Chapter 5: You are not prepared

The water was too damn cold, but it had to be done. I stank as all hell.

I once read that if you want to wash with cold water, you should wash your face first to kick in some survival instinct or something like that. Well, it wasn’t working, ok? I still whimpered as the water poured all over me. I quickly got out when I was wet enough (ha, ha), and started to apply soap everywhere on my body. The soap itself was a blob of gray substance that didn’t stink, but didn’t smell nice either. Whatever it was, though, got the job done.

Another whimpering-filled shower later, I was all nice and clean. I left the “room”, as it was less than that. Wooden walls and wooden floor, while the ceiling was nothing but a cavern ceiling in which a hole has been dug. From that hole an endless stream of water was falling into another barred hole in the floor. There were about five of these rooms some ways down the mountain beneath the village. As I thought, neither of the houses seemed to possess a semblance of a bathroom. And I was right. They had public toilets and public showers like these. Why? My guess would be the lack of space. Try building a big house on a steep mountain without the aid of modern technology, even more an entire freaking village.

While I was drying in the sun and freezing my ass off in the cold wind, mama gryphon was taking care of my clothes. By that I mean, she was cleaning them off. They were turning more into rags than anything each passing day, but it was all I had. I just hoped there was a clothier in the village. There had to be.

And there was. After my clothes were clean again, Jack seemed to sense my distress over the lack of warm clothes, so he took me to the village’s tailor. We entered through a narrow door into a circular room with racks and shelves full of fabric, leather, and other tools required for tailoring. A few mannequins of different sizes were spread around the room, too. In the middle of the room was a dais with mirrors all around it.

The tailor, a rather old male gryphon with grey plumage, took some of my measurements, let me choose from a variety of different fabrics and leathers, and got to work. I noticed some weird lamps that had lumps of glowing crystals in them. They managed to illuminate the whole shop really well. Before I had a chance to take a closer look, we were ushered out of the shop. I was really interested in how those worked, but I couldn’t really ask anyone. Deciding to visit the shop later, we left.

The sun was hanging well in the middle of the sky, signaling that midday was in full swing. Plenty of time left with not much to do. I mean, there wasn’t much to do after the search had been canceled, and bothering my hosts wasn’t a good way to spend my time if I wished to sleep in a bed rather than under the open sky.

The small cub, Thomas, must have been in school or somewhere outside, because he wasn’t home. Yes, I called it “home” now.

“Thomas?” I asked.

Mama gryphon – ugh, what name did I give her, again? I know that it was something on “J”. I’ll just call her Jessica, then. – turned to the paper – or scroll, if you prefer – I had left earlier this morning on the table and pointed at it. On it was a picture of school I had drawn. I took it that Thomas was at school.

Jack was out somewhere, but soon enough he was back home. He nudged me to come with him, so I did. And by that I mean I was grabbed under my arms and lifted into the air. Again.

A not-so-fun moment later I was standing in front of a small building with a bell on top of it. Not surprisingly, it was made of wood painted brown and yellow. A small tower protruded from the middle of the building’s roof, a small brass bell on top of it.

I was actually surprised to see that the building had some windows. There were two windows at the front of the school, through which I could see two different rooms filled with small gryphons. Without further ado, I and Jack made our way into the building through some narrow doors.

The hall was quite big for how small the building was. Along with the lamps filled with shining crystals, childish drawings were hung on the walls on both sides. Only seven doors lined the hall, two by each side, one at the end of the hallway, and the last ones behind us. Otherwise the hall was barren of anything. I couldn’t help but clench my fists and scrunch my face a little at the depressing sight. This looked more like a prison than a place of knowledge.

We made our way to the door at the end of the hall, me and Jack being able to barely walk side by side. Jack raised his talon in a fist and gently knocked on the door a few times.

A muffled shout from the other side was all that he needed to open the door and enter. The Sun’s glare greeted me through a window directly opposite of us. The room, unlike the hall, was quite homely, the walls lined with something I haven’t seen yet—bookshelves filled with books. An oriental carpet covered the entirety of the wooden floor. Beneath the window, a leather-bound chair was occupied behind an old wooden desk.

In the chair sat – more like sprawled – a gryphon. Or should I say—a gryphoness? Oh yeah, by that look on her face I could already tell that she would be a handful, probably one of those gryphons that didn’t like me that much.

She started gibbering like a man possessed when she saw me. Jack didn’t like the tone of her voice, so he started arguing back.

“Look, people, I don’t have the time nor patience for this!” I interrupted them with a shout. That shut them up.

“I know you probably don’t like me that much, if your reaction was any indication” – I turned to the gryphoness – “but I need some knowledge of what I am getting myself into before going out there, you know?”

She didn’t know, of course, but I still hoped somewhere deep within my heart that she did. If only to experience some relief from the whole language barrier annoyance. I was really, really getting frustrated with how no one ever understood me. Thank God for the power of gesticulation at least.

