Propping myself up on my elbows whilst my body lays across the furred sleeping bag, I rub the sleep from my eyes as my ears register the faint sound of seagulls outside the window. Sitting up with a grunt, I cross my legs as my hand rubs the back of my neck. Not the best sleep I've had, but it beats how it was in the prison cell. My body stops moving.

The memories resurface, of me taking life after life. The pain of imprisonment still stinging. My fists clench as I recite over to myself that it was me or them. But I feel almost disgusted by myself when the thought enters my mind that they deserved to die for what they did to me.

Burying the hurt, I focus on the room around me. The sparsely furnished storage room came to be my resting place when I insisted on sleeping out of sight from the crew of the vessel. They agreed with a shrug, and here I am. I don't know how long I've been sat on this itchy bed, but my legs have started to feel dull and numb.

Stumbling as I stand, I feel the bruises and cuts once masked by adrenaline as I ran for my freedom and survival. The cut on my leg, although no longer bleeding into my improvised bandage, still burns with acute agony. Limping away from my sleeping bag, I grab the wooden window frame and look back at the reflection of myself cast on the vast ocean outside.

A depressing sight is what awaits me. Darkened rings beneath my eyes are so noticeable that they are easily visible against the blue waves, face dotted with small cuts I didn't notice being made and a split lip.

The sound of a door creaking open behind me makes my vision snap away from my reflection and to the griffin stood in the opening. The captain stares back at me with a questioning look as I slowly twist my body around to lean back against the window.

Wearing a fur cloak and carrying another on her back, she walks further into the room on padded paws and clawed talons. She seats herself down on the floor whilst retrieving the cloak from her back, presenting it to me with a talon.

"It's cold out, you'll want this." She says shaking the cloak a little as she speaks. Biting my lip through the aches, I manage to approach close enough to her to grab the cloak with a quick thanks, throwing it over my shoulders and tightening the clasp to keep it on my person.

"Where are we?" I ask, the question burning in my mind since I saw the sea outside the window.

"Griffin territory." The captain replies, gesturing a claw to the door. "We're at a dock, and unless you want to go back to your equine friends, we have to get you off here." She finishes, gesturing more forcefully at the door.

This reeks of a trap, but I can hardly refuse to leave the ship. Sighing, I head towards the door as she rushes to walk in front of me. Closing the thick wooden door behind me, I turn and follow the captain out the hallway and into the daylight outside. A gust of chilly air bites into me as I step into the outside, my hands pulling the cloak closer to my skin.

My eyes scan from the sea to one side, across the deck. and to the other as a village comes into view. Even from here, I can see griffins walking down muddy streets to a marketplace where the garish colors of ponies can be seen mixed into the crowd of brown, white and black fur. I feel immediate apprehension.

Sensing my discomfort at seeing the equine travelers, the captain points at a fur-lined hood on the top of my cloak, making me pull it over my head in understanding. Keeping a low profile will be difficult, but I'll take any chance at making it easier.

As the captain quickly speaks to a crew member, the same one that bundled me into a crate back in pony territory, I follow her down the plank of wood acting as a step off the ship. Keeping close to her, I keep my head angled down with my eyes continuously glancing for threats. Without anything to defend myself besides my own fists, I feel utterly helpless.

Great, snow-capped mountains loom almost ominously in the clouded skies in the distance, a sea of trees flowing down from the bottoms of the mountains all the way to the village outskirts, where the forest makes way for golden fields of wheat.

Suddenly, the captain twists around and drags me into an alleyway. Startled and panicked, I grab her shoulders as she pins me to the wall, but she raises a single claw from her talon to her lips in a "shush" gesture. She backs away as she peers around the corner of the small stone buildings that made up the alleyway. Their straw roofs dripping little drops of moisture onto my forehead as my heart beats rapidly.

Turning back to me, she gets close to my ear.

"Solar guards." She whispers, making me raise my eyebrow at her. She notices my confusion, giving a huff. "Ponies wearing gold armor?" She elaborates, making my mouth make an "oh" of understanding as I grow anxious. Pushing me further down the alley, we find ourselves onto a more empty street.

Following her closely, we follow the alleys between the shacks and huts that made up the village, until the streets turned to open field and trodden dirt of pathways. The captain turns to me as we come to stand side by side, my eyes looking down at her from my taller height.

"I have to get back to the ship soon, we need to sail elsewhere. There's a village nearby, you'll be safe there." She says, walking further down the path as I just stood watching her. Noticing only one set of steps on the earth, she turns her head to look back at me.

"Are you sure?" I say lowly, eyes not meeting hers. I hear her say "yes", making me look up as she continues to walk ahead, my legs moving to follow her.

Soon enough, the openness of the field's pathway changes to a forest trail as we leave the port behind. It must still be early in the day, as the orange light shines more to the side then above as it bathes the forest in its dim light. The air is crisp yet the cold is not as biting as it is within the forest, the vegetation weakening the forceful gusts of the sea.

The sound of leather on dirt as I walk is somewhat soothing, as it lightly splashes. Early morning rain must have come and gone, and the scent of sodden earth calms me with its familiarity. I sigh in momentary relaxation, my breath faintly hanging in the air like ghostly clouds.

"Thank you." I state plainly, eyes still glancing across the woodland beyond the trail. The griffin ahead of me is startled by my sudden raspy voice, turning her head to look back at me as she walks.

"For what?" Asks the captain in confusion, our eyes making contact as I turn to her.

