"Hello" -Speech
"Hello" -Thought speak
'Hello' -Thought
Hello -Emphasis
Hello -Ancient Language
Summary- A somewhat 'what if' scenario in which Arya, Eragon, and Saphira take a slightly different path, and find someone new in the process.
-Somewhere in the Spine on the inland side near Kuasta...-
Sunlight broke through a moving cover of clouds, shining into a mountain valley in the central part of the Spine. The shadow of the cloud moving across the ground, heading towards a body that lay in a heap on the ground. As the edge of the shadow raced over the unconscious body, the bright light hitting the body, stirred the unconsious body slowly from the slumber in which it was found. Breathing speeds up as the sleeping body prepares for awakening, eyes started racing behind closed eyelids, signaling the impending opening. Finally, with a great wrench, eyelids opened, revealing bright sparkeling emerald eyes to the world.
-With Eragon, Arya, and Saphira-
"Eragon Shadeslayer, could you tell me why we are heading to Du Weldenvarden by way of the Spine?" 'Shit, she sounds pissed' Eragon thought to himself while trying to see if he could spot a deer to help feed Saphira and keeping an eye out for for any clearing in the thick mountain's treeline. "Uh, I was thinking that flying over the Hadrac Desert would overly tire out Saphira-" a low rumbling growl cut into Eragon's statement. "-because lack of water and plant cover, there would be little wildlife to find along the way that Saphira would be able to get a decent meal out of, and we'd also suffer for similar reasons. Thus, I thought it would be in our interests to follow a source of water along the way to Du Weldenvarden, with the nearby source of water, I figure that there would be less reason for Saphira to keep her speed down, because if she gets tired-" another growl from Saphira, but she did little more while keeping her eyes foreward, "we could just drop down and let her find a snack and rest for a bit, get a drink and rest, and then be off after a bit. Whereas if we went by way of the Desert, there'd be no source of water for leagues. And trying to do anything like trying to find or create a water source and plants for us to use after we run out of rations would just lead us into a downward spiral of energy we have." Arya started to speak, "I know tha-" Cutting over Arya, though mentally cringing, Eragon continued. "And let's not forget if Murtagh and thorn, or Wyrda forbid Galbatorix gets a fix on our location and decides to come investigate. While they'd be coming fresh into the Desert, we'd have been in trouble because we'd have used our energy to protect ourselves from the elements while going through the Desert and flying for so long."
Arya sat back in the saddle in abject astonishment at such a well thought out answer to her question coming from Eragon. While Eragon couldn't see Arya's face to see her expression, he felt her sitting back, and was confused, 'Why'd she sit back? We aren't really going slow enough to make that a smart idea.' Saphira decided to enlighten Eragon. "Why, little one, I do believe you have rendered her speechless!" "Quiet you, have you found any suitable areas to land yet? I still have a headache from trying to share your eyesight for so long." "Not yet, little one. But I do believe you have a one-sided conversation to finish." With a snort of amusement, Eragon turned his attention to Arya. "But why so close to the Spine, Shadeslayer?" Nodding his head at that, Eragon thought that would be it. "Well, I figured since I grew up in the Spine, that finding, or making shelter would be of little trouble. And that Saphira might want a little challenge in her hunting while we could both have a little reminiscing during our flight. But my biggest reason for being along the Spine would be because, beside the first part of the flight of flying along the plains and possibly passing over travelers who would possibly cause us issues later, that we'd have a little safety of flying near the Spine. So far, all Murtagh or Galbatorix would hear about would be us flying towards the base of the spine. Granted, if Galbatorix has heard anything about our departure, He's probably already determined our destination, but I think that the possibility that we are on another course for the southern cities is enough to take the risk of travelling by Spine."
"I see, indeed that is a very good possibility, and I admit you brought up some valid points, ones I didn't think you of all people would be the first to think, and act upon." Saphira snorted in amusement to the jab at Eragon's intelligence and natural stance of charging in headfirst before coming up with a plan. Eragon, however, wasn't as amused. "Oh, I see how it is. Yea, make fun of the stupid one." Eragon groused. Arya smirked behind his back, "Aw, is the Shadeslayer feeling embarrased?" Eragon had enough of the teasing but didn't really want to try to tease back, he was actually startled when he checked the the sun's position, and it was almost sunset.
"Hey Arya?" "Yes, Eragon?" "Do you think we should start looking for a place to stay for the night?" Looking towards the position of the sun, and determining that they only had a few hours of sunlight left, she deliberated. "Well...we are farther along than I thought we would be going along the path you chose," "Hey!" "-and it does no good to have Saphira overwork herself trying to fly along the mountains in the dark, so I see no reason not setting up camp tonight." "Hey Saphira?" "Yes Little one?" "Start looking for a place to land for the night, ok?" Not responding with words, Eragon recieved a mental hum in acknowledgement. Settling on finding a place to land, Eragon tapped into his and Saphira's shared vision. Finding a such location in the treeline farther up ahead, Eragon turned off the shared vision after pointing Saphira in the clearing's direction.
"Me and Saphira's found a place for the campsite, Arya." "Aye. I concede to your judgement on this. I am ready for the landing." As the Sun started to cross the horizon, Eragon caught a flash of bright reflective green. "What's that?" Eragon Asked. "Arya, not having seen anything, asked "What's what? What do you see?"