Eragon awoke to the familiar thrumming of a wing beat, of the ripple of scales beneath his body, and the scent of the fresh air, the free sky, and his life partner. Though his eyes closed, Eragon could already shape the world around him; the dual arrow heads of birds surrounding him, a bear catching salmon in a river many miles below, the reflection of the sun from the millions of water vapour native to the sky.

The boy sat up outstretching his arms while releasing a long yawn. After a second of nothing, he decided that he was ready to take on the morning and begin his day, that he was ready to leave his sanctuary of his mind, as if as soon as he opened his eyes from his sleep a veil would unmask itself around Eragon and he would be exposed to the harshness of the world around him.

He slowly opened his eyes... only to shut them again and release a grunt of discomfort, and be greeted with a low rumbling chuckle from just ahead of him.

'What's so funny?' Eragon asked, trying again to open his eyes and once again fail to withstand the mighty force of the sun.

'You're just cute when you're sleepy, little one' came Saphira's voice, so soothing and familiar yet silent as a winter pond.

'I just did not expect us to fly through the night' he replied, last nights endeavours returning to him.

'I still had much energy, and I felt like I needed to be away from the world. Get away from everything'.

Eragon nodded in agreement, recollecting his thoughts. It had been almost a month since the black wolf Luna had left without notice, after the fire in a small town lead by a large band of rebelling wolves. Since then, countless towns and villages had met a similar fate in the area. Eragon and Saphira had met up with Arya and travelled with her, trying to track down the mad-man Galbatorix, whose magic had twisted his mind so far as to distort the reality around him. Eventually the three had to split up to cover more area, and now Eragon once again has found himself alone with Saphira, the beautiful sapphire dragon whose mind and soul were the same as Eragon's.

Silently casting a spell over his eyes to shield them from the sun, Eragon looked up at the sun, so large and enveloping in its own energy. So far in the sky above the earth and the clouds with Saphira, Eragon often felt like Icarus, as if none of his experiences since his isolated life in Palancar Valley so long ago should have ever occurred, and by being this high up, this connected with such a magical, amazing, unbelievable creature such as Saphira he were testing the tempers of the gods themselves, and one day he would lose everything, his life plummeting to the ground as Saphira was taken away from him. Things just seemed to good to be true for him. He often thought none of this should be possible, nor should have happened...

Eragon never let himself dwell on such thoughts for very long, for he knew the pitfall he could fall into with that train of thought, and believed well to keep clear of that.

Other times though, Eragon's thoughts got the best of him.

'Saphira...?'

'Yes little one?'

'Do you ever wonder what it would have been like if I hadn't found you in that forest so long ago? If Arya had come to collect your egg and many many years later, well after my time, you had hatched for somebody else? If we had never come together?'

Saphira only chuckled at Eragon, her glowing good mood pouring into Eragon's emotions.

'Little one, you really are very tired. I do, sometimes. But dwelling on those kinds of thoughts does no good. Our lives did not turn out that way, and we are together and connected. That's just how things are, and I'm glad things are like this. I'm glad we found each other little one.'

Eragon nuzzled his head into his dragon's neck with love, to which Saphira responded by soothing his mind with her own.

'Now get some more rest, little one, so that your mind will be working properly for the day' Saphira teased.

Eragon grunted and laid his head down obligingly, knowing she was right. He turned his head and watched the birds fly next to them, their tiny bones in their wings flapping hard to keep in speed, while Saphira's own might wings beat lazily and freely. He sighed, and closed his eyes, letting the beat of her wings lull him to sleep like so many nights before.