*(Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Lord of the Rings or The Inheritance Cycle. They all belong to their respectful owners and I have not used them for any profitable means in any shape or form.)

Here to join me here today is Brom. Since Gimli has had a mental breakdown from the times we had to rehearse this scene since he could not put on the best old man voice he had.

Brom: It's good to be here. Now before we begin I want to say this since many of you will be wondering why Saphira has spoken a couple of lines. That is because Jason here wants Eragon to get accustomed to the others. That and he has no idea at the moment how to work her in. So sorry about that everyone. All right now back to you Jason.

Ah yes thank you Brom. Well here is yet another chapter. Now we will be in Therinsford and will start Eragon's sword training. So we shall begin.*

They all arrived at the town within 10 o'clock in the morning. When they stopped Brom turned to Legolas and Gimli.

"All right you two as you know Dwarves and Elves have not been seen around here for a long time. Now we can get you in but I will give you two names. Gimli can go by Jacob. And Legolas can go by William Turner." (Someone please guess where that could have come from for that is a hard one!)

Legolas looked to the side and said to himself.

"Why does that name sound like it fits me?"

They all walked into town warningly. They looked to buy horses near an inn. Eragon kept his hood up since he knew Roran was somewhere in this town and he did not want to tell his cousin about how his father died and it was basically his fault. They found a farm that was selling the horses that they needed. They were about to cross a bridge when a man stopped them.

"Sorry sirs. This is me bridge and you have to pay to cross over."

Brom sighed and asked him.

"How much?"

"300 crowns for you and the boy. And another 500 crowns for your friends especially this one since he is the most ragged."

He pointed to Aragorn which caused everyone especially Faramir to stir up with rage at the fact that this mere man singled out The High King of Gondor and Arnor just because he looked like a ragged man. Granted he had spent more than half of his life in the Wild which is probably why he looked like this but, his friends all loved Aragorn like a brother since he led them through the War of the Ring and was ready to take full blame of what happened to them all knowing the dire consequences if they failed.

Brom sighed and handed over the 800 crowns. The old man caught something in Aragorn's eye and acknowledged what it meant. Everyone walked through staring venomly at the man. Gimli had half a mind to take his hidden axe and force him to give the money back. Faramir and Eomer would have taken down this man for his insolence but, just kept on going. Aragorn was the last one to pass. He tripped over and fell on the man.

"Excuse me sir. I'm sorry the crack over there forced me to fall. If you can please repair it so nothing unfortunate happens to anyone. The results could be disastrous."

He got up and walked away with a blank expression. When they were halfway over Eragon responded to this by saying.

"I can't believe this! He stiffed us! We needed that money for the horses…and that probably wasn't even his bridge!"

Aragorn nodded and sighed deeply.

"Yes but, we can not fight with all the fools in this world. Especially some like them." He smiled and the boy asked.

"Why are you smiling? He stiffed us! And he charged us an extra 500 crowns because of you!

Aragorn started to laugh along with his everyone else. The boy looked confused.

"What are you all laughing at?"

"Lad look at where Aragorn keeps his sword. Do you see something different about him?"

Gimli had asked him. The boy looked at his belt. He saw his sword, his dagger, and…what looked like a purse. He never saw him have that before. He then heard a cry of dismay on the other side.

"You took his bag of money?" the boy asked astounded.

"Yes. I did. I know just by looking at him he was cheating us. And by the weight of this back there is quite a lot. Even more than what we paid him. When you're a Ranger for 3/4ths of your life you learn things. Now I see that farm we were told about let us purchase some horses."

*When they see the owner and have talked with him for 10 minutes*

I don't know…I want to sire a whole line from Snowfire…"

The rancher was saying to Brom.

"I will pay 500 crowns for him."

The rancher looked thoughtfully but nodded with a very heavy sigh.

"Now what about these other four horses? I would like to buy to more."

The rancher looked at the group.

"Two? But you have five more people in your group."

"That is because old Jacob rides with me."

Legolas said looking at the rancher. His ears were well covered but he made sure not to stare at people to hard. The rancher looked at "Old Jacob" and simply nodded since he knew by the looks of this man he was very old since he was wizened and bent, and also by the long beard which was red? He didn't question it. Brom pulled out whatever money they had left. The rancher looked at it but, shook his head.

"You are short 100 crowns." He said.

"Well…would you be willing to part with them for 1500 crowns? This is all we have."

The rancher shook his head.

"I will not part with my best horses for anything below 1600 crowns."

Brom asked the man.

"Excuse me for a moment I want to consult with my friends."

Brom went to the others and asked.

"Do any of you have anything that is worth 100 crowns?"

The boy, Aragorn, Legolas, Faramir, and Eomer shook their heads. Gimli on the other hand was pulling something from his belt. It was a medium sized what looked like a pouch. Except, it must've been Dwarven design considering it had a strange language written all over it. He opened it and started to look through some strange minerals. He pulled out what looked like an emerald but it was red. Brom's eyes widened with shock and asked him.

"Where did you get that? I have only seen one of those in my lifetime…how did you get an emerald of the Ancient Riders?"

"An emerald of what?" Gimli asked.

"I'll explain when we leave."

Gimli then walked to the rancher and asked him in the best old man's voice he had.

"Excuse me lad…but, we this cover it? It is an old thing I found when I was a lad but, I do not want it anymore."

He held out the emerald and the man's eyes widened with awe.

"Yes that will cover all of them. You can keep your 1500 crowns. This will cover them all nicely."

They then took the horses and walked out of town and stopped 10 miles out of it behind a hill where Saphira landed next to Eragon. They had just finished eating when Gimli remembered to ask Brom's reaction about the emerald.

"So Brom what was that about by "an emerald of the Ancient Riders"?"

"Well when the Riders were first formed some of them found these emeralds that could hold more than a thousand year's worth of both a full grown Rider and Dragon's energy that they use for magic. The only thing that rivals it are diamonds but, even they have their limitations in some shape and form. These could however hold all kinds of energy that a Rider could put into it and use it in battle. But where did you get that? It must have cost you a fortune."

Gimli started laughing for a minute before he could say.

"Brom I found that in the Glittering Caves in Helm's Deep in Eomer's country Rohan. With Eomer's permission along with my King's permission I was aloud to take some Dwarves to refine it and make it looked 100 times better. Even Legolas couldn't speak before my fellow Dwarves and I made it look more beautiful than it was. And when I showed Legolas what I did after he did not speak from noon till sundown."

"Still…it must cost a lot in Middle-Earth and you were willing to give that away?" he asked

Gimli again chuckled.

"Actually Brom we found thousands upon thousands of them in many beautiful colors. There were as many as rainbow. When we got our finest gemologist to look at them they were barely worth anything since they were so many of them. They are indeed worth in looks but, we don't sell them for more than 20 crowns in your measurements in this kingdom."

Both Eragon and Brom started to laugh.

"Well Gimli I guess you could say you cheated him if you were in Middle-Earth but, you may have just made him a very rich man in Alagaesia."

Within 5 minutes Eragon was staring into the fire till heard Brom say

"Catch!"

Eragon caught it and the thing he was suppose to catch was a stick?

He got up and Brom had one as well.

"Come it is time for your sword training!"

Eragon smiled to himself.

'If this old man thinks he beat me he's in one big surprise.'

The two circled around for a moment making the circled line to show where they could not step out till they charged…

*And that's all we have for today. I'm sure you can guess where I got Legolas's name is from. Until next time everyone!

Brom: Have a nice day.*