I do not own The Inheritance Cycle.
Reverie
Brom was perched high in a tree looking off in the distance at the sea, listening the slapping of the waves as they beat against the shining hills of sand. He could hear somewhere far off the laugher of children, the chattering of birds and a dog, and there someone calling his name. He turned then, nearly toppling out of the tree, and saw the form of his brother. Sadon wasn't far from him, but Brom could only see his tall form through the leaves, he wore a brown tunic and dark leggings, and his hair was pulled back from his face in a low ponytail.
A wind blew from off the sea, rustling the leaves, and blowing his hair into his face, and in that moment Sadon looked up from him below. "What's wrong with you, little squirrel?" Sadon said. "Those elves are looking everywhere for you."
Shifting, Brom looked down at him, pulling the tiny, sleeping dragon closer to his body. "I don't want to go," he said. "Father needs me here where I can help him, and you and Nera are to be wedded soon."
"Father has two other sons to work," Sadon said with a sigh. "Believe me, you leaving an't gonna make him decide not to work us plenty. You're needed as a Rider now, to train with the elves and everything."
Brom huffed and looked up at the sky. "I know," he said in a sad voice. "Do you think that those elves will let me stay until after you're wedded? I don't want to go to that place until then. Or maybe you move the wedding to be before I leave, if they don't let me stay very long."
Sadon rubbed his face with both of his hands. "I don't know. I can't tell you, you'll have to ask them," he said. "Gods this is such a mess." He shook his head.
Looking away, Brom studied the rolling water for a short time before growing bored and looking down at the dragon hatchling who was nearing sleep. "What do you think Illirea is like?" he said, fidgeting in sudden nervousness. "Do you think it is big?"
"It's the capital," Sadon said with a snort, "I would hope that its big. Now, you best come down from up there. Mother's worried about you."
Brom looked down, tightening his grip on the branch he held to balance himself. "I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?"
With a groan of frustration, Brom closed his eyes. "I can't," he repeated.
Sadon barked out a hard laugh which nearly scared Brom out of the tree, the hatchling on his lap looked up and squeaked with displeasure. "You an't meaning to tell me that you got yourself stuck," he laughed. "Got up but you can't get down." He calmed suddenly, catching Brom's hurt look, and leaned against the tree. "We'll find a way to get you down, perhaps you ask that dragon of yours. I'm willing to bet the dragon can get down quick as wind."
Brom licked his lips, tasting the salt on his skin from the sea. He opened his mouth unsure of what to say, and then close it. Then, something shook him and he blinked and looked around in panic, his brother was glancing at the tree as if looking for a way to get Brom and the dragon down, and the hatchling was perfectly calm. She, for the elves said the hatchling was a she, looked up and blinked up at him.
"Brom!" a woman shouted, but there was no woman around to shout it.
His name was called again and he blinked, taking in a sudden, sharp breath. When he opened his eyes, it was not the sight of glittering sea nor the canopy of vivid leaves but a woman's face darkened in the cover of night. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. "What is it, Selena?" he said grumpily, turning away from her, wishing to return his reverie of dreams. His Saphira was there, in his dreams, and perhaps if fell back asleep quick enough he could return to her. Something inside him ached, an old injury that hadn't quite healed properly that likely never would, at the thought of his dragon. He mumbled something incoherently.
She shook him violently, pulling at his arm. "Brom," she said, her voice urgent and hitched with alarm. "You need to get up at this moment, there's something in that bed."
Brom turned and looked at her doubtfully. "There is not a living soul who could get past the protective spells we've cast."
"Brom," she said, pulling again at his arm, "it is not a person. Please, get up."
Feeling as if he had jumped into an icy lake, Brom shoot up from the bed, his dream forgotten, and looked around the room. It seemed to him that nothing was amiss, that everything was as it should be, but he pulled the coverings to the bed back and threw them carelessly onto the ground. Selena came closer from behind him, and lift herself onto the tips of her toes, looking over his shoulder at the bed. He could feel her body shudder against his, and he looked intently at the bed. "You woke me because of that," he said staring at bed without the faintest hint of humor. "A snake. A harmless one at that."
