A/N: OK, I did not mean to do this, but I realize that I accidentally stole a subplot from Harry Potter. The whole magical powers being transferred thing. It was an accident, if anybody noticed.
Aliya woke up stiff, sore, and tired. She yawned and stretched, accidentally hitting Rashid in the process.
"I-is it time to get up?" he yawned. "I'm u-u-up, I p-promise."
"No, I just accidentally woke you up," she told him. "How about we wake up the guards and start traveling some more?"
"No, I want more sleep," he replied, turning back over. Aliya sighed, and went back into her sleeping bag. She tossed and turned for hours, trying to go back to sleep. Finally, when the guards still hadn't woken up, she decided to practice her magic again.
It wouldn't be a good idea to practice the light, she thought, but it worries me that the guards haven't woken yet. She quickly crawled over to their sleeping bags and uttered, "Garjzla!" worriedly. When the light shone in her hand, she saw that the guards were gone, and their horses too. She ran over to Rashid's sleeping bag and shook him awake.
"Rashid, the guards are gone!" she yelled.
"You're dreaming," he answered sleepily. "Go back to sleep!" She shook him harder, and started to yell.
"They're gone! And their horses are, too!" she yelled. Rashid got up slowly and climbed out of his sleeping bag. Even in the face of possible danger, Aliya couldn't help but notice his sculpted chest while he put on his shirt.
"A-all right, let's go," he yawned. "Can you light this clearing up for me?" She uttered "Garjzla!" once more and the guards' empty sleeping bags were lit up. Rashid woke up immediately. "They really are gone!" he panicked. "What are we going to do without them protecting us on the way to Ellesmerá?"
"Don't panic, Rashid." she told him, although she was panicking too. "Garzjla! Look, there are horseprints. If we follow them, we might find the guards." Rashid helped Aliya mount her horse, mounted his horse, and they started following the trail. Almost as soon as they started off, the guards came back.
"You're finally up," the first guard stated. "Amazing. We went scouting for water while you slept."
"Are you ready to go now?" the second guard asked. Aliya nodded, and they started back towards camp to clean up.
After packing up camp, they mounted their horses once more and Aliya consulted the map.
"We should just follow the river downstream," she told the guards, who started off immediately at a gallop in the wrong direction.
"Hey! Hey! Downstream is in the other direction!" Rashid yelled. He started riding after them, and not wanting to be left alone, Aliya did too. The three went around a bend in the river, and Aliya lost sight of them. As she turned the corner, a tree branch knocked her off her horse, sending her sprawling into the raging river.
"Rashid! Hel-" she yelled, only to be dunked midsentence by the strong current. Rashid half-turned in his saddle, torn between helping Aliya and finding the soldiers who were supposed to be guarding them. Deciding quickly, he turned his horse around, narrowly avoiding falling in the river himself. He turned the corner, and saw Aliya in the river.
"Aliya! Don't panic! Swim with the current!" he yelled. "I'm coming!" Looking around the riverbank, he saw a log hanging over the river. Quickly climbing on top of it, he held out his hand to Aliya as she passed under.But the river current was too strong, and he was swept into the river alongside her. He went under, choking, and Aliya tried holding him above water. Rashid pointed to a tree hanging over the river, and Aliya nodded. Letting themselves be pulled by the current, they floated towards the log. Rashid grabbed onto a branch and held on tightly to Aliya. He started climbing up the branch while still holding on to her, and slipped on a wet patch. Aliya screamed. She couldn't swim, never having been out of Farthen Dûr before.
"Are you alright, Aliya?" he yelled down to her. She nodded, and pointed back to the riverbank. He kept climbing until he was safely on top of the tree. Leaning over the side, he helped Aliya over the side.
"I thought we were dead," she said, shaking.
"I know. I did too. But we're safe now," he assured her.
"No we're not! Our supplies are on the other side of the river!" Rashid looked across the river, and sure enough saw both horses chewing on the rich river grass.
"How are we going to get over to that riverbank?" he asked her. She searched the riverbank, and pointed to the log where Rashid had tried to save her the first time.
"Do you think it will hold our weight?" he asked cautiously.
She nodded and answered, "It has to! We need to get to the other side." They walked over to the log, and Rashid carefully stepped on it to test his weight.
"We need to go one at a time, or else it could break. You go first, I can swim." Aliya tiptoed onto the log, and it creaked but held her. She was halfway across when she noticed something floating in the river. Looking down, she saw the bodies of the two soldiers assigned to guard them. She screamed, and almost fell in the river again.
"Aliya! Take my hand!" he yelled.
"It's not that, Rashid! Look! The soldiers must have fallen in too!"
"Don't think about it! Cross before the bridge breaks!" She finished crossing, and yelled for Rashid. Stepping warily onto the log, he quickly ran across. As soon as he stepped onto the opposite riverbank, the log fell into the raging river.
"That was lucky," he sighed.
"Not for the soldiers," Aliya pointed out. "What should we do? Go back to the Varden?"
"No way!" he said. "My mother is already against this. If she learns of this she'll never allow me to go!"
"But wouldn't she be more worried knowing you weren't protected?"
"She won't know. How could she? Besides, we can take care of ourselves! You can use magic, and we can practice fighting each other with fake swords."
"I don't think-"
"Aliya, come on! The Rider, Eragon, did it!"
"Yeah, but he had a dragon and Brom, and later he had Murtagh!"
"We shouldn't go back! We have the map and we can protect ourselves. There's no reason to!" Sighing, Aliya realized that no matter what she said, Rashid wouldn't turn back. She mounted her horse and unfurled the map, hoping that she had made the right decision and that they wouldn't both be killed.
A/N: Sorry it took so long…I've had exams this week, and I needed to study.