It was day two of moving the camp to Dras Leona, and we were waiting.... again. (I swear, the organization of that particular war camp was at an all time zero. And the saddest part was, they moved the camp every 4 weeks or so!!!) Eragon was practicing his sword play with Arya again, and I got the tremendous pleasure of sitting on a rock, in the hot noon sun with no shade, and watch them go back and forth. Yeah, Eragon was still losing like nothing else, but at least he was being more cautious. At this point in time, the bordness had finally gotten to me. I'm normally a rather patient person, but my patience had worn thin. I needed to do something!!! I had to have something to focus on and do, or else I was going to loose it!!!
So, when Eragon was taken to the ground and beaten by Arya for the trillionth time, I walked into their sparring circle (which is extremely dangerous because they have long arms and long, sharp swords) and stood there with my arms crossed. I decided not to tell them why I stood like this, just to bug them. They stopped what they were about to do, and stared at me. They had made me a little promise, you see, and they had yet to fulfill it. I expected them to remember it on their own, but obviously they weren't going to. So I had to tell them, which bothers me because it drives me insane when people don't remember their promises and obligations.
So I just stood there. After about 3 minutes, they gave into the stare down and Eragon said, "What!?!" "You haven't kept your promise yet!" "What promise?" "Ha!!! Typical!! you go off sparring and leave me over there to do nothing!!! Do you even remember the promise you made!!" Okay, I know what you're thinking, wow she is being a bit dramatic. But to tell you the truth, I was just so bored that I wanted to mess with them. So I was acting dramatic and angry to get their attention. It's also more likely that, if you suddenly this way out of nowhere, they will do what you ask. XD
"What did we promise you, Sadie?" asked Arya as if talking to a 6 year old child. I gave her my "really" face and replied, "Please do not talk to me like that!! It makes it sound like I'm stupid or something!!" "Sorry." "It's fine. You promised you'd help me learn how to defend myself so that Evil-Mr.-Ian couldn't get the drop on me again!"
All Arya and Eragon did was look at each other, and then at me. I already knew they were talking about me through a mental conversation, but I had had enough of those. They were taking an already bored child and was making her angry. NOT COOL!!! I am not nice person when I'm angry!!! "Stop with the mental conversations!!!! I know you're doing them!!! Just because you can do it and I can't doesn't mean you can do it when you don't want me to hear your conversation!!!! I will find out eventually!!!! One way or another!!! If you have something to say to or about me, you can say it out loud so I can hear it too!!!!!" I snapped at them.
They were shocked that I had suddenly snapped at them like that. Probably because I'm a pretty laid back person, unless I'm annoyed, angry, or in pain. They had 2 of the 3 already, all I needed at this point was to be in pain.... then it would be a real party!! They stared at me with wide eyes, Arya started, "We're sorry. We didn't know................" "We'll speak out loud from now on." Eragon cut in, "You said you wanted help with defense? Then let's start."
That's when my sudden burst of anger melted into nothingness. Instead I was looked up surprised and asked, "Right now?" "Yes, let us begin," Arya took over. Eragon handed Brisingr to me (his royal blue sword made of bright steel that he made like a few months ago while visiting Ellesmera), it was like holding a 10 pound weight in my hand. It wasn't terrible, so I was like, "Cool." "Alright," Arya said, "I will attack, you defend." "So, I'm guessing no training first?" "This is training."
Arya did her version of slow motion, which is like a normal person's move, and lunged forward. I swung the sword, quickly lost control of the speed of the sword, and the tip of it landed on the ground with my hands on the hilt 6 inches above the ground. It wasn't heavy to hold, but swinging it to block!! That was an entirely different story!!! It was like trying to swing an iron I-beam!!!! After standing up straight again, and only being able to lift the handle above the ground, Arya came down in a slicing motion. I swung the sword and blocked it, but it ended up looking like a see-saw because the tip of the sword ended up on the ground again; just on the other side of me this time.
