Endings And Beginnings

Two Weeks After Emperor Jason Wright’s Invasion of Equestria

Griffonstone was in shambles.

The many buildings that had once been pristine and clean were now covered in all manner of filth. Massive trees that had once been spread throughout the city and had once been green with life were dying; the small houses and huts on each branch threatened to fall to the ground below. Some already had, causing serious injury or even death to a few very unlucky griffons The city smelled of rotten sewage, mostly due to the fact that the sewers had not been tended to for far too long. Over half the city was sick with previously preventable diseases thanks to this. Nobody could go five feet without hearing the crying of a young griffon cub, the coughing of a griffon sick or dying, or an argument between two or more griffons about food, money or some other matter of life and death. All throughout the city, buildings were falling apart, mothers were hardly able to feed their young, and the griffons within were miserable, although, in a perverted show of pride, they would never show it to outsiders, or even among themselves.

Ever since the Idol of Boreas, now regarded by most of the griffons as a myth, was stolen and fell into the Abysmal Abyss, Griffonstone and the Griffonian Empire as a whole had been on a steady decline, but nowhere was it worse than in the nominal capital of the Empire itself. All of Griffonia was undergoing an economic depression, even the outermost sea cities where fish was plentiful were experiencing less and less traffic from any neighboring nations.

Among the filth and wretchedness surrounding every griffon, a singular mailgriffon female flew through the skies. She was a rarity among her kind. Friendly, always smiling and eager to try and brighten anygriffon’s day with a kind word or gesture.

Not that it would do any good, of course.

There was just too much underlying despair among them, hidden underneath a thick layer of so-called pride. It had gotten so bad that many griffons had begun saving up enough money to escape to other smaller towns or to unclaimed portions of the Griffon Empire to try and find a better place for a house or nest.

Gabriella, or Gabby as she very much preferred to be called, had tried denying it to herself for years, but there was just no denying that the Griffon Empire was crumbling. And any so-called leadership within the city were doing nothing about it. They were just stuffing their coffers with bits taxed from the griffon populace. Everygriffon knew about it but they were too concerned with themselves to do anything about it.

It was Gabby’s weekend, and having had an extra long week with her boss yelling at her, docking her pay for a few minor mishaps, and being once again ignored and scoffed at for her attempts to brighten the day of anygriffon she saw had taken a heavier toll on her than normal. And the only refuge she could even find in the area was near the edge of the Abysmal Abyss. Nogriffon ever went there because it was too dangerous, but Gabby loved it there. The grass was actually green there, the trees were growing tall and strong, and the strong wind that blew through her wings felt freeing.

It was here where she could let down her feathers and let the smile she kept on her face fade away. Trying to spread griffony sunshine on her rounds as a mail delivery griffon all the time was exhausting, even for her. She would come here whenever she had stress to relieve. And she would do so by screaming into the abyss.

“YAAAAH!” she screamed into the windy chasm before her, her voice being carried away by the winds, forever lost to them. She vented her frustrations. “I was just trying to help you, Griselda! Is it so wrong to buy you some food when you can’t afford it, Gary!? And I was only one minute late that day, Gerald!! You didn’t have to dock my pay for one hour! Stupid, stupid, STUPID!” She continued shouting her varying angry thoughts away, and as she did so, her heavy heart lifted. As she’d had a longer list than normal, she was there for about half an hour, repeating the same things over and over again. Finally, when she was finished, she stood on her two hind legs, spreading her wings and letting the harsh gales that constantly blew through the Abyss wash over her like some sort of cleansing bath of air. She definitely felt a lot better than she had before, and she fell onto her back, wings still spread.

She was still smiling when she heard the scream.

Quickly sitting up, she looked around, trying to figure out where the screams had come from or whether or not it was just her imagination. She tilted her head in a completely ninety-degree angle, trying to find the source of whatever screams she’d heard earlier. She sat there for five long minutes, occasionally tilting her head the other way in a vain attempt to listen.

Finally, she decided it had just been her imagination, and she straightened her head again. She turned and began walking back to Griffonstone when she heard it again. The scream was fainter than it had been, but there was a clear and present fear in it. And her heightened hearing could hear one word:

“…Help…”

To her dismay, the voice was coming from the Abyss itself. She quickly but carefully crawled over to the edge of the cliff, looking down in a vain attempt to see who the voice belonged to. The voice sounded male. If a griffon had fallen into the cliff, their claws would be enough for hold onto the edges, at least for a while. However, it wouldn’t last long. The winds of the Abyss were known for tearing feathers from wings on the worst days, and today was definitely one of those times. She scanned the cliffs below her, but couldn’t see anything.

