Eragon cursed, and ran outside to where Saphira lay on the grass. He searched for her saddle, but Saphira said, "No! That will take too much time! Climb on now!"

Thorn—for it was he who had done the entire roaring thing—landed near Nasuada's tent. The Nighthawks started shouting, but with a swipe of Thorn's forepaw, half the shouts went silent. Eragon hopped up onto Saphira. Without the saddle, Eragon would have to worry about scraping his legs upon her scales. Glaedr pressed his mind to Eragon's and Eragon let him in. "Lend me your eyes and ears, that I may aid you and lend you my strength!"

Saphira took off, and flew towards Thorn. Suddenly, though, Eragon noticed something. It was Percy. He had charged out of the tent, and was running towards Thorn. From all around him, from pitchers on tables, from inside tents, from puddles on the ground, streams of water were flowing into the air around him. He shouted up to Eragon, but he couldn't hear Percy. Extending his mind to Percy, Eragon asked, 'What is it? I can't hear you!'

'Whoa! You're in my head!' Percy said, amazed. 'I thought only horses could do that!'

'What?'

'Never mind! Go protect whoever's the leader of this rebel group! I'll take care of the dragon!'

'Saphira! Change of plans! We're going to protect Nasuada! He's most likely their target!'

Saphira gave the mental equivalent of a nod, and then headed for Nasuada's pavilion, which seemed curiously undisturbed. 'Thorn?' Glaedr asked.

'That Percy guy is going to deal with him.'

A quick search of Eragon's memories told Glaedr who Percy was. 'And you think he'll be able to do so?'

'Well, he acts as if he's faced dragons before, and he's still alive!'

Percy collected water from every source, but kept it hidden in between the still standing tents. He yelled a challenge, and Thorn turned his attention to him. The dragon breathed a column of fire, but the water from in between the tents formed a globe around Percy, and the fire passed around him harmlessly. Pulling the globe apart, he saw Thorn looking at him in surprise. Then his face changed to a snarly snarl and he swung at Percy, who rolled and the giant red paw flew over his head. Jumping up, he pulled out Riptide and leapt up, using the water to boost him. He came down at the dragon, ninja style, and landed on Thorn's back, carefully avoiding the spikes. Thorn took off, wiggling and contorting his body in an effort to shake Percy off. However, Percy just barely managed to stay on, slicing all the while, until Thorn bucked in a particularly violent shake. Percy was thrown off, but suddenly, the wind started up and started supporting him. "Hi!" Jason waved as he flew past Eragon.

A bolt of lightning flared down from the sky, and struck Thorn. Well, actually, as the small group later found out, Thorn's wards protected him. But the bolt of lightning still took out an enormous chunk of his energy. The dragon stumbled. Suddenly, from the ground, three large fireballs flew towards and hit Thorn. Staring down, Thorn saw a scrawny kid who was sending white-hot streams of fire at the dragon. Thorn scorched the area around him in return. To the dragon's surprise—and annoyance—the scrawny kid wasn't turned into deep-fried scrawny kid. "Hey Leo!" Percy called down. "Maybe you shouldn't use fire against a dragon! How about you throw a monkey wrench at it or something!"

"Don't have my belt! They took it!"

"Oh well, let's take down this beast anyway!"

Eragon burst into Nasuada's tent. Murtagh stopped, noticing him. Nasuada was kicking at his shins, but her feet bounced off Murtagh's wards. "Put her down, and I may let you leave with both limbs." Eragon said smoothly.

"Your one to threaten me! Without your dragon, you cannot even match me!"

"Good thing she's here then."

With that, Saphira flapped her wings hard, blowing the tent backwards, off of the three of them. Murtagh instinctively dropped Nasuada and took a step back. Eragon took the opportunity and lunged towards Murtagh. Drawing Zaroc, Murtagh was just able to parry the blow. Blades locked, they strove to push the other off balance. But Murtagh, with his height and Eldunarí strength, was able to hold him off. "And I suppose that you're just letting Thorn rampage around while you deal with me?"

Eragon smiled. "He's being taken care of."

"Thrysta vindr!" Murtagh shouted, and Eragon was thrown backwards. "You've seen Saphira fight! She can defeat hundreds of soldiers on her own-without wards! The Varden can't hope to win against Thorn!"

"I've got some special friends with me," replied Eragon.

"Ah!"

Murtagh stumbled back, clutching his side. Eragon took the opportunity and hammered Murtagh's helm with the pommel of his sword. The helm rang like a pot, and Eragon winced slightly, thinking what Murtagh was experiencing in there. Murtagh, however, was not forced to listen to it for long, as he promptly collapsed.

Eragon rushed out to where he could hear roars of fear from Thorn. When he arrived, he was amazed at what he saw.

