A/N:

First of all, I'M BACK!

Excited?

Scared?

Wishing I would get on with the story?

Well too bad! I have to make up an excuse!

Hmmm….

*clears throat, and talks in snobby voice*

Soooo…. I was talking to the doctor right? And he was all like, let's go and try to kill Achilles! And I was all like…. NO WAY! And he was all like… YES WAY!

(…5 minutes later…)

So we went back in time to Troy, and we figured out you could only kill him by his left heel… yeah. So, we managed to tell the Romans that he was really not invincible. So, we came back here and realized that now the story of Achilles was very well known (wonder why). Sadly, the Tardis was getting a bit old (all the TV appearances really take a toll on someone, or something) and it brought us back roughly 3 months later… So, the first thing I did was calm everyone down, then eat bacon, and finally write this.

Sorry. Truly. Unless you did not miss this story, in which case, THEN TOO BAD! READ IT!

And to the wonderfully amazing reviewers, thank you. 27, nice. How many will this chapter get?

Mainn, I am glad you like the story. I agree, I need to edit more and go back to edit the previous chapters.

RestrainedFreedom, Thanks. It is NOT a waste of time, I just like to imagine the story in my head more than trying to write it down. I love cookies.

Dagibsta, there will be more explaining. For now, it is supposed to be open-ended(so I can adjust to the plot) and mysterious. Sorry for not updating in so long…

Ilja Mitelia, possibly.

Totally Random Solembum, based on your name- you will like this chapter. BACON! YEAH!

Well, to all the other readers-but-not-reviewers, REVIEW! Please, it helps me understanding what to write. And please remind me where in the world the Varden were, I forget what happened at the end of Brisingr…

Niduen's POV

Niduen walked up to the Varden leader's tent, and paused at the entrance. Bright orange beams of light were cast down around the camp, making it look nearly peaceful. The Nighthawks were fiercely glaring at every moving object, yet they failed to realize someone was right in front of them. She would have to talk to Nasuada about that, but for now, she could enjoy the irony. Patiently, she waited until the voices inside the tent died down and people began to file out. Slipping into the tent, she casually sat down in a spare chair and watched as the leader of the Varden sat down and rubbed her eyes. Quickly she sifted through the minds of all the people near her, and made sure no-one was planning on coming inside the tent. She quickly casted a few protection spells, which ensured no one would hear anything from inside the tent and that no one could sense her mind. Satisfied, she stood and made herself visible.

"Nasuada, we should talk."

Murtagh's POV

All throughout the day, he and Thorn had been flying, while taking leisurely breaks and enjoying their freedom. Now they were relaxing under a blanket of stars; Thorn was tired from flying and Murtagh had been feeding him energy, but they refrained from taking energy from the grieving Eldunari. They were not foolish however, and they covered their tracks well. They also went in odd patterns, zigzagging and backtracking, hoping to throw-off whoever might wish to follow them. Murtagh was still keenly aware of the fact that the King would not at all be happy when he found out the mistake that he had made in his oaths. If he was caught, it would be far more difficult to get out of any vows, no matter how small. The King would put him on even shorter of a leash, and he would not be happy. He possibly might even go out to do the dirty work himself, which would mean doom for the Varden, and death for him. At most, he had a week before the King would get worried. It had become customary for Murtagh to only report "good" news to the King, which usually ended up meaning silence until he returned (if even then). In some ways, this worked to his advantage. In other ways, it would make it seem suspicious if Murtagh were to scry him only to give some lame excuse for being late. He was lucky that the King was mad enough to send him alone, otherwise he might have to kill people from his own army in cold blood. For now though, his only fear was not being able to find the Varden fast enough before back-up came, and he was not worried. How hard could it be to find an army? All of these thoughts, ideas, and worries flew through his head. At some times, he could not tell if Thorn flying or his mind thinking was faster.

'I believe my flying is considerably faster than your slow mind.' Thorn said teasingly.

'Of course, mighty Thorn. I am sorry to doubt your majesticall-ness' Murtagh replied sarcastically, with a smile already starting to form across his face.

Thorn snorted indignantly, and lifted up his head from the grass. His dragon may have been young in mind and large in body, but after sharing Murtagh's mind, he was very keen to sarcasm. The dragon could not keep the stern attitude for long though, and put his head back on the grass and sent happy thoughts to Murtagh, some of which were about a certain dragon Murtagh knew all too well.

Saphira.

'How will Eragon and Saphira take us in? I know Eragon was wishing to save us before, but will he now? Thorn, don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think you and Saphira will be the best of friends by the time we get there. She tends to not like Dragons of the Empire.'

