Chapter 12 A happy family...

Six months later...

A soft melodious humming echoed slightly from the walls of her lair, as Hena laid on her side on her pillow nest, with one wing folded and the other relaxedly open upon her bedding, seeming to be very satisfied on her current situation, hence the humming. For the moment, trespassers had chosen to take the main road if they were heading towards Wissen for any reason, instead of the much shorter pass. Either her reputation had spread enough to scare foolhardy ones away temporarily, OR her 'superiors' were giving her a 'vacation leave' of sort by diverting attention away from her.

Whatever the truth was, she was truly content for now. At the moment she was waiting for her mate to come visit with an associate, who had earned her trust a little while ago. Another griffin, named Vesalia, who had been studying the anatomy of several species and trying to apply the said knowledge to the field of non-magical healing, which had been ignored by most of the known world, due to the spread of either healing services of magic wielders, mainly unicorns, or specialized potions that zebras sometimes sold outside their homelands. Her reasoning being a desire to help those who did not have access or money, often loads of it, to afford the quick solutions. Sure it will take time, but would surely be very useful in the long run. At least it would be a lot better than leeches.

She had also being a great help in aiding Hena during some tough parts of her pregnancy, eventually even allowing her to carefully listen to the little heartbeats...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a polite special-knock on the door, which told her Hermes had arrived with their friend. With a wave of her paw, the doors opened slowly and quietly, allowing the two griffins to enter. Both of them had travel-bag on, clearly full of things, and one on Hermes smelling tasty.

"Welcome back dearest, and you too Vesalia. I hope your studies for being an actual doctor are going well." Hena greeted them with a kind smile.

"Oh it is going rather well and gaining some traction too. And so is Hermes's golemancy experiments. They are getting skilled on making some iron ones for basic guard duty. Not sure how they got them to breathe gas when needed."

"Oh that's not all. We are trying to figure how to swap poison into something else. Then they could used to apprehend criminals at a distance, or. with enough work, maybe to put out fires with some specialized breath." Hermes said in a excited tone, clearly being passionate about the success of the potentiality the research was bringing forth.

Before their conversation could continue, a little yet sharp chirp sound made itself known beneath Henas extended wing, drawing their attention. Feeling tiny movement among its fur and feathers, sphinx lifted her wing, allowing the little creature beneath more room to crawl around, while also revealing three other little ones currently latched on her mammaries. Hers and Hermes's cubs. Two little drakes and two little hens.

At a first glance all of the four little ones resembled average three month old griffin chicks with varied shades of golden brown fur, with their little eyes just barely open, but they had some difference compared to their griffin papa. Most visible one, was that they had five digits on their little front legs instead of typical griffin four. The other seemed to gender specific also on the front legs, with females having full fur on theirs, while males had their scutes (, basically the 'leg scales' on some birds,) reaching from top of their still soft talons to past their elbow about halfway to the shoulder.

"Hey there my dear Antheia. Did you hear daddy and auntie Vesalia coming to visit us?" Hena spoke softly to the little crawler, who noticed its mama carefully leaning closer, clearly trying not to disrupt cubs who were still feeding, and let out a happy chirp, while adorably trying to stand. Emphasis on trying.
"Oh? Almost getting on your feet again? Very good."

"Interesting. Full blooded griffin chick usually tries standing around six months. Although it could also be a side effect of the build of the nest and maybe the diet of the nursing mother." Vesalia commented in an academic tone, while observing the sphinx mother giving the active cub a gentle nuzzle.
"Somewhat hard to get an accurate measure of their growth within six month period by just looking..."

"But you remember the rule, yes? Nobody, outside the family, touches my babies, unless it is an emergency..." Hena reminded the griffoness, even giving her a mild glare. Hermes felt lightly uncomfortable watching the exchange. Active cub was currently trying to curl up in her chest-mane for a nap, not really noticing what adults were talking about.

"I know, i know. And me being your midwife was one such exception. It's still tough for my academic side... While. the other side just finds them absolutely adorable little hybrids." Vesalia confirmed quickly that she did remember the said rule, before silencing the excited squealing in her voice, so it did not spook the little ones.
"Have you decided on the name for their kind? They are practically progenitors of an entirely new variant of griffins in a certain way, somewhat similarly to all the five tribes of ponies I think."

