Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

First, the legal one: All the characters belong not to me, but to Christopher Paolini. I've also borrowed a few charas from other writers (including J.R.R. Tolkien) and movie characters from various films. They don't belong to me either.

I don't make money with this story.

First of all, I like Eragon stories, often enough to write them in Fanfiktion.de. But in 2009 I tried it with a somewhat nasty parody in which a lot is pulled through the cocoa. So have fun reading and I'm happy about reviews.

I published this story in German in 2009 on Fanfiktion.de in Germany. My local Nick name is Deira.

Selena, a young woman from the small village of Carvahall, covered the sleeping baby in his basket before turning to her brother Garrow. 

"I'm going to go now. They also understand that I have to try.... this time it's the right man, I'm sure!

"Like last time," Garrow cursed angrily. "And my Marian and I must take care of your son now! Wonderful, we have just gone through the sleepless nights with our Roran, and now it starts again with your Eribon!"

"Eragon! The boy's name is Eragon, Garrow!" Selena corrected her brother and looked at the door of the small hut. 

A young, brown-burned man in good clothes stood there and looked at her impatiently. "Come now, Selena, before this bellows... I mean, your baby is still starting to roar. I don't like that kind of thing!"

"Yes, Orlando!" Selena sighed, giving the young man a loving smile before turning to Garrow again.

"I'm sure I'll be back soon. But Orlando is the love of my life. It is different from Morzan. Or Johnny. Or Jacky. He is nice, accommodating, friendly..."

"Come now! I don't have time to stand around all day!" interrupted Orlando, the young woman who stroked her baby's cheek again. "If only I could remember your father! I know I shouldn't have been drinking that much. That was a mistake. I just remember drowning my grief in the wine with bromine after I left Johnny. He kept giving me new wine and then brought me home.... but bromine can hardly be your father. He's not the kind of man I usually prefer.... no, it's impossible."

"Selena! Finally here! I want to go!" the impatient Orlando cursed, sipping on his wine hose. Wine ran down his chin and soiled his shirt.

The young woman went to the door and took Orlando's hand. "Come on, darling. We have a good time ahead of us. I believe that we will be doing very well in Teirm. And when we have settled in, we bring my little Eragon to us!"

"That's what you believe in," Orlando grinned, suggesting that you were knocking on selena's buttospitas as they left the house.

Shaking his head, Garrow looked after his sister before taking the little boy out of his cradle.

"Well, Eribo, your mother doesn't even know who your father is. Let's think about it, first there was this mysterious, dark-haired man from the forest who was constantly fascinated by a ring. Unfortunately, he didn't mean a wedding ring for your mother. What was his name again? I think Strider  or something. Or was it Gammler? No idea, that was five years ago. He was still quite decent, even though he finds outwardly of the kind of man selena so attractive. He should have washed himself..."

Garrow rocked little Eragon, who woke the baby, and he began to whine, while Garrow intensified the momentum a little, hoping to calm the child down. He had never made it with his now two-year-old son Roran, but every baby was different. 

He remembered other great loves of his sister Selena.

"After this unwashed ranger had left, she brought this shady man to us with the parrot on his shoulder. Allegedly the captain of a ship... through him she probably discovered her fondness for drunken adventurers. The next was Morzan, who always claimed to be a dragon rider. She went with him. But then she fell in love again and had enough of this would-be dragon rider and left Uru'baen with a man named Johnny, who by the way is said to look very similar to the captain of the ship Jacky. In the end, he was not the great love, and eventually Brom kindly brought her home."

Garrow tickled the baby on the chin and his whining increased to a loud roar. 

"But Brom can hardly be your father.... that would be too silly. He is a little funny, but he is nice, decent, polite, helpful.... No, Selana likes drunken adventurers with long dark hair who smell a little strict and talk stupid stuff. They pretend to be either secret kings, ship captains, or dragon riders. What is Orlando? I think a driving singer or something..... Men must be suntanned, and in no case should they be too polite. Whoever stops his door has already lost..... Yes, Eborim, you have a difficult life ahead of you. A mother who doesn't care about you and runs away with her lover, and I'd bet you're not her only child."

A young woman holding a roaring boy in her arms entered the hut. "I was at the butcher! Sloan loves our little Roran very much! He says he appreciates children who have a loud voice. He complains that his daughter is always so calm! He asked if the two should not be paired at some point.

I don't like this Katrina! She slammed me on the shoes the other day!" complained Garrow, pushing the infant into his wife's free arm.

"Here, hold the little Eroboso!"

"His name is Eragon, Garrow!" Marian corrected her husband with a smile. "Like this man from the forest, with whom Selena fell in love at the time. The one who everyone else Strider always calle.

"Do you think he could be the Father? Maybe Selena saw him again after she left Morzan because of Johnny?" Garrow asked thoughtfully.d a string or something. It was similar in sound!"

His wife laughed. "You know what, I just had a very funny thought. What if Brom....

Garrow grinned. "I don't think anyone seriously thinks this is possible! No, the little one's father is either this ranger named Strider , the captain of this ship, his parrot, Morzan the alleged dragon rider or Johnny.... perhaps someone completely unknown. But not Brom! Selena doesn't like such men!" 

Some characterists behave a little differently than in the book

Chapter Text

Nearly sixteen years had passed since Selena left her son with his uncle Garrow. His nephew's name still caused trouble for his uncle, but he had become accustomed to being often referred to as Eribo, Noregon or Edwin.

Selena had not reappeared in all this time, but Eragon had befriended the village's storyteller, Brom.

Eragon also laughed heartily at the idea that his uncle and aunt had once thought of considering this storyteller as his father. The boy thought this was completely out of the question.

Fortunately, Selena wrote a letter from time to time. She hasn't lived with Orlando for a long time.
Eragon's mother was not alone. Since Teirm was a port city, she often met nice, friendly, always drunken gentlemen who were thrown out of taverns and took them home to take care of her bruises.
"She's a very good person! My dear mother takes care of the wounded, who are being let down everywhere," Eragon thought affectionately, folding together his mother's last letter, which Marian had read to him shortly before.

"Roran, please help me cover the table!" Eragon's aunt Marian asked his cousin, giving her nephew a warning look. "You're going over there, please, and you're not going to touch anything!"

"I also want to help! You never let me do anything," Eragon protested, reaching for the pot that hung over the fire and in which a vegetable soup bubbled.

The pot almost burned Eragon, who had forgotten to use a pot holder.
"Aua!" he screamed, and the pot fell to the ground and broke. The contents almost went over Eragon's feet, fortunately he jumped to the side in time, but collided with his cousin and tore him to the ground.

Roran instinctively grabbed a chair, but instead he got to grab the table leg and it tipped to the side. The plates that Marian had already placed were broken.

Sighing, they tied their hands and shook their heads. "That's why you shouldn't touch anything here! You know, it's not going well! Remember when you wanted to help outside. There you broke a foot when you stumbled across the basket with the carrots. And if you wanted to chop wood, you almost cut off a finger."

"And when he wanted to hang up the laundry, the leash was ripped and the laundry fell into a puddle," Roran said with a grin.

"Eragon, I don't like to say it, but I don't like to lie. You are a fool!

"I'm not! They were just stupid coincidences!" said Eragon in a bad mood, reaching for a cup of water that was standing next to him on the table, which had been set up again. Of course, he knocked him over and the water poured on his aunt's apron.

"Well, let's say..... a little clumsy.... Fool sounds too hard!" said Marian with a sigh.

Garrow, meanwhile, entered the hut with a snarling belly and looked around. He noticed the broken pot, the shards of which Marian had already swept together, because she had not dared to press the brooms into her nephew's hand.
There was too much danger that he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye or hit his cousin with the stalk.

"Did Noribo help you with tablecloths?" asked Garrow, pointing to the shards.

He looked at his wife with accusations. "We agreed that we didn't want to do anything like this anymore! We must not put the boy in danger of life!"

"I'm not clumsy!" Eragon defended himself, and his aunt patted his cheek. "Of course not, sweetheart. You were just a little unlucky...."

"Who does he have that from?" garrow asked, sighing. ""That's not how it is of my part of the family!"

There was a knock on the door and a loud swearing rang out. "Aua! Damn wood!

"That's Brom! He wanted to come over tonight and practice reading with me! He thinks I should be able to do something like this, it wouldn't hurt!" exclaimed Eragon, trying to open the door. His aunt held him by the arm before looking at her son. "Roran you open! There are a few shoes.... not that our Eragon stumbles!

Roran opened the door and Brom stepped in. He rubbed his leg and Eragon saw that the firewood that Garrow had piled up next to the door had fallen over.

"Sorry with your wood, Garrow!" said Brom, sitting down at the table with Marian and Eragon.

"But I didn't see it. That is, I've seen it before..... no idea how this could happen to me. But that is not yet the case with the accident I had this morning! I wanted to wash myself in the river and slipped. I almost hit my head...."

Eragon was pleased that he wasn't the only one who seemed to be haunted by bad luck. Was that why he forgets so well with Brom? This one, too, suffered one mishap after another.

"Do we want to practice reading now?" he asked, and the storyteller nodded. He pulled out an old book and opened it.

Eragon's cousin shook his head a little mockingly. "So, what that's good for, I'd really like to know. For my part, I can't do anything with something like that! I'd much rather be a great warrior! Like the legendary Legolas or this man with the mask who always wore black and fought against the evil mayor. Or the famous bandit Robin, who lived in the forest and attacked the rich to give it to the poor!"

Marian looked at her son very hard. "So these are not prospects! Warrior! It's not a good job. Next, you want to be a dragon rider, what? They no longer exist. And I hope you don't really want to become a bandit in the forest. Think of all the bugs crawling around! They're stuck in your clothes and I've got to watch them get them out! No, you're learning something right! Finish your training as a butcher at Sloan, who is so satisfied with you that he even wants to give you his daughter as your wife!"

Roran shook his head and looked at his mother almost defiantly. "He wants to impose his daughter on me. He says I should marry her and then take over his butcher's shop. But I don't want that! I can't bear it! She's intrusive and runs after me. You.... get on my nerves!"

Brom laughed briefly and slapped Roran on the shoulder. Unfortunately, the young man swallowed a piece of apple, which he just bite and got a coughing fit.

Unmoved, the storyteller said, "When cute little Katrina gets on your nerves, you don't want to know how much King Galbatorix is likely to suffer from his wife Kriemhilda. Her first husband was a famous dragon slayer. She is not the wisest, but she commands him what to do. No one can believe that. But it is."

Chapter Text

Get King Galbatorix the two dragon eggs in his hands back and forth.

"I wanted you to slip," he muttered with a sigh. "I would be so good to you. I would feed you, teach you how to fly, teach you how funny it is to light a city when there are noisy elves in it.... all these things that a young dragon needs to know. But you don't want to slip!"

He laid the eggs in a small chest, where there was once a blue egg, and closed the lid.

Then he sighed again and decided to welcome the son of an old friend Morzan. He had his birthday today and Galbatorix had already thought half-jokingly and half seriously about letting him touch the dragon eggs.

Perhaps he should actually do so in the not-too-distant future? After all, his father was already a dragon rider.

King Galbatorix entered his dining room, which the servants had already covered abundantly. He took a seat at the top of the table and sighed as he watched the food. "Salad! Salad, tomato salad and dry bread. Not even wine for me... it's really cruel! And that's just because Krimhilda thinks I am.... too fat!"

He recalled with discomfort how much his wife had insulted him when, to his sorrow, he realized that he no longer fit into the armor he had once worn when he fought and won against Vrael, the former Grandmaster of Dragon Riders.

"But Krimhilda, that was a hundred years ago..... You don't look like you used to," he disagreed.

"I wasn't even born at the time, Galbatorix!" Krimhilda had mockingly replied, piercing his index finger in his stomach. "But you are a mighty dragon rider and also the king of Alagaesia. You have to pay attention to your appearance! Or would you like to enter the anals of the land as "The Fat King"?

This remark had hurt Galbatorix greatly, and he had directed all his anger at a spy captured that day and had him executed. After walking the man, he felt a little more comfortable again.

But now, at the sight of dinner, he felt very unhappy again and he hoped that the renunciation of meat and sweets would soon lead to an improvement in his appearance. Above all, he did not want to have to hear Krimhildas biting remarks evening after evening.

"Shruikan, am I heavier than I used to be?" he asked his black dragon, which he had once tied to himself with black magic.

The dragon's voice sounded dissatisfied." No, Galbatorix! But you keep asking me! You're constantly climbing on my back and I've got to fly with you just to find out if you've lost weight! I don't like it anymore. It goes..... on my nerves!"

The king of Alagaesia sighed when the door opened, and Murtagh, the son of his late best friend Morzan, came in.

He was followed by two giggling young girls, who had to be around the age of the young man. Both wore precious clothes and their brown hair hung over their backs as braids.

Murtagh sat down at the table and the girls took a seat to the left and right of him.

The king then noticed that the young women obviously had to be twins, they resembled each other like one egg to another.

One of them giggled, but then she pointed sadly to the table. 

"I was so looking forward to delicious food and now there's only salad! But I don't like that!"

"Well, Patricia, don't be sad. It's not that bad," Murtagh replied, then lowered his voice, but Galbatorix still heard what he said to the young woman.
"The King suffers from... Obesity. Everyone noticed it and talked about it. And now his wife has prescribed him this new way of feeding. That is why we must also pay attention to our diet. Otherwise we will look like him at some point...."

Galbatorix was outraged. This bengel was outrageous.  Did he have no respect for the most powerful creature in Alagaesia?Before him, the conqueror of the dragon riders? The ruler of the known world?

Murtagh schwieg und beide Mädchen kuschelten sich bis zu einer seiner Schultern. "Ich bin sehr dankbar für diese Einladung", sagte der junge Mann nach einem peinlichen Moment der Stille, als sich die Tür öffnete und Königin Krimhilda den Raum betrat.

She wore a white dress and her hair was braided into long golden braids.

She sat down at the other table and waved to a servant. "Bring another meal for me and the guests! I want Goose! And bring us wine. And cake! But for the king please water..."

Galbatorix made it seem as if he wanted to slap his head on the tabletop, but then he caught himself again and gave Queen Crimehilda a beaming smile. "My dear, I am glad that you are joined by us! I wouldn't have expected that! But maybe Murtagh introduces us to his lovely companions!"

In silence, the king was annoyed with Murtagh, who had a reputation for literally persecuting the handsome ladies and young nobles. 

In silence, the king was annoyed with Murtagh, who had a reputation for literally persecuting the handsome ladies and young nobles. Galbatorix suspected that the legacy of his mother, Selena, who had eaten every handsome man with eyes, was smothered. 

Morzan had brought her once and was very angry when she left him. So angry that he no longer cared about the dragon eggs and it became possible to steal them. Generously, Galbatorix had forgiven this mistake and was content to lock the dragon rider for a week without food in the dungeon.

"Poor Morzan, and then he was to bring back my stolen dragon egg and died. There are rumours that Brom accidentally killed him.... it cannot have been intentional. Brom was awkward, fell from his dragon Sapphire on his first riding lesson and broke an arm. In the second attempt, the saddle kurte was torn... I know that from Morzan."

Meanwhile, the king's guest pointed at his two companions and smiled as he introduced them. "These are Patricia and Isabell. They are twins, I like them both very much.... I always call them Patty and Isy...."

The Queen waved and laughed briefly when a thought came to her. "My first husband, who was a great hero, about whom songs are still written today, was always mentioned by me only by his nickname. I always called him Siggi. Oh yes, my Siggi. He was a great man. Slim and he was so strong. He was so brave.... my Siggi! He was a dragon slayer!"

King Galbatorix rose and lifted his water glass, while the others were served a good meal.

"I imagine the land of Alagaesia beautifully. It is to become a thriving kingdom in which everyone has something on their plate every day. A country where the Urgals kill no one, no criminals like the Varden, bully the good citizens and no more innocent husbands are tormented with lettuce by their wives....

"How please?" the Queen interrupted her husband, whose voice had taken on an adorable sound.

"The country should prosper..."

The Queen yawned and the others threatened to fall asleep. When King Galbatorix had finished his speech after a long time, Murtagh struggled to fall asleep, and only Isy, who tickled his neck, pulled him out of his near-sleep. 

Patty rested  on his other side.

"Murtagh, I just asked you if you are ready to help me realize my dream!" said the king a little impatiently.

"Please? Oh.... Yes, of course!" the young man hurried to say, even if he did not know exactly, but he was to help.

"Wonderful!" said Galbatorix, his stomach growling as his wife and table neighbors enjoyed the good food.

"I hate salad," Galbatorix thought unhappily.

Chapter Text

Durza was a shade, one of the most vicious and devious creatures in Alagaesia. To his regret, he was not entirely volunteer in the service of the king, and in his order he crouched behind the bushes with ten urgals, waiting for riders carrying a precious subject.

Durza didn't really want to be here, he would have liked to have spent his time differently. Sighing, he looked up to the sky. A storm was imminent, and he liked it. 
He could have sat down in his bed, covered warmly and read a good book. A pretty book about romantic vampires who discovered their love for human girls. Perhaps also an enchanting story about young warlocks who flew through the night with their brooms....

Instead, he had to deal with these urgals and wait for three elves. Life really wasn't fair to him.

Unfortunately, he had once had to swear allegiance to galbatorix because he had lost a card game against Morzan, the king's eternally drunk, best friend. The dragon rider had understood something about the card game. Despite the pouring wine, Morzan had managed to concentrate on his cards and eventually the shadow had lost its freedom....

It all started so well, Durza had sat in a cave and listened to the laments of a strange being who had lost a treasure.

Then the steps had come and the essence, Durza no longer remembered the name, said: "Must go, my treasure calls me... want to steal a treasure...."

Shaking his head, the shadow had stared at the strange creature as a man approached him. It was obvious that he had been drinking. "I'm looking for a place for sheep, I mean... to sleep"
Durza arose and drew his sword. He approached the man and knocked him to the ground. "Who are you?"

The man looked at him from top to bottom and answered with a grin: "Me? I am a dragon rider, I am in the service of King Galbatorix. And if you do something to me, he gets very angry! By the way, my name is Morzan and my secret name is ..."

Just as the dragon rider wanted to pass on his secret name to Durza, he stumbled and hit his ankle against a stone. 

Morzan rose and pulled out a few cards. "Here we can play for my freedom! That's what a little guy who stumbled across my backpack yesterday did here with a creature and won some piece of jewelry.... what do you have to offer?"

"Your life.... that should be enough!" snarled the shade, who did not want to miss the opportunity to defeat the man in a game. Card games had always been his great passion, and he stared longingly at the deck of cards that Morzan began to shuffle shortly afterwards.

"Well, let's go! By the way, we should both swear in the ancient language. I swear that if I lose, I will not resist an attempted murder in any way. And for that you swear that you will faithfully serve my old friend, the king, forever, should you lose the game!"

"Yes, yes, good! But finally give the cards," durza said, swearing in a hurry in the ancient language.

Morzan smiled contentedly and then he started handing out the cards.

Unfortunately, luck was not in the shade, because although Morzan, who repeatedly drank deep sips from his wine hose, did not insist on the immediate observance of the promise, Durza lost one game at a time.

"This must not be true," he cursed, and could very well understand the unfortunate being who had previously complained about his necklace or ring or whatever. He would have liked to have joined his lawsuits.

"I won! Now keep your oath in the ancient language and swear allegiance to my good friend, King Galbatorix!" Morzan laughed after a while, and Durza obeyed furiously.

"Now satisfied? Do I have to leave this cave and go to the king?"

Morzan laughed and seemed to think it was all a good joke.

Unfortunately, King Galbatorix was far less humorous. He crouched on his throne as Morzan entered the throne room with the shade. "Morzan... Why are you casting a shade here? Do you resent the 70 lashes I have given you? But you deserve it! You killed this rebel leader instead of bringing him to me alive...."

Morzan laughed loudly and slapped Durza on the shoulder. "No, Galbatorix! What you only think of me again! I am your best friend and would never harm you. And friends argue and hurt each other! But that's Durza! He has already sworn to me in the ancient language that he will serve you in the future! I thought you could still use a shade! You already have Ra'zac, Lethrblaka, rat people, two vampires, this body-made guy and four werewolves on duty! It fits in very well!"

Galbatorix got up and walked around Durza. He pulled him by the hair and grabbed his nose. 

Then he nodded appreciatively. "It's a great gift, Morzan. You're just a true friend! I can use the shade very well! Now he must swear allegiance to me in the ancient language, and then I have my own shade!"

Happy, Galbatorix smiled. "My own shade...."

Durza feared that the king would clap his hands with joy, but luckily he did. Instead, he waved to a servant and had him bring him a piece of chocolate cake. Galbatorix winked at Morzan.
"But you don't say anything about the cake to Krimhilda, don't you?"

Morzan shook his head. "No, of course not!"

These memories weighed heavily on the shadows. It is true that Galbatorix had provided him with the fortress of Gilad and allowed him to rule the surrounding area like a little duke or baron. Nevertheless, he still lost the orders of the king, who in his opinion had gained weight on his last visit.

"And now I will wait for this elf and her companions! I should take away the dragon egg from her and then bring it to the king!" Durza thought in a bad mood.

He was not looking forward to this mission at all because he was afraid of elves. These creatures were scary for him.

"Maybe the elf will give me the egg voluntarily if I ask her nicely," thought the shade, but had his doubts.

After all, elves were generally considered to be pugnacious and aggressive....

Chapter Text

Three riders approached the place where Durza was waiting for them, but the three elves, who rode leisurely on their horses, did not notice. They were too entangled in an argument.

"Fäolin, that the dragon does not want you as a rider, is entirely up to you! If you were the right person, he would surely hatch! Dragons are never wrong!" said Arya, the leader of the small elf group.

She was the guardian and protector of a sapphire-blue dragon ice cream stolen from King Galbatorix many, many years ago, and her greatest sorrow and anger was the fact that the little dragon did not seem to have any intention of slipping with her.

She had already shaken the egg secretly and told him words like, "Now you're finally slipping out! That is unfair! I am constantly in danger and forgo so much! On a good meal.... the mere fact that I can eat meat more often in this way makes it more bearable!

In fact, this was a vice that Arya and many other elves secretly indulged in, as the strict rules actually forbade the eating of animals. Officially, all the elves adhered to it, but secretly there were already several "meat houses" in the endless forests of Du Weldenvarden, which were officially called "poet accommodations" and in which the new poems and songs of the elves were discussed.

Everyone knew that in these houses not only poems and ancient writings were spoken, but that the wine flowed into streams and that large quantities of meat were consumed. 

From time to time there had already been embarrassing incidents between arguing elves. Insulting words were often used, and this meant that the people involved often stopped talking to each other.

This was also the case with Arya's companions Fäolin and Loris. The two had fought over a piece of deer roast and since then they have not spoken a word to each other, they had sworn this in the old language.

"Arya, please tell Loris that it will rain soon! He should look for shelter for the night, I don't want to get wet!" said Fäolin to the leader of the small elf group.

She sighed and would have preferred to ask the two to finally pull themselves together a little.

For about ten years, she has been annoyed by the behaviour of her comrades. Why couldn't she finally behave like adult elves? Certainly the cause of the dispute was very serious and should not be underestimated. For a delicious, especially forbidden piece of deer meat, a brave elf was ready to take a lot on himself. But a little exaggerated the two of them....

"I will finally ask my mother to get other companions!"

She made this intention every time she returned home from a trip. But most of the time she forgot him again quite quickly when she was alone with Fäolin or Loris. They were happy to invite them alternately for a good sip of wine and a good piece of meat.....

"If my poor mother knew that! And the wise old Oromis! They would be very angry with me and would punish me with contempt for my unbridled behavior! They would never behave like this," thought the elf, full of shame, and another reason why she did not ask for new companions spread in her thoughts.

"Fäolin threatened to tell my mother everything... and Loris did the same. The two are so similar! So sneaky! First they invite me all the time and then they blackmail me with it! This is... Evil!

"Arya, let this guy know that I'm tired and want to take a break," Fäolin said, giving Loris a nasty look. The leader of the small group would have preferred to keep her pointed ears.....

But that did not happen, because at that moment a lightning bolt struck the tree next to Arya, and Loris fell from the back of his horse and rubbed his aching leg! "Aua! When I catch the one who did it! I cut him little stripes and roast him over the fire...."

Fäolin turned to Arya when another lightning bolt shrugged at her, and shouted, "Please tell this guy to stop behaving so unworthy! If he curses, you might think he is a dwarf!"

Loris did not want to let this naughtiness sit on him, and he approached Arya furiously. "Tell this fool that he should take that back with the dwarf! I don't let myself be offended! I'm not a dwarf!"

Another lightning bolt hurled Arya and Fäolin from the horses' backs to the ground, and shortly afterwards they were surrounded by Urgals.

"Please tell this guy....." Began Loris, but now, as she drew her sword, Arya tore the thread of patience. "Finally, be calm!"

She pulled out the dragon egg when she saw a red-haired man approaching her. It was a shadow and his greedy gaze revealed that he was looking for the precious dragon egg.

Arya quickly lifted the egg into the air and began to speak a spell in the Ancient Language. In this way, she sent the egg to Brom, an ally of the Vards and Elves. All other possible destinations were not achievable for them...

""Egg, your way leads you to..." she said in the Ancient Language, when she was interrupted again by Loris.

"Arya, please tell our companion to pull his weapon...."

The egg disappeared and the elf looked at her companion furiously. "Can't you even keep your mouth shut? I couldn't finish my spell properly! Who knows where the egg is now!"

""I want to know," said the shadow standing in front of Arya as the Urgals seized the two elves. 

But they were not so easy to beat. Swearing and kicking, they caused great difficulties for the horned monsters and eventually managed to free themselves.

"Go, go to safety!" Arya shouted after the two elves, who made no attempt to help their leader.

Durza grabbed Arya by the arm, but the elf pulled out and beat him. Cursed Shade! I hate shades!"

"And I hate elves," Durza lamented. "You always hit around you immediately! They accuse the dwarves of being primitive. But you behave like them! That is terrible! And I have you by the neck now! And the egg is gone! At least tell me where it is!"

Arya laughed and stepped into Durza. He painfully dispersed his face. "That's... a dwarf behavior," he said, and Arya withdrew her face insulted. 

Nothing could offend an elf more than being compared to a dwarf. 

This shadow apparently intended to torment her and humiliate her with his dwarf insults, but she fought back to the end. She beat him again and then said: 

"You'll never know where I sent the egg! Do you hear? N E V E R!"

She spelled the last word, and the shadow looked at her without understanding. "What do you mean by that? Was that a spell hidden from me? What did you say in the end?"

"I never said!" Arya replied with a sigh, slapping Durza's head in the stomach.  He fell to the ground while two Urgals grabbed Arya's arms. 

She walked around and one of the Uragls complained, "What shall we do with her?"

"Let's bring them to Gil 'ead! But be careful! Elves are very aggressive and combative!" replied Durza.

Behind him, the Urgals dragged the hard-fighting Elf behind them.  From time to time he heard the Urgals screaming in pain as Arya kicked them.

"I'll find out soon where the egg is!" cried Durza.

"Never! That's what I said!" Arya cried mockingly. ""You can't get anything out of me!"

In her thoughts, she added: "I don't know where I sent the egg! This Loris had to talk in between.... when I catch it! Hopefully they'll get together now and come back to Ellesmera to tell my mother what happened!"

Chapter Text

Eragon, Roran and Garrow had gone on a hunting trip. They wanted to get new meat for Sloan, the friendly butcher. After all, the kind-hearted man was Roran's possible future father-in-law. Since King Galbatorix raised taxes, the always helpful and polite man had to rely on the help of his good Friends.

"I have to help poor Sloan because he was always so good to us," Eragon thought with pity, pulling an arrow from his quiver. He scratched his finger and almost dropped his bow.

Roran sighed. "Eragon, Father and I will hunt there. Please go in the other direction with your arrows and your bow... far away from us..."