'I know. But still, there is hope is there not? Nasuada …'

'Thorn. Please, don't mention her.'

An uncomfortable silence hung over the two, which was unusual. Between being tortured and doing dirty work, they had not had the time to be in any more conversation than making sure the other was alright.

'I won't.' Thorn promised, 'Let us go to sleep; we will not have to fly for much longer tomorrow, but we need to be prepared to fight our way out if necessary.'

And with that, the two outlaws fell to sleep.

Eragon POV

'I guess we should go and see Nasuada, to tell her of our return and to see how things have been in the Varden.' Eragon thought to Saphira as they glided down onto the ground, amidst the cheering Varden.

As he jumped off of Saphira, he quickly found himself amidst hundreds of people welcoming him back to the Varden.

'It does not feel right celebrating our own return when Oromis and Glaedr are still dead.' Saphira said as she followed Eragon, who was slowly making his way through the masses of people, to the Leader of the Varden's tent. LOL, it looks like they are going to the leader of 'The Varden's tent'. Anyone else imagined Nasuada being the leader of a tent? Put it on a leash and drag it around the camp… No? Oh, whatever…

As they reached the tent, the Nighthawks announced Eragon's arrival. Soon after a distracted "Just a minute" resounded from the tent. As the Nighthawks were busy staring him down, Eragon began to wonder what sort of things the Shadow Wolves were doing now.

Edric POV

After making sure Niduen reached the Varden's tent unseen, which he was sure she would, he directed Kyha to the southern outskirts of the camp. They circled around twice and then simultaneously changed into wolves, landing much like Niduen had. This part of the Varden was far less organized than the center; there was a dearth of impoverished people, an attainment they both acknowledged with satisfaction.

'Good, they have made sure to refrain from cheating their own people.' Kyha remarked.

'Indeed…' Edric responded, striding towards the main part of the Varden.

As they walked, Edric reached out his mind to look for spies and to find the Magicians. Surprisingly, the Magicians were very weakly defended; he would not like to raise the alarm however and refrained from confronting their minds, even though he could easily have beaten the lot of them in a matter of seconds. As they walked through the tents, learning their way around the camp and reading the intent of the people they saw, there was one person who seemed to notice something was amiss. She was quirky looking, and seemed to be very intently studying the ground while a cat purred in her lap. She looked up, surprised, and scanned the area they were standing. Interested, the wolves sat down and watched as the cat stared directly at them and swished its tail. Perplexed, Edric experimentally improved his wards to protect against a wider variety of species and spells. They both moved, but the cat's eyes did not follow them this time.

'Edric, I remember her!'

'So do I…' he responded.

Carefully, he brushed the cat's mind, who suddenly raised stronger barriers than most of the spell casters. The wolves' eye lit up with recognition and they quickly entered the tent behind the lady and her cat, and then Edric released their wards.

"Solebum, it is good to see you again."

Bum Bum Buuuuuummmm! :P You will find out soon enough. Honestly, what did you expect? Why would a werecat not know a bunch of ninja-wolf-people?

Nasuada's POV

It had been a long day, since everyday was a long day at the Varden, and she needed a break. The minute the meeting was dismissed and everyone left, she sat down and rubbed her head in her hands. Eragon's return was much anticipated, and he was needed to help defend the group and improve morale. While he was gone however, it was always a time of worry and of questioning what the enemy would do if he should not make it back in time. Worse yet, the elves had gone with him and Saphira, which left them even less prepared. As a friend, she was worried about him (his teacher had just died); as a leader, she was worried for her people. She was about to sort through the pile of reports sitting on her desk, when she was cut off.

"Nasuada, we should talk."

She pulled the dagger out from her sleeve while simultaneously pushing her chair back and spinning around to confront the previously-empty tent space.

"Guards!" she cried out, taking up a defensive stance.

Quickly, she realized three very important things. First of all, this mysterious person was indeed a lady. Secondly, she did not appear to be armed, although she reminded herself that looks could be deceiving. And third, the shadows of the guards outside her tent did not move, nor was there any response of anyone or anything outside of the tent.

"Yes, no, and yes." The strange figure replied, not appearing to think it all strange that she had just read the Varden leader's mind.

Quickly, Nasuada strengthened her defenses and she felt the presence leave her mind apathetically. Confused, but not to be caught off guard, she decided to keep her defensive manner.

"Who are you? I do not wish to bring you harm."

