Chapter 17

It was only when I got back to the cliff and was looking over Saphira's progress that I realized I never got to ask her if she'd help me with better control. Eh well, I'd see her in Tronjheim. Saphira had proved to be a faster learner than Eragon in this unofficial contest of theirs, I suppose it helped we dragons could remember things with crystal clarity. By the time we decided to call it a night, she was starting to work sentences out by me writing excerpts from baby learning books my mind randomly recalled. I think Even my mind felt tired out from teaching and the emotions of the day, for my second attempt at sleeping was dreamless. The next day, after writing a few passages of Dr. Suess books I remembered, I turned to my own distraction project. And sighed.

I was more nervous and disturbed than I thought, the log looked absolutely mauled. Entertaining the thought of carving learning blocks, I instead snapped the log where I cut too deep and carried the smaller piece closer to the center of our temporary home. With Saphira dutifully sounding out the "Green Eggs and Ham" I started to fix my mistake. By the time we took a break at noon, Saphira was complaining about a headache and the words making no sense and my own work was beginning to peek out from the wood. Even Fiori, who secretly was reading along with her, seemed confused. I had to share my memories of a younger me reading the books to get them to trust me of my methods.

Deciding we had made enough progress today, we chose to spend the rest of the day at the same cove. I was paying closer attention to which shells Saphira was most interested in and swiped them from the sand as she moved on. Another game of tag later and we floated on our backs, sharing jokes from me and riddles from her, and I shared stories and legends from my world. A peaceful moment that was ruined by two sleek, black sloops rounding the bend from Narda. Saphira and I instantly dived and escaped their gaze but their appearance rightly killed the joyful moment. It was easy to remember that it was ships like these that were described chasing the Dragon Wing in the second book and were probably responsible for Jeod's current predicament.

Catching Saphira's attention I gestured with a paw at the small sloops then flexed my deadly claws before slashing them horizontally through the water. She gave a conflicting look then shook her head. With a sigh I stared at the distant ships, watching the unsuspecting sloops sail pass uncontested. Even If they were evil, it wasn't worth it to bring their attention to this area. No matter how cool it'd be to go Wolverine on them. We retreated to the cove and once out of immediate sight, we made for the forest. Quietly we walked through the trees a ways before taking off, using our tails to sweep our prints away. Didn't want any signs of us remaining if they did get a glimpse of us.

Saphira and I decided any further trips would be at night when the eyesight of humans are poorer and the rest of the day would be more practice in reading and writing for her.

That evening when Eragon came to visit, both of us were giving him feeling of smugness but we wouldn't answer his queries as to why. I also sent Brom a mental image of Saphira writing legible words in the dirt with my statement "My student is better than yours." And his response was a pulse of irritation.

Yup, I just made Eragon's lessons that much harder. Never did forgive him for his joke on the second night here and he deserved it. That pretty much set the routine for the following days. Mornings were spent reviewing the previous lessons or hunting when we needed to, Noons were dedicated to aerial combat and maneuvering, with Teach instructing me and me passing the lessons onto Saphira. In the evenings When Eragon visited to spend time with Saphira to talk or complain about his lessons I would make myself scarce, often watching the city from high amongst the evening sky. Eragon's visits made me itch. In the books he did the same, but this was reality. If a boy kept leaving a nice well defended city every evening and I was a guard, I'd get suspicious but I wasn't going to take away their time together.

The fifth night proved me right. As I soared high above, I saw Eragon leave and shortly after the two guards looked at each other and the one on the left started to follow. Immediately I reached out to Fiori and asked for help and working together, we discreetly invaded the soldiers mind, planting the memory of him watching Eragon walk along the beach, occasionally stooping to pick up a seashell to look at it. Then I impressed that he had seen enough and it was time to return to his post and report. Fiori kept track to see if it worked while I swept down, picking up a few random shells, then made it back to the cliff. There I remained on the edge and before Eragon left I handed him a shell. His confusion was so palpable, I had to suppress a chuckle.

"If anyone were to question you, say you were walking the beaches and show them the shell."

He and Saphira looked at each other puzzled, and with a shrug from Eragon, he climbed on her so she could help him down.

