Gale stared forward at the path in front of him. Nothing but trees and a path that gently sloped upwards. To his left was a cliff and to his right was a nice view of the surrounding area, though it didn't do much good for him now. He wasn't entirely sure, but he thought that he'd been here before. The path looked somewhat similar to one he'd been on half an hour ago, but then again, everywhere looked kind of the same.

Gale Stood and stared at a tree nearby. He thought he recognized its bark pattern a little bit and surmised that perhaps he had indeed been here before, before noticing that it had too few branches.
[color=Darkgreen]"Guess that means I'm lost."[/color] Gale said casually to no one in particular.

But that was the least of his worries.

Gale glanced backwards at the direction he came before turning to his right.
[color=darkgreen]"If I want to get to the top then I should go up, right?"[/color] Gale said, a tad too loud to be talking to himself.
He paced up to the cliff and jumped up, grabbing a handhold on the rock face. The cliff was pretty short as the path ahead simply looped back around and kept going up. As Gale climbed the cliff he looked back to the trees, scanning their branches as if looking for something. The trees were remarkably empty, like they had been for quite some time. Gale frowned and turned back to continue flying. Perhaps he was just being a little too paranoid, but ever since he climbed up Mt Fuji, he felt like he was being watched by something. Gale climbed to the top of the cliff and glanced behind him at the trees below, and he saw something he was looking out for.

Something pink.

Ever since he'd begun climbing Mt Fuji, he'd felt like he was being watched. A little while into the climb, he'd caught sight of his avian watcher for just a second. A strange pink owl apparently had been following him the whole time. Over the next hour he'd seen it a few more times, and Gale was starting to be discomforted by it. Animals normally stayed [i]away[/i] from Gale, and if he ever learned anything in school (which he didn't really) it was that when someone went against their habit, they were up to something.
[color=darkgreen][i]Weren't owls nocturnal anyway?[/i][/color]

Gale frowned at the pink bird and turned back, continuing up the path to Mt Fuji. He had no idea why the owl was following him or why it was pink, but Four Winds academy was reputedly a strange place. A shame that it was a strange place 12000 feet above the ground, because he was making very little progress.
[color=darkgreen]"How high up does this mountain go?"[/color] Gale muttered as he trudged up the slope.

The trip had been a grueling one, especially for someone who didn't speak Japanese. Through false starts and misunderstandings it'd taken him a long time to get to where he was, and he was starting to miss the company of people who understood him. That'd been very few people to begin with, but he missed them all the same. He'd started getting into his own back in his old school, he'd settled down in his place and people were beginning to warm up to him. But he couldn't go back now. It was water under the bridge, as his father had said, so all he could do was keep moving. He'd get a new life, maybe, some new friends, if he ever got to the legendary 4 winds academy. That was what he hoped, at least.

As Gale turned a corner he glanced back to see if the pink bird was still following him. And indeed it was, only now there was 2 of them.He turned back around, only for a girl to suddenly appear in his path.
[color=darkgreen]"Oh, sorry-"[/color] Gale began, taking a few steps back before noticing the figures in the trees.
There were many, many pink owls, and the two behind him soon turned the corner to follow their brethren. They landed on a nearby branch, their eyes focused on Gale. On his arrival, several pairs of owl eyes turned to his direction.

[color=darkgreen]"...That's a lot of birds."[/color] Gale said.