Adurna

Nightmare

NOTE; Sorry for the lateness of this! There was an issue with my account and I was unable to log in, but it's all sorted now. Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty

I skirted around a tent, but my foot caught on the edge of it and I found myself stumbling. I cursed my footing and continued after Eragon, my breathing labored. I shouldn't have had so much to drink.

After a bit of confused wandering, I found Eragon. He had the man he'd been chasing pushed against a nearby pole. The horses that had been tied up there let out a snorts of unease at the anger that radiated from Eragon so apparently.

"Eragon," I called, coming up to his side.

His forearm was pressed harshly against the man's throat and he struggled to loosen Eragon's hold on him. The man's fingers dug into Eragon's arm, but the Dragon Rider didn't seem concerned with that. In fact, all he seemed concerned about was choking the other man out.

"What are you doing?" I grabbed at his arm and tugged. He held fast and brought his burning gaze to me for the first time.

His brown eyes swam with wrath and he shoved the man further into the pole when he tried to wiggle away. His mouth was set in a grim line and I saw the flicker of metal in his other hand. My grip on his arm increased in surprise.

"He touched you." Eragon growled, his lip curled in agitation.

"I noticed." I mumbled. I made my way to the other side of Eragon and plucked the knife from his balled up hand.

"Chrystal." He complained, though he let me have the knife. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Eragon."

He sighed, but did not released the man from his hold.

"If you saw him touch me," I started, twirling the knife between my fingers. "Then you saw me take care of it."

"I should cut his hands off." Eragon snapped. He dropped his arm from his throat only to replace it with his hand. He squeezed harshly and the man sputtered in fear.

"You don't need to defend my honor, Eragon." I retorted and slammed the knife into the pole next to the man's ear. He yelped. "It's not your problem anymore."

I turned away from them and made my way back to the celebrations. Belatedly, I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Eragon left the man alone. His shoulders were taunt under his shirt, though he seemed to have released his hold on the man. However, the man had continued to slur to Eragon, about what I didn't care to hear. Eragon snapped his arm back and drove his fist into the man's nose, breaking it. The man screamed and cupped his bleeding nose, but Eragon only heaved him back up against the pole and snarled something into his ear.

Eragon let the man drop to the ground and he stalked back into the tent shadows and out of my sight.

My vision blurred as I continued to watch the man hold together his bloody nose. I blinked rapidly to get the sight of the thick blood dripping down his chin, but I felt paralyzed.

A nearby cheer from the fire broke my trance and allowed me to hurry from the bloody man and back to the others. The celebration continued on as if nothing had gone amiss. Thomas and Damen were speaking quietly by multiple heaped bodies of soldiers who could fight their exhaustion no more. I spotted Quentin speaking boldly to a group of younger men, about his victories in the battle no doubt.

After a beat, I wandered back to my tent. I held on to the tent flap upon my arrival, the ground tipping beneath my feet. The liquor in my belly had sat pleasantly up until Eragon's alteration with the other man. Now, nausea rocked through me and I hurried to sit down before I managed to injure myself somehow by falling. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath to right my vision.