Owltalon: :) That guess was actually closer than mine when I first read it.
OoOXylionOoO: :) Thank you.
Valkyrie-chick: :) Ouch. I remember when I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled. I only had to get two though. Theoretically, according to Glaedr, they were already dead. Galbatorix simply sucked the energy out of them before they had a chance to recover it.
FlexManSteel: :) CORRECT! Fear of long words, which the irony of that is simply fantastic.
Prince of Madness 54: :) Yeah I wouldn't copy Code Geass that bad. Eventually he will die, like the rest of us mortals, but that's a while in coming.
Antclift: I have two hundred dollar bet with my friend Samantha about wither he'll have, like, an emotional break down before the final battle in the actual book. :) It's the fear of long words, which just makes the most beautiful irony. The fourth book I'll explain in maybe a bit better and clear detail. When I first set out making BloodFire I planned the entire book series (because I am not a one book person) to be composed of three books. But now, looking forward, if I kept it like that I would make the second or third book insanely long. Like, 60 chapters with four thousand words a chapter long. So, I'm going to implement a fourth book.
Hola leapt forward at the solder with his raised sword descending on her like a flaming arrow. Just as the tip of the sword was at eye level, Hola dispatched him with a bite to the neck. She knew it often disconcerted others how she went about fighting, but in her opinion teeth and claws had been used far longer than swords and spears. I'm hardly a human, she thought as she danced around two attacking solders and slashed their backs open with her short claws. But just because I can summon forth any part of a wolf's features and add them to my human anatomy doesn't mean I should have to subscribe to human combat tactics. She flicked her head to the side to avoid a solder's downward slash, pivoted to the side and kicked the man's legs out from under him. Instead of killing him, she jabbed her heel into his collar bone.
Her tail caught the silver edge of a sword as she jumped past a cut and slash from a young solder. Her blood quickened as the few bits of fur fell to the ground. She surged forward and pivated to the side so fast she seemed to disappear. As the solder paused with confusion she gripped his wrist from the side and with devilish strength snapped the limb so hard and fast to the right it severed it from his body.
The solder hardly had time to cry out in pain as she plunged the man's sword through his gut. He crumpled down into a small heap. She tossed her hair and inspected her tail. The sword had cut through almost ten hairs of fur. Snorting with contempt, she hid it away for fear of future damage. She twitched her ears with annoyance as the cavalry of the King of Surda rode past. Her ears were so delicate that they could hear the tiniest changes in the beating of someone's heart when they lie. Because of this the unrestrained noise of battle gave her a headache. She hid her ears away as well, hoping to calm the pulsing in her head.
She looked to her side as the clanging of armor arouse from a barrack. Thirty men hurried outside, looking to have just been awoken. They paused as they saw her standing in the middle of a pile of solders.
"You could not have possibly defeated those men."
Hola released her hold on her ears and allowed them to flick up. She lifted her lips to bare her fangs and flexed her hand until her fingernails sharpened into claws. I don't like changing myself so much, but I also don't believe that I can handle so many in full human form. "Then come and fight me," she said menacingly. "Show me how much confidence you have in your skill, you small minded blood sucking ticks." The lot of them charged her, like cows charging to the slaughter. She tightened her hand as she prepared to spill man's blood once more.
Saphira dipped down into a right angle dive as Shruikan slashed past her, razor claws skimming her back and missing Eragon by inches. Eragon hacked at him as he turned to attack her again.
"So that's why you need the Riders to return," Eragon shouted as Saphira let loose a torrent of fire at the black dragon, enraged by the death of the Eldunari. "The question's always picked at my mind. Why would you raise those who would have the power to stop you? You need the Dragons, not the Riders. You're running out of fuel." It gave Eragon unsavory glee as he scored a hit on Shruikan's shoulder and exclaimed, "Brisingr!" The iridescent blade ignited in a fiery ball that consumed Shruikan's flesh. It occurred to Eragon, though he paid the thought little attention, that the dragon was hardly protected by wards, an error that he would have never dreamed the King would make.
"Eragon!" Aesire shouted an instant before a black mass rammed Saphira's side like a battering ram. Saphira was thrown through the air for a few hundred feet before she snapped her wings open and leveled out. The Shruikan, or rather what appeaered to br Shruikan that Eragon had burned with Brisingr, faded like mist.
