Ch. 66: Leaving Gryvus

"Wait... how are we getting out of here, again?" Adrian asked Reese. They were climbing to the highest point in Gryvus, apparently a sacred place that was almost never visited by anyone other than the Archgryphon. 

About an hour ago, the duo had gotten a messenger from Reese at the mansion. He'd told them to meet him at the entrance to the sacred area, and to be ready to leave the city, so they'd grabbed their equipment and came right over. 

"You two are going to fly right past the range." Reese explained for the second time. It still didn't make sense.

"We're... not Gryphons... unless you've got some sort of abnormal Griffin beast that's strong enough to carry people?" Rosy wondered aloud.

"Nope. Those things aren't quite big enough to fly a person out of Gryvus, no matter how much magic strengthens them. They might be able to get you across the chasm... but there's no point in trying. We've got a better way." Reese explained cryptically.

"Transformation magic?" Rosy wondered.

"That's insane and stupid." Reese reminded her.

She shrugged, "Just a guess."

"This." Reese finally revealed as they made it to the summit. On the peak were two sets of something that looked like artificial wings, with a pretty simple design. Light-looking metal frames covered with some sort of fabric. A harness hung from the frame.

"Artificial wings?" Adrian asked, surprised.

"Pretty much." Reese replied, "These are pretty new devices that we created in order to research wind currents in certain, dangerous spots throughout Griffin Range. We've been using them for a few years now, but these are the first prototypes meant to actually carry living beings. I had them begin working on them a few months ago when you first entered Gryvus, and they've finally figured out the weight ratio."

"Huh?" Rosy asked, confused.

"These things won't allow you to go up. Basically, you jump off a mountain, you glide down. You won't be able to truly fly up once you lift off, you'll just be going with the wind. We'll send a team of Gryphons with you. Follow the gryphons, and you'll be able to get all the way past the fifteenth mountain in less than an hour, if you hit the updrafts correctly. We've already contacted the Resistance team that Doma's leading, and our team should lead you to him. By the end of the day, you should be inside the nearest Drakeland entrance." Reese explained. 

"So, we're gonna fly these barely tested things all the way out of the mountains, following a handful of birds the whole way, then meet up with Doma and enter a new place where everyone probably hates Rosy and wants to kill her?" Adrian asked for clarification.

"Exactly. I'd come along, too, but as the new Archgryphon..." Reese trailed off, rubbing his temples, probably thinking about the incredible amount of work that he has ahead of him. It was probably a pretty staggering amount, since his father just began a bunch of reforms and then handed all of his responsibilities down to poor Reese without any warning. 

"Alright. No problem. If Adrian falls, I'll just jump down after him and we can walk the rest of the way. Any time saved is a good thing." Rosy declared. After all the insane stunts that they'd been forced to pull just on their way to Gryvus, one more crazy, death defying flight wasn't going to faze her at this point.

Adrian felt much the same way. He'd been dreading the moment when they'd have to leave and go back through those hellscape mountains, so an hour's unstable flight felt like nothing compared to a week of even worse suffering. Plus, Rosy probably wasn't joking. With her magic, boosted by her sword and Adrian's reserves, stopping a fall from unimaginable heights probably wasn't impossible. Any time saved was greatly appreciated.

"Alright, then." Reese clapped his hands and about five Gryphons came out of the stairway and turned into birds, "Strap into the harnesses and jump. Let the air current do the rest. If you want to steer, you'll have to pull on those cranks there. It'll change the angle of your flight." Reese explained how the steering mechanism worked, but it didn't sound like it was very reliable. 

'Rosy, remember to keep your sword on hand at all times.' Adrian thought to his partner worriedly.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. Away we go!" Rosy shouted the last sentence, jumping off the edge of the mountain in her harness.

"Ugh!" Adrian followed after her reluctantly.

"WHOO HOO!" Adrian heard her scream shortly after takeoff. Looking at the view down below, feeling the wind rush through his face, Adrian totally understood the euphoria running through Rosy's mind, but his terror made him freeze. 'Adrian, you're starting to dip!' The fear around his mind was easily shattered by Rosy's mental chiding, and he managed to hastily fix his angle before he dropped too far.

"WHERE ARE THE- ACK! ACK!" Adrian started to shout up at Rosy, who naturally was already slightly higher than him, but he accidentally ate a bug instead. 'Where are the Gryphons leading us? We're almost at the first mountain.' He thought to her.

'Did you actually try to speak out loud while we're flying this high up in the air?' Rosy laughed at Adrian mentally before answering him, 'Over there, see?' She used their connection to point the birds out to him, since she wasn't in his line of sight at the moment. Sure enough, there were five birds flying in formation in front of them, but the birds were beginning to lean to the left a bit.

'Come on, we've got to stay close, or we won't hit the right thermals, and we won't make it all the way past the fifteenth mountain. You know how much of a pain it'd be if we ended up dropping into that stupid canyon, right? Bank to the left a bit.' Rosy told him. Adrian did as she told him to, trying to follow the birds, 'That's definitely not left. You push the controls like this, so that the left wing goes down.' She showed him in his head, doing a graceful left turn in front of him. 'Too far!' She ended up banking too far to the left and was forced to hastily correct herself. 

'This is going to be difficult, isn't it?' Adrian sighed mentally, having learned his lesson to not open his mouth mid-flight anymore.