It was when she surveyed the opposite cliff wall that she saw signs of anyone being there. On the opposite side were a few large bags that were just sitting on the grass unattended. She noticed that a portion of the cliff near the bags had fallen away, and in fear she looked down.

There, clinging for dear life onto a large ledge, sat an unusual creature. It had the look of a minotaur, only it-No, he, Gabby corrected herself-was wearing clothes that were quickly being slightly torn by the winds. He had a small pack slung over his shoulders which matched the bags on the other side of the gorge. It was strapped tightly to him to not let it fall away. The creature didn’t have any claws like any other griffons did. Instead, she recognized what he had as simple hands which were clinging to the sides of the ledge, which had begun to crumble around the being. As she took in the strange creature before her, she realized he looked more like a monkey or an ape than anything else, albeit smaller and with all the wrong proportions.

But it was the eyes of the ape-thing that stuck out to her. They were bright blue, and wide eyed with complete and utter terror. He was looking around wildly, trying to find a means of escaping the horrible position he found himself in.

She stood up quickly and gave a griffon cry, which sounded identical to that of a bald eagle. The creature below flinched, looking up until he saw Gabby. His fear turned to hope as he waved with one of his hands briefly before quickly going back to gripping the ledge. “Help me! Please! I’m begging you!” he called out in a desperate voice.

Gabby quickly looked around for anything that might be used as some kind of makeshift rope. Her heart was racing, and she could hear the ledge slowly giving way to the creature’s weight. Turning back to the strange creature, she called out, “I don’t have any rope! And I can’t fly down there!”

Miraculously, the creature must have heard her cries, because he said, “Get some then, please! And hurry! This ledge isn’t gonna last!”

“Stay still! Don’t move! I’ll be right back!” She spread her wings wide and flew as fast as she could.

The only store in Griffonstone that sold any kind of rope belonged to Goldy, one of the greedier griffons in the city. However, Gabby didn’t have the time or patience to deal with Goldy’s normal money grubbing nature when it came to the current situation. She crashed through Goldy’s door, the beret wearing griffon jumping up in alarm at the sudden intrusion, but she quickly recovered when Gabby began grabbing a large rope and a grappling hook. “Hey! You’d better be paying for that!” she said.

“I’ll pay you later! There’s no time now!” Gabby said as she rushed to the door.

Only to find her way blocked by the shopkeeper, her claw extended. “You don’t leave this store until I get what’s owed to me,” she said plainly. “Cough up the-GAH!”

Gabby, in all her years, had never once been a violent griffon, but so desperate was her task that she had absolutely no qualms in sucker punching Goldy right in the stomach. The shopkeeper fell to the floor, clutching her stomach in pain. Gabby glared down at Goldy. “There! You got what’s owed to you! I’ll give you the fucking bits later!” With that, she zoomed back out into the streets, flying directly towards the Abysmal Abyss again.

She could vaguely hear Goldy calling out the words, “Thief! Thief!” behind her, but she didn’t care at the moment. All that mattered was that there was a creature about to die, and if she didn’t do something about it, she’d never be able to forgive herself. She’d gladly turn herself over to even the most corrupt of griffon authority figures after this, as long as it meant that she’d saved the minotauroid.

She pumped her wings with all her might, straining them with little more than pure adrenaline until finally she reached the cliffs once again. She landed and quickly rushed over, wildly looking around for the creature. Only to go pale when she saw him now clinging to what remained of the ledge that had fallen away, swinging around in the wind as he held on for dear life. She quickly flew high into the air until the windy corridor was tolerable, flew over it, then shot down towards the other side, landing near the strange looking baggage and peering down. “I’m gonna let down some rope!” Gabby shouted, quickly undoing the twine that held the ropes in place.

The creature looked up, the hope that had once been there quickly replaced with despair. “Can’t hold…help…” his voice was softer as he tried to call out, and sounded hoarse.

