Author's Note: Contrary to popular belief, I do not resent my sister! I love her! Duh. :P But you'll see in the coming chapters how I am the wind beneath her wings; and trust me, it's pretty cold there in her shadow. But I'm proud of her! I really am.

Disclaimer: Wondering why you don't recognize some of the characters? Chyeah. They're mine. That's it. Nothing else. Get it? Got it? Good.

My lady, she doth dance with grace;

Without a single flaw.

Unless you count her lovely face

Which isn't lovely at all!

Tomak danced a little jig around the bonfire as we all laughed. Contrary to our belief, Lista had been so happy to see Uncle that she simply made another dinner to celebrate.

Not that she had forgotten about the mess Rudia and I had made.

"This will come back to you in threefold, m'dears!" she had said with quite a mean scowl on her face. Rudia and I had looked properly ashamed in the face of Goody Lista, but laughed about it as soon as she let us go.

It was now well into the night, our bellies were full of delicious rabbit procured by means of Theron's happy hunting, and no one wanted to go to sleep. In fact, it was almost as if the world would end as soon as we closed our eyes.

When Uncle Eragon had told us there was to be a surprise waiting when we were finished washing up, Rudia, Bailik, Tomak, and I burst into the house and pulled out our best clothes. We all piled into Bailik's room with armfuls of clothes.

I combed Rudia's hair until it was sleek and shiny as we all tried to guess what the "surprise" would be.

Tomak contributed his guess of a score of pretty maidens from the corner where he was changing to an embroidered frock coat.

Several pillows and a comb were thrown at him.

Bailik stood in the mirror examining her pale lips. "Mayhap it's a new Rider?" She bit them softly and watched as the red color blossomed. I imitated her and smiled.

"I doubt it," declared Rudia, in the process of pinning up her long hair so it was styled half up, half down. "The latest egg is all the way in Farthen-Dûr, and it's not likely it's going to hatch any time soon."

"And how would you know any of this, Missy-foo?" Uncle was leaning in the doorway. He seemed amused by all of our preparations.

Rudia stammered for a response, but he waved it away with a smile and a strong hand. "Saphira says you all look lovely, as do I, but I think you may want to change into what you'd wear while sitting on the ground and enjoying yourselves."

He looked pointedly at the heavy linen gown I was wiggling on over my best shift and the poofy leggings adorning Tomak's legs.

Giggles filled the room as Uncle shook his head with a smile and left us to change. I pulled off the gown and slipped on my absolute favorite casual dress, an azure hue so bright it was like having Saphira's scales sewn into the fabric. Bailik's outfit was traded for leggings so wide they could be skirts and a tunic "stolen" from our father the last time he visited. Rudia, still not totally convinced there were no boys outside waiting to flirt with her, took out a gold dress with white embroidery. I knew it would get dirty right away, but she stubbornly wouldn't listen.

Tomak led the way in sensible breeches and a white linen shirt as we trotted out into the backyard. Saphira and Uncle were there, as well as Lista in her ever-present apron and shift. It was turning dark, but I could see the smiles on their faces as we took in the scene they had set up for us.

A fire roared on the stones laid out for that purpose, and a marvelous dinner was set up on the table taken form the kitchen. Our favorite foods were set out; rabbit stewed in creamy onion soup; fresh bread with rosemary and chives; sweet lemonade. Magic was truly amazing.

Uncle sat on a log beside the blaze, one leg casually crossed over the other. Saphira's giant form was behind him and just to his right, her nose resting on his left shoulder. He leaned against her serpentine neck. The picture was touching, to say the least.

And so we arrived at Tomak's entertainment. The rhymes he made up as he danced around the fire weren't great, but his antics made us laugh all the same. His singing voice was lovely; I wasn't lying when I said that. But his rhythm left a lot to be desired. Several times he tripped over a stone or even Theron, who lay at Lista's feet, but he was always up on his feet with a smile.

Rudia was just the opposite. Her grace was something Bailik and I both wished we had; she took after our mother in that aspect. She twirled around the fire in slippers she had styled to tie up her legs, leaping and bending into fluid motions. The blocks she had put in the front of her shoes enabled her to stand on her toes, and so she did. Her dance was totally practiced, but made it seem as if it were all natural. There was a silence when she finished.

When her heels touched to the ground again she stared at us all in mock disbelief. "You'd think I was a dancer or something."

We all laughed and ushered Bailik up to do something. When she stood dumbstruck, the glare from the flames casting an eerie shadow over half her face, I bounced up beside her.

"What about a poetry contest?" I exclaimed with a smile. She looked at me, clearly uncomfortable. She glanced at Saphira.

"Why don't you just recite something?" she asked, a bit too quickly. Normally Bailik was eager to tell a story, or even just to talk. My father used to smile and say the sound of her own voice was what pleased her most.

I gave her a look. What is going on with her? I asked Saphira in mind-speak.

Never you mind, Faelin, came the answer I least wanted to hear. Recite something you've written.

I sighed audibly and shooed Bailik away to go and sit. I might as well listen to Saphira.

I cleared my throat and shifted my feet around a little. I flipped through the parchments in my head, trying to decide which poem I should bring out of secrecy.

"Lovers Lost?" Nah. Kinda sad. "If Only I Could Fly?" Well we all know what that's like. It'd bore them.

The frown on my face prompted Uncle, who'd been mostly silent, to call out, "How about that one about the forest?" There was that ever-present twinkle in his eye. I smiled.

