Curse of the Phoenix

Ch.40 -The Right State of Mind

Eragon~

It had taken seconds for Marumen to start squeezing. He was trying to choke me, to kill me. I had no idea why, nor had I any notion of why Iara had fallen, or how. I went into self-defense mode. My idea was to get Marumen off of me and see if Iara was alright, I knew that she was perfectly capable of landing fine, she could catch herself with magic if she needed to.

Marumen was my main focus. He made no sound, he was just breathing heavily and not blinking.

I was somewhat surprised he had managed to overpower me, considering the fact he was only eighteen years of age, and that he was limited as a human, I had seen so myself. So, I did the one thing I could. I drew back my fist, and punched him right in the face.

As I did so, his eyes returned to normal and his face contorted in pain. He clambered off of me and covered his nose.

"Ow! Eragon! What the hell was that for?" He seemed genuinely surprised. I had never even heard the kid cuss before.

"Excuse me, you were trying to choke me!"

"Umm, no, I fell down, and you tried to help me up! Then you punched me!" he whined towards the end, like someone of a much younger age. Blood actually streamed from his nose...had I hit him hard enough to break it?

"Later, listen, I have to go see if your sister is alright."

"What happened to Iara?" He said. His gaze focused on me, and he seemed to forget his injury.

Iara~

The nothingness....it was all around me, I was alone in a black abyss. The fact that it was just me, that was what scared me. Not even Grimm could help.

The darkness suddenly vanished as I felt a pain in my head, as if I had been stabbed. A scream tore loose, and I reached my arms out, so I happened to grab ahold of a tree branch. I had...fallen? Right off of the balcony...but even if I had been leaning the railing should have caught me.

How did I even fall? All I could remember was the darkness and the pain..like something was ripping my skin off...at the moment I was in a fairly large oak tree. And Grimm was to his feet and dashing over to me.

Iara! Are you alright?

Yes...no...I don't know..

What happened?

I guess I fell..

Wow you fell. Off of the balcony you built yourself. He said sarcastically.

I don't know, okay? Right now I need to get down so I can see if Marumen is alright.

Did something happen to Marumen as well?

I don't know..he was on the floor of his bedroom..he passed out or something..

Let me help you down, and then let's go figure out what he broke or didn't do right.

Sounds like a plan.