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 Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:39 am
Creseyda soared gracefully over the trees, occasionally snatching a branch with her talons. Mishu rode on her back, eyes closed, face to the wind, loving the sting of the cool morning air.
They had flown farther than they usually did, on their rides together, but Mishu could tell that Cresy was energetic and restless when she had come out of her home. The griffin was jumping and soaring while she waited for her rider to come out. And so they flew far afield.
It was unexpected when they saw the clearing. As far as Mishu knew, there were no people living out this way. She had never seen any residences before. But there it was, a small village. She asked Creseyda to land so she could investigate further.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:53 am
Patience, riding astride Ambrosia, marvelled. He had known that there were pockets, niches of civilization which had remained virtually untouched by time. The Eyrie was one such phenomenon. However, by the architecture the village he and Ambrosia approached a-griffinwing, this village was stuck some two hundred years in the past.
Not unlike the Eyrie, really, he thought to himself.
He had been training Ambrosia for flight to give himself something to do and to make her into something useful. Griffins weren't meant, in captivity, to simply be pretty. At least if she learned basic flight commands and such she would be useful to this Gethsemene person he was supposed to give her to.
So far, the training went well. Ambrosia was an intelligent creature, though spoiled and still not exhibiting an inclination to hunt and catch her own food. She took much more quickly to flying than she did to hunting, which he had also been trying to teach her to do. She already knew how to fly, after all, and he had only to teach her to bear a rider and obey her rider. Convincing a griffin to want to hunt was another matter entirely.
But the village. That bore further investigation.
He directed her to land and hoped she wouldn't drop into a dive. Lacking the special harnesses which allowed Eyrie riders to stay mounted during their griffins' aerial maneuvers, Patience's position was precarious at best.
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:58 am
Creseyda snorted and moved over to the other griffin when Ambrosia landed. Mishu nodded a greeting. "Have you been here before?" she asked. "It's not on the maps I've seen. I've not been out this far often, though, so I guess it could just be something I've missed before."
She ran a finger through her long, red hair and looked at the nearby village. A few locals were watching uneasily from the doors and gardens of the closest buildings. "You'd think they hadn't seen griffins before," she said as she patted Cresy's back.
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Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 7:09 am
Patience looked at the villagers, who were staring disconcertingly at Ambrosia and the other griffin.
"I have not been here before," Patience said truthfully, deciding that it was not worth mentioning that he'd been nowhere but the Eyrie. "But it's not that they've never seen griffins, I think. Look at the architecture."
Where most would have had rainspouts, these people had carved gargoyles in the shape of griffins. And the look in the people's eyes seemed more like awe and reverence, rather than curiosity or fear, which is what Patience would have expected people to exhibit when confronted with griffins.
Ambrosia chirped at Creseyda inquiringly, Is that your human?
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Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:39 pm
Yes, Cressy responded. She takes good care of me, lets me hunt and fly where I want.
Mishu looked at the buildings. "You're right." Much of the workmanship was of excellent quality. The stonecutters and carpenters here weree obviously skilled. She wondered what was happening. She took a chance and waved to the nearest people, and old woman and what Mishu took for her grandson. They wore simple clothing, homespun, of muted colors. But looking closer she could see there were feather designs in the stitching. The two reverently stepped forward. "What is this place?" Mishu asked as they drew closer.
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:26 am
Patience was about to reply that he had absolutely no idea, and that he'd like to know the same thing, when he realized that the young woman was not addressing him. She spoke to the two who approached. And others, too, were drawing nearer, he realized. He didn't like the situation at all.
Neither did Ambrosia, who shifted uncomfortably from foretalon to foretalon, clicking her beak.
Why would you want to hunt? A good human would bring food to its griffin. She talked to distract herself from the approach of many human beings. She barely felt comfortable with the man who had taken her after her beloved Niko's death. All these strangers were really a little much.
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:17 am
Creseyda tilted her head slightly. Why would you not want to hunt? To hunt is to be a griffin. It is what makes me feel alive and free.
The people were drawing closer, and even Mishu was growing uncomfortable with the way they acted, and how so many of them were coming. She was preparing to leap on to Cressy's back and fly off when the nearest people stopped and fell to the ground. Her first reaction was to jump to their side to help them, but she noticed that they were muttering and they bowed face down on the earth.
"Is that... a prayer?" she asked, astonished. It was so. As the others came close they all fell to the ground the same way. "Now we're being worshipped? I really need to figure out what is going on here.
Cressy approached the nearest person and sniffed at him carefully, clicking her beak when she pulled back. The person did not appear to respond.
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Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:28 am
Ambrosia was skittish with the people's strange behavior and did not answer Creseyda's question. She didn't know how to answer it anyway. She enjoyed flying well enough, even with the human on her back, but she didn't see the point in hunting. A human would provide. But besides that, there were these strange humans who crawled in the mud. She didn't like them, and she didn't trust them.
Patience was having similar misgivings, and they only increased when he came to the same conclusion as the woman with the griffin. Most people had given up worshipping griffins ages ago. Literally. Once the Empire learned to tame griffins and cause them to imprint on human beings rather than their griffin parents most people had ceased to revere the demi-immortal creatures as deities.
