A roving band of assasin-theivs

"What are you doing here?" I cried, running up to Alieina.

"Well, I got bored with the traders, so I joined a roving band of assassin thieves!"

I stared at her. "Could you repeat that, please?"

"A roving band of assassin thieves," she cried enthusiastically.

"That's what I thought you said," I muttered.

Just then Eragon walked up behind me.

OHMYGODITSERAGONTHATSITIMNOTSTAYINGWITHTHESESTUPIDWHATEVERTHEYRECALLEDANYMORE!

"Bye, guys," she called to the group of twenty or so assassins who had crept up behind her. "I've got some fun memories with you, but I think it's time to move on."

The Assassins left.

"Hey, look," I called, "There's a whole band f people coming this way!"

"Could it be…?"

Eragon, who had much better eyesight than ether of us (Read eldest if you don't know why), said, It's about twenty or thirty kids, around the same age as you.

I looked at Alieina.

Alieina looked at me.

"Could it be…?"

"I just said that!"

"Sorry."

About an hour later, the band came into view.

It.

Was.

Them.

Go Phantom of the opera!

After they finally got to where we were, we explained that we were going after the three Murtagh kidnapped, and they asked if they could come with, and Eragon said it would probably be a good idea.

Well, actually, he said, "I- gah! Get off me! Think it's a g- OW! That hurts! Good idea! Ow! Get off my neck!"

I sighed and pulled Alieina off his neck.

Obviously, we couldn't ride Saphira when there were so many of us. Eragon, Alieina, I, and Erika (Who used to be Alieina's best friend) came with him first. The others followed more slowly.

Eragon said it would take four days to get to Uru Baen from where we were. On the third day we came to the spot where we would have to cross the Ramr River. The water was wide, brown, and fast flowing. And, as we found out when Alieina fell in and nearly drowned, very, very deep. Saphira dived under and came up reporting that it was so deep that she could stand on the bottom without her head touching the surface.

Crossing was going to be tough, and to complicate matters, just as we were deciding that the best was to cross would be to ride over on Saphira one by one, Erika spotted another dragon circling in the sky.

"It's Thorn!" I whispered.

"No," said Eragon, "it's too small for Thorn. It might be… The whole time I was following Murtagh, there was another rider following me. A girl, I think. She has a yellow dragon, who can't be more than a couple of years old.

We'd all heard rumors about the new rider, of course, but a rumor is just that- a rumor, a piece of unverified information of uncertain origin usually spread by word of mouth. Seeing the rider for real was a whole 'nother Ball Park.

And just then, the dragon dived.

There was no place to go except into the river. We crouched in the water, hidden by its murky depths while a short figure wearing armor got off a yellow dragon, looked around, then, with a snort of disgust, walked back to her dragon and took off.

"That was a close call!" Alieina cried, once we had surfaced. "But at least now we're on the other side of the river."

"True," I said, "Now all we have to do is get to Uru Baen."