(A/N): Hey Guys! For all of you guys who read the original version of this story, welcome back. For those of you who haven't, either welcome or feel free to go read it so you can truly appreciate how much better my writing has gotten in the twelve stories since. I also noticed, just before, that I actually haven't offered a description of Carmen in this one, so I'm just going to go ahead and do that now. Carmen: Long, golden-blonde hair that reaches down to her waist, tanned skin and blue eyes that look like the bottom of a shallow pool. Another thing, there is over 2,000 words just in this first chapter. How's that for longer, eh?
Carmen
They found me when Diam was out hunting, it was rather lucky they did, otherwise I would either be dead or under Galbatorix's control by now. As it is I was subjected to torture by magic, he made sure no marks could be seen after he had finished with me, keeping me locked in the dungeons, only letting me stay alive as bait for the Varden. I imagine Diam was pretty worried, she always was a little paranoid when it came to being away from my side. I knew Nasuada would send help when I didn't arrive at the Varden this morning, and upon searching for me finding only the decaying remains of the guards sent to protect me from exactly this. Apparently Nasi has learnt that if I'm not where I'm meant to be on time I'm either dead or captured by an evil, tyrannical and megalomaniac king because I hear footsteps that most certainly don't belong to my imprisoner. I slid myself off the granite block I had been lying on as the big wooden door swung open on its hinges revealing a well-muscled, tall, red headed boy slightly younger than me and a woman with raven hair, her features covered with a hooded cloak. Another face came into view as the others made room for him, a blonde boy, probably younger than the first, his build stocky and short, the opposite of his accomplice. They were clearly staring at me, for what reason I do not know. I didn't look that bad did I?
"Who are you?" I asked them, not really caring who answered. The blonde boy looked to the red-head and from the red-head to the raven haired woman. She shrugged lightly and sighed at the boy's immaturity of not wanting to go first.
"I am Arya Drottningu, daughter of Queen Islanzadi, ally of the Varden." A princess? Nasi sent a princess to rescue me? And an elven one at that? Wow, I really must be important to her. Next person.
"My name is Eragon Shadeslayer, Son of Brom, ally of the Varden and I have sworn fealty to Nasuada." A Shadeslayer as well? The son of Brom? So the old codger did have a life. The last in line, the blonde, hesitated before introducing himself.
"I am Murtagh, s-son of Morzan, ally to the Varden." Murtagh, the son of Morzan? Wasn't he the cause of a big riot last year between the king and the Varden? Throughout this my face staid the same as before I had asked their names.
"I'm Carmen, Daughter of Larkin, ally of the Varden, friend of Nasuada. So you're the ones she sent to find me? I'm surprised, I didn't think I was all that important to the Varden." I said as I took a step closer to them. "So? Are you coming or not?" I asked over my shoulder as I slunk out of the room, catching sight of a half-smile on the blond boy, Murtagh's face before a flicker of anger washed across it as his eyes went slightly blank and I knew that he was the one the King had raged on about. The one who had changed his true name to escape the clutches of the tyrannical king, the one who had had to relive every moment of his life, good or bad, just to change even the tiniest detail so that he could leave this horrible place and be free with his dragon, Thorn. Walking down the corridors of Uru' Baen was a frightening thing, and as she paused to deliberate the way, she heard the far off clang of many guards swords against their armor as they ran. My eyes flickered back to the elven woman behind me, Arya, and it was clear she had heard it too.
"Run!" We yelled at the same time, startling the other two men. Racing through the tight bends of the empty corridors, I found it easy to keep up with Arya, something I could tell she was confused about. We burst out of the castle and I followed Arya as we raced towards the trees, where two large dragons, one sapphire blue, the other blood red stood proudly, waiting for their riders to reach them.
"I'll take Arya!" I heard Eragon shout from behind me, and I adjusted my direction slightly towards the red dragon. I reached it's side seconds before Murtagh and took the time to catch my breath before climbing into the saddle, having to wait a few seconds more for him to jump on and quickly strap us in before telling Thorn to fly. And fly we did, high above the clouds, soaring over the land as we escaped from Galbatorix's soldiers. On my last mission for the Varden I was sent to steal a dragon egg from Uru' Baen and ferry it between the Varden and the Elves, but the egg had hatched for me, and so I became bonded with Diam, my dragon with the snow white scales with the sheen of thousands of diamonds. As we had set off, Murtagh had sipped his hands tentatively around my waist, but my now he had relaxed, and I felt him lean out slightly to look at my face. I grinned as a strong burst of wind blew my hair out of my face and straight into his. Out the corner of my eye I could see Eragon make a hand gesture to Murtagh before I felt the dragon beneath me, Thorn, dive down to a level where the wind wasn't nearly as loud.
"Carmen?" I heard a deep, soothing voice ask from behind me, one that didn't sound like the voice of the Murtagh I had flown with thus far. I craned my neck and my eyes widened slightly before receding back to their normal width. Behind me, instead of a short, young, stocky and blonde-haired boy from before, was almost exactly the opposite. A tall, dark haired man with a ruggedly handsome face and strong and fit body. He also looked much older than he had before, even older than his accomplice, Eragon. I turned to glance at Eragon and saw that he had changed as well, into a young boy, possibly seventeen or eighteen at the most, with brown hair and brown eyes.
"Yes?" I inquired, turning back to face him again.
"What happened to the egg you were carrying?" He looked almost desperate, and I felt bad that I couldn't tell him the truth.
