important chappy, and a very happy one to many people, :D

claimer: i own most of this story, most of the characters, and some of the plot, the rest is CP's :P

the end is near, my friends...

:D

65.-Profetic death

I awoke to someone shaking my shoulder violently, panicked voices whispered urgently around me as my eyes flashed open and I sprang up from my bed, immediately prepared to fight.

"Kalanie, come quick, it's Eragon, he's…well come see!" the person who had woken me grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my tent and towards the riders', soldiers were already crowding around the entrance, refusing to move as the healers tried to clear them away.

They all stared at me with frightened eyes as I pushed passed, my mind chaotic as I tried to make sense of what was happening. I was dragged into the makeshift home and saw Eragon lying on his bed, his eyes misty and staring at nothing, his breaths coming in short gasps that were becoming less and less frequent as I looked at him. Nasuada, Tala, and a group of other people that I didn't know all stood around him, desperation and hopelessness seeping through their emotionless masks.

"What happened?" I demanded, rushing over to Eragon's side and staring intensely at Nasuada.

"I don't know! I was sleeping when Saphira suddenly barged into my tent and told me that there was something wrong with Eragon. So I called the healers and came as quick as I could and found him on the floor clutching his chest. He wasn't breathing well so we moved him to the bed and I sent for you and Tala." She gushed out, the panic in her eyes showing her to be much younger than the weight of responsibility led me to believe.

I nodded curtly and turned to the healers, "What have you been using to treat him with?" I asked, my old training kicking in as I calmly examined the patient.

I pulled back the sheets to examine his chest and my heart pulsed erratically as I realized what was causing the problem. It was the wound that he had gotten after his battle with Murtagh, Thorn, and the mysterious dark creature on the night that the fake Dorran had come into my life. I growled, only half listening as one of the healers rattled off a list of herbs and plants that they had used, all of which I doubted would be able to cure the shade's mark, as the imposter had put it.

I trailed a finger along the entwining black veins, suddenly reminded of when Dorran and I had buried my grandmother and the darkness that had come out of his claw when he had touched the writing. Curious, I morphed into my dragon form and touched the darkest part of his skin with a fore claw and watched in amazement as silver streamed out of my talon and traveled like cobwebs over his flesh, leaving a streak of silver instead of black.

Eragon sat up gasping, his eyes confused and alive once again. Saphira's head appeared through the tent flap, pushing the onlookers back, some of them scrambling away in fright.

Eragon! Are you ok? She thought to him, her rough fire-proof tongue flicking over his face with anxiety. Eragon laughed, his voice hoarse but causing everyone's faces to turn relieved.

I morphed as he pushed her tongue away and turned to look at the crowd of people around him. Nasuada broke away and hugged the rider, her dark skin glowing in the candlelight.

"I'm so glad you're ok," she said, then turned to me, "Kalanie, I can't thank you enough for what you have done."

I smiled and shrugged, "It's fine, I'd love to know what creature had attacked him though." Durza the shade was dead thanks to Eragon, and there wasn't any more alive as far as I knew. Unease stirred in my stomach, the mark had looked eerily similar to what Dorran was capable of. But he hadn't attacked Eragon, that much I was sure of. If he had I would have seen it in his memories, and he had no reason to harm the rider anyway.

But then again, there was another Dorran I had to take into consideration as well, he was just as capable of making that mark as the real one was, and I was willing to bet that he was the one that had done it.

I smiled at Eragon, then left, letting the darkness engulf me as I made my way to my tent, my glimmering armor in the corner glowing in the faint moonlight.

I curled up on the blankets and closed my eyes, trying to get some more sleep so that I wouldn't be tired for the battle in the morning. I drifted off, my dreams swirling with blood, flashing metal and claws, and the face of the man that had appeared in my dream once, his dark eyes humorless now and blood thirsty as he sent his soldiers to their death without a second thought. This was surely the king, the one we had to kill to get back our land and free us all. As the dream faded three shapes drifted around him, one a large black dragon, almost identical to Dorran but about three times his size. The other two were dark ghostly shapes without true forms; their crimson eyes the only distinguishable part of their features.

Then the image was overtaken by darkness once again as I felt my shoulder disturbed for the second time that night. I groaned and opened my eyes to see a pair of sapphire eyes looking down on me. I growled and shoved Eragon away, rolling off of my bed as I did and landing on the floor painfully.

The rider's chuckle resounded in my ear and a stab of dread shot through my chest. That wasn't Eragon's voice, it was Dorran's.

But Dorran was in the woods somewhere, keeping hidden.

This wasn't the real Dorran.

I growled low and threatening, my form vibrating dangerously as I thought of what animal was best to kill him with.

"Now, now Kalanie, lets not be like that. I only came to talk to you, give you another option rather than have you die fighting for something ridiculous." He whispered, restraining my hands with only one of his.