Eragon looked a little sad at his cousin. "You don't want me to accidentally shoot one of you, don't you? Say it quietly! You think I'm too stupid to notice...."

Garrow shook his head and sighed. He had to come up with something to encourage his nephew a little. Although exactly what Eragon himself had just mentioned as the reason for hunting in another corner of the forest was responsible, he did not want to say so directly. 

"The forest is so big! And our chances of making a lot of prey are much greater if we split up!" said Garrow, and now Eragon agreed, though not quite convinced.

"Well, I'll try it over there!"

Eragon sneaked onto a deer and the water ran into his mouth as he thought of the roast his aunt would make. This meat was intended for his family and him, not for Sloan, the butcher. It was rare enough that Eragon managed to kill a prey in the forest, in fact he had never made it before, and he did not want to share the meat.

"The last time I almost broke my foot, when I stumbled across a root, I almost managed to shoot myself in the leg because the arrow hit a tree and flew back in my direction," Eragon thought.

Was there perhaps something about his family's claim that he was a little clumsy?

But then he shook his head. No, he wasn't clumsy. Other people were much more clumsy than him. Brom had recently swallowed a piece of apple and Aunt Marian had probably saved his life when she violently patted him on the back.

"Poor bromine! Whenever he visits us, something like this happens to him. He's really just unlucky," Eragon thought when something fell on his head. 
"Aua," he muttered, and saw a squirrel scurrying through the branches. It had dropped a nut.

"Dumb oak horn," Eragon muttered, stretching his bow as he continued to sneak past the deer. But to his great misfortune he stepped on a branch. 

He stumbled, fell to the ground and the deer jumped away in horror while his arrow got stuck in an opposite tree.

"That was probably it with the fried deer," Eragon thought sadly, when it suddenly flashed and an explosion lit up the night...

Eragon closed his eyes for a moment and wondered if he was to blame….

"Well, I wasn't," he thought, as he carefully opened his eyes again. The bright lyrised light had disappeared, instead an oval object stood in front of the tree, in which his arrow was still stuck. 

It shimmered in a sapphire color and Eragon approached cautiously. "What is it? It came with the lightning...."

The thought of running away as quickly as possible came to his mind. 
A strange stone had appeared by lightning, and the most sensible thing would certainly have been to go home quickly and leave the stone lying.

But somehow Eragon didn't get it over the heart.

Instead, he picked up the stone, but his hands were sweaty and so it slipped back to the ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Eragon muttered, picking up the stone. He looked at him in detail. 

"What could that be? An egg? But not from a bird! Then more of a dragon.... although, they no longer exist, that cannot be! That would be almost as silly as the idea that Brom could be my father!"

Eragon laughed. "Or even better, Brom would be a dragon rider..... no, this is not a dragon egg! That's a...... I don't know. But perhaps it is valuable. And maybe someone in my family knows what it is. Roran probably has no idea, Uncle Garrow doesn't either.... but Aunt Marian is wise. She may know what it is...."

Eragon packed the stone in a bag and headed home.

Chapter Text

Confused, Eragon and his family stared at the strange blue stone he had found in the forest.
"And you say he turned up with a flash?" asked Marian with a sigh. "Eragon, what have you done again? Maybe you would have stayed at home...... have you touched anything? Or is something broken?
Insulted, Eragon shook his head. Why did everyone always think he was so clumsy? He really wasn't in debt this time. Or?
Eragon scratched his head, but again denied his aunt's question. ""I didn't do anything!"

"Well, now this stone is here and we should consider what we are doing with it!" said Roran thoughtfully, picking up the find. He shook it once, then a little more violently, before Eragon took the stone out of his cousin's hands.

He fell to the ground and Roran looked at the younger man badly. "You're still breaking it! It's certainly valuable, and when it falls, it breaks down in the end!"

Eragon picked up the stone, but when he got up, he hit his head at the table. He dropped the stone again and it rolled a bit through the hut.
"It's moving!" eragon muttered as he picked up the stone a third time and then carefully placed it on the table. "I'm sure something has changed!"

Garrow sighed but remained silent as Marian Eragon's cheek patted. "Maybe you should go to bed now! You are probably a little tired if you think stones are moving! And so that he is not harmed, I will put it in the box there. We don't want anyone to accidentally kick it.…"
"But you don't mean me, Aunt Marian, don't you?" asked Eragon, a little offended.

She shook her head with a mild smile. "Of course not! I speak.... General! I don't mean anyone directly!

Not so convinced, Eragon finally went to bed and pulled the blanket over his head. But he didn't really want to sleep that night. Again and again he had to think of the sapphire-blue stone.

The next morning Roran and Eragon entered the butcher's shop and laid the stone on the counter.
The benevolent Sloan gently stroked the stone. "But he's really very pretty! Unfortunately, I can't buy it from you, I don't have the money! But take both of you a sausage! You look so starved and the night hunt was certainly exhausting!"

"Thank you!" replied Eragon, while biting heartily into his sausage. Roran, on the other hand, did not bring out a bite.  
A young girl entered the room. She had long brown hair tied into braids, with large bows at the end. These loops were almost as big as the sapphire blue stone and another was emblazoned on the young woman's head.

A beam went over her face when she saw Roran. She opened her mouth and a row of black stub teeth appeared. "Roran, nice that you visit me! You're here because of me, aren't you? You want to finally make my marriage proposal, don't you?"

Lazy breath hit Eragon in the face as Katrina stormed toward Roran and hugged him. His cousin saw that he was holding the air.
"Not, Katrina," he quid, but the lover didn't even think about it. "My darling! Finally you are back! I haven't seen you since yesterday! And I had half the night about toothache! Look, is there anything?

She opened her mouth and Roran became pale. "Because... is nothing...," he said, quickly turning away as Sloan looked at his daughter and the young man with emotion. 
"My little one has found a groom! I always thought she would never find a man! The last one she was interested in preferred to volunteer to join the army. He thought it was a beautiful life and there would be worse! I never understood how he meant it.... He said she was too intrusive…"

"Oh, really?" asked Eragon, while Roran desperately tried to free himself. Katrina pressed one kiss at a time on the cheek.

"How romantic," Sloan enthused, while Eragon took the stone again. He watched his troubled cousin and came to the conclusion that he did not want to fall in love for the time being.…

"It's just annoying! And in whom should I lose myself? Maybe in the end still in one.... Elven Princess or something?

He laughed. No, that was completely out of the question....

Chapter Text

King Galbatorix was in a very bad mood. He had slept badly all night, because Kriemhilda's snippets kept him from doing so. His stomach also growled because his wife had cancelled dinner for him.

"Think of the history books, Galbatorix! Do you want to enter the Anals as the greatest ruler of Alagaesia or as "The Fat King"?  Think about it!" the Queen had warned as she herself ate a piece of butter cake.

Now Galbatorix stood at the window with his belly snarling and was annoyed that the Varden had defeated his soldiers in a battle. "It's just horrible! Why are these people doing this? I just want the best for my country. I always have to deal with something like this! But not for long, I think I have to deal with this problem!

But who should do that? He himself did not feel ready to go into the fight against the Varden because of his current battered state of mind. He complained to his wife. 

"You don't have any mental health problems, you just don't fit into your armor anymore," Kriemhilda said mockingly, pinching the king in the stomach as she stepped to the window next to him. "Now listen to me well, my moppelchen! Send someone else..... this Murtagh, which you have been feeding since childhood, could make itself useful! He is a useless person and could really earn all the luxury a little, instead of seduce every woman who walks over him."

Galbatorix swallowed his anger at the "Moppelchen" and thought about his wife's proposal....

Murtagh stood before the king's throne and felt visibly uncomfortable in his skin. The king looked at him from top to bottom.

"Murtagh, you are the son of my oldest and best friend! So I will give you a difficult task, which I hope you will fulfill to my satisfaction!"

Murtagh felt increasingly uncomfortable. What task did the king speak of? Basically, he was happy with his life, as it was at the moment. He didn't want to change anything, let alone burden himself with unnecessary work.

"I want you to build an army!" the king began by explaining the task that would end Murtagh's quiet life.

"Uh, one.... Army?" he asked incredulously. "I should....?"

"Yes, exactly! You recruit new soldiers, take some of the old ones and design the new ones. Then you'll create a battle plan and consider defeating the Varden once and for all, killing or capturing their leader Ajihad. Next, you'll find a way to defeat the Dwarves. You will destroy all their caves and create them in chains to Uru'baen. All! Without exception!" continued Galbatorix, while Murtagh struggled to suppress a cough. "I'm supposed to... establish an army and defeat the Varden and Dwarves! Through a good plan.... uh...,"

"I'm not done yet!" the king interrupted the son of his late best friend. "You'll take care of the elves after that! I want you to catch the elven queen Islanzadi and bring her here. The same goes for her daughter Arya! And the elves could be a little difficult! Unlike the dwarves, they are not eloquent, but aggressive and pugnacious! A very vicious people, I can sing a song about it from earlier times. But you will deal with it...."

Murtagh swallowed heavily. He summed it all up again. "So I should set up the army, build it up, and then defeat the Vardes, Dwarves, and Elves. And I am to bring them here as prisoners... was that all?

Galbatorix got up and began to walk up and down in his throne room. "Now that you're saying it... You could still capture Obelon, the legendary chef of the dwarves! It is said that he is a true master in the preparation of cakes and the like... he can conjure up delicacies, none of which even puts a bit of weight.... but he lives far away from the other dwarves, and it is not even certain that it exists. Find him!

"Uh, yes...." Murtagh muttered, leaving the throne room, but he was recalled.

"One more.... all this must be done quickly! I have waited far too long to definitely take action against my enemies. I want it to be quick! So I'll give you about a month! If you do it faster, the better...."

Chalk bleach left Murtagh in the throne room, while Galbatorix took his seat on his throne and cried for his dragon, which lay snoring in his cave below the city.

„Shruikan?“

"What is it?" the dragon asked back in a bad mood. ""Let me sleep, I'm tired! I have not closed my eyes for half the night, because you have tangled my ears, that you are hungry!"

"But..." said Galbatorix, but the black dragon interrupted him.

"I said, keep your mouth open! I will say it again! I am tired! T I R E D! Understood? Being tired is when you want to sleep. Close eyes and have some beautiful dreams, for example of pretty dragon girls standing giggling in front of me and languishing on me! And now let me sleep..."

"But....," Galbatorix dared to say again, but was now shouted at in a telepathic way. 

"Do I actually speak dwarf? Or any other dialect you don't know? I WANT TO SLEEP!"

Galbatorix remained silent and slapped his hands over his head. Hopefully Murtagh would soon do his job and wondered fleetingly if he could overpower the young man a little.

Murtagh entered his rooms, but experienced a nasty surprise. A round soldier stood in the middle of the room with a blonde girl by the hand.

The girl had a thick belly and was obviously heavily pregnant. The soldier looked at Morzan's son furiously.

"That's your fault! You did this to my little Babettet! You worm! Miserable! You will marry her!"

"Uh... marry?" asked Murtagh, distraught. 

He just didn't have that. He barely remembered Babette, he hadn't been quite sober when he met her.

To make matters worse, twins Patty and Isa entered the room and looked at him as well.

"Murtagh.... I have to tell you something..." Patricia began giggled. "What do you mean, who will have a baby in about seven months? The dear Isa!

Murtagh became even paler than he already was. "Isa too.... in seven months?"

"My daughter will have her child as early as next month! You will marry her!" the soldier cried, storming on to Murtagh and slapping him. "Tomorrow you will go with her to a priest and then you will marry her! Understood?"

Murtagh took a closer look at Babette and she giggled stupidly. "Marry!" she cried, clapping her hands. "Fine!"

"Yes, very nice! I go immediately and talk to a priest! And maybe I can marry Isa as well.... and also Patty..." Murtagh said hastily, while the twins looked at each other joyfully. 

"Would that be the case? I once heard that nobles are allowed to have sidewives... Why not?" asked Isa, while Babette's father put his hands in his hips. "My Babette will be the main woman!"

Babette clapped his hands again and said happily, "Main woman? Fine!"

"I must have been really very drunk," Murtagh thought as he left his rooms and rushed to the stable.

For nothing in the world, he would stay for a moment longer in the capital of Alagaesia. 

He would not knock an army out of the ground within a month to defeat the elves, dwarves and vardens. He wouldn't create that cook that didn't even exist, and he wouldn't marry at all.

Soon after, Murtagh left the city and vowed never to return. ""I'm not going to get married!" he thought, and would have liked to have clapped his hands. "Fine!" 

Chapter Text

Eragon couldn't find sleep the following night. Carefully, he got up and sneaked up on the box into which his aunt had placed the strange stone. He opened the lid and was glad that he managed to pinch his finger or drop the stone again.

Eventually, Eragon sat down on his bed and lit the candle that was on his bedside table.

He burned his finger and put it in his mouth. "Aua," he lamented, then stared at the sapphire-blue stone in the glow of the candle. "If only I knew what it is! An ordinary stone certainly not. But even Aunt Marian has no idea. And we can't sell you so easily. So, what exactly are you now? I want to know now!"

He stared at the stone, which began to wobble back and forth. Eragon came to the wall and suppressed a tremor. 
Was it even a terrible monster in the end? A troll? Did they hatch out of stones? Or was it even a dragon in the end? But the latter seemed a little too far-fetched for him. He would really rather believe that he would eventually marry an elf princess, or that Brom would turn out to be his father....

Unfortunately, the stone was still moving, and eventually Eragon held it, or rather, he tried it because the stone slipped off his fingers, rolled over the bed and hit the ground.

A fiepe that sounded a bit like an "Aua!" sounded and he saw that a crack had formed in the stone.

"What is it? Why is the stone broken? What have I done again?" thought Eragon, terrified, and he screamed in horror as a small blue paw protruded from the egg.

"What is it? That's it.... Terrible! Help," thought Eragon, who was walking out of the room, directly into the arms of his cousin Roran, who sneaked through the hallway with a bundle hanging over his shoulder.

"Roran? Where... Do you want to go? And in my room is ..." asked Eragon. Roran put a hand on Eragon's mouth and prevented him from speaking. "I'm tired of being surrounded by this Katrina all the time. She even writes letters to me now! So horrible, where it says: "Do you want to get engaged to me? Yes, no or maybe? Please choose!" It's so horrible, I don't want that. I have written her a letter four times saying, 'No', but she does not understand it. She always thinks I don't mean that. And that's why I go now, before she beats me unconscious and I wake up again as her husband! That happened to so many poor men in the area. They are now suffering from terrible women! It is even said that King Galbatorix was married in this way against his will!"

Deep pity for his cousin stirred in Eragon, but he couldn't care now. He needed Roran's help to catch this eerie creature in his room and dispose of it in the forest.

"Roran... You can't go now! I need you...."

Roran sighed. "Eragon, you want to be a man, don't you? Well, then you have to learn to cope alone in life, like bromine. It's so similar to them that if it wasn't so silly, you could almost consider him your father. He looks similar to you from the outside, is just as clumsy.... and he lives alone. And even gets along, mostly!"

"But I.... you need, because of the .....," Eragon interrupted his cousin, who spoke unwaveringly. "Most of the time, he can handle it alone. Well, last week his hut almost burned down and Sloan, this hero punished with an evil daughter, saved his life. Two days later he fell back into the river while fishing and then he fell asleep in the grass under a tree and a pigeon wanted to build a nest in his hair..... but otherwise he can take care of himself. Although he had accidentally locked himself in his hut last winter and would not have come out, Mother would not have freed him by chance, but mostly he gets through life wonderfully alone. Take it as a role model! Then you can do it too.... I hope ...."

Eragon nodded and asked Roran for help again, but he shook his head. "Live well, Eragon. Please tell my father and mother that I will be looking for a job somewhere in the neighbouring village. But they shouldn't tell Katrina where I am, I don't want her to be at my door!"

Eragon pointed to the door to his room, from where a strange scratch could be heard.

Rorans shook his head.

"Do you have a tame rat again? The last time you did this, they bit you and put small piles in your bed! Hopefully you don't do that anymore, don't you?"

Then Roran laughed. "But of course you have to know that yourself! And better a rat than, say, a rat.... Goat. Or a unicorn. Or a..... Dragon! But that would also be too unlikely... By the way, say Katrina, if she asks, I would become a monk. I would have decided to enter this strange monastery on Hellgrind. People are gradually hacking themselves into pieces..... Tell her that this is my true calling. Then hopefully she will leave me alone!"

Roran went from there and didn't let his cousin speak.
 
Eventually, Eragon opened the door to his room trembling – and a blue creature jumped toward him and dragged him to the ground.

On his belly sat a small, sapphire-blue dragon and looked at him questioningly and a little offended at the same time.

"Uh...." Eragon muttered, unaware of what else to say. Instead, he wanted to snip the creature with his fingers, but when he touched it, a terrible pain went into his hand and arm and for a moment the world seemed to explode....

When he awoke, he lay in his bed and his aunt stood anxiously next to it. "Eragon, what have you done again? How did you manage to get a burn injury on your hand without fire? I don't know anyone who can do anything like that!"

Eragon stared at his hand as the aunt continued to speak. "Although there is a person who can do that. Brom. He also has such a scar.... looks pretty similar to yours. But still..... there you were a little clumsy again!"

Marian shook her head and sighed depressed again. "So what that will be with you..... so you can't learn a profession. When I think about that all the bags you burst when you helped the miller..... and Roran is also gone...."

Eragon sat down in bed and looked back at his hand. Had he suffered this injury when he touched the dragon he had surely only dreamed of?

But then something moved under his duvet and the little sapphire-blue dragon stuck his head out.

"It wasn't a dream," Eragon thought, falling backwards into the pillow, but thrusting his head to the edge of the bed....

The dragon looked at him and seemed to say, "I've kindled something beautiful....." and bit Eragon slightly in the nose.

Chapter Text

Once again the little dragon bite Eragon in the nose and pulled the sapphire-blue creature on the tail. It showed the teeth. "Let this be! It hurts," eragon lamented, but the dragon turned around at lightning speed and slapped his tail in his face. 

Again Eragon screamed. "Help! It hurts!"

Marian and Garrow woke up in the adjoining room. "What's the point?" asked Garrow. "What kind of annoying noise is this? I am tired! I have a lot to do tomorrow!"

Marian calmed Garrow's hand on his arm. "Sleep on, blocks! That's just our eragon! He will have made some nonsense again! He probably pinched his hand in the cupboard door or something like that!"

"Oh, so," Garrow muttered, cuddling up to his bedding to continue sleeping.

Meanwhile, Eragon had sought shelter behind a chair that had fallen to the ground when he pushed against it. He and the little dragon, who was squatting on the other side of the piece of furniture, stared at each other. "What am I doing with you now? What do you want from me? Do you want to eat me at the end when you grow up? Or do you want me as a dragon rider? But.... that's very unlikely!"

The little dragon put his head awkward and almost looked at Eragon a little regret, before he spread out the small wings and seemed to tap on his forehead with one of them.

"Oh, you think I'm crazy? Because I think I could be a dragon rider?" he asked, insulted. He wouldn't be offended by a Baby.

The dragon approached him and landed on Eragon's shoulder, allowing him to sway dangerously, but luckily he managed to keep the balance.

Now the little one licked the boy's face and he had to smile involuntarily. "Well, at least you seem to like me.... although, you may be able to interpret differently! What do you like me? As a dragon rider? As a friend? Or just as food? You've already nibbled my nose at me.

But the little dragon appeared to get tired as he cuddled eragon's shoulder and closed his eyes.

The next day, Marian and Garrow found out in a bad mood that their son Roran had left his parents' house fleeing his fiancée. 

"But he doesn't really want to be a monk on the Hellgrind, doesn't he?" gasked Garrow. 

"I think if he cuts slowly but surely to pieces, he would be a little bit.... underwhelmed! My boy needs the challenge, something that fulfills him..... a real profession. And cut into pieces.... well, that's not for him! That would be more of a profession for you, Eragon. After all, it happens to you anyway by mistake!

Marian shook her head. "Don't say so mean stuff, Garrow! Imagine our Eragon with a knife in his hand if he wants to cut off a foot. It goes wrong, probably missing the whole leg afterwards. Or he accidentally kills himself or one of his confreres!

Eragon was visibly offended. So his family did not even trust him to become a disciple of Hellgrind.

Eragon sat in Brom's hut, opening an old chest and pulling out a book. "I... aua, stupid castle, aua.... I will tell you everything about dragons.... I know some old traditions...."

"Thank you, Brom, that's really nice of you!" said Eragon, who had hidden his little dragon near the old storyteller's hut. Brom shook his hand, which he had pinched, and opened the book. Pictures of dragons could be seen, but some had spots.

"What are these stains on the book pages?" eragon inquired, and Brom looked at him embarrassed.

"That's tea! I had cooked tea and it fell over to me. This has happened a few times, mostly when I have read in the books. But that can happen and is no reason to call me a trample. Das hat Oro.... my old teacher used to always say to me! And only because I have his scrolls... but no matter, something like that can happen!"

Eragon wondered who this Oro was and what he had emptied him. Brom was a storyteller, wasn't he? Had Oro taught him that? Or had he once pursued a different profession? But Eragon could not imagine this, because Brom would have been in constant danger of life if, for example, he had worked as a lumberjack.

"The poor man, he doesn't have it easy either, even though Roran somehow compared me to him before he left!" thought Eragon, while Brom pointed to a picture in the book. 

"That's a dragon! Although, a strange specimen. The head should actually be on the other side.... oh so, I put it upside down..... yes, you get bullish....."

Brom turned the book around and pointed again to the dragon drawing. "This is, as I said, a dragon. There used to be many of them and they chose people or elves as dragon riders! They touched the eggs and then the dragons hatched to be tied to riders! This usually happened immediately when she touches the eggs.... Only once was it different.... but it doesn't matter....."

"Why was it different?" asked Eragon.

After all, his dragon had only hatched with him after a few days. Was there a special reason for this? Was he particularly chosen? Did fate have anything special with him? Had the dragon thought carefully and waited for a corresponding, almost magical and sacred moment? Or were he and the little dragon something so extraordinary that they differed from the ordinary dragon rider in this respect?

But Brom said with a sigh, "So that gave me Oro.... no matter, my teacher, so explained... he said that it could happen that dragons hatch later and then only because they fear that they will be damaged in their eggs if an awkward gets their hands on them..... I never really understood what Oro...... No matter, my teacher, that meant...."

"What exactly did this Oro teach?" Eragon inquired, and Brom sighed again. "You don't understand that.... it's just me.... and is a long time..... the riders... but it doesn't matter.

Eragon nodded sympathetically. Brom didn't seem that old, but sometimes he was a little unworldly. 

Of course, it couldn't have been that long ago. Maybe he was just uncomfortable talking about his old teacher? Had he broken something there? 

Maybe Oro had been a miller and Brom had accidentally lit his mill? Or had he been a scribe collecting old legends and legends about dragons, and Brom had managed to smear old books and scrolls with paint, or had the window opened and they had fallen victim to a downpour? 

That's why Oro had certainly called him clumsy....

"Why do you want to know something about dragons?" asked Brom, and Eragon was looking for an excuse. "Because...... Because..... because I've seen one!"

"What?" asked Brom, and seemed very interested and excited. He jumped up and the contents of his teacup spilled over the book again, but he didn't pay attention. "Where? Where did you see the dragon?"

Eragon sought another excuse after the last one failed so badly. "It wasn't a dragon. But a.... Chicken! Exactly, a chicken! And that had laid an egg. And then I thought that dragons also lay eggs. And when chickens and dragons do that, they have similarities, don't they?

Brom grabbed his forehead and let himself sink into his chair. "Yes, sure!" he said, moaning. "Dragons and chickens are very similar.... Of course!

"Do you actually know dragon names that sound pretty?" asked Eragon, wondering if dragons could actually be distant relatives of the chickens. Or did Brom mean it ironically?

The storyteller accepted the change of theme." Well, there are some. There was Fafnir. This is the name of the dragon that the first husband of today's Queen is said to have killed. But that's nonsense, he probably just wanted to impress her. In truth, it was....""

"A chicken?" suggested Eragon, also to shine with knowledge, and Brom sighed. "Yes, exactly! A chicken!"

Then the storyteller continues to list the names. 
"Then there's Frisky, Fresky or Paulchen! But this is how you should name your dragons only if you want to risk being bitten regularly. In addition, Smaug comes to mind.... that was a dragon... but it's a different story. Then there's Bolle and Motte.... they were both green, they were twins, but they hardly spoke to their riders, Max and Mortiz....

"Yes, very pretty names," Eragon said. But whether his little one really wanted to be called Motte? But Brom knew more dragon names.

"Next up was Grobi, who was blue. And crumbs that were also blue..... they had very brave riders, they were called Wolfgang and Amadeo, they had a fondness for music and they were elves. It's been so long.... but do nothing, there was also Albana de Blanca Flora de la Luz..... briefly called Luzie. By the way, her rider was called Erna.... Yes, that was a great dragon! But the most beautiful name had Saphira! She was sapphire blue and.... you should go now!"

At the last words, Brom's voice sounded rather sad, and he stared at the book. "Why did I have to insist that we fly through this far too low cave entrance....

Eragon did not understand what Brom meant by this and left the hut. 
At the door he took the little dragon, who no longer wanted to wait in hiding, on his arm. "Well, we need a name for you. How about Fresky... Aua!

The dragon bit Eragon in his hand. Apparently he didn't like the name at all. But he had other suggestions to make. "Then there is Grobi, Luzie de la Luza... aua, that hurts.... or how about Smaug.... osch!"

At some point, it was enough for Eragon. "Then just something simple. You are sapphire blue! So I call you Sapphirea, after a dragon that probably hit his head at a too low cave entrance..... Are you actually a boy? Ouch! So a girl!"

So the dragon girl Saphira came to his name..... 

Chapter Text

Terrible things had penetrated into the king's ears and they left him in bed for days with severe abdominal pain. 

It just became too much for him, even he, the invincible King Galbatorix, the most powerful ruler Alagaesia had ever seen, the greatest hero of the Dragon Riders, was not infinitely resilient. 

Why did everyone think so? Why didn't he even find understanding with his dragon or his wife?

"Galbatorix, don't lie in bed all day! Are you a king or just a nagging old man?" asked Krimhilda, piercing her finger into Galbatorix's belly, whining loudly. "That hurts!"

"Don't do it now, my dicker! Get up now and see that Durza is bringing this Elf here as soon as possible! Then you will interrogate her and find out where she sent this dragon egg! And you could send the Ra'zac out to take care of it! Feed them with a few kitchen wastes. The kitchen boy could taste them. Then send them out.

Krimhilda sat on her bed and complained. "My feet hurt! The new shoes are too tight! Massage my feet a little!

Galbatorix swallowed heavily, he hated massaging CrimeanHilda's feet, somehow it had something humiliating and wasn't he the king? He wouldn't do that that day. Should she command a servant to do that!

Galbatorix was determined to reject her wish and looked at his wife, but she did not let him speak when he opened his mouth to express his refusal.

"Now do! Or can we no longer bend over? Are you slowly getting old? Or does your belly get in your way? Massage my feet!

Galbatorix sighed and went in squats. All his good intentions not to touch her feet were gone....

In a good mood, little Sapphirea roamed the stable, which was next to Eragon's house. There she had already found rats, which she carried through a few quick haps in her stomach.

Eragon had not been able to see this and had left the stable for it. Unfortunately, he had come across Katrina, who was looking for Roran.

The freshly baked dragon rider stumbled and tore the young woman to the ground and Katrina even seemed to rejoice at first.

"Roran! I call this a welcome! I knew you weren't serious when you ticked "No" on the last letter!

Uh.... I am Eragon, not Roran, Katrina!" said the boy, trying to get up. He stepped on Katrina's leg.

"You idiot! Be have a look! And why do you have to look like my dear fiancé? I confused you..... at the first moment!" complained Katrina unhappily, and Eragon looked at her in amazement. "You're already engaged? Roran didn't tell me that!"