"The King reclaimed it when he captured me…we were this close to having another Dragon rider on our side!" I exclaimed angrily, though internally I was smiling at how outraged and worn down I sounded.
"Well, We'll be back with the Varden soon.
Carmen! You're alive! Diam's voice rang through my head, her words tainted with worry and happiness.
If I weren't, would you still be here? I pointed out with a grin.
Well, I guess not but , my god! I thought he would have killed you for sure! Diam exclaimed in my mind, highly worried.
I did too, but apparently the King's mental powers are highly exaggerated. I said with a shrug, highly confused as to how Galbatorix had missed such a large part of my life when he had searched my mind for information.
So whose that who you're with, he's kind of cute.
Oh, that's Murtagh- I started, only to be cut off by Diam.
I didn't mean the human, though he is rather good looking, even for a human. Diam informed me, causing me to shudder slightly at the implications of her words.
Oh god, please don't start making goo-goo eyes at Thorn! He's a hardened warrior! I exclaimed, trying to stop her from making what I considered to be a large mistake.
He's hardened alright…Diam intoned, causing me to shudder thrice as hard.
Ew! I did not want to hear that! Diam just chuckled and continued to check Thorn out through what she could see in my mind.
"We're arriving soon." Murtagh said, startling me. I cast my eyes downwards and saw that he was right, we were almost to Surda, and King Orrin's Palace. I watched as Surda grew larger and larger, and eventually Thorn and Saphira landed gracefully in the only open space amid the crowd of people who had gathered here to watch the proceedings. I saw Arya and Eragon climb off of Saphira's back from the corner of my eye, and felt Murtagh release his grip on my waist before climbing off and offering me his hand as a way to get down.
"Thank you." I whispered before following them towards the short podium where Nasuada and King Orrin were standing. First Arya split off to make her way through the crowd to the podium, then Eragon, and finally Murtagh until I was lift all alone, walking up the thin passage with everyone's eyes on me. I took a deep breath as I climbed the single stair of the podium and stopped not three feet from Orrin and Nasuada and nodded my head in acknowledgment.
"King Orrin, Nasuada." I greeted with a small smile, returned with large ones from my two of my greatest and oldest friends.
"Carmen, it's great to have you back." Nasuada said, hugging me tightly for a few seconds before releasing me.
"Carmen, it's a great personal pleasure to welcome you back to Surda, plus a privilege to have the likes of one as…resourceful as you in Surda."
"Not exactly the best welcome but it will do." I said, ignoring the shocked looks from Arya, Eragon and Murtagh as I did so. "I mean, you could have at least given me a hug or something!" Orrin rolled his eyes and pulled me into a long tight hug before letting me go.
"Better?"
"Well I could use a red carpet or something-" The crowd cut me off with a joint chuckle, leaving Eragon, Arya and Murtagh even more confused.
"My little sister, the jester!" Orrin announced, grabbing my arm and hoisting it into the air with a grin. I saw Eragon, Arya and Murtagh's eyes widened in disbelief and confusion when Orrin had turned me around and asked them to follow us when Nasuada started leading me to my quarters. Walking through the halls of Borromeo castle I smiled as I breathed in the warm breeze as it filtered through the holes in the walls.
"I don't know why Orrin insisted on me leading you up here. I mean, it's not like you would have forgotten!" Nasuada exclaimed exasperatedly as I grinned at her. "Well, I have to get back to my quarters, it's getting rather dark…" Nasuada trailed off, looking at the darkening sky outside my window.
"Well then, I'll see you tomorrow Nasi." I hugged her tightly before releasing her, allowing her to give me one last tired smile before I turned to my three rescuers.
"Not to be rude, but what just happened?" I smiled as Murtagh asked this.
"As I said before, I'm Carmen, daughter of Larkin, sister of Orrin, friend and ally of Nasuada Nightstalker. Princess and chief adviser of Surda, along with Dragon egg courier. Also, what's up with them picking us princesses to ferry the eggs?" Arya nodded gravely, though still greatly surprised at the fact she was sitting next to another princess.
"How come we have never heard of you before?" Eragon asked curiously, staring at me.
"Because I'm not exactly a common subject, having been gone for the past three years, couriering that damn egg. Well, two years and ten months worth of that was with the egg, the other two were with Galbatorix." I spat his name like a curse and saw a flash of a smile appear on Murtagh's face.
"Why were you picked to courier the egg? I mean, I was ferrying Saphira's egg at roughly the same time. And, why had we never heard of another egg before we were charged with rescuing you?"
"I was picked because I'm one of the fiercest fighters in Surda. Also, because I kept bugging Orrin to let me do something. You never heard of any other eggs because Galbatorix did not wish you to do so. There are many other eggs, but we are currently in a standoff with old Galby. We know where they are, but if we go to get them, Galbatorix's forces will crush ours like bugs. You next question would probably be how we found out about the eggs in the first place, which has a simple answer: we stole some of Galbatorix's notes, and he was foolish enough to leave them on his desk. After that, it was no easy feat to find out the location of the other eggs, but we did it, and now we just have to wait until Galbatorix is overthrown." I arched an eyebrow at them to make sure they got my meaning before walking over to the window and letting the warm breeze caress my face.
Unfortunately, of course, nothing is ever as easy as simply killing a king, now is it?
(A/N): I hope you liked the first new chapter, it took me a really long time, I was never really in the mood until today.