Eragon was gone before Leora even had the chance to stop him. Reaching out with her mind, she searches the rubble for any type of life form and can only sense the slight flicker of consciousness from one person. But, she hadn't the clue if it was who Eragon was looking for, for the conscious was so weak. Chances were that it was not.

As she stared at the people around her, she realized that her senses were becoming more acute, for Eragon had been standing where the wall had fallen minutes before it actually did, giving her more time to react and take him out of harms way. Not too long ago, she would have only had seconds of warning.

Looking back at Saphira, Leora connects her mind with the older dragon to assure she was fine. Saphira's large blue eye focuses down on to her and winks lazily. The Dauthdaert, as it was called, still gave her the chills and Leora made sure to take a few extra steps away from it.

'Eragon is so focused on his task that I can not enter his mind', Saphira says to her, a tone of worry lacing her voice, 'you don't sense anything right?'

'No, he is safe', Leora says staring at the building intetmtly, waiting for a sign of her charge. Saphira snorts in an amused tone at her words.

'Safe does not seem to be in Eragon's vocabulary. No matter where he goes, he attracts trouble', the great blue dragon says. Leora let's out a rumbling chuckle at her words.

At that the two dragons go silent and continue staring at the keep. It was not until a few minutes later that Eragon finally contacted them. Leora was worried for him at first but her tensions receded at Eragon's words.

'We have found Roran. He is alright, but the rest of his men are gone. He only survived due to luck and the structure of the beams above him. We are looking for Lord Bradburn now. Should not be long before the city is ours.'

'We will finish up down here with the soldiers', Saphira says back to him as the Empire soldiers start to recover from the shock of the wall falling. Leora growls and snaps her jaws over one solder that had come too close to her. He was dead within seconds.

'Good', Eragon says distractedly. Leora focuses a bit more and can sense they were getting a little hassle from soldiers, but nothing serious, 'hopefully, by time we have Lord Bradburn secured, the other men will also be under control.'

'When have our lives' ever been that easy?', Leora teases snapping her wings open and pushing herself off of the ground. She decided to scope out where she was must needed in the city. And after flying high enough, she saw exactly where she should go.

Pinning her wings to her body, she drops to the ground quickly, causing the group of soldiers to stare in fear and awe. As the small mass of Vaden soldiers see her coming in towards them, they redouble their efforts, slashing and stabbing at the Empire soldiers with more heart. Leora joins them the second she touches down on the stone road. Immediately, the soldiers closest to her turn to engage her in combat, but they stood no chance.

The white flash of her teeth was the last thing one soldier would see as she clamps down her jaws over him, feeling his blood flow across her tongue. The metallic taste of his armor stuck in her mouth as she dropped his limp body to the ground with a sickening cruch. Soldiers closest to his body jump away in horror as Leora let's loose a powerful growl before opening her mouth, letting a stream of flames flow past her maw. Several of the soldiers roast with screams of pain as the silver fire with flecks of purple roast them in their metal cocoon. Others are protected by wards and attempt to flank her, their swords drawn and ready to strike.

How humans were the dominant species, Leora would never know. Walking straight at a large dragon with nothing but a sword? Not smart.

Quickly snapping her jaws shut, stopping the fire, Leora lifts one wing and pushes it down hard, causing a gust of wind to send the four soldiers to her right flying backwards. On her left side, she raises her claw and rakes it across the chest of a soldier, breaking through his flimsy wards easily. She pierces his mail and feels her claws sink into flesh. By time he hits the ground, the man is long dead.

As for the remaining four soldiers, she turns her back on the soldiers she sent flying and prepares to engage them directly. Leora could see most of them visibly shaking at the sight of her and she could not help the joy that twisted in her belly at her influence on them.

Jabbing her neck forward, she strikes at the nearest soldier splitting his armor in half. His remaining half drops to the ground and soon after his torso did as well. The soldier closest to him jumps back in disgust, blood splattering his already red uniform. Taking advantage of his distraction, Leora slams her front claw down on him and drags him forward towards her, using her other claw to rip past his armor. She left him bleeding on the pavement as she turned her attention to the last two soldiers.

