Arya drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. She was sitting in tailor fashion on the floor with the palms of her hands pressed to her knees. She inhaled again and held it for a moment before allowing it to escape.
A sudden and very loud crash sounded, and she was shocked out of her meditation instantly. She scrambled to her feet and ran towards the location from which the sound of destruction came. She grabbed Támerlein from her now personal armory and darted through the sheltered paths that were sung into the structure known as the Rider's Loft.
Her bare feet slid across the worn wood when she finally made it, but as soon as she realized what was going on, she set the sword down gently on the ground and ran to Fírnen's aid.
"Stop! Fírnen, be still!" She shouted then hurried to help him. He had somehow managed to get his foot stuck in the steel tub she kept for clean water and was currently spinning around in circles, all the while doing his best to remove the foreign object from his foot.
"It's stuck!" He responded but continued moving.
I'm aware, just stop moving!" Arya called with both humor and concern in her tones, though still slightly out of breath. He huffed and did what he was told, then lifted his front left foot for her to inspect. Luckily, the container hadn't cut him, but his claws had gone right through the sides. There was no way she was going to get this off by herself.
"Fírnen, I think you're going to have to melt it off. It's either that or we go see Rhunön. I can't take it off by myself and I worry that you'll slice your foot wide open if you try." She smiled sympathetically, knowing he would feel a blow to his ego if Rhunön had to help. She drew in a deep breath, still trying to get her breathing under control. Fírnen eyed her and she waved him off. "I think I'm falling out of shape." She smiled warmly. "Let's go to your lake so nothing catches on fire." She chuckled and he bent to let her up.
"We've only been home for a week and we still have our lessons with the Eldunarí. You're not out of shape." He pointed out, waiting for her to situate herself. Once she had, he leapt into the sky, careful not to jostle her too much as he wore no saddle.
"So why am I still out of breath?" She asked through their mental link due to the noisiness of the wind as it rushed past her ears.
"Adrenaline. I think being home has given you more time to worry about yourself, which is good until you begin to stress out about it." He suggested and Arya took a deep, calming breath.
"Maybe you're right." She shrugged. It would make sense. The war is over and her duties have become significantly less life-threatening.
"Of course I'm right." He said pridefully as he swooped downwards. He fanned his wings out and gently floated to the ground where they would then walk. Arya remained on his back, however.
"Yes, The Great and Powerful Fírnen is always right." Arya said mockingly in a very playful way, making a grand gesture with her arms outstretched and a massive smile on her lips. Her own happiness has become so much better with Fírnen in her life. To her, it feels like within the past months with him, she's smiled more than she has since Faölin passed away. It's already been about five years…
"Why would you even question it with sarcasm? That's rude." He pointed out as a puff of smoke billowed from his nostrils.
"I'm not being sarcastic, you big, sour, green lizard." She crossed her arms defiantly and she spoke in her same playful tone.
"Well now that's just mean. I'm going to be the bigger person and not respond so unkindly." He said triumphantly before wrapping his tail around her, and soon she was in the air, dangling above the clear water from a shallow height. Her feet barely touched the surface. She hadn't realized they were already at the lake.
"Don't you dare." She said in a warning tone just before Fírnen gently let her down into the water so she now was submerged up to her shoulders. "Fírnen!" he couldn't take her seriously when she was trying to suppress her laughter.
He chuckled deeply and very loudly splashed in after her. He brought his tail down, causing an airborne wave to rain down on her.
"Talk about unequal odds." She said before splashing him back.
"Payback." He reminded coyly, then pranced around before disappearing into a deeper part of the lake.
"You still have a bucket on your foot." She spoke mentally because she could only find him via the smoky bubbles that rippled the water's surface.
At her words, he resurfaced with some kind of vegetation hanging from his face. He shook it off like a dog and it landed dangerously close to where she stood. He grinned and waded over to her, dipped his head in the water to clean it off before nuzzling her abdomen in his favorite display of affection. It's one of the closest things to a hug he could give to her. It made it easier for her to hug him back as well. "Is everything alright?" She asked, more solemnly this time.
"Of course. I'm just appreciating my choice to bond with you." His deep voice rumbled through Arya's mind and despite him being seven months old, his affections always overwhelmed her with feelings of belonging, joy, protectiveness, appreciation and so many other good things. It always brought tears to her eyes, good tears. "I love you, Fírnen." She spoke softly and he hummed his approval. "I love you too, Bjartr Stjarna, now get out of the water so I can remove my bucket without harming you." He pulled away and offered his best smile. He calls her 'Bright Star' affectionately, just as Saphira calls Eragon 'Little One'. He wanted to nickname his Rider as well.
