A New Era

Ch. 1

*I do not own anything related to the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini, this is a spin off that I based on his work and takes place after the book Inheritance*

"Rise and shine!" Aunt Freya's melodic voice rang in Andria's ears, making her groan.

"Okay I'm up," she said groggily as she sat up. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and glanced out the window where she could see the sun was just barely peaking over the horizon in the distance. With a sigh she threw off the warm and cozy blankets and got out of bed.

Andria hissed a little at the chilliness of the floor but hurried over to the dresser and got out the outfit that she had picked to wear for the Choosing.

It's been ten years since Dragon Rider Eragon and his dragon Saphira defeated Galbatorix and left Alagaesia. Since then, he has found place to train new Dragon Riders once an egg hatches and the dragon chooses their Rider. No one knows where this place is, only Queen Nausada and the Elf Queen, Queen Arya who is also a Dragon Rider, knows it's location.

Once a year they send a small group of horse riders to visit every city and town with two dragon eggs to see if they'll hatch for anyone. Throughout the past ten years there have been a total of ten chosen by an egg. Six of them were elves, three of them human, and one of them a dwarf. An Urgal Rider has yet to be found, but it is only a matter of time before one is chosen by an egg.

They had announced it a week ago that it was about time for the horse riders to visit Narda, and that they would arrive in a week's time. Yesterday they received word from them that they would arrive around midday today. Everyone began to prepare for the ceremony; the butchers were working overtime to get enough meat ready for the feast that would take place at sundown tonight. Aunt Freya and Uncle Elijah went into overdrive. Aunt Freya cleaned the house spotless and Uncle Elijah went to work finishing up the daggers he'd been working on in our makeshift forge.

Once dressed, Andria looked herself over in the mirror that leaned on top of the dresser. You could hardly tell that she was half elf. The only tell tale signs were that her ears were very slightly pointed, and her eyes were just as slightly slanted up at the corners. But those were the only physical signs that people might notice, no one needed to know that her eyesight was the same as an elf's, as was her hearing and reflexes.

Her aunt and uncle used to tell her the story of her parents when she was younger, how her mother, Sabine, met her father in the Spine when she was out looking for herbs. No one knows her who her father was, just that her mother called him Hagen.

"You look very nice," Uncle Elijah's voice snapped Andria out of her thoughts.

"Thank you, Aunt Freya said it was mother's when she was my age," she told him as she fingered the fabric of the light purple dress.

"She'd be proud of you," he told her with a small smile. She could see the tears starting to come to his eyes like they always did when they talked about her.

She gave him a smile and looked down at herself. The dress was fairly plain and luckily she didn't need to wear a corset underneath it since she was rather slim except in the chest, probably another perk of being part elf. Little did he know, she was wearing a pair of leggings underneath and had already packed a tunic to put on once the ceremony was done.

"Are we ready?" Aunt Freya called from down the hall.

"Yes, we're coming dear," Uncle Elijah answered and gave Andria a wink before he headed towards the front door.

Andria smoothed out the front of her dress one last time before grabbing her bag and following them out to their small horse-drawn cart that they used for town trips.