Pugna: An Eragon Fanfic

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A/N: I own none of these characters, just the ones I made up in my brain :)

        4:00 am. That's what my alarm clock says when I sit up in bed. I never really sleep, so I don't need an alarm clock, but my mom says I do. I get out of bed and begin dressing. I put on my best outfit: black leather pants and jacket, with a black shirt and flats. Can you tell what my favorite color is yet? My stomach grumbles so I head downstairs quietly. I try not to wake the rest of the house because once, I woke my brother James up at 3:30 and he wouldn't talk to me for a week, which was fine by me. It made my mom mad though, and I try to avoid that.

After breakfast, I pack my bag and head to my favorite place in my hometown of Portland, Oregon; the woods. Don't ask me why I like the woods so much, because I don't really know. I mean, when I was found in the woods by my father, I wasn't exactly happy, so I should hate the woods, right? Wrong, I love them. Okay, moving on...

I climb my usual tree and open a good book. 5:30 comes and goes, so I clamber down from my perch and start for home. When I reach the cobblestone path on my lawn and see my mother, I brace myself. Conversations with my mom are awkward at best. Ever since my dad died in a car crash, I sort of blame her for what happened. I know it wasn't her fault, but I also know that my dad was drinking that night because they had been arguing... probably about me, so that makes it partially my fault too...

"Sabrina?" My mom asks cautiously, jolting me out of my morbid thoughts.

"What?" I ask sharply, brushing past her. "I have to go to school."

"Nothing, I just wondered what you were thinking. You had a strange look on your face. Have a good first day... honey." She said, kissing the top of my head.

I grab an apple from the fridge and head back outside on the path to Lincoln High, my school. In school, I'm very separate from everyone else. I have no girl friends to hang out with at lunch or between classes. I just have too solitary a mindset to befriend any of the local bimbos. The boys are even worse. I'm pretty, in a mysterious sort of way, with long, straight, jet black hair and dark eyes with fair skin. My ears are tapered to a slight point, and my eyes slant like a cat's. As a result, all the boys gawk over me. It's quite disgusting.

When I reach the brick building, I immediately sense a difference. New girl, I think to myself. I see her, separate from the usual throngs. I walk over to her. Her appearance is rather like mine, except she has flaming red hair instead of black.

"Hey," I say

"Hey," she replies cautiously.

"What's your name?" I'm surprised by my own willingness to speak. Normally, I talk to no one at school, but this girl seems to open something up inside of me.

"Alydia. And yours?" She replies.

"Sabrina. That's a pretty name." I say awkwardly.

"Thanks!!" She exclaims, causing me to start. "Sorry, but can you show me where the Science Lab is? It's my first class."

"'Course I can, it's my first class too"

Bam. Instant friendship.

During class, we learn that we have very similar personalities. When the boys stare at me we both glare at them, then laugh to ourselves. Once, when one of the boys says
"Hey Bri! Who's your new girlfriend?"
Alydia and I both take turns pummeling him until the teacher shows up. However, she is a lot more 'energetic' than I am (meaning that she is a spaz).

When school ends, I bid my newfound friend farewell and head off to the woods to do my homework. As I make my way down the long path, night begins to fall. This path has no streetlights, so I hurry up to get to my destination before night really arrives, plunging me in darkness. I installed lights at my tree though, so night won't bother me there.

Lost in my own thoughts, I only jolt out of my reverie in time to hear loud footsteps behind me. How long have they been following me? I wonder. When the footsteps don't go away, I duck into a bush, pulling a long dagger out of a hidden sheath on my belt.

Wait, wait, time out. Yes, I DO have a dagger. It's because when my father found me abandoned in the forest (story for another time) he found me with this dagger. I'm pretty good at using it too. Okay, back to the story...

My pursuer stops abruptly, searching for me, or so I'd assume. Muscles coiling, I'm ready to spring out and behead my attacker. I jump out of the bush suddenly, surprising the pursuer. Mid-jump, a shaft of light falls on my attacker's face. When I see exactly who I'm about to behead, I flail my arms around to stop my forward momentum and end up crashing into the pursuer.

It was Alydia.