A/N: YAY update. So yea read and review.
Eragon held Leona close to his chest as they both gazed at the beautiful constellation of stars. He realized that her grasp on him was awfully tight. She grabbed a handful of his tunic and her body pressed against him with her head tucked into his warm chest.
"Leona, relax. We are many leagues away from the Varden. It is just us now." He gently placed his hand on her clenched fist that was wrinkling his tunic to take it into his warm big hands. Leona took a deep breath and Eragon felt her stress melt away. Eragon smiled a bit and said,
"Now, would you like to tell me what was that all about?" Leona sighed and said,
"I am just worried, Eragon. We will not stay away from the Varden forever. We will have to go back and face our problems. And our dragons! We are being so irresponsible of just neglecting them. We are hardly riders at all, and I don't even know where…"
"Leona, please calm down. We will be back within two weeks. You have also told me that you left a note for Gelmir, and you also told him to tell Galron of what has happened, yes?" Eragon felt Leona nod in his chest.
"Then please, Leona, let us enjoy the time we have together." He took her hand and kissed it lightly. Leona looked up and smiled as she said,
"You are right. I am thinking to much … I need to do something to keep my mind off of things." Eragon chuckled and got ready for her sweet lips to meet his and said,
"And what's that?" But Eragon was not expecting Leona to jump up off of Eragon and said cheerfully,
"Explore the new environment, of course." Eragon sighed and chuckled as he saw her dance between trees. He rolled his eyes and got up as he muttered under his breath,
"Elf." Leona sang out to Eragon,
"I heard that!" Eragon laughed and made his way to her as he said,
"Well of course you did. Like I said. Elf." Leona giggled and felt Eragon's hand catch hers and she grabbed it tightly. They walked a few minutes in silent until Eragon said,
"So where exactly are we going?" Leona shrugged and said,
"I don't know. We are by the beartooth river yes?" Eragon nodded slowly wondering where she was going with this.
"So there must be a waterfall close by." Eragon chuckled and said,
"You sure like waterfalls do you not?" Leona smiled and said,
"What can I say? They calm me. You yourself said that I need to relax, it's also not a bad night to take a swim." Leona turned to wink at him which made Eragon want to get to the waterfall now.
"Race you there." Eragon said as he dashed down the woods dodging trees with Leona following closely behind.
--
Gelmir awoke with an enormous headache. He was expecting to be in the middle of the hallway where he last left himself but he was in a room with a fire crackling in the corner. Gelmir got up quickly and found that his vision went faint and he laid his head back down on the pillow. He felt his head and found that he had a soft bandage wrapped tightly around it. Gelmir was so confused and this actually made him angry so he said out loud,
"What the hell?" Then he heard someone curse, and this startled him.
"Whose there? I demand it!" A woman stood up from behind his bed. She had long strawberry blonde wavy hair with big blue innocent eyes. Her skin was of an ivory color with her cheeks a soft pink color. She had on a dark turquoise dress that draped down her slender body down to her feet. To Gelmir she looked like a beautiful, innocent, young lady … until she spoke.
"What are you doing? You need to get back to sleep! Ellyn said she would be back before you woke up." Gelmir was now terribly perplexed and said,
"Who is Ellyn and where am I? How did I even get here. And who are you?" The woman took a deep breath and said,
"Alright, just calm down. Ellyn is one of the healers and she is tending to other people right now. I found you in the middle of the hallway while I was walking to my room. You had quite a gash on your head so I needed to take you to Ellyn. And I am Giselle a healer in training." Gelmir raised his eyebrows and said,
"Giselle? What a nice …" Then she bursted out interrupting him,
"Please, don't say it." Gelmir was shocked to hear this. A woman does not want to hear that she has a beautiful name? Gelmir thought.
"Don't say what? That you have a beautiful name?" Giselle sighed and rolled her eyes as she said,
"Yes, that." Gelmir chuckled,
"Well you do have…"
"No! Shut up!" Gelmir was appalled at her as he sat up and said in a disturbed voice,
"What? You want to have an ugly name? Fine! Then I will call you Bordois!" Giselle sighed and came to him and said,
"Settle down. I am sorry I did not mean to get you worked up. I just get that everywhere I go and I get tired of it." Giselle cradled his head and lead it to his pillow. Gelmir was comforted once she came by. She had a soft energy that relaxed him, it also could have been the scent of her perfume.
