CHAPTER 9 ~ GRIFFIN PROBLEMS

TWO YEARS ONE MONTH AFTER BANISHMENT

When the small group of soldiers limped into camp, barely able to stand and with blood covering them, I knew I would be summoned soon. It was the fourth or fifth group to come back in the same state. I had lost track. Sure enough, within minutes of their passing my spot, Jaton hurried over.

“He’s fit to be tied!” Jaton explained.

“Did they have any success?” I asked calmly, looking in the direction of the large tent.

“No. And they lost over a dozen more soldiers as well. Those things are tearing us apart. Ricald is sure the Hunter set them up to it,” Jaton replied.

I looked at Jaton amused. “The Hunter told two griffins to attack us? The man is legendary, but I’ve never heard of him being able to do something like that. Griffins are not exactly known for their friendliness.”

“Tell that to Ricald. He wants you now,” Jaton answered.

I sighed, and put away the dagger I had been sharpening by our fire pit. I looked at Travon, who had been sitting next to me, sharpening his own sword.

“Stay,” I commanded, to which he stuck out his tongue, but didn’t move.

I walked through the camp quickly, dogging sleeping soldiers and working ones. Sartan nodded to me from his place next to a broken wagon wheel. He looked like he was trying to hammer it into submission and the wheel was winning. Outside Captain Ricald’s tent, one of the blue and silver hippogryph banners had fallen to the ground. I picked up quickly and leaned it against the tent. The brown hippogryph, standing on his hind legs over a fallen sword meant little to me, but it carried great weight to Ricald and others in the camp. I fought for my own reasons, but I often wondered if they really thought this piece of cloth was worth dying under.

I banged on the tent flap and was quickly ordered inside. More banners of blue and silver hung everywhere. It almost seemed Ricald thought he was impressing someone by filling his tent with as much of the two colors as possible, but right now he wasn’t worried about the colors at all. He was worried about his griffin problem.

“I’ve tried everything, Aiden. You’re going to have to stop them yourself,” Ricald said point blank, from his position in his high backed chair.

I stopped in front of his desk. “You want me to take on two angry griffins by myself? Were you planning on me coming back alive?” I asked sourly.

Ricald shrugged. You’d be out of your contract then. Just kill the griffins first. And besides, you won’t be totally alone. I’m sending a small regiment with you.”

“To make sure I come back if I am alive at the end,” I stated. He wasn’t fooling me.

Ricald only shrugged again.

“I want horses,” I stated firmly.

He looked at me surprised. “Horses? I can’t afford to lose any.”

“But you can afford to lose all the men your throwing at those griffins?”

“I don’t have a choice,” Ricald growled in a low timber. “They are attacking all of our scouts, making off with vital supplies, and killing without any reason. They are dwindling or numbers more than any battle we’ve fought!”

“Then it sounds like you can’t not afford to give me horses if you really want them gone,” I responded calmly.

Ricald’s brown eyes flashed dangerously. “Ten, no more.”

I nodded as if I had expected nothing less. Griffins and horses had always been mortal enemies though why was up to what legend you happened to believe. There was some kind of irony in taking horses to fight griffins, when the flag I would be traveling under was a hippogryph, a hose and griffin as one. I doubted Ricald would be amused by my irony however.

“How many soldiers?” I asked, instead.

“I can’t afford to lose anymore. One regiment is all, but bring them back alive,” Ricald responded. “I want this finished before the days out.”

I raised an eyebrow. Was he crazy? I wouldn’t even attack them before dusk hit. “I’ll be back by tomorrow,” I responded before turning and walking out the tent door. This was not going to be easy.

***

The griffins had built there home high up in a cave on the edge of Mairbarc Forest and the Cirthian Mountains. The place was deeper into Elangsia territory, where we had retreated after a major battle. The rest hadn’t lasted long before the griffins had started to pick us apart.

Ricald claimed they were aggressive animals with no cause to attack, except their wild ferocious nature, but he was just looking for an excuse. I couldn’t prove it, but my guess was that he had done something to provoke them. It was well known that griffins loved gold and protected it with ferocity. Ricald was just the type of person to send out a little expedition to see if he could get some. Now, we were all paying for it.