That's when Arya stopped. "You can't even lift that swords!!" she said, stating the obvious. "Well it's heavy!!! It was made for a dude who was part elf!!" was my come back. Eragon stepped into the circle again and took his sword back. "Made we should start with something simpler." he said. Arya immediately agreed. "Until we find you a more suitable weapon to fight with," Eragon the problem solver said, "let's go on to something else. Do you know how to shoot?"
I looked him in the eye and told him, "Depends what I'll be shooting with." "A bow and arrow, of course. What else is there to shoot with?" I was about to tell him about guns, then I thought about a bunch of renaissance people running around with guns, not knowing how to work them, and fire and massacre spreading because of a simple weapon. Yeah, I decided to pass on that one. "Oh, nothing."
Eragon walked out into an empty field in front of us, away from the rest of the army, placed a random stick that he found on the ground vertically in the ground (like a stake), and then walked back. Arya handed me her bow!! It was beautifully carved. Very simple, but had some spectacular detail just from the wood grains. Eragon reached us, and Saphira at this point had decided to come closer and watch. By "closer," I mean she was literally breathing down my neck!!! And that's a lot of air coming from those nostrils!!! "Alright," Arya said, "have you ever fired a bow before?" "Yeah. Well, only a few times, but I have done it before." "Perfect. We'll see how you aim and fix your technique from there." I grabbed an arrow and notched it. Then I tried to pull back the string. Bad mistake.
It was the hardest thing I ever tried do, EVER, in my life!!!!! This bow must have been at least a 500 pound bow!!!! Sure, the wood was light and easy to carry, but that string............ It was like trying to pull out a weed whose roots went 100 feet into the ground. It would not budge no matter how hard I pulled! I might as well have been trying to knock Saphira over with my bare hands. So, I stood there trying to pull back a bow string that wouldn't move, and Arya and Eragon stared at me. After about five minutes, Arya said, "You can started now."
I kept my concentration on the bow, but replied, "I have been trying to start for the past five minutes!!" "Then why haven't you?" "I can't move this thing!!!!" I put the arrow back into the quiver, and tried pulling the string with no arrow. That didn't work either. I tried for several minutes, and still nothing. "I will pull this thing back eventually!!!" I finally got so annoyed that I put the bow on the ground to that the half with the string was in the air, stepped on the wood, and pulled up on the string with both hands. It actually moved!!! But it only moved about 2 inches. "I moved it!!!!!" That was my triumph moment that embarrassed me in-front of the elves, Arya, Eragon, and Saphira. As soon as I had said, "I moved it," my fingers gave way and the bow string came down and whip-lashed my foot.
I immediately started jumping up and down on foot saying, "Ow, ow, ow!!!" Arya bent down, picked up her bow, and put it away. "We need to get you a lighter bow," Eragon the Captain of the Obvious said. Still hopping on one foot, my reply was,"REALLY!!! What could have possibly told you that!?!" "I forgot that you don't have the same strength as us. I've gotten so used to it that I just forgot." That's when the horn went off.
The Varden started surging forward. Eragon and I ran to Saphira. He lifted me into the saddle, then got in himself and strapped himself in. I had ridden Saphira 2 or 3 times over that past 24 hours at this point, so I felt right at home. We took off and it was pretty much smooth sailing, up to a point. It was kind of a cloudy day, looked like it was going to rain. The sun was blocked and there was a strong wind which made it chilly, but it was nothing Saphira couldn't handle. We were holding another conversation about T.V. because Eragon was still not satisfied with everything I told him yesterday, when Saphira said, Something is not right.
Eragon suddenly got tense when she said that, and we flew in silence the rest of the time. We had been flying against the wind for about an hour when it happened. Eragon was looking at the ground to see how the Varden was doing, Saphira was concentrating on flying against the wind, and I was looking at the clouds because I'd never been this high up before. That's when I spotted it. A small black dot that was really high in the sky. It looked like it had been above the clouds a few moments ago and was diving. I just thought it was a bird. It quickly came closer, still diving. I saw more details: it was completely black, it had what looked like two legs and two wings. It got closer still and when it was about 10 feet away, I saw it for what it really was.