"He doesn't know yet," Katrina replied proudly. "I will surprise him when I meet him! He's here, isn't he? Is he in the barn?"

Katrina looked into the barn, but Eragon stopped her.

"He's not there.... he went to Hellgrind! You know, this place where pious people live, who hack themselves to pieces...."

Katrina became pale. "What? But what can I do with a man who is a disciple of Hellgrind? And adoring a mountain? He should worship me! I should be something of a goddess of love for him!"

"Uh, yeah," muttered Eragon, who was visibly uncomfortable with the conversation. What nonsense did she say? Do you get down on your knees in front of a woman and worship her? Who would do that? He certainly wouldn't do it, it was just ridiculous.

To the horror of the young dragon rider, Katrina looked further into the barn. "I'm sure Roran is in it. He would never leave me! So get out of the way!"

She pushed her way past Eragon. But in doing so, he reached into the void and stumbled again. He hit his knee and moaned loudly as Katrina entered the stable and looked around.

"Roran? Dearest, are you here? You didn't really go to Hellgrind, didn't you? You stay with me!"

Under a pile of straw, something was rushing and, satisfied, Katrina rushed there. She crouched next to the pile. 

"So here you are. But what do you do in the straw? Come out.... or do you want to cuddle with me in the straw? Wait, I'm coming to you!"

Katrina got up and jumped on the straw heap with a sentence. A painful fiep sounded and then a small dragon's head peeked out of the straw.

Katrina screamed. "A blue rat! Eragon, there are blue rats in your stable! Disgusting!

Insulted, Saphira looked at the ugly girl with the big bow in her hair. Was this creature perhaps more beautiful than it? She was a pretty dragon, wasn't she? She showed her teeth and Katrina screamed. Then Eragon entered the stable and took Sapphira on his arm.

"Come, little one......"

"Eragon, you have a blue rat in your arm!" shouted Katrina . "And that wasn't Roran!"
Eragon shrugged. "No, that really wasn't Roran, we agree! But otherwise....

Katrina got up and ran out of the stable crying. 

At the local butcher's shop, she fell around her father's neck. "Dad! Roran went to Hellgrind to be eaten or cut into pieces! It's so horrible! And in his family's stable there are blue rats that look almost like dragons!"

"Well, my dear!" Sloan tried to comfort his daughter. "Poor child. But we will find another man for you....."

"But I want Roran!" complained Katrina. 

Chapter Text

Little Saphira grew up, after a month she reached Eragon up to the waist and had also gained in girth.

She stood up in the air with her once tiny wings and on her first flight attempt she had punched her rider in the face. She was, of course, very sorry, and she told him that.
"Eragon, I'm sorry....."

Eragon was astonished and terrified. Who said that? He pushed the branches of a bush aside, but couldn't find anyone!

"Who's there? Who's talking?" he cried, while Saphira almost seemed to sigh. "Me, my little fool!"

"What?" asked Eragon, still not really believing that Sapphira had spoken to him. That could not be the case! Dragons didn't speak, didn't they?

"I was! I!" shouted Saphira, slapping another wing in his face. "I really was! Now finally believe me, you little fool!"

"Saphira! You talked to me?" asked Eragon, astonished, trying to get up again.

The dragon girl looked at him a little impatiently. "Yes, that was me! That's what I say all the time! All dragons can talk to their riders in this way!"

"Really? You were that, Sapphire? You spoke to me?" asked Eragon, still in disbelief, and Saphira resignedly thrust her head against a tree trunk. "Yes, I have spoken! Have we finally clarified this? Fool!

"Don't call me that," Eragon lamented in a bad mood. 'I'm not stupid! And also not rabid! Besides, you just really talked to me..... why do you hit the tree trunk with your head?"

"Oh, just like that....," Saphira answered, looking tormented toward the sky.

Eragon didn't really get smart from the young dragon's behavior, but this was probably because Saphira was a dragon, well, dragon. 

How should he be familiar with their behavior? Perhaps it was common for dragons to strike their heads against trees from time to time?

"Soon you will fly on my back, my little fool!" said Saphira now with a clear headache. "We're going to fly high above the clouds..."

"I really should sit on my back and fly at you? But.....," Eragon began, but Saphira interrupted him.

"Of course! Why else do you think it's called Dragon Riders? And not dragon hunters?"

Eragon nodded. "Yes, of course it makes sense! That's why it's called Dragon Riders! And you can really talk...."

The sapphire-blue dragon girl looked at her rider with relief. "You've got it, my little fool! Well done!"

Murtagh gave the young woman sitting on his lap a hearty kiss and then a pat on the butt as she got up to get him another jug of wine.

He sat in an inn and wanted to stay there. He hoped that Elsa, the innkeeper's daughter, would give him company at night.

He smiled when he realized that Elsa was getting more and more pretty. This has been the case since he emptied the first wine jug.

"A beauty..." he muttered as the door to the inn opened and two black-clad figures came in and looked around.

Murtagh took a closer look at the two. "So to drink the two girls nicely, I need at least seven more jugs... poor girls, even have beaks...."

He wanted to get up, but stumbled and fell to the ground as the black-clad figures rose above him.

"Stink like Ra'zac," Murtagh thought, before closing his eyes and dreaming of ugly girls with beaks.

Meanwhile, one of the characters grabbed the passing inn and hissed at him: "Where does the blue egg eat? The Dragonegg....."

 "Don't tell you that!" the other figure hissed and slapped her guy on the head. "How stupid can you be?"

The innkeeper and his daughter looked at each other perplexed. "What are they talking about? I don't understand a word!"

"I said, where is the blue egg.... I mean, a blue stone?" a figure hissed at the host, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't know.... try it in Carvahall.... there are funny people who live there anyway....""

The two figures left the room and Elsa looked at her father inquiringly. "Why did you send them to Carvahall? But they were weird. And did you understand a word of what they wanted?"

The landlord looked at his daughter perplexed, but then laughed. "No, I don't. I think they said something about eggs or food or something. Well, let Morn, this nasty innkeeper from Carvahall, get along with them!"

"Well, Dad! Don't get upset. I know you don't like Morn anymore since he beat you while drinking 20 years ago....

"This scammer! He tipped his beer away..." the landlord cursed and went back to work, while Elsa bent over to Murtagh.

"Murtagh? What do you think were strange creatures here? So they almost looked like the Ra'zac from the stories I've heard before..."

"Poor girls with beaks. And then there's a language error...."" Murtagh muttered and fell asleep again. 

Elsa shrugged. Should he just sleep on the floor.  And she told him again the next morning about the funny creatures and that they were looking for something.....

Chapter Text

Sloan, the butcher, was in good spirits as the door to his shop opened and his sad daughter came in.

"Treasure, Triny, are you still so sad about this Roran? This has been the case for weeks! Well, don't cry. I'll give you a piece of sausage!"

"But I don't want a sausage, I want my Roran," Katrina sobbed, and Sloan pulled out a handkerchief. "Here, clean your nose..."

Katrina couldn't and didn't want to calm down and Sloan looked at his daughter in despair. "Maybe... you could marry one of Horst's sons instead! They're very friendly...."

Katrina shook her head and her bow swam back and forth in her hair. "No, I don't like them! One has such a long nose and the other is blond! I don't like blonde men! A man should share the hair color with his wife!  I want my Roran!"

Sloan was desperately looking for other alternatives. "What about his cousin Eragon? He looks very similar to him!"

"No, he's too clumsy for me, and he likes rats! Blue rats!" cried Katrina as her father grabbed her forehead.

"Hm, you don't have a fever, kid. Surely out of sheer sorrow you already have delusions! There are no blue rats, I have already told you. Believe me at last!"

Karina briefly stamped her foot, even if this behavior was anything but ladylike. "They exist! Of course, rats can also be blue! I saw this very clearly when I visited Eragon last month! The rat had an ugly head and looked really scary, like a dragon! The only thing I didn't see was a ringtail!

Sloan sighed. His daughter really understood very little about animals. "Triny, piglets and pigs have ringtails, rats don't!"

The friendly butcher began to take care of his life's work, his butcher's shop. Although she was the daughter of a butcher, his daughter knew terribly little about wildlife.

"Triny, I think I still have a lot to teach you! I also hoped that Roran would marry you and take over my butchery when I am no longer. But that hope is not fulfilled....

"Dad, please don't talk any more! It's so horrible!" sobbed Katrina. 

Bitter tears ran down her cheeks and Sloan was tired of mentioning the young man's name. 

Why was he so tactless and ruthless? Basically he was a very gentle person and now he tormented his poor daughter so much.

"It's good, Triny, it's already good...."

He looked up when the door to the butcher's shop opened and two darkly dressed figures entered. Somehow the two seemed eerie and he patted his daughter's head. Quietly, he said, "Now look at the creepy people! But I think they are very poor people.... they look almost like Ra'zac! Imagine such a life. They have even greater sorrow than you!"

Katrina nodded a little comforted. Her father wasn't wrong, of course there were still creatures in the world who were much worse off than her.

"If I had to live with a beak, I would have much less chance of marrying my dear Roran one day!" she thought, sneezing as she thought of her fiancé, who knew nothing about the engagement.

"We are looking for a blue egg, erm.... a blue stone....," one of the two figures hissed, and Katrina ran it down the back, while Sloan looked at the two beings inquiringly.

'I didn't understand that.... Your.... um, dialect, is a little weird...."

"Where's the blue egg, erm stone?" the veiled figure asked again, taking a step toward Katrina and her father.

"I only understood blue, Dad! He speaks so funny! Sun... hissing! Terrible thing! But you're right, Dad. There are worse things than from his fiancée.... to be left!" complained Katrina, looking at the two beings compassionately.

"It must be bad to suffer like this! Sun... to look strange, to have beaks and to speak so strangely. It's really horrible."

"Girl, you're insane," said one of the two strangers, looking at her inquiringly. "Where's the blue one...."

"What blue? Well, with Eragon and his family, this is the family of my dear Roran, there are blue rats in the stable! They look almost like dragons! They live a bit outside Carvahall. But..." Katrina began, and the two strangers nodded and left the butcher's shop.

"So they were really weird! Poor guys!" said Katrina, shaking her head, and Sloan reached for two sausages, which he otherwise always handed out to his customers' children.

"I give the poor something to eat! Surely they are dependent on alms!"

The good-hearted butcher stepped outside his shop, but the two strangers had already disappeared..... 

Chapter Text

The two Ra'zac opened the door to the hut of Eragon's family and faced a horrified Marian and a terrified Garrow.

"Where's the dragon?" the first Ra'zac hissed, and Garrow glanced at his wife. "Where is what, please? Have you seen a dragon, Marian? Do they still exist?"

Marian shook her head and bent down to her husband. "Are they homeless? They almost look like Ra'zac.... poor men! This is a terrible fate! Imagine you look like this! Everywhere you come across rejection and when you talk about dragons, you are declared crazy!"

She sighed. "But probably these poor homeless people are really crazy. I don't think they're dangerous. Look at the sad, big button eyes.

Marian smiled pityingly at the two strangers and pointed to the chairs at the table. "Please take a seat! Of course, there are no dragons, unicorns or funny forest impits here. But I've cooked a good soup, which will certainly taste very good!"

"Woman, you're insane!" one of the strangers hissed, raising his hand threateningly. 

Marian bent over to her husband again. "Garrow, that's the case with madmen! They think they're normal and everyone else is crazy! Just think of the old Wanda. Everywhere she saw little mice. She thought everyone who didn't see mice was crazy.

"But the house was really full of mice!" replied Garrow, shaking himself disgusted. "It was really disgusting, but unlike the mice in Wanda's house, the two still look good."

He smiled kindly at the two strangers. "Please forgive my wife's words. I don't know what might have offended you, but it certainly wasn't her intention! And no, we don't think you're crazy! And I'm not for ugly or anything like that! We also don't think you stink like you've bathed in a pit of mud. And your beaks are not frightening at all.... we do not want to offend you..... But we're not used to strangers here in the area!

Garrow hoped that visitors would believe his apology for their embarrassing and rude behaviour. 

But how could he have told them the truth? He did not want to offend people who are so disadvantaged by fate.

"I just hope that Eragon doesn't come home so quickly! Surely he then stumbles again and clings to the beak of one of the two. That would be really very rude," Garrow thought visibly worried.

The darkly dressed stranger grabbed his comrade by the arm and pulled him behind him, out of the hut.

Outside the two Ra'zac look at each other sadly. "No one is more afraid of us! Do you remember our parents' stories? The people, elves and dragons trembled before us!

The other Ra'zac nodded depressed. "You're right, Batzy! That's really devastating!

"Yes, Bitzy! We have to come up with something!" his unhappy brother replied.

Batzy, the Ra'zac, thought for a moment, then his eyes glowed joyfully. "We could only go to the people in the dark and scream loudly when we enter their houses! And whenever they have children, we eat them! This is what our ancestors once did." 

Bitzy seemed to agree with his fellow, as he nodded contentedly. 

"We start right over there with the bangel....." he said, pointing to a brown-haired boy who approached them suspiciously.

"Who.... are you?" he asked, and the two Ra'zac approached him threateningly. "We will eat you!" Rüdiger hissed, as Joschi reached for the boy's arm.

The boy shook his head in confusion. "Could you repeat that again? I don't understand you. You want something to eat? Luckily, I don't have such a bad language error....."

"What's your name, boy?" Bitzy hissed angrily as Batzy slammed his foot. 

Is nit's really anyone serious? They were the Ra'zac! And no nice beggars or cute, button-eyed bears with flower patterns on the bellies that romped in the distant forests in the north!

"I am Eragon..." replied the boy, shaking off Bitzy's arm, but unfortunately he took a step forward and stumbled. He instinctively reached for Bitzy's beak and dragged him to the ground.

Now he had touched a vulnerability of Ra'zac and Bitzy screamed loudly. Eragon wanted to get up and pull up to something.... He discovered too late that he had now also grabbed Batzy's beak.

This Ra'zac also fell to the ground while Bitzy looked at his fellow. "He's Eragon! Isn't he the one who had the blue rat or the dragon? Maybe he's a dragon rider...."

"Yes, let's take him to Galbatorix!" replied Batzy, and now Eragon got to deal with the fear. They wanted to bring him to Galbatorix? And were they perhaps dangerous? Perhaps the exterior corresponded to the interior and this was not just a prejudice?

As fast as he could run away, while the two Ra'zac started the chase....

Marian and Garrow shrugged in the hut when they heard the noise from outside. They looked at each other with a sigh.

"This will be Eragon again! Who else? I just hope he didn't knock the wood over! Or sprained his foot!" said Garrow, his wife stroked his arm.

"Well, as long as he doesn't accidentally light his hair... just like the other evening.... but that was my fault. Why did I put the candle on the table? If Eragon sits there?"

Garrow looked at his wife in a warning. "Yes, that was really very reckless of you! You know now that he is a little... clumsy. But at least there is peace outside now....." 

Chapter Text

Eragon ran as fast as he could, while the two strangers who increasingly reminded him of Ra'zac, who he knew only from old stories, pursued him. He didn't look around and didn't pay attention to the way forward. He hoped that he would not stumble across a branch or anything like that and fall victim to them.

"They're definitely going to catch up with me," Eragon thought, when he actually stumbled upon a vicious root he hadn't paid attention to, lost his balance, and rolled down a small slope.

A small male with a pointed cap lurked under the root and shook his head. "That's this rabid boy again! He constantly steps on some roots and does a lot of work for my people, the root-dodging people! We need to repair our accommodation again. Annoying such a thing! Now he has fallen again!"

Shaking his head, the little root jerk retreated back to its cave under the tree, to which the sneaky root belonged.

But this fall was supposed to be Eragon's salvation as the two pursuers ran past him.

"Over there, Bitzy! I'm sure he ran to the village!" the stranger, who had called himself Batzy, shouted to his comrade.

"Yes, Bitzy! Maybe for once, for once, you're right!" replied Batzy approvingly.

"That's where we're going to catch him.... and then bring his dragon to King Galbatorix! He will punish him for his naughtiness of simply keeping a dragon for himself!"

"What is he talking about all the time?" thought Eragon as he got up and the pursuers disappeared from his field of vision. For the time being, he was probably safe.

"I understand so little to speak this strange way..... just something of Galbatorix, dragons and me. And that they want to get me there. But why? Just because the king has once wiped out the Dragon Riders and will not tolerate that there will be one of them again that could be dangerous to him? Who could inspire the people, perhaps defeat them, or resurrect the Order of the Dragon Riders and then fight it? That could be a serious threat to him? Who could kill him? Is that the reason? That's the reason!"

Eragon dawned that he must have hit the nail on the head, with his guess why the king chased him and Saphira.

"That's the reason.... such a... Stupid..." he muttered softly as a hand lay on his shoulder, and he looked Brom in the face. "Brom, what are you doing here?"

Brom looked at Eragon in amazement. "I wanted to collect some mushrooms and then take a shortcut home! But I didn't think about having to wade through the small stream! My shoes got wet and the mushrooms fell into the creek! But that doesn't matter, tell me better who these two figures you fled from were! They looked almost like... Ra'zac!"

Eragon nodded anxiously. "Yes, they really looked like that! But.... I always thought they don't exist anymore...."

Brom shook his head and looked at the boy in front of him thoughtfully. "There aren't many of them anymore! The old Dragon Riders have defeated them. This was mainly due to Rosveta, a great, mighty dragon lady with pink scales with dots on them, and her rider, the Elf Engolas. But this is an old story and very, very long ago...... there are only two of them left, the last offspring, and it is of course very, very unlikely that it should be brought to Carvahall of all places. Bitzy and Batzy are their names...."

Eragon swallowed heavily and clung to Brom's arm. "So... they are called! Bitzy and Batzy! I didn't understand much, but I did! So they are actually Ra'zac and they are really looking for me to bring me to King Galbatorix...."

Brom shook his head with a smile and patted Eragon's cheek. "Boy, you're really completely confused. Why should the Ra'zac be yours, a pretty raunt... I mean, a little awkward peasant boy, hunt? That doesn't make any sense.... although, when I consider...... no, excluded!"

Eragon looked at the old storyteller inquiringly and wished he would believe him. Weren't they basically related souls? Didn't they always get along well? Eragon wished he could entrust himself to Brom.

"Brom.... they really haunt me. The other day I found something in the forest....."

Brom laughed briefly. "To get Galbatorix to rush the Ra'zac on your neck, you would have to have a dragon egg, preferably a sapphire blue.... , no matter, the color doesn't matter, have found! And then you would have to be a dragon rider and have such a strange sign in your hand!"

Brom reached for Eragon's hand and became pale. "Just like... that's there!"

Eragon and Brom looked at each other and then the older man pulled the distraught young dragon rider behind him.

"Come along fast! Show me your dragon! And then we make us get away from here! We have no time to lose!"

They stepped on a root again and did not pay attention to the little root jerk, who looked after them shaking their heads. "So you want to leave? Both! Not just one of them? Not coming back? What could not happen to us root-and-comers...."

Chapter Text

Brom pulled Eragon behind him. Fortunately, they managed to travel a long way without stumbling, even though both were often in front of it.

"I'm getting two horses now," Brom said. "In the meantime, you will call your dragon! I know you can do that!"

Eragon looked at Brom inquiringly. "How do you know that? I mean, the old stories don't tell you anything about it, right? That's weird! If it weren't so absurd, I would almost believe that you were once a dragon rider who had a dragon but is no longer one...."

"Just keep your mouth !" Brom told the boy, staggered away.

"Did I somehow offended him now?" thought Eragon, calling for Saphira.

The dragon girl landed next to his rider and looked at him inquiringly. "Are we going on a trip now, my little fool?"

"Don't call me that, Sapphira!" replied Eragon, who had learned to respond mentally. "I'm not a fool! And no, we don't make a trip."

"Oh, a pity!" complained Saphira, but then she wobbled excitedly with her wings. "But we are far away from home! We're going on a longer trip, right? Where are we going? And when are we there? Is there still a long way to go? Is there enough food for me along the way? Can I take some rats out of the barn? And why don't you have luggage with you?"

Eragon looked at Saphira perplexed and felt very uncomfortable in his skin. "Uh...,"

The young rider heard a laugh behind him and saw Brom coming at him and Saphira. "Young dragons! You have a thousand questions! They really want to know everything where they are going, why they are going there, whether there is enough food..."

Saphira fluttered again with his wings and tapped towards Brom. She looked at him from top to bottom. 

"You seem to have a clue about dragons! Is that because you are a former...."

Brom put his fingers to his mouth. "Psst, that's our secret now!"

"What a secret?" asked Eragon. "What does Saphira know that I don't know? What secrets do you have, Brom?"

The old storyteller shook his head. "I'll not tell you that! But now we should continue our escape!"

Saphira looked at Brom inquiringly." Escape? I thought we were doing something like a vacation somewhere.... what is it? I once heard that Eragon's uncle said this after Eragon overturned all the wood! He said he had to go on holiday to recover from his nephew.

Eragon was offended and he folded his arms in front of his chest. "Oh, that's what Uncle Garrow says?"

"Yes, he said that! And then he said that you would actually have to put the wood back on yourself! But then it would fall over again and you would probably never finish again! Because you're just a little fool! I always say!" saphira replied excitedly.

Then she snuggled her head to Brom's belly. "So I think I like you! You know dragons, you were a dragon...."

"Psst! I say this is our secret!" exhorted Brom the dragon girl and Eragon became more and more impatient.

"What a secret do you both have? I don't understand that!"

Brom sighed and remained silent for a moment before pointing to two horses tied to a tree. 

"We should really start now before the Ra'zac catch up with us at the end. This could end very badly and we are back in the Galbatorix dungeon sooner than we would like!"

Saphira was terrified, fluttering with his wings and accidentally kicking Eragon on his lap. "Eragon! I don't want to go into a dungeon! It's dark and wet! And there are rats.... Although, I will not starve there.... nevertheless I do not want to go to Galbatorix! He's evil, isn't he? I mean, who has such a name....."

"People should not be judged by their names! His parents gave it to him and that's the only thing he can't do for!" replied Brom earnestly as he climbed onto the back of one of the horses. 

"Take the other horse, Eragon! Hopefully you can ride, can you?"

Eragon shook his head. He had never sat on a horse in his life. "I can't...."

Brom sighed. "So you can do anything at all? But what is it, then you just have to learn it! Rise first! Luckily the animal is quite tame and always runs after the other horse.... I hope so!"

"And me? Should I fly? I don't like to run all the way! That is too far! Also, when are we there?" cried Saphira as she followed the two riders. "I don't want to walk! I'm a dragon!"

"Flying is too dangerous, someone could see you!" replied Brom, sighing wistfully. "Oh yes, young dragons! They always ask cute questions..."

"When exactly are we here now?" Saphira asked again! "Is it very far?"

"Yes, it's very far!" replied Brom, and the dragon girl looked at him in horror. "Very far, so really far away? Do I have to walk all the way? When we arrive, am I already big enough to fly with Eragon on my back?"

"Yes, very far!" replied Brom thoughtfully, and Saphira uttered a shrill scream that led Eragon and Brom's horses to stand up and throw the riders off.

Both rubbed their backs as they got up again and turned to Sapphira, who had rolled up along the way.

"Why did you scream so much, Saphira?" asked Eragon. "Are we in danger? Urgals? The Ra'zac? Or even Galbatorix itself? A shadow?"

But the riddle solution was different.

"I don't like to go that far! I don't want to! Far away is too far for me!" complained Saphira. "I'll stay here until you allow me to fly!"

Eventually, Brom gave in. "Well, I know that no one is able to get a stubborn dragon to do something they don't want in the dragon's defiance phase! Not even Galbatorix would be able to do that! So just fly, Saphira!"

The dragon girl rose into the air and Eragon turned to Brom. "So it's a little difficult...."

Brom laughed. "That's still harmless! What do you think I've experienced? I once knew a snow-white young dragon who stopped the air until his scales turned blue. And only because he didn't want to eat fish! And then there was a dragon, who lay down on the ground and ate pieces of wood in anger until he got stomach pains! By the way, the dragon did this because his rider thought it was time to go to bed... that was Glaedr, the golden and Oro... but no matter, someone told me about it... doesn't matter....."

So Sapphira was a harmless dragon child and this reassured Eragon very much. 

Chapter Text

Brom, Eragon and Saphira had been on the road for several days when Eragon dreamed a strange dream one night that confused him.

He sat up and shook Brom, who slept next to him, unaised. "Brom, I dreamed something strange! I've never dreamed of anything like this.... in the dream a beautiful woman appeared.... an elf...."

Brom grunted and turned animate to the other side. "At your age, it's normal to dream of beautiful fairy women! So don't wake me up, otherwise I can't dream of my elf anymore... she has long blonde hair, is beautiful..."

Eragon sighed. "But it was a very strange dream! The Elf.... has beaten Urgals. And a mighty man, he looked like a shadow, stood before her, and was close to tears, because she laughed at him and did not want to tell him anything."

"It's really very weird," Brom admitted. "So the dream could really mean something. A weeping shade....."

"An almost weeping shadow," Eragon corrected his companion. "I haven't seen any real tears! And the elf was really very mean to him."

Brom sighed depressed. "Yes, with the elves, that's one thing! They can really be very vicious and mean, sometimes really malicious. They are a very smart people.... and treat themselves to evil things in secret. Meat."
"Meat?" Eragon inquired without understanding. "But we humans also eat meat! Why shouldn't the elves do this?"

The old storyteller shook his head. "There are many things you don't know! Elves were originally living beings who did not eat meat. Consumption is strictly prohibited by all laws. But a lot of people don't stick to it!"

Eragon, who appreciated a good roast and has been sorely missed since his trip, was able to understand this very well. At some point he felt almost connected to the elves...
"This Elf is certainly being held captive there! She hates the shadow and he locks her up! Why else would she insult him so much and almost make him cry? She will have a good reason to do so!"

Brom smiled and looked into the sky, where Saphira made her mark. 

The dragon girl had grown a bit and she had gone through her defiance phase a little, even though Brom knew that she had not yet completely endured. "Probably the dragon defiance will break through at the worst moment, that is often the case with young dragons! Maybe during a Urgal raid? Or when it comes to fleeing Galbatorix itself? Then it could happen that for some reason, known only to a defiant little dragon, she sits down on the ground and refuses to fly even a little bit....."

"Brom, the elf will have a reason to be so angry at the shadows... Although, isn't the fact that he's a shadow alone reason enough to hate him?" asked Eragon, and Brom shook his head with a laugh. 

"Eragon, elves don't always need a reason to get angry! But in that case you might even be right! She will certainly not find her time in captivity in a shadow beautiful. I know only one shadow that still exists in Alagaesia.... Durza is his name! A very dangerous guy, not so easy to fear, very powerful... only quarrelsome elves can really shake him to the core...."

"Where do we find this shadow?" Eragon chimed in, while Sapphira landed next to them and followed her conversation attentively.

"I would love to help this elf! She was... Pretty. Really very pretty. Long, black hair, light skin, green eyes and a very nice name! Her name was Arya..... the shadow has called it that!"

"Beautiful? But.... she certainly doesn't have blue scales," Saphira said jealously.

Brom became pale and clung to a tree trunk. He did not respond to Saphira's objection that dragon girls were often jealous and did not like it when their riders raved about young women....

"Arya? Is that her name? Are you sure?" asked Brom excitedly.

The young dragon rider nodded in amazement. Did Brom know her?

"Yes, she was called Arya! The shadow in my dream called it that. He said, "Arya, please finally tell me where it is.... I don't like anymore.... please say it, Arya!"

"Arya! "Arya! Useful! Useful! She must have sent you the dragon egg when the shadow caught her. She must have sent you the dragon egg when the shadow caught her. I would like to know what became of their two eternally arguing and non-talking companions....."..." Murmured Brom, while Eragon looked at him in amazement. I would like to know what became of their two eternally arguing and non-talking companions....."..." Murmured Brom, while Eragon looked at him in amazement. How could you not talk to each other and still argue?

