Du Gedwëy Dras

Eragon sat crossed-legged, at the bow of the ship, silently communicating with the Eldunari. He had immersed himself in their conversation not so long ago, and since then he had talked too many of the Eldunari who had been under Galbatorix's control. As many as he had talked too, there were still countless others who he hadn't. After he had finished conversing one dragon that was making a particularly good recovery, he found his access to the general conversation was being cut off.

Panicking, he hastily erected shields and focused on the first line of poetry that came to him, repeating it over and over again, as the two minds cut off his access to the flow of conversation around.

"An admirable effort" said Umaroth, "but one that is unnecessary."

"You should be able to recognise us by now" admonished Glaedr.

"Sorry, Ebrithils. It was an ill-informed judgement."

"No matter, no matter" said Glaedr, trailing off.

"Glaedr has told me" started Umaroth in a serious tone, one that made Eragon concentrate immediately, "that you have confided in him your true name, and he in his."

Pent-up rage began to build up in Eragon, waves of anger could almost be seen rolling off him.

"You had no right to tell him that" he spluttered in – something close to- murderous rage towards Glaedr. He gathered up his mental strength, his mind appearing like a thundercloud from a distance, and focused it into a single point.

"You do not want to attack him – otherwise you will sorely regret it later" cautioned Umaroth, enveloping Eragon's mind in a shell of armour, all but impenetrable.

"Relax, he did not tell me your true name, only that you confided in him."

With that statement, Eragon released a deep breath, and with it, all his anger.

"It is my wish" Umaroth continued, "that you and Glaedr work together to iron out, aah, faults in your true name. This is entirely obligational, we know you shared your name with Arya so you might want to keep it as it is, to keep a special link. But I must warn you, discourage of progress simply because you like the status quo, is not an answer. Flexibility and versatility are a warrior's best friend, indeed a man's best friend, and it would be wise to heed those words."

"Oromis once said something similar" he remarked with morbid amusement, "I will think about it" he said, before turning, well as much as turning in the world of mind meant, to Glaedr and addressing him.

"My humble apologies, I should have interpreted the earlier statement more thoughtfully, I made an unreasonable assumption and you paid the price."

"No, if it is anyone's fault, it is mine. The blame, if there is to be any at all, should lie squarely with me. You were rightly angered, even if you did make a misinterpretation. Information about a true name is very important, and I should not have bandied about it, although that could be a matter of debate."

"No harm done, however, I shall have to consider your offer, and do not expect an immediate reply, it is a matter of due consideration. Not one of hasty decision making."

"Go" said Glaedr, before fading back into the mental conversation.

He opened his eyes, the land around him, which had been lush in greenery less than half a day ago, had now turned into a barren desert, with only the odd dead tree to break flat line of the horizon. Patches of scrub now ruled the landscape, providing a short intermittency to the monotony of the surrounds.

Many of the elves had turned inwards, and joined the mental conversation raging unseen. Only a few were up and about; two were keeping watch over the horizon, one was practising his swordsmanship skills, through use of a couple of fighting stances and techniques, and two others who were at the stern of the ship, facing off against each other. As he walked towards the back of ship, he saw a female elf, who he thought was Invidia, manipulating a small black stone. Curious, he crouched down.

"What is that" he asked, before taking a longer look at the stone.

"An innocent looking stone" she replied, with a hint of a smile.

"Really" he questioned, trying to figure out if she was being truthful or playful.

"No, of course not" she said, throwing her black hair back in amusement. "Do you really think an elf would carry around a stone this ordinary looking for looks? It looks like it could be found everywhere."

"So," he said, a smile tugging up the corner of his lips, "what does it actually do?"

"You'll have to wait and find out."

"That's a pity. Does it serve a practical purpose?"

"Yes, but only for desperate circumstances. I'd show it to you otherwise, but it also takes a lot of effort to restore it back to its original shape."

"So I'm never going to find out" he asked, composing an appropriate face of distress.

"Fine, I will not deny the master's request. I will not be the one to die in your way" she said, wittily.

"So" he said, prompting her when she stalled.

"It is designed to be a last resort weapon. It emits a blast of magical energy that few things can withstand. Your wards, for instance, would be utterly decimated if it went off this very second, and you would be very hard pressed to stay alive."

"Why didn't you use this in the war with Galbatorix? In fact, I can think of plenty of times when it would have been useful?" His tone taking on an accusatory note.

