«Saphira, where are you taking me?! We have to go back, Garrow could be in danger!»
The blue dragoness's mind was surrounded by iron barriers; no matter how much Eragon hammered those pleas into walls he couldn't break through, Saphira would not give for aything or anyone. Not ever her own Rider. The boy vaguely realized that Siegfried and Heather were gaining on them from behind, but Saphira didn't pay any attention to them. Saphira's muscles strained and popped with the additional weight of her Rider as they ventured deeper and deeper into the Spine, never looking back at their companions once as she fled.
«Siegfried, I need to Shout at her in order to get her to land!» the Night Fury growled low in his chest when he realized what Shout was needed.
«Do what you must, Little Faerie. I shall get you closer so you can unleash it.» the Black Dragon extended his tail fins into a more fanned shape and rose higher, gaining height over the blue dragoness' form before he wheeled around to dive and intercept her. Taking a deep breath, Heather focused her energy into a Shout, and just as Siegfried dove towards the blue dragoness and her frantic Rider, the girl let it loose.
"Kaan Drem Ov!" Kyne's Peace rippled forth from Heather's mouth like the waves in a pond, soothing in intent and calming to all it was directed at.
Saphira quickly came to a stop, almost throwing Eragon from his place on her back as the Shout took effect. Her jaws had lolled open, her tongue flopped out and the strain from carrying her Rider before she was of adequate size evident in her eyes before she finally began to descend. «I think we can join them now,» Heather told her dragon as he hovered over the landed duo. «I do not think the Sky Maiden will be pleased that you can break through her mental defenses like that with such ease.» Siegfried said as he circled over them and descended. Heather knew this- dragons were proud creatures- but in this instance she couldn't bring herself to care when both Saphira and Siegfried knew something they weren't telling her about the strangers that had arrived in Carvahall.
«Yes, well she'll have to get over it if she expects Eragon to understand why she did what she did…»
When Saphira had stopped at Heather's Shout, the first thing Eragon could think was 'thank the gods he wasn't moving anymore.' As Saphira hit the ground, her muscles rippling with the impact, the boy wasted no time getting off the dragoness' back. However the moment his feet hit the ground his knees folded in on themselves and his cheek hit the snow. Excruciating pain made him gasp and his muscles, cramped after clenching for so long, trembled as if they were having their own separate fit. "Eragon! Oh, gods-!" Heather's voice brought him back to some semblance of the present, but her worry-filled tone made him want to drift back all over again. Two smaller hands pressed into his back before rolling him over as gently as the terrain would allow.
Heather flinched back when she saw the amount of damage done to Eragon's inner thighs- it was as if Siegfried had given a deer a wholehearted lick along it's flank, scraping the fur and skin from the meat underneath. Oh, gods… this is awful… they were in the middle of the Spine with a crazed Dragoness and as two inexperienced Dragon Riders, though Heather was much more knowledgeable than Eragon it didn't mean she was by any means ready to truly face the world on her own.
"Just hold still, Eragon- you're going to be okay…" Heather ran her mind through all the Shouts she had learned in her time on Berk, but she came to a chilling realization- none of them were healing spells; she had focused primarily on tracking and combat, but no support spells were in her repertoire at all.
All the girl could do was bring out a roll of linen and search the surrounding area for medicinal herbs to use. Packing some snow into two roughly shaped balls, Heather gave the ice to Eragon. "Press that into the wounds while I look for some herbs to wrap them with." Eragon, still trembling as he forced himself to sit upright against Siegfried's scaly black foreleg, nodded as he did as told.
Heather picked up a stick, testing it's dryness from it's spot under an overhang and nodded. She brought it over to Siegfried's head, running a gloved hand over his scaly brow gently. «Can you, please?» the black dragon hummed before puffing out a small blue blast of plasma, instantly igniting the branch. Unease swept through the girl, even with two dragons by her side, and she gripped the stone Eragon had given her so long ago close in her fist, the cord of leather smooth and warm from her skin.
That, at least brought her some semblance of comfort, knowing she wasn't the only human alone in this endeavor.
