NotesThis words were made for pleasure, meaning that I write for pleasure,

obviously, my motivations to write this are boredom, and mainly a will to

express my thoughts, my immagination in words on a computer screen. This

work might be edited from times to times, normally to correct errors, or

editing some parts, without changing the story. All the characters are

gryphons, whenever a non gryphon character, that will be mentioned in the

story along with descriptions of the characters. Hope you like it. This works

might reflect my mood, so don't be surprised when I suddently vent my

frustrations into the keyboard. A detail: gryphons bob their heads

occasionally.

Chapter1: The begining    - "Boris, how does it feels to return home?" - asked the black gryphon.

    - "Awesome, and what about you?" - replied the pearl white gryphon,

called Boris, sitting alongside the later, fluttering his wings.

    - "I missed our red sun, crimson skies and clouds, dark brown and black

plants, that green vegetation, yellow sun, blue skies made me feel ...

alienated, out of place."

    - "Me too"

    - "Passengers to the long course flight number 20110, please enter the

plain." - Said an announcer via a speaker.

    - "It's us, let's go." - said the black gryphon.

  Before boarding the plain, a large brown gryphon mottled with light brown

called the 100 passengers one by one, until they were called.

    - "Isn't this amazing?" - Asked Boris, lying comfortably on his bed/seat

with his short tail curled around him.

    - "I'd rather fly by wing" - Said the black gryphon.

    - "You have no choice, if you go by wing, you would take more than

twenty days to reach home." - Replied Boris.

    - "You are right" - agrees the black gryphon

    - "Yes..." said Boris nervously looking around.

    - "Boris, are you allright?" - Asked the black gryphon with concern.

    - "Yes, I am, why do you ask me that?" - responds Boris nervously.

    - "You are a bit nervous, increasingly nervous." - said the dark gryphon

with a serious tone.

    - "Allright I admit, I am nervous, not only because the fact that I am

surrounded by ninety-eight gryphons, and not only, but also because..." -

confessed Boris reticently.

    - "Those voices again? Tell me, you can trust me, you know me, is it that

horrible voice you sometimes hear?" - asked the black gryphon lying in the

bed/seat at Bori's left, close to the window.

    - "No, it is just that I am feeling that something will do us apart, and I am

scared." - responded Boris with his crest flat against his head, a sign of

fright.

    - "Nothing will separate us, come to my arms." - Boris complied, leaning

against his companion - "Your heart is pounding, Boris." he said leaning a

ear against Bori's chest.

 Boris replied with a soft chirping, equivalent to sobbing.

    - "Don't worry, everything will be okay, I promisse, drink some water." -

he said to his frightned companion.

    - "Waitress, a cup of water please." - asked Boris to the waitress two body

lengths behind him, her hind quarters were like those of a wolf.

    - "No need to come here, I'll go just next to you." - said the waitress

nicely.

 Suddently the plain shakes.

    - "Don't worry, it is just some turbulence, it will fade away." - informed the

pilot, trying to calm the passengers down.

    - "It is going to happend soon" - said Boris looking at his cup of water,

watching his warped reflection, remembering the warped, malevolent

voices, he sometimes heard, voices silenced by antipsychotics, the worst of

them all called himself Vyre, he gained a personality and conciousness on

his own, commanding him do do gruesome things.

    - "Oh no, it is an ion storm." said Bori's companion, looking throught the

window, watching arcs of plasma and an aurora in the distance,

remembering him that BloodSun can be temperamental sometimes -

"Waitress, is this plain ready to withstand a ion storm?"

    - "Yes, it can for sure, why are you concerned about that?" - replied the

waitress, trying to reassure him.

    - "A normal ion storm maybe, but this one, is dangerous, a normal ion

storm mixed with a thunder storm is dangerous below it, but deadly above

it, i recommend the pilot to lower the plain to below the clouds, while it is

safe to do it. Aurora and sprites are a deadly combination, please tell the

pilot to do what I am saying." - advised the dark gryphon.

    - "The pilot knows what he is doi-" - the waitress is interrupted by another

violent tremor that shook the plain, the passengers remained calm.

    - "Mom, the wing is melting" - observed a gryphlet near the window.

    - "Please fasten your seatbelts, we are going to start emergency

protocols" warned the pilot, immedeately after that both wings detatched

from the plain, and the one that was melting at its tip exploded into sparks

and bits of warped and molten metal, and the plain started falling towards

the surface, then te unforgettable happened, a potent lightning tore a hole

in the fuselage, and the dark gryphon was torn from his seat, and boris was

hit by a electrical discharge that scarred him for life, leaving a scar that

went fom the base of his neck to his left rear leg, he did not feel pain from

then.

    - "Ethon! No!" - Screamed Boris in vain, only his immense strenght kept

him from being sucked into the deadly immensity beyond.

Chapter 2: MadnessHe was devastated, weakened mentally, letting the voices go up his head    - "Kill yourself and join him!" - one screamed.    - "He is still alive, just wait, he will come." - said another one.    - "Search for him." - insisted another.    - "Hi there." - another one said with a eerie voice that made Boris tremble    - "Sut up!" - commanded Boris, the last voice was insistent, the others don't.    - "I know you as well as you know me, don't you? Start what you never started." - the voice went on.    - "No! I won't, I'll go home, and live with my parents." - he thought at the voice.    - "They won't let you do it. Be free, be independent-" - replied the voice.    - "I don't care about what you say, you'r a liar! I just want to meet my family, nothing more." - the voice faded away.He walked away annoyed, under the light, almost constant rain, feeling the strong wind, Bloodsky, his homeworld was like that, rain made him feel happy. He took off, he loved to fly in the rain, the sound of the warm raindrops falling into his feathers, the crimson clouds, the warm wind, this familiar air, his family, it gave him peace of body and mind. Something was wrong when he neared his home, it was surrounded by guards.    - "W-what's wrong?" - asked Boris to one of the guards.    - "A gryphon and a gryphoness were murdered a few hours ago, shot in the chest with a plasma gun, the killers ran, apparently they were five of them, they stole almost everything." - answered the guard. Boris was completely expressionless. The sheriff approached him and asked:    - "Are you Boris NightWing?"    - "Yes" - answered Boris after a moment of hesitation.    - "Where is Ethon Ni-?" - asked the sheriff.    - "Dead." - yelled Boris, with tears streaming from his eyes, and chirping.    - "I am sorry for that ... and this." - said the sheriff, abstaining from asking more questions.    - "You don't have to be sorry for anything, it wasn't your fault, it was their fault." - said Boris, his voice slowing turning into a hiss.    - "If you see them call me." - advised the sheriff, anding him five sheets of paper with the pictures of the criminals.    - "Yes." replied Boris, it was almost a hiss. The bodies of his parents were cremated, he attended to their funeral and cremation. When he settled in his almost empty home, the sinister voice came back:    - "I cant believe someone did that!"

    - "Neither do I, but it is fact, not fiction nor fantasy."    - "I know you want revenge,and I know how, according to the papers, they might come back at sleep hours, you will trap them, lure them into your trap, and better of it all, kill them"    - "No!" - he screamed aloud.    - "Yes, they stole your brother!" - screamed Vyre, his thoughts came out as a growling voice    - "No!"    - "They stole your family, your life, your pain!"    - "No!"    - "They stole your father, your mother, your mother, your sensitivity, your things, and if you don't kill them, you."    - "They are murderers!"    - "Thieves!"    - "They got my family!"    - "Kill them to get your brother back!"    - "I must get my brother back. He is alive, they have him captive."    - "Waiting for your victory over them."    - "Yes!"    - "They planned the storm, it was their trap."    - "Impossible!"    - "Possible! They are evil."    - "More than you?"    - "No."    - "Arne help me!" - no one was near, he was alone at home, nobody but him and his voices, and no one else.    - "Help yourself!" - said Arnes, now the voice of each of his voices came out as words.    - "Join Ethon and kill yourself!" - said Amethist, who was always trying to instill suicidal ideas into Bori's mind.    - "Kill them! Dismember them! Gut them! Skin them! Alive." - instilled Vyre    - "I will drink their blood and eat their flesh." - said Boris completely crazed, with a crooked, wide, crazed smile.    - "Yes, you are now thinking like me!" - shouted Vyre.    - "Is everything allright? - stammered a passerby, who happened to be listening to their words.    - "Yes. I couldn't be better." - said Boris half-hissing, half-growling.    - "Ok." - said the passerby unconvinced.    - "What time is it?" - asked Boris.    - "Sleep hours, you'd better get some rest." - answered the passerby.    - "I won't be resting, but some five will be resting ... in peace." - hiss-growled Boris, widening his smile.

Chapter 3: Hunt   - "Yes they will be resting, but you need a weapon, because they have at least one." - advised Vyre.  

   - "Weapons, I have one." thought Boris.Boris headed towards his workshop, leaving the confused passerby staring at the window, to take his weapon, it looked like decorative armor, with abstract engravings in its metallic surface, it was there concealed behind a secret door, his workshop, his weapon, like a malevolent arm-piece, painted black and dark red. There was another equal, to be used on the other arm. His hands were protected by spiked gauntlets, but they did not touch the ground, the twin weapons did, each one ending in a horse-shoe shaped supporting pad that made a sinister metallic clang when hitting the ground, like bells: "Clännng...Clännng...Clännng...". They were much more powerful than an ordinary plasma gun, they are capable of blowing a hole on a standart brick wall at their maximum power, but he kept them at low power, but enough to stun a strong gryphon in one hit. Their tips glowed a faint red upon activation, the supporting pads prevented the glow from being seen from the front. Now he was ready to kill.   - "Someone is here." - he thought.   - "Ready to go to the cutting table" - thought Vyre at Boris   - "Are you sure that the place is empty?" - asked a gryphon.   - "If it is not empty, we will do what we did to the others...did you heard something?" - said the other gryphon.   - "Like a clang?" asked the first.   - "Human go check what is going on" - addressed a third gryphon to a human that was with them.   - "Ok." -  he complied - "Anyone there?" - he asked in a soft voice when the door suddently slams shut.   - "What's going on Fred? Are you ok?" - shouted the second gryphon, no one replied - "Fred?" -he heard nothing - "Fredape, answer to me!" he ordered.   - "We are not alone, stick together." said a fourth.   - "You are going to die!" - whispers Boris menacingly.   - "Who are you?" - shouted the third.   - "Vyre." - he whispers.   - "Where is the human."   - "What was my father's job?" - Boris whispers menacingly.They shrug.   - "A butcher. Period." - after this they heard steps going away.   - "Wait a moment do you mean that-" - said the first.   - "Let's go to the butcher shop, I hope I am wrong." - ordered the second, they walked into the butcher shop, an then to the large freezer room at the back of the house, it was large with serveral carcasses hanging from meathooks, they were all occupied except five - "I think this is for us, it even has papers..." - picks up a paper - "...with our names." - this information creeps them out.   - "Hell-o human, better Frederic." - hiss-growls Boris.   - "What do you want from me?" - asks Fred completely terrified.   - "What do you wanted from the last two occupants?"   - "Their stuff."

   - "And their lives."The human spits at his face.   - "Allright, choose your death, you have four: disemboweling, being eaten alive, soffucation and having your heart ripped from your chest. Choose wisely and quickly."   - "What is the least painfull?" -  there was no answer - "Ok, I guess you won't be saying a thing. The first two are out of question, they look painfull-"   - "You are taking too much time, so I will take the last." - hiss-growled Boris, laying a claw on top of Fred's naked chest.   - "No-" - he said before letting out a scream as Bori's claws dug into his chest.   - "Yes." - Boris sneered before shoving his fingers into fred's chest, blood started to stream from the wound - "Close to the heart, it is beating like crazy." - puts his whole talon between two ribs and grabs Fred's heart, Fred screams, and tears stream from his eyes, his face shows his agony - "Got your heart" - pulls Fred's heart out and swallows it whole, shortly after, Fred stops screaming - "Damm it I forgot how fragile humans are." - then he proceeds to hang the human in one of the meathooks.   - "Do you hear something, it comes from the butcher shop." - said the third - "Let's go!" - they followed him to the butcher shop to see Fred hanging from a meathook - "Let's get out of here."   - "I don't think so." - said Boris eerily.They turned aroud to see the pearly white apparition that just turned the lights on to blind them temporarily.   - "My eyes!" - grunted the fourth. They heard a plasma shot followed by a thud.   - "He is stunned." - informed Boris   - "Take this!" - yelled the fourth shooting his plasma gun, but Boris dodges it and turns off the lights. Leaving their sight to addapt to the darkness, and grabs the motionless body of the second, the plasma gun is fired again, Boris uses one of the weapons as a shield, it disperses the plasma's energy.   - "My turn." - Boris stands in his hind legs and starts shooting his guns, stunning the third and the first, the fourth hides inside a horse carcass, one out of six - "Where are you meat bag?"   - "Here!" - he hits boris in the head with the gun, trying to stun him, but fails.   - "Time to die, right here!" - he said, grabbing him by the throat, then he punctures his jugular with a claw, and clamps his beak around the neck to drink the blood.   - "Take this!" - hissed the fourth trying to harm Boris, but Boris was bigger, stronger. Boris replies with muffled sounds, but he manages to convey the message, he was enjoying drinking the gryphon's warm blood directly from his neck. When Boris finishes drinking the blood, the second wakes up and takes two meat cleavers, and standing in her hind legs charges at Boris, Boris dodges, but the attacker succeeds in severing an arm.   - "You little..." - yells Boris, grabbing the bleeding wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but he only manages to minimize it.

   - "Never turn your back to an enemy, even if she is stunned." - growls the second, she had the hind quarters and ears of a wolf, she was a skedar gryphon.   - "Stay calm and focus." - says Vyre in Bori's head.   - "My head." - complains the third, not fully realizing what's happening.   - "Mine too. It looks like I've been kicked by a horse in the head" - complains the first.   - "Half kitties, come here see what we've got." - says the second - "By the way, my name is Zephyrus, and theirs are Vaily and Bezaq." - informed Zephyrus, introducing the first and third respectively.   - "What happened here?" - asks Bezaq looking at his dead partner.   - "Your name is pretty, you are pretty, you would be a nice partner, with me." - purred Boris   - "Me?" - asked Vaily confused.   - "Not you idiot! Me." - hissed Zephirus at Vaily before addressing to Boris - "I know kitty-birdy, if you cannot defeat the enemy, join it, and you are surrounded by three. I am that killer beauty, beautifull but deadly."   - "Did you killed anyone?" - asked Boris, with a growl.   - "Not here, why, were they close to you?" - asked Zephirus.   - "Parents, and a brother."   - "Sory there were only two here."   - "The storm, you planned the storm, and either you killed my brother, or you have him captive, you need to be killed to bring him back." - hiss-growled Boris.   - "You are deluded, demented, you should be in a asylum, but first in a hospital, you are a lunatic, a dangerous lunatic." - answered Zephirus with some concern - "Furthermore, you already avenged your parents, it was the one you sucked dry that killed them. Satisfied?"   - "Yes, pretty bird-" - answered Boris deviously, before hearing sirens.   - "Damm! The cops! We shall meet again, maniac." - says Zephirus before leaving the place.   - "See you later..." said Boris before taking his amputated arm in the beak towards the workshop to leave the weapons there, then he closes the secret door that gives access to the workshop, then the sheriff rushes in.   - "Boris, come here we will take you to a hospital, what happened to the thieves? - asked the sheriff.   - "Two killed, three escaped." - replied Boris, sounding a bit tired.   - "How did they died?"   - "I killed them. In a fit of madness." - replied Boris, tiredly, smiling eerily   - "How?"   - "Come with me, to the butcher shop." - told Boris tiredly.   - "Boris, what is your blood type?" asked the sheriff.   - "O type." - answered Boris tiredly, barely being able to stand up.   - "Bring me a stretcher, bandages and blood for a transfusion, serious blood loss. Boris, lay down on the floor, they will take you to a hospital." - Boris complies, carefully  laying on his belly, without taking his hand from the  wound.

The medics arive, and hurry to stanch the bleeding, with them the passerby, he was staring at Boris.   - "You called them?" - asked Boris weakly the passerby nodded then Boris passed out.

Chapter 5: Escape    - "Boris, I have a meal for you, mmmm it's delicious, are you here?" - said a gryphoness-nurse with a gentle, soft voice, not to provoke him. She opened the door to his room, but it was empty, without signs of being forced or damaged, no clues of what might have happened to him. She rang the alarm, quards ran about, unable to find Boris's whereabouts. The warm, soft surf bathed his hands, including the robotic left arm, its resistant skin could also feel touch. Deep blue ocean ahead, emerald green forest behind, celestial blue sky above, sandy golden beach below, freedom everywhere, his stomach complaining.    - "I should eat something, there must be food here, in the forest..." - thought Boris hungrily - "I wonder if there are any natives, I hope they are friendly, if not, they'll be on the menu." - thought Boris smiling as much as his rigid beak allowed.    - "Oh, look, there is a path, there must be some natives here." - he thought as he found a path leading to the beach, from an unknown location. He heard a rustle from the trees, and then a small, yellow gryphon's head popped up from a tree.    - "Come here little guy I won't harm you, come here." - called Boris the smaller gryphon with a soft voice, but the small gryphon disapeared as quickly as it appeared.    - "Daddy! Daddy!" - called out the young fledgling.    - "Mi'e, darling, come here help me." - said her father.    - "Where?"    - "Trophy room."    - "Comming!" - responded Mi'e in a playfull tone to her father, Taq'a.    - "Help me lift this, please." - asked Taq'a refering to a shoulder mounted gryphon, with a head about the size of Bori's head, leaning against the ladder where Taqiri was on top of.    - "Wow, it is big! You said nothing to me." - said Mi'e with amazement    - "Surprise for Mi'e!" - said her father excitedly - "Now, I need another one, an I am going to bring it alive, it will be the tenth."    - "I was going to talk about that to you."    - "Yes." said her father expectantly.    - "I saw one right now, pure white, large scar, left eye red, left arm weird. What you think?"    - "Going right now!" - he said grabbing his precious bronze-tipped spear, and putting it in his back, and wearing his knife belt around his chest, it comprised of a belt with several sheathed knifes with different blade sizes, they were six, three of each size, and then he secured a long rope around his vestigial, clawed wings - "I am going to wrestle him to submition, not needing sleep poison, I am a great hunter. Mother must come soon, prepare

large cage, going hunting large prey. Where is it?"    - "There, in the path." - said Mi'e pointing towards where she came from - "Came from the beach, I think."    - "Here I go!" - he said, jumping into the thick forest canopy - "Strange, ousiders come from Sky Mountain, not from beach." - thought Taq'a, looking back at the enormous, floating mountain, from where winged gryphons came, but it was uncommon, and it was rare for one to return to the mountain, most were hunted down - "I wonder how many are there in the Sky Mountain ... unless the winged was returning from the mountain, that would explain why it was comming from the beach, but if it came from the mountain, someone would have noticed it, specially making that much noise and..." - he thought as the Boris approached his position noisily - "...it would be a good pet for me, Taq'a, once tamed." Boris heard more rustling, and called out - "Anyone there? I am hearing you!" - Boris turns his head towards the source of the rustling - "I know where you are, I can hear you, I can..." - he sniffs once - "...smell you. Now, come out of your hi-" - Boris is interrupted by a loud screech. Boris replied with a louder roar, the lilac gryphon, about a quarter of Boris's size flinched, but then he drew out a copper knife, Boris replied by standing on his hind legs and roaring, the lavender gryphon stood on his hind legs and charged at Boris that counterattacked by swinging his right arm, flinging the small gryphon some five-six body lengths away, it tumbled as it landed on the ground, this time it secured the knife on its beak and drew out the spear. Boris stood on all fours again, and charged at the smaller gryphon with a roar, it dodged by climbing to the trees, from where Taq'a could disable the bigger gryphon by cutting major leg muscles, but his plans were taken down the moment Boris took off from a clearing near the path, but he was not good at taking down an airborne target, he withdrew his spear, not risking to loose it and grabbed the knife he was biting since he drew out the spear, then he readied the rope, holding it in his wing claws above the head, Taq'a was ready for the catch, Boris was flying in circles above Taq'a, he was analyzing the situation carefully, he dived, shielding his chest with his left arm, not risking having a spear thrusted into it, Taq'a saw this as an oppurtunity to use his spear, and after putting it out, he hurled it at Boris's right wing, close to the chest, it pierced Boris's skin right below the wing, cutting several ligaments, and some blood spurted, and Taq'a dodged from the falling gryphon. Boris did not felt the pain, only a vague feeling of being damaged, and a sudden inability to move his right wing, and then he was falling, he landed on his back. The smaller gryphon pounced on his chest, and using both hands he tied Bori's hands before he could to anything, but the beak was still a problem, not until it was tied up, now the wildly flailing hind legs, Boris was trying to curl over himself and use the hind claws to cut the rope and even harm Taq'a, Boris rolled to his left side, and using the beak hook, he began to cut the ropes, until Taq'a covered his head with a bag he had tucked in the pouch he wears around his neck, and then he carefully tied a rope around Boris's neck to secure the bag, and now Taq'a was going to work on Bori's back legs, but soon after Boris managed

to stand up. Out of the blue Boris jumped towards Taq'a trying to smash him with his weight, but Boris fell as soon as he landed on the floor. Boris's hind legs were in the ideal position to be tied together, and that was what Taq'a did.Finaly all he had to do is to drag Boris into his home.    - "Finally I can be considered the greatest hunter, maybe become the Prime." - said Taq'a with great enthusiasm, ignoring the bruises and the wounds, but when he was going to haul Boris by his hind legs, Boris swung his legs upwards throwing Taq'a into the air, and near his own head - "Still wild, should calm it." - thought Taq'a, getting up, then he started to carefully massage the chest of the squirming gryphon, trying to calm him down - "See I don't harm you. Calm." - he said when Boris stopped squirming, and then his breathing slowed down and then Taq'a started to haul him home, and after stopping several times to rest and then resuming his work.    - "Daddy! You have it!" - yelled Mi'e when her father arrived with the catch.

Chapter 6: Mission I was with full armor on. It was raining heavily as I went near the warehouse on a police vehicle, several agents were there, I heard some asking if the I was the 'special force', then the vehicle came to a halt, and a door slid open and general Genkir said I am the special agent, agent NightWing, and that I came to take down the bad guys.    - "Agent NightWing. They are in that warehouse. Number unknown. They have hostages. A vampire gryphon fledgling. They threaten to kill her if we move closer, so we chose you to do it. The perimeter is trapped. Magical traps aimed at aerial targets. Turrets probably. Electric traps aimed at ground targets."    - "Please bring us our daughter, I'll do you anything for you." said the father of the little fledgling that was abducted, he was dressed in fancy clothing, like his mate, inside his blunt beak, in the lower jaw two sharp fangs like daggers used to perforate their victim's skin, it is said that their bite is painless, that they can also induce a trance in their victims. He was a third of Ethon's size.    - "Silicon, can we whitstand magical attacks?" - I asked.    - "Yes, but I suppose that triggering the traps will trigger some sort of alarm system, and we don's want that." - Silicon replied    - "So I'll fly out of their range." - so I took off and climbed to nearly 1 Km high out of the range of the magical traps and alarms, and then I descended towards the warehouse, hitting its ceiling with a loud bang and tearing a hole in it, then I hid behind a crate.    - "Zephirus, what was this, it came from the roof!" - said Vaily, looking upwards.    - "Bezaq, don't let anyone come close to the fledgling, don't come unless called, Vaily come with me, take the guns!" - ordered Zephirus, that took off to the ceiling along with Vaily.    - "I have the guns, take one, Bezaq do you have yours, and watchout, that little fledgling may look harmless,but it can do serious damage." - said Vaily

handing a plasma gun to Zephir, and leaving Bezaq wondering about the fledgling.    - "What is so dangerous about this little guy, it still has baby fuzz, and it is just sitting there, curled up." - wondered Bezaq.    - "Zeph, there's a hole in the ceiling, lets take a closer look." - said Vaily pointing at the gaping hole.    - "Not so fast, I smell someone, but whoever came here must be tough, to rip trough the ceiling like that." - said Zephirus    - "Not bad for a skedar gryphon. Look at the edges they have been subjected to some heat, enough to melt it, but the rest appears to have been ripped." - said Vaily, at first complimenting his comrade, then analysing the hole objectively.    - "Not bad for a bloodsky gryphon, it is said you can see into the infrared, right?"    - "Yes, but only if its intensity is high enough, when an object is hot enough...wait look there's a crater, someone was here."    - "Who could whithstand such an impact?" - asked Zephirus    - "Me." - said Ethon coming from behind the crate - "I know you had enough of my brother, or his alter ego."    - "So the madgryph was talking about you, I wonder how much it was left of you." - said Zephirus provokingly.    - "About fifty percent of the body mass." - announced Silicon.    - "Let me present you Silicon, my not so helpfull AI assistent." - said Ethon    - "Not so helpfull. Well lets get to business, right? Now, less talking, more action." - said Zephirus.    - "You're right." - said Ethon before slamming his fists into the concrete floor causing it to shatter and fall into the floor below, there was an audible sound of smashing. Zephirus and Vaily were injured, Ethon was hovering above them.    - "There's where the heat came from." - observed Vaily, looking at Ethon's thrusters.    - "Take this!" - said Zephirus shooting several plasma shots, shortly after Vaily joined Zephirus in the shooting. Suddently a fire spell hits Ethon, generating a roaring fireball that almost engulfs Zephirus and Vaily, only burning some feathers, but Ethon stood there, then a repulsive spell hurled him away damaging some hexagonal plates that comprise his armor. Zephirus looked down, she saw Bezaq hailing at them close to the cage where the fledgling was kept, he was screaming at them, teling them to take off, and they took off moments before Ethon comes hurling at them, smashing himself against the weakened concrete floor , causing it to fall into a pile of metallic crates.    - "Bezaq, take the fledgling away from there!" - yelled Zephirus. Bezaq takes the fledgling to safety, but one of his legs got stuck inside the cage.    - "Guys, this thing bit my leg, and is drinking blood from me like crazy." - he yelled, he could even hear the fledgling slurping his blood.    - "General, I told you that it was a bad idea to take him to a mission this soon." - said a gryphon when they heard the noise comming from the

warehouse.    - "Bezaq are you allright, let's get out of here, Vaily is turning off the traps." - said Zephirus, as the pillar that kept the ceiling in place started to crumble and Ethon started to rise from the wreckage of the two floors that was on the ground, some of the armor plates were missing,others badly damaged, but they were being slowly repaired.    - "Let me-" - pause to breathe - "-take my leg off this cage." - Bezaq sounded tired, the entire structure shook as the ceiling and its supporting pillar started to collapse. Everyone outside the building expected the worse as hey heard the ceiling to collapse.    - "You two, get out of there, I'll take these two with me." - several chunks of the pillar started to fall and Ethon adressed to the fledgling - "Let him go, please and I will take you to your parents."    - "Not going to kill baddie." - said the fledgling letting go the leg.    - "I'll put you in my back, put your hands around my chest, I'll help you." - said Ethon to Bezaq before putting him onto his back, and grabbing Bezaq's hands and the cage where the fledgling was being held Ethon took off. The pillar fell behind them, and then the ceiling began to fall, putting too much strain on the other two pillars, that fell towards the first, taking down what was left of the ceiling and noisily knocking down the worn out walls, in a instant the warehouse was a pile of rubble, and Ethon was flying towards the expectant guards, they already caught Zephirus and Vaily.    - "Here you have." - said Ethon carefully putting Bezaq on the ground - "Let me open this." - said Ethon tearing the cage open, as soon as he opened the cage the little fledgling clawed at his prostetic arm, but her parents immediately restrained and calmed her down - "Silicon, 'noarmor'." - the head armor retracted, and the magic armor around his body vanished, exposing his face and the remaining flesh, showing what was left of his gorgeous plumage, he breathed deep.    - "Ethon?!?" - said the vampire gryphon.    - "Do I know you from somewhere?" - replied Ethon confusedly.    - "It's me, Aegaeon BrightFluff, remember me? We met on Humania, that oceanic blue and green planet? Did they wiped out your memory"    - "Oh I remember you, sory for almost forgetting you, I am quite forgetful."    - "How are you? Do you feel comfortable like that? And your brother, do you know what happened to him?"    - "I am not in pain, if that is what you mean. My brother, well he is missing, and I am going to have that clarified now."

Chapter 7: Fancycaptivity When the bag and the ropes were taken from me, the wingless abominations, about a a third of my size, were squacking happily, good for them, bad for me, I was inside a wooden cage, my stomach is still complaining, the spear wound has been sutured, and on the far corner two large bowls, one of them was full of water, the other was empty, I started

waving the empty one at them.    - "It is hungry, give some food." - said the gryphoness.    - "I will give entrails." - said Taq'a taking the bowl from Bori's hand and parting away and returning after a while with the bowl full of entrails - "Intestines clean, other organs not." - Taq'a slid the bowl throught a slot in the door made specifically for delivering food. The lilac wingless came with a bowl full of entrails, and oh my, they looked delicious, all of them bloodied, and then the bowl was delivered to me throught a slot on the door, the meal included livers, kidneys, spleens, pancreas, lungs, hearts, and plenty of intestines and other parts of the digestive tract, the intestines were clean. I slurped them all, my captors looked at me with all sorts of curious and ammusing expressions. When night fell I was given a warm pelt blanket to sleep on.    - "Dad do you see left eye." - asked Mi'e to her father, he looked at the left eye, it was twitching wildly, as if it was possessed by some kind of spirit.    - "Yes, nothing important." I woke up and the bowl was full again, after gorging myself in entrails he opened the door, pointing his spear at me, and hissed something at me, it clearly had some form of language. I looked at me in the eyes, I looked back, the yellow, smaller gryphon was there holding a spear, I could not escape, I could only obey. The bigger gryphon tapped my back with the spear, I understood that as a order to lie down, and I did so, and he gently patted my head, pointing a knife at me while doing so. Out of the blue another orange gryphon sat on my back, I looked back and the lilac gryphon pointed his knife at my throat, I slowly turned my head forward and the lilac gryphon made pressure with the knife on my lower jaw, I stood up. He patted my right arm, the orange gryphon was petting my pelt. I was ordered to lay down again, he went to a house and came with a tape-measure and a note block and started measuring my entire head and annotating the measurements, and went back to the house, after a while he came back with a bridle of leather and bronze, he put it around my beak and fastened it behind my head using a bronze clasp, and then he handed a rein to the orange gryphon and then he attached it to the bridle, then he returned to the house and brought a saddle that he attached to me, finally I was officially a mount, and the news ran throught their village like wildfire, soon everyone came into his house to see me.    - "Mil'i hold my spear, going ride gryphon." - said Taq'a to his mate giving her the spear and climbing into the saddle and taking the reins he tryed to control Boris, without much success for the first hours, Taq'a fell several times, then it was a question of several days until Boris has learned their language in a very crude way, and able to recieve simple orders, riding him was easier.    - "Stay." - said Taq'a, Boris stood there. Taq'a came with two baskets full of fruit and then loaded them into Boris, and the Taq'a mounted Boris and leaded him into another house. The next day Taq'a covered Boris's torso in a white cloth embroidered with golden suns and light blue gryphons and lined with emerald green  then

Taq'a boasted Boris around his village - "Be majestic." - ordered Taq'a to Boris, Boris stood as majestically as possible, with a confident, well fed look, bright eyes, despite being a pet he felt somewhat well, he was treated fairly well, even if he was being kept in a cage. Boris was then taken into a ceremony, where many wingless sing and then Boris and Taq'a were led into a podium, it was made out of dark wood, the rest of the place was just a set of six columns around the podium supporting a dome of wood and stained glass, it was of several colour, it had no drawings only a checker-like pattern, then two wingless came, one had a gold crown with ten rubies and a large round diamond in the front that he gave to Taq'a, the another one had a gold crown with ten saphires and a heart shaped diamond in the front that she gave to Mil'i, then another one gave Boris a gold tiara with a emerald in the front with two asscher diamonds on each side of the emerald, the gryphons that were on the podium with Boris, Taq'a, Mil'i and Mi'e descended towards the croud that gathered in around the podium, and then they started cheering them.    - "I am the Prime!" - yelled Taq'a - "And this is my family." - shouted Taq'a waving at his small family, and then he climbed onto Boris's back and shouted - "This is the proof that I deserve to be the Prime, I challenge you to do better!" - the croud was excited screaming his name - "Taq'a! Taq'a! Taq'a! Taq'a!" - Taq'a was sitting on his haunches on Boris's back waving at the croud with his arms and wing-arms alternately.    - "When they returned home, the cloth was taken from Boris, and the tiara was put on Boris's cage along with a small wooden framed mirror.    - "Boris help making new cage." - ordered Taq'a - "Help me bringing bars, me and Mil'i tie them you hold them." - ordered Taq'a. Boris brought the bars on his back, they were made out of a tough wood, meanwhile the other cage has been dismantled, they also had another, bigger platform with the places where the bars would be nailed to marked with black, then Boris held the said platform upright, then the bars were nailed to the platform in the edge closer to the floor, then Boris turned the platform so another side could have bars nailed into it, then they did it to the remaining two sides, on the last side a door was hinged to the bar in one of the corners, then another platform was nailed to the other end of the bars and the cage put in its normal position with one of the platforms on the ground, then it was dragged inside their house, it fit perfectly throught its wide and tall doors, and then the tiara, the mirror, the food bowl and the water tank were placed inside the cage, then they caged Boris and went ouside, to return with several pillows for Boris, they were placed inside Bori's cage.    - "Like it." - chirped Boris cheerfuly. Then Taq'a exited the house and came with a book, a flask of black ink and a wooden plank.    - "Book, ink..." - Taq'a pointed at a feather that fell from Boris - "...quill. Hold this next the bars." - said Boris handing the wooden plank to Boris and then Boris pressed the plank against the bars and then Taq'a nailed the plank in two bars, the plank streched over the span of four bars and then Taq'a placed the book and the flask of ink in the newly placed writin table

and said - Book and ink, your feathers for writing." - Boris looked a bit confused at them, he just couldn't understand most of what they say, he just learned the words "book" and "ink", he didn't learned the word "write", something he was about to do...

