CHAPTER 2: Alagaesia
I opened my eyes, only to be greeted by the bright sun. I had to blink a couple of times to see the things around me. I was in the woods.
I panicked, thinking that last night it was a full moon, but then I remembered it wasn't. Also, this woods seemed different than the one near our house. There were more tall trees and the leaves of the trees were more intense. The air smelt fresher than where I lived. Where am I, I thought. I looked around the wood as I used my sensitive hearing. At first, there was no sound except my heart beat, then I heard a couple of footsteps from a distance. So, me being me I started to walk toward the sound.
After walking about 5 minutes, I came to a clearing. Two people stood there at the center of the clearing, dressed in armors with swords and shields. What the hell? Who dresses in armor and uses swords and shields anymore? I'm definitely not at home considering I can't figure out the way to home with my abilities too, I considered. Then just on my luck, the two people noticed me and saw my bag. One of them yelled, "She's a spy for Empire!" I furrowed my brows. What is he talking about?
Unfortunately they caught me while I was in deep thought. I could had easily gotten away but I knew it would not do a good; I was in a unknown place, so I just asked. "Who are you? Where am I? Who is Empire? I swear I don't know what you are talking about." The people looked at each other, like they were trying to decide what to do...
After about half a minute, the one that held me pushed me forward roughly. "We are going to take you to Lady Nasuada. She will decide if you are a danger to The Varden, or not. Now, walk." I grumbled, but started to walk towards the direction they want me to go. After about 5 minutes of walking, we entered a camp. There were lots of white tents, maybe more than 100. Just a few of them were another color. While they were dragging me inside the camp, the people around me looked at me with determination, hate, anger and confusion in their eyes. I, on the other hand, was confused. Who are these people? They are dressed differently.
Then we stopped at the front of a red tent which was bigger than the other tents. There were 2 guards guarding the entrance. The man next to the one that held me spoke, "We found her at the woods. We thought she was a spy first, but it looks like she doesn't know anything, so we bring her to Lady Nasuada."
One of the guards nodded his head, then opened the entrance of the tent and said something, and stepped aside. They pushed me inside. Inside, there was a table and behind the table, there was a woman sitting on a chair. She had dark skin, her hair was braided into a bun and kept in place with jewel pins that matched with her green dress. She was holding her chin high, so I understand that she was the 'Lady Nasuada' who men were talking about. Then something clicked in my head. Wait a minute! Nasuada, Empire, the Varden... How didn't I understand before? I'm in a book!
Then I turned my attention to the front of the table. There was a boy/man sitting. He was my age with brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. His eyes were guarded from emotions, but I could sense that he was a caring person. At the other chair, there was another woman. She had long, silky black hair, perfect figure, ivory cream skin and bright green eyes. Her face was guarded from emotions too.
Then someone cleared his throat. "My name is Nasuada. Now, who are you? What were you doing at the woods around the camp?" I paled a little when I heard her name, but I replied with a firm voice, my old trust issues kicking in slightly. "I will answer your questions if everyone introduces him/herself properly."
Everyone frowned, probably not expecting me to say something when I was disadvantaged. Finally the boy -who I thought was Eragon- answered my question, "I am Dragon Rider, Eragon Shadeslayer." Then the woman -who I thought was Arya- anwsered my question, "I am Arya Dröttningu, ambassador of the elves." I was very pale by the time they finished but still study them with narrowed eyes, not letting my guard down.
Then I answered Nasuada's question with a good manner. "Thank you for introducing yourselves. My name is Alearya. And... You can say that I am not from here. " Arya narrowed her eyes. "If you're not from here, where are you from then?" I considered whether to tell them or not, but at the end told them the things I thought was important and they needed to know.
When I finished, I waited for them to compose themselves while bitting my lip to stop myself from laughing. Their faces were hilarious. Nasuada frowned. "Can you show us the books?" I nodded and took out the books from my bag. Arya, Nasuada and Eragon looked to the books carefully. This time Eragon spoke. If you listened very carefully or if you just had sensitive hearing, you could hear the anger in his voice. "I still don't trust you. If you know so much, how can we know that you won't try to convince us in doing wrong things in battle? You can still be a spy for Empire."
For some reason his word hurt, but I forced that thought out of my mind. My brows furrowed as I considered a way to show that I am not a spy for Empire. Then I got an idea that I didn't like, but I didn't have another choice. "You can look at my memories. So, you can see that I'm not lying about coming from another world and not being a spy for Empire." The three looked at each other, like talking through their minds. Then Arya stood up from her chair, walked towards me and stopped in front of me.