I've already crossed this part of the desert twice, so I knew the lay of the land pretty well. I really regretted not saving that food for later, because I was starving almost from the second I started flying. I guess it comes from having six limbs, two of which are absolutely humongous. So I just glided down to some random cactus with a bunch of fruit growing from the top.
Cactus fruit is really, really good, except it's got a ton of red juice in it. My hands looked like they had been splattered in blood when I took off again, but hey, food is worth it.
The good thing about being able to fly from Furnost to Farthen Dur was that I didn't even need to take the long route into the valley and then go through all of those stupid tunnels. All I had to do was just find the places where the mountains were short and cut through them. It took me a few hours to get through the mountains, since all these random hungry creatures kept attacking me, and since I kept on needing to stop for wild veggies and water, but I got through okay. Another good food on the go: clovers. They taste really good as long as you don't pick the bitter ones with the deer pee on them.
I got into the valley a little after noon and followed the Beartooth River into the heart of the mountain range. I had stayed in Farthen Dur long enough to know where its approximate location was, and I headed towards where I figured the mountain was.
It was evening when I heard a loud roar off to my left. I turned and hovered. Flying towards me was Saphira.
Where have you been? she screeched. The dragoness' blue eyes were blazing.
"Err, haha, yeah," I said. "About that, see-"
Spit it out! Saphira roared.
"Eragon's over there," I told her flatly, pointing in the general direction of the desert.
Her anger and anxiety turned to confusion. What?
"He's over in the desert somewhere," I said. "Shouldn't be too hard to find, considering he's brought three hundred people with him."
Explain, now, she growled.
"Oh, he'll explain," I said vaguely. It's so fun to leave people hanging. "By the way," I said, "was Ajihad mad I left?"
Yes. He sent out search parties to look for you. He was afraid you had gone to Galbatorix.
"Gandrayda? Nah, I was looking for Eragon. Apparently, the Varden's contacts and the people they sent out to find him have trouble recognizing four shady guys, one a really old guy and the other three boys around sixteen, followed by the whole village of Carve-a-Hall."
Where is he? Saphira asked urgently.
"On the path to Furnost," I answered "You can go off now, I'll catch up once the Varden know they're coming."
Saphira grunted and winged her way west. Farthen Dur is the mountain to the left. Be careful with the dwarves and Varden as well. They are...not pleased by your disappearance.
"Oh joy," I muttered. I turned left and headed for that conveniently located hole in Farthen Dur's side, which led into the dragonhold.
"Oh, great," I said when I landed at the entrance of the hole and looked down at the pretty rock that made up the dragonhold's floor.
There were around ten people standing around on it, a mixture of humans and dwarves, but all the dwarves hung out near the stairs, as if they couldn't wait to race back down to Tronjheim, the marble city way down in Farthen Dur.
I figured it would be a pretty bad idea to go down right then, especially if what Saphira had told me about the Varden and dwarves suspecting me of being a spy was true. I really hoped Arya was in Tronjheim right then, since she still owed me for saving her life.
"Why do I not have a piece of paper when I need it?" I muttered, looking around me. As if on cue, a small piece of paper and a feather dipped in ink drifted in front of me. My mouth dropped open. "Never mind that, I do have a piece of paper when I need it."
I scribbled out a note on the convenient piece of paper using my convenient quill that just so happened to be conveniently dipped in convenient ink.
Cavahal com wid rider 0pen gats 4 dem
ps
u suk ajihad
I thought for a moment, then crossed out the postscript so that it was still readable but obvious that someone had "tried" to get rid of it. I wrapped the paper around around a small stone and dropped it into the dragonhold.
Everybody in the dragonhold noticed the note and ran over to it. My message had gotten through, so I shrugged and took off.
The journey back to Eragon and all his little buddies was much quicker than the journey to the mountains, since Carve-a-Hall had already covered quite a bit of ground during the day and a half I was gone. They'd already gone about a quarter of the distance they had to cover.
The expected screams came from below me as I flew over them. Saphira was flying around near the rear of the crowd with Eragon on her back. I went over to them.
"Right, so the Varden know you're coming," I said.
How did they react when you went back? Asked Saphira curiously.
"Oh, I just dumped a note into the dragonhold," I told them. "Also, I'm not going back to them with you guys."
"What?" asked Eragon. "Why?"
"I kinda insulted Ajihad in my note, so yeah. Tell Brom and Murtagh and Roran and all those other big leaders down there later, 'kay? Also, don't tell Ajihad who wrote the note."
"You're leaving now?" Eragon said anxiously. "And who's Ajihad?"
I rolled my eyes. "Are those two questions related? But yeah, I'm leaving now. See ya!"
With that, I ran. Actually, I flew. Gah, whatever, I did something. But I ran. No wait- Never mind.
There was someplace I needed to go. I think it's called Uruk-hai or something. It starts with Uru, anyways. I think it's Gabriel's capital. But yeah, I had to go there for whatever reason that I didn't know.