"Yea well, you didn't make a good first impression let me tell you that." Giselle chuckled and said,
"That happens a lot. I don't know why I just always do the wrong things." Gelmir closed his eyes softly and smiled as he muttered,
"Me too." Then he thought back to the night before. He remembered the letter Leona had given him. He remembered the map. He remembered Luthien. His eyes shot open and he saw Giselle tending the fire and he almost yelled,
"Where is my map and letter?" Giselle glanced over at him and said,
"I have them by me right here." Gelmir sighed of relief as Giselle continued,
"Leona ran off with Eragon, huh?" Gelmir became a little infuriated with her and said,
"You read the letter? It was not addressed to you now was it?" Giselle became intimidated and said,
"Well no, but I could not help but read it." Gelmir sighed, the least he could do was ask her opinion on it,
"So you think she is making the right decision?" Giselle shrugged and said,
"Well, she sure is a strong woman, I think she can handle the child. She also has a great man by her side helping her along the way." Gelmir listened to her words carefully and said,
"Yes, but what do you think about the running away part?" Giselle finally turned toward him,
"She just needed to get away. I would to if no one was supporting me. Imagine what that would be like." Gelmir groaned,
"I feel so bad. I punched Eragon, you know. I should not have done that." Giselle nodded and said,
"You are right, but hey you were protecting you little sister, am I right? My brother would do the same … Whose Luthien?" Gelmir clenched his jaw and said,
"My best friend who fell under Galbatorix's blade in the last battle." Giselle looked away and muttered,
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…"
"I know … Could you bring over that map please?" Giselle did as she was told. She handled the map as if it was sacred, which to Gelmir it was. She gently handed it to him and he opened it and chuckled as he explained,
"Luthien and I drew this when we were twelve. We were playing pirates I believe. And imagine this. We used this map about a month ago hoping it would lead us to Ellesmera but instead lead us to Elmora. The city of Gold." Giselle's eyes went wide and she smiled in excitement. She reminded Gelmir of a young child excited to hear an amazing story.
"A city of Gold? Oh! Tell me what it was like!" Gelmir smiled and said,
"Well, believe it or not the citizens of Elmora thought we were gods, so they worshipped us." Gelmir continued with his story and every time he would mention something exciting Giselle would lightly clap her hands together and smile.
"And then we ran away on our horses still carrying a sack of gold… um, the end." Giselle jumped up clapping her hands and smiling as she said,
"That was wonderful!" Gelmir chuckled at her enthusiasm and said,
"I am glad you think so, could you please put the map back over there?" Giselle took the map even more carefully this time. She opened it looking at it one last time,
"You two were very creative when you were kids." Gelmir chuckled and closed his eyes and muttered,
"We sure were." Then he heard something terrible. He heard a thump and following that,
"Oh no! No, no, no, no, no!" Gelmir shot his eyes open and saw that Giselle was on the floor by the fire pit. He looked closer and saw that the map was in the pit flaming wildly. Gelmir jumped out of bed and ignored his dizziness as he yelled,
"What have you done? No!" Without even thinking Gelmir put his hands in the fire. He screamed in pain because of the scorching burn but he finally got the map out of the pit. It was still flaming when it was in his hands so he through it on the floor and stomped hard on it. When it was extinguished he took a look at his and Luthien's map. The sides were burnt off and the middle had a burnt hole. He picked up the burnt map carefully and held it to his chest with his face pained.
"Gelmir I am so sorry, I…
"Out." Was all Gelmir could say. He wanted her out of this room. He wanted her to get away from him as far as possible before he would really turn on her.
"But Gelmir let me…"
"Out." Gelmir said a bit louder this time. He now had an angered look and was ready to lose his temper any second.
"Gelmir, Please…" Gelmir looked at her with a death stare and charged at her saying in a monstrous voice,
"OUT!" Giselle ran out of the room quickly and shut the door tight. Gelmir calmed down once she was out of the room. He was surrounded in pure silence except a soft weep that came form the other side of the door.
--
Eragon reached the waterfall first and what a sight it was. It was much larger than the hidden waterfall in the Varden. Water roughly poured out from the river hitting the rocks forming a beautiful scene. He knew Leona was behind him once he heard her sudden gasp.
