Flying Mount?
 

On my first play through Christa mentioned that she was giving me the gift of wings when I first found her. Two patches later I decide to play over- however when I find her this time she makes no mention of the gift of wings and my horse cannot fly. Has this been changed?

Nevermind. I didn't realize you had to save the Soothsayer on Vestlig before Christa gives you the wings. Last time I played I got to the Soothsayer first.

It's still waaaay too early. It's like giving a player a walking-through-walls spell in a dungeon crawler right from the start.

but you can opt not to use them. no one forces you to fly except getting into some places.
and in the underground or hades you cannot use them.

That's like giving you 20k leadership on the first island and saying "you don't have to use it". It's just not how the effort-reward system should work.