"I found this trick out from the papers that Galbatorix managed to find, ones that even the Leaders of the Old decided to keep hidden. Vrael himself, if I am not mistaken, personally ensured that this never saw the light of the general population of magicians. Such a weapon, he feared, and quite rightly so, might have made life in Alagaesia very different, and not for the better."

"My mistake" he said, apologising, "What else have you discovered of kept secrets" he asked, smiling, sitting down, to get more comfortable.

(Time Change)

Eragon got up and walked over to the prow of the ship, keeping an eagle out for Saphira, who was flying ahead of them, watching for a sign of some mountains in the otherwise relatively monotonous plains. As far as the eye could see was vast plains of scrubland, the landscape looked like it had received zero rainfall for the season, even though winter and spring generally had more precipitation than the other seasons. The only positive, he had concluded glumly, was that it might mean that the desert might be a result of a rain shadow, which in turn meant that there might be mountains.

Lately, he had noticed that his muscles had been getting less and less tired from the training, and also that his slim half-elven form had filled out. He was now built more like his cousin, and his strength easily matched that of Blodhgarm's, and some would say it surpassed it. Unfortunately, Cuaroc, who Eragon often trained against, was a lot stronger, and did not tire easily, if at all.

A few days ago, when he was practising hand-to-hand combat with one of the Elves, he had accidentally punched one of the Elves so hard that he broke a rib, not a major break, but enough to convince Umaroth that he needed to train against someone stronger than him, Cuaroc. Unfortunately, Cuaroc was more than a match for him, and easily pummelled him in hand-to-hand sparring.

As he reflected on these events, he noticed that the landscape was getting drier and drier as they went along. The river provided a stark contrast to the desert plains, a ribbon of blue on a sheet of yellow parchment. It was then, as he was thinking about whether it would have been a sensible idea to stay longer in Alagaesia, that a piercing voice echoed throughout his head, filled with joy.

"Eragon," said Saphira in his mind, her voice straining a little with the distance, "I see mountains on the horizon, enormous ones by the look of it, at least the size of the Spine and more like dug-in-dwarven mountains, the Beors."

Excited by the prospect of a new home, he whispered a spell to sharpen his vision. Nothing. Still not disheartened, he whispered again, yet the horizon remained blank as ever. It was not until he magnified his vision for a third time that he could see the faint white capped tips of the mountains. Indeed, Saphira was right, even from here, they looked massive.

"I" he began, by shouting, "can see mountains. Rest assured, our home might be here. We may have arrived at our final destination."

In response, a large cheer erupted from all the elves on the boat, most of them looking relieved that they might soon be settled, an entirely worthy sentiment, he thought.

(PoV Change)

Saphira dived through the air in a spiral, the ground below her blurring together with the sky. After an exhilarating rush of energy she pulled out of the dive, the ground only a few wing-spans below her. Spreading out her wings, she angled herself towards the blue-like-her-scales river until she could literally drag a claw across the water, at which point she promptly tucked her wings in and dived smoothly into the crystal-clear-blue water.

After amusing herself for a few minutes by watching the bubbles stream by her as she swam up-stream, she pushed herself off the soft-silty-riverbed and burst out of the river, droplets of water spraying everywhere, the sun catching them and making rainbows. Beating her wings as hard as she could she quickly settled into a near vertical climb, gaining altitude at a phenomenal rate.

After a while, she realised that it probably wouldn't be too good to use up so much energy, although in any case her-partner-of-heart-and-mind could give her some word-will-energy from the blue-like-her-scales gem in the pommel blue-ice-pinprick, Brisingr. Levelling out, she realised how far she had actually climbed, below her was the barren desert, and a long blue ribbon that wound its way through the landscape. She could not even see the wooden-elven-ship, Talita. After reorientating herself, which only took a few seconds, an image struck her with such force, that she could not even comprehend for a few seconds. In the distance, lay a range of mountains to rival dwarven-infested-Beors.

Immediately, she did a barrel-roll in relief, not because she was bored, dragons after all had patience that rivalled mountains, but she would no longer be so alone. The dragon eggs would soon hatch, and with them, the return of her species from the brink-of-extinction, by that cursed-oath-breaker. Righting herself, she readied herself to contact Eragon.

Extending her mind, she reached out throughout the barren-landscape that was not occupied by a mind, and sought out Eragon. Pinpointing her-partner-of-heart-and-mind's mind, she relayed the discovery to him, whooping with joy secretly.

