Chapter 2

The doe was about medium sized, compared to other deer around the area. She wore a healthy coat, light brown, with small specks of white scattered about on her sides. She currently held her head down, quietly and absent-mindedly enjoying a hearty meal of grass. She was still a little shaken, having been unexpectedly evicted from her morning drink by one of those two-legged walkers. She escaped its hungry eyes though, and had hid quite a bit ways into the forest. Those two-legged walkers are so nosy, always appearing right in the middle of a meal. She thoroughly enjoyed her meal of grass, though. She had been just about ready to leave when the two-legs appeared. Besides, it's peaceful in the fores-

A branched snap a maybe five meters to the right of her. Her head shot up in an instant, tail ready to fling into alert, waiting for the branch-snapper to move again, if something were to be there. After three minutes of complete stillness, she lowered her head, satisfied it was nothing, and continued her meal, erasing the disturbance from her mind. Another branch snapped. Now she knew this was not just nothing. She raised her head and looked in the same direction, catching glimpse of something blue moving among the thick wall of trees. Greatly alarmed, she turned around, raised her tail and began to run as fast as she could. Before she could guess at what the blue branch-snapper was, she heard a loud, hungry roar behind her. An instant later she was suddenly aware of something over her. Surprised, she abruptly halted her run, hoping the creature would land in front of her instead of on her. A huge, blue, lizard-like creature with large velvety wings and large, sharp, ivory white teeth proved her theory true, unfortunately. She looked into the creatures large, sapphire eyes, and as it let out one, last, ferocious roar, she could only think of her regret of not conceiving any fawn with her newly-found buck husband.

***

Eragon sat, waiting patiently for Saphira to return in the same place she had left him, when he told her where the deer he was had run off too. He had heard a few roars, and it had been maybe five minutes since, so he assumed that she had already caught it. She probably just played with it a little bit, he though, regretfully. Although he had gotten over himself enough to eat meat when he felt like, he still couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor deer. Crossing paths with a hungry dragon was definitely a position nobody wanted to be in, and he could almost feel the panic going through its mind as it stared into the jaws of death.

'Oh, little one,' Saphira called, coming back out of the forest, 'brunch is served'. Eragon stared at the bloody body hanging from the large jaws of Saphira, bouncing happily towards him.

'Saphira.. Have I ever told you how glad I am to be on your side and not your enemy?'

'Why, yes, I believe you have,' Saphira replied smugly, 'but it's still just as sweet as you.' She put down the dead doe near Eragon, and nuzzled him with her snout. 'You know I love you though, little one.'

'Love you too, Saphira.'

The two spent the next few hours eating, drinking, and resting with each other. They talked, played games, and finally laid down next to one another. Saphira lay down on her stomach, kneading the ground with her right claw, sometimes carving small designs into the earth. Eragon lay on his back, hands behind his head supporting him up a little bit, and looked up into the stars. The night was clear; he could see nearly every single star in the sky. He began looking for constellations, quickly spotting an abundance of a variety of dwarvern, elvish, and human star-patterns. Each of the races in Alagaësia are so different in many ways... yet, many of their different constellations share the same patterns of stars... It makes you think about how alike we all are, despite our many differences. He continued to stare into the deep, vast universe of stars, until he became aware of strange, colorful lights in the sky, gradually increasing in intensity.

At first he thought nothing of it. However, after a few minutes, he couldn't just pass it off as nothing anymore, as it was getting so bright. He turned over onto his stomach, and tapped Saphira on her shoulder. She didn't respond. Getting up, he crawled over to see her face-to-face. On the ground in front of her, Saphira had carved out a delicate, complicated pattern, folding and looping in ways Eragon hadn't imagined possible. That wasn't important at the moment though.

'Saphira?' called Eragon to her with his mind. He received no response. She was lost in some deep thought, and didn't notice his conscience enter her own. Eragon pushed on her snout and looked into her distant eyes.

'Saphira, snap out of it, silly,' he said, more persistent and forceful this time. Her eyes focused onto him, and she raised her head from the ground. She shook, looked around, and looked back at him.

'Oh.. I'm sorry little one. I was... lost in thought...' Saphira shook her head again, still a little dazed.

'I know.. I saw. But, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. Look.' Eragon pointed to the lights in the sky he saw.

Saphira stared up into the beautiful aura of lights forming and growing in the sky, instantly enthralled in its wonder. She sat there with Eragon for nearly 10 minutes, both captivated by the strange anomaly they were witnessing. Saphira began to notice a small, growing, wavering string of light by the same, change colors as those in the sky, forming up from the ground off somewhere. Saphira got up, and began to walk forwards.

'Hey, where are you going?' Eragon got up and quickly walked up next to her, surprised by her sudden and spontaneous movement, and a little saddened that their moment together had to end.

'Why.. Where else? I'm going to go see where that light is coming from,' she replied without breaking her stride.

'Wha- Saphira... Why?' Eragon shook his head in frustration. 'Why can't we just stay here and enjoy this wonder from a distance. Can't we just spend one day where we don't go off on some sort of quest, or do something generally interesting? Can't we just relax for once, and enjoy each other for a whole day?'

Saphira stopped and turned her massive head around so that he could see one of her eyes. She looked at him, a gleam of adventure twinkling in her sapphire, cat-like iris.

'Oh, little one... You know you are interested as much as I am,' she mused with him, blinking in amusement. 'Now, either you can be a good little rider and wait here while I go and explore, or you can get on my back, and we can go see the origin of these beautiful lights-in-the-sky together, as Rider and Dragon, as we should.' She turned forward and continued her walk.

Eragon sighed for the fourth time that day. She was right; he did want to know what these strange lights were. What more, she knew that he couldn't resist her. Still, he was very much enjoying the time they had been spending together all day. He just wanted once to spend a whole day completely alone with her, just the two of them. To do nothing but spend time with her, and enjoy her company, not having to worry about anything else. To forget the world and all its faults and problems, leaving just Saphira in his mind. To just drown in her entity. But apparently this seemed to be too much to ask. However, a short outing might not be so bad.........

'Okay, I'm in. Just one sec.'

Eragon quickly grabbed his bow, quiver, pack, and most importantly Brisingr, the Rider's sword he forged with his own two hands... sort of. Although the elf-smith Rhunön had forged the sword through his body, he still felt like he should claim some responsibility, and it only made the sword feel more like it belonged to him. Swiftly, he climbed onto Saphira's scaly shoulders, in between the gap of ivory spikes along her spine.

'What's this? Expecting some excitement, are we?' Saphira teased, adjusting her shoulders, her mind radiating with happiness that he chose to come along.

'Not especially. Still, better safe than sorry. Now are we going to go see this thing, or sit

around chatting some more?'

'That's my Rider,' she replied excitedly, yet lovingly. 'Don't worry, little one. I'll have you back before your bedtime. Promise.'

Eragon stuck his tongue out at her teasing, which she replied by sticking her tongue back at him. 'Don't make me lick you,' she threatened, still playing. 'Now, let us do this, my little Rider.'

Saphira began to run, gaining speed, and after five bounds made one, large leap, and spreading out her majestic sapphire wings, soared high into the air. Together, as Dragon and Rider, Saphira and Eragon flew to the source of the strange, wonderful, colorful lights-in-the-sky. Neither of them knew what may lie ahead, but whatever they would find, they would face together, as one.

____________________________________________