Chapter 1

Swaying from left... to right... left to right... the motion was disturbing, uneasy and so very rough. I heard crunches, every time I swayed in either direction-the crunch of leaves being pressed underneath someone's boots... no I can't be him...

"Ulric!" my eyes flung open and I wailed his name so frightened and angry. Was he carrying me? NO- the e-

"Who?"

"W-where am I?" I suddenly twitched. I was expecting a sharp and yet very husky voice, but instead I heard the voice of a young man... oh... Pieces and scenes of what happened last night rushed into my brain. I rubbed my head with my right hand, soon realizing I was moving, not even- being carried over someone's shoulder. My vision was upside down, and that left me even more lightheaded.

The boy from last night looked over his shoulder. "Spine, wouldn't you know that already? It's where I rescued you"

I sighed, recollecting my thoughts once more and than remembered the convoluted and complex future I saw of this boy's. And then... in all the visions I remembered one distinct piece. I'm sure he couldn't have caught it all, only I'm able to see exact scenes, he probably only felt feelings and emotions, no clear image of future scene. At least, now I know why Arya had sent me here. Nevertheless, even if his future was clear to me, his face was not.

"Well then... can my rescuer put me down, so that I can at least his face?"

He paused, thinking, and then acknowledged my request and set me down on the forest floor, kneeling in front of me. I gazed into the boy's face, his icy blue eyes fairly familiar. Young but naive, this one. He embodied teenage boyhood: the lean growing physique, stylishly unkempt hair and that playful rowdiness it was all very cute.

I smiled at him and with a slight giggle touched his forehead gingerly with two fingers. "Eragon"

The blonde's expression raised and he watched me carefully with a genuine wonderment. His eyes skimmed over every detail of my face, without my hood and under broad daylight I felt uncomfortable when he stared at me. Though, I was surprised when he didn't react the way most people did when they saw me.

Arya told me I was too beautiful for my own good- strangely and grotesquely beautiful that most human found my appearance offensive. My features were pronounced; my eyebrows were sharp and dark, my eyes were a common brown, but it was so dark it looked black, I had a thin face and pump yet defined lips... all these things apparently mocked and intimated not only humans but elves too. After all, I was a mix of the two, so no one was used this type of appearance. I was so used to people sneering at me for looking at me this way, I grew insecure about myself and kept my face hidden underneath my hood, but here, this boy, Eragon, smiled humbly at me, not stricken at all. Instead, he looked at me as if I were his long time best friend.

"How did you-"

"Pardon my intrusion...but you were the one who grabbed my hand..." I hesitated in my explanation to let Eragon remember. "I accidentally looked into your future...and who you were..."

"So that's what those scenes were?"

I nodded "I'm sorry, you caught me off guard. I didn't-"

Eragon waved his hand "Its fine. But what are you that you're able to do that? You aren't from these lands, are you? "

"No...I'm Zara... originally from the lands of Nadindel...and-" He didn't let me finish.

"-Of course" Eragon remembered the sketchy traders who came from those lands once to his village. They were all mysterious in their ways, and some would think they were even sinister, but they were loyal. And as their pronounced looks would suggest, their kind was ancient and beautiful; skilled in the many aspects of sorcery and the ability to arch; like their fathers and mothers were before them.

"But why are you all the way here in Spine?"

What should I tell him? That my friend was being held by the Shade and I was now in charge of him and the dragon he will soon ride? Oh and that I'm eventually going to take him to the Varden? And that man yesterday was an assassin sent by the king to kill me for the egg? Yeah... fat chance.

I sighed as he awaited my answer.

"And that what about that man?... Ulric?" he pronounced his name uncomfortably. I felt like he thought something else was going on last night...

Maybe I should just say that he was my abusive... husband? Yeah he'd believe that.

"Abusive friend" I flatly dead panned this direction of the conversation "I thank you for killing him, I was about to but then you came along"

He looked at me skeptically and was about to ask something but then I cut him off before he even could.

"Do you still have the-"

"-That stone thing?" Eragon suddenly questioned. I was glad he remembered, maybe it even hatched and he was trying to hide this fact and set the thing flying above us. "...Than yes I do" he took out the blue egg from his pouch...

I was being too hopeful. But hey, it has to hatch eventually, I saw it... "good, because that's the reason why I'm in Spine.. To give it to you"

"To me?" Eragon starred at me strangely.

I simply smiled plainly, in return. "Yes...is there something wrong?"

Eragon made a face and wanted to question again, but I felt that it'd be better if he figured out a few things on his own and so I just simply ended the conversation.

"Good" I smiled endearingly and I saw the confused expression on his face. Eragon glared at me and then at the stone he was holding.

I learned we weren't far from civilization, in fact, it was only a short walk away from Eragon's home. He didn't dare ask any more questions of who I really was, where I came from and what this stone was, instead he contemplated all of these things. He was thinking deeply and every few moments during our walk to his home, he looked up at me in sheer bewilderment. I was sure he was planning on what to ask me later.

