Sorry for the wait everyone, I've been away on holiday for the past few days. It was absolutely fantastic thanks for asking! And for those who keep pestering me about where I'm from, I am from the UK. Not the States!

It has been 3 days since Beau and I left Vroengard but I still don't feel like we're any closer to the mainland. Beau must be exhausted from flying for three days straight. I can sense it. His fatigue is my fatigue. I never imagined it would be this hard.

We have been soaring with the wind so it has been a little easier on us but we can't keep this up much longer. Something in the water below has been following us so I won't take any chances on landing for a swim.

I think this was a mistake. Beau finally says.

I nod; I agree.

But we cannot turn back. I will not make the 3 day journey back without resting. Not to mention we will be flying into the wind.

I nod again as despair creeps into my heart. I can only imagine what Eragon is thinking right now. What would he say if we did manage to make it back to the Island? I'll never live it down and he'll never let me out of his sight for a moment. But is it worth dying to prove him wrong? I don't know. I love Beau but I can't ask anymore of him. We've come so far. I pull out the telescope from the saddle bag and peer at the horizon. I know we're going the right way. I've studied Eragon's maps enough to know. Through the telescope I can't see anything but more water in every direction and I start to feel hopeless. This feeling of dread exhausts me and I find myself dozing off against Beau's spike in the blaze of the sun.

I'm woken up by Beau's deafening roar. I jolt up, nearly losing my balance in the saddle. But it doesn't matter that I'm still in the saddle. We're falling anyway. Panic grips my heart and my mind blanks. I don't know what's going on. I grip Beau's spike so hard, blood trickles through my fingers. It's happening again. I'm falling. Falling to the water below. Not again. I ignore the pain in my hands and grip Beau as tight as I can. I feel his mind touch mine.

I'm sorry. He says; I must rest.

He descends, falling out of the sky. We land with a large blinding splash. The salt water burns my eyes and I hastily wipe it away with my sleeve. I'm suddenly alert. The panic of falling has been replaced with a gut-wrenching fear that we're not alone.

"Beau, we have to get into the air."

He peers at me; Just a moment. I must rest my wings.

We float like a duck on water for what seems like forever. Each time a wave laps up against us I jump, my hand always on Kveykva's hilt. The sun is at its highest point in the sky and I feel my skin tighten in the heat. There's not a cloud above us and it's too quiet.

"Beau…" I say warningly.

Almost.

And that's when I see it— bubbles not 200 yards away and growing more violent as they break on the surface. A dark shadow starts to surround the bubbling area. Whatever it is, it's coming to the surface. But it's bigger than anything I could have imagined and suddenly the shadow is below us as well.

"Beau!" I scream

I see it! His wings start flapping but he's weight down by the water. There's nothing for him to push off of to get going. My stomach drops. I remember back to the things Eragon has told me about. Nidhwals. Cousins of dragons but much, much larger. Cousin of dragons. Devourer of dragons.

Beau is still trying to get airborne. We've risen slightly but there's no way we'd get away in time if the Nidhwal leaps for us. There's no way to get away at all. The thing below us shifts and meters away, part of it breaks the surface. It looks smooth and grey but after better inspection it's leathery and shrivelled, like a warn pair of boots. From the depths I can make out its massive body. A fin, a scale… teeth. Oh those teeth! A single tooth must be the size of Beau himself! There's no way we're escaping this monster.

The Nidhwal rolls and I see its eye. As big as my room the eye must be. Its pupil moves and dilates when it sees us, thrashing about in the water like a wounded fish. It continues to surface and I see more of the horrendous teeth. They jut out in all directions. They are stained by the sea and barnacles and parasitic fish cling to the massive Nidhwal's jaws. This beast was meant to kill dragons.

As it rises, Beau manages to dig his back talons into the leathery skin of the Nidhwal. With a fearful push and a powerful gust from his wings he manages to take flight. But we're still not out of range yet. Only a few feet from the water's surface, the Nidhwal has no intent on letting us escape. It thrashes its fins about, trying to knock us out of the air. Beau manages to swerve and evade the oncoming threat. With a big blast of blue flame, Beau is able to take a direct hit to the monster's eye.

A sound unlike any other erupts from the Nidhwal. It bashes and flails in the ocean, sending spray in every direction and making Beau's spikes and saddle slippery. It takes all my strength to keep myself from slipping off and into certain death below. The Nidhwal churns the water into a dangerous mess, and when its burned eye opens again, it is red and raw. I think Beau managed to blind the beast in that eye. I should feel pity for it, but something that size should surely not have any predators. It will manage just fine eating whales and sharks it may find in its travels. Beau rises higher and higher into the sky. As far from the ocean as possible. We are both wet and exhausted, but we carry on, higher we fly until the sun is close enough to touch.

