Ch.3: Forghgoth's Point

By the end of her fourth day of bedrest Hvedra felt like she was going to go insane. Navra insisted on helping her with every little thing, even eating to which she had firmly protested that it was her ankle that was broken, not her jaw. Angela had taken full advantage of the opportunity Hvedra's incapacitation presented to drill in the missed months' worth of complex letters and sounds and grammar patterns of the nonsensical human language into her brain. Her lessons were usually this intense right after Angela returned from one of her extended excursions to wherever it was she suddenly has the wanderlust to travel – "Wherever the action is happening," she always said when asked what her next destination would be – but never before had Hvedra been subjected to the lessons and been unable to escape due to physical inhibitions.

So when knuckles rapped at the front door during dinner, Hvedra didn't care if it was someone as unwelcome as crotchety old man Kartug causing the interruption so long as it would give her a social reprieve. But the figure that came through the doorway, lightly kicking at the threshold to leave any bad spirits outside, was the most welcome face Hvedra could have wished to see.

"Beorsvog! Get me out of here."

The over exaggerated desperation in Hvedra's voice made a rumble of laughter peal from her friend's lips. His eyes lit up as he caught sight of her at the table, books spread out before her. "Glad to see you up and about, Etohkenta." He gave her smile and pulled a chair out from the table, settling down on it with ease and familiarity.

She grinned at him. "You may be strong but I'm still the better fighter. I'll get you next time."

"What next time?" Angela asked with a mild disapproval in her voice.

"My sincerest apologies, Uluthrek," Beorsvog said addressing the herbalist by her honorable name Mooneater, the origin story of which Hvedra had asked after incessantly as a child but had never received a telling. "You are right. I am a bad influence." Hvedra rolled her eyes and resumed picking at her dinner.

"Would you like some roast boar?" Navra asked, coming from the kitchen with a plate already piled with meat and grilled peppers and onions for him.

"How could I possibly turn down your cooking, Herndall Navra? Of course I will have some but could I take it with me? I wanted to go up to the Forghgoth's Point with Hvedra."

Hvedra perked up at this. "Yes, I want to go! Can I please, Navra?"

A rukruk noise came from the back of Navra's throat as she chuckled. "Always the gentleman, Beorsvog. You know you don't have to address me with titles in such a private setting." She turned back to the kitchen. "Yes, you can go, ukuk, but Beorsvog, you must promise me you won't let her abandon those crutches."

"Of course. I will carry her the whole way."

Hvedra groaned at Navra's over protectiveness but didn't protest because it was the only way she'd be able to get out of the hut. Instead she shoved the last of her food in her mouth and satisfactorily gathered up her language books to put them away.

Half an hour later, she and the big hulk of her childhood friend were sitting side by side on a toppled trunk of a great pine atop the cliff that overlooked their village. Forghgoth's Point faced directly east protruding from the side of one of the gentle sloping mountains that rose from the valley floor up to the steep peaks of the Spine behind them. Forghgoth was the omniscient watching mother and goddess of protection. This outcropping of rock surrounded by a forest of deep green pines and silvery aspens was a place of peace and solstice and was an excellent outlook, especially for sun and moonrises. The peaks of the Spine rose up around them diffusing the light of the sun sinking to the west in a wash of orange.

"Sorry I threw you like that," Beorsovg growled solemnly. "I just forgot how light you are in the heat of the match."

"It was a legal move. You won fairly, Beorsvog. Don't be so hard on yourself," Hvedra tried to console casually but was unable to hide the bitter undertone that came out along with it.

Beorsvog huffed, disturbing a nearby swarm of gnats stirring in the warm evening. "Maybe… maybe you should consider retiring from the games, Etohkenta." His voice was little more than a rumble in his chest.

"I beat my first two opponents in the quarterfinal matches these games," Hvedra shot back tersely. The silence that settled between them was stiff with the implications to her honor and pride.

Beorsvog's next words were cautious, stepping timidly on the social edges of their friendship. "You've only won five local matches this whole year. And you haven't gotten past the semifinals of the championships in the past two years and this time you didn't make it past the quarterfinals."

"And whose fault is that? At least I got into the quarterfinals. Might I remind you I won our first championship games and have placed in two more," she said cruelly flashing the gold and silver bands of honor snuggly encircling her left wrist. "It's not my fault I stopped growing and you all got freakishly big and tall."

"Of course, Etohkenta. It is true you have developed a fighting style that suits your smaller stature. But our first games were ten years ago now and I'm afraid of you getting hurt beyond the healer's ability to fix you with their spells and potions." He paused and licked his lips with his dark tongue in quiet hesitation. "I'm afraid of being the one to make you irreparable."