"I am Niduen, daughter of Dicruno, King of the Shadow Wolves. As for attacking me, you are brave to try but I would strongly discourage you from trying such a reckless idea on an opponent which you know so little about."

"I know you are not trying to appear menacing, and I do not doubt my own abilities with a dagger."

"I like you already. However, you can be assured I mean you no harm and that I am here to help you. Eragon can attest to it himself."

A Nighthawk's voice pierced through the tent material, "Eragon Shadeslayer is here to see you."

Niduen's eyes quickly went blank, and Nasuada guessed she was mentally contacting someone.

"Just a minute." She replied, distractedly trying to figure out what was going on.

After she replied, Niduen's eyes went blank again for a fraction of a second before she refocused on Nasuada.

"I put wards around the tent, so as to not alarm your guards. Speaking of which, they may look menacing but any skilled magician could sneak by unnoticed. I suggest you allow Edric to teach your guards or set up complex wards."

"Edric?" Nasuada asked worried, "There are more?"

Instead of responding, Niduen's face went blank and she called out in a perfect copy of Nasuada's own voice, "Come in, Eragon."

As soon as Eragon walked in, she expected him to draw his sword and confront this 'Niduen', but instead he simply raised an eyebrow at her and then spoke to Nasuada.

"I see you have already met."

"Hardly. How do you know her? And who is Edric?" came the confused reply.

Niduen gave a toothy smile and gestured towards Eragon, "Yes Shadeslayer, it would be best to explain to your leader."

Nasuada sat down, confused but not as shocked as before, and listened while Eragon described all that had happened since he had left to go to the elven funeral. She listened quietly the whole time.

"And you can do what?" she asked skeptically, looking warily at Niduen.

Niduen's POV

She was getting tired of Nasuada's questioning, she as she usually did with humans, and decided to simply demonstrate instead of answering. Calmly, she changed shape into that of a wolf, with the slight difference of having strikingly sky-blue eyes. A gasp came, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She may be the daughter of the King, but trying to do politics with humans usually started out with her becoming a form of entertainment. She was a very deadly one form of entertainment however and usually earned the respect of the humans in battle soon enough.

After Eragon had finished answering her questions with what he knew, she stepped forward and spoke through her wolven mouth in a much more dignifying and commanding voice than that of her human form, "Our terms our simple and the requirements may not please you but are necessary. We will not answer to anyone unless we deem that person or group in need of assistance. We cannot fight this war for you, since this your war to fight. We will however, aid you in your endeavors if they are agreeable to our purpose for being here. Our purpose here is to return peace to Alagaesia, among other loose ends that need to be tied up since our last visit."

Both of the humans in the tent turned confused faces to her, "Your last visit?" Eragon said.

"I will speak of it later, but for now we must work on strengthening your defenses."

"It is nearly dark outside, how will you…?" Nasuada trailed off, remembering the conversation Eragon had described to her.

"Lady Nasuada, there is a messenger here for you." A Nighthawk announced, cutting through the awkward silence that had begun to settle over them. Niduen vanished (quite literally) and Nasuada let him in. As the messenger entered the tent, Niduen slipped through the Nighthawk's gaze and made her way out of the camp.

A/N:

Yeah, I know I think I said I would update yesterday… I decided it needed work so I did not publish it till now.

I feel like this is still waaaay too slow, but do not worry! It will speed up eventually.

So, is this better or worse than my other chapters? The previous chapters seem a bit shabby, and I will need to go back and edit those sometime…

I just watched Eragon the Movie. Anyone else think it was the most unrealistic and against the book film ever produced? I think it comes very close… As always, comments and ideas are greatly appreciated. I thought I was watching a whole other movie halfway through. Seriously, who even directed that thing? NONE of anything even remotely appeared the same. And Saphira just randomly getting bigger, and knowing English, and arguing, and the Ra'zac looking more like orks, and- I'll stop now. No I won't… it was far too fast, and the characters developed too quickly. They need to remake it, the RIGHT way. I could keep complaining, but I should get back to writing. I tend to write Notes before I even finish the chapter… :P

I think I could do a better job of directing that movie.

Soooo…

Good?

Bad?

Shocked?

Wishing I would not write so long AN?

Please review

Oh yeah, I have a surprise for Murtagh. MWHAHAHHA!

And also, O completely forget where the Varden is at this point and I feel like I am trying to juggle too many POVs. I will try to limit it to only a few per chapter. Roran, Katrina, Orik, and the Urgals are here right? Ughh… It has been so long…

If you read all of the bold, congrats! You rock! More than before, of course.