I am back, I apologize for the long wait, I wanted to break from the story for a bit, and refresh myself. I bring you the 14th chapter and I hope you enjoy it and as usual, Eragon, and all aforementioned characters, places, and events of the books are entirely the property of Christopher Paolini, the event of this story and OC characters are of my own invention and do not play on other fanfics, any similarities are coincidence. With that out of the way, enjoy!

Chapter 14

Eragon slowly opened his eyes and the light of the noon day sun hit them. He winced at the glare and lifted his head to look around. Every single one of his friends...and Shruikan, were sleeping soundly in the small camp site they had set up. He was slightly surprised that none of his companions had stirred as of yet but he wasn't about to complain, he didn't need any of them passing out on the way to Teirm. His mind had been formulating ideas on how to get off the continent before he'd fallen asleep again and he had deduced that they were going to have to get a large ship, or several for a voyage out to sea.

There was no way that they would be able to journey the whole distance by air without resting and Eragon had no idea if there were any islands from here to whatever lands that lay beyond that they could rest at. He shook his head and lifted his wings to allow some cool air in beside him, something he was sure Roran and Katrina would appreciate.
After stretching languidly he rose to his feet and turned towards Saphira to wake her, when a familiar female voice spoke out from an area beside Shruikan, "Well, its about time you woke up, I was beginning to wonder if you'd cast a sleep spell on everyone including yourself."

Eragon let out a dragon's snort of laughter and turned his gaze to Angela the herbalist who was sitting cross legged by a long dead camp fire next to Shruikan, the werecat Solembum sitting next to her with his tail twitching back an forth impassively. Eragon thought for a moment and then used his magic to shift back to human form, casting also a spell to quickly dress himself with clothes from inside Saphira's saddle bags. Once dressed and comfortable, Eragon sat across from the herbalist and said,
"Good to see you escaped Galbatorix and you too Solembum."
Angela nodded and said as she casually stirred the long dead coals, "Oh it'll take more than he's got to control me, or maybe not, I haven't had to deal with beings of his power in a long while."

Angela tossed the stick she was using to poke the non existent fire down onto the coals and asked, "Does the spirit plane's power suit you Eragon?"
Eragon reasoned that Solembum probably told her about his little foray into the spirit plane and nodded in response to her question.
Angela nodded simply and said, "Well of course it does, barely had it a week before you mated with your own dragon did you?"
Eragon flushed at this and changed the subject so as not to have to answer. Her smile made him feel certain that his tactic to avoid the subject confirmed her suspicions.
She scratched Solembum behind the ears for a few seconds before asking, "So Eragon, anything interesting happen lately?"

Eragon raised an eyebrow at her, how could she not know of all that had been happening in the last few days, well... there was one thing she wasn't aware of, and it was still something he'd been meaning to ask about. Eragon shifted a little in place and said, "Well, there is one thing I've been wondering about that happened to Saphira and I."
Angela looked at him curiously and said, "Well spit it out, I'm not going to bite you."

Eragon sighed and retold of their flight from Uru'Baen, of the mystical white dragon they had encountered and his apparent strange powers.
As he described the event Angela's face grew more and more agitated until he finally finished and she burst out, "Oh that pious overbearing toad, I mean frog! He chooses now of all times to intervene with the circumstances of the world." Eragon gaped at her, she already knew about the dragon, and apparently on a better basis than Eragon did.
"You know him? Why didn't you tell me there was a dragon that powerful out there, we could have used his help!"

Angela scowled and said, "I wish he had, Oromis might still be alive, in fact this whole blasted war might have been averted. But he said, 'No, mortals can take care of themselves, they abandoned us, why should we help them." Angela froze here with a look of profound horror on her face before she brought her hand to her face and said, "Oh barzul! You idiot, why did you have to go and say that?!"
Eragon just stared at her, he had only one conclusion as to what she meant when she said that, "Angela, what did you mean by that? Are you a deity of sorts?"

