INHERITANCE: Memorandum Of Scales

A BROKEN WARRIOR

Eragon watched the man writhe under a blanket fashioned from the thick fur of Garrow's sheep. He looked a little better, and now that his cumbersome clothing was gone, he got a finer look at the stranger.

He was too fair skinned to be a southerlander. He had a thick beard and a head of unkempt dark brown hair. Lines creased his face,and he looked relatively old. Eragon guessed the man was either in his late fifites or early sixties. A scar trailed down his left eye and past the left side of his lips. Even more curious was that when they changed him he had an even more intense scar- this one on the palm of his left hand. It was too cut up and scarred over to make heads of what could have given such a wound, even after Garrow had cleaned the earth from it.

But the man was living, and that was good enough for Eragon. He yearned to hear the man talk, to see what marvelous tales of far-off lands he had no doubt lived through. He had a sword, and an exotic one at that. He was no doubt an adventurer.

"Watching the old fool still?" Garrow gruffly spoke behind Eragon as the boy heard the heavy creaks of his uncle coming down the stairs. Eragon smiled as he turned to see him, away from the man on the floor of their home, in front of a dying fire and across from the table on which they ate their meals.

"He's no fool. He's a knight! Look at his sword again, uncle, you know he didn't steal it. They don't make any like that in the entire world!" Eragon beamed. His uncle frowned slightly, but laughed humorously none the less.

"I'm not your uncle. I adopted you and your brother. And what do you know of the world?" Garrow asked. He was wearing his simple attire, a green tunic with loose fitting trousers. The sleeves were cut from his shirt, revealing strong and weathered arms, toned from years of toiling in the fields.

"I know you aren't. But I can't help but call you uncle, I have since I was little." Eragon explained, turning away from Garrow and stepping over to the stranger lying on the floor.

"Besides", Eragon started as he reached for the stranger's blade.

"I read a lot. You said reading is the way we discover what's around us". Eragon lifted the sword up to his face. Even in its sheath, it was a majestic, if not evil-looking weapon. How a man like this got such a blade...Eragon did not know.

"Reading is good, but it doesn't replace first hand experience. And put that down!" Garrow ordered, and Eragon could feel the shift of weight as Garrow reached for his back. Eragon laughed, turning and putting the sword in Garrow's waiting hand.

"I have to put this where you and Roran won't find it. Hopefully this stranger wake up tonight. I'm surprised he's even alive. It doesn't look like he's eaten a decent meal in ages." Eragon's gaze locked onto the man again.

Garrow was right.

Even with the blankets covering the drifter, Eragon could tell he was deathly thin. Yesterday, when he and Roran carried him home, they both were surprised how light he was. Eragon returned his attention to Garrow.

"Roran left for patrol already?" Eragon said, a mark of disappointment in his voice. He had hoped he could show Roran what he found the day before, prior to his brother leaving for military duty.

Garrow nodded. "Roran explained a little before he left. The Captain returned. It seems his superiors are flustered about something. He came back with more foreign troops and an assignment to search the entire valley."

This caught Eragon by surprise.

The entire valley? Carvahall was small, but the area it inhabited...it would take six armies to even begin to effectively search!

"They're going to need a lot more men." Eragon chuckled.

"Listen, Eragon. There is going to be an increased military presence here. I don't know what they are looking for- But make sure you do not get in their way. The soldiers here are used to you- the new ones aren't. Don't test them." Garrow warned, and Eragon nodded silently. He knew what Garrow meant-

These new soldiers wouldn't hesitate to kill him should he become a nuisance. Especially under more stress from their captain.

"I wonder what has got them so troubled. Foreign troops haven't come here since the Urgal incursions... Well, it's better not to wonder, isn't it? Off with you then. You know what you have to do. After that, the day is yours." Garrow said with a smile to Eragon. The boy nodded, and bolted out of the house, almost forgetting to put on shoes as he did.

"Eragon! One more thing." Garrow called after him. Eragon waited for his uncle, strapping on footwear as the older man approached the open door.

"Your forearms were bloody yesterday... Did you go hunting?"

"Yes", Eragon said. "I-It got away."

"But you were close enough to get bloodied?" Garrow questioned.

"Y-yeah, uhm, It started kicking and I just let it go. I wounded it though." Eragon said, hoping his uncle wouldn't catch him lying. Garrow nodded absentmindedly.

"Well be more careful next time. We need the meat, and I'd hate to use some of our own at the expense of fresh milk."
Eragon nodded and waved, smiling at his uncle when he returned the motion, and walked from the front of his house and into the dark shed behind it.

Fields glowed in the morning sun, moving gently as the breeze brushed by them. Garrow's numerous beasts of burden calmly ate their fill in a green pasture, contained in a wooden fence that he and Roran and Garrow worked on together years ago.

He knew his chores- Wash the she-goats in the stables and then clean them out- but he had all day to do that. Garrow would be busy in town, so he couldn't get on his back if Eragon delayed in his work. He hated to do it, but he had to. He had to check on it. Whatever it was, he had an idea that it was something that the Empire was searching for.

And searching desperately.

Eragon made his way to the forest, as the ground turned from soft dirt to hard rock and then mushy cold earth, finding himself under the thick canopy of the towering trees.