This is, as it turned out, the last chapter. Nineteen chapters! Argh! It's frustrating… But I kind of wrote this one on the spur of the moment. Also, thanks to Ai Huiyuan and Dragonnetic, my two most faithful reviewers! I'm in your debt! (Or would that be debts…? Whatever, it doesn't matter.) Really, I mean it when I say thank you. Thank you. Truly.
Anyway, now, as I said, I'll explain about the portal that Saphira created. Basically the Eldunarì in her chest was still kind of LINKED to Eragon and it allowed her to create a portal because it had absorbed Galbatorix's energy when she killed him. (I'm breaking about twenty rules of magic, I know…) And for those of you who wondered wher Fìrnen got to; well, it said in the book that he only arrived quite a long time after the final battle had been fought. But only a month had passed between Saphira killing Galbatorix and her creating the portal.
That's all I have to say. If you have any questions or whatever about this chapter's ending, just PM me and I'll try to explain.
For the last time, I own nothing.
Now, please enjoy this final installment of my fanfic!
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Sé mor'ranr ono finna
It was morning properly now in the arena. The sky was an unbroken blue, the sea was finally calm and silver fish splashed playfully in and out of the water. It could have been heaven.
If not for the fact that Eragon and Katniss were marooned on a slab of ice no larger than a bed.
"I"m starting to get concerned," he said, standing up for the hundredth time since they'd made their narrow escape from the wolf muttations and peering towards the land that was visible on the horizon. "I really think we should try to be paddling."
"For the last time Eragon we don't have a paddle or anything that could serve as a paddle," snapped Katniss, who was sitting cross-legged on the smooth ice. "Got it? Just re-lax. Everything will be fine. There's nothing we can do!"
"Oh, I would relax, Katniss, I truly would," said Eragon. "If we weren't, oh, I don't know, stranded in the middle of an ocean that's controlled by people who are watching us right now, on a piece of ice that will melt the minute the temperature of this water rises by a fraction of a degree!"
"Very well. I'll try to paddle. Pass me that." So saying, she snatched Eragon's sword from its scabbard and plunged it into the sea, where she waved it around ineffectually. "Oh dear, it's not working. Do you think there's anything else I can use? No? Well, we'll just have to wait, then, won't we." She tossed Blödhslytha back at him – he caught it easily by the crossguard – and returned to her previous spot, folding her arms around her knees and staring angrily at nothing.
"Look," he said. "I'm sorry. It's just that… well, I don't know, really. I feel kind of trapped here."
Katniss said nothing, only folded her arms more tightly around her legs and frowned. Some time later, when Eragon thought he'd blown it and she wasn't going to say anything ever again, she spoke. "Me too." Encouraged by this, he smiled and knelt down.
"Don't worry. We'll be fine. Really. We've got this far, haven't we?"
She nodded grudgingly. "I suppose so."
They sat in silence for a long while. There was nothing to do, only sit and wait… Eragon's ribs were hurting a lot less, anyway. There had been a period of intense itching after he'd applied the bone-fixing gel and he'd had to struggle to not rip his skin to shreds, but then it had faded away and his ribs now felt almost as good as new.
Suddenly, a strong wind began to blow. It whipped the calm sea into a frothing mass and started pushing Eragon and Katniss's ice island towards the mainland. They looked at each other, delight in their eyes, hardly able to believe it.
"Well, who guessed it?" Katniss grinned, jumping up and peering excitedly towards the forest and snow plains of the arena. "Maybe the Gamemakers are on our side after all."
Eragon said nothing. Of course he was pleased that they were moving again… but one thing that the war with Galbatorix had taught him – in fact, no, it was something he'd known all his life – was that it was never too easy. Your enemies were never on your side. Bad things were often disguised as good things. There was always a knife at your back.
Things ended well only in stories.
He guessed that Katniss knew it too. He could see it in the set of her eyebrows, in the worry that filled her dark eyes. But they both put on a facade. They both pretended that they didn't know what was coming.
But they hadn't guessed that it would come so soon.
A massive eel-like monster burst from the sea, trailing silver droplets of water, and slammed down onto the ice, were it lay and writhed before, with an incredibly powerful flick of its muscular body, whipped round and fastened its needle-filled jaws around Katniss's thigh. She screamed and stumbled, then fell as the muttation twisted its head – or whatever head it had, it seemed to be made of one long rope of black muscle with gaping, bulging white eyes set on either side of the front of its body – and jerked her down onto the ice. She scrabbled for her bow, but Eragon knew she had no chance of shooting the thing in the position that she was in. He leaped forwards, drawing Blödhslytha, and slashed at the mutt's neck – again, it wasn't distinguishable, but Eragon aimed for the spot just behind its huge pale eyes, hoping to sever the spinal cord. The blade bounced off the thick slimy skin, leaving not even a scratch. He stared in horror at his sword. It was badly chipped, with a thin fissure running down its length. He couldn't use it anymore.