Then she raised a talon to her chin, furrowing her brows. I noticed that gryphones really like to play with their chins or something, because whenever I saw a gryphon concentrate they usually stroke their chin with their claws. Jack stood like a soldier on guard, unmoving, unyielding.

At long last she flicked her talon away at Jack and me. Jack inclined his head a little, the corners of his beak raised somewhat. Looked like the mission was a success.

Not long after that whole awkward situation, and another flight of dread, a knock on the door interrupted me. Jack had flown somewhere again, leaving me with his wife in the house. Since Jessica was cookin’ up something again, I decided to raise my ass from the floor and answer the door.

“Hold your horses,” I muttered under my breath as I reached out toward the door and swung it open.

Behind the door stood an older-looking gryphon, gray plumage with yellow dark strip of feathers running from his neck down over his chest, abdomen and all the way to the fluff at the end of his tail. In one claw he was holding a number of books.

He said something, to which I raised an eyebrow. He let himself in, apparently thinking that I was inviting him for some reason.

“Please, do come in,” I said aloud, irony lacing every word, as he was already behind me. I pushed the door shut.

He seemed to know where to go, as he made his way into the living room where I was resting mere moments ago. I followed him, and so did Jessica who seemed not even slightly troubled that someone had let himself in without as much as giving a hello. Was I missing something?

Jessica and the bookworm exchanged a few clicks and words, to which Jessica left the room. That left me and him standing there. He seated himself on the floor right across me, so I did the same. It hurt my ass, but still better than standing I guess.

He pulled out a lamp with a shining crystal out from a small bag that was previously hidden beneath his wing, so it escaped my notice. He put it near the stash of books he had brought with himself. As I settled my eyes on them, I saw a lot of books with a lot of pictures and colorful text. And I immediately knew it was going to be fun.

It wasn’t. He didn’t realize I could not read their strange alphabet, so we had to start with that rather than dipping into the language itself. I don’t know how to describe the style of their writing. It had a lot of lines, though. And as he was reading them, he seemed to make no clicking sounds at all. In fact, it sounded like a whole different language. I would have asked, but… you know.

As he was making me read and memorize the sounds of all those letters, he was also trying to make me write a few words, probably to get a hang of writing the different letters in fast succession. It did not go too well.

And that was one lesson. He left me some of the books so I could list through them and do some heavy studying. And that was how I spent the rest of my day.

A week later, I had a whole better grasp of their language. I would dare say, I got some basics down. The language that dude was teaching me wasn’t so hard. It wasn’t easy either, though, as I had to figure out most of it by myself, as he couldn’t just explain it to me. Don’t get me wrong, though. I still knew jack shit. I barely had the basic grammar down, much less any words that I could use. But I was dedicated to learning as much as I could, however I feared time was not on my side.

Though, we weren’t learning just the language. He showed me a lot of maps, detailing the known regions of the world. And let me tell you, it looked nothing like Earth. Go figure.

He also showed me a book filled with different animals. I wanted to see what wondrous creatures occupied this world and wanted to learn as much about them as I could. But… there were just too many. I am talking hundreds of them. From freaking dragons to the smallest of critters, this world sure was colorful in its variety of mythical species. I did a double-take on the whole dragon business. This world just got a whole lot more dangerous. I think I also saw a unicorn in there.

Another week passed, and my restlessness grew.

“Frell this, I need to get going,” I whispered into the wind, an edge in my voice. What would you have me do? The longer I waited, the higher the chances of finding my brother’s battered body somewhere by a road. And the more paranoid I got. These gryphons were warming up to me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of some hidden conspiracy against me going on. That feeling came out of nowhere, but it was still there and it made me do irrational things.

I was currently overlooking the forest, a shimmering green sea in the breeze, and thinking about what I had so far. A basic knowledge of language? I could already say a few words and I was getting a hang of the delicate, yet easy to understand infrastructure that made this strange language. It wasn’t taxing on the mind or on the tongue, so it was “going in” easy, so to speak. It still sounded like rubbish to me, though. With permission (through some intense gesturing) I was able to keep a map or two of the local region, which would come in handy once I was on the road.

I also got a few matching pairs of clothing done, mostly leather, but also some wool for the colder weather. All I needed was a bag, a weapon, and some food and drink. Water was here aplenty, so I would need something to store it in.

A deep breath to clear my thoughts, and I made my way inside the cottage.

Jack looked up to me as I passed him sitting neatly in the hay couch, reading something.

“I need a bag,” I replied to his questioning look. Did I mention I could finally read their faces?

“Help?” he said in Balderdash, as I liked to call the language.

“Yes.” I picked up a random bag with a strap. I beat a fist against it a few times while saying, “to me,” because I didn’t know how to say “for”.

