I have no excuse for not updating beyond general laziness. Sorry!
Also, thanks to The M. H. T. of R for helping out with the Eldunari/Eldunarya thing. Eldunari always reminded of cacti, so I thought it was plural for the longest time. I've gone back and edited the chapter to correct that.
The Burning Plains is a really uncreative name, if you ask me. I mean, seriously, who names some place the Burning Plains?
Anyways, the stupid plains were just a two-mile stretch of rock and sand and stuff, without any plants but moss and fungi. There were also occasional spurts of fire for no reason. Also, it was on the eastern side of this big river, called Jet or something, and there were two armies on opposite ends of the plains. The southern army was the Varden's and Surdans', and the northern one was Gabriel's. I noticed that the good guys' camp was buried behind layers of defenses of some sort, but Gabriel's army was at least three miles across and over twice the side of the rebels.
We dove through the cloud layer, then through the big mobs of vultures and eagles and ravens that had gathered, right at the good guys' camp.
"Epic and dramatic entrance," I muttered to myself. "Happens every time in every cliché story in the world. Ooh, look, the arrows! And I'm talking to myself again." Yeah, I was most likely going mad. I don't think it would've made much of a difference.
The six of us were in Surda. In front of us was a big encampment and a long row of archers stood in front of it with arrows pointed at us. But none of us really cared about that last part, since we all have da Force.
One idiot fired an arrow. All the other idiots followed his example.
I rolled out of the way of the first arrow, and Fritos and Rillon both said "Blah blah blah!" at the same time. The rest of the arrows all stopped in midair for a fraction of a second then dropped to the ground. One arrow, fired after the rest, was caught by Eragon as it flew by him. Show-off.
We landed, and Eragon, Fritos, and Rillon jumped off Saphira.
Some guy hurried over.
"Don't stand there gawking, you buffoons!" he called over his shoulder at the archer sentries. "Get back to your posts!" Then he turned to us. "Sorry, Eragon, sir," he said. "I'm ashamed that you were attacked like that. I'm having those responsible punished."
"Don't," Eragon answered. "Here, give this arrow to Harwin. I believe it's his."
"Oh, err, yes, Argetlam, alright," said the guy, looking confused. He quickly regained his composure, though, took the arrow, handed it to another random person with a few whispered words, then turned back to us. "How did you know we moved to Surda?"
He shrugged. "I have my ways."
"He means we told him," I cut in.
"Who're-" the man began, then saw my wings and Pigeon's, swore loudly, and drew his sword. Fritos stepped in front of him and knocked the sword out of his hand.
The man stared at Fritos, too stunned at seeing an elf to pick up his sword. Eragon quickly said, "Fredric, could you take us to Ajihad?"
"What? Oh, yes, Eragon. Follow me." He stared at Fritos, me, Pigeon, and Rillon suspiciously for another five seconds, then picked up his sword, turned, and led us through the camp. A few random slackers came and watched us. They really should know that it's not polite to stare. Anyways, we stopped at a large red command tent somewhere in the middle of the place. The guy called Fredric pulled back the flap, ushered us in, then ran off to do whatever it was that he was doing. Saphira stuck her head in behind us.
In the tent was a big table. Standing at one end was Ajihad, with some person who looked like his daughter next to him. Arya, Orik, and a purple-eyed kid that looked about two also stood beside the table. There were a bunch of maps and things spread out on the surface.
The adults all looked up, while the kid just looked bored. Ajihad's eyes widened, the woman's jaw dropped open, Orik nearly dropped his axe, and Arya looked stunned. She recovered the moment she saw Fritos. Without a word, she pulled out her sword and charged at him. Then I remembered that since Islanzadi was her mom, then the guy Fritos had killed must be her dad. No wonder she looked so mad.
Fritos seemed to have been expecting her reaction, because he ducked as Arya swung her sword at him. Almost easily, he grabbed her sword arm and twisted. The blade clattered to the ground. Arya tried to twist out of his grip, but to no avail. Sometimes I wonder just how much Creepy enhanced his abilities.
"Blah," said Fritos.
"Blah," Arya snapped.
"Blah," Fritos said.
