Eragon stared at the dark tower of stone wherein hid the monsters who had murdered his uncle, Garrow. He was lying on his belly behind the edge of a sandy hill dotted with sparse blades of grass, thorn bushes, and small, rosebud-like cactuses. The brittle stems of last year's foliage pricked his palms as he inched forward to get a better view of Helgrind, which loomed over the surrounding land like a black dagger thrust out from the bowels of the earth.
The evening sun streaked the low hills with shadows long and narrow and – far in the west – illuminated the surface of Leona Lake so that the horizon became a rippling bar of gold. To his left, Eragon heard the steady breathing of his cousin, Roran, who was stretched out beside him.
Eragon looked at him. He could imagine that it was hard for Roran to be patient at that time since he was trying to save his wife-to-be. Roran opened his mouth to whisper something and vanished.
Eragon stared at the empty space where his cousin had been.
…the hell?
Eragon muttered, "Roran?" He felt the ground and kneeled upright. "Roran!" he exclaimed. There was no answer.
YYYYYYYYYYY-Roran-YYYYYYYYYYY
"All this waiting is making me –" Roran blinked as he noticed the sudden change in landscape. Instead of Helgrind's desolate setting, he was looking at a large grey river which didn't move and instead had colourful blurs whizzing across it with a horrendous spluttering. Beyond the evil-looking stream was a metal fence surrounding a grassy ground with trees.
Why on earth would you want to protect a forest with barely any trees?
Puzzled, he turned around to be met with a horrifying sight. In front of him were several large blocks out of miniscule red rocks and grey flat slates.
WHAT are THEY?
He then turned his attention to the VERY oddly shaped shelter which stood, out of a grey and red material he had NEVER encountered before. A quarter of the way up the back of the shelter was a small red ledge on which a girl was sitting in the most peculiar clothing. She was clutching a small but thick book out of paper.
It hit Roran rather suddenly, what was he going to do? Where was he? How was he going to get back? Could he even get back?
The girl lifted up the book as she begun to stand up.
"AGH!" Roran cried, the girl looked at him worriedly, then seeing that no harm had been done to him, she returned to her book. "WHAT in the name of the lords is THAT?" he pointed at the creature on the front cover of the book over which stood 'Brisingr'.
The girl lifted her eyebrow at him. "It's a dragon…" she told him as though it were obvious.
Roran shook his head, it was definitely NOT obvious. "No it's not!"
The girl stared at him in amazement and doubt- possibly because she thought he was not quite sane.
"Uhrm…YES it IS," she examined him from head to toe and made an odd face.
"NO it is NOT," he replied miming her odd speech "It looks nothing like a dragon!"
The girl looked even more bewildered and looked from the cover to the man before her. "How would YOU know?"
"I've seen one!"
At which point in the conversation Roran took the opportunity to disappear again. The girl stared at the spot. "I'm…confused…" she whined.
YYYYYYYYYY-Eragon-YYYYYYYYYY
Just when Eragon thought he had ENTIRELY lost the plot, Roran reappeared again, so he was absolutely positive he'd lost it. Just in case he asked his cousin, "Where…uh, where were you?"
Roran looked around, pinched himself, and touched his head, his nose, his shoulders and his legs before letting out a long sigh of relief and turning to Eragon. "Well…" he explained but was cut off by a loud rustling as a horde of very odd looking humans turned towards them.
"Who are they?" Roran asked sounding a little afraid.
"They…they're the…the, I don't know and I have a feeling it's better not to find out," He pulled Roran and they sprinted towards Helgrind, where else could they go? The men and women moved with many strange gaits towards them – they limped and shuffled and humped and wriggled; they swung on crutches or used arms to propel themselves forwards on curiously short legs – contortions that were necessary because, as Eragon realised, every one of them lacked an arm or a leg or some combination thereof. Their leader sat upright upon a litter borne by six oiled slaves, a pose Eragon regarded as a rather amazing accomplishment, considering that the man or woman – he could not tell which – consisted of nothing more than a torso and a head, which looked particularly angry.
