First Fanfiction story, few more chapters to go if everyone ends up liking it! constructive criticism tips or advice would be appreciated as well! Enjoy!
Started this story years ago, and unfortunetly had to abandon it after only a couple chapters, it is now new and approved!
Disclaimer = I own nothing of the Inheritance Cycle.
Wise eyes studied the incoming ship several hundred yards off, surprised as he recognized the eleven ship that usually brought the new dragon rider apprentices over the vast distanced Alagaësia.
They had not gotten word, nor been expecting any new company for a while yet, having the eggs shipped off not 2 months ago.
Eragon sent his thoughts and suspicions to his dragon Saphira, 'can you make out anyone on the ship'
Nay little one, I shall go and find out' she said
In the meantime, he decided to make his way down from the docks, jumping off his balcony and muttering in the ancient language words to slow his decent.
Have you got any news for me Saphira? Said eragon, surprisingly getting the feelings of surprise and humor through his link with his dragon, before her reply. 'aye, you shall see shortly little one'
He soon spotted none other than Angela the Herbalist, along with her ever long partner, solembum.
He couldn't suppress a smile at seeing the odd woman after such a long time, with her cryptic messages, and utterly confusing tales of things that may or may not exist.
"Angela", he greeted her," it is good to see you after such a long time, though I must ask, what do we owe this honor, now of all times?"
As far as he knew, his old home and country had been in relative peace over the centuries, aside from a few squabbles here and there that hadn't warranted more than a rider or two to return and sort out.
"if you must know" she replied, "I have done all I can over there, and they know longer need me. So I thought I would come visit this clump of dirt people claim is breath taking, and offer my wisdom as well, if I may."
"of course of course" he said as saphira crashed down next to them with a loud bang. "It appears" as he smirked, "she wants to welcome to our home as well."
'Welcome wise one, we are honored to have you' saphira greeted her "and you as well solembum"
"Thank for the warm welcome Saphira Brightscales. It has been a little while since we have seen each other no? Let us continue this discussion inside before I freeze to death!"
Eragon grinned and saphira snorted at her words, for one, it was mid-summer, and two, her comment of 'a little while' , it had been well over 200 years since he last stepped foot in his old home country.
They made the way up to the castle that housed the riders in silence, waiting to sit in comfort, and holding back the questions each had but was keeping a tight leash on.
Finally they took their seats, as Saphira took off to hunt, while keeping their minds linked so she would hear any new news Angela may have of Alagaësia.
"O go on and ask already!" she exclaimed, knowing of the questions he had bottled up, but he kept his emotions in check when he finally asked the obvious
"How are things in Alagaësia?" he said while she giggled, "after all this time, THAT is what you want to know?" she said with a knowing stare.
As he just stared, she relented. "right right all in good time I suppose" She started with the basic news, the current king, queens or leaders of the races, which he already knew from having had talk to them when they were having problems occasionally. The human throne was led by a King Miller, the Urgals by Nar Getereng, Orik, though old in his own right, was still King of the Dwarves. And the news he wanted most, the person he had talked to no more than a handful of times over the long years, Arya, naturally still Queen of the Elves.
That was as good an opening as any, and asked as casually as he could, "and I expect Arya is doing well?"
This tore Angela into fits of laughter, finally subsiding and catching her breath, "I was wondering how long that would take to come up, but she is fine as well as I know, I only stayed there for ten or so years before continuing to move around. She asked me to give you her best and asks how the riders are doing."
He couldn't help to be a bit disappointed over her not asking how he was in particular, Does she still feel the same?..surely not after all this time, Though the face that she contacted Angela to pass on the message gave doubt to that train of thought. He suddenly heard a deep throated laugh and realized Saphira was amused over his reasoning, "o be quiet you!" but with no real heat in his words, her laughter died down but she continued to be amused over his blushing, as she said 'Make me' with a dragon grin.
"Hello, anyone home? Am I talking to myself here?" he finally heard Angela mutter,
"Ah, my apolgies, my thoughts ran away from me for a moment" he said looking up apolitically, which just caused another round of laughter, she knowing what those thoughts would have been about.
"Well it is getting late, you can show me around tomorrow, for now I'm in need of sleep. I assume there is a room I can take? Or will you be making me sleep outside?" she said sarcastically
"Well now that you mention it…we do have a marvelous hut on the outskirts that.."he started with a grin, before he stopped after earning himself a glare. Relenting he agreed, "yes of course we do, right this way" Before showing her to her room and returning to his own.
