Ugh guys I'm sorry! I know this update is pretty late, but I've had stuff happen in my life as well as finals at school and you want to know the worst part? I had this chapter ready THREE DAYS AGO and I left my computer for something and I NEVER SAVED and someone had exited out of all my crap! *cries* I worked SO HARD! *cries again* I couldn't gather the strength to type 3,000 words ALL OVER AGAIN for quite some time, but here I am!
My trip to Disneyland with my band was very fun by the way. I saw the Hollywood sign and went into Universal Studio's House of Horrors. I just about peed myself, but it was worth it. :)
Anywho for this chapter, I introduce a hot new OC! (Because I got a complaint that I didn't act my age, I hope y'all are happy.) I don't think this is as funny as before, seeing as how my mood was not so great when I REWROTE THE WHOLE THING so I apologize in advance for that. *grovels in the dirt* BUT the plot DOES thicken *suspenseful music* and the inside of my head is revealed! (I got the idea when my brain wouldn't function for four whole hours due to about 15 songs stuck in it all at once.)
Enjoy my strangeness, and have a slice of cherry pie! :D
SimplySupreme POV
The sight below her was pathetic. SimplySupreme wouldn't have minded if it were pathetic in its own right, but what specifically made the Varden on the horizon pathetic was the fact that it wasn't intended to be so. It was intended to be impressive, and it was not this under any circumstances.
Certainly the Varden had won a series of important battles against ever-rising odds, even now being well on its way to Belatona, but SimplySupreme had always imagined the group to be a bit more… grandiose… than a few tens of thousands of hygiene-challenged people crammed into close quarters, where personal space was a mere figment of imagination. SimplySupreme wasn't quite sure what she had expected of the legendary fighters, but it certainly hadn't been this.
"Ugh…" she exclaimed softly as Saphira landed amid a rabidly cheering crowd, her gag reflex kicking in as a pungent wave of BO and other scents she didn't care to name violated her nostrils. "Don't these people ever bathe?"
Arya chuckled softly. "No."
Well, that was one question answered.
The crowd jostled alarmingly around Saphira's gleaming flanks as the vast crowd of humans attempted to press inwards as close as they possibly could to their dragon rider, and SimplySupreme cringed involuntarily. The effects that never bathing had on acne were horrifying, to put it lightly.
Arya POV
It was with considerable relief that Arya sensed the elven guards drawing near, viciously elbowing their way through anyone who stood in their way. And they were just in time, as she could feel the stares of the mob of the Varden slowly being diverted from the dragon to her riders, and one very odd rider in particular, who had leeched onto her back in a manner that caused the elf woman to suspect she might never let go.
"Greetings, Blodhgarm." Arya muttered to the now visible elf after the formal salutation had mentally been observed, offering the same to the others who had joined him. "Would you be so kind as to escort us to Nasuada?"
"Certainly." He responded suavely, "So long as I am introduced to the strange female sitting behind you, that is."
Arya shot him a severe glance. "You may request that information of Eragon, if you wish to know immediately, as I have no inclination to iterate all that has occurred to us more than once, and I shall not speak of her before this crowd even if that were not true."
Betraying nothing more of his irritation than a barely noticeable twitch of his facial expression, the blue-furred elf did as Arya had requested before, and began to clear a path through the crowd for Saphira. They began to move forwards within an honor guard that had quickly formed about them. Arya felt Pie snort with laughter against her back, and the elf turned towards her questioningly.
"They… they… think they are…" the girl didn't finish as she was giggling much to hard, causing Arya to nudge at Eragon with an expression of bewilderment. Seeing this, the man began to laugh as well, causing several of the elven guards to shoot Saphira's riders strange looks that were completely and utterly ignored.
"You would do well not to draw attention to yourself in this way, Pie. As a novelty, you may very well receive unwelcome attention." Saphira commented dryly, causing the girl to (at least attempt) sober up immediately.
"Y-yes Saphira." She hiccupped, expending visible effort to keep a straight face.
Arya just wondered what it was that she found so amusing.
Nasuada POV
The commotion that ensued at Saphira's return was tremendous. Even from within her fairly turbulent pavilion, the woman could hear the shouts clearly from their very beginning. So, when a babbling soldier tumbled up to her spouting something about the return of the dragon rider, Nasuada hurried him on his way and continued with her task at hand, which was reviewing a list of their dwindling supplies. She knew that Eragon, Saphira, and Arya would waste no time in reporting to her, their loyalties being firm.