Chapter 8: Aftermath    - "Sir Ethon NightWing, please come here." - said the sheriff.

    - "What have I done?" - asked Ethon.

    - "Nothing. Your stuff has been recovered along with other stolen goods,

somehow they survived the, well demolishing , mainly because they were in

secure metal crates, well the most of it. An inquiry will ensue. Now get your

stuff."

    - "Is it too much, because I've got transportation." - sugested Aegaeon.

    - "Lets get your transportation and get our stuff." - agreed Ethon.

    - "Your stuff, and the transportation is a family car, let's go, sheriff, stay

here in case things get messed up. See you later. Let's go Ethon." - said

Aegaeon.

    - "Yes let's go." - agreed Ethon.

    - "See you later." - said the sheriff when Ethon, Aegaeon and his family

were leaving the place.

    - "Your car is fancy, just like everything in your culture." - commented

Ethon about the heavily decorated car, it was deep red with black and light

blue decorations.

    - "What do you think about it?" - said Aegaeon's wife.

    - "The colour match is just..." - Ethon grimaced - "It-it jumps into the

eyes."

    - "In a nutshell: it's horrible." - commented Silicon.

    - "Who's this one?" - asked Aegaeon's wife.

    - "Meet Silicon, my not so helpful AI assistant." - answered Ethon.

    - "Unlike you say I am helpful, I just give some comments." - replied

Silicon.

    - "Now, Silicon keep your virtual mouth shut, and no more comments or

oppinions." - said Aegaeon.

    - "In a nutshell: keep quiet." - said Aegaeon's wife.

    - "Quiet!" - yelled the fledgling.

    - "Anyway, what would be a better colour match?" - asked Aegaeon when

they were entering the car.

    - "Above all, it is small, and the colours, they could be something like:

white background with golden and blue decoration, black backgroung with

dark golden and some bits of red for example, nothing too exuberant." - said

Ethon.

    - "Sorry, this is not made for a bloodling." - said Aegaeon's wife. Bloodling

is the name given to the natives of BloodSky, a world orbiting a red dwarf.

    - "No you don't need to be sorry for anything, if you want I can go outside,

I can keep up with your car easily." - said Ethon.

    - "No, don't go outside, it's raining." - said Aegaeon - "You are an old

friend of mine, you will go inside, occupy as much space as you need." -

Ethon didn't said a thing.

    - "Your stuff is there, go claim it." - said the sheriff when they arrived the

place.

    - "It's a shame many things are broken." - said Aegaeon looking at a

broken frame in Ethon's hands, it had a family portrait done by himself, it

was torn.

    - "It's all my fault." - sighed Ethon placing the broken object in the trunk

at the back of the car.

    - "No it isn't, it is their fault, I heard them, they sait that they shouldn't

have let you out this soon, you weren't prepared, everyone knows that. The

military that brought you here committed the mistake of bringing you here

too soon, unprepared, it was their fault." - said Aegaeon, Ethon only sighed.

Suddently Ethon started placing things on the back seats - "Ethon you go

there!"

    - "Not anymore." - sighed Ethon.

    - "You are more important than those things!" - said Aegaeon.

    - "I'll go ouside, I like the rain, It makes me happier." - said Ethon with

longing in his voice. Aegaeon sighed.

    - "He's like that, puts the others before himself." - said Aegaeon looking at

Ethon who was still putting stuff into the back seats with the help of

Aegaeon and his wife.

    - "That's all, follow me." - said Ethon taking off into the air.

    - "Hestia, get into the car, let's follow him." - said Aegaeon to his wife,

Hestia.

    - "Is he allways like that?" - asked Hestia.

    - "Unfortunately yes, and apparently the situation only worsened after

what happened now, the death of his parents." - answered Aegaeon.

    - "Come on, let's go home before the whole place gets jammed." - said

Ethon hovering in front of the car, he liked to feel the heavy rain falling on

him the place behind them was already crowded, almost jammed.

    - "Guys, We're gettin' home, I'll help you put the stuff back home, I'll open

the garage." - said Ethon, after landing in front of the garage door he

opened it and Aegaeon drove the car inside the garage Ethon was to follow.

    - "Let's do this." - said Silicon enthusiastically.

    - "Yes let's do this. Let's arrange the stuff." - said Ethon.

    - "Where do I leave this?" - asked Hestia referring to the broken portrait.

    - "On the workbench, be carefull." - answered Ethon.

    - "Aegaeon put the silverware on the dining room, the money, the money

on the corner, I'll take care of it." - ethon pressed a button, causing a

trapdoor cleverly disguised below the money to open and drop the money

into a hole where there was even more money - "Boris designed and made

this all by himself, he was quite creative, and this is not the only secret this

house holds. Now the cutlery is in the kitchen, the plates on the kitchen too.

More...I take care of the decorative items, and of the clothing and butcher

tools if any were stolen. Give me that big box with vases, and deco plates

and miscelanious things." - he loaded a big box into his back and carried it

into the entry hall, when he opened the box he was surprised to see toys -

"They stole toys too?!?"

    - "They stole toys?" - asked an all too familiar voice behind him.

    - "He-Heillon?!?" - stammered Ethon with surprise.

    - "It's me!" - said Heillon.

    - "Look who's here! My favorite chimera!" - said Ethon pouncing on the

chimeric vampire gryphon forgetting about the fact he is three quarters of

his size and that he is quite heavier than the average gryphon.

    - "Watcho-[squack]!" - squacked Heillon when the heavy cyborg landed

on him - "Get off me, please!" - said the gryphon.

    - "Sorry, I hadn't counted on with my extra weight, sorry." - said the

cyborg.

    - "Well don't worry, come to me." - said Heillon.

 Ethon and Heillon preened each other's neck feathers, equivalent to a

loving kiss.

    - "You haven't changed a thing!" - said Ethon beholding Heillon, his right

side was white with bloody red stripes running from his head to hind

quarters and a green eye, he had a bloody red and iridescent crest, his left

side was black, with iridescent gold speckles, a iridescent golden crest and a

red eye.

    - "Well...you did changed a lot!" - observed Heillon

    - "Just missing some meat." - replied Ethon with a chuckle at the end.

    - "I bet the replacement is more durable, isn't it?" - said Heillon, they

laughed together.

    - "Help me arrange this stuff, put the toys in my bedroom." - said Ethon

giving the toys to Heillon, Heillon knew this toys now hold a special meaning

to him, they were given to him and his brother by their parents.

    - "Heillon! Heillon!" - called out Ethon, Heillon has been in his bedroom for

quite a while. Ethon walked towards his bedroom the door was leaning, the

lights were turned off. Ethon opened the door...

Chapter 9: Surprise    - "Crystalax, I know you are one of the best hired assassins around, and I want you to dispatch Ethon Nightwing from BloodSky, he's all over the news, so you should know who he is, but be carefull he is a hulk, the guy litteraly demolished a warehouse, you should know who I am talking about." - said a

hooded beaked figure with bloodshot eyes.    - "Yes. Have I ever disappointed any client?" - said Crystalax with an extremely high pitched voice eerily resembling the sound of glass being scratched.    - "If you're not carefull, you might..." - said the figure with a somber tone, seating on a large chair made out of bone and leather topped with several skulls from gryphons and not only...    - "I want to make this crystal clear, I will bring you his cyborg head as an evidence for you and trophy for me." - said Crystalax before flying away in crystal clear wings... Meanwhile at Ethon's...    - "SURPRISE!" - said Aegaeon, Hestia, Heillon, another two gryphons and two humans that pounced on Ethon afterwards.    - "By the Entities you're all here!" - said Ethon's muffled voice.    - "Surprise!" - said the fledgling jumping into the pile of people in the bedroom entrance.    - "Now get off me please, I want to see your faces!" - said Ethon.    - "We're all here dude." - said the dark skinned human leaning to the wall next to the door inside the bedroom.    - "Joane!" - exclaimed Ethon.    - "And me too, my little cotton candy." - said the light skinned blonde human female with disheveled hair and clothes, squeezing Ethon's cheeks.    - "Suzana! I thought your parents didn't let you be with gryphons?" - said Ethon.    - "Well, I left home to apply for a job, and when I knew what happened here I've decided to come here with Heillon, Joane, Aegaeon and Hestia. My parents don't know a thing about this, they don't even know that I've befriended gryphons." - explained Suzana.    - "What about you Azurys." - asked Ethon.    - "I'm your friend." - said the light blue Skedar gryphon.    - "I'm your frient too, so we came here to give you some support." - said the other skedar gryphon Hecaterus, Azurys's sister, she was light gray with yellow spots and yellow head.    - "Let's arrange this. It'll be way faster if we do it together." - said Ethon. Afterwards they arranged the things. Ethon's house had little furniture it had been all dismantled and stolen, but most of it was destroyed with the warehouse.    - "Your family will come tomorrow. The rest of your friends, could not come, they have jobs, but I assure you that they visited Boris, including everyone of us here." - informed Heillon.    - "What did you thought about him, how was he?" - asked Ethon about Boris.    - "He was fine, quite happy, he liked the place, but he wa desesperate to return home, then he told us to stay there, he even gave us the keys, but I already had a copy of them, so we went home, we visited him everyday until he was gone without a trace." - answered Heillon.    - "Thanks dude, thanks for all of you, we will sleep for a good while after a

good meal, then we will go there, no more talking about it, okay?" - said Ethon.    - "What are we going to eat?" - asked Joane.    - "Are you squeamish?" - asked Ethon.    - "I can handle anything." - said Suzana confidently.    - "I have horse, what do you want to drink, humans? Coke? Juice? Blood?" - asked Ethon.    - "I want the meat well cooked without blood, and for a dring I want coke." - said Joane assuringly    - "The same as him." - said Suzana.    - "For you three the main course will be blood, anything else?" - said Ethon to the vampire gryphons.    - "Coke too, I like fizzly drinks." - said Heillon.    - "I want small bits of meat in the blood." - said Hestia.    - "I just want the blood." - said Aegaeon, he was more simplistic.    - "We want the meat well spiced, but not too much cooked, with blood as a drink." - requested Azurys.    - "The same as him, but without the blood, just the main course." - requested Azuri's sister.    - "Wait a bit." - said Ethon.    - "You were fast!" - exclaimed Suzana.    - "I am a fast cook, now it is up to you to say wether it is good or bad." Before they could say a thing, the phone rang.    - "Who's there?" - said Ethon.    - "Ethon my sweetie, it's Hemera your auntie, I've got bad news and good news."    - "Yes, I'm getting worried."    - "There was an accident and the Portal broke, sorry we cannot come to you." - explained Hemera.    - "It's allright, I've got some friends with me, and what are the good news?" - replied Ethon.    - "There are many good news. First, it could be worse; second we're allright; third your cousin Satchimo has got a mate; fourth she is in the back of the car warming her eggs; fifth she already has three and the fourth is on the way, I'm so excited, and she is obviously nervous; sixth we're happy to know that you're not alone, and the seventh is that you're on the news, everyone talks about you!" - said Hemera excitedly.    - "There it goes my privacy." - complained Ethon.    - "Come on don't be pessimistic. We'll come to you, my feather pillow, sooner or later."    - "I want to talk to Satchimo,and don't call me that even if it's cute, it is just embarassing." - demanded Ethon, looking at his skedar gryphon friends, he overheard his aunt calling Satchimo.    - "How are you doing?" -  asked Satchimo.    - "I'm doing fine,even if I am not whole anymore." - said Ethon with a tinge of humor in his voice.    - "Dude I know about that. You're on tv, every news channel, the media is

crazy about your demolition, do you have it turned on?" - said Satchimo.    - "People turn the TV on. Any news channel. But I want it muted, I am talking." - ordered Ethon to his friends.    - "Now, Sat what about your mate, how is she?" - asked Ethon to Satchimo    - "She is laying her fourth egg, therefore I can't talk much now, she needs my support, as you must know laying eggs is painful." - said Stachimo in a hurry.    - "Feather pillow..." - whispered Azurys.    - "He is quite happy and pillowed [snort]." - commented Hestia finishing the sentence with an awkaward snort.    - "What do you think about the horse, humans" - asked Azurys.    - "A bit tough, but Ethon's a good cook." - answered Joane.    - "Very good, altough horse meat is a taboo in my society, and don't ask me why." - said Suzana.    - "It was very kind of him to save the blood." - said Heillon dipping his beak in the blood that was on a bowl.    - "He certainly thought about us." - said Aegaeon.    - "He is very caring about his friends, us." - said Heillon dipping his beak in the blood afterwards.    - "It is not polite to eat without everyone sitting in the table." - admonished Hecaterus, because some were eating and/or drinking while Ethon was talking to his family. After a while Ethon sat on the table, but unlike humans he sat on a pillow like all gryphons, a chair would be too uncomfortable.    - "It's my family, somehow the Gate broke, and now they are stuck there, and there is someone laying eggs." - said Ethon, taking a beakfull of warm, softly spiced meat afterwards.    - "I think I know his mate my fea-" - said Azurys before bursting into laughter - "Sorry, [caw, snort], I couldn't [laughter, caw, sort]!". Everyone laughs including Ethon.    - "[laughter trailing off]Please stop it, let's eat." - said Ethon.    - "I like it, do you have salad?" - asked Joane.    - "I don't have the ingredients for that, gryphons are strict carnivores, but what do you think about that bit of meat?" - said Eton referring to the large steak in Joane's dining plate.    - ""'Bit'?! This is  huge, the biggest steak I've eaten! Nothing compared to that massive hunk of meat you're eating, better slurping." - replied Joane.    - "Ethon, Humans are smaller that you gryphons, I mean you are way heavier that an average human, for example I weight 70 Kg, and the average bloodsky gryphon weights about 300 Kg or more, so you need considerably more food." - commented Suzana.    - "An average bloodsky gryphon eats your weight on meat. That is there will be another meal after this one, you humans eat if you want, we gryphons will eat the remaining 45 Kg, furthermore we don't have to eat for more than a day nottice that the food can be stored on the crop." - informed Ethon.

    - "What do you mean 'days', there's no daylight cycle in Bloodsky?!" - asked Suzana.    - "Here a day is a hundreth of a solar year." - informed Heillon - "Furthermore an average vampire gryphon can drink up to 10 liters of blood."    - "Where do you get all that blood from?" - asked Suzana.    - "Yeah! She is right. What if there is no blood for sale, what do you do? You suck people dry?" - asked Joane.    - "No! Of course not!" - said Hestia shocked - "In the case there is no blood for sale, we get it from a volunteer, we just take 14% of the volunteer's blood, and we don't bite the neck, only the most experient do that, the least experienced draw blood from a large vein in the arm if it is a human or ork or below the wing if it is a gryphon, sometimes from a well-fed vampire gryphon." - explained Hestia. The humans were expressionless.    - "Thaks for informing us." - said Suzana slowly.    - "Blood is a good drink, I don't know why humans don't like it, it is healthy for humans if cooked properly, very nutritious, we gryphons can eat it raw without harm to ourselves." - comments Ethon.    - "I like sucking intestines, after being properly cleaned of course, like a human sucks spaghetti." - says Azurys gleefully.    - "The heart is the best, you have to admit it." - said Hecaterus licking her beak.    - "Sorry, but the brains are the best, quite soft and easy to eat." - comments Aegaeon.    - "The lungs too, they feel funny in your mouth, they are spongy." - says Ethon.    - "Please, we're trying to eat." - Suzana complains.    - "Whom?" - mumbled Joane with his mouth full, Suzana facepalms and moans with exasperation - "Sorry, but I don't see what's wrong with what they are talking about." - replies Joane.    - "I'm going to the bed, sorry, I'm not hungry anymore, I'm disgusted." - says Suzana annoyed - "I want to sleep with Hecaterus." - she adds up before going to the living room.    - "Darling, sorry about that, darlin..." - says Joane, trying to apologise.    - "Please leave her, we all contributed to it." - says Hecaterus.    - "Second round for gryphons!" - says Ethon bringing the rest of the meat on a large tray. It was messily eaten by Ethon and the two skedar gryphons. The vampire gryphons were given more blood. After that, they cleaned their beak and talons of blood. They went to the living room. Hecaterus lay down besides Suzana, resting her head on Suzana's lap. Ethon switched off the tv on the dining room and cleaned the dishes in the kitchen. He came back and the large TV on the living room was activated, the news talked about Ethon, it even included footage from the site, showing the collapsing building and Ethon returning with the half-dead gryphon in his back and the fledgling in the cage, it also showed her release.    - "Where is she?" - asked Suzana.

    - "Right here." - says Hestia, she had her daughter sleeping below her right wing.    - "Let's go sleeping?" - sugested Ethon, they also agreed. Ethon and Heillon slept together in Ethon's bedroom, Aegaeon, Hestia and their daughter slept together on Bori's bedroom, Suzana and Hecaterus slept together on a large couch, Joane slept on a small couch. Eight, ten hours later they were fully awake, the humans were having their breakfast, gryphons were chattering, when, suddently the phone rang...

Chapter 10: Combat    - "Is it your family again?" - asked Aegaon.    - "I am going to answer the phone." - said Ethon.    - "Ehon, [heavy breathing] it's shriff come to [gargle] huting gronds, coo [gurgle] crrods 46'42'' Noth, 8'45'' Est , [muffled sounds, zip tie]." - said someone the other side of the phone it's speech was almost imperceptible.    - "Sheriff! Sheriff! I'm comming!" - said Ethon worried about the sheriff.    - "What happened?" - asked Heillon.    - "I'm going to check that out" - said Ethon speeding out of his home into the headquarters. The door had been broken into the sheriff was in a corner bloodied with several gashes on the arms, legs, wings and tail, and some cuts in the face his beak was tied shut with a zip tie, he cut the zip tie with a mechanical claw.    - "Sheriff, are you allright?" - asked Ethon, the sheriff only muttered the coords.    - "46'42'' North, 8'45'' East, go there,urgent." - muttered the sheriff tiredly - "Go get it!" - Ethon flew away into the coordinates mentioned by the sheriff, they showed up in the visor screen, the place was quite flat covered in short, black grass, when he landed something knocked him down.    - "Don't worry the sheriff is okay. I just played a bit with him, it was fun." - said the thing with a high pitched voice. Taking a better look at it Ethon could see a gryphon's face, the rim of the beak was rimmed with several considerably large crystalline inclusions, and above his eyes, three crystalline horns, its head had small crystalline scales that did not completely covered the head, it's right eye was a flat silicate lense, it had an uncanny resemblence with a video camera the other was a normal, organic eye - "But you...you'll be an entirely new story. Give me no trouble, and it will be the old fashioned decapitation, give me trouble and you will die ... nice and slowly. Any last words?"    - "Yes, screw you!" - said Ethon scornfully - "Silicon, 'fullarmor', please." - wispered Ethon then in an instant he was covered in hard armor plating the helmet slid from the back of the neck directly into his face, covering it.    - "Nice trick, but you should know my claws can cut thru metal like a knife thru butter. Further more call me Crystalax." - said Crystalax showing his left talon, its claws were overgrown with sharp crystal.    - "Get a better name squeaky voice, that looks like the name of a laxative." - said Silicon contemptuously.

    - "What the?!?" - said Crystalax surprised to suddently hear a feminine voice from Ethon's suit.    - "Take this, you crystal meth laxative." - says Ethon before hitting Crystalax with one of his thrusters, the impact broke some scales and pushed Crystalax sideways, allowing Ethon to stand up.    - "You're going to regret that!" - threatened Crystalax before being punched in the chest by Ethon, releasing an shrill screech of pain and several crystaline shards. It's body was unlike anything they've seen. Crystalline wings, silicate blades on the back, and the chest was overgrown with all kinds of crystals. Some were blunt, others sharp, some angular, others smooth and round, the hind quarters only had a bird-like tail made of thin and long crystalline panes like those of the wings, besides that the hind quartes were perfectly normal - "Prepare to see your guts on my claws!" - said Crystalax charging at Ethon.    - "Ditto!" - replied Ethon charging at Crystalax. It was a clash of claws they were equally strong, then Crystalax started lunging his beak at Ethon trying to bite him and Ethon avoided his assaults until Ethon gives a headbutt on Crystalax's neck cracking many crystaline scales that covered the neck exposing it's raw flesh Crystalax gasped a few times for air, and Ethon managed to free himself from it's clutches and shoved Crystalax causing it to fall into it's back. The blades on the back dug into the ground. Crystalax managed to stand upright again. Crystalline shards lay on the ground glittering on the sun's red light.    - "Now I'm angry." - Crystalax stood on it's hind legs and spread his arms open screeching, then it slammed its fists into the ground and letting out a shrill screech.    - "Screw you." - said Ethon. Crystalax lunged at Ethon. Ethon tucked his hind legs near the body as Crystalax tackled him and turned him upside down with his armored back flat against the ground. Crystalax was holding Ethon's arms,standing above Ethon looking into Ethon's eyes thru his visor.    - "Any last words besides 'Screw you'?" - asked Crystalax.    - "Of course that yes! Below you!" - said Ethon.    - "Screw you!" - he said whe he felt Ethon's mechanical claws pressing against it's upper abdomen.    - "Butcher time" - yelled Ethon slashing Crystalax's abdomen with his claws.    - "[screech of pain]Not again!" - screeched Crystalax staggering backwards clutching at his belly, but before it could do anything Ethon swiped at his neck. Silicate, flesh and blue blood went flying everywhere, Crystalax fell sideways still clutching to the belly, spilling his life to the ground, but within a second the bleeding lessened, another second later all the pipes had regenerated and a couple of seconds later all the neck muscles reconected and regenerated, Crystalax completely recovered from a massive wound in the neck, a wound that would be fatal on any other gryphon - "Only one head will roll!" - he said menacingly.    - "Only one will remain at the end of a neck, the other will pop off the

neck." - says Ethon threateningly.    - "You are right[screech]!" - he says charging at Ethon. Using the thrusters, Ethon dashes to the right - "Not so fast, I am faster than you." - says Ethon openly.    - "You cannot run forever, I'll get you." - shrieks Crystalax.    - "Let's go into high gear!" - yells Ethon standing upright and extending his claws.    - "I'll fuck your ass!" - shrieks Crystalax as its horns started glowing a deep blue, and so was the inside of it's mouth.    - "Get me if you can!" - yells Ethon while getting airborne. From Crystalax's mouth a searing stream of plasma erupts hitting Ethon in the chest and knocking him from the air, it lasts for a few seconds, but his chest was glowing a faint red.    The words: "Warning: critical surface temperature has been exceeded; light to moderate hull damage, repairing." appeared in the screen in red, Crystalax was charging another attack, this time Ethon barely managed to dodge it, the ground at the site of impact was vitrified by the scorching plasma, Crystalax began to charge another attack.    - 'shieldsup' - ordered Ethon while running towards Crystalax. The plasma was repelled by the repulsion field.    - "Ethon the shield is draining the power rapidly, I recommend you that-" - recommended Silicon.    - "When the beam disappears turn the repulsion field off." - ordered Ethon. When the plasma stream ceased, so did the repulsion field.    - "How did you-" - squealed Crystalax before being tackled by Ethon. Both went to the ground.    - "Fire another beam at me, and the repulsion field will disperse enough plasma to harm you." - said Ethon.    - "Clever little gryphon." - said Crystalax standing upright, it was slighter bigger than Ethon.    - "You haven't seen my brother, he's clever, and has an clever evil alter ego." - said Ethon.    - "Oh so? What does that matter?" - asked Crystalax.    - "Why are you after me?" - asked Ethon.    - "I am a paid assassin. I was paid to kill you, offer me more than a hundred kilos of gold, and I'll be at your service, sounds easy, right?" - answered Crystalax.    - "Did He hired you, kittybird?" - said Ethon.    - "Yes." - hissed Crystalax.    - "Oh so? Call him, and tell him that you might not come back." - replied Ethon.    - "Wait, what were we doing? Trying to kill each other, right? But, why? You know too much about Him, and what you did to the Zephirus gang, made him deem you too dangerous to live." - said Crystalax.    - "This time, I'll chop off your head! And them His heart will come off His chest, tell him to remember this words." - threatened Ethon.

    - "I'll make you wish to be dead, and take your head as a trophy for me and evidence for Him." - replied Crystalax.    - "Prepare your neck." - threatens Ethon. Crystalax laughs out loud, the sound bore an uncanny resemblance with the sound of scratching a blackboard with claws - "Sory, I couldn't keep myself quiet-" - Crystalax outstretches his neck while laughing, Ethon's helmet slides back to his neck, exposing his face, then he charges at Crystalax, striking at his neck with the beak, cutting it's blue flesh, the body stood still when the spinal cord was severed, sparks and plasma arcs came out of the spinal cord, but Ethon was bent on cutting it's head off, Crystalax was gasping, when Ethon slashed the major veins deep blue blood gushed into Ethon's face, and suddently without so much as a warning, silicon activates all the armor and warns Ethon.    - "Ethon get out of there, now." - Crystalax was looking angrily at Ethon, when Ethon was a two meters away from the body, the unforgettable happened, it's body erupted into a huge ball of scorching plasma that hurled him away.    - "Warning: moderate hull damage, repairing." - announced the suit via red words on the visor.    - 'noarmor' - commanded Ethon, looking at the smoldering crater, the radius of the blast was at least of ten meters - "How is this possible? How? The most intense battle of my life...how long this lasted for?" - asked Ethon.    - "It lasted for approximately six minutes and twenty two seconds." - answered Silicon.    - "The most intense five minutes of my life. Let's go back home..." - said Ethon, but his speech trailed off when he spotted a crystalline object in the middle of the smoldering crater, in it's epicenter, he grabbed it, and when he was taking off he heard wht looked like a phone. The small cubic device was behind a tree, it was boss that was calling, Ethon declined the call and left the device in the middle of the smoking crater, it was most certainly be tracked, Ethon went home, clutching to the lump of crystalline material, it was still hot.

Chapter 11: Trouble    - "Crystalax is not answering, you there, track Crystalax's device, and see what's happening, above all eslse, see if Ethon is dead, I want his head on a platter..." - He shouts to one of his gryphonic minions, before another one comes and switches the tv on, what apperared on the large screen in front of His throne was utterly outrageous, Ethon was alive, and Crystalax was dead He roared in outrage - "Ethon! Turn that off, change channel, whatever, but take that guy off my screen!" - He ordered, the one that came to switch it on ended up changing the channel to His favorite cartoon show, He thanked his servant - "Thanks, good, stay there, let Me calm down, it is just starting, when I calm down, I'll have time to come up with a plan."    - "The prisoneers are lucky, He likes this cartoon..." - wispers the servant to the other besides him before being addressed by his Boss.    - "Take me a prisoneer, a small one." - He orders.

    - "I regret what I've said." - wispers the servant - "Come with me, help me choose one." - he said fluttering his wings. Something was amiss, out of place. Mil'i was cooking, Boris was all cuddly sleeping in his cage, Mi'e was out playing, was she? Taq'a searched for her all over his house, when he called her out, she answered, but her voice came from Boris, more specifically under his wing, from there Mi'e's head popped out from between Boris's wing feathers.    - "I stay here, Boris cuddly today, I cuddle him, sleep with him." - answers Mi'e.    - "Stay there, when Boris cuddly no more call me." - said Taq'a, Boris puffed himself up and curled up on a tight ball of feathers and fur with Mi'e in the middle, Taq'a went to hunt with friends, taking his spear, knifes and poison darts with him, when he came back, it was already dark Mi'e was rubbing Bori's belly, Boris was purring loudly, and Taq'a ordered him - "Boris tomorrow you work." - Boris continued to purr.    - "Boris! Cuddle time over, wear bridle and saddle and go with friend Ze'arx get animals." - ordered Taq'a. Boris donned the bridle and saddled up, then Ze'arx clibmed onto his back and leaded him into a site below a rocky overhang and unearthed several animals that have been killed the last afternoon one of them was half of Bori's size, that was first loaded into Bori's back, the smallest were put on a skin bag, wich in turn was loaded into Bori's back, then they returned.    - "I swear that I've seen a camera." - thought Boris looking back at the overhang. When Boris arived home, the animals were unloaded, and Boris stowed away the saddle and the bridle, Taq'a hung the bigger animal on a rack by it's fore legs and then handed a large knife to Boris.    - "Gut azix." - commanded Taq'a. Boris tipped his head to the right - "Azix." - said Taq'a pointing at the large animal hanging from the rack - "Knife." - he said pointing at the knife, then he grabbed one of the smaller animals and slit it's stomach open and removed it's organs - "Gutting. Understand?"    - "Understood." - replied Boris when Taq'a handed the knife to him. Boris walked towards the corpse of the animal, he eyed it, it was green mottled with brown it's head was long and slim, it's mouth was full of small sharp teeth, it was obviously a carnivore. Boris made the first slit, exposing the abdominal wall.    - "Skin." - said Taq'a, gesturing with his fore claws. Ethon started skinning the animal, and Taq'a gave a nod of approval.    - "Where?" - asked Ethon holding the raw pelt in front of him, Mil'i and Mi'e carried the pelt away into a tanning rack.    - "Gut." - said Taq'a gesturing with a talon and nodding at the gutted animals. Then Boris cuts the animal's abdomen then removes the organs that were placed on a tray along with the organs of the other animals.    - "Now what?" - asked Boris suddently they heard strange sounds - "What's going on?" - he asked.