She worked faster, practically tearing the twine off, then tied the rope to the grappling hook, jammed it into the ground, quickly tied the rope around her midsection and began slowly lowering herself down, gripping the rope with all of her strength as she did her best to move down to where the creature was clinging. Unfortunately, as she did so, some rocks came loose and fell directly towards the creature. “Look out!” Gabby shouted.

Luckily, all that happened was that the rocks glanced off of the being’s shoulders and he temporarily lost his grip on one of his hands, which he quickly pulled back up. His hands were white from tension, save for the deep cuts on his knuckles which were staining the ledge and making it harder for the being to hold on with any semblance of a grip.

Fear overcame Gabby, and the self preservation part of her began to demand that she abandon this strange being, but she quickly suppressed this urge. She wasn’t just any griffon. She was Gabby, and she just couldn’t leave anygriffon, or anycreature for that matter, in need when she knew she could help.

Finally, she reached the ledge where the creature was clinging and held out her claw to him. “Give me your hand!” she shouted, “hurry!”

The being turned, astonishment in his bright blue eyes. He looked back at his hands, then back at Gabby. “If I let go, I’ll fall,” he said wearily.

Gabby frowned, then slowly moved over. Wrapping one of her wings around him, she said, “I’ve got you now. I need you to wrap your arms around me and don’t let go for anything!”

He looked at her fearfully. “I…I can’t…” he whimpered, “I can’t move!”

Gabby tried calming down. She knew that any creature who saw fear could feel that same fear in them. “I promise, by the Idol of Boreas itself, I won’t let you go,” she said, using one of the more ancient pledges of her kind. She tightened her grip around him. “Just hold onto me. Hurry! The wind’s picking up!”

He swallowed hard, then closed his eyes. “God help me…” he said before he slowly opened them again, moving closer to her exposed stomach. In one weakened motion, he wrapped one arm around her stomach, then quickly the other joined in. His grip was tight, but Gabby could feel that it was loosening.

Quickly grabbing the rope again, she began hoisting herself back up towards the surface, her throat quivering with exertion as she began to feel the excess weight around her. She pulled up as fast as she could, but not so fast as to knock her new passenger off of her. For extra support, she wrapped her tail around the creature’s midsection just in case.

It was a good thing she did, too, because not ten seconds later, a large gust of wind blew through the gorge. The rope swayed and Gabby felt a sharp pain in her rear as the creature’s grip on her stomach failed. She screamed in pain and looked down. The creature had lost his grip and was now clinging for dear life to her tail. He was swaying harder in the wind and with each swing, it felt like her tail would tear loose and fall into the ravine with its unwilling passenger. She resisted the instinctive urge to reach down and claw at him while at the same time she tried pulling him up by the tail so he could reach her legs at least, but she was unable to move.

“Climb up my tail!” she shouted. “Grab onto my legs! HURRY!”

Thankfully, he must have either heard or understood the franticness in her expression as she saw him try his best to climb up towards her legs, but just as he was about to reach one of the legs, his grip slipped due to the blood on his hands and he slid back down to the tip of the tail. Once more, however, he tried, and this time he managed to grasp the bottom portion of her left leg. With that grip, he managed to take a hold of her other leg with his remaining hands. “Don’t let go!” she shouted as she now began pulling herself up using only the strength of her arms.

There were a few close calls, but in the end, she managed to grasp the grass, hoisting herself up and clambering farther out onto the grass. When she was sure that the entire creature was out of the ravine, she collapsed onto her stomach, panting heavily. The rush of adrenaline was quickly fading, and she could feel the post adrenaline trembling coming on.

That, and she could hear retching noises coming from behind her.

Weakly she turned, and saw the creature who was holding himself up with two trembling arms, vomiting violently onto the grass. She was too weak to go over and check on him, and could only watch sorrowfully as the being expelled whatever it had eaten last before falling. After an eternity, he collapsed onto his stomach, and eventually she could hear the soft sounds of sobbing coming from him.

Mustering what little strength she had left, Gabby crawled over to the being, placing a comforting wing around him. “Shhh…you’re safe now,” Gabby said gently. Now that she had a clearer view of him, she took in his unusual features without the weight of fear over her mind. The apelike creature was wearing a pair of light blue pants, something over its feet to cover it, and a thick green hoodie, around which still hung the smaller but full looking pack. He had pale skin and a somewhat long head of brown wavy hair. His hands were still bleeding from the cuts, but she hadn’t brought any kind of antiseptic or bandages for him to use.

