It was strange, winging her way over the meadowlands with no backdrop of icy mountains against the sky. It was even disorienting to the fey, who, in all her years of roaming, had rarely been out of sight of those steadfast landmarks. Something in her wished to alter the angle of her wings and speed north, homeward, but the talk in Ebonfort about the Tournament and its associated faire had made it sound too good to miss. At the very least, she reasoned, it would be prudent to connect with other animal handlers like herself.

Rilana tucked her gyrfalcon wings and dropped down towards the grass, stretching out her talons to take hold of a branch on a stubby, stunted tree. Clusters and copses of trees were scattered across the fields, the remnants of orchards and farms whose buildings had already faded back into the earth. 

From where she was, the moon fey could no longer see the road, protected by the slight roll of the land, and as she released the branch and dropped down, she transformed back into her own shape, landing in a crouch in the dry grass. The slid her pack from her shoulder and let it fall against the base of the tree, and as the weight fell from her she realized just how tired she was. 

She felt a flicker of thought at the back of her mind and knew that Khona was looking out at the world through her eyes. Feeling his thoughts was no longer quite as startling as it had been those first few weeks.

[color=fff200]"Let me out."[/color]

The flight from Green Fall had stirred the gryphon inside her, and she felt his yearning to stretch his wings as surely as if they were her own. Rilana wished that his Mark had appeared somewhere she could actually see it on herself. She looked around to see if anyone was watching, not comfortable with being observed while performing magic that was still new to her, and concentrated.

Setting Khona free was easier than absorbing him as a Mark had been. Her skin prickled as the Mark disappeared and an ethereal blob of light seemed to rise out of her flesh like breath-mist, congealing and expanding into the six-limbed shape that grew more solid until Khona's shocking yellow eyes were peering down at her. He had no lips, but Rilana sensed that he was smiling.

It was tricky to keep her Familiar from flying too high. She wasn't sure she wanted travelers to see him from the road. 

[color=00aeef]"Khona! Try to keep out of sight."[/color] He grudgingly complied, until a sound caught his ear-tuft and he turned his head. Rilana lunged forward to stop the gryphon, coming away with only a fistful of white fur as the cat-bird leaped up and circled over the hill towards the road, wings out-stretched as he looked for the source of the flute music.

[color=00aeef]"Get back here!"[/color] Rilana ordered, slightly flustered and a little worried as she raced up the hill after him.