It was a human in a black mask with glass over the eyes to keep out the wind. He was dressed completely in black, his arms and legs were eagle spread, and connecting them was a thin sheet of material that made him look like a flying squirrel. He was heading straight for us, from above!! And in his hand, was a knife. A pocket knife, the same one that a certain someone had tried to kill me with twice!!!
"Eragon!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs far too late. All Eragon had time to see when he turned around was Ian in a black mask and gliding suit slam into me, rip me from the saddle, and send me overboard. Ian had a firm grasp on me, and had me facing him with my back toward the ground. Eragon and Saphira were getting farther and farther away, and I could see her going into a dive after us. Ian grabbed me by my hair, and forced my head back. He then proceeded to take the open knife in his hand and tried to stab me in the neck or anywhere he could. My hands shot out and grabbed the knife before it hit the skin on my neck. It was a battle back and forth, us trying to gain control over the knife, and the ground was quickly approaching. By now the elves had taken notice and were trying to help, but were failing. Eragon and Saphira were going as fast as they possibly could, but were never going to reach us in time before we hit the ground.
I honestly didn't want to die, so I started to kick and struggle even though I knew that would make us fall faster. I kicked my legs us as hard as I could, which made us flip in the air to switch positions. Now I was on top, and Ian was underneath me. He tried to stab again, but now I had the advantage, and I twisted the knife. It bend his arm at an angle it shouldn't bend. Even through the loud sound of the air rushing past my ears, I heard him scream in pain. He let go with the knife; and seeing that he was going to die on impact with me in a minute or less decided to leave. He brought his legs and arms together so that he looked like a harpoon, and flew beneath me to behind me. Then he spread his arms and legs again, slowed down, flew upwards in a wind updraft, and disappeared. But I was still falling to my doom.
The plan was brilliant. He waited til just the right moment to hit me out of Saphira's saddle so that they couldn't save me no matter what. He knew the elves wouldn't be much help. And if he couldn't kill me with the knife, the impact of hitting the ground would kill me!!! I hate to admit it... but he was actually smart in devising this plan. But he forgot one crucial flaw.... my backpack. At this point in time I never really took it off except to sleep. I quickly took it off my pack, unzipped it, and looked inside. The first thing I saw was this old rainbow blanket that I would normally have stored on a shelf I had above my clothes in my closet.
I had seen it done in movies before. Of course, those were mainly cartoons and the most part of those cartoons were Loony Tunes. So I really had a very small chance of survival at this point. But I didn't have time to pull something else out of my backpack. I would be dead by the time I put this back and dug for something else. So I decided to use what I had. I put the pack on my back again, still unzipped. The ground was really close now, it was do or die now. I unfolded it as quickly as I could while falling through the air. Grabbed the four corners, two per hand, held my hands above my head, and just fell. Then a sudden updraft came below me, and magic happened. The blanket filled with air, I held on as tight as I could, and I suddenly had a parachute!!! I floated down slowly with the wind pushing me sideways. I slowly got closer and closer to the ground, but luckily for me the wind blew me behind the Varden's army so I had plenty of room to land. My feet were able to touch the ground, so before the wind could blow me away again, I let the two corners in my right hand go and fell to the ground.
I landed heavily on my legs, but my knees took most of the shock from the landing. I folded the blanket, stuffed it into my backpack, zipped it up, then put it back on my back, and sat down. This is when the shock hit me. I had almost died. Tears came to my eyes and I silently cried. Eragon and Saphira and Arya and the elves all arrived at the same time. They rushed over to me and began to tell me and ask me things all at once. When they saw the tears rolling down my cheeks and the shock on my face, they stopped. Eragon stepped forward, knelt next to me and said, "I am so sorry!!! I................ " I didn't let him finish. He was the closest person to me, and I desperately needed a hug after the experience I had just had.
A.N. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!! It took some thought, and a long time to type, but I hope there was enough excitement and humor for you!!! Thanks for reading!!!! You guys are awesome!!! We're past 1000 reads now!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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