How could you not talk to each other and still argue?

Yes, there were really many things in the world that he didn't understand.

Yes, there were really many things in the world that he didn't understand.

"We must save this Eleven! "We must save this Eleven! We will travel immediately to Gil'ad, Durza's city! We will travel immediately to Gil'ad, Durza's city! We will definitely find them there! We will definitely find them there! We have to enter a heavily guarded fortress, pass magical guards, and perhaps fight with an almost invincible shadow..." borm said thoughtfully, and Eragon swallowed heavily as Sapphira looked to the sky tormented.

Eragon was a little insecure. They didn't want to start swordfighting training until tomorrow and now they should already break into an eerie fortress and... free the elf. The beautiful Arya....

"We can do it, Brom!" said Eragon, and Brom nodded. "Yes, if not us, who then? We are both created for this....."

"It's a disaster," Saphira said, but neither Brom nor Eragon responded to her regret. She sighed and hoped that she would be able to protect her two companions from the shadows, urgals, dark magicians, evil traps and, above all, her own rabidness. 

Chapter Text

Durza stood in the elf's cell and looked at her almost desperately. Once again, a letter had been received from the king asking that he be informed of the state of the interrogation.

"What am I supposed to do?" thought Durza, preferring to stomp his foot up in anger. 

'This woman just doesn't want to talk. I can do what I want. She doesn't talk to me and doesn't tell me anything! She's just horrible and is already haunting me in my nightmares!"

There were no results to communicate to the king, and gradually Galbatorix lost patience.

"He wants me to take her to Uru'baen," thought the shadow, and relief spread in him. 

Should Galbatorix get annoyed with the terrible elf. The main thing was that he finally got rid of them and was able to devote himself to his books again.

For weeks, he had been burning to learn how the story would go on with this in love vampire and the innocent, a little clumsy human girl. He also wanted to follow the story with the little magician...

"Instead, an evil elf woman annoys me. Life is really very unfair," Durza thought with a sigh, trying to look at her strictly.

"So, Arya. You should tell me now where you sent the dragon egg! Otherwise I have to become unfriendly again....

Arya laughed briefly. "Unfriendly? Even more unfriendly? You enter my cell without knocking, it doesn't bother you whether I sleep or wake up and you salted my flesh! What else do you want to do to me?"

Durza shrugged. "Well, I don't..... but Galbatorix is not as kind as I am. He will put you in chains and torment you! Then you will certainly talk!

A thought came into the shadows. Perhaps he should have tried what Galbatorix would do with the Eleven. He sighed. "Yes, maybe I should have tried torture instead of just asking.... but somehow I don't know... I don't like it.

Arya swallowed heavily, but despite Durza's terrible threat to send her to Galbatorix, she remained silent. 

"I'm not going to tell you anything. Besides, I don't know... But it doesn't matter. I am not saying anything! And now disappear from here....."

Durza shook his head, left the elven's cell and slammed the door loudly behind him. He was glad that he soon had no reason to meet and interrogate the prisoners. 

"Whether Galbatorix is more successful? Sometimes I wonder if she even knows where she sent the egg!"

 Eragon and Brom tied their horses near Gill'ad, while Saphira looked furiously towards the sky.

She had been annoyed with her rider. He had forbidden her to accompany him to the city. 

"Why can't I join?" she asked, with a squealing undertone in her voice. "I also want to eat shadows and hunt Urgals. I think that is unfair. You're going on adventures and I've got to stay here!"

Brom sighed. "Saphira, this is not a game! This is very dangerous! Eragon and I will probably be in danger of death. It may well happen that we are taken prisoner, tortured and that we are executed tomorrow morning at the latest.... Eragon, is something? You're so pale!"

Eragon shook his head. "No, it.... is already going. Only that with the torture and executed..... is a little... Disturbing.... not that I would be afraid, but....."

"You little Rabpatsch will certainly be executed tomorrow morning. And you certainly still stumble when you have a noose around your neck or the rope tears. With all the bad luck you always have..." said Saphira, her rider cast her a nasty look. 

"I'm not so terrible."

"Yes, that's you!" said Saphira, banging her wings. She punched Brom in the face and he held his cheek.

"Sorry, Brom. But sometimes you're really just as bullish as my little fool! If it weren't so absurd, you could almost be called a father and a son!"

"This..." Brom began, but Eragon grabbed him by the arm. "We should go! The poor Elf urgently needs our help! Who knows what else this eerie shadow will do with her!"

at bad!"

Chapter Text

Brom and Eragon sneaked through a damp, dark corridor that would take them inside the fortress of Gil'ead.

Cobwebs found their way into their faces and Eragon swiped them to the side in disgust. 

"Brom, that's disgusting!" he complained. "Saphira can be glad that she is not there and doesn't have to do it!"

His companion sighed amused. "Don't pretend to be like this because of the little animals! A few cobwebs and a few spiders haven't hurt anyone yet! I'm once in a mountain, a long, long time ago, when I was still a drag.... but no matter, was, hit a really big spider! Kanki or Knarka or something like that was called and she wanted to eat me! That was a giant, I tell you...." 

Eragon didn't really find it fitting that Brom was talking about this eerie being the very moment a thick spider sat on his nose.

"Brom, that's not funny," he growled, and the storyteller took a serious look at him. 'I didn't mean it funny either! It wasn't a nice experience! This spider wanted to sting me with her sting and spin a! But then I stumbled across the bones of some other poor creature, I think one of the locals there, Urks or something like that, they are called. She missed me...."

Yes, Brom had always been lucky in his adventures, so much eragon had learned about his companion. At the decisive moment, this or chance came to his aid.

He hoped that luck would be faithful to them in the rescue of the elf in Gil'ad.

The path stretched through the secret passageway for a tormented length. Eragon asked his companion how he knew about it.

"I know him from the past.... it's a long time ago...," Brom muttered, and the boy shook his head.

"That can't be.... I mean, no one comes here that easily. This was perhaps possible even earlier, in the days of the old dragon riders. It must have been a nice walk..."

"That's why I know him... but no matter...," Brom muttered, and once again Eragon wondered what Brom was hiding in front of him. He kept some secret, wasn't he?

"We're right there!" said Brom after a while, and Eragon wondered that his companion knew this.

Brom pushed down the rusted jack of an old door and they stepped out onto a hallway.

As the door fell behind them, Eragon realized that she was behind an old image depicting an ugly man.

"Who is that in the picture? He's really very ugly...," Eragon said, and Brom looked at the boy insulted. "This is my grandfather Ehrenbrecht.... he was a well-known drag... but that doesn't matter! I always thought you look a little like him..."

Eragon turned red. "I don't see it in a similar way! How about? I'm not related to him! And the picture is at least 150 years old! You're a little too young to be his grandson! To be old enough, you'd have to be a leftover old dragon rider!"

Brom did not respond to this remark, but instead threw a strange glance at Eragon. 

Slowly, the young dragon rider began to wonder if there might be anything wrong with his suspicions....

Saphira circled anxiously over the city and hid between the clouds. Terrible scenarios ghosted around in her head and one was more terrifying than the other.

"The two could fall into a hole! They could break one leg or both," the dragon lady thought uneasily. "My little fool could cut this old sword that Brom gave him. He tends to do something like that!"

There were other horror scenarios. Eragon and Brom could be in the shadows! Surely this mean guy would hurt her little fool very much.

"That must not be!" thought Sapphira anxiously, landing on a hill some distance from the city.

Meanwhile, Brom and Eragon managed to penetrate Durza's fortress further. They would almost have been discovered when Eragon knocked over a vase that stood on a window sill. 

She fell to the ground and when Brom admonished him and turned around, he also knocked over a vase standing next to her....

The two quickly scurried into a large closet as steps approached them. 

"There was someone! Something has fallen down! The ugly vases!" a male voice said, but another man said, "Is it good that things are finally gone! I almost bumped against them all the time... That was one of our people and he will not dare to admit it. Where they are Lord Durza's favourite vases..."

"Yes, something tasteless can only be a shade... aua!" one voice complained, and someone else raved: "Don't say anything like that about Lord Durza! You know, he's very powerful! Not that he still punishes you...."

The steps were removed and Eragon and Brom crawled out of the closet and gasped for air.

"We should find this elf as soon as possible before we get into such a situation again and in the end we really find our tragic end in a cupboard or something like that," Eragon said, and Brom agreed.

Eragon laughed briefly. "We both really agree very often.... like two related souls....." 

Chapter Text

Eragon and Brom sneaked as quietly as possible through the corridors of Durza's fortress. Once again, they had to seek refuge in a large closet when they heard the steps of a group of soldiers approaching.

But eventually they reached the part of the fortress where the prisoners' shelters were located.

"Surely we will find this poor elf here!" said Eragon, smiling dreamily. 

"I have to think about all the old stories..... of brave knights who free their princess from the power of an evil sorcerer...

Brom sighed. "Yes, and you think now, you're such a hero who does something?"

Eragon shrugged. Why shouldn't he be the hero? He liked the idea of freeing a poor, kidnapped princess from the violence of a monster in a golden armor. 

He imagined the gentle young woman falling around her neck and looking at him admiringly and in a soft voice: "My hero... you saved me from the terrible shade..."

 Brom bumped into the young Dragon rider. "Don't stand in the way and dream! Please open the door there... do it with magic!"

Unsympathetic, Eragon looked at his companion. "Magic? How that? I'm not a magician, sorcerer, root jerk, druid or lucky bear! I have no idea about magic! I'm just a dragon rider!"

Brom nodded and slapped himself on the forehead. "I should have told you.... somehow that went under.... but as a dragon rider, you master the magic. Better than a root jerk, druid, who by the way usually brews strange brews, or a sorcerer could ever! Dragon riders are powerful magicians...."

Eragon looked at Brom inquiringly. "Dragon riders master the magic?"

Brom sighed. "Sometimes you're a little bit conceptual. I wonder where you got it from. Not from me anyway..."

Now Eragon laughed. Brom was weird. "What do you say? Of course I can't have anything from you. We are not related."

Brom looked strange at Eragon, but then nodded. "Of course not! How then?"

Somehow this sounded a little mocking and a suspicion arose in Eragon. But that wasn't possible, wasn't it? No, Brom couldn't be his father. 

He wouldn't have been the kind of man his mother preferred. This liked adventurous and exciting men who surrounded a touch of mystery.....

"That's true of Brom.... To. He snuggles strange stuff and no one really knows where he comes from.... But... we have no resemblance at all..." eragon thought as Brom gave him another push.

"Concentrate on the castle and open it magically. Then we come to the prison wing and can finally free the elf!"

A smile scurried over Eragon's face. For this pretty elf, he would even believe that he possessed magical powers...

To Eragon's astonishment and Brom's relief, he actually managed to open the castle with magic. As soon as they could, the two intruders stepped in and Brom closed the door again.

"We have to wait a long time. There would have to be the cells. They used to be there anyway.... but no matter," the storyteller quiped, pulling Eragon behind him.

The prison wing of the fortress was eerie and more than once Eragon reached for Brom's arm. 

"That's horrible," he muttered, when he discovered a skeleton in a cage that hung on the ceiling. 

"Was that really a human being? The poor one," Eragon lamented, and stopped. "The poorest. That's horrible...."

Brom sighed. "It's not the right moment now.... no, that was not a human being. That was a.... controversial dwarf....."

"But it's a little too big for a dwarf," Eragon said, astonished, and relieved that it wasn't a dead man.

Dwarves were unknown to him and they fell for him in the same category as cows, horses or the delicious pigs that Sloan always processed into sausages. They also fell into a division with the legendary lucky bears or this people, which was supposed to exist abroad. The name didn't really come to his mind. Hobbels or something like that, it was...

"There are also big dwarves, stupid boy!" Brom hissed impatiently, pulling the dragon rider a little behind him. 

"And I find it worrying that it bothers you less with a dwarf than with a human!"

"Well... ," Eragon stammered, who was uncomfortable with the conversation. 

Was he really such a heartless man that he was indifferent to the fate of other creatures? Was he heartless? In the end even evil? Was he inclined to fall into the dark side?

Self-doubt overwhelmed him and Brom had to pull him behind him again. He eventually stopped at a door.

"This is the only cell that is occupied....."

"How do you know that again?" Eragon asked in amazement, looking at the storyteller in amazement. His knowledge of some things fascinated and troubled him equally.

But Brom just sighed and shook his head before giving Eragon a slight pat on the back of the head. "Eragon, I know that because..."

"Because?" Eragon interrupted him excitedly. "Please tell me..."

'I know it because it's the only door that's locked. Everyone else is open...", Brom revealed his secret and Eragon looked at him almost disappointed. "Oh so....."

Brom nodded and asked Eragon to open a castle again by magic. The dragon rider obeyed and the next moment the door jumped open and he believed his heart would stop.

In front of him stood the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. Her clothes were worn off and her face pale. But that's exactly what he liked, he thought that pale skin perfectly matched her beautiful green eyes and the long black hair that lay in waves around her shoulders....

"Arya!" said Brom, greeting, and took a step back. It almost seemed as if he was expecting some mischief, while Eragon looked at the elf with his mouth open.

This became a disaster for him, because she took a step out of the cell and pressed it unsanctioned against the wall. "What do you stupid boy gloat me? What do you allow yourself? Such a naughty thing...."

She slapped him and Eragon held his cheek when she abruptly let him go. "Aua... What was that for?"

'She has no particular reason to do so. So don't worry, you haven't violated any of their elfcourtesy commandments. But elves are just vicious and pugnacious creatures who like to beat each other," Brom muttered softly as Arya looked out the aisle. "You want to free me?"

Eragon nodded, but he still couldn't leave his eyes on the beautiful elf. "Yes, I didn't want you in this disgusting, horrible shadow...."

She looked at him evilly and raised her hand to give him another slap. "You think I'm a weak woman who needs help from a strong, brave knight? That's waiting to be saved, what?"

Eragon simply nodded. "Yes...."

The elf turned red in anger in her face and took a step towards him. "You... You.... what do you imagine? I don't need any help from anyone... You... Human!"

Angry, she staggered from there, while Eragon and Brom followed her. 

Eragon wondered what exactly he should have done wrong. He couldn't explain it. She needed help. Hadn't he just freed her?

"But it is.... beautiful...," he thought enthusiastically. 

Chapter Text

Together Brom, Arya and Eragon sneaked through the corridors of Durza's fortress. They hoped to get outside soon.

"I will call Saphira! She should pick us up!" suggested Eragon, but Arya shook her head. "Your little girlfriend certainly can't help us...."

"She's not small, she's a dragon!" Brom corrected the elf's statement, and for the first time Arya seemed genuinely surprised.

"Now, you say he's a dragon rider? The sapphire-blue dragon who rejected everyone else, including me, who touched the egg, hatched with him?"

Brom nodded and Arya held his hand in front of his mouth and couldn't hold a gigg. 

This degenerated into a coughing fit and Brom patted her on the back.

"That.... is not... your seriousness... You take me on my hundred years old days, don't you? The... can't be," she yhrew, and Eragon cast her an insulted look.

"Is it!" he said almost defiantly, preferring to have his foot stomped like a small child.

The elf smiled mildly and then sighed. "It's good, boy. Don't get upset like that. I don't mean it's nasty. I believe you and Brom. But I sometimes wonder what's going on in dragons. Maybe I shouldn't have dropped the egg when I hid the meat behind my back? Maybe the little dragon has his head...."

"It's mean," Eragon grumbled, and Arya looked at him compassionately. "Good! I'm already going to stop. I'm just trying to find an explanation for the dragon's inexplicable behavior.'

"Dragons already know what they are doing... most of the time," Brom told Eragon. "Besides, you could be a little more grateful, after all, he freed you and thus risked his life!"

"Well, but he's a human being.... it's like a beetle.... but no matter, Master Oromis believes that even the life of the smallest ant is very valuable...", Arya replied, but then broke off.

"Now she compares me to an ant! If she now also claims that I am like a worm, then... I'll be a little unkind!" thought Eragon angrily, and threw a nasty look at the elf, which did not escape the pugnacious being.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing!" replied Ergon, hoping that his voice wouldn't sound too sloping. 

After all, he didn't want to be thought of as a pawn child. That would be almost worse for him than being beaten....

"Missing is she patting my head and saying I should go play a little while she talks to Borm," Eragon thought in a bad mood, following his two companions.

They rushed along the aisle where they had come and finally reached the entrance to the secret passageway.

They exhaled with relief. "Luckily, we really made it," Arya rejoiced, then twisted her face.

"Spinning..... Yuck..... I mean, I don't care! I'm not a screeping woman who's afraid of a little spider! I don't!"

"No, of course not! Did I actually tell you how this was true when I came across Kakna or as she was called....," Brom began the story he had already told Eragon, but Arya interrupted him. 

"Already several times! I first heard them a hundred years ago. And it doesn't get any better...."

Brom twisted his eyes and cast eragon a disenchanted look. "Elves...," he said contemptuously, and Arya staggered through the dirty water a little firmer than necessary. Brom's pants were soaked and he uttered a loud curse.

"Now don't belike like that! You are very hurtful. Of course, this is not so unusual in humans..." Arya noted, and Brom buzzed something incomprehensible.

Ergaon did not doubt that this was the best thing that could happen to them for all their good. He did not want to experience that the beautiful, unfortunately a little irritable elf and the old storyteller, who kept some secret, hoped to get behind the Eragon at some point, got into contention.

Finally, after an almost infinite eternity, the three refugees reach the exit of the secret passage and Eragon exhaled with relief. 

"It's been a success! We actually did it! We have freed Arya! The woman I dreamed of...".

Arya looked at him indignantly. "You dreamed of me? What do I have to ghost through your dreams, Little ones? What do you think you're thinking... Aua!"

Arya screamed as something struck her and Saphiras head protruded from a large bush standing in front of some trees.

"How do you actually talk imaginary snipe with my rider? What do you imagine? Laceear?"

Eragon expected another tantrum of the Elf, but instead she looked awesome at Sapphire and, when she rose, made a kind of kink. 

"Noble Sklublakka! It is a great honour to meet you! In the name of my people, I would like to send you the greetings of my Queen...."

"Save yourself that, Laceear! Climb on my back! We're disappearing from here!" sapped Saphira as Arya lowered her head. "Sorry, oh noble sklub...."

"Rest! Rise up!" sapped Saphira and finally the elf obeyed....

Durza looked anxiously into the book that lay on his desk in front of him and read the touching love story that fascinated him so much. 

The world around him was forgotten, only occasionally, when the touching scenes threatened to overwhelm him, he cast a glance out of the window.

"The noble Isabella lay in the arms of the great, strong Eduardino and looked into his golden glossy eyes, while his muscular skin, crossed by silver stripes, began to glisten. He touched her lips tenderly..."

Duza didn't really like kissing scenes, they were him... Scared. 

So he looked out the window for a moment and shook his head, still immersed in his book. "Now I see dragons flying by here, on whose back three people sit....."

He turned back to the book and hoped that the two lovers, even without too many kisses, would find each other and become happy. He remembered another book he had once read and which, in secret, had made him cry. This book was about a ship that sank. On board there was a beautiful red-haired princess and a young countryman who painted beautiful pictures.

By the sinking of the ship they had been separated forever....

'I don't want to think about it now! The other book will be better, I'm sure," Durza thought, and the strange appearance in front of his window, the dragon he had imagined, had already been forgotten as he continued to read. 

Chapter Text

The evil awakening for Durza came soon after. An unsettled soldier, who knew full well that it was never good to disturb the shadow while reading, gently knocked on his door.

The shadow quickly hid his book. What did his subordinates care about, what demanding literary works he dealt with? These ordinary people would certainly not provide him and in the end would lose respect for him. He sighed heavily. Smart and well-read creatures like him had a hard time in a world full of fools.

"What do you want?" he ruled in a commanding tone as the man entered the room.

"The...... Elf.... She's... away...."

Unsympathetic, Durza looked at the young man. "What does that mean? She is gone? She's locked up and can't escape, can she?"

Durza scratched his head and the moment he saw the dragon came back to his mind. But that was just imagination, wasn't it? He hadn't really seen a dragon....

"Did you see a dragon before?" Durza asked his subordinate, but he looked at him completely confused. 

"Hey? Dragon? Do you have too much in your books.... I mean, there's no such thing anymore....."

Durza jumped up and threw his book at the troublemaker. "Silence silent! Of course there are still dragons! What about Shurikan? The King's Dragon? Just because you've never seen one doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Not everyone is allowed to use this magnificent creature.... and you say that the elf is gone? Oh no!"

The full extent of this fact, which meant the flight of the elves for him, rose before the shadow. 

Galbatorix would react angrily. No, annoying was not the right word. Angry it hit better. Trembling with anger. Leave the earth trembling.... and Durza's head accusing his dragon of eating....

"We have to find them!" Durza shouted at the young soldier as he walked by. 'She mustn't flee.... we must capture them!"

Exhausted, Sapphirea landed in a lonely piece of woodland a few miles from Gil'ad. She hoped they would be safe from possible pursuers there.

"Surely this Durza has already noticed that Arya has been freed! From my rider!" said Saphira, and pride resonated in her voice as she gently nudily nudging Eragon. "You've made it, my little fool !"

Eragon hugged the dragon lady and pressed a small kiss on her neck. "Yes, Saphira. It really wasn't harmless. There were spiders and Arya was afraid, even if she doesn't want to admit it...."

"What do I have?" the elf quiped loudly. "What are you saying?"

"But stop now! My rider is absolutely right! He could have let you into Gil'ad, but he saved you. And when he says you're afraid of spiders, I believe him! My little fool doesn't lie!" said Saphira in a tone as wheeging as Arya, who looked on to the ground. "Oh, forgive me, big mighty Sklublakka."

Saphira raised her head and looked up to the sky, a little unnerved. "Eragon, this pointed-eared woman gets on my nerves..."

"I don't.... I think she is beautiful!" said Eragon in a rave tone, and Saphira looked at him insulted. "Oh, beautiful.... do you think she looks better than me?"

"Well... Different. She has fewer scales... " Eragon replied, but his words offended Saphira even more.

"So you have something against dandruff? What is wrong with that? Aren't they pretty enough? Don't they glitter enough? I like them, at least better than this straw, that people and the pointed ears grow on your head!"

"Oh, you find hair ugly, Saphira! Well, I remember that!" said Eragon, now also offended. "After all, I'm not blue!"

Saphira staggered so furiously with her front run that Brom shrugged in horror.

"I think blue is a very nice color!"

"Can we go further now?" Asked Arya in a bad mood, as a rustle rang out. Saphira turned her head to a book and, with her teeth, pulled out a secret observer.

"What is that?" asked Arya, sighing. "Another human being! I'm really surrounded by them...."..."

A young, dark-haired man rappelled up and took a astonished look at the dragon. 

"That's really a...... Dragon! I saw him from afar.... but that it really is a dragon.... so I really meet a lot on my journey. Girls who look like Ra'zac and also stink just as, trolls, I've seen some dancing around a tree in the back, and dragons....."

"Now I'm already being put on a par with ugly Ra'zac and trolls, you inhuman!" Sapphira grumbled, looking at the young man threateningly. "I should eat you on the spot.... what is your name?"

"Uh, Murtagh...," said the newcomer a little unsettled and turned to Eragon. "He doesn't eat a human being, does he? He just wants to scare me...."..."

"No, it doesn't eat people. But with you he might make an exception, you dragon-killer son!" grumbled Brom, and Murtagh looked at him in amazement. "You know my father?"

Brom nodded animatedly. "Yes! And I just don't skewer you immediately because I also have your Moth...... but nothing, no matter... Have my reasons...."

Murtagh sighed and looked really unhappy at one time. "Unfortunately, this is always the case when I say my name to throw the people in the country with vegetables after me. Women who invited me to their room outside of my admirers in Uru'baen throw vases as soon as I tell them who I am, root jerks fear me, little blue smurfs hide in their homes.... it's really devastating. It's like I'm having a purulent rash or something!"

"Igitt!" said Arya, throwing a suspicious glance at Murtagh. 

It almost seemed as if she was looking for a possible rash, but fortunately she didn't find it there.

"The son of Morzan!" said Brom, displeased, and Eragon looked at him in amazement. "Well, that's not so nice, of course. But again, it wasn't that bad. He can't do anything about it. In addition.... who exactly is Morzan again?"

Brom slapped himself in the forehead and looked at Eragon almost desperately. "Where does this come from? But no matter... Morzan is a vicious dragon rider! A common man and a criminal! A dragon killer, the first follower of the evil King Galbatorix. So bad that even Queen Kriemhilda is likely to be afraid of him. He is also said to be able to spit fire. He is now dead. I got it... but it doesn't matter. It is also said that he got out of the grave as an undead, would live in a castle in a dark mountain, together with three pretty women.... or i throw something messing up...? I'm not getting any younger, that can happen."

Brom sighed deeply. "Well, and it is said that in his lifetime he would have eaten elven meat regularly...."

"Don't say something like that," Arya lamented, and Eragon swallowed heavily. He cast a suspicious glance at Murtagh and stood guarding Arya. 'So don't dare eat them! I will protect them!"

Arya hit the young Dragon rider on the back of the head and he sank to his knees. "I said before that I wouldn't need any help from your stupid farmer, who is also a human being! I am not a weak, helpless woman. Me...."

She was interrupted when she took a step forward and stumbled across a root. Arya fell lengthwise as Eragon rolled to the side, but grabbed Murtagh by his cape and pulled him to the ground.

Angry, the elf looked at the dragon rider. "Why didn't you catch me? Why do you roll aside when a lady falls?"

The accused seemed to no longer understand the world, and Murtagh shrugged. "Women... I never understand that...."

Eragon turned to Arya,"You said you were not a weak, helpless woman who didn't need help from a stupid farmer.... you can never get it right!"

He looked at Saphira when she heard sounds that somehow sounded like a hateful, hurtful laugh..... 

Chapter Text

A day later, the refugees managed to cover a long distance of the trail on foot. Unfortunately, Sapphirea was still offended, even if she didn't know exactly why.

Eragon also did not understand why she was angry with him. Had he really offended her in any way? Even the elf stared at him angrily from time to time, and he understood much less what he should have done to her.

Eragon stopped and waited for Murtagh, who trotted a bit behind the others and led his horse at the reins.

"Are you knowledge of women?" asked Eragon, a little uneasy, looking around. He did not want this embarrassing conversation to be listened to by others, especially Saphira or Arya. 

Murtagh grinned broadly. "Could you say that. I do not understand them. But it's also not about understanding when you're in a bedroom with a well-built, pretty woman...."

"Bedroom? What are you doing? I mean, are you complimenting her on the institution? Or do you praise their good taste when it comes to hairstyle? Do you give her flowers? And why in the bedroom?"

Murtagh sighed. "You really still have a lot to learn!"

Eragon looked at the other young man indignantly. Does he consider him a perfect beginner in women's affairs? 

Well, he was a beginner. He had no idea how to court the lady of his heart. 

Until now, he had only experienced Roran when he fled Katrina. But this couldn't be true love, couldn't it?

No, he would never run away from the beautiful Arya. He would never break her heart and leave her in tears, as his cousin had done with poor, unhappy Katrina.

No, he would never hurt a woman in this way, even if he was quietly glad that his worshippers did not wear silly bows in their hair and stank out of their mouths.

In the evening they stopped and Brom turned to Murtagh. "Don't be in trouble, you son of a dragon slayer! Woe betide you, you're just stirring! Just don't get up. Not even to disappear behind a tree.... stay seated! I'll keep an eye on you!"

"I'm doing it, Brom!" eragon said. "I have to ask him a few questions anyway...."

The other travellers slept deep and tight, while Eragon and Murtagh sat side by side on a tree trunk and told each other their life story.

"So my mother has always had a very bad taste when it came to men!" said Murtagh. 

"She liked so seemingly daring men who lived an adventurous life. She once told my father that her first love was a man wandering around the woods, telling confused stuff about a ring and a lost kingdom in which he was king...."

