The griffons saw me staring at them and squawked something unintelligible at me while angling their spears towards me, so I cocked my head to the side and flipped the birds the bird. I doubt they understood the significance of the gesture, but the intention behind it was unmistakable, as evidenced by the charge from the closer one.

I calmly waited until the griffon and his spear were within striking distance, then darted my hand towards the spear like I would if i were trying to catch salmon from a river. The griffon kept running, but the spear stopped. He impaled himself through the right side of his chest and stood there for several seconds staring at me with not a single sound before i rammed the spear backwards through his chest, broke the head of the spear off and stabbed him through the right eye. He dropped without a sound.

The dull thunk of my boots on the floor contrasted with the remaining griffon, who was currently squawking as loud as he possibly could. I drew my pistol and began charging a shot, but before I could attain a full charge, a shadow roughly the size of my hand raced between my legs and up to the griffon. He jumped out of a window in an attempt to evade it.

The shadow tore open and writhing steel cables burst from it to snare the griffon faster than the eye could see. A puff of feathers exploded from the griffon as the cables pulled him back. His caws of fear became squeals of pain as the cables squeezed tighter.

His eyes met mine, and I swear even with his alien features, I read his beak "Kill me."

Before I could decide to oblige his request, the cables propelled him into the ceiling hard enough to jostle the train and then slammed him to the ground with the force to dent the steel floor. The spray of blood tinged my visor red, but nowhere near red enough to block out the cables tearing him to shreds and pulling the pieces into the shadow leaving nothing behind but red mist and small bits of viscera.

My brain temporarily shut down when Lilly pulled herself out of the shadow hole with nary a drop of blood on her.

"What? Wasn't that what I was supposed to do or were we going to interrogate him?"

I pointed out the window at around a dozen gryphons flapping around the train and watching us like hawks. A wizened old grey griffon stepped forward and hooted something that caused the others to settle to the ground and angle their spears towards the ground, a gesture I recognized as a symbol of submission or possibly respect.

The old griffon spoke "No harm intend. Ponee 'nd 'bom'nation will follow." He turned towards a squat fort made of stone just barely visible above the thatched roofs of the various wooden homes.

I considered slaughtering each one of them, and began putting a plan together before a squeal of pain made my mind up for me. one of the gryphons who wore little more than leather straps holding various knives had grabbed Lilly and was holding a wicked looking knife to her throat.

"If no follow, trophy for huntars."

I couldn't let my partner get hurt, and no way could I take them down fast enough, I followed the old rooster.

~~~

This isn't THAT bad. The chains are hung pretty high, but that just means they are good for working out, or they would be if they could support me.

The dungeon of the castle wasn't too bad. A small leak dripped down somewhere I couldn't see and a fat old feather-head sat whistling through his beak somehow watching me. The wall I had been chained to seemed like it was designed for a smaller creature than myself, due to the chains being somewhat loose.

I patiently waited until Paulie the Parrot left to take a latrine break before putting my boots to the wall and firing my Delta Vs. With a creak of metal and a grind of stone, I discovered something absolutely ridiculous.

The damn Dodos didn't bother using mortar on the dungeon walls. Chained to each wrist was a stone clocking in at around 20 pounds.

The bars were too strong to break, as evidenced by a quick yank and i didn't want to make a lot of noise and draw every single one to me, so I did the only sensible thing I could. I climbed up the bars, braced my back on the ceiling and my boots on the wall directly above the door and waited.

A soft ticking of claws was my first indication that he was back followed by a somewhat puzzled squawk and a jangling of keys.

As soon as Toucan Sam popped his head in to check on me, , I smashed his skull with my stones in a way reminiscent of a slaughtered soldier slain by sinful swine. Blood and powdered stone splattered in a perfect hemicircle along the ceiling, the floor and the far wall.

I dropped to the ground and searched the bird, on his hip was a small ring of keys. None of them fit the chains on my wrists, which were now lacking the chunks of wall but no less attached to my arms. My boots ground into the body of the griffin, wet squelching sounds emitted from the now putrefying, pleasantly pulverized corpse as I stepped on it to my freedom.

Author's Note

hemicircle isn't a word but it sounds right for the description

original title of this chapter was "Regicide" but then changed to "Welcome to Gryphonia - Honor of a King" as a way to mark an incredibly significant action to happen in what would be this chapter and changed just to "Welcome to Gryphonia" because i didn't want to change my title format.

I put together some rough ideas for how future chapters will play out, so hopefully they won't take anywhere near as long to get out. as well, i started reading Tallest Brony's Man of War. it's pretty decent and will provide something good to read while i try to get my shit together for a new chapter.