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| If the ship's sinking... |
| grab Leo diCaprio. |
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25% |
[ 1 ] |
| grab the pearls. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| grab a life boat. (Duh.) |
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75% |
[ 3 ] |
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| Total Votes : 4 |
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 Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:11 pm
Fleeing was an unpalatable action at best. Fleeing the scene of a crime more so. Fleeing the scene of a crime with a broken arm was the worst thing Silence could imagine.
Ordinarily, such thoughts would not have entered into the griffin-rider's mind, but they were certainly there now, possibly because she was engaged in the third and worst form of flight: fleeing the scene of a crime with a broken arm. To complicate matters, she was doing so with two adolescent griffins and one dragon who happened to be in human form.
Between her legs, Silence's first griffin, Trill, so named because it was Eyrie tradition to name griffins for the first sound they uttered upon hatching, was a remarkable sight. He was big for his age, rivaling for size any adult female and a few adult males, and his coat was tan with dark spots. He got the size from his father, who was a fierce beast indeed, and the coloration from his mother, who was very perceptive, for a griffin. Trill's eyes were the same color blue as the sky.
A little behind Trill, to take advantage of the wake of the older griffin's slipstream, a grey griffin flew. His wings beat faster than those of the spotted griffin ahead of him, for he was younger and lacked Trill's strength and experience in flight, but he was also much smaller than Trill. But for the changing form of his physique, one could almost mistake Chade for a juvenile. He was very slight and when walking moved with a feline stalk, rather than the avian strut most griffins made their habitual gait. Chade's eyes were dark garnets.
Above all flew a large, somewhat reptilian being who cast a shadow over his companions with his larger wingspan. He was Meshach, a dragon who had decided to make Silence his sometimes-unwilling traveling companion. Silence had named him Meshach at his request, and it was now the only name to which he would answer, save his real draconian name, which Silence used very rarely, and only when she was absolutely furious with him.
I need to rest, Silence said telepathically to Meshach.
Telepathy was the only means by which they could really communicate, since an error on Meshach's part early in their relationship had rendered Silence permanently deaf. He had attempted to remedy the situation by granting her the ability - his ability - to "read" minds, but that, too, had proved a source of difficulty for Silence, resulting in her eventual exile from her home. He would never say it, but he sincerely regretted that his involvement had so upset her life.
Very well. Instruct Trill to land. I shall be a bit longer, Meshach replied, flying even higher and watching as Trill obeyed Silence's command to Descend.
Silence did not ask Meshach what would delay him. She had learned that he used the time while she set up camp to hunt, though in her current state, she felt it ridiculous that he expected her to set up camp with a broken arm. She could do it, and certainly would have to, but a decent sort of person wouldn't vanish, leaving her to do it alone. But then, Meshach wasn't a decent sort of person. He was a dragon, and dragons did things differently.
The grey streak which was Chade folded his wings along his back and streamlined his body into an earth-bound torpedo, quickly over-taking Trill, who was forced to descend at a more decent rate of incline because of his human passenger. Chade's tail flagged behind him and his large, tufted ears were blown back against his skull, giving him a startlingly serpentine appearance when seen from above. He spread his wings quite suddenly and close to the ground, stirring up eddying puffs of dust as he back-winged to land.
A little later Trill landed with less haste and more grace. He folded his legs beneath him and extended a wing to help Silence slide from his back. He was extraordinarily protective of Silence, and always had been. He had no meaningful relationships with any griffins except Chade, and the younger griffin, who had been exuberant and gregarious as a chick had quickly become withdrawn and aloof, deliberately distancing himself from Trill. It had always hurt Trill, but he still considered Chade part of his Eyrie, and would defend him to the death if need be, as with Silence. He knew Meshach could fend for himself.
Shortly after landing, Trill was sent to Fetch sticks for fire - a task at which he had become quite accomplished - and Chade had vanished into the darkness. Silence sighed irritably and the sighed again because she couldn't hear herself do it. Usually Chade was of some help when it came to setting up camp. He was clever and a quick learner, and he seemed capable of understanding more complex commands and phrases than the Eyrie used with its griffins.
