Chapter 1: A leaf in the wind

A tear fell from the man, 278 years ago, he had lost, lived, gained, fallen, and then rose. He had taught, learned, and experienced. He had built a beautiful city As he walked out to the balcony, he looked down, a great city was below him. A slight breeze rose and brushed his face, a leaf rode the wind. Going where the wind took it, yes, he was the leaf, he had to go where wydra took him. He reached out and grabbed the leaf.

"But that does not mean that things cannot interfere with it," said his beautiful dragoness. He caught a hint of blue below him, he smiled and jumped.

His dragoness, knew exactly what he was going to do and moved to get under him as he fell. As he landed in the saddle and his dragon turned towards the port. A giant ship was approaching the island. He looked down to the what was now, a small city, or as one could say, a large town. As he looked down, his eyes could pick up scales of several dragons, he recited in his mind, 754 in total, 234 bonded, the rest wild.

"And it looks like we have 3 more bonded," said his sapphire dragoness.

"Let us go to the docks, it has been a while since I have smelled the salty air of the ocean," he said.

He could tell that the ship was made of maple wood. It had 4 masts and a man stood in the crow's nest. Soon, Enthro and Máni were standing next to him, ready to greet the new riders. Their dragons were out hunting, as they were 2 of the 50 riders that stayed at the island, and as there was no class, they were free.

"Ah, master, are you here to greet the new riders?" asked Enthro with a smile on his face, as he always did. If you asked his dragon,Thro,he was too cheery. Máni was quite, she never talking more than necessary. Enthro said that he was sorry for Máni's students.

"No, actually, I was here to enjoy the ocean, but I might as well," he said. Máni stepped closer to him, then she whispered, "How is everything going back in Alagaesia?" He frowned. He remembered the conversation he and Murtagh had last night.

"It's been horrible! These past few months." Murtagh banged his hand against the table he was sitting at. "There have been 8 assassinations! Eight! The leader of Terim was assassinated as were 5 lords of the empire as well as 2 elves that were of high standing. The last of which proves that the assassin is skilled."

He thought for a moment as his sapphire dragoness came beside him to hear the troubling news. "Or it could be a group of assassins" he thought out loud. "Hmm, I'll have to think on that but I don't think so,"replied Murtagh. They were both very troubled.

"How is Thorn?" he asked, trying to lift the mood

"Good, and before you ask, so is, Firnen and Arya." Murtagh thought for a moment, "Though, Arya has seemed troubled of the late. She might be unwell, I don't know- elves conceal their emotions well." Murtagh zoomed out for a moment.

"He is probably thinking about Nasuada" said his sapphire dragoness.

It was most probable, Ever since Nasuada disappeared. He thought.

"Bad," he replied, "Things have been getting worse. There have been… killings." He looked at her, "I think that we will have to send some of our senior riders to Alagaesia, I must talk with the Eldunari first."

"Will you go home now?" asked his dragoness

"No, I must stay here, besides, if anything is amiss-"

"As it is." Interrupted his dragoness.

"Then either Murtagh or Arya will deal with it." He grit his teeth, "Things have been getting stranger though, we should send someone to investigate."

"Or you could go back," his dragoness suggested hopefully.

"I WILL NOT GO BACK!" he yelled at her. Máni looked at him worriedly. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"I am fine, or will be in a moment."He looked back up to his dragoness "I am sorry, it is just that, these past few days have been rather stressful." Ever since the death of 2 riders and their dragons. They had died by an accident, by magic, by casting a spell that took too much energy. He could have helped, he could have stopped the spell, he knew the name of names. He remembered the amount of blood on their body's, more blood then he had seen since the war, since anyone had seen. They had been impaled by projectiles, wood, stone and other things. They were trying to move a rock, they succeeded, but with the rock above them fell a landslide. Too weak to move away 3 of them died. The other dragon escaped but with the expense of his left wing, his majestic orange wing was torn off, currently, the medics were trying to create an artificial wind though it was not likely that they were going to succeed.

And then the events at Alagaesia, the assassinations that had happened were the cherry that sits on top of cold cream. Before that, there were murders, rapes, bandits, rebellions. There were thefts and missing people who were found days later but had no idea what had happened to them. Some of them were riders. People that were perfectly sane went mad minutes later. I was plain chaos.

Judging by the condition the riders were in, they should help… They were helping. But crime rates went up, so did robberies. A few days ago, Orik's crown was stolen.

Then, he heard a muffled voice coming from his saddlebags. He went over to it and opened it, Máni and Enthro close behind him. It came from his mirror, it was silver, with beautiful designs on it, but that was not what he was focused on. He was focused on the ragged face of Murtagh and his background which seemed to be Du Weldenvarden. He talked in a weary voice. "No time to explain, I am in Du Weldenvarden, I have come to Arya for help, there has been a shade created."

"A shade?"

"Yes a human shade, luckily, but a shade nevertheless, we will need some help to subdue it, can you send a few riders to meet us over Gil'ead?"

"Of course brother, they shall arrive within a week."

"Thank you brother, Un du evarínya ono varda."

Eragon turned around, a hard look on his face. "We are in disturbing times."

So, I'm back. It's been a while, this is basically a re-write of war with others. Though, i kid of destroyed it, then put it together. I changed a lot of things. Eragon wont come back to Alagaesia. I'm still trying to decide if this will be ExA or ExOC. There will be a lot of OC's. This will be nothing like war with others so... keep reading.

Arucane