She sighed and her breath swept over his skin. "I woke you because I can't sleep with a snake in the room."
"Then you best take it outside," he said raising an eyebrow at her in question.
She sucked in a breath of air, and leaned herself against his back, wrapping her arms around him. "Brom," she said, somehow forming his name into a plea. "I can't."
"And why not?" He said, trying to think of a reason as to why Selena wouldn't wish to go near a snake. And then, he realized with more than a slight shock, that she must be frightened by the creature. How was it that she could be afraid of a snake? When she had survived some the greatest terrors; seen the worst of mankind?
He resisted the sudden urge to smile, and pulled out of her embrace to pick the small, green snake. It made a hissing sound, and its red tongue flashed out as his hand picked it off the bed. The snake felt cold in his hands, its scales smooth like rumpled silk. He turned to Selena and held the snake up for her to see. She looked at for a short in distaste before stepping away from him, shooing him away. Then he walked the door and walked tiredly down the halls, as the weight of wariness from his trip here began to burden him.
It had been a very long and hard trip from Ellesmera to the home of Padern, where Selena had chosen to stay while he was away. He had spent much of the last year working through plans of what to do with the rescued dragon egg, speaking with his childhood mentor, seeking advice, and searching for a safe place for him and Selena to move to where they could live in peace as they should. They had decided that she would bare no more children for a time, perhaps through her lifetime, and that their son, Eragon, would remain in Carvahall.
Brom had wished to take the boy from his uncle and for them to raise him as he should be, but Selena was adamant that Eragon was to remain in Carvahall. He had thought at the time, and still did, that Selena merely feared raising their son, bring him into the danger that seemed to follow them, and that perhaps with time the fear would change and Eragon could join them. But this would not be, Brom came to understand the reasons why and agreed with those reasons almost completely, despite his misgivings.
Having arrived to the agrarian's home three days before, he and Selena had talked again of their future, the life they would live out together. They talked on it for hours, even argued, and when Selena said that it may be best if a trip to the Varden was made Brom was very surprised. Selena had fed the Varden with information during her time as Morzan's Black Hand, but otherwise she seemed to be very hesitant to make further contact with them. Now, however, she seemed hell-bent on traveling their keep, talking of roads to take, the season of the sea, the risks of traveling by boat, how soon they ought to leave. Her sadness, from losing her child, seemed to have been replaced by a wild determination, and she seemed to him more distant. This worried him, making him wonder if perhaps he shouldn't have stayed in Ellesmera for so long.
Brom stopped in front of the door and unfastened it with his free hands. The snake slid between his fingers, trying to escape, as he roughly shoved the door open. He leaned down towards the ground and felt, more than saw, the snake sneak away into the night. The night had a chill to it, causing Brom to shiver, that made him think that the snake was merely seeking warmth and that was why the creature had wandered beneath their blankets. He looked up then and searched the sky for the stars but saw none, as a veil clouds greedily hid their light from the world below, before returning into the home.
When he walked into the room he shared with Selena, he saw that the bed had been freshly made and a lamp was lit, casting sharp shadows about the room. Selena was seated on top of the blankets looking down at hands, as he came closer she looked up. "When I was younger," she said, tucking her hair behind her ears, "my mother made Garrow and I chase snakes around the fields and kill them with a sickle. I was still very young when one of the snakes decided to chase me instead, since then I haven't been able to go near them."
Brom yarned tiredly, and closed the door, before nodding. "You seemed to have done plenty well in UrĂ»'baen."
"Not one of the snakes there slithered quite so obviously," she replied, before yawning herself. "Let's get back to bed, then, the sun is going to get out of bed soon enough."
Coming forward, Brom ran him fingers across her bare shoulders, causing her to shake herself and lightheartedly swat his hand away, as he crawled onto the bed and under the blankets. She followed his actions and leaned close to him, looking up him with wide eyes. For a moment all he could do was stare back at her somehow understanding her unspoken words, and in that moment Brom forgot about his dream of Saphira, and about the snake that had crept onto their bed, because in that moment he was completely at peace.
