Madoran Elflord pulled up suddenly, his horse wheeling around and trotting back towards the elves. On Bid’daum’s other side the rainbow dragon also halted, a strange look in his glittering eyes.

“Eragon!” Hearing his name, Eragon turned to face the elven-host. Running from the ranks and casting off her bow was none other than Arwen Cloudlight. He dismounted Bid’daum, and she embraced him. Next to him he could sense Bid’daum greeting a female dragon. She was green-scaled, but he could see that the shape of her head and scales was very similar to that of Bid’daum’s.

Through Bid’daum’s mind Eragon could hear the female’s voice. I am Kashwalla, she said. When we fled from the home near the elves’ great-city, all was mad-chaos. It wasn’t until we were a half-day’s flight away that I realized my precious egg wasn’t with us. I am glad to find that my son is well, although surprised to find him with an elf-enemy. Bid’daum growled softly. Yes, my son, she acknowledged him, I see that this elf has become your friend. Perhaps the anger between our races can be soothed after all.

“Eragon, I was so worried about you!” Arwen interrupted his silent conversation. “I thought the dragons had killed you! Was this one keeping you hostage? He shall soon know more pain than you have.” She lifted an elegant hand, but before she could say anything to invoke magic, Eragon stepped in front of her.

“Arwen, wait! Bid’daum’s my friend. He helped me find you again.”

Looking confused, she slowly lowered her hand. “Friends? With a dragon? But they are vicious, unintelligent beasts.”

Bid’daum stretched his neck forward and projected his thoughts to the entire crowd of elves. No less intelligent than an elf, Eragon-friend, he murmured in a deep voice that seemed to reverberate through Eragon’s mind. He heard several gasps from the elves, and Arwen paled.

Then she surprised Eragon by bowing to Bid’daum and Kashwalla – not the formal bow she usually used, but the deep bow of a young elf to a wise elder. “Perhaps we may learn, our two races,” she said, unconsciously echoing Kashwalla’s thought.

Perhaps, Bid’daum agreed.

At that moment Madoran Elflord approached. With him was the council of elders, the oldest and most powerful elves of Dras-Leona’s Ancient Circle. The head elf of the council spoke. “We have decided that for the benefit of both our races, we will create a bond so that any dragon egg given to the elves will be cared for, and when the dragon hatches he or she will have an elf rider who will raise the baby dragon. There shall be a new order: that of the Dragon Riders of Alagaesia.”

Eragon, Bid’daum, Madoran Elflord, and the rainbow dragon (who had by this time approached) all nodded their heads in approval. By midday, the spell was finished. The elders had used the energy in the Great Circle to help bind the spell for eternity. In the meantime, Eragon and Arwen had been telling stories, sharing what had happened to them since they separated.

After the dragons attacked Dras-Leona, the community of elves evacuated to an old, disused shelter area just to the north of the battlefield where Eragon had discovered them again. There they had stayed for the last six months that Eragon had been with Bid’daum, both elves and dragons preparing for the final battle. Both sides had been prepared to annihilate the other, when Bid’daum had flown in with Eragon on his back, surprising every being in the clearing.

Now there was a ceremony, and Eragon and Bid’daum were officially welcomed as the leaders of the new order of Dragon Riders. Then came something Eragon never expected.

“Eragon,” Madoran Elflord intoned, “as you know, young elves are given their birth name by their parents, and they earn their honor name through the actions that let them grow to maturity. Through your actions this morning, you have proved that you have grown. You have earned a new name.”

Eragon was speechless. Most elves took a great journey when they reached a middle age in order to earn their honor name. He must be one of the youngest elves to earn an honor name in the last half a millennium.

“I, the Elflord of Dras-Leona, hereby bestow upon Eragon, ward of Arwen Cloudlight, his honor name,” Madoran continued. “Because he is the first to have the Dragon Rider’s mark on his palm, he shall be known as Eragon Silverhand from this day forth.”

The elves cheered, and Bid’daum purred his approval. Eragon bowed deeply to Madoran.

“Thank you for this great honor, Elflord. I will use this name with honor to the day of my death.” The Elflord nodded to Eragon in return.

* * *

Eragon Silverhand and his faithful friend Bid’daum lived many hundreds and hundreds of years at the head of the Dragon Riders’ order. They watched as the Dragon Riders ushered in a new age of peace by being the sword of justice in Alagaesia, and as Madoran Elflord and Kelanth Elflady passed away and their son became the new Elflord of Dras-Leona. They watched also as the races of dragons and elves changed for the better from the spell that bound them together, and as humans came and were added into the spell. And finally, they were old and tired, and retired from the Dragon Riders’ order, and flew out in the forest one last time. They hid themselves away, and no elf or dragon ever saw them again. But there are some who say that before they died, Eragon Silverhand, now often called Argetlam, hid Bid’daum’s eldunari1 somewhere deep in the elves’ forest, where only his true heir would be able to retrieve it.

And many, many years later, when the dragon riders had been scattered and killed and an evil king reigned, one came. Not an elf, but a human, bearing the name of the First Dragon Rider, with Rider heritage and a powerful dragon partner of noble birth. But their story is a different one, one recounted elsewhere but as yet unfinished; and eventually we may come to know if Bid’daum’s eldunari1 will be discovered by the heir.

1Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler for Christopher Paolini’s Brisingr:

An eldunari is a stone that is part of the dragon’s anatomy. When a dragon dies (or even before) he may choose to put his consciousness and magical power in the eldunari so that he can live on after his body has died.