"The night was actually restful, despite Gilda's snoring. I woke up and found myself actually able to sneak my way out of their grasp... wasn't easy, though.

"Next, came one of the biggest challenges I'd ever have to endure..."

You fasten the string to the hunk of wood and sharpen the makeshift arrow you've made. You've made a few backup arrows earlier, just in case you'd need them... though your training has confirmed, you'll only need one.

Sneaking through the forest, you spot your target. Nocking the arrow in place, you carefully aim at the target, take a deep breath, then release the arrow.

"Within my mind, I picture the arrow piercing a fierce beast's chest. It falls to the ground easily.

"I then picture the heads of my enemies cracking against a thick, wooden fence."

*CRACK!*

The cracking sound causes Gilda's eyes to stir open. She yawns, smacks her beak open and closed a couple times, before the lack of a particular Plainswalker catches her attention.

She blinks a few times and looks around. The other two griffons are there, still asleep.

*CRACK!*

The sound returns, coming from outside the tent. She carefully slides out of the tent, and the first thing she notices, is certainly not what she expected.

She sees you sitting there by the fire, with what appears to be a makeshift frying pan in your hands. The sizzling sound coming from it also sounds far more familiar than she'd care to admit.

"Are you... cooking breakfast?" she asks you.

You turn around to face her, and stare blankly into her eyes, though you almost feel like a deer being caught by a hunter.

"... Yes?" you reply, though it sounds as if you're questioning whether it's good or not.

She stares at the, admittedly terrible-looking lump of what used to be eggs in the dish, and her face almost turns green.

"You, uh... need some help with that?" she asks, pointing at the pan.

You sigh and nod your head, looking back at the failed dish. "That would be nice, thanks. I must admit, I'm used to just stabbing a chunk of meat with a skewer and cooking it directly over a fire... that, or having an inn cook the fancy types of food."

"I can tell." she says, chuckling before moving over to the space beside you. "So what's the occasion?"

You shrug your shoulders. "Figured since I'm part of a flock, I should at least do what I can to help out... make myself useful, y'know?"

She shrugs back at you, shaking her head. "Hey, it's cool... though ya really don't have to."

You tilt your head a bit at her comment. "What's cool, the pan? I'm... fairly certain that it's hot."

She looks back at you, also confused, before realization dawns on her. Then she starts to laugh, placing a talon on your shoulder for support.

"Heh... dude, it's a figure of speech. It means that you're alright the way you are... by the way, we should probably start over on these eggs... no offense, but they look like they've been stirred up with skunk dung, then tossed into a rotten corpse."

You deadpan at her. "It's not that bad..."

She simply pokes a talon into the yolk. A green pus starts to spew out of it, making the two of you blanch.

With a sigh, you stand up, approach a distant bush, and toss the failed dish out, before carrying the pan back over to the fire. Gilda, meanwhile, begins digging into her travel pack, and pulls out a couple preserved eggs. "So where'd you even get those eggs from, anyways? Doubt if they came from here."

You shake your head before pointing outwards. "No, I got them from the wilderness... hunted for something fresher. Then I decided to add bird meat to it, hoping to season it better."

"Ah, gotcha... well there's your problem, then! Birds around these areas don't really produce good eggs... and any that do require special treatment before you can cook 'em."

"I see..." you say, rubbing your chin in thought as you observe her cracking the eggs open and pouring them into the pan.

She then looks up at you. "By the way, I heard you and Greta last night."

You nod your head. "I know... so what're your thoughts on that?"

She shrugs her shoulders and looks back at the pan. "Eh, I think it's a good idea. Personally, the girls and I mostly just have a crush on you... little girl-crush, though. Nothin' huge. In fact, think of us flocking together as our way of 'claiming our territory' before another griffon gets to ya, first."

You cross your arms over your chest and smirk at her. "Heh... guess that explains the threats you gave every single female?"

Her back stiffens at that comment. "W-what? They were givin' ya that look!"

"I'm pretty sure most of them didn't."

"W-well... look, I'm not used to this kinda stuff, alright?" She starts to sound a little more nervous, so you decide to cool things down.

