I rose early the next morning, simultaneously happy and dismayed that Kuto-Lulu had not woken me up for a watch. I stretched a bit, looking around for my diminutive companion, finally spotting him a few dozen yards away, doing some sort of exercise.
"What's that you're doing?" I questioned as I drew closer, evidently startling him out of his current pose.
"It's a form of stretching," he answered, raising his arms up over his head and gracefully moving back into position. "Keeps me limber, and builds endurance."
"Maybe I should try some of that," I said, eyeing up the easy-looking stretching.
"Don't be silly," he replied with a smirk. "It's a lot tougher than it looks; and besides, you won't need this training if you end up in some magic unit. You'll be working on the powers of the mind instead." He giggled, and let his arms down gently. "I suppose you want to get moving?"
"Of course," I replied. "I'd like to make it into Bastok today, if possible." I looked downward among the trail speculatively.
"Of course we'll make it today," came the response. "It's just around the corner for the main gate. We probably could have made it in last night, but finding someplace to sleep is a lot tougher when it's already dark."
I nodded, and then added, "And you probably wanted to have that little talk, too."
Kuto-Lulu grinned in response, and we got down to the menial task of breaking camp. Before too much longer, we were back on the road toward Bastok.
"Shouldn't we be able to see the city by now?" I complained, looking around as we walked. "I mean, it's a huge city, right?"
Kuto-Lulu stopped, and looked over at me. "You really don't know?" he asked, his eyes twinkling with mirth.
"Know what?" I replied shortly, not appreciating being the butt of the joke.
"Bastok was built inside a mountain," he replied slowly, as if explaining to a child. "To be specific, this mountain," he added, sweeping his hand toward the massive stone outcropping to our left. "We're just headed for the gate." He giggled, clearly amused by my lack of knowledge.
"Oh," I said, flushing with embarrassment. "It's not like I've ever been here before, you know. I thought-"
Kuto-Lulu cut me off with a wave of his hand. "I'm just teasing you, Aspen," he said with a smirk. "You take the bait way too easily, you know." He giggled again, and we resumed walking around the massive stone wall.
"How did they get the mountain hollowed out?" I asked, more for the point of making conversation.
"A lot of years, and most of it was Galka power. They're good at things like that, you know. And I'm sure the Humes helped too. Probably built some giant machine to move the rocks for them, though. Galkas love to do that sort of thing by hand."
"I'll have to remember that, next time I need a hole dug." I laughed, my gaze continually drawn to that rock face. It was so big! How could anyone-or anything hollow out an entire mountain?
As we made our way past the corner of the rounded mountain base, I saw that the little Taru was right: Carved into the side of the mountain was a massive white stone gate. We walked forward, joining with the small flow of people waiting to enter the city.
'Here we go,' I thought to myself, with a little anxiety. 'For fortune or ill.'
As if reading my thoughts, Kuto-Lulu turned to me and smiled.
"Welcome to Bastok."
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