"As you wish." She returned his grin, kissed his forehead, then began wading towards the shore. Fírnen did the same and suddenly took flight to dry off some before casting fire upon his leg. He wasn't even out of the water all the way yet before leaping into the air.
Meanwhile, Arya sat down with her back propped up against a tree a healthy distance from the lake. She liked that she was on a hill so she could keep an eye on him while he did what he needed to do. Sudden nausea gripped her stomach when worry for him made its appearance. She took a deep breath in and let it out, understanding that it was just stress. It reminded her of the first battle she'd ever participated in. She actually vomited that time and swore to never let it happen again. She just didn't want him to get hurt, knowing the safer route would be with Rhunön, but also that the pride of a dragon is nothing to tamper with.
She watched as he lowered himself over the lake, and with a mighty blast of green flame, the bucket began heating up. She hoped this didn't hurt him. He seemed mostly unfazed, thankfully.
Large globs of molten metal fell into the water, creating large glowing spheres that instantly cooled when they touched the surface. Some shattered from the thermal shock, some remained intact. They continued to fall until the Green Dragon was left with a blackened forefoot which steamed with burning flesh and water that hadn't been allowed to dry first. He plunged himself into the water and Arya got up and ran after him, instantly worried that he was hurt.
Hurrying past the shore, she ran into the water, jumping highly to avoid the resistance before ultimately leaping forwards and swimming out to meet him in the same general spot where she just was.
She stood upon the soft, sandy bottom and she instantly felt one of the metal spheres touch the bottom of her foot. It's still warm. Her attention was immediately brought back to Fírnen's injuries when she heard a ragged breath squeeze through his lungs. "Let me see…" she begged, out of breath again. Fírnen did as he was told and offered his foot.
Arya sucked in a sharp breath when she saw that it was burned, his injuries were borderlining on severe and it would cost too much for her to repair them with her own strength. She let his foot back down into the cool, clear waters and gently rubbed the wounds with the most careful touch she could manage. She's been burned badly before and she knows how much it hurts.
She opened her mind even further to her surroundings, looking for medicinal plants that would hopefully provide some relief for him. She smiled when she found exactly what she was looking for: aloe. "Come on out of the water and rest by that tree over there in the sun. I'll be right back with some plants." She sounded so authoritarian and Fírnen couldn't help but wonder if she developed that tone during the war.
This time, he lifted her up again using his tail and limped to the shore where he put her down instead of letting her push through the water on her own. She is far smaller than he is, and he knows she tires faster in this environment because of that disadvantage. "Thank you, Fírnen. I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." She commanded hastily before running off towards her destination.
She let all of her energy into each racing stride, feeling as though her life depended on it. She had almost convinced herself that Fírnen would die if she didn't get back in time, so luckily the plants she was looking for weren't terribly far off. She was already upon them with not even two minutes of running at top speed.
The moment the plants came into view, it's all she had on her mind, but when she took a moment to look around, her mood lightened and she was brought back to reality.
She chuckled to herself when she realized where she was, because aloe doesn't naturally grow in a dense, damp forest. The plant prefers minimal amounts of water, which is not included in a forest. Instead, the plant was found in the garden of a cozy stone cottage she knew Angela stayed in while in Ellesméra. The curious woman disliked the 'moodiness' of Elves as well as their judgmental nature towards her own quirky attitude and sought to seclude herself while still maintaining a healthy relationship with Queen Islanzadí at the time.
Just to be sure, Arya knocked on the door in case someone was home. She even reached out with her mind in case someone else had been living there. When she found nothing aside from the occasional insect who had wandered into the building, she deemed it safe to take a stalk of aloe from one of the five massive plants outside. It would be a bit more than she needed, which is fine because it's better to have a surplus than not enough.
Arya knelt next to the plant and drew a small blade she kept strapped to her ankle at all times. She determined where she'd make her cut and proceeded to slice right through the thick foliage in one fell swoop, right at the base of the plant. The stalk fell and she caught it before it could hit the ground and become dirty. She wiped her knife on her pants leg, sheathed it, then hurried back to where Fírnen was supposed to be resting. Instead, she caught a whiff of the unpleasant odor produced by the plant's sap. It's probably a defense mechanism to deter harmful animals and insects. The same sudden nausea coiled in her stomach again, but she just frowned and kept walking, choosing to ignore it rather than dwell on it. She broke into a run shortly after when her dire concern for Fírnen reappeared.
