Nuage was flying at a comfortable pace towards Papyrus’s tower, the old unicorn tightly gripping her back. She had gone above the clouds to avoid the rain and a little to her right, the sun was going down on the horizon, coloring that portion of the sky in shades of orange and pink. The born flyer was a little torn between the need to go back to the tower before night and the chance to enjoy a beautiful sky to soar through for a little longer.

“Nuage ?”

She looked back, getting a glimpse of her master above her shoulder and slowed down to reduce the roar of the wind in their ears.

“Yes, master ?”

“I’m curious. That gryphon said Nuage isn’t your real name ?”

She turned her head forward, settling her gaze on the horizon. “It’s the name I answer to. There is nopony left to call me by my birth name anymore... In the end, Nuage is more real than the other has ever been.”

“But why did you change it ? If nopony knows your name, what difference does it make ?”

“It... never felt like it was mine. My father lost his sister a few weeks before I was born, so he gave me her name. It’s like I’ve been wearing it for her...”

Papyrus hummed in thought. “If it was an homage to your aunt, don’t you think you should still carry her name ? In memoriam ?”

“She was a great gryphoness, serving the same master as my father. She was killed in a duel, an honorable death. She doesn’t need me to be remembered and I... I wanted to have my own name... I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind.”

The two remained silent for a while, lost in their thoughts.

“So, what is it ?” Papyrus finally asked.

“What ?”

“Your actual name ? What is it ?”

“Nuage.”

“That’s not what I...” He chuckled. “I see. You’re a secretive mare... Er- gryphoness.”

“Not really...”

“You’ve been following me for years and I barely know anything about you. You never talk about yourself.”

Nuage looked thoughtfully in the distance. “There’s not much to say.”

“That’s not true. For example, you can talk about your family. Didn’t you have a brother ?”

“Tristan ? What about him ?”

“Well,” Papyrus said, tapping a hoof softly on her shoulder to encourage her. “What was he like ?”

“He was a jerk.”

“Really ?”

“Hmmm. He was two years older than me, so he was bigger and stronger. He would boss me around all the time when our parents weren’t watching.”

“Huh. I thought your family was nice.”

“Well... When he wanted to, he could be. I remember... I was really young at the time, I used to have an old rag doll that I would take everywhere with me. I lost it one day in a forest near our home cave. There were plenty of bears in that forest, so we weren’t allowed to go play there, but we did it anyway.”

Nuage took a short pause to check her position. They still were far away from their destination. “I only realized I had lost it when we came back home... I cried a lot and when our parents asked, I told them what happened. They punished the both of us, but I didn’t even care, I just kept crying because of my lost doll.

“So, Tristan went to get it. When he came back, he was punished even more, but he had found it.” She smiled sadly, a few tears pearling at the corners of her eyes. “I miss him,” she said in a whisper. “I miss them all.”

“I understand,” Papyrus said gently, patting her neck as best as he could without falling off her back. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought this up.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head and sending a few drops of tears flying in the air. Nuage kept that same sad smile. “It’s good to know that I can still cry about it. I... I haven’t forgotten them. I wouldn’t want to forget, no matter how sad it makes me.”

“You’re happy to be sad ?” She heard Papyrus laugh softly over her shoulder. “I think I’ll never really figure you out, my friend.”

“Is that a bad thing ?”

“No, no. It makes hanging out with you more interesting.”

Nuage chuckled a little and for a few moments, she was happy to be there, with her master. Unfortunately, her amusement was only fleeting. Watching the rain clouds below reminded her of how gloomy their future was looking.

“Master ?” she asked, tilting her head just a little to catch a glimpse of Papyrus.

“Hmmm ?”

“That book... I don’t like it. It’s... bad." She sighed, annoyed at herself for not finding the right words. "Contre-nature. Innommable. Rien qu'une malédiction... I don't know how to say it in Equestrian. It's... bad."

“Bad ? No. There's no good or evil magic, it’s only a tool."

