"It doesn't look like we have to talk to her," Jimmy said.

Almara had finally assumed her form, after thirty minutes of struggling. Her mana was gone, indefinitely, so if she didn't succeed in mustering the right transformation, they would need to wait here for days, rather than a day, and worse yet, she'd have to remain in her current, bird form to preserve mana.

If she switched between turning into a human and etcetera, they'd have to wait here for days in order for her mana to regenerate.

This was the moment of truth. Judging from the way she was flapping her wings, she didn't aim to communicate with her guests directly, but decided to take matters into her own hands, and put her new form to the test!

After a few light flaps, just flexible enough to get a hang of her new pair of wings, she decided to put a bit more power behind her flaps, so she jogged away from her guests, so as to not bitch-slap them into oblivion with her wings, and then she started flapping harder. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Almara managed to get herself off of the ground, but this was when she realized that she might have made herself too heavy, because it took more than half of the strength she could muster just to float a few meters above the ground.

She reckoned that gliding across, and above the jungle was easier once she got up there. She had a large wingspan at her disposal, which was perfect for flap-less gliding, but getting up there was difficult.

She landed near the safehouse shortly, and prompted her friends to climb on, by lowering her body. It was difficult for her to communicate with them directly, but Jimmy did manage to read some of her more recent thoughts, with the aid of images that popped up in her head while she used her brain, and so he managed to make a deduction of what was going on.

"She believes she's too heavy, and wants to figure out if she can carry both us, and her weight." He explained, as they climbed on.

"That's obvious," Anna said, "I mean look at her, she nearly took the jungle along with her when she took off."

With a wingspan of fourteen meters, or forty-five feet, Almara had turned into the biggest flying animal to ever exist under natural circumstances. Although not taller, she was both wider, and heavier than a QT, the massive species of flying reptiles that Anna, and a few other tribesfolk had as pets.

Being this big as a bird, rather than a dinosaur was all the more impressive. She put a lot of work in to make every detail matter, but perhaps this was how she got blind-sided by the weight.

She wanted to make sure that her bones didn't implode if she flexed her muscles too hard, and in turn, her bones were not as hollow as bird bones should be. Then again, it was a necessary sacrifice.

Although shorter in height than a QT by half, she still weighed around three-hundred and fifty kilos, or seven-hundred and seventy pounds!

She was heavier than a QT by roughly fifty kilos, or a hundred and ten pounds.

Granted, she wasn't nearly as fragile in comparison, as her feather coat, flesh, and bones were not as easy to penetrate, she was still heavy. A lot of her extra weight was dedicated to her wings, and the muscle groups surrounding her wings, all the way down to her torso, which was ironic, because the same wings that were supposed to keep her afloat, weighed her down quite a bit.

With two people on her back, although technically light-weight, since they were young adults, she still had quite the challenge in front of her.

Jimmy and Anna kept their knees on Almara's back, rather than sides, because they didn't want to know what a wing slap felt like.

Likewise, to keep themselves from falling off, they held on to her, by grabbing on to her feathery back as hard as they could. They were ready, so they tapped on her back, gesturing that they were ready to take off.

Almara walked over to a part of the jungle where she could get more space, which coincidentally was close to where Anna had killed that brown eagle. It was roomy out here, since she and the bird had thrashed through the area, and wiped it somewhat clean.

As she flapped her wings lightly, the greenery around her bent backwards, and some even broke in half. The greenery was used to predators, big animals, but not a strong gust of wind.

However, this was not enough to get her off of the ground, so she tried harder. She flapped her wings with an increased intensity, and as the burden on her legs became lighter, she knew that she was close to being airborne, with over four-hundred kilos of weight to carry, thanks to the two people on her back!

As she flapped her enormous wings harder, her wingspan looking bigger than a warplane, she got off of the ground, successfully!

The effort she had to put in was phenomenal, and she was getting tired already, but she did not quit!

Her body jerked up and down as she floated above the ground. The people on her back held on tight, pinching her to oblivion, and keeping her attentive. She did not want to throw them overboard, so to speak.

After exerting every bit of her strength and energy, she made it thirty meters, or close to a hundred feet above the ground.

The tall trees were a few meters below her, and so she didn't feel safe. For that matter, she flew up a little higher, and started moving forward, by tilting her head downwards a little bit, and adjusting her wings to pick up a bit of momentum.

"Looks like she got it, first try," Jimmy held his breath in, nervous, even if he didn't let it show.

"Yeah," Anna added, holding on top him from behind with one arm, and keeping one hand on Almara's feathers, "She's overheating, though, so I think we're too heavy."

"We're borderline anorexic, you and me," He said, "She turned into too big of a bird."

Almara could hear them. She could comprehend half of what they said, and likewise, she got angry.

Screeching in her brown eagle language, she meant to say, "As if you toe-suckers could've done a better job than me!"

The screech got her guests to quiet down. They picked up on the fact that they irritated her, because there were no other visible dangers that they could weigh her screech towards.

Almara focused on her flight, her wings. She kept pushing forward with all her might, flapping across the jungle, and as she gained a speed she was comfortable with, she stopped flapping her wings, and started gliding.

Her wingspan was wide enough to keep them above the jungle, even while gliding, as long as her momentum was fast enough.

To give herself an advantage, she glided upwards by a few meters, which initially slowed her down, but then she flapped her wings a little bit more to maintain her prior momentum, and now, she was fifty meters above the ground, or over a hundred and sixty feet, which was safe in a way, as it would be nearly impossible for her to crash into a tree. Her muscles were working like they were supposed to, she designed them well, and was only burdened by the overall weight.

Regarding the weight, she glided down by a few meters whenever she felt her speed hindering, which fixed the matter almost immediately. Every few minutes she flapped her wings too, which kept her steady.

To Jimmy and Anna's luck, she was too heavy, and too feathery to fly as fast as a QT. Alone she may reach great speeds, but with them on her back, she averaged at 90 km/h or nearly 56 mp/h.

It was enough to keep her gliding, almost constantly, and although the speed was great, in the sense that air, insects, and sometimes even small birds brushed across their faces, the speed was not enough to knock them off of her back.

Anna sat behind Jimmy, with her legs tied tightly on top of Almara's back this time, as she figured out how to avoid the wings properly. She used her Dinosaur Strength to keep both herself, and Jimmy from falling off.

Almara's body cooled down as well. She was no longer overheating, and at their current speed, which was more than three times faster than what Almara achieved on land, throughout the jungle, they were moving fast enough to not cross one, but two safehouses today, and make it all the way to the fourth on the line before Almara got tired. The City of Fik was maybe two days away from them now, more or less.

They wasted a lot of time in the first safehouse, but they were making up for that lost time really quickly!