Graff's Inter-Dimensional Adventures

My name is Graff, I'm a former a student of Crystal Prep Academy, and this is the story of how I stumbled into the strangest adventure of my life.

It happened on a Sunday of all days, at around 10:23 PM. I was on my nightly jog through the park (I have trouble sleeping without it), when I stopped to catch my breath. I reached out an arm to use a particularly thick tree as support.

Only, instead of my hand stopping at the tree, it kept going, and I fell right into it.

For a moment, it seemed like I was having a seizure. Incredibly vivid colors I couldn't possibly describe swirled in my view, and my body felt like it was being run through a taffy-puller.

Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped, and I found myself tumbling back into the world. My momentum was too great, however, and I began to roll down a steep hill. The world spun as I kept tumbling, before I eventually landed in a rough river.

I instinctively thrashed my legs about, trying to find the way up, but the current was too strong, and my muscles didn't want to work correctly for whatever reason. At the time, I assumed it was because of the doozy of an acid trip I'd just been through, but, as I'd soon find out, I wasn't right in the slightest.

Eventually, I managed to grab a large boulder (it was surprisingly easier than normal), and I hoisted my head above the water. Still out of breath from jogging, I gasped heavily, blinking away the water in my eyes and surveying my surroundings.

I was in a completely different forest from the one I knew and loved. The trees here were much wider, with tendrils of leaves reaching down towards the ground (I think that kind of tree is referred to as "weeping"); over the sound of the river, I could hear birds and insects, as well as a few oddly threatening noises I couldn't identify; and, strangely enough, it was suddenly daytime, even though it was night when I began my run.

I also noted how sore my body felt. It all felt too real to be a dream, but the events seemed too fantastical to be anything but.

Before I could do anything else, however, my grip failed, and I was once again sent down the river.

Eventually, the waters calmed down somewhat, and I was able to keep myself afloat long enough to reach the nearest riverbank. My muscles felt incredibly strange, but I didn't pay much mind; I was too busy trying not to drown.

I hoisted myself onto the shore and collapsed onto my stomach, taking in huge gulps of precious air. The burning in my lungs and the aching of my bruises were proof enough that I was awake.

No longer in immediate danger, I took the moment to figure out why my body felt off. It took only a quick glance to figure out the reason:

I wasn't a human anymore.

Blueish-white feathers (matching my human self's hair) covered my head and neck, interspersed with blue-gray splotches. My nose and mouth were now elongated into a yellow beak that, oddly enough, still had teeth in it.

But that was only the beginning of it. Most of my body was now that of a lion with desaturated mauve fur – I even had a long tail that sported a scruff of darker fur on the end. The exceptions to this were my front legs, which were brownish-yellow eagle talons, and two large wings that hung limply from my shoulder blades.

Naturally, the first thing I did upon realizing all this was scream.

"What the hell!?" I flailed about in a panic, unable to reign control of my new limbs, "I'm a– a... What am I?"

I thought back to my biology classes in school, but I couldn't remember anything that looked half-eagle and half-lion–

Wait. Half-eagle and half-lion?

"...I'm a griffon, aren't I?" I numbly asked myself, receiving a nod in reply.

Now, I was no stranger to odd occurrences; the previous Friendship Games in particular were rather unique. But this...? This was unlike anything I'd ever experienced! My entire worldview was being rocked right before my eyes, and I hadn't a clue of how to react. Not to mention that it felt strange, having three new appendages — especially the tail, which would occasionally twitch on its own.

I sat there for a moment, processing everything, before a bird call snapped me out of my stupor. Sitting here like an idiot wasn't going to help me; I needed to do something. Shakily, I used my new limbs to bring myself to a four-legged standing position. To this griffon body, it felt natural; to my human mind, I felt wrong.

"Okay," I reassured myself, "now I'll try and walk."

Unsurprisingly, it was really difficult. I thought I could just pretend like I was crawling, but that caused my rear knees to hitch up, and I fell onto my rump. I hoisted myself up again, and focused on my back legs. My knee and heel (or rather, my patella and Achilles tendon? I'm not familiar with the terms) were in completely different places than I was used to, and the leg as a whole moved in such a strange way. Not to mention the fact that my center of balance was shifted drastically, and I couldn't get my new tail to cooperate.

After a few failed attempts, I got a decent enough rhythm going, and I found myself wobbling along the riverbank. I considered heading back upstream to find out where I'd come from, but there were a few problems that made me decide against it.

The main one? Everything looked the same, and I had hardly an idea how far I'd been pulled in the current.

The second one was that I was alone in a forest, in a body I could hardly control, and the unfamiliar noises were growing louder.

So with my mind made up, I began to shakily head downstream to try and find help.