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Silence couldn't believe that Meshach had done that. She just couldn't.

Silence rode astride Trill with Chade in front of her. Chade's extra weight was nominal to the older griffin, since he was mostly feathers and bones, but his habit of diggin in with his claws displeased Trill mightily. Meshach was in his dragon form once more, flying a little above them, casting a shadow over them, both literally and figuratively.

They had been flying for half a day, and while Trill was building stamina in leaps and bounds, he was tired and dropping slowly. Silence didn't want to plummet to the ground, so she gave the command to land. She didn't care if Meshach followed or not. As far as Silence was concerned, Meshach could rot.

Trill obeyed with what seemed to be relief, folding his wings back and dropping in a shallow dive. Chade squirmed out of Silence's arms and leapt from Trill's back.

"Chade!" she cried after the juvenile, too young to fly, though his wings were spread wide and he flapped them furiously to slow his rock-like descent.

Silence found herself falling through the air. Had she jumped after Chade? It didn't matter, she was now falling, and in a matter of seconds she would be dead. Both Trill and Meshach dove after her, and a pair of talons wrapped around her upper arms, barely halting her drop and wrenching her arms painfully. She had no idea if it was Trill or Meshach who had grabbed her, but he released her as her feet dragged on the ground.

She fell the rest of the way and landed painfully on her arm with a distinct snapping sound.

"Ow," she moaned.

Before it could even register that Silence was in any great pain, the slowly falling Chade had folded his wings like Trill and crash landed beside her, intent on seeing to her health. Trill, likewise, crowded nearby, his enormous bulk practically blocking out the sunlight. Meshach was shifting to his human form as he landed, running toward her with unprecedented haste.

"Are you in pain?" he asked. At least he wasn't stupid enough to ask if she was hurt or damaged. That ought to go without saying, judging by her arm's odd angle.

"Yes," Silence replied, gasping against the shock of discomfort in her arm. She had no way of knowing that her face was ghostly white, though a glance told her that her arm was broken.

"How may I help?"

"Set the bone. Make a splint to keep it straight while it heals." She had to fight not to scream or faint. "Then find someone to help - a physician, a healer, even a hedgewitch with some herblore."

Chade's disappearance went unnoticed, but disappear he did. On his downward movement from Trill's back, the young griffin had seen another griffin with another human a short distance away. He set off in their direction, ignoring the minor scrapes and bruises he had acquired making his inexperienced landing. Silence's accident had caused him to forget that he had very nearly flown.

The grey juvenile slunk across the fields until he was within scent distance of Leolin, and then he whistled a cry for aid.

My Silence-human is injured. Make your human come and help, he ordered, clearly not bothered by the fact that Leolin outweighed him by at least seven stones and could make a meal of him in a matter of bites.

Trill can fly her if she needs flown, Chade said stiffly, running after Leolin and his rider. But she is hurt. She fell from Trill's back, and got hurt.

In his fear, Chade forgot that the others he had summoned did not know anything of Trill or Silence or Meshach. They would find out soon enough though as they reached the meadow.

Meshach was in the process of setting Silence's arm. As the bone snapped back into its proper position, she mercifully blacked out. Trill screeched in concern and did not stop until Meshach struck him sharply across the beak. He said something to Trill telepathically which made the adolescent griffin fall silent at once.

Chade raced up to Silence and then whirled, looking over his shoulder, to show Leolin and Laura that this was the problem. As his wingtips brushed her Silence regained consciousness. She had no way of knowing that she was pale as a spectre, but she was, and a pain-induced sweat had moistened her skin.

Meshach fixed Laura with his inhumanly turquoise eyes and asked, "How does one splint a broken arm?"

There was something about Meshach which made it clear he was not a normal human being, but prolonged exposure to Silence and her mannerisms had given him the ability to feign humanity reasonably well. He could do nothing about the fact that his voice rang in the head of listeners though. It was, for one thing, the only way Silence could hear what he said.

Trill, seeing and scenting the other, older griffin, narrowed his blue eyes suspiciously, but Chade said in his silky soft way that it was fine, he had brought these people to help.

Nyhali was outside the city today. She wanted to get a feel for the areas surrounding her new... home, as well as the city itself. Though by the current point in time she wasn't paying attention to the scenery so much as she was enjoying the wind whipping past her as Kedri carried her along on their little joyride. Her slightly curly, long red hair streamed out behind them like a banner while her loose-fitting brown riding clothes fluttered in the wind of their passage. She hadn't intentionally tried to match Kedri's coloration with her own... it just sort of happened that way.

She stroked the shoulder of her scarlet-primaried friend and spotted a gathering below. She saw the griffons more than the people, as did Kedri. Kedri didn't give any warning as she folded her wings into a semi-steep dive, but Nyhali was used to such things and let herself fall back to rest along the length of Kedri's back so the added drag from her body wouldn't throw the griffon when she suddenly began to level off. Nyhali sat up as Kedri's hind-quarters started to droop to the ground and the female griffon backwinged to land.

She slid one leg gracefully over Kedri's neck and the griffoness finished her landing and hopped down, grasping the nearest wing-shoulder gently but firmly before the silly bird could skip off to go examine the male griffon not far away. Things did not appear to be entirely well with the group and she didn't want Kedri causing trouble inadvertently. "What happened? And may we be of assistance?" Noble or common... she didn't really care. She was on both sides of the coin herself in any case. She simply wanted to assist if she was needed.

