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She thought he was worth competing with? Once again, Aeron puffed up with pride. Darn right he was! And that trill in her throat was attractive… just the trill alone was enough to get him revitalized again. Her words became a sort of background noise against that. Sort of, anyway. He still actually heard her.

This time it wasn’t pride that made him puff up. It was a sort of mild annoyance. What?! Since he had lost at one race, she was ready to completely write him off as a gryphon? Well, he would show her! He would catch her the best damned dinner she had ever eaten! And as a pampered pet, she had probably eaten some pretty fine meals…

Waaait. Was she just trying to manipulate him? She was using wiles! Feminine wiles! Those were the very toughest sorts of wiles to thwart. And Aeron didn’t want to thwart these ones. He decided that, so long as it was Sekhmet, maybe he didn’t mind being manipulated. His annoyance dissipated rapidly, replaced by affection.

“You just wait here, Sekhme… on second thought, you should come along. Another competition, perhaps?” Oh, yes, and Sekhmet liked competing! It was perfect!

The fact that the competition was uneven didn’t really matter to Aeron. He just wanted to impress Sekhmet. Bringing in the biggest buck would certainly do that. Besides, she had chosen the competition. The biggest buck was definitely skewed in Aeron’s favor, as he was larger than Sekhmet. The fact that he had already impressed her didn’t deter Aeron’s competitive spirit. You couldn’t just impress a girl once; you had to keep impressing them, that was the key. That was what so many men forgot, along with putting the toilet seat back down. At least Aeron didn’t have to worry about that.

Although, the idea of just settling down and preening her was attractive, his stomach was growling. That was another push towards a hunting contest. There would be snuggling and preening later! For now, they would hunt.

“Sounds good to me, Sekhmet…” The worry of her getting hurt entered his mind for a little while, but was quickly dismissed. Sekhmet could handle herself. That was what made her so attractive. She was sharp and dangerous, like… like… like a great big pudding bag with knives. It was what made her fun.

Moving to the edge of the clearing, he considered flying. Hm… the growth wasn’t very thick out here, so it would be easy enough, he decided, taking a brief running start before flapping his wings and taking off. Like owls, gryphons could be silent in the sky, their feathers and wings carefully designed to avoid noise. There was just something… soothing about flying under the dusk sky out here. It had been a while since he had done this sort of thing, after all. Normally Malcolm was with him, sometimes yelling things like, ‘get back here, Aeron! I swear, if you’re not back by the time I count to ten, I’m going to blah, blah, blah’. Aeron usually tuned out by that time, and could rarely tell what Mal was trying to say anyway. The man just seemed to like talking.

Shaking his head, Aeron turned his mind to the moment at hand. The scent of deer---a thick musky odor that was shaded sort of brownish to nasal vision---came to him, reminding his stomach that he was rather hungry. Three deer were just settling down for the night, two hinds and one stag. Some gryphons liked to screech triumphantly before trying to unleash death on their prey. Those gryphons were usually surprised by the fact that the prey could fight back. Those hooves hurt! And those antlers were painful as well. Aeron had once tried this and had learned his lesson well. He swooped down silently towards the deer, careful to keep his shadow from passing over them except during those final moments when he was too close to run away from.

Well, ok, so the females ran away as fast as they could, but the male was too slow. Aeron was, after all, still a hunter at heart, even if his food generally was pre-killed. For the sake of his own safety, he made it was quick as possible, with his beak imbedded in the buck’s neck to sever the spinal cord and to keep those antlers from lashing back at him. Once the deed was finished, that was the time to rear back and let out a triumphant screech. Being the vainglorious creature he was, this was exactly what Aeron did before dragging the dead deer back to the clearing, perfectly happy with himself.

Aeron trilled a greeting back at Sekhmet, pleased that she had caught something. “You did very well, Sekhmet; not many can catch a buck on their first hunting.” Since Sekhmet had been a city-raised gryphon, Aeron assumed that she had never really hunted before. Most of it was instincts, but there was a… a technique, one that the black female would have to learn eventually. Hopefully, anyway, since Aeron looked forward to more hunting trips.

