first fic, so please, please, rate so i know how i need to improve.
Around the Campfire
Eragon felt somewhat depressed as he watched the spirits be enveloped by the never-ending darkness. He had not felt that happy in a long while. Finally, he decided that it would be best to go to sleep, as they had a long way to travel the next day. It was only then that he realized that his hand was reaching out in the direction the spirits had vanished. He quickly let it drop to his side.
Arya must think I look like a fool.
Eragon sat down, not daring to look at the scornful expression he was convinced would be on Arya's face.
After what seemed like hours, but could not have been much more than two or three minutes, Eragon found the courage to look across the now smoldering fire at Arya. To his astonishment, as well as horror, she was already staring at him. As he looked up, his eyes met hers, sapphire met emerald. And, as he gazed into her eyes, Eragon saw something her had never seen in her before. He saw confusion and regret and something else that he could not identify, no matter how he tried.
It was then that Eragon heard Arya break the silence, saying, "Eragon… Eragon, I- I wanted to..."
But he had stopped listening then as he felt an intrusive presence touch his mind.
He returned his attention to Arya and noticed that she must have felt it as well, for she had stopped talking.
At that moment, seemingly from thin air, an arrow buzzed toward Arya. Fast as an elf, Eragon leapt at her with a single thought: to get her out of the way of that lethal barb. Whether or not that meant he would have to take it for her mattered not.
Arya was sitting on the ground again as she watched Eragon. She was watching him as he continued to hold out his hand after the spirits, thinking of the expression on his face as he had touched one. His face seemed to light up with a radiant joy when his hand had come into contact with the entity. Above all, she was remembering how he had smiled. It was the first time she had seen him truly smile in a very long while.
She remembered how he used to smile all the time, how he used to enjoy life, that is, until that fateful duel when between he and Murtagh when Murtagh revealed that one, terrible secret that seemed to break him. Learning that he was the son of Morzan, the man who had betrayed the riders to Galbatorix seemed to shatter his heart, as it only added to the list of misfortunes that seemed to rule his life.
But it is not entirely Murtagh's fault is it? asked a voice inside her head.
In no way have I hurt Eragon
What about the Agaetí Blödhren?
I did that which was necessary. If I had not, he would have continued to chase me with that childish infatuation. He would have become distracted.
It was necessary to break his heart?
It was necessary… was all she could think.
Her mind continued to race as she attempted to continue her futile effort of denying something. What exactly she was denying, she was not sure of. Nevertheless, the voice returned. It is necessary that you lie to him day after day, even with your eyes? You cannot deny that you feel the same for him as he feels for you.
I do not! My feelings for him are those of a friend.
But you want it to be more than that, don't you?
I… this is insane, why am I arguing with myself? With that, Arya returned her attention to her surroundings. When she did, she realized that Eragon was staring at her, and she couldn't help but look back into those pools of sapphire that were his eyes as she tried in vain to calm her racing heart. And, though she tried to conceal the confusion that roiled within her mind, she was not completely successful as some still managed to leak out from behind her mask.
As she continued to look into his eyes, Arya saw hurt, embarrassment, grief and a great number of other things as well. It was then that she realized that she had hurt Eragon when she spoke to him at the Agaetí Blödhren. She knew she had to apologize, to make right what she had done to him that night, but she could not find the words. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she managed to stammer out "Eragon… Eragon, I- I wanted to…" But she stopped as she realized he was no longer paying attention to her.
At this, anger began to fill her. Anger that he was not paying attention to her when she was trying to speak to him. Anger that he was only making this more difficult than it already was.
She was about to speak again as she felt something touch her mind, something familiar, yet distant, like a half forgotten dream. It was not human or elf or even animal. It was something more powerful, more foreboding.
The very next thing she noticed was Eragon lunging over the fire, if it could still be referred to as such since it was now only a burnt out pile of white ash, with a look of such urgency and fear upon it, she wondered at it.
Before she could think on it further, Eragon collided with her, knocking them both to the ground as something split the air where her head had been only seconds ago.
Eragon reached her after what seemed to him to be an agonizing eternity. Unfortunately, the impact sent them both cascading uncontrollably to the ground. He did his best to roll to the side so as to avoid crushing Arya's slim frame, however, he landed rather harder than he would have like to and the wind was thrust out of him. He felt as though Saphira had just stepped on his chest with all of her might as he fought to regain his breath.
As soon as he did, Eragon's mind flew to thoughts of Arya. Was he fast enough? Was she injured by the arrow? Did the fall hurt her? Similar thoughts and worries besieged his mind until he saw her push herself off of the ground.
Arya was a little dusty and rather indignant at being thrust to the ground in such a forceful manner, but she was, as far as Eragon could tell, unharmed. The idea that he had indeed saved her life calmed him more than he had imagined possible. That calm, however, was short lived as a man stepped out of the shadows, with a cold, naked blade in his hand.
The man stood over six feet tall and had wine-red hair. His semi-transparent skin was covered by entirely black clothes. And then the man smiled, revealing teeth filed to points so sharp, Eragon was convinced that he could bite through even the thickest leather as if it were no more than butter.
Finally, the man spoke, saying, "Our name is Ethordos, and we have come to revenge ourselves upon you for trapping us in this prison."
It was at that moment that Eragon realized what the man was. He was, in fact, not a man at all, instead, he gasped, "A shade!"
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