Eragon agreed with the other young man with a sigh. "You're not the only one! My uncle Garrow told me about my mother! She also liked such a man. Who knows, maybe it was the same announcer?"

"That could be!" Murtagh suggested. "Our mothers fell for the same man.....and then she went with my father Morzan. But she didn't want to stay with him, she found another, more exciting man and returned home! She never visited me again, but she secretly writes letters that the servants put to me so that Galbatorix does not know. She originally came from a small village, but there life was always far too boring for her!"

The story seemed familiar to Eragon. Wasn't there anything like it about his mother, Selena?

"My mother always found life in the village boring. She went with a man and eventually returned home because the man became too boring for her. She met someone else, but she didn't stay with them for long. Incidentally, this was not my father. She was always in a state of dissent when she became pregnant. Then I was born.... Sometimes I almost think Brom could be my father. But actually that's nonsense!"

"You don't have that much resemblance!" Murtagh agreed with the younger man. "That would be strange. Oh yes, but that my mother preferred to leave.... sometimes she writes me letters, from Teirm. She lives there and takes care of sailors. She especially likes those who keep parrots...."

"My mother too! She also lives in Teirm!" eragon recounted what he knew about his mother. "She also wrote that she would like these birds. Especially those with the red feathers!"

"Yes, my mother also has a fondness for them!" murtagh rejoiced when Eragon came up with a thought.

"Who knows, maybe our mothers even know each other! They would certainly get along very well and could become good friends!"

"Yes, they would understand each other very well.... they were like sisters to each other," Murtagh agreed with the other, and both scratched each other's head before yawning at the same time. 

Morzan's son sighed sadly at one time. "It's a pity I don't have siblings...."

'I don't either. That is a real pity. I would like to have a brother. But unfortunately I am an only child...", Eragon lamented sadly.

"Me too. I would also like to have a brother.... Well, you can't do anything!" said Murtagh, and they rose at the same time to rest. 

Chapter Text

Katrina missed her fiancé more by the day and her father Sloan didn't know how to comfort her.

Every day he brought her delicious meat bites and even bought her a new bow. Unfortunately, it was brown, and that compounded the young woman's grief. 

"It has the same color as Roran's hair! How can you be so insensitive?" she sobbed, pulling the duvet over her head. She hadn't got up for days and Sloan began to worry more and more.

"Now eat a bite! I fried the meat especially for you. Look, the beautiful brown crust...."

The mention of the word "brown" caused another burst of tears among the unhappy lover. 

"The same color.... like his hair and his beautiful eyes... you are so insensitive! Almost like a father from a story I've heard before. He betrayed his daughter, because he didn't like her lover, to terrible monsters that they almost devoured...".

"Katrinchen, darling, I would never do that! I know I'm a tactless tramp," Sloan lamented, leaving his daughter's bedroom with a bad conscience.

"I don't think I'm a good father!" he thought, depressed.

Filled with sorrow, the kind-hearted Sloan stood in his butcher's shop shortly afterwards and cut small sausages. 

Even the little things looked so helpless and at one time the sensitive man got wet eyes. "Why does everything have to be so horrible," he muttered, wiping his eyes.

Marian and Garrow stood in front of the hut, the latter staring mischiously at a pile of wood. 

"The boys are both gone! And who is allowed to clear the wood now? I poor old man! So there is really no reliance on today's youth...."

Marian tried to comfort her husband a little. "Look at it from the side, it really wouldn't have been a good idea to let our little trample Eragon clear the wood. Probably he would have broken something or everything would have fallen over again!"

Garrow nodded sighing. "You're right!"

He began to carry the wood into the sheds, but continued to annoy his son and nephew.

"I'd love to know where Roran is now!" Garrow thought angrily. "He's definitely living a nice life somewhere, while I have to do all the work on my own."

Marian watched her husband smiling at work before returning to the house and preparing lunch.

But something was missing. It was so quiet, nothing broke and no one stumbled lengthwise.

Marian reached for a plate and dropped it to the ground. She smiled. "That's better!"

Yes, she too missed her two boys terribly and wished nothing more than her return.

She knocked on the door, but when she opened, she faced the two strangers she had been annoyed about some time ago.

"What do you want?" she choked as politely as possible. The two figures wrapped in capes stank even more than on their first visit.

"They could finally wash themselves! I don't want to be rude. But someone should make them aware that their smell is nuptled!" she thought, forcing herself to smile.

"We want the Dragon Rider," hissed the first figure, and Marian retreated a bit. "Dragons? I don't understand...."

She didn't even know about dragons. Weren't they flying animals? Well, the one who knew best about animals was, in her opinion, Sloan. He knew everything about pigs, cattle, deer and fish. He eventually sold the meat regularly in his shop. Perhaps he had a clue about dragons?

"Go to Sloan! He's the butcher here. I think you both already know him. He can certainly help you and tell you something about dragons!" Marian advised the two strangers.

She closed the door, the stench got worse and worse and she didn't want her whole house to smell like a Ra'zac cave.....

"So they should really wash themselves! Sloan won't be happy if his meat stinks...," Marian thought, and set about peeling a few potatoes when she knocked on the door again shortly afterwards.

She opened up and, to her great surprise, faced her son Roran. Luckily, she embraced him. 

"There you are again! I've already missed you.... but you urgently need to bathe. You also smell like you slept in a Ra'zac cave...."

Roran shook his head. "I helped four little guys. They were persecuted by masked figures.... no idea why. But I hit one of them on the head..... I let him go with me before I left. Don't know why either. Then I met an old man who smoked his pipe all the time. He thought he would help the four hobbits..."

Marian looked at her son with raised eyebrows." Hobbits? Do they really exist? You seem to have experienced a lot while you were away. But you have to tell us in peace.... and say, why did you come back in the first place?"

Roran looked at his mother's apology. 'I'm not going to stay long. I decided to become mercenaries in a country where they like horses.... a good profession..., wide country, a lot of scenery..."

Marian became pale. "Roran, that's horrible! That's not for a sensitive boy like you. And think of your poor Katrina...."

Roran shrugged anxiously and looked around for an escape route. "She's not my Katrina! I can't suffer them! You know that! And I'm not engaged to her, no matter what she claims! I've had another lady of the heart for a long time.... unfortunately it doesn't pay attention to me. But it's wonderful. Long blonde hair, a good sword.... She likes horses and lives in the country where I want to serve her uncle... a noble gentleman... it is called Eow....."

"Roran, such women are not for you. Katrina is better for you, believe me! It's almost as if you or Eragon are burning in love with an elf.... stay in your own world," said Marian, pushing her son onthe chair. "Well, now something is being eaten."

Roran his potato soup when the door opened and an excited Sloan, followed by Garrow, stormed in. 

Sloan trembled all over his body and was close to tears. "That was when these two country pranksters came to my store. But this time they took off their hoods and even spoke. They were really Ra'zac! They say they want Eragon to have the Dragon Rider and his Dragon. And they have taken my Katrina hostage, and will eat her if we do not deliver her to Eragon! They bring them to Hellgrind! Terrible!

Sloan eventually burst into tears and Marian looked guilty to the ceiling. "So it was really Ra'zac! And I almost offered them food. Igitt!" she thought, looking at her son.

"Your poor fiancée...."

"She's not my ....," Roran began, but Sloan fell in front of him. "Please, find your cousin! If he's really a dragon rider, he can save my Katrina. We cannot extradite him or you! I would never do anything like that! That would be terrible! Please, seek him out and help him save her! I want my little one back! Surely she's terribly scared!"

"The Ra'zac but certainly! Surely she will get on their nerves as much as I do," Roran thought, but did not say so loudly at the sight of the bitterly crying Sloan. 

As he clung tightly to him and sobbed more and more violently, Roran freed himself. "Good! I'm looking for Eragon! And I'm freeing Katrina! It will not be eaten...."..." 

Chapter Text

Eragon, Sapphira and the others had reached the edge of the Hardarac Desert. Brom decided to cross them to visit the Vardens, who had been fighting Galbatorix for many generations.

Surely they would be very happy about the reinforcement by a dragon and a dragon rider.

"Do we really need to travel through this desert? I don't like deserts!" snarled Arya in a bad mood. "Only people can come up with such an idea..."

"And dragons!" said Saphira, fluttering excitedly with her wings. "Please let's get in there quickly. I'm so happy. I like deserts. They are beautiful. All the sand.... perhaps we could build a sandcastle? You said that you used to do something like this as a child with your cousin Roran, my little fool, didn't you?"

Eragon nodded. "Yes, but playing with each other is not quite right. Roran built the castles and I broke them.... somehow I've always stumbled or something....."

"Yes, this is my little fool," Saphira said affectionately, giving her rider a tender nudge that made him stumble and bump ary at Arya.

Angry, the elf looked at him. "Let that be!"

"I don't do anything!" Eragon defended himself, but then came to the conclusion that Arya was probably right to react a little annoyed to him in this case. "I'm sorry! I was probably a little awkward!"

"She was just unfavorable!" sapped Saphira. "The pointed ear is always in the way! Me anyway....."

She growled and Arya looked submissively to the ground. "Did I annoy you with anything, oh powerful and revered Sklublakka? Then let me make up for my mistake. Let me prove to you through a heroic deed that I am worthy of it...."

Saphira interrupted the elf, and her words sounded painstakingly choked out. Eragon felt the overcoming that it cost the Dragon Lady to say the following. "Be....easy...a....little...nicer to mine..... fool,...my rider! Sklublakkas are annoyed when you are angry with their riders....."

Arya nodded and reluctantly gave herself a jolt, mainly because she did not dare to contradict a highly revered dragon.

For Sapphira's sake, she would even be a little nicer to Eragon, the annoying human broom who was staring at her all the time. At least she wouldn't sprinkle pine needles into the hood of his manner and look innocently as soon as he stabbed himself and scratched his head....

"I will take your words to heart, noble Sklublakka," Arya promised, and Eragon gave his dragon lady a happy smile.

"Thank you, Saphira! I know you didn't like it easy. I owe you something!"

"I will remind you of this on occasion," Saphira growled disapprovingly, but her mood improved as they rode further into the desert.

While the three people and the elf tormented each other and they only managed to get water out of the ground with the help of magic, the mood of the dragon lady improved noticeably. 

She climbed up to the sky, only to fall back to earth in dives and slow down her fall just before the ground.

"How beautiful, flying dragons are something glorious," Brom said with a sigh, turning to Eragon. "Get on her back. Fly a little with her! Forget your stomach!"

"I don't know... I'm sure it's going to be bad when she flies like that!" Eragon rebuffed, and Brom laughed.

"For a dragon rider you have a very sensitive stomach! So I've never been like that before.... but it doesn't matter....."

Eragon looked at him questioningly. What was Brom hiding from him? He turned to Sapphira, who looked into the air and gave herself up uninvolved.

Saphira's good mood continued the further into the desert. Unsympathetic, she looked at her rider and his companion, who fought their way through the sand sweating and swearing. Weren't they a little sensitive? Why couldn't they just enjoy the hot air, the beautiful sand that dug through the clothes and the sandy-tasting water? 

Even the huge sandworms that appeared from the sand from time to time were not really a threat. Eventually, they disappeared every time they saw Sapphira. Why did their companions have to cower together in fear every time?

Why did they get upset so much just because their previously light skin turned a little red? Didn't they look even better? She had always believed that the almost white skin was not at all in front of her rider. Red was much nicer....

"So whatever they always have. Why are they scratching themselves all the time? They certainly do this only to spoil all the joy of the glory of the desert!" thought Saphira, but couldn't resist a little hateful thought. "Arya's eartips are also quite red. They are redder than the skin of others.... and it itches all the time....."

Saphira a cheerful summation, which made her companions shrug on the floor.

"Your joy over the desert is unbearable," Murtagh mused in a bad mood. "As if I hadn't been through enough in my life. My father never liked me, my mother let me down and now lives in Teirm, as does Eragon's mother. I had to flee from Uru 'baen because the king had evil plans for me. I should fight for him and carry out nonsensical assignments. And a few married pregnant girls are hunting me..... but to all misery I now also have sand in my shoes!"

"You poor!" Eragon said sympatheticly. "But there is just as much sand in my shoes.... so don't make so much of it!"

"Yes, shared suffering is half suffering," Murtagh agreed with the young dragon rider, putting his arm around his shoulder. "How nice when you have good friends!"

"Yes, really how beautiful. I always wanted a brother like that!" replied Eragon, and then Murtagh also put an arm around his shoulder.

"You're very hurtful," Arya muttered, but didn't say it too loudly. After all, she had promised Saphira not to be too unkind to Eragon.

So only Brom understood her words. "Yes, they are really very painful. So I wasn't that bad at that age...."

Arya laughed sneakyly and threw Brom a hateful look typical of elves. "Well, Master Oromis says something else. He said you'd always chuckle when you had to do your magical exercises and put ants in your shoes and pants. You jumped up every time and canceled your exercise....."

Brom looked embarrassed at the elf. "That he remembers it..... he forgets so much. He sometimes does not know where he has laid his scrolls, sometimes he forgets what his dragon is called, then again he looks for his teacups, often does not know what the king of Alagaesia is called again.... but of course he has to remember this, even though it was almost a hundred years ago. Of course! He doesn't forget that!"

"Yes, our Oromis. He knows this very well, even if he has otherwise become a little forgetful!" Arya said, shaking her head. "Well, at his age, it's not that surprising...."

To Sapphira's disappointment, the travelers reached the edge of the desert in the evening and were relieved to see mountains piling up in front of them. 

"Now we are close to the Vardens. Very good!" said Brom. "I hope they have a good sip to drink for me.... By the way, how are these terrible twins doing? The ones who are constantly giggly and me.... get on your nerves?"

Arya shrugged. "No idea. Honestly, I already suspected her of being responsible for my capture. I was already afraid that they might be spies working for Galbatorix and seeking to harm us. But that's a little far-fetched...."

Brom nodded. "Yes, I think so. They are not smart enough to do that....." 

Chapter Text

Finally, Eragon and his companions reached the edge of the Hardarac Desert. Relieved, the farm boy from Carvahall let himself fall on the rocky ground and hit his arm, which he hardly noticed in his joy.

"Finally! Finally, no more sand!" he exclaimed, spreading his arms. Unfortunately, Brom accidentally stepped on his hand.

"Aua!" the young dragon rider lamented, but Brom shook his head. "You are also a bad luck bird! You put your hand exactly where I have to go!"

"But...," Eragon began, but was distracted by Arya's gigs. 

Did she make fun of him and Brom's misfortune? Did she enjoy the fact that his hand hurt him? Were elves really so vicious? At the sight of the beautiful fairy woman Eragon could hardly believe it. Surely she only hid her wounded nature and her true feelings under this evil surface. Somewhere Arya's heart beat, he was quite sure.

Sapphire a growl and Arya looked to the ground in shame. She held Eragon's hand and helped him get up, but accidentally stepped on his foot, which Saphira did not notice.

"She helps me! Maybe she likes me a little!" thought Eragon, ignoring his aching ankle, looking into Arya's beautiful eyes. He would have preferred to have closed her arms and passionately kissed her. But he didn't dare. Would she get angry with him? Laughing at him? Beat him? Kill him on the spot? Remove his skin and accuse the sandworms of eating in the desert?

The risk was simply far too great.

"Then we should visit the Varden now!" said Brom, addressing Murtagh. "Be prepared to say that the reception may not be so friendly for you...."

Murtagh felt visibly uncomfortable in his skin. "Because I am the son of Morzan?"

Brom nodded somberly. "Yes, because they're all afraid that you're just as bad as him. That you run after every woman, drink too much, catch dwarves, and then take away the hats to bring them Galbatorix as a trophy, start torturing prisoners, don't make your bed in the guest quarters...."

"Hopefully you know how to make beds, don't you?" eragon asked. "Not that you're doing this wrong!"

The young dragon rider thought with horror that he too was not too skilful in handling bed linen and that his aunt Marian mostly took this task away from him. He had already accidentally torn too many bedclothes and gave his aunt hours of sewing.....

'He really shouldn't do that, the beds are wrong, I think. And he shouldn't mess up! Better polish your weapons again. And see that you have no dirt under your shoes! Ajihad, the leader of the Vardens, is a very orderly man. Everything has its place with him and must be clean and in place," Brom instructed the group and Arya nodded proudly. 

"I've still noticed when I was with the Vardens. The great Ajihad has never found anything on me that he would have complained about.

"Because you are the daughter of the Elven Queen Islanzadi! And because he doesn't want to joke with it! He knows how angry she is," Brom muttered quietly, and fortunately Arya did not hear his words.

"I'm really worried," Murtgh said to Eragon, worried. "Certainly there will be difficulties, whether I can make a bed or not...."

"Yes, I think so!" replied Eragon, nodding in agreement. "And with your past and the fact that you are the son of the terrible Morzan, it can really happen that she puts you right in a damp dungeon or executes you, so as a deterrent to prove to Galbatorix that it is not fun to have fun with him. That he can be just as cruel as he is. Surely he will come up with a particularly painful method of execution..... is what?"

Murtagh had become pale, but shook his head. "No, everything is fine.... but you're terribly honest...."

Eragon shrugged. "You shouldn't lie! My aunt Marian always says that!"

"Yes, if she says so... " Murtagh replied in a soft voice, looking for an escape route. 

Brom slapped him on the shoulder, which was meant to be a gentle pat, almost causing the young man to collapse.

"Sorry... I was a little awkward.... but you look around so searching. Forget that better! The only way back leads through the desert, past the sandworms.... and if they do not eat you, then you thirst! In the dungeon of Ajihad it is at least moist and cool...." 

Chapter Text

The small group around Eragon and Sapphira continued to torment themselves, stopping more and more towards the mountains.

"I don't like going uphill," Eragon grumbled after a while. "It's always so exhausting!"

"You're really just a little, whining human boy!" arya said, shaking her head, pointing to Murtagh. 

'But he moans just as much. He is afraid of the dungeon, afraid of being executed.... you human beings are really very hurtful!"

"You weren't afraid of Durza?" Eragon asked, astonished and admiring at the same time. 

Arya was so brave. She had been through so much and showed no fear. What strength had to lie dormant in this beautiful elf? 

The elf laughed contemptuously, but in Eragon's ears the laughter sounded beautiful." Of course I wasn't afraid! What is such a shadow supposed to do to me? A shadow is not much more than a human being. At one point, Durza was even a human being. It is, of course, significant that mostly people become shadows and never elves....."

Eragon and Murtagh looked depressed to the ground. They were ashamed at one time, especially Murtagh felt bad and feelings of guilt plagued him." Yes, my father was already bad. And now I have to live with the fact that people are so spoiled anyway....."

But then a triumphant smile slid over his face. "Let's see! That is not true. There has also been an elfic shadow! Everyone in Uru'baen really knows that! There was once a warrior who was originally evil, but then wanted to fight for the good.... and then became a shadow.... It was called Xania or something like that. Or was it Xina? Or Xeina? Well, it will come to mind again...."

Arya became pale. "It really existed? An elven warrior who was a shadow? Oh no, how horrible....."

Ashamed, Arya walked away from there, she wanted to be alone, while Brom giggled quietly into his beard.

"But you came up with this, didn't you? This warrior queen, or was it a princess, was a human being. And never a shadow...."

Murtagh shook his head. "No, she wasn't. But I don't like arya's making fun of people all the time. Earlier, she even told a human-joke. "How many people does it take to drill a hole in a ceiling?" I didn't listen any more...."

"Yes, such jokes are really very mean. I can't believe that Arya says something like that!" replied Eragon, but Murtagh looked at him almost nasty.

'Believe it or don't believe it. But it's Arya who tells the story. She is vicious and sneaky. She rejoices when you stumble across a stone and break your arm. She finds it funny when you spoil your stomach on a rotten apple. And she will certainly never fall in love with you! Believe me, I understand something about women. And the way she looks at you, she can't suffer you!"

Eragon swallowed heavily. Did Murtagh really mean this seriously? Couldn't Arya really suffer him? And would that never change? He had been convinced that she was only mean because she liked him. Wasn't that the case with women? Or had he misunderstood something there? Was it really a sign of dislike that Arya always made fun of him, insulted him, or played mean pranks on him?

Wasn't it just covering her affection? 

Eragon realized that he really didn't understand women very well. Would this ever change? 

'Why can't she be as mad about me as Katrina to Roran? It's just unfair," thought the young dragon rider, who had not contradicted his dignity as a rider, then defiantly stomped his foot.

The fear of breaking his foot in such a move also kept him from doing so.

They went on silently, each immersed in their own thoughts.

But then a spear was stuck in the ground in front of them trembling. Eragon noticed him too late and fell lengthwise.

"Not again...," Arya muttered as Brom stumbled across the young Dragon rider's legs.

Both had sat down on their knees and were now sitting on the ground, while Murtagh looked around on all sides and drew his sword.

"Let this fall on the spot!" a female voice shouted, and Murtagh drove around. Several archers had surrounded them.

A dark-skinned woman holding another spear looked at him furiously. "Let your sword fall and give yourself up.... hello Arya!"

"Nasuada!" cried Arya, and turned to the other woman beaming with joy. 

They gave themselves a kiss on the cheeks. "I've been worried about you! Your two elven companions were here, but then travelled on to Ellesmera. We heard that this Durza is holding you captive... Is it true that he has unkempt hair for so long? Well, yours are full of sand at the moment... I'm not saying it's ugly. But it doesn't stand you and make you old!""

Arya nodded sighing, ignoring the nasty remark about her hair. "So this color makes your skin look pale, Nasilein.... Yes, Durza really doesn't care very well. And it is unspeakably cruel and horrible. I never want to see him again! And then I get bothered all the time by this rabid dragon rider!"

"You poor!" Nasuada said, shaking her head, but then she pointed to the dragon.

"He's a dragon rider? He is the one who will save us all? The one where the blue dragon hatched.... hm, he's not ugly.... and the other beside it is not."

"Brom?" asked Arya inam, astonished. "Isn't he a little too old for you.... Nasuada, you shouldn't get involved in a men's story again. Remember, there's always trouble and you just don't have a knack for such things. You're almost as clumsy as choosing your clothes!"

Nasuada shook his head and pointed to Murtagh." I meant the dark-haired. The one with the sword.... he has something about him.... as if he had a lot of idea about women... and so what wild, romantic... like a forest ranger who was there a few years ago. His name was Aron or Arawon or something like that."

"Yes, you need someone like that. A daring guy from the woods!" said Arya, adding, "But he is the son of Morzan, the traitor. The one who ate elven meat and killed many vardens. He is probably also a serious criminal and I could well imagine him as a Galbatorix loyal follower. But otherwise he would be the right one for you!" said Arya, and Nasuada dislocated his face in disappointment.

"It's a pity... really a pity...."

She gave her people a wink. "Let us bring the Dragon Rider, the Dragon, and this traitor son to my Father. Let him decide what to do with them...."

She and Arya hacked each other and sat at the head of the group, which continued to hold their weapons at Eragon, Saphira and Murtagh, while Brom followed them shaking their heads. "At least these giggly twins are nit. ... they would probably have let us in chains or something like that...". 

Chapter Text

Not long after, Eragon faced Ajihad, the great leader of the Varden, intimidated.

He had the same dark skin as his daughter and he wore a neat-looking cape with fine embroidery. 

His hair seemed to be freshly washed. He just cleaned his fingernails, while his boots shone brightly in front of him.

All in all, he made a very well-groomed and tidy impression.

However, his gaze was far from friendly when he saw Saphira. "Did that have to be?" he told Nasuada. "Child, you have that from your mother. She never put any value on certain things."

"Sorry, Father. I should have had the son of the traitor Morzan put in chains!" answered Nasuada, pointing to Murtagh. "I know he's dangerous and could kill us all, right?"

Ajihad shook his head. 'That's not what I'm about. We're already getting on with it! It's about dragging this great dragon in here! What do I always say? Do you repeat it? Animals.... complete the sentence!"

"Animals belong outside!" sighed Nasuada, and Ajihad patted his daughter's cheek. "Well, that's not the way to do it. By the way, you could wash your hair again!"

Saphira emanated an outraged fuse. "But I'm not an animal! I'm a dragon! A dragon! That is a difference! I'm not on a par with a horse or a rabbit! That's what I eat at most!"

"Please calm down, Saphira! Not that they still put us all in chains at the end and bury us somewhere in the desert sand...", Eragon asked, soothingly stroked Saphira over his neck.

Nasuada had taken note of her father's rebuke and pointed to Murtagh. "He is the son of Morzan...."

Ajihad shrugged. 'That's really worrying, of course. We will have to search His spirit!"

Looking around, he looked around. "Where are Ernus and Bertus already?"

"Here we are!" a cheerful giggling rang out, and two bald-headed, completely identical-looking men stood by Ajihad's side.

One held his hand in front of his mouth and laughed as Eragon wondered what was so funny. Did they laugh at him? About Saphira?

Now the twins were stuck, because they had to be, to all the evils also their heads together and giggleevened even louder.

Murtagh bent over to Eragon and whispered, "So the last twins I've been dealing with were much prettier... .."

"You loved two girls at the same time? How is that possible?" eragon asked, astonished, scratching his head. 'So I couldn't. I like only one, namely the beautiful Ar..."

"But you don't," Murtagh interrupted him angrily. "You don't! Believe me!"

But Eragon still couldn't believe it, and the fact that Arya gave him a nasty look when she heard her name didn't stop him from believing that there might still be hope for her.

Meanwhile, Ernus and Bertus had approached Brom. "He is the son of Morzan?" one of them asked, giggling, and Brom turned red in anger in his face.

"Ernus, Bertus! You are so unspeakably stupid that I can hardly believe it! I'm Brom! B R O M! You have known me for years! I have this bunch of fools... erm Varden, once founded! I am certainly not the son of Morzan! You know that very well!"

"Now don't be so rude! Of course we know you're not Morzan's son!" one of the twins said, addressing his brother. "Or, Bertus?"

"Hm, don't know....," Beruts giggled, slapping his brother on the shoulder, while Ajihad pointed at Murtagh. 

"He is Morzan's son! Search his mind! Find out all his secrets! Everything he knows and has experienced so far in his life..."

"Uh, really everything?" Murtagh asked, visibly terrified and quietly, to Eragon: "That's not possible! I am uncomfortable with that! There are a few things that really only go to me and my twins what to do.... and these other women... and what I thought about Nasuada earlier, they shouldn't necessarily know... and also not that I have Arya.... recently presented unclothed... and watched her when she moved..."

"You have what? Shame on you!" Eragon told the other young man. "How can you? Do you have no decency?"

Murtagh wanted to reciprocate, but Eragon gave him a push. "I thought you were my friend. And then you think something like that about Arya! Piglets! And watch her when she moves!"

"What did he think of me? You watched me secretly?" Asked Arya, she drew her sword while Ajihad raised her hand.

"Don't fight inside! The ground... Bloodstains... no, that shouldn't be!"

The leader of the Varden caught himself again and he pointed to Murtagh. 'You can see he's very pugnacious. Lock him up! And apparently he does not want To let Ernus and Bertus search his spirit! And I'll take a closer look at the dragon now!"

 As the swearing Murtagh was taken away, Ajihad walked around Sapphira and nodded admiringly. "Very nice sheds!"

He turned to his daughter. "In color you should let yourself make a dress! And matching earrings!"

Nasuada nodded approvingly and gave Saphira a beaming smile. "She's really wonderful, beautiful!"

"I think I like these varden, my little foul! They were forgiven for thinking of me as a pet at first!" said Saphira, addressing Eragon. "They say such nice things about me! You and Brom never do that!"

Eragon sighed inwardly. He didn't really know what to think of his arrival at the Varden. On the one hand, his friend Murtagh had been imprisoned, even if he had not really turned out to be a friend.

Eragon was still furious that he had been watching Arya in secret. You just didn't do that! Besides, didn't he cheat on his twins? 

And what did Brom mean by the fact that he had founded the Vardens? That could not be the case, it was ruled out. And where did Ajihad and the others even know him? 

