The Return of the Guardian

Chapter 18

As if to keep her occupied, the room was full of shelves with scrolls and at the end of her bed was a basket of goodies from needle and thread to puzzles. She almost thought this was once a little girl's room by the pink tones to the room-pink tapestries and flowers decorated the walls and tops of dressers-and that left her feeling quite uncomfortable too. She was no child, yet perhaps it was a metaphor for her new-ness to Alageasia.

She sighed and pushed the scroll off the bed, too lazy to put it away. She moved from laying on her stomach facing the end of the bed to lying on her back with her head on her pillows at the front. There, she simply started at the stone ceiling and daydreamed. She found herself doing that the most, despite the comforts the man with maroon hair gave her.

At the thought of him, she wondered when he would see her again. She had been in the room for two days and no word from him at all. Lena was glad for his lack of approach, but her nerves were shot for she knew he would come eventually, and the longer he was gone, the more anxious she became for she knew naught what he may be up to. She prayed he had not paid Eragon a visit, yet she had a feeling in her heart that he did. She was no fool, simply a dreamer.

Eventually she dozed off having nothing to do once more. This time she dreamt about Tany and her mother, wondering how worried sick they must be. She could see police at their houses asking them questions and doing a full search and rescue in the woods where she disappeared. She could remember the wolves howling over and over. The howling continued to grow louder and soon that's all she could hear, but then the howling became screams and everything went black and she saw fangs before her, bloodied.

Lena awoke with tears streaming down her face. She was shaking uncontrollably as she tried to gain consciousness to know that it was only a nightmare. When she could see the pink decorated room stuffed with scrolls, she began to breath easier. She knew she was not safe from the man with maroon hair, but she'd rather take him than the wolves at this rate. At least with him she was able to bluff her way into not being tortured, though the pleasant room left her baffled.

If she were a prisoner, she would rather be treated as such, not mocked and treated like a child. She knew she was special, and so was Eragon, yet she had the feeling he was not in nice accomodations. In fact, he probably would have been braver with the man than she was. She hoped once more he did not visit him. She shuddered at the thought. Still better than a wolf, she tried to convince herself once more to calm herself down.

That's when Lena heard a lot of commotion coming from below her, and even outside. Shouts of "Get them" along with stomping feet rang through the halls and out the window she now ran towards. There she noticed archers taking aim at something in the sky. She followed their path until her eyes landed on a large blue dragon.

"Saphira!" Lena was excited more than shocked to see the dragon. As she looked at her, she noticed only one rider upon her back and he was all in black. Murtagh and Saphira must be rescuing Eragon! Yet as she looked closer, she saw another figure laying across Saphira's back on their stomach. The figure was in black as well and had long black hair from what Lena could tell. The sight confused her and left her to wonder once more what was going on.

She watched as Saphira veered away from the archers on the building and fly towards the woods. What's going on?! Lena could not believe her eyes as Saphira got farther away from the stone building with only Murtagh upon her back.

"Get away from the window!" The familiar voice came from behind and was very loud and sharp, startling Lena with a yelp.

She whirled around to face the man with maroon hair and those pale piercing eyes. He was the angriest she had ever seen him and that made her heart quicken. Before she could even ask what was going on, guards marched around the man and grabbed her by the arms and began to lead her out of the pink room.