Author's Note
Would have written this earlier, but lost my flash drive with the original on it. And this time I'm not getting it back (New York Buses sigh) Anyway credits to Paolini for Eragon etc. Oh yeah my Fan Fics might be getting longer each time now. Oh yeah, your going to start seeing the number system I described a couple of chapters ago, where I have a number in a set of parentheses and a corresponding explanation at the bottom of the story.
Eragon sat crossed legged, his eyes closed while continuing his training. He was anxious to hear the story of the Kuthians. As his ears heard just the faint whisper of a sound, quieter than a pin hitting the ground, he looked up to see his master sitting in front of him. "Eragon, what I am about to tell you will not have complete significance to you except at the very conclusion of this legend. So for one thing make yourself comfortable, and the other, is prepare to know yourself." The younger Eragon looked blank, the older one knew that Eragon was taking in all the implications of what he said, the many diverse meanings, and the ones that were most likely. "Alright then, our story began long ago, in a city by the crater of what is now Tudösten Lake. Oromis' home area if you will (1) Thousands of years ago, before the Age of the Riders. The city where it all began:
He looked silently below towards the conversing guards, with the dark storm clouds above. The air was cool, a relieving respite from the warm, and humid air Shaddarra experienced earlier. Shaddarra was not exactly your average boy. He did not know who his parents were. He and his older brother were raised by a family in the city who lived close to the outer courts of the palace. Just about the only place with a reasonable amount of technological advancement. The streets were paved in stone, and the walls were of stone as well. The fortress was one of 2 and the fortresses were the only buildings in the city that were paved. All surrounding areas had only dirt roads. The family was not a rich family, however they were the kind who prided themselves in their pitiful existence and considered them better than most around them. Shaddarra and his brother were told that they were found at the door step of the house they now called home, cold and very alone on a very stormy night much like this one. They both despised the world that they were forced to live in, and tonight, they were to make their escape. Today they would get what they needed and flee the city to find their own destiny.
He waited some more and began filing his knife silently. Then what he waited for had finally transpired. It began to rain. At first it was barely a drizzle. Then it transformed itself into a downpour that the guards below cursed their posts for. Shaddarra felt relieved because the downpour would make his aim much easier. Shaddarra, without the slightest bit of noise leaped from the roof and landed silently on the roof that was just 2 meters above the guard's heads. "The only thing that I should worry about now would be lightning." Shaddarra muttered. Out of his pocket he drew a pebble, about half the length of his thumb, and just as wide. Without losing his balance he flung it at a tin can he placed on a roof top about 9 meters from his original hiding place. The can reverberated loudly as the pebble met its mark, and made a loud clang as it hit the stone paved street below. As the guards below looked up from their conversations, hands placed on the hilts of their swords, they started walking forward.
Shaddarra had hired a poor beggar to sit by the tin can. He paid more than he should have, but the man looked so pitiful, that for a person like Shaddarra, he couldn't help but try and be generous to the misfortunate man. He knew that because of his kindness however, the old man wouldn't fail him. He heard the guards conversing with the old man, and leaped down from the roof while he still had the chance grabbing a flag pole and swinging over a stack of boxes just to the right of the door.
His caution was rewarded as two more guards walked out of the door at that exact moment. He crouched behind the boxes and waited for them to report to the Captain. His timing couldn't have been better. By choosing to enter at the changing of the guards, the first set of guards would be able to take their time conversing with the old man, because their shift was over. Because their shift was over, the new guards would take no alarm that the first set of guards were missing from their posts and would have just assumed that they had left a bit early. All guards did so and they were no exception. Then, when they verified that the first set of guards had left, they would sign in at the their post and return giving Shaddarra more than enough time to sneak into the door, and into the fortress.
The new guards walked away, their iron boots tramping loudly as they signified the guards leaving. Shaddarra quickly ran around the boxes to the door, and picked the lock. Within seconds he was in and priding himself at his own cunning and stealth. Shaddarra had entered at the top of a stairwell; down one flight of stairs was a torch, leaving the top portion of the stairway dark, receiving light only from the small barred window in the door. Above him were wooden beams. They smelled of a fresh pine scent, which Shaddarra knew that it meant the beams were new. "Perfect, these will hold all the spoils just nicely." said Shaddarra.
