Chapter 1
Plans
Eragon opened his eyes to the sight of sunlight streaming through the opening of his tent. He stretched wearily, then got out of bed, bathed, and clothed himself before heading to the center of the camp for breakfast. "Morning, Saphira." He called as he helped himself to half a dozen pieces of bacon, two servings of scrambled eggs, a biscuit, and some dried fruit, all washed down with cold milk.
As he sat there eating his breakfast, Blodhgarm approached him. Blodhgarm greeted him in the traditional way of the elves and Eragon responded appropriately. "Sleep well, Shadeslayer?" he inquired. "Yes, thank you. And you?" "I slept well." "Well," Eragon said with a groan as he pushed himself off the ground, "are you ready to get started on the new city?" "Yes, Shadeslayer. However, Arya Drottning has contacted us and wants to speak with you. I will gather the rest of the elves and meet you back here." "Thank you, Blodhgarm." Eragon ascended the hill where the council tent and scrying mirrors were kept.
Once inside, he saw Arya staring at him from the rather large, ornate mirror in the shape of an oval. Eragon immediately greeted her in the proper way; she responded likewise before inquiring of his well being. To which he responded, "I am well. And how are you, Arya?" "Well, thank you." "Blodhgarm informed me that you wanted to speak with me. I assume your purpose was not to exchange pleasantries and oblige in idle conversation?" "No, I contacted you to inform yourself and the other elves present, that the two eggs you left behind have hatched. I also wanted to inquire about the possibility of them staying in Ellesmera for some basic magic, mental, and combat training before we send them to you. Would that be possible?" "That's good that they have hatched. I also think that it is a good idea for them to train in Ellesmera for a time. I will see what Blodhgarm thinks about it." So saying, he quickly contacted Blodhgarm and informed him of the new riders and inquired of his opinion about Arya's idea. "Blodhgarm says he thinks it is a good idea and thinks they should train in Ellesmera for 5 years before leave for this new land." "Alright, that sounds good."
Eragon quickly made his way back down to the center of their camp, where the 29 elves were gathered. He motioned for Blodhgarm to inform them of the plan for the training of the Dragon Riders and he did so, then turning to Eragon for information on the city they were to build. Eragon stepped up, saying, "Alright, we need to find a very defensible position for our capital city. We need to look for a place where we can set up a massive city. This place also needs to be easily defendable and near areas with an abundance of resources. I propose that we split up into teams of two to scout the land. We will take enough food for a week; food for the rest of this time will be hunted or gathered. Are there any questions, objections, or better ideas?" he inquired while glancing around. "Alright, well it's settled then. Blodhgarm, you're with me. The rest of you pair off as you wish. We will start in one half-hour and will meet back here in one month. I need you to mark all the possible city sites you find. Mark them with these flags. Mark red if you think it would be a good spot for the capital, blue for a trade capital, white for a major, influential city, brown for villages, and black for fortresses," Eragon proclaimed, handing the flags around.
Eragon briskly strode back to his tent. He grabbed Brisingr, Niernen, Saphira's saddle, and his saddlebags, which held a week's worth of food and clothes, before going to meet Saphira. He fastened Saphira's saddle about her, then strapped the saddle bags on. "Come on, let's go get Blodhgarm." Eragon said as he climbed onto Saphira's saddle. Without a word, Saphira leapt into the air, tearing chunks of earth from the ground. They found Blodhgarm's tent and Saphira dove to the ground pulling up at the last moment. Eragon was rocked forward by the impact, despite his hold on the spike protruding from her neck. "Blodhgarm, are you ready to go?" Eragon called from atop Saphira's back. "Yes," he said simply before climbing onto Saphira. Eragon contacted all of the elves and notified them that it was time to go, doing his best to remember who had gone in what groups and in what direction before he let Saphira know he was ready to go. Once again, she leaped into the air without a word.
After they had been searching for about 7 hours and the sun was beginning to set, Blodhgarm pointed out an excellent spot for a city. The spot was a large depression in the top of a small mountain that stood alone. The mountain was very steep and would be difficult to reach without the aid of magic or a dragon. It was encircled by a deep, wide river that had a swift current and was teeming with fish. This river ran down from the mountains to the north and continued south as far as the eye could see, even from a dragon's back. Around the river, there was plain for many miles without interruption. There was also land in between the river and the mountain. Inside this small amount of land, there were many, many trees; deer, rabbits, and other such creatures were plentiful in this area. All in all, it was a very defensible area and was abundant in food resources, if nothing else. However, Eragon was not satisfied and was determined to find an even better spot to establish the new nation's capital. He knew it was not likely that they would find a better spot to camp for the night, though; so, he told Saphira to land. He stabbed one of the white flags into the center of the clearing, help set up camp, and then explored the site for the city. He figured out that the depression was about three square miles. After searching for quite some time, he found a way to go up and down the mountain. It was a tunnel that began, in a clearing amidst a few of the larger trees; it then wound its way through the interior of the mountain and came out in another clearing. He also found that there were many animals on top of the mountain as well and he resolved that it would be his capital city if they could not find any better.
They found many possible sites in their travels, but none of them were good enough to be the capital city. They had marked 5 locations with blue flags, 60 with brown flags, 3 with black flags, and 4 with white flags. But no matter how much or how hard they searched, they found nothing that would be a perfect city. As they flew on over the days, they discovered that this new land was even larger than Alagaesia. They doubled the number of spots they had marked, so that there now were: 10 blue flags, 120 brown flags, 6 black flags, and 8 white flags. Still, they could not find the right spot for a city. Then, finally, they came upon it. It was a massive plateau, at least 50 square miles. There was a ring of mountains in the center of the plateau that were even taller than the Beors if they sat upon the plateau. Inside this ring of mountains there was a large forest. Then it turned to desert for a few miles, where it ended there were lush green fields and forests that surrounded an absolutely massive lake with the largest mountain that Eragon, Blodhgarm, or Saphira had ever seen; this mountain jutted out and stretched miles above the surface of the lake.
As with the first city site they had discovered, there was a depression in the top, this one being about 15 square miles. The area was absolutely teeming with all sorts of wildlife, flora, fauna, and just about any living creature you could imagine. There were even four waterfalls, one on each side, pouring from the mountain. Everything was massive. All in all it was the perfect place to raise the new generation of riders, but for one thing. The place was absolutely teeming with fanghur and nidhwal, the latter of which were apparently able to live in lakes as well. The fanghur were much larger than the ones in Alagaesia, the largest being about three feet bigger than Saphira. Their mental attacks were even more powerful and were also more coordinated. These were also much more intelligent than those in Alagaesia. The nidhwal here were, of course, much larger and much more intelligent. They did not, however, seem to hate anything that lived and breathed, as those from Alagaesia did. Rather, their eyes only filled with pure malice and hatred when they lit upon Saphira. Several times they tried to leap out of the water and clamp onto Saphira with their massive jaws. Some of the larger ones, which were about ten feet larger than Saphira, nearly succeeded. However, they only looked at Eragon with disdain when they did not see him with Saphira. Troubled, Eragon directed Saphira to fly back to the outside of the ring of mountains, about 5 miles from the mountain in the center of the lake.
That night, the three of them made a decision. The lush area on the top of the mountain, which they had managed to get a decent glimpse of before they were attacked by the fanghur (who lived on the slopes of the mountain), would be their home if they could find a way around the problems that were the fanghur and the nidhwal.