Haha, started writing this when I noticed I was using the wrong name for Nakia, haha, so if it says Kaida somewhere, it means Nakia, and tell me so I can fix it. Oh, and I finally got Microsoft Word to work, so now I have spell check! And none of you can complain! hehe

Nakia's conscious returned to her and she slowly cracked her eyes open. She was lying on her side on the hard desert dirt. Somewhere around her a fire was burning, she could smell the strong scent of ash and burning wood.

What happened? Nakia's head ached, along with her arm. As she brushed a hand against the bloody wound there, she remembered. She had been hit with an arrow...And there were those creepy hooded creatures...and the two men and dragon that rescued her...

She slowly sat up and looked around.

Sure enough, a fire was set up a yard or so away from Kaida and hunched around it were the two men, but there was no dragon. As she sat up, one of the men took notice and nudged the other.

"How are you feeling?" one of them asked her as he walked forward. She slowly nodded her head yes. As he checked her pulse, Nakia noticed a large silvery oval on his palm.

Strange...thought Nakia.

After he was done, he turned back to a pot hanging over the fire. It was then that Kaida noticed the wonderful smell coming from it.

Good, I'm starving.

She just sat there for a few minutes, trying her best to remember everything that happened. As she did this, she failed to notice that the other man was staring at her the whole time. As he noticed she saw him staring he quickly looked back into the fire.

Nakia shrugged it off and attempted to stand up, but was nauseous so she sat back down.

"Don't worry, just sit right there and I'll bring you some soup," said the one man with the oval scar. She did as she was told and sat down, absentmindedly tracing a circle in the dirt.

A few minutes later the man walked up to her with a bowl of delicious soup and handed it to her. She took it gratefully and began to eat. He simply looked at her for a second, and then sat down across from her.

"My name is Eragon. Do you remember anything about last night?" Nakia stopped slurping her soup and looked at him, pondering what all happened last night, and finally answered.

"Yes...a little bit. There were those…those, hooded things and they were chasing me…and then you and that other guy came in and saved me…and I was shot with an arrow. But that's it. Everything else is fuzzy…" Eragon looked a bit relieved to hear this, but simply nodded and let her go back to eating her soup.

For awhile they simply sat there together, Kaida eating her soup and Eragon staring up at the sky.

"They're called the Ra'zac. Those things that were chasing you," Eragon spoke. Nakia was done with her soup so she sat down her bowl and looked up at Eragon, as if he were going to continue on with a story.

When he didn't Nakia said, "What are they?"

Eragon sighed and tore his eyes away from the deep sky. "They are not human, if that is what you mean. They are some sort of creature, and they feast on human blood and flesh. But I do not know why they would be chasing you, unless you are an enemy of the King."

This was more of a question then a comment, and he starred at Nakia curiously, and she just stared back.

He finally broke the staring contest and gestured to the other man. "This is Murtagh; he's been traveling with me. It is his fault for the arrow in your arm. He didn't trust you, unfortunately…" He gave Murtagh a stern look as he said this. Murtagh simply looked away and turned to a pile of blankets next to the fire. Nakia leaned closer and noticed that it was another person, whom she hadn't even noticed until now.

Eragon followed her gaze and said, "We rescued her from a prison in Gil'ead." But he said nothing more. He picked up Nakia's soup bowl and took it over to a pile of their supplies.

A yawn came from Nakia's mouth and she realized (even though she had just been asleep) she was exhausted. Murtagh noticed this and spoke for the first time. "Here are some blankets. We'll wake you in the morning." And with that Nakia rolled up in the blankets staring at the blank desert sky. And began to think about Eragon, who had been very vague about…everything. He's a mysterious man…

Aden turned fitfully in his sleep. A few days ago someone had broken into the castle and they captured Arya. The information Aden had about this break in was very vague. Apparently one of the prisoners escaped with somebody, and they took the unconscious Arya with them.

Security in the castle had nearly been doubled, guard parading around the halls, not leaving one prisoner without a careful eye watching. Plus the sleeping medicine dosage had been made higher. Thankfully, Aden was an elf and the drug took a bit longer to affect him.

But what worried Aden the most was the rumors he heard the guards talking about. Apparently each day Arya had been given a deadly poison, and then later the antidote. But she never got the antidote, and the poison was still in her system. Which meant there was a very fine line between life and death for Arya.

I know this was short, and not really any cliffhangers but…oh well. Hope you all liked it. And REVIEW! I'm getting hardly any.