Disclaimer: See the first chapter

Chapter 3

Eve sat on the river bank, pouting. She'd made it to the river mouth where it poured into Lake Eldor after three weeks travel. Of course, she'd been on foot due to the fact that the nomadic tribes hadn't had any horses to spare. Instead she bought a bow and some arrows. She knew how to use an arrow; when the group didn't want to go into town to lift food, they would hunt rabbits using slings and bows. She also knew how to make rudimentary arrows, which she'd made very few of.

Looking out over the river, she sighed. She'd seen a small village a ways back down the river and had run into a sheep herder who told her that the village was called Ceris. She was wary of going into the town, though. She'd bought supplies to last her a few months from the nomads so she wouldn't need to go there for a while if she didn't want to. Truth was, she liked wandering. She liked seeing all sorts of new things and visiting all sorts of new places. She remembered all the maps she'd ever seen of Alagaesia and knew she was right on the very edge of unexplored country. She had the urge to run out to the East just see what there was to see; so far she'd looked only longingly at it. Today she had to make the decision. Sighing, she rolled her eyes. If she really wanted to explore she needed a horse first. Ceris would have some, and she could probably work to own one.

Her decision made, she got up and started the two day trek back to Ceris. Eve made it back to Ceris faster then when she had left it. She felt a sense of accomplishment with having made it back in a day and half.

When Eve came into sight of the town she gaped in horror at what was left of Ceris. In the six days since she'd seen it, it had been burnt almost literally to the ground. Watching suspiciously from a the ridge on the East side of the Edda River, she saw a few people picking through the ruins. Even from where she hid, she could hear the mourning cries of a woman. Shaking in fright, Eve nodded, it seemed she would be going to the East without a horse after all. She might want to help these people, but the only thing they'd do to a stranger would be to react in fear and hostility.

Eve was walking for a while when she came upon the horse. It was a large, good looking sorrel. It looked up at her from where it was munching grass, and she saw it was wearing a rope halter with a lead dragging behind it in the grass. Eve grinned and tired to approach the horse. As soon as it saw that she was after it, the horse danced out of reach rope trailing along. Eve waited for it to put its head down again before trying again. Again the horse shied out of reach.

Three hours later Eve still hadn't caught the horse and they'd only progressed from the field to another field. Frustrated and tired Eve plopped down on the ground and glared at the horse thinking enviously of Fox's ability to get animal to trust her. Frowning Eve took out an apple and bit into it. She was well into a nice brood when someone from behind pushed her knocked her over.

Eve whipped out a dagger and turned to face her opponent to only find the horse looking at her with big brown eyes. As soon as it saw she had dropped the apple on the ground in her haste to defend herself it forgot her and lipped it up. Not one to let good fortune go, she seized the rope and stood triumphantly.

The next hurtle was getting on the horse which without a saddle was a bit hard to do. She was lucky that the horse stood calmly for her while even did this. So when thirteen minutes later she was actually astride the horse she was worn out. She suddenly groaned. She'd never been on a horse before so she had no clue how to get it to do anything. Grumbling she shook the reigns hopefully: nothing.

"Um... Go?" she commanded but the horse remained where he was.

Frustrated, she rocked forward. The horse took a few steps forward but stopped, clearly not sure what she wanted. Again she rocked forward and the horse took a few more steps. They did this for a while before Eve decided a new way had to be tried. She clucked at the horse hopefully and amazingly the horse sprang forward into a lively trot. Eve was so startled she nearly slid off, only keeping on the horse because she grabbed the mane and held on tight.

The horse slowed obviously confused with his rider again, and stomped its hoof in annoyance. Eve righted herself and held on to the mane before making the clucking noise again. The horse sprang into a quick trot at once making Eve tighten her legs around the beast and hold tightly to its mane. The horse trotted in a straight line through the grass fields that seemed to make up the region. Eve relaxed after a while, but held tightly with her legs. After a while she was relaxed enough to wonder how she was supposed to direct the animal. Eve groaned at this new and just as annoying hurtle.

She thought it over and tried leaning to the right. The horse obedient veered in that direction, but didn't turn.

Feeling she'd at least accomplished this much, she relaxed back over the horse's withers and it resumed going off in a straight line. She'd been astride the animal for what felt like forever and her legs were sore from having to grip the horse. Eve decided that until she got used to riding she would take it easy, especially till she figured out how the whole horseback riding thing worked. Looking out around at the ocean of field around her she looked for anything that might be a nice place to stay for the night.

Two hours later Eve was sure she'd never be able to walk properly again, and they had yet to find anything that looked inviting. So when they came upon a small watering hole shaded by three or four trees she was very relieved. The horse walked right up to the water and dropped his head to drink. Eve just slid off it bonelessly. Her legs hit the ground and crumpled under her and she landed in her back side looking up at the evening sky. Her pack digging uncomfortably into her back was the only thing keeping her awake, or she might have just fallen asleep there.

Grumbling tiredly, she stood up and dumped her pack against the nearest tree. Limping was awkward when both legs were sore, so she was glad there was no one around to see her. Eve gathered a number of small sticks and wood. Once she had it piled in a nice spot clear of grass, she took out her fire lighting kit and got to work. Two minutes later a small fire crackled merrily. Eve decided she was too tired to go hunting and ate some dried jerky and a hard cracker that was pretty tasteless but lasted long when she was traveling. After filling her canteen and making sure the horse was still near by, she collapsed by the fire and let her self fall into the oblivion of sleep.

