Hi there! This is my first fanfic, and it would make me very happy if you could just spare five minutes to write a review. I really want to know what others think of my writing, and whether I should carry on with one-shots like this. More reviews may even encourage me to write more... :)

Imprisonment at Gil'ead

Arya's POV

Footsteps. Or was it rain-drops pattering on the stone sill outside the barred cell-window? I did not know. I could not tell. Whatever the sound really was, it soon faded away, and I sank into another fitful sleep encouraged by the Skilna Bragh poison that spread and tingled through my already- weakened veins. To stay alive, I needed the uncommon antidote, Tunivor's Nectar, which the Shade Durza supplied to me daily. This favour was not out of kindness, just so that he could torture me for more information again the next day, and the next. After my first week of imprisonment, I realised that there was no point of trying to escape.

I do not know how long, but sometime later, I was awakened once again by the faint jingle of a bunch of keys, and the ominous grinding of a cell door. My cell door. A faint shaft of light illuminated my face and my neck, bathing them in temporary warmth. This reminded me that a world outside this cell existed, a world outside this prison, and a world outside the dark city that was named Gil'ead by the dark king.

I summoned just enough energy to lift my head and open my eyes. In the faint glow I could make out a faint silhouette, but I could not tell if it was human, elf, Shade, or Ra'zac. However, I knew for certain that it was not a dwarf, as the figure was way too tall to be one. If it was the king, I was doomed. I could not brace myself against Galbatorix's fickle mind, but I could brace myself for the torment that was just about to begin, and the Shade's endless probing questions. I had kept my secrets so many times before. I could do it again, I convinced myself.

I tensed my muscles, anticipating any second for the searing pain to commence. I was already anticipating the terrible burn in my throat, as the Shade gave me another dose of the drug that kept me weak and powerless and without a trickle of my magic. But the seconds ticked by, but the torture did not come. Just silence.

I thought through the puzzle of the mysterious figure. My conclusion was that I completely imagined it in a desperate prayer of freedom. But what did freedom really mean? I thought hard and long before finally whispering the word, enjoying how it rolled around my tongue.

"Freedom." My voice trembled.

I flinched as soon as I heard the sound. After hours of screaming in agony, my voice had turned like my mother's, when my father's mangled body had been lowered into the deep, fertile earth of Du Weldervarden. It was husky, full of despair, and completely without hope. Whatever happens to me, I will never forget my father. He was, he is, etched onto my heart, just as the yawë is on my shoulder. My father. Evander.

The ceaseless torture had driven me to the brink of insanity, but I was not so mad as to not realise it. It must have been getting worse, because now I hardly knew the difference between day and night, moonlight and sunlight through the lone barred window, and reality and hallucination. What is left of my life has just become a huge blur. Maybe this is what Durza intended. Surely one day I was bound to give away the information I had been concealing for the past years... months... days? How long I did not know. I drifted into a state of unconsciousness...

I saw myself being carried out of the prison by a brown-haired boy, with the most distinctive dark-chocolate eyes, like two identical bottomless abysses. My gaping wounds were healed, and the less serious scratches were dressed with clean, fresh bandages, which looked like they were torn off a flannel shirt. My instinct screamed for him to put me down, and get himself to safety, but he did not hear me, as I had no energy left to waste on speaking. Time seemed to speed up, as I saw us ride across many leagues of desert land, over mountains, through many deep ravines, and through the thickest forests. But still this determined boy, man, did not stop for a moment of rest.

Suddenly, I sensed a huge surge of energy coming from the skies above. I gazed in wonder and awe as a giant scaly sapphire head appeared through the thick clouds, followed by a pair of scaly sapphire wings, a scaly sapphire torso, and a long, glittering, scale-covered tail. I could not help but stare at this dragon's magnificence, a small smile curving on my lips. My mission had not been in vain, as the sapphire egg had hatched. I had served my purpose. At least the Varden would be pleased... if the boy managed to get there before Galbatorix did, the little voice in my head added pessimistically.

Following the sapphire dragon's arrival, the boy called out, as he raised his faintly glowing palm to the sky.

"Saphira!"