A burst of flame jetted out of Saphira's maw and she pointed herself to the new black dragon that sailed hundreds of feet above her. She flew at him as fast and hard as she could, flapping her wings with such manic intensity that if the inner bones failed to move as she intended them to, her wings would likely snap off. Shruikan made no effort to dodge her attack. Instead he pointed at the blue arrow buzzing at him and caught Saphira like Eragon would catch a stick thrown at him. A line of sweat rolled down Galbatorix's temple and a sign of weariness crawled over his face.
He's tiring, Eragon thought.
"Perhaps," Galbatorix said. "But now I have you precisely where I want you." Then he rose out his arm to them and Shruikan unleashed the fury of his teeth and claws. He was far older than Saphira, his claws as long as Brisingr. With them he sliced great cuts into Saphira's underside, her magical protection doing hardly anything to protect her.
Saphira, Eragon said.
What, she responded through the pain.
Take us to the ground. We're at a disadvantage so long as he can use Shruikan to attack us. Saphira disengaged herself from Shruikan by snapping at the crest of his head. Shruikan pulled back to avoid her fangs and when he did, she kicked him with all her might and dipped down to the pillaged city below. When Eragon looked back, he saw that Shruikan was flying down to the city as well, but at opposite angle. He forgot the observation as Saphira landed on one of the tiers of Galbatorix's black citadel. Eragon leapt off of her and immediately laid a hand over her wounds. "Waíse heill." Saphira heaved a sigh as the cuts mended. Eragon made sure to fashion the spells so he would gather strength from the vast pool inside Aren and not himself.
"Look out!" Aesire shouted.
An instant later, Shruikan plummeted out of the sky, razor sharp claws bared. He swooped over Saphira and continued over head, preparing for another dive. "Separate," Aesire said. "If we separate they'll have to come at us separated as well."
"They aren't after you!" Eragon replied.
"I only wish that were true. Believe me Eragon," His face grew somber, as if he had just gotten news of a loved one's death. "I know whereof I speak."
Eragon was about to protest when Shruikan dove at them once more. He's not even trying to hurt us. He's playing with us. "Fine," he said quickly. Saphira.
I do have ears, little one.
Be careful.
It is they who should be careful. And with that she jumped into the air after Shruikan, letting loose a deafening roar and a burst of flame. Eragon turned back to Aesire. "What if they decide to pick us off one by one?"
"Then Saphira will give them trouble. They cannot focus long enough to capture or kill you or me with Saphira harrying them from all directions." He pointed at the entrance of the tier. "Go through there, take the two stairways, take a hard right and continue on straight. The passageway will give you an unobstructed view of the battle below. May as well make ourselves useful while on the run. It's imperative that Galbatorix comes after me and not you. He knows me and of my power, so if he thinks that by illuminating me it will make his task easier he will come after me."
"Why is it so important?"
"You'll find out. Couldn't tell you anyway." And with that, he ran down the flight of stairs that led to a lower level. Eragon heaved a sigh as he watched him go and then followed his direction on where to go.
Hola pushed through her weariness as the last of the solders charged her. Gripping his neck under the collar bone she tightened her grip until his neck constricted his air ways and he suffocated. She let him drop as she sagged against a wall. Keeping herself partially human and partially wolf was excreting in the extreme. Normally her tail and ears required little to no effort to keep visible, but keeping her claws, fangs and animalistic grace wore on her. She cringed as a sharp spike of pain emanated from the long cut on her lower leg that stretched from her knee to her hip. Lucky bastards, she thought. The only reason the solder had managed to land the blow was because of sheer trickery, for she had bit his throat out. Walking was almost impossible with the gash.
The sound of shouting orders grabbed her attention as twenty solders surrounded her, some pointing spears and arrows at her; others crouched down and ready with their sabers. She growled as she looked around wildly for some means of escape. She could not fight twenty solders, which had the foresight to attack at once, with her leg. If not for the cut on her leg, she could have beaten them with ease. I'll never be able to turn completely into a wolf in time. I'd look like a hedgehog with how many arrows that'd put in me by that time.
She gripped her leg as she prepared to lunge at the weakest looking man, intending to flee after getting past him. Just as she raised her leg to walk, however, she flexed the cut muscle too far and ripped completely.
She let out a pained cry as she went down. Three of the solders made to move towards her when the captain said, "Stand your ground! Stay where you are! Who knows what this abomination can do. Galbatorix gave orders that if this wolf girl was found she was to be executed immediately, with great caution. Zeflan, if you would."
A solder with a wicked looking halberd stepped up beside her and raised the weapon, ready to severe her head from her neck. As the blade began its descent Hola thought, My sole regret is that I could not bare my child. Then she lowered head and waited for the blow to fall.