I stopped the crew with me a few hundred yards from where their cave entrance was. The plan was simple, send the horses in to be slaughtered and the attack while the griffins ate. My problem was that there wasn’t just one griffin, there were two. One I could defeat, but I wasn’t positive how I was going to attack two. My one option was to split them up, but I wasn’t positive how I was going to do that either.

I motioned for the others to stay and crept forward. Travon followed, obviously my telling the others to stay behind, didn’t include him. We moved the last fifty feet or so and took in the sence. In front of us lie over a dozen soldiers dead bodies. Obviously, the griffins had killed more than I thought. Something about the scene struck me as odd. There was too much blood on the scene and most of it was around the foot of the mountain, as if it had fallen from higher up.

“What is it?” Travon asked quietly.

“One of the griffins is hurt,” I answered.

“How do you know?” Travon questioned, looking up to the higher cave entrance.

I pointed out the extra blood and moved back swiftly, “Come on.” With one griffin out of commission, or at least hurt, it would make the job a little easier. I hoped.

We made our way back to the others and I directed them to split into three groups, who then spread out to surround the glen in the front of the mountain. I gave a low caw and the horses galloped into the glen. They could smell the blood and it made them very nervous, but each time they tried to leave a soldier would prod them back in. Their panicked whinnies filled the darkening night sky.

It took only a few seconds for the high eagle screech to pierce the night air. The griffin excited his cave and glared down at the intruders. He was obviously not happy with their presence. The griffin was huge and by all appearances very angry. He didn’t waste much time, but spread his wings to fly down. They must have reached over nine feet. His dark brown feathers moved with the wind as he swept down on to the utterly terrified horses. The horses screamed as he hooked his huge front talons into one and pulled it far above the earth, his lion’s tail whipping in the wind. He reached the tops of the trees and went slightly higher before he released the horse and it fell to the ground, crashing with a sickening thud. Travon groaned beside me and promptly threw up. The site was a little nasty, but I had seen far worse. It was only an animal after all, nothing to throw up about. But I didn’t comment as Travon wiped his mouth and grimaced.

The griffin swooped down after the horse and landed next to him. The other horses trembled at the forest’s edge as far from the menace as they could get. The griffin ignored them in favor of the downed horse. The creature was still alive, but one swipe from his talon and a second from his back claw meant the horse’s death.

With him now totally preoccupied I let out a second caw. Within moments, spears were flying threw the air. More soon joined them. The griffin screeched in outrage as spears flew in to land around him. Some hit his hard hide and bounced off, but two found their mark. One was buried between his shoulder blades and the second on the side of his rump. Blood trickled from the marked places.

An answering screech came from high above and the second griffin appeared at the cave entrance. She made no move to help her mate though. The griffin on the ground looked up and screeched back. The female moved back slightly into the cave in response, while the soldiers advanced. They moved into a circle around the injured griffin, who pawed the ground angrily. Travon and I left our own hiding place and walked into the glen. I crossed my arms as I watched the griffin stare down his trappers.

“Kill him,” I commanded coldly.

The soldiers needed no other words to destroy what had killed so many of their comrades. They lunged in with full fury. But the griffin was only slightly weakened in body, his spirit was stronger than ever. He threw one solder while taking out a second with a mere stare. A third was felled by his hind lion’s paw. There were more than just three men however.

The battle raged for a longer than it should have. Ricald had told me not to lose anymore men, but this griffin alone was felling tons and I still had one more to deal with. I was also getting tired of sitting on the sideline, but I wanted to see the creature fight. Losing men didn’t mean as mush to me as it did Ricald and I had a good sense for how the griffin fought. He had a blind side on his left if you came at the right angle. I made my way over and dodged another flying body. Travon tried to follow, but I motioned him back. Fighting humans was one thing, fighting griffins was something else entirely. The blood was everywhere, and it was becoming harder and harder to tell what was human and what was griffin. Still, from above it must have looked as if the griffin would come out on top, because the female still only watched, although her high eagle screech added to the intense confusion.

