The Cycle Continues

by autumn6435

Eragon and Arya are reunited and decide to return to Alagaёsia with many fellow Dragon Riders. They ultimately confront the most formidable threat remaining in Alagaёsia, the Urgal King Kulkarvek. Written in four parts and completely finished. Other characters from the original series include Murtagh, Blödhgarm, Nasuada, Orik, Angela and Solembum, Elva, Nar Garzhvog, and Rhunön.

1. Intro

I'm sure some of you are wondering from the summary how I could write all of that in such a short story! This is not actually my story. It's simply a way to help more people find my story. I wrote an extensive continuation of Inheritance Cycle called The Cycle Continues, attempting in every way possible to be true to Inheritance Cycle and create a believable albeit more romantic continuation. It's rated M for romance, but there is little violence and no profanity. I have revised all of the love scenes to fit the mature rating (meaning, I have removed all explicit mature adult content). Whereas the entire story once contained dozens of scenes like that, there are now only two chapters throughout all four parts with links to MA material. The mature love scenes that remain within the story body are significantly toned down and shorter, and each one is preceded by a warning so objecting readers can skip if they desire.

But I noticed that my computer (and I'm guessing many others) automatically filters M rated stories from the listed entries, which means many visitors won't even see my story if they come looking for Inheritance Cycle fanfiction. Obviously not everyone has loved The Cycle Continues, but I did want to improve the chances that interested readers who might be seeking something along the lines of what my story provides will be able to find it.

To help you decide whether or not you should go to the trouble of searching out my story, here is some potentially useful information. You might enjoy The Cycle Continues if:

-:- You can picture Arya evolving into a character who allows her strong sense of duty to extend into fulfilling her duty to her heart. Many readers have felt that my depiction of Arya was OOC (out of character). With their criticisms in mind, I have added new material to the story that attempts to portray my reasons for writing Arya as I did. But if you can't imagine Arya undergoing the necessary changes in order to be part of an intimate romantic relationship, you might want to skip this one. Or if you can't imagine that happening within ten years, I offer the same advice. You can find additional thoughts related to this in my profile.

-:- You can imagine and want to read about Eragon as a loving husband and father and are interested in reading about his and Arya's life after they hook up. My story has a plot and conflict, but I devote a lot more attention to the relationships, romance, and fluff. The conflict development might be too few and far between the relationship and character development for certain readers' tastes.

-:- You're interested in learning while you read. What I mean is that I was unexpectedly able to write about some real-world stuff (female fertility, childbirth, pregnancy, and breastfeeding, among others) in my story. But I know this is boring and unnecessary to some readers, thus the forewarning. One unimpressed reader said that while reading one chapter, they felt as if they were back in high school sex education and it was more detail than they wanted. I never learned about this stuff in sex education, so maybe it has improved in the last fifteen to twenty years. But it's all accurate and somehow effortlessly worked its way into a story of this nature. This obviously doesn't happen every chapter, but it occurs at fairly regular intervals and as part of an engaging story line (my opinion ;), learning about it in this manner is more interesting than simply reading the many non-fiction books I have about these various topics.

-:- You don't mind reading about Original Characters (OCs), or characters from my imagination and not from Paolini's. Though it started out solely as an attempt to reunite Eragon and Arya, by the end I realized that the majority of my story was actually about my OCs. As I wrote, it became clear that Eragon and Arya really just needed their happy ending because they had already been the heroes and saved their world; it would have felt too repetitive to have them do it again. I never intended to write a book this long, but my main OCs demanded to have their story told, so I told it. They end up as best friends with Eragon and Arya, so those two continue to show up throughout the entirety of The Cycle Continues, but much of the focus in Parts Two, Three, and Four is on my OCs. If you don't want to read about anyone besides Eragon and Arya, I created an 'Eragon/Arya track,' which I explain in more detail at the end of Part One, to guide that group of readers through the remainder of the story.

-:- You aren't opposed to reading about religious themes (specifically, Christian). These are more prevalent at the end of Parts Three and Four, but several readers have found them distracting and thought they created significant deviations from Inheritance Cycle canon. One such reader reviewed as M Watts and stated their opinions at the end of Parts Three and Four, if you care to read their specific concerns. If you happen to agree, perhaps consider skipping the last few chapters of those respective parts (I have added warnings in the story to alert readers where the Christian themes start to play a big role). You will also find my responses to those reviews (since they were posted by a guest, whom I cannot PM), which may or may not help you determine what to make of them.

-:- And lastly: enough people have now commented about this that I feel the need to include it here. Neither of my stories (The Cycle Continues or Next Generation) focuses much on the dragons. I know they're about Dragon Riders and that in Inheritance Cycle Eragon and Saphira's bond was like a huge deal, but it never mesmerized me as I'm sure it did millions of IC fans. So if you're wanting a lot of dragon action, this isn't where you're going to find it. Sorry!

I have included Chapter One of Part One in this listing (advance to "Chapter 2" to read it) so you can decide if you like my writing style and how I bridge the ten-year gap between the end of Inheritance and the beginning of my story. Hopefully that will help you determine whether or not to find the rest under the real story posting (instructions on how to do that are at the end of the next chapter). If not, no harm done and you can be on your way!

To your reading enjoyment!

Warmly,

~Autumn :)