Not long after the whole "I know who I am!" moment, a lot of things started to go haywire. I knew who I was, and what I was supposed to do, but all of a sudden, the animals in the area got a lot more skittish. It took us a few weeks before we could catch a decent meal in the form of a deer, and things were just getting worse. I kept getting these weird numb feelings, seemingly at random, the only thing they all had in common was that they always seemed to happen at very inconvenient times. Newer animals started showing up, something always seeming somehow demonic about them.

The pure darkness made me sick, being what, in my recently acquired memories, was called a "paladin", some sort of a warrior of light. I also knew somehow, that I was able to manipulate magic beyond what a normal griffin, being whatever I was. My feathers always had this golden-red sheen to them, and my fur was a shimmering alabaster, which when compared to my mother and father's color scheme made me seem completely unrelated, as they both had what I assumed were normal griffin colors, white and brown feathers with an unremarkable brown coat for both. I was genuinely surprised when I realized this.

Anyway, the animals were getting very worked up over something, and I intended to find out what. Judging by the ley-lines and the "ripples" in them, it was big, strong, and dangerously close to home. That was another new thing, I could close my eyes and take in the world in a view based solely on the forces of the world, you know, light, dark, earth, that sort of thing. I liked to just follow the lines when I could, but a lot of the time they just led into a cliff or some-such obstacle, at which point they would change from a bright golden color into a much darker shade of green. But now, they looked a dank purple color, and the lines bent towards the west, whence growling would occasionally come, scaring my poor mother half to death.

So, of course, figuring there was something that would cause even more havoc if just let sit, I set off to find the source of the disturbance. After a few days of flying west, the ley-lines got darker still, until the area surrounding where they would be in the physical world was a bit... darker than usual.

It took me a few days of going through the physically painful darkness before I reached the source of all the darkness: a hole in the ground. More specifically, a half-kilometer wide bottomless chasm with a floating island in the middle, about a quarter-mile wide with all the vegetation I could see looking like it had contracted about every disease possible, with a purple haze shrouding the center of the floating hunk of earth.

Something wasn't happy to see me, because before I could begin to comprehend what I was seeing, a massive roar came from the pit. I thought it best to not get whatever the thing was mad, as it could probably swallow me whole and not even choke on me.

"Note to self, don't enter the massive hole in the ground unless you're being chased by a dragon, and even then, weigh your options," I said to myself, hoping I'd remember, but knowing me, I'd probably just ditch my "play it safe" strategy and dive in anyway, since whatever was down there was extremely likely to be the problem. If size was anything to go by, this incursion was big, and I appeared to be one of the few who knew about it.

The roar came again, this time more threatening than the last. If I was ever going to make up my mind, It'd probably be now. So, thinking the options over, I decided saving the world and earning my right to be a paladin by performing a mass exorcism was worth losing a few feathers off my wing.

So, being the zealous griffin I was, what do you think I did? I dove towards the island.

Author's Note

Well, that escalated quickly. Again, feel free to leave criticism, as long as it's constructive, ask questions, whatever you want.
Still looking for cover art, though considering the update time between this chapter and the previous one, There hasn't been much time for anyone to even notice this story. If you have cover art for this, or have a suggestion, please send it to me via PM along with the source. Peace off!