Prologue: The Pain Of The Lost

The wind rushed passed the man as he flew through the trees, he felt every little rut on the ground every little pebble that his horse's groves hit. The rain that poured down around him made him feel even worse, it was like an icy sting when ever a drop hit, a cold shockwave would ripple over his body making him feel even more crippled. The wind made his skin feel dead and dry and chilled to the bone. It cracked every ounce of mental resolve in his mind to keep riding on through the forest. Suddenly a tree branch glanced his face, this was unbearable, he went flying to the ground screaming in pain, and to him it was like an endless fire that would never stop spreading.

Still it was his fault, it was his curse, the price for his foolishness. Over a hundred years had passed since then and every moment he had spent in this hellish existence had been the price for his horrendous crime. Yet for him there had been no trial, no imprisonment, and only eternal pain. He stood up as the pain began to subside, he could stop right now, he could the pain now, but his master would find him he always did. So in some ways his service to the master was like imprisonment, just of a worse kind Still his curse had one bright side, he was faster, stronger, and more powerful then any mortal and even more than a weak Dragon Rider could hope to be. Cursing his miserable existence and his master as he was about to mount his horse when suddenly there was an explosion behind him and the forest was set a blaze.

As soon as the explosion had hit the man had been reeling in pain on the ground, the explosion hadn't gotten to him it had been the shockwave that caused him misery. All around him the fire spread, charring every last thing to ash. Bugs ran for cover but they were consumed in flame, trees that had stood for hundreds of years were slowly burned to the ground, and stray leaves just disintegrated before the rushing fire. Yet as the fire came toward him the man was not afraid, infact it seemed there was a sense of glee in his eye that couldn't be explained. The fire it seemed was burning a circle around the man to stop him from fleeing, but why the man thought would he want to flee. Slowly yet painfully he reached out and touched the fire, it seemed almost to calm him then with a smile on his lips he muttered one word only, "Brisingr"

Suddenly the fire around him turned a deep shade of blood red that seemed to delight the man into an excited rage. He rose to his feet suddenly not consumed by pain but by madness, madness that fuled his power. Inside him he could feel his senses heightening and his body becoming stronger. He slowly strowed through the blaze kicking up ash as he went, to him the destruction was joy; it was the only thing worth living for. As he walked along breathing in the air of death he contemplated his next move, the power he had gained could help him hide from his master for years, but when he was found the punishment for running would be terrible. Once he had hid before, and when his master had found him he had been tortured for three months before his master allowed him to be let down.

Then he felt them, it wasn't much at first but there was someone there, infact there were many of them probably five or six, and they were moving fast, they would be on him in seconds, he could risk fighting and being discovered and shown to the world who at that moment thought he was dead, or he could flee and most likely stay in his masters good graces. He knew though that risk of a fight was too great, and as he turned to flee the only thing that stopped him was an arrow thunking into a rock right next to him. He turned around and on a hill only a short movement away from him stood for tall elegant and yet dark figures. One of the figures had a bow in his hand the other two had swords. As he took a quick glance at their weapons he noticed that they were like none he had ever seen.

The swords were curved in both directions on the side to form a streamlined heart shape; the metal was a smooth dark silver cover and seemed to have darkness glint off of it. They were longer than most blades with perhaps the exception of the riders swords, and they had a strange writing on the side. The bows were made of of what appeared to be a black wood, not rotting of burned but a black wood. It was smooth and elegant and like the swords was streamlined. The arrows however were the most interesting there seemed to be two kinds, one was a normal arrow that looked like it had been made out of the same metal as the swords, the other arrows were different instead of a normal head it had a head that was like an elongated creasant moon. These arrows almost seemed scary in there own way to the man that honestly shocked him.

The man had no clue who these entities were and even no more idea why they were trying to kill him. The one with the bow fired again this time though he used one of the strange arrows and as soon as it left the bow the man realized the reason for the strange design. When it was fired what appeared to be an amber crystal of fire appeared in the gap. As the arrow sped closer the man easily avoided it, but what happened when hit hit the rock that the other arrow had was shocking, it exploded into millions of pieces, cutting through the arrow shaft. The man now was left with one choice, kill them however possible. The man jumped out of the way of another arrow and ran toward the figures, he dodged three more arrows. Then suddenly of the attackers with swords leapt into the air and traveled more than the man would have thought possible. He landed in front of him without a sound, swinging his blade right as he landed he missed the man by inches. And as he prepared to strike again the man screamed, "NISAR".

The attacker flopped to the ground screaming in pain, and as he did so the man laughed with an amount of vileness that truly didn't express how horrible he was. And as the man screamed, instead of killing him the man just simply lit him on fire with a cruel laugh. But by the time the torture was over and the attacker dead the other two had fled. With a sigh the man walked back to his dead horse that had seemingly been killed during the first explosion. He knelt down beside its head and whispered something into its ear. Then the horse began to change its skin melting away and its form twisting and melting away. When this gruesome process was complete where the horse once stood was now what appeared to be an undead dragon.

And then Eragon awoke...