AN:

Woo-ho! Two digit chapter!

Restrained. Freedom: no I'm not quite finished with this story yet! I'll tell you when I am but when this one is over I'll probably continue with other stories that will continue this one! More details on that will come in the final chapter.
Glad you like the chapter! And I totally agree! Arya not writing him is very OOC for her, I think.

ExA-mazing: What I meant by "to spend her eternal life with" was Arya's eternal life. I will not be elaborating too much on MurtaghXDwarves relationship in this story… I just don't want to open this Pandora's box…

So it turns out that I did have some time on my hands that I didn't know what to do with since I finished catching up to another fan-fic (Legacy: Book IV by IF-HBommb if anyone's interested).

A woman's perspective:

The engagement was a big surprise to everyone but less so for Eragon seeing as he was one of the few people who knew about the tow's relationship. Even so, Eragon was still surprised it was so quick, and even more surprising was the fact that the wedding was due in a couple of months.

"What's the rush?" he asked them both when they told him the news.

"I just don't want to miss any minute with her!" Murtagh answered and then kissed her. She returned the kiss passionately and Eragon couldn't help but smile at their happiness.

It was nice to see them both so happy after all they've both been through but there was a small part of him that felt envious, even jealous.

Arya still didn't return an answer to his letter and it's been more than two months.

'What could be wrong?' he asked Saphira.

'I don't know little one but I'm sure she has a perfectly good reason to not answering' she said confidently. 'Just remember that she's one of our closest friends and trust her judgment to do what's right even if you can't see her reasons.'

'I do trust her!' Eragon said defensively. 'But what could be happening that could prevent her from writing a simple letter?' he asked desperately after a short pause.

'Off the top of my head? She can be either under siege, her hands were cut off, she forgot how to write or she just never wants to see you again… Although it's probably not the latter.' Amusement was clear in her voice.

'Very funny' he said and despite himself a small smile crept to his lips.

'I thought so.' She said and he laughed at that.

They were walking to Roran and Katrina's temporary home in the city for lunch, tea and some company. They would have usually flown there but Eragon felt like taking a walk in the city and Saphira agreed to, as she put it, "going there the wrong way."

As they followed a curve in the road their house came into view and with it came a picture of Roran laughing and holding Ismira in his hands, throwing her in the air and catching her to the sound of her rolling laughter. He was so caught up that he didn't notice Eragon and Saphira until they were close enough to feel the ground shaken by Saphira's giant feet. When he did notice them he raised his hand in greeting and called Katrina who came out just as Eragon and Saphira were at the house.

"Hello to the happy family!" Eragon greeted.

"Hello to the mighty Eragon Kingkiller and Saphira Firetongue!" Roran responded.

"And how is my favorite niece?" he asked.

"She's your only niece Eragon" Katrina pointed out with a smile.

"That doesn't mean she can't be my favorite!"

"And what will happen when you have other nieces? Or a nephew? There might soon be many of them what with the wedding so close" Roran said.

"Then they will also be my favorite ones!" he said and took Ismira in his arms.

"Come sit! I'll bring the food" Katrina said and went back inside only to come out with some meat and an assortment of cooked vegetables and soap for Eragon.

"I thought I told you to sit!" she said when she saw him still standing.

"Sorry, I was busy" he said and walked away from Saphira with Ismira still in his hands. "She wanted to say hello" he explained.

"Who did? Saphira or Ismira?" she asked.

'Both' Saphira answered to great laughter from everyone.

And so they all sat down to eat, talking about this and that all the while.

"But you must have known there was something going on between them!" Roran said when they finally reached the topic of the wedding after the food was finished and Katrina brought out the tea.

"We're the ones who talked him into it!" he said proudly.

'Us and Thorn' Saphira corrected him.

"Right" Eragon said. "But the fact remains that we promised not to say anything to anyone" Eragon continued.

"Still could have told us" Roran retorted.

"That would have been telling someone" Eragon pointed out.

"You should be glad he's good at keeping a secret Roran! Otherwise we would have been in serious trouble in Carvahall" Katrina pointed out.

"Yeah… It's a good thing we managed to avoid that!" Roran said and they all laughed.

"And what about you?" Katrina asked Eragon.

"What about me?" he asked.

"Well" she said with a tone as if she was explaining the simplest thing on earth. "Is there someone in particular you've got your eye on? Because even if you don't I'm sure it will still be easier for you to find a woman who wants you than it will to take a walk around the city." Roran and Saphira laughed heartily at that.

"Well…" he stuttered.

"Oh my does he have his eye on someone!" Roran said while fighting for air. "I'd say he's got both eyes on someone and only for that someone when she's around!"

'He even uses my eyes sometimes.' Now Roran was laughing so hard he almost fell from his chair.

"Well first of all that's no reason to laugh at him!" Katrina said giving her husband a dark look that only half managed to calm him down. "And secondly, who is it?"

"It's…" He couldn't bring himself to say it.

"I would much rather have this from you but I will ask Saphira if I have to" she warned him.

