(A/N): About the ADD thing in the first chapter...no offense to anyone...I should know, I probably have ADD too...and on with the show!
Disclaimer: I don't own any Eragon/Eldest characters, just the plot, a P/O-ed tree, and Mercywort.
Arya had rounded up a very disgruntled Orik, (who had been conversing cheerily with his dwarven comrades), and told him of the mission Angela had assigned.
At first, Orik had bellowed a bunch of nonsense words, dwarven curses, and remarks of the stupidity of the quest so loud that Arya had almost stumbled backward. Arya thought about threatening Orik's fiancée if he didn't go, but, decided not to. Hvedra and she got along fine, sparring the occasional round, laughing over various episodes in their youth. Besides, she needed Orik's tracking skills. And, from Hvedra, she learned that Orik had ingested Mercywort when they were young, and had laughed for hours. His experience would be necessary.
Arya looked Orik square in the eye and said flatly, "It's either you help me look for Mercywort, or no more faelnirv at those Saturday night parties that you've been throwing with the dwarves."
Orik blanched, "WHAT? But Hvedra and I were planning something with a lot of beer! That fancy elvish drink of yours was going to be the topping of the night!"
Arya spun on her heel, recognizing triumph when she heard it, "You heard me, no herb, no faelnirv."
Orik cursed in dwarvish and walked away, muttering under his breath, "No faelnirv, HA! Blasted elves with all their thrice blasted trickery! If she doesn't get that faelnirv..." Orik muttered, "I'll—"
Arya suddenly popped up in front of him, emerald eyes twinkling, "Do what exactly what Mr. Dwarf?"
Orik jumped about four feet in the air and had popped his axe out of its sheath, yelling an ancient war cry before he realized it was only Arya.
Orik glared at Arya, breathing heavily, "Don't EVER—EVER do that—AGAIN! Or—or—or I'll—"
Orik sputtered out of breath, trying to resume his slew of threats under the presence of Arya grinning with an amused air.
"Jumpy, aren't we, Orik?" Arya asked.
Orik folded his arms over his chest and gave Arya a death scowl so fierce Arya could have sworn that the daisies behind her withered and died.
Arya grinned again and flounced away, saying as she went, "I would hate for that party of yours to not have sufficient drink to have its attendants thoroughly drunk, wouldn't you, Mr. Dwarf?"
Orik gave another scowl at Arya's retreating back, (though, not as fierce as the death scowl as he gave Arya earlier), and said to himself, "How did she know about the parties we have every week?"
Orik shook his head and trotted off to his tent to pack.
Arya shook her head at the last statement, thinking, The thing about dwarves, after a battle fought and won, you can always count on them being somewhere close to a tankard. How predictable.
"Hail, Arya!" A cheerful, familiar shout rose up from behind her. Arya turned around and saw Eragon standing their, chocolate eyes dancing merrily.
"Guess what?" Eragon inquired mischievously.
"What?" Arya asked, exasperated.
"No really, guess." Eragon started spinning around, interrupting his spins with random handstands.
"You got a new sword?" Arya guessed, only slightly curious to where this conversation was leading.
"No!" Came the reply from an upside-down Eragon. He grinned.
Hmm, Arya mused, something must really be making him happy to take his mind off that, 1) Murtagh is his brother, and 2) Murtagh took his sword, meaning that 3) Eragon was now swordless.
"You cured Elva?"
"Haven't gotten around to that yet. Guess again!"
"You found the secret stock of faelnirv that the Varden is hoarding in the weaponry?"
"Oooo...now I know! Guess again!"
Arya mentally kicked herself, Why me?
Arya thought of the most nit-pick thing she could think of, and guessed,
"You got new socks?"
"No."
"You discovered that the cows are running out of milk and there will be no more chocolate anymore?"
"WHAT?" Eragon's brown eyes filled with tears, "No...chocolate?'
"Oops," Arya flushed, immediately feeling ashamed, "I wasn't supposed to tell you that."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Eragon wailed, tears pouring like a broken-for-months-fountain-that-just-got-fixed-because-somebody-stuck-their-cat-in-the-drain-because-it-was-pooping-all-over-the-house down his cheeks, and collapsed onto his knees.
