Preserved

The second Gryphon expedition’s 3rd excavation had just come to an end. Trekking through the Frozen North on a return course to base camp, the group and their oxen mercenaries hauled carefully placed container after container of carefully dug artifacts from the ruins of an ancient fishing village.

They all felt lucky with their finds. The only reason they could accomplish anything this far north was due to the recent heat wave that penetrated all through the land, a scheduled event for one summer every 50 years as announced by Celestia herself to test the durability of the land, just in case somepony else had to take temporary control of the sun in her absence.

The first expedition started almost by accident when a pair of adolescent gryphons, having just left the nest, challenged each other to see how far north they could travel in that same heat wave. Somewhere in the half-melted ice, the pair encountered a stone obelisk sticking out of the ice, and reported their find to the local authorities.

The two soon found themselves in charge of the largest archaeological dig of the century, and were sworn in as officers for the North Kingdom scientific corps by the end of the summer.
Those two gryphons, called “Boss” and “Sniffer”, went forward into prestigious careers for the next 50 years after their discovery.

Both of them were the oldest in the expedition by far, most of the other gryphons averaging to 20 years of age.

Sniffer was 68 years old, now. He had received a metal of honor from the king himself when he uncovered the most important find of that trip– the device was called the Catapult, which saved the North Kingdom from conquest nearly 3 times in the past half century.

Boss was 67. He went on to become a major after the heat-wave expedition, and was just about to be promoted to General when Princess Celestia announced her next semi-centennial heat wave summer.

The whole expedition proceeded onward, heading back to their base-camp. None had ever anticipated that there would ever be a castle this far north, but this meant that they didn’t have to set up a shelter. It also meant that because it was too cold to fly at this latitude, heat-wave or not, they would be able to set up their own defenses in case any spies or raiding parties appeared. The castle was large enough to store all of the provisions and artifacts that they could find for the whole summer if they needed to hole up there in case of an attack.

Everyone in the convoy turned and listened as one of the lookouts, perhaps 50 yards to the right of the group, shouted, “Hey boys! I found something!” he took his feathery hood off and knelt down to get a closer look.

“What is it, then? Well, spit it out, boy!” said Boss, his gruff voice typical of his age.

“I have no idea,” the scout said plainly. “Let’s dig it up!” Sniffer passed the scout and saw what he was looking at.

“Sniffer, what do you think?” said Boss. Sniffer knelt down to take a closer look.

One must understand the reason that the scout took such interest in any typical object sticking out of the ground: the ground was nothing but flat, hard-packed ice for miles around. There was no flora here, and any rocks sticking out of the ground would have to be over 12 fathoms tall to peek out of the ice. Whatever this exposed something was, it had to be artificial.

“I know this kind of claw, chief, but I don’t believe it.”

“What is it, Sniffer?” Sniffer rustled his wings uncomfortably. Despite his keen eyes and observational genius, the old gryphon hated being put on the spot, even more so when he had to break uncomfortable, or even anomalous news. Despite being superstitious, even he had a hard time believing what it was that he saw lodged in the ground. This meant, of course, that convincing Boss and the other gryphons on the expedition was going to be harder.

“Boss, I- I don’t believe what I’m seeing.”

“Well, there is obviously something there, now isn’t there?” came Boss’ harsh reply. Despite having known him for over 60 years and being childhood friends, Boss never discriminated when he yelled at someone.

“It’s a- it’s a mythical creature’s claw…”

“Well, what kind is it?” demanded Boss, obviously not buying what he was saying. “Hurry up, now, I don’t have all day-”

“It’s a Human.”

No one spoke. That was impossible. Humans are tales put in story books. Obviously no one believed the old gryphon. He himself was wondering if he was going senile.

“Well?” the boss said, as if demanding an explanation for his foolishness.
Sniffer lowered his gaze. He was sorry to have said anything. He should have dismissed it as some twig or come up with a similar lie. There was a long silence. Boss turned back to his crew, almost as if he were going to tell them to chain him up and put him on one of the artifact carts as well.