"It's the priest of Helgrind!" Eragon told Roran while they tried to enlarge the distance between them and the crowd.
"Can they use magic?" Roran panted.
"Possibly…" Eragon answered simply.
"What are we going to do?" Roran shrieked now.
"I don't know!" Eragon shrieked back. Suddenly it grew quiet and when they turned around all the people were gone. "Well….that was an interesting turn of events…" Eragon commented.
Saphira! He called then.
Y-Misty-Y
Misty reread her last sentence as the bus wobbled and shook the book in her hands. 'Behind the priests trudged a double line of young men swathed in gold cloth. Each carried…' The empty bus suddenly filled with shouting and she dragged her attention from the book to the inside of the dirty red vehicle. The shouting stopped as a crowd of partly limbless – one of them ENTIRELY limbless – people who were very confused stopped in their tracks.
"What happened…" One of them tried to say, but was going to get no further than that, since the bus came to squeaking stop and the bus driver stepped out of his booth.
"Oi, you lot, I dunno how you got on here, but you better show me your tickets or there'll be trouble!" he yelled. They glared at him. So, he glared back. "I am going to step back into my booth, and if I do not hear the beeping of the oyster card machine by the time I've counted to twenty, I'm going to call the police." With that, he did the dimmest thing humanly possible and turned his back to the scowling crowd. Several horrible screams escaped from the people's mouths as they launched themselves onto the bus driver. The driver desperately tried to defend himself, but he was bitten, slapped, punched, kicked and head-butted to the floor before the crowd evaporated.
Misty looked at the motionless man with increasing fear.
"Sir? Sir, are you okay?" A loud moan vibrated through the man's spine. "I'll call the ambulance…"
YYYYYYY-Eragon-YYYYYYY
Eragon looked back. The group was there again. He rubbed his eyes and stared at the sky, waiting for a blue shape to appear, but by this time, he and Roran were pressed against the black walls of Helgrind, the Black Mountain.
Saphira, Hurry up! He called, desperate for help. Finally, she arrived, grabbing both Eragon and Roran with her talons and leaving them both to try to clamber onto her back. Eragon stretched his thoughts towards her mind and quickly withdrew; the sapphire dragoness was fuming.
Every time I leave you, you get into danger! She raged. You have to stick your nose everywhere it isn't wanted, and you never know when to pull it out!
Eragon wriggled in her claw but she wouldn't let him go.
It's as though you purposely take risks just for the thrill of it and don't even think about the consequences! You're like a ch…
Saphira suddenly stopped mid thought. She loosened her grip on him-no that wasn't right, she let him fall…no… Eragon looked around alarmed. Roran blinked at him.
"ERAGON?" he yelled before the wind blowing passed their ears became too loud. The ground was coming towards them at a very frightening pace…
YYYYYYYYYY-Misty-YYYYYYYYYY
Misty stuck her nose deep into her book. She just wanted to get to school. No more disappearing people, no more ambulance calls, no more questions. Just a normal day with a normal trip to a normal school. She strolled out of the train station. Then she was surrounded by screaming people. A NORMAL day with a NORMAL trip to a NORMAL school. She held the book tightly in her hands and stuck her face even closer to her face. 'leaning forward, Saphira pushed the tip of her snout toward the sheer rock…' the screaming was deafening, she couldn't even hear herself think. Misty pulled down the book and stared at where all the people were pointing. All she saw was a flash of blue and then an empty circle around which the screaming crowd stood. A NORMAL DAY.
YYYYYYY-Saphira-YYYYYYYY
Saphira reappeared again and after a moment of perplexity, she heard the two men screaming and dived to the rescue. She plummeted earthwards until she was just above the two flailing, screaming beings and snatched them up with the elegance only a dragon like her could master.
Honestly you boys, always taking risks!
Excuse me? Eragon cried at her, outraged.
She laughed to herself.
So this is our first PROPER fanfiction together...so...admittedly the POVs are a little short but...we'll work on it. Hope you liked it and if you did please review! and if you didn't, please review anyway! the magical button lies just below this authors note!