Chapter 1

I stretched my sore limbs after a long day of working in the fields. I could feel the back of my neck burning from sunburn; my hands were raw with blisters and calices. I took off my work boots to discover the calices I have had before hand reopened and new ones formed. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see my older sister; Lenora watching me with a careful eye. Lenora and I are only a year apart; making me the youngest of the two, but only by two years. From what we hear she looks like our mother, Selena, but we both wouldn't know since she took off after I was born.

"You are a mess," she stated simply, clicking her tongue as she walked towards me. All I could do was simply shrug my shoulders in response to her statement. Lenore quietly took a seat next to me at the table I gave her a weary glance when she set down some water and rags in front of her. "Give me your hands," Lenora demanded and then added, "please," in the gentlest voice. I heavily placed one of my hands in her small hand.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed when she put something on the open sores. My hand flinched away, but Lenora gripped my forearm tightly. "At least you can be gentler," I muttered.

"Not going to happen," Lenora responded. Then she seemed like she was considering something, "maybe if you were kinder to yourself, I might be a little bit nicer, but I said might."

"Where on heavens earth did Roran go?" Garrow asked walking in the door. Garrow was average height, with salt and pepper hair that seemed to never want to lay in one direction. His clothes hung loosely on his body; you could tell that money was tight just by glancing at him. Lenora stopped what she was doing and smiled at Garrow, I just looked at him and shrugged.

"Roran probably went out to seek Katrina," I suggested. Garrow shot me an odd expression at my suggestion.

"So it is true then, Roran wants to court Katrina?" Lenora asked excitedly. "Or is he already?"

"It is true and don't ask me, I wouldn't know," I confirmed. "I am not completely sure that I was supposed to tell you, if anyone asks, you did not hear it from me."

"He had to fall for Katrina, why couldn't he fall for someone else," Garrow responded to the confirmed gossip. Lenora and I shot Garrow an odd look and he sighed. "I simply don't like Sloan. Roran however does have my approval, Katrina is a fine lady, but Sloan… he is not going to like the two of them courting."

Lenora carefully wrapped one of my hands in a cloth before she finally spoke, "Uncle, who does like Sloan?" She asked. I couldn't help myself from chuckling.

Garrow chuckled too, "I don't hate him, but I don't like him. He is nothing but a miserable old goat." I chuckled at the statement Garrow and shook his head. "Well, I will let the two of you be. Hopefully, Eragon, when you go out to find yourself a girl, you will find one that has a better… father figure." As Garrow walked past the two siblings, Garrow patted Eragon's shoulder and gave him a warm smile.

"What about you Lenora?" I asked breaking the silence that took over the kitchen. Lenora who seemed like she was too focused on attempting to heal Eragon's calices didn't respond right away.

"What about me?" Lenora asked finally looking up at her brother.

"Well, are you courting anyone?" I asked honestly. Sometimes he had no idea what went on with his sister. All he knew was she cooked, she cleaned, looked out after him even when he protested against it.

Lenora looked down again concentrating on my hand then she shot her head up again. "No." I nodded his head, not sure why his sister was behaving all the sudden oddly. "Can I be frank?" Lenora asked, but before she could let me answer she went ahead, "I have only found pigs and dogs here. Carvahall is not the best place for courting or at least for me anyways." Lenora got up sharply and walked toward the back of the house. I let out a deep sigh as I watched his sister storm away.

I noticed that outside, the sun was going down and figured that I would go outside and enjoy the beauty of the sun going down. The sky seemed to have exploded with color pinks, blues, purples, yellows and oranges all intertwined with one another making the sky seem like it was on fire.

"I'm sorry," someone said behind me. I turned around to see Lenora standing there with a blanket wrapped around her frail shoulders.

"There is nothing to be sorry about," I assured her.

"I shouldn't have been so rude, you were asking a simple question and I blew up in your face. I am sorry." Lenora smiled at me and I returned the smile. Lenora tightly wrapped her arms around my waist and I wrapped my arms around her shoulder. We stayed there for a while watching the sun go down.

"We should get some rest," Lenora said after the sun had gone down. I nodded my head in agreement. The two of us walked into the house heading toward the back of the house. I thought it was strange that Roran was not back yet, but I figured he probably lost track of time and would be back shortly.

"Goodnight Lenora," I said walking into my small room.

"Good night, little brother," Lenora said with a chuckle. I rolled my eyes and laid down looking at the concaving ceiling.

All I could feel was blinding pain on the side of my head, I rested my hand where the pain was and found that I was bleeding. I glanced around at my surroundings and find that I am in a cell somewhere, I can hear people screaming, their longings to get out of there. Then there was a man at my cell looking straight at me. He had flaming red hair that was long and straight and maroon eyes that burned with hate, it almost felt as if his eyes were actually burning my skin. The door to the cell opened and he walked in.