"For getting me away from them." I almost spit "them" as I speak, no specification needed between us. She knows exactly who I mean, the thought of them making anger bubble within me. She goes silent after a whispered thanks, the air returning to stillness. Although, for me, there is no awkwardness. All that needed to be said has already been spoken.

I slip back into reveling in the serenity of the morning atmosphere before I am startled out of it by my companion informing me that we've arrived. Looking away from her to the front of the path makes my breath stop momentarily at the sight before us.

A steep slope of piled stone as tall as me is topped by a line of logs standing with chopped points like the teeth of a wooden lower jaw, the wall of stone and wood leading from either side to a gate. The gate is much taller than me, made of a wood log frame with stones piled within. And above the gate, a platform of wood topped by a tiled roof. My breath stops as the sight is like I've traveled backwards in time. The strangeness of the sight is what startles me, but I shake my head and continue following the captain.

After what I've seen... after what I've done... a gate shouldn't make me pause.

The great iron hinges squeal as the planks forming the doors themselves open up like a blooming flower, another griffin appearing from within. He stands within the gateway, seemingly torn between pulling the gate closed and approaching.

This griffin is noticeably taller than the captain but also older. Pieces of leather are stitched almost haphazardly into armor on his person. His hair is more gray and wispy, almost like strands of smoke flowing with the winds. His eyes seem duller as he scans me up and down before turning to the captain inquisitively.

"This is..." Starts the captain, who sheepishly looks at me as she forgets asking my name.

"Richard." I finish roughly. The old guard just watches the exchange thoughtfully.

"I wanted to see if he could live with you guys. You have a soft spot for trodden on folk, yes?" The captains asks, the guard looking between me and her before shrugging his shoulders a bit.

"Not like we'd turn away a new face if you're with them. We'll trust you didn't bring a wrong one." He says before walking closer to me and holding a talon out. He's hardly that much smaller than me, so I easily reach a hand out and shake his talon with a smile. "Come on, then. Let's get you settled." He says smiling toothily back at me as I follow.

"I have to go back to my crew so we can continue our cargo run, you take care, Falcon. You too Richard." She finishes, waving as she leaves, my hand waving back as she vanishes into the forest.

Turning back I follow Falcon further into the village as I notice a younger guard wearing fur and leather close the wooden gate shut. Falcon stops and turns to me, us both remaining stood on flattened earth making up a sort of natural courtyard beside the gate.

"Welcome to Falcon's Rest, Richard!" He says enthusiastically, gesturing an open talon at the village around me.

Scanning my eyes, I can see that the wall that joined to the gate is not fully enclosing. Standing as a giant semi-circle of stone and wood, the back of the village is set against the jagged slopes of a mountain range. And as my eyes trail up the steep rock face of the natural barrier, I see at least a dozen small homes carved into the caves high above us.

But forming the majority of the village are simple stone and wood huts roofed with thatch, giving a very medieval feel to the place. Although, the world itself seems completely medieval besides the city I escaped from, which was almost otherworldly. Shaking my head to dispel the memories clawing themselves back into my consciousness, I give a weak smile to the somewhat concerned old guard.

"This place looks wonderful." I reply, following him as he continues walking. After a moment of walking, I speak once more. "How come you were so accepting of me? I figured you'd be more wary of some unknown being showing up at your doorstep." I finish.

I see his back shrug as he walks, his head looking over his shoulder at me as he speaks: "I don't really get that shocked at seeing new types of creature. I adventured quite a lot in my life. I'm an old griffin, if you couldn't tell!" He says with a wink and chuckle. "And living with villages that are different helped numb me too." He finishes.

"I mean, you're not too outlandish. You're pretty similar to a Diamond Dog or Minotaur, and I've seen plenty of those." He says, although he notices my confusion. With a smirk, he points a claw at a stone hut with a fiery glow outside it. I'm startled, as a real live minotaur just shorter than me brings a hammer down on a red piece of steel and sending sparks flying like tiny stars.

Gulping, I turn away and look back at the guard with surprise still evident in my facial features. Laughing a little at my surprise, he realizes just how clueless I am about the different peoples dotting this world. Seemingly having fun at my expense, he points out a group of bipedal dogs rushing by with pickaxes and disappearing into a mine carved into the side of the mountain at the back of the village.

"The village isn't that old. It came about after I chose to quit adventuring and return to my homeland. If it weren't for us having more than just griffins around, we'd not have gotten far. Diamond Dogs love to dig, so we let them dig. They bring ore for us, and that heap of muscle at the forge is one of the blacksmiths that turn that ore into useful stuff." He finishes stopping outside of a two-storey wooden building.

"Well, Richard, it's been good meeting you but I have to get back to my post at the gate. You should take a look around if you're planning on staying whilst I'm on my shift." He says, before gesturing to the building we've stopped at. "This is the inn. When my shift ends at sunset, meet me back here. I'm gonna speak to someone to clear out one of the empty houses on my way back to the gate, so it should be ready for you by the time we meet up." He finishes, waving goodbye as he strolls back down the winding streets of his home village.

I lean back against the inn's wooden exterior, staring up at the sky. Although this land isn't my world, judging by my gut feeling, it's at least safe for me.

Maybe I have a chance at a peaceful life here.

Author's Note

The massive wait is inexcusable, I'm sorry. Hopefully this chapter isn't that much of a let down compared to how long you readers had to wait for it, but hopefully I'll be back in the spirit of things. I've been terribly busy, and still am.

But I'll try to make time for you guys.