The First Dragon Riders

Chapter 10

They flew to the edges of Du Weldenvarden before landing; Eragon scolded Anu off to the side while they waited for Toron to get back with supplies. Thirty minutes later Spectre landed in front of them and allowed Toron to dismount, he handed out their supplies before glaring at Anu and threw the pack at him.

            “Did you meet any trouble from our sister?” Jacques asked as he arched his eyebrow.

            “No, she just gave me the cold shoulder and told me to get out of her sight.” Toron replied.

            Anu came over hesitantly. “Any chance she forgot about what happened?”

            “No! Of course not!”

            Anu backed away as Toron started to take out his sword, luckily for him Kuthian intervened and forced them to get onto their dragons. Once they were all ready to go they took off for the island Eragon had called Vroengarg. Anu stayed near the back of the group and avoided the others’ criticizing gazes; they flew in silence until they reached the Hadarac Desert. Once there the dragons rested and Eragon started setting up camp for the night.

            “Why are we staying here? It’s light out we can keep going.” Toron said.

            “I know but the desert gets cold at night, better to camp here where we have fire wood than stay in the desert.” Eragon replied.

            “Don’t forget, the Lethrblaka could see us better in the desert.” Kuthian pointed out. “And we don’t know how far they’ll go to hunt.”

            Jacques shrugged. “We fought them off last time we can do it again.”

            “Yeah good luck with doing that again even with training.” Toron sneered at his brother’s arrogance.

            Jacques was about to say something else when they saw ten creatures over eight feet tall walking towards them. They started to take out their swords and Oromis called Glaedr back from hunting using their bond.

            “Get on your dragons now!” Eragon ordered.

            “What are those?” Oromis asked.

            “Kull…” Anu glanced at them. “I read about them, they’re worse than the Urgals.”

            The Kull let out roars, or possibly their command to attack because they all charged towards the riders. Bid’Doum took off and the other dragons followed soon after, several of the Kull leapt forward with surprising speed for such big creatures and pulled Kuthian’s dragon back before it could take off fully. Kuthian jumped off Brazen’s back and his sword went straight through the Kull’s skull, the Kull roared in pain and dropped dead, Brazen let out a blast of fire at the others holding him down and allowed Kuthian to climb back onto his back before the rest of the attack party could catch them.

            “Kuthian!” Orelel shouted. “We need your help, they have poison darts… Pyra’s been hit!”

            Brazen started to follow Orelel’s purple dragon but spotted the Urgal camp over several sandy hills, there, Urgals and Kulls gathered as more prepared to leave and attack the group. Kuthian made Brazen fly faster as the ones below started to follow them a little too closely for comfort. Brazen landed and he ran over to where Emeril was sitting by her dragon, a few yards away was a chard lump of flesh. Emeril glanced up as he came over.

            “Can you help her? My spell isn’t healing her wound.” Emeril’s eyes pleaded with him to save Pyra.

            “I’ll see what I can do.” He assured her. “There are more coming though so be prepared to fight.”

            Emeril nodded and backed away towards the others to take up a fighting position. Jacques helped her onto Styx’s back and took off back into the sky, she tried her best to block out Pyra’s pain and concentrate on the fight but at the same time she wanted, well more like needed, to make sure her partner was okay. A black sword flashed in front of her face and a Kull’s head broke free from its body.

            “Pay attention!” Jacques ordered.

            “Sorry…”

            “Don’t say you’re sorry,” Another Kull died by his sword. “Just fight.”

            She listened to him and soon all the Kull that had been attacking had ether left or died. Styx landed and Emeril ran over towards Pyra to link their minds together, that’s when she felt a part of her fading… dying out.

            “Pyra?” Emeril ran saw Pyra closing her eyes.

            I… Emeril, don’t lose yourself to grief. Prya thought back before the connection broke permanently.

            “No…! Pyra!” Emeril started to cry and the others came over to comfort her.

            “I’m sorry for your loss but we really must leave.” Eragon told her.

            “But what about Pyra? We can’t just leave her here to those monsters!”

            Jacques helped her to her feet and walked towards Styx. “She will be remembered in your heart.”

            “I want her with me!”

            “Stop pouting and come on. I can’t imagine how you must feel but we can’t stay here and risk the Kull coming back.”

            “Wait.” Toron stepped forward. “She’s not a rider anymore. Why should she come with us?”

            Orelel punched him. “She’s our friend and she needs us!”

            Stop bickering. Bid’Doum’s voice growled in all of their minds. It is the young one’s choice whether to come or not.

            Emeril glanced at the large white dragon gratefully, but she didn’t smile, she felt like nothing would make her happy again. “I… I’ll come with you for now.”

            “See.” Jacques told them. “Emeril wants to come.”

            With that he helped her up onto Styx’s back and took off for Vroengarg. The others soon followed suit before they were left behind.