"I'm sure Uncle Garrow will let you stay... you do have no place to go, right?..."

We finally reached the doorstep of the cottage. My duty as to protect and watch him, let him discover on his own of what's about to unravel and so I decided at that moment that staying with him and playing a pitiful house guest would be the best thing for now. "No...I don't" I stated the fact. I lied about my emotions, leading him on that that evil man had kidnapped me but it was true that I really had no real home. I had a room at the Varden headquarters, sure, but I never stayed their long enough to except it as my own. I actually bounced from place to place, and even though I considered Arya and her family as my own family after they had taken me in after my mother passed, I never lived with them long enough either.

The blonde nodded for reassurance, before tapping on the door.

A gruff old man's voice was heard. "Who is it?"

"Uncle, it's me, Eragon."

With a faint sound of a lock being undone, the door swung open a few seconds later, revealing the face of an aging man. His face was thin and set with grey stubble.

Eragon walked in, setting his stuff aside before I reluctantly walked in, under the intense gaze of Garrow.

"Now who is this?"

The uncle tried to peer inside the darkness of my hood, but then I uncovered it myself, out of a respect. His eyebrows rose and he set a hand on his chin when he saw me under the light of the room.

"I'm sorry to intrude...but-"

Eragon cut in "She was lost and.., so I told her I-we could take care of her for the time being"

I finally took off her cloak to reveal the deep cuts, bruises and dirt smeared over my sleeveless arms.

"Oh my dear child…" Garrow suddenly changed his look to a worried one and immediately brought me a chair, "-Who would do this to you?"

Both the uncle and Eragon watched me, for neither Eragon really knew how I'd gotten so beat up.

"Uh..."Quickly thinking, Eragon made up a story, seeing the discomfort rising on my eyes.

"Someone in the forest, ah…h-he was trying to kidnap her"

I nodded and added to the lie, sheepishly. "I didn't see his face clearly at night; he ran away quickly just when Eragon arrived to save me"

"How horrible" Garrow waved for Eragon to fetch me a cup of water. He was definitely buying the whole story. "Don't you know where you came from?"

I shook my head again. "I don't quite remember, I was hit on the head..." Now that really was a stretch.

Eragon set the cup besides me and I took it, looking up at the boy with a faint smirk before Uncle Garrow addressed me again.

"So you need a place to stay don't you?"

"Yes, very much"

"Alright" the uncle's emaciated hand patted my knee. "You can stay here, this house hasn't had a woman's touch in years" he smiled at the end "Roran will be pleased...we haven't had good food in ages."

Eragon chuckled, crossing his arms. "Are you implying my meals aren't good?"

The uncle laughed with a few coughs " No, no they are fine as well, but a woman gives much more love to her food... You can cook though, can't you?"

Come to think of it, I don't think I've really cooked a meal in a very long time. I've never actually learned to properly cook one either... I give them a pathetic smile "I can try..."

I was given a small cot in the barn across Eragon's own cot. Eragon's cousin was kind enough to build me a last minute right before bed just a few hours earlier. Granted, it's not the comfortable way of sleep, but I'd been sleeping on the hard and cold forest floor for the past few nights, so anything above the ground was enough to please me right now.

I didn't mind sharing this... room with him either, the closer I was to Eragon and the egg, the more protected the two would be.

"Zara..."

I was rummaging through the tunics, pants and dresses Garrow had dug up from his sister's old chest. Eragon had brought them over while I had gone to take a bath but now he waited outside the doors of the barn at night for me to finish changing.

" Yes?" I picked up a slender maroon cotton dress. It was plain and simple; sleeveless and tea length so someone could comfortably sleep in it.

"I'm still confused..." he started in a low voice "...about everything... I'm still..."

I slowly tugged the dress over my head and looked over at the gate and saw, though the narrow distance between the gates Eragon's back towards it. He had his arms crossed and shifted weight from one to another.

"What are you confused about?"

He sighed "me a-and...You're reason for giving me t-that thing..."

I was taken aback, but not even offensively. I just suddenly realized how incredibly selfish I was being. I was forcing this boy to accept me when I hadn't even completely told him what was going on and how I really was. How could he ever trust me? No, how could he even comprehend what was going on?

The dress fell over my chest and cascaded down until it reached a stop my calves. "If you're so confused...Why do you not just ask me my real purpose?"

He suddenly turned around facing the gate, pressing slightly against the one of the door. "Then tell me... who are you and why have you come to find me?"

I slowly walked over the other door and pushed open the other door to come face to face with Eragon. I felt his anxious nervousness when I didn't reply to him right away. He was watching me so intently waiting my answer.

"Eragon..." The boy's face suddenly dropped when I desolately looked at him. "I know I don't expect you to trust me so quickly without knowing anything about me, but you shouldn't worry about me at all. In fact, you're duty lies beyond our future friendship."

He didn't want to believe in what I was telling him, he wanted to explain something else to me but he remained silent.

My expression softened as I set one hand on his shoulder "Patience Eragon...You will learn, soon enough. "