"So, how are we gonna get to those nice little mountains of yours?" I asked Arya. We were outside Teirm.
"The Hadarac Desert is the quickest way. If we fly there, it should take us about four days, because we will have not have to worry about being seen," she answered. She was leaning against Saphira's neck with her eyes closed.
How will we get water? Saphira asked.
"Hey, yeah, good question."
"I have methods," Arya replied. "We will not have to worry about thirst whilst we are in the desert."
So, simply to spare you from unnecessary boredom, I'm just going to tell you the short version. Keep a map next to you, yeah? So, we went over the Spine and spent the rest of the day getting to Furnost, where Arya and Saphira went for the lake and I went for the town. Well, no, I actually went for the food in the town, but it's about the same thing. So, anyways, we slept around Furnost, some moron saw us and recognized us from the wanted posters, we had a fight with some soldiers, then we flew into the desert and got ambushed by around forty Urgals. They were like, I dunno, eight feet tall each. Arya blasted them to bits and we ran off. It was the evening of the second day when we saw the mountains(they were huge, I tell you, comparing them to the Spine would be like comparing a tree to an ant), and noon of the third day was around when we got to the foothills. Me and Saphira fell asleep, I didn't know what Arya did, she didn't ever seem to sleep, and we woke up around evening and flew through the night. We stopped at this pond called Kosta-something. We slept some more and right now it's noon of day four. We're standing in front of this waterfall by the lake.
Arya shouted some gibberish at the waterfall, and the waterfall split into two smaller ones as a large piece of rock slowly slid out of the mountain. A stone circle twelve feet thick that had been behind the waterfall slid to the side to reveal a thirty-foot high hall lit with these little lantern things and lined with guards.
"You're joking," I said flatly. "Are you telling me that these Varden people live inside the mountain?"
How long did it take them to carve this? Saphira asked in amazement.
"Hundreds of years," Arya said. "These mountains are all linked by similar tunnels that lead between the many dwarven cities and villages, providing easy passage. These mountains are the greatest masterpiece of the dwarves. Come now! We do not want to keep them waiting."
"Oh yes we do," I muttered. I followed Arya as she gracefully leapt into the hallway. Saphira came after us, and I noticed that the guards all scooted as far away from her as possible.
The door slid closed behind us and the waterfall returned to normal. We were shut inside, and I felt an annoying sense of claustrophobia, even though the place was so frickin' big.
"Halt," said a bald guy in purple gold-trimmed robes who stood in the dead center of the hallway. His voice echoed around the vast hall. "Who are you, and what is your business here?"
"Hi, baldie!" I said cheerfully. "We're these random people, and we don't have any business here. Kindly shove yourself over to the wall, otherwise I might just keep annoying you."
Arya shot me a glare. Let me handle this. Turning back to the baldie, she said, "You do not want to anger me, Twin. I have important news for Ajihad."
Twin(gosh, these people have weird names) blinked, then said, "I must first approve the dragon and the girl."
"Listen to the elf, kid," I said. "You don't want to end up like those Urgals back there in the desert. Now move it."
The guy shook his head stubbornly. "Orders are orders. Either you let me examine your minds or you will not pass."
Saphira stepped forward and prodded Twin in the chest. Are you sure you want to examine my mind? She projected the thought out to everybody in the hall, and the guards all jumped, as if they didn't think she were capable of speaking English.
"Oh, just let me deal with him already," I growled, pushing past Saphira. I attacked his mind with this annoying song that I just couldn't get out of my head, but I couldn't find any weak points in his defense. Nothing like a good challenge, though. I created a few grenades from the song and began taking down his walls large chunk by large chunk. His face beaded with sweat as he tried to keep me out, and he clapped his hands to his head as each grenade exploded and sent the stupid song into his head, but I finally managed to get a large enough hole for me to get in. I darted through before he could close it and began sifting through his memories. I found a few interesting ones, like where he was talking to this dude with a beard and a black dragon. There were quite a few memories with the beard guy, the dragon, and another baldie that looked exactly like him, and I stored them into this safety deposit box in my own mind. Then I retreated back out of the hole I had made. All of that took me around thirty seconds.
I grinned at Twin. "Who's the black dragon?" I asked. Twin backed away as if he were scared.
"What?" Arya asked sharply.
"He has some interesting memories," I said. I sent them to Arya. Her eyes narrowed.
"Come, Twin, Ajihad will want to see this. You," she said, pointing at a guard. "Take us to Ajihad."
We followed the guard through what felt like a few miles of tunnels, all of them lined with gold and jewels and statues and all those other shiny little thing, and occasionally Twin would try and run, but Arya would say some nonsense and he would stop. Apparently, those memories I had stolen from him were pretty important. Anyways, most of those tunnels were huge, so Saphira only had to duck her head in some of them. We even went through this city in the mountain made completely of marble and lit by lava in this big crater way beneath us, and a lot of random humans and dwarves came out to stare at Saphira. We crossed this huge place, like, way too huge, a few hundred feet across at least, with this big rose-shaped gem in the ceiling. Four halls led off from the place, and we stopped at a cedar wood door at the end of one. The guard knocked, and a deep voice boomed (dramatic much?), "Come in."