Authors Note:

Hey everyone, here is another weekend update! I just wanted to say thank you for the reviews, and since there are a few questions, I might as well answer them now…

Restrained. Freedom: The Mesa is not actually located in Alagaësia, but just outside the borders of it (I won't say were exactly, because I don't want to give too much away) Also, the events take place from the ending of Eldest - at the beginning of the fanfic - and runs through the ending of Brisingr.

bubletea4me: The modernized language is not deliberate, but since the characters have grown up in a different culture than the characters in Alagaësia, I kind of have an excuse to infuse the story with a hybrid of modern and historical slang.

All will be answered later on in the story!

Okay, enough of my ramblings, here is the next chapter!

Chapter 3-Nightmares, Pancakes and Rain Don't Mix

It had taken a few hours to get to sleep, and even then I didn't get any rest. My evening was filled with nightmares of evil kings that laughed manically while they whipped their citizens and then pushed them into the mud. The dreams shifted and thrashed around in my mind, like a caged, rabid animal. While most made no sense at all and didn't even register, there was one series of dreams that stuck out from the others in both its vividness and its significance:

Two men faced each other on a battlefield. They weren't small enough to be called boys, although they still looked too young to wield the weapons that they did. A look of pure hatred for one another seemed enough to shake my mental self from the onslaught of endless dreams and pay close attention. A part of my brain told me that there was something extremely important about them. Swords drawn, they waited in anticipation for the first strike. The youngest one, who only looked to be around 17, seemed almost guilty, as if regretting the hate they were obviously displaying. The older one, even my sleeping self could tell that he was handsome, regarded the other with open hostility.

"You can't help me," hissed he. "Nobody can, so stop trying. You know as well as I that we were destined to be enemies. Our fathers before us were enemies. And now, one of us will die."

"No," came the fierce reply. The younger one, as I noted, was much more likable. Less bitter, but just as good looking. His face was almost catlike in appearance. "It is not my fault that you are like this, and it's not the people that are your enemy either. I think you know who is really responsible for all your suffering, but I can't fathom why you can bring yourself to kill me, and those who are innocent, but not kill him."

"Don't try me, brother! It is not my intentions that you should be focused on, but the fact that you and I are here, and that I have the ability to win."

"So it comes down to skill. Is this it then? Will you kill me just because you have the ability to? Because you were ordered to? And what, pre tell, do you think will happen if you succeed? Do you think that it will get better for you? That the blood that you have spilt will disappear from your hands? That he will give you you're freedom?" The younger boy had shifted his weight in anticipation. He may have been somewhat reluctant, but his expression told me that he would kill his opponent if that were what it came down to.

"You have no idea what I have been punished with because of my fleeting sympathy toward you," he growled. "You would be wise to understand that my compassion has abandoned me, just like you did. You will not walk away from this fight." The man laughed. "He has ordered that I bring you to him alive, but, he has no other concerns as to how many limbs you posses when we get there."

"It doesn't have to be like this," the younger boy pleaded. "I gave you hope."

"You gave me a false one," he spat. "It didn't work." The other boy looked like he was about to object, but he was cut off. "No! Enough of this! I grow restless of talking. I never got a choice, so now I won't let you have one either! Let's see some blood!"

"Don't be so eager for blood. It may end up being yours."

Then they charged at each other with a flurry of sparks as their blades met.

My unconscious self wasn't even given enough time to react before I was thrust into another dream:

It was of me this time. I was lying in the grass and watching a cloudy sky. Two birds flew in the space above me. One was a red cardinal, the other, a bluebird. They squawked at each other viscously, all the while twirling in a deadly dance of aerial combat. A night dark raven cheered them on from a nearby tree.

Suddenly, the dream shifted again, to an image of the Hope.

It was dark grey in the moonlight, but seemed to manage to shine even in the dark of the night. It grew and shrank in a steady rhythm, as if it were breathing. The sound coming from it increased from a low electric hum to the roaring sound of thunder. The surroundings turned darker until it was in complete darkness, only a small slice of the surface was illuminated. A rasping sound came in time with the breathing, as if the ore itself were suffocating.