I calm my thoughts long enough to notice something is not right. Everything is white… But there were no clouds. I look down and notice the ocean has vanished as well. What is going on? Where are we going?

I cannot stop; Beau says, panicked.

What do you mean you can't stop?

I'm being pulled!

By what? I can't even imagine. What's happening?

Everything goes white in an intense burst of light and I am blinded. Blinded like the Nidhwal. I cling to Beau but I feel myself losing him. I try to cry out to him but no voice comes out. Nothing. Nothing. And then darkness.

When I finally come to, my face is pressed against something cold and hard. Dust settles around me and I have to push rubble off me to stand. I'm woozy when I first get to my feet and I can't see anything through the dust.

"Beau?" I call out.

I am here. I see his long neck arch up through the settling dust. He is dirty and one of his wings is torn but he seems alright.

I run over to him, jumping over slabs of rock and rubble. He nuzzles me with his nose before raising his head to look around.

What happened?

I shake my head, "I don't know…"

Where are we?

Again I shake my head. The dust has settled slightly and I get a good look at the damage. We must have fell out of the sky again but we didn't hit water… we hit a bridge… I see the railing strewn along the rubble. I pick up a rock in my hand and examine it. Gasping I drop it immediately.

What is it?

"Concrete."

What is that?

I don't answer. Instead I turn to him, "Hold me up high."

He gives me a complacent look but extends his head to me. I scurry up and position myself on the crown of his head, holding onto one of his horns to keep myself steady. He hoists his head up as high as he can, extending his neck to give me ample view of my surroundings. The noise is what I hear first. It's not quiet like Alagaesia is. There's so much noise everywhere. Dogs barking, car alarms sounding, taxis honking. The next thing I notices is the buildings surrounding us. We're not in a forest… we're in a park. Central Park. In New York City.

I stumble back onto solid ground, completely dazed. I feel as if I'm in utter shock. My thoughts aren't responding, I can't wrap my head around how we came to be here.

Beau notices my anxiety, What is it? Where are we? His body tenses and he is on extreme alert now.

I don't know how to tell him. How do I explain to the one thing that has spent its whole life with me in Alagaesia about the life I lived without him here.

I claw my hands through my hair. I need to focus, figure out how to get back to Alagaesia. Wait, slow down, I need to take care of Beau first. If there's one thing I know about this world it's that dragons are a myth. If someone sees him, it'll be a disaster. I think to that movie King Kong I watched as a little girl. That could be Beau! Being shot down by planes. The whole military would be after him. No! I can't let that happen.

But how do you hide a dragon? Especially one as large as Beau? I sit in silence as I contemplate our situation. There's only one place in all of New York I can think of that would have the information I need to figure out how to hide a dragon and get back to Alagaesia. But it's been so long, would it still be there? Was there a time lapse between worlds? For all I know, it's been a hundred years since I was last here. I shake my head and my curls fall into my face, I can't think like that. There has to be some way. What would Eragon do? He would find out if it's still there. I have to be like him. New York Public Library, here I come.

I prompt Beau to stay here. He's dirty enough that he blends in with the debris and rubble. Until his wings heal, he can't fly anywhere just yet.

You keep in touch. I want to know what you are doing all the time!

"I promise." I place my hand lightly on his shoulder before hurrying off towards the busy streets that I used to be so familiar with.

I'm surprised no one has come by yet. It's New York; people are always bustling through this park. I ponder this until I come to a line of caution tape barring my path. I look around me to see bulldozers and backhoes scattered along a large area. I grin to myself. We crash landed in a construction zone. No one will ever show up in there, it's a hazard. That certainly is a lucky break for us.

Ducking under the caution tape, alert as ever to make sure no one sees where I came from, I scramble to the outskirts of the park. I stand, dumbfounded, staring at all the cars passing; the bright yellow of the taxis seems so unfamiliar. There's nothing of that colour back in Alagaesia. People pass me, wearing clothes unlike the ones I'm used to wearing. Now that I think about it, they're like the clothes I fell in. The image of hitting the ground comes into my thoughts and I flinch back, bumping into a dark skinned man in a fancy grey suit, spilling the drink in his hand.

The aroma of the beverage makes the hair in my nose burn and I scrunch up my face in disgust.

The man is glaring at me, dabbing at his jacket with a napkin.

"I am so sorry," I reach out to help but he slaps my hand away.

"My coffee! I don't have any change for you! Get away!" He storms off in the opposite direction of me.

I watch him go, "Change? Why would I want change?" I wait at the crosswalk for the light to turn green. I surprise myself with how I can remember all the rules of getting around here. I guess some things you never forget. I cross the street and come upon a large glass building and in that instant I realize what the man with the coffee was talking about. I look like an absolute wreck. My face is disgusting; streaked with dirt and sweat. And my hair is sticking out in places and is very unruly. My white riding gown is torn and covered in muck from the construction site. I see my face redden beneath the filth on my face. I need to wash up or they'll never let me into the library.

