To put it lightly, the ridding on Eragon's back while he was sprinting at full speed was not pleasant. It was way bumpy, I was practically slipping off the entire time, and I had to suffer the humiliation of people watching a no-longer-a-child be given a piggy-back through 3/4 of the camp. Yep, great day so far. We finally reached a random tent that was completely ordinary, but seemed to be the one that Eragon was looking for (I have no idea how, they were all seriously identical!). He put me down on a log about 10 feet away from the tent, and then sat down himself; Arya stood their looking like she was looking for something. I gave Eragon my dude-seriously-?-! face. He just stared at me with a blank look and said, "What?" "Think about it for a second." "Think about what?" "Dude! You couldn't have just made me run! You had to flip me over your back like a rag doll! Why didn't you just allow me to run beside you!?" "You wouldn't have been able to keep up. And we had to get here immediately. Besides, I don't think that you would have come willingly with the way you were acting."
"First off, I would have come willingly because if I didn't then I either would have been left with Nasuada alone or, much more likely, she would have had the elves escort me to my tent again. Second, we're the first ones here! Immediately is no excuse for carrying me like a 3 year old! That was totally and completely embarrassing!" "I'm sorry, I never thought of that." "It's okay, but we would have made it here in pretty good time if we had just run at a normal human speed." "I suppose." "Hmnh, right." Saphira landed behind us and sat down straight away. She knew we would be here for a while.
..................................................................(Sometime Later)...............................................................................
We'd been sitting for hours! A few people had arrived since the time of the piggy-back-"conversation". Two of them were Albriech and Baldor, Elain's sons. Naturally they were there because it was their mother having the baby. Another was Gertrude, who was the physician there to help Elain. A couple other people showed up, the women who did went into the tent to help Gertrude and Elain while the men stayed outside. Then one last pair showed up; obviously a husband and wife. The wife was very much with child, and the husband looked like he had just gotten done washing dishes because the whole front of his shirt was wet. When Arya saw the wife, she went and talked to her, then motioned for me to come over. I went.
"Sadie," Arya said while the wife went to a fire's side where women where cleaning rags. The wife grabbed some rags and headed for the tent, stopping and waiting for Arya. "You are old enough to help us deliver the child, would you like to help?" "Arya, no offense or anything, but no." "Why not?" "That is a doctor's job. I am not a doctor!" What's a doctor?" "A person who was trained for things like this and went to school for an extremely long time to get a fancy degree. I'll pass thanks, I haven't been to school that long yet." "Alright. Then that means that you'll have to stay out here and wait with Eragon." "That's okay with me. It will probably be better for me to wait out here anyway." "Fine, be good." "Do you even have to say that!?!" Then Arya walked to the tent and went inside with the wife.
I went and sat down by Eragon, the husband had also sat down by him. "Aren't you going to help," asked Eragon. "No." "Why?" "Helping someone deliver a baby is not my thing. Trust me on this. Besides I'm definitely not doctor either." "A doctor?" "A person who was trained to handle things like this and went to school for a really long time to get a fancy degree." "I see." "You're totally confused aren't you?" "Aye."
The husband was looking at us like he was missing something, then he asked Eragon, "Eragon, who is this?" "Oh, right, you haven't met yet! Roran, this is Sadie." I stood up and walked in front of the husband and said, "So you're Roran! Nice to finally meet you." I held out my right hand so we could shake hands, but he looked at it funny. "Sorry, I forgot that you don't do that here." "Do what here?" "Shake hands." "Why do you 'shake hands'?" "It's like a non-official way of saying 'hello' to someone when you meet them for the first time, and then in some cases a 'congratulations' when you do something amazing." "Oh. Pleasure to meet you Sadie." After that I sat back down on my log and no said anything else after that. The first scream had been let off, high, shrill, heartbreaking, and terrifying all at the same time.
.........................................................................(A few hours later)..........................................................................
I was beginning to become very bored. I had nothing to do, so I pulled out a book to read to pass the time. Everyone was on edge, and I jumped every time Elain would scream. I wasn't the one in pain and I thought I was going to cry from the sound of thous screams. I was reading the fourth book in the Harry Potter Books, the Goblet of Fire. Noticing the weird cover and print, Roran asked, "What are you doing?" This made everyone else turn and stare at me, again. (Way to draw the attention Roran!)
My reply was "Reading." "What are you reading?" "A book." "What book?" "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." "What's it about?" "A boy who goes to a school for training wizards. He gets his name pulled out of a cup and ends up having to compete in some 'games.' Then he ends up meeting the bad guy and he runs for his life." "Wizard?" "They're like magicians, except they have to use wands in order to use magic." "Wands?" "I suppose you could call them 'sticks' with a magical core." "I see.(Long awkward pause) Why are the words written like that?" "The words?" "Aye, why are they written like that? I've never seen them written like that before." "They aren't written. They are printed." "Printed?" "Yeah, It's easier for people to read where I come from." "Oh." Then I went back to reading and everyone left me alone.
