Packing was fairly easy. Vanyali and I didn't have much to take. I had some clothes, my bow and sword, the eggs, and some jewelry. When the two days had gone by, Lili and I grabbed our things and I hopped onto her back, holding on tightly to the spike in front of me. She dove from the ledge and whipped out her wings, flying to where Ajihad, who was none to happy about the departure but accepted it nonetheless, and others would be waiting. This would also be when we would discover whether or not Aramae had changed her mind. I figured not, but there was always hope, or so Vanyali said.

She landed very gracefully in the middle of a large crowd which had gathered. Somehow news had spread of their departure. Rapidly. Glancing around, I was able to pick out Ajihad, the Twins, the Council members, some dwarves I had played drinking games with, and Aramae, who unfortunately, I noted, had no bags. With a twinge of regret, Lili and I bid everyone farewell and she turned and trotted down through the maze of tunnels to reach the exit. At first the crowd seemed to try to keep us there because they refused to move and kept yelling at us to stay, but when they realized that the large dragon in front of them had every intention to keep moving whether or not they happened to be there, they quickly scrambled out of the way.

As soon as we were clear of the mountain, Vanyali leaped into the air. It was the middle of winter, so in general it was very cold, but way up in the air where Lili liked to fly, it was beyond frigid. I had to tell her that she wasn't allowed to fly up here for too long or I might very well become a human icicle. She liked to push that time limit.

We tried to stay hidden as much as possible, flying mostly during the night and finding caves to sleep in during the day. It wasn't the most comfortable and it wasn't very warm. I tended to sleep next to Vanyali who covered me with a wing, much like a tent. It helped with the heat issue. We followed a river as a guide and food didn't prove much of a problem. The fish in the river made wonderful practice for shooting arrows and that killed two birds with one stone as I was far more compelled to actually hit them. Whatever I killed I could eat and if I failed to kill anything, I didn't. It was simple. Well, in theory. I ate most nights, but there were still those select few where things didn't work out according to plan.

One day, as we finally passed out of the mountains and could see none save behind us, Lili asked me, Do you have any idea where the elf girl actually is?

Well, not really, umm...I was kind of relying on Aramae coming with us to tell us where to go.

And do you even know where she is being held?

Not exactly...

Okay from now on I'm deciding where to go.

Lovely. So where are we going then?

Wherever this river goes.

Ooh. Can't wait.

Do you have a better idea?

I sighed, Can't we just go from town to town and try to find her?

Oh, yes, good plan. I can see it now, people running in terror from me, screaming for their pathetic little lives, and the soldiers who will come to capture us because now not only are you Galbatorix' daughter, you are a rider, and you have the remaining dragon eggs, save the red one. Do you not comprehend the danger we would be in?

Fine. For now we will go with your plan and follow the river.

Good, now I have a few other ideas which I intend to begin immediately. First, I vote more food, like deer. And I know that they are there and that you can shoot them so don't even try to get out of it. Second, I think that you should let me be your personal trainer. You lack motivation in that area and you know that your ability in magic is limited to your physical strength so that needs to be improved. Finally, I want to swim.

I say maybe to the first, no to the second, and what are you talking about to the third.

And I say that I really don't care. You have no choice about the first because it's either deer or you.

Why don't you hunt the deer for yourself if you want them so much?

You need the practice, which brings me to our second point. You have no choice. I have very good ideas for motivating you. So, basically, now that I'm bigger than you, I get to make you do things, such as work out. So there. Deal with it. And as for the third...And before I could stop her, she dipped and flew straight into the river below.

I screamed as the cold water engulfed me and I was plunged into the icy river. When she got back to the surface I threw myself off of her and crawled onto the bank, shivering. I do love the water, and I love swimming, but not when it will cause me to get hypothermia.

"Vanyali!" I yelled. Her large, purple head appeared above the water causing her to looke very crocodile-like.

Yes, little one?

"I n-need th-th-those b-bags. I h-h-have t-to change." Oh, great, my teeth were chattering now.

