Crimson Trail

Chapter 4

A New Place and a New Journey

Edited by the Metallic Dash

CRACK.

My ear twitched as I was slowly dragged back to consciousness.

THUMP CRACK.

This time I open my eyes and peered down from the tree branch I had been sleeping on, my nerves were on edge, something was out there. Giving a quick glance up to see the full moon still high in the sky I could tell that the night was far from over. Repositioning myself I perched on the branch peering into the dark woods. My leg was in a splint I had made for it after I hurt it during the fall I had taken when father dropped me. I was pretty sure I could run on it if need be though I did not want to find out. Reaching out to a small branch on which my knife hung, I clasped my talons around it and slowly unsheathed it.

The lack of noise did only to unnerve me more because if the sound stopped it must have been because whatever was out there saw me move. I did not want to risk another encounter with a pack of timber wolves or that damned manticore that had been on my tail for the last couple of days. I felt it was not either of those things do the fact that both where not really on the side of stealth. Slowly sweeping the area again I saw nothing out of place.

Could I have imagined it… no I couldn't have something is out there.

CRACK.

There it is behind me!

Flipping around to stare into the darkness I was rewarded with a split second glint of moonlight reflecting off a gem of sorts before it vanished from sight behind a tall black tree. I did not have any time to ponder this however because a second later I heard a whoosh and felt something heavy cover my body and pull me to the ground.

A net!!!

A thud rang out as I made a hard impact with the ground, knocking the wind out of me, several bipedal creatures stepped out from behind trees.  It took me several seconds to place them, but only diamond dogs could have been responsible for this.

“We get it?” one started.

“Think so. You go check,” another one answered.

“Why me, you threw net.”

“Enough you too, quiet. I’ll check,” a third one spoke up.

Several steps rang out getting closer and closer until they stopped directly over my prone form.

“We got it. You help bring back to-”

I did not let him finish. With the speed of lightning I plunged my knife into the dog’s chest cutting open the net in the process. A small splatter of blood dripped down the blade and fell to the ground before a much louder thud rang out as the lifeless body, the dog, fell without another word.

“Leader is down! What we do now?” the first one spoke

“Catch the one who killed him and bring back to cave.” the second one replied.