((O_o" We can't play your characters for you... It's not like we were playing with dolls or some physical thing- RP characters are part of their creator. ^^; So we couldn't RP your character))

"Shh, just relax." Laura said firmly, looking to Trill as she sat beside the injured woman. "Go find sticks. Hurry!" From her pocket, Laura removed and opened a small pocket knife to cut the stitching on Silence's sleeve on the broken arm. "This might hurt a bit, please don't bite your tongue." She warned, and slowly stripped the fractured arm of the sleeve to later use it as the bandage. Putting away the knife in her back pocket, she waited for the sticks to splint the arm.

At Laura's command to find sticks, Leolin turned quickly- bumping into Kedri in his rush. The griffin fell onto his rear end, blinking in surprise as he saw just what he'd run into; the fleshy skin around his beak becoming bright red as he blushed with embaressment. What a way to meet a pretty griffin lady! The scrawny male bowed his head, chirpping an appology as he stood and moved around the lady griffin. Being a racer, he hadn't the bulk of war griffins, he hadn't the shine and luster on his feathers that a noble's pet did, nor did he have the most striking of markings either. His only pride were the faint stripes on his legs- hardly worth mentioning when they were barely noticable unless one took a second glance. Slinking around her, Leolin tried to hurry to find the spint sticks if only to avoid the griffin he'd just embaressed himself in front of.

"No, I simply tend to Lord Remiel's racing griffin. I have no physician." Laura said modestly, looking up to the female griffin's owner a moment before turning back to Silence. "One of your griffins should be able to fly you to a doctor once the arm is splinted."

Kedri could have bowled him over with a feather- or a tail for that matter. The griffin's beak fell open in a very human expression, and stumbled over his forelegs in his surprise to fall face first into the dirt. Leolin was a bit shy, as far as griffins went, but he had never attracted attention such as this before. The peachy color grew brighter red when he fell over, and the griffin spat out the dirt as best it could. Seeing a bright blue flower in front of him where he'd fallen, Leo plucked it in his beak to totter closer to Kedri and offered it to her. He gave a soft coo that really didn't have any meaning words could translate. Hoping that she would accept his flower.

Unused to such feminine wiles, Leolin was cheered when she wore the flower- actually giving a griffin equivelant of a smile- but when she ran off ahead, his hopes were dashed.

He didn't understand she was playing a game; Leo had no idea that he was to chase after her, and bowed his head defeatedly. Head hung low, he began scouting the ground for a pair of straight sticks that his owner had asked him to find with sullen little chirps. Finding a decent one, he placed it on his back and looked up towards Kedri and called out to her.

"Did I do something wrong?" The griffin chirped, ears tucked backwards and kept his head lowered. He thought he'd done something wrong! After all, isn't giving flowers a human thing?

Oh. Should probably mention that Silence is deaf, but she can sort of read minds (after a fashion), so mostly she chooses to do that rather than admit to being disadvantaged.

With some difficulty Silence "heard" their thoughts of speech and was able, then, to pretend to have heard what they said. When she did, her eyes shone with moisture. Yes, she hurt, but that was not what had brought tears to her eyes. It was the frequent remarks to physicians. She remembered Patience with the same sort of agonizing pain that her fall had inflicted, but through the heart, and quite unable to be splinted.

Farther away, Trill found the copper-skinned, turquoise-eyed Meshach and ordered him in no uncertain terms to Come back now! Silence needs you.

The human-dragon grinned toothily and sauntered back to Silence. He had his own reasons for his actions, to which no one was privy, but he did not wish Silence to think he was not concerned for her. He was, but he could be of little use to her. Even being weak as wearing a human form made him, his strength was still inhuman, and just setting the bone had been a terrifying experience for the young dragon. He had feared he might break it a second time, or tear it off at the break. Humans were so fragile.

At his return, Silence swallowed hard, fearing he would read her thoughts and later tease her for thinking of Patience at a time like this, and for getting all weepy about him. Meanwhile, she allowed the other two to minister to her as they saw fit. The bone was set, and there was no particular art to splinting an arm. They could do little damage, and it was better that they have something to do besides panic and fuss needlessly.

"Tell me," she began, "how did you come by your griffins?"

She couldn't help being curious. There had been a time, she knew, when only those dwelling in the Imperial Palace and kings owned griffins which weren't Eyrie-bred, and it fascinated her to see a growing profusion of griffins which were obviously of no stock she had ever seen.

Trill watched the older griffins cavorting with some envy. He had a duty to his Silence, and he would not leave her injured, but he wished that he might play with them. He had not had a playmate anything like his own age since he was a juvenile, terrorizing and wrestling with Ming-Ming. He turned a wide, blue-eyed gaze to Chade, whose grey tufted ears were flat along his head at the crowd and whose red eyes were narrowed with disinterest for the older griffins' games. His was a more sober nature.

Go, the younger griffin said to the spotted male he had come to think of as his older brother. Meshach and I will see that no harm comes to Silence in your absence.

With not-total reluctance Trill ducked his head and raced after the other two, fanning his wings to add speed so that his gait was partially a run and partially a glide. Shortly he came to where the other two were engaged in a playful search for sticks.

What game is this? he asked, wishing that he had a sweeter tone to his speech. May I join?

Since meeting Irysin a few weeks ago he had been very conscious that he was large for his age and had come to a rather sudden and uncomfortable realization that he lacked female company of his own kind, though he loved Silence and would have made a mate of her were it feasible.