She snorted, Has it not occurred to you that since the bags are in the water with me it would do you no good to attempt to wear anything from them as they are soaked through as well?

I growled. "Get out of there before I freeze to death."

She grudgingly complied and I jumped onto her back because I figured that if she was flying, the air would dry my clothes faster, because, you know, moving air tends to do that. I was right and before long I was much warmer with my black hair whipping out behind me.

The days passed as Lili and I followed the river. She kept to her word that she was going to become my personal trainer and had me doing painful exercises lasting about two to three hours per day which left me exhausted. I was also getting much more flexible thanks to her deciding that it was a good idea. One day a large bird that looked quite a bit like a small dragon attacked us, but eventually we fought it off and we were alright. That is until I felt the pain that shot from my chest. Looking down, I found a large puncture in my left shoulder. Blood flowed from it in torrents and seconds later everything went black.

I assumed that the black meant I was dead. There was nothing, no light, no feeling, nothing. It was peaceful, and at the same time scary. If someone was there too long, they would probably go insane from it. I actually started to lose myself in it, the days, even minuted, immeasurable, when suddenly, there was sound. Next came pain. It was sharp because of the sensory deprivation of however long I had been asleep. My body went rigid. And then, as the pain dulled a bit and my body relaxed, there came awareness.

I was lying on a bed. It was quite comfortable, aside from the pain in my shoulder. Except for that slight itch on my face. I reached to scratch it. Or tried to at least. My arm refused to move. Well, something stopped it from moving. My eyes snapped open and I looked at that arm. Tied down, as was the other, and both of my legs. It was most definitely not good.

Looking around a bit more I saw people. No, they were not people. People couldn't look that pretty or graceful and they certainly didn't have pointy ears. These were elves. A lot of them, too. Oh, this was not good. It would be perfect that I was here except that they had me tied to a bed and that meant they didn't trust me, which was very bad.

I reached out with my mind, Vanyali!

I am here.

I breathed a sigh of relief, Where are you? I paused, Where am I?

You are in Ellesmera. I am as well, but they refuse to allow me to see you. I was very afraid for you. Are you alright? You were unconscious for a week. I brought you here when you first passed out. They healed you and told me that until they could search your mind to ascertain our intentions and alliances, we were their prisoners and to remain heavily guarded.

Wonderful. Lili, what did you do with the eggs?

I hid them before we came here. There was no reason for them to know about them yet. They might have jumped to conclusions.

Okay, that's good, now I guess I have to deal with them.

You do, however is there anything you wish me to shield before they search your mind?

Yes. The whole bit about Galbatorix. That's something that I figure would be very, very bad if they found out about it.

Alright. Good luck!

I refocused my eyes on the elf in front of me. He was tall, with white blonde hair, and looked to be no more than in his mid-twenties. "Hello." I said as calmly as I could.

"What is your name?" He asked, his voice musical and yet uncertain and a little bit hostile.

"Katari. And may I inquire as to yours?"

He stared at me for a second, as if debating that, then, "I am Enari. You are a rider?"

"Yes."

"Will you permit me to search your mind, Rider Katari?"

I sighed, "If I must."

Then I felt a prick in my mind as he dug through my past. He did not cause undue pain, as had the Twins, but it was not a pleasant experience. Once satisfied, I felt him withdraw and he pulled out a knife. At first I thought that maybe he was going to kill me, that Vanyali had been unable to shield those memories of Galbatorix, but in the end he simply sliced open the ropes holding me to the bed.

I sat up, rubbing my sore wrists, and something occurred to me, "Enari, I am curious, why did you not examine my mind while I was unconscious? Surely that would have been simpler and it would have saved you the trouble of binding me to this bed."

His eyes gleamed, "We did try. Something kept shoving us out. We assumed that your dragon was being protective and wished us to wait for you to awaken."

"Yes...my dragon shoved you out. Of course." There was no way I was going to let them in on the fact that I could shove people out of my head when unwanted if they didn't already know.

A strange look appeared in his eye, but Enari just turned and said, "Follow me if you will Rider Katari."

With no better ideas, I rose and left the room after him.