Author's Note:

Questions I must ask:

Do you want me to put author's notes at the beginning or the end?

Do I use too many semicolons?

Have you ever tried dipping potato chips in ketchup? (Try it. Get a paper plate out right now, squirt ketchup on it, and dip some classic Lay's in it.)

If I keep opening up tabs of my own story infinitely so that I get a whole bunch of views, will that change the algorithm?

Have you seen any asterisks? If so, please leave a comment because those are not supposed to be there.

How easy is this to read? My Asperger's syndrome makes me want to go into detail on introspection and not much on environment, so I know the writing style is a bit strange. I'm trying to keep a decent amount of Paolini's writing style and word patterns in here, but I'm not spending too much time focusing on that. Don't be afraid to leave comments if there's something annoying I keep doing in my writing that you would like for me to fix.

Eragon stood at the foot of the portal before him, trapped in a paradox where his mind was both rejoicing and stunned into silence.

Saphira had no such restraints; her roar was possibly the loudest he had ever heard her emit. Strangely, blue lilies sprouted from the ground, vibrating and glowing ethereally. Saphira's passion had caused her magic to augment her roar, apparently. The ground trembled, and a dark cloud of terrified birds flew from the branches of the nearby forest. The nearby forest was eight leagues away. Eragon, who was only ten feet away, did not fare well.

A fraction of a second after Saphira had begun her vocalizations, Eragon heard a loud pop, and all went silent. His body reverberated with such strength that the wards protecting his bones and organs began to fail; their imbued power diminished and reverted to drawing energy from him, the sensation of which had taken on a dull ache in the wake of channeling the Eldunarí's power.

Saphira! Stop!

Her deafening roar subsided abruptly, a cloud of smoke forcibly exiting her nostrils as her maw snapped shut. Eragon immediately whispered a spell to repair his destroyed ear drums, making a mental note to place a ward on them as soon as possible.

Saphira brought her head down and apologetically nuzzled him.

That was foolish of me. I failed to consider that sound could be harmful.

Well, you accomplished something- all of Alagaësia probably heard that.

That is not likely.

You know what I mean.

Actually, I cannot hear anything from the other side of the passage. Sound must not travel through.

Ah- I forgot about that. You're right, I added that part to the spell so that the elves in Du Weldenvarden aren't disturbed by- well, dragons roaring loudly. I hope its able to withstand magically enhanced dragon roars- wow, that sounds even crazier now that I say it. Magically enhanced dragon roars should not be allowed. From here on out, they are banned.

Saphira gazed at him with exaggerated shame, widening her eyes like a rebuked hatchling.

Looking into the door, the weight of the situation settled in a bit more and Eragon spontaneously hugged Saphira's nose, which was still pressed into him.

It worked!

I never doubted.

The next way to go is forward. Together?

Saphira nodded and crouched, allowing Eragon to take a leap off her leg and onto her saddle. He wavered a little bit, as if drunk.

Eragon, are you all right? Your mind is very muddled.

I feel a bit like I'm about to throw up from that spell, but I'm still fine to go. So let's go!

He knew he was being reckless, but it wasn't like he was going into enemy territory.

She strode forward into the doorway, which Eragon had placed near the edge of the wards surrounding Du Weldenvarden, at the shortest possible point from Ellesméra. When they crossed the threshold, the sounds of the forest filled their ears with a welcome chorus.

Eragon felt his wards begin draining his energy as they deflected a spell. Confusion filled him as he countered the ward, speaking the Name to remove the trap he had triggered. Ellesméra didn't have these kinds of wards.

"Eragon?"

The air wavered, and Arya, Fírnen, and fourteen elven warriors appeared around the sides of the portal.

Saphira rushed forward, and she and Fírnen began nipping and nuzzling at each other. Eragon unstrapped himself with a word in the ancient language and hopped off of her saddle, afraid to be anywhere near the reunion of his dragon and her mate.

"Arya!"

As he began to walk forward, his vision blacked out, and the next thing he saw was his face rushing toward the ground. He caught himself with his hands and pushed himself back up with the same action, wavering when he was on his feet again.

