Chapter 4 (Rewritten)

The next morning, Brom was able to go back on Snowfire's back and the three companions left their temporary place. Fortunately, and just like Alex said, the pain in the elder's arm wasn't as uncomfortable as the night before. But he wasn't ready to fight again. The storyteller was a little too weak for that kind of things yet, so it was decided the swordsman would be training Eragon for the next few days. And speaking of him, he was currently keeping a part of his promise by sharing all the food he had so they wouldn't be short on supplies.

However, they still had to stop at Daret to fill their bags. It wasn't an option. During the time they had before arriving at the next town, Brom decided to educate the farmer about magic. When the young adult watched the brown-haired adolescent hovering a pebble above his hand, he raised an eyebrow as if to say 'seriously?' and shrugged. The more he was staying in this world, the less he was impressed by inexplicable things that could defy logic and every law of science or physics.

During the following days, a schedule was established to supervise Eragon's teaching. For most of the day, he learned new words in Ancient Language and continued to train with his pebble. And when the sun left, it was Alex's turn to share his knowledge by fighting with him. The swordsman was even less gentle than the old man. He wanted Eragon to give everything he had in each of their sessions. Even the ex-farmer admitted he had made some progress since the first night Brom forced him to fight with a simple stick and receiving lessons from Alex was a nice change of pace thanks to his fighting style far different from the storyteller.

Finally, they reached Daret. The village was small and looked like it was abandoned. The trio walked into town, their senses on the edge. Before they could make another step, two wagons rolled into the street, blocking their path, and found themselves ambushed by no less than sixty archers with bows drawn tight.

"Shit!" cursed Alex who took his M4A1 in his hands and pointed it in front of him, aiming quickly at different persons to find a weakness in their defenses. He only needed to find a small group of two or a little more and he could create a way out of here by shooting them. Unfortunately for him, they were extremely well organized and couldn't create a path to escape.

"Brom…as much as I hate to admit it, there's too many of them. I think the only solution we have is the pacific one."

"I thought so too."

The leader of the pack stepped out in front of them, keeping his own bow steady at the three travelers. "Why are you here?"

"We only want to purchase supplies, nothing more."

"You are armed pretty heavily."

"True. These are dangerous times."

"Indeed, they are."

A long and tense silence followed before the man spoke again. "Would you agree to stay put while one of my men brings you what you need, you pay then leave right afterwards?"

"Yes."

After putting the supplies in their bags, the wagons were moved and the three of them were allowed to leave Daret. They decided to meet Saphira somewhere away from the village and set up camp there. Eragon just had the time to dismount his horse that the dragoness swept his legs out from under him with her tail and pinned him to the ground.

"Saphira! What is your problem?"

Alex managed to calm down Cadoc and was about to jump down from the saddle when Brom put his hand on his chest and shook his head.

"It's between the two of them, let them settle their problem."

The swordsman growled. "What the hell is wrong with her?"

«This hatchling put his nose everywhere. Every time he's not with me, he gets into trouble. »

Sighing, Alex pushed back the old man's hand, nodding to him before stepping down from the horse and approaching slowly.

"Your concern for his safety is perfectly understandable but do you really think I was going to let them injure him or Brom? You don't trust me, and this is something I understand completely but I'm not a selfish man who only think of his own ass. If I have the possibility to protect someone and not put them in danger in a situation like the one we just had, I'd do it without a second thought. I am not your friend and you're not mine but I'll watch your back all the time until we kill the Ra'zac, that's a promise."

«Maybe but still, tomorrow, he's going to ride me and not that deer-animal you call a horse. He's a rider and should begin to start act like one!»

"Fine for me."

Alex smiled inwardly, this was the perfect occasion to talk in private with Brom. He had some questions to ask to him and he was sure the elder had a few for him too.

For the first time that night, Eragon had to spar with Zar'roc. The storyteller had recovered enough to be his opponent again. The young man wasn't accustomed his sword's weight and wasn't as effective in comparison to his other lessons. They dueled for a while before retreating to their bedrolls, next to Saphira.

The sun was only up for one hour when Brom and Alex helped the Rider to saddle the blue lizard. The moment after, she took off and flew away in no particular direction with Eragon on her back. Brom and the other man packed their things on the horses but before climbing on their saddles, the two of them instantly drew out their swords and put it against each other's neck.

Alex laughed with a sincere smile on his lips. The bald man couldn't help but smile too.

"I was expecting this kind of situation. I'm certain you want to know some things about me, am I right?"

"Indeed, there's some strange and illogical things about you, I have to know if you can deserve my trust. And if I'm satisfied, we can continue to travel together."

The swordsman knew exactly what he implied by finishing his sentence that way.

"… Fine, I'll try my best to give as much details as possible but I can't tell everything I know, I have promises to keep. What would you like to know?"

Brom lowered his blade and sheathed it.

"Who are you? I've never seen anywhere the clothes and weapons you're carrying on you."

"Alexander Ethan Gray, twenty-five years old and you're right. Nobody except you, Eragon and Saphira have seen my armament because they're not from here. I'm coming from another planet called Earth, a modern world, very different from this one."

If the storyteller was surprised by the information, he didn't show it.

"What do you mean by 'modern'? How did you end up in Alagaësia?"