All she could do was hold the being close to her, trying to warm his freezing body up. He instinctively curled up and continued crying for a little while before finally growing too exhausted to even do that. They stayed like this for a little while until he tried to sit up. Gabby, who by now had recovered more of her strength, sat up with him and helped him into a sitting position. She took his hands in her claws and looked at them carefully. There were three large gashes on the knuckles of his left hand, and two others on his right. His palm was cut open as well and covering his hand in blood. Quickly, she pulled his sleeve up and pressed it against the wound to staunch the flow. “I’m sorry about your shirt,” she said apologetically.

The creature waved his hand dismissively. “I’ve got others,” he said, pointing to the bags nearby. He winced in pain. “Fuck…”

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Gabby asked.

“Just a few bumps and bruises…” the creature said, feeling himself over a bit with his free hand. He then looked up at Gabby with tear stained eyes. He wiped them, then said, “Listen….thank you for saving me. I owe you my life.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Gabby said. “I just did the right thing.”

“Nevertheless, I still owe you something,” he said. “What’s your name?”

“Gabriella, but you can call me Gabby since we’re friends now,” Gabby said with a weakened smile.

The creature smiled back tiredly. “Gabby, huh?” he said, and there was something in his tone that caught Gabby off guard. Almost like he knew her already. However, it was gone when he said, “I’m Gregory. Gregory Graystone.”

Gabby smiled. “Nice to meet you, Gregory,” she said, holding out her claw.

He took it in his free hand and shook it, although it was still weak. “Nice to meet you too, Gabby.”

After the clawshake was over, Gabby decided now was a time to at least get one of her many millions of questions answered. “Um…what exactly are you?” she asked. “No offense, but I’ve never seen a creature like you before.”

Gregory just laughed a bit. “That’s fair,” he said, “I’m not from Equestria or anywhere nearby. I’m a human.”

“Human…human…” Gabby rolled the words around on her tongue, trying to get a feel for it. She’d never heard of a human before, and she doubted that this creature would be lying to her about that. “I’ve never heard of a human before.”

“That makes sense,” Gregory said as he slowly removed his pack and lay on his back, staring up at the sunlit sky above. “Like I said, not from around here.”

She lay beside him, still covering him with her wings. She wanted so badly to ask so much more of him, but she also knew that he was more exhausted than she was. Once they were recovered enough, she would try and take him back into town.

The moment of a new friendship forming between griffon and human was interrupted by the sound of flapping wings approaching from Griffonstone. A very familiar voice called out, “There she is! There’s the griffon who stole from me!”

Gabby quickly sat up, gently untangling herself from Gregory and stepping in front of him protectively, wings spread. Goldy was flying towards them, with two guards of the city watch flying behind her. Gregory slowly sat up, grabbing the pack he’d taken off and clinging to it for dear life as the three newcomers landed nearby. Goldy quickly rushed towards Gabby, but one guard stopped her. The second approached, a bored expression in his face as he asked, “Did you steal some rope and a grappling hook from this other griffon without paying for it?” he asked in a tired tone.

“Yes, but I told her I’d pay it back later,” Gabby said instantly. “There wasn’t time!”

“Wasn’t time for what?” the guard asked.

“To save Gregory,” she said, slowly leaning aside to show her new human friend.

The guard’s eyes went from bored to wide eyed with astonishment. “What…what is that thing?” the guard asked.

“He’s not a thing!” Gabby shouted defiantly, “he’s a human! He was stuck in the Abysmal Abyss and I had to get him out of there!”

The guard’s face became more serious now. “The law is the law,” he said, approaching Gabby. “Stealing is still a crime. I’m going to have to place you under arrest.” He seized Gabby and put her arms behind her back. He then turned to the human. “As for you, you’re not a griffon. You can go wherever. I don’t really care either way.”

“Wait!” Gregory said, holding out his hand to stop them, “I have something that could change things!”

Everyone’s attention was on him now. The guard let Gabby go, sending her sprawling onto the grass. “It’s illegal to bribe a Griffonstone guard, you know,” he said, while at the same time holding out his extended claw, palm upward in invitation. “You could get arrested, even if you’re not a griffon.”

Gabby struggled to get up, and eventually did so. “Gregory, it’s fine! I’ll be fine here, don’t worry about me and just go get your wounds healed up!”

