I think it will have to be one update a week for this story, most of my time is occupied by The Future Begins but that could be a good thing. The chapters for this story are longer and I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that they are also written better. In any case, Enjoy.

The sun blazed down on the sand, blurring the horizon as the heat rebounded off the land. This posed no problem to the dragons who relished the heat on their scales, warming their blood. Eragon, however, was burning. Growing up in the cool mountains of Palancar valley made him less tolerant of heat than most people and his skin, despite the wards he cast to protect himself, was slowly blistering.

I think we should set down for a bit to give you a respite from the heat. Saphira said to him. Eragon shook his head.

"I'll be fine, let's keep going."

I am the one carrying you which means I make the decisions, and I say we set down for a bit. Saphira then signalled to Spyro and Cynder to descend and all three of them began to spiral towards the ground.

"You're just doing this to keep us in the desert longer so that I will have to eat meat." Eragon said as Saphira landed on the hot sand.

Now that would be a dirty trick, would I do that? She replied as she swept her tail over the sand to reveal the cooler sand underneath. Eragon dismounted her and sat down where she had swept, whilst Saphira lay down next to him and stretched her wing out, shading him from the sun. Spyro and Cynder landed nearby and lay down apart from each other, enjoying the heat of the sand on their bellies.

Sparx, like Eragon, also disliked the heat and lay in the shade next to the human. Taking the opportunity, Eragon decided to ask the strange dragonfly a few questions. "Why don't you like Cynder?" Sparx looked up at Eragon as if he had asked the most stupid question ever conceived.

"Oh I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that she tried to kill me, plus I have a sneaking suspicion that she wants to eat me." He said sarcastically. Eragon looked at Cynder and could not fathom a reason as to why she would even want to eat the dragonfly.

Has she done so since she returned to her normal self. Saphira asked.

"But that's the thing, nobody knows for certain if that is her normal self. She spent a lot more time as the Queen of conquer than as her current self, who knows if she even knows how to be good. Yet everyone at that dragon temple accepted her as if nothing had happened, well…I can understand why Spyro would have done."

And why is that?

"Well just look at him, he can't keep his eyes off miss doom and gloom." Eragon looked towards Spyro and sure enough he was looking at Cynder, who was looking in the opposite direction, oblivious.

"That's probably because they both had another growth spurt last night." And they had. They both gained more muscle mass and length, Spyro's spines on his back grew larger, along with his horns and chest and Cynder gained a longer neck, longer horns and a thinner waist.

"I suppose that would make sense but still, she tried to kill us." Saphira snorted.

From what I've seen, she regrets that. I have watched you three during the night and, although you all have reason to be troubled in your sleep due to your circumstances, she is the most troubled. She trembles and grimaces as if caught in an eternal nightmare and I don't think that giving her grief whilst awake is really the best thing for her at the moment.

"I thought that I heard something last night." Sparx said to himself. Before anyone could say anything else, the five of them heard shouting in the distance. Eragon got out from beneath Saphira's wings whilst Spyro and Cynder moved next to him.

"What is it?" Cynder asked as she looked out into the desert at a small group of creatures. Eragon gripped the hilt of his borrowed sword, the strange handle and metal uncomfortable in his hand.

"A small group of slavers, they're attacking a group of nomads." Eragon told them.

"What are nomads?" Spyro asked, craning his neck for a better view.

Saphira got up and stood next to Eragon, hiding Spyro and Cynder at the same time. The nomads are human, they roam the desert ignoring the Empire. What do you want to do Eragon? We can't let these two be seen.

Eragon looked up into her sapphire eyes. But we can't let these people become slaves either. He looked out at the group of humans again. His keen eyes witnessed a man beat a woman to the ground and then clap irons around a child's ankles. "Spyro, Cynder, crouch down against the sand, stay low and you shouldn't be seen." Spyro nodded and did so.

"I'm fine with that." Sparx stated as he took a seat on Spyro's back.

Cynder hesitated as she met Eragon's stare. You can't be seen Cynder, please. He said to her mentally. Upon hearing his plea she reluctantly did so, crouching down a few meters away from Spyro.