"Wrath?" Was Saphira's question when she returned and I flapped a wing at her in hopes of settling the rising worry from her.

"Everything is ok, just me being Paranoid. Honestly I should have given him that alibi the first night here. No need to worry Saph, you ready?"

I smiled at the happy nod from her and watched her take wing again, then following her. Often we spent the rest of the night after her rider left either Walking the beaches in the moonlight or stargazing from the cliff. These were my favorite parts of our week here. Peaceful serenity spent with great company and I knew we needed to enjoy them. Our journey would soon make it a lot harder to get moments like this.

The afternoon of the sixth day, Eragon contacted us while we were basking on the cliff.

He told us the plan and that we'd either be leaving tonight or tomorrow and while I sent my acceptance, Saphira complained about him sticking his nose into trouble yet again, but was happy to be finally leaving. That night I felt the pulse of magic coming from Vroengard and realizing this was when Eragon had his 'vision' of Arya, lent my own magic to them and directed it to the boy, receiving faint feelings of approval and gratitude from the others before they severed their contact. I could sense confusion from Fiori, coming out of a trance as she had unknowingly lent her own help to the feat.

Both Saphira and I laid on the edge of the cliff watching the sunset although neither of us could appreciate it. We were following our human companions on their excursion and while I had full faith in them, Saphira was a different story, every muscle within her was tense, her wings and tail twitching with her anxiety. I did my best to soothe and reassure her by draping a wing over her back and awkwardly rubbing my neck against her. With mixed results. She did end up calming down once they reached the record room and settled against my side.

To help distract her while they worked, I got her to think up names for random clusters, sharing some from my world and the superstition behind them. All the while keeping a mind on our other group. So focused on our game, that she missed their close call and jolted from Eragon's mental shout once they made it back to Jeod's. Poor girl was so stressed that she promptly fell asleep after going off on her rider for worrying her, instead of listening in on the results.

While I tuned it out myself, already knowing where we would go next and planning what I would do. I really wanted to rend that accursed place to rubble but I knew I couldn't… yet. Eragon halted my internal plotting by asking why Saphira wasn't responding then focused on me after I told him that she was asleep. He went over all they found before stating tomorrow we'd be leaving and our destination would be the city of Dras-Leona.

The next morning before the sun peeked over the mountains, Saphira and I gathered up her saddle and my saddlebags, used our tails to wipe any trace of our existence from the cliff, and leapt into the air. We quickly climbed above the clouds, the blue dragoness spinning and rolling through the air. I couldn't blame her really, we dragons get very antsy remaining in one place for too long, her more so. I grinned watching her bob and weave through the clouds while I leisurely followed carrying all of our stuff on my back and in my claws. While she got all that pent up energy out of her system, I kept track of our ground bound companions, following them southward and chuckled when Saphira dived the instant we got out of view of Teirm. By the time I reached Brom, Cadoc's saddle was empty and both dragon and rider were soaring high again. The old man grinned as I came to land some distance behind, triggered my glamour, and came up next to him along the trail, My mind tracking the two skyward.

"You would think those two were separated for a lifetime. Ah! I see you got her saddle, when she arrived so quick without it I thought she'd left it in her eagerness. Eragon did say she hated staying there."

I gave a small snort of smoke that the horses barely flinched from.

"Aye, and she was about to. She was fidgeting the entire time we were preparing to leave. Good thing I offered to carry it, else she might've dropped it!"

We both laughed as we lazily rode/walked down the trail we were on, enjoying the quiet sounds of nature and the very faint roars of a happy dragoness.

"Eragon showed me a seashell and the story. Was there a reason for it?"

I sighed and nodded, telling him of the close call Eragon wasn't aware of and how I negated it. By the time I was done, Brom had a grave expression.

"It appears you have more common sense than I."

I snorted, staring incredulously at him.

"No, I meant it. This entire fiasco you've pointed out, deducted, and predicted events using pure logic. Even with the centuries I've lived, I was still blind to some of the issues that could and had come up. Or is that your doing, Fiori-elda?"

"No, Wrathion's observations are his own merit. I suppose he simply sees things from an outside view of our world."