"Oh, Eragon! It's beautiful." Eragon reached for her hand and held it tightly. Leona could not stand still so she took Eragon to the edge of the water. She took off one of her shoes and hiked up her dress so she could dip her toe in the water. Once her toe lightly tapped the water she gently put her whole foot in crunching against the water's gravel and said,
"And the water is at a perfect temperature, too. This is amazing!" Eragon chuckled and just stood there watching her amusement. She turned to him and slightly glowered,
"Eragon, don't miss out on this! It's truly heavenly." Eragon smiled and made his way to the water. He cupped his hands and lowered them to the clear water feeling the most pleasant water his hands had touched since visiting Ellesmera. He splashed his face with the water to freshen himself and take a few sips from as well. This water was perfect for a nice nightly swim so he turned his gaze to Leona who was in the water almost knee deep. Eragon smiled and quickly took of his tunic and boots. He rolled up his pants to his knees, not wanting to take them off just yet for he did not if Leona wanted to do that just now. He rummaged through the water quietly trying not to distract Leona from looking at the starry night. Once he was behind her he lightly splashed her exposed thigh making Leona turn around to look at Eragon. She slightly smiled when she saw Eragon's bare chest but she said,
"I heard you once you entered the water." Eragon rolled his eyes and smiled as he said in a droll tone,
"Of course you did." Leona turned toward him with her full body and touched one of her hands to his arm that was covered with water drops. Once she touched him it sent chills up Eragon's spine and he stepped even closer to her. He felt that her breath became unsteady and she said in a whisper,
"Will you be taking a swim?" Eragon smiled and said,
"Only if you are. It's no fun swimming alone." Leona nodded and dropped her dress to move her hands up the planes of his torso and to his chest then around his neck twining her fingers in his dark hair. She pulled him gently in for a kiss but she made it more passionate than Eragon expected, but he very much liked it. After a minute passed Eragon had to come up for a breath. He looked down at her to find that she was out of breath as well, then he looked at her dress. The end of the dress where she let go was now all wet so Eragon said,
"I don't think it will be easy to swim with your dress on." Leona looked down and then up at Eragon's face. He was concerned if he took it too far, but he felt Leona's soft hands reach for his as she led him to the laces of her dress, unlacing slowly one simple pull of the finger after another. Eragon's heart was racing with every motion his finger made to unlace her dress. He knew this would not be the first time to see her but he was still nervous but enthralled. Once the last lace was undone Eragon slowly removed the dress off of her and threw it ashore.
Eragon looked down to her naked body to find it as flawless as he remembered. It even appeared more beautiful because of the way the moonlight wrapped around her body. Leona placed her hands around the small of his back looking up at him with those hypnotizing green eyes. Eragon averted his eyes from hers so he could kiss the edge of her jaw down her neck and to her collar bone. Then he felt Leona's hand rest on his neck slightly pulling him off of her. Eragon was confused but knew that she needed to say something. Her green eyes glowed as if they were a panther's in the dark night. She moved her lips to his ear as he felt the words form there,
"I do not think it is not so easy to swim with pants on as well as a dress."
--
Great you made another person cry, Gelmir thought to himself as he heard Giselle's hiccupping sobs. He wanted to go outside and apologize,
But why did he have to apologize? Gelmir thought, She should apologize, she ruined the map, it is her fault. I should have reacted that way. But Gelmir knew that once again he had overreacted. He looked at his burnt map again and found the courage to walk outside to Giselle. But once he opened the door there was a stout woman with curly black hair and a jovial smile which soon turned into a gasp.
"What are you doing out of bed?" The woman said. Gelmir sighed and knew that this was Ellyn the healer.
"Please I am much better I just need to find Giselle. I need to talk to her." Ellyn came in and forced Gelmir on the bed which made him quite nervous.
"Get off of me! What the hell are you?" Ellyn sighed and said,
"Gelmir please calm down, I am about to give you some medicine that will make you feel better,
"I feel fine, let me go!" Ellyn just simply said,
"Oh, Gelmir, just settle down while I prepare it for you. You sure are stubborn." Ellyn slightly laughed and turned her back to him as she got out a few mixtures and herbs and mashed them together. Gelmir knew that he would probably fall asleep when given too so he slowly stood up and ran quickly out of the room. He ran down the hallway until he saw Giselle sitting against the wall still slightly crying. Once he saw her he approached her saying,
"Giselle, I…" Once Giselle looked up her eyes went wide and she got up quickly walking fast down the hall.
"Giselle please let me explain…"
"There is no need for that. I mess thing up all the time." Gelmir went after her trying to keep up with her fast pace.
"Giselle, you must understand that the map was one of the only memories I have of Luthien and I am sorry I reacted that way. I did not mean to make you cry." Giselle slowed down her pace and waited for Gelmir to catch up with her. Once he got to her she looked up with crinkled eyebrows and said,
"Why are you out of bed? Ellyn let you out?" Just then the chubby woman came out of the room and looked down the hall yelling,
"Gelmir get back here! You need to take the medicine. It will make you feel better!" Gelmir sighed and turned to her and shouted back down the hall,
"No I don't, I feel fine. In fact I feel amazing! Get away from me!" Ellyn frowned and the shook her head as she started to run down the hall. Gelmir grimaced at the unpleasant sight of her running. Her body jiggled with every step she took and her running was not even as fast as Gelmir's walking pace. This made Gelmir laugh until he saw her speed increase. Gelmir stopped laughing and grabbed Giselle's hand and said,
"Come on! Let's get out of here!" Giselle laughed and ran with him. This reminded him of the times him and Luthien would get out of trouble and run for their lives, except this time it was with a woman. Giselle gave Gelmir such a warm presence, just like the kind he had with Luthien. He stopped her when they got to the hallway with the entrance to the field with the stables. He turned to see if Giselle was alright because Gelmir was running quite fast. He found her bent down over her knees laughing.
