Our group continued the rest of the way toward the city. Along the way, Tiran told the story of Eragon the Mighty, which only Leston had heard before.

He was a human from a long time ago. He had found a fire dragon's egg and managed to hatch it. When it grew, it was revealed to be one of the fabled Blue Fire dragons. It was named Saphira, on account of her sapphire scales. The two formed a Rider's Bond, which connected a dragon and a human magically. They could speak to each other with their minds and shared power.

"Oh, is that what that is?" Shun had asked. It turned out that he had formed a Rider's Bond with Ariel.

Eragon had traveled the world, exploring and charting the furthest reaches of the world. When he returned to Darthdaut, he would tell stories of forests with trees as tall as mountains and indescribable monsters.

He created a community of other Dragon Riders. Previously, there were very few of them spread out across the world. After Eragon traveled around, they converged on Darthdaut. They built the city into the massive one that it was.

The Dragon Rider's council was in the city. Hundreds of Riders lived in the city. Because of it and the nearby entrance to the largest known dungeon, it had a massive Adventurer's Guild.

As we got closer to the city, I heard footsteps nearby. Soft whispers I couldn't interpret came from the foliage. I listened closer and heard several words, "steal" and "kill" among them.

"There are some bandits," I whispered. "To our right."

"I'll handle them," Ariel said. I nodded.

Ariel froze them with a roar when the group of four humans and one demon burst forward. They were terrified.

One swipe of her claws killed two humans. The demon leaped forward, swinging a sword. Ariel smacked the weapon away with one claw before hitting the demon into a tree. He fell to the ground, HP almost gone. Ariel slapped him again to kill him as she turned to the other two humans. One shot a fireball, which she promptly ate. Then she let out a burst of white energy.

It incinerated the defenseless humans.

When the ashes settled, Ariel's body began to glow. She became a white silhouette that began to shift and shrink.

"What the hell?" Ariel said. Her silhouette eventually became the same height as Shun. When the white light faded, we saw her new form.

She had the same face from when we were on Earth. Her hair was also in a similar hairstyle, although it was silver with pink tips instead of brown. Around her upper left arm, right wrist, left ankle, and right thigh were zig-zag patterns of pink scales. A few others accented her face. Her eyes had slit pupils and green irises. She also had a tail that looked like a smaller version of her normal one. Connected in between her upper and lower back were two sets of feathered wings, the lower ones slightly smaller. Running down the length of her tail, on the tip, and along the edges of her wings were pink feathers.

She also already had clothes on. She had a white shirt with a feather-like pattern that gripped her skin closely. She had shorts on that were the same pink as the feathers on the end of her tail.

"Woah. . ." She said, looking down at herself. Then she saw that she had hands. "I have hands again! Yes!"

"What the heck happened?" Leston asked.

"I got a new skill," Ariel answered. "It's called [Humanization]. It says that I can now take on a human form whenever I want!"

"That's awesome," Shun said.

"I know," Ariel said. "Now, come on, let's go to the city!" We began to walk a little faster toward the huge, imposing city ahead of us.

When we finally reached the gates, we had to wait in a long line to get in. Leston showed a small card to the guard at the entrance and we were let in.

"Welcome to Darthdaut!" He said, spreading his arms wide.