Ghost Of Reach

Theek is a thankful griffon, and a really happy one when sleeping. For this is something he greatly enjoyed doing his entire life. Though his time wandering through these foreign lands has made such luxuries difficult, sometimes impossible for the tropical griffon. Ever since being dropped off at some shady port, his adventure of traveling has been a constant. From lockpicking for rogue pirates to serving as a translator for a Legion Centurion, he had been having the time of his life. Yet Theek had to admit the path chosen has been a hard one follow, nevering knowing what the next turn will hold. But with his lucky streak of good fortune and odd jobs are as he would put it, ‘quite thrilling’!

Exploring these new lands and living on the edge in frontier has been over all, an exhilarating experience. And his boldness in facing life has only grown tenfold with the latest gig. For a powerful warrior, one with strength found only in myth, has granted him of all griffons companionship. Not only to adventure with, but to finance his wealth! The whole deal was something of a dream come true; simple management, record keeping, advising, and best of all, adventuring with him! Speaking of dreams, one of them were of the white Spartan defeating a mighty red dragon. The Beast’s large head chopped, body splayed dead, and a glowing cave with a large horde to share.

Many more of his fantasies were of becoming wealthy enough to never worry, only exploring and finding the next greatest thrill. Those wonderful wishes, dreams now seeming so real, crumbled under the midst of awakening to reality. The reality of himself in the cold night while sleeping on nothing but a tattered traveling mat. Letting his vision and senses readjust, the thought of smacking out whoever disturbed him seemed like a great idea. That is, until he managed to realize that it was the Spartan who was awakening him, a creature who impaled manticores with ease.

“Mmmmm... Oof. Yes I’m up! What do you need?” Theek grumbled, doing his best to keep his tone friendly.

“It’s your turn for nightwatch.”

“What? No, why are you- I’m not even a guard!” Theek’s dreaded emotions shot out with his sour reaction, though he couldn’t tell if his complaining would ever get across to the self proclaimed Spartan. The tropical griffon couldn’t tell what Gabe’s reactions were, all thanks to the strange armor that covered up everything.

“Doesn’t matter. They need their rest so to be alert in fighting off the enemy. You’ve had over four hours of sleep, I just need a few hours then I’ll awake to take your place.” Not even given a chance to refute, the Spartan layed down on the ground, assumingly falling asleep right then and there. Theek clenched his beak, holding in his grumbling as he stretched his limbs.

“Buurrr! So cold.” Trying to keep himself quiet, he slowly made his way over to the darken remains of the campfire.

“Err. Where is the wood?” Turning back, the griffon hustled himself to move. After making a suitable pile of branches, Theek grabbed a small wooden tube, twisted, and pulled it into two halves. One holding the solid chunk of flint with the other held the Steel Scratcher. After a few failed attempts later, he had finally got the fire lit.

“Finally!” Cheering himself, he huddled close to the dim flames, blowing on them gently as they glow. The gray griffon stared off, his thoughts flickering with the growing flames.

“How did Gabe make those gold coins disappear anyway? Magic obviously, but how?” His vision spacing off, Theek’s pondering eventually came to a halt as he finally raised his gaze up from the fire, immediately noticed the time shift.

“How long have I stared off this time, an hour?” The griffon questioned, responding to himself with a smile. It was a soft smile, as if a longtime friend had been the one to ask him so. Theek knew that he was never good with keeping track of time, but he supposed he only need to guesstimate like the rest. Gauging his eyes up at the sky, he noted that heavens had softened up with the stars fading bit, not enough to single the soon time of a sunrise, but enough to say that it was very early in the morning.

“Maybe he shrunk the coins? If so, they had to have gone somewhere, right? Maybe there in the bag on his leg.” With his pondering leading to no valid answers, he went to his morning routine; preening his wings. Cleaning the good and flinging the defected feathers into fueling the flames, Theek went to check the fortifications the Spartan had made.

“Huh, he actually moved a boulder.” Jumping up with the thrust of his strong wings, he took to the sky, circling the camp from above. His watchful yet distracted gaze eventually picked up upon a twinkle of a shine, a reflection of something metal. Diving down to investigate, he zoomed in to find a black coin.

