The blasted sun awoke me from my sleep. I actually had a fairly well rest but that damned sun was daring this morning or afternoon. But then when I saw Aranel snuggled in my chest keeping me warm for I still was bare chested. I did not want to wake her so I slowly moved out of my place and thought about what happened this morning. No, there was too much to think about, but here let me fill you in. It is not morning. In fact, at this point the sun was nearly to the setting point. Aranel and I decided to get some sleep after her escape took place. It was dawn then and now it is dusk. Now, are we all filled in? Good.

I sat looking at the setting sun and I never saw a sunset this beautiful. The winter sky mixed in with the hot setting sun and together they created something indescribable. Aranel had to see this. After being locked in that awful prison for two months, her eyes needed to consume this scene. I quickly turned to her and stroked her soft face as her brown eyes glanced at mine. She smiled and I realized I was smiling the whole time. Instead of looking like a smiling fool I said,

"I think you will like to see this." I grabbed her hand softly and led her to the edge of the cliff and looked to her face. The sunset reflected off of her face beautifully and a tear twinkled off of her face. This was the first time I saw her crying with a smile on her face. And for that I smiled as well. She hugged my torso making me warm as usual but her tears rubbed off of my face sending chills down my spine. Now was perfect. Not this early morning. This was the perfect moment. I reached to her face and slowly and kissed her passionately. I think she knew what I was planning and she made no effort to stop me. In fact, she led me back to the ground where she wrapped her hands around my frozen, pale back. Just as I was about to slither her shirt off of her shoulders Aranel looked up in a startle.

Great! What's going on now! I turned and saw Gilmore. He was completely out of breath and had a relieved look on is face but I was angry. He always would interrupt Aranel and I! I rolled off of Aranel and sighed,

"What is it Gilmor? No matter where we are you find some way of interrupting Aranel and …" Gilmor got angry with me,

"You shut up!" Well I was not expecting that. He came at me and said,

"Do you know how long I looked for you two! All damn day! I was about to give up since your father cried over and over again 'He's dead! My only son, my only blood has fallen!' But I kept going because I knew you were still alive." I was shocked. Cried? Impossible. My father does not cry. I could not speak I was completely stunned and numb. He grabbed my shoulder and shook me as he said,

"Kobal! You must go back there and tell your father that you are alive! I will find Aranel some shelter, but you must go now!" I was still frozen but my mouth seemed to form the words,

"He cried?" Gilmor sighed and was silent for a moment and then he finally said,

"Yes. I did see a tear fall here and there, but he was mostly screaming in pain. Kobal, you may not know it, but you are his life. You do not know how much you mean to him. You truly do not." Of course I always have to cause a problem. But I did not know I was a big part of his life. I felt like crying. I felt like screaming and tearing out all my hair because I felt so guilty for making him feel this way. But only if I knew how to cry! If I did I probably couldn't stop. Gilmor awoke me from my predicament and said,

"Kobal, you must go, your father was ail when I left him and he probably grew more so." He got me on my feet and pushed me, but I did not go. My Aranel, I cannot just leave her.

"Gilmor, what of Aranel? I must…"

"I have it taken care of. She will reside with an old friend not so far from here. Kobal, GO!" He bared his teeth at me and was about to pounce on me if I did not take speed. I did not want to cause another problem so I lightly kissed Aranel and said,

"I will come back for you." With one last look at her soft brown eyes I ran off as tree branches brushed my arms, guiding my way back to the prison I had finally escaped from.

----------------

I stepped through the exit I had escaped from. It was clear no rocks and stones scrambled on the ground. I looked around and it was vacant. No guards, no soldiers, no father. I walked to the end of the hallway and yet no presence of any being. Where could everyone be? Eragon could not have destroyed them all, he's too pathetic! But I continued to search for my father. I walked all over Gil'ead. I went to Arya's cell where he usually spends all of his time torturing her but strangely it was empty. I growled in anger. Where the hell could he be?

