Boisterous laughter echoed through the food hall as everyone enjoyed their meal. It was the night after the Dagshelgr Invocation, and while the song was finished the festivities continued. Classes had been cancelled for the next couple of days, allowing everyone to recover from the magic and the drink.

Ragin stood at the entrance of the hall, watching with a stoic gaze. Everyone seemed to be there, or at least everyone in the mountain. He spotted his friends sitting at their usual table, laughing and talking. Freya sat at the end, and occasionally glanced around the room as if searching for someone. She hadn't seen him standing there. The rogue rider gritted his teeth angrily, before shaking his head with a sigh and turning away, walking into one of the long corridors. As he did he slipped on the ring he had taken from the assassin the previous night, guarding his mind, and cast a spell that bent the light around him to make himself nearly invisible.

He had planned this moment carefully, knowing that if anyone saw him they would get suspicious. Akaysha was still rather busy, and he didn't think she would notice if his mind suddenly disappeared, or if she did she would just think that he was trying to get some space from her own thoughts. Besides, he wanted to do this before she got back. He had avoided most people throughout the day, having scouted the mountain for the prize he was after. It had taken him a long time, but in the end he had found the room, though it was more through eavesdropping, so he hadn't actually been inside the egg chamber himself.

In the end he had two choices to steal a dragon egg. The first was find a wild dragon that was guarding her own. The second was to steal one of the rider's eggs. In the end, he felt he was much more likely to succeed without another's knowledge if he stole an egg from the hatchery where all the dragon rider eggs were kept. It would still be difficult, as he had no idea what defences they would have. But it would be preferable to trying to sneak past a protective mother dragon.

As he walked a sliver of doubt worked its way into his mind, a doubt that bore with it massive guilt and fear, but he quickly squashed it down. He had sworn an oath. He couldn't get around that. Even if he did Akaysha's life would be in danger. It was better to put his entire focus on his mission, then let regrets spread through his mind now. All he needed to do was take a dragon egg and hide it somewhere outside, a place where one of Tharin's people could find it.

He closed his eyes and forced himself to take a deep breath as that man managed to contain a thought in his head. He hated the situation he had been forced into. Hated the hole that he had willingly dug... but in the end he had a mission to do. A mission he would fail if he continued to dwell on the reasons behind it. So, like he had done for most of his life, he forced them aside, adopting the cold calculation persona of Ragin the thief and assassin.

He sped down the hallway, stepping lightly and carefully as he passed by invisible to the people around him. The hatchery was down a long corridor near where the blacksmith was. He had scouted out the area before and, with the exception of some enchantments, it was not guarded. Again, the riders seemed rather lax with their protection of their eggs. Magic could only achieve so much.

He slipped down the corridor, walking swiftly down the ever increasing slant of the ground below. The egg chamber was located quite a way underground, mainly to keep the eggs warm. The biggest problem with this was the fact that if Ragin was found out, it would be quite difficult to make his way back up the corridor and escape. It meant he would have to work quickly.

The door to the egg chamber was a rather simple design made from heavy ironwood planks reinforced by magic. It was locked, but it wouldn't be anything the rider would struggle with. A quick word in the ancient language was all it took for him to open the door. With a grunt he pulled it open to reveal the room that lay beyond.

The egg chamber was not at all like what he had expected, though he hadn't really been entirely sure on how the riders would have kept the eggs. Each egg had its own alcove set aside within the stone walls, reminding Ragin of hundreds of shining crystals. In the middle of the rather large room was a pit adorned by a red glow, creating a near uncomfortable heat. The room itself was nearly the size of one of the stone buildings on the outside. It needed to be, as Ragin estimated that the room held at least two hundred eggs.

As he gazed around the room his eyes quickly fell upon what looked to be some sort of throne near the centre, on his side of the pit. On the throne sat a statue made from metal, with the body of a man and the head of a dragon. It had the same muscle mass as a kull, and likely as tall as well if it ever stood up. On it's left arm was a shield made of metal, and in its right hand it held an iridescent riders blade. The sight of the statue unnerved Ragin, as it seemed to hold no purpose for being in the room. In a normal situation he would guess that it was some sort of religious reason, but he could think of no God with a dragon head, and the riders were not a religious group.

