"You know, for an evil vampire, you're very... mother-ish." Adrian muttered as Rosy tended to the huge bruise that their hang-gliding session had left on his chest. She responded by thumping the bruise with a good portion of her strength, causing significant pain.
"Just because you... I'm stable now, Adrian. I don't need blood, and it's making me soft. Don't call me... motherly." She muttered. "I'm not that soft."
"G-got it." Adrian reeled back, feeling the annoyance behind that last statement. Her vampire pride wouldn't let her feel like she'd gotten soft. If someone other than Adrian had told her that she seemed mother-ish, they probably would have been hurting for weeks.
"Sorry to excuse your... flirting, but we have quite a walk before we are to meet with Doma. With all of the Fraeguard crawling around the mountains, it's a terrible idea to stay here for very long." One of the gryphons interrupted us.
Rosy coughed, trying to find a way to deny that they were flirting, but she really couldn't, so she gave up and changed the subject after a moment, "Alright, let's get going, then. Meeting with Doma is the highest priority at the moment. Can one of you do a quick fly around to find out if any Fraeguards are nearby?" She asked.
"Not a problem, Princess." One of them immediately flew off while Rosy helped Adrian to his feet. The group waited around for a few minutes until he came back. "The closest group is a handful of them to the east a little ways. Luckily, we're going west, so we shouldn't run into them." He reported.
"Alright, let's get going, then." They left the mountain range using the most direct route, which meant trudging through areas that didn't have any paths already trod. For Adrian and Rosy, who had gotten used to traversing rough conditions during their time travelling the rest of those hellish mountains, it wasn't that big of a deal, but it was rough for the gryphons. Since they were trying to save as much time as possible, they couldn't stop frequently, and the gryphons quickly turned to frequently switching out scouting duties so that they could rest their legs in their bird forms. Unfortunately, it was too dangerous to have multiple birds flying through the air and landing at predetermined spots on a frequent basis, so the scouting trips didn't do too much to help the gryphons out.
'Rosy, I think we should stop soon. We're nearing the edge of the mountain, and the Fraeguard patrols are becoming less frequent. I'm afraid that the gryphons'll collapse if we keep this pace up.' Adrian thought ahead.
'I hate to admit it, but you're right. They're not built for rough terrain like this, since they can fly.' She agreed, then said aloud, "We'll take a break up ahead. The Fraeguards are all at least ten minutes away by foot, anyways." Had she mentioned the reason for the break, it would have hurt the gryphon's pride and they likely would have insisted that the group continue. To avoid this without straight-up lying, Rosy skirted around the reason that she was deciding that they take a break.
"Under-huff-stood-huff, Princess." One of the gryphons managed to pant. The others were even worse off by this point. They didn't have the capacity left to be anything other than grateful with the break, given her wording. Had she worded it like she was taking pity on them, though, they probably would have found the strength to complain.
After the small break near the bottom of the mountain, the gryphons managed to regain most of their stamina, though everyone's magic reserves were still absolutely bottomed out from the cliff incident. After that, the journey went by a lot faster than before, and they were about ten miles away from the edge of the mountain range by evening.
"Rosy, you made excellent time, you know. Only a month and-a-half, and you've completed the mission with flying colors. No wonder you're so famous."
"Doma, it's nice to see you again. It's been a rough month and-a-half, though." Rosy greeted the old Drake, who had come out of the undergrowth right in front of them, surprising Rosy so much that she had involuntarily thrown a knife at him. Luckily, since it was the same person who had originally taught Rosy most of her martial arts knowledge, he managed to dodge the knife at the last second, showcasing his incredible skill in a casual manner before completely ignoring the fact that she'd attacked him at all.
"Wish I could say it's gonna get better from here on out..." Doma started, but Adrian finished it for him, knowing the general direction that this discussion was likely to go.
"But you'd be lying, right? Do they want us all to go to hell, or just Rosy?" Adrian asked, rubbing his forehead in annoyance. He'd learned from experience just how many enemies Rosy had made over the years, but dealing with it in action was another matter altogether. He'd been stabbed, shot at, had just about every bone in his body broken, started a revolution, and been imprisoned multiple times just because of the terrible past deeds wrought by the cute vampire girl beside him, whose biggest dream, once you got past all her vampire pride, was probably to own some sort of orphanage where she could take care of children all day.
This world was insane, and Adrian just wanted to go home, where he had an army of personal guards whose entire point in existing was to keep everything actively trying to kill him and his family, away from him and his family. A much simpler life.
Doma gave a dry laugh. "So, you've finally figured out how this world works, huh? Sounds like you've got a hell of a story there, prince. So... here's the deal with the Drakes." Doma sat down on a nearby log, then he told his story. "To explain the current situation, we've gotta start with a little bit of history." He said.