Since she didn’t seem inclined to move, he dragged his kill over next to hers and plopped down on the ground. Yes, this was a good day after all. Well, evening, anyway. Not good for the groomers, the plants, or the deer, but it was a good one for Aeron and Sekhmet. That was what mattered.

“You alright?” he asked after a moment of thought, deciding that Sekhmet would probably be more flattered by attention to her health and wellbeing rather than annoyed. It was tricky to tell with some females---Sekhmet was trickier than most---but Aeron liked a challenge. Even if that challenge was the sort that could get him mauled. That only added to the flavor, actually.

Aeron looked mildly worried, a difficult expression to catch since he had a beak. It was more of a look in his eye than an actual expression. Still, it was there. He decided not to press the issue of Sekhmet’s injury, figuring that she knew herself better than he did. That was always the thing to remember with… well, not just females, but everyone.

He dipped his head in agreement with her question and dug into his own meal. The skin was largely ignored because Aeron’s stomach did not like loads of fur. The meat was a bit tough, very muscley, but there was still some nice marbled fat in there, the remnants of the deer’s store from winter. It was delicious anyway, especially to a hungry gryphon who had spent the last hour or so getting bothered by groomers and people.

Stupid people…

“Are you going to be at the gathering next week?” he asked after swallowing another beak-full of meat. He hoped she would be there; he didn’t want to be there alone. Although… there would certainly be other gryphons. He liked other gryphons, especially female ones. Mal was ok for a human, but he was always busy at gatherings, busy talking to other humans, showing off, and generally just not playing with Aeron.

Tearing off a nice juicy strip of meat, Aeron wondered why she bothered to ask that question. He had asked because he was curious. That was perfectly obvious. Sometimes, it seemed as if all females had a ‘common sense’ block in their brain, that would selectively block out common sense. Naturally, he didn’t say this out loud, for fear of getting something bitten off. Or scratched. Or that Sekhmet would just leave him all alone. He liked company, especially her company.

“Because I need to know whether or not I should sleep through it. If you’re there, then I’ll have a reason to be awake,” he said, deciding that this sounded better. “From what I can gather, a lot of people are going to be there. Mal is going to be there. Iris likes him, I think.” Which was sort of odd. A lot of people found him annoying, which confused Aeron. Mal seemed to be a very sociable sort, open and inviting. Of course, he wasn’t always completely honest, but no one was.

Besides, he got the feeling that Mal wanted to see Iris again. Or maybe he wanted to see Deste again. It was hard to tell, really. Humans were confusing creatures.

Aeron blinked in surprise and let out a startled noise that sounded a bit like ‘blort’ as Sekhmet started preening his feathers. He hadn’t expected that at all. Why did she have to be so confusing and alluring at the same time? Why?! Still… she did things that made his heart melt anyway. The preening was returned and he carefully ran his beak through her feathers as well.

Sweet? Him? Well, there was something he didn’t hear every day… ‘handsome’, he heard. ‘Beautiful’ and ‘gorgeous’ were commonplace. Yep. This had definitely shaped up to be a lovely day, now didn’t it?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Lovely for the gryphons, that is. For the groomers, their trouble was only just beginning. Not only did they have to deal with the other gryphons who needed to be cleaned, they now had to deal with one particular young man who was rather annoyed that his gryphon was not there. He wasn’t particularly intimidating, really. Slender and short, he had the sort of appearance that most people would prefer to call ‘pretty’ rather than ‘handsome’. The rapier at his hip didn’t help much; lots of young people liked to wear fancy swords and pretend that they actually knew how to use it. The only thing about Mal that indicated he actually knew how to use the rapier at his hip was his clothing. Instead of bright colors and intricate clothes, he was dressed in simple browns and blacks, the sorts of colors that could fade into any background. Or the clothes of a man who didn’t want to waste too much time thinking about what to wear when he woke up.