“Aw sweet! A vulk! That means I’m one coin richer! Now that adds up to… 31? After I get paid, then I’ll have- Wait, how much am I getting paid? Oh no! Am I even getting paid?!” Panicking like a headless chicken, Theek began to hyperventilate.

“Oh no! I broke rule number 3! Always make sure your getting paid!” His dire state of mind was interpreted by the sound of breaking branches rapidly approaching. Grabbing the hilt of his straight sword, Theek drew out metal shine of the symmetrical blade. From what Theek knew, the weapon was known as a Tai Chi from far off lands of Mongponya, or someplace near there. Theek braced himself, taking defencive stance and faced whatever would charge at him. The dark forests of Nevermore held many monsters both large and small… But he did not expect this.

“Get outta my way you ass!”

“Watch your language birdbrain!”

“Hay! I can see the treeline!”

Charging out from the forest, an exhausted group of Avians, Dogs, and Donkeys collapsed upon reaching the edge of the forest.

“Where did you all come from?!” Theek’s demand fell on deaf ears as the collected group laid, completely winded from their running. He counted 4 colorful griffons, 5 average diamond dogs, 2 donkeys, and a… Skywolf?

“We mean no harm! We just escaped from the Sworn! Can you shelter us?” The young skywolf pleaded, her voice smooth yet vibrant with an overlapping alien echo. Theek stared into her eyes bewildered, for they were a blackened like that of an insectoid with a dimly lit glossed shine. She was truly unique, yet so beautiful...

“Will you help us?” She asked again, physically shaking the long tailed griffon from his stupor. Realizing how close their faces were, and how absolutely cute she was, Theek blushed profusely.

“Ahhhh! Sure?!”

“Great!” Taking the advantage, she rushed past him to the entrance with the rest following her lead. While the Avains simply flew over the fortifications, the Diamond Dogs worked to moving the boulder so to allow the Donkeys entrance. Shaking himself out of his stupor again, Theek made his way back to the camp.

“Wait! Did you say Sworn?!”

Awakening to the sounds of an alarm, I instantly became alert of my surroundings. Checking my HUD, Attention drawn to my HUD, my radar detected a mass number of targets blipped up on my rader. Some were flying over while others were breaking through! number targets making way to the entrance.

“Goddamnit Theek.”

“Wake up, we have bogies approaching the entrance!” Getting the rest to rise up with me, I went ahead to greet the intruders, if needed with deadly force. With magnum raise and ready, I turned the corner to find… Colorful griffons?

“Hay! What are you doing here!” The group all turned to gawk at me.

The lead griffon has deep crimson feathers with brown body adorned with black tiger stripes. His wings were large and muscular with his feathers mainly red with gray outlines and tips. He has big beak, golden eyes and overall looked a bit aged. The second one looked oddly similar, only with red replaced with orange and looked young with a bit of chub. Also, the orange one looked terrified. The third one has deep navy blue/metallic feathers with grayed spotted white coat. Another thing about his appearance was that he was more lean with smaller beak and pale blue eyes that are… Crossed?

“Hay, you got any food here, we’re starved!” The new griffon approached; a bright cyan with white outlines feathers his eyes. His coat shaded a black gray as his wings were a combo of cyan with black and white strips. His eyes were a bright red with his beak being normal sized.

“You didn’t answer my question.” I enforced with me shoving the barrel end of my magnum in his face. He on the other end seemed only confused.

“NO! Please don’t punch Tucker in the butthole!”

Wut the ficken?

Turning my gaze to the blue one, (eyes still crossed) What gave him that idea?

“Oh-OH! I sorry! I don’t bow chicka wow wow that way!” The cyan griffon quickly backed up with his feathers rustled.

“Wait a ficking minute! Your with those guys that put me in a create!” I exclaimed, pointing to the now nervously laughing navy blue griffin.

“It was tucker!”

“Hay! Don’t you dare put me in with your whole boxing fetish!”

What? No! That is not what I meant!

“What the pluck is going on?” The orange one asked with nervous confusion.

“It may be inconceivable, but I think the blues really are gayer than Donut.” The red one gruffly whispered back loudly, baffled at the display of events.