But he wasn't here. No one was. Which meant she had to set up camp truly by herself.
"Oh, fun," Silence said aloud. She couldn't hear the words, but she felt better having spoken them anyway.
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:05 pm
"Once again, I'm sorry, Silence," Meshach said. "I had to hunt."
Silence understood, but it didn't make her any less furious. It was his fault that they were on the run anyway, and she was not feeling rational, so she blamed everything which had happened since on Meshach.
"I don't see why you had to steal the horse. You don't ride, I have two griffins. We didn't need a horse."
Meshach grinned ferally. "I was hungry. Horse makes good eating."
Silence shuddered. In the Eyrie, they did not keep horses, but she had admired those people who could ride horses. They looked very graceful as they did so, though they could not fly as she could on Trill's back. She realized that Meshach was a dragon and that he needed to eat, but she preferred to think that he ate prey animals, like sheep, cows, or deer.
"Let me make it up to you," the dragon-in-human-form offered, spreading his hands before him amicably.
"How?" She eyed him suspiciously as she asked. She was not inclined to trust him at the moment.
"I'll give you a present."
Silence looked skyward for guidance. Very shortly she would throttle him. Scratch that. She couldn't. Her arm was in a cast and sling combination which made it impossible for her to strangle anyone.
"I don't want a present, Meshach. I want to know why you stole the horse, really, and I want to know why you didn't just give it back. Surely you don't believe it's right to steal others' property."
He gave her a look which said that he had considered debating her last statement, but he clearly thought the better of it, and said simply, "I can offer you no explanation which will satisfy you, Silence. I can only apologize one more."
Silence sighed. Trill sat behind her, making an admirable surface upon which she could lean back, and at her sigh he turned his head and began preening her hair with his beak.
Wonderful, she thought. My griffin thinks I have bugs in my hair.
She had apparently thought this too distinctly, for Meshach looked at her as though she had spoken aloud. At that moment, she realized that the dragon, too, occasionally could not tell when he was sensing a person's thoughts or hearing a person speak. It was something she had not considered, and wished to ask him about it, but as she opened her mouth to do so he cut her off.
"Don't ask. It will not reassure you. Bear in mind that I am little older than you are, measuring as dragons do."
It was difficult to think of him thus, but he was. She knew it, logically, for he had said as much before, but his vast wealth of knowledge and experiences indicated that he was old - mature, even - far beyond what she would ever manage, even were she to live longer than the longest-lived human.
Trill cheeped softly, heralding Chade's arrival. The younger grey adolescent narrowed his ruby eyes at his elder, unhappy to have had attention called to his presence and condition. His feathers were askew and his fur ruffled. He bore marks on his face, around the beak, as though he had been in a fight.
Are you all right? Trill asked softly, concerned for his adoptive sib.
I'm fine, Chade snapped, shrugging his feathers into proper order and beginning to groom his furry coat. His foul temper went unnoticed by Silence because of her own. Meshach, however, was not so emotional, and he noticed.
"Silence...Chade."
"High things! Chade!"
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Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:12 am
Chade didn't understand why everyone was making such a fuss over a few scratches. They certainly didn't bother him. However, Silence peered at the marks as though they might prove lethal, which was ridiculous. He tried appealing to Meshach, to convince him to explain to Silence that he, Chade, was perfectly fine, but the dragon-in-human-form kept his mind solidly shut against griffin thoughts.
Quickly fed up with being coddled for something which made no sense to him, Chade slipped out of Silence's awkward hold and retreated into the darkness once more to retrieve his prize. Carrying it in his beak proudly, Chade returned, strutting.
Silence gaped as Chade strutted back into their campsite with a half-grown jackalope limp between the two halves of his beak. Chade had never shown any interest in hunting before, preferring to leave that task to Meshach and Trill, who were much larger and better suited to it. That he had suddenly taken it up, and with the skill to make a kill on his first attempt, was surprising. It also explained the cuts around his beak. The creature had probably fought back.