“WHY AREN’T YOU DIGGING?!”

“D-ah- Right, Chief!” everyone else blurted. The pickaxes strapped to everyone’s backpack came out of their straps and began hitting the ground.

“Careful, you fools! Don’t damage it!, I want you to dig around it.” There was a pause.

Everyone moaned. This had happened dozens of times beforehand. This simple task which should have taken five minutes was now going to take two hours.

Several hours later, the crew reached base camp. The blazing sun had just set beneath the flat horizon.

The ruins surrounding the castle were gateways to powerful secrets- this very city, ruins as it was now, was the site where designs for the catapult were discovered. From what many objects that were preserved under the ice, only to be exposed every fifty years for a few weeks of the summer, the Gryphons could tell that this place was once an expansive metropolis, housing hundreds of beings with surprising technologies. Given that there had been only 6 weeks of work done in total of the place, there was little else that could be said. None of the gryphons knew exactly how old the city was. They certainly weren’t willing to tell or ask Princess Celestia or Cadence about their finds, lest they send their armies to claim it for themselves.

The convoy passed through the empty streets; cold stone buildings loomed over their heads, still, and dark against the fading lights of dusk. Buttresses and sky bridges and pointed towers stood unmoving against the grinding winds of time, eternally preserved by the ice, many of them untouched for thousands of years. The oxen, gryphons, and sleds slowed to a grinding halt as they looked up to the ancient castle.

Boss dismounted his sled and first entered the castle while the rest of the crew unpacked and took care of the sleds. He marched through the frozen courtyard and battlements and slammed the doors open in the main lobby.

“Schultz? SCHULTZ! Get down here!” A small, short, half-bald gryphon awkwardly tumbled down a long flight of stairs that led to an overhang and more hallways above, landing with a sickening thud on the hard stone floor.
“Right here, boss…”
“I want you to open another one of the state rooms. You’re going to set up a B-type fauna lab, the one with the observation overhang.”

“But boss, we don’t have another-”

“Then clear out one of the other rooms and make room for this! We are are going to melt and revive a thousand year old creature and nothing is getting in my way. Where’s Herman? HERMAN!”

“Right behind you, boss,” said Hermann, a fat, clumsy, but nevertheless straight and military looking Gryphon in charge of the security force.
The boss wheeled around. “HERMAN… Oh there you are. Get some helpers and go help Schultz. Do NOT inform the other security personnel about this. When you are done, prepare a messenger sleigh to send directly to the King.

ZAP!

OW! SHIT! FUCK! THAT REALLY HUR- Wait. Where am I? How am I still alive? Where was I before this?

Oh yeah. Crap. I was heading home. I didn’t make it. I tripped. Damn cold. The windigoes did this. It was too cold that night.

When you trip, you hit the ground.

When you hit the ground, you stop walking.

When you stop walking, you remember how tired you are.

When you know you’re tired, your body wants to fall asleep.

When you want to sleep, you crawl in a corner and do so.

When you fall asleep… you never wake up.

Hang on a minute, why the hell am I awake, then? Am I dead? I sure don’t feel dead…If this is what feeling dead is like, then being dead sucks! I wonder what it looks like. Wait a minute, that can’t be right. I felt pain.

Pain means you’re alive, therefore, either I’m in hell, or I’m alive.

Wait a second. I know that ceiling. It’s the old castle. I'm back where I started? At least someone thought to rescue me. That's always nice. Wait. These are gryphons.

What are gryphons doing inside the castle? Oh, look, here's one now.

Wait a second...

SHIT! He’s got a knife! Why does he have a knife? Why is he pointing it at me? Oh God, I’m tied down!

Okay, okay, relax. Think. There's a gryphon with a knife heading straight toward you and pointing the thing at you. No need to panic. He’s either going to cut me loose or gut me, you know. Nothing personal.

Oh, GOD, he's looking at me. Okay, panic! PANIC! IT'S THE PERFECT TIME TO PANIC!