Arya whispered something, and blobs of light floated out of the ground to form an orb floating in front of her. It looked familiar for some reason. Then she used the sword (which she had just picked up), pricked her finger (with a sword?), and dripped a single droplet of blood onto the sphere. The golden light pulsed dark red and the blood almost seemed to be absorbed into it. Arya then put her unwounded hand on the thing and said, "Blah blah Yehutksfbirygfshfb blah." Then she pressed down on the orb, and the light dropped. The earth bubbled around it, somehow, and the ball sank into the ground.
There was a rather tense pause. Only Arya, Fritos, Rillon, and the kid seemed to know what had just happened, so the rest of us were just standing there looking stupid. Eragon and Saphira seemed to have understood some of what they had just said, and Ajihad and Orik both looked like they were trying to remember something important, but failing.
Then Rillon let out a strangled cry, breaking the awkward silence, and said disbelievingly, "Blah."
Arya ignored him, still glaring at Fritos. If looks could kill, he'd have died five minutes ago.
Fritos looked as calm as he always did. Stupid elves. "Blah blah blah."
I'm not sure how that was possible, but Arya's gaze was even more hate-filled than before.
"That was bad, right?" I asked cautiously.
"Yes, Dusk, that was bad," said Fritos, somehow managing to hold Arya's gaze without flinching. "She has just sworn to kill me."
"Well, that is bad," I confirmed, as everyone else jumped.
Ajihad managed to call everyone to order with another fist to the table. "Alright, I want to know what this is about," he said commandingly. "Eragon, where are Brom and Murtagh, how did your expedition go, where did you find those two elves, Dusk, and the boy, and how did you know we had come to Surda? Arya, what is your feud with that elf?"
Arya spat at Fritos' feet. "He killed my father." I burst out coughing, and Arya glared at me.
"Is that true?" Ajihad demanded.
"I don't deny it," said Fritos.
The kid gave a chuckle and said in a freaky adult voice that made Eragon and Saphira and Pigeon jump, "And he doesn't regret it either."
Fritos gave the kid a curious look, then agreed, "No, I do not regret my actions. But does this matter now? Is the Empire's army not more important? This can be discussed later, but Galbatorix's soldiers will not wait."
Ajihad looked at him for a few more moments, then turned to Arya. "Arya, do you trust him enough to finish this battle first?"
"He is a wanted criminal in Du Weldenvarden. The queen herself placed a bounty on him."
"Wait," I interrupted. "Do elves even have anything to do bounties with? Like, don't you not have currency or something?"
"Are you implying that my race is poor?"
"Well, yeah, that's typically what 'no money' means- I mean, no! Definitely not! You're all rich with, uh, air. And stuff. Keep talking."
She ignored me and kept on talking, thankfully. Do elves just not understand sarcasm or something? "As I was saying, there is a bounty on him."
"So you will not work with him."
"Under any conditions."
"Under any conditions," Ajihad repeated. "Well, elf, I'm sorry about this, but we are going to have to keep you here until after the battle. The elves have helped us immensely in the past, and we have never yet returned that debt. This seems like a good time to do so."
Fritos laughed. I shuffled away a bit. I didn't like it when elves laughed. They look all blank and then they randomly start laughing. It's creepy. "I will leave now, Ajihad. I think I have overstayed my welcome." He gave a mocking bow, nothing like he had done with Creepy, and then vanished.
Ajihad immediately ordered some magicians to see if he was still hiding somewhere in the camp, then told Eragon to say what had happened after he left Farthen Dur.
Eragon talked about how they had been ambushed near Furnost and how Brom and Murtagh had been captured by Durza, how they had spent days crossing the Empire's lands, and the rest I tuned out on because I already knew it all.
Then he finally finished, and Ajihad said, "This is bad news. With Brom and Murtagh captured, Galbatorix must know everything about the Varden now." He looked thoughtful instead of worried.
They kept talking, and since I was bored, I went and started playing with my mind.
Hey, you know there's going to be a big fight, right? Do you mind not bothering me right now? I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I'm not sure whether I should help fight or not.
Creepy broke through my mental front gates and stopped. You have been busy.
Yeah, you could call it that. I had managed to organize my mind into a sprawling memory city. In front of Creepy were two memories shaped like human soldiers with spears of lame music. I gave them a few orders, and they lowered the spears and stepped back, letting Creepy in without resistance. Each memory was like a person, walking around on the mind streets. The larger, more important memories lived in bigger, fancier mansions, while the smaller memories were divided between normal houses, cardboard and metal homes, and hobos, based on their importance. So, what do you want now? My voice echoed around the whole city. The memory people ignored it and just went about their business.