"Eragon? Are you alright?"

Eragon brushed off the bit of tiredness he was feeling. It was nothing compared to this. He had thought that he would spend the rest of his life in Skulutan, only seeing Arya when she happened to be outside the wards of Du Weldenvarden and they both had an indestructible reflective surface on hand.

"I'm fine, I'm just a bit-"

Everything went black again, and the warm blanket of unconsciousness covered him.

Saphira broke from the preening of her mate and snapped her head towards Eragon. He had fallen asleep just as he was meeting his prospective mate for the first time in six months! Saphira checked his mind to make sure he was not in any danger, and confirmed that he was only sleeping.

Alright.

She left Eragon to his inexplicable courting strategy and returned to acting the proper way with her mate, preening his green scales for anything he had missed in his routines. To her satisfaction, she found next to nothing, save for a few small flecks of plant matter where his strange-elven-saddle had chafed against him.

He shared a thought with her, conveying that she smelled different. He felt his suspicion as to the cause of that, and Saphira confirmed it, sharing that she was pregnant.

He pulled his green head away from her, eyes wide. He then opened his jaw and joyfully crowed several times, and Saphira joined him. When she noticed the elves and her Rider again, he saw that they had rolled him over from being face down and were performing a medical look-over on him. It occurred to her then that his sleep had not been intentional, and she then noticed that his magical reserves were next to empty. She fed him a bit of energy, and her Rider opened his eyes immediately, calling out Arya's name again.

She rebuked herself for being so distracted as to not have noticed the state of Eragon, and attempted to redeem herself by looking over him thoroughly. However, she was quickly dismissed by Eragon, who told her to go be with Fírnen, a statement that was reinforced by Arya, who said that they would return on foot to Ellesméra.

Fírnen nuzzled the back of her head.

That is our invitation to leave.

She followed him as he took off, heading in the direction of Fírnen's den in the Crags of Tel'naeír. Her wings felt strained, and she herself felt exerted by the simple movement.

Fírnen slowed his flight to match her, and they began discussing the events of the past month. As their minds were connected, she felt his jubilation and excitement from her revelation, but his outside demeanor was one of calm.

She recognized this emotional cloaking trait of Arya in him, but she decided that now was not the best time to point it out to him, he was likely to loosen up soon. She knew he was insecure about being so much younger than her, but to her, it wasn't an issue. The difference in their size and age would become irrelevant as they both grew. Besides, he was as mature as any other adult, having hatched in the midst of one of the most difficult political times of this millennia in addition to being the companion to the queen of the elves.

The political preoccupation of Arya's mind as of late was obvious in Fírnen's own mind. He was a prodigy in law and order, having greatly assisted Arya in the development of the new elven law system that had begun being implemented at the fall of Galbatorix. With his help, she quickly became one of the most influential politicians in elven history, and it was evident she would be among the most prosperous rulers.

She may have been biased, but Saphira thought that Fírnen's reforms in the system were genius. The elves had been living in solitude for nigh of a century, not to mention their lack of involvement even before Galbatorix. Their laws were contorted, building upon logical fallacy after fallacy as each politician manipulated the existing law until the original purpose was completely lost. Fírnen, however, had the capability to immediately sense and identify those fallacies, presenting them and swaying the majority of the elders to approve the reinstatement of the original law. However, some minor alterations were made to those laws as Fírnen found how they may conflict with others. On top of that, he had taken in the problems with the elven society like a sponge; he often had several prospective solutions to each.

Saphira huffed to herself as her wing muscles burned, and she attempted to push through it. Apparently, her exertion found it's way into her front-thoughts, and noticing this, Fírnen shared his intention with her to land for her to rest. Though her pride rebelled, she trusted her mate in this and followed him to a large gap between the trees. The trees were massive, as always, and the canopy was high above them as she found a place to lay down. The local wildlife scattered and fled, screeching and chirping warnings to their kin as she lay in a spot large enough for both of them.

Rather than sleeping in the position they had before Saphira left, with her wing around him, he now covered her with his, having the capability to cover most of her with his wing after his growth over the months. She quickly fell asleep as the warmth of his body and wings eased the sadness of the past month.