"Hello Eragon, it is so good to finally meet you," the man said with a voice as cold as ice.

I awoke thrashing around and panting, Lenora ran into my room looking concerned at me. "Are you alright?" Lenora asked scanning me over. She took her hand and wiped some of the sweat off that had formed on my forehead.

I looked at her frantic trying to find my voice I swallowed a few times before speaking. "Yeah, yeah I am fine," I said still panting.

"What was it about?" Lenora asked curious all the sudden.

"I don't remember all of it, but there was a man. He had red her, the color of blood and his eyes; they burned with hate and matched his hair. I think he was a Shade…he also knew my name."

Lenora hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear, "it was just a dream, but you should take today off,"

"I couldn't do that with winter approaching soon!" I exclaimed.

"What is going on?" Roran asked standing in the doorway. "Eragon, are you ill?"

"Nothing is going on and no I am not ill," I responded to my eldest cousin.

Roran did not listen and put his hand on my forehead and he removed his hand right away, "Eragon! You are burning up!" Roran exclaimed.

It was not till then that I felt bile rise to my throat, I leaned over the side of my bed facing away from Lenora and threw up. I could feel Lenora rubbing my back calming me down as I panted. I felt dizzy and I leaned against the headboard. I closed my eyes and heard Lenora leave looking for Garrow.

"Until Gertrude can get here, I will watch over him in between my chores around the house," I heard Lenora say.

"Good, Roran we are going to be in the fields extra long today," Garrow said sadly. He poked his head into my room, like he could not decide if he should come in or not. Then he finally decided to walk in and sat by my bed silently.

"Eragon," Garrow started to say. I shifted my head a little so I could look at him and let him know I was listening. "I hope you get to feeling better soon," continued. He said the last part sort of in an awkward manner, like he was not sure what to say to me. Garrow rose from the chair he sat in and then sat down once again. "I also wanted to let you know Eragon, even though you are my nephew, I love you like you were my own son." He pated my hand and walked out of the door saying nothing more.

Lenora did everything she could to make me feel better, she offered me tea, but the smell just made my stomach churn. Later she just gave up any efforts of making me feel better and just waited for Gertrude to come. The only other attempts she made were sit by my side and placing cool rags on my forehead, hoping it would break my fever.

Each time my foot hit the ground in the cathedral it echoed clearly. Then I heard it, clicking noises coming from behind me. I turned my head slightly to see two strangers all in black looking right at me as if I were there next prey. I instantly picked up my pace and tried to find a way out of the church, I was sprinting now, but there was no way out. I was trapped.

I was now aware someone was shaking me, I wanted the dream to be over, but at the same time, I was not ready to leave the warmth that surrounded me. I opened my eyes to see Roran was the one shaking me. Lenora, shortly after Roran succeeded in waking me, ran into the room out of breath. I shook my head dazed, why was Roran here? Was he not supposed to be in the fields? I glanced at my tiny window to see it was dark.

"You nearly gave me a fright," Roran said solemnly.

"Sorry about that," I responded gruffly closing my eyes trying to remember what the dream was about. Who were those people?

"Eragon was it the same as earlier?" Lenora asked all the sudden.

"No," I said sourly, "it was different, this time there was two men dressed in all black and all they wanted was to kill me. They were chasing me in a cathedral, why I was in there, I have no idea."

Lenora seemed to be in deep thought and then she sighed, "Eragon you are one mystery," she stated. I could not help but chuckle.

Two days had passed and I was finally better, but Garrow would not let me go back out in the fields to work instead he needed me to go hunt. I went to gather my things to see that Lenora has already done so.

"Thanks," I mumbled as I sat on the edge of my bed looking at the knotting on the wooden floor.

"What is wrong?" She asked rubbing my back. I stared up at her and shook my head.

"Nothing," I finally responded. "What have I missed?" I asked changing the subject.

"You did not miss out on much. Garrow was worried though, I am not sure if I have ever seen him as worried as he was, some of the villagers were worried as well."

"Really?" I asked then I knew who was worried. It was most likely Horst and Elaine. They always looked out for the family ever since I could remember. They even cared more when we moved to the farm outside of the village. Garrow decided to move there, even though the other villagers protested against it.

"Yeah, well you should get going, we are running low on meat," Lenora said looking over her shoulder and looking at the pitiful pile of meat on the counter. "It is enough to sustain us for a couple of days. Don't be long brother," Lenora continued.

I gave her a slight nod and put my pack on my back and grabbed my longbow that Garrow made me when I went on my first hunting trip. "I will be back in a few days at the most."

"Be careful," Lenora said hugging me tightly. I gave her a reassuring smile and waved as I headed to Spine.