I glanced down at the blood soaked knife and seeing my trembling talons I was frozen with terror. It was not the first time I had killed; many hunting trips had made me numb to the thought of killing an animal. But this was different, it was the first time I had ever kill a sentient creature. I did not know what to do, how to feel, I didn't even know what to think. So when the shaft of a spear cracked against the back of my head. I did not fight the blackness as it overcame my mind and sent me off once again to the world of dreams.

~~~~~10 years later~~~~~

It had been several minutes of aimless walking I had found my way to a small river no bigger than 20 feet across. Stopping and giving a quick listen for pursuers I heard no sound other than the trickle of water from the river. Breathing out a sigh of relief I began to stretch out my wings slowly and carefully and as expected, my left wing cried out in pain causing me to wince and fold them back up. Giving a much longer look around to see nothing of interest, I slowly began to inch my way into the water, I had to walk almost to the middle of it for the water to be deep enough to splash against my underbelly, it was cold but at least it looked clean.  With that I began to wash myself of all the tree sap and small patches of blood and dirt that had accumulated over the time I spent in the forest.

When I was done I slowly made my way back to shore where I gave myself a quick shake wincing at the pain my wing gave. When I was finished I just sat in the sun for a while and let the warmth evaporate the last of the water drying my feathers. It was relaxing all though I could feel something was off, ignoring it I laid back and closed my eyes I drifted off to sleep.

Whop-whop-whop-whop

My eyes shot wide open at the new sound, rolling over on to my feet I stopped and listened, a couple seconds later I had it’s position and pairing off in the direction it was coming from I was surprised to see it be the same direction I had come from. The sound was very faint though it was not natural and was clearly getting louder. Taking several steps back I spotted what must have been the source of the sound I did not know what it was or why it was there. From what I could see it was hovering over where I could only assume was the place I arrived. But its method of hovering was a mystery to me; there were no wings or a balloon it just hovered. It started to move flying at a surprising speed however more wearing than that was what fact it was coming towards me. Not directly at me but it would be passing by relatively close. As it approached new details I was not aware of before came into focus. Such as there seemed to be a large dome shaped window on the front, but I was unable to see in throw it. More importantly I spotted what seemed to make it fly. A massive propeller could be seen on the top and a smaller one mounted sideways on the end. How there were spinning and at such great speeds was still a mystery. Not to mention all the calculations to keep it balanced. My mind started rushing with the thought of all of the enchantments that must have gone into the construction of it. I hardly even notice that as it passed by it started to slow and began a large loop around this time moving directly towards me.

Shit, it must have seen me. I don’t know if it is friend or foe if the later I don't think I want to be standing out in the open like this.

Giving it one more glance before moving into the forest. I tried to keep under as much dense brush as possible. Several minutes passed with the flying contraption making several large rings around the area I was in, it was clearly looking for me. But I was not going to let it find me.  As I was moving in the dense brush I was starting to think whatever it was had flown off because there was no sound of it anymore. I continue to walk and after a little while I found my way to a mildly familiar sight. A large road ran alongside the forest, I remember seeing it when I had my little fall. Slowly and carefully I made my way towards it and when I finally got onto it I saw it was some type of pavement with a long yellow line running down the middle.

Why would someone go throw all the trouble of paving a road in the middle of nowhere? Well at least I have something to follow a road always least to civilization.

I began to follow the road until the sound of something approaching from behind caused me to turn and bolt towards the forest. Just before I made it in I heard a screech and the sound of someone yelling. But the language was not one I know or remember hearing. I wanted to think about it more however I was entering the forest and only had a few seconds to ponder that before I felt a sting on the back of my neck and an icy cold feeling started to form from where it hit. Stopping for a second I reached back and pulling out the offending object, looking at it I realized it was a dart of sorts. Although I had never seen one that looked like this. Not giving myself time to process what had happened. I turned and started to run again only to feel another sting hit me in the rump with the same icy cold feeling spreading out from where it hit. Not stopping this time I ducked and weaved through the trees and I heard a small whoosh and another one of those darts stuck itself into a tree near inches away from my head. My back legs started to feel weak as the coldness made its way to them but I would not stop I needed to get as far as I could.  Then another twinge of pain hit me in the back, right at the base of my wings and I felt my body slow and a feeling of sleepiness began to overcome the need to run. One more hit once again on my neck and I went down barely able to keep my beak from smashing into the ground. Trying to stand up I found myself unable to move anything, I was completely paralyzed and before I could figure out what to do a wave of blackness washed over me and I was asleep.

~~~~~Secret Service agent Victor’s perspective~~~~~

As I sat in the passenger seat of a squad car I couldn't help but to be a little excited about my first case I was in the field for. True I was told to stick with my partner at all time and just observe but I was not going to let that get me down.

“So what can you tell me about this case?” I asked my partner.

“Not much… apparently there was a huge power spike in the middle of nowhere.”

“Isn’t that more of a police matter?” I replied.

“Yes it is. We were not going to get involved until some of the reports started coming back talking about unknown wreckage of some kind. So it’s our job to go in and scout the place out and see what had happened, then call in the appropriate resources for the cleanup.”

“Ok, I think I understand.”

Several minutes went by uneventfully until we started too slowed and then pulled off the road and came to a stop behind a police car. The several other cars of age group did the same and not to long after everyone was working on their own things.

“So what are we supposed to be doing?” I asked.

“Right now we are just waiting for the hazmat team to radio back that it is safe to enter the forest. Then it is our job to go in and mark out on this map any locations of interest and to photograph them.”

When he finished he passed a map of the area over to me. Before he moved back around to the trunk and opened it. Reaching into the car he passed me a can of bear spray before pulling out a large tranq gun for himself.

“Are we really going to need a tranq gun?”

“Probably not most animals try to stay clear of humans but having is not a bad idea. And it is full of bear tranqs so it will drop anything we may encounter.”

Just as he finished we heard our radio say.

“Forest clear of any contaminants. Locations team move in.”

“That’s our cue.”