    - "It comes from the Glade of the Golden, Boris, saddle up, we're going there." - ordered Taq'a, Boris donned his bridle and saddle, and then Taq'a guided him to the Glade of the Golden, they arrived there before everyone else did. The Glade of the Golden was near Sky Mountain, below it's rim, it had a waterfall comming from Sky Mountain, that formed a lake below it and a river from the lake, there was a stone temple thing near the lake, it had two beds, a kitchen counter, several meathooks with large hunks of dryed and salted meat above the said kitchen counter, there were several clay vases, some were broken, the place was decorated with gold almost everywhere, the carvings on the stones were filled with gold and gems, there were signs of struggle all around, Taq'a pressed a large stone button, and a bell rang under them, Taq'a rang the bell five more times.    - "They not here, they were taken. But why?" - sugested Boris.    - "They are strong, they make you not die, they have strong magic." - counters Taq'a.    - "The others could silence magic, then abduct them, or they could dodge magic attacks and then stun them, or someone distracts and someone else strikes them." - says Boris trying to make Taq'a understand his point.    - "Fact, they were taken, by who, for what?" - says Taq'a to himself.    - "Look there, that overhang looks articicial, I'm going up." - says Boris taking off and flying close to the hill.    - "Here!" - orders Taq'a, but it is too late, Boris is ariborne, Taq'a without ranged weapons. Many people start gathering around the place.    - "Let's see if the book is right." - He says before releasing a manic laugh. Both gryphons had golden plumage and fur, each feather looked like a sheet of gold, and each hair looked like a thin gold wire, the eyes were pupilless, pure white, the inside of their beak and ears was pale pink. Both gryphons had a magic harness with a nullifying spell, so they couldn't cast harmfull spells.    - "What do you want from us?" - asked one of the gryphons.    - "Immortality!" - He said.    - "We won't give you that, by the way, my name is Erion'Aam, and his is Ceraon'Quaaz, call us Erion and Ceraon. - said the other gryphon, this one had four horns.    - "You look so brave, but a knife on the neck takes all that bravado down, I'll make this clear, you will give me immortality the easy way or the hard way, choose." - He threatened.    - "You cannot force us to give you immortality." - countered Ceraon.    - "This book says that I can force you to give Me immortality. To do so, I must drink your blood for thirty three days of here, and the blood must come directly from the heart, and believe me, I can do that." - He said grimly.    - "But if you do that, we'll die, like everyone else, if you cut our chest open, we'll die." - says Erion.    - "I will come up with a way to take blood from your heart. Brazion, thake this two to their room." - He ordered one of His minions, a harpy that took

the gryphons away, thru a corridor with several cells with humans, ogres and gryphons in deplorable conditions, some had lost most feathers, they all looked starved, finally they arrived to a padded cell with a screen and they were given some sort of humid, brown stuff to eat.    - "Now what?" - asked Ceraon.    - "Hello there, I'll give you a day to meditate about this proposal. Here it is, you give Me immortality, I will free you and give you plenty of gold and gems." - He said throught the screen.    - "Take that hood off, and show us your face." - ordered Erion.    - "Any way, we won't give you immortality just because you want. You abducted us, if you had came down there and talked to us, you would have a chance, but, you must prove you deserve it, and above all, you must prove that you are ready for it, because it is a burden." - says Ceraon.    - "You both refuse it, rigth?" - He asks.    - "Yes." - say the golden gryphons in unison.    - "Well, I've got something for one of you." - He says eerily.    - "What? Nothing good, I see." - says Erion scornfully.    - "A medical experiment, choose a volunteer among you, [snarl], and do it quickly, or there will be a terrible surprise for you." - threatens the hooded figure on the screen known as Him.    - "I-I'll go." - volunteers Ceraon the, screen goes dark. After a while they hear steps and the door opens - "Ceraon, come with us." - says the mysterious gryphon accompanied with another two, those other two wore a white apron. Ceraon was bigger that any one of them, as he came out he saw two humans, each with a weapon. They led him to a room full of instruments, some were menacing, others not so much, it had a padded bed with straps in the middle, it was made out of metal, there were bins of unknown content, there was a drain in the far left corner of the room, there were sprinklers on the ceiling, the room was clean. Ceraon he was laid belly up on the bed, and straps were fastened around his wrists, torso, neck and ankles - "Are you comfortable like that? Because doctor Paenon is preparing the probe." - He said.    - "Probe?!?" - says Ceraon.    - "You won't feel a thing, you'll be sedated." - informs Paenon, preparing a syringe full of sedative.

Chapter 12: Overhang

When Boris reached the overhang's smooth top he had a crossbow pointed

at the forehead. Boris looked into the human's eyes.

   - "Haven't you seen two golden gryphons or something similar?" - asked

Boris.

   - "Someone's looking for the golden gryphons, what should I do?" - asked

the human thru a intercommunicator.

   - "Do you have the situation under control? If you do, kill whoever asked

that, he cannot tell anyone alse that we are here." - answered the other one

in a low voice.

   - "Understood." - said the human before turning to address Boris - "It's

game over gryffy." - he said squeezing the trigger, but Boris, realizing that

the human intended to kill him, bit the crossbow, and with a swift

movement of the head, he took it away from the human's grasp -

"Reinforcements, please [scream]!" - called the human before being thrown

off the cliff. Reinforcements came from a door, they were two gryphons

equipped with a wrist gun and a human with a sword.

   - "Let the games begin." - said Boris before pouncing on a gryphon and

breaking his neck, then the human unsheathed the sword before jumping

and kicking Boris in the face, a mistake, because right after that Boris

swung his head at the human, knocking her down, then she swung the

sword at Boris, but he blocked the attack with his left arm, the he used the

same arm to punch the other gryphon, that was charging at him intent on

biting his neck, then the human swung her sword at his neck, Boris dodged

the blade, but the woman managed to make a small cut on his neck, Boris

jumped into the rim of the overhang, despite being smooth, the overhang

allowed traction. The gryphon fired the gun, it burnt some tail feathers, the

human looked like some kind do ninja as she jumped into Boris's back, and

when she was raising her sword and pointing it at Boris's back, he stood in

his hind legs throwing the human off the cliff.

   - "Send more reinforcements, orcs and gryphons only." - ordered the

gryphon to someone else using a intercommunicator.

Boris lunged at the gryphon, but the gryphon knocked Boris down, Boris

punched the gryphon that retributed with another punch, but then more

reinforcements came, two orcs and a gryphon, all of them armed with wrist

guns, Boris jumped back to catch the sword the human had dropped,

plasma was fired at him, forcing him to take cover below the overhang, he

was hovering below it, from this position he could see that the overhang

was made out of resin, he could even see the bolts securing it in place and

the seams between the panels that made the ovenhang's 'skin'.

   - "Is he dead?" - asked a voice belonging to one of the ogres.

When one of the ogres peeked over the rim of the overhang, Boris, using

the sword to chop down the ogre's head, Boris flew upwards, the ork's

headless body also fell towards the ground below. Boris landed behind

them, then he lunged at the other ogre that turned to face him, but before

he could do anything, Boris slit his stomach open, spilling his bowels into the

floor, then a gryphon tackled Boris, causing him to drop the sword.

   - "Dude, cut his head off, and do it now, he is strong." - said the gryphon

to another one, outstretching Boris' s neck with his talons. The other

gryphon raised the sword, aiming it at Boris's neck, but Boris freed his head

from the clutches of the gryphon, preventing the other gryphon from

beheading Boris - "Damm it, stick that thing on his chest!" - orders the

gryphon, the other gryphon raises the sword, points it at Boris's chest, but

he is shot in the heart with an arrow, he falls dead on top of both Boris and

the gryphon - "Reinforc-" - says the gryphon before being killed in the same

way.

   - "Just in time, milky." - says a two headed gryphon with iridescent blue

feathers, cobalt blue fur, massive wings and a hump above the wings, like

that of a bison, it was huge for a gryphon, more that twice of Boris's size, it

had a quiver on each side, and a crossbow attatched to the left arm - "By

the way, call me Cobalt. When addressing both of us, just call us Cobalt

Blue." - says the left head as the massive gryphon lands - "Call me Blue, this

are our codenames, we won't tell anyone our real name for obvious

reasons." - says the other head, fluffing up in an explosion of hues of blue

iridescence.

   - "By the way, my name is Boris, not 'milky'." - says Boris shoving the

dead bodies aside and chuckling - "Good shot, you both."

   - "How did you got here, normally people only get here whenever they are

taken as prisoneers to their hideout." - says Cobalt.

   - "It's a long story. I fell asleep on my room and woke up on that beach" -

says Boris nodding at the coastline before five gryphons come rushing thru

the door - "Let's do it." - says Boris, taking the plasma gun from the wrist of

a dead gryphon and putting it on his's own wrist.

   - "Do you know how to use these?" - asks Cobalt - "Without hurting

yourself."

   - "I'll know, for now I'll use the sword." - says Boris.

   - "Well, I'll cover you." - says Cobalt shooting an arrow while standing

upright.

   - "I'll butcher." - says Boris, smiling eerily and swinging his sword - "Damm

it this was made for humans." - says Boris having difficulty hitting someone

with the sword, Cobalt Blue was shooting the others with their arrows, until

he succeeded to cut someone's wing off, and then slitting the gryphon's

throat, the gryphon clutched to his throat, and thrashed about, spraying

blood all over the place and Boris laughed as the gryphon died.

   - "I've slew four, and you've slain one, milky, you are too slow, get used to

that or get killed. You were almost slain, we saved you." - informs Cobalt

Blue while collecting the arrows from the bodies of the dead gryphons.

   - "I'm getting used to this sword. But I've killed one without getting killed.

And don't call me milky, that's silly." - replies Boris.

   - "You slew the poor creature in a very awfull way. And don't laugh at that,

it's nasty." - admonished Blue looking at the still twitching body.

   - "Look." - says Boris before kicking the dying gryphon with a hind leg in

an act of mockery - "Let's go."

   - "Horrors await us." - says Cobalt Blue opening the door, there was a

corridor behind it,it led to a large dome shaped room with a large screen

that lit up as soon as they entered the room, and a blast door behind them

closed.

Chapter 13: Butchery   - "Wellcome [raises voice] to the arena!" - says a hooded figure that appeared in the screen - "Whant these?" - says the figure turning the camera to show the two golden gryphons, they were trussed up - "But no, sorry, they are mine, and I want so badly to see you both dying, -" - says the hooded figure turning the camera towards himself. Suddently the other three blast doors open, revealing several gryphons each one held a gryphonic sword, their jagged blades glittered in the lights of the floodlights - "- let the battle begin." - said the hooded figure, looking at them with bloodshot eyes. Cobalt Blue loaded the crossbow with an arrow, Boris held the sword with his right hand horizontally in front of him, their wings spread out. The other gryphons charged at them screeching their defiance, some of them took off into the air holding their swords with both talons.

   - "We're outnumbered." - says Boris worriedly.

   - "We'll fight 'till the end." - says Cobalt Blue taking off into the air.

   - "Time to get a better weapon." - says Boris standing upright and

charging at the nearest gryphon. He jumped into the air, with the help of his

wings in order to avoid the opponent's sword, as he faced the charging

gryphon, that was standing upright too, Boris held the sword high above his

head and when he was in the ideal position, thrusted it into the opponent's

chest with such force that ribs were broken and the sword came out thru the

spine. Boris grabbed the dying gryphon's ragged sword and used it to

decapitate another gryphon that came swooping from above, there was

another gryphon charging at him on all fours, Boris split the gryphon's skull

in half with the sword, spilling brain matter into the ground. Cobalt Blue

were relentlessly shooting down gryphons, Boris jumped into the air, and

bringing his sword in a sweeping arc, he cracked open a gryphon's chest, a

gryphon dangerously close to the one who saved his life, he looked at the

cracked open chest, he could see it's insides working, another gryphon

charged at  him, but this time the gryphon was not impulsive, the gryphon

dodged Boris's sword and swung his own sword at Boris. Boris blocked the

incomming sword with his left arm, grabbing it's blade,then he thrusted his

sword into the opponent's left side of the chest, the end of the blade came

out in the other side, Boris pulled the sword towards himself, cutting the

gryphon's chest transversely in half and staining Boris's already

bloodstained white coat with more blood.

    - "Good, continue bathing me in blood" - said Vyre's demonic voice on

Boris's mind.

 Cobalt Blue was holding up well, but the gryphons were tough, some died

with five or more arrows stuck in the chest, while others were killed with a

single arrow, Cobalt Blue was running low on arrows, Boris hastened to take

the intact arrows from the bodies of fallen enemies and retrieve them to

Cobalt Blue, holding them in his beak, but not before being intercepted by

two gryphons, Boris blocked a sword with his own, the other gryphon swung

his sword at Boris, Boris dodged, but could not avoid being injured by the

other gryphon, that made a nasty gash in Boris's chest below the left arm,

then Boris grabbed the sword with his left, cybernetic arm, then he turned

to the other gryphon and grabbed his blade too, then both gryphons

dropped their swords, and each one grabbed a sword from the ground, and

as they turned to face Boris, he had jumped into the air, the move caught

both gryphons by surprise, a surprisingly agile move, Boris swung the

sword, tearing a gryphon's throat open and beheading the other. Another

gryphon holding a gryphonic knife on each hand charged at Boris fom the

right, striking with both knifes, one opened a deep gash on Boris's right arm,

and the other missed Boris's neck by a little, only plucking some feathers

from it. Boris Tore the gryphon's throat with his own beak, gushing warm

blood all over his face, behind him another gryphon, this time armed with a

sword charged at Boris, then a gryphon Cobalt Blue had shot fell on top of

him, and Boris took an arrow from the dead gryphon's body and stuck it into

the other gryphon's chest and into his heart, then Boris gave the arrows he

had secured in his beak to Cobalt Blue, that thanked him for the arrows. A

gryphon that had been shot twice charged at Boris weakly, standing upright,

Boris slashed the gryphon's chest, bones cracked as the sword came down

on the gryphon's chest with such force that the gryphon was pinned to the

ground, the sword was still cutting thru the gryphon's body, blood gushed

from the cut as the sword severed arteries and veins, the sword opened a

massive gash from the base of the neck to the base of the tail, blood and

entrails spilled to the ground on a warm gush. Boris stood back on all fours,

he ran, stepping on the entrails and squirting their contents out, Boris

charged at a last gryphon, but the gryphon ran away with the tail between

his legs, suddently an unarmed gryphon charged at Boris, causing him to

drop the sword, both gryphons engaged on a fierce fight, on a ferroconcrete

floor stained with blood, many corpses were piled around where Cobalt Blue

was fighting. Cobalt Blue landed and pointed his crossbow at the gryphon

that was fighting with Boris, but another gryphon about Boris's size rose

from a pile of bodies with three arrows stuck into his chest, holding a sword

with the blade perpendicular to the ground on his left talon, the gryphon

jumped in front of Cobalt Blue, grabbed Cobalt's neck and thrusted his

ragged sword into Cobalt Blue's chest and then he twisted the sword,

tearing Cobalt Blue's chest organs into ribbons, spurting blood into his talon,

then he removed the blade from their chest, leaving a mortal, bleeding

wound between the necks, and they collapsed into the unyielding ground

gasping for air, and then the gryphon wiped both sides of the blade on their

coat, staining it with their own blood. Boris managed to rip his opponent's

heart out, tossing the twitching organ aside, just to come across the sight of

his dying saviors, with a gryphon walking around them sneering at them,

uttering insults.

   - "Look who's here, Cobalt Blue. Ex gryphon, soon you'll be a stuffed

animal among with your friend and many others. You are not a hero you are

not brave you are stupid. You have a chicken heart or you had [caw of

laughter], now you have mush instead [laughter]. Now do me a favor and

die! - says the gryphon before being chalanged by Boris.

    - "Face me! No weapons." - says Boris in defiance.

    - "As you wish." - says the gryphon with a hoarse voice, laying the sword

on Cobalt Blue's back and charging at Boris. He jumped into the air with the

forelegs ready to attack.

 Boris slammed his fists into the gryphon's head, the gryphon clawed at

Boris's face, Boris bit his arm, the gryphon grabbed a flap of skin on Boris's

chest and tore it away exposing the muscle below, Boris felt no pain at all,

he never felt pain since that accident.

    - "I feel no pain, but I bet you do" - says Boris before lifting the opponent

by the neck and slamming him into a wall, he clawed at Boris's talon,

gasping for air, then Boris lifted the other talon and used it to slash open the

gryphon's belly open, spilling his intestines, the gryphon released a scream

of horror and pain as he stared at his exposed organs and then at Boris's

eyes, then at Boris's mad, red left eye. Boris lets go the gryphon that stays

there clutching his entrails and gasping for air - "Cobalt Blue!" - calls Boris,

Cobalt Blue only hisses, and blood squirts from the large gash between the

necks - "Sorry for doing this to you." - apologises Boris, that the bursts into a

high pitched cry of sadness, Cobalt only nods in disapproval, Blue manages

to write something in front of him with his right talon, it said "It's not your

fault, it's His fault, now do what you feel is right." Boris looks at it - "I guess

you want my consciousness clean, but I will bear the guilt of your death.." -

says Boris with tears streaming from his eyes - "I guess being sad won't

help, it'll do the opposite." - says Boris, lowering his body to match Cobalt

Blue's height, then Blue and Cobalt preen Boris's neck feathers, Boris preens

their neck feathers, Boris comes closer to them and puts his hands below

their arms, and then he lifts them, so they could hug him and nuzzle against

his abundant, bloodstained neck feathers, and they kept that position until

Cobalt Blue's body was cold.

    - "Please kill me." - asks the gryphon that Boris had disemboweled, Boris

looked at him, his left eye was glowing red.

    - "How about no!" - says Boris, turning to the screen and yelling at it -

"Show your face, don't be a coward, face me, be a gryphon and face me!"

    - "Here it is, come." - says the hooded figure as one of the four blast

doors opens and Boris enters the corridor behind.

Chapter 14: Cooldown    - "Ethon, where is that guy?" - asks the sheriff, with the wounds all stitched up and covered in bandages.    - "Are you allright?" - asks Aegaeon.    - "This is what is left of it." - says Ethon presenting the crystalline remains of Crystalax - "It blew up, leaving only this."    - "What is that?" - asks Heillon.    - "I don't know, but it is pretty, and where is Suzana? - asks Ethon.    - "She's talking to her parents, I think they know she is here." - answers Hestia.    - "And she is not coming up with any good excuse, her parents are quite angry." - says Azurys with an ear turned towards Suzana like an parabolic antenna, suddently Suzana started yelling.    - "Sorry if you don't like gryphons, but I do, now bye!" - said Suzana before returning to the headquarters - "Sorry, my parents found a way to break into my privacy and track me, and now they want me back home!" - she said with an annoyed tone in her voice - "You're back! What happened to you, you sustained some damage. And what is that?" - asked Suzana

changing her tone.    - "First, that thing blasted plasma at me, it was about...Silicon what was the themperature of the plasma?" - answers Ethon before requesting data from Silicon.    - "The streams were about 5023 K, the blast was about 9010 K in it's center, but that temperature only lasted for a milisecond, you were exposed to temperatures up to 6901 K." - informs Silicon helpfuly    - "Thanks. As I was saying, that thing spat plasma at me, then, using the deflector shields to protect myself, I managed to cut into the thing's neck wit my bare beak, and then Silicon covered me, and told me to run away, it was when the thing just blew itself up. It was the explosion that reached almost ten thousand Kelvin." - says Ethon. Gasps of amazement escaped from the mouths and beaks of their friends.    - "Let's go home, before we get trapped here by the media." - advised Heillon.    - "Goodbye, I will delay them. Trust me." - says the sheriff.    - "Trust him, he can come up with anything, even anecdotes and stories, made up or not." - says Ethon reassuringly.    - "Let's go, I can hear the journalists, let's fly above the houses." - says Hecaterus, twitching an ear.    - "What about us?" - asks Joane.    - "On my back." - says Ethon squatting on all fours and nodding to his back.    - "What, you want us to mount you?!?" - asks Suzana.    - "Or you'd rather be carried with these." - says Azurys wiggling his talons in front of the humans.    - "At least something soft." - says Sauzana.    - "Have you heard of gryphon riders? No? Be one now, it is your chance." - says Joane to Suzana pointing at Ethon.    - "Come on, you both, on my back now!" - shouts Ethon, both humans comply. All the five gryphons flew off, Ethon took off softly with the humans on top of him, then he went after his friends, both humans held tight to Ethon's body. The journalists were arriving the place, and the sheriff intercepted them, and they were obviously interested in him.    - "Who's that guy?" - asks Suzana - "He's huge!"    - "That's Nessus Starcrest, he went to the wizard school some ten years ago, and by years, I mean the years from his homeworld, he has been in the Malalaka Magic School, and old friend of mine, you'll know him now." - says Ethon to his humans friends.    - "Hello." - saluted Ethon - "Dismount, please?" - orders Ethon to the humans mounted in his back.    - "Ethon?!? I mean, hello." - says Nessus confusedly.    - "Yes, I'm Ethon NightWing, and you should be Nessus Starcrest, right?" - says Ethon.    - "Of course I am, you silly!" - shouts Nessus happily, hugging Ethon.    - "You haven't changed anything! Fluffy as allways." - says Ethon joyfully with his head burried in Nessus's neck feathers, feeling his scent.

    - "You on the other hand..." - says the large gryphon, he was almost twice the size of his cyborg friend, his beak was quite large and sturdy, he had a strong, stocky build, his legs were proportionally shorter than Ethon's, and he had broad wings. The primaries were cobalt blue, the secondaries ocean blue, the coverts were petrol blue, and the remaining feathers were indigo, the fur was white, and the tail feathers were ocean blue and it's coverts petrol blue. He had a silky, embroidered backpack, and a bracelet with a star saphire in his right wrist, the symbol of the school he was in.    - "It doesn't matters, what matters is that we're here. Furthermore I'm fine, it takes time to get used to this." - answers Ethon.    - "Well, I came here because the only way I could get here is by ending formation." - says Nessus.    - "You finished formation! That's awesome, now you can stay here whenever you want, right?" - says Ethon excitedly.    - "Yes, I can, but I must get a job. Or..." - says Nessus.    - "We'd better go inside." - says Hecaterus with a serious tone.    - "Yes, the journalists are just down the street." - says Suzana as Heillon opens Ethon's home door and Hestia and Aegaeon enter Ethon's home after Heillon, then Azurys and Joane got into the house - "We talk later, journalista are boring as everything."    - "What about me? I'm big! How am I suposed to go thru that?" - complains Nessus.    - "We'll help you." - says Suzana with glee.    -  "Yes, we are." - says Ethon.    - "Let's see if I can fit." says Nessus giving his backpack to Ethon before trying to go thru the doorway, and he succeeds, but not without leaving some tufts of fur and feathers behind and without Suzana, Joane and Ethon pushing him tru the door - "Damm, this is tight."    - "Let's go." - says Ethon.    - "There's some kind of vase here, could someone be so kindly and remove this from here?" - says Nessus when he is confronted with a vase on top of a stand.    - "I gave this to him." - says Heillon with a sweet voice, while grabbing the colourful vase. Azurys then moves the stand and puts it on the kitchen. When they arrived the living room, Nessus curled up on the large, round couch, only his head was peeping up, then all vampire gryphons laid alongside Nessus, looking at him with begging eyes.    - "Where do you want your backpack?" - asks Ethon.    - "There, my sweet hunk of metal." - says Nessus pointing at a corner.    - "I've been called fluff ball, cotton candy, feathered pillow, and many more, but 'sweet hunk of metal'?!? That's new." - says Ethon confusedly before being pulled by Nessus to the couch, Nessus puts Ethon between himself and the vampire gryphons. Heillon climbs into Ethon's back and then he huddles himself between Ethon and Nessus and starts looking at Nessus's eyes.    - "Ethon's mine." - says Heillon sweetly, hugging Ethon and preening his neck feathers.

Chapter 15: Again The blast door closes behind Boris. The re were gryphons on the dimly lit corridor. One of them started to stomp rhythmically, then the others also started to stomp along with the first. Then some started to flutter the wings rhythmically, and others started chanting and squawking. Then the corridor ended and the noise ended. The corridor ended on a large, well-lit room, it was dome shaped shaped, it had a bone throne, and a large screen in the opposite side of the room, relative to the throne, it had seven collumns, the screen was between two, and the throne was embebed into one. Sitting in the throne was a figure, the hooded figure, it had bloodshot eyes, and a beak, but there was something wrong with it, it lacked a lower jaw to it's left the golden gryphons.    - "Come to me!" - roared Boris, the roar exalted everyone around him, every human, ork, gryphon, and a few gryphon sized dragons shouted Boris's sentence.    - "Squeezer! Squeezer!" - they yelled, the hooded person rose into it's feet, and averyone went silent, Boris had gryphonic spears pointed at him, they pressed against his flesh, poking more holes in his hide. The hooded figure was bipedal, it had bird-like feet, it rose an bird-like arm.    - "Bring in the squeezer." - said the hooded figure. Several orks came with a device, it was composed of a upright bed mounted on a adjustable frame with two eletric motors that allowed the bed to rotate, the bed had four strong straps, it had several eletric motors behind and a tray below it, a human carried a remote for the device and gave it to the Hooded that pressed a button and the bed rotated, acquiring a horizontal stance and started descending towards the ground. The human loosened the straps - "Lay and feel comfortable." - said the Hooded.    - "What about no?" - said Boris softly.    - "Bring me a gryphlet, a young and cute one, now." - ordered the Hooded, a gryphon carried a small fledgling in his beak, the Hooded grabbed the fledgling by the left wing and the small creature screamed and squirmed in pain, then the Hooded unsheathed a wicked gryphonic knife - "Lay or this little guy will suffer more." - said the Hooded, at the same time he made a cut in the gryphlet's belly, the poor creature screamed for his parents. Boris's left eye glowed more intensely, the right eye started to acquire a reddish hue.    - "Don't!" - said Boris with a double voice - "I'll go!" - said Boris after a moment of hesitation, he layed on the bed, a strap was fastened around his waist, another around the middle of his belly, the other below the chest, and the fourth below the arms. At the Hooded's command, the bed was upright again. Boris was suspended by the fourth strap, the hands were tied in front of him. Hooded pressed another button and the fourth strap tightened around Boris's chest.    - "This will be so much fun. Bring this guy's mother and dad, I want them to see this spectacle." - ordered the Hooded, then the fledgling's parents were brought in by four gryphon thugs and grabbed the little thing, they were sobbing - "Look at the one who saved your daughter's life, he is going

to have his bowels sqweezed out." - he said before bursting into laughter - "You're lucky, you are the first to try my new toy, any last words?"    - "Fuck you!" - hiss-growls Boris slowly. His eyes were glowing a bloody red, the Hooded pressed the button to activate, but the machine broke. There was a fain white glow below Boris's scar - "Time to die!" - hiss-growled Boris the light below the skin glowed brightly, and a large eletric spark shot out of it, hitting the magic harness that restrained Ceraon's powers and burning the ropes that restrained his movements, freeing Ceraon that grabbed the Hooded and threw it off the throne, then he freed Erion, Erion used magic to free Boris that lunged himself at the Hooded, taking his hood off, the upper jaw was a gryphon's beak, the lower jaw was a human jaw, behind the head was human hair, the rest of the head was bare skinned, the eyes were human in appearance, what was supposed to be the white of the eye was red like the iris. Boris lifted the Hooded. There were gasps of surprise coming from everyone, the entire place stopped. Boris ripped the Hooded's clothes off, revealing a human torso, arms and legs, except for the hands and feet, wich were gryphon-like and scaled, his torso was scarred. Erion grabbed the Hooded and tied him with the ropes that were used to tie him.    - "He will be executed for his crimes by the prisoneers that are in the dungeon." - says Erion, dragging the Hooded to the dungeon.    - "How do you know where the dungeon is?" - asks Boris.    - "Cobalt Blue told me." - answers Erion with sorrow.    - "I'm going with you." - hiss-growls Boris. When they arrived to the dungeon, Erion orders Boris to keep the Hooded. Erion releases about fifty prisoneers in total, they look at the Hooded - "This is the boss of this all." - the escapees looked at Erion, Erion agreed with Boris. A gryphon shoved Boris and threw the Hooded into the middle of the croud and he was torn apart. When everything settled the ground was bloodied, and Boris was missing.    - "Not again!" - said Erion.

Chapter 16: Search    - "Heillon, let my ear go, please." - says Ethon, Hellon lets the ear go - "We will search for Boris, we'll go the asylum, we'll go thru the back door. Who wants to go?" - asked Ethon.    - "I'll go!" - said Heillon assertively.    - "Me too." - said Nessus.    - "You'll come back here, right?" - asked Joane.    - "Yes, we are, don't worry. Don't feel obliged to come with me, you come if you want." - says Ethon.    - "So, I'll stay here making the dinner for you. I don't like rain, and damm, it rains a lot here." - says Joane. Ethon gets worried about his crop.    - "I'm going to see what's going on the media, if you don't mind, I'm curious about what the sheriff has to say." - says Aegaeon turning the TV on, Hestia was already making the dinner.    - "We'll come." - said Hecaterus.

 Ethon, Heillon, Azurys, Hecaterus and Nessus flew away. When arriving to the asylum, Ethon asked for his brother, he was led to the room, Azurys could smell the sea.    - "You obviously left this as it was, and insulated, and you did well, because I can detect the smell of the sea, and somehow he sort of opened a portal to the sea or a place near an ocean, like a beach." - said Azurys.    - "[whistle] I heard skedar gryphons had a good sense of smell, but I never thought it was this good." - said the nurse - "I think Boris is a Portal Opener. Visit the observatory, they might have noticed the opening of the wormholes." - advised the nurse in a flash of inspiration. The gryphons followed the man's advice and flew off into the BloodSky observatory.    - "We are searching for a Portal Opener." - said Ethon.    - "I think We've noticed one, on a far off planet outside the galaxy, some hours ago, but why do you want to find one so badly?" - says the director of the observatory, a bloodling.    - "The Portal Opener I'm looking for is my brother." - says Ethon pointing a talon at himself.    - "You'll need a FTL ship to get there, or you'll need to go thru a Portal, but remember the place around the Portal is a war zone, there are more or less four nations at war, each one trying to get the Portal to itself." - warned the director.    - "Thanks, but now, the question is: will the authorities allow us to go thru it?" - asks Nessus to himself enigmatically.    - "Try, I've got the path leading to the Portal on my phone, anyone has a device where I can download it to?" - said the drector holding the device in the palm of his hand.    - "I can do it, download it  into me, that is possible, right?" - says Ethon.    - "Yes, and we're ready to recieve the files." - says Silicon. The files are then transfered to Ethon's computer, now he can visualize the map in his own helmet. They thanked the Director before going back home.    - "Are you sure you want to go to a war zone?" - asks Heillon worriedly.    - "Yes, I'll do everything to find my brother, even if it means death to me." - says Ethon decisively.    - "Then I'll go with you, we're partners in everything." - says Heillon boldly.    - "I'll go with you too, you are my friend, you supported me, I supported you, even being separated by light years, I'll help you even if I have to die trying." - says Nessus hardily, flying above Heillon and Ethon as if he was putting then under his wings.    - "We and Joane have to depart tomorrow, sorry." - says Azurys with sorrow - "But I would die, if that meant saving you all and reuniting you with your brother."    - "We'll depart soon." - said Ethon. When they arrived home, Nessus told everyone what they were going to do, they were surprised by their boldness.

