The plague
What was it like? It's hard to describe what it feels like to be yanked out of your own world. Alieina probably described it best when she said 'It feels like you're being stretched in a hundred directions, and then suddenly snapping back.'
Or, as Charlie said, more simply, 'it feels awful.'
Of course, when we first landed on the hard, empty ground it was complete pandemonium. I won't bother to describe the details. Suffice to say it was loud, useless, and accomplished nothing.
The pandemonium hadn't completely died down when Leah calmly suggested we think up a plan for what to do next.
"This place, wherever it is, seems deserted. How do we know there are even other people living here? But There's a lake and river over there, and forest growing on these mountains. We could live here, at least until we find out more about this place."
It was a good idea, and even Charlie had to admit it.
We took stock of our possessions. Instead of jeans and T-shirts, we now wore foreign clothes that seemed like they wouldn't be out of place in a medieval castle. The boys wore tunics and leggings, the girls wore simple dresses.
Apart from that, we had next to nothing. Jennat, Leah, and I had all been clutching our backpacks when we had been whisked away, and Alieina still held her Eldest book…
"Wait! I know where we are!" Instantly, all talking stopped. All eyes were on me. I dashed over to Alieina and scooped up the book from her lap.
"Hey!" she protested
I rifled through it until I found what I was looking for.
A map of Alagaesia.
"Yes! Look!"
The class crowded around me as I jabbed a spot on the map. There's Woadark Lake, and the Toark River coming out of it! The mountains are the spine."
For a moment, there was utter silence, then a sharp squeal from right behind me.
Alieina, who had been sneaking up behind me holding a large rock, had been about to bash me on the head and steal her book back was now jumping in circles. "WE'RELIVINGINTHESAMEWORLDASERAGONANDSAPHIRAOHMYGODICAN'TBELEIVEITTHISISLIKEADREAMCOMETRUENOWICANDATEERAGON!"
(TRANSLATION: We're living in the same world as Eragon and Saphira oh my god I can't believe it this is like a dream come true now I can date Eragon!)
We stared at her. She kept skipping.
The next few months were uneventful. We mainly found groups of other people and set about figuring out how to make houses. I was living with Alieina, Leah, and Jennat. But then came the plague.
It was awful. There was fever, headaches, and it felt like your bones were on fire. Almost everyone got it, and amazingly, we all survived. Sort of. Once they would recover, they would have forgotten all about or world. They spoke another language.
That might have been ok, had it not been for one highly disturbing fact.
Before, we had all been 11 or 12. Now, the age group was 11 (those who hadn't gotten the plague) to 57.
So you can imagine how awful I felt when I got it.
For three weeks I lay in bed, unable to speak or move or eat. The whole time, voices beckoned to me, calling me to forget my past, and to look towards the future.
One day, I found that I was terribly thirsty. I opened my eyes, and slowly stood from my bed. I went downstairs and took out a cup, which I dipped into a bucket filled with water from the town well.
I went back upstairs and peeked into the other's rooms. Alieina's room was empty, but in Jennet's I found Jennet and Alieina whispering to each other. They looked up at me, obviously fearful. I was one of the later ones to get the plague, so by then they knew what it did, and were scared of what I would be like.
I smiled and said, "don't worry, I didn't forget."
That was the good news of the day. I was the first person to really survive the plague, and come through with my intelligence intact. Unfortunately, the bad news was that Leah had it now, too.
Amazingly, Leah survived too. Jennet and Alieina didn't get it, so out entire house had survived.
There were no major lasting effects of the plague, except that both Leah and I learned the language, and were able to teach it to the others who hadn't had the plague.
Two boys, Charlie and Mark survived too. After Leah and I could walk without our legs giving way, we visited their house.
None of us wanted to live with any of the others 'the shadows', as we called them. But now that they were adults, we would have to find a way of providing for ourselves, or we would have to live with them.
We didn't know how to farm, and we didn't know any crafts. For a while it looked like there was no solution, but than Alieina came up with the brilliant idea of a trade post.
"The shadows can trade things for other things. We're right at the mouth of the mountain path that leads to Terim too, so there will be traders from other places coming through too."
It was a brilliant idea, and we happily took it up. We stayed where we were living wise (we lived right next door) and built a trade post. Charlie and Mark were in charge of haggling. Alieina was in charge of staying out of the way (She tended to freak people out with her frenzied shouts of MINEERAGONISMINEANDYOUCAN'THAVEHIMSTAYAWAYMWAHAHAHA!)
(Translation: Mine Eragon is mine and you can't have him stay away mwa ha ha!)
Leah and Jennet were good at sewing, embroidering, and other things of the same type, so they made those sorts of things. I hunted.
One day, while we were all at the shop, a trader on his way through from Dras-Leona came in and started a conversation with Charlie. The rest of us listened in. Many traders chose to swap rumors in the pub, where six 12-year-olds weren't allowed, so any piece of news was welcome.
"Have you heard?" he asked Charlie, "The tales they are spreading around the empire?"
"No," said Charlie, "What are they saying?"
"There are whispered tales of a new rider. Can you imagine? In three years, three eggs have hatched! First that rebel who went off to join the varden," (The man spat on the floor) "Then the king's new right-hand-man, what's his name? Murtagh, that's it! And now, a female rider!"
"Told you!" I whispered to Charlie. Earlier that week we'd had an argument over whether girls could be riders.
Soon after the man left and we were left to wonder who the new rider was.