It would be another two hours in the clouds and rushing cool air until the world would rush towards the two, abruptly stopping with a loud thump and awakening the young boy on his dragon.
Eragon moaned as he slid of her scaly back, still tired from his sleep and drowsy from his dream. Flashes of metal and fire scarred his mind, the faces of many men beneath his blade slowly fading from the back of his mind. Eragon rubbed his eyes and looked around him, trying yet failing to take his surroundings in. He gathered that he was in the main square of some sort of developed village, surrounded by two and three story housing and paved with cobblestone, grey and lifeless as an abandoned Dwarvern mine. Eragon couldn't piece together the significance and disturbance of the sight around him, let alone fathom why they would have landed here.
It took him another two minutes to realize everyone was dead.
Saphira walked towards a building which she assumed a church while Eragon stood in bewilderment, sniffing her snout in through the main, broken down doors. Very little bodies littered the stands and floors, the blood as stale and dried as their skin. Shards of stain glass painted the room a mystical glow as the warm sun flooded the room. The dragoness sighed and looked away, her heart heavy with grief for the lives lost.
'Could this be another attack by the rebel wolves?' Eragon asked, scavenging a body for evidence of his suspicion.
'It looks like it, unfortunately'
'I thought they were attacking down farther South, in the Achler region?'
'They must have spread out their forces,' Saphira contemplated. 'Maybe they're recruiting help from all the different regions here...'
Eragon looked up from the body towards a demolished house, easily the biggest in the square. He began to make his way forward, but missed spotting the sword lodged in the earth, and soon found himself plummeting. His fall was only stopped by the swift catch of a blue snake, lovingly wrapping itself around his body and gently placing him on his feet. Eragon turned to face Saphira, who only winked and walked the other way.
As he entered the home, the distinct stench of mold and rotting food wafted in his face. Making his way further, he found the remains of a ravished feast, scattered with blood and little remains. Eragon sighed, thinking of the family whom would have been eating, or celebrating as it seemed, as the wolves invaded their home, swiftly or slowly ending their lives. He found portraits of family members, drawings of the town in it's prime, and opened letters and various papers scattered on the floors. A golden locket engraved with the words "to River, love Ethel" and a picture of a happy couple had found its way on top of one of the stairs. Other than that, there was nothing else see that hadn't been destroyed. The house was musty and silent, save for the scampering of the tiny paws of mice in the floorboards.
'I suppose the wolves took most of the bodies and anything valuable with them' Eragon commented, leaving the house through the doorway.
'Yes, it seems like that.' Saphira replied. 'I noticed this town seemed peculiar while flying, so I thought we'd investigate. It seems we've discovered much.'
Eragon looked at his feet, noticing a large bloodied tattered cloth on the floor. Picking it up, Eragon noticed that this was in fact a map, though barely legible. A red circle around a dot was clearly visible, with a name that Eragon could only make out as S_lve_s_ein, to which he assumed the previous owner marked where they were. Just above the dot was a large collection of trees with an illegible label, and a river named Ariizont, stretching to the far left of the page and onwards, near the end a large solid black star clearly marked. Eragon's mind began to wander as he remembered Arya's words from before. "Head north along the forest of Sol until reaching the Ariizont river. From there follow it westbound, and you will reach the capitol city"
'The river is just ahead of here?' Saphira asked, obviously having been eavesdropping on Eragon's thoughts. This was natural to Eragon though, and came as a sort of comfort to him now.
'Aye. It seems like it is. From there it mustn't be too much further, as we're already near the edges of this map.' Eragon folded the tattered map neatly and put it in his pouch of convenience for later use, taking out his previous map he had found in the battle against the band of travellers. This new map is much larger, and covers much more area, he thought, quickly recording the information he had scribed from his previous map onto the new one before throwing it out.
'What is with you and maps, little one?' Saphira chuckled, nudging him from behind, obviously trying to lighten the mood. 'Is this a new-found hobby I see sparking?'
'Hm? No, nothing like that, I just...' Eragon found himself at a loss of words to try and rational his actions. 'I just like to know where I am and where I'm going. Don't you?'
'Hmm, I suppose,' Saphira replied, 'But I'm not terribly worried about that, because I know I will get there eventually. I don't see much sense in making sure you know exactly where you're going when you could just start going there now.'
Eragon looked up at her, smiled, and promptly jumped onto her back. 'Alright, now lets get going then' he said happily.
Within three seconds Saphira took flight, quickly accelerating high into the clouds. As she levelled out at a comfortable altitude, Eragon looked down. Beneath him the town had quickly shrunk to a size not even fit for a mouse, the farms and grasslands rolling and flowing as the wind and Saphira's wings pulled them forward. He let his mind stretch out and felt all of the wildlife in the area. All the squirrels, the deer, the crows and the rabbits, all spread out over the land. Eragon felt at one with nature, flowing through the lifeforce as it guided him forward.
'I can sense wolves beneath us,' Saphira's voice warned.
Eragon looked beneath them with his mind and felt the entities of a large troupe of wolves running through the fields, his mind matching Saphira's worried tone. There were easily twenty wolves, all aggressive, all obviously heading somewhere.
'Perhaps we should follow them, make sure the little pups stay out of trouble?' Saphira asked, the spark of the hunt growing in her voice. Eragon nodded his head and said 'Agreed' as Saphira fell into the clouds, silently watching from above.
