Stephanie's Fan Fiction Draft/Plan/Links

I have decided to base my fanfiction on the book/movie Eragon.
There are four books in the series, written by Christopher Paolini, which are very good in my opinion, but the movie adaptation was was virtually a disaster and I find the main character, Eragon, to be somewhat weak and uninspiring in both, considering he is supposedly the only Dragon Rider left who can rise against the mad king, Galbatorix, and save the land and the people from the king's tyranny.

I would like to introduce other strong characters, and possibly other kinds of magic, to an alternate version of the story, which perhaps is told from another characters viewpoint so that Eragon is no longer the centre of everything and the only one with so much responsibility.
For a link to an example of a short fanfic introducing a strange yet powerful character, similar to this idea, click here (Link 1).

More links, Link 2, Link 3 (contrasts between movie and book), Link 4 (side story from POV of unknown character), and an example of how I definitely would not write the characters/storyline, Link 5.









Brief Plot outline/draft

Narrated from Arya's POV. Arya is a major character in the books, not so much the movie.
The new character's name is not given in the final draft because the fanfiction is based on the first meeting of the unknown woman and Arya.

Arya is unsure about the new character, and whether she can be trusted, the fanfic is set near the midway/end of the first book/movie after Eragon, Murtagh and the unknown woman have rescued Arya from prison and traveled across the country and desert to the Boer Mountains in search of the varden, who are the only ones who can cure Arya of the poison she was given in prison.

The fanfic starts after they have found the Varden with the help of the new character, who was also injured in the process of escaping the Urgals, Arya has recovered from Durza’s poison, Murtagh is still confined to a single room, Eragon is being ‘assessed’ by the twin magicians, and Arya has yet to test Eragon's skills in combat.

This is the 1st draft/plot storyline I came up with, the final fanfic differs in the fact that it focuses more on Arya's thoughts and suspicions before her confrontation with the woman, and ends just before their duel.

Original Plot Summary

Arya is wondering about the unknown woman, what is she? For she is obviously not human, nor is she an elf, though her appearance resembles a mixture of both, Arya recognises that the new character is not one of her kind, or any race that she has ever seen or heard of. She soon discovers the woman has strange and unique physical, mental and magical capabilities, beyond most elves and perhaps even riders. Now that Arya is somewhat indebted to this person she cannot ignore the young woman, she thanks her eventually after initially ignoring her presence on the pretext of testing Eragon’s level of competency in magic use. The other woman treats her just as warily and reveals nothing about herself, much to Arya’s annoyance. Arya has heard that this person was badly injured and thinks it strange that she seems to be mostly recovered so soon after the event, there are so many strange things about this person that Arya may never find out. She notices the almost predatory, animal-like way this woman moves and speaks, and knows that she is something different, some kind of human hybrid perhaps, or maybe a Were? She has a similar magic about her that reminds Arya of Solembum, the Werecat, but dismisses it quickly as werecats’ human forms are half the size of normal humans and this woman is obviously not one of their kind, and yet, the similarity…

Arya tests Eragon’s sword skills, he does well for an amateur, well enough not to die too easily, Brom taught him well. After beating Eragon, as of course any elf could beat a human, Arya finds herself in the position of testing the unknown woman’s sword techniques also. In front of a gathering crowd of human male spectators, she decides to see what this woman can do, much to her surprise, she defends all of Arya’s attacks, and makes her own assault, Arya actually having to struggle to parry the woman’s blows, the woman could match her inhuman strength and speed and hold her own. Now this was interesting, eventually Arya slips past the woman’s defences and brings her sword to her neck, only to find her opponent’s sword at her own chest. Guess it’s a tie, Arya is a bit put out that the unknown woman wasn’t defeated by her, but eventually she becomes more interested in the woman’s secrets. There were answers, she just needed to find them, and while she was at it she needed to keep watch over the new Dragon Rider, Eragon, who seemed to trust this other woman with his life, his dragon, Saphira seemed to trust the woman also. Well if she swayed a dragon so easily she must be something special, dragons have a good sense for these things after all.
The Urgals are trying to break into the underground Dwarf city that the Varden are currently based in, Arya, Eragon, Saphira and the mystery woman must prepare for battle, now Arya would really see what she could do.

