Opportunism and Altruism are fantastic sentiments to consider, but not at such risk with your still paltry power. The Heart was old and Sombra was potent. Best to play it safe at this stage.
Your essence wraps around the young Quick Blade, feeding his thoughts: that this place was no longer safe, they should leave, this wasn't their fight.
The Kirin exodus from the Crystal Empire begins not with a rallying cry or a great speech. It starts in the simplest of fashions: Quick Blade stands, telling his friends and family it is time to leave. Without word, they began to follow his lead. And others followed theirs, and more were prompted by them. Shaded Gold and Frozen Meadow both took notice of the event, but despite their differing desires to remain, your will managed to hold their tongue. It was obvious most Kirin had no desire to fight in this instance: for a tyrant they didn't trust or a home that wasn't their own.
That said, they had their own parts to play.
Quick Blade may have got the ball rolling, but Shaded and Frozen knew a way to make their next migration easier. And so, as Quick Blade and others gathered around maps to contemplate where to move, Frozen Meadows came to them. The neutral Kirin expected some form of lecture or disapproval, but instead received a request to spread word of the plan.
The Crystal Empire had a small field filled with a rare, new technology that the empire had monopolized: Airships. Originally meant for transporting passengers and cargo, the Great Winter had prompted the empire to refit them for war. But Sombra and Amora had both deliberately gone out of their way to deny each other the chance to use the aerial devices before they could take off.
In theory, there were enough to transport all of them easily, and the balloon-ships were enchanted to be able to weather the storm. Again, in theory.
It was a bit dangerous, but it was one danger Quick Blade felt better taking than getting involved in the war. And he knew plenty of Kirin that had books from the Empire's libraries before the war had broken out. Between that and some guesswork, they could figure out how to work the ships.
And so the Kirin prepared, packing up their supplies and salvaging anything of value as they waited for a chance. It came quick, a rather potent battle at night. Masked by darkness and the chaos of the battle, Shaded Gold and the hunters snuck into the airfield, knocking out or killing all the soldiers keeping watch over it, regardless of what side they were on. With time bought, the Kirin scrambled to load themselves into the ships. But time only lasted so long.
By the time either side knew of the airfield being taken, the Kirin had confidently deduced how to control the ships, for the most part. Amora, hearing that it had been the refugees, ordered her soldiers to ignore them and push the attack on Sombra's forces. But Sombra grew enraged, sending off a shadow pony and a small force of slave-soldiers to deal with the interlopers.
Quick Blade's ship was the first to become airborne, but remained stationary as he watched the others taking off. And here he bore witness to Shaded Gold and the hunters doing battle with an Umbra, a monstrous pony of smoke and shadow, and the enslaved warriors. The proud leader of the hunters did all he could keep them back, but there were too many, and the Crystal Ponies, side regardless, possessed armor that was hard to damage and weapons that could pierce most hides.
After a fellow hunter sacrificed himself, trying to force Shaded to retreat, the Nirik-embracer reluctantly withdraw with the rest of the hunters, jumping onto a ship just before it took off.
Just in time too, as Quick Blade had managed to figure out how to use the Arcane Cannons on the ship. While the aim was poor, the shot managed to distract the umbra and cover Shaded's escape.
Quick Blade scowled as he looked down at the airfield, now illuminated by flames. Two ships had crashed into each other and another's balloon had exploded. There was no way to land and grab the survivors without risking more or all of them being shot down
A final forth had almost been shot down by the umbra, but had been blocked by a young-adult dragon of all things, to everyone's surprise. Including your own! But you weren't about question the help as its fire pinned down the shadow pony until the Kirin in the airships had finally risen too high for their enemies to strike, the roaring flames killing it and its mind controlled underlings.
With Sombra's rage almost palpable, even at a distance, the airships made for the storm. All company braced as the wind and cold bombarded the shields created by enchanted crystals. They held, but the entirety of the hulls were shuddering. Quick Blade almost feared they had made a mistake until your unexpected and draconic ally made itself known again, roaring loudly as it flew about the ships before flying upwards, roaring streams of fire before flying out of view. It shot down, repeating the acts, prompting Frozen Meadow and Shaded Gold to realize what was going on.
You could feel Quick Blade's frustration as he heard the calls to rise higher, and quickly, not believing he hadn't picked up on that. It wasn't enough to prompt his Nirik form, but he did snort smoke for a moment. Soon, all the airships found their ways higher and higher until finally...
They were above the storm. And everyone stared in awe at the beauty of the clear star-bright sky, lit by the full moon as the light bounced off the endless sea of clouds below.
