Kai was curious, she didn't let it show but she wished she could get into that beasts head. She had no idea how he had come about, how he and Silko showed up in that field, how the urgals found them, truthfully she still didn't even know why she followed that band of urgals.

As she watched Eragon hold his hand near Suoh's head, she wondered why Eragon stayed away from recent events in her own mind. Didn't he want to know how she came about in their presence? He seemed more interested about her as a person, how she grew up and what she'd done. None of it was pretty.

Eragon's back was to her so she didn't get to see his shocked face as he watched a large long white rock be lifted out of a small creek by an older boy. He watched as the egg hatched for the boy, watched Suoh be names by him, fed by him, and cared for by him.

Kai was in no way Suoh's rider. That boy was. Eragon watched as Suoh quickly grew, watched the boy grow, he was about as old as Eragon maybe a year or two years older. Eragon didn't recognize any of the land features they passed over as a white dragon, a little smaller then present Saphira, flew with the brown haired blue eyed hansom boy.

Finally Eragon saw cities that resembled Alagaesia. Suoh himself pushed Eragon into a memory. The feeling was new; he slightly panicked at the alien mind pushing his own mind into a different memory.

They were at a small camp at the edge of a field that bordered the desert Eragon and Saphira had crossed. They had a small fire that was devoid of smoke. Both boy and dragon had grown, Suoh looked barely smaller then he presently was. The memory mustn't have been that old then.

With what seemed like no warning, urgals. They were everywhere; their quiet rest around the small fire was turned into a battle of one hundred urgals against Rider and Dragon.

Eragon watched along with the memory Suoh as the Rider was struck, urgal bodies were all around him but one had gotten him. Eragon felt the dragon's sorrow that came with the memory. A quick flash caught Eragon's eye and there stood Kai, she took a defensive stance before the boy and single handedly fought off the circle of urgals that had formed around the then young man.

The Rider clutched his stomach as Kai killed off the urgals with tireless force. Suoh's white flame incinerated the remaining urgals and Eragon felt shocked as he saw the battle field, a hundred urgals taken down so quickly, but the Rider, he was injured. Had he died?

Eragon watched through Suoh's eyes as Kai tended to the Rider, his name was Silko.

Silko's voice rang through Suoh's head in the memory. She's beautiful. That's all he thought as that incredible girl had taken down dozens of urgals herself and remained unscathed. Silko blushed as Kai reached to wrap her bandages around his waist and her face grew near his, though her eyes remained downcast to his wound.

Eragon was overwhelmed with Suoh's sadness as the scene blurred and was returned to later that night. He would soon find out why.

Suoh had taken off as Kai stood looking to the trees and she and Silko mad their way to a small patch of trees. Then Eragon watched as arrows emerged from the forest and berated down on their patch, the memory faded through Suoh's eyes as the dragon fell from the sky and his vision blurred with the pain.

Eragon quickly pulled out as even in the memory, the dragon's pain filled him.

Kai watched as Eragon quickly took a few steps away from Suoh and shook his head like a bug was in his hair.

Nasuada cleared her throat and waited in feigned patience.

"She's not even his rider." Eragon said shocked himself.

"What!" Nasuada asked standing.

Kai felt she should answer as she didn't want Suoh to think more on it.

"Suoh's Rider passed. I was there with him when it happened. And after I was satisfied with Suoh's health I left. But he followed and now we are here." She said vaguely. Kai wasn't the best when it came to explanations, but she could get her points across.

"What was wrong with his health?" Nasuada asked hiding her curiosity.

Eragon took the liberty to answer.

"When either Dragon or Rider dies……….. Half of the livings mind dies with them." Nasuada gasped with shock and Kai looked to Suoh with sudden apologies, she had known something was wrong with him that night, but never did something as horrible as that cross her mind.

"What of his egg? Where did it come from?" Arya asked. It confused her that an egg would have slipped from the elves or the empire.

"I didn't recognize the land, but his Rider found the egg in a creek. Suoh grew in their foreign country and when he was about Saphira's size they flew into Alagaesia." Eragon answered feeling odd to have to answer for another dragon, he usually only had to do it for Saphira.

"What of you?" Nasuada asked Kai suspiciously. "Where did you come from, how did you come about Alagaesia? Were you born here?" She sounded more then suspicious. It was like since she wasn't a Rider it was harder to come to trust her.

"I….don't know." Kai answered with some difficulty, it was getting hard to keep her facial expressions neutral. "I have no family to speak of. I have no life to speak of. I doubt I was meant to exist." She told them truthfully.

"What of your magic?" Eragon asked quietly, he didn't really want to admit he had been watching her. "How did you heal Suoh when you spoke no words? You merely placed your hand over the wounds." He looked as confused as she felt. Kai couldn't explain, she didn't have the slightest clue herself.

Kai shrugged, and Eragon fought to control his surprised yet deadpan expression, it would have been rude.

"I don't know the ancient language." She supplied facing Eragon as he listened. "I will his wounds to heal, and they do." She shrugged again.

Did she even use the same kind of magic Eragon himself used? Did she come from a country far away? Like the elves? Was she from a country near the elves homeland?

"I have one last question." Nasuada announced. "Can I trust you?" her simple word meant so much, like a contract, her words embedded into Kai and Suoh cringed through the link he formed to connect to Kai. Her answer would restrict her, all her life she was free. Free to do as she pleased. But that question. That short question would bind her to the Varden, she would be their tool, for them to use. Could she give up that small piece of free will?

Kai glanced at Suoh; she knew he could hear her thoughts.

You make your own decisions. His words did nothing compared to the emotion felt behind them, she didn't want to leave him, and he was the only one to come to be her friend, the closest anyone had ever gotten to her. He was in her head, in a quite literal meaning.

"Yes." Kai said softly lowering her gaze to the thick plush carpets. With her eyes down cast she didn't see the shocked expressions as she bent her knees and lowered in a bow to Nasuada. She had sealed herself to a cause, and she would fulfill it. She would stay to the end. For Suoh.

Review please. Happy Holidays!

-BS