Disconnected, I ignore the arms holding me up, pulling my hands away until a soothing feeling spreads through my mind.
Grace.
Gulping, I open my eyes and I expect to see sympathising faces but instead, I am surrounded by a group of stern faces – mostly emotionless, like Blodgharm's. I release my pent up breath and pretend to be casual but Blodgharm, who was the one who had intruded – impolitely by his standards – upon mind, knows that all is not well and asks the young man who had triggered the agonizing replay of the worst moments of my life if I had been assigned a room yet.
A lovely musical voice rings out clearly and announces, "Mrs Schmidt can stay for as long as possible, and I have personally seen to it that she has a room that will hopefully be to her liking. May I ask of her health? She seems to be...out of sorts?"
Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I choke down my stupid feelings and answer because I am alive and I do exist after all. "I'm perfectly fine with you asking me about anything, seeing as I'll be staying here, you know. I'm okay really, just a bad head ache that's been irritating me for a while. And I beg you, just call me Grace from now and on, it makes me feel old when you talk to me formally!"
The man (who still hasn't introduced himself) laughs out loud and retorts saying, "Well Grace, my name is Eragon and you may call me by that too. I think I shall leave you to rest; a maid will arrive soon to guide you – ah, here she is. Farewell, and sleep early as I want to talk to you in the morning."
Indicating that I should follow her, a girl of around thirteen or fourteen appears in front of me wearing clothes that are considerably old-fashioned. She had a somewhat grubby apron on top of her grey woollen pinafore with cotton tights of the same colour – it doesn't look amazing but it's probably very comfortable.
As we walk down the corridors a realisation strikes me; the castle was almost twice as big as it looked from the outside! This makes me remember Doctor Who's Tardis and I burst out giggling uncontrollably – imagine this lot watching Doctor Who! Or having televisions for that matter. The girl looks back at me, her brow rising as she does so and I stop, thinking how she must feel leading this seemingly unstable lady down a castle that's obviously at least ten times her worth.
At last, we stop outside a door that was higher than me by approximately two feet, and I'm pretty tall – last time I checked, I was 5"9 or something around that measurement. I'd already tried to start a conversation while we were walking more than once – unsuccessfully – but now the girl actually talks freely, "This is your room, you'll have everything in there ready for you and if you need me, just ring the bell."
Then she leaves, just like that.
A/N: The next few chapters are also short, I'm sorry but I don't have time for anything over 700 words that's actually quality so I guess this will have to be enough. Anyway, I'm posting a chapter everyday now :D PLEASE REVIEW!