The Primordial of the Hunt Meets Eragon

A Master Plan

Previously:

Still I laughed. "I would have thought you'd have done your research before offering me anything, old man." His finger snatched away. "Nothing you offer can be of any use to me."

"So be it." The king's barely restrained anger leaking through.

The torture I went through at his hand was nothing compared to what some of the monsters did to me in the pit of Tartarus the second time around. I put on a show for him, however, while I worked on my plan to free Blackjack and my mother.

And Murtagh.

"Aaarrrgggggh!"

"Will you swear your fealty to me in the ancient language?" His voice was deceptively calm when I knew he was growing in his anger and frustration. It's good to see I still had the ability to annoy people in power.

"Have your offers changed since the last time?" I panted.

"No."

"Then neither has my answer to that question. Stop wasting your time."

"Very well."

The sudden stop surprised me. No way was he giving up now. Was he going to do what I thought he would? If he wasn't running out of patience, I was.

I heard nothing for a while, making me anxious. Where did he go?

"Gal?" I called.

Nothing but for an echo.

"Tori?"

Still nothing.

"Rex?"

Nope.

"Trix?"

I continued calling out horrible nicknames I'd made up for him for the next hour...at least. It could have been longer but I wasn't keeping track.

Eventually, I ran out of names and I fell into a tired silence. My muscles were sore from the hot iron poking at me for hours on end and my throat was too from yelling so much. I was exhausted from exerting so much energy into making Galabatorix think he was causing me more pain than he was. It was a fine line I was walking. If he figured out I was faking, he would use more creative ways to torture me and that might render me useless in any future fights.

I needed him to try something else and my patience was wearing thin. If he doesn't do it soon, I was going to do it instead.

As I fell asleep that night—or day, I really lost track—I had a random thought; 'Finally.' But it wasn't mine.

- - -

I was walking through camp and judging from the weather, it was summer time. Everything was just as I remembered it, nothing's changed since my trip to...you know, I can't seem to remember.

I realized something. Camp was the same but for one difference.

"Where is everyone?" I muttered to myself. For some reason, I felt that yelling for anyone would be out of place. Never had camp been so empty during the summer. Not even during the winter or that first Titan war. I didn't even see the dryads at the edge of the forest.

Erie silence blanket the entire island. The only sound was my feet crunching the grass as I walk to the campfire. The trees were still, no wind made its way through the barrier. The fire was dead.

As I watched the fire pit, a feeling of wrongness came over me. A name but no face popped into my head.

"Hestia." I murmured. Everything about the scene before me was wrong but one thing stood out to me above all the others. "Why is the fire out?"