Miantha nodded. It was time. Balefire! She screamed in her mind, Come, quickly! A split second later, Balefire came crashing through the undergrowth, growling and tossing his head, raring to go.
Less than a minute later, they were up in the air, Balefire carrying Miantha and Brom tentatively, trying to stay up. Brom was giving tense commands to fly right, or left, and no one was speaking. Even if Miantha had wanted to, which she didn't, they were going much too fast to talk anyway. Besides, Balefire had enough to deal with. He was struggling with the weight of two people.
Approximately ten minutes later, they had arrived in Gil'ead, and it was clear to see where the battle was waging - for it was on fire. "Fool," Muttered Brom, furious. "And just how am I supposed to see through that," He asked rhetorically. By the time Brom had finished his sentence, Balefire was hovering above the flaming prison. Through the smoke, Miantha could dimly make out a glimpse of Saphira's blue scales, but not much else was visible. Brom was right after all - nothing could be seen.
Miantha could feel Brom tensing himself in front of her, readying for...for...jumping! "Brom don't you'll kill yourself!" She yelled. "I'm not about to jump, you fool girl, if that was what you were thinking, I'm about to do magic," He hissed, obviously not in a very good mood at this point. A few moments later, a strong wind breezed in from the north, bitter and cold, wiping away the smoke.
Miantha gasped at the wreckage she saw before her. Blood was spattered over everything, it seemed. The elf (Miantha could not help noticing how beautiful she was, with her long, black hair that Miantha so envied her) was nearly unconscious, but still somehow managing to find the strength to fight.
Eragon was having a face-off with a red-haired man in a distant corner. Saphira and Murtagh had just spotted them floating above the prison. "Oi!" Murtagh called. "Come and convince Eragon that we can GO, now that we've got the bloody elf!" Brom wasn't moving though - obviously the magic had exhausted him. [Bale, I need you to drop Brom and I down on the ground so I can talk some sense into Eragon and he can lift Arya - she looks heavy. She commanded, and he did so immediately.
Just as Balefire lighted upon the ground, an errant soldier that Murtagh hadn't managed to decapitate shot an arrow straight at them. Miantha shouted at Brom and Balefire, who roared, but Brom was still weary, didn't move fast enough, and soon the world stopped. Miantha saw the arrow sticking out of Brom's neck, but it didn't quite click. In the true fashion of the recently mourning, she fell into denial, and decided to ignore him. "Eragon!" She shouted instead. "Get yourself over here we need to leave now!"
While she was yelling, she advanced onto the elf, who by now was slumped in a corner, unable to move. Hefting the elf up with a grunt, Miantha flung the gorgeous black-hair and its accompanying body onto Saphira, while Eragon was staring at the spot where the red-haired man had been. "Hurry up!" She shouted. Murtagh had already mounted Saphira and was getting impatient; finally Miantha decided that if he wanted to be left behind, so be it, but she, Brom, Murtagh, Saphira, and that elf were going.