Shaking off his trepidation he walked over to one of the walls and gently picked up a smaller green dragon egg. The surface was surprisingly warm, and for a panicked moment he wondered if this egg had suddenly decided that it also wanted him as a rider. He quickly discarded the thought however. This was a different sort of warmth than the one he had felt from Akaysha's egg. It was only warm because of the room it was in.

With a small sigh he pulled out a small sack from his belt and went to put the egg inside when a large thump from behind him caused him to spin around. He let out a cry of surprise. The metal statue had risen to its feet, and was now glaring at him with a metallic growl. The thief blinked, quickly backing away from the statue and tying the bag to his waist and drawing Wyrda.

The metal man roared at him, and without a moment's hesitation charged the young rider. Every step it made echoed through the chamber like shields clashing against stone. Its eyes were a furnace of crimson flames, holding the anger and malice of a man catching a robber in his home. It swung its sword directly at Ragin with surprising speed considering its weight and size. The young rider managed to barely deflect the blow, but doing so caused his entire arm to ring from the effort.

"Jeida!" yelled the rider, throwing an enormous among of energy into the word.

The metal man staggered backwards, but was otherwise unaffected by the spell. It did however allow Ragin time to find his feet. Gritting his teeth he leapt forward, poking the man's dragon like snout with his sword. The was a metallic clang, but whatever the statue was made from was far too strong to be broken by a single strike.

The rider danced backwards to avoid the responsive blow. He gritted his teeth, retreating for the moment. This action lead him to be further away from his escape route however, nearly on the other side of the pit. The metal man seemed to realise this, and backed away as well, blocking the exit with an almost smug huff.

Taking the time to have some respite Ragin leant against the wall, watching the metal man carefully while he caught his breath. Time was against him here, and his foe seemed to know that as well. He didn't think that he could defeat the statue in a one on one duel, it was simply impossible. Not when it had its skin made of metal hard enough to defend against a rider's blade. That left two options. Magic and mind. Using his mind was another difficult one. At the current moment he had his ring on, making it impossible to detect his mental presence, but he couldn't feel around for anyone else's presence either. The moment he took the ring off it would unblock his mind, giving the riders a fair warning on what was happening inside their egg chamber.

The left magic, to which the guardian seemed rather resilient to. The amount of energy Ragin had put into his previous spell would have killed a normal human being, breaking every rib in their body. The same spell had barely caused the metal monstrosity to move. The rogue rider gritted his teeth, his mind whirling through hundreds of possibilities as he tried to figure out a way out of this mess. He hadn't expect to go up against a foe such as this.

He glanced at the pit, another idea coming to him. It would be difficult, but if it succeeded then it should mean his escape. Taking a deep breath he began to walk toward his opponent, sword at the ready. The metal man growled at Ragin's show of defiance and began to walk toward him as well. It made the first move, charging toward the young rider with a roar.

Ragin stepped out of the way of the first strike and parried the second one, this time the jarring wasn't so bad. He responded with a quick strike of his own before moving backward to avoid the third. He continued like this for a while, earning a number of strikes to the metal man's armoured body, dealing no damage, while avoiding the strikes sent his way. He knew he couldn't keep this up forever, but as the fight went on he began to recognise a distinct pattern in the way the statue fought, making it easier and easier to predict his opponent. Of course, predictions meant nothing if he didn't have the energy to avoid what he saw coming. The energy he had wasted on his previous spell was beginning to catch up to him.

He gritted his teeth, knowing he would have to put his plan into action within the next couple of seconds if he were to win this fight. The statue swung its sword in an overhead at the thief, and he danced backwards again, breathing heavily as the blade swung right by his nose. His back was now to the pit, and the metal man seemed to take this to his advantage, swinging a sideways stroke to force him even further back until his feet were at the edge.

The thief kept it in his head how close he was to the edge, breathing rhythmically as he watched his opponent with stoic eyes. Not revealing anything. The metal giant took a triumphant step forward, continuing the assault with another reverse sweep of his sword, one which Ragin would usually jump away from, but with his back to the pit he had no way of doing so. Instead he whispered a quiet word.

"Fe'esh," he said, feeling his muscles clench and his vision focus at the spell.