    - "If you are going with us, you'll have to kill people, you know that, halfsider, don't you?" - asks Nessus with a serious and somber tone.    - "What?!? Me, kill?!" - said Heillon sheepishly.    - "You have sharp fangs, you can easily tear someone's carotid open and drain your victim of blood, you just have to bite behind the skull, in the middle of the neck." - said Nessus pointing at his neck, just above the jaw, to the place where one could feel the pulse.    - "I don't know, if I can kill someone, but I can hunt for you." - says Heillon dejectedly - "I'm going to get my car working." - says Heillon walking to the door.    - "Don't! The journalists are comming! I can see it." - says Aegaeon.    - "Heillon, we'll protect you. I will use my car that is in the backyard, let's go. I hope you have everything you need, ropes for example" - says Ethon. Heillon goes to Ethon's room, brings a spiked collar and wears it.    - "I allways wanted to wear this." - says Heillon.    - "And you, Nessus?" - asks Ethon.    - "I have everything on this backpack." - says Nessus.    - "You don't eat?" - asks Joane - "I've got something for you."    - "Allright, but time's running out." They ate well, and like Ethon expected, there was too little meat, and too much plant, after saying goodbye, they entered Ethon's car, and departed towards BloodSky's Portal. On they way, they saw Ethon's family.    - "Don't worry, they'll tell them what we are going to do." - said Nessus, trying to comfort Ethon that shed a tear, it was hard for him, going to a war zone, just to find his brother, but it wasn't just to find his brother, it was to rebuild two lives, Ethon's and Boris's. It took them two days to arrive to the Portal, there was a lot of traffic in and out of the Portal. When they crossed the portal, it revealed a tangle of twisted pathways, some were as wide as highways, others so narrow that one could only transverse them on foot. Guided by the indications the observatory's  director gave them, they stopped in front of the Portal, they were meant to use.

Chapter 17: Visitors The shackles felt heavy on my feet, the chains dragged as I was led to a destination, two gryphons, one on each side, each one held a chain that was linked to a iron collar. Two chains, a collar and a pair of shackles restrained him. The gryphon on the right was tan, with a thick white mane, with a pair of pink antennae with a white tip on the head instead of ears, they bobbed as he walked, from the forehead, a pair of backward facing blade-like horns their tip curved forward, behind the head, several peacock-like feathers, but they were shorter that those of a peacock, and still had the eyelike markings, below the jaw something that looked like a white throat sac, the tips of the primaries were white, the nostrils were large. The only difference between the gryphon on the right and the one of the left was the colour of the coat, it was yellow. Both were talking with each other on an unknown language.    - "Are you sure the commander will be happy about this? He said no more

prisoneers." - said the one of the right.    - "Oh Misttail, you dolt, this one is special, look at his size, those cute, floppy ears, the shape of the beak, the left arm, and it's strenght, it almost battered me to a pulp." - replied the one of the left.    - "You don't understand, all prisoneers brought to the camp were sent to the charcoal pits, to be turned into charcoal, now the entire camp smells like burnt meat. Good thing he ordered swift kills." - said Misttail.    - "Trust me, he'll see that this one isn't from any of the enemy nations, he just appeared behind us. Popped up from nowhere." - said the other. The camp was made from large, white tents, one of them was larger than all the others. On one end of the camp there was a rising collumn of smoke comming from the charcoal pits, along with the smell of burnt meat, on the other end, cattle, further to that side a mountain range with a large castle on top of it. There were several gryphons on the camp. The gryphons's collour ranged from white to brown, to blue, to yellow, to red, and all the shades between, some of them were injured. When they arrived the camp, they headed towards the larger tent, most gryphons hailed at them, to some, the gryphons leading Boris, they replied to, others were ignored.    - "Commander Thunderfeather? We've got somethig never seen here." - said the gryphon.    - "I hope, it isn't another prisoneer." - said the Commander with a thundering voice, he had a red head, a missing eye and both horns broken, the rest of the body was purple.    - "Well, kinda like that, a gryphon differend from anything you've seen." - said the gryphon.    - "Take this and slit its throat." - sais Thunderfeather indifferently, tossing a dagger to the gryphon.    - "Look." - said the gryphon bringing the prisoner inside the tent, the Commander widened the eyes - "Just look at it, if we could teach it language, we could train it and make it a soldier, or an assassin, just look at it's build, it is strong, lean, not plump like us, look at it's long legs, and-"    - "I see, for the first time, you've impressed me." - says the Commander interestedly - "Take it to the physician to be examined, and then give it to the scholar, to be taught language."

Chapter 18: Portalling All the Portals were arranged on a truncated dodecahedron shaped struture orbiting a O-type giant, all the portals were connected by a system of twisting pathways, they were as wide as the entrance of the Portals, and the traffic going thru most of them was massive, and all of them appeared to defy gravity. The Portal they, now stood in front had a dark brown triangular frame with a ring on each corner, each side of the triangular frame measured about ten meters, it was engraved with several symbols and it had several jewel-like objects embedded on the frame, they were brightly coloured they looked like colorful, crystalline icosahedrons.    - "Now what?" - asks Ethon.    - "I've done this plenty of times." - says Nessus confidently, looking at the

portal. Nessus opens his backpack and puts out a platinum circlet, and wears it, and a  tablet, and after tapping it's screen a few times, he starts casting a spell and extends a talon at the Portal's triangular frame, then three slabs of the material detatch themselves from the frame of the Portal and form a small ramp as wide as the entrance of the Portal, and the engravings that covered the frame acquired an eerie dark blue glow and an eerie, deep, reverberating, metallic sound came from the insides of the artifact - "[phew]It's tiring. It's activating." - announces Nessus, tucking his tablet inside the backpack, before the space delimited by the frame changes from the starry background of space to a bloodied battlefield, dried blue blood stained the green grass, mutilated corpses littered the ground most were transpierced by some sort of bladed weapon, sword, spear, knife, others had marks of other weapons like maces, others showed wounds similar to those made by a bullet. The smell of rotting corpses and entrails filled the air. The majority of the bodies were armored, almost all of them had a bladed weapon, and the killing blow had been delivered thru weak points like those between two armor pieces. Some unarmored bodies were spiked with arrows.    - "Let's go thru the Portal before anyone notices it is active." - advised Heillon. The three gryphons went thru the portal, and it immediately closed, and the ramp withdrew and the luminous enravings went off, finally the Portal frame acquired the appearance of a large piece of rock.    - "Now what?" - asks Ethon.    - "We hide?" - sugests Nessus    - "Where? Below this corpses? Inside them? - says Ethon looking at a nearby corpse that was lying in front of him.    - "So much blood wasted! Such dishonour, shedding someone's blood like this." - says Heillon looking at the blood stained ground.    - "Stop contemplating, we've got company, let's go before it's too late." - warns Nessus, spotting several gryphons comming out of a forest.    - "Let's go, then, behind the Portal!" - says Ethon, climbing the lower side of the Portal's side and jumping behind it, just to come face to face with another gryphon - "Guys, we've got more company, right behind the Portal." - the gryphon was tan with blue spots and head and a white mane, it was pointing a spear at Ethon's chest, the gryphon had short, stubby legs, and a large, bulky body, the gryphon was shorter than Nessus, suddently the gryphon shouted something at Ethon - "Sorry, I can't understand you." - said Ethon, the gryphon replied to him by tilting his head to the left.    - "Ethon,  we're comming." - said Heillon, jumping into the Portal's frame, and into the gryphon's head, causing it to drop the spear.    - "Come on, Heillon is distracting this one." - says Ethon before they hear several screches comming from the four gryphons that Nessus had spotted earlier.    "Too late, be prepared for anything." says Nessus before one of the incomming gryphons perches on top of the Portal's triangular frame with a

cylindrical device attatched to it's wrist by straps, the cylinder had a hole in one end and a handle on the side of it, then the gryphon slid the handle backwards and a needle like object was shot at them, there was an audible crackle. The needle nearly missed Heillon's tail. The gryphon slid the handle forward, and then backward, shooting another needle, this time near Ethon. The gryphon then landed in front of Ethon and grabbed the spear of the gryphon that had Heillon on his head and pointed it at them and called the other three gryphons, they had Nessus, only two gryphons came. Ethon, Heillon and the gryphon were herded and led to the place the four gryphons came from. Each gryphon had a white, silvery armor, decorated with golden curls, the armor was padded from inside. The four gryphons were arranged in a trapezium, those behind were closer to each other than those that were side to side with the four gryphons caught near the Portal, the gryphon at Ethon's left was white, Ethon looked at it's  amber eyes, and it replied with curious eyes, on his forehead, the stubs of the horns, he looked at the right at the gryphon Ethon found near the portal, and it rolled it's red eyes every time Ethon made eye contact with it, the gryphon on the further left was brown, and it snarled everytime eye contact was made, showing it's teeth, the ones behind them were tan and greyish blue, their horns were fully dveloped. It appeared that Nessus was trying to talk to the white gryphon, but he was forestalled by the brown gryphon. Their gait was more of a waddle than the usual gryphonic stride, Ethon had to strain not to burst into laughter, it was almost impossible to take things too seriously with such a comical method of locomotion. When night fell, they stoped and, the armored gryphons trussed the others up and covered them in cloth, the red eyed gryphon strugled against them, but it was eventually subdued. Nessus before being trussed up took his circlet and backpack off. Ethon took Heillon's spiked collar off before being tied up.    - "Can we even sleep like this?" - asks Heillon.    - "Sleep." - answers Ethon.    - "I'll try to talk our way out of here." - says Nessus confidently.    - "Wait, what? You can talk their language?!?" - says Ethon confusedly.    - "Yes, here I go." - says Nessus before addressing to the white gryphon, who was guarding them - "You there, what's your name?"    - "I, I am not allowed to, to talk to prisoneers, by the way, my name is Chiron." - says the white gryphon, Chiron sheepishly.    - "What in space did he said?" - asks Heillon    - "His name is Chiron, he is not allowed to talk to us." - says Nessus.    - "But, if he is not allowed to talk to us, why did he replied in first place?" - asks Ethon.    - "If you are not allowed to talk to us, why did you replied?" - asked Nessus, the red eyed gryphon snickered.    - "Do you want me to cut your gullets? Prisoneers are not supposed to talk!" - shouted the brown gryphon.    - "What did the other said?" - asked Heillon.    - "He wants us to be quiet." - said Nessus before addressing to Chiron - "Dude, can you talk to me?" - wispered Nessus.

    - "No!" - wispers Chiron.    - "He doesn't wants to talk." - says Nessus.    - "Eurus, give me a dagger, please." - demands Chiron - "They are talking too much."    - "We'd better be quiet." - advises Nessus. Chiron lifts a flap of the blanket that covered the gryphons, and the white tips of his antennae start to glow intensely.    - "What are your names? By the way this dagger is sharp." - says Chiron.    - "Freshly sharpened!" - shouted another gryphon.    - "Dad! Stop shouting like that! You'll attract unwanted attention." - warns Chiron - "Talk."    - "My name's Sunplume. And I have nothing to do with those weirdos." - answers the red eyed gryphon hurriely.    - "My name is Nessus, the name of the black one is Ethon, and the name of the smaller one is Heillon, they cannot speak your language." - replies Nessus.    - "Good, great, Heillon is a quite interesting gryphon, is that interesting colour match characteristic of his kind, or is he or she a unique exemplar." - said Chiron.    - "He is a unique person among his kind." - answers Nessus.    - "Allright, by the way, Heillon has a nice collar." - replies Chiron.    - "Heillon, he finds you interesting, and he likes your collar." - says Nessus.    - "Good. For him. Let's sleep." - answers Heillon.    - "Tomorrow, we will go to my hometown, you will go for further examination." - says Chiron before his antennae go off, and everything goes dark - "Time to sleep."

Chapter 19: Examination They exited the commander's tent and entered a slightly smaller tent    - "Firemane, we've got something for you." - says Misttail.    - "What?" says Firemane, she had a bright blue mane with white spots, the rest of the body was brown.    - "We've got this for examination." - says Misttail presenting Boris to Firemane.    - "Interesting, put it there, is it a she or a he?" - saya Firemane pointing at a large wooden table with a cloth bag full of down, a pillow on top of it, it was stained blue with blood. Boris was led there and Misttail lifted Boris and laid him on the pillow belly down and patted his head. Meanwhile, Firemane was donning protective clothing around her mane and around her chest and arms, like an apron. She approached Boris and looked intently at him, only then Boris saw that she had her claws trimmed off - "Turn him upside down." - she said, Boris was forcefully turned upside down, and Firemane donned a pair of gloves made from a latex-like material - "Hold him down, I'll start." - she said, Misttail held Boris's arms and the other gryphon grabbed Boris's hind legs, then Firemane started to feel Boris's neck, then his Chest, wings and arms, it was almost like a massage, Boris

half closed his eyes - "He likes it. But the strangest, is that...one of two it hasn't any genitals, it is assexuated, or the genitals are hidden. But overall, strong, muscular build, appears to be healthy." - she said feeling Boris's belly, then his tail. Then she started to feel around the area that Boris was supposed to have the male genitalia - "Turn him bely down. Let's see your gender." - she said before lifting Boris's tail, his head came up - "No female genitalia, let's see the male genitalia." - she said before slipping a gloved finger into Boris's anus, he squacked in surprise and annoyance - "I can feel a prostate, like yours, but..." - she said before shoving her finger deeper into Boris - "...the genitalia appear to be like those of a male bird, but..." - she removes the finger from Boris's anus, and he sighs from relief - "...that could only be verified with an operation. What do you say?" - she says throwing the gloves away, donning a new ones and bringing a tray full of sharp metal objects.    - "No." - says Misttail.    - "Why not? He's such an interesting creature, I'd like to open him up a bit. I'll put him back together when I finish." - she suggests.    - "No, we won't make unnecessary cutting, when it becomes necessary to cut him up, you can do it, and don't insist." - says Misttail.    - "Come on, just letting some blood out." - insists Firemane. Boris's tail was nervously twitching.    - "Allright, do it quickly." - agrees Misttail. Firemane takes a small sharp knife and cuts a small hole on one of Boris's fingers, red blood flows from the small wound and Firemane licks it.    - "Interesting, how much do you want for this exemplar?" - asks the physician, caressing Boris's head.    - "We'll take him to the schollar, if it does't do anything, it's yours." - says Misttail turning his tail and herding Boris with his wings. After exiting the tent, he looked at the castle, it is where the scholar is, it's a long flight - "Smirkwings, get some ropes and let's tie this guy." The other gryphon, Smirkwings gets a lenght of rope while Misttail carefully forces Boris into a sitting position with all four legs tucked below his body. Then Smirkwings tied the rope around Boris.    - "Good, not too loose, not too tight, now put it on my back." - says Smirkwings, lying down and spreading his wings, then Boris is put onto his back and tied to the gryphon's body. Smirkwings stands on all fours and takes off after a run. Misttail takes off behind his companion. Boris looks behind, the other gryphon was behind him, but a little higher, from his position, he could see the gryphons balls, the reason a finger was shoved down his ass, it was to ascertain his gender, because their kind had a mammalian reproductive system, while Boris's kind had a avian reproductive system. After a while, they came to the castle, they landed in front of the gate.    - "Who comes?" - asks the gatekeeper.    - "Ouranos Misttail and Asbolus Smirkwing." - says Misttail confidently. The gatekeeper retreats, and they hear the soud of pages being turned and the gate opened enough to let them in, he looks curiously at Boris.

    - "Where are you going to?" - asks the gatekeeper.    - "We are going to visit Fluffwing, the scholar." - responds Smirkwing, the gatekeeper nods. They traveled thru bustling streets and markets, they were hailed at, and many fledglings asked about the strange, if not otherwordly gryphon on Smirkwings's back. Finally they neared a large building with a small, decorated iron door and plenty of large stained glass windows.    - "There it is, the library. Magnificent isn't it?" - says Misttail with wonder - "Fluffwing? Herse Fluffwing?" - shouts Misttail while entering the library.    - "I'm not deaf! I'm comming in, I hope it is something important!" - shouts Fluffwing with a hoarse voice.

Chapter 20: Ravinous    - "Wake up!" - shouts one of the gryphons. The four prisoneers are uncovered, and the sunlight forced them awake, the ropes restraining them were taken off, and they resumed the trapezium formation with the armored captors on the outside and the unarmored, 'defenceless' prisoneers on the inside of the trapezium.    - "Great, on the move again. On the move to our doom, to the-" - complained Sunplume.    - "Shut your beak up! Nessus take your circlet." - ordered Chiron's father, picking Nessus's circlet and giving it to him after taking a look at it - "Heillon take your collar!" - he said tossing Heillon's collar at Heillon.    - "What did he-" - asks Heillon before being forestalled by Chiron's father. Sunplume looked at Nessus and grimaced, and did the same to Ethon and Heillon, from the faces of the three gryphons only confusion surfaced.    - "Ethon, there's movement to your left, large body, fast pace." - said Silicon after sliding the helmet into Ethon's face.    - "There's something big comming towards us, and comming fast." - says Ethon turning his now armored head to the left. Suddently a large creature with a large sword-like, serrated claw on the end of each foreleg and an heavily armored head, four eyes and a forward facing mouth like that of a lamprey with cconcentric rings of serrated teeth, arranged like a cone, protected by two flaps of skin over the mouth, in the end of the concentric rings of teeth a parrot like beak. It jumped over the greyish blue gryphon and as it was about to latch itself to Sunplume, Ethon dashed from his position and bashed the creature with his armored head, knocking it to it's side. It roared at Ethon, opening it's beak wide and showing it's vicious radula and splaying it's forelegs, like a mantis would do when threatened, but before it could attack, Chiron and the brown gryphon fired their needle shooters at the creature several times, the animal screamed in pain before dying.    - "What kind of mash up of creatures is this?" - asked Ethon, looking at the green mottled with brown creature.    - "That was a female azka, very dangerous, males are not as dangerous, as they are herbivores, and don't have the beak, but they are bigger and can slice you in half if one feels threatened." - informs the tan gryphon,

Nessus translates the information to his friends and they continue until the forest is replaced with a grassland full of flowers. They spot several boxes from where small winged creatures come and go, they were plump and fluffy like bumblebees and they had large jaws and lacked sting. Further ahead there was a large fortified house with small windows and a large door, there was a wide ravine behind. Chiron knocks it's metallic door, and the gatekeeper asks for their names.    - "Chiron Moonplume, Eurus Greyfluff, Icaus Nightcrest, Shania Mudfeathers and some others, including a prisoneer." - says Chiron, his father nods in approval.    - "How many prisoneers?" - asks the gatekeeper, they hear the sound of chains.    - "One." - answers Chiron's father, Eurus.    - "There." - says the gatekeeper before exiting the house with two pairs of shackles and a muzzle - "What about the others?" - asks the gatekeeper referring to the three friends.    - "We found them near the artifact, apparently after some sort of strange and suspicious activity made by the said artifact." - responds Greyfluff - "I think they might be linked to it in some way we don't suspect and they seem to be not much of a threat, one even defended us from a female azka." - he says as the greyish blue gryphon, Icaus shackles Sunplume. After some hesitation, the gatekeeper lets them in, they go down a large spiral staircase lit up by magical lamps, the width of the staricase forces them to go in a line, and also the fact that there were gryphons going up and down. After three turns and a half, a door appeared, from there every two turns a door appeared, and after ten turns, five wooden doors, they reached the bottom, the fifth door, behind it a wide wooden platform, the wood was like birch wood. It was on the bottom of a ravine, wooden platforms on both sides, on both sides, houses carved into the rock, vases contained plants, and the most common was a bush that produced a deep blue fist sized berry in abundance, gryphons from all ages would pick them up and eat them, besides the bushes, there were several flowers, the variety of plants hanging from the plantform above them spread a intense smell. In the middle of the ravine there was a wide stream, and pastures with several grazing animals being herded by gryphons aided by pitch black and sleek creatures there were some trees, fruit trees, some fruits had a hard shell with spikes protruding from it. The ravine was wider at it's top, so the upper platforms would cover the lower platforms partially, five floors, ten platforms, five platforms on each side of the ravine, they were connected to the other side by bridges, wooden stairs would connect a platform to the other directly below, each platform was held in place by metallic girders. On one end of the ravine, a waterfall turned into a beautifull fountain, on the other side, the ravine would just go on and on and on and on and on, an entire city built into a ravine, a ravine with no end in sight. The grazing animals were brown with black and white spots, quite fat, their head had a mouth full of flat teeth, a blue tongue, on the end of their eight, scaly legs, large clawed paws, they walked on their knuckles. All the gryphons wore a

loincloth. Chiron collected a berry and ate it, and so did the other three. After that they went to the left, farther away from the waterfall, there were no more grazing animals, because the grass had been replaced by bare rock, and after a while, the smell of flowers had been replaced by the smell of meat ot the grazing animals, several carcasses were hanging from butcher shops, the organs of the creatures were also displayed.    - "Those animals you saw earlier are called bellins. We buy their meat here."" - informed Chiron, breathing deeply, smelling the meat - "And now you'll go to my home, I'll keep you there, me and my parents, and you, Sunplume will stay there just for a moment." - says Chiron as they walk towards Chiron's house. It had five colorful vases hanging in front of it with equally colorful flowers. The windows had wooden frames, and the door was beautifully decorated with curled iron bars. Above the door there was a symbol, like all homes, it had a symbol identifying it    - "Chiron, you're back!" - Shouted a gryphon that came from Chiron's house.    - "Mom!" - shouts Chiron.    - "Darling, let us in." - says Eurus.    - "Who are those guys? I hope they are no prisoneers." - asks the gryphoness worriedly.    - "Well, one of them is, but he won't do any harm, and the others, are visitors." - replies Eurus softly as they enter the house - "Chiron, lead them to the guest room, the big one, no questions." - orders Eurus.    - "Chiron, What are you going to do with us?" - asks Nessus.    - "It's none of your business." - says Chiron as he chains Sunplume to the ground - "Okay, you three weirdoes are going to be hosted here, the other one is another matter..." - says Chiron while exiting the room and locking the sturdy door shut.    - "What did he said?" - asks Heillon.    - "The grazing animals are called bellins, and he said that we are going to be here, but the guy in chains..." - answers Nessus looking at the crestfallen gryphon - "Why are you like that?"    - "I am going to be butchered." - says Sunplume, pausing to breathe deep - "It is said they are cannibals, that they take prisoneers to be slain and eaten."    - "It is said. Carefull, it might be a scare tactic. Scare tactics are common in wars" - says Nessus.    - "Have you seen any war by yourself to state that?" - asks Sunplume.    - "I haven't, but History did. Well, I've been here some times, and I've learnt your language." - responds Nessus, Sunplume hides his head under a wing, as if he was going to sleep, and then starts crying. Suddently the door opens.    - "Nessus, come." - says the figure which is obfuscated by the outside glare.

Chapter 21: Trouble Brewing

    - "I'm catching flowers. Catching em all. Plucking them from the ground. To put them on vases. And [gasp]! Glow-bells" - sings a young gryphoness, collecting flowers, until she sees a bell shaped flower with a stalk inside the bell shape, it's tip was bioluminescent. In front of her there were more, and also some flowers with five bioluminescent petals - "My favorite!" - she says happily, collecting the plants, suddently, she was surrounded by a bioluminescent forest, trees towered above her, they blocked all sunlight, their faint, multicoloured glow was ubiquitous, mesmerizing - "I think I should not be here." - she thinks to herself, when suddently, she hears a rustling noise, the noise increased in volume, then she hears voices, the language was strange to her, she hides inside a hollowed trunk, then what she sees is startling. Glooms, three of them. They were completely black, except for their neon green eyes, the three ivory coloured horns growing from the back of the skull, the red hourglass shaped mark on the forehead and the distinctive white patch of feathers on the underside of the neck, it was unique on each individual, allowing one to identify the other. The beak was black, sturdy and serrated, it oozed a fluorescent green drool that dripped onto the ground, and it's glow slowly faded as it dripped to the ground, inside the beak a black tongue drenched on the glowing green saliva. They had webbed, black, wings, they had feathers on their upperside, the hind legs were feline, but it's toes were avian, the fore legs were avian too. The neck was short and slender and like the rest of the body, it was covered on glossy, black feathers, the tail had a fan of black feathers in it's tip.  One of them had a copper circlet on the head and a leather pouch on the right arm. The others had no ornamentation, one of them had a backpack and the other was smaller than the other two, who were around Ethon's size. Suddently she hears a creaking sound, and them the creak again, followed by the sound of a door being shut. She risks a peek outside her hideout, the forest was empty, quiet, only the sounds of the bugs could be heard, she sneaked her way to the grassland and flew into the ravine.Meanwhile at Ravine...    - "Me?" - asks Nessus.    - "Yes, you." - says the figure, stepping aside.    - "What about the others?" - asks Nessus.    - "They will go to another place, and you must answer some questions, and then you will join him." - replies the gryphon with a friendly voice. Nessus exits the room he was in.    - "Chiron?" - asks Nessus, looking at the armored gryphon.    - "Yes, come." - answers Chiron, taking them with the help of his father and mother to a room with a table in the middle, and pillows around the table.    - "Now, why did you come here?" - asks Eurus, Chiron's father.    - "We came here to find Ethon's brother." - answers Nessus.    - "Realy, if so, what were you doing close to the Artifact, and, apparently, you were using it. What were you four doing close to it?" - asks Eurus.

    - "We were..." - says Nessus hesitantly - "...using it, and I am with Heillon and Ethon, the other guy, Sunplume, just happened to be there." - responds Nessus.    - "How did you used it, and for what?" - asks Eurus.    - "It is a portal, that connect this world to another place." - says Nessus    - "Interesting, what place?" - asks Chiron.    - "A place we call Interface, I'll explain: sixty worlds have a Portal, each Portal leads to the Interface, and each Portal is connected to all the other Portals thru a complex system of pathways. Therefore the Interface is the place where every Portal is connected to, including this one." - explains Nessus.    - "Interesting, what can we do to gain access to that place." - asks Eurus.    - "You need a powerfull spell, and I am one of many that have that spell, but don't elude yourself, because by many, I mean a couple of hundred of individuals." - answers Nessus.    - "Since we conquered the territory around it on the last battles, you could take us to that 'Interface' thing, couldn't you?" - asks Erion.    - "No."- says Nessus.    - "Why?" - asks Erion harshly.    - "[hmm]My powers are depleted." -says Nessus.    - "Replenish them!" - shouts Erion.    - "It takes time." - says Nessus.    - "Oh, realy." - says Erion tilting his head.    - "Father, please." - says Chiron to his father before addressing to Nessus - "You don't intent on harming anyone, right?"    - "Only in legitimate self defence." - says Nessus adjusting his circlet.    - "I see. Look, would you help anyone, if needed?" - asks Chiron.    - "Yes, definitely yes." - says Nessus decidedly.    - "Even, if that means using magic." - asks Chiron deviously.    - "Yes." - says Nessus.    - "Would you defend us from anything?" - asks Erion, Chiron's father.    - "Wait, what? You want me to involve myself in your, your war?" - asks Nessus, adjusting his circlet with indignation.    - "No, we want you to defend us from evil creatures, the glooms." - explains Chiron carefully.    - "Come again?" - asks Nessus.    - "Glooms are  ghastly creatures, their wings deformed, they are completely black, except for a white patch under the neck, the green eyes, a red mark on the forehead, the three horns on the back of the head and the green, glowing drool that drips from their nasty, serrated beak. Their insides are black too, their tainted blood red. They come out at night. To hunt us down, to prey on us. They live underground, on caves made by them." - explains Chiron.    - "I see, in that case, I will do everything in my power." - says Nessus, aware that this might not come true.    - "Good, now I will lead you to your friends." - said Chiron, leading Nessus to the room where the others were being held - "See this, flick it to activate

the lights." - instructed Chiron,pointing at a switch on the wall, inside the room. Nessus switches it on, and enters the room, the door is closed after him. Nessus tells his roommates what he was told.

Chapter 22: Gloomy The lair was system of four tunnels, leading to four different round rooms,

each room had a pillar in it's center, and it was taller than the tunnels

leading to it. In the intersection of the four tunnels, the exit, a large vertical

ladder, it was sealed by a camouflaged trapdoor. Each circular room had

four vents, that were also camouflaged. The rooms and the tunnels were

arranged according to the cardinal points.

 The north room had it's floor covered in leather bags, some full of down

others inflated with air, each bag was made from the skin of a gryphon.

 The east room had a stone cutting table, and some salted and dried meat

stored in it, along with some fruits and roots.

 The south room had a stone altar with burning herbs on top of it. Close to it,

a lectern with a book, in front of the lectern, a gloom in trance. The gloom

wore a embroidered leather cloak and a a silver headpiece, decorated with

gold and seven rubies. Hovering above the headpiece, a gold ring that

spanned about 0.2m decorated with engravings and seven rubies, a fiery

orb floated in it's middle.

 The west room was the largest and had several sturdy pickaxes, several

long and thick sticks, and wheights, it was a leisure room.

 Ten glooms of all ages lived there.

    - "Aya, mate mine, what are you doing?" - asked the gloom wearing a

copper circlet, when the gloom in trance returned from it.

    - "Today is a good time to attack, their war weakened their defences. I

feel someone powerfull, a powerfull wizard, if so I need to absorb it's

powers." - says Aya - "Gil, what were you doing, and Soso, our son." - asks

the sorceress.

    - "He is playing with the others, you say we may attack tonight?" - asks

Gil.

    - "Yes." - hisses Aya - "Any offering to the Spirits?"

    - "Yes, take this, it's a rare herb." - replies Gil, taking a bunch of herbs

from the leather pouch and giving them to Aya that proceeds to burn them

on top of the altar, releasing a pleasant and intense smell.

 The couple then goes to the north room and calls the gloom laying there,

then the gloom is sent to the leisure room, then the couple goes to the east

room, and call the two glooms that were eating there, then they go to the

leysure room, and Aya talks to those present.

    - "Close to us is a place with many gryphons, tonight we attack, tonight

the Spirits will be with us, tonight fresh gryphon meat for all." - says Aya,

the all of sudden all glooms start screaming for food - "We shall train now,

we shall prepare ourselves, their defence might be down, but they are not

defenceless, train, stretch your bodies, your wings, I've got the perfect plan

to enter their city and cull some of them, but one thing is sure. Tonight we

will feast!" - continues Aya, the remaining nine glooms are excited, soon

they start to exercise their bodies, stretching muscles, running around the

room,warming up for the feast...

 The gryphoness reached the outpost, where the gatekeeper is.

    - "Gatekeeper, glooms! There are glooms here!" - says the gryphoness

with a frightened expression. The gatekeeper lets her in.

    - "What do you mean? Glooms?!?" - asks the gatekeeper confusedly.

    - "Yes, three of them, one of them was smaller." - says the gryphoness.

    - "Do you mean that they are breeding here, we must stop them, but the

military are busy with the war, maybe..." - says the gatekeeper

with astonishment.

    - "What?" - asks the gryphoness.

    - "They must be breeding here." - responds the gatekeeper absently.

    - "No, after that." - corrects the gryphoness.

    - "Nothing, just rambing..." - says the gatekeeper thoughtfully - "Your

parents must be worried, go, spread the message." - orders the gatekeeper

absently, the gryphoness complies. The news spread faster than wildfire.