Brom's Saphira? Or another Saphira? The young boy looks almost identical to how Brom does even now, I thought, so it had to be him when I did not know him in his younger days. I felt a pang of sorrow for the now dragon-less Rider, soon to be betrayed by his 'friend' Morzan. But then, the focus of my dream changed to a different and far more familiar landscape...

I was lying under 'our' tree where I used to sit for hours with my Faolin. It was completely unknown to my mother and virtually all of the other elves, but not Rhunion of course. It is hard to keep anything from an elf as old as she is, with the vast wisdom she has gained over thousands and thousands of years.

The place I was lying in what was named the 'forbidden valley', by Faolin and me. We were only youngsters when we first came, but soon it became our secret hideout, as it was well away from my mother and other prying pairs of eyes. I could hear the faint sighing of the trees, hear the trickling of the brook just a few steps away, and could smell the strong fragrance of crushed pine leaves from all around me from the little dip where I lay.

Suddenly, a lithe figure darted from between the trees. It took me a few moments to recognise who it belonged to, but eventually I identified him as the rider of the sapphire dragon. However, instead of being fully human in appearance, he now had pointed ears and many other elfish traits. He was more ragged than any elf I had seen, but more handsome than any human.

He took one step towards me, and sighed. His fathomless eyes were full of an unreadable emotion.

"I...I...I love you Arya Drottingu...!" He cried out in the Ancient Language, proving that he could not be completely lying. I raised my head, to stare at his face, his wonderful eyes, and his perfectly symmetrical lips which soon twisted into a slight smile. I realised that just staring at him was not a solution, so I slowly moved my gaze away from his face, so to concentrate on the way the wind seemed to play with his shoulder-length hair, tousling it... and just as I opened my mouth to reply...when the mysterious Rider slowly turned into a shimmering image of Faolin. They both shared the same face structure, the same stature, and both pairs of eyes were brimming with love. As I reached out to reunite myself with Faolin after what seemed so long, he faded away at my touch.

"Faolin! Don't leave me!" I cried out. But his voice just echoed in my head, getting fainter and fainter every second. Through the tree trunks, I could see the mysterious Rider hunched in the shadows of the forest, scrunched up in a tight ball as if trying to hold him together. There were tears running down his face and off the end of his chin, and his brilliant flaming sword was lying in its sheath at his bare feet.

I walked towards him, balancing myself carefully so my feet did not make any noise on the soft turf, and not warning him of my approach. I was not sure what I was going to say, but I knew that I was hurting him, and I was probably the one in the wrong. But yet again, just as I opened my mouth to speak, Faolin's voice echoed again in my head, and made me stop in my tracks.

"My time has come to leave this world. Do what is best for you, Arya... goodbye, my love...my sweet love...Arya..."

And as I awoke from my trance, I remembered that he was dead. I saw him fall, ever graceful, off his noble elfin horse to rest in the dirt and to be consumed by fire. Memories flooded and overwhelmed my careful defences, as I remembered what I did not normally allow myself to remember. I allowed a single tear to form and run down my cheek; once pure, but soon mixing with blood and grime.

The first cloaked figure, which was still in the door way, walked dreamily towards me. I could see it's... his... face, in the dim light. It was the brown-haired boy, with those most distinctive dark-chocolate eyes, like two identical bottomless abysses. The boy from my dreams.

I collapsed soundlessly, and strong hands caught me just before I hit the floor. I faintly heard the two men speaking to each other; deciding my fate.

"She's beautiful!" Rang a deep but controlled voice that echoed around the cell.

"But hurt. It is the woman from my dreams; I assure you. We must rescue her, for my sake and hers." A younger-sounding voice came from behind me, full of worry. It must have belonged to the brown-haired boy.

But just how much my two rescuers did not know! The old Arya Drottingu back in Ellesméra would have been ashamed of the woman lying here.

"We can tend to her later. Are you strong enough to carry her?" replied the rough voice.

There was a slight pause.

"Then I'll do it."

I felt myself being slung across somebody's shoulders, and carried up many flights of stairs. I knew no more as the poison took its toll, and yet again I slipped into unconsciousness...