Angela let her hand slide off her face and shrugged, "I suppose you could call me that, or rather I was. About two millenia ago, I became mortal in order to help mortals and to learn as one, I have to admit, I enjoy it." Eragon was having a hard time processing this but in a lot of ways it made sense, her curious nature, immense age, enormous power, and extensive knowledge about nearly everything.

He shook his head and looked to Solembum who seemed to be unaffected by this news. He simply lifted his paw and began cleaning it as if this revelation of Angela's was completely normal. Eragon looked back at Angela and asked, "Why would you keep this a secret from us, we are your friends after all."
Angela shook her head and said, "It was never a matter of friendship, I just felt that you didn't particularly need to know, what good would the knowledge of what I use to be have been to you?" Eragon looked blankly at her and thought for a moment about how to answer as Angela whispered in the ancient language and caused the stick that she'd thrown on the coals to glow white hot before exploding with a loud crack and being consumed in flames in a matter of seconds.

Eragon had jumped at the noise and apparently so had everyone else as several noises of alarm and some swearing issued from many in the camp site. Eragon chuckled softly to himself before reclining a little, resting on his arms as he asked, "So this dragon, who is he?"
Angela frowned a little as she stared at the white hot coals of the stick, a slight pause preceded her answer. "He is Vaetaren as humans would call him, the creator of dragons, deserts, and mountains. I can't tell you what the elves would call him, ever since they were gifted with magic, the name they had for him and the word for god in general faded from their tongue."

She shifted slightly, relieving her legs from the crossed position they'd being in into a more relaxed position before continuing,
"The truth of the world creation was scattered among all the lesser races, as all our original teachings on the matter to them were lost in the centuries, though few still remembered us, most others created their own mythos to explain the mysteries of the world, as you have noticed, the races of the land all have different gods and all for different reasons. We of the elders, that is the makers of the world, slowly faded from memory until all that was left of what we had built lay crushed beneath the weight of time."

Angela shook her head and dropped back onto her back, placing her arms behind her head and sighing, "How long its being since I spoke of this..."
Eragon continued to watch her for a few more minutes before a warm dragon's tongue slid across his neck, making him jump in alarm. He heard Saphira's laughter in his head and replied, "Good Morning to you too dearest, please don't scare me like that again."
Saphira lay her head down on the ground next to him, showing him an innocent sapphire eye as she replied, "I can't help it Eragon, you've awoken a new beast in me, I can't help but show you my affections."

Eragon smiled to himself and rubbed the top of her head gently, which caused her to let out a deep reverberating purr that vibrated the ground beneath him. He enjoyed being able to please Saphira like this, and even more pleased by the fact that he alone was allowed to do so. A side effect of the transformation he'd gained was the fact that his skin had toughened significantly and was now no longer damaged by her tongue when she licked him, which was a nice thing. He was also fairly confident that he'd gained some resistance to fire and heat but he had no desire to test it just now.

Moments later Roran grasped his shoulder as he dropped down next to Eragon with a friendly good morning. Eragon nodded at him and asked, "Rest well last night?"
Roran nodded and said as he picked up a piece of wood off the ground and set in the coals, "Yeah, a fair bit hotter under a dragon's wing than I anticipated, it also was strange that it was my cousin who was the dragon."

Roran seemed to reflect on this and then shook his head with a look of bewilderment, but said nothing more until Katrina and their son joined them moments later. Saphira smiled at the family and then nuzzled Eragon, whispering into his mind, "Just think, that will soon be us."
Eragon smiled broadly as he put his arm around Saphira's jaw, rubbing against the side of her head and said, "I certainly hope so, to be a father, its something I've always wanted." Saphira hummed gently and closed her eyes, loving the affections and words that her rider and mate gave her. She knew that there was no way that they would not become parents, by her own heart and deep love of Eragon she knew that they were successful in creating their first children, only time would deliver the conformation of this fact.

