A.N. I do not own Eragon, The Inheritance Cycle, or any related anything. I'm not making money off this; don't plan to, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. You know the whole spiel.
Ethan awoke, dressed, ate, and started his chores, long before the sun, or his family woke. He started with feeding the few animals his uncle owned. Three pigs, four houses, two oxen. The horses and oxen, he let out to graze. The pigs, he slopped. Then, Ethan checked the crops, - tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, mostly carrots and potatoes, peas, beans, - the herbs- rosemary, basil, mint, parsley. Then he went to gather fire wood. The late fall chill barely seeping into his long accustomed body.
Three hours and a very large amount of wood later, Ethan sat at the small table talking to his aunt while she ate. "My chores are finished." He told her.
"It's early still. Are you sure of your work?" She asked.
He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, Aunt. I am positive." Ethan wanted desperately to go into town. It was late fall. Most of the work he did could be done by one of the hands his uncle hired. He wasn't needed, and his friends had something planed today. "Could I go, please? I'm needed more by Coll than I am here!"
"First, lad, only fools are positive, and second, if your truly done with your chores-" His uncle said, his hands resting on his wives shoulders. Ethan jumped up, thanked his uncle, and rushed towards the small town he lived near. "Be home before too late, lad!"
"Ethan! Ho there!" Coll hollered from down the lane. Ethan's tall, older friend was holding a large wooden rod, his hunting knife in his belt.
"Nice to see you. What mistake are we making today, mate?" Ethan joked as he clasped Colls hand.
"Well, that all depends on what you think mistakes are, mate." Colls smile shown through the stubbly beard trying to grow on his face. "I think mistakes are me, you, Averill, Bentley, and Brayton causing a muck. Are you in?"
Ethan looked at his mate. "Where are the others?" He started walking away. "Let's get to it then! You are moving too slow mate." They laughed and tracked their accomplices down.
Averill and Brayton were brothers, but where Averill was tough, and large, with rippling muscles from working the land for years, his younger brother was small, weak, and without a muscle on his bones. Bentley lived next to them and was the baker's son. Well fed, but not large, with a descent attitude, and a lively step. Ethan and his pals were a odd group, but everyone knew the five of them, and the mothers in their town got nervous when they started to "have their fun".
"So, what are we doing today, mates?" Brayton inclined his head and folded his thin arms across his chest. Everyone nodded in agreement towards Coll, their leader.
"The question is, my friends, what will we not do." Coll laughed a laugh that sounded so crazed, yet with a hint of such a genius, that his friends smiled in anticipation for the moments to come.
"This could end badly." Ethan decided with a mischevious grin.