I laughed at that, scaring Snowfire to rear up. We continued on after several apologies from me once Brom got the beast to calm down.

"Well, how would you view our nearing troubles then?"

I shook my head.

"I'll let you know when we get there, although from what I know of it, I just want to wipe the place down to its foundations. We are on the dangerous part of the journey now, there's no telling what might happen along the way."

"That is true." He acknowledged. And we lapsed into a comfortable silence. Well I did, though I could tell Fiori took over conversing with him but I stayed out of it. The easy pace and quiet continued on until noon where our human companions stopped for lunch. Saphira and I had our respective gear strapped back on before we took wing once more without her rider on her. when I glanced her way, she stated he wanted to talk to Brom more and I chuckled. I didn't mind, I knew what they were talking about. By evening I had rejoined them while Saphira was off hunting. I had just settled down on a large bed of rushes when she came streaking out of the sky, landed, then enveloped Brom with her wings amidst his protests and cursing. I started to curse myself for forgetting about this part of the book and gave Eragon the heads up to duck when returning to the camp. Not long after his return he indeed did duck just missing the dragoness's tail. "Stop. It's me!"

"Oops." Saphira looked embarrassed as she kept her wings in front of her.

"Oops? You almost took my head off! Where's Brom?" Eragon growled out, making his way over to her where Brom's muffled cursing and yells could be heard.

"I'm right here, Tell this infernal dragon of yours to let me go! She won't listen to me."

"Let him go, didn't you tell him?!"

She shook her head and Sheepishly responded as she began to withdraw her wings.

"No, you just told me to keep him safe."

Brom stomped away from her, scowling and glared at Eragon.

"I found an Urgal footprint. and it's fresh."

Brom immediately turned serious then went about putting out the fire and packing up camp. "Saddle the horses, We are leaving now." When he was finished and saw Eragon favoring his arm, he scowled again.

"What did you do now boy?" He cursed when Eragon told him he had broken his wrist, went about saddling Cadoc and helped him into the saddle before mounting Snowfire.

"We'll put your wrist in a split later, try not to move it so much. Saphira, Wrathion it's dark enough for you to fly directly overhead and it might make them think twice about attacking us."

Saphira took off but I remained on the ground, applying my glamour once more making Brom grunt. "An Idea?"

With a nod from me, He and Eragon took off through the trees. Thanks to the time spent with the wolves in the spine, it was easy for me to weave between them to keep up with the humans while I bespoke Brom.

"As far as the king and the world at large knows, there are rumors of only a single free dragon loose. If these Urgals spots two and happen to have a magic user among them then word would get out. If they spot us now however, all they see is one dragon and a normal, easily killed Shrrg."

Brom glanced at me from where he was bent over in the saddle to avoid the branches whizzing past, a gleam in his eyes. "In other words, underestimating you."

I gave him a very feral grin.

"Very much. They will think I am warded if they try to strike at me instead of me having scales. I will not let them think farther from that.. I will no longer hold back."

He scoffed, making his horse juke around a fallen tree.

"You, been holding back? If you call Yauzac holding back then our enemies have my sympathy."

I grinned again and focused on running. Neither I nor the horses took a break for what felt like hours, too determined to remain ahead of the war party on our tails.

We stopped more than a mile from our camp and by now it was long into the night. The horses were frothing at their bits and heaving air while I laid on the cold ground to cool myself down from the sprint.

Brom was next to Eragon, checking on his wrist when he sat upright and held up his hand. "Listen."

I turned my head and tilted it, putting my right ear in the direction we came. The faint bellow of a warhorn echoed through the forest and Eragon paled. I recalled Saphira to pick up her slightly damaged rider while Brom muttered over how they had found us, something I was also wondering.

"I called for Saphira, she'll take Eragon and that'll let us pick up our pace.. Or we slaughter them here. Easy for me to do, just need to get them closer."

Brom just shook his head.

"Not yet, let's see if we can lose them first." I knew we wouldn't but gave a nod regardless. Saphira landed and Brom told Eragon to go with her.

"What about you?" The poor boy looked close to panicking.

"I have his back, go and stay out of sight, I have a plan."