Eragon woke on the ground, leaves and twigs in his hair and clothes. He felt unnaturally refreshed, and knew that Saphira had fed him energy. Remembering where he was, he looked around, spotting Arya immediately.

"Arya!" He shouted again, standing up to greet her.

After a quick exchange with Saphira, who had begun excessively worrying him, she and Fírnen flew off, and he was left with the elves.

Eragon and Arya quickly exchanged greetings, and Arya asked the first question.

"What is that?"

Eragon restrained himself from laughing as Arya acted exactly as he had expected her to: right down to business.

"A door to make a great distance none, I created it while at Skulutan and cast it with the assistance of the Eldunarí."

Arya was visually taken aback at his response, and Eragon sensed the surprise from her warriors.

"How long will the spell last?"

"Until I dispel it, so it may well be forever- the energy the tear releases is utilized by my spell to sustain and stabilize the door."

Arya appeared awestruck, and even the warriors allowed their surprise to show.

"This spell.. this could revolutionize.. everything. Are they all this large?"

"No, they can be as small as needed- the majority of the energy it took to cast the spell was actually spent making it this large."

"Um.. wow. How long are you staying here? Are you staying here?"

"I have taken leave for the week, Blödhgarm is leading in my stead."

Arya gave a laughter-like huff emotionlessly, her face unchanging.

"I am happy.. I cannot believe you invented what could be an entire new branch of magic just to get here. How did you even manage it?"

"I did, Blödhgarm helped me work out the kinks, and the Eldunarí cleared it. Honestly, I don't know how I did it; I'm certainly not the best spellweaver there is, but I had revelation after revelation. I've got a suspicion that the Eldunarí are still meddling with fate, but I feel like Umaroth would just come out with it, there is no reason to hide that."

Arya frowned, staring at him.

"Come to the Crags of Tel'naeír; we will speak about the events of the past months."

She gestured to her warriors, and they dissolved into the forest. Then, she turned on her heel and began walking, allowing Eragon to catch up with her before breaking into a run.

He kept pace with her at first, but she slowly began to overtake him. She then flashed him a savage grin and took off with a burst of speed, leaving him in the dust. Eragon wondered how she had gotten so fast, and then remembered that she was both an elf and a Rider. However, Eragon was running as fast as he could without losing his traction on the ground, so Arya must be employing a method he did not know of.

He decided to try his own method, he took several leaps off of the trunks of the trees around him before arriving in the lower canopy. Looking down, Eragon was thankful that he was no longer afraid of heights. He was at least two-hundred feet off the ground, but he knew the true tops of the trees were far above him.

Without losing momentum, he began launching himself almost horizontally from branch to branch, grabbing each branch with his hands and getting his feet under him before launching off again. He didn't have to worry about sliding in the dirt, and so he was putting all of his force into forward momentum. He found Arya ahead of him and was able to catch up fairly quickly, within seconds he had overtaken her. She somehow noticed him and shot him a mischievous glance before launching herself up into the trees. When she jumped the first time, he noticed that she put both feet ahead of her without slowing down, brought her knees to her chest, and jumped much higher than he was capable of. She still had to use the tree trunks, but she got up faster than he had. Upon alighting on the first branch, she casually shot off of it and began leaping from branch to branch with grace that put most other elves to shame- it looked as if she was floating through the canopy, and Eragon found it difficult to determine if she was using the branches at all.

In this, again, she excelled, and she raced ahead of him before dropping back to his speed. She began exaggerating her movements when she would come in contact with a tree so that Eragon could copy her. He saw her loop her ankle around tree branches to change direction, zig-zag between tree trunks, and even launch herself forward with her arms. He complied and began mimicking her, and she increased the speed of her movements until he was keeping pace with her.

"You always learned fast!" She shouted to him, with her voice magically traveling to him despite their speed.