 Nessus puts out his tablet.

    - "According to this app, there is a powerfull wizard within a range of one

kilometer." - says Nessus, after tapping an icon on the tablet.

    - "How much?" - asks Ethon, looking a the screen. According to it, the

wizard was about eight hundred meters away, with a percision of more or

less fifty meters.

    - "As strong as me. Strong enough for me to feel it's presence." - answers

Nessus.

 Suddently Nessus starts hearing about glooms, he opens the app again.

    - "Where are the glooms?" - asks Nessus. Chiron opens the door an points

to a direction. Nessus checks it, the app points to the same place.

    - "What is that?" - asks Chiron, pointing at the tablet.

    - "It's a device that serves for many purposes, I use it as a spell book, to

cast powerfull spells." - says Nessus nervously.

    - "I want to see it better." - says Chiron taking the device from Nessus's

hands - "How does this works, it is just a black rectangle?"

    - "It's innactive, it can be activated by pressing a button." - the screen

lights up, showing a circular grid and the location of the 'wizard' - "I can use

this to locate wizards, magicians, enchanters, all sorts of magic, and I can

also use it to cast spells." - says Nessus iniciating the spell book application.

    - "Interesting, and we tap this thing to interact with it?" - asks chiron.

    - "Yes, but not only, we can also tilt it." - said Nessus, tilting the device,

and the display rotates in order to stay upright.

    - "Amazing!" - exclaims Chiron.

    - "Ethon, remember when I tried to fix the plumbing with an acetylene

torch?" - asks Heillon to Ethon, while Nessus explains the workings of his

tablet to Chiron and his parents.

    - "Yes, and please don't." - says Ethon, recaling the time Heillon tried to

use an acetylene torch to stop a leakage on a plastic pipe.

    - "Remember whe i was going to was the clothing, and instead of bleach, I

ended up using sodium hydroxide?" - asked Heillon, Nessus looked at him

momentarily.

    - "Perfectly." - says Ethon 

    - "It was your fault. You put the sodium hydroxide where the bleach

should have been." - says Heillon accusingly.

    - "No, it wasn't. Oh, whait, it was, but it was your fault too, you don't read

the labels. And you ended up burning your hand with the stuff." - says

Ethon. Nessus looks at them for a short while.

    - "That taught me a valuable lesson. Allways read the labels, allways." -

says Heillon, then he goes on - "Remember when you exagerated in the

spice."  - Ethon and Heillon stare at each other for a while.

    - "Wich time? I did that more times than you think." - replies Ethon.

    - "When you presented me to your parents." - answers Heillon snickering,

then both him and Ethon go quiet, looking at Nessus, who was still teaching

the locals, until suddently, a gryphoness comes rushing.

    - "Mom, dad." - she cries - "Father, brother, there are glooms in the Forest

of Lights!"

    - "We know that, the news ran faster than you." - says Chiron, resting a

wing on his sister.

    - "Do something, you have armor, and you are strong." - says the

gryphoness, addressing to both her father and brother.

    - "We will do it now! Nessus, you come help me, right?" - says Chiron.

    - "Who are those guys?" - asks the gryphoness.

    - "I will go, but with them two." - replies Nessus nodding at his friends.

    - "Allright, you three come." - orders Chiron's father, Eurus.

    - "Let's go, guys." - says Nessus addressing to his two friends.

    - "You'll be given leather armor, Nessus, the black one, and the half sider,

I don't care." - says Eurus as Ethon and Heillon come out of the room,

then Eurus closes the door of the room they were in.

 It was midday, and Nessus had a thick leather armor on, Ethon and Heillon

were unarmored, on the other hand, Eurus and Chiron had a hard, but

lightweight metal armor, the same for the other four gryphons that later

joined them. They were carrying baskets full of sulphur, joining them more

gryphons, some of them had a leather armor on. They marched deliberately

towards the Forest of Lights.

    - "Sister, where did you found them? Lead us there." - requests Chiron, his

sister complied, they were led deep into the Forest of Lights, right to where

Chiron's syster hid.

    - "Find all the vents!" - orders Eurus - "Now drop the burning sulphur into

them." - demanded Eurus after all the vents are located, the sulphur is then

ignited and dropped into the vents - "Find the entrance, before they exit." -

demands Eurus.

    - "Here it is!" - yelled a gryphon, uncovering a trapdoor made out of wood

and iron, with pieces of vegetation glued to it, and then he sat on top of it.

Chapter 23: Gloomier

    - "Do you hear something?" - said a gloom, hearing the activity above

their den.

 Suddently, dirt and dead plant matter fall into the den thru the vents.

    - "I think the gryphons found us." - says Gil.

    - "Impossible. How?" - says the gloom before hearing gryphon sounds -

"No way. We must get out of here before they drop sulphur into this place!"

    - "What, sulphur?!?" - says Gil.

    - "Yes, I am the only survivor of an attack like this, they dropped burning

sulphur thru the vents, forcing us out, those that did not died from the

sulphur, died by the sword. Gryphons everywhere are counterattacking our

depredations." - replies the gloom, when sudently burning sulphur is

dropped from the surface thru a vent - "Get out of here! Evacuate! Sanvage

everything you can!" - yells the gloom.

    - "The youngsters first!" - yells another gloom.

    - "Let's go" - yells Aya.

    - "We've got injured." - yells the first gloom tending someone that was

hurt by a falling lump of burning sulphur that fell on top of it.

  The leatherworker deflated as much gryphon leather bags as possible

before the air became unbreathable, it managed to gather two leather bags

and put them on a leather backpack. After that he gathered all the ten gold

coins on the backpack, leaving the silver and copper ones. The

leatherworker had a necklace on.

 The butcher gathered as much tools as possible, stowing them on a

backpack.

    - "Oso, [cough] my son, you're here, join the [cough] other two." - orders

Aya, when her daughter showed up.

 The youngsters were already led towards the exit, an adult went first, it was

Gil. When he tried to open the trapdoor, he couldn't, because a gryphon was

sitting on top of it.

    - "Butcher, [cough] come help me." - said Gil, asking for help, the butcher

came in thru the ladder, hitting the trapdoor hard and forcing it open.

 The younglings climbed the stairs after Gil and the butcher. Three gryphons

tackled Gil and the butcher, one of them who happened to be the

gryphoness grabbed two younglings, who were still covered in baby fuzz,

the other one, Oso who was older was tackled by another gryphon. When

the leatherworker came with the one who was hurt, Ethon and Heillon

together used a lenght of rope to tie both together and brought them close

to Gil, the butcher and the three younglings. Another gloom came out and

attacked a gryphon, biting the armored neck, the other pounced on Nessus,

biting the face and then the neck.

    - "Leave that [cough] one to me!" - yells Aya, the gloom attacking Nessus

pounced on the gryphon trying to help the one being repeatedly bitten on

the neck by a gloom.

 Ethon jumps into a gryphon and breaks the neck of the gloom attacking

him, and then breaks the neck of the other gloom, the first gryphon being

attacked was bleeding profusely.

    - "Bandages please!" - yells the gryphon.

 Aya used magic to untie Gil and the butcher, and then she used magic to

blast off a gryphon's chest plate, then Gil and the Butcher attacked the

gryphon, killing him on a very gruesome way, splattering blue blood and

entrails, and causing some gryphons to panic, Gil was killed by Ethon, his

son cried out loud for his father. The butcher pounced on top of another

gryphon and stabbed the gryphon with a dagger below the wing, letting out

a spurt of blood, the panicked gryphon tried to shake the gloom off, but it

did not let the gryphon go, stabbing and gashing the gryphon on the same

place several times to ease the bleeding. Heillon attacked the butcher, by

biting his neck and draining red blood from it. Nessus tried to heal the dying

gryphon with a healing spell that closed the wounds. Heillon and the butcher

were curled one around the other, while Heillon tried to drain the butcher's

blood as fast as possible, the butcher tried to free himself from Heillon's

clutches, but a gryphon ran a sword thru the butcher's chest, killing it, then

Aya pounced on the gryphon and clawed ts it's belly, intent on

disemboweling the gryphon but her claws bounce off the armor. Suddently

Nessus's presence calls Aya's attention that jumps away from the confused

gryphon.

 Aya launches a repulsive spell at Nessus, that hurls him towards a tree.

Nessus responds with a magic dampening spell that caused the ring

hovering above Aya's head to fall and the fireball in it's middle disappeared.

Aya launched a dazzling spell at Nessus's face, temporarily blinding him,

then she released the younglings by burning the rope with a spell, then she

dazzled all the gryphons that tried to catch them, then the younglings and

Aya ran away.

    - "One killed, one dying." - says Eurus objectively.

    - "I'll bring the glooms with me, tell this to the others." - says Ethon to

Nessus.

    - "My friend Ethon will take the glooms with him, an I will take that one

that was almost bled to death." - sugests Nessus, Eurus agrees.

    - "All ready, follow me." - orders Eurus. Ethon was carrying both captive

glooms on his back, Nessus carried a gryphon on his back the gryphoness

and the other gryphons followed them, leaving the corpse of one behind.

When they arrived the ravine, the glooms were taken to a dungeon, the

injured gryphon was taken to a healer, the reamining went off to mind their

own business, but Eurus, Chiron,Ethon, Nessus, Heillon and the gryphoness

went to Chiron's house.

Chapter 24: Old Friends    - "Do you know anything about Altair Brighttail?" - asks Nessus.    - "That one that had two broken horns and both hindlegs missing?" - asks Chiron.    - "What?" - asks Nessus.    - "Come in." - says Chiron, grabbing Nessus's arm. Nessus follows him - "Father, We are going to see Altair."    - "Altair Baznib Brighttail?" - asks Eurus.    - "Yes." - answers Chiron.    - "He's a great warrior, but a bit cranky, he says that-oh gods...Lightbeak, go home, we're going to see someone. Make those two feel at home." - says Eurus before going away with his son. Ethon and Heillon are herded towards Chiron's home.    - "Stay there." - says Nessus while his friends are herded inside Chiron's home. When arriving home, Lightbeak cleans the blood off her coat with some water, while Ethon and Heillon look around the house, it was carved into the bedrock, it was lit by magical lights, there were flower vases on the walls, pillows leaning against a wall, it was composed of a single large, toroidal room supported by a single collumn in the middle that gave it a toroidal shape, the central collumn also served as a kitchen counter .In one end of the main room, three doors, one that was wide open led to a well lit room, that apparently was a bedroom with a padded floor, and the other door that was open, the other two were closed. From one door a voice came, the voice of Sunplume. Lightbeak came from a section of the toroid that was separated from the rest of the toroid by two folding screens, one on each side. Lightbeak grabbed three of the gryphon sized pillows and laid them on the floor, and then she grabbed Heillon's right wing and carefully dragged him towards her and laid him on a pillow near her, then she puts out a comb and starts combing Heillon. Ethon sits on a pillow alongside his friend.    - "What is that hurry for?" - asks Nessus.    - "You say, you've met Altair, right?" - asks Eurus.

    - "Yes, several times, I think we are talking a bout the same Altair." - responds Nessus.    - "This is a guy that says that the Artifact is in fact a portal, and that there are people on the other side, with technology well beyond our wildest dreams, he says he met with one of these people, several times, he says that he taught the creature our language, a creature that closely fits your description." - replies Eurus. They walk hurriedly, and after a while they come to a stop, because they were intercepted by a gryphon. The gryphon had both horns broken, he was completely brown, except for the iridescent crest feathers, amber speckles and a white mane, the gryphon had a mantle on his back, that prevented his coat from being stained by the bellin carcass he was carrying on the back. His left hind leg was missing, leaving a scar in it's place, the other hind leg was cut off by the knee, only the thigh was left out of it. Replacing both legs a pair of metallic wheels. Both were connected to each other by a metallic frame upon wich there was a padding where the gryphon's body rested, the apparatus was secured to the gryphon's body by a harness. Hanging below the body, a leather pouch.    - "Look who's there, old friend Nessus! You haven't changed a thing!" - says the gryphon lively.    - "Altair! Lively as allways! How have you been?" - says Nessus happily.    - "I'm fine, even if I am not whole anymore, [caw]! Have you brought anyone else from beyond the Portal?" - asks Altair.    - "Yes, I've brought some friends, they are at their home." - says Nessus, waving at Chiron and Eurus.    - "Oh, let's go, so, do you like my new set of legs? They have an automatic brake, that stops them dead when they spin too fast, I can also brake by triggering a little mechanism that will stop them. What do you think?" - says Altair. Eurus nods at him, Altair nods back at Eurus.    - "I think it is amazing, you're safe now. But, you cannot go to battle, right?" - replies Nessus.    - "My parents never wanted me to go to war, and now this, now, not even the commander. You've came here to see me, and present me to your friends?" - asks Altair.    - "Yes, and no. I came here after a friend, he came here to search for his brother, and I wanted to meet you, I missed you." - responds Nessus.    - "I see. You there, do you want me to stay with him and his friends?" - asks Altair.    - "Take them with you." - says Eurus.    - "Nessus, how many friends of your came with you?" - asks Altair.    - "Two more, with us, we are four." - says Nessus.    - "What?" - asks Altair.    - "Me, my two friends and you are four." - responds Nessus.    - "Allright. But first we're going home." - says Altair. They were walking towards the waterfall at the end of the ravine until they came to a house with a large sliding door that gave entrance to a tunnel that gave access to a rectangular room supported by several arches and

collumns, there were several wooden doors. The rectangular room was decorated by tapestry, there was a heavily decorated wooden table in the middle.    - "Mother, father, I've got the meat." - shouts Altair, entering the room - "Stay there, outside." - orders Altair, the three gryphons retreat and go outside. After a while Altair returns, and they go towards Eurus's house.    - "How come, your friend's brother came here, without being noticed?" - asks Altair.    - "His brother has the hability to teleport around. But he probably cannot control his powers, and thus he teleports around randomly." - responds Nessus.    - "Wow. That will be hard. But, it will be good, once that guy controls his powers." - says Altair.    - "By the way, you are out of anything related with war, right?" - asks Nessus concernedly.    - "Not totaly." - answers Altair enigmatically. Eurus looks at him disappointed.    - "Come again?" - asks Nessus intrigued.    - "Secret." - says Altair - "I am an assassin, I work for the royalty." - wispers Altair at Nessus's left ear.    - "Shut up, enough!" - says Eurus, holding Altair's beak, they were silent for a while.    - "What do you do?" - asks Nessus.    - "Home chores." - responds Altair.    - "In." - says Chiron, opening the door.    - "What in the Universe?!?" - exclaims Nessus.    - "Sweet gods!" - says Chiron in horror.    - "What the...Lightbeak, you've just murdered that guy's featherdress." - says Eurus, Altair stays quiet. Close to Lightbeak, there was Ethon, his feathers were being combed, wich resulted on a horrible featherdress, the same has happened to Heilon, that had a ridiculous look, not only due to his featherdress, but also to the accessories and dyes that were put in his feahers.    - "Finally!" - says Ethon.    - "Wake me up, please. Tel me that this is not real, tell me that for my mother's love." - says Heillon desesperately.    - "That is real [laughter]!" - says Nessus, suddently they start to laugh, only Ethon keeps a serious face - "[Laughter trailing off]Oh, Ethon,come on, put a smile on your face."    - "No." - says Ethon with a frown.    - "Why?" - asks Nessus.    - "I am smiling." - says Ethon still frowning -"And who is that guy?" - asks Ethon, changing his facial expression to a happier one.    - "He's Altair, a friend I met some years ago, I talked to you about him, don't you remember?"    - "Ah, and he is not on the war anymore, right?" - asks Ethon.    - "Are those poor guys your friends?" - asks Altair.

    - "Yes." - responds Nessus.    - "Ethon, Heillon, time to get out of here." - says Nessus to his friends.    - "Let them go." - says Chiron to his sister.    - "The black one is Ethon, the half sider is called Heillon." - says Nessus - "Ethon also lost part of his body to an accident, they were replaced with technology."    - "Interesting, rather interesting, is he addapting well to it?    - "Yes, he is. And you, are you doing well with those wheels?" - says Nessus.    - "I'm doing fine, do you want to go up there, so I can show you some tricks?" - asks Altair.    - "Yes." - complies Nessus before addressing to his friends. - "We're going up." - he says before going another spiral staircase that led to the surface.    - "Is your friend well in that apparatus?" - asks Ethon, seeing that Altair was having difficultt in going up the stairs.    - "Altair, needing help?" - asks Nessus.    - "Yes, push me." - says Altair, then Nessus pushes him up the stairs, and then they go thru the gatekeeper, to the outside grasslands       - "Behold." - says Altair before standing on the wheels, balancing himself by making small adjustments.    - "Nice!" - says Nessus.    - "Enough, let's lay down on the grass." - says Altair, loosening the harness that held the wheels in place, and taking his rear from the apparatus and laying his body on the fresh grass and flowers    - "Altair, can you tell me how you lost your legs?" - asks Nessus after a while.    - "[sigh]Yes, and I can tell you about my first job too." - says Altair, his friends remain silent, he takes their silence as a yes.

Chapter 25: Meanwhile The library was a square room full of bookshelves, in the middle of it, a spiral staircase led to an upper floor and a lower floor, both full of bookshelves, on each floor, several tables with writing tools: ink and pen.    - "What is that? Your pet?" - asks Fluffwing, he was brown, with a pale red mane and a bald head, the exposed skin was pinkish yellow.    - "No, someone for you to teatch our language to." - says Misttail.    - "You're kidding me." - says Fluffwing flatly.    - "No, look, he's tame, and appears to be paying attention to our words." - responds Misttail gleefully.    - "Come in." - says Fluffwing pointing his antennae towards Boris. Misttail and Smirkwings herded Boris inside the Library - "Wash him in that room." - says Fluffwing, Boris is taken to a room with a tub full of water, Misttail points at it, and Boris goes inside it and starts bathing in it, after a while, Boris is clean, and the water bloodied.    - "Done." - says Misttail.    - "Dry it!" - demands Fluffwing. Misttail starts wiping Boris with a towel that was close to the tub.

    - "Done, now what." - asks Misttail.    - "There." - says Fluffwing pointing to a corner, Boris is led there and is commanded to sit, and Boris does so - "In who's name you brought him here?"    - "Comander Thunderfeather." - says Smirkwings.    - "Documents, please." - says Fluffwing, Smirkwings is deadpan.    - "Are you serious?" - says Smirkwings.    - "No, [laughter]!" - says Fluffwing laughing.    - "Yes, now what are you going to do with  that guy?" - asks Misttail.    - "[laughter trailing off]I'm going to teach that guy. I'm going to take care of him, it's a him, right?" - says Fluffwing.    - "A him, that's it. What are you doing?" - says Misttail. Fluffwing approaches Boris - "Fluffwing." - he says pointing at himself.    - "Boris." - says Boris pointing at himself - "Flfing." says Boris pointing at Fluffwing.    - "Fluffwing." - says Fluffwing Pointing at himself - "Bris?" - says Fluffwing pointing at Boris, Misttail and Smirkwing look at them curiously.    - "Fluffing." - says Boris.    - "Boris." - says the scollar Fluffwing, Boris nods in approval and glares happily with bright and vivid eyes at Fluffwing.    - "Fluffwing." - says Boris, Fluffwing nods his approval towards Boris.    - "Boris, come." - says Fluffwing, Boris obeys, and follows the schollar.    - "Fluffwing, do you know what is on his arm?" - asks Smirkwings pointing at the cybernetic arm.    - "No." - says Fluffwing, toutching the cybernetic arm. As soon as he toutches the arm, a click is heard, and the exterior crumbles, revealing Boris's left arm, it had been regrown. Boris's left arm had no feathers - "How long it has been covered by this?" - wondered fluffwing. Boris was also astonished, afterall, the cybernetic arm, had the function of regrowing his lost arm.Meanwhile at Ethon's home after his departure...    - "Now what, I don't even know if they liked my meal." - says Joane with dismay.    - "It had plenty of greenery, we gryphons like meat. But who knows? Ethon might like it." - says Hestia, suddently the front door opens.    - "Tell me that my feather pillow is here." - says a light gray gryphoness with black eyespots, rushing towards the living room, where everyone was.    - "Ethon, Heillon and Nessus are away from here, they're gone, they went after after Boris." - says Suzana resting a hand on the gryphoness's head.    - "Hemera, help us carrying the eggs." - says a white and black gryphon with gray stripes, carrying a basket with two eggs on the beak, behind him, a black and gray gryphoness carrying a basket with two eggs with the beak. The eggs are taken to the large couch, and after Hemera brings the last two eggs, the gray and black gryponess lays on them to incubate them.    - "Where's Ethon? Where's Boris?" - asks a gryphlet, that came dragging a box full of building blocks.    - "Gone." - says Joane with sorrow.

    - "Why?" - asked the gryphlet innocently.    - "Boris is missing, he has...powers he is yet to discover...he can teleport, but he cannot control his powers, and Ethon went after him." - explained Azurys.    - "Wanna play?" - asks the gryphlet, inviting the vampire gryphlet to play with his playing blocks.    - "Now what?" - asks Hemera, sitting on a couch, Satchimosat alongside his mate, all the others sat on the couches, watching the two gryphlets playing.    - "Look at that." - says Joane pointing at Crystalax's crystalline remains.    - "Im I hallucinating, or that increased in size." - commented Aegaeon.    - "Wait, what?" - says Suzana - "Do you mean that thing is alive?"    - "It might be just me." - replies Aegaeon.    - "Let's hope so." - says Joane

Chapter 26: Tell a tale    - "I lost the legs in the end of a battle, two days ago, we won the battle, I lost the back legs." - says Altair.    - "How?" - asks Nessus.    - "They were retreating, we were chasing them away, but they still fought back. One of those pounced on me, I managed to kill him with my sword. Then another took advantage of my distraction and charged at me, but a friend of mine, Aerion Dawnfeather, killed him with a spear, then another gryphon attacked me with a mace, and smashed the leg bone." - Altair went on.    - "That certainly hurt." - commented Nessus.    - "Yes, it did, and the next also did hurt, a bomb blew my leg off." - continued Altair.    - "Can I translate that to my friends?" - asked Nessus, Altair nodded in approval, and while Nessus told his friends Altair's story, a gryphoness approached them, she had no throat sac nor decorative crest feathers, her pink mane was braided, her head and body were white, and she had several copper rings on her tail, she carried a basket full of colorfull berries on the beak.    - "Can I join in?" - asked the gryphoness with a sweet and loving voice, after placing the basket on the ground.    - "Sure." - said Altair before preening her mane.    - "I've got something for you, darling." - says the gryphoness giving Altair a berry, Altair eats it.    - "I'm done translating, continue." - says Nessus.    - "I was carried by some soldiers to the base camp, they hurried to stop the bleeding, then I was brought here to the physician, I was put to sleep, and when I woke up, I had no back legs, only a thig was left." - said Altair.    - "And the wheels?" - asks Nessus after translating Altair's story to his friends.    - "The wheels, were an unused cart, that Aerion modified so I could use it as a placeholder for my missing limbs. And it works." - informed Altair.

    - "It's good, to reuse." - says Nessus.    - "Agreed." - says Altair, nodding in approval - "By the way, this is Aria Fluffbeak, call her by Fluffbeak, she prefers that name." - introduces Altair the gryphoness to Nessus.    - "Is she your mate?" - asks Nessus.    - "My life mate, tonight will be the courtship night, we will mate for life." - says Altair, nuzzling his beak on Fluffbeak's mane, afterwards she nuzzles her beak on Altair's mane, then they entwine their necks one around the other, they puff up their manes.    - "Don't knot your necks." - says Ethon playfully.    - "What did he said?" - asks Altair.    - "Don't knot your necks." - replied Nessus.    - "Is he the one you said that came from that portal thing?" - asked Fluffbeak nodding at Nessus.    - "Yes, you should know him. His name is Nessus." - responded Altair.    - "Nessus, what are the names of your friends, that smallish guy is so cute, [purr]." - asked Fluffbeak, reaching out with her hands to grab and hug Heillon.    - "The black one is called Ethon, and the one you have is Heillon." - informed Nessus.    - "Come again, what is the name of this beauty?" - asks Fluffbeak.    - "Heillon." - says Nessus slowly, so she could listen and understand.    - "Hei-llon. Heillon. Heillon! I can say his name!" - says Fluffbeak.    - "Why is he saying my name?" - asks Heillon.    - "He is a she, Fluffbeak, and she is trying to learn your name." - informs Nessus.    - "She's strong." - says Ethon, as Fluffbeak affectionately tightens her grip over Heillon.    - "Heillon smells funny." - says Fluffbeak, sniffing Heillon.    - "Wanna see my home?" - asks Altair.    - "Let's stay here, the day is long, this is pleasant." - says Fluffbeak, sprawling on the grass, and releasing Heillon.    - "We must look for my brother." - says Ethon.    - "You're right, but we must first know their language, ain't I right?" - says Heillon, sprawling close to Ethon's left.    - "I'm hungry." - says Ethon.    - "I'm not very hungry, I can eat some meat, I already drank enough blood." - replies Heillon.    - "Let's eat?" - asks Nessus to Altair.    - "We've got berries, take some." - says Altair giving berries away.    - "They're good." - says Ethon appreciatively.    - "Same here." - agrees Heillon.    - "They're good. And my friends say the same." - says Nessus after they ate the berries - "Have you brought any meat?" - asks Nessus.    - "No, we don't eat much meat." - says Fluffbeak - "Why do ask that?"    - "We eat almost exclusively meat." - replies Nessus, rubbing his belly and clacking his beak.

    - "I see, are you very hungry?" - says Fluffbeak.    - "We don't eat for about a day or so." - responds Nessus.    - "That means, yes." - says Fluffbeak, standing up.    - "I've got some game meat at home, my father's a hunter." - says Fluffbeak to them all - "Are they trustworthy enough to take them to my home?" - she whispers to Altair.    - "Yes, Nessus atleast is very trustworthy." - Altair whispers to Fluffbeak.    - "And the others?" - she whispers to Altair.    - "I think they are as trustworthy as Nessus." - says Altair - "They helped us drive away some glooms."    - "Really?" - she says aloud.    - "Yes." - responds Altair.    - "What are you talking about?" - asks Nessus - "Are you doubting our trustworthiness?" - he asks tilting his head.    - "Yes, kind of." - says Fluffbeak - "I don't know you, I only heard of you by his stories." - says Fluffbeak, nodding at Altair.    - "Let's go down, and eat." - says Fluffbeak, walking towards the ravine - "The last to arrive is a fat bellin." - he says before starting to run towards the ravine,the others also run after him. When they arrive the rim of the ravine, they spread their wings and fly, trying to avoid the others that were flying between the platforms, Etho was the faster of the five, but his flight was awkward and he was bumping into things and people. Suddently Fluffbeak turns to the left and lands in front of a house, Heillon arrives next, then Altair, then Nessus, then Ethon arrives.    - "You're a fat bellin!" - says Altair playfully.    - "Not as fat as you." - says Nessus giving a friendly punch to Altair.    - "Mom, dad?" - asks Fluffbeak, opening the door.    - "I'm here." - says a voice from within the house - "Who are these?" - asks a gryphon, that did not have a throat sac.    - "Hi mom, these are Altair's friends." - responds Fluffbeak.    - "I see, I see, are they minimaly reliable?" - asks Fluffbeak's mother.    - "Yes." - responds Fluffbeak.    - "What do they want from my home." - asks the gryphoness.    - "I invited them to eat." - responds Fluffbeak.    - "Eat from someplace else, we are not a shop!" - says the gryphoness slamming the door shut.

Chapter 27: Pillows   - "Let's go to my home, it is close to the waterfall." - suggests Altair.

   - "You're right, my mother is not very willing to receive guests." - says

Fluffbeak when they start walking towards Altair's home.

   - "How much do you want these for?" - asks a person on a shop.

   - "Nothing." - says Altair nastily.

   - "Of course he does not wants money from you, you are just a moron." -

says another person on a shop, then they both start quarreling.

   - "Let's get out of here, fast, ignore everyone, except for us." - says Altair

as they walk thru the croud, people ask them about the strange gryphons

and some ask if Altair or Fluffbeak can sell one of them, wich he refuses to

do. Gryphlets are particulary curious, some even try to toutch one of the

strange visitors. 

When they arrive Altair's home, there is noone at home, Altair's home was

large, the first room was rectangular, and it was held in place by several

arches and collumns, there was a vase on each corner there were also three

doors leading to other rooms, close to one of the door, there were several

gryphon sized pillows. Altair had to strain his voice because of the

thundering of the waterfall - "Mom, dad! Anyone there?" - he calls - "We're

alone,you know what that means, pillow fight!" - says Altair, grabbing a

pillow full of feathers and tossing is at his friends.

   - "Let's do it!" - says Fluffbeak grabbing the pillow, Altair grabs another

pillow and uses it to hit Fluffbeak's chest, she retributes with a hit on the

head, then Heillon takes a pillow and smacks it against Altair's head. Ethon

takes another pillow and smacks it on Nessus's face, Altair tries to his

Heillon with his pillow, but he fails, because of Heillon's nimble feet, Nessus

takes a pillow and hits Heillon with it. Altair hits Fluffbbeak, that smacks

Nessus in the rear, in turn, he smacks Altair in the face. Heillon jumps into

Nessus's back, Ethon smacks Heillon with a pillow, Heillon jumps into

Ethon's back, Altair and Nessus whack Heillon with their pillows, Heillon

jumps into the ground, grabs a pillow and smacks it against Ethon's face,

then he jumps into the air and smacks Fluffbeak in the face with the pillow,

that in turn tries to his Heillon with a pillow, but fails, Heillon hits Fluffbeak,

then Fluffbeak hits Heillon with her pillow while Nessus smacks Altair in the

face with a pillow, and Ethon smacks Nessus in the rear with a pillow,

Nessus hits Ethon in the head, then Altair picks a friendly fight with Nessus,

Fluffbeak hits Heillon in the back, then Ethon and Heillon start beating

Fluffbeak with their pillows, the pillow fight is fierce and continues for some

hours, until someone arrives. Everyone stops, there were feathers

everywhere, there was a ruptured pillow.

   - "What are you doing here?" - asks the gryphon with a hoarse voice, the

gryphon was white with a light blue mane, the head was bald.

   - "Father, I can explain, [hmm], they are my friends..." - says Altair, trying

to explain.

   - "Look, you know that pillow fights are forbidden, and look, there is a

ruptured pilow, Altair, stuff and sew it back together, now!" - says the

gryphon authoritatively - "You, out!" - says the gryphon to the remaining

gryphons.

   - "They are my friends, and the others are staying here." - says Altair,

taking the sewing set from a room.

   - "Whom, those three, the blue, the small and the smaller?" - says Altair's

father.

   - "We are staying here." - says Nessus calmly - "Me and my tho friends. My

name is Nessus, the dark gryphon is Ethon, and the smaller is Heillon." -

explains Nessus

   - "You are Nessus-" - says the gryphon pointing at Nessus, then he points

a finger at Ethon - "-you are Ethon, and your name is Hei, Heill, Heion,

right?"

   - "Heillon." - corrects Nessus.

   - "Yes, good, now clean this mess, all of you! Ethon, catch all feathers!" -

orders the gryphon, opening a door to a pantry and throwing three brooms

at them - "There's a special guest tonight."

   - "What kind of special guest?" - asks Nessus - "Ethon catch all the

feathers."

   - "Probably someone from the aristocracy or clergy." - says Altair.