"Not really certain about the last part, and its a bit early to name them progenitors and all that. But no, we haven't yet decided on the sub-species name. For now, I think its better for them jus- Ow. Well, Hesperus' beak seems to have some hardening happening already. Adlar and Yulthi should be full right about... Now." Hena conversed, until her attention returned to her little ones, two of which did just finish having their fill of mamas milk. Remaining cub finished soon after, letting out a little sound, that was some sort of mix of a small chirp and burp. Soon all of the little ones followed the example of the most active one, and found their own spot to have a nap; One joined its sister in mamas mane, other one just curled up next to sphinxs belly, and the final one managed to find its way to the nook of mothers wing.

"Now then, now that the little ones are napping, how about you show me what good smelling thing you have with you in your bags?"

Time skip ahead...

"Mama, come on! You promised we can go see daddy in town today!"

"Yes, yes, no need to shout. Just let put some security up first."

With a few arcane words and some selected symbols drawn to air, the doors to the lair closed shut, followed by a symbol, resembling a watchful eye in the center of a hexagon, surrounded by circles of runes, appearing upon it. Satisfied in her spellwork, Hena turned to her now soon-to-be six year old cubs, all of them visibly excited to go visit their father. Usually it had been him coming to them due to work.

"There we go. Now climb aboard everyone and hold on tight. Your wings are not quite ready for a long flight." Hena advised the little ones as she lied down for them. Soon enough she felt her cubs were climbing on her back, followed by finding favorite spot to grab on mommys mane.
"Allrighty, everyone there have a good grip?" she asked, receiving positive answers, while spreading her wings. Soon enough the sphinx was flying above the path to Wissens side of the pass, trying to fly low enough for the safety of her cubs, just in case.

After a good while of flying, they reached the edge of town, landing at a visible distance. Most likely the town watch had already noticed their approach. A thought that was confirmed when a couple of guards came to greet them.

"Good day to you Lady Hena, the Sphinx of the Pass. What brings you, and your children, here today?" a griffin guard asked politely.

"Hi Mark, and just drop the overt politeness, it makes you sound like a licker of rear-end. And just bringing my little ones to see Hermes, instead of waiting him to come see them." Hena answered, while trying to mildly censor her own tongue in the presence of her kids.

"Sure thing ma'am. And if you're looking for your dear Hermes 'The Iron hips', he should be at the study-building six, looking over this one interesting stone tablet our Searchers found and managed bring over from the same spot some of the golemancy stuff was found." Mark answered as he started to guide the sphinx to the mentioned location in town.

"Please don't use that title, he dislikes it when its used near our kids. And was there any issues with the transportation of that tablet? I don't really get much of the news." Hena commented while walking, clearly interested on the goings of the said sect of the Guardians of Knowledge, which was formed and especially trained to locate and excavate ruins of old for lost knowledge more effectively.

"Well only issue came from a group Equestrian ponies. Said something about Searchers not having permits to move cargo through Equestrian lands and trying to confiscate the findings. But they finally gave up trying that after being pointed out that they had no legal authority to do so in said area in the unclaimed wilds and that we never intended to move the cargo through their lands. And of course if it got out that Equestrians were accosting a neutral organization would be rather a rather bad look for them. Especially with the current political mess going on there. I think it also helped that the Searchers had a dozen Iron golems with them for security."

"I see. What kind of a mess are we talking about?"

"Well, the word is that their Queen Faust just up and left almost six years ago, and has seemingly just disappeared, only leaving one message to her daughters. But they haven't really told what it exactly holds, other than that she has faith in them in watching over the nation. This of course has caused plenty of headaches for the Two Sisters; some coming from their own nobility, while other coming from the diplomats of other races. Many of them don't exactly trust the Solar princess due to her past offences, some of which apparently even cost more than few lives outside of Equestria. According to latest news, she's currently still trying to get three or maybe four different parties to come back to negotiation table. But of course it ain't easy when the mother dearest is not there to help her anymore."

"That so? Well this world does have a lot of places to hide if one knows where to go. And what of the second sister?" sphinx inquired, managing to cover anything that might hint her knowing anything about the queens whereabouts.

"The Moon princess? Apparently she's keeping the military in line rather admirably, mostly to stop any zealous commanders from getting any wrong ideas, while apparently also watching over the dreams of the citizens. My guess for why she does the latter, is either for mental health or to look for any dirty dreams."

"Really?... Do you have a bet going on that too? Hermes told me that you have a bit of gambling about plenty of things."

"Maybe... Oh, here we are. Please try not to make anything blow up... It happens some times."

With the visitors brought to the promised location, Mark left to continue whatever patrol duty he had left. Maybe also to inform the Council that Hena was merely on a family visit. With a polite knock and a given permission to enter received, Hena went to look for her dear mate, with their cubs still on her back, mostly looking around with visible curiosity, but luckily content to just look, as she walked past few open doors to various studies, both big and small.

"Now then all four of you, we don't know what daddy is working on right now, so lets try not to cause a mess of any important work. Are we clear?"

"Yes mama!"

After few moments of walking down the hall, and receiving few polite greetings from few researchers and students passing by, they finally reached the doorway to Hermes's study. Peeking in they saw him looking over an absolutely huge, carving filled, stone tablet and several parchments worth of notes, strewn across the tables.

With his attention elsewhere, mainly on the lunch sandwich, for the moment, Hena took this moment to slowly and silently stalk closer to him. Cubs decided to play along and hid among her mane as best they could. After getting behind Hermes, instead of just announcing her presence out loud, sphinx decided to be a bit playful this time. First she quietly laid down, followed by reaching with her tail to brush against her griffin mates leg.

The sudden touch had an immediate effect on Hermes, if his feathers puffing up was anything to go by. Luckily there was no choking or spit-take, or other thing that might be harmful to him his work. He did seem to suppress a gasp, but she was not completely sure of that.

"Ah! Hello dear Hena. What brings you to Wissen? We currently have no need for extra texts." Hermes said with a smile after turning around.

"Oh? Do I need a specific reason or perhaps a special permission to visit my mate?" Hena asked with a subtle head tilt.

"No, not really. There's nothing in the rule of conduct about an unannounced spousal or family visit, as long it is civil in behavior."

"Well I think we can manage that. Unless someone wants to go today without dessert?"

Said little 'threat' worked as a unspoken signal for the little ones to come put of hiding, all smiles, which soon spread to their father as well.

"Permission to land, papa?" came a exited sounding question from one of their sons. Rest of the little ones just looked exited.

"Just one moment..." Hermes said quickly and proceeded to put some papers aside in a secure manner just in case, before visibly bracing himself. "Allrighty you little rascals, take a flight."

With permission given, all four little hybrids leapt off from their mothers mane and soon landed all over their griffin fathers front, drowning him in hugs. Hena could only smile warmly at the sight.

"Now now then little ones. I think your papa would like to breathe." she said in a calm, yet firm tone, with respectfully quick followup of her cubs letting go of Hermes. But not before getting one more hug done, and then proceeding to look at the research material he had out. Luckily they knew not to touch daddies work, under the threat of no dessert...
"So what is your research today dear? More specific things on golemancy?"

"Why yes indeed. From what we have gathered from the scriptures, there are at least one specific type of golem, that is far superior to anything we have managed to make. The wording includes many words that would translate to arcane, lightning or storm in modern tongue. Unfortunately some major sections of the tablet are too damaged to translate reliably or even read. And we can't exactly go on with complete guess work, which would lead to potentially bad results for messing things up with ancient knowledge..." Hermes went on, as he gestured at the giant stone tablet, which his sphinx mate now also watched over properly.

It had intricate carvings of numerous hieroglyphic text, along with lightly faded imagery seemingly building sized bipedal humanoid figures, all of them in various poses of either being constructed by smaller figures, or apparently shooting lightning or winds if the slightly cracked parts of the still visible carving was accurate. The rest was unfortunately either too faded or otherwise too damaged to understand clearly.

"Acceptable. And I guess there is not yet any need to go find aid in the Library?" she inquired, while keeping an eye on the cubs; three of them were in a little tournament of 'rock-paper'scissor', while the fourth, Antheia, had picked up an parchment and a piece of charcoal from the side table, far from research material luckily, and had started to draw something in a speedy pace.

Both parents thought it was an adorable sight, until Hena noticed Antheias eyes having an odd glow in them, and that she seemed to be drawing a copy of the tablet, something scholars had already done with the visible parts for the record keeping. Only the little ones version was starting look like a more complete version of the the old tablet. Soon enough Hermes too took notice of this.

"Look mama! I drew the rest of the pretty rock picture." little one exclaimed happily as she finished the picture and pushing it towards the mildly confused adults. As Hermes carefully picked up the freshly drawn picture, he almost instantly took notice of the sections missing from the real tablet, scriptures and all. And they actually made perfect sense in every way of safe creation of these extraodinarily large golems. Finally he even noticed the title used in the missing parts, half-whispering it aloud.

"Titan?... Antheia? How did you knew what to draw?"

"I... I just saw it all there. It glows prettily on and around the broken parts when i look at it relly, relly hard." little one answered, while looking at the tablet, with her eyes glowing again.

"Can your sister and brothers do it too?" Hena asked.

"Yeah. Adlar once said he saw the broken statue back home whole once, and we all tried it. Its fun." cub said with a smile, which was joined in by enthusiastic nodding from her sibling, who had heard the conversation. Even some passerby's had stopped to listen at the door out of curiosity, as Hermes turned to address Hena.

"Dear? Is this trait perhaps something brought by your sphinx blood?"

"Hmmm... It is very possible. While it does not seem to be a trait for me to use specifically, some truly powerful sphinx's can simply look at nearly any location, or in this case an item, and see how it once was. Like seeing an ancient ruin as pristine building, or in this case, a broken stone carving as a complete work, like it was freshly finished."

This information got many curious murmurs going among the extra listeners, finally one of them, a hippogriff, entering the study. Going by his clothing, a red shoulder-sash with white toga, he was from the higher ups of the organization.

"Did... Did I hear you right just now? Your cubs can actually see how things used to look like, no matter how old?" he asked politely, clearly being careful. Hena did have a certain reputation, even before her honorary membership to the Guardians of Knowledge. And it involved plenty of killing and occasionally eating those who really offended her or failed her test and/or riddles in the pass.

"So it would seem... And before you, or your colleagues, get any ideas, they are almost six. And I desire them to have a normal childhood, not forced employment. If they choose to aid in your work when they are old enough to decide, then that is fine by me. But if I hear even a hint of you trying to influence them, I might do something unpleasant in turn..."

"Perfectly understood ma'am. I was merely asking a confirmation. And if they indeed decide to pursue work here, then all the bette-"

"Out of our way you filthy animal!" came a sudden and loud, and especially rude sounding, exclamation from the hallway, drawing everyone's attention to it. Earlier hippogriff looked very exasperated, even making a frustrated 'face-claw', which in turn raised alarms for Hena. Even her cubs were quick to hide behind her legs.

"Oh no. I thought they had already left..."

"Who exactly are you talki-"

"Now now, my good Crimson Wing. There's no need to talk so rudely to lower beings, forsaken by the purest of magic. What they have here is an admirable effort in preservation of old knowledge." came another much more calmer voice. Something in it still raised more than few hairs on back of sphinxs neck.

Soon enough in the doorway stood a middle aged, fully pale grey, monocle-wearing unicorn scholar, clearly bearing Equestrias heraldry and some other mark; a pony holding a long lance, piercing dragons skull, circled by lengthy parchment, on his robes, followed by two more ponies; an annoyed looking dark red-black maned pegasus, and beyond stoic looking brown earth-pony with a shaved-off mane, both wearing an armor bearing same 'a lance-through-skull mark'.

"Ah, Councilor Selcor. I was wondering if you had changed your mind about my request to see your archived works? Since you and the rest of the Council keep stonewalling our nations benevolent offers of joining. We all could achieve so much more for everyponys benefit if your city and lands around it would be official part of Equestria."

"And I have no authority to overturn a unanimous council decision. Especially when it keeps our neutral organization truly neutral, and also safe from exploitation from less than moral groups and individuals. Latter of which you and your research seemingly falls into, sir Pure Line." Selcor answered, with a clear forced politeness in his voice. Some other scholars present also looked at the three ponies with a significant amount of contempt.

"Oh, I assure you, there is nothing wrong my research into how our bodies work, since your member, Vesalia I think, is not very keen on sharing her research material."

"Her research is focused on healing without magical means. Not on 'purity of bloodlines' and 'removing undesirable traits', or what ever it is your group is doing behind your citadel walls."

"Ah, you must mean those unfounded rumors some creatures like to spread. Due to our association being funded by the Equestrian crown, we only use donated cadavers on our research."

"Not that it is even you little clubs business. You even allow a fricking beastly animals right in you research areas!" the red pegasus, apparently one named Crimson Wing butted in to the conversation, pointing his wing at Hena, who merely adjusted her glasses a little bit.

"I have you know, this beastly animal has far more knowledge than you have length and width in your wings and genitals. Not that either of those would actually even help you in copulation. IF you ever actually have any." she commented, causing a short bout of snickering from the observers.

"Bah! I bet I could beat you in one of your dumb riddles! That's right, we have heard of you, sphinx, and your apparent body count." Crimson fired back, sounding overtly confident. This certainly got attention from everyone present, and even few just passing by the area.

"Very well then. If I win, you'll shut up for the rest of your stay in this town, magically enforced if needed. And if you win, I get to cut you open with absolutely no consequences. And you have an arbitrary time limit that I don't tell you."

"Deal!... Waitwhat?"

"Never resting, never still.
Moving silently from hill to hill.
It does not walk, run or trot.
All is cool where it is not."

With the riddle spoken, everyone present, even the other two equestrian ponies, visibly began to think it over, some murmuring to each other as if not to give help or other form of assistance. Only one not thinking it over was Crimson, who looked more baffled and potentially offended, while Hena mostly just watched him while tapping her claws against the floor. Even her cubs too were also whispering about mommy's riddle.

"What garbage did you just spout you freak?"

"Tick-tock, tick-tock Red..."

"HEY! ONLY MY MOM CAN CALL ME THAT!!"

"Oh, you actually have an older female of the same species who gave birth to you? Still together with the sperm donor?"

"LEAVE MY DEAD FATHER OUT OF THIS YOU MONSTER!"

"Aaand that's the arbitrary time limit over. You lost." Hena said with a light smirk on her face.

"You sonuv-" Crimson was about rant, only to be interrupted by a sharp snap of sphinxs clawed fingers, followed by a some manner of floating sand closing his mouth, silencing him.

"And there's your punishment. Hopefully silence will teach you some humility or something like that. By the way, did anyone else present solve the riddle?" she asked the gathered crowd. After some murmuring, a diamong dog in the crowd waved his paw.

"I think I got it lady Hena! Answer is Sun, right?"

"Correct my good hound. I think you deserve a little reward." Hena answered with a smile. She then proceeded to wave he claw around a little, conjuring a small puff of something that looked like pure golden powdery sand, and gently blew it towards him. In seconds the golden puff landed on his face, causing a light snout crunching reaction from him.

"There you go. You have been blessed with a small amount of good luck for the next two days. But don't get too carefree. Lady Luck is a rather fickle mistress."

"T-Thank you lady Hena." the dog said in a humble tone before bowing rather deep and took his leave. After that, Hena turned her gaze towards the three equestrians, now with one muted, angry looking pegasus.

"Now then, do you equines wish to try your luck, if only to try and prove your overblown and highly theoretical superiority towards a mystical being with vast knowledge?"

"Sure, I'll take a shot. I mostly just end the animals like you, but humiliation in just wits will work just fine for now." the stoic brown earth pony said while stepping forward.
"Name's Stone Leg. Just ask the riddle."

"What can bring back the dead.
Make you cry, make you laugh.
Is born in an instant, yet lasts a lifetime?"

Once again murmuring started among the scholars present. Stone Leg just stood there, being overtly stoic looking, just staring at Hena, who stared right back at him with an impassive look. Like a cat with one them 'watching and judging' expressions.

"Eh, nothing comes to mind. I'll be taking my leave, and taking Crimson with me too. He'll just try punching creatures if he can't slander them." Stone finally said and started to walk away, grabbing Crimson by the tail without even looking at him and dragged him along, simply ignoring any physical protest he tried. That left only Pure Line present.

"Well, now that they have left, what was the answer for that riddle, ma'am?" the grey unicorn asked in a polite tone. Yet Henas ears found a tiny condescending undertone in it.

"Wait for your turn sir. Anyone else got the answer?" she called out to everyone present once again, followed by light tucking on her front legs hair, making her look down on one of her sons, Hesperus to be exact.

"Um, mommy? I think I got it. The answer is Memory, yes?"

"Why yes, it is. I think this earned you a snack of your choice later."'

"Actually others helped me to figure it out. Can they get a snack too?"

"Hmmm... I guess they can. Just wait for the meal time proper."

After giving their mothers legs a big hug, the cubs ran to their father, possibly giving her room for the serious adult business. Maybe they saw the unicorn as more of a threat than the other two ponies.

"Such well behaved young hybrids. Seem to be very healthy ones too. Quite a rarity..." Pure Line thought out loud, clearly not caring that there was a top class predator creature, now very peeved, in front of him.

"I would appreciate if you would cease looking at my children. Makes one wonder if you're into younger ones in a very, very, VERY wrong way." Hena commented.

"Oh, I am nothing like that, ma'am. I merely study how the bloodlines affect the descendants from a potent or otherwise odd parentage."

"And that is even more of a reason to keep you and your ilk far, FAR away from my cubs."

"Oh, nothing to worry ma'am. My foremost interest for the moment is to hear a riddle from you for me to overcome. Should I answer correctly, I would like to have full access to the library you are rumored to have in your lair. And should I lose, me and my organization shall never return to this town. That is all."

After a moment of thinking and looking for any hooks, sphinx finally asked a riddle.

“I never was, am always to be.
No one ever saw me, nor ever will.
And yet, I am the confidence of all who live and breathe.
What am I?”

Pure Line began to think the riddle over for the next few stretched up minutes, until he just up and sighed.

"Pardon me, but it seems I can't quite figure it out. So if you don't mind, I'll be taking my leave. Have some new orders to pass along due to terms I gave here." he said, before giving a polite bow and left. No one really said anything until he, and his goons, had fully left the building.

"Well, even though he had more dignity than the other two, I still found him quite dislikable. By the way, who were they?" Hena asked.

"Sir Pure Line, Crimson Wing and Stone Leg? Visitors from Equestria, and members of 'Equines Concordiae', a group of pony scholars of sorts, that does indeed receive funding from Equestrian crown after their Queen disappeared that mostly researches anatomy and genealogy. They're also obsessed about improving ponykind by whatever means they can. Even if it means kidnapping civilians, pony or not, according to the rumors and several reports." Councilor Selcor explained.

"So from what I'm hearing, they're basically trying to create a 'master race' variant of ponies, by researching and doing... Very, VERY bad things to non-ponies. And most likely while keeping truth hidden from their financiers, hopefully." Hena inquired, while censoring her speech. After all her cubs were still present.

"We're not certain about the latter. They could be receiving funds from private sources, but yes, that is what most of the town thinks they're trying to do. Unfortunately for us, they're also good at covering their tracks and gaslighting anypony trying to follow any of the given outside leads. At least now we should have some peace from them. That if they actually obey the terms from the riddle."

"Well I did not exactly enforce it magically, but he did have plenty of witnesses to the promise, so I guess we can hope they have some degree of honor to follow the said promise."

"I guess so... Oh and I think the answer to the riddle is Tomorrow."

"Why yes Selcor, it is. Should I grant you blessing of luck or something else perhaps?"

"Well, actually I'd like to make a request for you. Mainly to maybe find anything on barriers and wards that only target specifically minded creatures. I hope it is not too much to ask."

"So in short, you want a barrier to keep out or locate intruding xenophobic ponies, or other creatures, that want or wish to use, or rather abuse, the knowledge here to further their less than moral goals at the cost of others?"

"Something along those lines. Better if it can be modified if needed without being maliciously tampered."

"I'll look for something like that. But for now I think I'll try enjoying time with my family. Still owing my cubs a snack, and you might want to get my mates research crew together for the potential breakthrough in golemancy." Hena promised, as she looked at her family, with cubs being exited for the future snacks and Hermes already making copies of the whole picture of the carvings.
Hopefully the content in it would bring more security for the town as a whole. Fame and recognition would be pretty much given from such an extraordinary development.

But in the back of her mind she crew a bit wary about this group of pony scholars, and the way this Pure Line had commented on her cubs...

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait. Inspiration and life threw writing motivation around a bit oddly; "ideas are in the head, but can't get them written" kind of way. At least got work to bring routine back to my days.
Also BG3 has eaten some time lately... Maybe I should try shorter chapters, if its content is satisfactory? Thoughts?