Suddenly, I saw the opening I was waiting for. Quickly, I lunged at the animal, raising my long blade high. My lunge took me directly above the griffin on the left side and I plunged the sword deep into the base f his neck. His scream filled the night air with a pierce that could surely be heard back in Bradioch Forest. His wasn’t the only scream. As I felt the knife plunged deeper I heard the sound of furious wings above me. I rolled quickly and yanked my dagger from its place, but the talons of the female griffin still plunged deep into my right arm. I yelled out in pain, even as I automatically switched the knife to my left hand and truck it into the meat of the griffin’s front leg. The female screamed again and rose up on her hind legs. Somewhere around me I heard Travon scream my name. I rolled to the right and just barely missed getting hit with her talons again as they came crashing to the ground. If I didn’t get out of the way soon, she would kill me.

She turned on me again, full of fury at her dying mate’s call. I was out of weapons, my only other dagger was in my boot and I couldn’t reach it. Her eyes were dark with anger and I could feel her hatred at me for still living. In that single moment, she and I were alike. Her hatred towards me was the same I felt for Duard. I too would kill him and she was bent on doing the same to me. I saw her raise her talon again, but I didn’t move.

What would it feel like to die? Would it finally be a relief from the pain and hatred I felt? Would my siblings forgive me for failing them? For turning on them and betraying them? Perhaps death was the only release I had left.

She lowered her talon for the crushing blow and I knew I was dead. But the blow never came. I heard a second scream and a shadow knocked into the griffin at full force. Without pause, more shadows attacked and soon the griffin was covered in them. Travon had yelled the charge and hit the griffin first, while the others had followed his command. I stood and looked on in wonder as the soldiers attacked without mercy. I glanced to the side and saw that the male was already dead. Then Travon stood in front on me with my sword in his hands.

“We saved the killing blow for you.” His voice was low, cold as it had been when we first met. I could barley see his face, but I didn’t have to to understand that he had removed his soul from the situation entirely.

I took my sword and walked to the griffin’s head. Someone had taken the time to light a torch. How long had I been captive in my thoughts? I stared down into the griffin’s large blue eye. She had been a noble creature, fighting only when provoked beyond reason. Even though she had been wounded before the fight, she had come to her mate’s aid and now she would pay for it with her life. The hatred had almost left her eyes completely, but a sorrow beyond words filled them now. She looked up at me and somehow we both understood.

“Find peace in death for both of us,” I whispered and then I severed her head.

***

I allowed no one to touch the bodies that night. Travon and I stared up to guard them as the soldiers slept. The next morning I had them build a funeral prier and place both griffins bodies on top. Then I set them all away, except for Travon, who stayed by my side. The others had been gone for a long time before I finally spoke.

“Take my dagger and cut off the front talon of the male,” I told him as I pulled my second dagger from its place.

“Why?”

“A griffin’s talon once fashioned into a cup will tell the drinker if the liquid has been poisoned. They are very rare and usually only received from a priest or some holy man who was given the talon as a gift from a grateful griffin. We will receive ours in a different way, but they will work just as well.”

Travon looked at me impressed and hurried to the male’s side.

“Take as many feathers as you can. It is said, they can cure blindness. I don’t know that we will ever need it, but we can always sell them to gain some money should the need arise,” I added, pulling feathers of my own and putting them out of the way.

“What about the gold? Don’t griffins love it?” Traovn asked, finishing with the talon.

“Yes, emeralds too. If they have any, it will be up in the cave,” I responded.

“Are we going to look?” He asked eagerly, already fixing his eyes on the cave entrance.

“We don’t have time. We have to follow the soldiers back quickly or Ricald will get suspicious.” I stepped away from the prier and set fire to it.

“Hey!” Travon yelled, jumping back. “I wasn’t finished yet!”

“Don’t be greedy,” I answered calmly., to which he made a rather interesting looking face.

“Why are we burning them?” He asked next.

I didn’t answer right away. The convenient excuse as that it was less competition for the talons and feathers if they were all burned and that was the answer I would give Travon. But the truth was something different. It was the female griffin’s eyes. I couldn’t forget the look in them or the knowledge we were so alike. It was a way to respect that.

“There’s somethin’ in the cave,” Travon’s voice broke into my thoughts.

I followed his gaze up to the cave. There was something moving all right, but from the angle we stood at it was impossible to tell what.

“If there is another griffin up there, Ricald can best it himself,” I muttered.

“It ain’t that big,” Travon protested.

I didn’t answer. Griffins came in all sizes.

“Well?” I glanced at Travon to see him looking at me expectantly.

“What?”

“Aren’t we going?”