Percy was standing in the midst of several blades of water, which hovered around around him, shooting at Thorn from time to time. Thorn's wards protected him, but they couldn't last much longer. Already, one of the blades had created a gash in Thorn's side, which accounted for Murtagh's sudden side pain. Three other figures were also battling the beast. The blond kid and the scrawny one—Jason and Leo, as Eragon later found out—were also contributing, as well as a smaller dragon [AKA Frank]. Jason, his sword sheathed in lighting, was flying around Thorn, striking wherever there was an opening. Leo was shooting bursts of flame at the beast, blinding Thorn such as to provide the others with a chance to strike. The dragon spun and twisted around the much larger Thorn, clawing and biting wherever it could.

Eragon, the elves, and Saphira were staring in amazement. Trumpeting, Thorn leapt up in the air and flapped his wings, trying to get away as fast as possible. The group chased him to the edge of camp, where he flapped off into the night, minus one rider. But then they heard screams from an edge of camp not far from them. It was Murtagh. "Stop him!" Eragon shouted.

Saphira flew overhead and blocked Murtagh's path, but then suddenly, there was a flash of red. Thorn had circled around and picked up his rider. Surging into the air after Thorn, Saphira chased after him for a while, but was forced to give up the chase as they got farther from the camp. 'They got away, but they were sure given a fright,' reported Saphira, amused.

Once things had somewhat calmed down, and the soldiers that had come with Murtagh had been mopped up, the group converged on the clearing next to Eragon's tent. Of course, it was to their eternal surprise and wonder that the dragon morphed into a human. But, after what he had seen, Eragon felt he shouldn't been. "I must say, you have certainly deemed yourself worthy of the Varden. Assuming, of course, you passed the mind search."

Trianna stepped forward. "I have searched Percy's mind, and he and his friends have never heard of Alagaësia until they arrived here. They have, however, proven to be capable swordsmen, in addition to ability to manipulate things such as the elements. Also, they have slain beasts many times their own size. The technology of their land is centuries ahead of ours. Frankly, I have seen nothing like them. They would prove a valuable asset to the Varden."

Looking towards the group, Eragon nodded. "Welcome to the Varden."

As morning came around, the demigods—who had gotten as much sleep as they could—headed off to where everyone was headed: breakfast. They didn't even have trouble finding it. All Jason had to do was tell Percy to find the food. They passed Eragon who offered to show them where the dining pavilion was. "Don't worry. Percy can find food better than a starving dog!" Jason said, laughing.

Sure enough, they found the dining pavilion easily. "Hmm," Percy said, having gotten his food, sacrificed a portion and sat down. "Not exactly restaurant quality. But gruel is better than nothing!" With that note, he wolfed down all the food.

"All I can say," Jason replied, "Is that at least it's hot."

"Even if it wasn't," Interrupted Leo, "I could heat it for you."

"How long do you think we'll be stuck here in Ala-gesi-whata?"

"Alagaësia," corrected Percy. Then he blinked. "Wow. I actually remembered! Anyway, I don't know how long we'll be here. All I can say is that I didn't even have a dream last night. Which was definitely unusual."

"I did." Frank piped up. "It was Mars. We'd be here until we took down Galbatorix."

"Meh."

"At least we can use our knowledge of advanced technologies to help take him down! Three cents say that he doesn't have protection against celestial bronze!"

"Then you're about to lose three cents, whatever those are." Eragon plopped down next to them. "He's got wards against just about everything, from swords to potions to spells to arrows and more. I've got many of the same wards. He can't be hurt by most spells. If there is a spell that can hurt him, we have yet to see it."

"Then how do you expect to kill him?"

"Haven't exactly worked that out yet. I was kind of hoping to drop the ceiling on him. Or to overpower his mind and force him to commit suicide."

The rest of the demigods just stared. "Harsh!" Percy said. "But anyway, what exactly are these wards?"

"Simple. They are spells that protect you."

"Huh," replied Jason. "Well, that explains why my lightning didn't effect that red dragon."

"His name is Thorn," explained Eragon.

"Anyway, you said that Galbatorix has created these… wards… that protect him from pretty much everything," Percy started.

"Correct."

"And you have many of these same wards?"

"Correct…"

"So, may I try to give you a cut?"

"Ok, but to let you know, it probably won't work."

Eragon held out his palm, and Percy drew his sword. He carefully slid it across Eragon's palm, and Eragon winced in surprise as the blade cut a line of blood across his hand.

"You were saying?" replied Percy, smirking.

"Waíse heill," Eragon muttered, and the cut closed up. "Ok, fine, so your sword can get through my wards. That doesn't mean they can get through Galbatorix's."

"Three cents says they will," replied Percy. With that, he finished off his meal and exited the pavilion.

========End of Part II========

Afterword:

So yeah... If you haven't figured it out yet, or haven't gone to my profile page, I'm updating every other week, along with another chapter story

As per Usual, I own everything in some alternate universe, etc.