Draft - The Unknown Companion

‘What is she?’ Arya was uneasy. She had only recently recovered from her poisoning and torture at the hands of the mad king, to awaken and find herself in Farthen Dur, the underground dwarf city where the Varden were currently hiding out. The new Dragon Rider, Eragon, had rescued her and with the help of his friends, transported her across the country, while actively avoiding the empire, to the only people who possessed the antidote that could save her life. She was grateful, but her mission was of the utmost importance. Find the new Dragon Rider, and take him to Ellesmera, the Elf city where she was born, so that he may learn the ways of the Riders, and grow stronger, strong enough to oppose the king. But the appearance of the young Rider’s female companion was an unexpected shock.

She had seen the woman briefly again while she was in the infirmary, recovering from the effects of the poison. The woman herself seemed to have what looked like arrows protruding from her shoulder and chest. She was also being treated, Arya briefly saw her face before her tired body gave in to sleep, there was one thing she was certain of before she slipped into much needed rest, the woman wasn’t human. That much was clear to Arya, being an Elf, she could sense a foreign strong magical energy emanating from this being. But the woman’s physical attributes alone were enough to convince anyone other than an Elf that she was one of their kind, or perhaps a hybrid between elf and human. She wasn’t fooling Arya, though, this woman was not of her blood. But then that would mean that she was something unknown even to elvenkind, who were considered by many to be the most knowledgeable and powerful of all the races. 

A couple of days later Arya had awoken to find no one else in the infirmary, she decided she was healed enough to leave, after all she’d been gone for a while and needed to get back up to speed. As she was leaving she remembered the strange woman, no, creature that she had seen wounded in the infirmary, unable to find an explanation for this person, Arya had pushed her suspicions to the back of her mind, this mystery could wait, at this time she needed to attend to the new Rider, and assess his skills. She needed to know what level he was at in the use of magic and his skill with a blade, she didn’t think he’d be anywhere strong enough to challenge an elf like her, but he needed to be able to beat any other kind of man or creature that might want to kill him. She needed to ensure his survival. She strided gracefully and with purpose, passing the many humans that stared at her in awe, and the dwarves that frowned at her presence in their city, her eyes focused on her destination, paying them no heed. The training area was located right in the centre of the mountain that shielded the Dwarf city from the outside world, the unmistakeable sound of sparring growing louder as she approached. She had found him being ‘assessed’ by those repulsive human magicians, known as “The Twins” in magic competency. Disgusting worthless creatures they were, she knew very well they were only trying to learn what words they could of the Ancient Language, the language of magic, from Eragon under the guise of testing his skills. Arya scared them away with a display of her own magical ability and informs Eragon that she has come to test his swordsmanship skills. She notices the unknown woman, Eragon’s travelling companion, casually observing in the background, Arya beckons for Eragon to follow, striding right past the woman as if she didn’t exist, leading him to the centre of the sparring field. The men made way for them, stopping in the middle of their training to observe the match that was about to take place. Eragon and Arya certainly made a show for them, although she was going easy on him and defended his blows for the most part, he demonstrated some good technique, for a young human boy. Eventually she could tell he was starting to tire and ended the match, with him disarmed and her sword at his chest.

“Not bad Eragon, Brom taught you well, but you need further training.” Arya informed him.

“Eragon!” It was his strange friend, smiling as she approached, in a cat-like saunter, and punching him lightly on the shoulder, “That was a lot better than when you spar with me, Eragon, maybe with a bit more practise you might actually be able to beat me one day.” She smirked and winked at him. Her attitude and the way she spoke was very human like, but the way she moved was predatory, Arya didn’t trust her.

“Are you saying that you have more skill with a blade than Eragon?” Arya inquired, taking notice of this person for the first time.

The woman narrowed her violet eyes at the elf. “Well that’s a rather rude way of putting it but until he gets some more experience, he’s not that hard for anyone other than a human to beat.”

Although Arya agreed with her she wasn’t going to let this woman get away with her insolence, and perhaps she could use this battleground to her advantage. “So you admit that you’re not human? Perhaps you would like to demonstrate your skills against me?” Arya dared her, with her eyebrow raised questioningly.

“Not that it is any of your concern what I am, I will gladly take the opportunity to beat an elf at her own game.” She glanced at Eragon who had a rather worried look on his face at this turn of events, smirked at him and Arya and turned to position herself a few paces away, ready.

‘Now I’ll see what this woman can do. Let the battle begin.’