"Maybe, but I don't see how this could be used in a good way." She shivered a little. "Did you see what was in that laboratory ?"

"I did."

"And you don't mind ?"

Papyrus didn't answer for a while, so she kept talking. "Magic that can bring the dead back... That sort of thing should not exist in the first place."

"Would you rather I die ?"

This time, Nuage was the one who kept silent, unable to decide on her answer.

"Lord Abélar once visited the domain of his neighbor, lord Meredith. She was a gryphoness of great status and power and had many Sermes under her command, while lord Abélar only had a few.

During dinner, a messenger came with news of one of her subordinates. When he realized that he would be unable to accomplish his mission, that gryphon had decided to take his own life rather than come back after his failure.

Lord Meredith seized that opportunity to brag and told lord Abélar : 'This is the kind of loyalty I inspire in my clan. My servants are all ready to die for me. Can you claim as much ?'

Lord Abélar answered : 'No. One of my servants would have not taken his own life. Instead, he would have found a way to succeed or die trying. My servants are all willing to live for me, that is the kind of loyalty I inspire in my clan."

One day later, she still had no answer. If Papyrus lived, he was going to start practicing some revolting magic... Would Nuage be the new general of an army of undead ponies ? What kind of madness could come out of this ? Papyrus, the immortal ruler of a new, morbid Equestria ?

But if he died... She would be on her own, with no path to follow, with no goal to reach. With no meaning to her life...

She... needed him. She had always needed him. He was her drive, he was the reason she traveled to the other side of the world with nothing but hope and a few trinkets in her bag. He was who she looked up to.

Or at least used to...

Nuage grunted and left her cave after hours spent lying inside and ruminating her thoughts. She no longer wanted to think.

Spreading wide her pristine white wings, the gryphoness took to the sky and flew a few circles above the mountain that was her home. No thinking, just flying. The wind rushing in her feathers, playing like music in her ears, pushing her up and down at its whim...

She spotted movement below. A hare, thinking it was invisible in the tall grass and hopping carelessly. Its white tail was like a flag being waved to signal his position.

No thinking. She dove.

When the brown hare spotted the huge predator heading straight for him, it was already too late. Sharp talons dug into its furry back while she was flapping her wings furiously to ascend into the air. The shock was so brutal that its neck was snapped in the motion.

Nuage flew to her domain, in front of her cave entrance and tore up her kill without wasting an instant, sending chunks of gore left and right as she removed organs from the still warm body. The blood was like a drug, the only thing occupying her mind right then.

"You shouldn't play with your food." A male voice told her from behind. "Didn't your mother teach you that ?"

Nuage turned around, finding herself face to face with a brown gryphon, the one she had fought the previous day, Ausha. He was carrying his crossbow on his back and a length of rope coiled around his chest, staring coldly with his piercing blue eyes. Even if he wasn't making any hostile movement, Nuage didn't expect him to have come here for a neighborly visit... She stood on four legs wound up like springs, ready to jump at any second while she glared at the intruder.

"How did you find me ?"

"Same way I found you the last time." He chuckled and gave her a cocky smirk. "You're the only gryphon gal in the whole region. I can smell you from miles away."

Nuage watched him with a raised eyebrow. She hadn't thought about it before, but it was probably true. It had been a long time since she'd left the gryphon territories and living with ponies had made her forget a few particularities of her own kind...

"What do you want ?" she asked, still ready to strike.

"Isn't it obvious ? I'm after your so called 'master' and things will go much more smoothly with you out of the way..." The brown gryphon narrowed his eyes as he stared at her. "We could either come to an agreement... or I could remove you from the picture."

Nuage frowned. "An agreement ?"

"Let's say, for example, that we face each other and that, hypothetically speaking, you fight less than optimally. If you find yourself tied up here," he said while dropping the rope, "you couldn't help your 'master', but it wouldn't be your fault." Ausha gave her a knowing grin. "And of course, if that happened, I would obviously give you something as... reparations. Money or... whatever you would deem fair."

