Disclaimer : I do not own the characters or some of the plot.
Hi! This is my new story. I had a twilight story but that's going under editing :( but while i'm doing that I'm writing a new story on one of my other favourite books. It might not be great but i try to please everybody. PLEASE KNOW THAT THE FIRST AND A HALF CHAPTERS ARE FROM THE BOOK!
Enjoy!
Throughout the rest of the day and the next the number of people on the road increased until it seemed to Eragon as if a new group was always appearing over a hill must refuges, although soldiers and other men of businesses were also present. Eragon avoided those he could and trudged along with his chin tucked against his collar the rest of the time.
That practice, however, forced him to spend the night in the village of Eastcroft, twenty miles north of Melian. He had intended to abandon the road long before he arrived at Eastcroft and find a sheltered hallow or cave where he might rest until morn, but because of his relative unfamiliarity with the land, he misjudged the distance and came upon the village while in the company of three men-at-arms. Leaving then, less than hour from safety of Eastcroft's walls and gates and the comfort of a warm bed, would have inspired even the slowest dullard to ask why he was trying to avoid the village. So Eragon set his teeth and silently rehearsed the stories he had concocted to explain his trip.
The bloated sun was two fingers above the horizon when Eragon first beheld Eastcroft, a medium-sized village enclosed by a tall palisade. It was almost dark by the time he finally arrived at the village and entered through the gate. Behind him, he heard a sentry ask the men-at-arms if anyone else had been closed behind on them on the road.
"Not that I could tell."
"That's good enough for me," replied the sentry. "If there are laggards, they'll have to wait until tomorrow to get in." To another man on the opposite side of the gate, he shouted, "Close it up!" Together they pushed the fifteen-foot-tall iron bound doors shut and barred them with four oak beams as thick as Eragon's chest.
They must expect a siege, thought Eragon, and then smiled at his own blindness. Well, who doesn't expect trouble in these times? A few months ago, he would have worried about being trapped in Eastcroft, but now he was confident he could scale the fortifications bared-handed and, if he concealed himself with magic, escape unnoticed in the gloom of night. He chose to stay, however, for he was tired and casting a spell might attract the attention of nearby magicians, if there were any.
Before he took more than a few steps down the muddy lane that led to the town square, a watchman accosted him, thrusting a lantern toward his face. "Hold there! You've not been to Eastcroft before, have you?"
"This is my first visit," said Eragon.
The stubby watchman bobbed his head. "And have you family or friends here to welcome you?"
"No, I don't."
"What brings you here to Eastcroft, then?"
"Nothing, I'm traveling south to fetch my sister's family and bring them back to Dras-Leona."
Eragon's story seemed to have no effect on the watchman. Perhaps he doesn't believe me, Eragon speculated. Or perhaps he's heard so many accounts like mine, they've ceased to matter to him.
"Then you want the wayfarer's house, by the main well. Go there and you will find food and lodging. And while you stay here in Eastcroft, let me warn you, we don't tolerate murder, thievery, or lechery in these parts. We have sturdy stocks and gallows, and they have had their share of tenants. My meaning is clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then go, and be you of god fortune. But wait! What is your name, stranger?"
"Bergan."
With that, the watchman strode away, returning to his evening rounds. Eragon waited until the combined mass of several houses concealed the lantern the watchman carried before wandering over to the message board mounted to the left of the gates.
There, nailed over a half-dozen posters of various criminals, were two sheets of parchment almost three feet long. One depicted Eragon, one depicted Roran, and both labeled them traitors to the Crown. Eragon examined the posters with interest and marveled at the reward offered: an earldom apiece to whoever captured them. The Drawing of Roran was a good likeness and even included the beard he had grown since fleeing Carvahall, but Eragon's portrait showed him as he had been before the Blood-oath Celebration, when he still appeared fully human.
How things have changed, thought on, he slipped through the village until located the wayfarer's house. The common room had a low ceiling with tar-stained timbers. Yellow tallow candles provided a soft, flickering light and thickened the air with intersecting layers of smoke. Sand and rushes covered the floor, and the mixture crunched underneath Eragon's boots. To his left were tables and chairs and a large fireplace, where a urchin turned a pig on a spit. Opposite this was a long bar, a fortress with raised drawbridges that protected casks of lager, ale, and stout from the horde of thirsty men who assailed it from all sides. A good sixty people filled the room, crowding it to an uncomfortable level. The roar of conversation would have been startling enough to Eragon after his time on the road, but with his sensitive hearing , he felt as if he stood in the middle of a pounding waterfall . It was hard for him to concentrate upon any one voice. As soon as he caught hold of a word or phrase, it swept away by another utterance. Off in one corner, a trio of minstrels was singing and playing a comic version of "Sweet Aethrid o' Dauth," which did nothing to improve the clamor.
Wincing at the barrage of noise, Eragon wormed his way through the crowd until he reached the bar. He wanted to talk with the serving woman, but she was so busy, five minutes passed before she looked at him and asked, "Your pleasure?" Strands of hair hung over her sweaty face.
"Have you a room to let, or a corner where I can spend the night?"