Eragon then climbed onto Saphira's back, who took off with a roar towards the slavers. Despite her roar the slavers were oblivious to the approaching dragon and continued with their work, stripping the nomads of their valuables and measuring how much each of the men, women and children would be worth on the market. It wasn't until one of the slavers was plucked from the ground by Saphira, taken high into the air, and then dropped, with a sickening thud, to the ground, that the slavers knew they were under attack.

"Shoot that dragon out of the sky, don't kill it, I bet the king would pay handsomely for it." One of the men shouted. As a response five men drew their bows and nocked arrows, aiming them at Saphira's wings.

Eragon, seeing this, reacted quickly. "Thrysta!" He called pointing his hand towards the men. Their bows instantly shattered, the wood splintering and embedding pieces into the men's hands. Saphira then came in for another run, releasing a burst of flame as she grew close enough.

The scorching dragon fire splashed against the sand, making it glow. When it came into contact with flesh it singed it, the flame burning the hair and skin of the men making them writhe on the hot sand with agony. The nomads that had been shackled had no idea what was happening, they screamed along with the slavers, some even tried to help the slavers repel the dragon.

There are too many, Eragon, perhaps it best you use magic to take them all out. Saphira said as she circled high above the reach of the spears that were being thrown at her.

Eragon looked at the scene below him. I don't want to just kill them, Saphira. They have to be given a chance to retreat or that would make me a merciless killer…like Murtagh. Eragon realised he let his mind waver as he said this.

Ah so that is what you have been thinking about these past few days. We will discuss this later but for now we must focus on the task at hand. Saphira shot towards the ground again, Eragon brandishing his sword. The slavers were expecting this though, and quickly formed a line of spearmen. Saphira screeched as she tried to pull out of her dive. But she was coming in too fast and as she pulled up, several spears scrapped along her underside, tearing into her scales and drawing blood.

She roared out in agony as she shut her mind from Eragon's to protect him from the pain. Eragon tried to comfort her but couldn't gain access to her mind. "Go back to Spyro and Cynder." He shouted over her wing beats. "I'll finish up here." He then leapt off her back and descended to the sand. He made himself roll as he landed to avoid damage from the drop and then watched as Saphira flew away, dripping blood on the sand.

He then assumed his typical stance for sword fighting as the slavers surrounded him, each with their own swords. Two of them immediately charged him and Eragon quickly parried their blows. He then stepped forwards, swinging his sword in an arc and caught both their swords against his blade. With a flick of his wrist he wrenched the swords from the two men's grasps and left them armless.

The two men looked at him dumbly before slowly retreating. Eragon's face hardened as his mind felt a presence behind him. He sidestepped and turned to see a sword in the space where his back would have been. He then brought his sword up underneath the trusted sword, throwing its wielder of balance. Eragon then delivered a blow to the man's gut with his elbow, making him bowl over in pain.

Despite Eragon's obvious superior fighting skills, the slavers refused to back down and Eragon found that he had to fend off increasingly more frenzied attacks from the men. It wasn't until Eragon had to kill one of them, with a thrust of his sword into a man's back, did the men show any sign of wariness.

Eragon was about to give the men a chance to retreat when he suddenly felt the minds of Spyro and Cynder approaching. He looked up to find them, but in this brief lag of concentration one of the men charged forward with a roar. Eragon barely had his sword in the way before his opponent ran him through. His sword still wasn't quite quick enough and Eragon felt the tip of the man's sword press against his chest, slowly pushing deeper until Eragon felt his skin break. He pushed forward with his own sword, shattering both blades.

The action jarred his hand and he let go of the broken sword to grip his wrist. He then saw Spyro drop out of the sky and unleash his ice breath, freezing five of the men in place. Cynder dropped behind two other men lashing out with her bladed wings, tearing into the backs of their legs and crippling them. She then swung her tail around and slashed another man with the blade tip.

Now that Spyro and Cynder had been seen Eragon had no choice but to kill all the slavers. He reached out with his mind and located the nerves that, if severed, would kill a man instantly. He then proceeded with this and fifteen men dropped down, dead. It always unsettled Eragon how easy it was to do that, it cost him little energy yet it cost his targets their lives, without even giving them a chance to defend themselves.

