Chapter 3

I'll be introducing a few new OC in this chapter hopefully. This chapter will also be somewhat longer than others.

Thanks to xXxGhostRiderxXx for reviewing.

(Rya)

'Alright! I give up!' the hopeless captain cried out.

Rya grew irritated at how weak the soldiers that were supposed to protect Carvahall were. She had just been sparring with the captain. She had beaten every other soldier and when she called him to spar with her, he simply said he didn't have enough time. Rya had become annoyed and taunted him, calling him weak, she tempted him out from his room in the castle on the hill in Palancar valley. The duel hadn't lasted fifty seconds. She had hit his sword to the side without any effort and brought her sword up to his neck and simply said, 'dead.'

He didn't give in that quickly though and had punched her stomach. She bent over and so he landed an uppercut on her nose. She flew backwards and the captain got up and spat on her. She recovered quickly and began using her fists and feet to bring him to her mercy. This fight had lasted shorter than the first.

The captain was currently bleeding from his mouth and nose. The other soldiers simply stared at her. They had never seen anyone manage to even gain the upper hand on their captain much less be defeated by a girl in under a minute. They didn't even have the stomach to go and help him.

Rya was a 17 year old woman, among the progeny of Roran Stronghammer. Her entire family was of a military standing and so was naturally an expert with a sword, however, she was something else. Nobody in her entire family could stand up to her in a fight, whether it be with a sword or hammer or knuckles or bows and arrows. She would always best them. She had been quite determined that she could take on every soldier in the empire, so she started out with the ones in Carvahall.

'Oy!' the captain shouted out to his troops, 'don't just stand there and gape! Come and help me!'

The soldiers immediately stood up and skirted towards their captain, avoiding angering Rya. A few people had told her that she had the Rider Eragon's blood in her. They assumed it had been through this that their family was so high in military standards. Rya ignored this theory. Who was Eragon? Did he even exist? If he did, wouldn't he come to at least visit his family? According to most people, the only family Eragon had had was Roran. If that fact was true, she was among the only family he had, unless he had taken a mate. She had never seen him. In fact, she had never even seen a dragon, so how could she believe he existed.

'What's your name girl?' she heard the captain ask suddenly.

'I'm not a girl. I'm a woman, I'm seventeen. And my name is Rya,' she replied with a cold voice.

'Right. Sorry. Would you like to teach my men a few things? They could use a trick or two.'

'You could use a trick or two. You call yourself a captain? My grandmother could fight better than you,' Rya enjoyed the look of anger it sent across the captain's face.

'Do not talk to me like that girl!' he spat. 'You will treat me with respect.'

'Make me,' she replied. A smile graced her lips and she laughed. 'Sorry, I forgot. You can't. You can send the entire army after me. They won't do anything. I have just felled your entire battalion, one after the other, over the last week. You think a few more soldiers will stop me? Bah! They'll be licking the underside of my boots before I lop their heads off.'

The captain became red by the time she finished. He then turned around and stormed off towards his chambers.

Rya was a woman of tall stature and a slender frame, and although she wasn't muscular, she had a surprising amount of strength. She had long red hair and brown eyes. Her skin colour was a pale white. She was usually soft in her nature but if she was angered, things could be disastrous. She had learnt how to use magic from her uncle, Zenith. She wasn't as skilled at magic as she was with a sword, however, she was proficient enough to go by the days and use it for simple tasks. Her vocabulary in the ancient language wasn't as vast as her uncles, due to her impatience when she couldn't learn a word or a phrase. She was one of the few magicians the empire didn't keep a record of.

Rya spent most of her time helping in and around the castle where she lived.

One day, while she was sparring with her uncle, she spotted something in the distance. A flock of large birds were bearing towards them at a ridiculously high speed. She finished off the duel quickly, so she could go and see what was happening.

'Hey!' Zenith shouted to her. 'How did you suddenly beat me so quickly?'

Rya shrugged her shoulders. 'Meh, I usually just toy around with you and find different ways of defeating you every day, just so I can develop different methods of using a sword.'

A look of annoyance flashed on Zenith's face. She ignored him and turned towards the flock of birds she had seen earlier. She decided to get a better view and so, climbed up a few rocks. When she turned back towards the birds, she saw dragons. Twenty two of them. They each had one person on top. They were heading towards the town. Rya held her breath. This was the first time she was seeing a dragon. But this wasn't just a dragon. There were more than twenty of them. The first thought that came to her head was Eragon. But the thought soon left when she heard four of them roar and then they let out jets of flame. The flames were not to impress. The dragons breathed their fire on the houses and the townspeople. Fear instilled itself in her and she had to act quickly. She ran back to Zenith and picked up her bow and her quiver of arrows.

'What's wrong?' Zenith asked.

'Dragons are here. They're burning the town and the people. I'm going to go and help,' she told him.

Rya started to make her way down the valley and towards Carvahall. Just when she began, Zenith grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

'You will not go. The soldiers will take care of them.' Rya could see a look of worry in his eyes. He was so easy to read, it was actually quite unbelievable. Rya simply shrugged him off and turned around to run towards Carvahall.

'The Riders will make mincemeat out of them. The soldiers are pathetic. I will go and deal with this. Try and stop me if you want but it will only slow me down.' And with that, she began to sprint off towards Carvahall.

