Fly Away With Me
Disclaimer: I do not own Eldest (obviously) nor any of the characters from Eragon and/or Eldest.
It was all Eragon could do to keep hold of Zar'roc as the dragons tumbled toward the ground, battering one another with terrible blows from their feet and tails. No more than fifty yards above the Burning Plains, Saphira and the red dragon disengaged, struggling to regain altitude. Once she halted her descent, Saphira reared her head, like a snake about to strike, and loosed a thick torrent of fire.
Chapter One
At the exact moment that two riders clashed into each other for the first time, on the other side of Alagaesia, a young girl named Jaenelle opened her eyes.
The sixteen year old sat up, fully awake for she had just had the strangest dream. There were two people, both clad in richly decorated armor and on the backs of two massive creatures. Jaenelle sighed and raised her arms above her head to stretch, sighing in satisfaction when they popped, releasing the tension in her back. She lay back down on her small cot, the morning sun was not quite risen yet and Jaenelle didn't want to get up yet because when she did, the day would truly begin. Crossing both of her arms behind her head, she tried to remember her dream which was already leaving her memory. In fact, the only thing Jaenelle could remember clearly was a bright spiral of fire.
I guess I should go check on the dogs to make sure they aren't frozen to death. Jaenelle thought to herself, rising out of her bed a few minutes later. She scuttled over to her dresser and layered herself in thick wool clothes. Although it was warm inside of the small house she shared with her father, the outside was bitter cold.
Jaenelle and her father, Turin (A/N: yes it's a pretty random name. I couldn't think of any others -.-) lived a few miles away from the village of Kuasta at the base of the mountains. (A/N: This is actually a place in Alagaesia, I didn't make it up, but it is not said anywhere in the novels about the people there nor the city, so I am going to make it how I want to be: a place similar to Carvahall) the cold winds from the ocean swept through the small village constantly, adding to the already freezing temperatures caused by the mountains. Kuasta was surrounded on three sides by large mountains that were the southernmost tip of the Spine. The last side was the ocean. A fishing village, most of the inhabitants worked on the rough waters. Jaenelle and her father had moved away from the village because Torin liked his privacy, something that the village couldn't give. In order to conserve heat, all of the houses were connected to each other, with only four openings, one at the North, West, East, and South points. In total, there were approximately forty houses separated into groups of ten. All of the houses faced in the same direction, towards the center of the circle. At the center there was a massive bonfire which was constantly being fueled by people who worked in shifts. The flames were made to help provide heat for the entire village.
Torin didn't enjoy the fact that his home shared walls with two others, not to mention that it wasn't safe. In one of the instances where a house's straw roof caught on fire, the fire had spread along the row, coming within two houses of his and his daughter's home. After that, the two had moved out into the rough terrain by themselves.
Now sufficiently bundled in clothes, Jaenelle made her way to the door and opened it before closing it quietly behind her. Creeping past her father's door as not to wake him, she made her way to the front door and took a deep breath before swinging the door open and jumping into the cold before shutting the door quickly so the cold air wouldn't enter the house.
After adjusting to the cold, Jaenelle shuffled her way through the foot of snow to where the dogs were kept. Not quite large enough to be considered a barn, the dogs stayed in wooden structure with the walls reinforced by tightly bound bales of hay to keep it warm.
Ducking under the short doorway, she shook the snow off of her hood and revealed her pale face to the four dogs. Her clear ice-blue eyes sparkled with laughter as she was knocked off of her feet by her best friends. Her clear laugh rang out when the youngest, Scoot, shoved his cold nose into her pale, almost white, hair. He woofed and gave a sneeze before giving a wolfish grin and covering her face with slobbery kisses.
Sitting up, she studied the four huskies. The eldest, Tank was a large black male with only his front right paw a stark white color. The second oldest, and also the eldest female, was Layla, a dark gray and white color. Thirdly there was Winx, named because of his tendency to wink at people, was another gray and white mix. Lastly, was Scoot, a pure white dog who was still on the edge of puppyhood. All four had the same crystal blue eyes. "
Well it looks like you all are doing fine." Three barks and another lick on the cheek were her answers.
Rising, she walked over to where the dog feed was kept. Most of the time they could hunt for themselves, being half wolves, but in the snow like this, Jaenelle found it safer just to keep them inside. Reaching the ripped open bag, she gave a questioning look to Scoot, who merely hunched his haunches and tried not to look guilty. Shaking her head, she filled up the four bowls with the proper amounts and gave a whistle to signal the dogs that they could eat.
Giving them all a pat on the head, Jaenelle left the shanty and raised her hood again. Looking up at the sun, Jaenelle figured that she still had approximately a half an hour before she needed to be back inside.
She meandered her way over to the forest and the trails left by the deer that must have passed through. It wasn't quite winter yet, so they hadn't made their way out of the mountains yet. She whistled a small tune, walking along the well known paths. The deer came through these woods every year, so Jaenelle knew all of the paths.
What bothered her however, was the place where the hoof prints suddenly spread out and changed direction abruptly. The spreading out showed that the deer had begun to run, but why the change in direction? Shrugging, Jaenelle chose to stick with the paths she knew so that she wouldn't get lost. After several minutes of walking, Jaenelle suddenly shrieked before falling, breaking her fall with her hands.
Rubbing her sore ankle, Jaenelle mumbled a few curse words before kneeling and looking to see what had caused her to fall. Seeing only an indent in the snow where her foot had stepped, she plunged her hands into the frozen precipitation and began to search the ground. Feeling something round and smooth, Jaenelle grasped it firmly in her hands before lifting it and placing it into her lap.
Her eyes widened when she saw what she now held in her hands.
It was a pure white stone.
End Chapter One
A/N: Review please? puppy eyes