The next morning, Naomi confessed to Rowan and Tiana as to why she wasn't in their dorm that morning. She didn't tell them the events of the dream, but simply referred to it as a very scary dream.

"Man, if it managed to scare you up to Sora, it must've been scary," observed Rowan.

"Yeah…" agreed Naomi. "What was weird was that it had a complete lack of weirdness to it. Hardly any of my dreams ever make sense, but this one…it was too realistic."

Rowan and Tiana looked troubled by how shaken their friend was by a mere dream. "Are you sure it was just a dream, Naomi?" Tiana asked her.

"What do you mean?" Puzzled, Naomi inquired her companion.

"Well, Ebrithil Eragon said one time that he had really realistic dreams that ended up being true events. That could also explain why you're so shaken up about it," Tiana suggested.

Naomi looked at Tiana with a rather frightened look. "Well thanks for the comfort!"

The three of them chuckled at that as they gathered their books and such for that day's classes.

"Hey, guys," Tiana began. "What if we like went on an adventure?"

The other two looked at her like she was raving mad.

"You know, like if we just left school for a while and flew away to help Ebrithil and that other guy solve the mystery of why the Queen died and helped catch the bad guys and stuff."

This really didn't sway the others very much, Naomi in particular.

"I am not going on any adventure that is linked to Murtagh and -" Naomi began.

"Wait a second, is that his name? How do you know it?" Tiana noticed Naomi's slip-up.

She froze for a second and looked almost embarrassed. The other two stopped and looked at Naomi.

"Well?" Tiana pushed. "Are you some sort of stalker or something?"

She was obviously joking, but none the less, Naomi shot back, "What, NO! I really don't want to stalk anybody, let alone some stranger who socked Ebrithil in the jaw."

"But then, how do you know his name? Now that I think about it though, it seems as though Ebrithil said his name at some point, but I never caught it clear enough to call the guy by name," Rowan put out.

"Rowan, you zone out all the time. It would have been all too easy for you to have missed it," Naomi retorted. It was true. She would zone out at the most random moments.

Naomi seemed defeated, but more than that, she just seemed upset. "We're NOT going on some mindless, dangerous adventure, Tiana," Naomi stated with a sense of finality.

"Why are you so opposed to this?" Tiana retorted, not wanting to follow Naomi's lead and drop the conversation. It was then that Naomi did one thing that the friends hardly did unless it was necessary.

This is why, she stated, sending to both of them a flood of images far too clear to be clips from any normal dream, emotions too strong. I wish not for us to go because I fear that it may lead us only to our own doom.

Withdrawing from her companions' minds, she turned away from them, hiding the sad fear that drew her face.

Now they understood. Now they knew her fear. Now they knew how it was that she knew the man's name. Despite knowing all these things now, Tiana was still itching as though spiders were crawling beneath her skin for an adventure. "…But the Urgal Olympics are coming up…" Tiana pleaded. One of her biggest dreams was to see the Urgal Olympics, and she wasn't even into sports. "And come on, I mean we'd be with the two greatest Dragon Riders ever. I'm sure we'll be fine!"

"I said no…" Naomi's voice became thick, and though they had seen and felt her dream, they had not just the idea of how horribly she had been troubled by it.

That day at lunch, before Naomi sat down with her food, Tiana whispered to Rowan, "I still want to go on an adventure…She doesn't want to come if she doesn't want to."

"Tiana, after seeing her dream, I would leave this alone. Her memories came with a gut feeling that things would go deadly wrong," debated Rowan.

"Oh my gosh, is no body but Alice with me on this!?" Tiana cried, referring to her royal purple dragoness, who at the moment was out of mental range, along with the other youngling dragons, training with Ebrithil Amber.

Rowan only shrugged as Naomi sat down and began nibbling at her spaghetti.

Come on, Alice. Remember that adventure I was talking about? Tiana approached her violet dragon, who looked nearly black in the darkness, carrying her own small, lighter-weight saddle that was still rather comfortable over long distances. Many saddle bags were laying on the ground near-by, along with a sleeping bag, a couple pots and pans and lots of parchment and ink for story-writing. Her small daggar was strapped to her belt.

Yeah, why? Are we going back to Alagaesia? Alice inquired, excitement evident in every note of her mental voice, not-to-mention through their mental link, which was stronger than any metal the Earth could ever produce.

Yes, yes we are! Tiana was grinning form ear to ear.

Yes!

Tiana was just tightening the girth of the saddle, when her guts did a jump and a back flip-and-a-half.

"Tiana, it is half-past eleve-" A tired Rowan rubbed her eyes and stopped herself as she saw all of the saddle bags. "What the HELIGRIND are you doing!?" she cried.

"Well, neither of you guys wanted to come, so me and Alice are going alone!" was the explanation.

Rowan ran down the stairs into the Dragon's Keep from the balcony she was standing on.

Thalassa, wake up!

The teal dragon, her scales the color of the shallow sea, woke, eyes surprisingly sharp, asking, What is the matter, little one?

Tiana's trying for an escape!

…An "escape," really?

You know what I mean!

"Tiana, you can't go!" Rowan pleaded, trying to convince Tiana not to leave.

"Sure I can!" Tiana argued, her voice actually tinged with a note of humor.

"Are you kidding!? What if Ebrithil Bunce and the Elf teachers found out? They would freak!" If they did, she knew that one of the first things they would do was contact Ebrithil Eragon through a mirror or something.

"And gods only know how Naomi will react!"

Tiana sighed, frustration boiling in her chest. "Why can't she just come with me? And you, too!"

"You know very well why we can't," Rowan glared a warning stare at her friend.

"SURE AS HELIGRIND YOU KNOW WHY!" Naomi's voice made them both jump and turn towards the indoor balcony that overlooked the dragon keep. If there were any dragons still not awake, they were now. Her knuckles were white against the railing, her shoulders unbelievably tense. "Barzul…Barzul, for trying to leave, only flying to what I know is only your own death! To leave me here, alone, for you know I have no other true friends!" Tears streaked down her cheeks.

Tiana felt a pang of guilt; she was right. "Naomi…It was all just a dream. You should come with us." She looked down at a unwillingly volunteered Rowan as she said "us". "Don't worry. Look, we'll be with Ebrithil, the greatest Dragon Rider ever! Everything will go fine. You're trying to base a horrible gut feeling on a dream. That's worse than some demented lifeless twenty year-old dreaming about sparkling vampires." Despite herself, Naomi couldn't help but chuckle at the reference to everyone's least favorite book series.

Everyone stood there for a moment, waiting for Naomi to make the final decision.

"Well?" Tiana nudged.

Naomi sighed. "Well, alright then. I shall go with you. And Rowan? Surely you don't want to be left here either?"

Rowan shook her head. "Of course not!"

And so, when all was ready, the three young Riders, each with their dragons, took off into the navy of the cool night, and westward they flew.