Prologue

It was a dimly moonlit night as three elves, mounted on lithe silver steeds, made their way through a clearing in the forest. The winds shifted.

In an alternate universe, this change would have alerted them to an ambush that would leave two of them dead and the survivor a prisoner of their attackers. In this world, however, there would be no such ambush. Instead the night passed peacefully, and the elves made their journey to the enchanted forest of Ellesmera safely, as they had a hundred times previously.

Chapter One

The village of Carvahall was bustling with commotion. The women of the town were preparing a feast of breads, cheeses and meats. The men were engaged in a wider variety of tasks: some were putting the finishing touches to a modest but solid house on the outskirts of the village, some were sweeping the green in the centre of the town of leaves and animal droppings, some were chopping firewood. At the centre of all of this, the woman known as Birgit was issuing orders.

Two young men were washing in the river which bordered the village.

"I feel guilty, cleaning myself when everyone else is working." The taller one remarked.

"There wouldn't be half as much work if you hadn't insisted upon getting married within a week of Sloan giving his consent!" his companion laughed.

"Well… you heard what Gertrude said. Winter will strike soon. We could not have waited any longer or the wedding would have been after the snows fell. And you know how much Katrina wanted an open-air wedding."

"Plus, Roran, you can't wait to sleep with her."

Roran blushed. "Well, that too. But Katrina really did want to get married in the village green."

After a brief silence, during which they both finished scrubbing themselves and started changing into hitherto unworn clothes, Roran continued. "I don't suppose you've asked Eilidh how she wants to get married?"

"No. I do intend to marry her, though. After we've pulled in the final crop I'm going to head to Therinsford and work there for the winter. When Spring returns I shall return and ask Hugh for her hand in marriage."

"Are you certain you can earn enough over the winter to convince him you are a good marriage prospect?"

"Quite sure. I know it took two summers to persuade Sloan to let you marry Katrina, but he's Sloan. And, after all, she is his only daughter. Hugh has already married off two of Eilidh's sisters."

"I suppose. Sloan would probably have held me off even longer if it wasn't for Birgit."

"If it wasn't for everyone, you mean. The whole village was behind the pair of you, you know. He'd have had to go elsewhere to find anyone else who would marry Katrina."

"Probably," Roran smiled. "Come on, Eragon, we should find Gertrude."

The wedding, for all the haste with which it had been prepared, was beautiful. The ceremony went without a hitch, and the village moved with gusto onto the feast. Eragon, partly thanks to having practiced his speech more than a dozen times and partly thanks to being fortified with Quimby's ale, managed to give a toast for the newlyweds without treading on his tongue. As the afternoon turned into evening, a great bonfire was lit and the eating gave way to dancing. As the groom's best man Eragon was expected to dance with most if not all of the women of the village, a duty which he handled with competence, but eventually he found his way to the one he had been looking for. Eilidh wore a modest blue dress; her flaxen hair was braided and topped with the crown of flowers she had caught from Katrina.

"Good evening, Eragon!" she greeted him with a smile.

He grinned back at her. "You look beautiful."

She blushed and looked down for a moment. "Thank you. It was rather hurried, you know."

"Yes, well," Eragon sighed. "You know Sloan only gave permission for the wedding last Friday. And Katrina really wanted an outdoor wedding."

"Did she?" Eilidh wondered. "I suppose I would too. Although this is a bit late in the year for my liking. I think I'd like a Spring wedding."

Eragon felt his mouth become dry. "You… you would?"

"Oh yes." Eilidh was looking slightly distracted.

Eragon felt his reply surging its way up through him, before dying on his tongue. He shook himself, and with an effort of will forced the words out. "Perhaps… this coming Spring?"

Her eyes widened slightly, and her lips moved into a silent gasp. Eragon was intently waiting for her answer, when he felt a hand grasp him on the shoulder. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" asked the deep voice of Brom, the village storyteller.

Eragon was torn. He very much liked and respected Brom, but at this moment he wanted nothing more than to punch Brom in the face. Restraining himself, he turned his neck and, gritting his teeth, uttered the necessary "No, of course not."

"Oh good," Brom answered, "because I have an – ah – business proposition I would like to discuss with you."

"Oh," Eragon said. "I'm afraid that within the week I had intended to head to Therinsford, in order to work at the mill there over the winter."

Brom looked steely. "Whatever wage you would earn there, I'll beat it."

"Really? In that case, I would be delighted to discuss it with you. But tomorrow morning would be a better time to discuss it, when we are not so inebriated."

"Very well," Brom replied. "I shall take up no more of your evening." With that, he strolled off, towards his hut at the northern edge of the village.

"What do you suppose he wants of you?" Eilidh asked.

"I don't know. Perhaps he was just drunk?" Eragon suggested.

"I do wonder how a bard could be rich enough to outbid the mill," Eilidh observed. "Still, it would only be polite to at least visit him tomorrow."

"Very well." Eragon declared. "Tomorrow I shall visit him to find out what he wants. And after that…"

Eilidh raised an eyebrow.

"…I shall visit your father, bringing a whole doe, and I shall tell him that I want to marry you."

She kissed him, and for a moment Eragon was consumed by fire.

AN: Welcome to the story! This isn't the first fanfic I've written, but it is the first I've uploaded to the internet, so this is all very exciting.

My original draft started with the elves being ambushed and Glenwing killed, but I couldn't think of a plausible way to have this happen while Arya and Faolin survived with the egg, unless I gave someone the idiot ball. So you should imagine that instead of going after the egg, Durza was instead practising his torture skills or something.

There are two, and only two, changes that I intend to make in terms of the background. The first is, as you have already seen, there was no ambush. The second is that I'm pushing back Galbatorix's discovery of the Name of Names, because it rather ruins the story when the antagonist comes along half-way through and easily kills everyone. I may make further background changes, and the changes I have already made will have substantial run-on effects, but my hope is to leave it at that. The result will (hopefully) be something fairly different from the original story, but recognisably from a very similar universe. For example, the existence of Eilidh (who should be assumed to have been in the background of the original novels) and the survival of Faolin will greatly affect the interaction between Eragon and Arya.

Finally: I know it's a cliché, but please review! It will really encourage me to know that people are reading and (fingers crossed!) enjoying my fanfic.