Hiya! I'M BAAAAAAAACK!!! Did you miss me?! (Hides behind computer screen as various projectiles are thrown at her for not having updated sooner.) Amazing though it may seem, I actually have an excuse for not updating this time... I lost my notebook of power (the great notebook wherein all plots are contained) and I only just found it, and I didn't want to write something that went against what I had planned. And... yeah...

Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

Fate, Renewal and Death

Mystery POV...

He knew, as soon as the elf's fingers came into contact with his shell, that he was the one. Of all those who had tried to make him hatch, this was the one. The only person worthy of the title that his hatching would bestow.

Dragon Rider.

He slammed his tail against the inside of his shell, and had the satisfaction of hearing it crack. The elf froze, as if he didn't believe what was happening. As the dragon swept away the last piece of shell obstructing his view, his eyes came into contact with light for the first time. There was another in the room besides his Rider, a human, but with the appearance of an elf, who was surveying the scene with a half-smile playing about his mouth, as if he had suspected this outcome.

He turned his gaze back to his Rider. The elf still looked a little stunned, but the effect was wearng off now. Through their newly established mental link, the dragon caught a name.

Vanir.

The two of them could have stayed like that for hours, but the human called Vanir's attention back to the present suddenly.

"We need to leave." A tinge of fear coloured his voice. "If he finds us..."

Vanir nodded and picked the hatchling up from the pedestal where he still stood, and walked over to the opposite side of the room, feeling for something on the opposite wall.

Abruptly, a piece of the wall sunk into the ground, opening up a passage. The three of them made haste along it, Vanir closing the wall behind them.

Saphira POV...

Saphira was lonely.

Thorn and Shruikan had gone to sleep hours ago. The two dragons had regarded her with hostility at the start, but had soon learned to tolerate her continual presence in the eyries of the imperial palace.

Shruikan held himself aloft from the younger dragons, as his Rider held himself aloft from all his peers. Their personalities were very much the same, both having the cruel disposition and merciless mind that had made Eragon's life a burden to him over the past five years. Saphira snorted in anger. Because of them, her Rider had lost everything.

At first, she had held Thorn and Murtagh to be their chief enemies, after the murder of Arya, and Murtagh's endless torment of his younger brother throughout his imprisonment. That was before Thorn had started talking to her. He was almost as lonely as she was, for Galbatorix was the only person allowed to visit the eyries, and only let Thorn see Murtagh when the two of them were doing something that served him.

Thorn had explained to her what had happened : when the two of them had returned from the Burning Plains after their battle with Eragon and herself, the king had tortured Murtagh for weeks on end for his ineptitude and foolishness in allowing his brother to escape. He had then made him swear that the next time they met, he would capture his brother and Saphira without fail.

When Eragon had been brought back to Urû'baen, along with Saphira, the king had given Murtagh another order, using his true name to make it impossible to disobey : use any means necessary to inflict pain upon Eragon, for however long it might take to make him swear fealty to Galbatorix.

When she had been told this, Saphira had felt an emotion she had never thought to connect with Thorn and Murtagh until now : pity.

Pity for the pain inflicted on them. Pity for their helplessness in the governing of their actions. Pity for the fate which made them serve such a master.

Her thoughts returned to the presence as the eyrie doors opened. Galbatorix hardly ever came to visit the three dragons, and certainly not at this time of night. Then who...?

Her breath stopped in her throat and her heart stopped beating with shock as the sight of the person in front of her answered her questions.

Joy erupted inside her, but she controlled it, and waited to be freed from her prison. The elf Vanir came forward and struck off the chains that bound her, and she reached forward to touch her snout to Eragon's outstretched hand. As she did so, their mental link flared into life again.

Quietly, she slunk between the two other dragons to make her way out of her prison, and lowered herself to the ground to allow Eragon and Vanir to climb onto her back. Only then did she notice the hatchling that Vanir was holding. Amazement was her first reaction, followed by a new determination to free herself, the other dragon, and the two Riders.

She dived off the turret of the tower and spread her wings for the first time in so many years.

Where do we go from here? Her question was repeated to Vanir by Eragon.

"Nasuada said that the name of the first forest you think of will be where the rebels are hiding." the elf answered.

The Spine? Eragon's answer was half statement, half question.

The Spine. She agreed silently.

Saphira turned her wings towards the north, and before long was out of sight of the cursed city of Urû'baen.

Nasuada's POV...

The woman who had once been leader of the Varden smiled slightly as she heard the screams of rage emanating from the cell next to her's, the one that had previously belonged to Eragon.

A few minutes later, the king had apparently got his fury under control, as the screams stopped, and heavy footsteps hurried along the corridor to the exit from the dungeons.

There was only one thing left for her to do. The rebels were in good hands, and she had done all she could to send Eragon and Saphira to them. The rest was in fate's hands.

Nasuada closed her eyes, and stopped fighting the pain that had haunted her for so long. Through sorrow at her father's death and near-starvation at the hands of her jailers, she was so close to death. It would have been so easy to end it any time during her captivity, but her people still came first, despite all.

But now, she could let go. Forget the cares and sorrows of the mortal world and leave to join her father in the afterlife. This was the end.

One last thought crossed her mind as she drifted into another place.

May the stars watch over you, Eragon Shadeslayer.

That was a little different from what I had been expecting myself to write, but it doesn't really matter... Well, what d'you think? Any feedback is appreciated (within reason), and if any of the people from A Shadeslayer's Worst Fear is here, then I WANT to know what you guys think! 'Kay?

Carly