Yes, Brom was already a very mysterious man and Eragon didn't understand a lot.... 

Chapter Text

Murtagh didn't feel comfortable in the cool cell at all. Although there was a comfortable bed and a large bookshelf, he was also given delicious meals three times a day.

Nevertheless, he did not feel very comfortable, even if he could not really explain this circumstance.

Was it because the Guardian always told him how he would be executed? That it would be fed to the sandworms or buried alive in the sand?

Was it this circumstance of a possible imminent execution that was so his soul? 

Or was it just because today's lunch was just lukewarm?

He didn't know it so well, so he shrugged when the door opened.

But to his relief, neither a mischient dwarf nor a viciously grinning Varde came in.

No, instead the beautiful Nasuada, Ajihad's daughter, entered the room and she gave him a beaming smile.

She wore a dress with a plunging neckline and he noticed that she was much better off than the clothes they had on the day they first saw each other. She had put her hair high and she held a wine hose and two cups in her hand.

Did she want to toast with him? Well, she was beautiful, his last encounter with the twins was already a few weeks ago and he noticed that he had missed the company of a beautiful woman very much...

"I wanted to visit you once! You're certainly very lonely here and bored to death, aren't you?" Nasuada inquired, giving him a small slap with his hand, dropping him back on his bed. 

She sat on his lap as quickly as she could, and put his arms around his neck, and he rejoiced that she understood each other so well and that she appreciated it as he did, without much fuss.

He looked into her beautiful brown eyes and came to the conclusion that she was the perfect fit woman for him....

"Lady Nasuada....," Murtagh began, but she shook her head. "Tell Nasy to me! That's what all my men say.... I mean, people close to me!"

Murtagh nodded with a soulful smile. "Then you may call me Murty.... otherwise only my twins are allowed to do so!"

Eragon was also scheduled to meet Nasuada that day. He lay on his bed while Sapphira slept next to him. Luckily, they had been housed together, so he felt safe and secure.

Eragon smiled in half-sleep as he thought of Arya. When he imagined that she was sitting next to him, grasping his hand and gently sanding over his face...

"Aua!" Eragon screamed as a dragon tail slightly hit his cheek. "I'm just dreaming of it...."

"Of this imaginary snipe, I know!" complained Saphira. "I had to wake you up, in your own interest!"

Eragon disagreed indignantly. "I love dreaming about her!"

"You just don't know what's good for you, my little shot!" Saphira answered, unmoved, as the door opened and Nasuada stepped in.

She gave the young dragon rider a radiant smile." I wanted to look for the great hero who will save us all! After all, you will do great for us Varden! You will defeat Galbatorix in a dramatic duel! In a duel that has not been seen in millennia! You alone will storm Uru 'baen and, if necessary, sacrifice your life for all of us.... if they torment you to death, you will be a great, tragic hero to whom future generations will look up...."

"Uh....," Eragon stammered, and he became pale. "How do you mean that.... So... I...."

"You're very humble, aren't you?" suspected Nasuada, pushing Eragon against the wall. Her lips approached his and she breathed a kiss on it.

Eragon swallowed heavily and he pushed Nasuada aside. "So actually... I'm in Arya...."

Nasuada winked at him, but let him go." Arya? But you can't suffer! I need to know because I am her best friend! She said I could calm you as a lover..."

'But I don't like it.... you are really very pretty and so and I will not break your innocent heart, just as my unfaithful cousin broke the heart of poor Katrina. But..." stuttered Eragon, who did not want to offend the young woman, but she shrugged. 

"Sorry, you would have done well in my collection..... there are already some nice young men.... the last one was your friend Murtagh! We did very well.... Entertain.... About.... um, books...."

Eragon nodded. "Yes, Murtagh likes to read! He mentioned that once!"

Sapphira snorted an unwilling snorting and shook her head. "This naivety.... Books, pah!"

Nasuada left the room giggled, while Eragon looked at his dragon lady perplexed. "What do you mean by that? Do you think Murtagh doesn't read too much and didn't talk to Nasuada about books? What else?"

"Oh, my little brush! I could really cuddle you. Or eat you! One of both. But of course you're right! You only talked about books. About nice, harmless books! What else?" replied Saphira, giving Eragon a slight blow with her tail. 

Eragon, on the other hand, hoped not to offend Nasuada. After all, she seemed to have a sincere interest in him, didn't she? After all, she had given him a kiss, while she spoke to Murtagh only about books.... 

Chapter Text

Durza was in a very bad mood, King Galbatorix had given him a heavy, almost unresolved order.

Through his spies, the king had learned where the Varden hideout was. 

The pigeon of a man named Bertus had given him an important message, and now the ruler of Alagaesia was determined to end his troubles with the Vardens once and for all. 

The blue dragon, the elf Arya and Murtagh, the son of the former dragon-riding Morzan, were also in the hiding place of the enemy rebels.

"Well, how was that again?" Durza revisited his mission. 

"Right, I should capture the dragon rider alive and the dragon dead... or was it the other way around? Or should I kill them both? Or leave them both alive?"

Desperately, the shadow tried to remember and he turned to the large army of people and Urgals that followed him. 

"We will defeat the Varden!" he shouted loudly and loudly.

"We will defeat them all! We will fight them, take away their weapons, capture them or kill them! We will steal their belongings from them...."

Something came to mind in the shadow. "But spare the books! Bring to me all the works you find!"

Rumours circulated that the Varden owned many old works. Works he wanted to read too much. For one thing, there was an old story about a pretty young woman who was in love with a young man who didn't love her. He loved another woman who was also his cousin....

And the young woman, who owned a large country estate, was courted by a shady adventurer.

It was only too late that she realized that she loved him too....

"I last read this a hundred years ago!" Gone with the rain" or something like that is the name of the book. I don't really know anymore, I just know that I would like to read it again!" Durza thought enthusiastically.

"We will keep the dragon rider and the dragon alive for safety," he shouted loudly, addressing his people. "Should Galbatorix decide what will become of them. We should also let this other Bengel live... Murtagh.... the king wants him back...."

"What about the others?" a great Urgal shouted and raised his spear. "Can we catch them and cook them?"

Durza swallowed heavily. "You cook people?"

"No, but dwarves! And there are many dwarves!" the Urgal exclaimed, and the shadow breathed a serene breath.

"Oh so, dwarves.... it's not that tragic...."

No, the consumption of dwarfs was really not within the range of what Durza found to be questionable. 

He didn't even like dwarves very much, one of them had kicked him violently against his shin years ago, while his six mates laughed and a young, black-haired girl threw an apple at him....

He had only wanted to destroy their house, which he had accidentally come across in the forest, but they did not agree with it and they had been able to defend themselves very vigorously.

This apple, which the young black-haired man threw after him, had been picked up by Durza and, after the dwarves and the girl had left, had bitten them safely.

For days, the shadow had then been lying in bed with severe stomach pains and was annoyed by the dwarfs' treachery. Now they were already poisoning fruit....

So much malice had shaken the shadow very badly.

"On to the Vardens! I want the dragon rider Eragon and this Murtagh alive! With the others you can do what you want!" Durza matures to his people, and they drew their swords.
"We will defeat them!"

A loud drumbeat rang out and Durza shrugged in horror. Why did these Urgals always have to take their barbaric musical instruments into battle? From this sound he got headaches.....

"I hope that this noise and this fight will soon be over and that I can refocus on the essential things in life....." thought the shadow displeased as he and his army continued their way to conquer the refuge of the Vardens and bring Galbatorix the dragon he wanted...

Eragon was uncomfortably torn from his dreams, which were once again about the beautiful elf Arya.

Again, a dragon's tail hit him in the face and he shudled up. "Saphira! I can't do anything for my dreams! You must not constantly punish me for this!"

"Oh, so you admit that you dreamed something you shouldn't dream!" the dragon lady replied insulted. "I remember that. You're even dreaming in secret now...."

"But you can't control dreams and therefore you can't dream in secret!" Eragon disagreed a little confused when he noticed that another person was in the room.

"Orik?" he asked, and the man in front of him, a dwarf, nodded. "Yes, I am. Orik, from the clan of..."

"I'm glad you're visiting me! What do you want? Do you want me to bless you?" Eragon asked joyfully, jumping out of bed. "That's what people here like!"

Orik thankfully rejected the Dragon Rider's offer. "No, better not! When I think about what happened to little Elva.... since you blessed her, she's been running around with a pig's nose!"

Eragon turned red, this story was very unpleasant for him. But it had been his first blessing and he hadn't had that much practice in it. Something like this could happen before. After all, no master had fallen from heaven and he was not even one. Aunt Marian had always said this to him...

"Well, I said she should be as happy and bring happiness like a little lucky pig...."

"You must have done something wrong! You probably wanted her to look like a pig!" said Saphira with a knocking undertone in her voice. "You were definitely back with this sniping in your head!"

"But now it's enough," Eragon protested as he stumbled across his cape in front of the bed and almost pulled Orik to the ground.

The dwarf sighed deeply. "So there can be something else.... I should wake you up! We are attacked, Durza the Shade and an army of Urgals is attacking! In addition, many human warriors...."

"And what should I do?" asked Eragon anxiously.

Orik raised his index finger admonishingly. The boy probably had quite a gallows humour, or why did he make jokes in such a moment?

"Well, what do you think? You will fight them! What do you think? Throwing apples? Although, that even helps! I still remember an incident from my early youth. I visited a few friends, in the forest.... now, and there we met Durza. A good friend of ours threw an apple at him and that gave us the opportunity to escape...."

"Fight?" asked Eragon, ignoring almost the rest of Orik's story. "I should fight and cast the shade Durza with apples?"

"No, my stupid one! You shall use the sword that Brom gave you the day before yesterday! The Sword Za'roc, a real Dragon Rider Weapon! So you will surely defeat the terrible Durza and not with an apple!" said Saphira, giving her rider a little nudity. 

Chapter Text

Eragon was led through countless dark corridors until they finally entered a room where several fires were burning.

Swords and spears leaned against the walls and he came to the conclusion that he was in a blacksmith's shop.

Orik looked at him grinning. "Our blacksmith has forged armor for you! You will fight with it and defeat the evil shadow!"

The armor that the dwarves had forged for him was magnificent, and when Eragon looked at it in the mirror a little later, he nodded contentedly. "I look like a hero from old times! Arya must like that!"

He turned to Saphira. "What do you say? Will Arya be impressed?"

Sapphira turned her head away and pretended not to hear her rider's words. 

Eragon sighed. "Saphira, don't be so jealous! You are my dragon lady! You're always in first place...."

"Really?" asked Saphira, unsure, and stunned Eragon slightly. "Well, i'll say something nice to you now. The armor is up to you! Still, don't think she'll please Arya. But it's not up to you!"

"Not? So what then? Do I have to clean it to shine more?" Eragon asked, dismayed. 

Was there nothing to impress this cursed elf? Although, how did he think about them? Why did he say such nasty things to her in his mind? Of course, she was not a cursed elf, but the most beautiful creature on earth!

Saphira put her head wrong. 'It's not up to you or whether the armor is cleaned or not. But this snipe.... I mean, this vain elf probably won't be impressed by anything. You could probably throw Galbatorix's head in front of her feet, she would still remain unmoved and say something common to you!"

"I was also feeding," Sighed Eragon, but then a smile slid across his face. "Well, at least I don't have to cut my head off Galbatorix now. So what is... disgusting!"

"Oh, my little shot! You're going to have to grow up!" said Saphira compassionately. "Still so small and awkward and then already think of female elves... think of the upcoming battle. We must win it now! So I will never behave like that if I meet a handsome dragon! I'm not going to be silly and embarrass myself!"

"Winning..... But..., sure! We're going to win!" Eragon stammered anxiously, wondering how he could do it. At one time, an incredible load fell on him.

Apparently everyone here assumed that he would save them all! He, the poor little peasant boy from Carvahall, who could not even manage to stack the wood without driving his poor uncle Garrow mad.

'I can't do that! And if I really throw apples, I'll accidentally meet Ajihad or Murtagh!" complained Eragon, addressing Saphira."I am what you all think of me! A.... fertile fool!"

"Shot, now is the wrong moment to plague you with self-doubt. You've never been interested in anything like that!" Saphira replied softly. "You've certainly done something right before..."

Deep folds of reflection appeared on Eragon's forehead as he thought hard. "Yes, I have.... Also done something right.... But what? It just doesn't come to mind, with the best of intentions not...."

"Well, you saved Arya! Even if she doesn't appreciate it, you saved her from Durza!" said Saphira cheerfully. 

"And you found my egg and I hatched with you.... I also watched you in Carvahall, your aunt's house, once when you covered the breakfast table! You put four cups up, but only two fell over! The other two stopped! You did it well!"

Eragon nodded and remembered the incident. "Yes, that's true. I did it right! So I can do something!"

"Yes, my little shot.... my little one! You can do something! You can cover a table or put mushrooms in a basket without crushing them. You manage to walk along a path without falling, at least every now and then. So you'll also be able to deal with this shadow! You will defeat him!" said Saphira, and Eragon nodded as his confidence began to grow almost immeasurably." Yes, I can do it! I'll do it! I will defeat Durza!"

According to Eragon, he turned to three warriors of the Varden and Orics the dwarf, who had helped him put on the armor.

"I will defeat Durza!"

"I want to hope for that...," Orik growled hopefully. "That's why we made the armor for you! I hope all the work was not in vain!"

Eragon shook his head. 'She wasn't, don't be afraid! I'm not even going to deny them! I will defeat Durza, the armor will still shine after the battle and Arya will lie at my feet.... Sapphira, why are you so loud?"

Saphira eated a loud roar and flames shot out of her mouth. 

It was the first time she had set fire and actually it was too early to do so, she was way too young.

Worried, Eragon looked at her. Why was that just? "Saphira, Brom said you wouldn't learn until later.... only very great trouble can cause a dragon to start early! Have you been so annoyed by Durza's attack?"

"Shot.... Smaller, I'll tell you that!" grumbled Saphira, and Eragon climbed on her back to fly into battle.... 

Chapter Text

Nasuada sat on Murtagh's lap and put his arms around him. Until now, she had visited him every day, and he no longer valued any time for his early release.

He was fine, where he was now. He was given three excellent meals a day, a dwarf cleaned his clothes, and the stories of executions that had initially frightened him were silenced.

He wondered if it was well known that Nasuada visited him for a reason.

She giggled when he asked her about it. "Of course the guards know! What do you think? But that doesn't matter! That's why you're treated much better now."

"Oh, then it's not so rare with you? That you visit prisoners and work with them... a little time spent?" Murtagh inquired, and the young woman giggled again.

"Yes, they've been very good with me until they're executed...."

Murtagh's heart threatened to slip into his pants and suddenly Nasuada didn't seem as pretty to him as before. "Execution..... now?"

Nasuada sighed. "Murtagh, what did you think? That I want to marry you? Now don't be silly! Of course you will be executed sooner or later, so far only no one has found the time for it! Think about it! You are the son of Morzan, the most terrible dragon rider of all time! He is even said to have eaten elven flesh and above all Arya is in favour of finally judging you!"

Nasuaa's unnerved mien relaxed when something funny came to her. 

She giggled again. "Well, that's mainly because you've been watching her in secret! She is very sensitive! A few years ago, King Hrotgar accidentally broke into her accommodation when she buttoned up her shirt. He immediately turned around, apologized and left the room. But Arya went immediately and wanted her mother, Queen Islanzadi, to declare war on the Vardens and the dwarves! It was a diplomatic achievement by my father to prevent this war!"

Murtagh swallowed heavily when he heard these words. 

Arya had wanted a war? And just because of an oversight? Well, then he, who had observed them with intent, could hardly hope for mercy or understanding. He was annoyed that he couldn't see anything at least. Then it would at least have been worth it.

"Cursed Elf!" he muttered, and Nasuada giggled again. Meanwhile, the giggmy got on his nerves.

"Could you let that be?" Murtagh asked angrily. She looked at him in amazement, but then laughed.

"Why? You will be running in a few days.... and how will you take revenge on me? 

"Well, something comes to mind, should I ever come out of here!" the prisoner grumbled, annotated, and the woman, who was still sitting on his lap, gently pulled him by the hair.

"How then? Let me guess... you could hide my sword or saw my arrows.... or you run over to Galbatorix at some point and fight against us.... hm, yes, that would be a possibility!"

Nasuada looked at him teasingly. "In the end, one of Galbatorix's last two dragons hatches with you and you kill one of our leaders or fight poor Eragon....."

She giggled again, and Murtagh gave up trying to silence her when the door opened and Ajihad, the leader of the Vardens and father of Nasuada, came in.

Shaking his head, he looked at his daughter. "Child, does that have to be again?"

She looked to the ground guilt-consciously. "Excuse me, Father! I know... he is a prisoner..."

The leader of the Vardens raised his index finger threateningly. "I got used to it! But your dress gets messy again. It's crumpled! It consists of this fine silk from South Surda and has cost me a fortune! You should treat this more carely..... but that's why I'm not here!"

He turned to Murtagh. "We need your help! You're a good swordsman? Well, we can need you very well! You could show your goodwill, fight against Durza, and thus perhaps escape your execution...."

"Maybe...?" Murtagh asked uncomfortably, and Ajihad nodded. "Well, a heroic death on the battlefield would of course be more honorable than being dug in the sand and accused of eating the sandworms... but if you perform great feats of heroism, we may forgive you the kinship of this unkempt dragon rider who ate elven flesh...."

Uneasy, Eragon went up and down. He stood, along with Sapphira and Orik, the dwarf, next to a group of Vardens polishing their swords and were as excited as the young dragon rider.

But then he breathed a sa'slife as old acquaintances approached him from two directions.

"Murtagh! They have released you! Very good!" said Eragon, as his travel companion rushed to him. 

For a moment Eragon forgot the fact that his friend had secretly observed the venerable Arya, for whatever reason....

There was nothing about a real male friendship!

"Thank you for visiting me so many times in my cell!" said Murtagh with a sarcastic undertone. 

"And for the fact that you have so committed yourself to me and objected when you learned that they want to accuse me of the sandworms!"

Eragon did not understand the sarcasm and he looked at Murtagh in amazement. "But I didn't visit you at all and I didn't have anything against an execution. Well, it would have bothered me. But when you consider who your father is.... and you watched Arya.... well, and I didn't even get up! So why do you thank me?"

"My little fool! You don't understand a lot!" complained Saphira, whispering as the second old acquaintance approached her.

Arya lifted her sword and pointed to Saphira. "I am honored to fight alongside a highly revered Sklublakka and perhaps to die! For this I even accept to fight with the son of a traitor in the wake!"

"I don't want to die!" murtagh proclaimed, and this time Eragon had to agree with his friend. "I don't either! And we will not die! We will win!"

"Yes, we will!" roared Orik, and the assembled Vardens erupted in cheers. 

Chapter Text

Eragon shrugged and reached for Murtagh's arm as a loud, squeaky sound rang out.

"That's horrible," he lamented, looking around. "What was that?"

"That was a war horn! One of the guards blew it! Durza and his Urgal army are very close to us!" answered Ajihad, dressed in shiny white armor.

Above this armor fluttered a red cape and a helmet with white wings on the sides sat on his head.

Eragon believed that the leader of the Vardens looked like a hero from an old ballad. 

His sight alone was awe-inspiring and the simple boy from Carvahall was very impressed, especially when he noticed Arya's admiring gaze.

"Why can't she look at me like that?" he thought unhappily. "Well, I'm younger than Ajihad. Unlike him, I have no education and fall over my own feet all the time. I recently heard that Ajihad is descended from a princely family that once ruled the desert. He is the hero of countless battles and a great leader. Moreover, his armor shines more than mine. And my helmet has no wings! But... is that perhaps a reason to prefer it to me? Arya is really a little... superficial!"

"They attack. You should now climb on Sapphira's back, draw your sword, and lead our people into battle as soon as the Urgal Army and shadows arrive here!" said Ajihad earnestly, as Orik rushed to the young dragon rider and pressed a cloth bag into his hand. 

"This is supposed to bring you luck during the fight! I'm sure it will be helpful!"

Eragon took a look into the bag and looked at Orik in amazement. "There are four apples in there! Should I eat them?"

The dwarf sighed his head." No, don't eat! Although they may serve this purpose, the need should become very great and you will find yourself lonely and abandoned in the desert. No, these apples should serve as projectiles against the evil shadow! An apple has already brought me luck, I have already told this story!"

Eragon darkly recalled that Orik had once succeeded in displacing Durza the Shade with an apple he threw after it. Well, the fruit definitely couldn't hurt.

"Are you finally ready?" asked Arya impatiently. "The fact that such small human children always have to be so slow is really unbearable! All that's missing is that you have to do Pipi again!"

"She thinks of me as a child!" complained Eragon sadly, addressed to his dragon lady. "How can I convince them that they are already a man? A man worth fighting for her heart?"

"Not at all! She doesn't deserve you!" sapped Saphira. "Let it finally be! You're just making yourself ridiculous!"

"I'm not doing it!" said Eragon, even stomping a little defiantly, prompting Arya to frown.

"Now she really thinks of me as a toddler!" thought the young dragon rider depressed and finally climbed on the back of the dragon lady, who rose into the air and flew a round over the vardens and dwarves, who held their swords in the air cheering.

"That must impress Arya," Eragon thought, but kept these thoughts to himself. 

He was sure that Saphira would not have reacted too kindly about this and did not want to joke about it so close to the battle.

"Luckily, you can strap yourself in the saddle!" said Saphira. "It's hard to imagine if my little shot would fall off my back during the battle!"

"So you also think that would be possible," sighed Eragon, and finally agreed with the Dragon Lady. 

"That could happen. But it won't. We will now... I'm proving to ALL that I'm not as rabid as they always think! I'm going to make it!"

"Tell them down there!" replied Saphira, and Eragon saw hundreds of Urgals storming in.

He swallowed heavily and would have preferred to ask the Dragon Lady to fly away quickly and hide somewhere. But he couldn't do that. Didn't everyone count on him?

"The guy with the red hair, that's Durza!" cried Eragon, pointing to a darkly dressed, red-haired man holding a sword in his hand as the Urgals stormed past him.

He proudly added, "I recognized him immediately!"

"Yes, it was really very wise of you to recognize the only non-Urgal under loud Urgals!" replied Saphira, and Eragon thought he heard a quiet mockery from her words.

"Don't be mean! Think about how we could defeat him!"

"Me?" asked Saphira. "But you are the Dragon Rider! Shouldn't that be your job? Or at least a collaboration between the two of us? But you can't pass everything on to me just because I'm bigger, stronger and faster and because I'm spitting fire...."

Eragon took an apple out of the bag that Orik had handed him, and threw it at Durza as he flew over him with Saphira. 

Unfortunately, he met Ajiahd instead, who, together with Murtagh, wanted to take to the shadows to fight and defeat him.

Ajihad slumped together while Durza walked to Murtagh grinning. "You are this boy that Galbatorix is looking for... you come with you to Uru 'baen and..."

Murtagh wanted to reciprocate, but was also hit violently in the head by an apple and rubbed his skull. "Aua! What is that?"

He looked up and saw Eragon holding a third fruit bullet in his hands, aiming again, and this time actually hitting Durza before Sapphira landed next to him.

"We are fighting now!" the angry Durza cried and raised his sword as Eragon climbed anxiously from Saphira's back.

Only the fear of standing badly in front of Arya and never winning her heart made him take all his courage.

"I will fight against you, shadow! You will not win!" exclaimed Eragon, and Durza looked at him angrily.

"How do you little boy stop me? You can't do that! I will defeat you and chain you to Galbatorix, as well as your dragon and your friend Murtagh! And then I will lock this elf, Arya, into a dark dungeon! As punishment for treating me so meanly when she was my prisoner! Never has anyone been as vicious to me as she has!"

"Don't talk about my Arya!" screamed Eragon, storming towards Durza with the sword, who looked at him surprised and surprised, but then quickly jumped to the side.

"I certainly don't make it that easy for you, you stupid kid!"

"I'm not a child!" Eragon grumbled indignantly. "I am a mighty dragon rider!"

Durza laughed out loud. "Oh yes, a mighty dragon rider? Smaller, you're a kid playing around with a sword and dreaming of becoming a hero and conquering a beautiful elven princess! You'll probably dream that you're going to defeat Galbatorix and then be lovingly embraced by your beautiful elf! Well, let me tell you one thing, you may defeat Galbatorix, but as for the elf, she will never do that!"

These words were too much for the young dragon rider. Full of anger, he reached for the last apple in his pocket. Aiming, and threw it in the middle of the face of the shade, wondering in secret that he hit his nose.

Durza grabbed his nose. "Aua! It hurt!" he screamed, taking a step toward Eragon.

But in the process, he stepped on the apple that had fallen to the ground and his foot slipped away. He fell on Eragon, who held his sword in front of him.... and the blade bored into the heart of the shadow.

He screamed again and he thought of all the beautiful books that he would never be able to read again... and all because of this rabid, stupid boy who had rather accidentally defeated him.... with an apple...

Durza's last wish, before he disbanded forever, was that this embarrassment would not be known and would haunt him to the afterlife....

Eragon, on the other hand, stared at his sword and the dissolving shadow when Saphira gave him a violent blow with her head and then looked at him proudly. 

"My little shot has made it! You are a shadow killer! Well, a sloping shadow killer. But you actually made it! And just look, the Urgals are fleeing..."

In fact, the Urgal army withdrew when they saw that the shadow had been defeated, and the Varden stormed toward Eragon and lifted him on their shoulders. "Eragon, the bully shadeshlayer!" cried Saphira, but quickly corrected himself:

"I mean, of course: Eragon, Shadeslayer....."

"Fool hits it very well," Arya grumbled, turning to Murtagh. "The fact that you stared at me when I wanted to move is not forgotten. But I am ready for a temporary ceasefire!"

"Yes, i'm glad!" Murtagh muttered as Nasuada fell around his neck. "So no one wants to blame the sandworms anymore! You fought so bravely and supported us! And if Dad is no longer upset about his dirty armor, he will see it that way! Surely you will be pardoned now!"

"It's a pity," Arya grumbled, as Eragon, who had just been carried by a group of Vardens, gave her a beaming look!

"Well, Arya, how did I do that?"

She shrugged! "All right!"

But she was the only one who did not agree that day with the loud cheers about Eragon, the Shadeslayer, and Orik, the dwarf, already imagined a beautiful sculpture that would show the shadow killer with a sword in one hand and an apple in the other.

"We will put them up as a reminder in the great hall of King Hrotgar!" he thought, brushing his beard. 
 

Chapter Text

As the Vardens celebrated and brought to life their new hero, Eragon Shadeslayer, the twins Ernus and Beruts read a letter delivered by one of the doves of the second twin.

Beruts had a special affection for these animals, while Ernus was more inclined towards the ducks.

"So, the great King Galbatorix wants us to finally bring back this Murtagh! And we should kill Ajiahd or also capture him! And if it is somehow possible, we should do what Durza failed to do..."

"Is Galbatorix saddened by the death of the shadow? Your pigeon has already told him that, hasn't you?" Ernus inquired, giggling silly, which made his brother look a little upset.

"That's not funny, Ernus. So stop with this silly giggly. And yes, I'm sure Galbatorix is sad. The paper was wet.... either through his tears, or through the rain shower through which poor Resi had to fly!"

"But... Resi is a bird! Or do you think she was afraid?" Ernus inquired, and his voice lost all cheerfulness at once. "If I imagined it was a poor duck instead...."

"Now stop with your ducks!" Bertus growled in a bad mood. "We should now consider how to fulfill our mission so that we can soon live again at the court of the great king!"

"Yes, that would be nice! It's much more comfortable there than here!" said Ernus, pointing to Murtagh, who stood next to a small table with Nasuada some distance away.

"They say goodbye to each other. Ajihad still wants to catch Urgals. He believes some of them are hiding here. And the dwarves like to eat Urgal meat...."

