***

In the morning Ericon awoke and quickly rushed to the window and looked down at the ground. No Jason. "I guess he crawled back into the hole where he came from." mumbled Ericon. Then Ericon got dressed and raced down the staircase to find that Lotagh was already awake and playing the WII with Robert.

"Good morning sir." said Robert turning away from the TV for just a second.

"Yes!" yelled Lotagh, "I win!"

Ericon looked past Robert to see what Lotagh's outburst was about, the TV screen said "Robert game over" printed in large letters across the screen. Robert got up and went into the kitchen, made Ericon some waffles and then walked out the door and got into his car.

"I shouldn't have given Robert the day off today." said Ericon slowly.

"I think he deserved it," replied Lotagh, "he did fly you up to the airship after all." said Lotagh.

"I guess." agreed Ericon.

After a few moments of silence Ericon walked over to the door grabbed his coat and explained that he was going to a council meeting that he had been called to. Then Ericon shut the door and whistled for his dragon, who landed only a few moments later with a loud thump.

Talbatorix tried not to make any noise as he hid in an alley, two armed guards sped past the alley, follow by a team of officers and some search dogs. One of the dogs howled, they had picked up his scent. Talbatorix raced threw the alley knocking over garbage cans and stacks of crates in his wake. One of the dogs raced ahead of the others, the leader. I have to find a way to get these stupid mutts off my trail before they catch up to me! thought Talbatorix. Talbatorix raced threw a few more alleys until he reached a dead end, it wouldn't be long until they caught up with him now. Five dogs turned the corner and raced up to him biting and slashing. He managed to kick one off and into a crate knocking it out. Another jumped at him snarling, Talbatorix back handed it across the face and watched as it helplessly it the the wall stone dead. That was when six officers turned the corner and proceeded to open fire on him. But just as they were about to open fire he passed through the wall, like a ghost, leaving the bullets to helplessly bounce off the brick wall. Talbatorix continued running down the alley again, but this time nobody was following him.

"Why on earth did I have to land in the middle on a dragon base?" wondered Talbatorix out loud.

Ericon arrived at the council just as it was about to start, leaving Pyro outside he went into the building and found his way into the main chamber where the council was being held.

"We now bring this council to a start." said the leader of the council, Flame.

"Okay can someone tell me why we're all here?" asked Flame.

"Free donuts!" yelled a person stationed in the back of the room.

After that remark Flame took an empty bottle from one of the people sitting at the table, and threw it at the person who had made that remark and little earlier. The bottle reached it's target shattering on the person's head, knocking him out. Everyone looked around the room nervously watching and waiting to see who would get hit next. After long tiring hours of talking about the attack on the dragon base the council agreed to depart and continue they're normal activities. Ericon walked back out the front of the building and jumped onto Pyro who was waiting patiently, torching a patch of grass to keep himself occupied. Once Ericon was tied down Pyro took off flapping it's enormous wings.

Talbatorix sprinting toward glowing light in the distance, a town. As soon as Talbatorix approached the front gate archers stationed on top of the nearby buildings loaded arrows into their bows.

"Halt intruder!" shouted the leader of the archers "state your business!"

"It would be a wise choice just to let me into the city." stated Talbatorix calmly.

The archer was just about to let the arrow he was holding fly when a dark orb hit him right in the chest, knocking him backward and off the building. The other archers let loose a hail of arrows straight at Talbatorix. The arrow were about to reach their mark when a shield of dark magic appeared over Talbatorix's head deflecting all the arrows. The archer stared at Talbatorix dumbstruck not believing what had just happened. Talbatorix sent some more dark orbs flying at the archers weakening their numbers down to only three. Then with a wave of his hand Talbatorix threw two orbs and killed two of the guards. The remaining archer was just about to get up when he found himself unable to move, thanks to the dark magic of Talbatorix. With a snap of his finger Talbatorix had killed the last of the archer. Then he walked over to the gate protecting the village and with a mighty punch the gate fell.

It had been a few day since Ericon had last heard from the council. Lotagh had gone back to his own house. Ericon walked into the living room, sat down, and turned on the television. EUROPE UNDER ATTACK was the first thing that Ericon saw scrolling across the screen. Ericon knew right away that there was a dragon base in Europe and that it probably was attacked. Just then Robert walked into the room and briefly glanced at the headline.

"You're going to go after them aren't you sir?" asked Robert, even though he already knew the answer to his question.

"You bet!" exclaimed Ericon, walking toward the front door, ready to go.

