Popularity War: Book 2

Brutally Reunited

Popularity War Chapter 5

Once more Eva found herself nodding off to the sounds of the carriage making its way down the muddy path. They were off the main road taking a short-cut back to Teirm; both Eva and her uncle were anxious to be back home. She was about to drift off to sleep when she heard the horses whiney and the carriage come to a forceful halt.

Eva fell forward and hit her head. “Ouch.” She growled. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I’ll check outside with Arnold.” He was the one driving their carriage. “Just stay here.”

Eva nodded as her uncle exited . Outside she heard Arnold yelling at someone to move out of the way, her uncle’s voice following suit, asking what they wanted. When she heard a gruff voice answer with, “You know very well what I want,” she knew they were in trouble. Bandits were known to prowl the woods, but she hoped they would be able to avoid them and get home safely. Besides, the carriage they were in was not ornate, unlike most of the aristocrats she knew, so she was once more baffled why these men thought they were good to steal from.

Richard stared at the leader of a group of four. He was a large muscled middle aged man with a black beard, a bald head, and dark brown eyes. His men had similar looks, all armed and on horses. “Well you might as well try your luck elsewhere as we do not have anything of much value.”

The dark eyed man snickered disbelievingly. “I know that’s a lie; men like you always have something of value. Who’s in that carriage with you? A maiden?”

“No one travels with me,” Richard snapped.

“Bah, you can’t fool me.” As he said that he motioned at his men. After, they scattered around carriage, trapping their opposition. “We’ll just take her by force too.” He winked. Richard took out his dagger. “Oh, trying to be tough?” He laughed with his men.

Inside, Eva was listening to every word, unsure what to do. Either option she faced was not good. Suddenly she heard her uncle scream, “No!” followed by a howl from Arnold. After, she heard a thud. Carefully she peered out and saw their driver on the ground, blood pooling around him. An even more intense fear gripped her; these bandits were also murderers. Would they kill her and her uncle too? Before she could even think much more she heard her uncle yell once more, but this time it was addressed to her.

She immediately opened the door and jumped down. She saw the bandits surrounding her uncle but she had no choice but to follow through with his order—run! Quickly she decided on a route to go and took off, never looking back. Behind her she heard a curse and a set of hooves chasing after her. In her mind she was crying for her uncle who was surely a dead man, and she knew that she would be too if she didn’t find a way to escape from a man on horseback. She zigzagged through the trees to avoid the man’s grip yet she had to do better before her legs gave out or she tripped.

Only looking forward she scanned around for anything that would slow down a horse, a ravine, a cave, anything. Yet all she saw was semi-flat land covered in tall trees. She swore she was doomed until she spotted an area of thick brush. She sped towards it hoping for the best.

~*~

Eragon was certain he heard some distant commotion, but Brom insisted that he was simply hearing things. They have been riding hard for days with little sleep in-between as they raced towards Teirm. Above them, Saphira was flying.

“I don’t know Brom. I know what I heard.” In his mind he contacted his dragon, asking her to scout ahead just in case. The last thing they needed was to encounter bandits. Ra’zac and Urgals were bad enough. He pressed forward praying Brom was right.