Wait… That voice, no ficking way that is a coincidence…

“And you, my scanner recognizes you!” I lied, though if he is who I think he is, someone about to get it. I aimed my magnum back at the Orange one, who was now sweating bullets.

“Griff! How could you! *Sniff* I knew you were a lazy disappointment, but now your siding your fantasies with the blues!” the red one exclaimed, shocked and betrayed while Griff looked ready to accept death.

Damn this is too good to be true...

“I didn’t even think you had developed that kind of brain power Tinny…” Tucker mumbled, staring at the confused navy blue griffon.

Wait, what? Isn’t his name Ca-

“I am… Strong. I can lift him and put my-”

“Nope! I’m gonna stop ya right there, I don’t even want to know.” Tucker gagged, shifting his wings.

Oh my god, this is not what I wanted!

“What in Tartarus is going on here!” With our attention drawn, the yell was pinpointed to the winged wolf. The guards also were sharing the same expression of bewilderment along with the rest of the new arrivals. Quickly taking action, I answered.

“I think there is a great misunderstanding between me, these griffons, and the rest of you. First to clear things up, Griff and Tinny were part of a group that failed to steal my armor, only ended up kidnapping me.” I did my best to keep calm, while I directed the attention to the perpetrators.

“In accidental retaliation, I may have punched through a create and into another griffon. This overall ended with them fleeing into the wilderness and me making my way back to work.” The words and nods of understanding approved from the group.

“You are the one who killed my favorite soldier!” The red one, otherwise known as Sarge buffly tried to tone down his cry.

“So wait, you two didn’t actually do ga-” The firing of the mighty magnum aimed near Tucker’s feet instantly shut him up.

“Now, back to my question, why are you here?” It took them a moment to regain their composure as the shock of hearing a firearm goes off for the first time does that apparently.

“We escape from a large Sworn encampment. While they were sacrificing some of us in one of their rituals, we made a break for it, though not all of us went the same way… Though the few of us managed to get here, hopefully the others managed to get the same fate.” The wolf told, ears cowering at the sight of the gun, I hope I didn’t hurt her too bad.

“I see. We better get ready when the Sworn gets to us.”

“But we escape! And flee we should! We still can!” One of the diamond dogs pleaded. Before the others could do the same, the Legate made his appearance.

“The Spartan is right, the Sworn will easily follow your tracks, so we must get ready for the incoming battle.”

“Um, can we get some food before we fight?” Both Griff and Tucker’s statement was met with a hearty laugh from the scared griffon.

“Of course, no one can fight on an empty stomach!”

And thus, we began the preparations for breakfast.

“And then, he commanded the beast down, and they did as he said so!” Theek told, his reciting of my time in the arena being much more dramatic than necessary. I was currently sitting over by the carriage as I could still hear everything that was going on. Even though Theek was dragging the story out, our guests seemed to be eating it up as much as Griff was feasting for himself.

“What happened next!?” Tinny childishly asked.

“Well, the crowd went on chanting his title, ‘Ghost of the Reach’ they cheered!”

“Isn’t it kinda weird that Theek is promoting for Spartan’s achievements?” Griff commented between his large bites of cooked meat.

“When did you start paying attention to such things? With how much you have been eating, I started to think you were pregnant.” Tucker teased the chubby griffon.

“That quite the statement coming from the griffon who got infected with and gave birth to a alien parasite.” Tucker’s eyes widened as he dragged the orange griffon to the parked carriage. I immediately cloaked before they noticed that I was there.

“Keep your beak shut! Who the hell told you about that?!” Tucker demanded, threateningly point at the griffon. Before he could defend himself, I answered.

“It was Tinny.”

“TINNY!” Tucker raged out, now chasing the already fleeing griffon. With Tucker gone and Griff confused, I leaned in behind him and said.

“Hey lil momma let me whisper in your ear.”

“EEEEEEEAAAAHHAA!!!” Oh my god the unmanly scream was too real. Decloaking myself, I let out a laugh.

“Ha! Got em! Dead memes are scary aren't they?”

“Your a plucking asshole, you know that?”

“Don’t like jokes?” His deadass stare gave his answer.

“Not even dad jokes?” His sigh of frustration didn’t help my case.

