AN: There have been lots of changes to the last chapter. Mainly from all the confusion but also because of similarities between this story and His Wydra. EmeraldAyra believes that what's done is done. With some conditions and changes made by her request my story will be continuing. So with all the changes so I suggest you go and read it again before you read this as it may not make sense.
Enjoy
Silverwing
Kagega: Here is your delayed continuation. That has respectively taken some time.
Cassie2000: Oh yes I will go far. Really far, through a lot of Inheritance and we haven't even gone back to the Varden yet.
Chapter 11: Recollections
The Morning after Her Pain…
Arya was comfortable, for some reason she could not comprehend. For the first time she didn't want to get up. She as an elven princess and the ambassador to the Varden was always up at the first rays of light, as the sun rose over the horizon. But she was lying on the most comfortable bed, her head resting against the flat surface. The rhythmic beating calmed her, making her fall back to sleep. Wait, beds do not make rhythmic beating sounds or radiate a comforting, warming heat. Arya's eyes snapped open and she slowly raised her head slowly off the bare chest of the person she was sleeping on. She found it was Eragon and suddenly all thoughts regarding how she had slept in had left her mind. He had not taken advantage of her, had he? Of course he hadn't, he couldn't. Arya repeatedly tried to convince herself. She had tested him, he was not that kind of person. But still Arya slowly, scared at what she would find, looked down at herself and to her relief found cloths on her body. Just none on Eragon's chest.
"At least he is wearing leggings." Arya thought absentmindedly.
But why was she clinging to him like this, her legs and arms wrapped tightly around his body. But he was not holding onto her, much as she though he would, no it was her. Her head lying over his soothing beating heart, her arms wrapped around his chest, her legs wrapped around his. Eragon's lean build was much heavier than any elf she had ever come across, along with the sun dyed blond hair that faintly coated his chest, no other elf had that either. Feelings and thoughts about this came to her mind, but she shut them out, buried them deep within herself. She couldn't allow herself to know what they were.
Slowly, carefully Arya raised herself off of Eragon. Being careful not to touch him any more than necessary, or enough that it could wake him. She did not wish for him to see her like this at her most vulnerable. Silently Arya walked towards the door out of the room. However she stopped right by it. Why was there a piece of paper with her name on it, tied with a string the exact shade of colour her eyes were. It read, "To Arya, From Eragon." A smile barely distinguishable graced her face, such a noble sentiment. It wasn't a flower, but the thought behind it was what mattered to her. The time Eragon spent making this for her. Arya picked it up and placed it in the folds of her cloths, not visible to other elves. Then quietly opened the door, walked out and shut it behind her.
At that moment Eragon woke, not knowing that Arya had only just left. Arya never realised that her absence was felt by him. That he woke because she was gone.
Arya returned to her room and placed the poem Eragon gave her amongst her personal belongings. It was a beautiful heart felt poem, expressing his worry over her as she was unwell. Perhaps even his frustration at being unable to help her, that much the poem openly conveyed. But all else, any other meanings the poem meant was hidden in the words. Double meanings and feints that could only be unravelled by the writer. Eragon had hidden some meanings on purpose, but others were clear as day and this confused Arya. Why would he write so obviously? Arya didn't have time to ponder this however as she was contacted mentally and asked to go to The Queen's tent for a meeting. Heading on her way, Arya left the poem amongst her precious possessions that she always carried with her.
Arya arrived at the tent to find the Queen already waiting. After sticking to sticky formal addresses in the greeting they both silently waited for the other people that were to attend. After the Queen greeted Eragon and started addressing the issue at hand. Arya was surprised that Eragon was the only other person to come. Arya started to feel tense, this was about what had happened recently and the Queen wanted to know what had happened. So did she but she didn't want the Queen to know. Eragon's description was very brief and modest, no one elf could take down seven elves the way he had without a sword. Nor could he have cured her so simply, Shade's blood poisoning was notorious and all who were infected were killed immediately to prevent what happened decades ago from happening again. A massacre of humans by a Shade and his servant that was thankfully stopped by the riders before to many turned. However thousands of innocents died, and thousands more were infected. But he had stopped that without killing her, a feat that in all history had never been accomplished. He was withholding important things from them. The Queen complained about this, obviously thinking along the same lines as her. For the first time in a long time Arya was scared, before her mother was easy pickings into her life. Arya's life was very private, her feelings, her fears. She does not share these with her mother or anyone else, but she knows that her mother wants to know. Everything that she had told Eragon and all the things he had seen in her mind. She had never before felt so vulnerable before both of them. Eragon who possibly knew more about her than anyone else, but she trusted him, he would not betray her. Would he? He had been in her mind that much he had said, but what had he seen. This of all things scared her the most. Would he share it? Not even to someone who could force him to. But she kept all these feelings off of her face and averted her gaze, she could not give herself away. But no, he did not betray her, Eragon's next words shocked her.
