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Laura actually had a pretty damn easy job of meeting expectations since Rem didn’t really have any expectations beyond ‘don’t touch this, that, and the other thing’. When expectations were low, it was easy to meet them. He was vaguely suspicious of a poisoning attempt, but not enough to pass up a meal cooked by someone else. He was getting tired of his own cooking.

He looked at the gryphon somewhat warily, not exactly sure what would go on with training such a creature. He knew how to train horses. That was different though. From what he understood, gryphons were smarter than horses.

Still, it would give him something to do. And that was the important thing. “Right, I’ll go do that…” he rubbed Leolin’s feathers a little before leading the way to the backyard. Or, rather, what was technically named a ‘backyard’ only because it was in the back of the house and because it was a yard. It was more like a wide expanse of open space more than anything else. There were some plants, but they were the scrubby type that could survive anything short of a nuclear fallout. By the look of the ground, this area was usually used for horses.

Remiel glared at the gryphon and crossed his arms across his chest. “Not a chance, bird.” No, he didn’t actually expect Leolin to understand any of the words beyond ‘no’. That ought to be enough. Really, this consistent asking and badgering was starting to get on his nerves… he knew it was stupid to get mad at a gryphon---come on, they were more intelligent than most animals, but they were still only animals---but he couldn’t help it. It was just wearing down on his nerves.

Unfortunately, it took Rem a little while to realize that. At first, he merely thought that the gryphon needed to fly around a little. After about five minutes, he got a little worried and started pacing. After fifteen minutes, he started to realize just how much s**t he was in.

By twenty minutes, he briefly considered ritual suicide to get away from Laura’s anger, because he knew she would be utterly pissed. Then again… well, hell, she was the gryphon’s owner. She ought to be able to call him back, right? Right. It made sense to Rem. This certainly wasn’t doing anything good for his temper.

…

Maybe he ought to go hide in the stables until Laura found out and then say he had been somewhere else when Leolin had flown off. He didn’t even consider that for five seconds, the main reason being that he was, at heart, honorable. The truth had to be told.

Still, he would wait until she was finished cutting things up before telling her. No need to get her all pissed while she was holding a sharp object. He leaned back against the house and simply waited, figuring that Leolin would come back eventually.

Hell, he had to. Laura was here. He wouldn’t leave Laura. And, if he did, well, he wasn’t such a great gryphon after all.

“Oh. Alright, Laura…”

Dejected, Rem left the kitchen once more, not having the heart to tell Laura that Leolin was currently missing. Playing?! Pfft… he looked up at the sky one more time. It was getting late. Already, the moon was rising. Although he was not in the mood to play ‘Run Around At Night And Find A Lost Gryphon’, he seemed to have little choice.

Fine. He would go out and look for the damned creature. But, he would be armed. He went into his study and looked at the weapons on the walls before selecting his own personal favorite, a silvery longsword. He had taken good care of it ever since he had first received it and his care showed. The sword was slipped into its scabbard which was quickly attached to his belt and he snuck out the front door, trying to figure out where the wayward gryphon had gone.

Damn bird. Most likely, he had gone back to the stables where Rem had first met Laura. No. That wasn’t it. More likely, he had gone back to Laura’s house. Rem had no idea where that was. Well, s**t.

“LEOLIN! COME BACK HERE!” it probably wouldn’t do much help to yell, but at least it would help him get some steam off.

Rem paused as he heard mention of a gryphon. Could he be that lucky? Well, at least he was on the right track. Any sane person would have stopped and asked the women about the gryphon’s location. Rem, however, didn’t and continued looking around, occasionally calling for Leolin. By this time, it really was getting late. And cold, he noticed. Naturally, he managed to completely miss the gryphon.

About forty minutes went by before he returned to his home, feeling more annoyed than ever. Fine! Just see if he ever opened up his home to anyone else again. It wasn’t as if he even needed a maid anyway! The help might have been nice, but did he really need this type of aggravation? Of course not. What he needed was a nice spoonful of laud…

…

Well, maybe two spoonfuls for tonight, since it had been especially trying. Possibly even three. Most nights, the dose was two in order to get to sleep without nightmares.

Damn gryphon.

Rem stared at the gryphon. Then he stared some more. He could stare all night if necessary with enough amazement in him for another final bout of staring around dawn. But, Laura’s voice shook him out of it and he quickly opened the gates and ushered the gryphon back inside. Well, at least he had come back. Maybe it wouldn’t be necessary to tell Laura about this after all…

But, she would wonder how the equipment got here, wouldn’t she? Damn Rem’s good nature! When she asked, he knew he would have to tell the truth, even if the truth ended up kicking him in the balls. He hoped it didn’t, since he was rather fond of that particular part of his anatomy. In his mind, it was all ok because Leolin was back. Did it really matter that he had been lost? He was back now and that was the important thing.

Somehow, he doubted it would be that easy. He unloaded the gryphon and quickly put the equipment into the stable, muttering under his breath. Once it was finished, he called out to Laura, “I’m over here! By the stable in the back!”

Rem was merely silent, torn between his preference for keeping his body intact and his truthfulness. Then again… well, if Laura didn’t bring it up, she didn’t really need to know, right? But… s**t. She did need to know. She would learn of it eventually. It was better to say it now than let her learn of it later when she heard women gossiping of a lone gryphon wandering around laden with equipment. And then she would be really pissed.

He opened up the door to let the gryphon inside and briefly disappeared inside of his study to put the sword back on its hooks carefully.

“Err… Laura? I think I annoyed Leolin… he flew off and didn’t come back…well, he did, as you can see, it’s just that he didn’t come back until after I was searching for him…” Yeah. That would go over really well. He ran a hand through his hair and went out to face something just barely less frightening than a war: a potentially pissed off woman.