Spyro and Cynder stopped in their tracks as the men fell. They looked at Eragon, confused. "Magic." He told them and he then walked towards the nomads that had been shackled, the ones that hadn't been had escaped long ago. "Losna." He muttered and the various shackles released. The nomads were quick to break away from each other, running away in various directions to get away from the man who fought alongside dragons. Eragon knew that they would be back to collect their things but only after he had left.

"How is Saphira?" Eragon asked as he, Spyro and Cynder began walking towards her in the distance. Before he left he chose another sword from the multitude that lay in the sand.

"She's fine, her wounds look worse than they are but there is a lot of sand in them." Cynder replied as she walked on his left.

Spyro who was walking on his right continued. "They'll have to be cleaned to heal up properly."

"That won't be a problem, I can get plenty of water. Why did you come to me? I thought I told you to stay out of sight." He said, causing a growl to escape Cynder before she realised she was doing it and stopped herself.

"We were only trying to help, besides Saphira told us to make sure that you were ok. We only intervened when your sword broke."

Eragon sighed. "I suppose I should be grateful, you did save me from some possible harm. But from now on we have to be more careful, if the king hears word of you he will instigate a hunting party. If he finds you two he will have two new powerful dragons and he undoubtedly will want to make more." Spyro and Cynder caught the hint.

"Fine then, we should avoid doing anything that will draw attention to ourselves, including saving any more humans from becoming slaves." Cynder said, having no wish to be captured by the king.

"Although it goes against my nature I agree, we should reach Du Weldenvarden as quick as possible." Eragon told them as he reached Saphira. She allowed him to approach her and inspect her wounds. "Do they pain you?" He asked as he pulled out his water skin.

They merely sting but I can't reach the wounds to get the sand out. She replied.

"I'll take care of that." He replied as he poured a small amount of water over the gashes. She twitched slightly as the water stung her flesh. Eragon continued to wash her belly, the water removing the sand and staining the ground with her blood. Spyro and Cynder watched carefully, Sparx sat in-between Spyro's horns and spines on his head.

When Eragon was sure that all of the sand was gone he placed his hands on her underside. He reached into his mind for the barrier that separated his conscious mind from the magic. He broke through this barrier and focused on the necessary energy. "Waíse heill." He said as the gedwëy ignasia began to glow on his palm. Saphira's cuts and scrapes began to heal over as Eragon moved his palm across her scales.

When Eragon had finished there was no evidence that Saphira had been injured, which blew both Spyro's and Cynder's minds, Sparx convinced that it was some sort of trick to try and make Eragon look good. "How did you do that?" Spyro asked. "What else can you do?" Cynder was nodding alongside him, eager for him to answer the questions.

Eragon laughed. "You're magic is only limited by the words you know in the ancient language. There is a word for everything but it's not just a word, it is the thing you are naming." The two dragons looked confused and Eragon tried to think of a better way to describe it, he then remembered how Brom had explained it to him. "Fire, for example, is called Brisingr in the ancient language but it's not just a name, brisingr is fire, it's essence. Another example is Arget. Arget is silver, in both name and substance. Do you understand?" Cynder nodded but Spyro shook his head.

The words that make up the ancient language are the true names of the objects the words describe. Saphira explained. You are called Spyro, yet you would have another name in the ancient language that IS you and if somebody finds that name they will be able to control you as that name is you. This time Spyro nodded.

"Well, would we be able to use this magic?" Cynder asked, a tone of longing in her voice.

Eragon noticed this tone but shrugged it off till later. "I don't know. Dragons have never been able to use it, but you two are different to the dragons of this age so I honestly have no idea if you would be able to use it or not." This brought a smile to Cynder's face, her teeth flashing briefly.

"Could you teach us?" She asked, Spyro agreeing with his own smile.

Before Eragon could answer, Saphira cut in front of him. He could try to teach you but only if you will try to teach me how to use that wonderful ice breath. She said, a small glint in her eyes.

"I could try, you are a blue dragon after all." Spyro replied. Eragon shuddered at the thought of Saphira being able to wake him by freezing his bed. "You can breath fire so you should have the ability to learn the element of ice." Eragon felt the excitement come through his link with Saphira and thought it best to make them all face reality.