"It doesn't have to be like this! There should always be a choice," a booming voice commanded. It was masculine, it was scary, and it echoed around in my head for an immeasurable period of time.

I bolted upright in my bed; a cold sweat clung to my skin, and dampened my hair. The ghost of the voice was still fresh in my mind, as was the horrible dream. I was sure that there was some sort of metaphorical significance to it, but I was too wound up to sort it out. My rapid heartbeat pounded against my ribs and my lungs felt like the frigid air was stabbing them repeatedly. I took deep, even breaths and focused only on slowing my racing heart. When I was satisfied with it's pace, I laid back down and stared into the dark void were the ceiling should have been.

Save… my… sons…

The whispered thought wafted through my consciousness with a lazy, but somehow intense and desperate resonance. A chill zapped down my spine as the presence on my mind lingered. I assured myself that it as nothing more than a delayed conclusion to the dream, mostly on the count that if I thought it otherwise, I would have probably had a meltdown.

Instead, I passed out.

A dim, hazy light existed in the room when I woke up. It was coming from the crack under the door.

Well, I got some rest after all, I thought dryly. I noticed that the air was moist, and wondered idly if there was any mould down here. Since all of the other cots were empty, I decided that I had probably been sleeping for a while and that it was time to get up.

Everyone was busy in the kitchen. I had walked out of the basement and right into a frenzied race for breakfast. Selena was handing out pancakes like her life depended on it and Dune and Ailith were consuming them just as fast. They practically inhaled a plateful in the time it had taken me to cross the living room, glance at the rain-drenched window and walk into the kitchen. Then they were back in line for some more. Just watching the batter sizzle in the pan made my stomach growl in longing.

The smell was even worse. It paraded through the house with a swagger that shouldn't have been legal. It flaunted its amazing aroma around my nostrils. I inhaled deeply, making my stomach point out its state of neglect with more force than before. So I grabbed a plate and embraced the wonder of all that was "pancake."

"Jezz, you kids can eat," exclaimed an exasperated Selena. She wiped her brow dramatically.

"We need to fatten up for winter," joked Ailith, stuffing another forkful of pancake in her mouth.

Selena eyed us up and down. "Well, you three have a long way to go! I better make some more pancakes."

"Ugh, no more for me, please," Dune groaned and clutched his expanded stomach.

"I'll have more, if that's ok?" The others had a head start on me, and I had run out of pancakes before I had gotten my fill.

So that was how our day passed. We ate, we talked, we shared jokes, and eventually got bored of the once -amazing -now -unbearable -indoors. There were little places to walk, unless I paced to and fro or ran up and down steps, which I also grew bored of. There weren't anything in terms of games, except for the "window raindrop race" that Dune wanted to play; even that couldn't hold it's charm for an hour. The only thing that seemed to relieve the lethargy was the amount of reading material that Selena kept. Some looked relatively new, such as a book entitled "A Guide to Building Houses", while others were nothing more then dusk covered scrolls, the likes of which I decided were probably extremely old.

I couldn't read the scrolls - they were in some kind of foreign language. Instead of the letters that I understood, it was written in odd runes that decorated the parchment. I asked Selena about them and she answered in a wistful tone.

"This is written in the Ancient Language," she told me with a fond smile. She tried to get me to repeat some of the sounds that each letter made, but to no prevail. There were so many hard sounds and not enough softer ones in the pronunciation. To me it felt like I was attempting to form words from only consonants. So many "T"s and "N"s, "K"s and "R"s! My tongue couldn't move around them all!

The language was beautiful though, without a doubt. It made my skin tingle at the strong, compelling sound of it. I wanted to learn more, but Selena was having some kind of reverie that I was either too scared or too polite to pull her out of. She was chanting sentences under her breath, focusing her eyes on something far away. She paced around the room, her voice rising with every lap.

She looked quite disturbed.