   - "What?!?" - says Ethon

   - "He's an aristocrat, I offered myself to host him, he'll come soon." - says

the gryphon - "And now, clean the floor, quick. I'll prepare the guest room." -

he continues, taking a broom from the pantry, then he entered a well lit

room with a bed in the middle and several vases hanging from the ceiling,

the room was round.

   - "Ethon, he wants you and Heillon to catch all the feathers." - says Nessus

   - "That's my father, Almer Flufftalon. He likes to host people of high class.

In exchange of some favours." - says Atlair, sewing the pillow.

   - "This time, I'll ask him money to give you new legs, son." - says Almer

   - "Right, since when to your family host people?" - asks Nessus, sweeping

the ground.

   - "Tradition. Ethon, give me feathers." - says Altair, pointing at his pillow -

"Ethon!" - he calls. Ethon comes with a talon full of feahers. Ethon puts the

feathers on the pillow, and sits.

   - "Who's comming?" - asks Altair.

   - "Frida Firewing." - replies Almer.

   - "That moron?!!!?" - says Altair.

   - "What's wrong." - asks Nessus.

   - "He's a snob, narcissistic, mean spirited gryphon." - says Altair - "I'd

rather have him with a spear thru the heart."

   - "Altair Brighttail! Please!" - admonishes Almer.

   - "What? Noone likes that moron, sooner or later he'll be assassinated in

one way or another. He's annoying, and too curious for his own good." -

answers Altair.

   - "Shut up!" - says Almer.

   - "When we finish, can we go outside?" - asks Altair.

   - "Only after the arrival of Frida." - says Almer.

   - "What? Gods know what that spoiled brat would do if he saw these

three." - says Altair, waving at his otherwordly friends.

   - "You're right, you can go out, after your mom comes." - says Almer.

   - "You should see the night sky, it is beatifull." - says Nessus to his friends.

   - "Why?" - asks Ethon.

   - "I'll tell you something, a few decades ago, our civilization made a brief

contact with the locals, before installing a wormhole detector, in order to

detect portal openers, they departed as soon as they arrived, leaving a

wormhole detector, a large box like device. The device was left for a reason,

this planet is a distant one, outside the galaxy, and if you paid attention to

the astronomy classes, you should know where you are, by looking at the

night sky." - explains Nessus.

   - "Oh, fine, good." - says Ethon, he looks at Altair - "When do we go

outside? I want to see the night sky." - replies Ethon.

   - "Altair, Almer, sweetie, are you at home?" - asks a gryphoness, wearing a

mesh cloak - "Who are those?" - asks the gryphoness pointing her antennae

towards Ethon and his friends - "That big one looks like the one you talked

about that came from the Artifact." - she says.

   - "Yes, he is, his name is Nessus." - says Altair - "And the black one is

Ethon, the half sider is Heillon."

   - "That E-Eth-on, Ethon guy looks like a gloom." - says the gryphoness

bobbing her antennae.

   - "Only not." - responds Altair before addressing to his father - "Father, can

I go out?" - he asks.

   - "[sigh]You can go." - answers Almer.

   - "Let's go by wing, it's darkening." - says Nessus.

   - "The sunset is beautifull." - says Fluffbeak softly while they walk towards

the exit.

   - "[breathe]I love this air." - says Heillon spreading his wings and

breathing deep.

   - "Let's go." - says Altair, taking off, then Ethon goes behind him, then

Nessus, then Heillon, then atlast Fluffbeak.

Chapter 28: Sunset    - "Isn't it beautifull?" - asks Altair.    - "Yes." - says Nessus before addressing to his friends - "It's a beautifull landscape, isn't it?"    - "Yes." - says Heillon.    - "That's right. Back on Bloodsky, there's a twilight zone, Twilight, a place of eternal twilight." They stare at the sun as it sets on the horizon, and it's light fades.    - "Look, the aristocrat we were talking about is there." - says Altair pointing at a eight legged machine, from which two gryphons came out and entered the gatekeeper's post.

    - "You've got walking vehicles, ours either hover or are on wheels." - says Nessus - "There it goes tonight's guest." - says Nessus to his friends.    - "What guest, you know we cannot understand what you and your alien friend are saying." - says Heillon, Ethon nods in approval.    - "What does that metters for now, we're going to mate." - says Fluffbeak nuzzling against her mate's Mane.    - "They're going to recieve an aristocrat as a guest, they are going to host him, probably because the zone close to the waterfall is quite wanted." - says Nessus - "These two are going to mate tonight." - says Nessus, waving at Altair and Fluffbeak, Ethon preens Heillon's hackles.    - "What did you told them?" - asks Fluffbeak.    - "Nothing you don't know." - says Nessus. The sun has set, the blue sky has been replaced by a gorgeous nightsky. Tthe sight of two colliding galaxies filled the night sky, two blobs of stars, the cores of the two colliding galaxies, from there, clouds, arches and strings of stars, that were once the majestic arms of two galaxies that were wrecked by the collision. Scattered stars dotted the blackness around the galaxies.    - "Ethon, Heillon look up." - says Nessus pointing at the night sky.    - "[gasp]It's the Bicycle galaxies, only from another point of view, it's gorgeous, magnificent." - says Ethon with wonder as he gazes upwards at the nightsky.    - "[gasp]It's..." - says Heillon looking at the breathtaking sight.    - "Look at us, we're going to mate, your friends might like." - says Altair, getting up on all fours.    - "Let's go, my honeycomb." - says Fluffbeak, walking besides Altair. Both Altair and Fluffbeak take off into the air and fly complex stunts, they make loopings and dangerous stunts together. Then Fluffbeak lands and Altair's throat sac lights up. The light comming from it was white and intense. Altair lands and produces a sound with the throat sac, it's light flashes as the sound is produced. Altair jumps over Fluffbeak, that in turn jumps over her mate. Then they take off, mid-air Fluffbeak closes her wings, and then Altair grabs her hands and closes his wing, Nessus, Ethon and Heillon expect the worst. Mid-fall they let go each other's hands and open their wings, and fly in opposite directions on a large loop. In the apex of the loop, they meet and grasp each others hands and fly upwards holding hands. Suddently they stop beating their wings.    - "Do you want to be my mate?" - asks Altair.    - "Yes, and you?" - replies Fluffbeak.    - "Yes." - says Altair, then they let go their hands, and on a heart stopping moment they are suspended in the air... their antennae glowing intensely, Altair's throat sac glowing like a floodlight, the tips of their primaries are glowing too, suddently,they are falling, gliding towards the ground, and the bioluminescence goes off as soon as they touch the ground - "What do you thing, peeps." - asks Altair as he approaches his friends.    - "It's wonderfull, amazing." - says Nessus.    - "We're officially mates for life." - says Fluffbeak with pride, before

preening Altair's mane and wings.    - "It's wonderfull." - says Nessus.    - "Yes, and this nightsky is prone to courtship, look." - says Altair, pointing towards another couple, who were on courtship night.    - "Quite beautiful, heir dance." - says Hellon.    - "I'm still hungry." - complains Ethon.    - "What about the food?" - says Nessus.    - "I won't starve because of that guy." - says Fluffbeak clacking her beak once.    - "Let's go, I've got a friend of mine who might have something for us to eat, and a room for us to sleep on." - says Altair. They go back to the ravine city towards the home of Altair's friend, they help Altair going down the stairs.    - "We exit on the first door." - says Altair as his friends help him going down the stairs. The first door was open, and they went thru the door, and the last closed the door, they they turned away from the waterfall towards a blacksmith shop, it was closed - "Aerion! Are you there?" - he shouts.    - "Who do you think you are, this is not open at night!" - admonishes a passerby.    - "Altair?" - asks Aerion.    - "Yes. Altair, Fluffbeak, Nessus, Ethon and Heion." - says Altair.    - "He's Heillon." - whispers Nessus.    - "And Heillon." - says Altair correcting himself.    - "Come in. But who are those three strangers? - asks Aerion - "Wait, isn't this one that Nessus guy who came from a portal thing, isn't he?" - says Aerion enthusiastically, opening the door.    - "Yes." - says Altair.    - "Come in, come in!" - says Aerion.

Chapter 29: Proposal He was a gryphon using a powered exoskeleton, it was made out of a self repairing nano alloy-metallic glass composite, SRNA-MGC. His upper and lower jaw were covered in the exoskeleton's material, and so was the chest, the forelegs and hindlegs and the wings too, except for the feathers, the belly and the neck were covered by a tough fabric, along with other parts that were not covered by the exoskeleton like the joints. On the back there was a small jetpack. The powered exoskeleton had a chrome finishing and the fabric was dark red, almost black. Each of his bloodshot eyes were protected by a  transparent visor with readings. He was lying on a green space. The city around him was populated mainly by dragons, very few gryphons and humanoids, and so was the world he was in. Suddently a message appears inside his helmet.    - "A new message? Let's see." - thinks the gryphon to himself.    - "Come to my office, now! - Gabriel." - says the message. The gryphon twitches his tail in annoyiance.    - "Good great, that plank wants me there." - thinks the gryffon, before taking off into the air, and with the help of the jetpack, he gains more

speed. He lands on a balcony.    - "Dane, come in, I want to talk to you." - says a tall human male sitting on an armchair.    - "I'm here Gabriel, want me to do a job?" - says Dane, the gryffon, while he enters the human's room. The room was luxurious.    - "Not one, but two, what do you think?" - asks Gabriel.    - "Spit it out." - says Dane with glee.    - "I told you a thousand times, that slang is not allowed here." - says the human angrily, before his voice returns to normal - "Turn your bluetooth on, I'll transfer the files to your computer. And how much do you want me to pay? The usual?" - asks Gabriel.    - "The usual, ten thousand credits now, and another ten thousand when I finish the job, that is for each job. You can transfer the files now." - says Dane, then the files are transfered via bluetooth.    - "Check your bank account, I'll transfer twenty thousand credits into it." - says Gabriel as Dane goes into the balcony and spreads his wings.    - "Checked." - confirms Dane as the twenty thousand credits are transfered to his bank account - "I won't disappoint you." - says Dane before flying away. Mid flight he recieves a video call from his family - "Hey darling!" - he says as the face of his mate appears on the left visor.    - "My sweetie, are you comming home, soon?" - asks Dane's mate.    - "Sorry, no." - says Danen with regret - "I've got some work to do."    - "I know what work you are doing and please promise me, that this will be the last job." - pleads Dane's mate.    - "Sorry, I can't promise you anything, besides that I will return home, soon." - replies Dane.    - "Dad, dad? What job are you going to do?" - asks a fledgling that was close to Dane's mate.    - "I am going to clean part of the Interface, some paths, it is a bit dangerous." - says Dane, lying to his fledgling.    - "You are lying, you are not going to clean anything, you are going to do something else." - says the fledgling accusingly.    - "How have you been, my sweet daughter." - says Dane trying to deviate from the subject.    - "I've been good, mister human is fine too." - says the fledgling showing a human doll to her father - "My mother, I and mister human miss you so much." - says the fledgling.    - "We are worried about you." - says Dane's mate.    - "Daddy, look, I've made a drawing of you." - says the fledgling showing her father a drawing of him.    - "It's beautifull, I'm going there, just wait, I'll be there in a moment, but I'll have to go away soon." - says Dane, his daughter gets excited and goes away squeaking happily.    - "She's so happy, you are comming back, she loves you, please retire from that awfull job of yours. See you later, darling" - says Dane's mate before ending the call. A tear dropped from Dane's eye.    - "Sorry Solaris." - he tought at himself, dragons flew past him, and an

occasional gryphon and harpy too. His house was on top of a tall skyscraper, like all houses, it had a large balcony, so its inhabitants could take off into the air directly from home. His home was at the top, it had a set of antennas on the top of it, used to receive and emit signals, each antenna had a light, so no one would collide with them.    - "Daddy, daddy!" - yells a brown gryphlet on a balcony, she still had baby fuzz.    - "Ghilma, my daughter." - says Dane, after landing on his balcony.    - "Come see the drawing I made of you." - says Ghilma pulling her father's arm.    - "I'm comming, I'm comming, my darling." - says Dane lovingly, following hid daughter.    - "Dane, please, tell me that what you are going to do isn't risky." - says Solaris worriedly, she had yellow feathers and white fur, and like her mate was of Nessus's kind.    - "Mate mine..." - says Dane.    - "Why did you subjected yourself to that." - says Solaris.    - "Daddy, look." - says Ghilme, showing her drawing to her father.    - "It's so pretty." - says Dane, patting his daughter's head.    - "I'm going to get something, and my drones too." - says Dane, opening a door, after that, he takes two pouches and couples one on the left side and the other on the right side. Then he opens a door, there was a box full of small foam pellets, the box had two drones in it, each drone had three propellers and a small plasma gun, Dane grabbed them and stowed one on the left pouch and another on the pouch on the right - "I hope I am not going to need these." - then he takes a small box and puts it on one of the pouches - "I'm going, my darling." - he says while nuzzling against his mate's neck feathers and then against his daughter's fluff.    - "Good luck, may the gods be with you." - says Solaris before her mate flies away into the bustling city.    - "No, I must go to Humania..." - thinks Dane, looking at the map on his left visor, the map guided him thru the bustling city, into the Portal, he also kept an eye on his surroundings, so he would not bump with the flying denizens of the city. The Portal was relatively close to his home, some twenty or thirty kilometers away.

Chapter 30: Story    - "Are you addapting well to your...well...legs?" - asks Aerion.    - "Yes, I've learnt to balance in them, as if it was an unicycle." - responds Altair.    - "[caw]! You never forgot how to use that torture machine. [snicker]." - says Aerion as they walk towards the dining room - "Do we have any room for these fellas?"    - "We've got only a single bedroom, but I think they fit there, [chuckle]." - says a blue gryphoness with white spots all over her body. She was cutting some vegetables.    - "Who are those, can I play with them?" - asks a small gryphlet, that was

still covered in yellow fuzz, and holding a doll.    - "Those are friends of a friend of mine, and they are just here to sleep." - says Aerion waving at his friends.    - "Are you hungry?" - asks the gryphoness pouring the vegetables into a cauldron. The smoke comming from the cooking fire was sucked by a vent above it, to prevent it from soffucating the gryphons.    - "We are starving." - says Altair, rubbing his belly.    - "You'll need to wait a bit, we just started cooking. Meanwhile, I can tell your friends a story, what do you think?" - says Aerion, sitting around the table in the middle of the room, his daughter sits alongside him, there were no chairs.    - "Buds, what do you think of a story?" - asks Nessus to Ethon and Heillon.    - "As long as it is properly translated." - says Ethon sitting on the opposite side relative to Aerion.    - "The same here." - agrees Heillon sitting close to Ethon.    - "Yes, but please tell that story slowly, so I can translate it to my two friends." - says Nessus after sitting alongside Ethon.    - "Good, perfect, this is a real story, it happened when I was still a fledgling, I just fledged some days before." - says Aerion before addressing to Nessus - "Are you keeping up?" - he asks.    - "A bit slower." - says Nessus gesturing with a hand.    - "Allright. Continuing...I've just fledged, and I went outside on my father's back, I loved to do it, in that time, the war was still a fierce arms race, five nations were in it, but our nation, Tzaba was not still in it, as I was saying we were taking suplies to be taken to our village, they were on crates, the crates contained machine parts, I allways loved machines, I loved to go to the city to see wheeled or legged vehicles, I loved them, and I still love them. Continuing, we were recieving suplies, they were being loaded into elevators, I and my father looked awkward, some guys laughed, others said things that I shrugged off. Everything was okay, verbally, I played with some guys, it was being enjoyable." - tells Aerion before taking a deep breath - "We started to hear wing beats, we looked at the sky, and we saw something metallic, glistening in the sky, it was large, and it was comming towards us, suddently, it swooped down on my father, I was thrown to the ground as the thing bore down on my father, I looked in horror at the thing's bloody blue eyes, it screamed at me, it's scream was a like a cross between a honk and a screech. The golem was like a bird of prey with blades for feathers made out of bronze, two sickle shaped claws on each wing, it stood two body leghs tall and three long with a wingspan of six or seven, covering the chest, a shield with the coat of arms of the nearest nation, Arcadia, that was also competing for the Artifact, Portal thing. Everytime it moved, we could hear it's sinister clockwork ticking. From it's back, two smoking vents. Then the golem let my father go, and started to attack everyone, many were killed. I crawled towards my father, he, he..." - told Aerion before he starts crying.    - "Aerion, are you allright?" - asks Nessus reaching with a reassuring claw.    - "Shut your beak, this was your fault." - shouts Aerion.

    - "Dad, are you allright?" - asks the youngling.    - "Yes, [chirp] I am." - says Aerion sadly.    - "His father died that day." - whispers Altair to Nessus.    - "Aerion, please don't blame the others." - says Altair disapprovingly.    - "His father died that day." - says Nessus to Ethon and Heillon    - "Darling, are you allright?" - asks the gryphoness.    - "Yes, I'm fine, I'm fine, perfectly fine..." - says Aerion after letting out a longh sigh - "From that time, I sworn to destroy that evil golem, and guess what, the golem was defeated!" - says Aerion with exhilaration - "Want me to tell you this episode, the second time it tried to attack out town, Ravine?"    - "Nessus, this time be quiet." - whispers Altair before addressing to Aerion - "Yes, you may." - agrees Altair.    - "I want you, blue to be quiet, don't talk to me, you bring me bad memories." - says Aerion.    - "His name is Nessus." - informs Altair.    - "Whatever..." - says Aerion rolling his eyes - "It was a day of festivities, the spring fair, the biggest fair of the year, people from many places gathered arround Ravine. There were many things to buy and see, food to eat and smell, games to play and watch, music to hear and dance, and after several sightings of the golem, steam powered harpoons and cannons, with soldiers operating them, pointing them towards the sky, some people were scanning the sky and the ground with binoculars, armed with needlers, I was one of those. In that time, the war was already full on, but our nation, was still out of it. People milled around, they were happy, ignoring the weapons, fledglings played, their parents watched over them. It was early afternoon, when everyone had finished eating, the golem was spotted by several sentries, it came from east. Weapons were aimed at the golem, when it was close enough, evacuation was ordered. When it was close enough, the cannons, loaded with explosive shells were fired at the golem, that let out a scream between a honk and a screech, we thought it had been hit, but it turned out that it was runic-shielded, the next to play into action were the harpoons, those that weren't being destroyed by the thing were fired at it, but they just bounced off it's feathers, then we had an idea, we needed to make it scream again, cannons were loaded and fired, the thing screamed at us once more, and when it's beak was wide open again, we fired our harpoons at it's gaping maw, this time, they latched onto it, and the golem screamed in pain as the harpoons pulled it's insides eveytime it tried to free itself from them, it then used it's talons to destroy the harpoon guns, but the harpoons were chained to the bedrock, and the thing could not free itself, for now. One of the cannons that were left intact was within it's runic shield, then I took the chance and fired it against the thing, that screeched in pain as the shell blew up, some of the feathers were blasted away, I jumped out of the cannon as the golem turned to destroy it with one of it's bladed wings, the remaining shells blew up, part of it's wing was torn off and it's mechanins damaged, it's runic shield worked against itself by containing the blast, we watched as the blast engulfed the golem, we thought it had been defeated, when the smoke cleared, the golem released an ear-piercing

scream, theose who were too close became temporarily deaf, I was one of those. Suddently it started to vent a corrosive gas that prevented us from getting too close. We fired harpoons at a small featherless patch of it's chainmail like skin. Suddently from it's beak came out a strange fire like substance that melted the harpoons, freeing it's head, then the golem spat molten metal by shaking it's head. Then it tried to breathe the same firey stuff, and at the same time, an intense light came from it's gullet, using the fire, it cut the chains that restrained it and started to destroy the tents, and killing another person. Then we shot another harpoon at it, this time, it got stuck on the chest shield, but the golem shook it off, then another gryphon had the idea that below the shield was a weak point, we had to think fast, as the thing kept destroying, then when we had the chance, we fired an explosive shell at it's chest shield, it counterattacked by destroying the cannon along with its operator, but the chest shield was coming off, then two more harpoons were shot at it, they latched onto the mechanisms below the shield, then the golem screamed it's pain as it tried to pull off the harpoons, in it's anger, it destroyed the harpoon guns, then it broke the chains, then a light apeared below the shield, I fired another harpoon, then another harpoon was fired at it, then another and another, until the chest shield came off, then we fired another harpoon, this time at it's exposed insides, there were sparts as the harpoon inserted itself on it's insides, when the golem accidentaly pulled the harpoons, it fell to the ground as several sparks and lights came from it's chest." - told Dawnfather slowly before being interrupted by his mate.    - "Time to eat the soup, I hope you like it." - she said after putting seven, large clay dishes on the table and filling them with soup.    - "It smells so good. As I was saying, it fell to the ground, and when we went to investigate, after the corrosive gas it was venting dissipated, we started to examine it's insides, I identified the animation core and puled it away to avoid further trouble it had enormous energy reserves, then we built a tent around it's husk, all its parts were retrieved, and the tent was closed to the public, shortly after, almost everything went back to normal, people talked about the attack, and such, you know. I just hope this is not one of a kind." - continues Aerion before slurping a bit of soup - "Mellanche Fluffcrest, this is amazing, you make wonderful soups."    - "Good  to know you like, now let's eat, then we go to sleep." - says Fluffcrest.    - "An afterthought, it's feathers are lined with barbed hooks. And the chest shield had the coat of arms of a nation, we are at war with." - says Aerion.    - "What a story, Altair, were you involvedd in this battle?" - asks Nessus.    - "No, I was battling on the battlefield." - says Altair.    - "Nessus, this night [slurp], I'll have to take some blood from you, dealt?" - says Heillon slurping some soup.    - "Allright, just remember to not to leave bloodstains on my hide." - says Nessus, after a moment of hesitation, before eating a good portion of the soup - "And leave enough blood for me to live normaly." - says Nessus

before resuming eating the soup. They all eat the warm soup, it had no meat, only vegetables.    - "Nessus, what do you think?" - asks Altair.    - "Of what, the soup?" - responds Nessus.    - "Yes, the soup." - replies Altair.    - "The soup is very good, although it needs more meat, we are strict carnivores, we need meat. Nothing I have'nt told you." - says Nessus.    - "Vegetables are good, they won't harm." - says Fluffcrest.    - "Let's see." - says Nessus.    - "Tomorrow, we'll hunt, and you'll get all the meat you need." - says Altair resting a wing on Nessus's back.    - "Like the last time we were together, but with more people." - says Nessus eating a portion of the soup.    - "Yes, just like that." - agrees Altair, sipping a bit more soup.    - "Eat!" - orders Fluffcrest. Everyone eats quietly, and when everyone finishes, Fluffcrest takes the dishes and puts them on a bowl to be washed.    - "Tell me a little about the war, Nessus." - asks Heillon as Fluffcrest washes the dishes.    - "The war, it started some years ago, Tzaba, this nation joined the war only an year ago, the war lasts for nine years, if I am not mistaken." - says Nessus succinctly.    - "Now let's sleep, you, now can go to sleep, we will keep them here." - says Aerion.    - "Nessus, now you and your friends will stay here, I'll go home, to endure that moron, you will go away when I return, agreed?" - says Altair.    - "Agreed." - agrees Nessus.    - "Bye. Don't worry, they are good people, Aerion might look a bit mean, but he's a good person, although a bit short tempered." - says Altair.    - "What am I going to put up with?" - grumbles Aerion before addressing to Altair - "Bye, see you tomorrow. We'll take care of them." - says Aerion before Altair and Fluffbeak exit Aerion house - "Now, it's us four, behave well, don't stain my pilows, or you'l have to clean them by hand." - says Aerion harshly.    - "Dad, don't be mean, this half sider is so cute, I want to play with him." - says the youngling.    - "No, now we are going to sleep." - says Aerion , opening a door to a room, and activating a light on that room - "Now, enter this toom, you three strangers sleep on the corner." - says Aerion - "Half sider, hang your collar on that hanger, Nessus put your backpack on the hanger." - orders Aerion as they enter the bedroom.    - "Heillon, give me your collar." - says Nessus, Heillon gives him the collar. After that, Aerion turns off the lights of the main room, the bedroom had it's floor covered with pillows, Ethon, Heillon and Nessus lain on the end of the room, Fluffcrest and her daughter curled up together, and after turning off the lights, Aerion lays down close to his mate.

    - "Nessus, prepare yourself." - says Heillon creeping towards to Nessus and licking his neck.

Chapter 31: Daydream He sat down on a pillow, looking at the mesmerizing view of the nightsky thru the window. The librarian was standing behind him, looking at him with sleepy, wise eyes.  Fluffwing, the librarian did not understood Boris's fixation with the nightsky, it was as if this was the first time he was seeing it, it was as if he has just arrived to the world or this world, was he from this world? The ones who delivered Boris to him, did not say anything about where he came from, they just found him. He spent the whole day looking at the illustrations, playing with fledglings, apparently, he loved fledglings, everytime a fledgling exited the library, he looked at him or her with sad eyes, Fluffwing felt impotent everytime, people asked him what kind of creature Boris was. Boris reared up on his haunches and spread his arm apart and breathed deep.    - "Boris!" - called the old scholar, Boris turns his head - "Sleep." - says Fluffwing gesturing with his body.    - "'S'eep?'" - says Boris trying to mimic Fluffwing, who smiles affectionately, despite his rigid beak.    - "Sleep." - says the scholar, trying to teach Boris.    - "Sleep." - says Boris.    - "Good." - says Fluffwing patting Boris's head - "Let's sleep. Come." - says Fluffwing, going downstairs, Boris follow him, they go to the lower, underground floor, two floors below the ground, it was the scholar's living space it was lit by magical lights, it was a small room, with two doors, one led to a kitchen, the other to a bedroom. The bedroom had three beds - "Bed." - says Fluffwing pointing at a bed.    - "Bed." - says Boris pointing at one of the beds.    - "Good." - says Fluffwing, laying on a bed, Boris lays besides him and curls up - "Aw, not here, there." - says Fluffwing pointing at another bed.    - "Bed." - says Boris pointing at a bed - "Sleep." - says Boris, laying on a bed and closing his eyes, Fluffwing snaps his fingers and the lights go off. Boris was on the middle of a forest of limestone needles, with a strong feeling of being followed, as if the rocks themselves were watching him, he looked around and then he took off, as soon as he took off, some seven or ten gryphons took off from the surrounding rock formations, each one of them was different from the other as they were from Boris. The pursuit went on, until the karstic landscape was replaced by a mountain range, he could see a collumn of rising smoke, hinting at the presence of a volcano, the pursuit went on for several minutes, the more he flew, more gryphons joined the pursuit, he then changed direction and started flying at the collumn of smoke rising from a volcano, the majority of the gryphons gave up, not wanting to approach the rising cloud of volcanic smoke and ash, and the more persistent gave up as Boris took a deep breath, closed his eyes and entered the cloud, shortly after he collided with a tree, he was on a forest,

his head hurt, there was a hut nearby, not wanting more trouble, he stepped away from it, just to come face to face with a gryphon with the head, wings and forelegs of a crested hawk, and the hindquarters and tail of a feline with orange spots, the gryphon had a pouch on the left side, the gryphon was smaller than him, more than half of his size, the gryphon looked up on him and talked to him cheerfully in a strange language, then all of sudden he was standing on the bed he was sleeping on.    - "What a dream." - he thought, then he fell asleep, but strangely, his head ached, he smelled like sulphur, and when he felt the top of the head, he found a piece of bark - "Strange..." - he thought. Shortlly after, he fell asleep. Then someone woke him up, when he opened his eyes, he saw a gryphon's face, it was the gryphon he saw earlier, the visage forced him awake, he acquired a defencive stance, but the gryphon's relaxed and somewhat submissive posture calmed Boris. There was another gryphon, an owl gryphon, with a beaded necklace, this one was of Boris's size, both gryphons were talking to each other on a foreign language, Boris looked around, he was on a wooden, well built hut with shelves with herbs and potions, and standing outside it...Vyre, he was just like Boris, except he had no scar and had bloody red eyes.    - "Hey there." - says Vyre with a demonic voice, and heavy breathing.    - "No, you are dead, dead, [shouts]dead!" - says Boris stepping back, pointing at the apparition, the other two gryphons looked outside, to see what had scared their strange visitor, but they saw nothing, just the forest.    - "They can't see me, I am in your mind, I am part of you, only you can see me...for now..." - says Vyre, then Boris pinches his left arm, that did not had feathers - "You can't wake up, this is not a dream, this is reality."    - "No, I want to go back home! No! No!" - he says.    - "Look behind you, these two." - says Vyre, pointing at the gryphons behind Boris.    - "Leave them be, they have nothing to do with us." - says Boris.    - "Come on, they look so...you could kill both." - says Vyre, waving at the gryphons.    - "No, you're a monster, I hate you!" - shouts Boris, the gryphons behind him look at each other in confusion.    - "You, you hate me? Do you know what you just said? You broke my heart." - says Vyre, putting his left hand on his chest with puppy dog eyes.    - "You are heartless, you are an evil monster." - shouts Boris - "You don't deserve my or anyone's love."    - "Please, no, don't hate on me, I am good, I am your friend, I give you good advice." - says Vyre.    - "No!" - shouts Boris, stepping back.    - "Look at your left, that one is plumpy, spill his guts, look at your right, she's small, smash every bone in her body, it will be pleasant." - says Vyre, approaching Boris.    - "No!" - says Boris, closing his eyes - "No!" - he says before opening his eyes, this time he was on the scholar's unlit bedroom.    - "Boris, are you allright? Calm down, it was just a nightmare." - says the

old librarian, Fluffwing, turning on the lights, he was on his bedroom again, with his arm and finger stretched out, pointing at the floor, Fluffwing was hugging Boris, trying to calm him down.    - "Good." - says Boris, wrapping his arms around the old gryphon's mane, and closing his eyes, he was already tired, he just wanted to sleep, then the scholar started to sing - "Sleep." - says the scholar after finishing singing, but Boris fell asleep on his arms, Fluffwing lays him on the bed - "Sleep well." Boris was standing on a black floor, the sky was white and bright.    - "This is a dream, fool." - says Vyre.    - "A lucid dream." - says Boris before turning the current landscape into a grassfield, the grass was dark brown, and the sky cloudy and red, it was raining.    - "I want to tell you something." - says Vyre, approaching Boris.    - "Nope." - says Boris as a cage forms around Vyre - "Quiet." - says Boris as Vire's lower jaw fuses with the upper jaw - "You are on my mind, I am in control of everything, look, there's a beach." - says Boris, walking towards the beach.    - "You can't trap me, you know. Ethon is dead, because of you." - says Vyre maliciously - "It was because of your inaction."    - "Shut up! You know, it was not because of me, you just want to weaken me." - says Boris accusingly.    - "The next time, you will fight, you will kill." - says Vyre before fading away from the dream.    - "No!" - shouts Boris as Vyre fades away.