And with that we proceeded to enter the forest and it was not long before we found are first point of interest. Which was a piece of what looked to be copper pipe embedded into the ground. After photographing it from 3 different angles and marking the location on the map, we moved on.  It was fun and exciting at first but after the 30th or 40th piece it just got soul draining and boring, but at least we were making some progress. From what we could tell the debris field was about 2000 feet across with parts ranging from pipes to shattered glass. the weirdest location however was one where clearly something large had fallen however the angle of which was different than the others but even stranger was there was no object at the point of impact instead there was only a small orange feather. Several hours later we were on our way back to our car to do what I could only assume was going to be a lot of paper work when we got a radio message telling us to get back to our car and patrol the road for any strange animals. Apparently the small serving helicopter had seen whey what thought was a small fire by the river, but when they went back for a closer look it was some type of animal that ran off into the woods. Last seen moving westward towards the road. At hearing this we both hightailed it back to our car and started down the road. Staring intensely into the forest for any disturbances.

“So what do you think it was?” I asked inquisitively.

“I don't know probably just a large fox or something. The only other thing out in this forest is wolves and bears and neither of those are orange.”

“I can agree with that… LOOK THERE!”

I shouted just as I saw a large creature walking alongside the road. Almost immediately after seeing it, the creature it started to run towards the forest with a visibly heavy limp. I also notice that it had wings and going off that I was able to ruling out the large fox idea. The car screamed as the brakes were slammed on and when it came to a stop we both jumped out.

“There it is!” I shouted.

The soft sound of the tranq gun went off and a small dart appeared in the creature's neck. Only for it to continue running in to the forest.

“Why isn't it going down... it should have gone down by now.” my partner said.

A second shot was fired and then a third.

“It’s too far in the woods I can't see it now.”

“Then let’s go after it” I said.

And with that we both ran into the forest where we could see the creature still running strong. A fourth dart then a fifth. Looking over I could see my partner loading a new clip of darts in when the creature finally slowed and went down. We slowly approached to see it lying motionless in the grass at the base of a large pine tree. My eyes must have been deceiving me because what lay there in the grass was no fox or bear ... it was a griffin.

“I need you to go back to the car and radio in are location then tell them that the target is down.” my partner told me.

“Are you sure you will be fine here alone?”

“Yes, I am sure now go”

So I went back to the car and did just that. Before too long several more cars came over the horizon and when all the people piled out I showed them the way to the creacher. Several minutes passed with a lot of talking eventually leading to a long debate and the conclusions was to take the creacher in for scientific study. We all helped move the griffin over to the road where a transport van waited. The griffin was loaded in and the doors quickly closed behind it.

“So what happens now?” I asked

“Well we want you to come with us to the lab for your official statement and any info you may have about the creacher,” the transport driver told me.

“Uum... well OK.”

