Chapter 2

Hi all, here's chapter two.

Now there is going to be a lot of violence and not in a good way. Please when reviewing please go easy on me; this is setting up more conflict on the way.

Once again I do not own any of these characters they are all owned by Christopher Paolini and owe their

existence to him.

This is how it is meant to be.

High above the ground flew a brilliant blue dragon. Her scales shone in the early morning twilight. With her was an elven looking human who reveled in the crashing wind whipping past his face. His huge grin mirrored the dragon's mental one.

Ahh thought Eragon.

Eragon … I see the camp.

Eragon sighed and thus reality returns and violence is ordered.

I'm sorry little one but some things must be done.

I know Saphira … I know.

They began to descend closer to the ground.

Eragon let out a massive yawn that made Saphira wonder if he had injured himself. Eragon's mental reassurance relaxed her again but not for long. Not long after Eragon had unhinged his jaw a small fly flew right into his mouth. Saphira rumbling laughter worried her Rider. It might alert the sentries.

Laugh all you want Eragon thought at her, you'll just make the same mistake.

Her chuckling only intensified.

But soon both were mirthless as the smoke from the fires of an army came into close view.

Saphira, just in case … I love you.

I love you to Little.

They descended on the unsuspecting Imperial troops. Most of them weren't even awake yet in the early morning; false dawn had just begun to emerge in the east.

Now Saphira.

Eragon and Saphira had already agreed on a plan, Saphira would blast the tents from the sky with her flame and Eragon would dispatch any spellcasters. The screams from their initial satisfied both of them as they prepared for their second strafing run.

Eragon sensed few spellcasters and quickly began to dispatch them.

As Saphira finished her fourth pass, she noticed something.

Eragon, something is wrong…

What?

These soldiers seem to be too small … and their screams are too shrill to be adults.

Looking down Eragon saw that indeed the writhing bodies bellow, were those of children.

What is this? Saphira asked. Why were these younglings here?

They moved closer to the center of many a child's hell.

Small bodies were burnt to cinders, and miniature corpses were missing their skin, having melted off in the attack. But what would haunt Eragon for the rest of his life was the smell, the charred stench of cooked human, the scent of crisped hair.

We … thought Saphira

I know.

They landed and Eragon slipped off Saphira, he was completely and utterly overwhelmed by the devastation he had created. Eragon fell to his knees and began to dry heave, later he might remember to count his blessings at having forgotten to eat breakfast; mabye.

Neither dragon nor Rider noticed a small figure moving silently behind them.

"For the KING!!!!" Yelled the figure.

Neither Eragon nor Saphira could move as a knife penetrated the back of Eragon's tunic.

The knife failed to penetrate the Dwarven chainmail that Eragon wore.

He quickly disarmed the girl and restrained her.

However he was quite taken aback at her menacing eyes and sunken appearance.

The child looks half dead thought Eragon.

"You will die for your crimes today filth," cried the girl. She couldn't have been over twelve.

Eragon didn't think he could withstand the verbal abuse much longer … not after what he had done. So he decided to enter her mind instead. The need to know why all these children were here, to know why the girl had said those things.

The answers he found were shocking. This camp was the not the first of many such camps. It was a place where the children of the families of those suspected of treachery, with or without the Varden, were sent to be brainwashed and taught that Galbatorix was the supreme being. The children were thrown together and left to fend for themselves guards kept them in the camp at first until they accepted they could not leave. They killed each other to survive; they looted the bodies and used them as bait to lure crows and rats to eat. When this food ran they would steal from nearby farms. And when this failed the children would begin cannibalism. This idea was tainted with the aura of the Ra'zac. The children did not know why they were in the camps or what their purpose was, their only visitors were the deceased Ra'zac, who used the camps as feeding grounds, and those who 'taught' them about the King.

Saphira … we must tell the Varden.

Yes but what to do with the girl?

"Slytha," said Eragon.

The girl crumpled to the ground in a deep sleep. Eragon modified the spell so that it would wear off in a couple of hours.

Eragon …

"Do we bring her with us?"

I think we should, perhaps the elves can find something we missed.

Eragon stared at the child for a long minute. "No she doesn't have anything else, they were never meant to know anything else."

Saphira said nothing, she just looked at him with sad sympathetic eyes. Her heart echoed with the pain she and Eragon shared. A heart that now only contained a void.

Nasuada … She knew…. Thought Saphira

No she couldn't have … she wouldn't send me to kill children… would she?

Eragon was beginning to feel like a small child again. He couldn't get past his grief let alone Saphira's.

I'm afraid that she knew, little one, the spies would have included the … nature of this place…

Eragon did not respond, his entire body resonated with anger. Nasuada had made him do this. She had done this even though she knew what would happen. Eragon quickly got back into Saphira's saddle and they flew south to the Varden leaving behind them an orphan's graveyard, open to the air.