Hey guys, I decided to try a new idea for this story. I had to mess with the story a lot, so let me clear it up for you guys. First off, shruikan is a GIRL. Second, in the fight with Galbatorix, the group made the decision that shruikan was worth saving. And DID NOT kill her. This is because losing the connection to Galbatorix solved some of the insanity, mostly the want to kill, because she is no longer connected to his mind. I'm making her insane in a... different kind of way. Also, she didn't die when he did because she wasn't his original dragon. I'm sure some of this will become clearer as the story goes on. For those of you that love the books and don't like me for changing this, I want you to know that I made the story because I like the idea of the plot I have in mind. So don't be haters, and try to enjoy the story.

"Italics"= mind link speech, "words"= regular speech, Italics= thoughts

Chapter 1

"Tell me again whose idea this was." I said this to eragon through our link, voicing again my great dislike for the large black dragon that thorn and I were currently carrying. I could tell he was just as confused as I was at to why we were bothering with this, but he responded anyway. "Elva says that we can help her, since Galbatorix is no longer influencing her mind. You know that we need as many females as possible if we want to restart the dragon race." I huffed, hitting him with a plume of smoke. "I know all that," but I continued to pout all the same, "I still don't like it."

The walk back to the camp seemed to take forever, because we weren't able to fly. When we finally did get there, eragon and arya helped to put magic shackles on shruikan. After that was done, Nasuada came over and asked if we could walk around the camp, so that people could thank us for defeating Galbatorix. None of us wanted to, but it was a direct request from the leader of the varden, so we couldn't really refuse. Thus we left again to carry out yet another task, despite the exhaustion that was threatening us all.

Murtagh and thorn looked as tired as I was, Elva wasn't even there, she had disappeared after we got to camp and even though he looked full of energy, if it weren't for the people watching eragon would be fast asleep. Arya was the only one that might actually have had some energy, but when we finished our tour, even she was unable to hide her exhaustion. We quickly parted ways, gratefully agreeing to sleep for as long as we could, which was until that blasted dragon woke up. I followed eragon back to his tent, curled up beside it, and was asleep in seconds.

Surprisingly I didn't have any horrible dreams; in fact I didn't have any dreams at all. Maybe it was because I didn't have to anxious anymore. The fight with the evil king had passed. We were back at camp, and he was lying dead. There was a lot of relief that came with that thought. But also a lot of questions, what next? I'm sure if I asked eragon he would give me the usual. We have to restart the dragon race, and now we have to try and bring back the sanity of the only other female dragon in the world. And that was all important stuff, but it's not what I mean by that question.

What's next for me, that's what I really want to know. And as I slowly drifted into consciousness, it happened to be the question that came to my mind. So I thought about it, as much as the bounds of sleep would let me. What's next for me? Well, a big part of it will probably be finding a mate. As far as I knew, there was only one male dragon left, but something arya had said earlier came to my mind then, from when she was explaining that we couldn't kill shruikan. "We need to capture her, its close to essential for the survival of the dragon race."

If there was only one female, and one male, then she would have no reason to say this. This made me wonder if she knew about another male, and gave me hope that this one that fit me a little better then thorn does. I mean, we are friends, and he would definitely have no problem taking me as his mate, his actions made that very clear. But, while everyone expects us to get together, I just don't really think of him like that. A mate is supposed to be the one person you love more then anything, and would give all you have to spend the rest of your life with, as glaedr put it. And I just don't think I could ever feel that for thorn.

I didn't have any more time to think about this, however, because at that moment I was forced into full alertness by a roar that most definitely came from our black guest. Eragon awoke inside the tent, and through our link he commented, "So she's awake now isn't she." "Seems like it, how fun," I responded, with a large amount of sarcasm added on. He quickly got dressed, and as soon as he got on my back I was off, running through the camp to the source of the roar. When we got there, it wasn't a very pretty sight.

Shruikan was definitely awake; she was standing despite the shackles, and still did a great job of looking intimidating. The blood on her lips didn't help; I could see the stains from where her guards had been. She was growling at thorn, who had gotten there before us, but quickly turned her attention to me. I could see eragon and arya trying to talk to her, but even they knew it wouldn't work. I reached my mind out to hers, which caused her to lunge and snap at me, thankfully the shackles held. "Shruikan, its me, saphira. We freed you from Galbatorix, we rescued you."

She tilted her head to me, keeping almost the same stance, but shifting a bit, letting her guard down as she tried to comprehend what I had told her. Because of her lowered guard, however, thorn decided that he would try and restrain her. He lunged, and she immediately snapped to attention, aiming her head to bite his neck. It would have been a deadly blow, and if I had moved upon seeing her attack she would have killed him. But I had been moving before she went to attack, I had moved as soon as he lunged, and because of this I was able to knock him out of the way before she got to him.

"Thorn, back down," I growled at him, a little fiercer then I had wanted to. He looked hurt, and I heard the last sound I had expected. Shruikan was laughing, "That's right lover boy, this is girl talk. Why don't you go get us something to eat, those two guards weren't enough. Unless you would like to offer yourself. That would be great!" I couldn't quite place the emotion, but all of us were making the same face as a reaction to what she had said. A combination of fear, disgust, and surprise. "No, you can't eat me, you sick dragon!" thorn answered.