It's a good half an hour walk from Central Park to Time Square. It's suffocating. Being surrounded by so many people. I walk, hugging myself, digging my fingernails into the flesh of my arms to keep me focused and to remind myself that I'm not dreaming. The lights and the sounds of Time Square are so distant. The giant billboards advertising Broadway musicals and Coca-Cola products are so giant! I feel so helpless in this world. I belong in Alagaesia. At least, I think I do.

I weave my way through crowds of strangers and traffic until I reach the Marriott Marquis hotel. I remember coming here when I was little. If I remember correctly, there's a public bathroom on the second floor. I get strange looks from the bellboys hailing taxis as I make my way inside, but they can't stop me. It's public. I trip over my own feet as I stumble onto the moving stairs. That's right. Stairs can move in this world. A world of technologies. Not a world of magic. I'm carried up to the second floor and I stop and stare at the elevators moving up and down next to me. The people inside seem unaffected by their ascent and decent. It must not feel like falling inside those glass tubes. I forget my fears long enough to bolt to the rest room. Inside, there is no one except me and my dirty reflection in the mirror.

I lean over the white marble sink and splash some water onto my face. The water turns brown as I begin to scrub at my skin with paper wipes and soap. Pretty soon I can see my true skin colour beneath the filth.

After all my exposed skin has been cleaned, I move onto my clothing situation. My riding gown has been torn in several places below my waist. I tear the fabric from around my knees, shortening the garment into a thigh length dress, and disposing of the ripped fabric in the trash. It is still dirty so I turn it inside out and wear it like that. It's not perfect but it'll do for now. Next, I rake my fingers through my unkempt hair, pulling out leaves and twigs. I stick my head under the water faucet and douse my head to get rid of any caked in dirt. I shake out the water and tie it into a low ponytail with some pieces of string I pulled from the fabric of my dress. Finally, I unwrap the bandages from around my legs. The skin beneath is impeccably smooth and my whole complexion is genuinely sun-kissed.

I examine myself in the mirror. At least I look somewhat presentable.

As I make my way out of the Marquis hotel, the bellboys are gone and everything seems to have slowed down. I wonder what time it is… I know these streets; the library isn't that far from here. A 10 minute walk maybe? I hustle across lanes of traffic, not even bothering to admire my home world. I have to get to the library before it closes, we can't afford to spend the night here. It's too dangerous. The sun is setting quickly as I round the corner of the library. The inside seems dark and my heart quickens. No! I pull at the doors but they don't open.

"Let me in!" I cry, "I need to get in here!" But nothing happens. I could use magic on the doors but there are too many people and too many cameras watching. I'm lucky to know this. If Eragon was here, we'd end up getting arrested somehow. The brief thought makes me smile, but remembering my predicament, the feeling vanishes. I roar in frustration and give one final frustrated shove at the doors. Nothing.

I lay my forehead against the cool glass of the doors and sigh.

A sudden chill rushes up my back and I'm aware of someone standing behind me. "I can get you in…" The voice says. "I mean, if that's where you're trying to go."

I turn and face a boy, not much older than me. At least I think not. His face is stubbly and his hair is a mess of dirty blonde curls. He's wearing a dark wash of denim and a black t-shirt under his brown suede jacket.

"You can get me into the library? How?" I ask warily, the only interactions I've had with people was with Eragon. I haven't seen anyone else since I disappeared from this world. So I'll do what Eragon would do and proceed cautiously.

"There's a back entrance. It's locked by a code but it's an easy one to break," He shrugs as if breaking in anywhere is one of his special interests.

"You don't know me and I don't know you. Why help me?"

He gives me a mischievous grin and something in his green eyes twinkles, "Why wait until morning? You seem like you're in a hurry and I can't turn down a pretty girl in need."

"I don't need your help, go away." I turn away. He seems surprised by my blunt response.

He sticks his hands into his jean pockets, "Listen, it's not like I'm going to take you into an alley and attack you or anything. You seem like a girl who could easily kick my ass any day of the week plus Sundays."

He has no idea. I could kill him without a second thought.

Something in his face softens, "But if you're going to go, I won't stop you. I was just trying to help."

I look him up and down; he is very attractive, wait! What am I saying…? I have things to do. "I don't want your help."

I start walking back the way I came. I turn the corner and stop. I really need to get into the library. I really, really do. But I don't know who that guy is! Ugh! Why is this happening to me!

I turn on my heels and race back towards the library and stop dead. He's still standing there. I glare. The cocky bastard knew I'd come back. Any attraction I had to him is now gone. I stalk over to him and cross my arms, "Alright. Get me in."

He runs a hand through his dirty blonde hair and the twinkle in his eye is back, "I thought you might say that. My name is Liir by the way. OK follow me."