I hissed, "I fight for what I believe and want, which happens to be the death of the King, the freedom of the land, and the sudden disappearance of a certain imposter that thinks I'm stupid enough to not notice that the creature I've been with the last few months is not the person I thought he was." I bared my teeth, sharpening them to fangs while morphing my body into a dragon, not wanting to give my new Shifter status away in case he survived and managed to escape.

But that wasn't going to happen, his death was long overdue.

Don't do this…the real Dorran hissed into my mind, I could feel his hate, anger, and worry for me as he watched the events through my eyes.

Too late, I thought back, and sprang on the poser, my teeth and claws raking through his now vibrating flesh. Hard scales erupted from his skin faster than I had though possible. He shifted into a dragon almost five times my size and started biting and scratching back, his powerful jaws clamping around my limbs leaving huge fang marks where blood welled out.

I roared in anger as the tent roof was thrown apart and the sky above was exposed, the white stars shining coldly at the battle below.

He was bigger than me, but I was faster and more flexible. I wove myself around his legs, shredding and burning any part of him that I could reach. This was what I had been waiting for, a chance to get rid of him once and for all, and I wasn't going to let him get away unharmed, or get away at all.

KALANIE, STOP! Dorran roared, and I could feel him coming nearer to try to help me fight.

Dorran, don't come any closer or you'll give yourself away! I'm fine, just stay there. I winced as the creatures claws tore into my scales and the flesh beneath and I clamped my jaws onto his neck in retaliation, pleased when a pained growl escaped from between his fangs.

"What's going o-" someone's voice broke through the sound of our fight, then the noise of people running and shouting resounded around the area as more people came.

Then something strong grabbed my tail and attempted to pull me away from my enemy, but I lashed out with a hind leg and batted whatever it was away.

Then a scaled creature came between us and started attacking the monster as well and I leapt back in to help, the two of us slowly overpowering the dark mass.

Then suddenly he leapt up, his leathery wings pounding the air powerfully as he tried to get air born, but I jumped up and tore at his hind legs, climbing my way up his body and shredding his wings until flight was impossible. He screeched in pain and fell to the ground with me on top.

His jaws stretched wide in a roar and on a sudden impulse liquid fire poured from my mouth and into his, traveling down his throat and incinerating his insides. His dark eyes went blank, the light leaving them, and he stared at me unseeing as his body shuddered and crushed on the earth, the impact traveling up my legs causing them to shake from the strain.

The creature laughed painfully, his last breaths gushing out of his jaws as well as blood.

"I am so proud of you Kalanie, but do not worry, I will always live, in you, and others. You have not seen the last of me." Then his features changed to show a dragon with deep green scales, his eyes clouded over with silver.

There will be two, one of sky, one of earth, that hold the power of the stars in their claws. The voice rasped in my mind, old and pained. Then his face returned to normal, his eyes dead, as was his heart.

He laid still, his huge wings crumpled around us, broken and never to fly again. I collapsed onto his stomach, exhaustion suddenly overcoming me. A tentative hand stroked my snout and my eyes fluttered open to see Boden looking up at me, his tawny eyes worried and anxious.

"I'm sorry for what I said…I didn't mean it…I guess I was just tired and scared and…" he whispered, unable to finish his sentence. I closed my eyes, seeking comfort in his touch, my body shuddering from pain and fatigue.

"Don't worry about it Boden, it's fine. I'm sorry I left you all those times, but I never would have done it without good reason to, I promise." I whispered back, my breaths coming in short pants as I tried to control my heartbeat.

Scales brushed against my side and I looked to see Dorran beside me, his dark eyes apprehensive and full of anger.

"Do you know how worried I was? You should have waited, you could have gotten killed, you-"

"Dorran, I'm fine. The imposter is dead and I'm not, there's nothing to be anxious about." I whispered, interrupting him.

He sighed and nudged me off the dead impersonator and we followed Boden to the healers' tents with me wincing every step of the way. We settled down as the healers worked their magic…literarily. Dorran draped a wing over me as the healers hands glowed and my skin and scales repaired themselves. I knew we had a lot of explaining to do, especially with the sudden appearance of another Dorran, and my sudden attack on the Dorran that they thought was the real one.

I sighed and pressed myself closer to the real Dorran, the only Dorran, my Dorran.

As soon as my eyes fluttered shut I was asleep, nothing troubling me except the battle taking place in the morning and the desired death of the King.

The same image appeared again, with the King and his dragon circling, but this time there was only one shadow creature, its blood-thirsty eyes glaring at me with more hate and malice than I ever through possible.

There was one more, one more creature like the imposter to kill.

There will be two, one of sky, one of earth, that hold the power of the stars in their claws.

I'm watching the oh-so-crappy Eragon movie as i write this, lol

PLEASE REVIEW!!

I'll write the sequel right after i finish this one if i get 400 reviews by the end...

-Firesilk:D