Chapter 13: Mountains

   As they rose into the air, Ardan watched as the great water, the lake, he had just felt so small in, became as small as one of his own hands. He watched as the forrest sped by underneath him like a green rug in his mother's tent. He looked all around trying to take in everything he saw. As the sun began to set, he stared as the colors washed over the mountain, painting them in reds and oranges. They were the most beautiful, the most indescribable things he'd ever seen. The colors danced over the rocks, and it was like a fantastic dream - a wonderful, amazing dream, and he wished his mother could see it. She would have loved the way the sun played over the land and filled the sky. He smiled thinking of the joy it would have brought to her face.
   Then his worst fear hit him, a thought that had dwindled at the edge of his mind since his first flight with Fulkar. His eyes couldn't focus on the sunset anymore. Instead he saw his mother's face, the look in her eyes when she woke that morning and found that he was not in his bed. The tears that filled her eyes when Taur came to their tent, his eyes on the sand, telling her where her son had gone. He saw his mother sit down on the floor, her strong arms limp by her sides, and her beautiful hair hanging over her face. He tried to look at the sunset, at the mountains or the forrest, but her face filled his mind, pushing everything else aside. He realized exactly what he had done to her. What she must be going through, not knowing where he was or if he was coming back? Those thoughts swam through his mind as he drifted off to sleep, tossing and turning and keeping Rheto awake, muttering to himself in his sleep.
  When Ardan awoke, his cheeks were wet with tears. The sky was like ink, but the stars were burning so brightly that he felt as if he could reach up and touch one, that it would burn his fingers. The mountains had grown incredibly large and quite ominous while he slept, he could see cliffs and steep slopes and wondered how Fulkar could ever land on such terrain.
  "Are we going to be there soon?" he asked.
  "Actually we should be there within the hour. I caught a favorable wind while you were sleeping. It sped things along quite nicely."
  "Really? An hour? Oh wow..." Ardan's face grew serious. "Well, now that it's happening... I mean, now that were here... I'm nervous."
  "Why?"
  "Because... What if I'm not good enough?"