Valiance

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen.

Sephy took a bowl from the breakfast banquet and poured chocolate goodness from a golden container and watched as each piece fell freely into her empty bowl. She sat it on the counter again and picked up a jug of milk. She drowned her coco pops in the full fat milk before leaving to sit.

The breakfast room was a wide square shape with a bright yellow wall colour and seperate circular tables scattered around artistically. Sephy sat at a table with a cream cloth over it with gold and green thread going throughout it's seams.

“Alec-” Sephy looked up from her bowl slowly to see Alec sitting down, a plate of rashers and sausages infront of him.

“Hey, how'd you sleep?” He asked Sephy. She shrugged and let her eyes wander away. Her thoughts were empty yet her mind still raced through the previous night's events.

“I guess I could have gotten more.” She put the last mouthfull into her mouth and chewed unentusiastically. She looked around in search of someone else.

“Don't you think it's weird how in the Arena, people are desperate to kill you, but once we are out, no one seems too keen on it?” Sephy muttered, distantly. Alec looked around at the few other people in the room. Sephy hadn't learned their names.

“Well, outside no one is really a threat. Besides, they wouldn't want to have to face Eragon.” Sephy's bowl was empty when she looked down at it. She dropped her silver spoon in to it and heard the clang of metal against porcelin.

The big clock face on the wall chimed six; they would be rounded up at ten o'clock when they would enter the arena for the third time. Sephy wasn't sure what the next Arena would be like, she understood that once Chale, Jensen and Gage woke, they would discuss it.

“Chale-” Sephy turned to see Chale standing over Alec, a moutful of food. He smiled at Sephy and sat between the two of them.

“Hey guys!” He cheered after swallowing. He was soon followed by Jensen and then minutes later, Gage finally graced them with his prescence. Sephy saw the hint of bags under his eyes and wondered if he had slept at all, seeing through his facade of rubbing his eyes and yawning.

“You look like you slept well.” Chale noted. Gage dragged out a blink. He hadn't even looked to Sephy yet.

“Like a panda in hunting season.” Gage murmured. He pulled a seat out from beside Jensen and sat down, leaning on his elbows. Sephy didn't let her gaze linger too long on him, instead she looked away and up at the clock, begging it to slow down so she wouldn't have to face the next Arena; the lack of sleep was really catching up on her, she wasn't one to work on little sleep. He made his way over to the breakfast table and Sephy stood to follow him.

“Gage, did you sleep at all?” She whispered to him.

“Depends on what you mean by sleeping.” Gage told her, emotionless. His voice was flat and he didn't look to her like normal.

“Are you alright?” He bobbed his head.

“I'm fine.” He took a plate and began to stock food up onto it.

“Gage-” She put her hand on his arm. Gage froze and glanced down at it before pulling it away from her fingers. Sephy could have sworn that goosebumbs rose on his forearm, but didn't go to touch him again to test it.

“I'm fine.” Gage walked away from her and went to sit at the table with the others.

“Do you two want to eat before we begin?” Sephy heard Alec suggest to Jensen when she returned after a moment.

“Let's just begin. If I get hungry I can grab something.” Jensen waved his hand. Alec took a deep breath and reached into his jean pocket. He pulled out a thickly folded up piece of paper and began to unfold. Sephy's eyes widened as he unfolded it several times over and kept going until it was nearly the size of the table top. On it, there was what looked like a bunch of jumbled up letters and numbers that Sephy recognised as Eragon's secretive language. She leaned in and examined it to find that some of the letters had lines going across them like Greek alphabet.