Leaving the Mountain

'What did he just say!!' Roland thought angrily. So Faloan had just brought him along just so he could be sold for money!?! While he was angry, it wasn't like he could do anything, so he just internally complained.

Not knowing what Roland was thinking, Faloan gave the rock to Aaron.

"Put it in your your pouch," said Faloan. Aaron nodded, putting it away.

...

Now trapped inside the pouch, Roland couldn't see anything. Grumbling to himself, he used his spirit sense. His spirit reappeared outside the pouch, looking around. Unable to see him, Aaron, Faloan, and Autumn were still talking.

"How will we find a way home?" asked Autumn. Despite his usually cheery personality, he looked worried.

Faloan answered with a calm smile. Reaching into one of his pockets, he brought out a small, copper compass. It had two arrows, one with an N at the tip to represent North, while the other arrow had a tip that resembled a small, miniature castle.

"What's this?" Aaron asked curiously.

"It's our way home," answered Faloan, "The second arrow shaped like a castle always points towards Estaria, so we'll always know which way to go."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. He didn't know there were such interesting artifacts for sale. He had to get one when he returned home.

Aaron grabbed Autumn's hand, and started to go in the direction the compass was pointing to. Then, he realized Faloan wasn't following them. He turned around.

Faloan was still there, but he was doing something. Holding a small, leather pouch in his hands, he was mumbling some strange words that Aaron and Autumn couldn't make out. Aaron didn't bother him, since he was in the middle of something. Curious, Roland brought his spirit over, but before he could, Faloan stopped chanting.

Seemingly done with the incantation, he opened the pouch in his hands.

Whoosh!

In the air appeared a portal. Five meters tall, it was a swirling vortex made of mana and some other kind of unfamiliar energy. From within, a strange noise echoed before a head peeked out of the portal.

"Honk!" It's neck appeared, then a leg, and then a wing. Slowly, it showed itself, bringing it's body out bit by bit until it stood before them.

'A swan?' Roland thought, for that was exactly what the creature was. Although, much bigger, as things in this world usually were. Oh, and it had 3 pair of wings, although Roland wasn't even surprised anymore at this point.

Aaron and Autumn had different thoughts, though.

"It's a 6 Winged Swan!" They thought.

"Where did you get this from?" Aaron inquired suspiciously. This was a rare creature renowned for its sped and stamina. This beast could go at a speed of 70 miles an hour, and could sustain that speed for multiple days!

"The beast Tamers Association," he answered matter of factly.

"I heard that these beasts were expensive though," Aaron said.

"I rented this for a mission I was going to complete a while back," Faloan answered,"I was about to set off before the beat tide came."

Aaron seemed to be satisfied with his answer and looked at the beast.

"So this is our transportation?"

Faloan nodded. "Get on," he said, jumping on the beast's wide back. Aaron and Autumn followed, and Autumn asked another question.

"Have you ever ridden one of these?" He asked.

Faloan answered honestly and bluntly.

"No"

Autumn asked another question."Do you know how to control this beast?"

"No"

Both Aaron and Autumn held their head in their hands.

"Then how do we go in the right direction?!" They both said, exasperated.

Faloan answered confusedly. "Have you ever gone to the Beast Tamers Association?"

It was now Aaron and Autumn's turn to say "no".

"Well," Faloan explained," these beasts are trained to follow orders, and they can understand simple words and phrases, so all we need to do is tell it which way to go."

Having understood Faloan's explanation, both Aaron and Autumn relaxed abit. Faloan held on the reins, Aaron held on to his shoulders, and Autumn held onto his. And with that, they took off. Flapping it's wings, the started running, before soon, they were in the air.

Down below, was a vast expanse of snow that ,ade up the top of the mountain.

"Wow!" Having been holed up in the city, where it rarely rained, let alone snowed, it was the first time Autumn had seen so much snow.

Aaron was surprised too, although he didn't show it on his face. Faloan gave some instructions to the swan, before he started looking around as well.

...

Inside Aaron's pouch, Roland sighed in relief. Just as they were going to set off, he had managed to return to his body. He had realized that when he used spirit sense, his spirit and his body became sperate entities, so there wasn't a limit as to how far his spirit could get from his body and he wouldn't move with his body either. However, this came with another problem. Without being within 5 meters of his body, he couldn't cancel spirit sense, so if they had flown off, his body would go with Aaron, but his spirit would still be left behind!

'Thank god I managed to notice before they left,' he thought. Now though, he couldn't use his spirit sense anymore, since his spirit would still be left behind, so he could only rely on its passive ability and his hearing to tell what was happening outside.

Now Aaron and the other two were having another conversation.

"How long will it take to get back home?" Autumn asked. Roland couldn't see anything but he could tell Faloan had a troubled look on his face.

"Not sure. The compass only points to which direction we have to go in, not how far away our destination is."

Faloan paused for a moment, then said something else to reassure Autumn. "Don't worry about it," he said, "the compass wouldn't work if we were further than 30,000 kilometers away from the city."

He added something else when he saw that Aaron and Autumn weren't convinced.

"This beast can travel that distance in about 15 days, if you include the time used to rest. We'll be back before you know it."

...

Eventually, the sun started to set, and the snow below had changed to forest. Now, Autumn started to complain.

"How am I supposed to get a wink of sleep on the back of this beast!" He cried out. Indeed, the constantly moving and swaying back of the beast didn't exactly make for a great bed, no matter how soft its feathers were.

Without any other choice, Faloan instructed the beast to land in a clearing. Since they still didn't have anything to sleep on though, they all fell asleep on the back of the beast. Roland saw this and decided to rest as well. He turned off his skills and went into a state halfway between sleep and awareness.