Sure enough, the roars of a jubilant crowd could only be heard more clearly with each passing moment. With a light sigh, Nasuada rose fluidly from her chair and stepped briskly out of the tent to greet the returning heroes. Faithful Nighthawks surrounding her, the woman stood patiently as, from among the tents before her, Saphira slowly emerged, and from the tents from her right, Orrin rode up on his stallion.
"I see that the people are rightfully enthusiastic." He commented dryly, his round baby face in its attempt at seriousness giving Nasuada quite a bit of amusement. "Shall we rescue them?"
But this turned out to be unnecessary, as Saphira's riders soon were able to dismount and follow after Nasuada and Orrin, who had already swept themselves within the pavilion.
"Greetings, Nasuada, Orrin." Saphira bugled, popping her head through the flap in the side of the crimson canvas.
"Saphira." They responded in unison. Orrin then began to pester her about some trivial matter that Nasuada lacked the energy to pay much attention to, as her eyes had locked on the three new figures ducking into the tent before her.
"Eragon, Arya, I am glad to find that you-" Nasuada's salutations were cut off as she suddenly found herself plummeting towards the ground with the force of an overly enthusiastic tackle-hug.
"I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW I REALLY RESPECT YOUR SELF-SACRIFICE EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE WAY TO ANGSTY AND A HUGE CONTROL FREAK!" Someone screamed at her.
Slowly losing her ability to breathe due to the constricting arms around her, Nasuada astonishingly gathered the breath to hiss, "What?"
"Pie, you must let go of my liegelord, for I fear for her health…"
"In which case you'll have to kill me, yeah, yeah, I know." The mysterious person muttered, releasing Nasuada, who began to cough and choke for air.
Arya bent down to help the seething leader off of her feet, but before Nasuada could gather her will to order the strange girl before her to be flogged, Orrin spoke up, overcoming his original flabbergasted shock. "How dare you take such a liberty with her, you wench!" He bellowed, shaking his fist at the girl indignantly, "Why, I ought to have you hanged for such an offence! Attacking the Lady Nasuada…" the king seemed at a loss for new words.
"OH MY GAWD ORRIN I DIDN'T EVEN SEE YOU STANDING THERE!" blurted the girl. She appeared to be readying herself for a second hug, but then stopped herself (much to Nasuada's surprise) and adopted a mildly ponderous expression. "Say, Orrin? Have you ever put something alive into a vacuum?"
"What?" spluttered the King in a manner identical to Nasuada's earlier objection.
Wearing the look of one crestfallen, the girl murmured, "Oh… Well that's one way to ruin my fun. Drat."
Having had quite enough of the insolent child, Nasuada reached for the dagger concealed in her bodice, but was stopped by Saphira's savage growl. "You shall not harm her." Hissed the dragon, her sparkling azure eyes riveted on Nasuada's now-frozen hand, "No one shall. Do not take offence at her odd mannerisms, for she is an exception to everything that once did, now, and will know."
"That's right!" the girl confirmed, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, "I'm special!"
Eragon POV
It was only his humble opinion, but Eragon thought Pie might have overdid it with her obsession of hugging armed strangers. Orrin still didn't react well to the experience even after the entire situation had been explained to him. It was a "preposterous, superfluous display of affection that was not reciprocated'" as he put it.
But, overcoming the initial trauma, Nasuada hadn't cared that she had been hugged. She didn't even mind Pie's rather unnerving explanation of "you guys just really need hugs". No, all that Nasuada had really been concerned with was what Pie could do to end the war in the Varden's favor.
"Uhm…" Pie stuttered, "I could… uh… well… maybe I… could provide moral support?" she finished lamely.
"You could learn to use the Afylk that suddenly appeared in your bag." Suggested Eragon, rather unhelpfully.
"Yes, and yet another mindless killing machine will help you so much." Snapped Pie, her voice drenched in sarcasm. "Really, this is coming from the guy who cried like a baby when a certain someone pointed out the age difference between them."
"Hey I didn't-" Eragon protested, flushing a brilliant scarlet at the mention of the certain… incident, with Arya.
"You did."
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Di-"
"Enough!" Arya snapped with finality, emerald eyes flashing a bit.
Feeling quite frantic, Eragon did as she asked, his skin still burning unpleasantly from his own embarrassment. Nasuada and Orrin were watching on with curiosity, while Saphira was failing miserably at hiding her amused guffaws, leaving Eragon feeling quite betrayed.
Then, Pie asked of him suddenly, "Eragon, what am I thinking?"
