Disclaimer: Inspired by Flashes and The Flip of a Coin. Characters based off of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. I don't own the things.
I will experiment with POV (more info at bottom). Please critique.
"Just tell me again. What is your relationship with Garrow Cadocson?"
"How many times do I hafta tell you?" The man before him, large in size, towered over Eragon, blowing a lock of green hair from his forehead. Eragon seriously wanted to punch him, but a comforting hand on his shoulder reprimanded him.
"My brother's told you. His mother, Selena, left him on our doorstep; we don't know his father, and he's been with us ever since. We don't know who would do this to Garrow, and my girlfriend, Katrina, can confirm that we weren't home tonight."
Eragon looked up at Roran's face, silently thanking him. His brother smiled, but his eyes showed nothing.
He understood his pain. It'd hurt so much that all emotion had drained from him. He wondered if he would ever feel again, but given the current state, he didn't really care.
"Fírnen," someone said. "You got anything?"
"Well, they have an alibi we need to confirm, and like usual, they don't have any motives for anyone. You?"
The voice's owner stepped forward, and Eragon lowered his mandible. Upon beholding the woman in front of him, he stopped breathing. He wondered if she were even human. She seemed graceful enough to be an elf right out of Tolkien's Middle Earth.
Her hair was darker than a polluted night sky, and her irises shone green enough to be Christmas lights. She wore v-neck suit that revealed the bony lumps at the bottom of her neck, and her leggings clung to her skin.
"It fits the Ra'zac's MO."
"Whose?" Roran demanded. Eragon barely processed it, so deeply did he lust over the alien beauty. Of course, when Roran backhanded him, he returned from his trance.
"I am not at liberty to say. I think I will go before your brother's drooling floods the house."
Eragon tapped the floor with the tip of his right foot, his head hanging, ears burning.
"'Scuse me, Mister Fírnen?"
"Yes?"
"If you can tell me anything about why my father was murdered, I need to know."
Eragon sniffled at the mention of Garrow, and he rubbed his irritated nose.
"It's'n ongoing investigation. We really can't tell you."
"I understand," Roran said. Eragon, however, glowered at the man.
'Fírnen' handed Eragon a card with contact information. "My condolences. Soon as I can tell you anything, I will."
"Fírnen, we need to go! And stop being so damn soft!"
"Coming, Lady Arya," he jeered, rolling his eyes.
'Arya,' Eragon mouthed, deciding the name fit on his lips. Much like the angel's appearance, it contained a mirth of beauty.
"C'mon, Eragon. Katrina said we could stay at her place for the night. Her dad won't be home until t'morrow."
They pushed through the crowd of police, opened and slammed the front door, and ducked under the yellow tape. They saw Katrina and her grey sedan parked across Farmland Way, frowning with her arms crossed.
Roran jogged towards her, slowing only as his body collided with hers in an embrace. Eragon heard gasps, and he realized Roran was sobbing. It shocked Eragon; Roran was the big brother, the strong one. He'd always comforted him. His guilt spiked when he realized he didn't know how to return the favor.
The rising pressure in his chest told him to release his tears, and he tried, but he couldn't. Instead, he trudged to the car door. He yanked the handle, his palms chilled by the metal.
He felt Roran's palm ruffle the top of his head, and two loose hairs drifted in front of his face, which he blew forward. He hoisted himself onto the black leather seats and reached for the seatbelt on his left, finding nothing.
Eragon realized that in Katrina's car, unlike Garrow's station wagon, the seatbelts hung on the right. He felt the strap and slid his hand down towards the end. Grabbing the buckle, he fumbled around to find the clip. It clicked twice and locked into place.
The driver's and passenger's car doors shut in tandem, and Katrina guided the keys into the ignition, twisting them clockwise. The car hummed, and she released them to find Roran's hand, grabbing it above the cup holders.
"When we get there," Katrina warned, "you'll hafta leave early in the morning b'fore my dad comes home from work."
Eragon grunted. He knew Sloan's temper, and if he caught them, he'd beat Katrina when they left. If they mentioned Garrow's death, he would yell at them for 'spoiling the moment.'
He noticed the worry projected from Roran's eyes, but neither of them voiced the reason. Roran had begged Katrina many times before to abandon Sloan, but she wouldn't. Eragon had suggested calling someone anyway, but Roran had rejected the idea instantly. "She only has two more years till she's eighteen," he'd said.
As Katrina drove, the only sounds were of the worn road jostling the car.
POV Types:
Omniscent: From a godlike, all-knowing third party perspective. Kinda like a map view.
POF: Point of focus. Third-person scope. This can be done on an object, not just a character. The purpose of an object focus would be for imagery.
Dual Focus: POF on two people.
All: This is insane to write. Even extras get to be a point of focus. It's an invasive and shifting POF. I like to think of it as a virus that uses one person at a time.
Outside Spec: Spectated from the characters' surrounders. We see them from the extras' eyes.
POV: I will not use this. It's first person. Essentially, you're inside a chosen character's head.
Note: I will rarely, if ever, label a POV swap. I need feedback regarding my transitions, because my skills in writing them are lacking.
Disclaimer: Omniscient POV's are the only one that I listed which has that official name.
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