It was on the following morning that Eragon was summoned to Vladime's tent for a long talk about battle tactics and the fastest, quickest and most sure way to claim a mighty victory against the dragons without taking too many losses.

In other words, a long nap.

Except for the fact that Eragon was constantly being asked questions, that was exactly what he would've been doing. He wasn't exactly recuperated from his excursion, and well, the string of conversation was utterly boring. Besides, it was a just little hotter than toasty in the tent, and practically, Eragon wasn't feeling so well in the heat. Indeed, this was normally his occupation, talking about what the next move should be, but today his heart just wasn't in it. In addition to all of this, the elves were having memory losses and had to repeat questions time after time after time before it finally registered in their minds.

"Sheesh, I'm just an elf! What do they expect from me?" he thought after a particularly annoying-question-that-had-already-been-asked-five-times-already had been once again repeated.

Thus he was greatly relieved when Vladime finally told him that he would no longer be needed and that he was free to go and prepare for leading the army back.

Okay, so he wasn't so thrilled about the "prepare to lead the army back" part, but freedom sounded especially sweet to his almost-feverish body. When your ears start cooking indoors, you know something isn't exactly right.

The air outdoors was much cooler than inside, and Eragon's heart felt lighter than it had for a long while, despite all of the tragedy he had experienced. His mind wandered back over the past few days, all of the questions, all of the evil, all of the good, all of the wonder, all of the hate. His mind finally stopped at the ever-present question concerning rescuing elves.

Frowning, Eragon grumbled at himself for nothing really, but it seemed like everything at the moment.

Everything.

What a concept.

That blasted elf-maiden… who was she anyways, telling him that he could do something he couldn't?

A flash of light went off in his heart, the same idea that had hit him in the tent just a few days earlier, but as before he took no heed to it and tossed it aside. Some ideas are just too ambitious to be possible.

Freedom. Didn't that word set his heart off just a few moments ago? And now, freedom seemed like a far off concept that was just too good to be true.

Eragon wandered around camp and finally came to the water at which his mind had been first tormented by the responsibility of knowing how to save elves. Right. Eragon, one little elf knew something other elves didn't? How was he so different? So what he was the youngest elf surviving in the encampment, which made no difference. How was being younger going to solve their problems?

Ever since a very young age, Eragon had been taught to think critically. He had been chastised for asking for motives ever since he was a young boy, and he hadn't asked that question since he was eight. But now he began to ask himself for motives. What was driving him on?

"Nothing drives me. I do it because I am obliged to defend my people."

Is that what was driving everyone else on?

"Obligations," Eragon snorted, "I wonder if the dragons fight out of obligations as well." He fell on his back and started looking at the fluffy white clouds. People were so stupid. As if one person could know what thousands and thousands of others didn't. Even the Gray Elves all knew how to control magic. All of them. Not just one, or how else would they have formed the ancient language? All of them. And this maiden was suggesting that one elf knew.

Eragon was getting very irritated.

One particular cloud looked a lot less fluffy than the others, and from what he knew about science, Eragon tried to guess why. It was good to get his mind off of the lady, but as he studied the cloud for longer he began to see a shape. Actually it was a lot of shapes. Almost like a bunch of white dragons clustered together.

"Wait a minute…" Eragon thought, his heart pounding. This could not be good. But then the cloud changed, and it began to look like a battle. Elves joined the shape, and Eragon could see large forces attacking each other. Then he saw a lone elf on a cliff top, holding something large and round. It looked as though the elf was going to crush it, but then he stopped and put the object into a small bag and ran off. Eragon saw some more battles, but then he saw an elf—and he could not believe his eyes when he saw the next image—an elf riding a dragon!

"Now what could be more preposterous than that?" Eragon thought irritably, though undoubtedly interested that such a thing could be possible.

But then again, these were clouds he was watching, not living creatures that had flesh on them and blood in them.

"Still… a fascinating concept to be sure."

The cloud changed suddenly again, and Eragon saw many elves riding dragons, and they were all fighting one another. It seemed to be that there were thirteen such riders versus the rest, and what was incredible was that the rest seemed to be losing. There must've been hundreds of dragons opposing these thirteen, and yet only two or three of those thirteen fell as Eragon watched. Hundreds of the rest were dying, and it broke Eragon's heart to see it. He almost closed his eyes from the cloud, but the image changed again, to see a young farm boy hunting in a forest. There was a flash of light, and a round object appeared some distance in front of him. The boy approached the item cautiously, walking first around it before venturing anywhere near it. He went closely, and picked up the item and—

"Eragon! There you are. What are you doing here?"

Eragon jerked up at the voice of the Queen, realizing at the same time that he must've been dreaming and that the cloud, nor the images the cloud had projected, had all been fake.

He also remembered that he was supposed to be preparing for leading the army back.

"Whoops…" he thought as the Queen bent over him.

"Are you ready, Eragon son of Erisi?" She asked quietly.

Eragon thought about how to best answer her for a moment, then grinned innocently and asked,

"If I say no… will you promise not to injure me?"