"Now I can only guess at your name" he said looking at Roran, "but I'd say you look like Roran, Eragons cousin."
Our reaction was almost instantaneous, Roran jumped forward and placed his hammer on the traders collar bone while Baldur and Birgit ran and covered the door, me and Baldur just stayed in our area both getting ready to fight from any direction. "Liza, come here and guard Jeod here, I need to talk to the others." Roran said, I looked in his eyes and flew slightly over to the desk and stared at Jeod intently, he fidgeted under my glare but it didn't bother him too much.
"You're leaving a bird to guard Me." he said incredulously. I looked at Roran and he nodded his head, with a very bird like grin I changed back into my human shape and walked up behind him all the while drawing the sword that I keep on my hip trained on him. He was shocked at my display at first but quickly shook it off as the cold bite of steel appeared on the base of his skull. Roran soon came back over to us "Why should we let you live?"
"Well, for a starters, you kill me and my wife calls the guards, secondly I help the Varden and finally I have a plan to get the whole village out of Empire territory..." he then went on to explain the plan he had concocted, we listened intently as he told us of how we could steal a new boat called the Dragon Wing that was prepared for both battle and a voyage, and from there travel to Surda and to the Varden. Roran readily agreed to the plan and I added my own part in, "I'll help you capture the boat but then I'm going back to the Varden to help in an upcoming battle." they all nodded grimly at this.
"You guys can stay the night here if you want?" Jeod said
We nodded and were shown to our guest rooms, without further ado I contacted Nasuada, "Lady Nasuada." I greeted the new Varden leader.
"Liza, how are you doing?" she asked warmly yet a touch of nervousness was in her voice.
"Been better, been worse, but I got part of my sight back and I should be back with you guys in 3 maybe 4 days."
"Ohh by the way, we've moved a bit we are now stationed at the Burning Planes." she said still with a nervous edge in her voice.
I nodded before re-calculating my eta to 2-3 days. With that I stopped the spell and tried to figure out why she was nervous but chalked it up to being nervous about the fight. With nothing else to occupy myself with I fell asleep.
I was awoken up by Birgit just before midnight for our little robbery of the Dragon Wing mission, dressing in all black I followed her out the door and down to the docks where we met everyone else, "Ok we all know the plan right?" Roran asked we all nodded in conformation before making our way to the dock. I changed into my bird form without muttering the word of incantation this time and took off to circle the boat, I saw that there were only 4 guards and they were on a constant circuit of the boat, with this knowledge I dove back down to the docks to relay the information. The plan was changed slightly to accommodate the circuit of the guards.
With the new plan in place I took off again and dove for one of the guards and slit his throat with a talon before doing the same to his partner, the other guards heard the thump's of the guards falling over dead and while they were distracted Roran and everyone else came up and quickly killed them, "Thanks Liza, see you at the Varden." Roran said waving me off. With a quick wave of my feet I flew in the directions of the burning planes planning to fly by night and then rest in the morning. It wasn't long until the sun rose so I landed in a small cave and after making sure it was uninhabited I fell asleep with my head tucked under my left wing. I woke in the morning and started to fly again, making surprising time I spotted a giant cloud of sulphuric yellow smoke hovering over a plain of flames and dead ground, I saw the Varden campout on the east side while a much larger Empire army was on the west with a giant 3 mile strip of no-man's land in between.
I dove for the Vardens side and spotted Saphira over by a red command tent, with a quick screech in greeting I landed and changed back into my human form, after introducing myself to the guards and being let in I entered a large tent with a table in the middle 'and a crude map of the Burning planes spread out on it a dagger in each corner to hold it flat. I spotted Eragon and Arya standing side by side and couldn't think that Arya looked a little different than before; I also spotted Orik, Nasuada, and a man I didn't recognize or met before. With a quick introduction to the stranger I found out it was King Orrin of Surda.
They continued on talking about the battle plans and asked for my insight based on the quick aerial view I got on the way here, finally it was done and we all stepped out of the tent, "Liza can we talk to you?" Arya said walking out of the tent with Eragon beside her. I nodded and we stepped away to a more private location at the rear end of the camp, "What is it?" I asked getting nervous that something was wrong.
"Well-I uhh..."Eragon trailed off unsure of how to say it.
"I'm pregnant." Arya said. It was then that I noticed why she looked different she had on a loose fitting grey shirt and her stomach was larger than before.
"That's great! Who's the father?" I asked, it was then that I noticed that neither of them was looking at me and Eragon especially was avoiding my eyes, it finally clicked. "I see, well nice of you to tell me. Hope you guys have a nice life." My voice quickly went from sad to emotionless as I turned away and started to walk towards the forest.
"Liza wait!" Eragon said running up and grabbing my left arm at the elbow, I growled and swung around punching him in the jaw and launching him backwards and onto his rear. With a sob I took off running into the forest shifting to my wolf form as I went hoping never to have to see them again.