"What's so funny?" Gelmir questioned her. She looked up with a big smile on her face and said,
"The way you reacted with Ellyn. You are very funny." Gelmir was not even trying to be funny at the time so he thought of this as a compliment.
"Why thank you. I thought you would be angry with me because with you being a healer in training I thought you would have to take me back and scold me." Giselle shook her head, still smiling, she said,
"No, if you can stand up without falling down I think of that as cured. You are fine, she just wanted to tend to you because she thought you were a handsome young boy." Gelmir shivered of that thought.
"Ugh, how vile… and gross. Man she freaks me out." Giselle laughed and said,
"Me too. Whenever I do something wrong she slaps my hands and tells me to go back to my room. She really is not teaching me when she sends me to my room almost every day." Gelmir's eyebrows crinkled in confusion,
"Well that's not good. You should learn from another healer." Giselle nodded.
"Your right, I should." The conversation stopped for a moment until Gelmir said,
"So, you want to be a healer? That's nice." Giselle cocked her head and said,
"Is there anything wrong with that? What about you? What do you want to be?" Gelmir chuckled and said,
"Oh, I have already got my life planned out for me." Giselle was not getting enough answers,
"And what is that?" Gelmir turned to her with a grin and said,
"I have been elected as the new King of Alagaesia." Giselle's eyes were huge when he mentioned this.
"King? You mean I am talking to the next king of Alagaesia right now?" Gelmir nodded slowly and said,
"I believe so." Giselle smiled in disbelief. Then she looked to him and frowned a bit. Gelmir was going to ask what was wrong, but she beat him to it. She raised her hands to his bandages but stopped for a moment and said,
"May I? The new King of Alagaesia should not be wearing this kind of crown." Gelmir nodded and then he felt her soft fingers on his head slowly taking of the bandage. Gelmir felt the cold rush of air slip into his wound which made him shiver, but Giselle shivered more by the sight of his wound.
"Is it that bad?" Gelmir asked looking up trying to see the wound on his forehead. Giselle simply nodded not taking her eyes off of him.
"But it suits you. You look tough with that scar on." Gelmir chuckled at what she said and Giselle gave a little giggle as well. There was another silence until Giselle said,
"Why did you come back to apologize? You did not have to do that. It was my mistake not yours." Gelmir shook his head,
"No, It was my mistake I did not mean to react that way. It's just since Luthien died I have become an awful man. Sometimes I just can't control myself and I end up messing things up even more." Giselle huffed out and said,
"I know what you mean, but I mess up things without the grief of a friend." Gelmir cocked his head,
"You do not look like a girl who would lose their temperament." Giselle rolled her eyes,
"No, not that way. As you can see I am very clumsy and that's not such a good quality to carry." Gelmir chuckled,
"Well you are clumsy I will say that but you could not have possibly done that much damage. I mean I made my sister run away! And I … GALRON! I have to go, now." Gelmir remembered Leona's request for Gelmir to tell Galron of what has happened. He saw Giselle slowly nod, and he could not just leave her. He needed her with him, she shed off an energy so close to Luthien's and he needed that with him.
"Come with me. You will get to meet Galron and possibly Saphira and Glaedr." Giselle smiled but it quickly faded as she said,
"Are you sure? I actually shouldn't I have to go back to Ellyn." Gelmir laughed and said,
"Are you serious? Really, are you?" When Giselle just gave a blank stare Gelmir continued,
"You would rather go back to Ellyn who will scold you and then eventually send you to your room than to see three dragons that helped win Alagaesia's freedom? Wait you are right, I would rather be with Ellyn. Dragons are boring so I'm just…."
"Alright! Alright, I will go with you. I cannot believe I was going to give up that opportunity." Gelmir smiled and decided to give Giselle a chance with a friendship,
"Skipping your duties. Welcome to the life of badass, Giselle."
A/N: Okay now with Leona and Eragon please do not think of Leona as a slut… or Eragon. I did not mean for them to be slutty in this it was just the heat of the moment. Okay well cool. REVIEW!