‘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 humanlike, 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.’