"I don't care about money."

He snorted derisively. "I could have guessed. I can give you bunnies if you'd prefer that."

Nuage huffed, letting a puff of air through her nostrils. "You should get out of here while you still can."

"Hmmm... Your reaction is interesting, you know." He smirked. "I just said I wanted to kill your 'master'. If you're as loyal as you claim, shouldn't you try to stop me ?"

Nuage involuntarily relaxed a little, thinking on her behavior. Maybe this gryphon could be a solution...

"I think you don't wanna protect him that much," he added.

Someone needed to stop Papyrus. It couldn't be her, she was meant to protect him.

"Am I right ?"

She couldn't betray him that directly... or at all. If he died that way, she wouldn't even have her honor left.

But when would she get a better chance ?

"Hey, are you even listening ?"

Nuage squeezed her eyes shut and grunted. She shook her head in frustration. She just couldn't decide... She only wanted to stop thinking.

Ausha's expression darkened quickly when Nuage finally looked at him again. No thinking. There was an intruder in her domain, a threat. No need to think in that case.

She stood on all fours, tall and proud, head high and with her wings flared. Finally, she communicated in the oldest way known to her kind. In one roar, Nuage gave a very clear message : leave or fight.

Ausha responded an equally transparent gesture when he crouched a bit, standing ready to pounce.

She lunged at him like a wild animal and the two gryphons collided. Ausha held strong and withstood Nuage's charge, his legs leaving a short trench in the dirt as her momentum pushed him back, but he didn't lose his balance.

Nuage adapted her position and planted her hind legs firmly on the ground while trying to wrestle the male with her arms. They struggled for a moment, neither managing to take the advantage until Nuage found herself tumbling forward over him. Somehow, her smaller but more agile adversary had thrown his weight under her and her own force had made her lose her balance.

Nuage rolled on her back to face up, but that was all she could do before Ausha jumped above her. She went for his neck, but he swiftly grabbed her talons in his and forced them down while she kept reaching for the throat. The two fighters found themselves in another stalemate, but with Nuage lying on the ground and Ausha using his weight to push down on her it wouldn't be long until her arms could no longer hold.

Nuage saw her death coming at his claws.

It was tempting : a proper, honorable end to a clean fight. She could just let go, stop struggling and let him finish her...

Something still drove her to resist... a tiny speck of uncertainty, the notion that this was not the right way to serve her master... But she didn't want to serve him anymore.

She didn't want to die.

She didn't want to live.

She didn't know what she wanted...

Nuage growled in frustration, against herself, against Papyrus, against Ausha, against everything and everyone. She had to stop thinking.

With a primal scream, she flailed and tossed against the talons holding her down. With the energy only a frenzied beast could gather, she managed to loosen his grip and get one of her own talons free. Now able to fight back, she clawed and punched indiscriminately, not even bothering to aim. Ausha fought back in much the same way.

Nuage struck him in the chest, he slapped her on the face, she cut his shoulder, he clawed at her neck... She felt nothing and saw in red. The two gryphons shoved and tugged, rolling on the ground in a tumble of feral violence until Nuage found herself on top of her foe, holding his arms in her talons and pinning his legs under her paws. Ausha thrashed but she lowered herself on him ; she was taller, she weighed more than him and had more strength... he was trapped.

Nuage acted on instinct, clamping her beak around his neck. She could have easily finished him : all she had to do was tighten a little to open his throat to the air, but something, a last minute hesitation, stopped her. The gryphoness held her pose, panting around the feathery neck. His musky scent was filling her nostrils... She felt his breathing, as fast and shallow as hers, his arteries pulsing against her tongue at a furious pace. She was a single twitch away from killing him, but that thought had left her mind completely, replaced by another one.

Nuage lowered her body on top of Ausha's, letting her weight rest on him, feathers on feathers, fur on fur. She growled, lower and lower. Without loosening her vise-like grip, she rubbed herself up and down on her prey in small, slow motions. Her mind was now filled with a different kind of hunger, a new desire taking complete control of her body. The dazed gryphoness started to purr and move more intensely, focusing only on the feeling of her skin against his.