Then Ericon rushed out the door and slammed it shut behind him. It didn't take him long to locate Pyro, jump on, and strap himself down. From there they flew over the Atlantic Ocean and toward Europe the flight took them almost 5 nights, they were almost there when a missile whizzed right past Pyro.

"Halt intruder!" said a loud metallic voice from somewhere in the distance.

Another missile shot past Pyro, this time only missing him a couple inches. Pyro dove down close to the water trying to avoid the missiles. Yet another missile shot past this time nearly hitting Pyro's right wing. That was when Ericon spotted the coastline, and the missile launcher.

"Head for the coastline and blow the crud out of that missile launcher!" yelled Ericon over the roar of the wind.

Pyro beat his wings faster, and faster they were about to reach the coastline when a missile hit the water below them throwing, almost throwing Pyro into the dark waters of the ocean. After a few more seconds they had landed on the coastline and the missile defense system was no longer able to target them.

"It must be some kind of defense system for shooting down unwelcome aircraft." pointed out Ericon.

Pyro needed a rest from flying all the way across the ocean and needed a rest. So Ericon figured that he would go exploring their new surroundings. Only a few minutes later he stumbled across the ancient ruins of a castle, so he decided that he would go inside. As soon as Ericon stepped through the door he found himself standing in a huge hallway with at least 20 rooms. But what Ericon saw first interested him the most. At the very end of the hallway there was a door with spikes all over the sides. At first Ericon wanted to run to the end of the hallway and open the door, but that was before he noticed that on either side of the hall there were giant scythes suspended in mid air. Ericon carefully took a step forward, but quickly stepped back when one of the scythes that was suspended came straight at him. Ericon took a few steps backward before charging straight into the hall, avoiding each scythe as it came at him. After the scythes Ericon sprinted toward the door. He was almost to the door when a pitfall trap opened up in front of him. Ericon leaped over the trap and now stood in front of the door. Ericon examined the door, there was a slot where a sword was supposed to be placed in the door. Ericon took his sword, Adurna out of it's case and placed it in the slot. It was a perfect fit. The door flew open with a screech and Ericon walked inside. When he was inside the door slammed shut behind him and locked again. In the middle of the room there was a case with a book inside of it. Ericon walked up the steps and examined the case. That was when Ericon noticed that there were letters of the case. The letters said, "Only the one who controls fire and water may open the case."

"What could that mean?" wondered Ericon out loud. Then Ericon noticed a pool of light only just a few feet away. Ericon looked at his sword again, to his surprise there was now an inscription on it. It said, "Water is in darkest night, fire is in the sun's light." It didn't take Ericon long to figure out the inscription. He walked over to the pool of light and put his sword into it, the sword's color changed from dark blue to a lighter blue, and the blade started on fire. Then Ericon walked back over to the case opened it, and took the book out. That was when Ericon noticed there was a picture of a dragon head on the book. Ericon slipped the book into his pack and looked around for an exit. Only a few feet away was a cracked wall, that didn't look too hard to break. So Ericon walked over a smashed the wall with his foot and entered the next room. To Ericon's disliking the room was so dark he couldn't hardly see anything. After walking around a little more he discovered there was an exit on the far side of the room. But not long after he spotted the exit a creature slammed into him knocking him down. Ericon quickly got back up and looked around for the thing that hit him. To his horror on the far side of the room, near the exit there was a basilisk guarding the way. The basilisk lunged at Ericon, but Ericon was faster, he dodged the lunge sending the monster crashing into a wall. Ericon made a run for the exit, but the monster grabbed his leg with its tail sending him crashing to the ground. Ericon slammed his sword down on the creature's tail severing it. The creature let out a terrible screech and came after Ericon faster than before. Ericon ran for the exit again, this time he made it outside. But the basilisk was right behind him. The basilisk burst out of the castle right after Ericon. Ericon ran around the corner and climbed out a crumbling wall. The basilisk was still right behind him, but was too late to catch Ericon. Then, Ericon ran over the top of the crumbling castle and jumped down the front side of the building.

***

Back at the camp Ericon sat on a stump telling Pyro what had just occurred at the ruins of the castle.

"You know that you should have told me where you were going," scolded Pyro "you could have gotten yourself killed."

Ericon didn't bother saying anything. After a few moments of silence Ericon remembered that he still had the book in his pack, and he took it out. Upon the cover the words "The Order of the Dragon" were written in red and blue ink. Ericon opened the book and started reading. To his surprise the book was filled to the brim with drawings of monsters and things about them. Ericon turned to the page titled Dragons. And after reading for a while about things that he mostly already knew, Ericon went to sleep under Pyro's wings.