I walked to his headquarters where he plans may things with his soldiers, he was probably there. I was foolish for not looking there in the first place. I stood in front of the big heavy door as if I was under some kind of spell, but I managed to touch the door knob and turn it. I looked in and there was my father at his desk going over something with one of his soldiers. His back was turned to me, but by his posture I could tell he was angry with not hearing a knock at the door. I heard his shrill tone,

"Who dares to enter without knocking?" He turned around and the angry look was clean gone from his face. It was replaced with grief and confusion but I could detect a little bit of hope. He was speechless and so was I. He motioned for his soldier to leave the room. His footsteps echoed throughout the room leaving it awkwardly quiet. Once the door was shut my father said in a trembling voice,

"Kobal?" I nodded and said in a voice that matched his,

"Yes father."

"But you… I saw you fall under the breaking walls! How can you be alive?" I was a little let down.

"So you are sorry that the rocks did not kill me is that what you are saying? Because if you want I can just leave and we can pretend that is what happened." Ouch. Harsh. I probably should have not said that, I already made him feel guilty enough. He raised his voice at me but not like he was mad, like he was about to cry.

"No! Kobal I am not saying that at all! Do you know how heart broken I was to see my own son fall under a collapsing wall? I did not want you dead, Kobal and I will never want you dead. You are my son and I …" Was he going to say the "L" word? Love? My father love me? It is hard for me to believe that for I have never heard him say that to me before, not once. But he did not say the word, instead he came to me and embraced me tightly. I hugged back savoring every minute of it because I knew I will probably never get another hug from him again. As I stood there locked in his arms I said the words he was never man enough to say,

"I love you, father." After that he remained frozen. I felt no grasp of him. Maybe I had said the wrong thing. Maybe a shade should never say that to his father. It was all loud an clear when he stepped away from me and went back to his desk. No "I love you" back to me. Just a cold hard turn of the boot sinking into the solid ground. I must have inherited the heart from my mother because that man has no heart. Just black inside and that is the worst curse of all. His back was to me as he said,

"Send Linuin back in. We must go over these…"

"I will ask you father, how on earth did you get my mother to love you? How on earth were you able to do that, because you have no heart! Your son has just told you that he loves you but you just turn away! Not once have you told me that you loved me! So again I will ask what my mother saw in you!" I was yelling, infuriated by his actions. I expected him to run up to me and smack me several times until I bled. But he stood with a straight posture and said simply,

"Love has done nothing for me but heart ache and sorrow. Your mother is nothing but a painful memory and love is the last thing I need from anybody." O but he was lying. Love is the thing that he is craving for most of all, he is just afraid to feel that feeling again, but I do not know why it frightens him so much.

"Father, you have not answered my question. How did my mother love you and how did you love her. You must have felt love at some point in your life because you made me." He sighed and said,

"Kobal, we will not go over it now I must…"

"The damn plans can wait! Just tell me now, stop running away from it! I should know my mother's story since I have never seen her face!" He was shocked to see me use this tone with him, but he knew that if he charged I will fight back, and he was right. I will fight back like I never had before.

"Kobal, I was helplessly in love with your mother and she felt the same. She was a prisoner and I was her tormentor. She was an elf and I was a shade." What? My ears could not believe this. So far it sounded like a story I was going through right now.

"I could not help but love her. I could not hurt her. Castial was her name and she was beautiful. And we were in love, then we had you. We were happy all of us three, but with her being an elf and I being a shade there were many things we did not agree on. So one morning I awoke and saw a note at the side of my bed. It is self explanatory that she left us." Now I understand why he hates elves, why he hates everything. The poor man was heart broken and by the looks of him he is still heart broken.

"That is why I wanted you to stay away from Aranel. I did not want you to get hurt like I did."