“This is a waste of time,” I growled.

“Oh, good,” Travon exclaimed already looking at the wall for the best handholds. I wasn’t quite sure how ‘waste of time’ translated into ‘let’s climb’ but apparently it did. There was little I could do but follow. It was a hard climb with one arm strapped to my vest, but the mountain had easy footholds and I managed. Travon, however, would be paying dearly for it later.

By the time I made it to the cave entrance, Travon was already playing with it.

“No!” Was the first word out of my mouth.

“But I’ll take care of it!” Travon protested loudly.

I did not like the looks of the scene in front of me at all. Travon was crouched on the ground playing with a very young griffin. The animal was obviously only a few months old, since it still had more down feathers than fully matured one’s. It’s hind lion’s tail was short and the back paws huge. This creature was going to be at least the size of his father and probably much larger. He let out a little eagle’s screech at Travon’s playfulness and promptly rolled onto his back to get a good rubbing. What was wrong with this thing? Griffin babies were suppose to be fierce and cruel. This one must have skipped that lesson.

He rolled back over and bounded to my side. He cocked his head at me and stared into my eyes with his own deep blue ones. They looked exactly like his mother’s, except the sorrow and hatred was replaced with innocence and curiosity.

“No,” I said again, crossing my arms across my chest.

“But...” Travon protested.

I raised a hand to cut him off. “What do you think your going to do with a baby griffin? He’ll eat more than you can spare and if Ricald finds him he’ll be worse of then he could ever be if we simply left him here.” I wasn’t sure why I was trying to be logical about this.

“We’ll hide him from Ricald away from camp. Everybody’s use to you going off all alone. And I follow. Aiden, we could! He can eat my food and I’ll hunt everything else!” Travon’s voice had that pleading tone again.

I could almost hear Arnan coming through. The whelp had wanted a dragon one time. We had both used almost the exact same arguments as well, only the names had been slightly different.

“Durad will never find out, Aiden. And maybe Draco can help us one day!”

Draco? You named him already?” I questioned, not happy about this at all.

“Come on, Aiden, you know you want to say yes! You want a dragon too!” Arnan tried a different tactic.

“Either you get rid of that thing now or I will later. You are not risking Duard’s wrath on us all because you think you need a pet! Especially not a dragon. Go pick something tamer like Wren’s birds!” I answered, wishing I was saying something different.

“You’re no fun Aiden! You never understand!” Arnan accused.

“I understand more than I wish I did, Arnan. One day, you probably will too” I sighed. “At least if you get rid of him you can make sure he’s safe. If Duard finds him, it will be death for his potions. And neither of us wants that.” The logic was cold, but true.

I had always hated myself for crushing Arnan’s spirit that day, but we had just received a punishment from Duard the day before and I didn’t feel like having sit in solitude for another month because I had helped to hide a dragon.

I shook my thoughts from my flashback. Only to be greeted with the picture of Travon and his griffin friend.

“I won’t save him or you should Duard find out,” I finally said.

“Duard?” Traovn questioned.

“Ricald,” I answered quickly. ‘If Ricald finds him, you will both wish you had let him alone out here.”

“He won’t,” Travon said with the confidence of a youth. Arnan would have been proud.

“It doesn’t make sense, why is he so taken with us?” I asked out loud.

In answer, Travon pulled some of the feathers from his pocket. “I think it was these.”

I nodded understanding. “We smell like his parents.” This was defiantly not supposed to be happening. “I’ll go report to Ricald. Can you find your way back and a place for the creature without getting spotted?” I heard myself questioning.

“I will. Nothing disappointing, Aiden.” Travon grinned.

“We’ll see.”

“We need names. Somethin’ with bite,” Travon decided abruptly.

“Bite?” I questioned, but Travon only grinned, obviously deep in thought.

The creature didn’t have any bite. If anything it was an annoyance beyond compare. Although Wren’s birds were certainly high on that list. His parents however were true warriors and if Travon didn’t coddle him too much, his real nature would show through. In the end, it might not be a bad idea having a griffin on your side.

“Maglynar,” I said out loud.

“Huh?” Travon asked.

“Little Warrior.”

“Nice!” Travon replied, repeating the name again and ruffling the feather’s on the griffin’s head.

It looked like we had just acquired a new friend for good.

***