Chapter 3: Meet the Griffins

I was fidgeting my feet a little. Ok, I was fidgeting my feet a lot. It wasn’t easy being stared at by four mythological creatures that apparently ate meat. And if they decided I was to be their next meal, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. I just pray it'll be quick.

There was "the guy” of the family, the one that had tried to talk to me and whose head I had so unceremoniously petted to make sure he was real. I could see that he wasn’t so sure about me as he had been before.

The more feminine voice that I had heard when I woke up here belonged to a noticeable more female looking gryphon. She wasn’t happy to have me around her two children. At least I guessed those two small gryphons were her children. She had that motherly aura going about her. And I didn’t blame her for being angry at me. If you suddenly housed a completely alien creature that you couldn’t communicate with, you wouldn’t want him around your children.

Then there was this rather younger version of “the guy” – I really needed to learn their names or at least give them some names – who looked rather excited at the prospect of having a rather strange and unknown creature in their house. He wasn’t as tall as his father, but he had already outgrown his mother, so I guessed he was somewhere in the middle of his teen years.

And, at last, there was this little, completely adorable ball of feathers that hid behind his older brother. That one I couldn’t decide if was female or male just from looking at it. There wasn’t much to add.

We were now located in what looked like an ancient version of a living room. To my surprise, there was even a carpet on the floor. It was dirty as all hell, though. Not surprising, as they didn’t wear any shoes or anything, so if they came from outside with muddy pawns and talons, well, I didn’t know how they solved that.

I was sitting on something similar to the bed I had been sleeping on.  Except that this one was more noticeably used.

Across from me a fireplace had been lit. The warm glow of a small fire crackling with joy illuminated the room with a soft light. It was still pretty dark in here, though, as there were no windows that would let any outside light in.

There was some other miscellaneous furniture and quite the number of shelves lining the wall filled with a lot of things I didn't know anything about and some trinkets. In one corner of the room there was an opened box, some toys were spread around it.

And that was really it. As I had guessed previously, the whole house was somewhat one-roomy, as there were no doors separating the different rooms.

They were talking to each other in whispers, presumably so I wouldn’t hear them or something. I couldn’t help but smile at the situation. It wasn’t like I understood them, anyway.

So, before they could decide whether to eat me or not, I stood up and interrupted them.

“Look, I appreciate your generosity in helping me not to die, but I really need to get going. I have to find my brother, and I already fear for his safety, because it must have been a day or so since I was… ugh… um… transported here.”

They just stared at me, uncomprehensive of what I was trying to say. I sighed, pointed at the door that was supposed to lead outside and then made a walking motion toward the door.

A collective response of comprehension filled the room. But “the guy”, whose name shall be Jack from now on, raised his eyebrow (yes, they had eyebrows that looked like a collection of miniature feathers above their eyes) at me.

How the hell was I supposed to gesture to them that somewhere out there my brother was lost?

Then I thought of something. Since they seemed to be pretty intelligent and they had things that were more “modern”, I tried to get it across to them that I wanted a paper and a pen by waving my right hand in the air while holding an imaginary pen around my left hand that, in turn, held some imaginary paper.

He seemed to understand what I wanted, hopefully, because he nodded and went somewhere.

And while we were waiting, the mother, whom I dubbed “Jessie”, said something to the older of the two children, and went somewhere else, too. He nodded and then sat near the fireplace right across of me. His younger sibling was still hiding behind him.

Then Jack came back with something similar of what I had in mind. Instead of a pen, though, I got a quill and some ink, and instead of paper I got some ancient looking, blank scrolls. Whatever, it would do. Then he sat near his children, intensely watching me.

With my legendary drawing skills I started painting the most complex of portraits I had ever drawn. Line by line, the miniature versions of me and my brother started to appear on the scroll. The gryphons were watching me with unconcealed awe.

It took me about five seconds before I was finished. Lo and behold, on the paper, two stick figures were drawn. One was twice the size of the other. You can guess which one belonged to me and which one represented my brother. I showed them the picture. They looked unsure of what to think of it.

I stood up and started going to the doors I guessed would take me outside. There was a column of light shining from a crack underneath them, so it was as good a guess as any. They followed me.

I was not prepared for the sight that greeted me.

A large mountain valley met my eyes. It was like a great canyon between two opposite mountains that were connected some hundreds of meters below. And at both opposite sides of the valley, houses and cottages were built into the mountains. There were almost no roads. It looked like if someone wanted to get anywhere, they would have to fly there.

The house I had been occupying with my presence had been located at the edge of said mountain valley, as to my right I could see a large forest beneath the mountains, sprawling everywhere the eye could see. I could even see the large meadow that in the forest itself looked like a bald spot on someone’s head.

To my left and directly across me at the opposite side of the valley, a lot more houses stood.

And I realized that there were a lot of gryphons flying abound. And some of them took notice of me. I also realized that I was standing at the edge of a cliff side. My fear of heights immediately took hold of me and before I knew it, I was practically glued to a wall of the house.

That, of course, amused the gryphons. Hell, they even laughed. Bastards.

