"The concept is simple." Pharos was saying to them, looking first to her and then to the three of the boys who were standing in wait. "You were able to chase Verana down and catch her before she was trained and when there were five of you. Now, you will try to do the same thing... and her goal is to reach the forest near the spot where we stayed on our way here. Verana, if you reach there first, you win. If the four of us catch you, we win."

Verana narrowed her eyes as she considered the men who smirked arrogantly at her. "What do I get when I win?"

Pharos smirked wider. "The rest of the day near the Wild, with us walking along with you, with no complaints."

"And when we win?" Anzael asked casually, shuffling his wings, drawing a glare from Verana

"I'll owe each of you a favour." Verana said absently, looking to Pharos, who gave her the tiniest of nods.

With that, she took off running.

She didn't hesitate as she leapt headlong into the wind and banked quickly into a dive down through the mountain passes that rushed toward her. She could hear the yells of surprise fading behind her as she angled her wings to hit the winds, knowing her smaller size gave her more speed and agility here in the mountains. It was here that she would need to put the most distance between herself and the four of them.

She found herself flying faster and harder than she had been able to months ago on the journey to Vayana, let alone in that first chase through the mountains all those months before that. It was then that she truly realized how much she had improved under Pharos' tutelage. Verana knew they would most likely take the higher route, cutting through distance she made by sailing through the air currents above the mountains, but it would also hinder their ability to track her. So she kept low and didn't take a predictable route. She could only hope that if they didn't see her as they expected, they would hesitate and give her more of a head start.

Her plan worked up until the mountains dropped away into rolling foothills and she heard the loud beats of their wings as they descended and began closing the distance. She saw the cliffs, with the forest encroaching speeding towards her and she pushed herself even harder. Feeling a subtle shift in the air above her, she banked hard to one side to avoid the first of her encroaching attackers.

Verana could hear one of them peel away and knew that someone was trying to outdistance her to probably cut her off, so she banked sharply to the other side, altering her course and climbing higher into the sky.

The smart thing for them to do would be to let her go and sit back and wait until she eventually had to descend but they gave chase. Perhaps they were tempted by the knowledge that they had the upper hand in strength and wingspan now that they were out in the open. They probably intended to catch her in the ascent and it was only when she heard those large wings almost upon her that she spun out of reach Her body rolled brilliantly sideways through the air, the world around her erupting into an assault of colour before she tucked her wings and letting herself plummet to the ground.

The air screamed past Verana's ears as she fell, streamlining her body to reduce any resistance and speed the descent. She could feel the breath flutter from her lungs with the pressure caused by the speed, tears streaming from her eyes.

A split second memory of Pharos' lessons that reminded her not to try and open her wings all at once that saved her. Verana spread them slowly to gradually increasing the air resistance, so as to not strain the strength of her wings all at once. Pharos had been quite informative about the limits in what their body could do. And she wasn't about to test his claims about how much strain a Vayan wingspan could take.

But even with her sudden caution, Verana descended quicker than she intended, barely managing to slow down enough to crash through the trees and skidding across the ground to slam into a very solid tree.

She made it. She was in the Wild.

Pharos landed first, running up to her with a look of panic on his face that quickly turned to anger when he had lifted her to her feet. Even as he glared, his hands running over her limbs to check for injury. "Don't you ever pull that stunt again! You were inches away from snapping your wings and dying. Or leaving it too late, hitting the ground and dying..."

"I guess it won't change your mind if I point out that I won?" Verana asked carefully, fighting the grin of exhilaration that wouldn't stay off her face.

She heard Anzael laughing behind Pharos, though he was fighting to keep his own expression from being noticed. With nothing else to do, Pharos gave her a fierce hug before he pulled back from her.

Pharos watched her for a long moment, his expression gradually calming down, though he remained bewildered even after his anger faded.

"Life and death, Verana. Promise me, that you'll only ever do that if it is your only, slim, chance at survival." Pharos looked pained for a while longer, before shaking his head and glancing away from her, looking at the forest.

When she nodded, he finally grinned ever so slightly, reaching over to ruffle her hair affectionately. "But, you've improved. I think you would have made it, even without the stunt, you keep enough of that Feysha part of you even while flying. It makes you unpredictable."

Verana grinned to him letting out a shaky breath and nodding as she came to terms with the exhilaration of what she had just done. " Alright... the forest then.."

She pretended not to hear their groans and started into the woods, taking care to move slowly enough for them to follow and use a path more accommodating to their larger size. She took pity on their larger forms that were definitely unused to trekking through the forests.

Through the summer, they had explained to her how hard it was for a Vayan to be in an enclosed space, possibly because of the need to spread their wings. Their people were all varying shades of claustrophobic and things like a forest were better known as Rulin domain. It was why they maintained the Vayan footprint in the mountains and open plains.

The Wild here was not as dense as it should have been, making her job a lot easier than it was back on her island. The land here was still struggling to survive, though it felt more balanced, more alive than the last time they had been there. What she had given, even all those months ago, had gone a long way toward restoring this little patch of land, but it was still hungry.

The Wild's call was becoming overwhelming when she caught the scent of something that chilled her more baser side to the bone. Her reflexes screamed at her about danger, about a predator, though could not identify whatever was the cause of the wrongness.

She had never smelled the creature before but it roiled her stomach and sent a thrill of fear through her spine even as that familiar tug of her Path pulled her toward it. The wrongness was part of the darkness she needed to face.

And that though sent her sprinting through the trees in direction of that scent. Verana was barely cognizant of anything other than the vileness and the building certainty of her need to battle until she found herself at the edge of a clearing that stank of death, blood, and gore.

Then she drew her blades, hearing her companions crashing through the woods behind her.