Hearing Shaddarra talk was a rare thing, for he rarely spoke at all, and when he did, it was as if you were listening to the shadows themselves. He was a very quite person, and he from appearance, could clearly be discerned as not human. He had all the quickness of an elf, yet instead of his movements being fluid such as the elves, they were extremely sharp, very precise. Unlike the elves who trained hard to achieve balance, Shaddarra was born with a natural affinity to balance. He was a very well balanced person from a young age and was ambidextrous, and could only be bested by some of the oldest and most well balanced elves. He was very handsome and had seemed to be hybrid between elf and human though more elf, but he somehow knew that whatever he was, it did not consist of humans or elves, and yet at the same time, you would never notice him in a crowd. These were attributes to both him and his brother. No one had seen the elves for a long time, many people in this time were afraid of the elves, for they seemed completely alien to humans. And for this reason, they felt a general discomfort when Shaddarra and his older brother Sharquin happened to be around.
And yet, it was because of this uniqueness that caused Shaddarra to become so stealthy. He blended easily with people and all of society and could blend even better in the shadows. He was always thinking two to three steps ahead, but even then he was always three to four steps behind his brother. His brother was a feared man in the city. Some considered him to be extremely dangerous because of how quickly he though ahead of others and his abilities. His brother was a man of ambition, and was something of a prodigy at his age. He was a dangerous foe, and the strongest ally one could have. The secret behind his success was a logic that a dragon would envy. He also looked like an older version of Shaddarra. The brothers shared a strong bond, a bond only brothers could share tempered by social isolation, and hardships. Shaddarra was 15 and was nearing manhood. His older brother was 19 and possessed a character much more silent than Shaddarra, though Shaddarra believed that to be because of age.
Anyway, as Shaddarra peered down the stair case, he listened intently for any patrols. When he was assured he slowly descended the stair case, careful not to step on any rocks or pebbles for it was a stone paved stairwell and there were many bits that had broken off. While he did so, he dragged along a string that gradually wound up the entire stair way. Shaddarra reached the bottom of the staircase and took note of the hallway ahead of him. There was only one guard and he was patrolling back and forth along the hallway. Shaddarra walked lightly to the edge of the hallway, hiding behind the corner. When the guard was very close to him, and turned around to walk back to the other end of the hallway, Shaddarra began to stalk him.
He moved swiftly and silently and when he was close enough he pulled out a rock and struck the man on the back of the head slightly to the top, fairly hard. The man collapsed and Shaddarra caught him as he fell. Shaddarra placed one leg on the wall to his left and another on the one to his right, and climbed up about two feet. He then pried a well sized rock from the ceiling and placed it by the man's foot so as to give the appearance that the rock fell and hit his head, and that he fell forward as a result. Shaddarra took care to take with him, the guard's knife. It wasn't exactly in pristine condition, but it would well enough serve the cause.
Shaddarra sprinted down the hallway barely making a sound, ducking behind pillars as the patrols made their rounds. He was close to the supply rooms now, the security had moderately increased, but nothing that he couldn't handle. As he continued down the halls, he noticed that the walls were becoming more and more adorned. "I'm probably getting to the areas more reserved for nobles." thought Shaddarra. He wound around the corner one last time and alas! He could see the supply room door ahead of him, guarded by another set of guards. Shaddarra didn't know how to handle this situation; the guards were armed fairly well, were combat veterans, and showed no signs of falling asleep or dozing off, and though they didn't see him, they were looking in his direction, meaning he couldn't try to sneak up to them. His heart sank as he looked on, as he wondered if all his work to get here had been in vain. But, just as he was about to give up and walk away, he heard a familiar sound. It was like a silk cloth being dropped onto the ground again, and again, noticeable only to Shaddarra's enhanced hearing and still extremely soft at that level.
