Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or places. They belong to Christopher Paolini
A/N: Hey- thanks for the reviews. Just to clear something up, the visitors to Carvahall are not elves- you'll see who they are! Eragon just leaps to a conclusion. (Actually, it's not that big a secret, so don't start thinking that this is what the whole plot line rests on.) Please review! If you absolutely hate it- tell me. If you think that I'm the worst writer in the whole world- tell me. If you think that my writing is an insult to civilization and that I should go rot in a hole somewhere- tell me, but tell me why. I want to get better! And if you have something nice to say, by all means, say it!
Kela dashed through the trees, followed by a column of men, women, and children. Word of the Rider had spread fast. They all looked to Kela to show them. There was just one problem- the rider did not go this way at all.
"The Rider went this way!" she called and abruptly turned right. The people followed, panting.
"What's he look like?" the man behind Kela called. Kela turned and recognized the tall guard that had let them into the city.
"Dark hair, just like they said. And the dragon was huge- even bigger then Keth told us. The Rider was slight but fairly tall," she continued, hoping to induce some false rumors sprinkled with fact. "I'm guessing maybe my height or a little higher. I saw him from the back, so I couldn't get a good look at his face." Kela paused, breathing heavily. "I saw his hair though, and it was long, long enough to have to tuck it in a hood."
Kela knew that Eragon's hair was not even remotely long enough to come out of a hood, but that simply made it better. The less truth they knew, the less truth they could bring to Galbatorix. However, if these townpeople ever found out the truth, they would take her to Galbatorix. Not because they had any love for him, but because a few people were greedy for money.
What am I going to do? she asked herself. She had never been this unprepared in a plan before. She couldn't lead them on a wild goose chase forever. Vainly, as she scrambled over a fallen tree, she tried to think of a plan.
A fairly large hill was in her sight. She ran up it, the column following. The top of the hill was bare, except for a few bushes. Kela stopped and looked around.
"There he is!" someone cried. He pointed into the sky excitedly. Kela looked sharply at the speck he pointed at. Evidently, the man had bad eyesight. Kela could see that the blue speck was not a dragon. Rather, it looked like it was a bird.
Thankfully for Kela, the whole village believed the man. Kela put a look of disappointment on her face. The tall guard came behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't be too sad, miss. Ya did good today. No one can out run a flyin' dragon." Kela nodded sadly, but was glad that her acting job was working.
"Hey," the man said. "Where's yer brother?"
"Oh, Evan?" she asked. The guard nodded. Quickly, Kela searched her mind for something that would be suitable. "He's terrified of dragons. Has been ever since he was little. I used to play tricks on him, you know, hide in his room and the like. He probably ran back to our camp."
The guard just chuckled. "Well you go find him then, miss. Tell him you saw the dragon."
"Will do!" she assured him, and took off towards the river.
When she reached the site of their camp, Kela looked around and tucked her brown hair severely behind her ears. At last, she found what she was looking for, Arya's rune. She looked at the way it pointed and sighed. They had gone across the river, leaving her without a boat.
I could- she began thinking, but she cut herself off. No, Kela. You're probably too weak. Besides, you always want to go with other ways first.
Kela looked around and was pleased to find quite a bit of dead wood. Finding two thick branches, she took rope from her bag and lashed other wood on the top. She secured it all with a knot that promised to hold, even when wet.
Kela looked at her raft, satisfied. It would do for her purposes. Now she simply had to find a way to propel it. She couldn't pole down the river. In the middle, the river was far too deep. She would have to make a paddle.
Kela took the small hatchet they had bought and began working on a promising branch. It would be rough, but it would work well enough to go down the river.
Returning the hatchet to her bag, she pushed her raft into the water. With a quick wish for good luck, she jumped on and began paddling. She had made it into the merging of the rivers when she remembered something.
Whenever rivers joined, there were always small eddies. In her kayak, she didn't have to worry about them too much. On her raft, she would be sucked in.
Immediately, she began trying to steer clear of all the dangers of the river. While the river wasn't rapid, it was hard to navigate in a raft with a stick for a paddle.
The water was gentle, but swirling waters were present. Splashing her paddle out of the water, she leaned dangerously as she tried to forbid her boat to go near the eddies.
All those years of going in rapids with an actual boat were not wasted. Somehow, she managed to get across the river, only hitting a few overhanging branches.
As she dismantled her raft, she looked around for another rune. She was not disappointed. After tying her rope onto her pack, she examined the tracks that the group of travelers had left. Saphira's were easy to spot. Kela smiled, but as she looked up into the sky, it fell from her face. Night time was not far away. It had taken her a while to build the raft, and she was falling far behind the others.
Sighing, she kept going silently, too tired to sing as she usually did when alone to warn off wild animals.
It was almost dark, but the forest was fairly silent. This was the most active part of the day, even in winter. Kela was still following the runes and Saphira's tail track. Nearly missing a turn, Kela saw how tired she was. It would be no good to lose the trail, even if the trees that Saphira had uprooted were so obvious. She had just sat down when she felt uneasy. Looking around, she saw movement between the trees.