The man simply looked at her, too wise by now to question anything that was regurgitated out of the girl's mouth.
"Like, what's up in my mind? Can you get in?"
Frowning, Eragon sent his mind out after hers. He was proud of the fact that he had never done so before this point, for the fascinating brunette's thoughts were a temptation to him. She behaved so strangely that he had long wanted an explanation, but he had restrained himself from invading her privacy.
But now, when he reached towards her mentally, he was practically slapped with… Pie. It was the best defense ever. Her consciousness thrummed with a head-splittingly loud melody that, while beautiful, was quite powerful. Eragon paused in his investigation to listen to it. A haunting medley of sounds of the like that he had never heard before, the music swelled and faded with each different tone, layers of sound piling on top of one another before subtly being pulled away again in such a manner that you wouldn't notice immediately, but would eventually, and you would miss it. The melody's pace altered many times, into what Eragon suspected were different songs, as the feelings they kindled within him ranged from the happy to the sad, the proud to the desperate. Fighting his way through the music, the rider attempted to seek out Pie's inner self, but found he could not. There was nothing but sound. No up, no down, and no time.
He was awoken by a sharp slap to the face.
"Eragon! Eragon, can you hear me?" Arya's voice was tinged with slight panic.
"What was that for?" the rider whined, rubbing his stinging cheek. Elf-slaps hurt. They hurt very badly.
Suddenly, he realized that everyone in the pavilion was staring at him. "Well, you've been lost in my head for the past twenty minutes, that's all." Pie butted in. She looked very scared, and her voice was quavering slightly.
Eragon frowned. "Sorry." He mumbled, "I didn't know any time had passed."
"Well…" she laughed nervously, "I… I guess that's one question answered. That… that my mind is safe, right?"
"Very." Eragon confirmed massaging his temples. "I couldn't find it at all. Just… music."
"Music?" demanded Nasuada, appearing skeptical. "You were incapacitated by music?"
"Do you want to try it, human?" Arya retorted, suddenly springing to Eragon's defense. "I daresay you do not. Eragon had tangled with a Shade, and if he says that Pie's mind is unsafe, I believe him."
The tent was overcome by a universal blink.
"Very well." Nasuada ceded. Eragon assumed that she was about to say something else when she was interrupted by Pie, who clearly had something to add. He doubted it had anything to do with the current conversation.
SimplySupreme POV
SimplySupreme could almost feel the lightbulb erupting into existence above her head, fully lit. Her mind was perilous, and therefore could not be broken. Nasuada wanted results, and Saphira was lonely, being the only dragon on the good-guy side. And SimplySupreme was right here. Lightbulb!
"Waitwaitwait I have a plan!" she squealed, clapping her hands together, tawny eyes shining with excitement, "I know how I can help you!"
Orrin raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
Grinning, SimplySupreme took a breath and stated, "I am going to Uru'bean."
A massive tidal wave of protests erupted almost immediately, threatening to swamp the fifteen-year-old girl with the incredible negativity.
"Hear me out!" she shouted above the cacophony, and the room gradually settled down to a dull roar. "Now," she began calmly, "my plan is this. I go to Uru'bean. I will then immediately begin to work on a way in which to sneak into the castle, the goal being to steal the last dragon egg."
A collective intake of breath sounded around SimplySupreme, who silently grinned at the effect she had. Ah, the beauty of shock value.
"I might even be able to nab a few… uhm…" She had almost mentioned the Eldunari in front of Orrin, "draconic artifacts… stones, jewels and such. Ya' know, the usual useless stuff that would never, ever add to Galbatorix's power or anything like that."
Saphira hissed.
"That's a very vague plan." Orrin commented, oblivious. "Before I lend you my approval I would have a few concerns addressed. As in, can we trust you?"
SimplySupreme grinned. "No. But you have to anyways."
"How will you protect yourself?" challenged Arya.
Drawing the Afylk, the girl glanced excitedly at the intricately crafted blades. "Like Eragon said, with these. I doubt they are normal weapons."
Curiously, the elf woman eased them out of SimplySupreme's hands and examined them. "In this, I am rather inclined to agree with you." She noted softly, "I do not recognize the magic imbuing the blades, but they are powerfully named. Truth, the left, and Purity, the right."
"Cliché much?" the rouge author muttered to herself as she took the weapons back, silver sheen gently illuminating her face as she peered briefly at them, and sheathed them once more.
"Ah, but who shall accompany you on this venture? Surely you cannot go alone." Eragon threw this into the conversation triumphantly, certain this would dissuade the girl.
