Curse of the Phoenix

Ch.23 -A Friendly Face

~Iara

Grimm, it's them. He knew who I was talking about.

I know. Whatever you do, follow Eragon's lead. I don't want you getting hurt.

If anyone would get hurt, it would be you.

Are you sure? I don't know if I can trust Verdana, but Lothlorien and Giligan, I can trust them.

What about Virtue?

Her too. Verdana was Luke's partner. Lothlorien was Dru's, Giligan was Alice's. Virtue, Marumen's. Marumen. It had been nearly a year since I had seen my twin. Saphira roared a friendly greeting. I saw a shimmer of green, and then a dragon I didn't recognize was in the sky. Thorn halted, then landed below, a good hundred feet from everyone else.

Grimm what should we do?

I don't know. Lets go by Thorn and Murtagh. They're far enough away from the others.

Why don't you want to be near them?

It's true that they are my hatch-mates, but.....nevermind.

What?

They might be angry at me for taking you to Vroengard. Verdana might try to kill me.

Why?

Because Luke cares about you so much, and he might see it as I took you away from him.

Well I can just explain that you were trying to keep me safe. And you did, we met Eragon and Saphira.

But Verdana might not give us time to explain. By now we were down on the ground. Grimm had landed so that Thorn was in-between us and everyone else. Verdana lifted her head and looked toward Thorn. Her scales were red like his, but both lighter and darker, depending where you looked. Giligan, he was the purple, but I could barely see him, the most I could see was the end of his tail. I saw the end of Virtue's wing, she was in-between Giligan and Lothlorien.

I remember how I used to call him Loth, when I had first been unable to pronounce his name. Loth's gold scales looked the same color as the fire, I could even see the flames reflected on them.

After barely a moment, Saphira and the green landed, in between the fire and Thorn.

"Who's that?" I asked Murtagh.

"Firnen and Arya."

"Is Firnen the dragon?"

"Yeah."

"How old is he?"

"Around twenty, twenty one."

"Whoa. How old is Thorn?"

"Twenty two. And before you ask, Saphira is twenty three."

"Whoah. That's old."

"Not nearly as old as a dragon I once had the....displeasure to meet. Two dragons, actually. One of them was black, like Grimm. He could have swallowed Grimm whole. The other one, he was a golden color, darker than Lothlorien over there."

"How do you know Loth?"

"I met everyone over there before I went to Vroengard to get you and Eragon, remember?"

"Oh yeah." We were interrupted as Eragon came over, walking with a woman. No, she wasn't just a woman. She was like Eragon, but slimmer, and she walked in a different way, almost...lighter? Her hair was dark, black, but not nearly as dark a shade as mine. She had a sword buckled at her waist, all I could see was the green of the scabbard, and the emerald in the hilt. There were runes on the scabbard, but I couldn't tell what they said.

She also looked like she was rich or something, there was a golden circlet on her head. Solid gold, as far as I could tell. She wore a green dress, out of some material I couldn't identify. And she had a cloak wrapped around her shoulders. Thorn and Murtagh stepped out of the way. I was sadly, the center of attention. I hated that. I didn't know anything about that lady. Maybe that was why she scared me. I swallowed nervously and took a small step back, towards Grimm.

It's okay Iara, she won't hurt you.

How do you know that?

Because Eragon wouldn't introduce you to someone who would try to kill you.

Fine.

She looks trustworthy. But I don't like the blade at her side.

Well, Eragon has one too.

But has he ever deigned to use it? No. Other than that, I don't see anything wrong.

You remember how we have a sword too?

We've never used it.

I hope we never have too.

It's good to hope. Now perk up, you should try to make a good first impression.

I tried to do as he suggested, but could barely do so. Two days straight in the saddle had left my legs feeling raw, and I assumed the fabric of the leggings I wore had chafed against my thighs. Plus, being so short as I was so young, I barely came past the lady's waist. My eyes widened. I remembered from looking in a mirror that when they did that, the green would be darker, an draw more attention. I had once spent an hour looking at just my eyes. The bands of color within had enthralled me.

The lady slowed to a stop in front of me, and then bent down so we were at eye level with each other.

"I'm Arya. What's your name?"

"I'm Iara. This is Grimm." My voice was quiet, but I don't know if it was from fear or shyness. I felt both emotions right now. Grimm snorted and then slightly moved so he could see Arya better.

"That's Firnen. I'm guessing Murtagh told you everything." I silently nodded. "Well then, don't you want to go see your siblings?" I nodded again, this time eagerly. "They're right over there, go on ahead." She broke away from me and then her and Eragon stepped closer to Murtagh. They were speaking in low voices, and in a language I couldn't understand. The words made me have goosebumps.

I stepped around them, and Grimm clambered to his feet. I began to walk.