Salem, hearing the guard's conversation, proceeded through the gate as though he didn't hear. Since Ghost had drawn attention in the last town, he'd dismantled Ghost.
Salem nudged Alina and told her what he'd overheard.
"I think we should leave through a different gate." He said. "That way we lose a tail and avoid any possible trouble. I don't want to kill anyone who hasn't done anything wrong."
Alina glanced at him, concerned. "How can we be sure they won't send trackers?"
"I have something fun to avoid that." Salem replied, thinking of the flight suits back on Earth.
"Well then, Let's go!" Alina seemed enthusiastic for anything new Salem made. "I can't wait to try it out!"
"Anyway, how do you think news of me made it out ahead of us?" Salem was curious about the information pipelines of this world.
"Probably via wyvern." She replied offhandedly.
"Wyvern?" Salem asked in disbelief.
"Oh yea. Amnesia. A wyvern is a small lizard with a set of wings and a set of legs. They're mostly harmless and easily trained."
Salem felt his dream of riding a dragon crack. "What about dragons?" He asked, fearing the answer.
"Dragons aren't something you can easily ride. Although they start small, their sizes increase as they age. Not only that, but they're mostly immortal and never stop growing until they die. If you were to ride one, you would need to either destroy its pride, or make it believe that it's prideful for you to be on their back." Alina lectured Salem as they walked. "Of you were to ride one, it'd be an unprecedented occurrence. No one has ridden a dragon and lived."
Salem sighed. His dreams of riding a dragon were healed somewhat, although further from his reach then ever.
After 15 minutes of walking, they finally reached the North gate. As they passes through, he saw that each guard was holding a sketch. Seeing the shadow of the ink through the paper, it was not a sketch of him. Sighing with relief, Salem proceeded out the gate without any trouble. Until the guard called out to him.
"Hey, burnt baldy! Turn and face me for a second."
Turning and facing the gaurd, he waited for the guard to attack.
Contrary to his expectations, he merely waved them off.
"Why do they pick me out of the crowd for inspection so often?" Salem wondered to himself aloud. "Is it because I'm ugly? Do ugly people call out those that are ugly to make themselves feel better?" Salem was no psychiatrist. He had no idea. He was merely offended at being called out twice in two gates.
"Hey. What was the new idea you had?" Alina broke into his thoughts.
"Oh. Flight suits." Salem grinned like a little kid being given candy. "We need to go somewhere high though. We can't fly through the trees."
"Do we need to stay entirely above the trees to fly at all?"
"Probably. We can launch from a tree though." Salem said, selecting a tree that was slightly taller than the others.
As they climbed the tree, Salem explained his planned controls. "While flying, keep your hands in a fist. On your knuckles will be an accelerator that will slide up and down for you to go faster or slower. When taking off, ease it up SLOWLY." Salem stressed the last sentence. "If you don't, you might break the suit and die."
With that bit of comforting information, they reached the top of the tree.
Designing the suit around himself first, he showed her the accelerator. Thinking the design through again, he added a helmet that would display speed in meters per second and warn of approaching obstacles.
Creating the suit around Alina, he couldn't help but think of a dolphin. The sleek black suit had fabric underneath the arms and in between the legs to allow for gliding, but the booster on her back and the tail fins looked almost like a dorsal fin and a dolphin's tail if you squinted.
Demonstrating takeoff, Salem marveled at the fact he didn't get whiplash. Glancing behind him, he saw Alina take off with little difficulty and follow close behind.