With inhuman speed he ducked under the blade, before leaping forward while his opponent's guard was momentarily gone. He stepped around behind, still moving incredibly fast, and let another spell take him.

"Haresh," he growled.

His body flooded with an inhuman strength, lending him the power to do what needed to be done. With a grunt he let all that strength flow through his left hand and he hit the statue as hard as he could in its back, throwing it forward with a growl of surprise. It staggered to the very edge, nearly going over the side. Before it had a chance to recover Ragin stepped forward and kicked it as hard as he could, using the last of that borrowed strength. The metal man roared as it fell into the pit and the fiery inferno below.

All at once the cost of using such spells hit Ragin, and he staggered, collapsing to one knee as he struggled to regain his breath. Using spells in the enchanted language, while they were useful, took a great tole. He staggered over to the throne, breathing heavily as he sat down, stars sprinkling his vision. He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, allowing himself to recover from the dizziness that accompanied such powerful magic.

Roars from the metal man with the dragons head could be heard from within the pit as it sounded its annoyance at being beaten. Ragin doubted that the heat or the fall would do much to damage it, and thought it likely that it would climb back up again, but that would take it a good while. He hoped.

A far more worrying sound caused his eyes to fly open. The sound of feet. A lot of them. He groaned in annoyance and summoned a little more energy to cast an invisibility spell. Usually something like this was not a problem, but with the amount of magic he had used made even something like this a little difficult to bare.

The door swung open to reveal none other than Eragon himself, flanked by Logan, Theaden and half a dozen other riders. All their swords were drawn as they faced the seemingly empty room. The leader of the riders narrowed his eyes as he heard the frustrating roars of the egg guardian below. He looked around, taking into consideration every single detail around him. He let out a small breath of rage as his eyes met the empty slot where Ragin had taken the green egg from.

The young rider crossed his fingers in hopes that they would think that the thief had already left and was currently not hiding in plain sight in front of them.

"What happened to Cuaroc?" one of the riders asked, whose name escaped Ragin.

"Seems like whoever took the egg managed to get our guardian to fall down the hole," Theaden hissed as he took a couple of steps forward, glancing down into the fiery pit, his black blade flickering in the light.

Roars from the metal man, Cuaroc, continued to bounce back and forth from within the furnace. It was hard to tell whether it was from pain or anger, but Ragin guessed the latter. He held his breath, trying to keep any noise from escaping his mouth. Though the thumping of his heart was difficult to hide.

"Well then where is our thief?" asked Logan, looking around, "Did they escape already? We did not take that long to get here."

"Gleadr says that they should still be in here, but I do not see anyone, nor feel anyone's mind," Eragon said with frustration, anger leaking into his tone. His eyes narrowed dangerously, "Unless..."

He began to weave a spell speaking in the ancient language, "Let all that is hidden here, be revealed!"

Ragin didn't worry too much. His wards would protect him against such a spell. The only worry he had would that he wouldn't have enough energy to defend against magic from a powerful rider like Eragon. Thankfully not an enormous amount of energy went into the spell, and Ragin was able to defend against it. When nothing happened the riders murmured in confusion, looking around but finding nothing. The older rider hesitated a moment, before repeating the spell, but this time Eragon did something a little different.

At the end of the sentence he spoke a word, one that echoed through the cavern and the very fibres of the world itself. It bounced around Ragin's head before disappearing into the realm of forgetfulness. He couldn't remember it even if he tried. What worried him far more however is that the word seemed to strip away all the wards he had placed so carefully about himself, as well as the magic that kept his body hidden.

All the riders gasped in surprise as the thief was revealed to them. They were stunned for a moment, a mixture of emotions travelling through every one of them. From Logan there was surprise, quickly followed by disappointment and sorrow. From Eragon, disappointment was rage. The one that chilled him the most however was Theaden's triumphant smirk, as if he knew what the outcome would have been all along.

"Ragin," Eragon said, an ancient anger hidden in his tone, "You are under arrest."

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Hey guys! New chapter! Finally! Sorry it took so long, but I've finished university for the semester now and should have some more time to do some writing! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, vote what you thought and comment what you think will happen next. Next chapter will be out soon! See Ya!

Pennator^^