Never had Raud seen an Elven ship with his new eyes. The graceful construction could only be from the Elves' odd habit of singing their boats from trees. The moonlight was the only source of light that night, and it was more than enough to see the white ship. As it sailed up the river, Raud drew his sword.

The ship was carrying something he needed to get—a Dragon egg from the realm beyond Alagaësia. While one of Eragon's Riders was present on deck, his Dragon was nowhere to be seen. While no doubt the Dragon was nearby, he could recognize the Rider from his hiding place on the shore. It was Kurga, a Knurlan Rider, and more recent addition to the Riders, which meant his Dragon wasn't very strong. This couldn't be any easier.

As soon as the boat passed near his hiding place in the brush next to the river, he ran out and jumped over to the boat, sword in hand. The gap was at least twenty feet—child's play for him. As soon as he landed on deck, the crew's faces showed a shock that he found amusing.

"Shade!" a crewman shouted. He grinned as he heard the name of his kind.

He charged the first Elf, and as he raised his sword, Raud stabbed him in the chest. As another Elf charged him, he turned and parried the Elf's lunge. Keeping the Elf's blade low, he punched him across the face, and while he was disoriented, slashed him in the neck. As the Elf fell to the ground, another took his place.

This new one tried stabbing him in the chest, but Raud sidestepped and grabbed the Elf's wrist. As he brought his own blade to bear, the Elf caught it in his hand. His sword soon was drenched with blood from the Elf's hand, and pain flickered across his face. Raud then kicked him in the gut, and while he was reeling, stabbed him. That one had been a little tougher than the rest.

Another two Elves charged him, and he decided he was done fooling around. He took a pair of large stones out of his coat pocket, and spoke a spell of teleportation. The stones went straight into the Elves' chests, around their wards, and their torsos exploded. If any way was more terrible a way to die, he couldn't think of it.

Then again, few thought to make wards to protect against teleportation. To his knowledge, he was the only one who used it in combat.

Then came the Rider. Kurga seemed inexperienced in battle, as he just stood there, horrified with the carnage. He grinned. This is the kind of Rider Eragon's been training lately?

Raud charged, and a loud roar came from the night sky. He glanced up and saw a Dragon with orange-ish scales, and was the size of a small house flying at him. He took another stone out of his coat pocket, but then the Knurlan attacked, distracting him a little. Kurga swung his sword at him, which he blocked.

After a series of attacks, it was soon evident that while Kurga wasn't as strong or fast as an Elf, he defended himself better than they did. It was going to be more difficult to kill him, but only just.

Then the big Dragon came down and grabbed him by the shoulders with its front claws. Its—he wasn't sure if it was male or female—claws dug into his new flesh, and picked him up off the boat. The ground began to leave him, but he knew that it would return soon enough.

He stabbed the Dragon, and while an older one's scales might have been thick enough to take the hit, his blade went straight into the Dragon's chest. It made a roar of pain, and dropped him. He was unafraid as the ground rushed towards him. He cast a spell to slow his descent, and made it back down to the boat effortlessly.

He was running out of strength. His spells from earlier had sapped almost all of his considerable strength from him. He would have to finish off Kurga without the aid of Gramarye.

Behind him, the Dragon crashed into the woods nearby. Kurga sneered at him. He said in an angry voice, "You'll pay for that, you…"

"Shade," Raud said slyly. "And remember, my name is Raud for when you tell your gods who sent you."

Kurga growled, and charged him. In his rage, Kurga was easy to sidestep, and so he did. As he ran by him, Raud slashed him in the back. He fell to the ground in pain.

He then walked up to Kurga, and whispered into his ear, "Don't worry, you pathetic Knurlan; your death will not be without purpose. In fact, I am going to finish your quest for you. I fully intend for the egg to find its destined Rider, so really I will be saving you and your fellow Riders a lot of trouble."

Pained as he was, Kurga managed to say one thing, "You love the sound of your own voice, don't you?"

Raud grinned. "How did you know?" he replied. He then stabbed Kurga right through his torso.

Somewhere, a Dragon roared. So it's still alive. He took a stone out of his pocket. Though not for long. He then thought better of doing it, and instead would use his energy for something else.

He went down to the hold, fighting through the few Elves onboard. As he killed them he stole the energy from their body to restore his own strength. He'd need it later.

There he found a small chest with wards strewn about it to keep anyone from taking the contents without the proper key and spell to unlock it. He had no idea who had the key, or who knew what the word was, so he would have to find a way around that.

As he climbed back on deck with the chest under his arm, the orange Dragon swooped down, and breathed fire at him. He ducked back under the deck as the orange fire flowed from the Dragon's mouth. As the wooden deck burned, he went down into the hold and got a bow and arrow. He got back up on deck, and, setting the chest down, he readied to fire an arrow.

As the dragon came for another pass over the boat, he aimed for its head. Only a shot to inside its mouth would kill it—probably. If it had any wards still up, this would be a waste of effort. As it was about to exhale, he fired. The arrow hit the roof of the Dragon's mouth, into its brain. It then fell down into the river, causing the boat to rock violently.

As it died, Raud stole its energy away, replenishing his own reserves. He did not want to let so much energy go to waste.

He grabbed the chest and prepared to jump back to shore. As he was about to, another Elf charged at him. As much as he wanted to slaughter him, he knew there had to be at least one survivor. So he jumped, and landed with a thump on the shore.

The Elf didn't follow him, to Raud's dismay. Any excuse to kill anything was fine with him.

He went deep into the forest. It was only until he was safely away that he began his task.

He set the chest down, and went about opening it. He would first have to remove the wards around it, which was daunting. He'd need a lot of energy to open it. Fortunately, in a forest, there was a huge amount of energy all around him.

"Ládrin," he said. Open. While a simple spell, it was enough. As the spell took effect, he channeled energy from the plants and animals around him into the spell. As everything died around him, he smiled. Finally, the wards around the chest collapsed.

The gears inside it turned and its lid popped open. Inside was a sight he had not expected. While he had expected to see a Dragon egg, this was different. In his long lifespans, he had seen Dragons of almost every color, and heard of all the rest. But in all his existence, he had never seen a Dragon of this color. Inside was a silver Dragon egg.

He moved on from the strange sight, and set about casting a spell. This spell was to teleport the egg to whomsoever it was destined for. It had taken many spellcasters many years to perfect the spell, and he was absolutely sure it would work—it wasn't as if he could kill the ones that developed it if it failed. As it took effect, the egg disappeared.

He stood back up confidently. It didn't matter who it went to, or how far they would have to go to get it. They would find whoever received the egg, no matter what.