Pugna: An Eragon Fanfic

2

"Alydia, what the HELL are you doing FOLLOWING ME?!" She still looked dazed. "ALYDIA?!"

"What? Oh I wasn't following you, I was just heading to the woods. They're like, my favorite place so far in Portland!"

"Hmmmmm" I grumble, still furious.

"Hey, why do you have a DAGGER?! Were you going to STAB ME?!"

"Not necessarily..." I say, laughing. Soon we're both on the ground, holding our stomachs with laughter.

     We finish out the trek to the forest, talking about our lives. Soon, the subject of my parents pops up.

"So Sabrina, how're your parents? I mean, are they cool?"

I sigh. "My real parents are probably dead. My adoptive parents take care of me. My adoptive dad found me in a tree in these woods with my dagger in the sheets around me." Alydia gasps.

"Oh Sabrina! I never knew! I'm so sorry!"

"Well of course you didn't know!" I laugh, "and it's fine. I never knew my real parents anyway."

"Oh..." She says quietly.  After a few silent minutes of walking...

"Here's my tree!" I exclaim, waving my arms around like Vannah White on The Wheel of Fortune.

Alydia froze "Oh my gosh... Was this the one you were..."  I immediately know what she's thinking.

"No! At least, I don't think this is the tree my dad found me in..."

"Oh, okay. Shall we go up?" She says.

"Sure" I had never shown anyone my tree before, so I feel very awkward doing it now.  The tree has a bowl shaped formation in the branches, perfect for sitting. There's a blanket spread out over the bowl, with battery-powered lanterns in all the crevices of the branches.

"It's beautiful!" Screams Alydia after minutes full of silence.

"I'm glad you like it" 

We talk for ages, all homework forgotten. Then...

"Can I see your dagger?" Asks Alydia

"Umm sure" I hand it over.

She examines the minute lines and glyphs on the dagger that I could never figure out. Suddenly, she gives a little shriek and tumbles out of the tree! Thump. She hits the ground. I can hear fairly better than most people, so when she sits up, I hear

"This explains everything..."

I leap out of the tree and help her to her feet.

"Are you okay?! What do you mean- this explains everything? Do you know how to read those glyphs?" I stammer, mouth going a mile a minute.

"I'm fine," she says, ignoring my other questions. Then, still clutching my dagger, she walks off dazedly into the woods.

"Alydia! ALYDIA!" I follow her footsteps deeper into the woods, off the path. She continues on until we reach a clearing. Parting the ivy, I see Alydia enter a rundown stone shack covered in cracks. As I move closer however, I see that the cracks are some of the weird glyphs that are on my dagger.

"Aly-" I stop in my tracks as I see, through the doorway, Alydia talking to a mirror! She whips around and pushes me out of the shack.

"Bro WHAT IN HELL IS GOING ON?!" I yell at her.

"They're coming..." She mutters under her breath.

"Alydia I think you have brain damage or something! What is goin-"

     Footsteps interrupt my speech. Lots of them. And by the sound of it, they're wearing hard, steel-toed boots. Alydia grabs my hand and runs. Fast. I mean REALLY FAST.

"To the pool..." She whispers

I let go of her hand and begin to run myself, matching her pace. She gapes at me for a few seconds, but continues to run, saying,

"Worse than we thought..."

Soon, we come to another, smaller clearing. The only thing inside this one was a small, clear pool. We stopped at the edge. I couldn't see the bottom.

"Okay Aly, what's going on?" Wordlessly she handed me her book bag. It was surprisingly heavy.  The steel-toed footsteps sound as if they are only a few feet away.

"Do exactly as I tell you," says Alydia urgently but firmly, "jump into the pool. Don't try to swim back up. You'll die if you do. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Why are you talking like this?" I say.  "and why won't you jump with me?"

"I can't" she sighs. "It's my destiny and my punishment. Goodbye, Sabrina."

Just then, four heavily armored men jump into the clearing

"GO!!" Screams Alydia.

As I jump into the freezing water, I see the men split apart. Two go towards the pool and the other two attack Alydia. She shouts words in an unfamiliar language and the two going towards me crumple to the ground.

"Dive Sabrina!" Alydia screams. I dive, but just in time to see my friend begin to change. She shrinks, sprouts fur, and her ears grow to reveal a fox in Alydia's place. Then the water consumes me and drags me down, down, down until I lose all the air in my lungs and pass out.