He was about to cast a spell to carry his voice, but decided against it when he remembered that he was still sore from creating the doorway. When the trees thinned, they dropped to the ground by utilizing the same method they got up and began running again

Finally, they halted at the Crags of Tel'naeír, and Eragon gasped as he saw it. On the cliff on the other side of the valley Oromis's hut was on, there was a gargantuan palace-like building that appeared to be sung from both stone and wood. A landing point for Fírnen was placed obviously on the right side of the crag, and the building itself looked like it was made to accommodate dragons, like most of the structures in Skulutan.

He turned to Arya.

"You got this built in six months?"

She laughed.

"You and the elves sent with you built more than this in three months."

"We had the Eldunarí."

"And we have the majority of the elven race. The elders insisted that Fírnen and I live somewhere better than Oromis's hut, and they had this built for us."

"This is more extravagant than anything we have at Skulutan.."

"I sent with you magicians- not artisans."

She flashed a smile at him.

"Those will come later."

Eragon had been following along with Saphira's thoughts in the back of his mind, but he withdrew partially as Saphira fell asleep, it was making him drowsy.

"Saphira is not here, and I can guess Fírnen isn't either. She must have needed to take a break."

"Saphira taking a break? That doesn't seem likely."

Eragon realized that while Fírnen likely knew about Saphira's pregnancy by now, he had not communicated that to Arya.

"Well, about a month after we got to Skulutan, Saphira started getting tired easier, sleeping all the time, and most of the things she could usually do became difficult."

Arya's face was blank, and she was listening intently to him.

"And then she started getting much hungrier than usual, even though she wasn't moving around much."

Arya's eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hand.

"You aren't saying.."

"Saphira is pregnant."

Arya yelped and went to hug him, displaying an unexpected amount of emotion. He hugged her back, realizing for the first time how much Fírnen was changing her. Thinking back to before he left, he remembered her acting more open with her emotions, but this Arya was on another level. She reminded him of the elves he met when first entering Ellesméra, bubbly and excited. Arya was not bubbly.

Arya pulled away from him, seeming embarrassed. She seemed embarrassed.

"You've changed."

She nodded and raised her head, taking on her usual, emotionless state.

"Fírnen and I are polar opposites when it comes to showing our emotion, but we've rubbed off on each other."

She broke out into a grin and laughed gleefully.

"Not that it's always a bad thing! Saphira is pregnant! Fírnen will have hatchlings!"

Eragon laughed with her.

"From what Saphira and you have told me about Fírnen, he will make a great father."

Eragon cringed and immediately regretted his statement. He had forgotten that male dragons don't usually raise their hatchlings, they find another mate when theirs becomes pregnant, or they wait for them to lay so that they can mate again. Fathers were rare among dragons.

"I mean, if he-"

Arya interrupted him, shaking her head.

"No, no. He is glued to Saphira- if they end their relationship, it will not be him to do it. His loyalty alone prevents him from ignoring his hatchlings, not to mention that he's overflowing with love. And.. I know him and Saphira, and I can't even imagine a dragon that could be so impassive as they were in the past. It simply does not seem possible."

Eragon's mind wandered through his memories from the Eldunarí, and she found that she was right- Saphira and Fírnen, and possibly Thorn, were not the same as the dragons from the past. His alien memories revealed that the dragons had held a deep resentment for anything relating to the other races in the past, aside from their riders. Their love for other dragons consisted only of passion, and they ceased to care if they became bored with their mate. He also saw from the memories of younger dragons that they had become more and more like how Saphira and Fírnen were now. He saw that relationships between mates became longer lasting, and that the concept of life-mates was becoming popular just before the rise of Galbatorix.

He decided to share this revelation with Saphira later, and monologued it to Arya.

"Huh- And now that we are thinking about it, I realize that relationships between elves have been getting shorter and shorter- We used to mate for life, long ago. I always assumed it was because of our increasing longevity, but perhaps dragons and elves have been balancing each other out over the millennia."

"When humans were added to the pact, do you know- wait, never mind."

Several memories from the Eldunarí popped into his head as he asked the question. He saw that the main incline on the dragons' love occured when humans joined the pact, perhaps because of the fire and life present in the race. He thought of Roran, who was the embodiment of love and passion in his mind, and he feared for the day that dragons reached his level.