"You all realise however, that you may not be able to learn these things." He said, earning looks from all three of the excited dragons. "There is no precedents for dragons being able to use magic at will, so you two may not be able to learn gramarye, which is the proper name for magic." Spyro and Cynder looked down at this before Eragon continued. "And you, Saphira, there has not been a recording of a dragon being able to breath anything other than fire and your own ancestral memories support that." Unlike Spyro and Cynder, Saphira kept eye contact with him.

I know that, Eragon. I did say 'try to teach' remember. I am not a child to get my hopes up, I realise that the chances of me learning are slim at best. Eragon's statement seemed foolish to him after Saphira's response, she always had that effect on him. Now I will go and hunt for us. We didn't cover much ground today, Eragon, so you can look forward to some thing to eat, no matter what I bring you. She said before she took off, ignoring his glares.

--

Saphira returned two hours after she left, carrying deer she claimed that she found on the along the bank of the Ramr River, an incredible distance to travel in two hours even for her, which made Eragon suspect she was lying.

After giving Spyro and Cynder their deer she tore off a portion of her own deer with her jaws and placed it in front of him. "Great, thanks." He said as he looked at the bloody lump of meat.

Your welcome. Just to clarify, I will take control of your body and force you to eat it if you don't do so of your own accord. She said ignoring his sarcasm. Eragon then set about creating a place to cook the meat. He collected some dry shrubbery and created a small fire. He then pulled out a small knife and began cutting the deer into more manageable pieces before finally placing them over the fire. By the time the deer was cooked Saphira had already eaten her meal and Spyro and Cynder were half way through theirs.

As he took the deer off the fire he took comfort in the fact that he himself hadn't killed the animal, also no animal was harmed on account of him, this was part of Saphira's catch and therefore her responsibility. This didn't stop his stomach from churning, however, when he placed a small piece in his mouth and began to chew. His hungry body eagerly accepted it but his mind conflicted, knowing that he could survive for a few more days without eating.

Saphira sensed this and chastised him for it. Just eat it, Eragon. It won't do you any harm to get a bit of meat in you.

"I am eating it aren't I?" He replied through a mouthful. He had to admit though, he loved the taste.

Only through fear of what I will do to you if you don't. He carried on eating until he had had his fill and then tossed the rest to Saphira. I prefer it fresh but thank you anyway. She said as she swallowed it. Eragon looked towards Spyro and Cynder and saw that they had also finished, the entire carcass stripped as the one the night before had been after Saphira told them to share.

"Do you want to know a little more about magic then?" He asked the two, who both nodded and approached him. "Well the first rule of magic is casting a spell with magic costs as much energy as it would to do the task by mundane means…"

--

"Lady Nasuada, we have the final figures for our losses." Jörmundur said as he entered her chamber in Borromeo Castle. Nasuada acknowledged him as she straightened her dress.

"Well how many did we lose?" She asked, expecting the worst.

"Our losses were severe." He said, confirming her fears. "Out of our full force of fifty thousand men we lost over half with another five thousand wounded and unfit for combat. Our magicians also had their own losses but not as many as the empire did, who have lost most, if not all, of their magicians thanks to Eragon." Nasuada's knuckles grew white as she clenched her fists around her dress.

"And what of the Empire's soldiers?" She asked with hope.

"Our sources tell us that their losses were far more severe than our own. Although they had more than double our full force, Eragon and the Du Vrangr Gata killed many of their men with magic. Angela's infiltration into their camp also resulted in the majority of their generals being poisoned. Also, after the citizens of Carvahall arrived on the Dragon Wing and opened fire with the ship's ballistae, the opposing army received heavy casualties. The Empire's army is effectively crippled." This news elated Nasuada.

"Well we can at least take comfort that we won't be in danger of another major attack anytime soon. Unfortunately we are in no position to mount a successful attack either."

Arya approached Nasuada. "You can count on the elves to assist you in any further skirmishes. We received word too late of your need to get here for the battle but by now our own soldiers and magicians will be ready and garrisoned to merge with your current forces."

Nasuada nodded. "They will be greatly welcomed, we need all the extra soldiers we can get at the moment. I only wish Murtagh hadn't become a rider for the king, one rider is bad enough but two." She finished with a shake of her head.

"And we can only hope that the last egg doesn't hatch for him otherwise you will have three dragon riders to contend with, something I think even Eragon won't be able to overcome." Everyone in the room nodded at Angela's statement.

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