===== Part IV: Storm =====

Saphira and Frank–back in dragon form–took off from the safety of solid land, and headed off into the night. Eventually, as the night wore on, the group saw the sun start to rise, as well as the storm clouds beginning to brew. Jason glanced over to Saphira, wondering how she planned to get through this monster of a storm. The only time he had seen something of this size was when he met Kymopoleia! However, Saphira headed towards a notch in the storm clouds slightly to the west, where Jason's storm instincts and Glaedr's experience told them that the storm would be slightly weaker. Frank followed.

The storm was farther away than everyone had at first thought, and as they got closer, they saw that it was bigger too. Upon approaching the clouds, however, Saphira surprised everyone by diving down to the ocean's surface. Upon Glaedr's questioning, she explained. 'I'm curious,' she said. 'And I would like to rest my wings before entering the clouds.'

'Good idea,' commented Frank.

The two dragons bobbed up and down in the waves. Saphira bent down to grab a drink, but Percy stopped her. "That's salt water, it will make you even thirstier!"

Saphira drew back. 'Really?'

'Yep!' Percy dived back underwater.

Suddenly, though, Glaedr roared out to them all. 'Take off! Now, now, NOW! Hurry!'

Saphira nor Frank wasted any time with questions, and instead flapped their wings, kicking up a large spray. However, even as they gained altitude, and hung over the water, nothing happened. Suddenly, Leo realized something. "Where's Percy?"

Suddenly, the sea erupted in an enormous explosion of water. Eragon gaped. 'What is that?'

'A Nïdhwal,' Gleadr replied. 'But how...?'

A giant, grey fish was playing around, in a splash fight with Percy, who was having lots of fun. Glaedr, on the other hand, was beyond disbelief. 'But... how? The Nïdhwal are predators, predators that just kill and eat! They're vicious!'

Glaedr continued in an attempt to understand what was going on. Jason let out a laugh. "Didn't he tell you? He can communicate with sea creatures!"

"Anyway, I think we should get going," Eragon said, stifling a chuckle.

"Do we have to?" Percy called up.

"Yes, we're short enough on time as it is."

"Aww..."

He exchanged a few words with the Nïdhwal, then it dived deep underwater. Frank swooped down and scooped up Percy. 'How were you able to reason with it?' Glaedr asked. 'All attempts to reason with it in the past were met with failure.'

Percy grinned. 'That's because I wasn't there!'

Saphira and Frank flew in between the cloud pillars, each looking like a speck between the monstrous towers of cloud. The wind became rough and choppy, and it's general direction was impossible to discern. 'Have either of you had any storm-flying experience?' Glaedr asked.

'No,' both dragons replied.

As if expecting this answer, Glaedr proceeded to give instructions on cloud formations to look for. However, despite Glaedr's instructions, they were still being thrown about by the winds, especially Frank, who's flying experience was minimal. 'Frank! May I take control of your body that I may guide the both of you through the storm?' Glaedr asked.

'Go ahead,' Frank replied, giving control to Glaedr.

'Follow me,' Glaedr told Saphira.

Glaedr-now occupying Frank the dragon's body-forged ahead, now able to cope with the winds easier. However, after a few hours, the far edge of the storm was not visible.

'We have gone too far west, we must face the storm's full wrath before you grow any more tired.'

Without a word, the two dragons turned north and headed towards the enormous cliff of a cloud. They soon reached the tower of cloud and plunged inside. Instantly, everyone was pretty much blinded. The clouds limited their vision greatly. However, it seemed surprisingly calm inside the thunderheads. A little while later, however, Glaedr was thrown upward by a violent updraft, which also caught Saphira a second later. Jason decided to help, and sent an enormous blast of wind down, which lessened the updraft long enough that the dragons were able to escape. However, a downdraft shoved them down towards the sea. Again and again, they were thrown about by the winds, with almost no control over where they went. Unfortunately, Mother Nature was definitely not on their side. Then again, they did put her to sleep for all of eternity...

Lightning flared down and hit Saphira, who had managed to get slightly ahead. The lightning startled Saphira badly, and her natural flinch instinct caused her to lose control in the tempest. She tumbled back, crashing into Frank/Glaedr, and the two dragons were sent tumbling down to the sea. Jason was lost from Frank/Glaedr's grip. He controlled the wind and stopped his fall before he hit the water. As for the dragons, Saphira was able snap her wings open early enough to slow their descent. But they still smashed into the waters. Both dragons were stunned, but Percy got out one last thought into the waters before fading into unconsciousness. 'Help.'

Jason watched in horror as the waves swallowed up the two dragons. Pummeled by rain, buffeted by wind, he found himself alone in the middle of the ocean. Then the water started frothing. And Saphira's head broke the surface. But not of her own accord. As Jason watched, the dragon's bodies rose up out of the water on a platform of grey Nïdhwal. The two dragons soon roused themselves, and Frank/Glaedr started in surprise when he saw where they were. 'Wha...? How...?' He asked, speechless.

