Disclaimer: I don't own Eragon or any aspects from it. I wish. Hmmm…plots

insert evil laugh here

A/N: I actually meant I would update w/ 5 reviews on this chapter, but oh well, five overall is good enough…I guess. Sorry for the long wait 4 this chappy, finals, fencing invitational, homework…. But winter break starts on Tuesday! Don't ask, I have a weird schedule. Smut is coming up in later chapters. Tell me how explicit you want it.

Chapter 4

The Circle of Life

Years earlier

Selena paced back and forth across the floor of the entrance hall of her home. Morzan was late. He was never late. She was worried. Perhaps Galbatorix had found out about her and Morzan. Little did she know that he had known the instant it had started.

Flashback

Selena was a young girl of 16, living in Carvhall with her parents and brother, Garrow, who was 18 and had just gotten married.. She was happy. They lived a simple life. They planted crops, the weeded the crops, the harvested the crops, then sold and ate them. It was enough.

When she was a little girl, Selena had always loved stories of the Riders. She wondered at how majestic they were. Her secret dream was to see a dragon. She though they were the most beautiful things she had ever seen. But, sadly, she had only seen them in picutes.

Of course, all of this was too good to last. The village had been behind on its taxes to the crown for several years now, and they thought it a safe way to resist Galbatorix from afar. They were wrong. Galbatorix sent Morzan to deal with the entire village by himself, which was no obstacle.

Selena and her brother worked to harvest the wheat before the frost set in. Garrow was working to earn money to support his new wife, who was with child.

As Selena and Garrow worked side by side in the wheat field, a shadow passed over them, Selena looked up. It was an enormous red dragon. She fainted.

She awoke to pounding on the front door. She got out of bed and crept down the stairs, careful of the creaky one. She peeked through the banister. Alabaster, the town smith was speaking rapidly with her father. She heard the step behind her creak. She turned and sighed with relief. It was Garrow. She moved over to make space for him.

"Roran, its no use, the Empire is just going to come and take you the hard way," Alabaster was saying their father.

"What would you have me do? The blast Empire is going to make us sell everything we have to pay the debt! Including our families. The Empire is definitely not opposed to slavery at all," Roran said.

"As I said before, they're just going to come and either kill your family. Would you rather have them dead, or alive and with a chance to escape?" The smith said, agitated.

"Well, if you put it that way, you are right. I will go get them right now," Roran sighed.

Selena and Garrow practically flew up the stairs and into their beds. Selena dived under her quilt just as her father opened the door. She tried to breath deeply, despite the fact that her heart was pounding and she was breathing much too fast. Roran smiled and shook her.

"Selena! Wakeup! We have to go!"

"Why?" she asked, feigning sleepiness.

"I can't tell you now, you will see when we get there."

Selena was frightened. She was more scared than she had ever been before. She was scared for herself, Garrow, her parents, for all of Carvhall. She followed her father down the stairs on shaking legs. Garrow sat at the table, wide eyed, with their mother, Freeda.

"Well, shall we go?" Roran asked quietly. They nodded. Freeda took Garrow by the hand and led him out to the family carriage. Selena and Garrow huddled close together as freezing rain started to fall down from the pitch black sky, devoid of stars.

As they neared the town, they began to hear raised voices. Roran pulled up the carriage alongside Alabaster's, who had gone before them.

Selena's father jumped down from the wagon and approached the center of town. There a large bonfire was burning. Around it, the whole village was gathered.

Freeda approached one of her friends.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"One of the Forsworn is here. We were told to meet him here," she replied.

Selena crept up behind her mother to listen. She heard her mother and her mother's friends discussing the fact that there was one of the Forsworn here.

'That was the dragon I saw!' she thought. Just at that moment, the darkness behind the bonfire seemed to stir before their eyes. A figure shrouded in a black cloak emerged, seemingly out of no where. The villagers collectively took a step backwards. He spoke in a deep, commanding, voice.

"Every one of you has been disobedient to the crown of Alagaesia. My lord King Galbatorix is very displeased. You must all die for your treachery," he raised a hand menacingly.

Roran jumped. "Who do you think you are? You can't just come here, interfere with our quiet lives, and then kill us! All we did was not pay our taxes! And-"

He was cut off as a blast of red light from the Forsworn's hand hit him it the chest. He collapsed, dead.