"It's Arya" Eragon said quietly, so quietly that between Roran's laughter, Saphira's rumbling sound and Ismira clapping her hands at nothing in particular, Katrina couldn't hear him.

"It's who now?"

"Arya" he said loudly enough for her to hear but no one else.

"Oh!" Katrina said surprised. "And how long have you…"

'For about as long as he knew her' Saphira answered the unfinished question. 'I suspect that even before she was conscious.' Eragon's ears turned red and he looked down at the floor.

"If you two can't be helpful then I'm afraid I will have to ask you to leave!" Katrina said to both Roran and Saphira.

"Sorry" they both said.

"And no laughing!" she warned.

"So you like her, correct?" Katrina continued after making sure her message sank in.

"Yes" Eragon said weakly.

"And she likes you! What's the problem?" she asked as if she was missing something.

"What do you mean 'she likes me'?" Eragon asked, suddenly intrigued.

"Well, I haven't seen too much of her but I can tell you that there's a definite difference in her behavior when she's around you. A lingering look here. A quick glance there. You just have to look for it" she said simply and made it sound as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Well then how come she turned me down on more than one occasion?" he asked, genuinely looking for an answer.

'Oromis already answered that for you Eragon' Saphira said. 'She didn't want to distract you because you were too important.'

"Have you made any recent attempts?" Roran asked.

"Not really…" He admitted. "I just don't want to ruin our friendship in case she turns me down again! Anyway, I did write her a letter more than two months ago."

"What did it say?" Katrina said raising an eyebrow.

"That I wanted to see her and that I miss her."

"And what did she say?" Roran asked.

"Nothing yet. She hasn't returned my letter yet" he said lowering his gaze as a lump formed in his throat.

Katrina looked at him with pity in her eyes and Ismira, sensing her uncle's distress, tried to free herself from her mother's arms and get to Eragon.

Only Roran was staring into space, a small smile creeping to the edge of his mouth.

"Are you sure?" he asked and everyone looked at him with a surprised expression except for Ismira who was crawling across the table to Eragon.

"Of course I'm sure!" he said, wondering at his brother's stupidity as he picked Ismira up. "How could I not know that?"

Roran didn't answer but an answer soon came in the form of a nudge on the back of his head and Ismira laughing and pointing to something behind him.

He turned around to see what it was and was met with a small boat made of grass blades with what looked like a piece of paper tucked next to the mast. Suddenly all the uncertainty he felt before was lifted only to be replaced with by excitement and dread at the contents of the letter.

He handed Ismira back to her mother, despite the former's complaints, and reached out for the boat. He took the letter and opened it after a deep breath.

Dear Eragon

I'm sorry I haven't written sooner but I was too busy and didn't know how to put in writing what I wanted to say in person.

I won't be able to come to Illirea for a while and you shouldn't come to Ellesmera for I'm too busy at the moment and have things that need to be done. However, I will come to the wedding and I hope we could talk before it, I have something to tell you but it's not fitting for a letter.

I will contact you closer to the wedding to tell you when exactly I will be arriving.

Until then, take care of yourself, give my best to Nasuada and Murtagh and to Saphira as well.

Yours truly

Arya

Eragon read the letter over a couple of times to make sure he wasn't missing anything. There is a reason she hasn't written he thought.

'Told you' Saphira commented.

'Yes you did' Eragon admitted.

"What does it say?" Katrina said after Eragon said nothing for a few full minutes.

"That she'll come to the wedding and that she wants to see me before the wedding to tell me something."

"Any idea what it is?"

"Nope."

"Did she say why she hasn't answered sooner?"

"Not exactly… It was vague, but I think it has something to do with what she wants to tell me…"

"Well then you'll just have to wait for the wedding!"

"Yeah, right."

Eragon knew that it would be very difficult to wait for the wedding now but even so, he still felt a lot better.

As Eragon turned around to look at the boat again he saw it was already gone to continue roaming to land. All four of them watched it as it sailed to the south east, towards the Beor Mountains for some new sights of wonder and beauty.

AN:

Well, it's definitely the longest one yet! I hope you liked it! This chapter's been really fun to write! Partly because of all the small jokes that I love so much and partly because it was something that was left out of the book. This chapter, as well as the one where he talks to Murtagh, were so that I could show what I think he's thinking about trying to go after her again. I thought it was needed what with all the small hints that CP put in the books to there being some feelings that Arya had for Eragon…

The title was harder to come up with than any before… I chose this because Katrina is really the only woman that Eragon has to come to on these matters and one of the only women he's got for a feminine point of view! Nasuada is too busy running the world, Arya is Arya and is not going to talk to Eragon about this stuff anytime soon and Saphira, while being female, is a dragon and so cannot give the woman's point of view as easily… plus I like Katrina and I think she was missing some screen time so I decided to give it to her!

Anyway! I'm going to post this chapter so you'll have to excuse me for leaving… Please review! It will give me encouragement to write a chapter that I accidentally left out when I wrote all the existing ones!