Where do you store your magic?
Why do you care?
There is something you must know.
I sighed. Concentrating, I managed to make myself a little memory body and swirled into existence in front of Creepy. I copied Du Draumr Kopa and made myself look like a floating ball of light. Making myself look like I do in real life was too hard, so I just got lazy and made this little body, I explained. How d'you like the city?
It is interesting, was all she said. I hate it how nobody appreciates all my hard work.
Right, so, I'll just be watching from the sidelines. See that guy over there, the soldier dude? It waved its spear of bad fanfiction to get Creepy's attention. Yeah, just follow it. It'll take you to the core.
I withdrew and let the soldiers handle it. Roran was just giving an inspirational speech to the soldiers. Inspirational, but boring. I slunk away and aimlessly wandered through the camp, listening to Creepy, who had already reached the glass sphere of black magic. It was in the very middle of the city, and the only way to get to it was by reaching the center, going down an elevator to the undermind, and getting past about fifty soldiers. Yeah, I have an awesome mind.
How many words of magic do you know?
I peeked at my magic deposit box. Five.
You do not need them. You do not need any words at all to use magic. The words focus your energy, but you can do with that your mind as well. For instance, you could make a tree grow into the shape you wanted it to either with just your mind or by singing to it in the old language. However, just a small lapse in concentration, and the tree could become what you might not want it to be, and if you concentrated on something else, then your magic would transfer as well.
Oh, so now you tell me.
I focused on burning a conveniently placed wooden post in front of me. The wood caught on fire. And the fire was black. How cliché. Just as I thought that, a nearby tent caught on creepy black fire. Curses and screams came out of it.
"Oops." I put out the fire.
You need practice. Creepy dumped a few memories onto the ground before leaving. The memory soldiers closed and barred the mental front gates when she was out.
I looked through the memories. They basically showed me how to concentrate and not let my mind wander while I was doing magic. Useful things. I made them into little memory people and built a few mansions for them, then left them to their stuff.
Bored, I continued randomly strolling around the camp and getting on people's nerves. I nearly ran into Arya, but quickly dodged out of the way. She was still fuming about Fritos, and the last thing I wanted was to bump into her when she was in a bad mood.
A few minutes later, I saw the creepy kid with purple eyes. She was sneaking around for some reason or other, but looked up when I went near.
"Hi," I said. "Your eyes are purple. Are you sure you don't have some sort of eye disease?"
She glared at me and said in her adult voice, "And your eyes are brown. Are you sure you don't have some sort of eye disease?"
"Brown's a normal color. Lots of people have brown eyes. I think only some albinos have purple eyes. Or they might be red. I'm not sure."
"What's an albino?"
"You're not one. And I'm bored again."
"You're bored? There's about to be a big battle, and you're bored?"
"Yeah. I already know nothing bad'll happen to me. I'm a main character and a Mary Sue. Nothing bad can ever happen to me."
"Huh?"
"Nothing bad'll happen to Pigeon either. Or Eragon. Or Saphira. Or Arya. I'm not so sure about Ajihad or his daughter or anybody else though."
The kid held up a hand, then, a few seconds later, she said, "You're right. Nothing bad is going to happen to any of you, except Eragon. Eragon is going to be emotionally scarred. Oh, and the boy with the red wings. He's going to suffer from... love. Most of this army is going to be suffering from love after the battle. I don't know how that is going to happen. Ajihad will die, but he is going to die next Tuesday evening from disease." She said the part about Eragon way too cheerfully.
"Oh... Hey, wait, how do you know all that?"
"Ask Eragon."
"On second thought, I don't think I care any more. You know, kid, I like you. You're about the only person here I can have an intelligent conversation with."
"Being around you isn't bad either. You never seem to get hurt, and you don't suffer from anything. Except your leg is injured. You limp."
"Wait, I limp? I do?" I took a few steps. It was barely noticeable, but now that the kid mentioned it, I guess I did limp slightly. Or maybe I only pretended to notice it because she had pointed out. Probably the second one. "Oh, I guess I do limp, kinda. Not really. Hey, what's you name? I'm Dusk."
"Elva."