He sighed and ran a hand through his touseled dark brown hair before saying, “Let me get this straight. I dropped my gryphon off here earlier today, with the understanding that he would still be here when I got back, only without dirt. I am here now. And you have lost him? He is, if you didn’t notice, a very large gryphon with a rather striking pelt. Please explain to me how you lost a gryphon the size of a large horse.” His voice was calm, but it was the sort of calm that occurred right before a storm.

And this would be a big one by the look of his gray eyes. Some people had eyes that inspired poems. Mal’s were the sort that inspired words to skitter across a page in a frightened frenzy, a dire warning to all who read the work.

The fact that he was smiling just made it even worse.

The groomer he was asking---or interrogating--- took a few steps back, and lifted his brush as a sort of ward against the other man. “H-He just ran out! We couldn’t stop him, sir! He m-mauled some of the gr-groomers!”

That poor, poor groomer… it was bad enough that he had to deal with just Mal but now Iris Nefretiri, the daughter of one of the most influential politicians in the entire city as well as fiancé to the Prince. Mal was a bit of a mystery since he was a new arrival, but everyone knew what happened to people who displeased Iris. That is, there were various rumors. No one knew the truth because, according to the rumors, no one ever displeased her and lived through it. Some of the whispers spoke of assassins. The darker ones agreed that ‘assassins’ didn’t even come close.

Mal barely looked over at the door until Iris spoke. His smile became just a bit more genuine once he recognized her, which didn’t take long at all. “Iris, long time no see… it seems that they’ve managed to lose two gryphons. Huh. I wonder how much their business would suffer if others learned of their clumsy gryphon-handling skills… Aeron is, after all, a well-trained battle gryphon. I understand that a lot of the clients here are…”

“Well-trained?! He attacked everyone who came close to him!”

A hint of annoyance crossed Mal’s face. “Yes. Like I said, he’s a battle-gryphon. He fights. And his trainer was the wild. And no matter what he did to you, sir, rest assured that I could do much, much worse. Need I make myself clear? Do you know where the gryphons are, or not?” he leaned very close to the other man, simply waiting for an answer. Normally when he was this close to another male, Mal would usually make some sort of flirtatious comment, if only to see the funny looks. This was far more serious though.

“We don’t know! He and the female gryphon, that is, Lady Iris’ gryphon, ran out! We don’t know where they went!”

“And you haven’t sent out searches because…?”

“We were busy tending to our wounds!”

Mal looked at the groomer for a moment before deciding to believe his tale. Making his way towards the door, he decided to leave just one more threat. “If one feather on his head is harmed, I swear to your god, that I will forcefeed you your own testicles with a side of eggplant. And no one likes eggplant. Are we clear?”

For once, Mal didn’t argue and simply got in the carriage. He always felt a little awkward in carriages. Previous to this, his normal experience with them was dodging them in the streets. It felt odd to sit in one rather than worry about being hit by one. Still, he hid most of his discomfort, and hoped that Iris blamed what he couldn’t hide on Aeron’s disappearance.

Let’s see… think like a gryphon. One who was extremely annoyed, somewhat wild, and accompanied by an equally annoyed if not equally-wild female. He put a hand up to his head and closed his eyes, as if this would somehow help his thoughts flow into place. On one hand, he was a little amused at Aeron’s habit of fighting back. It endeared him towards the gryphon, thinking of him as a kindred spirit or whatever people said these days. Still, it was bothersome. He had things to prepare for, much to his own annoyance.

“He’ll be heading towards water first, I think. He’ll want to get rid of all the soap. Are there any ponds or something like that around here?” He didn’t think of the tamed fountains. He figured that Aeron, wild and free Aeron, would enjoy playing in a tamed fountain. No, he figured Aeron was more likely to attempt swimming in a koi pond, perhaps killing a few of the prized fish in the process.