After several silent moments in which Roran retrieved a cooking pot and some food, to make a breakfast for himself and Katrina, Arya finally graced the assembly, looking somewhat dishevelled and red eyed. Eragon looked worriedly at her as she sat down cautiously in the only clear spot of this circle of friends, right next to Shruikan, who though awake had said nothing to anyone of the group. He did smirk slightly as Arya sat down next to him as though he were demon spawn and would strike her down at any moment. After a few moments she seemed to gain a little of her composure and she said, "So, what are we planning from here?"

Eragon looked at her curiously, he had never once seen her this unkempt, well, of her own free will that is. She looked as though she had not slept at all, dark circles were just visible under her eyes, her hair was a tangled mess that looked to have a few twigs caught in it here or there, and she looked as though she had just recently recovered from a severe illness. Eragon opened his mouth to inquire about her well being when she raised a hand and forestalled him, "I am fine Eragon, its nothing I can't cope with. Now please tell me what our next move is."

Eragon hesitated for a moment before nodding in understanding, whatever she was dealing with, she'd tell him when she was ready.
After Roran and Katrina finished eating and Katrina nursed Garrow, did Eragon finally clear his throat and say, "Well, now we are all ready, I'll get to the plan I came up with."
He looked at all his companions before continuing, "As we all know, Galbatorix has cheated death and used his new found powers to enslave the elves, those of whom were his greatest threat. Now I have no idea how much power he has, but I for one have no intention of sticking around to learn how great it stretches."

He looked into the newly made fire and contemplated what to say. There were many things he felt that needed to be said, of his bizarre dreams, the possibility of lands out across the sea, and of the need to gather help from those that were not under Galbatorix's heel. After a moments deliberation he decided to tell them of the basics of his plan. Eragon looked back up at his friends and said, "I believe that our best chances of staying safe are to travel to Teirm and obtain a barge or ship of sorts, or even numerous ships with which to sail out across the sea."

Well that got him a few shocked stares, from just about everybody in the group, Shruikan included. Forestalling all questions he laid out the outlines of his reasoning, of the uncertainty of Galbatorix's powers, and of how far they may stretch, of the need to find Murtagh and Thorn, who had flown out across the sea themselves and recruit their help, and of the need to find new lands in which to prepare for the fight against Galbatorix, should his power spread beyond the woods of Du Weldenvarden.
When he'd finished lining out the information, a heavy silence fell on the group as they all digested this information.
After a full ten minutes Roran finally said, "Blast it, I'd hoped to never get on a ship for as long as I lived, but I can see no fault in your logic, there is too much uncertainty with our current situation to risk staying, and I for one will not allow either Katrina or my son to suffer under that mad man."
Eragon nodded at him as Roran put an arm around Katrina and gave her a little squeeze.

Eragon next looked to Angela, who shrugged and said, "I've been with you since the Farthen Dur, Eragon, I'm not about to let a great expanse of water stop me now." Solembum fidgeted nervously but said nothing as Eragon's gaze shifted next to Arya, who sighed when his gaze alighted on her.
She looked him in the eyes and said, "Eragon, what do you expect me to say, I have no home nor family to return to. If leaving the land of Alagaesia behind is the only way we can find a way to destroy Galbatorix once and for all, then I will follow you."

Shruikan shifted a little and to Eragon's surprise found him staring at Arya with a look that could only be described as pity.
Shruikan sighed and said, "Elfling, I understand your pain, but as Eragon has said, if we stay we risk losing ourselves to Galbatorix, and I'll sooner die than allow that to happen again, so I will follow you rider."

Eragon nodded and looked to Saphira who bore a slight look of fear, one of the rarest of her emotions, "Eragon, I trust you in this and will follow you to the ends of the world, but I fear that we may be unable to get the transportation or food we will need for your plan."

Eragon frowned, the same thoughts had occurred to him, but they had no other choice in the matter, no matter where they went in Alagaesia, Galbatorix was sure to find them, and therefore, they had no choice but to leave Alagaesia for good. The prospect did not make him happy, but at least then they would survive and be free. Eragon shook his head and continued to work out the details with his friends until well into the afternoon, one thing was for sure, this was in no way going to be easy.

I hope you enjoyed it, I'll get to Chapter 15 soon.