Hvedra let his concerns hang in the heavy night air, processing the significance of the situation a little at a time. She knew her body ached more and more after each fight. She was flung further, crushed harder, bent in directions the human body was not intended to bend. But what kept her going was the need to restore her aching pride with her agility and tact, no matter how strong or hulking her opponent.

Out of desire to push away the uncomfortable silence Beorsvog foraged onward after a few minutes. "It's pretty clear by this point I'm not going to stop growing any time soon. I have the kull blood of my ancestors from the Beor Mountains. What are you going to do when I'm nine feet tall? You won't even be able to reach my sternum with your bony elbows, what then?"

"Your balls will be at perfect punching height," Hvedra growled, but her words lacked the bite of argument, her tone soft with reluctant resignation. She pulled her uninjured leg up onto the wide trunk and rested her chin on her knee. Beorsvog chuckled deeply beside her but unconsciously shifted his thighs closer together as he rubbed at the phantom memory of her elbow jab into his chest during their match.

Hvedra glanced up at her friends undecorated horns confirming at least part of what Nagra had told her about the outcome of the games; Beorsvog had not gotten a podium again this year. "So I don't see a new metal band around your horn. Who ended up taking you out? I hope you put up a good fight."

"You know I've never been as much of a natural fighter as you, Etohkenta. I may be kull but my family are merchants by trade. Nothing to do with combat or even strength there. I just don't have that instinct in me to think like you do in a fight. The worst damage I can deal is in self-defense, and I'm terrible at offense, though your tutelage has helped somewhat.

"I got taken out in my last quarterfinal round. You know the last round of the day is always the hardest, and the kull I was up against was only a year older than me but he looked like he could be older by three. Don't get me wrong, this all means I'm excited to see how much I will grow by next year when I'm top of my age group, but needless to say, I didn't last long. I was expecting him to be the type to attack right away but he just circled and circled. I tried doing that trick of getting the sun in his eyes like you've showed me but he wasn't falling for it. Finally I tried charging, thinking maybe I'd catch him off guard but he dodged and managed to pin me in an instant. He was so much larger that there was no way I was shaking him off and it wasn't long before the referee called the match." His whole body seemed to curl in on itself as he sighed, reflecting on his defeat. "You would have figured a way out."

Hvedra regarded him with sober eyes, her cheek resting on her propped bony knee. He was right; she could think of a half-dozen ways she might have gotten out of being pinned by a larger opponent, but that wasn't the point. "You nearly made it to the semifinals this year. That's something to be proud of. And next year you'll be bigger and stronger and top of your age group, so take what you've learned and improve upon it so you can get farther next year. That's what I do."

Beorsvog grinned. "Yeah, except you don't do the getting bigger and stronger part anymore," he teased. She tried to glare at him but a smile quirked on her lips none the less.

They sat in a companionable silence watching the shadows of the mountains behind them creep across the hills and plains below, out to the sparkling waves on Leona Lake off to the far southeast. Warm golden hues on the fields of grain were gradually eaten up by the deep purples of evening. Images of the past year's competitions and the increasing gap between Hvedra amounting defeats and her dwindling victories in conjunction with the size and strength of her sparing partners trickled away till her mind found a settling calm. She gazed down on the maze of cobblestone roads crisscrossed by a web of electric wires and clotheslines strung between rounded whitewash walled houses with thatched roofs. The small, bumbling forms of urgal cubs hurried through the streets, undoubtedly laughing as they waved goodbye to their friends for the evening.

When pinpricks of light began to shine in the valley below as electric lights flickered on in the huts, Beorsvog stirred from his boulder-like state beside her. Wordlessly she unfurled herself from her cramped position, sliding onto Beorsvog's back as he squatted in front of her. His thick, gray skin warmed Hvedra's linen tunic and leggings, pressing against her chest, stomach, and inner thighs as he carried her down he carried her down the mountain. The soft shuffle of pine needles under Beorsvog's callused bare feet was as soothing as his deep even breaths. She nodded off before they reached home.


A/N: More made up words for the urgal language.

Herndall = Urgal term for a female leader. (Paolini's word)

Ukuk = An endearing term like dear, darling, or honey

Uluthrek = This is Angela's nickname in the urgal language, meaning "mooneater". She is called this by Nar Garzhvog in chapter 15 of Inheritance after she finishes telling a group of urgals and wearcats a story. (Paolini's word)

A/N 2: Please let me know what you're liking/not liking/would like to see more of/etc. from this story. Sorry it takes me so long to post. The next chapter will be getting into the exciting stuff (read: dragons) so stay tuned! Also, if it would be helpful to keep a running list of the urgal language at the bottom of each chapter for reference instead of just the new words, I can do that but you need to let me know. Thanks!~