'Its nice to see a familiar face, though in the past, she usually showed up only when something bad was going to happen' he frowned and spoke to his dragon.
That it is Eragon, but let us discuss these things tomorrow, for now, we should get our rest"
Nodding to himself, he retired for the night with numerous questions still running through his head.
The next morning came quickly, being woken up early by none other than Angela, wanting a tour of the grounds. "The sun hasn't even broke the horizon Angela, surely you can wait a few more hours?' Eragon asked pleadingly, but she wasn't hearing any of it,
"Get up, get dressed and lets get this show on the road" she said and left without giving him a chance to respond in kind. While he sat back with a groan, Saphira let out another rumbling laugh at his expense.
Finally up and clothed,He proceeded to show her around the grounds of Aiedail, or The Morning Star, as they had agreed upon to name their new home upon their arrival in this new land. She tried not to show it, but the awed expression that broke out on her face was there for everyone to see.
After showing her the battle grounds, Dragon hold and other significant spots, he called in his riders and riders to be, which at the present time were One hundred strong, letting them introduce themselves each in turn to the strange witch. He then asked Saphira to do the honors of introducing the massive, majestic, and vastly colored dragons they rode.
Strangely even the dragons who had not known Angela before, had called her 'wise one', which he'd only heard from the oldest of dragons and elves back in Alagaësia. He decided not to dwell on that now though, and sent the riders back to training. Afterwards Angela brought up the varying size in them all, and how Saphira dwarfed most of them. He explained it naturally depended on age, and like other human and non-human races, each grew differently, but mostly all the same size.
Saphira now would make even Glaedr feel on the small side, partly they had concluded, was because of the magic Saphira and himself had channeled through the Eldunari, and all that power left them with several different changes, one such was the gaining of extra strength, speed and ability to hold and recover mass stores of energy.
Blodhgarm and his companions also had an alternate theory, which was just as riders evolved and changed in appearance the longer they were bonded, Eragon, being changed in a strange way by the essence of dragons, helped mold him to such extreme abilities.
After several hours later, Eragon retired to his study, while he left Angela to her own devices. No matter the joy he had gotten from Angela arriving, the Lead Rider still had duties, including paperwork he loathed.
Several minutes later his study mirror shimmered letting him know someone was attempting to scry him, curious he let the magic take affect and waited to see who it could be.
The middle aged King of the human realm, King Miller greeted him,
"Good Evening Lord Shur'tugal" he began with stress lacing his voice, surprising Eragon, because the king had usually appeared calm and collected the few times they had talked. "Evening King Miller, What can I do for you?"
He hesitated, and then began. "It may be nothing, but recently we've gotten in reports of attacks on towns in outlying territories."
Frowning Eragon replied "Surely that happens from time to time, what made you need to contact myself about this one?"
Again the king hesitated, "Well yes you are correct of course, however now the bodies appear, to have, for lack of a better term, exploded. Not only that, but miles in each direction of the town, some people have gone mad, without even laying eyes on anything unfriendly, according to their friends or spouses."
That had Eragons eyebrows rising high on his head." That is Troubling, have you any idea on who or what may be causing all of this?"
The king sighed "No, that's what has me worried, we cant find any clues or signs to what might be at the center of this, aside from reports and the gruesome remains of…well you understand."
Eragon thought for a moment more before deciding how to handle the situation, "Let me Contact the other Race's Leaders and see if they have any insight or similar problems,, I will contact you when I have answers" The kings shoulders sagged in what looked like relief before replying "Thank you KingKiller, I shall wait for you response" and with that ended the spell.
He then proceeded to contact the Dwarves, Urgals, and lastly what he had been dreading, the elves. And wonders of wonders, Arya herself answered with a look of surprise and disbelief . At first they were both quiet, before she broke the silence with, "Eragon, it has been a while, to what do I owe this pleasure?"
He hesitated still, and then cautiously answered "That it has Arya-Drottning,I have reports from The Humans, Urgals, and Dwarves, all with the same story of deaths and madness sweeping the outskirts of their territories, and I was contacting you to see if you have had the same problems arising."
She gave him a look he couldn't decipher, then continued, "I'm afraid I have heard the reports, thankfully none of it has reached anywhere near Ellesmera. The others report seem not to have shown the gravity of the situation, it is far worse than a few simple killings. It has already swept through all of Surda"
Saphira heard the declaration and asked her rider 'how could that have gone unnoticed?'
Eragon agreed and responded in kind 'I don't know, but I intend to find out'
Keep his emotions to himself he went on, "How is it the others do not know this?" She gave him a look and continued "Elves do not only reside in Ellesmera Eragon as you know, our influence is spread far, and we communicate quicker."