Gregory, however, simply unzipped his backpack and reached into it. The guard’s eyes gleamed with greed, but that greed quickly turned into amazement when the human pulled out not a bag of bits, but a large and very familiar golden idol, a spiral wing surrounding a glowing pink sphere. Gregory held it up to the sunlight, letting it see the light of day once more before he held it out to the guard. “Here. Take it. I don’t have any use for it anyways, and I know you do.”

The second guard and Goldy slowly approached, gaping in wonder at the long lost Idol of Boreas. Even Gabby stared in wide eyed astonishment as she approached. All eyes were locked onto the glowing crystal, which swirled from within with what could only be described as mists of pink and purple clouds. The four griffons all stared at the idol, unblinking and unmoving for the longest time.

Despite having been the last to approach, Gabby was the first to even dare to touch it to make sure it was real. She touched it before anyone else could speak. It was warm to the touch, and she felt a swelling of pride the moment she did touch it. Her wings sprang up and she felt a wave of something wash through her, banishing all of her exhaustion. For the first time in her entire life, she felt like a true griffon, like the griffons of old. The others came forward and could only stare intently at the idol that was still in Gregory’s hand. Gabby could tell that they, too, felt the same power flow through them without even having to touch it.

Gregory looked at them with confusion as he backed away. “Um…you guys okay?”

And with that, the hypnotic spell was broken, but not the results. All four griffons felt new life within them, a new sense of pride and not the foolish pride that had fallen onto all griffonkind throughout Griffonia. Gabby approached him. “Gregory, how’d you find this? The idol fell down there hundreds of years ago!”

“It’s…a really long story,” he said hesitantly. “But for briefness’ sake, I fell down further than that ledge, saw the idol, grabbed it, put it in my backpack and managed to climb up until I couldn’t anymore. That’s when I saw you.”

“We need to get this back to the old palace immediately!” the second guard said.

“Then here you go,” Gregory said, holding it out for the guards to take.

To Gabby’s surprise, both guards actually recoiled from it. “No,” one of them said, then he pointed at Gregory. “You’ll have to come with us, now. No, you’re not under arrest, but you found the idol. It’s your duty to place it back where it belonged.”

Gabby remembered the old tales about the idol now, and one of them did state that if anygriffon were to actually find the idol, they had a duty to bring it back to Griffonstone Keep and place it back on the pedestal. “He’s not a griffon, though,” Goldy said, not with anger, but with confusion.

“Oh yeah…you’re right,” the first guard said, gaining a thoughtful look in his eyes. “And he technically doesn’t have to give it back to us.”

“You can have it back,” Gregory said. “I don’t have use for it.”

“What about for money?” Goldy asked. “Couldn’t you sell it?”

“Yeah, if I wanted to be a greedy bastard about it,” he said plainly. “I’ll take it back to this keep, but I don’t know the way.”

“I’ll take you there,” Gabby said, quickly standing and grabbing all of the bags in the area.

“Are those all his?” the second guard asked.

“Yep,” Gabby said as she put one heavier one over her shoulder.

“We’ll take them and him with us,” the guard said, quickly approaching and taking the bag off of Gabby’s back, slinging it over his own. “I’ll carry these. Gentry, think you can carry the…human, was it?”

Gentry sized Gregory up, then nodded. “I can take him, Garett. What about the thief, though?”

“I’ll just…drop the charges,” Goldy said, making her way over to the mail griffon. “She can pay me back later.”

Gentry and Garett looked at each other. Both shrugged, then Garett picked up the rest of Gregory’s belongings while Gentry walked over to Gregory. “You’d better hold on tight, human,” he said before quickly wrapping his arms around the human’s chest and spreading his wings. Before the human could even protest, they were soaring up into the air, Gregory screaming.

“Careful! He’s wounded!” Gabby shouted worriedly, spreading her wings and making to fly after them.

She was stopped, however, by Goldy. “Hold on, there,” she said with a frown. “I’ll help you fly over.” Without waiting, Goldy grabbed Gabby and flew up, following the two guards and her new human friend, who had by now stopped screaming and was just clutching to the guard and the idol.

When they landed on the other side, Gabby saw that the human had been let go, but was panting heavily with renewed fear. She ran over to check on him the moment Goldy let her down, wrapping her wings around him and glaring back at the other griffons. “You should have waited!” she shouted angrily. “He wasn’t ready to move, yet!”