"I wouldn't know. The mistress of the house is the one you should speak to about to about that. She'll be down directly," said the serving woman, and flicked a hand at a rank of gloomy stairs.
While he waited, Eragon rested against the bar and studied the people in the room. They were a motley assortment. About half he guessed were villagers from Eastcroft come to enjoy a night of drinking. Of the rest, the majorities were men and women-families oftentimes- who were migrating to safer parts. It was easy to identify them by their frayed shirts and dirty pants and by how they huddled in their chairs and peered at anyone who came near. However, they studiously avoided looking at the last and smallest group of patrons in the wayfarers' house: Galbatorix's soldiers. The men in red tunics were louder than anybody else. They laughed and shouted and banged on tabletops with their armored fists while they quaffed their beer and groped any maid foolish enough to walk by them.
Do they behave like that because they know no one dared oppose them and they enjoy demonstrating their power? wondered Eragon. Or because they were forced to join Galbatorix's army and seek to dull their sense of shame and fear with their revels?
Now the minstrels were singing:
So with her hair aflying, sweet Aethrid o' Dauth
Ran to Lord Edel and cried, "Free my lover, Else a witch shall turn you into a woolly goat!"
Lord Edel, he laughed and said, "No witch shall turn me into a woolly goat!"
The crowd shifted and granted Eragon a view of a table pushed against one wall. At it sat a lone woman, her face hidden by the draw hood of her dark traveling cloak. Four men surrounded her, big, beefy farmers with leathery necks and cheeks flushed with the fever of alcohol. Two of them were leaning against the wall on either side of the woman , looming over her, while one sat grinning in a chair turned backward and the fourth stood with his left foot on the edge of the table and was bent forever over his knee. The men spoke and gestures, their movements careless. Although, Eragon could not hear or see what the woman said, it was obvious to him that her response angered the farmers, for they scowled and swelled their chests, puffing themselves like roosters. One of them shook a finger at her.
To Eragon, they appeared descent, hardworking men who had lost their manners in the depths their tankards, a mistake he had witnessed often enough on feast days in Carvahall. Garrow had little respect for men who knew they could not hold their beer and yet still insisted in embarrassing themselves in public. "It's unseemly," he had said. "What's more, if you drink your lot in life and not for pleasure, you ought to do it where you wouldn't disturb anyone."
The man to the left of the woman suddenly reached down and hooked a finger underneath the edge of her hood, as if to toss it back. So quickly that Eragon barely saw, the woman lifted her right hand and grasped the man's wrist, but then released it and returned to her previous position. Eragon doubted that anyone else in the common room, including the man she touched had noticed her actions.
The hood collapsed around her neck, and Eragon stiffened, astounded. The woman was human, but she resembled Arya. The only differences between were her eyes- which were round and level, not slanted like a cat's- and her ears, which lacked the pointed tips of an elf's. She was just as beautiful as the Arya Eragon knew, but in a less exotic, more familiar way.
Without hesitation, Eragon probed toward the woman with his mind. He had to know who she really was.
As soon as he touched her consciousness, a mental blow struck back at Eragon, destroying his concentration, and then in the confines of his skull, he heard a deafening voice exclaim, Eragon!
Arya?
Their eyes met for a moment before the crowd thickened again and hid her.
Eragon hurried across the room to her table, prying apart the bodies packed close together to clear him a path. The farmers looked askance at him when he emerged from the press, and one said, "You're awful rude, barging in on us uninvited-like. Best make yourself scarce, eh?"
In as diplomatic a voice as he can muster, Eragon said, "It seems to me gentlemen that the lady would rather be left alone. Now, you wouldn't ignore the wishes of an honest woman, would you?"
"An honest woman?" laughed the nearest man. "No honest woman travels alone."
"Then let me set your concern to rest, for I am her brother, and we are going to live with our uncle in Dras-Leona."
The four men exchanged uneasy glances. Three of them began to edge away from Arya , but the largest planted himself a few inches in front of Eragon and, breathing upon his face, said, "I'm not sure I believe you, friend. You're just trying to drive us away so you can be with her yourself."
He's not far off, thought Eragon.
Speaking quietly enough that only that the man could hear, Eragon said, "I assure you, she is my sister. Please, sir, I have no quarrel with you. Won't you go?"
"Not when I think you're a lying milksop."
"Sir, be reasonable. There's no need for this unpleasantness. The night is young, and there's drink and music aplenty. Let's not quarrel about such a pretty misunderstanding. It's beneath us."
To Eragon's relief, the other man relaxed after a few seconds and uttered a scornful grunt. "I wouldn't want to fight a youngling like you anyway," he said. Turning around, he lumbered toward the bar with his friends.
Keeping his gaze fixed upon the crowd, Eragon slipped behind the table and sat next to Arya. "What are you doing here?" he asked, barely moving his lips.
"Searching for you." Surprised, he glanced at her, and she raised a eyebrow. He looked back at the throng of people and, pretending to smile, asked, "Are you alone?"
"No longer….Did you rent a bed for the night?"
He shook his head.
"Good. I already have a room. We can talk there."
Well that's it for now folks.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Pleases leave a review or else I'll turn Eragon gay and make him fall in love with Galbatorix!
silent-girl-midnight