He giggled and Bertus nodded approvingly. "Yes, this is considered a delicacy for the dwarves, even if they get very upset when Urgals eat dwarfs!"

"Then maybe we should accompany them when they leave together with some warriors. We could kidnap them if they don't expect it. I will send one of my pigeons to the Urgals. They are supposed to help us!" Bertus suggested after a while, while Ernus was far from impressed by the idea of accompanying a bunch of warriors.

"But Bertus, it's so dark..."

"Ernus, think of the beautiful time at Galbatorix, which is coming soon again. Then we get bedroom in the bright sunshine and I can build up a pigeon breeding! And you put on a duck pond if you like!" Bertus tried to comfort his brother. 

"All we have to do is kidnap this brat!"

Ernus swallowed heavily. Murtagh wore armor, a sharp sword on his side, and his hands were in armored gloves. In addition, a long dagger was stuck in his belt and on his back he carried his bow with grisly arrows, on which this unholder certainly shot at small ducks for fun. 

"He hurts us if we want to kidnap him!" complained Ernus, but Bertus shook his head. "We are magicians!"

"Oh, yes!" rejoiced Ernus. "Then we could cast him with a spell, so that he could not defend himself or something like that!"

But kidnapping should prove very difficult.

First there was Ajijad, whose wonderful white armor had already taken on a grayish-brown color after a part. With his shiny boots, he had stepped into a smelly manure and a wing had broken off his helmet.

"Why did I do this?" complained Ajihad, addressing one of his men. "Why am I here?"

"Don't we all ask ourselves this question? Why are we here? Where are we going? Why are we doing this? Why are my boots dirty," he added, thinking that these issues would keep him busy for a very long time to come. He searched for the meaning of life, especially of his life.

Was it enough for a single life to be a great leader and lead a people to victory against a tyrant? Was it enough to be the best-dressed hero in The History of Alagaesia?

Well, at least the latter question he could answer with a clear "yes".

One of the soldiers had heard these words and turned to Ajihad in amazement." You are here because you are our leader and want to lead by good, heroic example! Because you yourself have said that King Galbatorix is a coward, because he never goes to battle himself, but only lets others fight for himself!"

"Me and my loose mouthpiece! I really should be silent sometimes," Ajihad grumbled softly, addressing Murtagh.

He nodded. He, too, regretted having accompanied Ajihad and the others. The group began to get on his nerves.

Ernus giggled all the time and Bertus always seemed in a bad mood.

Ajihad also complained all the time, and the other men did not talk to him and occasionally blasphemed when they thought he didn't hear it, about "Morzan's bastard, who would have become better worm-frass."

"And I helped them! So that's the thanks," Murtagh cursed softly as Ajihad breathed a serene breath. 

"We made it! We'll be back home soon! Do you see the big blue dragon in the back? This is Sapphire!"

They erupted in cheers. They had nifted to track down even a single Urgal, but that didn't matter. After all, they had tried and the goodwill did not make them heroes?

Only Ajihad expressed his regret. "Now I've made everything dirty without even just watching a single Urgal... the over there are the first.... oh no, they're storming towards us...."

In fact, a horde of Urgals stormed towards the group around Ajihad, while Ernus giggled croaked.....

Chapter Text

The Uragal Horde, shouting loudly, stormed towards Ajiahd and his people. 

The Vardens drew their swords and their leader hoped that he would make a good impression on his people. 

He wanted him to get away well in the songs that would surely be written about this fight and not to stand as a coward or something like that.

Because he wasn't cowardly. He just didn't want to pollute his boots any more.

But he was not allowed to take this circumstance into account, for the first Urgal rushed towards him and at one time it became black in his eyes. Was he injured? Was he blind? Or had his helmet just slipped over his eyes? He wanted to grope for it, but the next moment he lost consciousness....

Ernus and Bertus, who had cast a spell that robbed the Vardens of consciousness, desperately raised their hands and looked at the Urgals admonishing. 

"We must not waste any more time. Surely this terrible dragon comes and spews fire! We must not waste our time with the injured to kill them. It would also be sneaky! That would be mean! You are unconscious! It would be like poisoning ducks," Ernus said, tears coming into his eyes.

Bertus, on the other hand, pointed to the Murtagh, which was also broken, which lay in the midst of the unconscious Varden. "We'll take it with us! He's for Galbatorix!"

One of the Urgals lay over the unconscious and quickly rushed into a dark corridor, while behind them a loud simmering rang out.

"This is certainly the horrible dragon!" lamented Ernus anxiously, clinging to his twin's arm.

"Bertus, he wants to eat us!"

"I know, Ernus. That is why we must hurry up! We have to get away from here!" replied Bertus as they rushed down the dark aisle. They eventually stopped at an abyss.

"Bertus, what do we do if we are persecuted? Surely they are looking for that!"

Ernus pointed to Murtagh and Bertus put his forehead in wrinkles. His large, black eyebrows shrugged back and forth, and in the murky light of the torch that had ignited a urgal, his skin looked yellowish, while the other twin's face shimmered in the eerie light.

Eventually, Bertus came up with an idea of how they could deceive potential smugglers." I know something! We take off our coats and take away his weapons and some of his clothes. We put it all here and then they think that we all are no longer alive!"

Ernus did not seem to be really impressed by this proposal. He held hands and looked at his brother with concern. "But.... Isn't that terribly mean? Surely this Eragon will cry when he learns that his friend is dead...".

"But if we don't do this, then the evil dragon will eat us!" contradicted Bertus, pulling on Ernu's cape. "Let's take it off. We're going to put the Bengel in with it!"

"My favorite cape," Eertus lamented. "I don't want him to be alone in the darkness!"

"Now don't belike, Ernus! Think of the duck breeding that you can soon build up in Uru 'baen if our escape succeeds!", Bertus admonished his brother and finally Ernus gave in.

After depositing their capes and part of Murtagh's clothes, the fugitives continued to hurry through the dark aisle and eventually stopped as they reached an exit. 

Before them stretched the endless desert.

"We have to get through this now!" complained Ernus anxiously. "I'm scared! There are these worms!"

Bertus pulled out a bottle with a smelly tincture. "That's a worm agent! That's what drives them away! Within twenty miles, we won't see a single worm if we let even a single drop of it drip into the sand!"

"But.... that is common! Poor worms!" complained Ernus, and now Bertus finally had enough of his brother.

"Do you want to be eaten or not to drive out the worms?"

"I don't want to be eaten and I want the worms to stay away," Ernus finally agrees to use the horrible tincture.

Eragon and Arya stood on the precipice that led relentlessly into the depths. "That's really scary here," Eragon admitted, but Arya looked at him contemptuously.

"Are you afraid? Well, this is not so rare for young human children! People, especially their children, are afraid of everything and everyone!"

"What did I do to you?" Eragon told the adored Arya at one point, and she shrugged.

"All the time you are unkind to me, saving you from Durza, defeating him in battle, and I am a dragon rider who is to save all of you, including you elves, and thus you, from Galbatorix. So be a little nicer to me. I don't like to be constantly offended. And I'm not a child anymore!"

"Eragon.... you can almost get as angry as an elf!" said Arya appreciatively, before putting on her icy face again.

"Don't forget who you're talking to! I am the daughter of a queen! And you are a human peasant boy! That is a difference! If you were at least from a dragon rider dynasty, for example Brom's son or something.... but that is nonsense! Laughably downright!"

Eragon heard the words of the elf no more, for he burst into tears at one time. "Arya.... this is Murtagh's clothes! And that of the twins! How awful! They are determined... dead..."

He wiped away his tears as Arya shook his head. 'It's really upsetting. No one deserves such a fate. Kidnapped by Urgals and then thrown down there! Really bad!"

"Poor Murtagh.... he was, in spite of everything, a faithful friend. Sometimes it seemed to me that we were brothers..." complained Eragon, while Arya's grief disappeared. "I did not speak of Murtagh, but of Ernus and Bertus. They are a loss for us, especially their good tasting ducks and pigeons...."

"You ate their animals?" eragon inquired, forgetting his grief for Murtagh. 

It flew as fast as it had come. Much more interested in the lives of his worshippers.

She actually giggled. "Yes, I often ate roast duck when I was here. And Ernus always wandered around looking for his ducks.... that was funny. Nasuada and I laughed together a lot!"

"How mean!" eragon thought, recalling Brom's words and his own experiences with Arya. 

It was true, elves were very vicious creatures.... 

Chapter Text

A few days later Eragon was on his way to the elves with Arya the Elf and Orik the Dwarf.

Brom had stayed with the Vardens, he wanted to support Ajihad in his further decisions. 

Too much pain was still the case for the leader of the Vardens, in which he and his people had simply fainted like a horde of sensitive girls. 

What had happened to them? Wasn't that cowardice before the enemy? And wouldn't you sing vilified songs about him, because he faints, lying in the dirt?

"Nasuada, please take over the leadership of the Vardens until I am sure that they will take me seriously... that they still see in me their awe-inspiring leader!" Ajihad asked his daughter as she stepped to the bed where he had been lying for two days.

The young woman tried to reassure her father and her leader. "Father, they still have great respect for you and worship you! Nobody thinks you're a soft man, everyone thinks you've been knocked unconscious by a spell that a Urgal wizard probably pronounced. And no one laughs at you! Nobody calls you "cowardly," "fear bunny" or "incompetent leader..." -- well, almost no one.... no, no one at all...."
"Are you sure?" asked Ajihad in a sick and blunt-sounding voice. 

"Yes, I'm sure! But you're right, I'll take the lead as long as you haven't recovered! And I'm going to tell everyone that you've hurt yourself in the fight and you're now suffering heroically. That you want to lead them, but you are not able to do so at the moment!" Nasuada tried to comfort her father.

"And I'm still there!" a voice could be heard, and Brom also stepped to the leader's bedside.

Unfortunately, he stumbled and clung to the Varden leader's duvet. He dragged her to the ground and then rappelled up again, while Ajihad quickly reached for his blanket.

"No one should really see me like that! Imagine if someone had come in!" complained Ajihad, while Brom tried to calm him down.

'No one came in. And no one but me has seen this strange tattoo on your thigh. What is this supposed to be?"

"This is supposed to be a dragon's head. But the one who did it had no idea about dragons! That's why he tattooed a little girl wearing a scarf and a cap.... And that's embarrassing!" ajihad whispered, adding, "Don't tell it, no one knows about it...."

A few days later Eragon, Arya and Orik arrived at the elves, and Eragon looked around curiously and pointed to an elf that welcomed them.

"He has as pointed ears as you, Arya! So.... They are very good for you. But somehow I don't like it!"

"I don't either! But unlike you, I find that they don't stand Arya in particular!" shuddered Saphira with a hateful undertone in her voice.

"They stand by her! They look like pretty pointed daggers! But you're always looking for a reason to say something common about her because you're jealous!" grumbled Eragon, while Saphira screamed loudly, leaving Orik and Arya terrified to drive around to her.

"I'm not jealous!" sapped Saphira. "Not on the there!"

"What torments the revered Sklublakka?" an awesome elf voice could be heard, and four other elves ran towards Sapphira, but remained at a respectful distance and looked admiringly at Sapphirea.

"She's so beautiful!" shouted an elf, rubing tears from her face. "I wouldn't have expected that I would be able to see something so beautiful in this life again in my wildest dreams."

"Yes, it's so enchanting! This dandruff color and this noble long neck and the graceful head! How glorious!" another elf cheered, bowing his head in front of the dragon lady.

"I am Vanir! Master of the Sword and Emissary of Queen Islanzadi. I am here to welcome you! You, oh gorgeous dragon and... that's there!"

The respect faded from the words of the elves as he pointed at Eragon, while Arya giggled in pain and cast eragon a devastating gaze, which once again made it clear to him that there was no prospect of ever winning her heart.

Not long after, Eragon faced Islanzadi, queen of elves. 

She turned to Arya and gave her a warm hug. "It's nice that you're back, my little one. We absolutely have to fry a nice piece of roast tonight.... I mean, a big vegetable stew, put together and entertain us in peace!"

"Roast? Elves don't eat roast!" eragon said, and Arya looked at him badly. 'He's a stupid boy, mother. Please, don't take his words so seriously. Unfortunately, he is the one who is supposed to save us all! I would have preferred an elf, like Vanir. Or at least a well-groomed hero, someone like Ajihad for example."

Eragon seemed small and mischievous at one time. So Arya really thought of him, it was much worse than he had guessed. "She doesn't want me!"

"You've noticed that many times, my shot! Why does it always scare you again and again? At some point you have to understand that!" Saphira admonished her rider, adding: "Yes, love! Such nonsense will never happen to me.... what's that behind it?"

A golden dot approached them and it quickly grew bigger and bigger. 

Eragon believed he couldn't believe his eyes when a big golden dragon finally landed next to them.

"D... D.... D... this is a Dr.... Dr... Dragon!" he said, and Arya looked at him again, and apologized to the elf, who rose from the back of the dragon and walked towards her.

"Excuse me, Master Oromis! But.... Eragon is not the smartest. You'll have a hard time with that, because he's a rabble-rousing like he hasn't been since Brom!"

"Yes, little Brom. He was really a horrible shot," the elf recalled sighing. "He managed to fall off his dragon and shoot himself with an arrow in his foot! He regularly dissented my scrolls and he couldn't remember the simplest spells at first....,"

"Brom was your student? But this is weird!" eragon said, trying to rhyme with the old elf's words. Why had Oromis taught Brom? How was this possible?

"Brom was a dragon rider!" said Saphira simply and simply, and now It fell off Eragon's eyes like scales.

"He was a dragon rider! That I didn't get there right away! All the allusions he made. And you are his former teacher?"

Oromis nodded. "Yes, his former teacher. And hopefully you won't come after him... for I can no longer cope with a second bromine at my old age!"

"Why should I be like Brom?" asked Eragon. 'I'm not related to him and I don't have much in common with him.'

"Yes, a certain amount of term!" the golden dragon could be heard, and Eragon noticed that Saphira was almost unresponsive.

Too much immersed in the contemplation of the golden scales shining in the sun.

"Saphira..... Do you hear me?" asked Eragon, knocking on the wing of the young dragon lady. "Saphira!"

As if ripped out of a dream, Saphira stared at her rider. "Oh, shooty, you are.... isn't he beautiful? Look at the sheds. Gold! What do you mean, what color comes out when you cross it with sapphire blue? Definitely something beautiful...."

"What are you talking about?" asked Eragon, astonished, before a light came up to him. "You like him! You, of all people! Didn't you make fun of me anymore because of Arya?"

"That's probably something completely different! You just make yourself ridiculous. But I have a sincere interest in this dragon!" said Saphira, hitting the ground with his tail to draw the other dragon's attention.

Unfortunately, the great Golden didn't pay attention to her and Saphira let her head hang..... 

Chapter Text

 
Eragon tried to dodge a blow from Oromi's sword, but he stumbled and hit his head against a tree.

Oromis sighed. "Before, you accidentally lit my scrolls, and almost the only copy of a scripture that your namesake, the first Eragon, still wrote, would be burned. Luckily, I was able to extinguish the fire in time. Then you fell over my slippers and at one the straps are torn! These were my favorite shoes. And now you almost kill yourself in the fight!"

The old elf sighed again and shook his head. "Just like Brom. Like the father so the... well, it's not up to me to tell that!"

Eragon did not understand what Oromis wanted to say to him with his insinuation, or rather not to say, it had already been hard enough for him to understand that Brom, too, had once been a dragon rider.

The dragon of the carvahall storyteller had also been called Saphira and had died in a fight between Morzan, Murtagh's father, and Brom.

 
"Poor Saphira! It was certainly very bad for Brom," Eragon thought, as his Saphira lay on the ground, placing her head on her front paws and throwing Glaedr in love. 'He's not pretty? His big head is so wonderful! I just imagine him bringing me meat...."

"Saphira, you realize that you are a dragon who has no idea about male dragons! Why don't you want flowers? What do you want with meat?" asked Eragon, astonished, and Sapphira snorted a snort.

"Eat! I want to eat the meat! And that is a proof of love among dragons. What should I do with flowers?"

"Rejoice in this?" Eragon asked incredulously. "So you dragons are strange creatures!"

Saphira disagreed, and this made her eragon know. "As if flowers were going well! Think of your debacle of the day before last night! Didn't you spend half an afternoon picking flowers? Didn't Vanir laugh at you? And was Arya happy about that? No, she slammed the door in your nose and said you should go play!"

Eragon shrugged with discomfort when Saphira drew his attention to this experience. 

It had been so embarrassing and above all Vanir had noticed everything and has been making fun of him ever since.

Oromis had also shaken his head and laughed when he heard about it. "You gave her flowers? Well, then you don't have to be surprised! Elves hate flowers, and Arya especially! She really can't stand these flowers. When she was an adolescent elf, an elf once created a new variety of flowers and named it after her, only to annoy her!"

"But something like this is beautiful," the young dragon rider had dreamily contradicted. Such a thing would have been considered by people to be the proof of love par excellence.

Oromis then sighed with sorrow. "People! You may be like that! But for an elf it is an insult to be harassed with flowers! Such a thing is very sickandand and Arya is always uncomfortable when the elves talk about the Arya flowers...."

"I didn't want to offend her!" exclaimed Eragon, worried. "I wanted to make her happy! But how can you win Arya's heart?"

Oromis seemed to be seriously considering this question. "You know, Brom once raved about an elf lady. Her name was Arwenia and she was beautiful. Long, black hair.... but she didn't make anything of him, and he was as rabid as you. He even stumbled once and pulled her to the ground with those very long black hair!"

The poor Brom was not spared anything, and Eragon had hardly dared to ask the next question.

"Could you help him, Master Oromis?"

Oromis then nodded wisely and smiled. "Yes, I was able to help him. I answered him, when asked how he could win the heart of an elf, what I will answer to you..."..."

"And how can you win the heart of an elf?" Eragon asked excitedly, and the otherwise wise Oromis had begun to laugh. "Not at all! A man cannot win the heart of an elf! So give it up and look for a woman!"

Eragon thought of this conversation depressed. Then there should be no hope? Well, under these circumstances he gave up his plan to plant a huge flower bush in front of Arya's house and to conjure up her picture on every flower probably better....

Chapter Text

For weeks, Roran had been wandering through Alagaesia and he was gradually getting close to despair. 

Where could these terrible creatures have taken Katrina? Was she still alive and doing well in the circumstances? He suspected that it was the Hellgrind, all indications pointed to this mountain.

Although he did not care much about the well-being of the young woman and basically he would not even have found it bad to find her as the fodder of the Ra'zac. Wouldn't that solve many of his problems?

But he could not prepare this sorrow for her father Sloan, the good-hearted man really deserved better.

"For Sloan's sake, I have to do it! I just owe it to this unique person!" thought Roran firmly. "I will save her.... but I do not marry them!"

At the last thought, he painfully covered his face, did not torment him enough other grief? 

He had learned that the handsome woman, the niece of the king of a horseman,to whom he had once almost joined as a mercenary, had married another man. "Farus or Faramo or something like that is called...... and what's left for me? Katrina! It's really unfair!"

Now the young man was standing in front of a high mountain, the terrible Hellgrind, and he knew that he had to somehow get in and free the butcher's daughter in order to bring her back to her father safely and safely.

Unfortunately, he didn't know how to do it, and he hoped to find the solution with a group of men who were limping at him.

He introduced himself kindly. "I am Roran from Carvahall, former mercenary of Rohan.... And.. Near-related of the great King Theod...."

"People from abroad don't care! It's not in Alagaesia, so stay in your own country, boy!" the oldest of the men, who lacked a leg, told him. "You shouldn't look in the distance when happiness is so close!"

Roran nodded and tried to sound as wise as the old man. "Of course you are right! I'm looking for my happiness in this mountain too!"

A glow slid over the face of his counterpart and the other men smiled blissfully. 

"Why don't you say that right away, boy? You seek enlightenment through this mountain and the sacred beings who live there.... you've come to the right place with us!"

"That's very nice! So you know how to get into this mountain? It's really very important to me!" said Roran, and the man looked at him happily. 

"My boy, you are truly the most eager of all of us! We have only given our arms and legs, but you want to go straight to the wondrous beings! So much faith wants to be rewarded, you don't find something like that every day!"

"Uh.... how did you actually lose your arms and legs? Did this happen during a fight? During a terrible battle? I say yes, I fought with the riders of this equestrian people and saw a lot of things! In such a battle, something like this can happen before!" said Roran, looking at the men with compassion, but they shook their heads without understanding.

"You even want to give your life in honor of the mountain and the holy beings...."

"You misunderstood something!" Roran disagreed, as a large shadow suddenly appeared over their heads and the men erupted in loud cheers. 

"Do you want to take one of us to your mountain? Take me!" shouted one of them, while another disagreed. "No, take me with you! I am much more faithful than the one! Take me!"

"These must be the disciples of Hellgrind! Crazy people who mutilate and worship themselves in honor of the Ra 'zac. Terrible people!" thought Roran, but then a thought came to him. 

"I am the most faithful of all! That's what he's got here," he pointed to one of the men," he said earlier. So take me with you! I'm very...... delicious....."

"Batzy, let's take him!" said one of the Ra 'zac, and the other patted the head of the horrible Lethrblaka, who the disciples of the Hellgrind stared at in rapture. "You hate right, Bitzy! And he will surely also please our little sweetheart!"

They grabbed Roran and lifted him on the back of Lethrblaka and climbed high into the air.

Roran closed his eyes, he felt very uncomfortable on the back of the strange animal and he was already afraid that he had taken over a little with the whole thing, even if these beings, who apparently suffered from a speech error, were very sorry for him.

But he didn't want to be eaten....

Eventually, he was knocked to the ground and fell next to a skeleton. "Aua!" he lamented as he took a knee, but Bitzy and Batzy looked at each other with a sigh as steps rushed towards them.

"Bitzy, Batzy, is the skeleton still here? You should clean up! So you two are really terrible men! And what did you bring with you? Do you have to throw your food on the ground?"

Roran sat up and recognized Katrina, who was standing there, wrapped in a black cape. She wore a huge black bow in her hair and her teeth looked blacker than ever. 

She stared at him in disbelief, then she fell around his neck "Roran, my darling! That's where you're at last!"

She squeezed numerous kisses on his cheek and the two Ra 'zac sighed. 

"Treasure, what should happen to him? You seem to like him. I don't think we can eat it anymore, can we?"

Katrina shook her head, but then she looked at the Ra 'zac thoughtfully before a beam went over her face.

"Roran certainly doesn't want to stay with me! He's always been mean and run away! So I'm going to eat him! You cook it for me and...... no, not a good idea! It doesn't taste good.... i don't know how do I prevent him from running away? He doesn't know what's good for him! And I'm the best for him that there is!"

"We could put him in the cell in the back and chain him up!" suggested Batzy, and Katrina nodded approvingly and she turned to Roran. 

"You don't mind, don't you? But you just can't be trusted! I don't want you to leave me!"

"Um, Katrina... I actually want to save you...", Roran stammered, and he grabbed the skeleton's head and threw it at a Ra 'zac that reached for him.

"Why save? Here it is beautiful! Well, they could be a little more tidy and clear the bones away. But they do, don't they?" said Katrina, looking at the two Ra 'zac strictly. "You're cleaning up!"

"Yes, sweetheart!" said Bitzy, while Batzy rubbed the back of the hand where the skeleton's head had hit him.

Roran, on the other hand, turned around and ran as fast as he could towards the exit, while the Ra 'zac followed him....

Four days later Roran took a break and he was glad to have escaped the Ra 'zac and also Katrina, who had also flown on a Lethrblaka, weeping bitterly.

Katrina had sobbed loudly that her Roran had already left her, where they had finally found themselves and the Ra 'zac had taken her in her arms and tried to comfort her.

Roran breathed a serene breath. He had been able to hang them, but he didn't know what to do next.

He could not save Katrina, his adored of the equestrian people had married another man and he could not go home.

He did not know about himself to tell poor Sloan what had become of his daughter and that she felt very comfortable with the Ra 'zac and had taken command of them.

No, the benevolent heart of the village butcher would not have been able to cope with this.

So Roran made a different decision. He would join the Vardens who fought against King Galbatorix. It couldn't be worse than a life with Katrina, Bitzy and Batzy!

In the next chapter it is Murtagh's turn and you learn how he really fared in Volume 2, when you didn't know anything about him in the original.... or just almost and with a lot of imagination.

Chapter Text

King Galbatorix approached the room door of his new Dragon Rider unsafely, which would help him realize all his plans. 

He would resurrect the Dragon Riders and soon in his beautiful capital it would only be teeming with cute dragon babies. He would nurture them, nurture them, make sure they were lovingly cared for and cared for. 

And then he would conquer the world with their help and he would be the greatest conqueror of all time.

First, Galbatorix would take care of the neighboring kingdom of Surda, before moving on to Rohan to settle with the local king. He was not afraid of their horses, and even the next kingdom, in which a new king had ascended the throne, would no longer be able to resist.

"This king is called Eragon in a similar way to this cursed dragon rider! Argon or something like that!" murmured King Galbatorix.

But he would defeat the new king and then he would move on to the land where the blue beings lived with the white caps. He would defeat them too....

But first of all it was necessary to raise the dragon, which had hatched at Murtagh of all places, and this circumstance pulled Galbatorix out of his beautiful dreams.

Not so long ago, the twins Ernus and Bertus, whom he had smuggled in as spies at the Vardens, had returned with a prisoner, Murtagh. Ernus had been close to tears, while Bertus was nagging to say that in the future, king back and forth, he should look for someone else to bring prisoners through half Of Alagaesia.

"Actually, I was supposed to punish her, but I just didn't get it over my heart when I saw Ernus caressing a duck!" thought Galbatorix, before knocking on Murtagh's room door.

Galbatorix had seriously spoken to him with his index finger raised and reminded him of his sense of responsibility! After all, a young woman had meanwhile born a little girl and it was supposed to be Murtagh's offspring. 

He himself thought that this child was unspeakably ugly, but he couldn't suffer young children anyway.

Nevertheless, this was no excuse for Murtagh to simply run away and to let down not only this young woman and his child, but also the pregnant twins Nanette and Johanna, in whom the pregnancy had only been diagnosed after his escape.

In addition, he had also let his king down and thus proved to be very rude to the man to whom he owed so much. After all, Galbatorix had offered him a good home after the death of his father, and he had led a luxurious lottery life.

Galbatorix had thought about throwing Murtagh into the dungeon for a few weeks for punishment, but then a thought had come to him. He had let him touch the dragon eggs and in fact a red little dragon had hatched with him...

The king had persuaded the new horseman and the dragon to swear allegiance to him and he had, admittedly, and in the opinion of Queen Krimhilda, finally, been a little unsightly. 

Murtagh had refused, but Galbatorix shared the Queen's opinion and had stopped dancing on her nose and had threatened to be imprisoned and tortured.

Murtagh then came to the conclusion that Eragon had not been such a good friend. And didn't the Varden even want to feed him temporarily to the sandworms?

"In!" cried Murtagh, and Galbatorix opened the door to his dragon rider's chamber.... and shrugged in horror when a dragon's head came up to him and a red dragon blew him up.

"Leave that.... I am the king... you owe me loyalty!" cried Galbatorix, as the Queen walked down the aisle to all misfortune.

"Thick, now finally get your way! That's just a young dragon! My first husband Siggi would have been able to cope with such a thing! But he was really a picture of a man," he said.

"Thorn, don't turn on me again!" warned Galbatorix, but Thorn, the red dragon, jumped on him and pushed him to the ground, again loudly.

"Let's have this fuse!" groaned Galbatorix, but Thorn didn't even think about it. 

He owed Allegiance to Galbatorix, but his oath was never about fauching or, rather, non-hissing.

 
"Hissy, leave that! Leave the king alone!" shouted Murtagh, who also entered the aisle, to his dragon, and Thorn left his head hanging.

"But I want to fuse! I don't like him! He's fat and he eats dragon's food! That's why it's definitely coming!"