With a crack of magic, a scroll popped out of thin air in front of her and bumped on Ausha's head with a soft crumpling sound before rolling on the ground. Nuage watched it stop a few centimeters away with wide eyes, her fuzzy mind taking its time to complete the puzzle. Eventually, she recognized a message from Papyrus. From her master. She was needed, she had to obey...

And, she realized, she was still rubbing herself on the gryphon below her...

Not only that, she could also tell that she had had the intended effect on him.

She froze.

Slowly, Nuage let go of her hold on his neck. With some difficulty, she swallowed the lump in her throat and lifted her eyes.

Ausha barely dared to move, looking utterly confused. Terrified, aroused, angry, disgusted, fascinated... It was like his face couldn't decide which expression to pick, if it wasn't trying to combine them all. Nuage gulped again, wondering what in the world she was doing right here and then.

Was this what happened when she stopped thinking ? A chill went down her spine as she looked at herself. Her white feathers were covered in red from blood coming out of wounds she suddenly became aware of. Her chest and Ausha's were the canvas for a grim painting composed of blood coming from two gryphons and one hare. Giving a quick glance to the side, she saw the carcass, torn inside out, bits and pieces thrown around on the ground...

She wasn't even hungry.

Nuage shuddered and closed her eyes, almost breaking into tears. She maintained her composure only barely, mentally standing like an acrobat on the edge of a breakdown, but eventually took control of herself again. She could spend some time thinking on her own state later, but first, she had to decide on her immediate actions.

It was time to go back to Papyrus. The way of the Serme was her life and she was obviously not fit for anything else. Taking one deep and slow breath, Nuage cleared her mind of all distractions. Instinct was beaten, chained and locked up at the bottom of her brain ; she rose back to her feet and watched the gryphon under her.

This time, she saw a threat to her master. She briefly considered taking his life right then, but killing a foe when he was defeated, helpless and... riled up seemed devoid of any shred of honor. Especially since she was the one responsible for his 'condition'.

On the other hand, letting Ausha go wasn't an alternative. Spotting the rope he had brought with him gave Nuage an obvious solution. The gryphon started to squirm as soon as she moved away, but a kick in his most sensitive region quickly got him back under control and less than a minute later, he was hog-tied with no hope of getting free. His wings, his legs, even his head were restrained...

"You're completely nuts," Ausha said while she dragged him inside her cave. "Do you plan on finishing me later ? I don't like doing it tied up, just so you know."

Nuage looked away. "I... I'm sorry," she managed to say quietly. "I don't know what's taken me. I'll let you go later, but my master needs me right now. I just don't want you to follow."

He snorted, half laughing. "Your master... Because you're a Serme... How crazy are you exactly ?"

Nuage only stared at him for an answer.

"The Sermes are supposed to serve gryphon warlords, not insane ponies."

"Papyrus was worthy of my oath, more so than any lord."

"No kidding ? There's no competition ! The clans have been unified under the tribes ages ago and the tribes all follow the king now. There's no room for warlords anymore and there's even less for Sermes."

"I-"

"Have you been living under a rock for the last century ? Sermes only belong in history books by now."

"Th- that's-"

"Where did you even learn the code ? Some old adventure novel ?"

Nuage frowned and walked deeper inside her cave, coming back with the book that had taught her how to live her life. "My father gave it to me. He held it from his father and so on for seven generations." She held the old, worn, but carefully maintained tome under his nose. "This is my heritage, not some game I'm playing."

"It is a game," he shot back. "You don't even realize you're playing it." Ausha wriggled on the ground, trying to stand or at least raise his head, but soon gave up and settled on glaring at her from below. "Sermes were obsolete even before the both of us were born."

"No. My father served-"

"Nobody. If he really was a Serme then he was nothing more than a holdover. A symbol of the old days who did nothing more than all other symbols : stand there and look pretty."