But then he thought of Saphira's state when they left Alagaësia, he remembered that she had considered disgorging her Eldunarí and leaving it with Fírnen so that they could remain in constant contact, or vice versa, leaving it with Eragon and being with Fírnen. It scared him that if he had not strictly forbidden her, that she would have gone through with it, and he realized that dragons had already arrived at Roran's level.

How would dragons change, now that the Urgals and dwarves have been added to the pact? Would they become more violent? More stubborn? Dragons already excelled in both areas, but even Saphira was not as stubborn as a dwarf, nor did she value violence as much as an Urgal.

Eragon took a deep breath, reminding himself that the Eldunarí had agreed to the addition to the pact. If the Urgles and dwarves affected the dragons, then it might not be as bad as he imagined.

Arya leaned with her back against the base of the cliff, closing her eyes and breathing deeply.

"I'm tired from creating those wards around your door when we thought you were hostile, and I don't feel like climbing several hundred stairs right now. In addition, You're exhausted from creating the door, so we will talk here. Has anything notable happened over the past three months?"

When they had left Alagaësia, the mirrors they had used to communicate had begun to shatter from strain as the distance between them grew greater, and the pieces melted and flamed when they neared the cove that would become Skulutan. They had tried many alternative materials- water, iron, silver, even gold, and none of them could withstand the magic long enough for any meaningful communication. As a result, the only communication they've had has been letters sent over the sea, and even that had become impossible when massive winter storms had begun forming in the middle of the ocean three months ago.

"Yes- there has been some big news- aside from Saphira being pregnant. There is a new Rider among the elves sent with me."

Arya gasped again.

"Who? How long ago?"

"Blödhgarm, about one and a half months ago."

"I always thought he would make a great Rider! Who is the dragon?"

"Askil, a purple female."

Arya smiled as she processed the information.

"Anything else?"

"We found a deposit of some new kind of metal. There's not much of it, and we can't determine most of its properties without a smith, but the ore is almost as light as air, and an elf almost killed himself and several Eldunarí when he accidentally targeted it with jierda while excavating."

"Rhunön will be intrigued… That sounds like good armor material."

"Also, the main part of Skulutan is almost complete, it will be ready to host about one-hundred-fifty wild dragons and one-hundred Riders and dragons by the end of this month. There are visitor chambers protected by strong conditional wards, mating, nursery, and family rooms, and we have water beds for the dragons now."

"Wonderful. In fact, would you mind revealing how to build the dragon-size water beds? I'm trying not to spoil Fírnen too badly, but I think we would like it very much."

"Of course. I'll send a copy of the spells and instructions, as well as a copy of the doorway spell to you after I return. Also, we plan to hatch the first wild dragons immediately after we have completed and reviewed the current part of Skulutan. Now that the door is created, we can exchange the architects for caretakers without having to make the voyage."

"The door is going to be very useful, but one of the reasons you were going to Skulutan was to make it impossible for non-Riders to get there, and to keep the dragons from disrupting other societies. Of course, the rest of the elves are not likely to mind a few interruptions, but won't the door nullify that?"

"The door is plastered with some of the strongest wards I have ever created- the rift that allows the transportation of the door to function is constantly trying to collapse, and it is generating a massive amount of energy while doing so. The energy it creates is utilized by my spell to stabilize it, and it simultaneously powers the wards protecting it. These wards prevent anyone from crossing over without explicit permission. The door is both a passage and a power source, which is one of the other uses of it. If I condensed it and specialized it to be a power source, it would likely be able to fill Aren entirely after about two months. Also, as Blödhgarm suggested while we were revising the spell, two very small doors implanted and magically attached on the inside of stones could be used to communicate mentally over any distance, like an Eldunarí. Wait- I wonder if the Eldunarí use similar magic! A door inside of a gem would charge that gem over time, perhaps the door is passively activated by light instead of sustaining itself with its own energy, and the door allows for the bearer to communicate with the dragon when the body is still alive."

"You've changed too; I see your curiosity clearer now that we aren't fighting for our lives."

Eragon involuntarily shivered at the reference to his true name.

"Well, that's about it for me to report. What has been happening in Alagaësia?"

