Hope you liked last chapter!
And thank you for reading.
this chapter is late because I have been working
on my other fics - and watching Naruto (EPIC!)
I couldn't find an AL word for wind,
So I went to Google Translate and picked a random language,
Which happened to be Italian because they didn't have Old Norse.
Any unfamilliar AL words will be determined this way!
Here we GO!
"Your wings" Eragon trailed off. My wings? What could be wrong? Well, the fire had seemed particularly bad there.
"The eyes." Rhys acknowledged. My eyes? My vision seemed, if anything, better than before. "One turned amber!" Oh. that explained it. Awesome!
"The mark, too. Look at it!" Jay said. Huh. I looked at my right arm. W-o-w. Instead of slightly visible whitish silver, the comet-shaped mark had become a bright gold. The color almost seemed to shift and change. Where my Gedwey Ignasia was, though, had remained silver. I put the glove back on.
"So, um, why the shock? Mani did say that I would change, and I did. I don't see the problem. We should probably get out of here, anyway. There's no time to loose!"
Fine. Then you can have fun explaining to Islanzadi, Nasuada, and everyone else what the hell happened.
Oh. A dragon cursing. I'm real scared, Vrangr.
"You have become what you were meant to be, Dreamer. Now it is time for all of you to get going. You cannot remain here." Mani said from behind, and I nodded.
"Well? You heard her. Time to go."
"Yeah, let's...Yeah. Riding on a dragon! I wonder what it's like, I mean, it's got to be all weird 'cause you're up in the air and stuff."
Leave it to my sister to change the subject. "Come on. Let's go!"
She seems enthusiastic. Vrangr commented as we headed to the outer part of Mani's cave.
Ha. That's not the the half of it. If you think Eragon asks a lot of questions, get ready for absolute mayhem.
Wonderful family you have, Onyx.
I stuck my tounge out at her.
Jay seemed to be curious about the other caves. Several passages went in different directions.
"We don't exactly have time for exploring. It would be better to head out now." I answered his unspoken question. Which there were usually a lot of, since he preferred not to speak.
"Now, be careful. Flying isn't exactly easy if you don't know what you're doing." Eragon warned.
"But don't worry. Saphira and Vrangr won't let you fall, right?"
I would never!
It is true. As long as neither of you are deliberatley reckless, all will work out. Saphira reassured.
"You're Saphira! Hi, I'm Rhys. I never thought that I would meet an actual dragon, this is amazing! You're not all that like the book covers, but still, you're a dragon! And you too, Vrangr! I bet people would be terrified if they didn't know who you were."
My sister's statement earned her and me peculiar looks form the dragons. "Um, yeah. She's easily impressed. Well, we should have some introductions. Saphira, Vrangr, this is my older brother Jay and younger sister Rhys, and you heard the rest. Now, come on. Rhys, you can ride with me and Vrangr. Jay, would you go with Saphira and Eragon? Good. Come on."
I led my sister over to the blue-green dragon. Vrangr crouched down, amusement glittering in her eyes. I knew my friend well enough that she would be very entertained watching my sister try to get up to the saddle.
But, instead of just hopping onto the dragon's foreleg like I usually did, I slipped when turning around to help my sister up, and fell backwards, colliding with Vrangr's side.
Weren't you supposed to be the experienced one? Vrangr asked innocently.
Ow. Though it didn't happen all that often aymore, I could be a little klutzy at times. It had resulted in me falling into a river, crashing into a large tree, and getting my formerly long hair chopped off by a sword. The last incedent, though, had helped me to avoid Murtagh at the Burning Plains when Eragon and I had fought him.
"All right, stop laughing. That wan't supposed to happen!"
My sister stifled her giggles and, slowly, got up to Vrangr's saddle, sitting behind me.
Here we go! Vrangr warned.
She walked out to the ledge outside the big cave. Outside, it felt very cold, because we were all so high up in the mountains.
And then jumped.
Rhys screamed in exhillaration. "This is amazing!"
Saphira leading, we descended slightly and continued northward.
The countryside flashed past as we headed across the sky. Moments passed, then an hour, then more. The land below steadily grew flatter and drier. Time went quickly because Rhys had endless questions. One being why it was almost dawn here instead of early afternoon. I had to explain about the reversal of day and night between worlds. We talked and talked, her and Vrangr and I. I hadn't been able to have a long conversation with my sister in months.
Eragon and Jay seemed to be having a similar discussion, but I couldn't hear it over the wind our travel created.
But by the time the sun had come well up, it became apparent that the wind wasn't just from the dragons' wings. A fierce gale had sprung up, slowing our travel down.
We'll never get anywhere like this! This infernal wind could make our trip so much longer, who knows when it may slow! Vrangr said, irritated.
I know...Wait, I've got an idea! Mani had said I stood for the sky, right? And my power had something to do with weather. I'm going to try and stop this!
"Hang on, Rhys! I'm off." I stood in the saddle, jumped, then unfurled my wings. The wind blew me back a bit, and it took a moment to regain balance and join the others, flying slightly above them.
"What are you doing?" Eragon shouted from below.
"Trying to stop the wind! Let me concentrate!"
I shut my eyes and felt the gale for a while. Air blew my ragged hair back, went through my feathers, and felt like a weak stream of water. When I felt like I had gotten a good feel for it, I yelled, "Vento retromarcia!"
Slowly, the wind almost seemed to turn us around, but then it faded to a stop. There was no uneeded resistance, and everyone flew a bit faster. Saphira and Vrangr quickly righted themselves.
There was a steady, slight drain on my strength. It would have taken much more power had I been a normal spellcaster, but by now, everyone knew I wasn't. Still...my power had a limit.
Good thinking.