***

The next day Ericon and Pyro flew to the dragon base and examined the wreckage Talbatorix had caused. After they had found out everything they could about the attack they set out for a nearby town that Talbatorix could have gone to. Upon reaching the town the duo discovered there the gates were torn down and there were countless people that had been killed.

"Talbatorix was definitely here." pointed out Ericon.

After searching the city Ericon encountered many villagers who saw Talbatorix going east. A few hours later Ericon saw Lotagh in the distance helping the people who had their houses attacked. As Ericon approached he waved at Lotagh and ran over to him.

"I see that you got word of the attack on the dragon base." said Ericon.

"I didn't take me long to figure that out." replied Lotagh.

After their brief talk Ericon told Pyro that Lotagh and him would go searching by themselves.

***

Ericon and Lotagh arrived in the next town over shortly before sunset. The only place still open was an old Inn, so Ericon and Lotagh thought that they should try and next a room there. As soon as they entered the room and strong smell of beer and whiskey drifted through the air. And there were a ton of gangsters all around the room. Ericon approached the man at the counter and asked if they had any rooms open, the man replied with a nod and said "Up the stairs and three to the right." Ericon walked back over to Lotagh and told him what the man had said. Ericon glanced over at the stairs the saw that there was a tough looking gangster guarding them. After walking over there a table and hooligans got up and barred their way. All the hooligan then drew their swords and pointed them at the duo.

One of them stepped forward the said, "Pay up or you don't get to the rooms."

"Not a problem." replied Lotagh, getting ready to use magic on all of them.

Ericon quickly grabbed Lotagh's shoulder and said harshly "Do you want to have everyone in this bar try and kill us?!"

The biker stepped forward sword raised and prepared to chop Ericon's head off. Quick as a flash Ericon kicked the sword out of his hand and punched him in the face, breaking his nose. Lotagh used Brisingr and engulfed the rest of the guards in flames. The leader of the guards stepped forward and examined his fallen comrades.

"Prepare to die, dirt bag!" shouted the leader as he ran at Lotagh.

Lotagh simply put his fist out in front of him and the leader ran into it.

"Next time, try not to run into my fist with your face." joked Lotagh.

Before anyone had time to notice Ericon and Lotagh had already gone up the stairs and gotten into their room. After they got into the room Ericon looked around and saw there were bunk beds over in the corner. Ericon choose top bunk and Lotagh choose bottom bunk. Right when Ericon was about to drift off into sleep he heard the sound of a person talking just outside of their door. A few seconds afterwords the door flew off it's hinges and hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. Talbatorix stepped into the room. Ericon quickly grabbed his sword and turned to face him. Lotagh had also gotten up and grabbed his sword. Talbatorix attacked Lotagh by lunging at him, but Lotagh parried the blow and kicked Talbatorix in the face. Ericon jumped at Talbatorix catching him off guard. Lotagh attacked again, but was kicked back and into the wall. Ericon parried another one of Talbatorix's blows and ripped his sword out of his hand, which went flying and stabbed into the wall. Ericon quickly flicked his sword up to Talbatorix's neck and held it there.

"I didn't know that you were staying here too." said Ericon calmly.

"I didn't plan to, but you know the police these days." replied Talbatorix.

Lotagh got up and looked at Talbatorix and Ericon.

"I see you got him then?" inquired Lotagh.

Ericon just nodded and whacked Talbatorix in the face knocking him out. Lotagh looked out the window with concern. There just outside the window was another airship. And in the pilot seat was none other than Jason. Ericon and Lotagh watched as the aircraft flew directly over the Inn. Just a few seconds later a machete split through the ceiling and Jason came down. Ericon tried to slice at Jason but Jason ducked and tripped Ericon. He was just about to finish him off when Lotagh pierced him through the chest and threw him against the wall. Ericon got up, picked up Talbatorix and ran out the door. It didn't' take Jason long to recover and before long he was coming down the hall fairly quickly. Ericon and Lotagh raced into the lobby and leaped over a table and out the door. They got halfway across the street before Jason raced outside looking for them. Ericon called Pyro and only a few seconds later the dragon landed in the middle of the street. Ericon threw Talbatorix on and Lotagh climbed up too. Then Pyro took off in a hurry.

"Am I going to have to start following you every where? Asked Pyro concerned.

"It wasn't my fault that Talbatorix was in the hotel." replied Ericon.

Soon Jason had gotten into the airship, but when he looked around he couldn't find the two boys and the dragon. They were gone.