As the Black Rider went about gathering the needed healing items for her companion, Eragon's wounds were starting to go numb from the cold ice being placed on them. As his pain was gradually being abated, the situation he and Heather were in came falling on him faster. I have no idea where we are, the boy thought, save that we're still in the Spine. Not that that makes it any better as it's in the dead of winter. Night is beginning to fall and Heather and I must get back to the farm tomorrow, but the only way to do that is to fly… I have no desire to do that again any time soon.
Brown eyes watched the small crackling blaze of light from Heather's torch as she flitted through the surrounding trees, still on the hunt for medicinal herbs.
How I wish Saphira could breathe fire…
Slowly, Eragon's forlorn state evolved into a sort of anger, and he began to interrogate Saphira on her reasoning in bringing him here.
«Death is a poison.» she had answered. «Murderers will not stop until every egg is shattered upon the rocks.»
Across the way, Heather gave out a soft exclamation of victory before rushing back several moments later with a handful of herbs in her fists. "This might hurt," she said gently as she knelt in front of him. "But at least it will slow the bleeding and numb the wounded areas until we can get you to Gertrude." Chewing on the winter greens to make them into a paste, the girl quickly got to work, ignoring her friend's flinches and hisses in favor of a more efficient job in dressing the areas of injury.
Once the job was complete Heather sat back with a shaky sigh and wiped cold sweat from her brow while Eragon leaned back against Saphira's side. It took a few minutes before Heather spoke to Eragon. "Do you know why Saphira reacted as she did?" the boy shook his head, eyes flicking around the darkened twilight of their impromptu campsite. "No… she only said something along the lines of them bringing death and shattered eggs…she called them murderers."
Heather gently gnawed at her lower lip anxiously before standing up. The remaining freeze on the muddy earth slushed and crunched as she centered her weight, leaning against Siegfried as weariness weight down her limbs.
"Well… there is one thing I learned while being a Dragon Rider," Heather began, forest green eyes flitting to her friend before glancing at the black dragon looming over her shoulder. "It's that if your dragon chooses to do something in the moment that concerns his or her rider, it's a matter of life and death. And if that's the case, you should stick with the dragon's choice."
Eragon's mouth fell open and he gaped up at her, first in shock, then the boy grits his teeth in anger.
"Garrow could be grievously injured, Heather! Maybe even dead, and you're saying that spiriting me away in his time of need was the right thing for Saphira to do?!" the auburn-haired girl flinched at his tone. "Do you even care about what could happen to-?!" Eragon's head snaped to the side, eyes wide and disbelieving as the reddening skin of his cheek boldened in the cold of the winter air. Saphira surged to her feet with a roar before Siegfried snarled, his broad wings flaring behind his Rider.
Heather was staring flatly at her fellow Rider, hand still out to the side in her finished action. Green eyes look up at the stunned boy with a low glow in their emerald depths, and as Eragon blinked the shock from his eyes, Heather spoke. "You need to calm down, Eragon." She began. "Think about what you're saying, go over what's running through that head of yours very carefully, and then listen to me: We are both in over our heads- we don't understand what could be enough to frighten two dragons, one of which is two years old dragon and can already breathe his fire. What in the name of the gods makes you think we, two Dragon Riders- one with no training and another without any formal training- can get back there and face whatever it is that scared our dragons enough to abduct you without any clue of what to look out for?"
Eragon's face grew stonier and stonier as Heather spoke, and when she said her piece, he glared and turned over on his side against Saphira. With a small growl, the blue dragoness drew her wing over her Rider while shooting Heather a slightly softer stare.
With a sigh, Heather turns to her own Dragon and smiled weakly. «Well… there's no getting back at this point and time with your legs as injured as they are. What I did for his healing is only temporary.» Looking around the clearing for a moment, the girl blinked tiredly. «Come morning, we can go back to search for Garrow.»
Turning to her dragon, Heather smiled as his black underbelly was bared to her and a wing raised, adamite-green eyes looking at his Rider in sympathy. «All will be well in the end, Little Faerie,» Siegfried said as Heather crawled over to him, nestling into his chest with a hum.
«Until then, I will chase your doubts away and leave your dreams for the night sky to rule.»
With a sigh, Heather let her eyes slide closed.