"No"
So he would not betray her. She had to raise her expectations of him again. He was constantly proving her estimations of what he was capable of to be wrong, surpassing each in no time. Were elves would take decades to change and mature as he does. But now the true test of his character begins, after openly defying the Queen could he still stand against her wraith.
"What did you say?"
To say her mother was furious was an understatement. Arya had not seen her this mad since she had been banished. Eragon's reply was of course polite and as courteous as possible. But the iron, the steel in his voice was unmistakable. He would not be swayed, no matter what was said. Arya saw for the first time, a Dragon Rider in him, the command and maturity that he would one day hold as Lead Lord Rider. Eragon had made up his mind. He would only tell her, Arya allowed herself to relax slightly, that battle was over but the war had only began. The Queen turned on her and Arya internally sighed, she knew what was coming.
"Arya you will make him tell us together, as he seems stubborn in his choice."
Why was it that her mother could always make her so angry like this? Just from a few simple words, but her meaning was clear, not only was the Queen talking about Eragon. Her Mother was taking about her as well.
"Why is his choice so stubborn? He made it by himself. Of his own accord, it is his choice and just because you can't change his mind there is no need to attempt to force him otherwise."
"Yes his choice is stubborn. He is not thinking of the greater good. The rest of our race that could contract this, all the other races. Just as he completely disregarded his safety to save you, even if none had succeeded in the past."
Arya was furious, how could her mother still hold a grudge? How could she still think of her as an immature child? It was maddening.
"He has given his reasons and all you can do is learn to accept them. You can't change his mind, you can't force him to do what you want. The likelihood that this would happen again is very slim. The protection you insist on giving him is no longer needed. If he wants protection he will ask for it."
"I can certainly try to change his mind now, he's putting his only personal reasons in front of the reasons of others. You cannot say he hasn't been thankful for that protection now can you. He does need it, he is young and inexperienced."
"He is not immature, he is mature enough to make his own decisions, old and wise beyond his years. You cannot control his life mother, just as you can no longer protect him. He no longer needs it."
Arya stormed out of the tent, unable to take the presence of her mother any longer. Then once out of the tent, she started to run. The pounding of the rain and her feet rhythmically hitting the ground for some reason no longer calmed her. She was in hysterics, her anger at her mother was just not going away. She went wherever her feet carried her and stumbled upon a lovely secluded garden, the perfect place for her to calm herself. Completely alone. She slumped onto a green chair that over looked the large pond in the middle of the garden. Not as gracefully as she would have liked, but Arya didn't care at the moment. She closed her eyes and just listened to the sound of the rain as it fell and the sound of the trickling water from the small waterfall. But still she felt agitated, what was wrong with her. Usually she would have been able to calm herself by now. What was different? Her body remained tense as if just about to attack, her muscles tightly wound like the string of a bow. She just couldn't relax. Then Arya felt Eragon approach, his smell was unmistakable now and for some strange reason familiar to her. It was different somehow. But why did she recognise it?
Arya's body finally relaxed, however it was a completely unconscious action. Arya barely noticed, her attention on the lily pads of the pond. Eragon then sat on the chair next to her and she turned her attention to him and was stunned. Eragon was glowing a deep blue with lightning jumping off his body. Arya was so shocked she was unable to do anything as Eragon glowed in front of her. Then a stray bolt hit the chair and it started to burn, Arya flinched, it had barely missed her. Suddenly Eragon fell through the chair, the part he was sitting on had already burned through with a deep blue fire. He rolled forward several times down the hill and landed in the pond. Then he sat up several lily pads on top of his head with a shocked expression on his face. The scene was so farfetched, so silly, Arya couldn't help but laugh at him. Eragon frowned not too happy with himself, the glow forgotten and gone. The rest of the chair gave way and Arya yelped, not expecting the chair to give way and fell into the pond as well.
Eragon started laughing, the sound that Arya had made was so unlike her. He had never heard anything like that from her. Almost like a bird call, but so completely musical, so beautiful yet so funny.
Arya came up couching, and then started laughing again at the look on Eragon's face. Eragon was already laughing from before, but as she sat up he doubled over. Finally when they both calmed down and stopped laughing they both looked at each other and smiled.
"You have lily pads in your hair and on your shoulders."
Eragon said pointing at the spots.
"You have several on your head, the others fell off."