Finally my concern won out over my manners. I reached my hand out to touch her shoulder. At the contact, she gasped and her body sagged. I tried to catch her, but I was pulled down too. We both would have collapsed onto the floor, if Ailith hadn't have noticed at the last second. That girl had wicked fast reflexes. She jumped from her chair and helped me support Selena's now limp body. We shuffled over to the carpet and, as softly as we could, laid her out on it.

The rain clouds eventually retreated and gave way to a purple twilight sky. Even the moon and stars came out of hiding and contributed to the beautiful evening. From the window, I watched white tendrils of fog snake their way around the pine trees and hover above the lake.

Of course, the evening would have been more enjoyable if our host were conscious.

Dune showed the most worry, so Ailith and I were hell-bent on keeping it together for him. We tried not to show our panic, since that would just scare him more. But I was nervous though. She had been out for almost five hours now, and hadn't even stirred once. Ailith suggested multiple times during the day that we should check her pulse; I didn't understand how that could help. Selena was fine, well, at least on the outside. It was warm in the house, it was dry, she was breathing, she didn't have a fever and she had a soft rug to lie on. Why isn't she getting up?

So we waited.

The sky turned from purple to navy blue. I proposed that Ailith and I take night shifts so we could watch Selena.

"Fine," she agreed, "but you're going first." I just nodded, still a bit distracted by my thoughts. Ailith lit some candles in the living room for us.

Dune wasn't able to fall asleep, and I couldn't say that I blamed him. The last few days have been considerably weird for a few Lowers that live in Sinkhole.

My sluggish thoughts returned to the books on the self. There were so many that I only had time to look at half of them before. So I dragged myself over to the bookshelf - which was mounted on the right side of the living room, opposite of the entrance to the kitchen- and started scrolling through them. One book caught my eye. It was almost grey on the self, but as soon as I picked it up I realised it had a thick blanket of dust covering it. Ignoring my initial instinct to wipe my filthy hand on my dress, I continued to wipe the dust off, slowly revealing a royal blue binding and golden title. It read "The History of -". The last word was covered by a glob of black ink.

Well, I'll never know what the title is unless I read it.

I opened to the first chapter, hoping that it could provide some good reading. It was difficult to keep my eyes open, but my heavy lids eventually obeyed me as I got further into the introduction.

Alagaësia is considered to be the most mysterious country to date. A large continent with variegated climate and terrain, home to a wide number of creatures: some known, some unknown. It is interesting to note that many of the races currently inhabiting Alagaësia today have migrated from overseas. As stated above, Alagaësia's secrets are never-ending and few know much about it. However, it is safe to say that there are three primary races that have been residing in Alegaësia for as long as anyone can remember. These races are Dwarves, Elves and Dragons.

The other races, such as Humans, are recent additions to Alegaësia, considering how long that this land has existed for. They are a young race, and in their newness to Alagaësia comes discovery and understanding, something that I hope you will glean by reading on.

This book is designed to educate those who are still strangers to this land, whether you are from the north, south, east or west. Happy reading!

I marked the page by folding over its corner, and then closed the book with a sigh. The person who wrote it was imaginative, that's for sure, but by the time I had finished reading the chapter, it felt like my head would explode. I slumped in my chair and stared dejectedly out the big window, taking in the differences between the "day" forest and the "night" forest.

Why does everything seem so sinister at night? Even the moon has a sort of chilling beauty.

I sat like that for a while, my thoughts moving around my head like sleepy bees. I glanced at Selena, and wasn't surprised that she hadn't moved an inch.

"Right where I left you," I quipped in endearment. It was very late, I was tired, but apparently my sense of humour was still intact, if not a bit hysterical. I sighed and walked over to the candles that Ailith had lit, then blow them out. Of course then I had trouble finding my chair again, but after flailing around in the dark for a while I somehow managed to seat myself. I surrendered to my persistent eyelids and drifted into the darkness.

A.N: I apologize for the length of the chapters so far, but I promise more plot next update!

"Begining a book is like building a house. Before building up the plot, we must first lay a strong foundation." - my English teacher :P