Saphira suddenly turned upside down in the sky and Eragon gripped the saddle as fast as he could, cursing himself for eating too much breakfast this morning. He knew that he should have been used to it by now, but the sudden maneuvers always caught him by surprise, even after all these years. The wild dragon they had been chasing dropped until he was almost sitting on the house beneath them. By now most of the town on the lake was on fire and the inhabitants were running towards the mountain in the distance. Eragon turned on Saphira´s back, looking if he could spot Thorn or Firnen anywhere, but they were still out of sight, coordinating the attack on the mad red dragon in front of him, which meant that he and Saphira would have to take care of the situation on their own. Before he could tell her what he planned to do, she dived and clawed at the unknown dragon. Together they tumbled towards the ground until they were deep enough for Eragon to jump off without hurting himself. Luckily they had been in an area of the town where the fire had already burned out, so he could wait for the others. He sat down on the stairs of one of the ruins and watched Saphira fight with the other dragon, hoping that she would not get hurt before Thorn and Firnen could get there.
Before long, he heard a loud splash that told him that something big had just fallen into the lake. A few seconds later he heard Saphira call out to him: "I got him, little one. He has fallen into the lake. Thorn and Firnen have finally arrived and are grumbling that they missed the fun. Typical males. Anyway, I am coming back now to pick you up and then we will see if we can help those poor people that have just lost their homes."
Eragon stood up and walked down the street until he reached an open space big enough for Saphira to land. Soon enough, she came into sight, her blue scales glittering in the sunlight. He had been bonded to her for more than twenty years, but he was still amazed by her appearance every time he saw her flying alone. Saphira caught his thoughts and snorted at the compliment, almost setting him on flame. At the last moment he jumped aside and the fire hit the stone beside him instead. Then Thorn and Firnen landed beside her, along with their three first students. Caldea, an elf woman with her silver dragon called Lunalia, Ukara, a female Urgal with her yellow dragon called Ironoia and finally the male dwarf called Jekor, with his purple dragon Eriana, the latter one having just become the partner of Thorn, making both very happy. They had a lot of other students now too, but for now they had decided to leave their lessons to the elves that hat sailed here with them and took their students on their first training in the wilderness.
Together, the six of them set up camp, while their dragons took to the sky and went hunting for their evening meal. Later, after they had eaten, Eragon took the first watch, as he felt that he could not sleep now anyway and watched the stars. As he had expected, it did not take long until he heard footsteps behind him. He did not turn around, as he assumed it was Arya, coming to join him. But then he felt the tip of a blade on his throat and a man´s voice asked: "What are you doing here with these dragons, stranger? Are you companions of Smaug?"
Before he could respond, someone else came running from the direction of the camp and the man was thrown to the ground, with Arya´s sword pointed towards his heart. Thinking quickly on how to resolve the situation, he pulled Arya away and helped the man up from the ground and tried to assure him that neither them nor the dragons were meaning any harm. Though the man´s eyes still showed doubts, he agreed to listen to their story about what they were doing here. He introduced himself as Bard from Esgaroth and followed them back to the camp, where the others where waiting, all still awake.