The both started to brush the lily pads off and softly place them back in the pod.
"You missed one."
Eragon reached over to Arya slowly, giving her plenty of time to move away. But Arya didn't. He lightly ran his hand through her hair, pulling the lily out then handed it to her.
"Arya will you allow me to tell you what has happened now?"
Arya slowly nodded her head and sat up in the pond, the rain was only coming down lightly now. Causing no problems for them, it was kind of relaxing. So Eragon started to recount what had happened. Speaking completely in the ancient language, Eragon wanted her to have no doubts about if he was lying or not. He started from when he had discovered she was unwell. When he came to approaching her, Eragon went into great detail how he had calmed her, offered himself to her as comfort and had not done anything other than hold her hand. How she had suddenly grabbed hold of him and wrapped herself tightly around him, refusing to let go. Then buried her head in the nook of his neck. He then went into great detail explaining how he had calmed her by combing her hair, touching her mind, hesitating before entering then finally going in.
Eragon then used the simplest terms to describe her torturous memories to her. Stating plainly that he had seen her four most painful memories from when she was in her home as a child to just as he rescued her. Then stated simply that he had not seen anything else and not allowed himself to look at any of her memories or personal areas of her mind. But projected his memory to keep her from harm and keep himself occupied so he didn't go anywhere he shouldn't. He knew she would understand what he meant, nothing else was needed to be said. But also he didn't want her to relive any of those memories again just because he mentioned it. He told her leaving nothing out how he had found the darkness in her mind and destroyed it's hold over her.
As he came upon the kiss Eragon hesitated. Should he tell her or shouldn't he? No he had to tell her, but instead of telling her outright he could at least soften the blow.
"Arya what I'm about to tell you next you may not like, although I stopped the mental pain of the Shades blood. It was still physically inside you. I want you to brace yourself this may come as a shock to you. I cannot ask you to swear to not think of me less, as I could not. I just ask that you allow me to finish before you shout at me. I have decided that I cannot lie to you, or even just to keep the truth from you."
Arya was confused where was he going with this.
"I don't understand Eragon what do you mean you cannot lie to me."
Eragon took a deep sigh and explained to her.
"I lie to the people I love, as many humans do. They believe that sometimes a lie is better known than the truth. That a lie would destroy what we have and sometimes we lie to protect our loved ones."
"Please Eragon, I still don't understand. You lie to the people you love …"
Eragon interrupted her.
"Let me explain, I'll give you some examples. Garrow never told me that I wasn't his son until I was 12 years old. Roran never told me I wasn't his brother. I never told Saphira that upon touching her when she first hatched I experienced a searing pain all over my body that nothing has ever compared to. Not even the injury I sustained from the Shade's blade. Brom never told me I was his son. So you see Arya, I lie, I lie to protect each person I love, just as they lied to me. Even if it is irrational. Even if it causes us pain, we lie to protect the ones we love. But for some reason I cannot lie to you. Even when it would destroy our relationship as friends. So now I'm going to tell you something that you should never know in the first place."
Eragon sighed, gathered his courage and told her.
"As I was exiting your mind you were fine. Just as I left something seemed to go wrong, the Shade's blood started to attack your body. Then your breathing stopped. I thought you had died. Following my instincts I did what they told me to do… At the same time as I squeezed your stomach to get the Shade's blood out of you. I, I … I kissed you, hard, with everything I had. For some strange reason magic coursed through me and somehow, from the combination of that kiss and squeezing forced the Shade's blood out of you. As when I pulled away you vomited up a black substance. Then you started breathing normally. After that you just clung to me so tightly I couldn't get you off. So when I went to bed you were still holding onto me. Although you shifted a bit to get comfortable, I couldn't get you off…."
Arya was silent, she didn't say a word. Eragon found that he couldn't stand the silence so he continued.
"I'm telling you this because I don't want to lie to you. I can't lie to you, this friendship is based on trust. I feel obligated to tell you when I have broken that trust. Broken your trust in me. I just hope you can forgive me."
Arya remained silent for a time further, then she stood and turned her back to him.
"I can forgive you Eragon, but only because you did what you had to, to save my life. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we? I'm glad that you had the courage and decency to tell me all of that. I know it was hard for you, you have come a long way Eragon from the farm boy I first met. Goodnight."
And with that Arya walked away, leaving Eragon sitting in the pond. A frog on his left shoulder, or was it a toad? It croaked and Eragon jumped, causing it to leap off of him in annoyance. Eragon headed off to his room, it had been a long day and he needed his rest. Tomorrow was the mating ceremony, and he had no clue as to what was going to happen….