She made a face like she was pouting, "Of course not, no one ever lets me eat them, what's with that. Well, if you're sure, then go get us something else to eat. I'm starving." For some reason, after a moment, he flew off. When I looked back at her, she had already moved her attention to eragon, arya, and murtagh. After puffing smoke at all of them, she said, "I suppose you guys aren't here for me to eat either." She mumbled to herself, but I couldn't understand it. What she said when she addressed them again, it surprised me more then anything else she had said, at least that she had said yet.

"Can you guys give us some space? I haven't killed you yet; I thought that was very good of me, now you owe me. So why don't you go kill each other, you humans seem to like that. Actually, I don't care what you do, just... do it over there. I want to talk to blue. Thanks." After some very confused looks, and a "be careful" from eragon, they, for a reason I didn't really understand, walked back into camp. This seemed to finally get her to calm down. She yawned and slumped down on the ground. "Why are you letting your guard down now, I could still attack you?" I asked. She laughed again, a sound I still couldn't get over. "You saved me from your mate over there, you won't attack me. Besides, if you did I would just eat you."

She said this almost happily, and with an attitude that scared and intrigued me at the same time. "You know I should thank you for killing Galbatorix. I mean I'm not going to, but I probably should. He had some good ideas, like eating people, which was fun. But all he wanted to do is kill. What's the point in that anyway, you can't eat people if they are dead, it just makes you sick." She then continued on mumbling about how eating dead bodies is horrible. Finally I decided to lie down in front of her, because it was probably going to be awhile till I actually found anything out.

Finally about five minutes later, since she was still mumbling, I decided to try and get into her mind. As soon as I did she spoke to me again, "No no no, that just won't do. I can't have you peeping in on my privates." She laughed at her own joke. "Well I've been talking for awhile. How about you, blue, your big war ended. What you thinking about, you going to go mess around with lover boy, maybe make some new eggs?..." It took me a minute to understand what she had said, but as soon as I did I looked at her in disgust. "NO, he is not my mate. He is just a friend."

She smiled even more, "Shame, he is quite good looking. Might have to take him for myself." I didn't have much of a reaction, just curious as to what was going on in that messed up head of hers. "No, I'm just kidding. You see I had a mate, a long time ago. Another guy just doesn't seem very moral, you know?" Her question made me even more interested. Well, at least she has morals, I laughed to myself at the thought, and she seemed pleased. "Hey, the pretty girl can smile." I tilted my head, once again confused, she thinks I'm pretty?

She didn't seem to notice my confusion though, because the next thing she said was, "oh look, lover boy's back." I looked up to see thorn holding two deer in his claws, flying back from the way he had left. He landed and dropped the deer in front of us. "Here. And saphira, after you finish eating I want to talk to you." It was weird, but for some reason I didn't want to leave. This dragon, she was so interesting, I was still highly curious as to how her mind worked. I went to say ok, when a voice behind me spoke, "Once she finishes eating. Eating what?"

I turned around to see that she had not only finished her deer, but taken a bite out of mine as well. She seemed to realize then, "Oh, you wanted some of this. Sorry, come over and you can have some. Lover boy, just wait here till she is done, it won't be long." To my surprise I found myself scooting closer to her. I went to take a bite, but she stopped me before I could. "No no no, not like that." I looked up at her to ask what she meant, and she did the last thing I would have expected her to do. As my head faced hers, she pressed her mouth against mine.

She then slipped her tongue, which was covered in blood, into my mouth. It was a very interesting taste as she put the bite she had taken, into my mouth. Then she sucked my tongue out, and bit it. Not hard, but enough to draw a little blood, which she greedily sucked up. I was so stunned that I hadn't been able to move until then. But I was then able to finally pull away. She ate the rest of the deer as I sat there stunned. I could feel the anger coming off of thorn, until finally he came over and almost pulled me away. I swallowed my "food" and started to walk back with thorn.

Behind me she called, "you taste good, thanks for the meal blue." As we walked away, I tried to gather what had happened. The most evil dragon in all of time, had just, had just kissed me. And it was a girl. There were so many things wrong with what had just happened, eagon would be furious. I should have been furious too, but I really wasn't. There is something that drew me to her, I wanted, almost needed, to know how her mind works, even if it was... through that. I really did understand how many taboos I had just broken, but there was something else bugging me and it wasn't exactly a bad feeling.

As I realized what it was, a new question jumped to the front of my mind, one that I would have to figure out, and fast. It was hard to admit to myself, but once I did there was no doubt that it was true. Why, if it is so bad, so forbidden. Why... did I want to do it again...?

Well, that's the first chapter. It's a little slow, sorry. And I have to say, that I don't care that I completely messed up shruikan's character, because that was really fun to write. And that is why I wrote it, not to please some people that are completely diverted to the storyline of the books. So, with that, Stay tuned...