"Do you think they mean us any harm?" he asked in an undertone. If they didn't it might be a good opportunity to acquire comestibles. One could live on travel bread and poached hare alone, but that did not make for a varied diet or a happy person.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:42 am
"I... I don't think so. I mean, you don't usually hurt what you pray to. Of course, it's possible that they think we're mistreating the griffins and that we need to be dealt with..."
Mishu often let her imagination run away with her, and she started imagining the ways they might treat her if she was defiling their goddesses. Nervously she put her hand on Cressy's neck and stroked her soft feathers. "What do you think girl?" she asked the griffin, knowing full well she wouldn't get an answer.
Cressy was curious, mostly. She'd never seen humans act like this. It was very strange. She started to nudge one with her beak.
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:12 am
The human that the griffin nudged with her beak gave a shudder, as though entering into a holy rapture. The others shifted to give him a wider berth, as though expecting him to do just that. Fortunately for all involved, he did not do that.
Ambrosia watched, drawing closer and closer to Patience, who was the only familiar thing in this setting. She was used to unfamiliar, strange settings from her travels with Niko, but she didn't care for most of the human beings she met. They all were unkind to Niko except the man she was currently with, whose name she didn't even know.
"I hope that's not the case," Patience murmured, looking at Ambrosia.
She was in better condition than she had been in when he found her, but she was still recovering from the effects of a prolonged period of starvation and from the deep grief the comes with losing the human she'd 'printed on. It was conceivable that the natives might misconstrue the situation and decide that Patience was mistreating her, rather than attempting to aid her recovery.
"Do they talk, or do they just worship silently?" he muttered, tempted to nudge one of them with his boot. It was not, however, the inclination of a healer, and he did not do it.
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:09 am
Cresy hesitated when she saw the man shake, but then decided this was an amusing situation. She bent lower, pressing her beak all the way under and rolled the man completely over on to his back. She emited a squawk something like laugh and flapped her wings, raising her front legs a bit.
Mishu was startled to see her griffin move like this, but not extremely so. Cressy was, after all, notoriously playful. The man was wide eyed -- though whether from surprise, awe, or fear, she couldn't tell. Probably all three. One of the women passed out.
"This is nuts," she muttered. She stroked Creseyda's side and then called out to the people. "Do you mind telling us where we are and .... why you're acting this way?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:35 am
One of the few who had not dropped into a kowtow upon the griffins' landing approached, moving with the unsettling gliding ease of a serpent or a priestess. She stopped a respectful few yards from where Patience and Mishu stood with their griffins.
"We act this way because it is the appropriate manner in which to act when one's gods descend from the heavens in numbers. Why do you not act this way, and so humble yourselves before those who are of both air and earth?"
The woman had a voice which was low and pleasant to listen to, but there was something about her manner wich bothered Patience. He had met one or two people with that mien. Perfect confidence and too much power, coupled with a willingness to do most anything to keep that power.
The woman who had spoken was undoubtedly a high priestess of some sort, and that made Patience nervous. In the Eyrie, there was no organized religion, though they swore oaths frequently enough. His only experience with religion came from his readings, and most of those tended toward zealotry, the very idea of which alarmed him.
Ambrosia shared his reservations and hissed at the woman in the feathered cloak. She could tell from the size of the feathers that they had once belonged to griffins, though they had long since ceased to smell of anything but human and some other stuff like the spices humans used to cook, but not quite. She didn't like the woman.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 9:29 am
Creseyda had been preparing to roll the man again with her foreclaws, but stopped when the priestess arrived. She clicked her beak and watched warily. She wasn't nearly so cautious as Abrosia, but she could feel something not right about this human. She shuffled her feet nervously and nuzzled against Mishu for comfort.
"Shh, Cressy," Mishu cooed as she gently brushed the feathers on the griffin's head. "It's all ok. You're fine." Creseyda's tail continued to twitch agitatedly.
She eyed the priestess. She didn't like being talked down to by backwards, head-up-their-arses yokels. But she didn't want to destroy true faith either. She spoke up. "Creseyda is my friend," she said evenly, petting the griffin's beak. "We are allied together, and care for each other. Who are you to speak so to the friends of griffins?" she challenged.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 12:44 pm
"I am Ysa, the twenty first high priestess of the temple of the Flighted Ones. Am I to understand that the name of your magnificent companion is Creseyda?"
Patience tried to keep from raising his eyebrows. He could see how one could think a griffin worth worshipping, but not in this day and age. They were creatures like any other, but for the fact that they tended to live for rather a long time. He was just as happy that Creseyda's companion, as yet nameless, was willing to dominate the conversation. He had nothing to say to these people yet, and would not unless he found an opportunity to ask for provisions for the next stage of his journey.
Ambrosia sidled close to Creseyda and asked, Why does that one wear feathers?
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:03 am
Creseyda bobbed her head. "I don't know, but she probably got them from molted griffins. I've seen it before. After all, who can resist our plumage?" She squawked amusedly. "She seems... bossy though. I don't like her."
Mishu stared at Ysa coldly. "Yes, her name is Creseyda." She wasn't sure where to go next with this conversation. So she changed the subject. "Is it possible we could get food and water here? We would like to travel more today."
There was some hesitation, but then Ysa finally nodded. "Yes, follow me." She turned and slowly headed for the village.
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