Chapter Fifteen

The next morning, I awoke refreshed and rejuvenated, feeling well-rested and happy. I felt an unfamiliar weight on my neck and glanced down in panic, then sighed in relief. It was just the Amulet, hanging around my neck where it should be. I sat up and glanced out the window in the kitchen at the sun that was just barely starting to rise. Sighing happily, I got up and got ready for the day.

Today, I decided I'd wear my second outfit, the dark brown one with gray fur lining it all and with brown bracer cuffs on my wrists. I brushed out my hair and let it fall over my shoulders, putting the leather headband in my hair to hold it back. I put my green cloak on and my brown ankle boots. Satisfied that I was at last presentable for the day, I set about making breakfast. When the boys emerged from their rooms after the sun had fully risen, I had made a breakfast of beef jerky meat and warm biscuits. Roran and Garrow ate quickly before going out into the fields for another day of work.

Today was the third day Eragon had been gone from home on the hunt. It was his last day to hunt the trails before he had to start making his way back. I just hope the hunt is going alright up in those mountains for him. I thought to myself as I began to clean up Roran and Garrow's rooms, since I cleaned Eragon's room yesterday. After that, I prepared dinner and placed it in the small oven to keep it warm all day. I still had a couple of hours until I needed to start making lunch, so I sat on the couch and read from the 'Domia abr Wyrda'.

Two hours later, I had gotten all the way to Chapter Twelve in my huge history book when I decided I should start to prepare a lunch for the two men. I went out back and cut down some rabbit meat that had been brought in a few days ago and cooked that up for lunch, along with some beans. When the noon sun was high up in the sky, the two men came in and ate quickly and quietly, speaking in muted tones. Not too much later, they went back out into the fields.

I cleaned up the kitchen after eating a small bit of rabbit and went to get my things. I put on my belt of knives and hung my swords on my back, putting my cloak over them and my quiver of arrows, with my bow inside, over it. I deemed myself ready and went out the front door to head down to the barn for Karnus.

When I entered through the barn doors, I was surprised to see that Karnus wasn't in his stall. I looked at the door and saw the wood was splintered in a few places; Karnus had busted himself out of there. I looked around and studied the ground outside his stall closely, picking up his tracks. I looked outside the barn door and was able to see Roran and Garrow far away from me, so I knew it was safe.

I mentally grabbed hold of my white magic and commanded the stone to transform back into its misty form. As I did this, I thought of short word commands that I could speak to get it to work right. "Garn't'lem!" I commanded sternly. The misty Amulet transformed back into an Amethyst stone. I was beyond pleased.

"Sharl'oman!" I commanded sternly. The stone transformed back into its misty Amulet form. I smiled to myself. Now that was some quality magic.

"Show me where my warhorse Karnus is." I commanded the Amulet aloud. After a moment, the dark purple mists began to swirl, and revealed my warhorse running through the forest not too far from here, chasing a man on foot. He was obviously angry, for my horse kept trying to run him down, only to have the man take sharp turns to try and get away.

If I had fur, it would have been bristling with anger. Nobody messes with my horse and gets away with it!

"Show me how to get to him!" I commanded the Amulet quickly. The mists swirled and then parted again, showing how the world would look if you were flying high in the air. It zoomed in on the area around Carvahall and showed me as an orange figure, and a couple miles away were Karnus and the man, heading for the base of the Spine. I dropped the Amulet so it hung around my neck the way it was supposed to and let its power flood into me, so that I could feel which way I was supposed to go, and how close they were.

I took one look at Brugh and knew he wasn't strong enough, though Birka was young and barely an adult horse. He'd have plenty of energy for the run. I ran to Birka's stall and opened the door, jumping up onto his bare back and grabbing his lead rope which was attached to the halter he was wearing. I grabbed fistfuls of his mane as well to hang onto and started tapping his sides to get him out of his stall and charging out of the barn, going deep into the forest behind me. Birka was pretty fast, though not as fast as Karnus was, nowhere near. Still, it was faster than running on foot.

Using the Amulet's guidance powers, I followed the trail deep into the forest. I was nearing the base of the Spine when I could tell I was getting close. The metal of the Amulet began to grow warmer and warmer. Soon, it felt like it was burning me, but when I actually touched it the metal was cool.