She had a point, and his doubt that he could stay out of this conflict that was much more devastating than he had been led to believe. Finally, "What do you make of all this Arya?" She sighed and then "I have investigated myself what I could, the magic I felt was strong, stronger than anything myself and Murtagh, have felt in some time, I hate to admit it, but we may need the aid of your Riders. He thought over that for a moment, ending on "I will contact you again in one hour." Ending the spell and casting his mind out to his riders to meet him at the battle grounds, the only place they could ALL fit at once. He contacted Saphira with his thoughts and plans first, which she agreed were appropriate, and also the Eldunari who also agreed.
They gathered, and he explained the situation. Between them all, the races in the riders were fairly evenly split. Of the hundred, he was going to dispatch 20 of them, which may be overkill but he rather have too many that not enough. Half of that number would fly to the Surda territories and search for signs of what caused the current uprising of..whatever this was. This assignment shocked the riders, twenty were hardly a small amount. That many riders meant their leader assumed something worse than the reports was beginning to unfold. The remaining riders would stay behind to continue on with their teaching and guarding of their home.
He set leaders for each of the four groups, Five of his most senior riders, 2 elves, Alekah and his massive brown dragon beorn, , which did the dragon justice judging from the size of him and Aluin with her light blue dragon fethr , whose name also did justice due to her seemingly natural ability to fly and maneuver ,
Two humans, Will and his dragon black dragon hljödhr, and Michael with his yellow dragon kveykva,and finally one Kull named Argam and his brown dragon deloi.
He dismissed his riders and their dragons and told them to leave at first light, then continued to his room to contact the Leaders of Alagaësia. He was met with relief when he told them of his plans, and that his riders would leave tomorrow morning and arrive within a weeks' time. Along with the relief that crossed Arya's face, he also thought he caught a look of hope, then sadness, but passing too fast to know for sure, He concluded his conversations and ended the spell.
Eragon and Saphira were in his room that night still thinking everything over, when a knock sounded against his door. A growl rose from Saphira, and he was surprised after reaching out with his mind to find it was Angela at the door, tapping her foot, apparently expecting to be let in, which he obliged.
"What do I owe this late night visit?" Eragon began with a raise of an eye brow
"I heard the news and your battle plans, I wondered though, why you yourself were not returning to help squash this turn of events?"
Frowning he replied "you know the answer as well as I, your prophecy told me I would not return to Alagaësia, and I'm not one to tamper with fate, with as much as I've seen and experienced."
She all but yelled, "you can't let fate rule you! And besides, I forgot to mention a small detail.." she said seriously.. "Alagaësia is no longer Alagaësia, the Human leaders, with the approval of other races, changed the countries name not long ago to Mor'ranr , I assumed you had known that, but I should have known that you kept yourself bottled up on this Island of rocks"
Eragon's jaw dropped, as did Saphiras, which he would have found funny if not more this momentous news, not knowing a dragon could even make such an expression, then snapping back to Angela.
She continued before he could form any words, "So you see, you won't be returning to ALAGAESIA. You're riders will need your help on this situation, I have foreseen it."
After turning to glance at Saphira, his thoughts going a mile a minute.."Saphira do you know what this means!?' excitement poured from her 'yes little one, we can return to see those whom we love!'
Finally he found his voice, though still not making much sense, "I don't know what to think about this.." when Angela cut him off, "Its simple you Idiot, go lead your riders and save Mor`ranr!" with that she turned and left as quickly as she arrived.
He sat there dumbly for what seemed like hours, quickly jumping up to pack for the next morning, hardly getting any sleep that night with the thoughts of returning home, if even for a short amount of time.
Rising well before dawn, the whole of the island was awakened by Saphira's earth rumbling roar as they made their way to the landing to wait on his Riders.
Confusion, Curiosity and disbelief showed on all assembled at seeing the saddled and packed, it took a moment before Alekah spoke first, "Master, may I ask why you seem fit to travel?"
He traded thoughts and a grin with Saphira, before asking his dragon "Should you tell them or shall I?" with a smile only a dragon could appreciate she responded "go ahead little one, let us be off"
With the grin still on his face he replied to Alekah, "Yes, it is time for me and Saphira to once again return to our home and show these new enemies what fear really is" He turned to his partner of heart again and instead of adding her thoughts, she let out another an ear deafening roar, followed quickly by that of his rider's dragons. With that he leaped onto Saphira, and they took to the skies. The thunder of Dragons sped off, anticipating the fight to come.