"Does anyone else wish to try to stop me?" he asked in a soft and deadly voice. There was not a sound in the square except for the crackling of the huge fire. Garrow just stared at his father's dead body. He ever so slightly moved backwards, towards the wagon, taking his wife with him.

"And for your information," he addressed Roran's lifeless body, "my name is Morzan." His eyes swept the square. They landed on Selena. "You. Come here." There wasn't room for argument in his voice. Selena walked through the crowd. She stood before Morzan, frozen with terror. He took her by the shoulders and turned her around.

"See this girl? I have taken a fancy to her, so I think I will take her with me."

"You can't do that!" that was Freeda, Selena's mother. "She's barely 16! You can't take my daughter and my husband from me!" she wailed.

"Oh, can't I?" The same light that had killed her father now struck her mother down, never to get up again. Selena couldn't help herself, she began to cry.

Morzan spun her to face him. "See? Now your parents are dead, you are mine!" His gaze locked with hers. She stared into his icy, dark blue stare. It seemed to go on forever. She seemed to be drowning in an ocean of blue. She saw no more.

Selena sighed as she remembered. Morzan had left most of the village alive, that day had just been a warning. She rubbed her swollen belly. She was now with child for the second time since that fateful day in Carvhall. Her first child, Murtagh, stood behind her, he was ten.

"Where is dada?" he asked.

"I don't know. He should be here soon." She bent down to give him a hug. They broke apart as the door of the chambers burst open. Morzan stood in the doorway, filling the room with his dark presence.

Selena was frightened. She recognized the look on his face. He had been drinking. He stormed into the room.

"DAMN THE VARDEN!" he roared. His dark hair was in shambles and his eyes were blood shot. "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT!" he screamed. He slapped Selena, hard, she fell over, holding her stinging cheek. He unbelted his sword, Zar'roc. He drew it preparing to throw it at something. He drew back his arm and hurled it across the room. Murtagh had been hiding underneath the bed, as his mother had instructed him to do when his father came home drunk. He jumped up when he saw his mother get hit. The sword flying through the air tore open his back. He screamed, then passed out, lying in a pool of his own blood.

Selena's breath caught in her throat. She began to cry. Morzan didn't even look at her, he just stormed up the stairs and slammed the door to his study, she heard him smashing things.

She crept over to her wounded son. Morzan had taught her some rudimentary magic skills. These included healing. She attempted to heal Murtagh's wound. She managed to stop the bleeding. She tore up a bed sheet and bound the cut. Murtagh opened his eyes.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I will explain later, now we must go. Are you well enough to ride?"

"I think so," he said shakily.

"We must get you somewhere where you can be healed properly," Selena said, concerned.

They put on black cloaks and hoods, and crept out of Uru'baen. They arrived at the stables. Suddenly, Selena had an idea. She made her voice scratchy, like one of Galbatorix's servants.

She said to the stable hand, "Get us mounts." The hand readily agreed. They mounted the black horses and exited Uru'baen, going north. The first stop was Gil'lead.

Selena made Murtagh stay in Gil'lead, saying that she would come back for him, and, after a night of rest, she continued North, to Carvhall.

She rode into Carvhall in the evening. She carefully jumped off her horse, as she was now very pregnant. She climbed the steps of the farm house where Garrow lived. She knocked on the door.

Her brother opened the door, and when he saw her, he just mouthed soundlessly at her for several seconds. "Selena?"

"Aye. Garrow, I need somewhere to have my baby, it will be soon."

"Of course! I thought you were dead!"

"Oh, no!" she laughed, for the first time in years, and told Garrow her story.

About a month later, Selena gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. She named him Eragon, after the first Rider, hoping that he would not become evil, like his father.

Garrow begged Selena to stay, but she said she had promises to keep and indeed she did.

"I must go back to Gil'lead. Goodbye, Garrow, dear brother," she mounted her horse and left to say goodbye to her other son.

In Gil'lead, she said farewell to her son. He asked why, she told him that it was her time to leave this world. He cried and begged her to stay with him, but she refused.

"Goodbye, my darling son. I hope that someday, you will meet your baby brother, Eragon."

Without another word, she left, never to be seen again in Alagaesia.

A/N: Thanks to DrAgOnS09, Du Weldenvarden Farcai, and BoOk wOrM, they were my ONLY reviewers. I really wish everyone else would review, b/c this makes me think no one except my 3 reviewers likes my story. is sad anyway...

Happy Chrismahanakwanza!

Ponee