Not wanting to argue I climbed in the passenger seat in the van and saying a quick goodbye to my partner I was off. Not knowing where I was going or when I was going to return.

~~~~~Akilina Perspective~~~~~

Beep...beep...beep

My ear flipped up with the sound though it was very faint, it was enough to wake me up. Slowly I opened my eyes only to quickly shut them fast when a blinding light shown in. I tried to stand up I tried to do anything but my body felt limp and unresponsive.

Whatever I was shot with must have had a heavy paralyzing agent. I will have to make a known to watch out from those darts in the future.

Lying around not able to move I just felt so helpless. From what I could tell I was laying on what was a perfectly flat surface there was also no wind making me almost positive I was in some sort of building. Having nothing to do I started flicking my ear back and forth listening to different sounds one of which being the faint beeping that had woken me up it sounded muffled as if it was from another room. There was also some type of conversation going on coming from the same direction as the beeping however it was too muffled to make anything out. After several minutes of this I finally got my legs to move, it wasn't much but it was something. I tried my talon to only get nothing at first, but soon I was starting to get it to move too, and after a little more work I was able to make a fist and unclench it. Several more minutes of moving went by when I was done I had regained most of my basic motor function. Deciding to try standing rolling on to my talons and hind paws I slowly lifted my body into the air on shaking legs. Standing was proved to be a much greater challenge than it should have been. Once I was on my feet I risked opening my eyes again only for the blinding light to once again come rushing in. squinting against it I looked around quickly before closing them hard. Sitting down I began to process what I had seen.

I was in a small white room only about 15 feet by 15 feet the walls looked to be concrete or possibly brick painted white. The floor is some type of tile however I cannot tell the material. There is a metal door in the corner next to the door there is a large mirror which takes up the majority of the wall. The lights seemed to be panels built directly into the roof and there are two air vents on the two walls adjacent to the wall with the mirror. Also in every corner of the roof there was… something I didn't get a good enough look to see what they were however I could tell they were all identical.

Where the hell am I? I have never seen a room like this and why are the lights so damn bright?

“Uum... excuse me but is there anyone who I may be able to talk with about where I am?” I spoke up weekly.

With no response I tried again this time in griphonick and once again with no response. Then using my little knowledge of the language I tried zebraiken. Still no response I sat there trying to think of any other languages I knew how to speak when the red tinge in my eyes went down. Slowly I risked another opening of my eyes then I was surprised to find the room dimmed to a below average brightness.

Well at least I can look around now too bad there is nothing to see.

Standing up again I limped over to one of the walls, my leg I sprained in the fall was feeling worse off than before. But I still made my way over to the wall and lay down against it to organize all my thoughts of what had happened over the last 30 some hours.  Several minutes went by when I realized something important was missing…

My pendant is gone!

Sitting back up I looked down to see no pendent. Lifting one of my talons I carefully rummaged through the small amount of fluff on my chest to find nothing.

My pendent must have fallen off when I was drugged… or maybe who ever brought me here took it off me. But why? I could always try asking although they did not answer before I doubt they would now. I guess it will just have to wait until I meet them face to face.

Laying back down I don't know how long I must have sat there trying to make sense of everything that had happened but at some point I nodded off to sleep.

~~~~~Secret Service agent Victor’s perspective~~~~~

It had been a 5 hour drive before we reached what appeared to be our destination. It looked to be a military base; the drive was a long and boring one do to the fact that the only other person with me was on his headset the entire drive talking about different test and other science stuff. The transport van pulled off the road and before we were able to step out of the van a number of guards wielding guns formed a loose perimeter around the back of the van. Opening the door I stepped out only to be greeted by a tall man wearing a white lab coat.

“Uum... excuse me sir but are you the one who found the creature?” he asked.

“Yes. I am here to provide my statement and then I will be on my way.” I replied.

“That is fine but before you do anything can you please tell me about how the creature was knocked out.”

“Oh yes of course. My partner and I were driving and when we saw the creature it tried to flee into the nearby forest. My partner paged it with two darts before we needed to pursue it on foot and after hitting it with another two darts it went down.”

“So four darts in total?”

“Yes.”

“And what type of tranquilizer was used?”

“I believe it was a bear tranquilizer”

“I understand thank you for this info. Now please follow me so we can get the rest of your statement.”

Following the scientist we walked around to the back of the van where there was two other scientists waiting with a medical gurney.

“Are we ready to move the subject in for tests?” one of them asked.

“Yes. From the information I have received, the creature will be out for at least another 8 hours so limit the test to a physical examination, a full body x-ray, and a blood sample. Then please lock the creature in one of the isolation cell for observations.”

The other scientist nodded and slowly they opened the door and with gloved hands pulled the creature onto the gurney and then wheeling it through the open doors to what must have been the lab. I followed but shortly after entering the lab I was taken to an interrogation room in which I was asked all about the encounter what I did and what I saw. When I was done I was actually thankful for the long ride because it gave me time to prepare and think about how to answer all the questions I knew I was going to get asked. When I was done me and the scientist whose name I found out was Andrew walked backed into the lab. Andrew then asked.

“Where is the creature and what can you tell me about it?”

To which another white coat response.