You felt your spirit uncoil, relaxing as relief spread through you. The worst of that was over. Of the twenty-two airships the Kirin had stolen, only three had been stopped at the airfield and, by a miracle even to you, none in the storm. Only a few hundred lost instead of one or two thousands.
As the Kirin sailed relatively without aim for the first night, you felt a surge of power rush through you. They didn't know you yet, but there were many prayers of thanks to "whatever god" had helped them.
It just occurred to you that you'd need a name or title for the Kirin to address you by eventually, but you stowed that aside for later. Right now, you had something very, very important to worry about.
Using planks to carefully cross between ships, the Kirin began conferring with the more navigational inclined to decide where to go. With the ships, they had more options in terms of distance, but that just made choosing harder. After the events of the Crystal Empire, a common desire to try and find an unoccupied territory spread with ease.
You however, while not all-knowing, are aware of six locations you know to be ideal. However, with so many minds and opinions in play, you did not have the ability to suppress all of them and push them to only one option. All you could do was keep their attention on these six targets and allow them to pick between them.
"Shaded, even if Colossal Rest exists, why would we settle in the Frozen North when we just left the Crystal Empire?" Frozen asked in exasperation as they convened in the captain's quarters of Frozen's ship.
"No, I've been here, it's real. It's secluded and easily defendable, and it's actually just outside the effects of the Frozen North. It is still winter year round there, but it is close and safe," Shaded defended with a firm scowl.
"And it's in spitting distance if we ever decide to invade the empire?" Quick Blade pointed out with a knowing look. Shaded shrugged in admittance as Frozen shook her head in distaste. "I don't entirely disagree with the sentiment, but if we want defense, I've found a spot more to the east and with less of a cold-factor. A narrow river valley hidden by tall cliffs called the Hidden Mirror Valley. It's far north of the griffins, hard to spot, and hard to attack," Quick explained.
"Isn't that Bugbear territory?" Shaded pointed out with a scrunched brow.
"FAR North," Quick stressed to clarify. "It's a bit of a journey, even with these ships."
"Still, a river at least deals with our need for water," Frozen acknowledged as she studied the map. "There is a great swampland, or rather the Grand Swamp, in the south west. Our ancestors once made journeys to it as a coming of age event and for spiritual quests. Its wildlife might make it a bit dangerous, but it'd be much like the Grove in a lot of respects. And while easy to find, it is a giant marsh so..."
"It'd be difficult to navigate and find us in there. A decent safeguard," Shaded allowed. "Though, we have no idea if any other creatures have moved in there, and it's been over a hundred years since we traveled to the Grand Swamp. If it's plentiful you want, there is a waterfall my father told me about as a young one. It's far east of the Grove, but the journey there should be safest, to our current knowledge. Beautiful crystal clear waters, and a large cliff side with hidden cave networks behind the falls. He called it Peaches Falls, since there use to be a lot of them there, but most of the trees were gone by the time he visited it the third time. Theoretically, we could start in the caves and build either further into them or outside the falls."
"Or, you know, both," Quick Blade pointed out with a hum as his eyes went eastward as well. "There is a weird place I keep hearing about east of Griffon stone. Twisted Towers, a strange formation these towering structures of spirals paths. No one knows if it's natural or not, but all accounts and maps make the surrounding out to have plenty of room for farms, and they have some defensive applications, I'm sure."
"Why are all your choices so far away?" Frozen asked rhetorically. "If we're going for space...I admit I thought this was a myth, but even many in the Crystal Empire spoke or wrote about a flowing plains called the Grass Sea if you head north of the Frozen North, and keep going until the Frozen North ends."
"...How far is that?" Shaded questioned uncertainly.
"Longer than we'd like, shorter than you'd think," Frozen answered with a sigh. "This is too big a decision for just us to make, we need to know what the navigators and others think..."
A. Colossal Rest: Ideal for defending and only a short distance away, but very cold year round and sparse in resources.
B. Hidden Valley: Ideal for defending and hard to find, but very far and geographical isolation will make it hard to get aid or leave if it becomes needed.
C. Grand Swamp: Ideal for resources and hard to find, but filled with a lot of dangerous wildlife and vegetation.
D. Peaches Fall: Ideal for resources and one of the safest paths, but fair chance it may have been taken over one or more other creatures, including other Kirin.
E. Twisting Towers: Ideal for population and one of the safest paths, but it is unknown how valuable a place these towers actually are.
F. Grass Sea: Ideal for population and only a short distance away, but is hard to defend due to being completely wide open and also geographically isolated.