After three near misses when it came to tripping over roots, Arya made it back and skidded to a stop in front of the dragon. "This should help with the burns." She said hurriedly, holding up the almost comically large stalk.
She went to work nearly immediately after that, drawing her knife again to cut it down the center of the widest part. The smell was worse this time and she visibly winced. Even Fírnen recoiled slightly. Deciding the odor of the sap was too much to handle, Arya brought it to the water's edge and washed it out. Unfortunately, a properly prepared stalk of aloe needs time to soak, but this would do just fine for the time being. The medicinal properties still remain the same.
Reapproaching Fírnen, Arya took her knife and cut into the soft aloin, then dug some out with her fingers and smeared it on the burned portions of his skin. It helped that he was holding his foot in a very accessible manner.
He sighed in relief, closing his eyes and Arya offered the best smile she could in spite of the lingering smell that still made her more than just queasy.
"Aloe is one of the best treatments for burns." She said softly while making sure each injury had a sufficient amount of gel over it. "It tastes good too once it's prepared properly. The sap is what smells and you're supposed to soak it in water for a while to let it all drain out but the circumstances are a little different."
A long sigh left his lungs along with some smoke. "Thank you for doing this." He spoke deeply with a relieved sounding tone.
"Of course." She said gently, her voice full of compassion as she finished up working on his foot. "We'll get this looked at better once we get back. I can clean your wounds with more sterile means and you will let me bandage this. I'll fight you if I have to." She smiled and patted his knee. "All done. Now... go back to laying down, I need to get this stuff off of me."
He hummed his response with half-lidded eyes and lazily watched her return to the water's edge after settling back down.
Arya waded a short ways out once more to wash herself off and hopefully also get rid of the smell. It's starting to make the queasy feeling worse and the sooner she can get it off of her, the better.
Making her way further out into the lake, Arya once again began stepping over the metal balls dropped when Fírnen melted the bucket from his foot. She bent down and picked one up. The lemon-sized sphere was full of pockmarks from air bubbles, yet it remained as one solid piece. Some had shattered from thermal shock, but others had remained intact, just like this one.
Checking herself once again to make sure the sap was gone, Arya left the water again and walked up the hill to where Fírnen was resting in the sun. She carried the sphere in her hand, enjoying the weight in her palm.
A sudden pang of longing shot through her as she remembered sparring with Eragon, the weight of her sword in her hand, the feeling of the sun on their backs. They had become evenly matched through those training sessions, but she missed his presence and companionship. It would be a long while before she could get used to his absence. The wound in her heart was still fresh and painful, and she hated to admit to it.
Walking up the hill, she pulled her shirt off and hung it up on a branch and did the same with her trousers, leaving her in nothing but her underthings while she waited for them to dry.
With a sigh, she sat down on the ground a few feet from Fírnen, then laid out in the sun, feeling exhausted from the day's antics. She pressed her fingers against her stomach and gently massaged the skin again with another attempt at easing the queasy feeling that remained.
"Is everything alright?" Fírnen asked after he watched her for a while.
"Yeah. My stomach is not happy this morning, that's all." She sighed with a half-hearted chuckle. "I probably ate something."
"Well, you didn't eat much last night. Maybe you're hungry?" He offered.
Arya shook her head and opened her eyes to look at him. "Nausea isn't appetizing." She smirked again, waving a hand dismissively.
"Would it be worth it to meditate over?" He pressed calmly.
"Perhaps. Later, though. It'll probably go away soon." She responded casually. "Worry for you and the smell of the aloe do not sit well." She responded coolly yet pointedly.
"If it gets any worse, please tell me." He said and Arya simply nodded. "I will."
She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. His sudden concern over the topic came across as odd and she grew curious about it. He seemed more worried than she's used to when something like this happens. Nausea due to stress or an overactive mind is not uncommon for her and he knows this. Instead, she put these thoughts out of her mind, refusing to worry about it at this very instant. She just wanted to enjoy the sun on her skin, so that's exactly what she did.
A/N: This is a little bit different than what my draft outline says, but it's close enough. This story focuses on Arya and Fírnen nearly immediately after Inheritance ends. The context and timeline will fall into place soon, don't worry. I apologize for the roughness of this chapter, hopefully the second will be better. I've never attempted anything like this before, so this is nearly entirely new ground for me. Anyways, thanks for reading!
-Lady Arlo