“The specimen is in isolation cell 1. And about the biologie we can guarantee that the creature is alive. Also we were able to deduce that it is female and has body parts from several different animals primarily being a lion and an eagle and there is no evidence of splicing on the skin where the different animals mixed. The majority of the other injuries on its body must have been suffered several days ago due to the amount of scar tissue. it weighs about 470 lbs and as far as muscle structures go it will have average strength for an animal of its size as however something we  was the wingspan was not big enough to provide enough lift for flight capabilities. We believe the wings can only serve to glide short distances and to brake falls.”

“Interesting. Can you tell me anything on the coloration and has the X ray been taken?”

“From what we were able to tell the coloration is natural however there are traces of an artificial die use recently. And for the x ray we are still waiting on the printer but we should have it any minute now. Also one last thing we found a necklace on the creacher but was clearly man made, however the material is unknown at this point and we currently have it in lab B for further test.”

it was at this point that they went off on a tangent speaking about things I did not understand so I started to walk towards a large window and when I was close enough to look inside I saw the creature lying motionless on the floor… no not a creature, a griffon I need to start calling it what it is and it is clearly a griffon. Hearing a new conversation pick up behind me I turn and walked back over to where a small crowd was forming. Looking past them I was able to see what the source of confusion was apparently. An x ray was clipped into a light box some bones were visible but that was not all it was showing. The best way to describe it was it looked to be static on the x ray which was not only impossible because energy like that is not visible on an x ray. But the weirdest thing about it was the static was shaped over all the injuries on the body. No one seemed to know what it was or how it found its way onto the X ray. Turning and looking back thru the window at the griffon all the lines of the x ray static up perfectly with the injuries, then I saw something move so I stepped closer to the window I saw it again. As it lay there it was flipping its ear... it was waking up.

“I think it is waking up,” I spoke up.

“What? It can't possibly be waking up for at least another 6 hours”

“Well you can come and take a look for yourself because it is clearly flicking its ear.”

After I said this all the scientist moved over to the window and looked in. Gasps of awe and confusion rang out. No one dared speak over the next several minutes as the griffon began moving more, soon it was moving its talons and back paws. Murmurs began to pick up as everyone watched as the griffin slowly got to its feet. It wobbled for a second before seemingly getting its balance. Its eyes opened and it looked around in a matter of seconds before closing them again in what was clearly pain. It moved to a sitting position and just sat there for several seconds. At this time one of the scientists behind me was saying.

“I believe the lights in the room are too bright we need to find a way to dim them it must be nocturnal.”

“With the size of its eyes being nocturnal makes a lot more sense. Can someone please find a way to dim the room?”

Before anyone moved a sound came from the cell and all eyes locked onto the window. it… was… speaking… the sounds it made had the clear pattern of language however some of the sounds that we could only assume were words contained some nays and other sounds I was not expecting hear to from a griffon. When it was done a soft silence once again overcame the room only to be broken again by the griffon speaking again this time however. Most of the noise and pitches were mostly different almost as if it was another language. When it was done for the second time a much longer silence lingered to once again be broken by the griffon with what was possibly a third language or at least a different dialect of the first one. When it was done for the last time and showed no sign of speaking again we finally broken out of are shock small conversation began to pick up and the lights in the room were finally dimmed. As was expected the griffon opened its eyes and took a much longer look around. The most startling thing about the griffon was the surprised look on its face; the expiration looked so human on something so foreign.

I can't believe this is happening. First contact with what is clearly an intelligent species I wonder what we will do now.

The griffon once again got to its feet and walked over to the wall where it laid down fully and seemingly got lost in thought. Several minutes passed as everyone in the room was researching or recording information on the griffon. I was standing by watching some of the scientist look back over the camera video of when it spoke. But then out of the corner of my eye I saw an abrupt movement from the cell. Alerting everyone most of us once again walked over to the window and looked in to see the griffon once again in a sitting position however this time it was frantically looking for something… something around its neck.

“Its necklace… it’s looking for its necklace, the one we took off it when it got here,” one scientist said.

“What do we do? Should we give it back?”

“Not yet. We need to run some test on it first however when we are done we can. I still don't think we should risk any exposure so until further notice no new test will be run the subject. Only visual observations for now.”

And with that everyone went back to their stations as I just stayed there looking down on what was supposed impossible. A living breathing mythical creature.

I have a feeling that tonight is going to be a long night.