"Eragon," she said to him, while maintaining the connection that was impaired by the distance between her little one, "I see mountains on the horizon, enormous ones by the look of it, at least the size of the Spine and more like dug-in-dwarven mountains, the Beors."

PoV change and Time change

Eragon stood in wondrous rapture as they glided ever closer to the mountainous realm that stood before them. It seemed like fate, or wyrda as one of the elves had coined it, was on their side, for even the breeze was blowing in the right direction, making the silken sails billow in the wind. Less than a quarter of a league away lay the foothills of the mountains, rising above the barren plains, an island of green in a sea of red and yellow. The distant white peaks of the enormous mountains glistened and glinted in the dappled spring sunshine; while this was happening, the image of him seeing the beors for the first time sprang to his mind unimpeded. He could not fault the similarity between the situations; both times he was seeking a safe shelter, although for differing reasons, he reflected interestedly.

He felt it in the very marrow of his bone and sinew of his muscles, that this would be a potentially great place to raise a legend as old as Alagaesia itself. Yet time would tell, to see whether his wish to settle here would come true, alas, if only he could scry into the future. A deep chill of peace reverberated through him, if only Brom could see him now, what he would think. Him, a farm boy not so long ago, now venturing off into unseen territory leaving behind a wake of events that would affect the fate of Alagaesia for years to come, and discovering a whole new world. The only thing he was certain of, which was a small comfort nonetheless, was that Brom would be proud to call him his son. He also thought of how much Brom had done and accomplished by himself, and he realised that determination was a trait that should be prized above all else. If used for evil, terrible things could happen, but if used for good, in which the majority of cases it was, it could be a force for the betterment of everyone, including the beholder.

The springy wooden deck of the Talita groaned slightly as Blodhgarm lithely walked up to stand beside him, facing their future together, two minds to one purpose, to raise the dragons safely, and eventually build a city and an order more impressive than the last one.

"Beautiful, is it not" said Blodhgarm.

"Aye, and it is made even more beautiful by the fact that we might soon settle there."

"Agreed, beauty is more often than not, in the eye of the beholder. This would be a fitting end and also a fresh start. It has almost been three months since we left Alagaesia, a journey accompanied by danger, and it would take a brave man, or woman for that matter, to go to such lengths to journey here."

"Distance has been provisioned for, magic will soon follow, and all we need to do, is find ourselves suitable natural barriers, ones that will even render an elf unable to climb them. Once that is done, we will start."

Time Change

The closer they drew to the mountains, the more impressive they seemed to get, Eragon thought. They were now well and truly past the foothills, and with every breath the mountains seemed to grow an eight of a league in height and stature. Some of them, he guessed, were even higher than the Beors, something he considered to be no easy feat. There was one that stood out in particular, it was to their right, albeit a league in front of them, and it possessed a powerful, but menacing, air. Accompanying it was a sister peak, not as tall, but mightily impressive. The taller of the two summits he had informally christened Freohr and the smaller of the two Fyrn, which together meant Death and War, a morbid topic, but a suitable name not with-standing.

There was also an additional mountain that he had christened, one that he had not directly seen, but laid in the distance and was only visible from upon high, which meant dragon back. It was a huge mountain shaped like a table top, one which did not rise above the other mountains, but was so immense that he had called it Helga Hjart, or Sacred Heart. He resolved to share this with Blodhgarm and the other elves, but for now, he thought that they wanted some peace.

As he stood thinking, it slipped his notice that they had passed the peak of the first notice, and it was not until he was in the shadow of the second that he looked up and realised what had happened. He laughed lightly, breaking the otherwise breathtaking silence that the elves exhibited. Even some of the younger elves, who had been filled with boundless energy for the past few days, had fallen silent, tending to their own thoughts as they passed from one realm to another.

Slowly, without even thinking, he whispered a few words which was followed by a rustle as a piece of slate rose from the riverbed, in front of the Talita, and into his hand. Holding the stone with his left hand, he swept his right hand across the piece of stone in a sweeping motion. Material from the landscape around him rose without words, and deposited itself onto the stone until the image he had in his mind has transfixed itself to the page. He cut off the supply of magic and examined his handiwork. The fairth showed the mountains in their full glory, epitomising the beauty of them, while also showing what he was feeling when he did this. Satisfied with the result, he whispered a few spells to protect the fairth and proceeded to bend down and store it in the locker containing the few things of importance to him.