A few minutes later Arya came out of the tent looking extremely frustrated. Eragon walked up to her, and because I had to stay with them no matter what, so did I. "Couldn't you have helped her give birth by now?" "Yes, I could have sang the child out of her in the first half an hour." "Why didn't you?" "They wouldn't let me." "Couldn't you at least help with the pain?" "No more than I already have." "Why?" "They wouldn't let me?" "Is that so!?!" Eragon almost ran into that tent, and he looked like he wanted to strangle someone. But Arya stopped him and explained that if he interfere with tradition that he would bring grief and misery where there shouldn't be any. He finally calmed down, he and I went and sat down on the logs, and Arya went back in the tent.
"Eragon," I had finally gotten up the courage to ask him something, "could you teach me how to fight with a dagger or sword or something and how to fire an arrow sometime?" "Why?" "After my attack today, I figure that I should probably learn how to defend myself better." "But I can protect you." "But you won't always be there. What if I go home and he finds me? You won't be there to help. I got away because he underestimated me, I'm sure that won't happen again." Eragon sat and thought about it for a while. "Alright, I will." "Thank you." "You're welcome. I just hope I can teach you correctly."
................................................................(A few very awkward hours later)..........................................................
I was getting very tired of sitting now, it was also getting late. I was starting to get extremely tired, but I couldn't fall asleep now, I was afraid of what might happen. There were a few experiences where I fell asleep in a car and ended up with a mustache on my face. It was silent, except for Elain's screams of pain. Eragon turned to me after a while and said, "When I touched your hand, I saw something." "You saw that too!?!" "Yes, I did. What was I, we, doing?" "We were typing a report for school on the computer." "What is a computer?" "A machine that holds data or information that you can recover and you can also put more on. We were putting more on by typing on the keyboard. It sends a signal to the computer every time we pressed a button telling it what we were typing." "Do you do this often where you come from?" "Yes. Normally for school." "I see."
"Why does this keep happening?" I asked suddenly. "Why does what keep happening?" "Whenever someone touches my forearm, they see and I see a vision of some sort." "Really. Let's see if it works right now then." "Why!?!" "To see if it really works." "Okay. Just don't grip too hard. Last time it hurt." "Sorry."
We grabbed eachother's forearms and then it happened. I was on the computer reading an article on the scientific method for Science. Eragon suddenly let go of my arm, and it disappeared. "This is strange," he said. "This doesn't normally happen." "Well, yeah." "Remember how Arya couldn't access your mind?" "Yay, she was angry for the next week." "When you grip forearms with someone you show them memories." "How is that possible?" "I don't know, maybe we can look into it later." "Yes, please, later."
...............................(Many more awkward hours of almost complete silence later)......................................
I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bored. I thought we had been sitting there forever. I had gotten bored of reading and I had no idea what to do. My legs were cramped, and I could barely move them. But I was so bored that I started pacing! I started to pace (that's just sad)!! Then it finally happened. We all heard a scream from Elain, and then the cry of a new born baby. I was wonderful. Everyone outside perked up, and the tent sounded like they were celebrating the new year! Then as suddenly as it had begun, it ended. The women in the tent were weeping. This was bad.
Arya came out of the tent and said, "Eragon, come, we need you." Albriech did the stupidest thing ever and, in anger, tried to get in her way. She pulled his arm into a painful position behind his back and told him firmly, "If you want your baby sister survive them you will not interfer!" Then she went back to the tent and Eragon followed her and I followed Eragon. On the way she explainded that the baby had a cat lip, and that Eragon needed to heal her. I just followed. I stopped following just barely inside the tent, and waited. A man, I assumed to be Horst, Elain's husband, talked to Eragon. Then Gertrude handed Eragon the baby, told him something, he nodded, and then they and Arya walked out of the tent with me following them. (I couldn't hear their conversation in the tent because the women were weeping)
I walked in front of Eragon, Arya and Gertrude took up positions on either side of him, and Saphira brought up the rear. We walked to Eragon's tent, where he, the baby, and Gertrude went in while the rest of us waited outside. Arya refused to go in, but told him that she would help from out here; by mind contact and magic no less. I knew the reason, but of course, I read the book. I remembered this part of the story. It was going to be a long night of waiting, but it was going to have a happy ending. Or at least, that's what's supposed to happen. Then that's when I caught the glimpse of HIM.
A.N. I can't believe how many reads this book already has! You people are spectacular! Thanks you spectacular, faithful readers!:D
This chapter is dedicated to Hannah T., whose birthday was on Wednesday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! :D
READ, COMMENT, VOTE, FOLLOW!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!!
your favorite red dog ♫