Chapter 32: Hunting    - "Wake up!" - shouts Aerion - "Nessus, look at your neck." They wake up, Nessus feels oddly lightheaded. Heillon and Ethon are curled around each other.    - "What?" - says Nessus sleepily, feeling his neck.    - "Come with me." - says Aerion, grabbing Nessus by a wing and dragging him to the main room - "Give me your neck." - says Aerion grabbing Nessus's neck and plucking Nessus's bloodstained feathers, then he sees two small puncture wounds.    - "Aerion, don't be so harsh, what happened to him?" - asks Mellanche.    - "Do you know what did this?" - asks Aerion, pointing at the puncture wounds, they had dried blood around them.    - "It was my friend, Heillon." - says Nessus.    - "What." - asks Aerion.    - "Come again?" - asks Mellanche.    - "Heillon's kind needs to drink blood to live." - responds Nessus, Aerion looks at his daughter, she was hugging Heillon, and Heillon was nuzzling against her fuzzy mane, Aerion's eyes widen.    - "Orini! Get away from him!" - says Aerion, then someone knocks at the door - "Wait, we are dealing with a problem."    - "Aerius, It's us, Altair and Fluffbeak." - says Altair, Mellanche opens the

door - "What's the problem about?"    - "There's a misunderstanding here." - says Nessus.    - "What are those feathers doing on the ground? What happened to your neck?" - asks Altair.    - "Heillon had to feed on my blood, but do not worry, he is well fed." - says Nessus.    - "How much blood has he taken from you? Why did he took blood from you? How...Why...Explain me:" - says Altair, he and Fluffbeak had a ring across their nostrils.    - "Heillon asked me if he could take blood from me, I let him do it, it was with my consent. He will only take blood from you only with your consent." - says Nessus.    - "I see, so it's safe for my little Orini to play with him, right?" - asks Aerion.    - "Perfectly safe." - says Nessus reassuringly.    - "How can we be sure of that?" - asks Mellanche.    - "Look, we're going hunting." - says Fluffbeak.    - "Heillon, do not return." - says Aerion turning his back - "And I don't trust the black one, he looks like a gloom."    - "He does not likes us." - says Nessus to Heillon and Ethon.    - "I don't care, I want to find my brother." - grumbles Ethon.    - "You might get teleported with him." - says Heillon.    - "I'll remember that, everyone remember this, if he teleports with me, I don't care, I just want to be with him." - says Ethon.    - "What about us?" - asks Nessus, as they walk with Altair and his mate towards the surface.    - "Why does your now wear those nose rings?" - asks Nessus.    - "Oh! I haven't told you? That's our wedding ring. We wear it when we mate, it is made out of gold, the richest couples have them incrusted with gems." - explains Altair.    - "Those rings across the nostrils are wedding rings." - says Nessus to Ethon and Heillon, they werepreening each other's neck feathers.    - "They're beautiful." - says Heillon before hopping happily as they walk.    - "He says that your rings are pretty." - says Nessus to the couple.    - "Thanks." - says Fluffbeak looking at Heillon, then preening Altair's mane.    - "Let's go to the forest ahead, there's plenty of game there." - says Altair.    - "We're going to hunt there, it's a bit far, but we'll get there..." - says Nessus to Heillon and Ethon before noticing something - "What's that fuss about?" - asks Nessus.    - "Let's go?" - asks Altair pointing at a place where a croud was gathering.    - "By me, we could go." - says Fluffbeak.    - "Why not?" - says Nessus before addressing to his smaller friends - "Want to go there?"    - "That's certainly better than hunting." - says Heillon.    - "Let's go." - says Ethon    - "Watever it is, is close to the guillotine." - says Fluffbeak as they run

towards the colorful croud.    - "Heillon, I think going hunting would be better than this." - says Nessus when they arrive to the croud, in the middle of it,there was a tall metal scaffold with a ladder inside attached to a central column, on top of it there was a guillotine, and in front of it there was a gryphon reading a scroll aloud, there were three more gryphons, two of them had a mask, and one of them was tied to a pole.    - "What's going up?" - asks Nessus, to the nearest gryphon, the gryphon just stares at Nessus - "What's going on?" - asks Nessus, the gryphon turns to another gryphon and talks to him, the other gryphon looks at Nessus, then at Heillon and Ethon, impressed by the apparition, he comments what he saw with yet another gryphon, that other gryphon does the same, then slowly the entire croud turns it's attention towards the three otherworldly visitors - "We'd better get off here." - says Nessus, turning back.    - "Let's go." - says Altair - "Judge, what's going on?" - shouts Altair, but his words are lost on the noise the croud made - "Let us go!" - souts Nessus, his crest was raised with irritation.    - "Let's go, the croud is closing aroud us." - says Fluffbeak. Altair, despite the wheels replacing his hindlegs, flies away, Fluffbeak follows him, then Heillon, then Nessus, Ethon is the last to depart, after some tries, he takes off and flies awkwardly, a small number of gryphon pursue them.    - "Go away!" - shouts Altair, some gryphons obey, but others stay, and ask questions.    - "Who are those?" - asks one of them.    - "Are they for sale?" - asks the other.    - "We're not for sale!" - says Nessus, the later backs off, surprised to hear Nessus talking - "We're not slaves!"    - "Can I touch you?" - asks another gryphon.    - "No! Leave us!" - says Altair, standing on his wheels.    - "How did you lost your legs?" - asks the second.    - "[hiss]! It's none of your business!" - says Fluffbeak spreading her wings menacingly.    - "Is that smallish one for sale?" - asks a fourth.    - "No." - says Nessus.    - "Can they talk?" - asks the gryphon.    - "Yes, but not your language." - says Nessus.    - "Is that a gloom?" - asks the gryphon pointing at Ethon.    - "No." - says Nessus, some of the gryphons that were expeled by Altair were turning back towards them.    - "Let's go to the forest." - says Altair, turning towards the dense forest, Fluffbeak follows, then Nessus, Heillon and Ethon go behind Altair and Fluffbeak, leaving the other gryphons behind, looking at each other, as they fly towards the forest, Ethon flies awkwardly.    - "There should be some soft shelled mehamins." - says Altair as they fly - "As you can see, and with much regret, I cannot hunt." - says Altair, while they fly towards the forest - "We will land in that clearing, in the middle of

the forest." - says Altair, pointing at a clearing in the forest, it was a bit far away. When they arrived, Altair and Fluffbeak lay down on the grass.    - "We stay." - says Fluffbeak, laying besides Altair.    - "Fluffbeak, you can go, I can get along alone." - says Altair.    - "Ethon will protect you, there are azcas here." - says Nessus before addressing to Ethon - "Ethon, protect him."    - "I will stay with Ethon." - says Heillon.    - "Allright, stay there, we'll bring the meat." - says Nessus before addressing to Fluffbeak - "Fluffbeak, let's hunt." - Nessus and Fluffbeak go to the denes forest and Ethon, Heillon and Altair stay on the clearing.    - "Ethon, let's cuddle a bit?" - asks Heillon.    - "I have to watch for danger." - says Ethon.    - "Please, let's cuddle, I'm cuddly for you, I am all yours [purr]." - purrs Heillon, laying bellyup looking at Ethon's eyes with playful eyes.    - "Must be asking for blood." - thinks Altair to himself looking at his two otherworldly guards, Nessus and Fluffbeak were already on the surrounding forest.    - "Fluffbeak what wa happening near that guillotine?" - asks Nessus.    - "Hush! It was a trial, an thief was being judged, I asked someone, and he said he was caught in the act of stealing." - answers Fulffbeak in low voice. They prowl across the forest. There were birds that flew away, and some smaller burrowing animals hid in their burrows as the two gryphons passed by. After some hours they spot their prey, each one was half as massive as Nessus, they had long, spindly legs, their back was protected by a soft, green shell, they had a long neck, they were covered by short brown fur, their head had a short snout and long ears. The animals were alert, they probably heard them comming, or the small animals fleeing.    - "Let's split here." - says Fluffbeak, Nessus nods in approval, they split, they go around the herd, and then they stop. Then Fluffbeak lights up her antennae, two of the animals are attracted by the light comming from the tip of Fluffbeak's antennae, when the animals are close enough, Fluffbeak pounces on one of them, the rest of the animals run away towards Nessus, he pounces on one of them, and breaks it's neck.    - "Take this two to Altair, I'm going after them." - says Nessus hurriedly before pursuing the animals. Fluffbeak puts the animal she killed on her back, then she puts Nessus's kill on her back too, and walks towards the clearing where Altair is.    - "Fluffbeak, guess what, some annoying gryphons harassed me and this two guys." - says Altair as Fluffbeak comes from the forest.    - "Seriously, are they that persistent?" - says Fluffbeak - "Look, Nessus killed this one, a pretty good one, and I killed this one, not as good, but, very good.    - "Where is Nessus?" - asks Altair.    - "Nessus went after more game." - says Fluffbeak - "And don't think about eating without Nessus." - says Fluffbeak, dropping the dead animals

on the ground close to Altair.    - "Where is Nessus?" - asks Ethon to Heillon.    - "I don't know." - says Heillon.    - "Nessus told me to stay here. I'll wait for him, but if he does not returns in an hour, I'll go after him." - says Ethon.    - "How?" - asks Heillon.    - "I'll track his tablet." - says Ethon, rearing up on his haunches. Altair and Fluffbeak play together, Ethon waits for Nessus, and Heillon sleeps close to Ethon, but Nessus was nowhere to be seen, an hour had gone.    - "Where is Nessus?" - asks Altair.    - "Heillon, stay there, I'm going to look for Nessus." - says Ethon taking off into the air awkwardly, but as soon as he takes off, he crashes into the ground headfirst - "[sigh]...I need training..." - says Ethon as he stands up again, activates his head armor and takes off into the air awkwardly, bumping into trees.    - "He needs some training." - says Altair, looking at Ethon's sinuous flight.    - "Silicon, track Nessus." - says Ethon, then on his visor a red dot appears, signaling Nessus's position.

Chapter 33: Ritual As the animals run away from Fluffbeak, Nessus pounces on the closest animal and breaks it's neck.    - "Take this two to Altair, I'm going after them." - says Nessus hurriedly before pursuing the animals. During the pursuit, he dodges trees, and jumps over obstacles that would make him trip and fall, and loose. After almost a quarter of an an hour, he was already approaching an animal, he was readying himself for the kill, but Heillon's feast on his blood took it's toll on him as he was getting tired more soon than he would under normal conditions. The animals were going towards a clearing, the clearing had a small tipi, besides it, there was a small campfire with a boiling pot above it, on the clearing, there were two glooms, one of them was Aya, this time, she had a leather and gold bracelet on the right arm, it was decorated with gems, and charged with magic, on that same arm, she had metal talons, the other gloom had a satchel.    - "Hean, see if the water is boiling." - says Aya while carefully wrapping translucent, neon green crystals, each crystal hummed and glowed with magic - "I need to learn how to harness the power of this crystals, I think I've found the formula to do it." - she says while stowing the crystals on a backpack and taking several potions and herbs from it.    - "Aya, careful with the crystals, there's a stampede comming!" - says Hean, as they hear the animals running from Nessus. Aya screeches menacingly, the rushing herd changes direction. Nessus was almost stopping, when suddently, he hears an ugly screech, and all the animals change direction, all but Nessus, that goes towards a clearing, and when he moves a bush away from him, he sees the two

glooms, as soon as he sees them, one of them casts a paralysing spell, and Nessus falls to the side, paralysed.    - "I remember you!" - says Aya stepping on Nessus's head with her left hindleg and assuming an upright posture - "You aided those gryphons in raiding our home!" - says Aya, looking at Ethon's eyes, her jagged beak was touching Nessus's beak - "Now, you'll suffer, but not before giving all your powers to me[maniacal laughter]! Hean, new plans, prepare a calming potion."    - "Why?" - asks Hean.    - "Why? To make it more willing to accept its fate, it's easier for me to absorb its powers if it is calm, willing. After that, some nice torture will be applied." - says Aya.    - "I like that last part." - says Hean carefully licking his jagged beak.    - "What are you waiting for?" - orders Aya - "I'm going to make the seal."    - "Great, I'm paralized, now what are they going to do to me?" - thinks Nessus to himself. While Hean prepares the sedative, Aya drags Nessus out of the clearing, and draws an obtuse heptagram where Nessus was. Then she draws magic symbols in the middle of the heptagram and finaly says magic words that activate the seal, the lines she made on the ground start to glow, and Aya drags Nessus back into the seal.    - "Is the potion ready?" - asks Aya.    - "Yes, just open it's beak." - says Hean. Aya opens Nessus's beak and Hean uses a large soup spoon to pour the potion on Nessus's beak.    - "Enough, let the potion take effect, it'll take some time to take effect." - says Aya.    - "Oh no! What did they made me swallow?" - thinks Nessus worriedly. While they wait for the potion to take effect, Aya sits on Nessus's chest.    - "Great, now it's drooling all over my chest." - thinks Nessus as Aya's saliva drips onto Nessus's chest, after some moments, he starts feeling lightheaded, calm - "And what the fuck is this stuff they gave to me?"    - "We may start the ritual." - says Aya.    - "Aya, it has a backpack." - says Hean.    - "Take it from it." - says Aya as she takes a spell book from her backpack, and she opens it - "Here it is." - says Aya as she opens the book on a page containing a spell. Aya starts casting the spell.    - "Oh no, she's trying to sap my magic." - thinks Nessus nervously - "I must avoid that at all cost." - thinks Nessus, trying to prevent his magic from seeping away from his body.    - "It is offering resistance!" - says Aya after some unsuccessful minutes - "Give him more calmative!" - orders Aya before opening Nessus's beak once more. Hean then pours more sedative into Nessus's beak.    - "Look at the neck." - says Hean, looking at Nessus's neck and the featherless patch with the bite marks.    - "I know, I don't care, I just want its powers." - says Aya.    - "Have you read the requirements and instructions?" - asks Hean.

    - "No...Let's see..." - says Aya while turning a page - "I can't believe it!" - she yells infuriated.    - "What?" - asks Hean    - "This demands me to use a rare herb!" - she says.    - "And the paralysing spell is wearing out." - says Hean as Nessus's fingers start to twitch.    - "We've got some rope, let's tie him up." - says Aya, taking rope from the tipi. Then both glooms proceed to tie Nessus with the rope, just when Nessus was regaining his movement. Nessus's movements were still slow and sleepy, due to the sedative he was given and also due to his tiredness.    - "Let me go!" - says Nessus, trying to free himself from the rope - "Useless!" - thinks Nessus to himself, realizing the futility of his movements. He yawns. Aya takes another book from her backpack and opens it on a page that had the immage of an herb, and puts a bookmark on that page - "Hean, go get this herbs." - demands Aya showing te herb to Hean, he then goes away into the forest. Aya then holds Nessus's head and looks at his eyes, Nessus was tied up tightly, he could only move his head, neck, talons, feet and tail, the later was twitching nervously.    - "I wish you came with that black thing, so I could preform my revenge." - says Aya, one of her metal talons was dangerously close to Nessus's right eye - "Spirits of the day, spirits of the night, spirits of the hunt! Bring me the one that killed my mate!" - shouts Aya heavenwards - "Meanwhile, I'll take this moments to..."- she says before nuzzling against Nessus's chest fluff and breathing deep - "...get all your fluff." - she says before going to the tipi, and returning with a cloth bag.    - "What is it up to? Nothing good." - thinks Nessus to himself. He squawks as Aya rips a talonfull of feathers from his neck. The next time Aya plucks a talonfull of feathers he only winces, during the next ten, twenty minutes Aya plucks all feathers from the neck and chest, leaving them featherless, and she also fills three bags with feathers - "Great, I'm naked." - thinks Nessus to himself looking at his featherless chest, there were scratches and some bleeding cuts on his pink skin - "I'm feeling a bit cold."    - "I've got it-what have you done to it?" -asks Hean with the herbs Aya asked for on his beak.    - "I've filled some bags with fluffy feathers." - says Aya putting the bags on the tipi, they were closed tightly with string - "Now let's prepare those herbs." - she says taking the herbs from Hean's beak and then she opens the spell book and follow the instructions to prepare them. She put them on boiling water, making an infusion, then she poured a potion on the infusion, then some leaves of some kind of herb, then she sprinkled a powder on the mixture and stirred for some minutes.    - "Oh no! It is certainly a potion to weaken me." - thinks Nessus to himself - "Help!" - yells Nessus helplessly.    - "It's crying for help, but he's not getting none." - says Hean, with the help of Aya, they bring the pot close to Nessus, Nessus turns his head away

from the pot.    - "Open his beak." - says Aya, Hean tryes to open Nessus's beak, but Nessus bites Hean's arm, Aya claws Nessus's right face, making him let go Hean's arm and leaving three cuts across his right face, Hean tries to open Nessus's beak, but Nessus offers resistance, but when Aya helps Hean, they manage to open Nessus's beak - "Hean, keep it's beak open." - says Aya, letting Hean keep Nessus's beak open, Nessus jerked his head to the side, and Hean ended up letting go Nessus's beak.    - "The beak is closed again." - says Hean, as Aya takes a spoonfull of potion.    - "You let the beak go! I told you to keep it open!" - she says firmly.    - "Why don't you launch a paralysing spell?" - asks Hean authoritatively.    - "You're right." - says Aya before launching a paralysing spell at Nessus.    - "Oh no! Now what? Just when I remembered to use my powers." - thinks Nessus to himself as he looses his movements and his body goes limp. Hean opens Nessus's beak, and when Aya was going to pour the potion on Nessus's beak, something came from the sky and crashed into the ground.

Chapter 34: Psychosis Boris woke up on the bedroom, it was lit with colorful lights, wisps of light flew in all directions. Butterflies fluttered in the air, flowers hung from the ceiling and walls, Boris tried to catch a butterfly, but he couldn't, then he saw a colorfull animal covered in colorful flowers, he tried to approach the animal, but it ran away, climbed a wall and stopped on the ceiling just above Boris, Boris tried to touch the animal, he could smell it, it smelled like flowers, he touched it, it felt like flowers, Boris started fondling the petals that made the animal's body. The animal ran into a wall and exploded into a burst of petals, Boris stood on his hindlegs, catching every petal just to throw them into the air, and letting them fall into him. Someone laid a talon on his shoulder. It was Arnes.    - "Arnes?" - he asked.    - "Yes, it's me." - she said before shouting - "Wake up, this ain't real!"    - "But, it feels like so." - he said sheepishly.    - "Listen to me, you ran out of antipsychotics, and that gave birth to this abomination." - she said before slapping Boris in the face.    - "If this isn't real, so why did I felt that?" - says Boris feeling the area where Arnes hit him.    - "This is real." - says Vyre with a demonic voice - "This world of glitter is boring, time to change that with some blood." - he says licking his beak.    - "No, this isn't real." - shouts Boris closing his eyes, when he opens them, the room returned to his normal appearance of stone bricks and iron girders.    - "You'll pay..." - says Vyre's detatched voice.    - "Boris?" - calls Fluffwing comming from the kitchen. Boris was trembling, Fluffwing hurried to comfort him, and take him to the kitchen where they ate something light brown and moist, Boris did not like the food, but ate it, after eating it, he felt ill and vomited.

    - "Boris! Are you allright?" - asks Fluffwing worriedly - "Stupid, he does not understands you!" - he thinks at himself. Suddently Boris glimpses a gryphon like him, but the hallucination does not lasts long.    - "Boris...I'll....be.....comming......" says the gryphon before disappearing in the blink of an eye.    - "Vyre...come back..." - whispers Boris with puke still dripping from his beak.    - "Don't listen to him." - says a voice belonging to Arnes.    - "[sigh]I'll have to clean this, then, I'll take this fella to the physician." - says Fluffwing. Fluffwing takes Boris to the bathroom, and then he returns to the kitchen with a mop to wipe the floor. After that he goes to a pantry to get a leather collar and a piece of rope.    - "Fluffwing?" - says Boris just when he starts feeling dizzy, it was as if his head was spinning, and the ground trying to flee from his feet. When Fluffwing turned to see him, he was swaying from side to side holding the head with a talon.    - "Boris, what's happening." - asks Fluffwing, Boris was clutching to his head. Along with the dizziness, Boris had a throbbing pain on the head, he could hear his own heartbeat with every heartbeat, the hedache seemed to worsen. After what seemed for him an eternity, the headache was gone, he sighed in relief.    - "Sorry, but we must go." - says Fluffwing putting the collar around Boris's neck, and then tying the rope around it. When Fluffwing exited the library, he saw a pair of gryphons with a harness pulling a cart, on the cart two gryphons, they were tied to a pole, both gryphons were yelling - "I'm innocent! Have mercy!" - yelled one of them - "Justice be made they said!" - yelled the other.    - "Let's go." - says Fluffwing, going away from the cart. Fluffwing and Boris went thru the streets. Several gryphons asked about Boris, to some Fluffwing replied to, other he did not replied to. Then, after some twenty minutes Boris suddently stops and clutches to his head. It was vertigo, Boris fell to the side, the world was spinning around him. Colorful creatures ran about around him. Amethist was talking something to him, then Vyre then Arnes then Fluffwing then Boris passed out. Something was wrong, out of place something that is where it is not supposed to be.    - "Boris, wake up." - said a familiar voice, it was Ethon.    - "Ethon?" - said Boris confusedly.    - "Yes, it's me." - he says running a hand across Boris's right face.    - "You're alive." - says Boris.    - "And whole." - says Ethon, spreading his wings.    - "We're at home." - says Boris looking around - "How did you survived?" - he asks.    - "It were the Entities, they helped you teleporting home." - says Ethon.    - "Come to my arms." - says Boris spreading his arms wide.

    - "I'll come." - says Ethon hugging Boris.    - "Nothing shall do us apart...again." - says Boris closing his eyes, pressing his beak against Ethon's feathers and sniffing loudly. When Boris opens his eyes, his beak was burried on someone's green mane, his head went back, he was not hugging Ethon but a gryphon with green mane, brown body and yellow head, Boris looked behind, Fluffwing was there too. Boris tucked his arms close to the chest, the gryphon's breath smelled like cow - "Ewwww."    - "Fluffwing, there is something wrong with this guy, I think he has mistaken me for someone else." - says the gryphon.    - "I see, I see...What do you say?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "Use a learning spell to teatch him our language, and come back." - whispers the gryphon.    - "What? Magic is forbidden!" - whispers Fluffwing apprehensively.    - "Look, something's terribly wrong with this guy. Vomit, vertigo, and possibly hallucinations. And there's the problem that he cannot tell us what's going on with him." - whispers the gryphon.    - "Let's see the problems one by one. Vomit, what do you think that caused the vomit." - says Fluffwing.    - "What did you fed him?" - asks the gryphon.    - "Nothing harmfull, just my usual asal pap." - says Fluffwing.    - "Will he let me see the beak?" - asks the gryphon.    - "I think so, try." - says Fluffwing. The gryphon opens Boris's beak and lights up his antennae. After some moments of examination, the gryphon's antennae go off and he lets Boris's beak go.    - "Well, I cannot tell if he is healthy or not, but there are some interesting details." - says the gryphon.    - "What interesting details?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "His tongue has barbs, and his teeth are unlike ours, unlike ours, his teeth are more like those of a carnivore, so this might be the reason he vomited the pap, what did you fed him lately? There might be the...forget about it." - says the physician.    - "Yesterday, he just ate meat, and some vegetables, why?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "It might be some malaise. Come back tomorrow and we'll see" - says the physician. Fluffwing leaves the place along with Boris and return to the librari without so much of an incident. When they arrived to the library there were several people in front of it's large doors.    - "Let me in, let me in!" - yells Fluffwing.    - "What were you doing?" - asks one of them, Fluffwing does not replies, he just opens the doors, letting in the small croud.    - "Fluffwing, were you on the execution?" - asks another one, this time the question gained Fluffwing's attention.    - "No, why do you ask that?" - asks Fluffwing.

    - "I saw your grandson there." - says the gryphon.    - "Mistwing..." - says Fluffwing exasperatedly.

Chapter 35: Freeing    - "Aya, what was this?" - asks Hean. Before Aya could do anything, the thing that crashed dashed towards Hean, it was black and strong. The thing lifted Hean and put him on the ground, then it started running towards Nessus, but Aya struck it with a repulsive spell, hurling him high into the sky, then it flew towards her, then she cast a paralysing spell against it, but apparently it had no effect on it. Not even the powerfull fire spell she launched at it had any effect at all besides knocking it back and making it angrier, it jumped high into the air, Aya blasted it out of the air, it crashed with a thud, then it jumped at Hean and hurled him at a tree, stunning him.    - "Hean!" - says Aya - "Take this!" - she says before hitting the black thing with a lightning spell, it became paralysed for a moment - "Don't like it, have some more!" - says Aya before hitting it with more lightning spells, leaving it lying on the ground - "Ha! Gotcha!" - say Aya walking closer to it, there was energy arching thru it's solid surface, it was cracked in several places, it's head had two dark red stripes, one on each side, suddently a red light appeared on each one of those stripes, and it unleashed an energy surge that struck Aya, knocking her away. The thing pounced on Aya and grabbed her by the neck, then it extended two purple glowing claws from it's knuckles, but Aya knocked it away, then Aya launched another lightning spell, this time the thing dodged it, but Aya succeeded in hitting it with a repulsive spell and knocking it down then the thing stood up and looked at Aya with red lights for eyes, then it turned to Nessus, and walked towards him, then Aya launced another repulsive spell at the thing, it landed on top of Nessus, then it loaded Nossus into it's back, grabbed Nessus's backpack and flew away.    - "Come back!" - hissed Aya before letting out an ugly screech.    - "Nessus? Nessus?" - called Ethon, they were on a clearing    - "Uh, hello there." - says Nessus lifting his head, then rolling to his belly.    - "Good thing I know some minor healing magic, you had some nasty cuts on your chest." - says Ethon patting Nessus's back - "How come you did not used your magic, you could have freed yourself in no time."    - "I, I forgot." - responds Nessus.    - "You forgot?" - says Ethon unbelievingly and rightly so.    - "When I rememberred that I am a wizard, I was paralyzed [sigh] my memory sucks." - says Nessus.    - "Or it might be just saturated with all those spells and stuff." - says Ethon.    - "Yeah." - says Nessus standing up - "[sigh] well...let's go." - says Nessus spreading his wings.    - "Are you ready?" - says Ethon.    - "I think so, they gave me some potions..." - says Nessus folding his wings and feeling his head - "We'd better walk. Do you know the way back?"

    - "Follow me." - says Ethon. They walk thru the forest from clearing to clearing.    - "Ethon, look at this feather. It's so pretty!" - says Nessus catching an iridescent blue feather on the ground - "What kind of creature dropped this?"    - "Nessus, look at the sky." - says Ethon pointing at the sky. A gas giant was blocking out the sun, it occupied half the sky, it had stripes of different shades of blue and rings too.    - "Surprise, it shows up in the sky twice a day, it shows up in midday and midnight." - informs Nessus.    - "It's amazing." - says Ethon.    - "It is worshipped as a god, it is called Merhamane." - says Nessus.    - "It's called what? Merhe-what?" - asks Ethon.    - "Merhamane...wait, I can feel magic, elder magic." - says Nessus, suddently an olive green mist forms and converges to a place outside the clearing - "Let's see what is going on." - says Nessus. They go investigate. The mist was still there. In the middle of it there was something with a blue gleam, Nessus grabbe it, it was a feather like the one he caught earlier, but smaller. Around it footsteps, they were from a gryphon, and they were bigger than Nessus's or Ethon's.    - "Whoever was here was big." - says Nessus.

Chapter 36: Visit After a while, the library returns to normal. Gryphons picked among the hundreds of book present on the library, some gryphons could be seen reading the same book, there was agryphon on a corner full of pillows reading a book to some fledglings, some gryphons just went there to relax    - "Father, father?" - says a gryphon with an olive green head, white mane and body, the body was mottled brown, and cobalt blue eyes, there were blue blood stains on his coat, he was comming from the basement where the rooms and kitchen were. Everyone was looking at him.    - "Mistwing, how many times I told you to not go to executions?! And you're on a library, so hush!" - says Fluffwing - "Clean yourself, and then come talk to me!" - he orders.    - "I just-" - says Mistwing.    - "Do it!" - orders Fluffwing. Mistwing goes to the bathroom, and cleans the blood off his coat.    - "I just wanted to tell you that..." - says Mistwing with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm faded away.    - "That?..Tell me, did you just brought a head?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "Freshly severed!" - says Mistwing gesturing with his hand Fluffwing nods disapprovingly.    - "Where is it?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "On the kitchen." - says Mistwing.    - "Take it to your home before Boris sees it." - says Fluffwing.    - "Boris? Who's Boris?" - says Mistwing. Fluffwing goes in search of Boris, and returns with him.

    - "Did you addopted someone?" - says a shocked Mistwing.    - "No, two military found him and brought him to me, so I could teach him our language." - says Fluffwing presenting Boris to Mistwing - "By the way, what was the motif for the executions?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "[sniff]They used magic, enough said." - informs Mistwing.    - "Great. Want to read a book or two?" - says Fluffwing.    - "Sorry, but you have something to explain about him." - says Mistwing.    - "Two scouts brought him here, he was stained with some red stuff,then I taught him my name, and he taught me his own name, then we slept on the bedroom, and Boris woke up several times, certainly because of nightmares, then when he woke up, he vomited the breakfast, then he felt ill, I brought him to the physician, before arriving there Boris fainted, and when we arrrived there, Boris out of nowhere hugged the physician, but nothing was solved." - tells Fluffwing.    - "That's it?" - asks Mistwing.    - "Yes." - says Fluffwing.    - "Goodmoing." - says Boris, Mistwing tilts his head..    - "Good morning." - corrects Fluffwing.    - "God moring." - says Boris.    - "Good..." - says Fluffwing.    - "Good..." - imitates Boris    - "...morning." - continues Fluffwing.    - "Morning.Good Morning." - says Boris - "I wish, I knew what the fuck I'm saying." - thought Boris.    - "Good boy." - says Mistwing patting Boris's head, and them fondling his ears - "They're so cudly."    - "Mistwing, please leave his ears, I know they are fluffy and cuddly and cute, but leave them." - says Fluffwing.    - "Can I have him?" -asks Mistwing.    - "Boris, come." - says FLuffwing, Boris follows him. While Fluffwing puts the books that were already read on their places and he also helped some gryphons finding the right book, meanwhile Boris played with the fledglings, but not without being scratched by their sharp claws. In the end of the day, Boris already had some nasty scratches, Mistwing wiped the fuzz and the feathers shed by Boris and the fledglings, Fluffwing tended to Boris's wounds, cleaning them, when suddently someone knocked at their door.    - "Mistwing, see who's there." - says Fluffwing leading Boris to the bedroom.    - "The library is closed...[hmm]..sorry..." - says Mistwing opening the door, and he sees a gryphon clad in fancy white, crimson and azure clothes, her body and mane were covered by the clothes, only her black head was visible, she had amethist eyes, her horns were covered by jewelery, and her forelegs were addorned with jewelery, she also had a medallion with a red jewel and a symbol on the chest, Mistwing bows to the gryphon - "Sorry your holiness."    - "Rise, are you Herse Fluffwing?" - asks the priestess.

    - "[hmm]No." - says Mistwing, Fluffwing comes with Boris to the priestess and bows to her.    - "I am, your holiness." - says Fluffwing.    - "Are you letting me in?" - says the priestess.    - "Yes, come in." - says Fluffwing - "What brings you here?"    - "That little guy." - says the priestess as she enters the library and looks at Boris.    - "Why him?" - asks Mistwing.    - "I feel a great power comming from him." - says the priestess, Fluffwing and Mistwing look at her.    - "What do you mean?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "I want to see if my god given powers are not misleading me." - says the priestess proudly rubbing Boris's chin, Boris hisses softly - "I feel a great power inside him, a power that will help us win this war."    - "He is not a weapon nor fit for being one." - says Fluffwing.    - "Let's see." - says the priestress - "Little guy, what do you think of helping us ?" - asks the priestress to Boris that tilts his head.    - "He does not understands you." - says Fluffwing.    - "I'll make him do. Tomorrow, let's sleep, I hope you have a comfortable bed. By the way, my name is Melinda Sunleg" - says Sunleg.    - "My beds are comfortable enough to sleep." - says Fluffwing. Mistwing was already downstairs - "Follow me." - says Fluffwing, Sunleg follows him, and so does Boris. Upon arriving to the bedroom, Mistwing was already laying on the middle bed - "Boris will sleep with me." - he says. Sunleg takes her clothes revealing a pure black body - "Where do I put it?" - asks Sunleg.    - "[hmm]There's a hanger close to your bed, hang it there." - instructs Fluffwing. Sunleg hangs her clothes on the hanger and then lays on the bed, then Fluffwing lays on his bed with Boris and then Fluffwing claps and the lights go off.