I followed the trail to the very base of the mountains and faintly heard Karnus. I kicked Birka's sides and he charged off towards the sound, running as fast as he could. When we got near, Birka stopped and reared, the whites of his eyes showing. He was afraid.

I calmed him down and hopped off of his back, keeping a firm hold on his lead rope. I walked beside him as I followed the sounds of my angry warhorse. I could see a clearing ahead, at the base of the mountain. As we got closer, I heard the sound of Karnus' hooves striking on rock and much growling and snarling. I tied Birka's rope to a nearby branch and continued on foot, pulling my swords out and having them ready.

I stepped quickly into the clearing and was surprised. Karnus had his back up against the rock wall of the mountain's base, flailing his hooves to keep his many enemies away. He was frightened, but I could see in his eyes that he was also furious. I was overly surprised too.

Surrounding him was a pack of werewolves in their shape-shifted form.

When I had stepped into the clearing, none of the beasts had noticed me. One was closing in on Karnus when I yelled "Hey! Leave my horse alone!"

All the werewolves stopped and turned to look at me, their dark eyes glowing dangerously. None of them took the time to translate what I had said, but they simply turned around and started stalking towards me. I looked at their somewhat distorted features and realized that these werewolves were all very young, and probably not very bright. They were living only on werewolf instinct, and that was bad. That meant I wouldn't be able to communicate with them.

I gulped quietly. Crap.

I raised my swords in warning and then realized what I should be doing instead. I put my swords back in their scabbards on my back and searched deep down inside myself for the white magic. Calling upon its power, I gave it a simple command. Show these werewolves that I bring peace and friendship, not trouble.

My white magic searched and found multiple ways to make this happen. I chose one and threw part of the magic into the air, moving with the flow simply because it felt natural to. The white magic enveloped me and then a large stream of it broke off. I made it weave through the air, and everything it touched caused new life to grow and bloom there. When it touched the werewolves, they all stopped and stared, comprehension and human compassion filling their eyes.

After a moment I drew the white magic stream back into me, so my aura glowed as never before. Then, it slowly faded away, going back down into the well in my body to restore the magic used and to keep my inner defenses up.

The werewolves, who had been on four legs before, now all stood up on two legs and regarded me calmly. I sighed in relief and smiled a little.

"Hello, my name is Ayla. I'm sorry if I may have startled you, but I knew you wouldn't hurt me. I just didn't want you to hurt my horse. Which pack are you from?" I explained and then asked them. They all looked at each other for a moment, consorting in their other language, and then one stepped forward to speak.

"I am Darlican. We are the youngest members of the Mountain Howler Pack. We're sorry if we frightened you, but we are not yet able to think as humans in our shifted forms. However, the magic you used may have saved us a lot of future trouble if the ability for us to think like humans is permanent." he introduced and told me. I nodded to him.

"It's permanent, and I hope it helps you in future hunts. I met another member of your pack last night, Nyvern." I told them. They all looked shocked.

"You're telling us that Nyvern left the mountain and went to speak with a human? A mortal human being? Even though you have strange magic, surely it was not able to call him down from the mountain. He never leaves the main cave." Darlican told me in a surprised voice. I raised an eyebrow.

"Did you not sense the white light of my magic, even in your shifted forms?" I asked him. He thought back for a moment, and then comprehension flickered in his eyes.

"I know I did. It frightened me, so I wasn't sure how to go about attacking you. Your light was made of the most powerful force I've ever seen; it's incredible." he told me. I nodded silently. We all stood around thinking for a moment before one of the others in the back of the group raised his voice.

"Let us take her to meet the rest of the pack. Perhaps she could be more useful than she realizes." the young werewolf suggested. The other werewolves parted so that he could walk forward. He appeared to be the smallest of the group, but I saw much wisdom hidden away in his eyes.

The others looked at each other, and then looked at me as one. I thought about it for a moment and then nodded my head silently to them.

"Good. We shall lead you up the mountain." Darlican told me. I held a hand out to stop him from moving for a moment.

"Wait. I have another horse back there that I had to ride to get out here in the first place. I'll need to take him back to the barn before I can go with you, and it'd be nice to get my warhorse's saddle." I told him. He slowly nodded to me.

"We will escort you back there, and then we shall take you to our main den, further up in the mountain and into the darker parts of our valley." Darlican told me. I nodded and jumped up on Karnus' back, following the five werewolves back towards home.