Yeah, Vrangr. It's only stopped just around us, so no crazy acrobatics. But I can't keep this up forever. Sunset at the absolute latest, and it'll be very likley I won't be able to again tomorrow.
Don't overexert yourself. Eragon said, interupting the conversation, If you can't keep the wind at bay, then it's okay to stop, all right?
I'm just trying to make up for lost time...
Back when this had just been a story, Eragon and Saphira had made it to the Varden just in time for the siege of Fienster. With the hours that had been lost in the other world, we needed all the time we could get.
It wasn't that worrying, though. They did have Murtagh this time. (To any new readers - Murty isn't evil here!)
But it would be hard to get anyone from that city to willingly submit to the Varden if they saw that Murtagh was fighting with them. So we still needed to hurry back.
Time passed. Flying for an extended amount of time is energy consuming in it's own way, but doing so while keeping an almost hurricane force wind at bay? That really takes it out of you.
Relax...pace yourself...don't go overboard... I thought to myself, repeating the lessons of my seventh grade gym teacher.
And after a little while, my mind went blank. There wasn't anything to do, not a thing to distract me. It almost felt like meditating. I was really in the zone. Well, except for me getting more and more tired as time went on.
I had no idea how much time had passed so far, but at that point I had begun to feel exhausted.
Then two certain someones started to have a very open mental conversation.
Just admit it, you know that you'd end up with him.
I would never become associated with a dragon who has served Galbatorix.
Saphira would never, so it's got to be you!
Don't drag me into your fantasies!
I sighed. Leave it to Vrangr and Rhys to be arguing about something like that.
Would the pair of you please keep the bickering down to a normal level? I asked.
They obviously hadn't expected me to have been listening.
But come on, Onyx! You know Vrangr, don't you think -
Stop it. Or do I need to tell Thorn about this?
The expression on their faces made me start laughing.
And that made me start to once again pay attention to the setting.
While I had been all spaced out - I'm sure everyone knows the feeling - the land below had become almost entirely desert. The sun had sunk, and the sky was now dark. And also, I noticed how exhausted I felt.
Gah...I really was out of it. Can we stop now? I asked.
Sure. Vrangr answered.
All right. Everyone, prepare for the wind! And a second after that warning, I released the spell. "Letta!"
Once again, the gale blew me back a few feet, farter this time because I felt too tired to fight it. We're going down!
I decided to pull a Maximum Ride move. Quickly folding my wings against my back, I plunged towards the ground face-first. At the last minute I pulled upward, and landed heavily in the reddish sand that still felt warm from the day's heat. Two thumps meant Saphira nad Vrangr had landed. I turned, sitting on the ground, and watched them.
Show off.
Jealous, Vrangr?
No, I'm annoyed. we could have still gone farther.
Suck it up. There's no way I'm travelling any more today.
Eragon, Rhys, and Jay dismounted. My brother seemed to be a bit airsick. He was staggering around like a drunk monkey.
"No...more...flying..." We all laughed at him.
"You weren't even going with your own power. How do you think I feel?" I shot back at him. I didn't feel queasy or anything, but I felt sweaty, dirty, really hungry, and like I had only gotten an hour of sleep the last night. Meh.
"Jeez, Onyx, you look like crap." Rhys said
"Oh, I do? Wait till you learn magic, missy! You won't be so smug then!"
"Is this normal for you?" Eragon asked.
"Yep. Nothing's like sibling love!" I answered cheerily.
"Bite me." Jay said, exasperated. He usually preferred to watch us squabbe and not get involved.
"Um-"
"It's an expression."
Honestly, Onyx by herself is strange enough, but the three of you together behave like children! Saphira interjected.
"All right, we get it. So, shouldn't we, um, go get firewood or something?" Rhys asked.
"There probably won't be much in this type of terrain, but we do need wood." Eragon agreed.
"So you two go that way," I pointed back the way we had come, "And we'll go this way."
After another moment of halfhearted arguing, they went away, and Eragon and I walked off.
The deep indigo sky cast dark shadows over the sandy landscape. An orangey line could be seen in the distance where the sun had set. After a moment we weere hidden by dunes. It seemed vrey beautiful.
But thar really didn't matter to me, because I felt completley and utterly drained, so the setting really didn't matter.
"Look! There's an old tree." I pointed to the top of another hillish formation. It looked more solid than the rest, and a scraggly tree grew there, ringed by dead-looking grass.
We walked to it together. I began to pick up a few branches, but Eragon said "Wait,"
I stopped, a little puzzled.
"It has been a while since we had a chance to talk."
Oh. "I know. With everyone being all go, go, go, we haven't been alone together since Ellesmera."
"How did it make you feel? What Mani did, I mean."
"Hurt like hell. All I wanted was to get away from her, to make it stop somehow."
"I hated seeing you get hurt that way."
I smiled. Eragon could be quite clueless most of the time, but he really cared about me. And about everyone we were fighting this war for. "It's all right. I...well, I don't know. But we're in this together."
"All six of us."
"Yeah. I'm actually really glad you came through the well with me. You made me more confident about what to do."
"I knew how you felt about leaving your family behind. At least you have them now, right?"
"And you."
I suddenly realized how close we were standing.
"Your eyes are beautiful. What Mani did is somewhat hard to grasp."
"Am I that different now?"
"It does not matter to me what you look like. You are you, Onyx. I'd love you no matter your appearance."
"Eragon..."
He leaned down, and was about to kiss me, but at that moment a loud cheer sounded.
"Really?"
"This is what happens whan the two of you are alone?"
Jay and Rhys.
"Bor-ing." My brother said.
And at that moment I almost wished they were back home.
Sorry for the delay.
And the fluffiness/mushiness of this chapter.
Um...Yeah...So...
Review!