"So you choose me not to feel love at all? Is that what your plan is? I rather to love than not love at all." He shook his head and said,

"You're so young to be saying these things Kobal! And, Kobal, that statement may be true, but you will disagree with it once she stomps all over your heart." I was furious with him to make such predictions,

"Why do you plant this into my head? She is not like that father! She loves me she has told me that every day! And I love her too and you cannot stop it." My father looked down and said,

"Kobal, think about what you are doing! Hasn't my story taught you anything? You are doomed to face the same thing that I have faced. Kobal you are just like me, the only things that you have of you mother are your silly thoughts and thinking all of these amazing things will happen, but it just won't! It will never happen! You are so damn love struck that you cannot see the path you are about to dread! You do not get it and will never get it! Just like your damn mother!" He was yelling and his red eyes glared and ate through me. He was out of breath by the time he gave this speech and I had nothing to say. I was done with him.

"I also inherited a heart, but you…. You are nothing but black inside… It is so nice to know that my father has so no love for me… Goodbye father." He then screamed out,

"That is not true!" I too got mad and we were at each other's throats at this point.

"Then say it! Say you love me if it is not true! Not once have I heard those words come out of your mouth!" It was quiet just us two glaring into each other's eyes. He finally took a deep breath but looked back to his plans as he said,

"Send in Linuin." I could not believe it. Not even when I tried to force it out of him he cannot say three simple words. Never once in my life have I heard him say that and now I probably will never. I backed away and said,

"Goodbye father." I turned harshly on my heel and slammed the door shut behind me. Linuin was down the hall and I muttered,

"He wants you in there." Linuin nodded and said a bit jokingly,

"Well what happened in there?" Now was not the time for jokes. This is when I really erupted and he was the cause to it. I grabbed a handful of his shirt and I slammed him into the wall as I yelled,

"None of you damn business! Now get your ass in there before I tear your throat out!" His eyes were extremely wide and once I released my grip he ran back into the headquarters. Once there was no more of him I ran to my father's room. There were some things I needed to get if I were to never see him again.

Once I entered his room there was no light at all. I chanted Brisingr to a few candles then made his way to his oversized closet. Once I opened the door all I saw was black even with the candles on. No bright colors perhaps a red tunic here and there, but other than that, black. Just like his soul.

I pushed my way through his dark clothes and reached toward the end of the closet where I saw a medium sized trunk. This is where he keeps all of her belongings. Castial's dresses and jewelry and many other belongings she left behind, but father was not man enough to get rid of them for good. Because he still loves her. I opened the trunk and saw the only thing that shed color in that room. Beautiful red, gold, purple, and blue dresses were folded neatly and silver jewelry lolled on top of the clothing, wanting to be seen. I must do this quickly so I closed it shut and grabbed the handles and surprisingly it was not as heavy as I imagined. Then again it must have been several years since I have seen this box. Once I was out of the closet I was about to shut the door, but feeling the cold chill on my torso reminded me I was still bare chested.

Well what would be the difference if I took one of his many black tunics? He will never know it. I ripped one off the hanger and swiftly put it on. Much better. Once my hands found those handles I was off and running out of the room. Still the halls were vacant and for me that was not a bad thing. I ran out of Gil'ead in the cold winter night, running with this stupid chest sewn to my hands, but as I left someone called my name in the distance.

Gilmor? Probably and in just a few seconds he turned up right in front my face. So many questions flew through my head, but one got spoken,

"Where did you take Aranel?" He nodded and said,

"I will take you to her. She is not far from here maybe a few miles, but not too bad…. You need any help with that?" He looked to the chest and I shook my head and said,

"No, it honestly is not that heavy and running only a few miles? No problem." He nodded and in a flash he was already meeting the trees in the dark forest. I followed after him and we ran under the pale full moon which guided us the whole way.

A/N: Now I know it may have been a month since I updated, you can yell at min the review you are about to post and I will say I apologize greatly. But hey! This was pretty long chapter and I also have my next chapter almost done so it should be posted by tomorrow night. I make up well don't I? So please review, I am sorry again!