Growling at them, one of the soldiers drops his weapons and runs like a coward, weaving back and forth across the street in case she shot fire at him. It was as she turned her gaze to the last soldier that pain wracked it's way down her leg.

Roaring and rage, Leora whips around faster than normal and clamps her jaws on the soldier next to her right back leg. Shaking her head, his spine snaps and she drops him to the ground. Looking at the wound, she sees the long red cut from the sword bleeding heavily and the silver weapon was still imbedded in her hide. It felt deep and stung every time she placed weight on it.

Quickly glancing over her shoulder, Leora sees the soldiers she had previously knocked down had once more regained their feet and were bearing down on her, weapons ready. Limping around to face them, she takes her tail and hits the last soldier behind her and is satisfied to feel her spikes sink into his gut, slipping past his mail.

Her eyes blazing, Leora let's loose a loud roar and the remaining soldiers of the Varden cheer out loud. Pouncing forward, Leora pins two of the soldier down and uses her claws to impale one of them and her teeth to slash open another. She takes care not to spend too much time on one soldier for it would leave her open to attack. Instead, she leaves the two soldiers to bleed out on the stones and launches herself at the last soldier to engage her, allowing her full weight to come down on top of him and shatter his bones, killing him almost instantly as his heart and lungs were crushed.

Finally coming out of the gory battle, Leora glances around her and sees the Varden staring at her in awe, having already killed the remaining soldiers and taken into captivity those who had surrendered. Rumbling deep in her chest, she motions her head forward towards them, hoping their tiny minds would take the hint to keep moving. Of course, it does no good as they glance back and forth at each other in confusion.

'Do I have to do everything myself?', Leora thinks to herself as she walks forward, making sure to step directly over the soldiers. They all cower in terror as her belly passes over their heads and she walks to the end of the street, sticking her head out to look around the corner. It was lucky she did for directly beneath her, waiting for the Varden to turn onto the next street, were five Empire soldiers with swords drawn.

Before they even realize her head was above them, Leora comes down upon them and kills two instantly. The other three scatter towards her body around the corner, and end up running straight into the group of Varden soldiers. It was not long before their bloody corpses lay upon the street as well.

Preparing to continue on with her search of the remaining Empire soldiers, Leora goes to step around the corner when a loud noise pierces the air. A horn sounds from the keep followed closely by a roar of victory from Saphira. The horn must signal that the Varden had taken over the palace and captured the Lord. Letting loose a roar of her own, Leora opens her wings and quickly flaps over the buildings in front of her, landing in the courtyard easily. Her eyes immediately land on Eragon and his cousin, both a little worn looking, but whole and safe.

Once the fighting was over, Leora lost interest in the actions of the humans around her. She worked with her teeth and claws, not the boring work of finishing up the diplomatic problems. Instead, she curled up in the middle of the courtyard and kept her eyes only lazily open. Otherwise, she relaxed and let the rest of her senses do the work.

It was then that she smelt the scent wafting on the wind. It was not one she was familiar with, but could easily guess what creature it had come from. It's musky smell overpowered her nostrils and she could clearly imagine the fur from which the odor would waft from. Instead of dwelling on the strong smell, she reaches out to Eragon and tells him what she has sensed.

'I smell werecats, and a lot of them.'

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AN: WELL, THIS CHAPTER WAS SHORTER THAN I WANTED IT TO BE, BUT I AM HAVING MAJOR WRITERS BLOCK ON THIS STORY. SOOOOO I AM SORRY IF I UPDATE MY LTHER STORY MORE BUT I HAVE A LITTLE MORE INSPIRATION AT THE MOMENT FOR THAT ONE. BUT, I STILL MUST UPDATE SOOOOOOOOO YEAH. THATS ALL.

I MIGHT NEED A LITTLE HELP WITH THIS STORY SO IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND CAN MAYBE HELP ME, THEN PLEASE PM ME. I REFUSE TO GIVE UP ON THIS STORY AND I WOULD RATHER NOT TAKE SO LONG ON A TWO PAGE UPDATE. THANKS GUYS, PLEASE KEEP..

READING/COMMENTING/VOTING

THANKA YOUUU

~Bert