Quickly recovering from the shock of losing his weapon, he tossed it aside and lunged for the monster bare-handed. He grabbed its thrashing head by the two silky fins that sprouted from either side of it and tried to wrench it off Katniss, who was still yelling and trying to nock an arrow to the bow she'd managed to grab, but the mutt was incredibly powerful and took no more heed of Eragon – who was as strong and as skilled as an elf – than a bull does a flea. He pulled and pulled but had to give in. Desperately, he scrabbled for Katniss's quiver and wrenched an arrow from it. Then, as best he could, he immobilized the fang-filled head of the eel-muttation and plunged the arrow into one of its gaping, empty eyes up to the feathers.
The muttation shrieked and convulsed, its entire body writhing and slapping across the ice. It hadn't yet let go of Katniss, whose trousers were now sodden with blood. Eragon threw himself at it again, intending to repeat the process with the other eye, but just then the eel-mutt gave a particularly violent twist and its thrashing tail whacked into Eragon's chest.
It was like being kicked by a horse. He was thrown backwards off the island, feeling his ribs crack open again, and only had time to think Uh-oh, before he plunged into ice-cold water.
The breath was knocked out of him for a second time as frosty tendrils shot through him, chilling him from inside out, turning the blood in his veins to ice, freezing his heart.
With a few feeble kicks Eragon managed to reach the surface and gasped a few breaths of air. He felt so weak… his hands and feet were already numb, and that numbness was spreading up his arms and legs with every second that went past. He raised an arm weakly and tried to swim for the island, while knowing that even if he got there, the cold in his bones would kill him.
The water was stained red with Katniss's blood. She'd stopped fighting, probably passed out, or too exhausted to move. It was all over. They would die here. They would die in this icy arena, and Eragon would never see Alagaësia again. Tears filled his eyes. It was an effort to just keep above the surface of the water. He stopped kicking. The cold had reached his heart now… slowly, he started to sink. His eyes closed as the breath in his lungs left him in a soft sigh.
The water rose over his neck, over his chin, over his mouth and nose. His heart slowed. Soon it would stop. And then, finally, he would know peace.
Just as the freezing water was rising over his eyelashes, a thunderous roar shook the air and sent ripples splashing over Eragon's face. Finding a last well of strenght within him, buried somewhere deep in his soul, he opened his eyes, and lifted his face above the surface once again, knowing that he couldn't hold the position for more than a few seconds.
A few seconds sufficed to see the incredible scene that lay in front of him. A swirling blue mist hung in the air over the island of ice where Katniss lay, still being mauled by the eel muttation. Even as he watched, the air itself seemed to shimmer… and split… and an enormous beast burst from the sea-blue portal, spreading its wings and releasing another earth-shaking roar. Eragon knew who it was. He was glad to see her again before he died. No, not glad. Happy. Content. He wouldn't have died alone.
Finally, he felt at peace.
He watched as she dove through the air and seized the eel-muttation in her maw, her great fangs ripping through its flesh with ease, then gave a violent twist of her neck and broke its spine with a violent crack before tossing its limp body away. Dragon triumphed over muttation. Alagaësia triumphed over Panem. Rider triumphed over Capitol.
Hovering in the air in front of him, sending waves splashing over the islands of ice with each beat of her mighty wings, a halo of fire wreathing her jaws, glittering, fiery, magnificent, was his dragon, Saphira Bjartskular, the Daughter of the Wind.
And as his last breath left him, as his eyelids flickered, as his heart finally gave its last heroic beat, as the boom of a cannon echoed through the icy arena and as Eragon Shadeslayer, bearer of the sword Brisingr, hero of the Varden, son of Brom, killer of kings and forever Dragon Rider of Alagaësia, passed away, he managed a few last words before he sank lifeless beneath the waves.
"I love you, Saphira."
She heard him. She always heard him. They were linked through mind and heart.
She turned her flame-filled azure gaze upon his frozen body. The eyes that were sometimes fierce, sometimes angry, sometimes proud, but never fearful, now shone and swam with tears. And although Eragon had never seen a dragon cry, a silver tear slipped from the corner of each of those mighty eyes and traced a line of moonlight down her scales. He heard her voice clearly in his mind when she spoke. A final link to the home he would never see again.
I love you too, little one.
THE END
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… well… that's that finished. I hope that ending wasn't too… disappointing for those of you who were hoping for more cliffhangers. I might do an epilogue someday… so watch out for any updates. But, anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this fanfic. Thank you to all those of you who read it. Thank you even more to all those of you who spared some of your time to review it (for those of you who haven't, it's not too late!)
So, that's my first fanfiction story finished! I think I'll have a pause for a while, then I might write some more. You can always check any updates on my profile.
Thanks again, in particular to Dragonnetic, Madhatter, TimC and Ai Huiyuan. Really, I mean it.
See you soon! ;)
-playonworlds