Awkwardly, Silence relieved Chade of his prize and set to work skinning it, making a production of giving Chade the innards which he favored as a reward. She offered the next-best parts to Trill. By this time, there was little left to the creature, but she spitted it, refusing to ask for Meshach's help, and left it to roast anyway.
Trill was as surprised as Silence to see the state Chade returned in, and even more so to see Chade carrying prey. It gave him an unpleasant feeling inside, which he didn't like at all. The feeling told him that Chade was trying to steal his Silence-human from him, and that he was bringing her prey to usurp Trill's position as hunter-provider. Without realizing it, he growled rumblingly in his chest.
Meshach detected Trill's growl, though no one else had, and shifted smoothly into his draconian form, a not-so-subtle reminder to Trill to mind his manners and to behave. In his natural form, he took up considerably more space, being about twice the size of a full-grown griffin, and so he was forced to shift, curling his body part-way around the campsite, like a cat curled around a favorite plaything.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 6:29 pm
Trill, being a sensible creature, ultimately, took Meshach's pointed hint and settled back on his haunches once more, taking time to preen and adjust his feathers to a less hostile semblence. He wondered why he could not bring himself to be happy for the younger griffin, which he had, until recently, considered to be like a clutch-mate. But he could not. All he could feel was a growing resentment for the grey male who now held Silence's complete attention. He clicked his beak very softly, so as not to attract any attention, particularly not draconian, and closed his eyes, dark feelings flowing through him.
Chade enjoyed receiving Silence's praise, but he could feel Trill's resentment rolling off the older, spotted griffin in waves, and it made him distinctly uncomfortable. It had, after all, been Trill who had shown him how to stalk and pounce when he was a chick. Yet he understood Trill perfectly, he felt. Trill felt his position of dominance threatened, and he felt that Chade had done it deliberately, with the intent to oust Trill. Chade had sought only Silence's approval, but he could earn that in other ways, he decided. Ways which did not encroach on what Trill obviously considered to be his work.
Silence, if we are finished fighting for this evening, you should rest. You have had several trying days, Meshach said, lifting his dragon's head from his foretalons and turning one turquoise eye to Silence.
Silence would have renewed their argument, simply because he had reminded her of it, but she sensed in his demeanor and even in his telepathic communication a queer weariness which gave her pause. She could let it go for one more night. After all, there were worse people in the world than horse thieves, and she wasn't truly angry about that any more. What she would not admit to herself was that she missed Patience desperately, and that it was her longing for his company which made her short-tempered.
Meshach knew this, could read it in the undercurrents beneath her mental communications, and wished he could help her somehow, but there was nothing he could do, and he was tired. Trill and Chade had been growing very quickly for young griffins, a process which usually took years had been completed in months, and Meshach suspected that it was partially prolonged exposure to himself - dragons tend to affect their very surroundings, so magical are they - and so he had been doing his best to prevent the two from making the next, obvious step in their growth.
They would have to determine for themselves which of them would lead their tiny flock, and thereby win first claim to Silence's attention. Both would defer to him, as a dragon, but they were young and had become used to him over the course of their lives, and so did not give him his due respect, which is why he had to exert subtle control over them. Silence did not need power struggles erupting between her two griffins. Legendary creatures, particularly immortal ones such as griffins, ought never to be controlled, even by other legendary creatures, which is why he was so wearied by his activities.
Silence? The young human, now mostly asleep with a griffin on either side, opened her eyes drowsily and muttered something between an oath and a query. Sleep well.
The dragon waited until he could sense her mind switching to slumbering patterns before he shifted himself and curled around the odd-looking mound of fabric, flesh, and feathers which now served as Silence's bed. The two griffins eyed him disinterestedly, appreciating the warmth he emanated as a dragon but too proud to admit it, and then returned to their sleep.
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