Percy let out a weak smile. "Being the son of Poseidon definitely has its perks."

As soon as the two dragons were ready, the group took off again. They didn't get far before being swept up by an updraft, and then brought down by a downdraft. This cycle continued, and the dragons became more and more exhausted, until they only attempted to fight their way free when they got too close to the sea.

They were caught in a downdraft when suddenly, Percy got an idea. He waved his arms around, and Eragon noticed him. 'What is it?' he asked.

'If we keep going down, I can create a bubble of air around us! We'll be able to breath, and the ocean will protect us from the worst of the storm!' Percy replied.

'Good idea!'

Eragon relayed the idea to Glaedr and Saphira. Glaedr approved, and told Saphira. 'We're going down!' he called. 'Percy, be ready.'

The two dragons burst out from the bottom of the clouds, and the rain's downpour pummeled the group relentlessly. However, a dent appeared in the sea, and the two dragons flew down into it. As the sea closed up over their heads, their air bubble was plunged into darkness. Frank regained control of his body as Glaedr went to assist Percy in maintaining the bubble of air. The bubble was large enough to support both dragons flying side by side, and so that's exactly what they did. The two dragons were literally flying underwater. The bubble moved with them, but there was no longer a headwind, and so they made amazing progress. However, something unexpected happened. "Look out!" called Jason, who had sensed it even before the dragons.

A rough downdraft slammed into the sea around them, and it broke through the bubble of ocean around them. Scooping the dragons up, the draft flung them into an updraft, which shot them skyward faster than the first one. Saphira and Glaedr had trouble just keeping their wings level. Jason grabbed Eragon's attention. 'We're getting too high up! Soon, we won't be able to breathe!' Glaedr heard this warning too. 'Eragon! It will also become colder, colder than the coldest winter in the Spine. You must cast a spell that warms us all, or we shall die. In addition, you must cast a spell that compresses the air in front of us, but lets the stale air out. The wording is complicated, but it follows as such-'

Glaedr told him the words, and Eragon repeated them back. When Glaedr was satisfied with Eragon's pronunciation, he let Eragon cast the spell. The updraft continued to carry them up, until they burst out of them, rising high above the storm. Eragon wondered how long they would be going up. The. It occurred to him that perhaps this was how shooting stars were made. Some random bird was shot up into the sky so fast they burst into flames. Then he remembered what Trianna had said. "The technology of their land is centuries ahead of ours." Perhaps they had discovered what caused shooting stars. He resolved to ask one of the demigods later.

As they waited, there was a slight slackening in the wind. It was slight, but Glaedr was able to detect it. Telling Saphira, he prepared to leave the airstream. However, before they could, the clouds above them thinned and faded, showing the stars as Eragon had never seen them. Jason looked over at Eragon and saw his expression at seeing the stars as he did for the first time. But even he had to admit that the sight of the glittering stars was impressive. Eragon then looked down at the horizon. He saw that instead of straight, as it had seemed and he always felt it should be, the horizon was curved, almost like…. 'The world is round. The sky is hollow and the world is round!' Eragon told the others, his awe evident.

'So it would seem,' Glaedr said, impressed.

Percy chuckled. 'We've known that for centuries,' he told them.

The updraft abated long enough to allow Saphira and Frank to win their way free. However, the air, sparse as it was, was unable to support their full weight. As such, they plummeted down to the the earth at incredible speeds. As they fell, another thought occurred to Eragon. 'If we stored enough energy in enough in enough gems, could we possibly make it to the moon?' He asked everyone.

'You can store energy in gems?' Leo asked.

'Where we come from, we've already made it to the moon!' Jason told Eragon.

Percy couldn't help but to laugh at Eragon's expression.

The two dragons were so exhausted, they couldn't do more than ride calm updrafts. However, they were past the worst of the storm, and the clouds under them flattened out. After an hour or two, the fog cleared, and Glaedr called their attention. 'Look there, to your right.'

Everyone looked, and saw a ring of mountains on an island, free of clouds. 'Is that...?' Eragon began.

'Yes,' replied Glaedr. 'Welcome to Vroengard.'

========End of Part IV========

Afterword: First off: I got the 'Underwater bubble' idea from Avatar the last airbender (The TV Show, the movie…. is unmentionable.) Also, I could just image what would happen if the four demigods- Who lived in a world where they've already made the it to the Moon, I just thought it would be funny if they said it was made of cheese, but for reasons beyond Eragon's comprehension, I decided against it.

Also, why Gleadr didn't just take control of Saphira in the book? Two reasons. 1) She needed experience. 2) Convenience

—Dragoncraftertex