A great calm settled upon him as he stood back up, here he was, having already lived the dream, and yet there was still more to come. It was in that moment that he learnt two things; one, he should be extremely grateful for everything, and two, more importantly, a key teaching of life. One that he thought that would define him for the years to come, bar any other revelations. Happiness through nothing, compassion and intelligence for anything, and peace and patience through everything

(Time change)

Eragon motioned with his hands, manipulating the ball of water in front of him, before directing it towards at Blodhgarm, at a pace which the elven eye could hardly trace. To his credit, Blodhgarm just waved his hand lazily, and the water which had previously been a moment away from smashing into his chest, redirected itself towards Yaela, catching her off balance. Although not enough to merit being hit by a compact ball of water, as she lifted a palm up, and caught the ball with some sort of sphere of containment.

"Enough" she said, directing the large globule of water to the side of the Talita, and letting it flow back into the river, "Eragon you should be deciding whether this is the place, and Blodhgarm you should help him make this decision, not standing around using up useful energy."

Around them, the mountains towered over them, casting deep shadows onto the river and surrounding valleys. Up in front of them the river disappeared around a bend, the foot hill of a particularly ominous looking mountain obstructing their view of the path ahead. The foothill of the mountain he thought he had christened Freohr un Fyrn, but as the angle rendered him unable to judge the height, he couldn't tell. He kept on looking around for suitable places, but in all the cases, the tributary valleys were too small or too dangerous to allow them to safely raise dragon hatchlings. In some cases, there had been promising ones that he had sent Saphira to investigate, but no sooner than she had had a cursory glance at them, she noticed a fault with them.

All the time, the unpleasant thought of having to go all the way back and find another place kept hanging around in his mind, up until they rounded the foothill that had impeded their view, and travelled a league upstream. Where he was woken from his thoughtful reverie by the spectacular thundering sound of a waterfall, he could not yet see it, but he had a funny feeling that it would soon make itself apparent after they rounded the bend in the river ahead.

Sure enough, after waiting for half an hour, they finally reached the bend where they were promptly greeted by the sight of an immense waterfall less than 50 lengths of the Talita away. After closing the distance by a half, where afterwards it became too dangerous to continue, they sailed up to the bank. Protected from the current by a spit of rocks upstream, they secured the ship to the bank, and no sooner than they had done so he disembarked, closely followed by Blodhgarm.

"You should examine the land above the waterfall" said Blodhgarm, scarcely hear able above the thunderous noise of the sheer volume of water going over the edge of the cliff, "we will make necessary provisions for the night, and if you find this place suitable, we will camp up there" he said, pointing to the top of the cliff, "and if not, we will stay down here. It is far too late to go anywhere, and I have a feeling that this will be the place, intuition is sometimes as good as the other senses."

"I am glad you have faith, a tale of good fortune this would be, if what we found here, were to be true to our wishes."

Saphira, having sensed that she was needed, spiralled down from up on high, before landing a stone's throw away from Eragon. He ran over to her, not bothering to say good bye to Blodhgarm, as they would be back soon, bearers of bad or good news. She took off, quickly climbing in altitude with every successive beat of her wings. After a few moments, she began to level out, which allowed him to get a proper glimpse of the landscape above the cliff. It was beautiful, a green plain spread for half a league either side of the river, and the river itself ran for a league, until it was interrupted by another waterfall, one that was slightly less imposing, but still impressive to boot. The mountains on either side of the valley were set back, and the river had carved a deep channel, perfect in the event of a flood. A few streams fed the river, but apart from them it was just flat, luscious, green, undulating landscape for the most part. An occasional boulder dotting the plains, and a bush dispersed here and there

Perfect, in other words, he thought, as they flew the length of the river. After examining each of the valley sides for landslide dangers, avalanches and unstable terrain, they reached the next waterfall, where Saphira quickly gained height through a vertigo inducing climb, until she promptly levelled out, a reasonable distance above the waterfall, and ample room to observe the land. Here it was much the same as before, although less ideal than one would have hoped and quite a bit smaller. The thing that interested Eragon however, was a series of waterfalls ahead, which had over time created islands of rocks hidden among the waterfall, which now went untouched by the spray of water. This was despite the fact that waterfall dwarfed the previous waterfall, and made the first waterfall appear small in comparison.

