I wouldn't have even been able to imagine this happening to me. I thought that I was going to grow up to be a normal farmer. Not that I was going to become a dragon rider and fall in love with an elf princess well now an elf queen. Never thought my life would turn out this way.

Fírnen and Saphira were still spiralling overhead. Arya and I sat there silently; it was a comfortable silence but a silence nonetheless. We were staring up at our dragons as they circled each other. It really is a spectacle to see two dragons mating; I knew that they were mating from Saphira's emotions which I felt through our mental link. We sat there hoping that our dragons would be mother and father to the same egg.

This is it, I thought to myself. I need to tell her and I need to do it now. I put up a mental barrier between me and Saphira so I could think more clearly. I needed to carefully think through what I was going to say to her. I slowly worked up the courage to tell Arya.

"Arya-drotting, I need to tell you something.…"

"Eragon you of all people don't need to call me drotting. You will call me Arya and only Arya. OK?"

"OK." I had to pause so I could think about how to word what I was about to say. "You have to promise me something. You have to promise me that you won't say anything until I'm done, alright?"

"Alright… I promise. Eragon what is it?" I could hear a bit of uneasiness creep into her voice. This scared me because I knew that she could keep her voice level and calm in the direst situations. Why couldn't she do it now? Could she not level her voice out even though she was trying to? Or was it just that she wasn't trying to cover it? I hoped that it was the latter.

"Arya, I have to leave. As much as it will pain me to leave your side, it is my duty to restart the Riders. I can't do it in Alagaësia, not without hurting anyone that is. I have to ask you a question; I think that I know what your answer will be, with you being the queen of the elves and all. Before you told me that you were the queen of the elves I thought that you might actually say yes but now I don't think that you will. But I have to ask.… Arya will you come with me to restart the riders, in the land to the east of Alagaësia?"

"Eragon, like you said you know what my answer will be. I can't come with you; it is my duty to help the elves. Before I became the queen of the elves I might have considered coming with you. But I think that I would end up saying the same thing. Eragon this land is my home it is where I belong and where I will spend the rest of my life however long that may be."

I looked up to the sky where Saphira and Fírnen had been circling but had apparently chosen to go elsewhere to finish mating. It was then that I realised how low in the sky the sun was. I slowly let down my mental barrier wary of and threats, luckily there were none. I could feel through my link that Saphira and Fírnen had finished mating and had started to talk about hunting in and around Ellesméra.

"Let's go to Ilirea. Nasuada will be waiting for me to return and you to arrive."