SimplySupreme smiled to herself. She had a feeling that she knew exactly who her companion should be. "Elva will." She stated matter-of-factly, causing yet another mild uproar.
"Are you sure, brave one?" Saphira's logical words rose above all others. "Elva is not like you or I. She is… different. Chances are that she will not take to you, much less accept the mission you propose. And she is dangerous, as much as I hate to say it. She is dangerous and not to be trusted."
"She would do it for you Saphira." Pie retorted soothingly. "She would do much for you, and I am fairly certain that she and I will be able to get along. I am aware of her sufferings, and am tolerant of them. But I am also aware that she has a very special gift, one that may prove useful as we go."
"Not to be rude," Nasuada cut in after a prolonged silence, "but I don't trust either one of you. I would prefer there to be another chaperone."
"As would I." Saphira's eyes softened, "But not for the reasons you think."
SimplySupreme frowned. If she was forced to travel with one of those pungent dudes outside, she might just barf.
"Eragon," came Arya's fluted murmur as she riveted her eyes on said rider with slight mischief, "How about Althenin?"
The rider paused, and then grinned wolfishly. "Blodhgarm!" he called, striding to the tent entrance and sticking his head out, "Will you summon Althenin for me?"
The canvas walls of the pavilion muffled the other elf's reply, but SimplySupreme determined that it must have been an affirmative, as Eragon pulled back in appearing satisfied. "He will only be a moment."
True to Eragon's word, it only took the relatively short span of ten minutes for an elf unfamiliar to SimplySupreme to step into the room. This was, she assumed, the one known as Althenin. He appeared to be about to inquire as to why he had been summoned, but he was cut off by a scream.
Now normally, there was very little in existence that could have diverted SimplySupreme's attention from Althenin. Muscular, starlight-haired, and kind-faced, the elf with the dancing sapphire eyes was perhaps the most gorgeous specimen of male that the teen had ever seen in her life. But sure enough, just as she was only beginning to admire him, SimplySupreme felt a slight tickle on her arm. Looking down, she was confronted with perhaps the one thing that she feared most in the entire universe. It was a spider, and it was touching her.
Hence her brain-damagingly loud scream of absolute terror. "OHMYGAWDITSASPIDERGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!" she howled, frozen in place with horror and sobbing.
For a split second, every being in the tent seemed to reach for some form of weapon, but then the word spider registered in their minds and they all began to laugh pitilessly at the girl.
It was some time later that Arya finally took mercy on Pie and brushed the unfortunate arachnid off of her arm, still chuckling, "Attacked by a dragon, and she's laughing like a lunatic! Touched by a little spider, and she weeps like a child!"
Furiously, SimplySupreme scrubbed the tears from her hot face.
What a great first impression to make on a hot elf that she would soon be travelling with!
She was going to die.
I secretly always wanted to be buddies with Elva, and yes, I cry when spiders touch me. :)
Replying to WhiteWinterStar...
Ugh I can't STAND white chocolate because it is such a lie for not being chocolate! It's like your parents telling you they'll buy you a puppy but you just end up with a plastic 99 cent one from Walmart! *ugh* I'm excited for your plans though, I am REALLY looking forward to this chick fight yeah! And I'm also excited for my guest star appearence in Pieces of the Truth, because I've never been in anyone elses fic before. :) Carry on, my good writer!
Replying to RestrainedFreedom...
Oh no, she's not there to intentionally annoy, she just REALLY enjoys it! :) And you must hang out with some REALLY sensitive girls. It COULD have been taken that way, but I'm not that aggressive and PMSy lmao!
Replying to Writer of the North...
Haha s'all good! I would have sent you 15 already except I have been to busy to write, and have insane writer's block when I DO have time! I promise you'll get it soon though. :) And have you seen if Pie In The Face has any recent activity? I think she died... :(
Replying to DarknessBecomesMe...
Oh hey team Pyrite is my beta team for IAA! (A combination of Pie in the Face and Writer of the North. Clever, no?) XD
Replying to Inkweaverabc...
I think Arya might stab me. She's a pretty scary chick! :)
Replying to Liza...
AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH NNNNNNOOOOOO NOT MY CHOCOLATE! HERE! HERE IS A CHAPTER AND LEAVE MY CHOCOLATE ALONEEEEE! :) Heehee I'm a bit protective of my chocolate...
Every time you leave without reviewing a bit of chocolate is thrown away! So review! Please! Think of the women and children of the chocolate universe!