After calming down a little, I joined them at the cliff side where they stood. Or at least I stood as close to them as I dared without getting a panic attack.  Now, in the midday sun, I could finally see what they looked like in full. Jack was all brown, with spots of black on his chest now and then. Dark blue eyes bore into my very soul. All in all, he looked pretty dull, aside from the fact that he was a god damn gryphon.

His sons were more interesting, though, as they were more colorful. The older brother was mostly beige, with some brown feathers around his neck. His head plumage was mostly dark beige with dark brown at the feather tips. Mischievous green eyes skipped between me and his younger sibling standing by his right front leg. A pang of sorrow hit me at the sight of those two.

The cub, “Thomas” I decided to call him, was truly the miniature version of his father, with light brown feathers and light blue eyes.

Without further interruptions, I once again showed them the scroll and started explaining.

First I pointed at the bigger stick figure, then at me, hopefully getting the point that it was me across, and at last I pointed at the older brother whom I decided to call “Paul”. Before they could question my intentions, I continued.

I gesticulated at the smaller stick figure, and then I pointed at the adorable cub. And finally, I made a wild gesture across the entire forest spanning beneath the mountain, trying to tell them that somewhere out there, Michael was lost.

They didn’t get it.

“God dammit!” I practically yelled at them. I mean, I was losing my cool really fast. I didn’t have time for this dumbassery! I had to go and look for my brother. With each day that passed, the chances of finding him alive were getting thinner and thinner.

They were of course taken aback by my sudden outburst, looking at me while I was tearing my hair out in frustration. I knew I needed their help if I wanted to find my brother. With such a large forest, one person could never hope to search through it all in such a short span of time. Also, they could fly, which would be an invaluable help in finding my brother.

So I tried again. And again. By the time half an hour had passed, I was so frustrated and gesturing so wildly, I was practically dancing. That, of course, garnered me some attention of nearby flying gryphons. Soon enough, I had an audience of twenty gryphons watching me with amused expressions.

“Fucking hell!” I yelled out at last. The yell echoed through the mountain valley. “How can you be so… UGH!” I kicked some rocks that went flying over the edge of the cliff.  When I finally turned back to them, the gryphons weren’t so amused anymore.

I didn’t care.

“Look, Jack!” my hand went flying to his face. He seemed mighty confused by that, if not a little threatened. I could see him preparing his claws in my peripheral vision. Again, I didn't care. I yelled “Jack” at him for about ten seconds, each “Jack” reinforced with me jabbing at his beak again and again, until finally, he raised a talon, not to strike me, but to his chest and said, “Jack?”

“Yes,” I nodded enthusiastically. “Jack!”

“Jack,” he repeated, a dawning recognition on his… face.

“Yes, Jack!”

“Yesjack?”

“No! Jack!”

“No-Jack?”

“God dammit, Jack!” He had to be doing this on purpose. He had to.

“Jack!” at last I said. He repeated and I nodded.

“Look, Jack, you have two sons or whatever. The older one is –“ I started pointing at the older of his sons, who stood by his side “– Paul, this guy right here. Paul!”

Jack put his left talon on his son's head, while Paul jabbed one of his claws at himself. “Paul,” they both said at the same time. Once again I nodded. They had some difficulty saying “P” since they had beaks and no lips. But it was good enough. And then my hands finally pointed at Thomas.

“Thomas.”

“Thomas,” they repeated. Even some of the other gryphons that came to see the spectacle of a human tearing his hair out were trying to pronounce the names I had given to those three.

Once they tasted the names a little, they pointed at me. Oh right, I didn’t tell them my name.

“Peter,” I answered their unspoken question. Once again, like a crowd of parrots, the gryphons tried to say my name out loud. In turn, I began to laugh at them as they tried to pronounce it and failed horribly.

When I had my share of fun, I interrupted them by swiping my right arm through the air. At last I indicated at an empty spot to my right and said, “Michael.” Their collective eyebrows went up.

I raised my hand at Paul and Thomas, as I said their names respectively. Then used the same hand to indicate myself and the empty spot while saying my name and my brother’s name. Then, once again, I made a large circle in the air at the empty spot, saying, “Michael.” Then, with both of my hand, I waved at the forest like a traffic cop telling a car where to go.

They tried to make heads and toes of it, but once again, they didn’t get it.

A very unpleasant feeling was bottling up in my throat, and before I could let that feeling out, Paul said something. And then he said it a little louder, understanding written all over his face. A long “O” sound escaped his beak. Then some words I didn’t understand. All the gryphons turned to him as he started saying something rather quickly, hopefully explaining what I was trying to get across. The other gryphons were soon in a similar state as he had been when he had gotten that look of understanding.

Some of those gryphons’ faces took a solemn turn rather quickly. That, of course, unnerved me little. Did they know something that I didn’t?

And that was basically how I got the gryphons to help me. Not just the family that housed me. Some gryphons I had never seen before joined us, too. But that didn't mean the gryphons weren't wary of me. To be honest, they were keeping an eye on me. They didn't make it exactly visible, but their looks betrayed their mistrust. A strange creature that we've never seen before enters our peaceful, reclusive village? Yeah, no.

My resolve strengthened with new-found allies. We organized a search party immediately. Well, at least they did while I was standing a little ways from them, smiling like an idiot.