"WHY IS THIS WORLD SO CRUEL!" Eragon lamented.
Ayra hesitated for a second, then went over and gave Eragon a hug to console him.
(Collective Awwwww comes from the dwarven women who have nothing better to do save pick up Heineken from the boot dealer of the Varden)
The hug was so brief, that all Eragon felt was the soft sigh of someone's pine-needle-scented arms around his shoulders, and then nothing.
Eragon immediately stopped crying and wiped the tears from his eyes, gazing at Arya with confusion and hope.
"You—you hugged me." Eragon stated, as if unsure how to conduct his words into sentences.
Arya sighed.
Eragon gave her a look of complete puzzlement, and asked, "Why?"
This statement revealed a complex set of emotions deep from within Eragon's soul—so deep that Arya felt a stirring inside of her. Not like the one she had experienced while with Faolin, but a more sisterly feeling. A recognition of the fact that Eragon was very young, and looking for love that had shunned him all his life. Why? The question rang in he head again, and she understood. Eragon was looking for the love of a brother, a mother, and a father—and it seems—(at this Arya chuckled slightly—that he can confuse them easily. Arya looked down, That's why he sought after me.
All this took the span of a second to assimilate—elves' brains work faster, after all—and Arya blinked and looked up at Eragon's face and said logically:
"Eragon, you were about to drown the entire Varden with the strength of your tears...I had to do something!"
It was true. The entire Varden army was afloat in a massive pool about four feet high. Roran was busy diving to the bottom of the "lake", and Nasuada was afloat on a twenty foot piece of driftwood, dangling her legs on the side of the raft while being pushed through the water by eight enormous Kull. Elva was butter-flying her was toward a man who seemed to be drowning, and was being chased by a harassed looking Angela and water-logged Solembum. Orik and his beer buddies were cursing up an army, (haha), as they all had hangovers and being doused with a colossal wave of tears while you're trying to drink off your hangover doesn't put you in the best mood. Though, while they were trying to drink off a hangover is still being questioned. Roran resurfaced, spluttering and gasping like a girl who's been dumped over e-mail, (Ooooo..burn).
He shouted, "Hey Eragon, I think I've found a plug! Who knew that the Burning Plains came with a drainage system, eh?" He was flourishing a discus sized piece of metal. "Let's see, it says: TO USE DURING AN EXTREME FLOOD OR WILD BOUT OF TEARS, TURN TO THE RIGHT AND PRESS DOWN WHILE TURNING. WARNING: LIMITED WARRANTY, IF DOES NOT WORK, THEN THAT JUST SUCKS FOR YOU."
Roran frowned, pondering over the ridiculously unnecessary label, and said, "If there's a warranty, then how—'
"It means, dear, that the owner's of the product are punking you and probably spending your crowns laughing about it over a tankard of mead," remarked Angela mildly, who was drifting by with a sleeping Elva in tow.
Roran wrinkled his brow and asked, "What does 'punked' mean?"
Orik heaved himself onto a cow floating by, (which shouldn't be there because without milk, cows are pretty useless, except for steak, smack lips), and yelled, "WELL THEN DON'T JUST STAND THERE LIKE AN IDIOT, PULL IT!—AND ANGELA--"
Angela turned around, "You rang?"
"—THE OWNERS WOULDN'T BE SITTING OVER A TANKARD OF MEAD, BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE ERAGON DILUTED IT ALL!" Orik said, finishing his last sentence with a bawl.
"You really shouldn't shout so much, dear, it's bad for your health," Angela observed drily.
Orik repositioned his grip on the floating cow and said gruffly, "I can't help it, what if Eragon ruined the last batch of beer?"
"Then buy some more, dummy," Arya muttered under her breath, as if that were the obvious solution, (which it was), before turning back to Eragon with an rather entertained air.
Eragon looked around sheepishly and said, "I..uh..guess I got carried away, huh?"
(MASSIVE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR)
Arya didn't say anything, just arched an eyebrow and smiled.
(A/N): Allright...you know the drill, be nice and click the "Go" button, if you don't, muahaha, I'll make sure the cows run out of milk!