I Who Should Not Be
Chapter 19
Onika kept her eyes open as she fell. The wind shrieked in her ears and pulled at her clothes. She watched Mishee get smaller in the sky until she was reduced to a gleaming shape the size of a dog. Thorn was the size of a monstrous red lion, and Saphira seemed to be about the same size.
Twisting, she turned herself until her head was pointing toward the earth, a faint smile on her lips. The ground, so featureless from such a high vantage point, came into focus as she fell. Faster, faster, faster. She could barely keep her eyes open now.
She wondered how long she would be able to fall before the other Riders or her dragon would force her out of her freefall. She liked this feeling… She wanted to just fall forever, but the others still needed her. With a smile, she sent out a mental summons.
Mishee.
She tipped herself slightly until she could see her dragon and held her arms out to her, as if offering an embrace. She watched as the dragon shot toward her like a bullet, leaving the other two diving dragons behind. Mishee, once she had fallen farther than her Rider, turned until her underbelly was below Onika and opened her wings. Onika landed on the scaled belly and jumped as the dragon righted itself until she landed in a crouched position in her dragon's saddle.
The gold dragon shot up into the air, giving a happy roar at a job well done.
The others, however were not so pleased.
When Eragon and Murtagh landed, Arya slid out of the blue dragon's saddle before the two Riders could get off their own mounts and waited for Onika to land near them. When she did, she was smiling smugly. When her feet were on the ground, Arya was the first to get to her.
SMACK!
Onika reeled back, her hand going to her red and stinging cheek. The elf was red with anger, tears standing out in her eyes.
"Don't you ever do that again."
Onika blinked in surprise, and then looked down at her feet. She had gotten carried away with the game that she and Murtagh had been playing, and had been trying to one-up the dark haired Rider. Arya's anger had successfully diffused her feeling of smug pleasure at beating somebody at a game they had created. She had always been competitive, and she knew better than to do something like that… Winning was such a transient happiness. There and gone in the space of a breath…
But the danger. The thrill of the fall… the imminent threat on her very life… That had been so heady. So real. Her nerves still crackled with excited energy.
She wanted to fall again.
Murtagh was too shaken to yell at Onika. Instead, he grabbed her and held her tightly to him, his nose buried in her hair. She had been so close, so close. He had tried to catch up to her, but Thorn wasn't fast enough, and even Saphira had no hope of catching her. Neither Riders nor the elf had thought of magic. His voice stuck in his throat and he found he couldn't even get something out in her barking language. So he simply stood like that for a moment and hoped that she got the idea that she had scared him senseless.
Eragon put a hand over his heart and took a few deep breaths before smiling. Really, as long as she was alright, all was fine. They were all still together, and Arya's slap seemed to have a great deal of effect on the Wolfborn. He drew some of their provisions from a satchel and held them out.
"After that scare, I think that we all need a rest. Let's just… relax for a few minutes."
When Onika sat, Murtagh sat tight to her side as if he feared that she would take off and jump again. Arya refused to talk to the apologetic Wolfborn until the pitiful whines and moans got to be too much. The elf's stony face softened and finally relaxed into a less severe frown.
"You scared us. You scared me. Don't do it again, alright?"
Onika nodded and rested her head on Murtagh's shoulder and listened to both his breathing and his brother as he informed them on how close they were to Farthen Dur.
When they were in the air again, Onika could not shake off the feeling that when they got to Farthen Dur, something bad was going to happen, and there was no way they could stop it.