"It's Alagaesia now, actually. The council changed the pronunciation to help with the connotation it had before. It may not seem like it, but it has a noticeable effect on morale."

"What? Oh."

He paused for a second, thinking; he then had another revelation.

"I never returned to Alagaësia- I entered Alagaesia for the first time!"

Arya stared at him blankly, then burst out laughing, sounding like a ringing bell.

"The prophecy! You would leave and never return!"

"When it was read to me, Angela said I would leave Alagaësia and never return, I think I paraphrased when I told you and Nasuada. Huh-that is an interesting technicality. If I ever become evil, rename Alagaesia again and everyone will be safe."

"Hardly. You could destroy Alagaesia from Skulutan if you wanted too."

Eragon chuckled, but didn't disagree.

Fírnen inhaled the winter-cold-air deeply, and reveled in the warmth of beautiful-blue-fiery-pregnant-mate-Saphira, who was pressed against his flank. He had grown enough over past months that he could now wrap Saphira in his wings, a fact he was grateful for.

When Saphira had left for the far-new-Rider-city, his grief was great, and he had begun to get anxious about whether another male would become her mate and that he would be forgotten. He knew that his possessiveness was selfish, and he had no intention of acting on it, but he felt it would destroy him if she found another mate.

In addition, he had set himself in the decision that he would be a father to his hatchlings, not just a sire to them. He has eggs in Saphira now, and he knew that she would stay in her new den with them; he would only see them when they happened to visit each other. Also, if Saphira took a new mate at the city, one that could stay with her, then he would be the father to his hatchlings, and they would have no interest in him.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the anxious thoughts. He would enjoy his time with Saphira until she left again, and since she had visited once now, he felt certain that she would visit again. Unless..

Another thought occurred to him: were Saphira and Eragon visiting to tell them that they would forever lose contact? Had something gone wrong in the new city? Wait, why had they arrived here through a magic circle? He had never heard of a magic circle of that sort, was it dangerous?

Saphira stirred, and so he hummed for her and softly rubbed his face on hers. She opened her eyes tiredly and nuzzled him, humming in return. Fírnen apologetically crooned, he had not meant to wake her. They nuzzled each other for a couple minutes more before he felt that Saphira was not going back to sleep.

He wanted to ask her why she had come, but didn't want to ruin the mood if the reason was negative, so he instead presented his thoughts and questions of the magic circle to her. In return, she first shared with him her emotion of glee, and he became hopeful as he awaited her response. She then shared with him memories of Eragon laboring over a secret project in their den, and of him finally revealing the project to her. It was a spell that would.. Make the distance between two places very small? He struggled to grasp it, and sensing this, Saphira offered an explanation.

Skulutan, the place where my and Eragon's den is, is now only an hour's flight from Ellesméra.

Fírnen had suspected that, but had refused to believe it. His mind lit up from the darkness that had been shadowing him- he could be with Saphira at any time he wanted; he could raise his hatchlings with her!

He began humming stronger, and shared his feelings with Saphira. She licked his cheek, tongue rasping against his scales.

You will make a good father, Fírnen.

She seemed to get lost in her thoughts for a bit, then made another statement.

If Eragon agrees, I will stay here until our eggs hatch. I tested something when we walked through the doorway- when my head passed through and Eragon was still on the other side, we did not lose our connection. The distance between your den and mine, when we include the doorway, should be enough for Eragon and I to retain communication. Besides, I cannot do anything to help there anymore. My pregnancy prevents me from doing anything overly physical, Eragon has even been hunting for me.

And now I will hunt for you, even if you do return.

Thank you.

Saphira wrapped her tail around his, fitting it in between his spines, and fell asleep again. She was emitting calming pheromones now, and Fírnen felt quite drowsy. He contacted Arya, or Pine, as he had nicknamed her for her scent, before he gave into sleep.

Saphira was too exhausted to make it to our den. We are taking a nap in the forest about halfway between the circle and the Crags.

Thank you for telling me, but we have figured that much out already. Sleep well, Fir.

Have fun with Eragon, Pine.

He then pressed his head against his mate's as drowsiness overtook him.