He didn't seem convinced but I left it to Saphira to convince him. After Brom lashed his horse behind Cadoc, he mounted him and we set off again. Time bled further and further into the night and no matter how fast we ran, we still were about to be overrun.

The horns fell silent close to us for a few moments before blaring almost right on top of us. By now I convinced Brom we weren't escaping and with his acknowledgement, I slid to a stop and turned to face our pursuers. I bared my teeth and made the wolf image do the same as the Urgals finally burst out of the brush and surrounded me, leering and brandishing their weapons but completely ignoring the fact their horses locked their legs. A part of me was somewhat insulted that none of these were Kull but I ignored it.

"Wrathion!" Saphira and Eragon's combined mental cry invaded my mind and without letting my prey know I was distracted, sent calming thoughts to the two circling overhead.

"At ease you two, these are my prey and I can assure you, not a single one will get away from me. Watch if you wish but stay away lest you get caught in my trap as well. You'll need to go higher Saphira, I have no intention of playing around." I let loose a long low growl that those around me could feel in their bones, making those close instinctively back up.

I faced off with the horde, they then parted to allow a larger one, still no Kull, to come out front brandishing two large hatchets and wearing a mix of leather and bone armor. He started to speak to his war party, surprisingly, in the common tongue.

"Look here! A great wolf so far from the mountains. Humans must be blind not to notice this in their lands. Thought we were tracking a couple of puny humans but you are more worthy of an opponent! This one is mine!"

I just sat on my haunches and bared my teeth again, but this time, in a grin. I felt the last of the group meet up with this one, 27 in all, not too bad for a showing but wasn't there only 12 in the story? I locked eyes with who I assumed to be a warchief as he got into his fighting stance and relished at the dawning horror in his eyes as ethereal mist began to seep from mine and the runes covering my body bleeding through the illusion. Immediately outside the ring a foot thick wall of stone erupted behind the group and entrapped them. Then as they started to panic, massive spikes of stone started to erupt from the ground, impaling six to eight of the Urgals at a time. Their screams and curses filling the surrounding forest as their group got decimated. Some tried to scale the nine feet tall walls only for spikes to emerge from them as well. The warchief watched his forces getting slaughtered in stunned horror before refocusing on me, his shock turning to rage. With a bellow he charged at me with his weapons ready to hack at my neck, I just sighed, spun on the spot, and when I stopped to face him again, his body was dropping at my paws, his head flying into the chaos.

By that time there was no other movement within the trap nor did I sense any I missed but just to be on the safe side... I leapt into the air as the ground started to churn and shift, sucking all the carnage into a sinkhole with the walls sealing once they too fell within. I landed upon the stone ground and with a snort of satisfaction, turned and began to meet back up with Brom. Saphira had landed silently next to me, both her and Eragon gaping at me and back to the mass grave then back at me. Internally I found it amusing while also monitoring my magical core, that little stunt took a quarter of what I cultivated within me over two years. That made me grimace to myself, I had hoped to save every bit of it for the Varden's fight but I did tell my companions I wasn't going to hold back. Neither of my shadows made a sound, vocally or mentally until we met up with Brom once more, nor did they elaborate on my simple "All hostels eliminated." when Brom asked me if they were safe. That night a silence fell upon the camp, our humans ate their stew while I watched and listened for anything else. I however was lost in thought over what I did. Oh sure I'd slaughtered a host of Urgals but what was eating at me was what I changed. I kept Eragon and Saphira from exposing themselves, She wasn't nearly killed either and Eragon didn't overtax himself again. Did I change anything important? No… I didn't think so, it took Eragon two days from that attempt and the only thing he did was… My eyes widened as I looked at him. "Oh Shards!"

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AN: Sorry, no Saphira this time!

Firstly let me say How sorry I am for such a late posting. I got sick, REAL sick, Enough to gain a hospital room for 5 days blegh. I'm not 100% just yet but at least I could churn this chapter out.

Going to keep this brief so I posted my Discord in my profile if anyone wants to talk about this.

Jordan213123

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sifting through my mess and pointing out the flaws. Even labeling where they were. By the time this is posted all of those would be fixed but if you spot anymore, then please let me know!