Chapter Two

Alone in the Dark

Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

When Aragon opened his eyes, he blinked several times.
Then he waved his hand in front of his face.
'Garjzla.' He murmured.
A red werelight kindled into existence beside his head and he breathed a sigh of relief as he realised he hadn't gone blind.
He was just somewhere very, very dark.

Deftly, he reached out with his mind.
Thelduin? Enquired Aragon. Where are we?
To his surprise, he got no answer, and what's more, he couldn't sense another living thing.

Then the werelight vanished.

A cascade of glacial melt-water went down Aragon's spine.
Oh…Shade's blood. He swore mentally to himself.

Suddenly, a dream he'd had a year and a half previously came back to him.
At the time, he'd dismissed it as a consequence of being resurrected from the dead.
Now it came back in horrific detail:


He was in a pitch black cave.
In the distance somewhere, a drop of water fell into a still pool, setting off a quiet echo throughout the black silence.
He felt movement behind him, and lashed out blindly with a back-kick, but it met empty air.
'Who's there? Show yourself!' He called, and his voice echoed back, ghostly and mocking.
He walked around blindly, before his foot struck something, which clattered off the stone, producing yet another echo.
From the sound of it, it was wood of some description.
He quickly took up the wood, and set it alight with a muttered 'Brisingr', setting the shadows dancing.
As he turned back around, he found himself facing a pair of solid red eyes-


Turns out the future isn't set… Who knew? Aragon thought with the thrill that came with realisation.

'Alright, I know you're there, whatever in Angvard's realm you are, and I can tell you now,- Aragon drew his sword, shut his eyes and attempted to discern something from the overwhelming darkness surrounding him.- 'I do not fear you.' So saying, Aragon reversed his grip on his sword's hand-and-a-half hilt, and stabbed it behind him, and much to his surprise, struck something flesh-like and yielding.
A high-pitched, agonised, wraith-like scream rent the air, and a life-sign, that positively radiated energy flared into being right behind Aragon.

With his eyes still shut, Aragon pivoted on his front foot, and brought his sword down on the diagonal, where it once more struck wraith-like flesh, which produced another skull-rending wraith-scream.

'Istalrì.' Stated Aragon flatly, once again in complete disregard to the premonition he'd seen.
'Anyone else like to try and surprise me?' Demanded Aragon, wheeling about once more, sword at the ready.
And there, in the fire-light he beheld a sight that stopped his heart cold, sent his courage fleeing in hysterical terror and froze his blood into jagged shards.

It was roughly humanoid, but aside from a few strands of lank, dead, white hair, a pair of ruby red eyes, pointed ears like an elf, and taloned hands, it appeared to be nothing but a man-shaped void of darkness.

Behind it, Aragon could see a cave wall, but before him, stood a shadow given a terrible approximation of life.
If it had've been a shade, a ra'zac, Galbatorix, a necromancer, or any other like foe, Aragon's immediate reaction would've been to strike first, panic later.
This…

This was different.

It's flat red eyes held him spell-bound.
In them was an all-consuming, ancient and terrible hunger,- a longing that pre-dated men, and elves, and maybe even the very land itself.
'He was fated to slay you.' Said an ethereal voice.

Aragon couldn't tell if it had been the creature before him that had spoken, or a disembodied voice, because the shadow-creature didn't have a mouth.

The only facial features it appeared to have, was a brow, ears and those terrible eyes.
'And yet there you stand, alive, and him dead at your feet…' Continued the voice in what appeared to be a perplexed tone.

'Curious…'
Aragon realised the voice was in the ancient language.
No sooner than he'd realised this, than an unstoppable force of nature, compressed into a mind-probe overwhelmed Aragon's mind, and he blacked out.

Ah, foreshadowing.

Well, this is my first update of 2012!

Happy New Year to all!

Now, onto acknowledgements:

For Story Alerting I'd like to thank: Forsaken By All and Hideout Writer.

For Reviewing: Forsaken By All and Hideout Writer

For Author Alerting: Jay Rock.

I think that's everyone…

If not, please let me know, it's 2.00 AM at the minute, so I might've made a mistake or two…

See you all next time.

No One-liners!