"Well, that's cliché, but I guess I'll just accept that, since everything around here is cliché. Your name isn't that bad when I compare it to Eragon, at least.
"Hey, by the way, don't you think we should tell Ajihad that he'll die next Tuesday?"
"He'll still die. What's the point?"
"What are you going to be doing during the battle?"
Elva shrugged.
"That's fun. I was thinking of screwing with Galby's soldiers' minds, since a dagger won't do anything in a war unless I was a dwarf, and I can't handle armor. I don't know how to move in it. Too heavy and clumsy."
"How are you going to mess up their minds? There are magicians shielding them."
"Easy. I get past the magician and make the soldiers think they're in hell. Or a flower garden. Or maybe drowning. Or I can just constantly send them the sound of chalk scraping against a chalkboard. It's really not that hard. Or I could just kill them."
"For a hundred thousand soldiers?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, not a hundred thousand! I can deal with maybe about twenty or thirty at a time."
"That is still a lot."
"Mm hmm, yeah it is. By the way, I think I'm bored again."
"We've already established that. But you can go that way if you want." She pointed. "It might stop you from being bored."
"It will? Oh, sweet, thanks. Bye! Nice meeting you."
I wandered off in the direction Elva had suggested. Pretty soon, I smelled something that reminded me of spoiled fish. Then there was a very loud noise. I hurried over, and I was definitely not bored when I saw what had just happened. Angela and Eragon were just standing there, Eragon looked confuzzled and Angela looking pretty mad.
The side of Eragon's face had a bright red hand mark on it, which explained the loud noise.
Angela started yelling at him. "You blockhead! Did you see what you did to that girl?"
"What did I do to who?" he demanded angrily.
"You moron!" Angela screeched. "You don't know what you did to that girl, that girl you 'blessed' in Farthen Dur? She suffers every moment of every day, because of you! You and your so-called blessing! She suffers the pain of every person around her, and she can predict when someone is going to be hurt, and she is compelled to stop it and help the other person! I've watched over her all this time, and I've seen what happens to her if she doesn't try to help someone! And this is in the middle of a war zone, you sorry excuse for a Dragon Rider! A war! There are all of those ill people she has to deal with, and the wounded, and she probably had to feel what I just did to you as well! So don't you get angry with me, boy! You deserved it."
"I blessed her! How is that a bad thing?"
"Blessed? Blessed? If that was a blessing, then toads aren't frogs! And I've already proven that they are! No, you blockhead, that was a curse, and a horrible one at that! You condemned an innocent girl to a horrible fate! And-"
She shouted at him for a bit more, something about Urgals and idiocy running in the family and some more stuff about blockheads. She was better at insulting people than I had thought.
"Still bored?" Elva said from behind me.
"Not really. You know, this is actually pretty fun. I don't think Eragon even knows what's going on."
"He doesn't," the kid confirmed. She grinned evilly. "Not yet. But he's going to." She walked casually out and headed over to Angela's tent.
Elva's voice doesn't carry very well, so I just walked off since I couldn't hear what was going on. I was slightly less bored. Slightly. Not a lot.
Randomly, I wandered over to the training square place thing. It was a big clearing with no tents, a few straw dummies, some archery targets, and there was an extremely large pile of weapons behind about ten people who were passing them out and there was another pile of training weapons next to the dummies.
Most people had on chainmail or leather with a spear and large shield, but there was the occasional person with a bow and a quiver of arrows. A few people were training on the field. Pigeon was one, and he was only wearing leather armor. A bow and a quiver of arrows were on his back, and in his hand was one of the wooden training swords. He was fighting some guy using a spear and one of the big shields, and he was losing pretty badly. Still, it was a pretty unfair fight for him.
Then some guy came over, looking embarrassed, and said, "They want you at the command tent."
"Okay."
Meanwhile, in some conveniently large cave in the middle of an unspecified location, Grimrr Halfpaw, bleeding from numerous injuries, tore off half the werecat queen's ear as the werecats around him watched silently.
Vronle Halfear screeched in pain, and King Halfpaw stepped away from her and walked out of the cave without a backwards glance. When he returned the next day, the werecats would be doing the same things they always did as if nothing had changed, and Vronle would be wandering the country, covered in blood and half-dead from exhaustion.
And when she finally collapsed, she would regain consciousness fully healed except for the missing part of her ear, and the Lady would have another werecat in her service.