Lin shrugs, walks over, touches my arm, and crushes a token she takes out. A second later I feel a massive amount of mana gathering around us. The spell takes a minute to take effect, but then we are instantly teleported to the island.

While I am looking around at the island, Lin tosses a token down to the mages. They don't seem to care at first, but then they recognize Lin and go a little crazy. A quick scan allows me to find and lock onto all the metal in the island, so I drop shapeshift.

"Climb on and hold onto the cage please."

Lin runs over and happily jumps onto my back, she grabs ahold of the cage and then cuddles into my neck. I start flapping my wings so that I am under my own power, then I summon the metal to me. At first the entire island gains altitude, but then it starts to break apart.

The structure of the island isn't able to handle the extra stress of being lifted. Once part of it breaks free, the rest of the island quickly crumbles. I don't get to see what happens to the mages on the ground, but I doubt they have a good time.

Once all the metal breaks free it gathers into a ball in front of me and I suck it into my ring. Then I fly towards the north, ignoring what damage I might have done. Lin is surprisingly calm and only seems to care about rubbing against the fur of my neck.

The baby phoenix keeps staring at me and occasionally letting out little chirps. Its mood seems to have improved the moment I ended my shapeshift, which makes sense. Then again, it is a bird and I am a type of cat, so it shouldn't be so relaxed!

Lin says "Where are we going?"

"First we need to get away from the Magic Kingdom. Once I am sure we aren't being followed we will leave for the ship."

Lin says "I hate to say it, but we are already being followed!"

"What? Where?"

Lin points behind us and slightly off to one side, when I look where she is pointing I see some black dots. Focusing my eyes lets me see that there are twelve of them and they are catching up. They are still too far away for me to tell exactly what they are, but that won't last.

"Do you know what they are?"

Lin says "They should be mages riding griffons! Those are the Magic Kingdom's elite scouts!"

"The Magic Kingdom has griffons?! Why would the elite scouts come after us?"

Lin says "Um, that might be because of me!"

"Ugh, don't tell me you are a princess!?"

Lin says "No, I'm not! The Magic Kingdom doesn't even have a king! It is ruled by a council made up of senior mages and led by a chief magister."

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"Are you his daughter then?"

Lin says "No, but his son is the problem. He has declared he will make me his wife no matter what it takes. It doesn't even matter what I want, he has even killed some of my other suitors."

"So, you think he sent the scouts after us? Is he the real reason you wanted to leave with me?"

Lin says "I am fairly sure it is him, and yes, he is a large part of the reason I want to leave. The other reasons I told you are still true though."

"Do you think he is here personally? If so, I will turn around and kill them!"

Lin says "No. He never shows up in person. If he did I would have killed him and run away already! It would be better if we could just lose them. Can you fly any faster?"

"Sure I can, I am just flying casually right now. In fact, I don't actually know how fast I can fly. So, you'd better hold on tight and don't drop the phoenix!"

Once I feel Lin take a better hold on my fur, I start flapping my wings faster. I don't immediately go for my full speed, I slowly increase my speed bit by bit. That way Lin should be able to hold on, or at least tell me when she can't take anymore.

Before long the griffons stop gaining on us, but I am no where near my full speed. I didn't lie to Lin, I really don't know what my top speed is, I haven't tested it. Now is probably not the time to find out, Lin probably couldn't hand on.

"How are you doing?"

Lin says "If I wasn't holding the cage I would be fine, but with the cage you can't go much faster."

"That's fine. At this speed the griffons are already falling behind. Are they likely to use tracking magic on us?"

Lin says "I doubt it. None of the tracking magic I know can be cast at that range. They never got close enough to cast it on us."

"That's good. I will maintain this speed, so just hold on for an hour or so."

Lin says "No problem!"

Since there isn't much to do as I fly north, I start telling Lin my story from the beginning. It will help pass the time and it is good for Lin to know my origins at least. After about a half an hour of flying I lose sight of the pursuing griffons.

However, I maintain my speed and keep flying straight north for another hour. Only then do I find a secluded spot to land and let Lin climb down from my back. Then I take the cage from her, set it down, and open it after Lin backs off.

As soon as the cage door opens a huge wave of flame comes rushing out. It is a good thing Lin backed off or she probably would have died instantly. For me, the flames just feel like sinking into a nice warm bath, it is fairly pleasant.

Once the flames die away the baby phoenix just stares at me with an adorable look of shock. It chirps at me, but it seems that it is too young to be able to communicate yet. Just out of curiosity, I return the favor and throw some fire back at the little bird.

To my surprise, the little thing opens its mouth and swallows the flames I threw at it. After eating the flames it lets out a cute little burp then waddles over and rubs up against my leg. Up close I can see that it has actual feathers and they are covered by flames.

The flames on the feathers get stronger after the phoenix eats my flames. Out of curiosity I summon up some more flames and the baby greedily gobbles them down. After eating the second batch of flames the baby curls up on top of my paw and falls asleep.

Lin says "That is amazing! It is actually acting friendly with you!"

"That's only because I fed it. Didn't anyone think to feed it?"

Lin says "The only time the cage was opened was when someone was trying to control it. Most of those mages ended up burned to a crisp!"

"No wonder the poor thing was so hungry! Unfortunately, by being the first one to feed it, I probably just got another kid."

Lin says "What do you mean, another kid?"

"Sorry, I hadn't gotten to that part of the story yet. I have adopted several beasts as my kids."