Falling Through Portals

The Footsteps

Chapter 7

It was getting under her scales that she couldn't think privately with Eragon. How could this two legged, round eared, possibly be able to invade on their most protected thoughts?

He smelled nothing of humans. He didn't have the pointed ears of an elf. And there was no comparing him to a small dwarf. He had the looks of a human with a scent that was more magically potent then an elf. It was an absurdity. Besides her majestic self, elves were by far the most magical creatures to walk the ground. This Percy, was something different indeed and she wanted to find out what.

Saphira didn't need the flaming sword to see down the hallway. Her eyes were much better than the round ear, two legs. Eragon began a long conversation about where they came from but this didn't interest her. She instead began to wonder if she might be able to go into Percy's thoughts.

Mind warfare was just as fatal as bodily warfare. With the right touch, a magic user could push a person off the edge of sanity by breaking down someone's walls. Saphira didn't intend to harm the boy, but she wanted to see what he was thinking. Warily she stretched out her mind so that it would brush against his consciousness. Instead a normal wall of a random material, like most humans, he had a barrier but there was door. It was such a strange thing to see she hesitated continuing.

Eragon had realized what she was doing. Their minds were still liked by emotion and when she hesitated he gave her a questioning thought. She didn't bother answering him.

Without waiting any longer she reached and opened the door. But she was in for another surprise. It was only a conversation. Through the door she could just see in words what he was saying and a few moments before. It was puzzling. Whenever she entered another's mind she could see their thoughts and dreams and hopes. She took a moment and peered deeper. There was a sort of translucent cloud behind the doorway, but other than that, all she could see was a psychic link of words. Saphira wrenched back disgusted. This was enough to give Eragon cause to ask.

"What is wrong?" He asked in their thoughts out of habit.

"His mind is like your words only in the mind. All he has is empty words in his head!" Saphira thought to him.

Percy cocked his head.

"Did- wait did you just read my mind?" Percy asked, "Is that not what it is supposed to be like?"

Saphira ignored him, "-all that's there is just communication, how is it possible to shroud the rest of his mind with words?" She asked Eragon.

"I don't know," Percy answered for Eragon.

In an almost desperate effort, she launched an all-out attack on his mind. This ripped open the door and ripped through the words with her mind. The whitish cloud seemed to disperse leaving her to dig through empty blackness.

Percy gasped and dropped to the floor unconscious.

"Saphira!" Eragon yelled at her before kneeling next to the boy, "Why did you do that?!"

Saphira huffed. He would be fine, Eragon knew that, why did he make such a fuss?

"I had to see what he was hiding,"

"And what did you find?"

"Nothing yet," Saphira preparing to dive back in. But Eragon put a hand on her paw.

"Leave him alone, he is obviously different, alright? Anything further will only hurt him," Eragon said shaking his head.

Then he reached down and scooped Percy up easily and carried him to Saphira's back. She still wore her thin saddle and Eragon laid him on top of it.