She was awakened the next morning by the sun and chirping birds. She shot the birds a weak glare and tried to stand, 'tried' being the key word. Eve slumped back to the ground onto her thighs in absolute agony. Gritting her teeth agianst the pain, she sat and stood all in (in all) one swift motion. Once she was standing the pain eased off, but as soon as she tried to walk it brought tears to her eyes. She remembered Felix saying something about stretching sore muscles helping. Deciding to give it a shot, Eve went through a series of informal stretches. After a half hour of stretching she gave up. It helped a little, or maybe she was just used to the pain. Whatever it was, it helped. She limped over to the horse, who didn't even bother running, and stood calmly while she looked skeptically at its back.

"That's a bit high for me to jump, especially since I hurt so bad from yesterday," she sighed, "I think I need to name you."

Looking at the horse, she bent over and peered under. Yep a girl, they called that a mare, right?

Sighing she looked at the horse, "Well, I think I'll call you Flame, just for the sake of not yelling 'Hey you come here.'"

Deciding that today, instead of just hanging the lead rope over the horses neck, she should try to imitate the reigns she'd seen on other horses. Eve took the end of the rope, tossed it over the horses neck, and tied it to the halter next to where it started. Sighing, she turned to the real challenge.

After many false starts and lots of pain, she managed to get on Flame. She patted the horses neck grateful that the horse had stood there through all her attempts to mount.

Already exhausted, Eve wove her fingers into Flame's mane and clucked. Flame bounced right into the trot, and they were off for the day. Through out the day Eve finally figured out how to steer. With the new 'reigns,' she could steer merely by gently laying the left reign against Flame's neck to get her to go to the right, and the opposite to get her to go to the left. Also, if she pulled back on the reigns she found she get Flame to not only to stop, but back up. A feeling of control returned to Eve which she hadn't felt since riding the horse.

The scenery didn't change much, but Eve could see mountains in the distance. They were capped white and she didn't fancy crossing them. Instead, she planned on getting to them, then following them south to the Beor Mountains.

It took two days before they got to the foot hills to the mountains, and by then Eve was getting used to riding. One might even say she would be a good horse back rider with time. Flame, for her part, just trotted along and was extremely patient with her unsteady rider.

They had stopped to camp for the night alongside a rather large lake not a mile from the foot hills, which weren't so much hills as high cliff faces dropping down from the mountains. Flame had taken to standing next to the fire with her head facing out into the night as if she were guarding Eve. At least Eve liked to think of it that way. Eve was dozing lightly, full of roasted apple and grouse. She'd found the birds reminded her vaguely of the turkeys that roamed over the plains in rather large groups were quiet tasty.

Suddenly, Flame pricked her ears in the direction of the lake and snorted in alarm. A great splash sounded from the water, and Flame reared before bolting wildly into the night. Eve leapt to her feet at stared at the lake in alarm. She couldn't see anything in the light of the half moon except ripples on the lake surface telling her something had dived into it. A softened swosh sound came from out of the water, then a gentle splashing, much like a fish would make. Coming around the fire, she squinted out over the lake, hoping to better see what was in it.

After her eyes adjusted, she could make out a small island in the lake, or it would have been if it weren't moving. Carefully she approached the water's edge, putting up her mind barriers just encase it was dangerous. It continued to ignore her, barely moving out there for a long while. Then, all of the sudden, it dipped below the surface. Nervous, Eve backed away from the water's edge and waited for something to happen.

Then, with an almighty wosh, whatever it was sprang from the water up into the air. Filmy wings snapped open, catching and holding air. (,and) Then with a down ward sweep that reverberated through the air, it was off higher into the sky. Eve gasped and realized what she had been watching. A dragon circled over head before heading off towards the cliffs, without doing anything else. Eve plopped down on the bank in shock. She knew that all dragons but the King's and the three eggs he had were the last. But out here in the middle of nowhere she had seen a dragon, and a very big one at that.

Eve jumped up and scrambled back to her camp. Flame wasn't back, but at the moment she didn't care. All she cared about was she'd found a dragon. Opening her pack she reached down into it till she'd found the three books she'd brought with her from Hedarth. Setting Vern's Ancient words book aside, she held the other two. One had a faded but still brilliant red leather cover with a golden dragon embossed on it, and the other was a plain leather bound journal. Setting the journal aside Eve opened the dragon book.

She figured it might be one of the only dragon books to survive Galbatorix's reign and had held on to it all her life after she'd taken it from her parent's library. She'd also taken the journal, figuring it might hold information incriminating her parents to the King. She'd tried to read, but it was spelled to make itself unintelligible to all but certain people, and she had never met anyone who could read it.

Opening the red book, she turned the pages with utmost care. Finally she got to the page telling about a Dragon's age and how you could tell by length and/or size. Reading it through, she gasped. This dragon was a sixty to one hundred years old. Cursing, she closed the book and stowed the lot of them back in her pack.

There was no question about it. Tomorrow she was going to go to those cliffs, with or without Flame.

AN: I now have a Beta: Khori. Check out Khori's fic Earned it's a very good book three in the trilogy with a new rider. Also please people review it's the only way we writers know if you the readers like the fics or not. For example you probably haven't even read this authors note. (sighs) woe is an authors lot in life.