Both guards looked a bit sheepish at the scolding. “Yeah…sorry about that,” Gentry said.

“But the path to the other side would take hours,” Garret said.

“I-I’m fine, Gabby,” Gregory said, slowly standing on his two feet, very much like a minotaur. His hands were still clutching the idol, but that wasn’t all that Gabby saw.

She pointed to his hands. “Gregory! Look! Your wounds!”

Gregory pulled his more wounded hand away from the idol, looking at it carefully. It was still stained with blood, but there wasn’t any new blood appearing. Quickly, he knelt and wiped his hands on the grass until both hands were clean. Standing, he looked at both only to see no wounds at all. “I…wow…I feel so much better than before,” he said, sounding surprised. He took one step, then another, then jumped up and lifted his knees. After a bit of self examination, he turned back to the guards. “I think I can take those bags from you, now.”

“We’ve got it for now,” Garett said with a wave of his claw.

“Are you sure you want to give it back to us?” Goldy asked. “You’ll have to go through Griffonstone to get it to where it’s supposed to be.”

Gregory nodded. “It belongs to Griffonstone, not me. You’ll just have to lead me there. I’m very new to the area.”

“Follow us,” the guards said, leading him down the well trodden path towards the city.

Gabby, who also felt much better than before, quickly fell into step with Gregory. As Goldy began walking behind them, Gabby looked up at the human. His skin did look a lot healthier than it had, and there was more color in it. “Are you sure you’re okay, there?” she asked.

Gregory looked down at her, smiling. “I’m feeling better, I promise,” he said. “Once I get the idol back where it belongs, I’ll get out of your hair. Or feathers, I guess in your case.”

“But where are you gonna go?” Gabby asked.

“Hopefully the Kingdom of Equestria,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to see it. Especially this one town called Ponyville.”

“Oh…” For reasons she didn’t quite understand, Gabby felt sad. She’d just made a brand new friend, and she didn’t want him to go. Then again, once he saw what Griffonstone looked like, she wouldn’t blame him for wanting to leave. “I know somegriffon who’s been to Ponyville before,” she said, “and I’ve been there too a few times.”

“Really?” Gregory asked eagerly as he turned to her. She was surprised to see the excitement in his eyes. “What’s it like?”

“It’s pretty quiet,” she said. “Clean, very clean, too. The ponies there are pretty nice to me when they see me, although there was that one time Gilda went and they were scared of me for a bit afterwards…”

Gregory’s lips curled into a strangely knowing smile which vanished the moment she saw it. “Well, I’ve wanted to meet the Elements of Harmony for a while, now,” he said. “I’ve heard nothing but good things about them, and I wanted to say hi to them all.”

“Do you have any bits to get there?” Goldy asked.

Gregory’s smile turned into a frown. “No…I don’t,” he sighed sadly. “The only money I have isn’t worth shit here, I’m sure of it.”

“Really? What kind of money?” Goldy asked.

Gregory turned his backpack around, opening it and pulling out a leather bound object, which opened. He took out a few pieces of green paper and some coins from a smaller leather pouch, holding them up. “These.”

Gabby and Gregory both looked at the strange money curiously. There was writing on them and pictures of other strange looking humans on them. When he put them away, Gabby said, “I…could give you some bits.” She couldn’t hide the reluctance from her voice.

Gregory shook his head. “Gabby, as much as I’d love to see Equestria, I’d prefer to earn my way there, not just take advantage of you when we’ve just become friends.”

In response to that, the gem on the idol brightened, then returned to its normal glow. Gabby stared at it with awe once again, only for Goldy to point ahead. “We’re here.”

Once the five of them passed through the Golden Wing Gate that led into Griffonstone, many griffons began to take notice of them at once, especially to what Gregory held in his hands. They all stared at it in wonder, and Gabby saw similar reactions to how she felt the moment she touched it. Soon, the streets that lead to the Keep were crowded with griffons trying to get a glimpse of the idol itself. Gabby hid a smirk when she saw even Gilda, one of the crabbiest of griffons, staring at the idol.

The streets got so crowded that Garett and Gentry had to go get more guards, who helped keep the crowds of griffons at a short distance so as not to crush the human. Gabby heard murmurs among the crowds, calling him the Idol Bearer or just the Bearer, for the most part.