Chapter 37: Showcase    - "Altair, have I told you that this feather is beautiful?" - asks Fluffbeak showing Altair the iridescent blue feather.    - "It's beautiful, and yes, you already told me that thid feather is beautiful." - says Altair. When they exit the forest and approach Ravine they see what looks like a fair in construction, large steam powered four legged machine with a crane helped raising structures like tents and stages, they approached the fair, and were intercepted by a gryphon.    - "The fair will open tomorrow at night." - he said before waddling away into the fair.    - "Gryphon, who is in charge of all this?" - asks Altair. The gryphon looks back - "Engineer Armin. Why?" - he asks, his antenae twitched.    - "Nothing important. Can we go thru?" - says Altair.    - "No, go around or fly over." - says the gryphon.

 They fly over the construction site, there was a large tent, several many smaller ones, a four legged machine with a crane and a stage in front of the larger tent.    - "That tent has been there since the bird automaton attacked, and there has been secrecy about what is going on there, some say that the automaton is being repurposed." - says Altair as they approach Ravine. They enter Ravine and go to Aerion's home, almost everyone was sleeping, only the night guards were on the platforms.    - "Aerion?" - calls Altair.    - "He is not here, go to that fair that he is helping build, but you can leave your friends here." - says Mellanche, Aerion's mate.    - "With whom?" - asks Altair.    - "He went with someone that had a suit with the coat of arms of Maye sewn into it, I think it was an engineer from there." - says Mellanche.    - "Thanks, we'll try to meet with him." - says Altair before addressing to Nessus - "Wanna go?" Nessus looked at Mellanche, then at Altair - "Altair, you did not tell me about Maye, it is not one of the warring nations."    - "It is one of the colossi, it is a mobile town. So you stay or go with me?" - says Altair. Nessus is impressed - "A mobile city?!" - he says.    - "Yes." - says Altair proudly.    - "You're staying or leaving?" - asks Mellanche.    - "Heillon, Ethon, want to stay or leave?" - asks Nessus.    - "I want to sleep, I'll stay." - says Heillon.    - "I'll stay with him." - says Ethon.    - "You stay with her, I'll go, I want to have some things clarifyed." - says Nessus to Ethon and Heillon - "They will stay, keep them on the bedroom." - says Nessus to Mellanche.    - "Okay, we'll stay and cuddle together." - says Ethon, Heillon preens his neck feathers. Nessus then preens Heillon's and Ethon's neck feathers - "Stay well." - says Nessus then he goes away with Altair, but Fluffbeak walks to her home. 2Ethon and Heillon are led to the pillow filled room where they cuddle together. After a good while Heillon climbs onto Ethon's back and sits, then Ethon rolls until he is belly up and Heillon is knocked off Ethon's back, then Heillon walks between Ethon's hind legs to his belly until Heillon's chest is just above Ethon's belly, then Heillon lays on Ethon's body, Heillon's muscular chest presses against Ethon's soft belly and Ethon's hard metal presses against Heillon's belly, and the tails of both gryphons entwine as their beaks touch each other and their eyes lovingly stare at each other's eyes and the base of their tails pulsate softly. It was a moment of union, it was as if their minds fused together to make one. Heillon spreads his wings and covers Ethon, as if mantling his prey, then he caresses Ethon's face with his beak, occasionaly licking his face, Ethon lets him caress his throat. Then Ethon floofs up his feathers and bites Heillon's ear without hurting it. Then they feel a wave of almost unbearable pleasure that comes from the base of

their tails and surges thru their bodies, softening them, relaxing them, it was as if time had changed its rhythm.    - "[purr]Heillon." - purrs Ethon.    - "Ethon..." - purrs Heillon, but their moment of pleasure is interrupted when Nessus enters the room - "[hmm], hello?" - says Heillon sheepishly.    - "Okay, I'm going to get a towel, don't move." - says Nessus - "Where are the towels?" - asks Nessus to Mellanche.    - "How long have you been out?" - asks Ethon.    - "An hour or so." - answers Nessus - "Why?" - he asks.    - "It looked like it were just a few minutes for us." - says Ethon.    - "Take the towel." - says Nessus as he is given a towel and throws it at Heillon. Heillon wipes the pale white fluid from the base of his tail, and also does the same with Ethon. Thenn Nessus enters the room and lays near Ethon and Heillon, Aerion who came with Nessus lay on the other side of the room with Mellanche and their child, Orini. The lights go off. And everyone sleeps. The next morning Aerion grabbed Nessus's neck to examine it, there were no signs of biting.    - "The vampire did not feed." - says Aerion. Nessus blinks dazedly and looks at Aerion absently, until he slowly drifts into full conciousness - "What?" - he asks tiredly.    - "The Heion guy did not drank any blood from you." - says Aerion.    - "No, no, and his name is Heillon." - says Nessus slowly.    - "Heillon, allright, let's go, I've got stuff to do, and this time it won't be like last night. No one that is not on the staff list is not allowed, come back when it's evening or sleep some more, if you're so sleepy." - says Aerion.    - "[yawn], I'm going to sleep, my friends are asleep too." - says a tired Nessus before curling up on a tight ball of fur and feathers.    - "Good dreams sleepers." - says Mellanche closing the door leaving the three gryphons inside - "Don't wanna eat?" - she asks, Ethon stretches his body, and so does Heillon and then Nessus.    - "What time is it?" - asks Nessus.    - "Mid day." - says Mellanche - "Want to eat?" - she asks.    - "Yes, what's there to eat?" - asks Nessus.    - "Bellin stew, very good. Has meat, vegetables, all you need to live healthily." - says Mellanche.    - "And Aerion?" - asks Nessus.    - "He must be comming soon. Speaking of whom, here he is." - says Mellanche - "Sweetie, what's the progress?" - she asks resting a wing on Aerion's back.    - "Complete, it will open after lunch time. Want to go with me?" - says Aerion.    - "Good, we'll all come, and by the way, Nessus or whatever you are called Altair was here, you'd better go to his home, I told him to wait there." - says Mellanche.    - "Good, we'll fetch him after lunch." - says Nessus.    - "Agreed." - says Aerion before Mellanch puts the dishes on the table and

fills them with the stew. Afterwards they eat it silently. After finishing eating, they go to Altair's home, in the way Nessus, Ethon and Heillon attracted plenty of attention, that slowed them down, some even offered money to buy either Ethon or Heillon or Nessus or the three or two. Then they arrive Altair's home, they were still being harassed by gryphons, but they were left behind as Ethon, Heillon, Nessus and Aerion enter Altair's home - "[whistle], it was a close call." - says Aerion.    - "What was that?" - asks Altair.    - "Nothing, nothing." - says Aerion.    - "Were you harassed?" - asks Almer, Altair's father.    - "Well, yes." - says Nessus.    - "You'd better stay here till the showcase." - says Almer.    - "We'll stay." - says Nessus to Ethon and Heillon.    - "As for now, it will be just games, the marketplace, and during the night when Merhamane rises." - says Altair, Nessus tells that to his two friends.    - "I'll have to go." - says Aerion opening the door, outside there were several talking gryphons .    - "Bye." - says Altair.    - "Seeya." - says Almer waving at Aerion.    - "Have a good evening." - says Nessus. Aerion exits and closes the door. During the evening they talk together first about the visit, then about the hunt, they talk during all the evening.    - "It's time to go." - Says Almer looking at a wall clock - "I've got something to cover you up, wait a moment, I'll come with something." - he says while going away then he returns with three pieces of cloth of varying sizes - "Wear this." - says Almer putting the cloth on the ground along with three pins.    - "This is for me." - says Nessus taking the larger piece of cloth and putting it on him, the cloth covers his body, then he fastens it using the pin. It was like a cloak and a hood that covered his body. The Heillon took the smaller piece of cloth and did the same as Nessus, and then Ethon also covered himself on the remaining piece of cloth.    - "Ethon, those thrusters are not helping." - says Heillon, Ethon's thrusters stuck out of the cloth.    - "Let's go." - says Altair opening the door, there was noone outside. They go thru the empty platform and into the staircase going to the surface, from there they go to the fair, the tents were closed, ad the gas giant called Merhamane was rising , everyone was on what looked like an amphitheater, between each tier of seats there was a considerable gap. They go to the highest tier of seats, each seat was a pillow attatched to a piece of smooth wood where one would sit looking towards the stage in the middle in front of a large tent, on the middle of the stage there was what looked like a microphone, and on the front corners there were speakers, then someone wearing pair of goggles and a red suit that was white inside, with an emblem shaped like a gear with a gryphon in it.    - "Ladies and gents, my name is Armin, I'm from Maye. You ask what am I doing here, outside my city. Well, let me tell you something, Everyone

knows about this hideous war, many have died, leaving mourning families behind, and I've come to tell you the solution for that, after this quick advertising." - says Armin before a gryphon holding a large can takes his place.    - "Ladies and gents, I have with me a great product that will be avaiable for you after this exhibit, it's an amazing product that will help you control your weight and constitution, put it in your food, and it will allow your body to absorb only the right amount of nutrients, try to see. After this there will be samples available for you to taste. Have a good night." - says the gryphon, giving his place to Armin.    - "As I was saying many died in this war, leaving empty gaps that will never be filled, leaving families behind, leaving them crying for their loved ones. So we the mayean decided to help, to reward the nation that ofered itself to host our magnificent town, to provide it with resources, and that nation, this nation, Tzaba being that helpful needed to be rewarded, something that we, the mayean should have done long ago. Helping. And we helped, we finaly offered Tzaba part of our military technology, our state of the art techology, but it wa not any tchnology, it had to be something your soldiers are used to, a familiar shape, someting capable of serving your nation, capable of mercilessly fighting your enemies while being gentle with our compatriots, capable of protecting them even from glooms. Come, Juggernaut One!" - says Armin then a mechanic gryphon enters the stage. The wooden floor of the stage sagged and creaked under it's weight It's slim body was covered by several sleek silvery plates, connected to each other by chainmail, it's segmented tail had a blade at it's end, it's wings had metal feathers with blades on their tip connected to each other and to the body by a leathery material. The forelegs were painted yellow and so was the beak, it's empty, black eyes gazed at the astonished croud - "My name is Juggernaut One, you can call me J1. I came to protect you. I am your guardian. Do not fear me." - it said with a deep metallic monotone voice.    - "This line of soldiers is capable of recognizing faces and storing them on a single quartz crystal." - says Armin showing a quartz crystal with two tips - "It is grown on a lab to have this shape, it is not cut, only the most perfect crystals are chosen and put on this machine." - he continues showing a cylindrical machine with several protrusions twice as big as the crystal then he puts the crystal on a slot in the middle of the machine and closes it - "The machine will write data on the crystal in the form of tiny cracks, and a laser will read the information contained in them. This is also with the help of magic-" - continues Armin, but he is interrupted by a scream.    - "My cub, something stole him!" - says an alarmed gryphoness.    - "What happened?" - asks J1.    - "Someone dragged this lady's cub thru the gap between the seats." - says a male sitting right next to the lady. A male lights up his antennae - "The cub was taken by two glooms, he's still alive!" - says the male. A pair of glooms captured the cub and were dragging him away - "Target acquired." - says J1 before taking off in front of the croud and flying over it,

then it spots the glooms, then it dives and lands in front of them just when a pair of guards were comming in. One of the glooms claws at J1, but it's claws didn't do anything to it's metallic surface - "Deliver the cub, and no force should be used." - says J1, but the glooms ran away - "As you wish." - says J1 before charging at the glooms, when approaching them, he pounced on the one carrying the cub, knocking him down, letting the other to fly away, one of the guards shoot that one with a needler. Meanwhile J1 carefuly frees the chubby cub from the clutches of the gloom, the cub calls for his mother that comes rushing to comfort him, and his mother thanks J1 - "I am just making my job." - he says before turning to the guard that shot the gloom - "Good job." - then it goes back to the stage and says - "Everything is under control." - then one of the guards shoots the remaining gloom on the head.    - "People calm down, calm down, we've got amazing guards." - says Armin trying to calm down the croud that was visibly agitated, but Armin did not succeeded in calming down the croud.    - "Calm down, we are here to defend you, and both glooms are stone cold dead, there's nothing to worry about-" - says the guard before being hit by a lightning spell and Aya dives from the sky into the stage, electricity arched from her bracelet and her eyes glowed green. The croud panicked, some flew away, others ran away, others even fell from the seats    - "Use of lethal force authorized." - says Armin to J1 as he retreats away from the stage.    - "As you wish." - says J1 turning to Aya, then Aya launches a lightning spell at J1, disabling it, then Aya launches another lightning spell, this time at Nessus that deflects it with a spell, then with another spell, Nessu reactivates J1 that throws Aya to the ground, and then J1 jumps on top of Aya that fights back with a repulsive spell, that throws J1 away, then she turns towards Nessus and flys towards him, but Ethon charges at Aya and pins her to a seat, extends his plasma blades and points them at Aya's head meanwhile J1 returns - "Let me do it, civilian." - it says.    - "He's only a civilian here, because on his land he is a law enforcer." - says Nessus to J1 - "Ethon kill her far away from here, and be sure she dies slowly, you'll see why." - advises Nessus.  Aya then strikes Ethon with a repulsive spell, and then she striked J1 with another lightning spell, after that Aya realizes that Ethon was the one who killed her mate and strikes him with a strong repulsive spell that launches him far away and cracks his armor and opens a hole on the abdominal armor plating, exposing his soft belly. Aya then approaches Ethon that immediately stands up. They were away from the fair, Aya seeing the hole on Ethon's armor launched a paralysing spell, but Silicon manages to create the repulsive field before the spell hits Ethon. The spell bounces off the repulsive field and paralyses Aya. Ethon uses his beak to cut Aya's throat open that immediately starts to bleed copiously - "This should give me some time." - thinks Ethon to himself while throwing Aya's dying body far away towards the forest and then dashing towards the fair, when he arrived the fair, everything was begining to reset.

    - "Are you sure you killed her?" - asks Nessus. Then they see a large blast of light and magic coming from far away, Ethon is paralysed and falls off the tier of seats he was in with Nessus to the ground, Nessus feels an electric pain across his body - "Okay, you killed her...Ethon, are you allright?" - says Nessus.    - "I'm fine, the body is restarting, just wait a few minutes." - says Ethon as people gather around him, after some minutes his body  is fully operational, and he is back on his feet - "Now what?" - says Ethon as he looks at the afterglow of the blast and the people that gathered around him lift him and put him on the stage as J1 goes to the stage, and Armin grabs the microphone and starts talking, Nessus flies towards a confused Ethon.    - "Ethon, they are treating you like a hero on the moment." - says Nessus.

Chapter 38: Am I Dreaming? Boris woke up and looked to his sides everything was in grayscale, the beds were empty, he jumped off the bed, there was a deafening silence. Boris went to the kitchen, it was empty, slowly he climbed the stairs, affraid of what he might see, that floor was empty too, Boris continued to climb, the middle floor was empty too, he continues climbing, the spiral wooden stairs creaked at every footstep, it was a sinister creak, the upper floor was empty too. The whole situation was sinister, suddently he hears a funeral march, it came from everywhere, he flew to the middle floor, then he started to hear unknown words, each word pounded his head like hailstone. He opened the huge front doors, the streets were empty, he went down the street, until he was faced with a stall selling fresh meat, Boris could smell it, it smelled good and it was red with blood dripping from it, there was noone to sell it or to guard it, he took the meat from it and ate it, it would be pleasant if it weren't for the funeral march and the words, that now were just whispers, when he finished eating the meat someone came to the stall, the person was white just like him, the person also had a white, bloodstained apron.    - "Take as much as you want." - says the person, Boris took more meat, and ate it, and he ate until he was full, when he finished he rubbed his round, full crop - "Have a nice day." - says the person as Boris goes down the street without a care in the world, suddently the music stopped and there was a petrifying silence, uncanny, he continues down the street to find a dragon, unaware of Boris, the dragon flew away, and the silence was broken by the wingbeats and the dragon's heavy breathing. Then it started to snow and the funeral march restarted and a human came in with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, he was wearing the skin of a white gryphon with the skull on his head, the skin that covered the head was attatched to the skull, wich had red beads for eyes and was being used as a hood - "What are you waiting for?" - asked the human.    - "For you to pass." - said Boris.    - "Run." - ordered the human with a firm voice, loading his bow with an arrow.    - "What?" - asked Boris confusedly.

    - "I am a hunter, you are my prey. I just want to give you a sporting chance, but if you don't want to run, just spread your arms wide that I'll shoot you in the heart." - instructed the human.    - "If I don't want to do neither." - said Boris.    - "I'll choose another prey." - says the human before walking away. Boris continued to walk down the street, until he found a manhole, it was half open, from there there was a light. Boris opened the manhole, the light was like a sun, he closed the manhole. He continued to go down the street until he met a black gryphon.    - "Eth-Ethon?" - asks Boris, the gryphon does not answers, Boris sniffs the gryphon's coat - "Ethon!"    - "Yes, it's me." - says Ethon hugging Boris that retributes with another hug.    - "Let's go to the library." - says Boris. They go up the street until they see the hunter talking to the meat seller, the hunter ignores them, but not the seller that waves at them, they continue to go up the street towards the library, they enter the library, it was still empty, they go down it's spiral stairs, they reach the lower floor, but they continue descending, then they go to the bedroom and they lay on the same bed and the funeral march fades away and they fall asleep. Boris wakes up on a dark cave, he sees a light in one end of the cave and darkness on the other, he was uneasy. From the light came voices, he went towards the light, it was intense, and then he woke up, this time, he could see in colour. On wakin up, he saw the faces of Fluffwing and the other two gryphons.    - "Hello, Boris, are you understanding us?" - asks Fluffwing. Boris is confused, he should not be understanding them.    - "I am talking to you. Is it real or just a stupid dream." - says Boris confusedly and tiredly.    - "It's real, not a dream." - says the gryphon with the olive green head - "My name is Mistwing." - says the gryphon - "This is my father, Fluffwing." - he says pointing at Fluffwing - "And this is her holiness Sunleg." - he says nodding with his head at Sunleg.    - "This is a dream, I'll wake up." - says Boris before biting his arm - "I'm not waking up."    - "Of course not. You are awaken." - says Sunleg.    - "What did you dreamed with?" - asks Fluffwing.    - "I don't know, I just remember hearing words and a funeral march, and I met several people, this library was empty, and I just saw four people, which I don't remember, then I woke up in a cave, then I woke up here, with you. Tired." - says Boris.    - "I know that learning our language on a single night is tiring, so sleep some more." - says Fluffwing. Boris falls asleep. Boris wakes up on a cave. It was full of stalactites and stalagmites, on one end a large device with fan blades suspended by metal poles,  on the other end a small disk of light, and voices comming from it, the voices were spoken on universal language, Boris's language, the language spoken by the

Union, which Bloodsky makes part of. He approached the disk of light, behind it there was a lace, Boris could barely see thru it, but he could hear the voices of dragons.    - "Are you sure he will come, he is late. We have been waiting for days." - says one of them.    - "Be patient, he will come for sure. Patience is a virtue." - says another.    - "Allright. We'll wait more." - says the first exasperatedly.    - "Want an appetizer?" - says a third.    - "No thanks." - says the second.    - "Yes, I want fiadi, please." - says the first.    - "Now what's going on?" - says yet another one.    - "Dane has arrived with the package." - says a fifth.    - "Bring him in." - says the fourth.    - "Here are your fiadi." - says the third.    - "Thanks." - says the first.    - "Here I am." - says a voice with a strong avian accent, it was a gryphon.    - "Good, I see you made your job right, delicacy." - says the fourth. Boris was extremely sleepy and fell asleep and woke up right next to Ethon, he was lying on another bed.    - "Wait, there's someone there." - says the gryphon before Boris drifts into a heavy sleep.    - "Boris? Boris? Wake up." - says Ethon    - "Ethon, where are we, this is not the lib-" - says Boris sleepily before falling from his bed.    - "You silly, we're at home, let's eat the breakfast." - says Ethon lifting Boris and then dragging him to the kitchen.    - "My favorite cereals are here." - says Boris while putting the colorful breakfast cereals on a bowl and then eating them with water.    - "Let's watch some TV?" - asks Ethon.    - "Let's go." - says Boris, going to the living room and turning the tv on. On it's screen there was the image of a black gryphon hanging upsidedown, it was of Nessus's kind, a greater gryphon. It was presenting a show where people would eat while upsidedown, many vomited,they had a bucket to vomit on.    - "This is weird." - says Ethon - "I'm going outside." - he says before going outside. Boris stays on the couch, then he changed the channel, now it was a movie where a gryphon was running from a dragon, it was comedy, the gryphon would run while tripping on things and throwing them at the dragon, and sometimes hiding, and the quotes were funny too, it would generate all sorts of funny situations, anyone could image them (including you, reader) Boris laughed at it, when the movie ended, Boris turned the tv off and went to the backyard, it was close to the butcher shop in his home. Ethon was on a swing.    - "Ethon." - calls Boris.    - "Want to swing?" - asks Ethon.    - "Yes." - says Boris. Ethon starts swinging with increasing speed until he

was spinning around the swing hanger (sounds fun, right?). Suddently they hear a noise comming from the butcher shop. Boris goes there and sees thet the door to the fridge room was open.    - "What's going on?" - asks Ethon. Boris enters the fridge room, and a flash of light dazzles him.    - "The sleeping beauty has awoken." - says a dragon's voice. Boris tried to move, but he was shackled to a wall - "Where am I?" - he asks, he was on a cold place.    - "You are on the butcher shop, ready to be cut. Before that, look." - says the dragon while stepping aside. Behind the dragon there was a greater gryphon, it was hanging upside down from a meat hook by the ankles. It's coat was a sleek black, it was exremey rare for a greater gryphon to be completely black. Red blood dripped from it's beak, it's eyes were half closed, it was dead. Close to it there was a dragon sharpening a knife, on a corner of the room there was a dragon smoking a cigar, on another corner there was a greater gryphon on a glossy silvery powered exokeleton with a brown pouch on the side.    - "Time to skin this beauty." - says the dragon that was sharpening the knife, then he clumsily tries to start skinning.    - "Let me do it." - says the gryphon with the powered exoskeleton taking the knife from the dragon's hand, the dragon looks angrily at the encased gryphon.    - "Keep the head for a mount, Dane. And do not damage the pelt, it is very rare." says the dragon smoking the cigar.    - "Trust me, this suit is very versatile." - says Dane. Then carefuly he starts skinning the gryphon. First he carefully makes incisions on the ventral side of the gryphon. The first was from the anus to the base of the neck, the second was from the left wrist to the right wrist, the thist was from the left paw on the hindleg to the right paw. Then he starts to carefuly peel off the skin from the muscle. And when the skin finaly came off the body, it was put on a tanning machine - "This machines do far better than any traditional method." - he says patting the machine. Meanwhile a dragon removes the head and neck from the gryphon's body.    - "This will do nice on a wall. Bring me a large bowl." - says the dragon, then they give him a large bowl that he puts below the corpse of the gryphon - "Now, delicacy, do not meddle!" - orders the dragon to Dane, while the dragon guts the gryphon, Dane approaches the terrified gryphon that was Boris.    - "Boris, Boris, Boris, Boris Nightwing. You don't want to end like that, right?" - says Dane to Boris pointing at the gryphon carcass.    - "What, do you, [chirp] what do you want from me?" - says a terrified Boris opening his eyes.    - "Is Ethon your brother?" - asks Dane softly.    - "Yes, [chirp] yes, Ethon Nightwing." - says Boris uncapable of wrenching his gaze from the severed gryphon head.    - "Also known as The Demolisher. Where is he?" - asks Dane.    - "Dead, [chirp]." - responds Boris.

    - "Are you kidding me?" - says Dane.    - "[chirp], no, I saw him die, [chirp]." - says Boris sicerely closing his eyes.    - "Somehow he got rebuilt, and now he is alive." - says Dane.    - "Realy?!" - exclaims Boris, his eyes grew brighter - "No, you're lying, you are lying."    - "You don't know. Damm!" - says Dane, after a while he turns his head to the dragon smoking the cigar - "This one is all yours." - says Dane sitting next to the dragon.    - "Put him on a cage, fattening wil begin today." - says the dragon - "But while we are here, leave him there."    - "You cannot fatten me, people don't get fat just by eating on a dream." - says Boris.    - "Dream? This is not a dream, wake up to reality, delicacy." - says one of the dragons - "Tell me, how did you came to this place?"    - "I, I just appeared here." - responds Boris.    - "Just like this, like popping up like [pop]." - says the dragon.    - "That's how I escaped the asylum." - says Boris - "Long time ago, the chip certainly ran out of energy. Isn't that right, Arnes?" They are silent for a moment.    - "Put him in that cage." - says the dragon that was smoing the cigar, then Boris is unshackled and put on a cage that barely allowed any movement and left there, it had a slot that allowed him to put his head outside the cage. Meanwhile the gryphon carcass is cut up and the cage forces Boris to look at it, when the dragon finishes cutting the carcass, he puts the meat on shelves, dims the lights and exits the room, closing the doors as he exits. Where the carcass was, there's the bowl containing the gryphon's viscera.  Suddently the door opens, the lights are turned on and a dragon enters the room with large food bowl containing something white and moist - "This is delitious and plus, it will help you fatten up." - says the dragon putting the food bowl next to the cage and then leaving the dimly lit room. Boris is left there for many hours with his own thoughts, trying to escape the cage, occasinaly a dragon checks Boris's food bowl and fills it if empty.    - "Wake up, please wake up." thinks Boris while on the cage - "Why am I not waking up?" - he thinks for himself before falling asleep. The fridge room was not empty, but it's bright lights dazzled Boris, and he had to wait for his eyes to adapt to the lights to see what's inside, only the usual, food, then someone pokes his back, and Boris looked back. Behind him there was the hunter.    - "Are you selling any meat?" - he asks.    - "Yes." - says Boris wanting to continue his parent's business - "Why are you asking me for meat?" - he asks while going behind the table where the meat was prepared and sold.    - "I am having a hard time getting willing prey." -says the hunter with sorrow.    - "And that pelt?" - asks Boris.    - "This pelt has a story to tell." - says the hunter. But a white gryphon

approaches them, he had bloodshot eyes, he was Vyre.    - "I will tell you the story, I will meke it as short as possible. I foud a white gryphon that ran from me, it awakened my predatory instinct, and I pursued it, it was a long pursuit, we dodged trees, jumped over obstacles, until I caught him, I knocked it down with my wing, then I punched his belly until he was dead, either he asphyxiated or bled internaly to death, then this guy showed up with a bow and quiver, and told me that he wanted the pelt, and I gave him the carcass and waited until he finished skinning, then he went away and I had lots of fun with it's entrails, and I ate everything, even bones and it was it." - tells Vyre.    - "Whatever floats your boat. Now, mister hunter, what do you want?" - asks Boris.    - "Horse, loin. Two kilograms." - says the hunter - "And by the way, my name is Hunter, well, it's Alfred Hunter, but call me Hunter albeit not a successful one.    - "I see, you ask your prey if they want to be hunted, I don't I just hunt them." - says Vyre as Boris goes to the fridge room and returns with the desired ammount of meat.    - "It's ten credits, please." - says Boris holding a device with a keyboard, a display and a biometric reader and gives it to Hunter, after using it, Hunter hands it to Boris.    - "Boris, embrace me." - says Vyre with his usual demonic voice.    - "What?" - asks Boris.    - "You're in grave danger, and you need to embrace me." - says Vyre as Hunter goes away with the meat.    - "What?" - says Boris looking at Ethon who was enjoying himself on the swing.    - "You're dreaming, you idiot!" - yells Vyre.    - "The only situation where I am in danger is in those flashbacks I am having." - says Boris wiping his hands with a towel.    - "We are on your dream, and I'll wake you up!" - says Vyre while jumping onto Boris's back.    - "Hey, what are you thinking?" - asks Boris as his legs collapse under him and spread to the sides.    - "Wake up!" - yells Boris as he grabs a knife and cuts Boris's neck from ear to ear and lets his head go. Boris's screams come out as gurgles as he dies from blood loss. Boris screeches as he wakes up with a horrible pain in the neck - "Is this real or just a stupid dream?" - says Boris as the pain fades away.    - "This is real." - says one of the two dragons that came with Dane. Dane was taking the pelt from the tanning machine after that he takes off one of his mechanical gloves and feels the pelt - "Look at this, isn't this a beauty?" - he says.    - "You're sick." - says Boris.    - "Can you be more creative? Don't call me monster, that's so cliche." - says Dane while putting his mechanical glove back.    - "You should be with me, on the lunatic asylum, with a straightjacket on,

believe me, it would fit. It makes people look leaner." - says Boris with a crazed smile.    - "I envy your ability to have facial expressions. Despite having a hard beak." - says Dane while appreciating the pelt, the skin of the hands was attatched to it, it was left uncut like a pair of gloves with holes where the claws were Dane started to cut them off with scisors.    - "Hey, what are you doing?" - asks one of the dragons.    - "Making a pair of gloves for a partner in...this jobs." - says Dane after cutting the skin of the hands and trimming any excess skin, now the skins that once covered the dead gryphon's hands were a pair of leathery gloves with holes for the claws.    - "Sorry, they are ours." - says a dragon.    - "They don't fit you." - says Dane stowing the skins on his pouch and then carefuly folding the pelt.    - "Give them to us!" - says the dragon extending a hand.    - "Take this amazing pelt, it's a shame it is not mine." - says Dane giving the pelt to the dragon.    - "I will call my boss, and he will call Gabriel." - says the dragon giving the pelt to the other dragon.    - "Do that and I'll call the authorities, I have a powerful beacon built into my brand new, state of the art exoskeleton." - threatens Dane - "Besides that, I can mute all your communications with a thought." - he says touching the gryphon's entrails.    - "You'd better get out of here, if you want to live." - says the dragon.    - "[caw]! You, kill me? Who will die is you, if you don't stop sending me death treats!" - says Dane pulling the intestines from the bowl.    - "Please, don't anger him. And Dane, what are you doing?" - says the other dragon near the exit, but the dragon grabs an axe and hits Danes exoskeleton, the impact creates sparks, but the axe only makes a scratch.    - "You know that a gryphon's gut is strong." - says the gryphon before using the intestines as a garrote to kill the dragon that strugled against Dane.    - "Please, stop!" - says the other dragon trying to separate the dragon from Dane, but Dane only released the dragon when his body went limp - "Look what you've done!"    - "Greater gryphon meat sells well on the black market, but I tell you dragon meat also sells well, and greater gryphons are the ones that most demand dragon meat." - says Dane - "And before you ask anything, I'm going to butcher and sell him. Somewhere else." - says Dane as he puts the dragon's corpse on a crate and carries it away.    - "Boss! Dane has-Boss?" - says the other dragon to an intercommunicator, but he realises that it is broken - "Dammit!" - he says before noticing that Boris is gone - "Double dammit!"