For Alagaesia: 52. Making amends

She was in a forest of ice. There were trees of ice all around her and there was a floor of ice on which she was lying. But it wasn’t cold as she had expected it be. Rather, the warmth she felt was so comforting that she wanted to close her eyes again and go to sleep. Except certain questions needed to be answered and foremost of them: where was she?

She thought hard. And then it struck her in an instant. She was taken… captured… kidnapped. But this place hardly looked like a prison. It was literally a forest.

Nasuada whipped her head so that she could see her captor. All she could remember was a ruby red surface, when she thought of her captors. And now again she was met with a red wall. But this time she could see that it wasn’t just a wall of red; it was the belly of a ruby red dragon. Thorn. Repulsed, Nasuada tried to move away from the dragon.

For Alagaesia: 51. Green Ecstasy

His eyes flew open. He didn't know how he went into a complete slumber – a rare thing to happen to elves and him. But he had and now something had disturbed him. Groggily, he turned his neck around. He could sense Saphira waking too.

When Eragon rested his eyes on the spot where Arya had slept, he only found an empty blanket.

'Where is she?', he wondered.

He heard a squeak that was oddly familiar and remembered that it was such a squeak that had woken him up in the first place. He turned towards the direction from which the sound originated and found a scene that would stay fresh in his mind for eternity. Arya was staring wide-eyed at the green dragon egg that glowered in the red rays of the sun. The sun's rays falling over her body illuminated her in a golden glow. And the dragon egg was shaking. Shaking violently.

For Alagaesia: 50. Defeated

The enthralling roar was in the air. For every step they took, it increased in intensity calling him to it. Roran had developed a liking to the sea when he had seen it for the first time in Teirm an year and a half ago while escaping from the empire. The sea had signified his freedom. It of course was a sign of freedom – an example of how Alagaesia should have been. A little excited on the outside like the waves that constantly washed over to the shores, but calm and serene on the inside – like the endless water filling the space between the ocean floor and the air; hiding the vicious water currents running deep in the ocean.

Galbatorix had taken away all that from Alagaesia. The land was a mess. The ocean was much better. Hence Roran liked it.

The city of Teirm stood like a silent watch tower standing guard on the shore. Roran was excited with the thoughts of liberating the great coastal city from the grip of Galbatorix and transforming it into truly a watch tower for all of Alagaesia – a watch tower that constantly keeps vigil against foreign forces attacking from the seas.

For Alagaesia: 49. The hope is taken

The last few days had taken her to the brink of uselessness. Having a routine life was almost unbearable – it was on par with a battle day. Nasuada had no idea when she became such a workaholic, but she was. She hated being in the room for most of the day and hear to reports from sentries and spies. She would have been fine if the reports had any substance in them, but they hardly did. It was all a repetition of the same news: nothing is odd.

In one way, she was happy for the temporary respite from the war and its gloom. The people seemed really happy these days despite the biting cold of the winter. When they were satisfied, she too was. But personally, her mind was restless. Ever since she had literally forced Roran to take up the mission to Teirm, she had been nervous, thinking her plan might backfire and the Varden might face a crushing defeat in that battle.

For Alagaesia: 48. Best friends

Gloomy. As he went into his waking-dreams, if there was a word to describe that day at Silthrim, Eragon would choose only that. Everything seemed to have gone against him on that day. The experience at Katrina's home was the high-point of misery what with Galbatorix's attack on Roran and his tongue-slip about Arya. But the other low-point in the day was the evening event of the 'presenting ceremony'. Eragon was now accustomed to the egg rejecting every potential candidate and it was no different on that evening. But even then it hurt him for he had hoped the egg may hatch for someone in Silthrim as the egg had left its mad search for 'the one' – atleast according to Glaedr.

When presented to the three children of Silthrim, the egg had remained as unmoved as it did when it was presented to every other person. The other potential voluntaries – that is the elders who chose to touch the egg were no where near luckier than the others.

For Alagaesia: 47. Despair and Hope

Hunkering on the ground, eyes intently fixed on the water before him, Eragon said in a deathly quiet tone, “Roran. Wake up.” He refused to allow the tears to fall from his eyes. He wouldn’t cry. His cousin wasn’t dead. ‘No! Roran can’t die.’

