Somewhere, in the land of east Alagaësia… "COME ON SAPHIRA!" shouted Eragon, as the two massive dragons clawed at each other in the center of the massive square. The air was hot and smelled of roasted turkey covered in ash. The new Riders had arrived, one urgal and one dwarf. Both Saphira and the smoke-colored dragon she was facing were covered in cuts, which ejected sizzling dragon blood droplets. As was expected, the latter dragon had accumulated more wounds than Saphira. The battle between the colossal beasts had been going on for several minutes. After Saphira had accidently gotten herself stabbed on her left hind leg, she had said, The hatchling has pushed his luck almost too far to win. Then why haven't you finished him? I'm not trying to kill him, I just want to test him as I tested Fìrnen. We haven't got all day for this one. Little one, if I were to take the fastest way to defeat him, he would be dead either way. Fine, but be quick about it. Ramming into the dragon beside her, Saphira knocked him out. Cheers erupted from the elves, Eragon, and the dwarf. After tending to the dragons' wounds and restoring the male to consciousness, he went to address both Riders and their dragons. The dwarf was Hepandr, and the urgal was Garlagh; Garzhvog's son. Garvandr's dragon was Krivastor; who was always seeking rocks to melt and was colored reddish-brown. Garlagh's was Skyknife, who was a smoky dragon with curved thin spikes who outmaneuvered Saphira commonly. He was always seeking speed and preferred to keep quiet.

Seconds later, right before his small speech of congratulations was about to start, the elves let out a shriek. Eragon hated that sound. It sounded like millions of screeching bats and slithering steel swords. Blödhgarm was suddenly by Eragon's side with a mirror. And there in the mirror, was the beautiful face of Arya.

Eragon was taken aback. He hadn't seen that face in 3 years. She was older now, her face starting to take on the appearance of what a human could call an adult. Her eyes were harder. There were lines on her face and she looked worried. "Eragon!" she gasped. "Yes?" asked Eragon, curious of why she was like that.

"Barely any time to talk! There is a new shade stalking the land! AND HE IS A DRAGON RIDER!"

"A WHAT?" gasped Eragon, astonished and terrified.

"Yes, his name is Azrud, the reincarnation of Durza! Apparently the spirits in Durza's body had found an unseen Dragon Rider hidden in the Beors- and they possessed him! This shade has taken about 300 Eldunarì without our knowing right before your departure! He has an army of dark creatures we have never seen. And he has the last living member of the Gray Folk with him… Fortunately, our spies have found he does not know the name of Names."

"That is insane! Anything else?"

"Yes, he has broken the barrier of wards around our forest and almost killed our guardian! Linnëa was also attacked, but we were able to rescue her and prepare for relocation if needed. They have a bigger army, and they are as strong as us, if not stronger. In fact, in a few minutes, we are going to use the massive reserves of strength from our entire forest and warp us to Cronifala, then from there with you to a random place. The outcome of where we transport ourselves is unknown. But no doubt, the enemies just heard, cause they are outside our tents! Prepare, Eragon! They probably have enough strength to follow us with a teleport! PREPAAAAAAAREEEE!"

Eragon couldn't see the things around Arya, but he could tell the tent was being ripped into pieces like a twig snaps. The apparition on the surface of the mirror ended abruptly. Everyone in the square stared at him. The elves' stares made his blood curdle. To make everyone stop, he shouted, "You heard her! Let's prepare!"

Scrambling to prepare, he got a mirror and contacted the villagers of Carvahall, the dwarves, and the Urgralgra in a multi-dream stare. He told all of them to hurry to the forest, and found that all of them had been summoned to the forest anyway. A few minutes later, when everyone was ready, there was a massive clap of thunder with a following searing heat wave, and a blinding flash. There in front of them, appeared everyone. Everybody looked bruised, burnt, disbelieving, unconfident, exhausted, and panicked.

Eragon saw who he wanted to see most: Roran, Katrina, Orik, Arya, Nar Garzhvog(though slightly), Nasuada, the Varden, the villagers, and all the other races besides humans. Within a split second, he realized there were Ra'zac in front of the whole lot next to Arya. Eragon drew Brisingr, but Arya signaled that it was safe. She said hastily, "Eragon, these are Ra'zac who were controlled by the Shade… they wish to get revenge and eat the enemies' bones. They refuse to give their names, but we do know something: The four of them are all 126 years old."

Look out! screamed both Krivastor and Skyknife, and another massive flash pervaded the camp. Standing in front of them was a massive army of strange slightly transparent monsters taking on some sort of urgalish form. A black version of Durza with very dark grey hair and reddish eyes stood in front of him.

All the elves spasmed, and the Menoa tree flashed and a massive stream of energy came over the small mountains from the west, probably being the energy from the forest. Eragon noticed Saphira's slight decrease of energy and also noticed a sudden boost in the Menoa tree's energy flow. There was a massive flash, and they all landed in another place. It couldn't have been Alagaësia, because there was a massive city of what looked light buildings of metal, and there was a big stone post in front of them with what was the original Palancarian. It read,

'Welcome to San Fransisco!'