Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Sixty-Two: Blinding

"That was one time!" I heard Eragon exclaim as Murtagh started to laugh. "One. Time!"

"We are competent enough to fix oatmeal," Murtagh told me before holding out a spoon and bowl. Giving Murtagh a wary look, I took the bowl.

"I swear if this tastes burnt—"

"It won't," Murtagh told me with a smile before he stood up and walked back over to Thorn. They both had started to strap the Eldunarí back on the dragons. Looking back down at the bowl, I noticed that a handful of dried berries had been added to the top. My eyes glanced up at Murtagh's back as he worked.

I will definitely take him.

Mixing the oats and dried berries with the spoon, I quickly ate, making sure to eat every scrap of oatmeal. Once finished, I went to the small stream and washed out the bowl and spoon before returning to camp to pack them away.

While I packed up the rest of our camping gear, Murtagh and Eragon finished strapping the Eldunarí to the dragons and moved on to the saddles. The two seemed to have mellowed out in their brotherly anger towards each other.

"Did something happen between you two last night that I need to know about?" I asked, looking between the two with a skeptic gaze. Eragon and Murtagh looked at each other.

"We just did a little catching up," Eragon replied. I narrowed my eyes shrewdly at the two before snorting and shaking my head. Whatever those two discussed, I didn't really care as long as the two weren't fighting each other.

Alethea lumbered over to me as I lifted the bag in which the remaining camping supplies were stuffed. Bending down low so I could reach her, I climbed up Alethea's side via her leg and tied the bag on the saddle.

My eyes glanced around the camp one last time. I didn't see anything of ours that we left behind. Eragon and Murtagh mounted their Dragon's, and we were soon off soaring over the ocean. The waters we calm below us, but at any given moment, the sea could turn violent with the wind.

We flew on calm winds for most of the morning. It was a pleasant day to be out flying, and the smell of the sea was refreshing from that of a city. I spent most of the morning chatting with Umaroth, he had plenty of stories to share about the Riders of old.

I was laughing at something he had said when the first wind draft hit us. My arms instantly went to wrap around Alethea's enchanted necklace as she adjusted her wings to combat the strong winds.

Up ahead, both Saphira and Thorn seemed to be affected by the sudden wind change. A clap of thunder off to my right indicated the situation. We had flown into a storm.

"Eragon wants to push to Vroenguard as fast as possible before the storm gets worse!" Alethea said in my mind as I pressed myself as flat as I could against her back.

"Tell him I agree with that!" I replied as we dropped thirty feet. I bit into my leather vambrace as my stomach rolled inside my belly. Gods, this was going to be hard. Squeezing my eyes shut, I listened to the crashing sound of thunder along with the heavy beats of dragon wings.

Alethea nosedived a few hundred feet before pulling up and regaining the altitude we had lost. Alethea knew best how to fly in this wind. All I could do was hang on and wait for it to be over.

My fingers clutched the encrusted necklace as Alethea banked to the left, presumably to avoid another downdraft. Looking to my right, I saw Thorn banking as well, from the way he was beating his wings, he had no issue with fatigue, but I knew that the winds had caught him off guard.