Fern could see it from here, the large mountainous rim that encircled the entire valley, the Great Valley. The little feathered Glider was standing on a much easier to climb spire of jutting rock, almost a mountain in it's own right, a good ways away and actually just a bit above the rim of the valley. She never would have been able to fly into the Great Valley with the short time she was actually able to fly, but from here, from here she could easily glide on the wind right into the valley.

No more hunger, no more Sharpteeth, and all she had to do was glide into that valley. She could practically taste the tree stars from here. She just had to step off the ridge and spread her purple feathery wings. So why couldn't she bring herself to do it. It wasn't like she had anything worth sticking around here for. Did she?

Absolutely not. No family, no friends she'd actually consider as such, well, Fisher maybe but this had been partly his idea. No reason to stay. She stepped forward to walk off the edge and hesitated again. Why, why did she keep stopping. Was it fear? Not of flying and gliding certainly, that was easy for her, the thought of being grounded too long twisted up her gut something awful so it wasn't that. Was it the distance? Couldn't be, while it was far, she was sure she could make that trip.

She was afraid of getting caught. If she stepped off that ridge she would be abandoning the only thing that had kept her safe for so long. That thought Terrified her. She had to do this though, she had to. If she didn't do it now she'd run out of time and she'd be found. There'd be no getting away if that happened. Fern took a deep breath and stepped up to the ridge again.

"Alona! Alona, i know you're up there!" came the scratchy growly sounds of the Sharptooth language. She nearly jumped in surprise. Fern had run out of time to hem and haw. She stepped over the edge, and flew.

Tears blurred her vision but she knew exactly where she was going. She let the wind carry her, lifting her higher as she glided. This was it, freedom, the wind through her feathers no more hesitation. Nothing could hold her down anymore. She was drawing closer to the lip of the Great Valley a little bit longer and she'd be in, home free. Fern glided gently through the air, her heart beating fast in her excitement.

She was starting to tire as she crested the lip of the mountain, but she could see it now. As beautiful as every tale made it sound. Trees absolutely laden with tree stars, green grass, waterfalls that fed into a large lake where she could see what looked like dozens of Swimmers. Fern took it all in, it was possibly the most beautiful place she'd ever seen.

Fern hadn't realized just how tired she was and shook her head to clear it. She'd need to land soon, she'd have all the time in the world to explore this place later, after she'd settled in. She started to glide lower and lower, still looking around in awe at everything around her. So distracted as she was she didn't notice the flying brown object that suddenly took up her entire airspace.

She had collided with a Flyer, slightly smaller than her so probably a young one. The Flyer let out an indignant panicked squawk as the two became entangled. The pair thrashed and flapped around but couldn't right themselves. They were careening toward the ground faster than Fern liked.

"Stop, stop flapping, hold still!" Fern yelled out to the Flyer with all the authority she could muster. It seemed to work since the Flyer listened to hear and stopped moving entirely. Now that they were just falling instead of flailing, Fern could get a better look at them. Brown leathery wings and an orange beak, wide terrified eyes, they were definitely a Flyer, and one that was slightly younger than her.

"Hold on to me!" She wasn't about to be the reason someone was slammed into the ground. So she grabbed onto the Flyer's feet with her own and went into a spin trying to correct them.

"Me holding!" He squawked at her, still panicked. She was now practically carrying the limp Flyer but she'd managed to even out back into a glide instead of a crash. The Flyer let out a sigh of relief when he realized he was no longer falling.

"Not how i wanted to meet new people, but here we are." Fern muttered to herself before looking down at the Flyer in her grip. "Sorry about that, my name's Fern."

"It ok, my name Petrie." He introduced himself as the ground got closer, much slower now thankfully.

"Well Petrie, I'm going to set us down now." Petrie nodded, which almost threw them off balance again, but didn't react much otherwise until they drew up closer to the ground. She gently set Petrie down, the Flyer moving to hug the ground as Fern flopped down next to him.

"Me never leaving ground again." Petrie muttered softly from beside her.

Her wings ached, really her everything did, she could feel the pain in every feather. So she just laid in the cool shady ground, trying to ignore it. "I think i agree with you there."

"You ok?" Petrie asked, sounding very concerned, which wasn't something Fern was used to hearing from anyone that wasn't Fisher. She thought it was really sweet of the Flyer to worry about her even after she had crashed into him.

"I'm feeling great." Fern wasn't feeling great. Despite the ache in her wing though, she was happy, she'd made it, all the wonders of the Great Valley for her to explore...as soon as she could bring herself to get up anyways.

"Petrie!"

"WHERE IS SHE!"

River sat perched up above the commotion, listening to the shouting and crashing below him. The old Sailback Sharptooth was ignored by the group of Fast-biters being directed to search by the larger Sharptooth, Talon, that was their leader. River found the whole situation amusing, Talon had lost his precious Alona, and it took everything River had not to laugh at the other Sharptooth's misfortune. This was all his fault for wandering too close to that valley anyways.

River eventually grew bored of the scurrying Fast-biters and began to slink away, not that he had to be too sneaky, no one paid much attention to a decrepit thing like him. A short walk away into the slightly too narrow nearby river, and he was as missing as Alona was. River wasn't worried, Talon wouldn't even notice he was gone, none of them would.