Syrn seemed to disregard Jason's subtle staring. She looked away from him and addressed the whole group instead.
"It would be much better if everything were explained to you all at once. For now, I'm more concerned about our travel plans. It would be simpler to warp everyone here back to Linden, but that would be too taxing, even for me, so it looks like we're going to have to resort to more mundane means of travel in this case."
Frost raised a brow.
'What could possibly be considered a mundane means of travel in a world like this?'
Honestly, he was looking forward to finding out.
For the moment, Frost was simply extremely relieved to be alive right now, and that meant he was also in surprisingly good spirits, unlike most of his ragged peers.
Apart from his clothes being torn in several places, there was also the flaked, half-dried blood staining either side of his jaw from when his ears had bled earlier.
The others were in similar states, though not everyone had suffered the same injuries. The likes of Jennifer, for instance, didn't seem to have bled from their ears at all, and she seemed to be in better condition overall.
While Frost was distracted by his thoughts, Syrn seemed to have gotten busy.
"Hmmm?"
Frost raised a brow as another trigram began to materialize.
This one formed horizontally in the air, and from this close, it looked even more beautiful and magical than the ones he had seen earlier, composed of countless intricate symbols, shapes, and letters from a language he couldn't recognize.
Syrn held both arms forward as she quietly muttered a string of incomprehensible words that were most certainly from some unknown language.
A moment later, the circular trigram finished forming.
A blinding white light suddenly flashed from its centre, accompanied by a sharp hiss that forced Frost to immediately shield his eyes with his arm.
When he finally opened them again, his jaw dropped.
Syrn was standing beside a massive, beautiful white-grey bird, gently stroking the creature's unnaturally long neck.
It was enormous, easily large enough to carry several people on its back, with majestic, soft-looking wings folded neatly against its body and pristine white feathers that almost seemed to glow beneath the sunlight.
More surprisingly, Syrn was actually smiling for once.
She affectionately stroked the bird while seemingly speaking to it for several seconds, leaving Frost and the others to stare in awe.
'A giant bird? Terrific...' He sighed deeply. The longer they spent in this world, the more wonders they seemed to discover.
'I do hope there are no giant insects as well...' As things stood, he wasn't betting on it. Things seemed to be headed in that direction.
The bird suddenly let out a high-pitched caw.
"CAAAAAW!"
The piercing sound once again rattled Frost's unfortunate ears, and he immediately felt a fresh but small trickle of blood running down the side of his neck, probably residue that had been stuck inside till now.
"Fucking hell!" Frost cursed as he hurriedly plugged his ears with his index fingers.
"Shhhhh..."
Syrn began to shush the bird, gently patting it while stroking the upper part of its long, feathery neck with her fair hands.
The creature eventually quietened, though it still looked visibly displeased, glaring at the group of young men and women with a disturbingly intelligent look in its eyes.
Syrn looked back at them with a faint smile.
"Aeolus doesn't like it when other people ride on her back, especially when there are so many of you."
Frost stared at the enormous bird. The longer he spent looking at it, the more he realised just how unreal the sight before them was.
'That is not mundane at all!' And her?'
"Don't worry," Syrn continued, stroking Aeolus's feathers. "It won't be for long. Linden is only a few hours away by air."
"A few hours!?" someone exclaimed.
Syrn looked genuinely confused by the reaction.
"Yes?"
Frost's lips twitched.
'Apparently, that's considered close around here.'
Then again, if people in this world could teleport and fly around on enormous magical birds, perhaps distance had an entirely different meaning to them.
Jennifer stepped closer, cautiously eyeing Aeolus.
"Is it... safe?" The enormous bird immediately snapped her head toward Jennifer.
Jennifer froze.
Aeolus's eyes narrowed. For several awkward seconds, woman and bird simply stared at each other.
Syrn sighed.
"She understands you."
A pale smile appeared on Jennifer's face.
"Oh." Frost turned his head away and covered his mouth, barely suppressing a laugh.
Jennifer immediately glared at him.
"Something funny?"
"Nope."
Aeolus released a low, displeased rumble from somewhere deep within her throat.
Jennifer cleared her throat.
"I meant no offense."
The bird continued staring at her.
Then, after what felt like an unnecessarily long moment, Aeolus finally turned away with what Frost could only describe as an offended huff.
His brows rose.
'This bird has more personality than half the people in my class.'
"She's perfectly safe," Syrn said. "As long as you don't irritate her."
That last part did very little to reassure anyone.
One of the boys hesitantly raised his hand.
"And... what happens if we irritate her?"
Syrn looked at him with a deadpan expression.
"She'll throw you off." Her casually spoken statement about being thrown off was followed by a very long silence.
Frost slowly looked down and gulped. The forest floor was very, very far below them.
"You're joking, right?" Naomi asked.
Syrn's expression remained completely deadpan.
Aeolus turned toward Naomi with an unusually threatening look.
"...Right?"
Syrn's lips curved ever so slightly.
"Yes." A chorus of relieved exhales could be heard.
"Probably."
Their momentary relief vanished immediately.
Frost stared at her.
'Well... Shit...'
He wasn't entirely certain whether her deadpan personality meant she had no sense of humor or an absolutely terrible one.
"Anyway," Syrn said, seemingly deciding that she had tormented them enough. "Aeolus won't actually let any of you fall. She's simply unhappy about carrying strangers."
The massive bird gave another quiet huff.
"Yes, yes. I know."
Syrn patted her neck affectionately before turning back toward the group.
"Get on."