He started to stroke his chin, before a smile graced his face.

Soon enough, I found myself at the tailor again. Except that we were in a completely different section of the building. What I realized was that this was really the entrance, and the way me and Jack entered the building previously must have been the back entrance. I figured the tailor probably didn’t want me to be seen with him previously, for whatever reason.

There, on all different kinds of mannequins and racks were displayed different types of clothing and accessories, along with the things I needed, like a bag that I could drab over my back and a waterskin. Huzzah.

I didn’t have any money, but that wasn’t really a problem. Jack was an awesome guy that seemed to insist on paying this for me. He had probably already guessed why I wanted those things by the time he was done buying them. The bag itself wasn’t really that big, but it was the only one that I could comfortably wear, so I had to get only the really essential things.

Then we went shopping into some other stores and a blacksmith. First we managed to secure one of those crystal lanterns. I tried to get the crystal out of it, but Jack batted my hand away with a firm shake of his head, scowling.

He also got me a small, short rope, flint and steel, some lightweight blankets, some dried meat and ancient-looking bread. Finally, we glided down to a plateau higher up the valley, where a not-so-small house stood. What struck me as odd, though, was that it wasn’t made of wood, but stone. Jack pushed inside through the front, wooden doors, and I followed him.

The heat inside was a complete surprise to me when I stepped over the threshold. It was like entering tropical savanna, a stark contrast to the cold outside. I coughed a little as the hot stale air assaulted my lungs. I could also taste iron.

Around the room hanged racks and display shields with different things, from tools to weapons. I didn’t really care for the tools as much as for the ample selection of weapons. From the smallest of carving knives, through axes, to two-handed swords; it was all there. Upon closer inspection I even noticed some rather strange and exotic weapons, like a trident, a whip, an awl, and so on.

“Holy hell,” I breathed out, looking around frantically. Jack seemed unfazed, but looked rather amused when he looked at me and my open mouth.

Behind a counter in the middle of the room stood a young gryphon that had a dirtied apron tied around his neck and chest, looking tired.

A banging could be heard from the closed doors behind him.

Jack walked over to him with short, deliberate steps, a business-like aura emitting from him. He seemed wary of the young gryphon, just as the gryphon was wary of me. Yeah, he didn’t trust me and he made no effort to hide it.

Jack engaged him in a conversation, sometimes gesturing at the different weapon racks. They bickered for a while, until the young gryphon sighed and, with downcast head, lead us to the racks. He turned to me and asked something. I guessed he asked something along of what I wanted to get.

It was a tough decision. One couldn’t go wrong with a standard sword, of course. And that would be my first go-to weapon, but I really wanted to try the different weapons.

I tried to flail around a… well, a flail. I almost instantly made my head a pudding, so I put it away with an almost reverence. I couldn’t imagine myself fighting with that without hurting myself much.

A mace was, well, a mace. The head of the mace menaced with spikes. It was basically the flail without a chain. I put it back almost immediately. There were some other maces that were just plain blunt weapons. I thought about getting one, as I didn’t really want to kill anyone sapient.

I sifted through the other kinds of weapons, like daggers, axes, pole-arms, two-handed weapons, iron-reinforced clubs—also with menacing spikes. I even tried the trident.

In the end I settled on a small one-handed axe that could also be utilized outside of battle, a really small dagger that could be hidden somewhere on my body quite easily, and a blunt mace for the more serious combat. I didn’t take a sword, not only because I didn’t want to overstay my welcome on Jack’s wallet, but also because I didn’t know how to fight with a sword, at all. Yeah, movies and video games do show you something, but it’s nothing like the reality of holding one. I wouldn’t be able to defend myself with one even if I wanted to. At least with a small dagger and a small axe I had the advantage of speed and mobility. And the mace could do some serious damage without killing, though I would still need to be careful with it. A good placed strike could kill just as easily as any other weapon.

“What the hell am I doing?” I muttered under my breath while I was holding the dagger in one hand, and the axe and mace in the other. The dagger came with a sheath and a strap, while the axe and mace came only with a strap with which I could wrap it around my waist or something. I would have to be careful not to accidentally chop myself into pieces on the axe.

I tenderly sat on Jack’s back again, my legs tightly clasped around his sides and chest. Even after all this time, I still would get all jittery when taking off into the air. The fear of height was just rooted too deeply inside my psyche.

Another tears-inducing flight later, and we were back in the cottage, just in time to have another lesson with my “professor”. He was a cool guy, but stern and easily frustrated. Didn’t like me, but that didn’t stop him from coming again and again. I think he saw me as some kind of challenge, a puzzle to be solved, a jigsaw to be completed.

All in all, it was shaping up to be one hell of a journey. After all, an entirely different world lay out there, filled with wonders deemed impossibly on Earth. I couldn’t help but be taken aback in awe.

But then I remember why I was here, and my throat clenches.