"Even the dragons already see it! You've already gained weight!" quip Queen Krimhilda, adding, "And finally get your way so that this thing doesn't keep you going!"

As if to confirm, Thorn fused again and Galbatorix shrugged as Murtagh stroked lovingly over the Red's head.

"Hissy, leave that!"

Hissy was a nickname that Murtagh had given to his dragon Thorn. 

Somehow it seemed fitting to him, even if Galbatorix didn't see it that way when he pushed himself against the wall and Trotted Thorn back into Murtagh's room, not without first the king with his tail tip in the belly.... 

Chapter Text

Eragon could not fall asleep and so he took a walk through Ellesmera at night. He thought of so many things and at one point Murtagh came back to his mind. He sighed and annoyed in hindsight that they had not got along any better than they had had the opportunity to do so.

Had they not understood each other very well and sometimes wished to even be brothers, because there were so many similarities between them? Even their mothers lived in the same city and bore the same name....

"Maybe we really are.... but this is nonsense, almost as unlikely as the possibility that Brom is my father!" thought Eragon, even if a strange feeling spreads in his stomach.

He wondered if this was because he became suspicious deep inside, and that various hints of Brom, Oromis, Arya, and others seemed strange to him, and perhaps had a meaning. 

Or was it just the grains he had been eating for days to convince Arya that he, like the elves, could do without meat? Unfortunately, this type of diet caused him stomach pain.

Everything was peaceful and the stars shimmered in the sky, but even this beautiful night mood couldn't really energise Eragon and this wasn't just because of his fluffy feeling in his stomach.

"I will never conquer the heart of Arya," he said, addressing Saphira, who lay a few miles away on a rock and also stared into the stars.

"I, on the other hand, will conquer the heart of Glaedr!"

"You and your Glaedr! It's so silly!" complained Eragon. "Look for a young dragon your age... if it still exists in the world!"

"Eragon, that's mean! Moreover, even if a whole herd of dragons were wrestling for my heart, it would still strike only for a single dragon, namely for my dear Glaedr!" Saphira answered dreamily.

Eragon shook his head, Saphira couldn't really indulge in such illusions, couldn't he? 

His dragon lady, who always mocked him for Arya, just made a fool of himself and didn't even notice!

Eragon decided to let Saphira be Sapphira and turn to his own grief. He sneaked through the city of elves and looked in at one window or another from time to time. 

But what he saw shocked him deeply.

A lot of elves sat there and ate with cravings deer legs and roast pork! An elf even turned a pig on a skewer and licked his lips while his elf companion cooked a sauce.

"Oh, and they only give me fruit, vegetables and water! That would be the usual fairy food and it would be sinful to eat meat! And I eat these horrible grains for Arya's sake! This is... Common! And Master Oromis had a brown spot on his cheek the other day. Certainly it was a sauce spot and he also ate roasts!"

"That's so unfair! Everything is unfair! Elves eat roasts and don't give me anything and Arya doesn't want me! That is common! I'm supposed to save everyone, but woe, I want something!" eragon thought angrily as two elves, who were obviously in a hurry, ran into him.

He fell to the ground, but reflexively grabbed the two of them by the cape and dragged them down with him.

Watch out... You... Human!" said one of the two elves, shaking his head almost disgusted. "Round ears... horrible!"

"You're not that beautiful, you look like you've spent months in the woods and on the run! And that with an elf! Aren't you all mindful of the outside world?" replied Eragon, who didn't want to be too much liked. 

He didn't like being insulted all the time. Wasn't he the hope of these elves? Didn't they all expect a lot from him? Was a little respect too much?

"We spent months on the run and in the forest! But where you've been there, please tell my companion not to sit on the ground all the time! We must hurry and go to the Queen!" said one of the two elves, and Eragon looked at him bewildered.

"Why don't you tell him that yourself?"

"Because I don't talk to Loris anymore!" the elf answered a little unnerved, and his companion turned to Eragon.

"We don't talk to each other all the time! That's why our escape was very exhausting. We could never agree where we wanted to go and certainly not make any plans to free poor Arya, the Queen's daughter, who is held captive by a terrible shadow!"

Eragon dawned on whom he had in front of him. "Loris and faolin? Arya's two companions who were assaulted along with her when Durza tried to get to Sapphira's egg? And you don't know what has happened now?"

"Yes, we are faolin and Loris, please in the order!" said the elf, who had to be faeolin. 'And we didn't get too much. We hid in the forest for a while and then we wandered through the lands. But we did not ask people about the new state of affairs! Such a must eat an honorable Elf! And... who is Sapphira?"

Eragon could hardly believe what he was hearing. So the two were actually Arya's former companions and they were now coming to Ellesmera to tell the Queen about the loss of dragon ice and the capture of her daughter by Durza.

"Um... So...," Eragon began, not wanting the two to be too embarrassed before Queen Islanzadi, but they did not let him speak.

"We urgently need to go to the Queen, Little One. Go play again or go to bed. Children of your age belong there at this time!" said Fäolin, and actually patted Eragon's head with pity.

"Then go quiet!" thought Eragon, turning away. Should the two run quietly into the knife and go through an embarrassing situation.

Oromis, Kings Islanzadi and their daughter Arya approved a large piece of beef when it knocked on the door of the royal private chambers.

"Isly, who is that? Who bothers at this time?" Oromis inquired, smiling, dazed by the good red wine. 

"I needed it after such a day!" he sighed, lifting his glass.

"If only you knew how exhausting this little rabid dragon rider is! Even worse than Brom did at the time! I earned the wine more than just a little!"

"Then take another glass, Oromis. And treat yourself to another stag bite!" grinned Arya, giggling at one time. 

"Poor Eragon, I'm almost sorry. To impress me, he accepted our alleged eating habits and he only fed on grains for three days and got stomach pinches from it!"

"That's mean! Towards me!" murmured Oromis. "I have to listen to the whining during class!"

Arya was sorry to have been so vicious, even though she found it funny to rejoice in the misfortune of others. 

But with Oromis things were a little different, was he not, except Eragon, the last dragon rider still there in Alagaesia? Didn't she owe him respect?

Meanwhile, Queen Islanzadi had opened the door and, to Arya's surprise, Fäolin and Loris, her former companions, entered the room. She realized that she didn't miss her very much and had hardly thought of her.....

Fäolin nodded to the Queen first, then to her, and then to Greet Oromis, before turning again to Islanzadi.

"I bring bad news! Your daughter fell into the power of the terrible shadow of Durza and was kidnapped by him! We must save you! Also the dragon egg.... Arya? You here?" said Fäolin, lowering his head. "I didn't know you were safe!"

"Of course he didn't know, Arya! He never knows anything! He never gets anything!" quipped Loris, while Arya looked at the two elves strictly.

"It's also time for both of you to come back! You have taken a lot of time and almost failed to witness the victory over Galbatorix, which is imminent!"

"Victory over Galbatorix?" asked Loris. "Has a new rider been found? Who is it? An elven warrior from the north? A mysterious stranger from one of the neighbouring kingdoms? A brave hero of the legendary round table that the legend is said to have given it once?"

"Not quite!" sighed Arya. "This is a rabid peasant boy who falls over his own feet and has no fighting experience. He also made it his head to rave about me and rob me of the last nerve. But otherwise.... he will make it!" 

Chapter Text

King Galbatorix had come to the conclusion that he had to strike before the new Dragon Rider was so powerful that he could become a serious danger to him. He would not repeat the mistakes of all the other rulers of world history and make an opponent too powerful.

"These fools are themselves to blame!" said Galbatorix, and his wife looked at him almost admiringly, which further increased the king's mood.

He experienced such moments far too rarely with his beloved Kriemhilda, whom he would sometimes have liked to accuse the wolves of eating.

"Yes, I will go to battle! I will take Care of myself and not rely on others! Durza didn't make it and Murtagh is unreliable. Despite various ulcers in the old language, he still manages it and lets Eragon run at the end, when he is already in his power!"

"Yes, that's really to be expected!" the Queen said with a sigh. "You never get enough of him and give him far too many freedoms! His dragon ate a few ducks of the twins the other day and I had to listen to Ernus laments... will you take them into battle?"

'I don't know yet. You.... You might prefer to stay here and take care of their little animals!" said Galbatorix, but his wife put his hands in his hips and looked at him sternly.

"Who is the king here? Who makes the decisions here? You or your subjects? So that's what my Siggi did better! What he said, that was done and there were no long discussions!"

"You and your stupid Siggi," Galbatorix muttered in a bad mood.

He hated it when his wife compared him to her first husband, especially since he performed significantly worse each time than the legendary hero who had even killed a dragon.

"I almost wiped out the dragons, along with my allies. But she keeps to me the one dragon that siggi killed alone!"

"Does the armor fit to some extent? I don't want you to be laughed at!" the Queen inquired, but Galbatorix nodded proudly. 

"As if poured on! It's like it's been forged especially for me. I'm going to look like I did a hundred years ago!"

"I'm happy about that!" Queen Kriemhilda praised her husband with satisfaction. "It took advantage of the fact that you listened to me and ate less! No comparison with Siggi, but... Still... impressive!"

Galbatorix did not answer, and he remembered that he had told the truth. The armor fit as if cast, as he had commissioned the forge to make him a new one, which resembled the old one. The new armor had only a circumference almost half a metre wider....

But he would do the devil to confess this to his wife.

"I'm going to look like a brave hero from an old ballad!" Galbatorix said, looking forward to the upcoming battle, and he was already impregking how Sapphira and Dorn put little dragons into the world.

Maybe they would have a daughter who turned out to be a partner for poor Shruikan...

"Of course I will take Murtagh with me anyway and his Fauchi will accompany me too! Shall he attack Eragon on the battlefield!" said Galbatorix as he left the throne room and climbed on the back of his dragon shortly afterwards.

Murtagh also climbed next to him on the back of his dragon, who of course snapped at Galbatorix.

This made Murtagh, to whom three young women with babies on their arms waved, laughed. "So I should probably rename you Schnappy!"

"I don't think it's funny!" snarled Galbatorix, while Shruikan snorted an amused snorting, but then turned to Galbatorix indignantly. "You never gave me such cute nicknames."

Eragon also prepared to go to battle since news of troop movements in the country became known.

"There will be a fight! Maybe you will be able to defeat Galbatorix once and for all!" sapped Saphira, and she sighed longingly as Glaedr flew by. "And I will finally become Glaedr's companion! He will hear me and we will build a great dragon's nest together! We will raise little dragons there and love each other forever!"

"Forget it!" the golden dragon's answer sounded loud and clear to Saphira and Eragon, but the Dragon Lady did not let herself be fooled. 'He certainly doesn't mean that! He... just teasing me!"

"What is wrong with the statement "Forget it"? He doesn't want to be your nesting partner!" Eragon disagreed, but also sighed when he saw Arya coming upon him. The elf wore light armor and held a bow in her hand.

"I will also accompany you into battle and I have taken on the task of the Elven people to watch over Sapphira.... and necessarily also about you..."

Eragon looked at the elf with emotion. "You want to protect me? Admit, you don't just do it because it's your duty...."

Arya snorted contemptuously as she climbed behind Eragon on Sapphira's back. "Forget it! We will never become anything! Forget it at last...."

"But," Eragon stammered, but this time it was Sapphira who almost hurt him.

"She just said, "Get it!" What is wrong with this? On the simple sentence, my little fool...."

Chapter Text

The battle that would decide the fate of Alagaesia would take place on the burning steppes, near the Hardarac Desert. There, the enemy armies faced each other at some distance, but the battle had not yet begun.

Eragon thought it was an inhospitable and horrible place, but Sapphire amazed that they were now near the desert.

"How beautiful! I'm going to dig holes in the sand, where I might be able to keep some of the eggs that I'm going to lay soon..."

"Yes, dream on, Saphira! Continue to dream that Glaedr wants you!" said Eragon, displeased when he saw someone coming up to him. He winked a few times, but couldn't really believe it.

"The young man over there looks almost like my cousin Roran!"

"Maybe it's your cousin Roran!" suggested Saphira with a slightly amused undertone, but Eragon shook his head.

"What is he supposed to do here? It is very unlikely that Roran will come here. No, he just looks like him. Although, now he beckons and runs towards us.... you could really think it's Roran!"

"Little ones, it's probably Roran!" sighed Saphira, lovingly adding, "My stupid one!"

Now Eragon saw that the young man, who looked so similar to his cousin, was actually Roran.

He fell around Eragon's neck and hugged him warmly. "Then the rumours are really true, you're a dragon rider! And this is your dragon!"

"Yes, there's a dragon!" said Saphira, snarling. "And that's a human being....."

Roran laughed warmly and slapped Eragon on the shoulder. "I've had a long journey. I fought with trolls along the way and strangled a sandworm with my bare hands after walking through the desert for two days. I also had to take a detour through a cemetery where ghosts haunted and had to deal with three blood-sucking creatures who wanted to get to my neck. In the process, I have suffered several smaller and larger wounds. It was really painful and scary. But do you know what?"

"What?" asked Eragon anxiously. "What do you want to tell me?"

"I feel better than ever in my life because I got rid of Katrina! And she will now cope even without me, she has made two new friends who would do anything for her!" replied Roran, and once again he slapped his cousin amicably against the shoulder.

"Aua!" complained Eragon. "It hurts!"

"Now don't be so hurtful! And you've changed.... You would have fallen over and hurt you if I had greeted you in this way!" said Roran, astonished, but Sapphira uttered a loud smirk that sounded like a laugh.

"Changed? It's just a coincidence that he didn't fall over! He was just very lucky. Normally, such adventures are different!"

"I will introduce you to Nasuada, Ajihad's daughter! She leads the Vardens, because her father was seriously injured in a fight against a great superpower of Urgal!" suggested Eragon, also to distract from himself, as Roran noted with a grin.

Shortly afterwards, they entered the tent of Nasuada. She was busy feeding a little girl with a pig's nose with porridge.

"Now come on, Elva! You have to eat a little. And no, we don't want to fatten and roast you! Eragon will find a way to make this horrible nose unheard!" the deputy leader of the Vardens exasperated the little one.

"What happened to her? Who does such a thing to a little girl?" asked Roran indignantly. "So someone like that you would have to skewer on a pole and put it in the sun! The poor little one!"

With a grunt, Elva pointed to Eragon and Nasuada nodded sadly. "I had something like that with him. But he is the dragon rider and we need him.... and who are you? You look like him, but.... you're different...."

"I'm not the rabid boy in the family," Roran said, giving Nasuada a beaming smile, which she replied. She rose and pushed Elva the bowl with the porridge.

"Is that. I'm going to have a little chat with our guest!"

She hacked into Roran and together they left the tent. Eragon looked at them in amazement, while Elva giggled.

"What's the point?" asked the dragon rider, addressing Saphira, who was waiting for him outside.

"Well, that's love at first sight. Like me and Glaedr. She just gives him a kiss on the cheek and he presses it on himself. I think the two are meant for each other. Although, this seems to be the case more often with Nasuada..."

"How do you mean that?" asked Eragon, astonished. "I don't understand that!"

"No, you don't understand that, my stupid one!" Saphira said with a sigh. "You really don't understand that yet!"

Meanwhile, Roran and Nasuada strolled hand in hand through the Varden camp, as if they had been a couple for years.

"I've changed men many times before! I hope that doesn't bother you... and my last great love was Murtagh, this young man who traveled with Eragon. But... It's never been like you. That's something completely different. That's why I'm not going to scurry under your skins with you in the next tent...."

Roran looked at the young woman tenderly." I'm not like that! And I once adored a young lady, but she took another one. Her name was Eow.... but it doesn't matter. Now only you count. And I hope it doesn't bother you that I don't have as many experiences as you.... Katrina always wanted to, but I always hid in the caves when she chased me again. They're definitely still resenting me and it was very tight!"

"I'll take you as you are, Rorylein!" said Nasuada, sacrossing the young man's cheek. 

"We have to put this battle behind us now. And then I will introduce you to my father.... and that's over there is Arya, my good friend... and Eragon raves for them!"

"There's nothing about that!" said Roran, shaking his head. "Everyone recognizes this at first sight."

"She really has to love him!" thought Arya, who had been part of the conversation. "Everyone else would have dragged her into her tent. But that is different. This must be true love! I wish I could fall in love. Maybe I should take faolin or Loris.... but not Eragon, who certainly does not...."

Arya was abruptly ripped from her mind when she saw a large cloud of dust approaching the Varden.

"We are being attacked!" she cried out loudly, and the vardens' warriors left their tents and took up arms. 

Chapter Text

Eragon rose on Sapphira's back as enemy troops relentlessly approached. Again he would have liked to run away and he regretted not having any apples with him this time. On the one hand his stomach growled and on the other hand he could have used it again as projectiles.

"Little one, we're going to deal with the king!" cried Saphira, but a frightened roar eated out when she saw two dragons circling over the enemy soldier. One was black and the other red.

"That must not be true! He has found another dragon rider," eragon cried, and a horrified roar went through the ranks of the Vardens.

"He's red! I don't like the color. Gold is much prettier!" murmured Saphira, and Eragon couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Saphira, you shall not mate with the dragon, but you shall fight against him and defeat him. Just like the big black son at the back. You shall also fight against him...."

Saphira rose into the air, and now the red dragon and a horseman on his back flew toward her and Eragon.

But the other dragon didn't seem to really want to fight, instead he was content to fuse Saphira when he reached her. Eragon was sure to have seen the young man on the back of the dragon.

"Fauchy! Tyoub son not to touch them, but to fight!" cried the strange rider, whose voice Eragon somehow reminded of Murtagh. 

The young man also had a certain resemblance in terms of his size and posture, despite the helmet he wore on his head.

"But that would be a coincidence too much and so often I can't be mistaken! Moreover, Murtagh is dead," Eragon thought, but decided to try not to be stupid again in front of Sapphira by not recognizing someone he knew.

"Murtagh?" he cried, hoping that he would not be ridiculed and that it was not the Murtagh believed to be dead, but instead a Herbert or a Franz....

But the other rider took off his helmet in amazement and looked at Eragon. "You recognized me? I knew this helmet wasn't good!" he murmured, but then sighed with regret.

"I would like to sit on your side and fight with you against King Galbatorix. Especially now that I have learned that we might be brothers! I had a lot of time to think and our mothers have amazing similarities...."

"That would be really nice!" said Eragon, but then his face was covered. "Don't get it wrong now, but I don't really want to be Morzan's son! That's disgusting. Disgusting..."

"Thank you too! I completely forgot how mean you can be," Murtagh lamented, but then shrugged. 'I can't hit your side anyway. I swore to Galbatorix to serve him. And my dragon Dorn had to do it too!"

"How horrible! What did he do to you, this tyrant?" asked Eragon sympathetic. "What did he do to you?"

"He threatened to throw me into the dungeon and he thought about torturing me!" replied Murtagh, but Eragon shook his head in disbelief.

"That was all? He just threatened to do it?"

"Would you have preferred it differently? Would you feel better if he had really done it? Well, you are really a true friend to me, that you give me something like that! Rejoice that nothing has happened to me, even if that means that I have cooperated a little!" Murtagh replied in a bad mood, while Eragon looked at him in a comprehensible way. "Copertiert?

"Cooperates! You realize that you don't have an education. You don't even know those words!" murtagh replied impatiently, and his dragon whispered to Saphira again before flying to the side.

"Galbatorix has just spoken to Dorn.... and Dorn told me that he wanted to take care of you himself. He doesn't want to put something like that into incompetent hands.... I think that's what I mean," Murtagh said, looking down to the ground. 

Apparently it took him a lot that Galbatorix didn't trust him, so he said now, deceitful of his king: "Eragon, if you defeat him in battle, then I am free again and we can be brothers again! I am no longer angry with you, because you were so mean to me!"

"Me? To you?" Eragon asked, unsympathetic, while Murtagh was pushed aside, forcing his dragon to land. 

Almost immediately he was surrounded by vardenwarriors who threatened him with spears.

But Eragon's concern for Murtagh was limited, because now a big black dragon shot at him and unfortunately he snapped at Sapphira's neck. 

At the last moment, the Dragon Lady managed to dodge.

"My Little Stupid, please don't fall off my back, that's really serious now!" she asked desperately. "Just hold on well! And I hope you repaired the saddle strap last night..."

From the ground, meanwhile, Brom watched the black and blue dragons fight against each other, with a broad smile scurrying across his face. 

Arya, who was next to him, looked at him without understanding. "Why are you so happy? After all, this is your son fighting there. Even if he doesn't know yet that you are his father."

Brom shrugged. "Of course I'm worried, but I finally see three dragons at once. And my Eragon will do it..."

"Like the father, so the son, Oromis said to me just before leaving!" Arya replied thoughtfully. 

"But you never defeated Galbatorix. Otherwise you have never won a fight, except that against Morzan. And this was more of an accident, you stumbled and pierced it with your sword when he had already defeated you and no longer counted on anything like that!"

Brom looked at the elf angrily. Why did she have to offend him in such an instant? But she was an elf and they were vicious.

"There was a stone in the way, over which I fell. That your elves always wanted to take it so seriously! If I had deliberately defeated him, I would be a living legend among you. But just because it was an oversight, I'm considered a rabble-rousing."

Brom insulted his arms in front of his chest, but uttered a cheer when his son managed to dodge an attack by Galbatorix. Saphira circled over Shruikan.

Then Eragon jumped from the back of his dragon lady and landed on the king. Shruikan could no longer hold himself in the air and rushed to the ground.

The Vardens, as well as all the allies who had gathered to fight against the ruler of Alagaesia, stormed towards the black dragon on whose neck Sapphira had settled.

Galbatorix was pulled out of the saddle and pushed to the ground, and he saw with horror that his soldiers also turned against him.

"He was always cruel! He cut our wages and sneaked us days off. He also increased taxes," a captain shouted, addressing his soldiers. "He has also extended your service hours and you have to wear old boots while he swims in the money!"

"Yes, I have also heard rumours that he has set up a room in Uru 'baen, which consists only of pieces of gold. In them he is supposed to bathe every day!" shouted a young soldier, but the captain shook his head with a mild smile. "No, it's not that bad again. That will surely belong in the rank of legends."

Galbatorix was torn out of the saddle, and Nasuada, with Arya and Roran on their sides, approached him. 

"Give yourself! Our magicians will keep you at bay. This brave rider over there has defeated you! You will be treated well...."..."

Nasuada pointed to Eragon, who laboriously rose up and did not seem to know what had happened. "Have I...."

"Yes, you won! It looked a little bit.... Strange and such a kind of jump I have never seen when you fell on Galbatorix. But with Saphira flying over him and you just jumping on him, he probably didn't expect.... nobody has that!" praised Brom, and he proudly pressed Eragon. 

"I have to tell you something..... I am your father. The elves and almost everyone else knew it before. But I didn't want you to torment yourself with too much knowledge. I know this from myself, if I knew too much, I was always confused! I was also afraid that your uncle Garrow would beat me up when he learned that I was the one who let Selena down pregnant!"

"You're my father?" eragon inquired, pointing to Murtagh. "And that's my brother? We have the same mother?"

Brom nodded. "Yes, Selena is your mother. She went with Morzan at the time, because she thought he was a daring adventurer. It corresponded exactly to their male taste and soon after Murtagh was born. But then she realized that she didn't have much in common with Morzan. He always sat there sadly and drank his wine and she bored herself. On the way home to Carvahall, she got drunk in a tavern and there I met her. We.... spent a night together because she thought I was a pirate. I said that to... well, she was very pretty and..."

"You wanted to get them around!" laughed Murtagh. "But that was still harmless! Pirate! What do you think I've told the women? I have even claimed before that I am an orc from the distant Mordor.... where exactly is this? But no matter, she liked such men...."

"She thought of you as an orc?" asked Brom, stunned, but then shook his head and turned to his son again. 

"The next morning I brought her breakfast to bed, but she found me boring at one time and I didn't mind to scare her with the knowledge that I had spent the night with me instead of a daring pirate. So I told her that the pirate had returned to his ship and that I had just found her and put her to bed."

"He's a hero! He defeated Galbatorix!" cried Arya, falling around Eragon's neck. He pressed her briefly, but at one point it didn't seem as desirable to him as before.

"Saphira, when she learns the truth, she won't look at me like that anymore! Then Again, I'm just the rabid kid for her!" complained Eragon, and the dragon lady snapped lovingly.

"You're right. If you tell her that you didn't jump on Galbatorix but fell after the saddle strap cracked, she won't look at you like that!"

Eragon broke free from Arya's embrace and cast an envious glance at Roran and Nasuada, who hugged each other happily.

"That's true love!" said Eragon, pushing Arya aside. "I want a woman who really loves me. And not a superficial, vicious elf that steals the blanket from me at night or puts cold food on me. Or snipping rotten fruit in the crevice because she finds it funny when I have abdominal pain...."

"And I'm not a weak elf woman serving a man!" said Arya, looking at Eragon begging. "Now you are a hero.... maybe I'll give you something from my flesh...."

"No, that's over!" said Eragon with a heavy heart, but Saphira lovingly stumped him. "Little, don't be so sad. You will find someone else, just as I found my Glaedr."

"Um, Saphira... you didn't find Glaedr..." said Eragon, but the dragon lady stunned him. "Shot, you have no idea about anything like that!"

Chapter Text

After winning the battle and defeating Galbatorix, some of the participants should find their great happiness.

Ajihad was crowned the new king of Alagaesias, and Eragon made it a little bit difficult when Arya became his new queen.

They both wore snow-white clothing, which was studded with many white feathers, when they first showed up to their subjects. Eragon still believed that the once revered elf was beautiful, but Sapphire snorted contemptuously.

"She looks like a chicken! If I didn't know better, I would probably eat her and Ajihad by mistake!"

At the coronation, Bertus had his pigeons fly in honour of the new rulers, and he and Ernus had been demoted to goose shepherds as punishment, who, besides these, also took care of all other feathered cattle and somehow did not seem as unhappy as it would have been appropriate.

Murtagh stayed at the court and in the next years he was often seen flying on Dorn's back with his three children and still mumbled himself to a quite passable father.

Eragon had forgiven him for his betrayal, after all he had been under considerable pressure....

Murtagh's and Eragon's mother also came to the court, but left the court very quickly, because she was uncomfortable with introducing her new husband to her grandchildren, especially since he did not like children.

He was the captain of a large ship and he was mostly wearing red clothing and a long black wig, which selena said was excellent. 

He was missing a hand and he was wearing a silver shiny hook. In addition to children, he especially hated reptiles, so he couldn't really get warm with his stepson's dragon.

Galbatorix was sentenced to life imprisonment and his wife Kriemhilda gave him company.....

Shruikan, on the other hand, moved out into the world, facing new adventures. He, too, was now free and was able to do and leave what he wanted.

And Eragon experienced a great surprise a few weeks after the battle on the burning steppes, because one morning between Sapphira's front paws lay four golden eggs, through which sapphire-colored veins passed. 

Two of the eggs already showed cracks and when Eragon bent over them in surprise two tiny golden dragons hatched. Only their back skids shimmered sapphire colors....

"What are you saying now?" asked Saphira. "You always thought I was just imforming that Glaedr and I would one day become a couple!"

"Oh....," Eragon stammered as the next two little dragons hatched. 

These were sapphire colors and their back spineshgolden.....

"You and Glaedr.... but I thought he doesn't want you... he has hinted at something like this..." said the young dragon rider unsettled, but his dragon lady lovingly groped him. 

"Stupid, we only had a little argument among lovers! This is what happens in the best families.... and now you should go in search of a rider for the green dragon! My four want to have another playmate!"

She stumped him again. "Maybe he slips with a young lady and there is someone else for you!"

The young dragon rider shrugged. "I can still wait. At some point I'll find the right one! I don't want to rush anything...."

"You're right!" Saphira praised her rider, who took one of the golden dragon babies on his arm.

"Don't let it fall!" she asked, and Eragon shook his head. "I don't! I'm not mad!"

The End