By the time camp had been picked up, the horses re-saddled, and the mysterious elf retied onto Saphira's belly, Lady Nephis had finished her 'patrol'. Murtaugh had also explained to Eragon the decision they had come to the night before regarding her traveling with them for a time, and he had agreed, if only because it was a temporary solution. There was some deliberation on who would be giving up their steed to the Lady, but once Eragon, hiding his grumblings, had forked over Snowfire's reigns, she gave him a strange look and flat out refused.
"What? Why not?"
Eragon asked, surprised.
"We wouldn't ask you to walk on foot, my Lady. I can ride atop Saphira, if need be."
Nephis crossed her arms, piercing him with her emotionless gaze. Eragon wasn't sure he'd ever get used to it.
"Why can I not ride the dragon?"
Eragon grimaced slightly as Saphira growled menacingly, both in his head and from her throat.
'She will not be riding me today. I'd sooner let the Ra'zac sit upon my back.'
'Don't worry, I'll remind her."
"Respectfully, Lady Nephis, dragons are proud creatures,"
He pointedly ignored Saphira's intensifying growl and continued, crossing his own arms,
"...and to ride atop one is considered a great honor. Not only that, but I ask you to request such a thing from Saphira herself."
His voice gained a bit of bite.
"I am not her owner; she has her own thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, and is her own, separate individual. I ask that you do not forget that; just because she chooses not to talk to you directly doesn't mean she is incapable of it. This will be one of the conditions of you journeying with us."
The woman's gorgeous face did not change expression, but after a moment she nodded, then bowed to Saphira.
"...Of course. I apologize, dragon Saphira. I am used to creatures not human in appearance to be either mindless or to eventually assume human form. I will remember in the future."
Eragon nodded, pleased, though a few questions popped up from the strange answer, ones he inwardly reminded himself to ask her later on.
'Does that satisfy you, Saphira?'
Saphira was silent for a moment, than snorted and turned away from the both of them, as though ignoring them. Nevertheless, she responded to Eragon in her mind.
'...Fine. She is testing us, regardless.'
Eragon blinked.
'What? Testing us?'
'She did not 'forget' anything. Not for a single moment since we settled for the night have I not felt the pressure of her scrutiny.'
'Uhm... okay. I'll keep that in mind.'
It made sense, really. He and Murtaugh were watching her too, of course. They had both agreed not to let the possibility of her changing her mind on the deal slip their own. If it had happened so quickly the first time... they might be dealing with someone who was incredibly impulsive, living off of their whims. It didn't matter whether or not that was how she came off as in conversation; they had to be prepared regardless.
Murtaugh and Eragon wouldn't be able to properly rest for a while yet, probably until she left their party. Last night had been an exception; he had just been too tired... though, was that the real reason? Something tugged at the back of his mind, faint but with some sort of urgency. Had he truly been tired enough to fall asleep so quickly? In the presence of a stranger, and the most powerful person he had ever witnessed personally, no less? One who was a potential enemy that could turn on them at a moments notice? How had he fallen asleep like that?
He frowned, but before he could continue thinking about it, the thoughts had disappeared.
'I wonder what we'll do for lunch today... maybe we can even break out of this desert by days end. We could find some deer for supper!'
Saphira swiveled her giant, serpentine head, and looked at him with confusion in her great, sapphire orbs.
Eragon didn't notice.
He mounted Snowfire and nodded to Murtaugh, then began riding off into the distance.
Murtaugh nodded back to him, then turned to Lady Nephis, who was watching Eragon with a small frown on her face, as though contemplating something unpleasant.
"How will you travel then, my Lady, if not by horse or dragon?"
She looked at him calmly, the frown replaced by the mask of emotionlessness.
"I'll run. Catch up with me at your fastest pace. I wish to leave this desert as quickly as possible."
He blinked, and she was gone. Atop Tornac, he stared at where she had disappeared for a few moments, then swiveled his head in surprise, looking for where she had gone to. Eventually, he squinted past Eragon, who was pounding across the desert at a measured pace atop Snowfire, and saw a glimmer of silver armor that looked to be almost a league in the distance.
"...Incredible."
He muttered to himself, grinning, then tapped Tornac's sides with his heels and broke into a gallop to catch up to them. Saphira, too, launched from the ground, using her immense wings to launch herself high into the sky, far enough that she could be mistaken as a bird. She wouldn't have problems keeping up, of, course.
They stopped at midday for a brief rest to recuperate and eat. Nephis once again refused their food, and they continued onward after scarcely a half-hour. At one point, a line or purple humps had appeared on the horizon, not long after they had escaped the domain of cracked earth and began traveling between great dunes of orange sand. They had made a second stop for the horses to munch on some of the scarce, craggly grass hiding between the dunes, and Saphira had helped nudge a hole into the sand that Eragon had filled with with water. Nephis watched with interest, but did not ask questions.
As the purplish line on the horizon began to grow bigger, Eragon remarked about it to Nephis and Murtaugh. The latter claimed they were hills, while the former said she had seen them even before escaping the vast expanse of cracked earth. Eragon didn't want to believe her, but since he saw no reason for her to lie, he simply nodded.
"What are they, then?"
She had kept up with the horses easily, and at one point had decided to jog with them instead of waiting for them to reach her distant checkpoints. She didn't look at Eragon as she responded, her silver legs a blur as they pattered on the sand. She sounded distracted by something
"...I'm not quite sure."
Eragon blinked.
'That's a first.'
He wasn't quite sure when, but he had already begun thinking of her as someone who knew everything. She had answered all of his questions so far, though to differing levels of satisfaction. He had to keep in mind she wasn't from his own world.
A few hours later, however, it was clear to all three of them what exactly they were looking at.
Eragon had, at first, mistaken them for hills, covered in trees, but for some reason all of the sky above them was covered white. The incongruity had bothered him for a time, but a moment before he was about to ask his companions their own thoughts, it dawned on him.
They were simply so inconceivably large that their snow and ice-covered peaks blotted out the sky itself, for countless miles in either direction. He gaped openly, awed by the majestic display of its magnitude.
At one point, Nephis had slowed, and eventually stopped running alongside them. Eragon and Murtaugh were already a hundred feet in front of her before they noticed. They turned around and trotted back over to her, concern on their faces.
'She's probably run out of energy. It's hard to believe she's continued this long already, regardless.'
"Lady Nephis, are you all right? Would you like to ride Snowfire for a time..."
His voice trailed off as he saw the expression on her face.
She was staring at the mountains with what was undeniably an element of terror in her eyes.
"Lady Nephis!"
Eragon dismounted and ran to her, reaching up and shaking her armored shoulders.
Her horrified gaze did not leave the mountains.
"Nephis! Nephis! Are you okay?! Murtaugh, get some water!"
She did not respond to his questions. Murtaugh tossed him a canteen, looking as concerned as Eragon was, and he tried splashing some of it on her face.
"Lady Nephis!"
Several agonizing seconds passed before she finally spoke, and her voice cracked with some indescribable emotion as she stared at the great peaks.
"Sunny... Awakened... he was past those mountains... I can reach him. We were connected. He was in the Crimson Spire with me, with us... the Forgotten Shore. Antarctica! The third nightmare! He- he was with me all along."
She was breathless as she turned her wide, terrified gaze to Eragon, seemingly not recognizing him. She sounded hopelessly desperate as she asked, a sudden gust of wind blowing her silky hair past her shoulders, silver eyes full of something he couldn't describe:
"Where is he?"
* * *