Flying closer, the true scale of the waterfall became evident, as well as the multitude of rainbows that sparked up from the droplets of water. Casting a multi-coloured glow on the rock islands in the waterfall. From what he could see, the river went in different directions up ahead, split by yet another mountain. His mind made up, he signalled for Saphira to turn back. Already, his mind was churning with ideas on how to name the place.

(Time change)

Saphira slowly drifted down, using the ebbing and flowing of the wind currents to slow her fall down, before landing lightly on the bank. He leapt down, indicating that he wanted to speak to Blodhgarm, who quickly hurried over, after conversing with Yaela about something. Wasting no time, he launched right in.

"It is the perfect place, words do it no glory, you need to see it for yourself to see it truly. It is beyond our wildest hope, and I have decided, of course with the consent of the elves and the Eldunari, I will approve this as our home today."

In response, Blodhgarm just smiled a toothy grin, and nodded, before turning his back to Eragon, and executing a bow. The elves burst out into mirth and laughter, relieved to find the journey finished at last, before preparing to secure the Talita even further. After several minutes of unloading, knot-tying, and spell weaving, they were all ready. A long rope that had been woven previously, now tied up the majority of the elves, in a very much similar fashion to the way they had tied up the elves in the siege of Illirea. At one end of the rope, lay a wooden log, which the elves tossed into the air after Saphira had taken off and swooped back low over the ground.

After grasping it in her talons, she initially struggled with the added weight, but soon righted herself and made off towards the waterfall, gradually gaining height as she did so. Below them on the ground, five of the elves busied themselves with unloading the rest of the ship. After preparing bundles of supplies which Saphira would then be able to ferry up the mountain, they would then go on to investigate the area, looking for a safe place to store the Talita. Once done, they would then collect them, and the last of the supplies, and bring them to the top of the waterfall, ready to be unpacked and distributed.

Saphira soon reached the top of the waterfall, and now it was just a matter of delivering the elves safely and finding a good place to set up a temporary camp. After a few moments of keen searching by many pairs of watchful eyes, Invidia spotted a cave hidden away in the right side of the valley. Which Saphira quickly made a beeline for, taking care to maintain altitude and thus not drag the elves on the bottom of the rope along the ground.

After hovering for a few moments to allow the elves to unravel themselves, slide down the rope and deposit themselves on the ground, she stopped beating her wings and glided down to the ground. Washing his hands in the nearby creek, he thought the spell to eradicate the stubble off his face, and watched as the powdered hair drifted slowly to the ground, almost suspended by the breeze. As he cupped his hands, and drank some water, he caught a glimpse of the insignia on his palm and immediately he knew what he should the call the city.

Quickly walking back over to the elves, who were milling about waiting for instructions, having already unloaded all the gear they had carried into the cave.

"I think" he said, addressing them, "we should call this mountain range 'Du Skulblaka Nángoröth', this valley, 'Val abr du Argetlam' and this city 'Du Gedwëy Dras.'

His sentence was greeted by a large cheer and applause, which effectively sealed the deal. Turning around, he raised his hands and the earth erupted in front of him. A line of dirt hovered in the air, marking the boundaries of where he wanted to store some water. The first work on Du Gedwëy Dras, The Shining City, had begun.

A/N

Hallelujah

Finally, I managed to get enough time to finish this chapter off.

Extremely sorry about the wait, I underestimated, and then underestimated again, the amount of work I needed to do, which is why this update is so late. I am also extremely sorry if the quality has declined considerably, this is what comes from not writing for a while. However, I am also getting better at managing my time, and I have discovered a way to live life that is appropriate and suits me, so in that regard you should probably be grateful, as I might be able to do more frequent updates.

The next chapter will be in two weeks, I promise, and it will contain Nasuada's and Arya's perspective. I need a break from Eragon, although I might write a bit for Saphira. I was a bit disappointed with this chapter, I thought it would turn out better, but I might rewrite it in the future, I will also make a concerted effort to rewrite the previous chapters.

The problem about updating often is that I only really get the weekend to update, and that isn't much time in itself with all the work and events that I do.

Sorry again, and thanks for the consideration

Yours truly,

WiseBeyondYear

Note:

Du Skulblaka Nángoröth = The dragon mountains

Val abr du Argetlam = Valley of the Silver Palm

Du Gedwëy Dras =The shining city

I might change these names, but they will do for now.