Sooooo…. Here I am, finally it is done! The fourth chapter of Scoped! Aren't you exited? I am.

Ugh, this took me three days to write, rewrite, rewrite again and change the order in which things happened. I had hoped to post this a lot sooner, but I was busy with school, friends etc.

P.S./ I am in need of a beta reader. Like badly in need of one.

Enjoy!

~Chap 4~

Riley was walking towards his new tent, backpack and rifle slung on his back and followed by one of the six female Elves of Eragon's twelve bodyguards. He looked over his shoulder at the silver haired woman. "You know, I get that you can't trust me and all, but do you really have follow me around all the time? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a beautiful woman like you following me, but I mean, I'm surrounded by an army."

The woman glared at him. "Do you think I like it to be tasked to follow some man around?"

Riley smiled and a mischievous sparkle appeared in his eyes. "Well why wouldn't you, have you ever met such a handsome, strong-"

"full of himself." She cut him off.

Riley chuckled, "So Elves are capable of humor, I didn't think it was true." She glared at him again but he plainly ignored it. "So, what's your name, I can't just call you elf or pretty lady all the time."

"I have no need to tell you my name, I am merely tasked to keep an eye on you while you're in the Varden's camp." She said with a flat-toned voice.

"You know what, I'll start. Hi I'm Sergeant Riley Brimland; veteran soldier, expert at turning my targets' head into red mists, brewer and self-exclaimed ladies man." He said with a mock bow.

She simply answered with; "Yara." And continued leading him to his tent.

"Are the Elves always this distant from other people?" Riley asked to Dwarf sitting across from him in the mess while glancing over to where his elven "guard" Yara was standing.

"Aye, well most of 'em at least. I had an Elven friend a long time ago, the rest of Dûgirmst Vrenshrrgn didn't like it, but once you got to know him he was a good man." The dwarf answered.

"Really? I didn't have the impression Dwarves and Elves got along very well." He said while thinking of Gimli's attitude towards Elves in The Lord of the Rings

"Because we don't, they don't like us, we don't like them." The dwarf answered in a nonchalant tone.

"Who is this Elf then?" Riley asked.

"He was called Fäolin, he was one of Lady Arya's escorts until they got ambushed." The Dwarf looked a bit sad now.

"I'm sorry…" the sniper trailed off.

"Don't be, you didn't kill him." He looked at a couple of Urgals eating their meals at another table with an angry look and then extended his hand towards Riley. "The name's Dwin, nice to meet you."

"Riley." He said while shaking Dwin's hand.

"Ah, you're the Sergeant, I heard what that machine you carry around can do, care to let me in on what it is?" Dwin said with a twinkle in his eyes.

Riley picked up the rifle and put it on the table in front of them. "This Dwin, is the M98b 'Barett' fifty caliber sniper rifle. It shoots these baby's," he said while holding up a ten centimeter long bullet, "at 940 meters per hour at your target. Basically if you hit some ones' head with this it turns into a red mist."

He looked up from his gun to see the dwarf staring at it with his mouth slightly open. He chuckled at the sight and Dwin quickly shut his mouth.

"So mine friends weren't exaggeratin' then."

Riley chuckled again, "No they weren't."

The Dwarf stood up and clasped Riley's forearm, "I have to go, 'till next time."

"See ya."

As the Dwarf was walking away another man took his seat. Riley recognized him instantly, "Captain Roran, good to see you! How's Katrina?"

Roran smiled, "She is well Riley, thank you for asking."

"Sooooo… Roran, I'd never had thought you to be related to an Elf." Riley sent the bearded captain an inquisitive look.

"He's a half-elf, he wasn't always like that. He used to be a normal human, and then he found Saphira's egg in the spine. He left with Brom, the storyteller of our village, and soon after the Empire came looking for me. We stole a ship from the empire and ended up in a battle where I first saw him in a very long time. Apparently the Elves had used some sort of magic to make him a half-elf." Roran answered

"That's one hell of a story ya have there Roran." Riley whistled between his teeth.

"I bet you have some too, being strange to these lands and all." The bearded captain asked in return.

"Pfffff… Well alright. It was the second year of my training as a sniper- " "What is a sniper?" Roran asked. "A sniper is a specially trained soldier to take out enemies from far away, to stay hidden and to survive in very bad conditions." Roran nodded. "But anyway, It was my second year and me and a friend of mine were running around the training grounds with a backpack full of equipment and a training rifle as a test for endurance. Suddenly we heard a growl coming from the side of the road and went to investigate. What we found was a wolf pup. We took it back to base and it's safe to say that our instructors weren't all too happy with us. The wolf stayed with us for the rest of our training and after that on our deployments. He became the unofficial platoon mascot until the camp was attacked." Riley's lips twitched up into a sad smile.

"One of the bastards sneaked up behind me and was about to shoot me but the wolf, Logan we called him, leapt up to the man and bit his throat out, saving my life. The man still got a shot off and killed Logan. After we cleared the camp of hostiles we held a funeral for him, most of my platoon was there and to honor him we took the nickname Wolfpack."

Roran didn't really know what to say and just nodded.

"But that is all in the past now, have they decided if they're gonna use me or not?" Riley asked.

"Yes they have, I've actually been asked to get take you to the command tent, not to exchange stories. If you could follow me?" Roran asked as he stood up from the table.

"Alright, but we should probably take my babysitter over there with us." He said while pointing at Yara who was looking around without emotion on her face and ignoring the advances other men and even one women made on her.

He was staring at the map on the table in front of him, it was one of a large continent, the same continent that was on his map. His map however was like a modern one, with the height of the terrain clearly referenced and of course in color and plasticized to keep it from getting wet. "So I have to take out one of their generals?" he looked at Nasuada. "Where is this general located?"

"He is travelling between camps, his route is marked red on the map." She pointed at a red line.

He pulled out his own map, surprising Nasuada with its detail. He drew a line where the route was and folded it back up. "Will I be going alone?"

"Of course not, we still don't know if we can trust you. I have spoken with Eragon and Blödhgarm and they have agreed to send Yara with you. Both to protect you and to keep an eye on you."

"When do I leave?" he inquired

"Tonight, we don't want any spies seeing you leave."

"Fine with me ma'am." He said as he saluted

"What did you just call me?" she asked, confused by the unknown word and thinking it might be an insult.

"What? Ma'am? That is what we call a woman that is in charge or is greatly respected in my culture." He saluted again and walked out of the large red tent, followed by Yara who did the Elven greeting and left as well.

He looked at Yara with a big grin and said, "Looks like we're goin' on a trip."

She just grunted in reply and walked off towards the other Elves.

He watched her walk away. This is going to be a fun trip. He thought. Not.

Thank you for reading, once again I apologize for the long wait and I hope you enjoyed.

If you get the reference to a certain game/ movie(s), tell me and you'll get a virtual cookie and a chance to win one of twenty living rhino's that I have stored in my shoe! It is both a reference to Someone from the marvel universe and a game. If you get one of them you'll only get the cookie.

Bye and until next time! (I hope it won't be as long. I know I said that last time, but one can only hope, right?)