"We don't use horses anymore to travel from one place to another, we have birds made of steel that fly in the sky for that. Some of our weapons are so powerful that they could destroy half the planet. There's no magic on Earth, we only use science. And for the second question… I recently received a message from a friend who was working for the local authorities and told me they had found two people in strange clothes who had assaulted a young mother and her offspring. They did this in a clearing, in front of at least thirty persons. The description from the witnesses was a perfect copy of what I remembered of the Ra'zac."

"When my friend said this, I rushed to their position and fortunately, they were still there. However, the mother and her children were already dead. I fought the Ra'zac and I can tell you, they're very strong. Those two gave me one hell of a beating. I made the mistake to underestimate their strength, thinking I could take them on with all the training I had. Anyway, in the fight, I've cut one of the two necklace they were wearing, with a strange and glowing gem on it. I saw with my own eyes it could create a portal to your world when they fled the place by using the other. A few days later and after some preparations, I opened one by thinking about those two and my desire for vengeance before walking through it. Next thing I knew, I was two or three miles away from Carvahall and you know as me what happened after. Unfortunately, it seems they attacked Eragon's farm during my recovery. If I had the possibility to follow them sooner, maybe his uncle would be still alive."

Brom slightly frowned.

"Could you show me that pendant?"

"Sure." replied Alex, taking the crystal from around his neck. "If you can discover who made it, it would clear up a mystery."

The old man inspected every detail of the jewel, whispering words from the Ancient Language but in the end, there was a disappointed look on his face.

"The only thing I'm sure of, is it's filled with Alagaësian magic. The spell applied on it is extremely powerful, Galbatorix is the only one who could have made this but I'm not even sure if it's in his abilities and I can't even quantify the energy stored in this crystal. In a way, it's perfectly understandable because opening a gate between two worlds would cost unimaginable quantities of energy. More than everyone could dream of… keep this preciously with you."

"You trust me now?"

"With this as a proof, I know you're telling the entire truth. I just hope for you you'll be able to use this again to go back on your world when all of this will be over."

"I hope too… Okay, first question: what is the relation between you and Eragon?"

"I'm one of his few frie-" began the storyteller before being interrupted.

"Liar."

Alex crossed his arms and looked at him sourly.

"There's more than that. Strangely, you share some of his facial features or I should say it's the contrary. Genes are transmitted from the father to the son if I remember my lessons from biology correctly."

"Pray tell, what make you think I'm related in some way to him."

"The hurt in your eyes the night we began our journey, when Eragon wasn't satisfied with your answers to his questions. A friend to his family wouldn't react that way, a guardian probably but a parent, for sure. Physical resemblance too. At home, some people tend to say I'm a perfect copy of my father… but twenty-six years younger, of course."

"Ah, I see. I learned to not show my emotions too much but it seems it's not perfect. I must ask you to keep this a secret. His mind wouldn't be completely dedicated in his learning to be a Rider if he knew his teacher was also his father."

"I promise, your secret is safe with me. Next one: You have too much knowledge to be a simple storyteller, you said it yourself. So, in that case, what are you? A magician?"

The bald man smiled and shook his head. Then, he climbed on Snowfire, soon followed by the young adult who installed himself comfortably on Cadoc.

"You're not far from the reality but now it's my turn to ask: what are doing here? Other that tracking the Ra'zac. I'll answer you after you explained your presence with us."

"Objective one: my superiors ordered me to establish a friendly contact with the local authorities or directly the government of the kingdom. If they're not friendly, act pacifically and try to find a solution. Objective two: seek and destroy the Ra'zac, every method to find and kill them is authorized, except betraying potentials allies, of course."

"And what happen in the case the Ra'zac are working for the king? Or if you are captured?"

"Kill them, leave this world as soon as possible and destroy the portal. If they capture me, I can try to escape or if it come to the worst, I kill myself. The secrets of my world are too precious to be in the wrong hands."

"I understand."

The duo continued to travel in silence for the next few minutes before Brom broke it.

"I'm a Rider… well, I was one long ago. My dragon is not with us anymore, she was killed during the Fall of the Dragon Riders at Vroengard."

He had a pained look on his face. Seeing this, Alex's eyes darkened with sadness.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Don't be but thank you for your compassion. Come on, we still have a long way to go."

They had been following the trail left behind the Ra'zac, but it ended in a jumble of larger tracks and other markings in a clearing.

"This could mean a serious problem for us, we have no hint to follow anymore."

"Dammit!" cursed Alex, exhaling loudly.

"I'm sure they have left something behind in their hurry. We need to search in the area, that's all."

And searching they did. While contacting Eragon to fill him on the findings, they found a flask belonging to the monsters. The strange liquid inside it was known as Seithr oil. This version of the oil was extremely rare because of it was a favorite for torture sessions and extracting information but the non-lethal one was used by merchants and jewelers.

After talking, tossing back and forth ideas, they concluded to go to Teirm, a city along the coast where a friend of Brom was supposed to live.

"Well, Teirm it is then. We should be there in a week."

Eragon and Saphira spent the rest of the day flying before settling at camp for the night. As usually, the farmer had his nightly fight with Brom and was still improving. The old man and the boy lay down on either side of the dragoness, and quickly fell asleep to prepare for the next day's journey.

Alex looked at them from his place and smiled. His emotion began to rebel with his convictions and the mindset he needed to accomplish this mission. He wasn't their friend but strangely, his instinct told him he could lower his guard in their presence and trust them with his life. Especially after his little talk with the old rider. It was on those thoughts he closed his eyes and joined dreamland.