Thanks for all the reviews! They were great. Well as you may have guessed, this is the last chapter...hope you guys like it!
Aya pulled herself up, holding her head and looked at her surrondings. She was in a large clearing, a large flowing river on her right side, and a lump of blankets on her left. She tried to remember what had happend. Something about a castle and Eragon...Suddenly everything came flashing back to her, but the last thing she could remember was an arrow piercing her side and then she blacked out. She slowly lifted her shirt to reveal her stomach. On her side was a small, faint scar where her wound had been healed. She then stood up and headed for the lump of blankets.
Once there she pulled away the top one to reveal a young man apparently sleeping. Arya assumed this was Eragon's cousin Roran and she uncovered the rest of his body to see if Eragon had healed the wounds. As she examined him, she found most of his wounds healed, but he was still tossing fitfully in his sleep. Arya guessed that he was also wounded on the inside.
Then Eragon walked back to the clearing carrying a bucket of water. "Oh good, your awake. I was getting worried about you," he said as he approached Arya.
"How long was I asleep?"
"About a day now," he replied. Arya was shocked. It usually didn't take her so long to recover.
"Where'd Saphira go?"
"I asked her to hunt. We're running out of food, so she's getting meat." He then offered Arya some water who took it thankfully. She hadn't realized it, but she was extremely thirsty and hungrey. Once done drinking the water she leaned over Roran again. "I did all I could for him," Eragon said. "but he won't wake up." Arya continued to examine Roran and finally realized what was wrong.
"Calcine," Arya whispered.
"What?"
"Calcine," Arya replied. "It's a kind of poisen that they use for torture. It works slow, it takes about a month before the person will actually die. It burns you on the inside. Burns you until there's nothing left." Eragon's jaw dropped in horror, but Arya kept going. "From what I can tell he still has about two weeks until the poisen will kill him, but I'm not sure. There should be a cure at Ellesmera for him. We'll have to go there as fast as possible."
"Are you sure they'll want us there? We left without permission and burned down the Castle," replied Eragon worried.
Arya then said, "It doesn't matter. They'll let us back. They have to. We have the egg. They want it more then anything.
"Besides, I'm sure they stopped the castle from burning down. They'll be just fine." For awhile they just sat in silence. Eventually Saphira came back carrying a dead deer which Arya quickly roasted. Eragon and Arya quickly ate the hot meat and afterwards forcefed Roran some.
They decided it would be safer for them to travel at night, for they were both sure that the other cities were warned and soilders were looking for them. So in the meantime the three just sat together, looking at the horizon.
"What happend when you were trying to get the egg?" asked Eragon.
"Well," Arya said, starting her story. "I went down to where the egg was being guarded and attacked the soilders guarding the entrance. When I got inside the entire room was a huge maze and in the middle were the eggs. The maze was full of boobytraps and stuff like that.
"He apparently felt his maze was complecated, but it was actually pretty easy for me and I was in the center within a couple minutes. The two eggs were sitting on a stand in the middle. One was ruby red and the other emerald green. Once I grabbed the red one an alarm went off and more soilders went in. I didn't have anytime to grab the green one, plus a shield automatically went up over it.
"There were too many guards to fight off, so instead of trying to fight them, I ran. Because I was so much faster then them, I managed to make it to the roof before they did. That's how we escaped."
"Wow," said Eragon. It had to be a close escape.
"So what happend after I passed out?" asked Arya.
"Well, you fell off of Saphira, and we caught you, but just barely. Then Saphira's wings were ripped, but we had to fly as far away as possible so we flew for about an hour and then stopped. You and Roran were both unconcious and Saphira was exhausted and collaapsed.
"I had to rest, but before I did I healed your cut. Unfortunatly it still left a scar. Sorry about that."
"It's ok."
"Well then I had to sleep because I had no energy left. When I woke up a few hours later I ate some bread and then removed the arrows from Saphira's wings and healed the cuts. Fortunatly they weren't that bad and she was able to fly immediatly, so I sent her out to get meat. After she left I split what little bread was left and fed half of it to Roran and the other half to you.
