RJ #13 11-28-11

     Dear Aunty Jude,
 
     I am reading the book Eragon right now. It is a fantastic 497 page book that will keep you reading. I am not done with it right now, but I hope to be done by the end of this week. This book is by a teenager, Christopher Paolini. He has just made the fourth and last book to this series. All of them are fantasy.
     The book has an mysterious beginning. It starts in a forest at night. It starts off as a shade (Not a real creature. Most of the fictional creature's names will sound weird.) is waiting to ambush two elves and another elf that was a female. She had a pouch that she constantly looked at. The shade has a few creatures called urgals(Once again, it will seem weird) to help him. Once they attack, the two elves die quickly but the female one escapes. The shade then used magic and set the surrounding area on fire. When the female comes back and tries to find to find a escape route, the shade jumps and kills her. Right before that thought, in the pouch, she took out a stone and made it teleport away with magic. The shade is mad.
    One day a boy named Eragon is hunting for his family. He is fifteen years old. He has to hunt for his family in a feared mountain range called the Spine. Very few people go into the Spine. They fear this because one time the king sent a whole army of soldiers into the Spine and they never came back. Eragon was about to shoot his arrow to end a life of a deer, but suddenly, the was a huge crash and the deer fled. Eragon went to see where the sound has originated. He found a stone in a creator. Since he couldn't find food for his family, he decided to sell the stone and use the money to buy the meat him and his family. He went to the butcher, Sloan. Eragon never liked Sloan, but he still went to buy meat from him. Sloan asked him if he had money. Eragon said no and tried to explain but  Sloan said if you have no money no meat. Eragon then said he had a stone that can be substituted as money. Sloan asked where he got it then rejected it when Eragon told him. They started yelling but Sloan's daughter Katrina, a sixteen year old girl, with the town smith, Horst. Horst was a big bulky man that could intimidate many people if he wanted to. Even though he could he was nice to a lot of people except Sloan. He got the the fight to stop, and he payed for the meat Eragon needed to buy. Eragon said thank you and wanted to repay back anything he could. Once home at his uncles house with his cousin, Eragon started to explain why had had the packaged meat and how he got the stone. They said that when the traders came they would see if they could give how much money the stone is.
     The family waited many days for the traders to come. That year, the traders came very late. They would come if the weather was right, as if it was not snowing too much, and if the roads were passable. When they came they were already a month or two late. The next day, the family left the house and started their journey to the town where the traders are. When they arrived, they saw that their was many people there. Eragon's uncle, Garrow, gave some money to Roran, Eragon's cousin. Roran left to do the things he wanted and Eragon and Garrow went to see a merchant who specialized in odd antiques. Once they found the merchant, Merlock, they wanted to talk to him privately, and so he brought them to inside his tent. Eragon brought out the stone and he the merchant took out some tools. One was to measure the weight, another a jeweler's glass, and the last tool was for how hard it was, a mallet and point. When he was done he said he didn't know what the stone is. He said that the stone was harder than a diamond and that it was hollow. He took out a dagger and used the flat and tapped the stone. It made a echo like a large bell. He then showed them that it did not have and scratches on it and believed that it would not break even if he used a hammer and hit it. After all of this, he did not know the price on the stone.
     When everybody was back home, they went to bed. Near dawn, Eragon heard a squeaking sound. He quickly took out his dagger and looked around for a while. After a few moments, he went back to sleep. Then there was the same sound and the stone was rocking on the shelf he put in on. The stone fell and it it started squeaking and rocking more. The egg started to crack and out came a dragon. It was deep sapphire blue, the same colour as the stone, and the sized of Eragon's forearm. It has spikes going down the head to its end of the tail. The wing span was several times the size of its body. Eragon touched it,b ut he felt a shock that sent him on the floor paralyzed. It felt like hours until he could move again. He looked at the hand he touched the dragon with and he saw a white oval. He got back on his bed and the dragon started to rub against him like a cat. then Eragon felt a tingling feeling and felt hungry. He was not hungry but he knew that this feeling came from the dragon.  He got two strips of meat and cut it into little squares. When he was done feeding the dragon its belly was bulging. Eragon decided that he was not going to tell his family about the dragon until it got older. When he woke up he quickly went outside and made a tree house for the dragon. It was mostly made out of leather. Everyday Eragon went to see the dragon and feed it. It got really big, fast. It then out grown the house Eragon made for him. When Roran and Eragon went to town to get something. When Eragon and Roran were going back home Roran told Eragon the he was going to apply for a job away from here in another town. Eragon asked why and he said he wanted to marry Katrina. When it was supper, Roran told Garrow, and Gorrow was not surprised. He wanted Roran to have a wife. When Roran left, Eragon followed to say goodbye. Horst then told him to come outside and informed him that he quickly should get rid of the stone. That two mysterious people in black robes were looking for it. Instead of going home Eragon took a detour and tried to look for the robed men. He the saw them in Sloan's shop and Sloan told them everything. When they came out the shop they saw Eragon but the storyteller, Brom, came out and looked for him. When Eragon's gloves came off, Brom saw the white oval and Eragon rushed away. Eragon told Saphire, the name of his dragon( it was a girl), about the men and with Eragon on her she got mad and flew away. She flew to where Eragon found her egg and Eragon found that most of his legs' skin was peeled of from the ride. Eragon convince Sphira to leave the next day.
     Once home Eragon found his home in flames he found Garrow and Saphira hoisted them up but she didn't have enough energy to go all the way to town. Eragon had to drag Garrow, but luckily Brom saw them and when he arrived Eragon fainted. That was what I read up to so far.
    My favorite part of the book was when Eragon found out the stone was an egg. this is my favorite part so far because it was a suspenseful moment. My least favorite part of the book was when the house was on fire. It was a very sad moment. I would recommend this book the anybody and would rate it 5/5 stars.

                                            Your friend,
                                            Alexander Yan