“You killed my best friend you know.” Slightly recoiling back, I responded.

“Wait, who?”

“His name was Simmons, and you punched him to death in the ass.”

I don ficked up!

“I- Um, I really didn’t intend on doing that...” Oh god I messed up big time.

“Well, you did, and now the Sworn are playing with my best friend’s corpse.” Walking off, Griff rejoined with the rest of his buddies, leaving me befuddled.

What the fick! What the fick! What the fick! I come to a whole new world and accidentally kill off one my favorite characters!

Taking a moment to get my composure, I breathed in and out slowly, calming down my mind.

Okay, I’ll figure out how to make amends later. Walking over and taking a seat by Tinny, I see him happily tearing into bits of fish jerky. Yeah, I’m not sure how that would taste.

“So, Tinny. How did you come to know these guys?

“Hum? Oh, well there were more of them. There was Church... He really didn’t like me. There was the pink princess that was yelled at for donuts. Oh yeah, the Doctor was always there, but he never helped. And lastly there was yellow Sister, she was nice, but very confusing. She told me once that there was a magical plant called cannabis, and it alone can solve all your problems. Can you get me some?” Yep, these guys are definitely the characters from Red Vs Blue. Wait, did I hear that last part right?

“Okay, first off Cabo- Ugg, why are you called Tinny again?”

“Well, um… I like to play with tin cans?”

“I think I’ll just call you Caboose, it is much easier that way.”

“Well… I do like trains.” Then out of the blue, the roar of a giant horn blares out of the forest with wildlife fleeing and birds scattering.

“OH-SHIT-WHY-DID-YOU-SAY-THAT!”

“Spartan! The Sworn are charging at the gate!” Guard number 1 yelled out, joining his brethren in the defence.

“Oh thank god, it could have been so much worse.” Unholstering my Magnum, I charged with jetpack blazing over the gate. Once making the superhero landing, I unleashed the fire power of my gun. Spartan time kicked in as I nailed each round on obliterating a head. Dropping the mag and quick on the reload, eight more sent exploding off. By the time I emptied the third mag, the hoard of tribal diamond dogs had nearly reached the makeshift wall. Reloading the mag, I draw my Kukri from its sheath, let out a battlecry.

“COME GET SOME!!!” Drawing some more attention, I began hacking into skulls and landing more exploding headshots.

Legate Wick Huntseeker

As I predicted, the Sworn came charging in full like the savages they are. My guards taking their spots on top of the rocky wall, with round shield, gladius, and training, they held it well. Surprisingly, some of our uninvited guests decided to hold ground as well. The Red and Orange griffons in particular had joined my soldiers as they had armed themselves with the unused spears. While the Cyan one flew above with his slingshot, the navy blue griffon managed to grab bricks and successfully slug or drop them on the Sworn.

But in all of their combined efforts, none of them compared close to white clad killing machine known as Gabe. Acting as the spearhead of the counter attack, he had already killed over twenty before the rest reached to the wall. As I hover over the battlefield, I can only marvel at the shere killing efficacy this self proclaimed spartan held. With the strength to nail manticores to the wall and the lightning speeds of a devil, the savages couldn’t keep nor hold up upon his wrath. However, the ones that managed to hit did nothing to impair him and met a quick bloody end.

I am a griffon of many good and bad, and I’ve seen battles to it’s gruesome core. But never have I seen something so terrifying, so efficient at killing. It’s almost godlike how quickly this creature slays it’s foe, as if it was bred for the slaughter of war. As I try to keep surveillance over the battle, I am always drawn to the ever growing number of fresh corpses that litter the entire right side of the hill. His tactics have changed up at this point, now relying solely on his fists to completely kill his opponents. Dare I say it only takes him one punch to kill a damn dog.

After 5 minutes of the battle, the savages had learned their lesson and high tailed it back into the forest. Seems all it took to change mind was having the entire right side flowing in their blood. All of us standing strong with the once white Gabe now drenched in the blood of an entire company. Now I know for certain my wise judgment was clear, this creature- no, this Spartan cannot be left roaming other lands alive. He is too dangerous to become an outside factor or another one of those self proclaimed heroes.

He must be swayed to serve the Empire, or fall under its might.