Disclaimer: If you ever see this, it means I have something new to... er, disclaim. This time it is all parts of the planet Earth (location: third planet from the star in the Sol System, located in Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, which is the one next to Andromeda). That about covers everything for the rest of the story.
AN: Thanks to a lot of very positive reviews, I'm actually going to write this. Yes, that means I wasn't actually planning on going past the second chapter. I wrote it a year ago, remember? Anyway, dialog heavy chapter coming up.
Separate Worlds 101
Eragon tried in vain to suppress a laugh.
"What's so funny?" the commander asked. The rest of the crew was staring quizzically.
"Nothing," he shrugged. "Just something Saphira said."
"Who?"
Eragon was amazed they hadn't remembered the only dragon. "Her." He pointed.
"The dragon?" Lindsey sounded amazed. "It..." Saphira growled. "She, can talk? And hear what I'm saying?"
"Of course! You're not saying you have never heard of a dragon, are you?" Eragon was equally surprised.
The commander sighed. "Look, we have a lot of questions, you have a lot of questions, and everyone needs to get to the ground before we run out of gas. I'm gonna leave you two here to talk to Ben and Nicole. Everyone else, cockpit. We're going home."
The crew pulled themselves back to the front of the shuttle, leaving just one man and the woman with Eragon and Saphira. They looked around uncomfortably. If this had been ground-side, they would be shifting their feet a bit too, but no one was standing.
Nicole spoke up first. "Well, I suppose you'll want to know what all this is." She gestured vaguely around the cabin. Eragon nodded. "Ever heard of outer space?" He shook his head. "How do I put this... We are currently 200 miles above Earth's surface. So far out that we aren't being pulled down, which is why there isn't any air up here – they'll explain that later – and we need special suits to breathe." She thought for a moment. "How are you still alive?"
I see now, Saphira commented, the Menoa Tree said she would cast a spell to allowing us to 'breathe and otherwise survive'. But she did leave out the small detail about the lack of air.
Eragon merely shrugged and replied. "Magic," he said simply. The crewmen, for what was probably the fifth time, looked at him like he was a strange fish they found on a desert mountain – a comparison that wouldn't be too far from the truth.
Eragon! Remember what Queen Islanzadi said? These people have no magic.
"Oh! I should explain." And they floated for half an hour while Eragon told of his far off world filled with humans and dragons and elves and dwarves and magic. While he was skimming over the Ancient Language, Ben spoke for the first time.
"Ancient? You mean like Latin?"
"What is Latin?" Maybe they have a language of power, but they don't know what it can do.
"It was spoken about two thousand years ago in Europe, mainly Italy. No one uses it now." He shrugged and unfolded a large map, pointing out the places he mentioned. Eragon was temporarily diverted from his tales of Alagaesia and given a short lesson on Earth's geography. "That's Africa... Asia... India, China, Korea, Afghanistan – we're fighting a war there – Australia..." Big island, Saphira commented. "And here we are in North America. There's Mexico, Canada, and us: the United States of America. We've got all this... plus this – that's Alaska – and the Hawaiian islands."
"Why is it called the United States? I only see one state."
"Uh... there's actually fifty that make up the union. I can probably find a map of them..."
"No, it's okay. Why the United States of America? Your country barely controls a third North America, and nothing in the South." And so Eragon was again diverted and given a brief American history lesson, followed by world history because he wanted to know about Britain, then France, then the Roman Empire and the history of every nation they conquered.
Finally, he was able to explain the situation of the Varden and why he had been sent to Earth.
For the first time, Ben smiled. "Well, we have just the thing to end your little war, don't we, Nicole?"
She laughed. "Yes, we do. That king would never see it coming!"
Eragon wondered what they were talking about.
"Oh, you'll see, eventually." His amused grin stayed for a while. Then Commander Scott's voice spoke, seemingly in Eragon's head.
"Crew, ten minutes to re-entry. Might want to get up here. That means you too Eragon."
I thought they didn't have magic!
"And don't worry, this is just an intercom. Not some magical mind trick."
"Come one, we'll have to explain the magic thing to him later." The crew members made their way to the nose. Eragon followed. Saphira?
Don't worry about me, I'm not going anywhere. Her large blue eyes glared at the walls blocking her movement. Nowhere at all.
You'll be out soon enough, Eragon smiled half-sympathetically and closed the cockpit door.
AN: First chapter in a year, so review. I need to know if my writing's better/worse than before. Hopefully better.