He noticed not the comforting touch of Arya’s fingers or the calming presence of Saphira’s mind in his. The only thing his eyes saw and ears heard was Roran and his motionless body. His pained mind couldn’t comprehend what had happened moments ago: Roran walking towards Galbatorix as if possessed; Galbatorix attacking him and the much more powerful counter-attack seemingly orchestrated by Roran and Galbatorix’s disappearance from there. And he didn’t try to. The only thing that mattered was Roran. And his life.

“Madhura!!”, Arya called as the elf came into the circle of vision. “Drottningu..”, the elf replied and bent down to examine Roran. Eragon turned away not wanting to hear anything that the elf had to say. He couldn’t and wouldn’t believe that his cousin was dead.

For Alagaesia: 46. The Mysterious mountains

White was the only colour his eyes registered. Wherever he turned, he could see nothing but white. Trees looked like white pillars and legs sunk foots into the ground. To make matters worse, a blizzard blew from the west making it impossible to move towards their destination. The biting cold had already consumed atleast a dozen battle-hardened warriors.

Roran wondered if he had made the wrong decision in accepting to carry out Nasuada’s crazy plan. He wouldn’t have worried so much if it was just him who was going into death, but the soldiers who accompanied him: elves, dwarves, urgals and humans had come on his call. It was his responsibility to take them safely to the other side of the mysterious and dangerous mountain range that was Spine. They had believed him blindly and had offered their help in his scheme to take down Teirm.

“Hey lady, Madhura, could you stop this storm?”, Roran screamed above the howling snow-laden winds to the elf woman who was leading the elven team under him.

“That is impossible, Stronghammer. These winds are nature’s strongest forces. Not even riders can stop such storms.”

For Alagaesia: 44. Travel and travail as respite

Osilon was a much quieter and smaller city than Ellesmera. Being the second elven city on which Eragon had laid his eyes upon, it held a sort of interest to him. He wanted to know how the elves lived outside the rich capital of theirs. It turned out that both the cities were nothing similar except for the fact that both blended with the nature seamlessly.

Osilon had many settlements built out of fallen leaves, twigs and branches of trees unlike Ellesmera where most of the buildings were created by singing the live-trees into shape. The houses here were spaced greatly that finding another house from the courtyard of one was nigh on impossible. Accordingly, the city had so few residents.

“They love their privacy”, Arya said when he questioned her about it.

“So do all elves.”, Eragon replied incredulously.

“These more so than others. Elves have longer lives than others, Eragon. We live for so long that the losses incurred by us have lasting effect on our lives. That is why we take painful efforts to prevent such losses. The people who live here are old and broken that they lost all interest in socialising. So they choose to live in homes detached from the others.”, she explained.

For Alagaesia: 45. Take me. Leave him.

Eragon and Saphira didn't want to stay at Kirtan for the night. Even though they felt tired after days and days of travel, the need to go back to the Varden pushed them to pack for Silthrim. Further, the prospect of meeting with Katrina spurned Eragon. Arya too was in support of being on the move. It gave them a sense of purpose. So they thanked the townsmen and made for Silthrim by nightfall.

It was a four hour's flight from Kirtan to Silthrim, the largest elven city, Ellesmera aside. Saphira flew the whole distance at a stretch. They reached the city around mid-night. Even during such wee hours the city was bustling with activity. Yet it all seemed as calm as the midnight. Nocturnal animals roamed freely around the streets of the city and the birds of the night were busy doing their business. But not a single elf could be seen at the first glance. They seemed one with the trees around, on and in which they worked. The deftness with which the elves undertook their work was commendable. If ever any outsider were to stray into the premises of the city, they would find it difficult to even know that they have entered a huge city let alone detect the elves presence.

For Alagaesia: 43. Distress and Solace

As hours in Du Weldenvarden passed into days, Eragon started feeling more and more peaceful. The forest seemed to absorb his worries into itself leaving him fresh and calm. The fact that he could now speak frankly to Saphira about anything and everything like old times was another reason for his peacefulness. Her presence in the darkest confines of his mind which was wounded beyond healing was like a balm. Further, having Arya by his side always was new to him. Only on a few occasions before this had he had such moments with her. In fact, it was only when they had returned from the village of Eastcroft to the Varden camp that they had spent time together alone. All the other times like when Arya took Eragon to Ellesmera, the first time, there was Orik or others with them. Only the days when he had walked with her through the tree-lined streets of Ellesmera were the exceptions. Now, though, Arya was alone with him for days on end but for Saphira - he would have it no other way. If this was to be his life for the rest of eternity, then so be it. Even though, he won't have Arya in the way he loved to have her, he would have her as his true friend.