I don't own Eragon or Eldest or anything like that.
Katrina walked outside. It was just after midnight. After being thoroughly lectured by her father, she had gone to bed. But she had woken up several hours later, and something had told her to go out.
She walked to a small forest, about a mile outside of town. She sat down on a tree stump, getting herself comfortable. She sat for about thirty minutes, just enjoying the quiet. She was about to get up, when she heard a twig snap to her left.
She froze, for the first time thinking about how she was alone in the woods. At night. With nobody within a mile of her. And she had just heard a twig snap.
She slowly turned to see what it was. She expected a wolf or the likes, but what she did not expect was Eragon, carrying a sack and a knife. She shifted so that she could see him, but he could not see her.
He looked around nervously. Something inside the bag squirmed and made a little noise.
Eragon set the bag down, his face ghost white. He slowly took the knife out of his belt and... stabbed the bag with it. Dark red blood oozed out. Katrina stared in horror.
Eragon pulled the knife out and walked away, leaving the bag on the ground.
As soon as she was sure he was gone, Katrina rushed out of her hiding place and ran to the bag. She untied the knot around the top with trembling fingers. What could be in there that Eragon would want to kill? She knew it was probably dangerous, but it was dead, wasn't it?
At last, she managed to untie it. She carefully lifted up the edge of the sack. She had put on gloves and a scarf before she went out; it was just barely spring, so when she reached in to the bag to pull whatever was in there out, she didn't touch the dragon.
What she saw shocked her. A small, bright blue lizard-like thing jumped out and growled at her. I took her a moment to register that this thing was not dead, and it had not been killed by Eragon. What was in front of her was a dangerous, bloodthirsty animal.
But now that she looked at it, it was not bloodthirsty. It was just terrified. Dangerous, it certainly was. Its leg was bleeding heavily where Eragon had stabbed it. He must have thought he stabbed its neck; otherwise he would not have walked off.
Katrina forced herself to be calm. Sitting in front of the dragon, she slowly held her hands up so that it could see she held nothing. The dragon assumed a less hostile poise, though it still eyed her suspiciously. She placed her hands in her lap.
The dragon nosed at its leg, which was still bleeding heavily. On an impulse, Katrina unwound the scarf from around her neck. She held it out to the creature, and though it could not do it itself, it understood what she wanted to do. It gave the tiniest nod of its head, and allowed her to wrap the scarf tightly around its leg.
Katrina had to take her gloves off to tie it, for they were thick and she had trouble bending her fingers in them. She sat back and surveyed her handiwork. The scarf was soaking up most of the blood, though a few drops squeezed out the sides.
The dragon looked up at her gratefully. She smiled at it.
"You need a name, now don't you?" she asked, though she knew it couldn't answer. It was blue, so surely a form of blue would be a good name. She thought of as many as she could. Sapphire, Navy, Indigo, Blue, Azure, and Cerulean.
She quickly ruled out Navy, blue, and indigo, which left Azure, Sapphire, and Cerulean. After much thought, she decided on Sapphire. But just "Sapphire" sounded too plain. Perhaps, Saphira? "What do think of Saphira?" she asked the dragon. Her dragon.
It nodded its scaly head as though it agreed.
Katrina reached out to stroke it. The second her hand touched Saphira's head her entire body went rigid with pain. Lightning bolts seemed to shoot through her. After a few seconds, she retreated to the waiting darkness.