A deep throated hiss came from one of the buildings beside them. The solder with the halberd looked up just in time for a mass of fur and claws to drive him into the ground. For a moment the solder fought back, but then he lay still and a puddle of blood began to form below his neck. Solembum rose from his kill, red eyes lit with the fury of battle.
"Solembum," Hola said, confused.
"Here," he said harshly, and tossed her a small vile of liquid with his teeth. "Angela made that for you. Pour it on that cut and it should heal relatively quickly." Hola flipped the clasp and poured the contents on her leg. Such blinding pain shot up her body she could not even make a sound. When it subsided, she cracked an eye open and saw that the wound had closed itself. She stood and flexed her hands.
"Charge!" The captain of the solders said, fear beginning to crawl into his eyes. As Hola and Solembum began to fend them off, more men came from the buildings and assailed them.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Hola asked Solembum as she spun around a solder, cracking his neck as she did. "Yesterday you hated me with every fiber of your being and today you save me."
"Not without good cause," Solembum replied as he leapt onto a solder and slashed his abdomen.
"Oh, do tell me you are off of that idea that I have wronged you in some way."
"You have wronged me," Solembum said as he bit down on a solder's arm, jerking it so the bones cracked, "more than is within my ability to describe."
"How so?" Hola asked with slight indignation as she kicked a solder's chest plate with enough force to crush the man's chest. "Your father lives to this day. I did not kill him."
"Not because of my father," he growled. "You left."
"What?" Hola asked with a laugh. "You're angry with me because your father banished me from the pack because I was more human and wolf than werecat? That is not even remotely my fault."
"No," he said in such a harsh voice she scarcely understood him. "I loved you, Hola."
Hola's shock nearly cost an arm. A solder hacked at her as she gaped at him. She stepped back one step before pushing forward with all her strength and hit the man in his stomach, ignoring the hardened steel.
The captain was the only man that remained, the others having either fled or died. He swallowed past the lump in his throat and raised his saber and charged them. Before he got even ten feet, Hola threw a knife at him which stabbed him in the neck. When all was still she turned Solembum and said, "Did I hear you right? You...loved me?"
"Note the past tense," he growled. "Then you went traipsing off with that bumbling human Aesire." He flicked his tail and turned away, walking away several paces.
"Solembum," she said after a moment. "Perhaps when we were younger I did feel affection for you that went beyond childhood companions." An image of Nasuada appeared in her mind. "But now Aesire holds my heart and no matter what he does he will always be my one and only love, for I am his one and only love."
He turned to look back at her and said, "Oh yes, that is very self evident in regards to Nasuada, isn't it?"
Hola's tail bristled. "How did you know of that?"
"The things Angela can find out surprises me as well," he said dryly.
"Be that as it may, I do not wish to see you in pain. Abandon your affections for me and pursue another."
"Have you any idea how few werecats there are now?"
"I am in love with a human. In fact, I am expecting his child. What stops you from doing the same?"
"My family would refuse to acknowledge my existence if I did that."
"Just as I have forsaken the caring of my family's view of me, so can you. Besides, it would hardly please your family if you took me, would it? Indeed it would enrage them more if you took me than a human, for I have been banished."
After a long moment he turned back to her. "Your words make sense to my mind but not my heart. I doubt I will ever truly destroy all of the feelings I had for you."
"So long as you can love another that is alright."
"I would have gone with you, you know. When you were banished, I would have gone with if you had only asked."
"My name was tarnished by my parent's choices. Why would I force the same onto you?"
WHAT DOES AESIRE PLAN TO DO? WHAT WILL HAPPEN BETWEEN HOLA AND AESIRE? HOW WILL THE FIGHT WITH GALBATORIX COME TO ITS CONCLUSION? WHY DO CHICKEN NUGGETS TASTE SO INCOMPLETE WITHOUT KETCHUP? ALL THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE WILL BE ANSWERED IN THE NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT OF...THIS BOOK!
Did you know that it takes more money to buy a car today than it did for Christopher Columbus to completely outfit and undertake three voyages to and from the New World? Did you know the word windy does not appear as a name in the whole of recorded time until Peter Pan? Did you know that if you add the number 1-100 consecutively the result is 5050? Did you know when the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
Lastly, this one surprised me. I'm not positive if it's true or not, so don't quote me, but I can see this being real: In 1945 there were two manufactures that were responsible for the creation of the atomic bombs which were dropped in Japan on the August of that year. The companies were rivaled so much that they simultaneously broke away from expensive bomb creation to make something much more money earning because it had so many more people to buy and use it. Today, the companies are referred to as Mitsubishi and Chevrolet.