"Once I realized we were out of water I went to refill our waterskins. I got back, you were awake, and here we are." Arya sat in silence for a few minutes until Eragon announced that they should leave now.
Arya loaded Roran, who was still unconcious, onto Saphira's back and Eragon packed up the rest of their supplies and strapped it on. Then Eragon climbed on, and Arya sat behind him, holding on as Saphira took off. As they flew through the air, Arya thought about Eragon and how he had cared for her. He had always cared for her.
He had rescued her from death in the prison, and then again when he made sure she made it to the Varden in time for the cure. And then he had healed her when she was hit by the arrow. He had even fed her!
As they flew through the air Arya loved the feel of Eragon's toned musceles beneath his shirt as she held on.
No! she thought to herself. I can't fall for him. He's a Rider! And I'm an elf. It'd never work... She quickly pulled herself away from him and sat up balancing herself.
It was three days later and they were now deep inside the forest, very close to Ellesmera. Roran still hadn't woken up, and the poisen was taking it's toll. He was now drooling and foaming at the mouth and twitched in his sleep. Eragon knew if they didn't get him a cure soon, he would die.
"I think we could make it to Ellesmera this morning if we wanted it," said Arya.
"Good," Eragon replied, releaved. "We'll rest now so we can go in the morning..."
When they did wake up in the morning they immediatly left, and two hours later they were once again infront of Ellesmera's gates. The same guard as always peered down at them and his jaw dropped.
"Arya? Is that you!" he exclaimed. He rolled up the gate and Saphira, Eragon and Arya walked it. "Everybody thought you were kidnapped. Or dead. The Queen will be so relieved." Arya looked at Eragon who gave her the same panicked look. Both knew that the Queen would be furious when she found out that they had not been kidnapped and were very much alive.
They dreadfully walked up to the castle and enterd, everybody giving them shocked, surprised looks on their way there. Once they got inside the castle the guards let them into the Queens office as they waited. Soon enough Queen Islanzadi stomemped into the door looking furious.
"Well," she said as she sat down. "How nice of you to rejoin us. Any particular reason for you to leave without telling me? Or any of the soilders for that matter?" Without letting them answer she continued. "We thought you were gone, dead forever." She was now directing herself towards Eragon. "You were our one chance of survival if the King attacked and you came up missing. You are a Rider! You should know better." She was now scolding Arya.
"And you! I thought I could trust you. You had always been loyal to me. But now I'm not sure if I can even let you stay in the castle."
"Without the castle I have no where to stay," said Arya quietly. Eragon couldn't let this go on.
"It's not her fault! Please don't kick her out of the castle. I persuaded her to come with me..."
"And where exactlly did you go?" asked the Queen. Then Eragon told her the story and ten minutes later the Queen sat quietly in her chair. "Do you have the egg?" she asked finally. Arya silently pulled it out of her pocket and showed it to her. Islanzadi gasped as she saw the gleaming stone and gently took it out of Arya's hand and examined it.
"Fine," she finally replied. "Your departure was for a good cause, but I am still upset and you are both on probation." She handed Arya the egg. "Now both of you go to your rooms, I will have lunch brought up for you in a little bit."
"But, what should we do about the egg?" asked Arya before the exited the room.
"I think," replied the Queen, "you can decide that yourself." Arya shrugged and headed out into the hall. She closed the door behind her and faced Eragon and Saphira who were standing infront of her. They akwardly stood there just looking at each other until Eragon broke the silence.
"Whar are you going to do with the egg?" Arya smiled slyly and whispered a few magic words and the stone dissapeared. "What'd you do with it?"
"I sent it away. Just like I did with Saphira's egg."
"Where to?"
"No where in particular," she replied. "I think we should just leave it up to fate. And hope if falls into the hands of a true Rider. Just like it did the first time "
I know, a bad chapter but I did the best I could...I hope you all liked it! Please review! Oh, and there will be a sequel, but probably not for a little while cuz I wanna finish some of my other stories first. THE END!