An Invisible Thread (An Eragon Fanfic)

Chapter 3

        Amara walked quietly through the castle halls, only the footsteps of her healed boots echoing off of the walls. Her sword had been placed back in its sheath and the bow and quiver that she had gotten before the fight had been tossed to the ground when she saw that a Forsworn Rider had broke into the Eldunarí vault. The halls of the castle were quiet, but she could hear the aftermath of battle outside as she passed by the windows.

        Cries could be heard as well as yells of victory. She stopped at a window to peer outside to see a human kneeling over another, whispering. Amara was far from the two, but she could hear was he was saying.

        "Brother..." He whispered. Amara could hear the tears falling from his eyes. "Please, wake up, Aaron. How will mother feel? I was supposed to protect you. We were – "

        She continued walking after that. Amara couldn't bare the exchange. She was usually a hard person, not letting anything get to her, but she was weary from the battle. Her walls weren't up and she felt her eyes start to tear. She blinked several times and the tears left her eyes before she continued to walk.

        Amara was out on the battlefield now, her eyes scanning the sight. There were many fallen soldiers, each from a different race. It looked like the men alive were outnumbered by the ones that had died. Amara looked up to the sky, expecting to see a light green dragon up there, but found the sky was bare. The dark blue sky was bare of clouds. Not even birds flew.

        Her brow furrowed as she scanned the battleground again. Where was Briam?

        She ran through the field, her adrenaline spiking as she searched for her friend. Amara was in the outskirts of Ilirea when she saw the green mass. Tulvir was lying on the ground, one wing bent awkwardly underneath him while the other was half-folded above him. Tulvir's head was on the ground, his green eyes half closed and his mouth slightly open, showing red-stained teeth. She couldn't see his chest moving the slow up-and-down rhythms that it would be if the dragon was breathing. Then she saw that the green and brown Earth was stained a deep red. 

        Her lips parted in a gasp as she saw a man laying on the dragon, his head buried in his arms against the dragon's green scales. He moved silently and she could hear soft sniffles and wails.

        Amara didn't move for a long time. She simply stood there and watched Briam cry against Tulvir's body. She didn't know what to do.

        When she finally moved, she found her knees stiff. Her eyes were already red and puffy as she knelt next to her long time friend.

        "Briam..." she spoke quietly. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I..." What would she say? Would she say she was sorry for his loss? She never had a dragon for herself and couldn't imagine what it felt like to have such a being bonded that closely to her, not to mention loosing that bond. She had been in the minds of other Dragon Riders and admired the strong feeling of the bond. Through that second-hand feeling, she could only imagine what it felt like to have that partner die. If must feel like you have died yourself, only you find that somehow you are still breathing.

        Another sniffle rose from the man before he raised his head. His face was covered with dirt, save for the lines on his face that had been cleaned because of the tears running down them. His eyelashes were wet and his entire face was red and his cheeks puffy. He rose an arm to get the tears off of his face, rubbing more grime off of him. His brown eyes looked into Amara's blue ones and she saw the raw pain in them, the grief and the anger.

        Amara sucked in a breath and fell to her knees, embracing her friend. She hugged him as tightly as she could without injuring him. It was a while before he brought his own arms up and hugged her back. She could feel tears on her shoulder through her leather top and started rubbing his back in slow circular motions. How long they were like that, Amara didn't know. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours.