Malayar And The Big Green Jewel (Featuring Rupert, The Pervy Griffon)

Daring carried the jewel on her back, giving the zebra who walked alongside her furtive glances. “Tha-”

“Not a word,” Malayar cut her off pre-emptively.

“I just want to say-”

“I already know...” the zebra interrupted, releasing a sigh.

The two walked through the spacious halls of the museum, walking by precious artefacts and relics. Malayar wondered how many of them were acquired from through the stout griffon. Remembering Rupert only brought the zebra’s mind back to his limp. A slowly fading reminder of the griffon’s rough pounding of his cute bottom. Daring thanked him for his ‘sacrifice’ almost every waking hour for every single day of the trip back home.

At the end of the hallway, Malayar pushed open the doors to the Curator’s office. The zebra had some measure of familiarity with the old stallion. He had as much enthusiasm for history as Daring and he did and eagerly anticipated the arrival of the jewel the pegasus beside him carried on her back...

“I can’t believe it. You actually got it!” the curator exclaimed with awe, the aged stallion circling around the emerald with a surprising amount of spryness. Daring and Malayar – whose posture was rigid and formal - shared a look and awkward grin before their directing their eyes back at the giddy old stallion. The old grey pony looked at the pair, stopping, wonder in his eyes. “Where did you get it? How did you get it?”

“Uh...” they both trailed off, their eyes glancing awkwardly to one another before they settled silently on an explanation to the curator. “It’s complicated.”

“Oh, well, it doesn’t matter much. I wouldn’t want to be implicated anyhow. So long as you have it,” he replied with a titter, closing the lid on the chest before holding it under his foreleg, taking it to his desk. “I’ll put this in the vault with the rest shortly.”

“Keep it safe,” Daring advised. “It was hard to get.”

“Very hard,” the zebra echoed. “Literally.”

“Right,” the Curator smiled at her, his expression suddenly becoming contemplative. “You know, it’s funny.”

“What is?” Malayar probed.

“I was in negotiations to acquire this piece for weeks, when, for no reason at all, the deal was cancelled. I was just about to snatch it up as well. Although from the very beginning I had suspected he was a fraud, it isn’t often you come across artefacts such as these, even on the black market,” the Curator explained passively as he hid the chest in a space beneath his large wooden chest. When he looked back up, he saw Daring stoic. Malayar’s jaw was trembling. “What?”