"Hey, it's fine. I'm not blaming you for taking initiative. Just... try not to remove the heads from every single female we encounter, alright?" you suggest to her.

She takes a few deep breaths and sighs. "Yeah, I suppose you're right... I can be a bit territorial about most things, really. Heck, about three years ago, I was pretty territorial about the only friend I had at the time."

"Hmm... you told me a little bit about that... Rainbow Dash, was it?" you inquire, recalling a conversation you and Gilda had about a month since you've met and befriended her. From what you've gathered, one of the reasons why Gilda was quick to like you was because she's used to the unusual, and more specifically, being involved in an unusual relationship - as in, a griffon being friends with a pony. Friendship was never really a common thing for griffons to achieve prior to about a year ago.

She nods her head. "Yeah... funny thing, really. We've rekindled our friendship about a year ago, and it was all thanks to one of her friends that, originally, I couldn't stand because of how annoyingly cheerful she can be... but after I agreed to get along with her, I guess it kinda grew on me - the whole 'cheerful' thing... not that I'd take after her, or anything."

You nod in agreement. "Honestly, you never did seem like the cheerful type... though from the looks of it, you're a lot more cheerful while cooking."

"Well, what can I say?" she asks with a shrug. "Ever since I was a fledgling, I loved cooking. Grandpa Gruff even taught me how to cook a pastry called 'Griffon Scones'... though I'll admit, it was Pinkie that taught me a way to improve it tremendously."

You tilt your head confusedly. "Griffon Scones?"

"They're a little bit like cakes, but cooked in a texture similar to biscuits. Add butter, however, and it's actually moist enough for anyone to enjoy... though we griffons prefer eating them solid... some of us even like them, literally, as solid as a rock. Grandpa Gruff, for example, as well as most of the elder griffons."

"Hmm... and the younger ones prefer the newer recipe?"

She nods her head again, lifting the now complete pan of eggs. "Pretty much."

You nod again, giving her an understanding thumbs-up. "Got it."

"Hey, thanks by the way. It's good to talk like this... helps keep my mind off of things... though it kinda sucks that I didn't get to tell you much about cooking. Got a little carried away with memories." she says.

You place a hand on her shoulder. "Any time, Gilda... but don't deny your memories. Cherish them, for they're what brought you up into who you are today." Her cheeks lightly redden, so she turns away from you, trying to hide her blushing.

You decide to thin the ice a bit by changing the subject. "... But for the record, I may just stick with skewering meat over a fire pit."

This lightens her up again, causing her to chuckle. "HA! Yeah, believe me when I say that's probably for the best! I mean, no offense, but if ya put that junk near a slop bucket, I bet everyone would prefer the slop!"

And like that, your pride is starting to get beaten.

"Again, I say it wasn't that bad, at least!"

"You kiddin'?! It was like a rotten egg dipped into skunk crap and left to bask in the sun for a couple days over a dead camel!"

And as she continues to insult your abilities in cooking, you at least get a little bit of a laugh from some of them. Knowing her, this is just her way of coping with the stress of losing her home... after all, it was originally her house that was lost.

But even still, you can't really deny one fact...

... You're just going to leave the fancy cooking to Gilda, because cooking is, without a doubt, your greatest challenge of all.

"Breakfast went well. Soon as Gilda woke the others up, we talked a bit. I let Gabby know the plan on our whole 'relationship' thing, and she agreed heartily, determined to win me over. It made me genuinely chuckle a little.

"After breakfast, we broke down the camp and headed towards Griffon Port. Once we make it there, we'll probably see about finding small work so that we can afford a trip to Equestria.

"However, as we approach the town, we can't help but feel as if something might be off..."

Author's Note

PARTY STATUS:

Gabby:
(Amity) ☻☻☻☻☻☻ o o o o +0
(Sensuality) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ o o o o o +0

Gilda:
(Amity) ☻☻☻☻☻☻ o o o o +1
(Sensuality) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ o o o o o +1

Greta:
(Amity) ☻☻☻☻☻ o o o o o +0
(Sensuality) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ o o o o o +0