"I-"

"-should stop deluding yourself," he finished for her. "Don't you see that pony you serve is a murderer ? A lunatic ? How many deaths will it take ?"

Nuage slumped a little, letting both her rear end and her book land on the floor. "If this is about your friend, I'm sorry about him."

"Who ? Anvil ? He was a coworker, not a friend. And that kind of thing happens in the business. No, I was talking about the ponies your great unicorn master killed to get his hooves on that magical doodad. They weren't asking anything from anyone. He just showed up and bam ! All dead."

Nuage looked at her feet. "I'm the one who killed those two."

"But you did it for him. He's the one who needs to be stopped."

"Maybe... I can only serve him. I made my pledge and I can't break it. If you know anything about the way of the Serme, you'll understand."

"No I don't ! You know that he's dangerous. Forget that stupid honor thing and do what's right, damn it !"

Nuage growled. "Forget my honor ? And you call me crazy ?"

Ausha started yelling at her. "Of course you have to forget it. Everyone else has ! What world do you think you're living in ?"

"I should be weak because everyone else is ? What world do you live in ?"

"The real world ! I'm not living in a fantasy of the past, I live in reality, where you can't expect someone to be nice just because he gave you his word. Where I don't have to kill myself if I can't fulfill a promise. Maybe you should visit that world sometime. Right now would be good."

"I have a duty. I have a destiny."

"Destiny ?" he almost spat the word out. "This is even more ridiculous than-"

"La ferme."

"There's no such thing as-"

She backhanded him in the face. "La ferme !"
Nuage seethed, barely containing her rage. The male gryphon shrunk a little under her furious glare... He still looked like he had things to say, but remained silent. When she spoke again, her voice was struggling to remain steady.

"In that world you speak of... If a dragon goes into a greed frenzy, do you say it's just a thing dragons do ? If that dragon kills a family of gryphons, do you say it's just bad luck ? If a unicorn shows up to save the youngest, do you say it's a coincidence ? If that gryphoness decides to live the way her parents taught her, do you say she's delusional ?" She paused for a moment and received no response. "Why shouldn't I see my destiny there ? Do you have a better explanation ? All you're telling me is to forget my way ? Because it's obsolete ?"

Nuage had her face almost touching his at that point, but she shouted as if he was miles away. "Forget everything my parents taught me... c'est ça ? My family's lives. Their deaths. My life. On oublie tout ? Everything was pointless then ? Meaningless ? Le hasard ? Is that it ? Is that it ?" she asked while shaking him with a talon.

Ausha muttered a few words she didn't even bother to listen to. "Va te faire foutre ! Tu m'entends ? Fuck ! You !"

Nuage had to restrain herself from jumping on him and beating him to death. She settled on grabbing his neck and lifting his head in front of hers. She was both foaming at the corners of her beak and crying at the same time, anger and pain making her voice shaky. "No destiny ? I won't believe that. Jamais ! I refuse to live like that."

She dropped him roughly on the stony floor and went to gather her equipment, working to control her erratic breathing and mumbling to herself. Mechanically, she strapped on her armor and tucked her weapons in place, doing the only thing she could do.

When Nuage came back near Ausha, she found the cat observing him curiously. She walked closer to pet it. "Tu le surveilles, d'accord ?"

As an answer, the cat stepped on velvet paws near the brown gryphon and rubbed its head against his.

"I made a friend," Ausha said flatly while Nuage chuckled once. "Hurray." The two gryphons exchanged a glance. "You're going back to your master," he simply said.

"I go where my place is."

She spread her wings and jumped in the air.

"Là où le vent me porte."

Author's Note

Live from the middle of nowhere in Normandy !

This chapter was typed and uploaded from my phone. That was fun !
No, wait... The other one... Tedious !

Seriously that was a pain. I did my best to keep the formatting decent but if you saw anything weird, you now know why.

Hopefully I'll be back to civilization for the next chapter. I miss my PC.