Pugna: An Eragon Fanfic

14

Throughout the next few weeks, I can't stop thinking about the letter.

I hope he found it, I say to Pugna.

Stop worrying, little one, she replies from deep in the forest behind the camp.

Three weeks had passed since we had left the halls of the riders and the only eventful thing that had happened was that Pugna saw a Nidwhäl in the ocean between the blue forest and Alagaësia. Now, I'm setting up camp while Pugna searches for food.

We've got to be nearly there, I think to myself as I start a campfire with the twitch of a finger. I glance at the map. According to it, we're about twenty miles away from Baragh, a dwarf city. So far, we've managed to slip past all the cities unnoticed, but tomorrow I'm going into Baragh for supplies and information. I look in disgust at the dress I have to wear protruding from my backpack. I had taken it from the closet at my room in Eragon's hall.

Pugna soon returns with a deer clutched between her massive jaws. She throws it on the ground, and, grimacing, I begin to butcher the creature.

When I'm finished, I throw the meat in a lumpy pot I bartered for with a farmer and begin cooking it over the flames, adding water, spices, and greens. Pugna gnaws at a second deer she had left in the forest.

After our meal, we sit and talk.

Where do you think we should look next if Angela isn't here? Asks Pugna.

I don't know. Maybe Surda?

We go on like this for a while until I hear rustling in the forest behind us. I jump up, pulling Kvaet out of its sheath.

Just an animal, dismisses Pugna.

I settle back down. I've been way too jumpy these days...

Suddenly, something jumps out of the forest and I feel a sharp pain in my neck. Pugna's growl turns into a whine as she's struck as well. I feel my neck and my fingers brush a blowdart. Soon, I realize that it's poisoned, because my head rushes up to meet the ground. Before I pass out, I hear the muffled thump of Pugna's body hitting the ground.

|•|•|•|

After I had found the compass in the desk drawer in Sabrina's room, I had attached a chain to it and worn it everywhere. It had two arms, one black, and one teal, that always pointed one way: east. The back of the compass was covered in words written in the Liduen Kvaedí that read:

Life, death, and space converge and become one on this sacred land.

Death is imminent, yet should not be feared.

Only when death is embraced shall man truly live.

Life, death, and space converge...

These three lines repeat over and over again until they reach the boundaries of the compass. When I had first read them, Saphira wondered what had prompted Sabrina to write this. Saphira believes it's nonsense, but I think it means something. Nothing that girl does is for no reason...

Now, the compass is burning against my chest as I'm writing a letter in my room. Yanking it from the chain, I stare at it. Instead of a shiny, silver color, the compass burns a bright red and the hands inside go haywire. After a few seconds, the color fades and the hands settle down, but I can't help but to wonder what it means.

Alerting Saphira, I tell her what happened.

...and then it just stopped!

Strange...

That's all you can say?! I exclaim frantically. What if it means they're hurt? Or dead?!

Relax Eragon! You are thinking irrationally, says Saphira.

How? They are the ones who will almost singlehandedly save both our world and hers! It says so on the dagger!

Yes, that means we can't interfere. Just think Eragon! Remember the scrying mirror? Use it! She shouts angrily in my mind. 

Oh... I rush over to a desk full of mirrors and pick out the smallest one. I had found this in Sabrina's old room as well. Whispering the words of scrying, I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Nothing but inky blackness covers the surface of the mirror.

Try saying her name, maybe they're traveling and it's in her bag, Saphira suggests.

Okay. "Sabrina!" I yell.

Suddenly, the darkness is lifted and replaced with an image of a forest.

"Sabrina! Thank the heavens! We thought-" I stop talking as I see that the face leering down at me is not Sabrina. It's a masked person, presumably a woman, because they're wearing a dress.

We stare at each other for a while until she says one word.

"Eragon..."

Then the woman smashes the mirror.

|•|•|•|

Two dragons clash in the sky. One a teal-black color, the other a fiery orange. The teal is five times bigger than the orange.

Below the fighting dragons, two armies clash. The army below the dragons carries tattered red and gold flags, while the men themselves are clad in red tunics with a gold insignia. They wear no armor and their numbers are few.

The defending army is a shining mass of plate armor and mail, bobbing heads protected by helms march in time to a silent beat. The men are silhouetted against a great city covered by a shelf of rock.

Suddenly, a great mass of black figures stream out from behind a hill. They are not men, for they have great wings flapping behind them like cloaks. Their bodies are horribly disfigured and the creatures all carry a sword in each hand. They are demons straight from hell.

The black figures sorely outnumber both armies combined. When they reach the converging armies, they attack, not differentiating between the two sides. Killing with a reckless abandon, the armies try to disband and run, but the demons split up and give chase, killing every single man.

The dragons above continue to fight.

In a great flash, the great teal dragon rears and begins to lose altitude. Something on its back shouts unintelligible words and the dragon stops falling. The orange dragon roars and chases after its foe. The person on the teal dragon grabs a giant teal stone and a smaller black one and leaps off their dragon's back. They disappear in midair.

The orange dragon snaps at the frozen dragon's neck.

Then the world goes black.