Click, There it was again. I had heard a clicking noise every 5 minutes or so for the past 2 hours. Click, aaaah, I can't take it anymore! I got up quickly and launched myself into the air, with 2 beats of my powerful wings I was soaring over the landscape. Click, I heard it again, using my strong sense of hearing I honed in on the clicking's location, each time I heard it I was able to sense were it was with more and more accuracy.

I finally landed outside a cave and with a bit of caution I lumbered in. All around me I saw mushrooms and insects. As I got deeper in, the cave seemed to become devoid of life, all the insects seemed to stay away from here and there were dead mushrooms littering the ground, as if something had killed all of them off.

Up ahead was a curve in the path the cave had been following; as I turned, I noticed a slight glow in my peripheral vision. There, on the outer edge of the turn, was an Eldunari, glowing bright white, about the size of a human fist.

I walked up to it slowly. I carefully probed it with my mind, the dragon inside didn't respond at all. I slowly went deeper into the Eldunari trying to find the dragon inside. I started to feel resistance to my pushing. I pushed back a bit harder trying to find out where the dragon was.

The next second, with a flash of white light, the Eldunari crumbled to dust in front of my eyes. With the snort of surprise I jumped backwards hitting the rock wall behind me, magic rushed through my veins and I began to feel lethargic. Struggling to keep my eyes open, I rushed to get back to the entrance.

I saw light up ahead and I knew I was getting closer to the exit. My eyes were getting heavier and I was struggling to keep them open.

100 feet from freedom I finally succumbed to sleep. I collapsed there on the ground among the moss and vines closing my eyes slowly.

I was aware of time passing slowly, punctuated by infrequent flashes of awareness. I remember opening my eyes and seeing a great battle outside my cave, a small black dragon seemingly leading a larger force. I remember great armies being crushed by elves when they ventured into this forest, group after group of men coming to see if they could find any trace of what happened. Until finally superstition and fear kept people out of the forest, isolating me from the world.

I slowly felt the fog in my mind lifting. I sensed something I had not felt for many, many years. I felt strength flow back into my muscles as I stirred. I arched my back like a cat as I stretched for the first time in years. I slowly opened my eyes, squinting against the light. As I stood to my full height I realized I had almost doubled in size while I slept, I could no longer stand in this cave without bending my legs. I cautiously approached the entrance. As I stuck my head out of the entrance of the cave for the first time in years I thought on what might have changed, I might be in a whole new world than the one I was used to. From what I had seen over the years in my brief glimpses of the world there seemed to be no more dragons, no more riders, no more of the world that I had grown up in all those years ago.

Warily, I walked out of the cave. I took a breath through my nose to smell for any danger. There seemed to be an odd mustiness in the air over laying the usual smells, I could still smell nothing but the usual smells of the forest., but above it all was an odd smell. I realized what it was a moment later; it was fire. A section of the forest had been burned recently, when I looked to the sky I could still see smoke in the air.

With a bit of clumsiness that entailed being asleep for years, I took to the air. After flying for a while I found the patch of blackened forest. Roughly 50 acres of the forested had burned in the rough shape of a circle. Skimming across the top of the trees I saw urgals burnt to a crisp lying on the ground. I flew closer seeing a slight path almost obscured by burnt undergrowth. Along the path were two dead elves and horses.

Confused as to what could have slaughtered two elves this way I flew in search of the culprit branching out from the scene of the crime for miles in all directions.

Not finding a trace of anyone I flew away to sate another hunger that was replacing the one of curiosity. I was surprised I had not noticed it before. My stomach was screaming in protest of not having been filled in a hundred years.

Flying along the landscape I quickly focused my eyesight on a young buck grazing in a clearing.

Before the animal could react I wrapped my talons around his stomach and picked him up of the ground. He was struggling to get away in blind fear, its tongue lolling out of its mouth and eyes rolling wildly with fear. With a satisfying crunch I crushed his ribcage, immediately stopping his heart and successfully ending his pitiful life.

Landing on a mountain ledge awhile away I tore into my kill. Crushing meat and bone alike between my jaws. I stood after I was finished deciding that now I would start to search for the this rare consciousness that had woken me.

After a stretch of my stiff shoulder muscles I launched into the air in search of this dragon.

Just an idea I've had for little while now, if you haven't guessed Eragon is the dragon you've been reading about (I did say this story was severely AU right?) Well, I don't know if I should continue, now that I have finished this and gotten it down on figurative paper I feel better and don't feel such a need to share with anyone now that I've given them an insight into my head. Maybe if enough people like it I'll continue, but then again, if not, this story will fade into the background of fanfiction and no one will ever read it again. So review if you'd like, if don't want to so be it.