It took them over an hour, but eventually they made it to the dilapidated keep. Gabby never left Gregory’s side. He looked nervous as they walked up a flight of wide but winding stairs that lead towards the old and abandoned throne room at the top of the keep itself. After a while, the guards, Gregory, Gabby and a large crowd of griffons were in the room. The latter piled around, forming a circle around the purple tree stump where the idol had once sat.

When the crowd had settled down, all eyes turned to the human. Gabby could tell that even he felt very out of place and fearful, so she stood on her hind legs and put a comforting claw on his shoulder. “You’ll be fine,” she said reassuringly. “Go ahead.”

“This is all happening way too fast,” he said, but swallowed and straightened his back. Turning to Gabby, he gave her a warm smile. “Thanks, Gabby.” With that, he turned back to the idol’s stand, walked over to it, and knelt before it. He brushed away the few fungi that were growing out of it, wiping it clean with his sleeve before he placed it back on its pedestal. Standing, he took a step back and watched with the rest.

For about ten seconds, nothing happened. The idol’s pink gem kept on glowing, the inner clouds moving in a spherical motion. Then, there was a bright flash of light from the idol. It illuminated all the room, and later Gabby would learn that the light shone out of the keep across all of Griffonia. Anygriffon who saw it or was even bathed in its light felt renewed sense of pride. That day, every griffon in the crumbling empire stood just a little bit taller, regardless of station or how wealthy or poor they were.

The light lasted for about a minute before it slowly dimmed, leaving the idol standing where it was, albeit with a bit of wood having grown around the idol, keeping it in place. Directly next to it, there was a golden crown, a golden sash with a griffon emblazoned on a pin, and a simple gold ring, gemless and markless.

There was silence in the former throne room, griffons looking around at griffons, all wondering what was to be done now that the idol was back and the kingly accoutrements had reappeared after King Guto vanished from Griffonstone with his family across the Hyperborean Mountains.

Everygriffon had one question on their minds: What now?

Among the crowd in the throne room, a single solitary griffon, a dark green with harsh yellow eyes and red claws, watched this go on with a raised eyebrow. She’d watched earlier with some surprise as the human walked through the town, holding up the ancient idol. She followed, not wanting to blow her own cover. She was able to get into the throne room and hid her eyes with her wings as the light of the idol washed over them. Her disguise almost fell, but she kept her control and maintained it.

With everygriffon distracted, she managed to slip away into a nearby empty room. Luckily for her, there was a table. She reached into a saddlebag she carried, took out for large bug-shaped stones and placed them in a square on the table. They all opened, revealing a bright green light from within. The lights joined into a square, and the bug-shaped objects sprouted black roots, moving up into a cone-shaped pile of said roots. A green and black vortex of magic spiraled around them, and it expanded into a vortex of black, green and white. The white was quickly replaced with the scene of a small darkened room, with an evil looking creature looking down. “Agent O, what are you doing?” the being on the other end of the two way communication device asked, “It isn’t your scheduled check-in time.”

“I have urgent news for the Emperor himself,” the griffon said. She was surrounded by green fire which burned up her body, revealing a smaller but nearly identical version of the quadrupedal creature in the communication link. A changeling.

“This had better be important,” the changeling on the other end said.

“I’m reporting a Priority H sighting, commander,” Agent O said.

That got the other changeling’s attention, and he faced the younger changeling with a stern expression. “Say that one more time,” he said.

“I’m reporting a Priority H sighting,” she repeated.

“A human? In Griffonstone?!” the commander said in an incredulous voice. “Where did it come from? How long has it been there?”

“He just arrived, commander,” Agent O said.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a minotaur?”

“Positive, sir. I’ll show you.” She lifted her horn, which glowed and displayed a magical image she’d recorded using one of the changeling’s newest inventions, magical recording devices.

The commander leaned back, frowning. Finally, he said, “I’ll let the Emperor know about this right away. For now, keep an eye on this human until you receive further instructions. Understood?”

She saluted, and quickly changed back into her griffon disguise. “Yes, sir!”

“Long live the Emperor.”

“Long live the Emperor,” she repeated just as the communication was cut, leaving her with four bug shaped communication terminals. She grabbed them, placed them in her saddlebag and slowly made her way back towards the throne room. She had her orders. It was time to fulfill them.