Bear! She thought quickly, slowly easing into an standing position. She could see from its size that it was a black bear, smaller then a grizzly, but still dangerous.
The bear moved closer, but slowly. Kela felt fear grow tight in her chest. Bears should not be out yet. Rather, they should still be hibernating, waiting for spring. In spring time, bears were at their most dangerous. They were hungry, and would consider anything food, including humans.
Before, she had encountered a grizzly bear. That was in late summer, when the bear was full and not searching for food. He thought she was in his personal space. When playing dead, she had told him in the ancient language that she meant him no harm. The bear had left, with her unscathed.
Grizzlies did not have a record of trying to hunt humans, black bears did.
This raced through Kela's head as she backed up slowly, knowing that if she ran she would entice the bear to charge.
She tried to tell the bear in the ancient language that she meant him no harm, but she couldn't. If the bear tried to charge her, she would fight back for all she was worth. Also, the bear wouldn't care. He would still mean her harm.
Timidly, she tried to reach out to his mind, searching for a link between them. The bear was thinking about only one thing- food.
Kela began to tremble. All she could do was retreat and wait. She could not break through the shield that the bear had unconsciously made. Her dagger and bow were with Arya, and anything that was in her pack was not accessible. If she stopped to get it off her back, the bear would charge.
The bear continued to follow her. Kela tried to make her breathing normal. Once again, she reached for the ancient language, telling the beat that she didn't taste very good.
The bear didn't care. After all, it had been all winter since he had eaten. Anything was food.
That's when it hit Kela. She was going to die.
Fear clouded her mind, but she spotted a sturdy branch and picked it up, holding it like a club. The bear was still far away, but getting closer. Kela backed up.
"Please," she whispered. "Go away bear, I don't want to die." Desperation filled her voice, and tears began to stream down her cheeks.
The bear stepped closer. Kela stepped back, surprised when her food hit water. Glancing back, she saw that she was butted up to the river. The river was too swift to swim, and she would surely die if she attempted it.
"Go away bear, I don't want to die." Her voice was louder, a normal talking volume. The bear, oblivious to the sound, stepped closer.
"Go away bear, I don't want to die!" The tears flowed freely, even as her voice cracked. She had yelled at the volume she used in the tavern. The bear did not pay attention. It stepped closer.
Kela could smell its breath. It was only five feet from where she stood.
"GO AWAY BEAR!" she yelled, reaching into a depth of her lungs that she had not know existed. The bear was slightly confused, but took one step closer.
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" she screamed, as she swung her stick, making it collide with its head.
The bear was dazed, but angry. He swiped at her with its massive paw, catching her left arm and tearing the flesh. Kela heard a crack and knew her arm was broken.
Screaming in agony, she swung at the bear with the stick in her right hand and hit his tender nose. She continued screaming as her left arm moved. She executed a kick taught to her by Arya and hit the bear right in the face.
The bear finally backed up, but Kela, peering through her tears kicked and punched and hit until the bear finally decided that she was too much energy to kill. He lumbered away to leave Kela with a broken, wounded arm, and no way to survive for the night.
Gasping with pain, Kela sat and put her pack on the ground. She fished out her scissors. Blackness threatened to overwhelm her, but furiously, she pushed it back.
Cutting off her sleeve, Kela examined her arm. The force of the impact of the paw had broken her arm. Only two of the bear's claws had caught her arm, and luckily, neither gash was too deep.
As Kela saw the blood she was losing, she nearly fainted once more. She gave herself a drink of water from her pack to keep herself awake. If she didn't bandage this now, she would probably die from blood loss. Tearing strips of cloth, she applied pressure to her wound. She nearly screamed from pain as the bones in her arm moved.
Kela made up her mind as she sat there. She would have to make her way to Arya, if she did not want to die of infection. She washed her arm in water poured from her canteen. Somehow, she managed to bandage her arm without moving it too much. Tying two sticks on her arm, Kela managed to make a rough splint that would last until she found Arya. Taking out a piece of cloth, she fashioned a sling, biting her lip as the pain overtook her.
She managed to get her pack on and she stood up. Swaying with dizziness, she started down Saphira's trail once more.
Kela could not have told how long the hike took. It could have taken minutes, seconds, or hours. All Kela knew was that every step was agony. Her brown eyes were still clear, even though she could not manage to think.
Suddenly, she saw a small campfire. A huge animal was in a small clearing with two smaller figures. Kela entered the clearing. Arya was there, on watch. Kela swayed back and forth.
"Arya?" she gasped. Suddenly, the ground flew up and she knew no more.
A/N: I'm not sure if that's how a bear would react to getting hit, but I do know that black bears do occasionally hunt humans. Grizzlies hardly ever do, while polar bears have a record of hunting humans as well. I looked it up on the internet. The thing with Kela crying before she gets hurt kind of goes along with what I do when I am really, really scared. I just start crying. I don't know if anyone else does, so I thought I'd better explain it. Also- if anyone can come up with a better summary or title, I would be completly indebted to you! Sorry about the really long Author's Note. Please review!