Once she reached the town, she saw utter chaos. The dragons were tearing apart the soldiers and the ones that weren't engaged in battle were being slaughtered by the Riders. To her right, she saw a Rider approach her and raise his sword to strike her in the side of her head. Rya raised her right arm and blocked the blow. She moved the Rider's sword arm out of the way to her right and punched him in the stomach. She then grabbed an arrow from her quiver and stabbed him in the back of the neck with it, before pulling it out and firing it at the dragon that had started to make its way over to her after seeing its Rider fall. The arrow went through its eye and Rya took this opportunity to fire a few arrows at other Riders. She killed one more Rider and his dragon before turning her attention back to the first dragon. It was still struggling with the first arrow she implanted in its eye and so she ran towards it before jumping onto its saddle and climbing onto its neck. After she was sure about her footing, she unsheathed her sword. Rya then plunged it into the dragon's neck and twisted it. The dragon reared while Rya pulled out her sword and jumped off.

She looked around and found Zenith fighting, using a sword with two blades: one coming out of each side of the hilt. She stared in amazement as she watched him separate the double sided sword into two separate blades. With his dual-wield weapon, he was taking on two Riders when another shouted an order in the ancient language to them and they pulled away, jumping onto their dragons. The dragons took off after another moment, but as they flew off, they let loose, flames all over Zenith, covering him in a fiery inferno. The remaining eighteen Riders also got on their dragons and took off from the ground. Rya wasted no time and started firing a volley of arrows at the fleeing dragons. The arrows stopped in mid-air and fell harmlessly to the ground. She didn't bother with firing anymore arrows and so, turned her attention to Zenith.

Zenith was black with soot from the flames and his clothes had turned to ashes. He held his arm up with something in his hands. Rya made her way over to him. She started to panic as she looked at her beloved uncle.

'Uncle! Uncle, you'll be Ok,' she said. She started to cry. He was the only close family member he had left. Her parents had died in an accident involving a collapsed wall near the edge of the town while she was only two years of age. Rya could not afford to lose him along with them.

'R-Rya…' Zenith said through his heavy panting.

'Yes uncle?' she managed to say through her sobs.

He took a deep breath before saying, 'Be strong, do not mourn me. Take this key from me. Go to my room in the stronghold and look for a closet and take all of the equipment from there. Make your way to the castle in Ilirea. Report what happened and find Eragon Kingkiller. Stay with him. I prepared for something like this. Everything you'll need to get to Ilirea is in that closet. There, you will also find a bag which I enchanted for extra space. You'll also find a belt with twelve gems inside. They have plenty of energy inside them. Use them at your time of greatest need. And…' he faltered.

'Uncle, and what?' Rya pressed.

'Take my swords. You can fix them together into one weapon if you so desire. The gem in each pommel contains a horde of energy. Use it wisely…' he groaned before continuing, 'I now bid you farewell. Good luck and may good fortune smile upon you.'

He groaned again before going limp. Rya screamed into the sky.

'Wyrda!' Fate.

She continued to cry for the next half hour. After the sun set, Rya decided to obey one of his final wishes. Be strong, do not mourn me… She wiped the tears away from her eyes and took the key from his hand. She turned towards the fort before turning back around towards her uncle. It would be wrong for me to leave without burying him, she thought. So, she spent the next fifteen minutes using her scattered words of the ancient language to make a tomb out of limestone, as it was the only materiel available to her. She would have made it out of diamonds if she could, but she didn't have that many resources. She then inscribed runes into a flat rock using a sharp stone. She wrote:

Here lies Zenith

Descendant of Roran Garrowson Stronghammer

He was like a father to me

May his name live on in glory

After she was satisfied with it, she turned towards the fortress in Palancar valley again. She took a deep breath and began to walk.

(Eragon)

Eragon tried his best to sleep. Sleep doesn't come easy when you're in a state of shock. On the other side of the bed was Arya Dröttning. Her actions were making him more confused as the minutes went.

She had violently dragged him into her room and locked the door before starting to take her clothes out of a wooden cabinet. Eragon hadn't been sure as to what he should do until Arya turned around and motioned for him to turn away as she changed. Puzzled as he was, he decided that it would be best for him to change as well, since Arya wouldn't let him leave. However, his belongings were in Saphira's saddlebags.

'Ok you can look at me now,' Arya called from behind.

He turned around and was, once again, taken aback. She wore a green tunic and short cotton leggings that didn't even cover her knees. His previous theory of her sadism was being challenged by her openness. Unless, she's trying to provoke me, he thought to himself, and so, he stilled himself.

'Arya, since I am to be sleeping here, I need to change my clothes as well, but my belongings are with Saphira,' he said. He was trying to get an opportunity with which he could contact Saphira.

'No need. I had your things sent here beforehand. They're over in that corner,' she said, pointing to the far corner of the room from the door.

'Thank you.' Dammit.

As he went over to his things, he began to take in the details of her room. She had many cabinets and wardrobes and a huge bed which could possibly fit two small families on it. He took out a brown tunic and felt green leggings. He motioned for Arya to turn around but she stayed where she was. Staring at him and the clothes in his hands. He motioned again but she still stared at him with the same blank expression. So he had had to change in front of her. He had felt ludicrously vulnerable. After that, they had both got into the bed.

And that brought him to where he was now. In bed. With Arya Dröttning on the other side.

He felt multiple urges to move towards her slender sleeping form but retained his self-control.

Arya suddenly moved towards him in her sleep… Oh sh…

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