As they got closer to the city, Evelyn's nerves started to rise again. Her grip tightened on the feathers, and the flurries of wind made her hair blow across her vision. From what she could see, the city was pretty from up here, regardless. The sun glimmered on the skyscrapers, sending reflective hues across her vision. Meanwhile, the echoes studied the streets, mapping out the city from the rare viewpoint. The people were hard to recognize from here, the tiny dots impossible to count as they made their way across her vision. It was terrifying, and exhilarating.

At then Carrick decided to chase pigeons.

"Hey! Wait, don't....." Flattening herself against his neck she muffled a squeak of fear. Carrick glanced at her and she hoped he'd get the clue and slow down.

Nope.

They went higher, and the echoes panicked, trying to guess their altitude. Chances of injury, types of injuries, velocity upon impact, all kinds of statistics flashed through her mind. Information she didn't need to know. Information it felt was necessary. And then, he dove. If she hadn't screamed, she would have cussed him out. Instead she just buried her face again and held on for dear life. When she could feel her stomach again, and her breathe returned, she muttered into his neck. "You're a jerk."

When birds of prey scream the flocks depart hoping to save their own neck, this is always how it has been whenever Carrick screeched and made a dive for some smaller birds especially the stupid pigeons. Carrick hated them, while his Gryphon form found them oddly tasty. Sadly with his passenger on his back he didn’t make it in time to snatch one up so he lifted his neck when Eve buried her face into it calling him a jerk. If he could laugh in this form he would have. Carrick always enjoyed scaring people when flying their reactions always seemed to amuse him, Eve was no different.

Instead of laughing he let out a small chirps and a small whistle one that could be interpreted as laughter in this form. If he had a voice box similar to humans he would have started to talk to her however he couldn’t. So he let out a low rumble sounding similar to a purr and he opened his wings fully as he glided across the rooftops towards the direction where a few of the pigeons went. Once he realized fully that he was purring he stopped and hoped Eve wouldn’t have noticed.

Evelyn wanted to enjoy the flight. She really did. But something kept her knuckles clenched, skin turning almost as pale as her hair as she clung for safety. She wasn't sure she trusted Carrick, especially not in this form. She wouldn't past him to take another dive just to hear her screech.

[Purring.]

The random echo froze her fear slightly, and she lifted her head ever so slightly to peer at him. "I thought lions couldn't purr." She remarked casually. Maybe it was the wrong thing to say when she was helplessly riding his back, but the response leapt out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Carrick’s long ears twitched and rotated slightly to hear Eve speak and when the shifter comprehended what she had said Carrick’s shoulders shrugged causing his wings to lift again and then down. He didn’t know lion’s couldn’t purr. All he knew was he could and seeing as his tail looked like similar to a lion’s he just assumed when he shifted he became part lion.

Slightly embarrassed he was doing it in the first place, he didn’t do it often but when he realized it wasn’t appreciated he made sure to stop. A small chirp and Carrick reared back and then did a flip then a barrel roll reversing direction back towards the mansion. He knew the flip would scare her and he did it fast enough so even if she weren’t holding on she wouldn’t have a chance to fall.

Still gliding however the rooftops became closer and closer along with the people, the cars and pretty much every other insignificant thing in the city.

The flip evaporated Evelyn's curiosity, and her question was replaced with a squeak of fear as she cling to Carrick's neck. She let out a grumpy growl and squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to scold him but having a feeling that could make things worse.

"You're a brat." She finally squeaked. It didn't sound very authoritative. Then again, she was still more student than adult at this stage in life. Her brain buzzed with information as they tried to calculate how high they were. That just made Evelyn feel even queasier.

Carrick chirped in response again as he flapped his wings a few times slowing down so she could actually enjoy some of the flight. Lifting his head up he tried to let her know he’d go easier on her for now. If anyone besides Carrick actually studied the way birds fly when they keep there head up they don’t plan on doing anything crazy. Carrick liked to think they learned that from him.

In all of his excitement however he forgot to mentally keep count of how long he was shifted and that familiar nagging sensation told him to start heading back. They have been airborne for some time. Luckily for him and Eve both they were already en route back to the mansion it’s just he wasn’t in a hurry that was until his tail started flailing behind him. Carrick’s neck twitched in response to his tail. If she didn’t like the way he was flying before he doubted she would appreciated falling from where they were due to him shifting mid flight. Something he had never successfully pulled off.

A small series of concerned squawks was all the warning he gave her before his fur under Eve and the feathers on his neck started to bubble and contract in a continuous motion. A continuous and rather painful motion. The question now was could he make it back?

The echoes didn't have much warning something was wrong until Carrick started changing. The feathers, and the squawk all seemed to be danger alerts, but Evelyn had no way to deal with them. She was up in the air, hanging onto a creature who was giving the type of warning signs a smoking airplane would.

She was doomed.

"Carrick..." She squeaked, looking for something to hold onto. She frantically looked before her, the echoes calculating chances of survival depending on where she fell.

She was doomed.