You made it along Griffon Gorge in one piece. That's impressive. The winds around the bluffs can knock you right over the edge if you're not careful. Don't think that'll win you mucho respect around here, though. That's like, griffon normal. That's baseline. My grandpa walks that trail all the time, and he's only got one eye and a gimp hind leg. Still... you did make it up here. You must be tougher than you look.
So, this is Griffonstone. Not exactly what you were expecting? Tough. Don't worry, the market's gonna set up tomorrow, that's what they're all working on. That is what you came for, right?
Huh? The library? Yeah, I guess. It's over there. C'mon, I'll show ya. Don't get many visitors coming for just that. It's pretty cool, though. Me and Greta picked over the ruins of the old library, gathered up all the books that were salvageable. We've been using some of the profits from the market to buy up more stuff about the griffon kings, too. No made-up fantasy junk like what you probably think a library should be full of; this is the actual words of the kings, scratched on to paper by their claws. The real history, straight from their beaks.
Okay, here we are. Pretty good, right? We moved the statue of King Grover here, just sorta seemed like the right thing to do. We had a minotaur come through here not that long ago who was a mason, paid him for some consulting over the foundation and stuff, but the rest we did on our own. This library's gonna stand a hundred generations and not even the eastern wind from the edge of the world could knock it down. We're not gonna just keep books here, either. Nah, our library's not gonna be lame like that. I'm trying to arrange for some stuff that belonged to King Guto to be displayed here, like his war armor and his throne and stuff. Really show off how cool the old kings were. Some griffons are even talking about an expedition into the Abysmal Abyss to bring back the Idol of Boreas -- yeah, you're interested in the library, you gotta know about the Idol -- but Greta roared them down. I think she was right; I saw how deep the Abyss goes with my own eyes, and even if we had a team of a hundred who would be willing to go down there in the calm season, not even half would come back, and none of them would have the Idol.
Who's Greta? She's just a griffon I know, alright? We're tight, so if you diss her I'm gonna have to pop you one. Nothing personal, that's just how these things go. She helps with keeping the market organized, and she had my back when I was trying to get the whole market idea up into the air. She's not afraid to bust a couple of heads to get done what's needed to get done. So maybe if she hears you mouthing off about her, she'll pop you herself. Heh.
Yeah, the market's really pulled all of Griffonstone together. Before the age of kings, we griffons were nomads, so it made sense to scrounge up as much gold and loot as we could and keep it close, because we only ever had ourselves to look out for us. Under Grover's unification, all the gold basically went to the crown, and all of his subjects got the benefits of Griffonstone doing well. It worked, until it all fell apart. But I'm putting it back together, and I'm using the market to do it. We make a lot of stuff here -- not tourist trash, either, little knock-off statues and things, but real practical gear -- and if we're selling to outsiders instead of to ourselves, then all of Griffonstone gets to benefit again.
This also means you'd better be ready to haggle, come tomorrow. Oh, you think you can handle it, huh? Well, we'll see.
Listen, I'll tell you something, before you go check out the library. It's a story King Grover wrote down that he knew from when he was a cub. He called it "Groundbound Gertrude", 'cause it was about this griffon, Gertrude, who couldn't fly. There wasn't anything wrong with her wings, as far as any healer could tell, but she was still stuck on the ground. So she was up on a cliff moping or something like a punk, when this massive roc swoops down and lands on the cliff beside her. And she's staring at its wings, which are gigantic, bigger than she can imagine, and the roc talks to her.
The roc asks, "Why are you sad?"
And Gertrude says, "I can't fly."
And the roc says, "Well, it turns out this is your lucky day, for I am the king of all rocs, and my feathers are magical. Anything that holds one will have the power to fly as I do."
"Even me?" Gertrude says.
"Even you," says the king of all rocs. And he pulls a feather out of his tail, which is almost as long as Gertrude's whole wing, and he flies off.
So Gertrude is sitting there with this big feather, and she just leaps off the cliff, and she can fly! She's doing loops and barrel rolls and all sorts of tricks. She's the best flier ever, as long as she has the magic feather. So she goes about her life, happily ever after, right?
Well, one day, she's flying along, and an updraft rips the feather out of her paw. She's gotta get this thing back, or else that's it, game over, she falls out of the sky like a stone. So she's chasing after the feather in the sky, but the wind keeps blowing it this way and that way, but she finally gets a hold of it, and then she realizes. She flew after the magic feather. It's bogus. She never needed it. It was all in her head. The roc was probably just a roc, too. They probably don't even have kings.
Gertrude kept the feather, though. She kept it for years until she heard of another little cub who couldn't fly, and she gave it to him, and suddenly he could.
You get it? The point of the story. King Grover's next entry in his journal is about finding the Idol of Boreas, too. Griffonstone used to have something to rally around that could be taken away. If some jerk went up to Gertrude and stole her feather while she was on the ground, she'd probably be stuck there. But if all the griffons have somewhere that's holding all their history, and all the world knows about the Griffonstone market where you can get all the best stuff... well, that you can't take away so easily. When the feather blows out of our paw this time, we're gonna fly after it and get it back.
So, enjoy the library. I hope you dig it. Learn a bunch of stuff about how awesome we griffons are.
Hey, you know what might look wicked cool? Arimaspi's big old skull hanging in the lobby. Tell me what you think. I'll probably see you tomorrow. You'd better come by for a griffon scone.
Author's Note
"Heart of Glass" is a song that is, in a broad sense, about the apprehension of regaining something you've lost and been hurt by.
