17 Chapter 17

Eragon sits up suddenly and breathes in and out to calm himself down. He notices that he was wrapped up in a blanket on the cart that is currently stopped for the night and Brom and Arya are nowhere in sight. Saphira is seated in the sand right next to him, rubbing her head along his side to try and comfort him. He looks at her and returns the gesture by scratching under her chin. 

"That you Saphira, who knows how long I would have been trapped in that dream without your help." 

"I would do anything to keep you safe Eragon. I'm just glad I was finally able to reach you. You have been asleep for two days." 

Eragon looks at Saphira, the calm state he was in changing into panic. "TWO DAYS!!! I've been asleep for two days? What happened? What was that black sludge?" 

Eragon starts to stand up but is stopped by Saphira. She wraps Eragon with her tail and sits him down. "Calm down. I don't know what the sludge was but it took control of your mind and forced you to relive your past traumas. Both Brom and I saw some of your past memories so you will have to explain to him what they mean." 

Eragon sighs heavily. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that but I guess it cannot be avoided any longer. Wait… Where is everyone?" 

"Brom went hunting and the elf is somewhere near as I can smell her. He should be back soon… Speak of the devil."

Brom walks into the camp with a few rabbits tied with string on his waist. Upon seeing Eragon awake, he sets the rabbits down near the fire before rushing over to him. 

"Eragon, I'm glad you are awake. You gave me a mighty fright when you passed out like that. I hope you can forgive me. My addled mind forgot about the curse that afflicts the slayer of a Shade. When a Shade is killed, the stored up negative emotions attach themselves to their slayer. These negative emotions feed on your soul, weakening your mind and body until your inevitable demise. If we don't find a way to cure you within the next few years, you will either die or descend into madness."

Eragon weakly smiles. "Don't worry Brom, I'm sure I can come up with something. Let's just focus on getting to the Varden for now. I can handle a little curse like it's nothing." Eragon goes to flex his muscles but immediately gets a cramp and winces in pain.

Brom scoffs. "You're in no condition to be doing anything for the next few days. You will stay in this cart and rest, is that clear?" 

Eragon looks down in shame. "Yes Brom." 

"Good." Brom starts to turn around before realizing something and turning back towards him. "Eragon… I have a question for you… Who is Sam?"

Eragon starts to sweat as he contemplates whether to tell the truth or not. Eragon's shoulders slump and he keeps his eyes trained on his feet. 

"From what I know so far… Sam is another soul that merged with mine just a few months before Saphira's egg appeared. I don't know how or why. What I do know is that my soul is stronger than it once was, it's like I have the capacity of magic far beyond what I should. His memories of his life were of a strange world where magic doesn't even exist. The things they made with their own two hands, dad... It's incredible." 

Sam tries his best to tell the truth without revealing the fact that the former Eragon is gone. He has no idea how Brom would react to having his son taken from him. 

Brom nods absentmindedly. "A soul merging with your own would explain why you have been acting strange sense then and most of your abilities. From what I saw, Sam was in his mid 30's and was a designer of some strange contraptions that I couldn't make sense of. I imagine his memories are why your enchanting skill is so high. For someone like him, what we have done must seem like child's play. 

Brom looks towards Saphira. "Keep an eye on him will you? If he starts any experiments just smack him up a little." 

Saphira smirks and gives Brom a nod. With that settled, they wait for Arya to return before setting off once again.

As they leave, Eragon turns towards Saphira. "Did Brom see my memories of the books or the movie?"

Saphira shakes her head from side to side. "He did not. I was not prepared to block out all of your memories so I just shielded those ones as I knew your would not want him to see them."

Eragon has a contemplative look. "I have let my mind wander to much these past few months... I completely forgot that you can shield some of my memories from mental probes through our connection... Thanks for that Saphira, I really did not want to know what would happen if Brom found out about the former Eragon..."

You need not thank me Eragon. I will do everything in my power to protect you and your interests, the same as you would do for me. Our bond is everlasting, and our journey has only just begun."

Eragon relaxes hearing her words as he lays back down. He is relegated to the back of the cart where he toils away the next day either resting or thinking up new ideas for enchantments or contemplating how cultivation would work in this world. From his previous experiment, he can deduce that cultivating in this world is not currently possible due to some unseen factor he is missing. Thankfully, this means that Eragon was not a cultivation novel, it just means that the world has mana and no one knows what mana is yet. This opens up many new avenues for spells and enchantments. Some of the things he is currently planning are as follows. 

1: Find a way to convert other sources of energy into mana. (solar, wind, etc.)

2: Create enchanted items that serve the same purpose that machines did in his previous life. (motors, gears, wires, electronics, etc.)

3: Recreate items and abilities from other shows, movies, or anime that he has seen. 

The next day, Eragon wakes up feeling refreshed and full of vigor. Though he wishes to continue his experiments, he also does not want to anger Brom so he resigns himself to minor mental training and light exercise.

They continue their journey through the desert, an endless expanse of sand that will provide him no sense of discovery to relieve his boredom. Every day, Brom draws water up from underground with a spell so that they can stay hydrated within the blazing heat of the desert. While Eragon is sweating profusely as he must stay in the cart, he comes up with a new enchantment to beat the heat. With a little persuasion and the premise of a cooler and more comfortable trip, Brom allows Eragon to work on adding the enchantment to the cart. It takes him a few hours but his hard work pays off when he activates the newest barrier function, the temperature barrier. This barrier stops heat from entering an area around the cart, causing a slow cool down of the interior. Eragon could have made the barrier a full blown AC with temperature control but he decides to wait as Brom would definitely think he went overboard again. 

With Brom driving the cart at full speed throughout their journey, the miles fly by in a blur. On the sixth day after their escape from Gilead, they finally see in the distance the great rocky expanse known as the Beor Mountains. Throughout the day they continuously get closer, changing their perspective of the mountains as what looked like small hills become towering mountains that pierce the clouds. Once Brom has a good look at the mountains, he angles the cart more to the south east, the cart scraping through the sand at rapid pace. Meanwhile, Eragon glances to the west and sees a small dust cloud heading their way. At first he doesn't really pay any attention to it before he remembers a specific part of the novel where a group of slavers intercept Eragon and Murtagh during their journey. 

Eragon bolts upright. "MURTAGH!!!" he shouts in his mind. "I completely forgot about him. I was supposed to meet him in Dras Leona but I went straight to saving Arya without going there. I'm so stupid. How could I have forgotten about him?" 

While Eragon is smacking himself in the forehead repeatedly, Arya notices the dust cloud getting closer to them. Her elven eyes, being sharper and more acute than humans, can clearly see the group of humans in the dust cloud riding towards them on horses. 

Arya turns towards Brom. "Brom, we have company. A host of riders from the west."