About 8 months before the end of Eragon.
SLAP! "Insolent wench! How DARE you bear me a female child!" A deep cold male voice yelled. SLAP!
A crying woman's face became visible, "I'm s-sorry! I didn't try to!" she burst out between sobs. The man's face was in shadow, but his eyes could be seen, shining like two burning suns with the equal of ten thousand suns' rage burning inside them. The flaming eyes narrowed.
"I don't care!" he announced, "Guards!" instantly five guards appeared at his side. "Take her to the dungeons! Leave her there to rot!" He roared as the guards dragged the bawling woman through the door.
"Please!" she begged, "Be good to her!" the man growled quietly, yet menacingly, but looked as if her considered the woman's words.
Talim woke with a start. Sweat covered her body and she was panting. This nightmare was not unique, but it scared her each time she saw those eyes... They contained so much hatred and evil.
Standing up, she stood in front of a mirror. Red-brown eyes stared back at her... there was brown hair was in a messy braid down her back, even more messy than usual from her troubled sleep. Talim was skinny, but not sickly looking. Her skin was a cream color, and she stood about 5 ½ feet, a good height for a 13 year old. Talim lazily pulled on a tee shirt and some jeans. She roughly jammed a brush through her waist long hair and braided it again. Walking past the door Talim ran back to wash her face, something she almost forgot everyday.
Thanking a man, she took the PB&J sandwich he offered her and Talim started to jog to the gardens. A man with brown hair and a pointed face stood alone in the middle of the pathway, pausing to smell a flower with a look of disgust on his face.
"Don't they smell good?" Talim greeted him; she obviously missed the look on his face. He grunted and turned. His eyes were brown and his body was rippled with muscles. He looked old, about 50, but Talim thought that he was much older; after all he was a dragon rider. The man was known to the whole kingdom as King Galbatorix, but to Talim, he was known as Father.
"Talim, good to see you," King Galbatorix muttered. She reached his side and he spoke again, "Do you trust me?"
Talim was a bit confused, but she answered, "Yes, Father, of course!"
"You'd pledge yourself to me?" the king eagerly questioned.
"Didn't I at birth?" Talim countered the question with one of her own.
"Yes," the king muttered, "but you never know these days, after what Murtagh did..." in response to Talim's confused face, he added, "the bloody traitor ran off to join forces with the Varden."
Talim looked sad, "Why would he do that? Murtagh was my friend, he was always so nice... Besides, the Varden only wish to kill everything in our kingdom, why?" Galbatorix looked slightly happy, but his face flickered back to a blank slate.
"What do you think of them?" he asked.
"Only what you've told me of them, that they ally themselves with villains, and kill the innocent and are bloodthirsty monsters who wish death to our kingdom," Talim said in one long breath.
Galbatorix nodded, and asked further, "And the Urgals? What do you think of them?"
"Necessary allies," Talim answered confidently. The king smiled, and walked towards a door, motioning for Talim to follow. He led her down a passage way lined with many guards, and flickering torches. They finally reached a door, with a steel bolt slid across the front; Galbatorix slid it across and pushed open the door. In the center of the room were two sphere shaped rocks, no not rocks, dragon eggs! Talim's eyes grew round as she approached the eggs. The king waited patiently, wishing for one to hatch. Talim touched one of the perfect eggs; it was warm, yet not unnaturally. She wanted so bad to see a real dragon, her father never would show her his.
Minutes ticked by and the eggs didn't change at all. Galbatorix growled and pulled the girl out of the room. He led her to the garden and glared at her.
"I thought for sure that a dragon would have hatched for you, after all, you are half me!" he yelled, enraged. Talim wasn't used to this side of her father, but she wasn't scared. "I taught you all I know about fencing, the elves' language, weapons... EVERYTHING! But you can't get a dragon to hatch! Damn you! Go to your room, don't come out!" He turned and briskly sulked away, very disappointed.
Talim started up towards her room, sad since there was nothing to do in there. She turned to look at her father; maybe there was some way to stay outside. The king roared and punched a side of their castle, he drew his fist away, and glared at his bleeding knuckles. Talim frowned and sadly headed for her room.