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((Can you make this an open RP, Ran?))

"Leolin, stop!" Kalvin stumbled foward, landing on his knees. Digging his fingers between the crevices in the rock, calloused hands providing a steady grip, Kalvin turned himself to face the gryphon standing over him. He wipped back his hair, leaving behind a streak of dust and sweat. He couldn't believe Leolin had pushed him all this way. When Lucas said to take Leolin hunting, he expected to spend the rest of the afternoon whittling under a shady tree while Leolin soared above the hills in search of deer.

While he waited to catch his breath, Kalvin scanned his surroundings. The pounding artery in his ear was replaced by the gentle trickling of a stream. Trees blotted out most of the horizon and provided a pleasent ammount of shade. Kalvin drooped his head, looking between his legs.

Kalvin stared at Leolin's powerful shoulders with hesitation. His eyes traveled down the great slope, falling over the rocky path and climbing upwards again to a ledge that may as well have been miles away. His legs shook as he stood and he grabbed Leolin's shoulder for support. Again he looked up and down the slope, trying to think.

In all his years of working at the stables, Kalvin had never seen a race. The care of the stables, shoveling, re-bedding, sweeping, took up all his time. In his imagination, at least, he was experianced. He would not normally try to mount a gryphon but, in this case, fatigue was getting the better of logic. He stroked Leolin's neck gently. "Okay, Leolin. If you really think this is for the best..."

He examined Leolin's back with his lip between his teeth.

Kalvin didn't mean to pull on Leolin's fur, it just seemed like the only way to climb on board. He scooted back and spread his legs behind Leolin's wings, where the saddle would go. The gryphon's body was wider than he expected and within a few seconds his legs began to tingle from streatching. Kalvin reached forward to take Leolin's mane, and as he did he could feel the spans of hard muscle shifting under his bottom. Antisipation lay upon his chest like a dagger. A knot formed in his throat as he tried to speak, so he simply closed his mouth and swallowed.

The forces that chained him to the earth released their grasp and Kalvin dropped flat against the gryphon's back. He squeezed his legs tight around the gryphon's middle, grasping handfuls of fur until his knuckles turned white like bone. Wind rushed through his hair, fur blew up his nostrils, his eyes peered down at the world beneath Leolin's shoulder blades, wide and paralyzed. Nothing seemed real. Grass and rocks rolled behind and ahead of them, the earth went speeding by while they stood still. Did he even breathe? Was he a statue, watching but not thinking?

Suddenly there was a boy with no name who rode a gryphon and had rode forever, because time could not remember a moment before this or imagine a moment after, when feet might touch the ground again.

Kalvin did not move, could not. He watched as if outside his body as the ground zoomed toward them. At the last second, he closed his eyes.

They were on the ground. Somehow Kalvin hadn't felt the landing. Perhaps he only imagined he hadn't, but when Kalvin opened his eyes the ground was back where it had been before their dramatic flight. His mind struggled to grasp the sudden change in altitude. He started to sit up and hit the ground, sprawled out on his back and staring at the sky. One leg still hung in the air, heel resting on Leolin's side.

For the first time, Kalvin blinked. In a few seconds Kalvin re-awoke to the world with a throbbing in his limbs only exceeded by the cool, tingling wind spinning through his ears and his mind. It felt like living through death. He wondered if he could sit up, wondered if he would ever want to move again. After this, walking seemed pointless.

Leolin's pacing startled Kalvin. Hoping to calm him, Kalvin reached up slowly to touch his beak.

Silence was enjoying an odd day off from the Charming Penguin and had flown with Trill and Chade into the countryside surrounding Xuan. Meshach had declined to join them. Lately he had been very distant, and though she tried not to let it bother her, it did. He meant a lot to her, even if he did tend to bring out the worst in her. Actually, of late he had been bringing out a foul temper she didn't even know she had. It was almost as disconcerting as his aloofness - not that she blamed him.

She rode on Trill's back and flew over the countryside with Chade trailing safely behind, so as to catch his slipstream, and not be in any way near his great wings. He was sensible that way. He was sensible in many ways. They were different, but Silence appreciated Chade's cleverness as much as she appreciated Trill's loyalty. She loved both of them.

As she flew, she noticed Trill's head jerk back toward Chade, who had apparently alerted him to something on the ground. The pair had worked out a system of communication between each other and Silence while in the air. Silence had had nothing to do with it. She was truly proud of her griffins. They were wonderful.

She signalled for Trill to land, hoping he would choose the area Chade had brought to his attention. As he dove she looked to the ground, hoping to see what the sharp-eyed griffins saw. As they drew much closer to the ground she saw a slender, fast griffin lose his rider. She thought she recognized the griffin, but the rider was foreign to her.

It didn't truly surprise her when Trill landed nearby.