I know the distances aren't correct, and nobody should be able to travel as fast as these people do, but Christopher Paolini didn't put a scale on the map of Alagaesia, and I don't have a copy of Eragon with me to check. Meaning, of course, that I'm in charge of all the distances and stuff, so no complaining about Dusk and everyone else traveling too quickly. Yes, I"m being lazy and cheap, why do you ask?

We've been at Farthen Dur for the last week. The dwarf king, Hotgart or something, wanted to meet with Saphira a few days ago, but of course he didn't care about me. I've noticed something really weird about my wings: you can only see them when I'm using them, when you touch them, when I'm extending them, when someone else tells you about them, and when you've seen them before. Well, no, it's not that nobody can see them, it's more that nobody notices them. So, basically, the only person on the mountain who knows I've got wings is Saphira. If Hoigardo and Ajihad knew that I had wings, I'm sure that they'd be much more interested in me. Stupid idiots.

There's still no sign of Eragon or Brom. I'm not complaining, but Saphira's worried. She doesn't eat as much as she should, I have a feeling she doesn't sleep too much, and she's completely stopped talking. Sometimes she leaves the dragonhold to look for Eragon, but she always comes back after a few hours just as sad as before. She's worried about Eragon, and I'm kinda slightly worried about her. Ajihad's banned both of us from leaving the Beor Mountains, but that is not gonna stop me. Therefore, I'm leaving right now, and unless he's got another flying human up his non-existent sleeve, he won't be able to do anything about it. Heck, he doesn't even know that I can fly, so he'll be scratching his bald head wondering how I got out of the mountain without anybody noticing.

I flew out of the dragonhold, directly north, over this lake and a river, turned west when I left the mountains, and kept on going for the rest of the day. There wasn't anyone in the big valley we had come from, so I passed it and headed southwest. Day two saw me at Furnost. I checked to see if anybody had seen an old guy with a boy, and the answer was no. Then I headed over to Melian the next day, and this bar owner told me he had seen them pass by, a boy with gloves and an old man with silver hair. Obviously, that was was them. So I had to turn around and check out Cithri, and nobody had seen them. Next, I went to Petrovya, and they hadn't been there. So then I flew over to Furnost again on the morning of the fourth day to see if they had been there.

As I flew over the lake Tudosten, two dark shapes rose up into the air from the west shore. They were both flying towards me, I could see their wings. One cloaked figure rode each of them. As the four creatures got closer, I saw that the flying ones had beaks, and they only had skin, no feathers or scales or anything. I turned to face them and hovered there.

"Hi," I called out. "Watcha doin'?"

No response. They just kept coming closer.

"Hey, did you know it's nice to return a greeting?" I asked lazily. "'Cause you people are really rude in that way, see. And I'm bored. And would you people hurry up and get over here already? Hovering above a lake is annoying, cause the water messes up all the air currents. And you chaps will either get yourselves over here or I'll be leaving."

One of the winged ones and its rider stopped a few fit in front of me. The other circled behind.

"It's nice to face who I'm talking to, you behind me. And when did you guys brush your teeth? I mean beaks. You smell like rotten meat." Aren't I just so nice?

"What are you?" asked the rider in front of me. He had this strangely annoying voice.

"A human," I answered. "And let me guess, that thing you're riding is four-legged vulture with all the feathers plucked out, right?"

The flying thing hissed and lunged at me, but I dropped down towards the water. This place was pretty cliché, so I had known perfectly well that those things were bad guys the second they had left the shore. It was still pretty fun to insult them, though.

I plunged into the clear water and came back up behind all four of them, then zoomed towards Furnost. I looked back and saw that the flying things were having trouble. They obviously didn't like water, or the air above water. I stored that knowledge in the back of mind for later use and continued on my way, whistling.

I ducked into the lake near the docks and walked up onto the shore. The nearest tavern was this place called the Fluffy Rock, and the owner always seemed to know everything that went on in Alagaesia.

The owner told me that Brom and Eragon were staying at an inn called the Black Dragon. I thanked him and wandered off. It turned out the Black Dragon was two houses over from the Fluffy Rock, so I had no trouble finding it. The owner of the inn, however, wasn't half as nice as the guy from the tavern. I had to give him a black eye before he told me where Brom and Eragon were. They had gone to the Quacking Moose(these places have really stupid names), a bar two streets away. I then tromped off over to the bar, went in, and saw Eragon and Brom sitting with a boy with a hammer and a boy with a weird sword-thing.

So, yeah, I sat down over at Eragon's table. That triggered a pretty strong reaction from his two buddies. Both of them pulled out their weapons, but Eragon stopped them.

"Dusk?" he asked incredulously. "What are you doing here? Where's Saphira?"

I rolled my eyes. "Dusk isn't a question, so kindly refrain from putting a question mark there. Also, Dusk is a proper noun, and is therefore not a complete sentence, so there shouldn't be a punctuation at all. As to what I'm doing here, I'm looking for you. Saphira's in Farthen Dur."

Brom glanced around nervously, then hissed at me. "Be quiet!"

"Shut up," I said. "We need to get to the Beors and-" Something prodded me in the back. I sighed and turned around to see the two hooded figures from Tudosten standing behind me. "Hey, yeah, I'd love to chat with you guys, but now's not the time. Maybe tomorrow?" I told them.

"You and the others must come with us," the one that had poked me said in his hissy little voice.

"Oh, isn't that just fabulous," I said. I stood up. "Listen, we have some business over at that place, whatsitsname, the Stupid Toilet." Okay, so that was a really dumb name, but if there were places called the Fluffy Rock and the Quacking Moose, then there was bound to be some place called the Stupid Toilet. These innkeepers are worse at naming stuff than I am, seriously.

I pulled out my dagger and randomly waved it at one of the hooded dudes, who dodged easily. I took the chance to push between them and raced out of the Quacking Moose. Remembering that the person I had come for was still in there, I peeped my head back in and called to Eragon and co., "Run, you morons!"

They took the advice and shoved their ways past the bad guys. The hooded people hissed in surprise and ran after us. They were much faster than we were, and I guessed that they probably weren't humans. I took the easy way out and flew into the air. The two hooded guys gained on their quarry. Brom turned and slashed at them, and they sprang out of the way. Then Brom went back to running.

I was about to think of helping when I heard wingbeats from behind me, and spun around. One of the flying creatures from earlier was coming at me. Then I heard a shriek from behind, and glanced back. The other one was charging at me from behind, and this time there wasn't any water to dive into.

The most common and most effective thing ever popped into my mind, and I waited for both of them to get closer. When they were about to slam into me, I dropped down to the ground, and they almost hit each other. But they seemed to be smarter than the average featherless four-legged vulture, because one of them manged to veer below its partner before they could collide.

I cursed at them some and ran.