"Sure." I clasped my hands behind my back and strolled a few steps back and forth as I told my story.

In the forest fabled black

Beside the mountains dusted white

Burst forth a cloud of charcoal crows

Calling out in dawn's first light.

I implored Saphira silently to raise herself up a bit as I spoke, where the fire cast a glow on her scales. I fixed my hands into various shapes as I spoke, creating a shadow-filled picture show to accompany my words.

In the canopies so dark

Belonging to the forest black

Flit the sparrows, to and fro,

All the while calling back.

A bird flapped along Saphira's flank and up her belly. This drew a few timid laughs as what was meant to be a solemn poem went on.

Leaves that make the canopies –

I was startled when a huge number of leaves fell on my head. I was frozen with my arms out, and the look on my face so surprised that Tomak and Bailik, Rudia and Lista, even Saphira began to laugh. Uncle was the only one who wasn't just laughing. He was roaring. In hysterics. Cracking up. However you put it, there were tears of mirth rolling down his face as he was doubled over.

I looked up and felt handfuls of crisp leaves slide off me and settle around my bare feet. There was the ancient maple, swaying though there was no breeze. It was getting old, and we planned to cut it down come autumn when we would need firewood. It was nearly bare of leaves now, considering Uncle had so happily convinced it to drop them on my head.

I put on an air of dignity and brushed off the leaves that clung to my sleeves. Deliberately clearing my throat, I called order back to my poem.

Leaves that make the canopies

Drip with sad, sad memories

Of things been lost, and things been found.

Too long have these trees been around.

I gestured to the maple as I said this, which groaned in reply. A glance at Uncle Eragon told me he had nothing to do with it, seeing as he had one eyebrow raised at me. Then again, you could never be sure.

I went on to tell of a young man and a young woman, the latter of which is called into the forest by the former's magic voice. Sure, it was a bit far fetched, but Rudia made me promise when I was done to write it down all fancy-like for her so she could keep it in her room.

I swept back to my seat in my sore feet (it was a long poem!) Uncle put a hand on my shoulder and kissed the side of my head before he got up for his turn, and I knew why. I had drawn upon nature in order to write this, and he loved it.

Uncle stretched and yawned, feigning sleepiness. "It's far too late, isn't it childlings?" A grin spread across his magic-shaven face.

Rudia leapt up. "No, Uncle! Please show us something!"

"Rudia, don't be daft. He was only kidding!" I yanked her down with a laugh.

"Oh," was her quiet reply, accompanied by a crimson blush. I tweaked her cheek and she smiled.

"Hm," said Uncle, his lips pressed together and one hand on his hip. The other scratched his chin as he paced a few steps back and forth. "what shall I play with tonight? Mayhap…..adurna?"

A thin stream of water flew out of the nearest pitcher and shot right into Lista's mouth, open wide in a yawn. Her eyes popped open and she coughed before swallowing amid many laughs from my brother and sisters. I merely smiled and watched.

"Eh." Uncle made a noncommittal nose and shrugged. "What about deloi?"

The ground rumbled beneath Theron. The slumbering hound opened one eye and cocked an ear before being lifted into the air by the small plateaus erupting out of the ground. Theron jumped off the platforms with a yelp as they shrunk back into the ground.

"I know! Brisingr!" he cried, and two tendrils of fire spun out of the fire, one a bright blue and the other deep green. They lashed around him, violent but graceful, and twined together to form one long arm. The two colors were still visible; it looked as if Uncle had taken them and twisted them together as he would two pieces of thin copper.

This arm snaked around him and lit up his face an eerie color, like the bottom of a lake. It unraveled from around him and became two again, the green gliding out to us. It stopped near Lista and pulsed bright, but poor Lista only cowered with a forced laugh into Tomak beside her. It moved on.

Rudia was next. She shrieked with laughter as it danced around her, spinning with it until she was dizzy. She sat down a little wobbly with a smile on her face. It came to Bailik, and she bravely reached out to touch it. She shivered as she came in contact with the cold fire, but let it curl up her arm. She was soon engulfed by it, watching as it twisted all over her like a snake.

I felt a tap on my right shoulder, but when I turned there was no one there. I spun in my seat to my left and saw only a shimmer of blue. With a quick movement I reached behind me and felt a brush of cold as the blue tendril slipped away to Uncle. He winked at me, and I smiled.

The fire withdrew from us, curling back and returning to the orange flames. We were all silent in appreciation, but cheered when Uncle pulled a very dramatic bow.

"But I believe we've left someone out!" Uncle's eyes swept our little group, resting on Lista.

"Oh no no, I couldn't!" She fidgeted in her seat.

Uncle's warm smile calmed her down. "I'm only joking Lista," he said. "It looks like Bailik hasn't done anything."

I turned to look at my sister and found she wasn't there. Quick glances told me she wasn't even near the campfire anymore. Uncle looked terribly puzzled.

"Where is she?" asked Rudia, queen of obvious questions.

"Faelin!" I heard my name being called from high above. "Rudia! Tomak! Listaaaaaaaah!" a gleeful laugh followed the shouts. I looked up, already knowing what I would see. There was Bailik atop Saphira, who roared a greeting as well.

They executed the barrel rolls they both love. Then came a loop, which I had never seen them do before. They did a few in succession before my eyes widened and a scream tore from my lips.

I watched in horror, not able to do anything, as my sister, my best friend, fell from the sky.