He heard thump, and then a man yelled, and yet another thump. He turned with a sly look on his face to face his older brother. At 15 Shaddarra was about 5 feet and 7 inches tall, which wasn't that bad for someone his age, and yet his brother at 19 was still an entire head taller. Sharquin walked up to Shaddarra and ruffled his hair. "You did well to get this far; I doubt I could have done too much better!" Shaddarra, annoyed moved his head away from Sharquin's hand. "Well it's a good thing you came in just then Sharquin, otherwise I probably would have left."
Sharquin wordlessly acknowledged Shaddarra, something Shaddarra was used to, and strode over to the door. He touched the door knob, and with his back turned to Shaddarra, did something that Shaddarra couldn't see due to Sharquin's positioning. The door opened silently revealing only a dark room which possessed a depth that Shaddarra's enhanced vision still could not entirely perceive. As he and Sharquin walked into the room, Sharquin drew a torch and lit it, before them lay an abundance of weapons and money. The majority of the money was nickel, although if they looked carefully enough, they could find silver and if they were lucky, gold.
"Sharquin, I deduce that this will be more than enough for our expedition." Sharquin grinned, responding "That it will brother, now then pack up, before they notice the unconscious guards outside." Shaddarra tossed the guard's knife he pilfered, and found a better knife to replace it. As he looked around he found a good sword, too short to be a long sword, and too long to be a short sword, the perfect length. He belted the sheath, and kept the sword drawn under his cloak, in case someone walked into the room at that moment. He pulled out his bag and bagged all the silver and gold coins he and Sharquin could find. After they decided that they found all that they could, they began taking the nickel ones by the masses. Fairly soon he managed to collect about three bags full. One held by him, the other two held by Sharquin. They put out the torch, stepping into the now cool hallway silently. Shaddarra led Sharquin back to the stairway where he entered stopping at the door which led to it. They peered into the small window in the door to find the first guard awake again joined by at least two others.
"Shaddarra," whispered Sharquin, "I hope you have a way to distract them, because I'm not totally sure how to handle this situation short of taking the guards' armor, and disguising ourselves, but I don't want to risk them seeing our height or hearing our voices." Shaddarra looked to himself pleased that he for once thought ahead on his part of the heist. "Sharquin, I did for your information and for once managed to think ahead on my part without you needing to tell me." Normally an average older brother would have taken this in an annoyed manner, but not Sharquin. Sharquin, genuinely pleased responded "Then good luck, you can handle this one on your own." Sharquin took a step back allowing Shaddarra forward. Shaddarra sheathed his drawn sword, and pulled out a small vial filled with oil and poured them onto the door hinges.
Shaddarra said a silent prayer and began to open the door. "Success!" he thought to himself as the door opened without a sound. He found the string that he first wound down the staircase and he pulled. About 3 staircases above him a rock attached to the string fell halfway and deafeningly clattered on the stone staircase. Shaddarra flinched as he preferred Silence over sound any day. The silence returned and the guards were stiff, with either fear or training. Shaddarra took advantage of this and leaped silently behind the first guard and struck the him, where as Sharquin was a flash and a blur jabbing at the nerves of the guards immediately knocking them out, and caught them as they fell.
With pride, the brothers sprinted up the stairs and reached the top of the stairs tired, but filled with anticipation and exhilaration as they knew that they had all that they needed to escape the pitiful world that they lived and find out who they truly were.
Shaddarra pointed upward and made a hook with his hand. Sharquin immediately understood what he meant and slung the two bags onto the new pine scented wooden beams above him. They opened the door outside and behind the two guards who stood there climbed the flag pole, to the roof above and sprinted away into the distance as the icy rain and shadows masked their escape. Their destiny was nigh upon them.
Author's Note
Well then, what do you think? I actually want to get reviews this time, so yeah, my Fan Fics will actually be succinct like this one, I think I rushed the other ones, sorry again that this took so long to post, but you saw the first A.N. and seeing this chapter, you can see why it took so long to re-write. This is the prequel to Eragon that I mentioned I would write, and will explain A LOT of the story elements that you see in Eragon. So hoping to get more reviews, Twilight out.
1) Tudosten Lake is where Oromis said that he was from in Eldest.
