Chapter Six: Gryphon One-Oh-One - Part Two

Chapter six: Gryphon One-Oh-One - Part Two

The cold air bit at Thomas through the long-sleeved Equestrian fleece jacket he’d donned, but that was only because it hadn’t been closed, as he stepped through the back doors of the Bureau to see Gareth waiting for him. The jacket was a surprising addition he found in the room he shared with Tess when he went to retrieve his own normal jacket from his belongings. Attached to the fleece was a note that read “What you have won’t cut it. You’ll need the warmth, at least long enough for Gar to wear you out. This was donated by a few friendly Equestrian sheep that were due for a shearing. All the others are getting the same. Enjoy. - Derani.”

As he put it on, he sighed. Partially from the conversation he’d just come from with Merkus, partially from the increased warmth as he left the room, picking up his practice sword on the way. It was a lot to think about, that the Gryphons trusted him so intrinsically. It was strange to not want to disappoint them. He felt like he mattered for the first time in his life. A new, but pleasant feeling.

His mind jerked back to the present when he stepped outside. He did the coat’s buttons and tugged on a sash to tighten it to his body and approached his latest challenge. He couldn’t deny he was still sore from the thrashing Tesseth had given him, but he wasn’t going to tell any of them ‘no’. It was fun, in a twisted way.

“Have a nice talk, Thomas?” Gareth asked conversationally, bringing his sword up in a salute. Thomas mirrored him, and slid his right foot back in anticipation.

“I did. He told me that he trained you and Tess,” he replied. Blade met blade in a soft clack, and the duel was on with a high sweeping strike from the Gryphon to meet a parry from Thomas.

“He did, yes, along with the rest of our regiment. Those of us that showed exceptional talent he trained personally. Myself, Tesseth, and forty-eight others. We were what you’d call special operations types. A normal Gryphon can take down a Dragon with four squads of humans for support, one Gryphon to a squad for back up. Those of us that Merkus trained can do it with half those numbers or less,” Gareth said, nodding, bringing his blade through for a series of slashes. Thomas retreated, then lunged for the offered opening, only to be swept aside.

“And he adopted you and the others at some juncture,” came the inquiry. Gar raised an eyebrow along with his guard to block a stab at his shoulder.

“That’s a real sticking point with you, isn’t it?” the Gryphon asked. He got a baleful look and another, harder attempted strike for his trouble. Gareth shook his head and knocked Thomas’s blade away to land several feet to one side, then gut-checked him with a firm slice, leaving Thomas doubled over and gasping for air. “Get your sword when you can breathe again, and I’ll explain in the meantime. Understood?” he asked, and got a nod. “Good. Yes. Merkus adopted us. Derani was the first. Amusingly, it went in order of age. Derani had lost everything to a Changeling incursion. Tess and I really didn’t have much going for us beyond our military service. Tess and Beke have one thing in common, and that’s that they were both nearly clanless. I was pretty close to that myself. Tiyo was almost a stereotypical wandering scholar. The guy devours knowledge, and when Merkus offered him a place to come home to, he accepted. Beke... was a difficult case.”

Thomas had regained his breath and took up his sword again, holding it up in a defensive stance. “What do you mean?” he asked. Gar re-engaged him, locking right down to the guard, then using his superior strength to shove Thomas back, forcing the smaller and lighter human to backpedal. Several yards of this, and Thomas came up with a way out of the lock up. He dropped his blade and dove to one side, rolling. Gareth made to stumble, and Thomas retrived his sword, throwing a kick at Gareth’s exposed wings. He didn’t expect the claw to snap out and grab him in mid-air. And hold him there, for that matter.

“Better... you’re getting creative. Don’t be restricted to sticking with your weapon if you can catch your opponent off guard. Unpredictability keeps you alive and your enemy guessing,” the Gryphon said, smiling with approval. He pivoted and lowered Thomas to the turf, where he got back to his feet and prepared to go again. He wasn’t wearing out like he had with Tess. Gareth took a lunging strike for Thomas to block. “I said Beke was difficult, because I was there when he lost his parents. Wild Dragon decided a new Gryphon settlement was encroaching on his territory and tried to flash fry anybody that disagreed with him. Beke rather shut down after he saw his parents die. He loved them very, very much,” he explained, and made for a cross-slash. Thomas blocked, but he was so intent on the story that he really wasn’t trying. Gareth seemed almost on auto-pilot... before time seemed to stop for Thomas and he found himself airborne from a strike. He rolled and even bounced once as he hit the turf. Somehow, he’d hung onto his sword, and he used it to lever himself up as Gareth advanced almost casually. “Pay attention, Thomas, this is a duel, after all. You lose focus in a real fight and you. Will. Die. I understand your intrigue, but you need to learn to split your attention,” he ordered. Thomas nodded, and readied himself. Gareth struck with his old speed, not Gryphic standard, and there was a block, a parry, then a riposte from the human. Gar continued. “As I was saying, he loved his parents. To watch them die in front of your eyes, unable to do anything to stop it, would wound even the hardiest soul.”

“I can imagine that stuck with him for a long time,” Thomas commented, blocking a strike and answering with a lunging stab. Gareth disarmed him, and forced Thomas to dive for his sword with an overhead slash.

“He didn’t speak for three months. He barely ate, by our standards. You wouldn’t know it by looking at him now, but... well, death affects everyone differently. It just made Beke want to fight as brutally as possible. Remember that when you duel him, because he tends to just press the attack,” the gryphon said as Thomas recovered his blade and blocked another slice.

“Oh, sure, tell him all my secrets!” Beke called out sarcastically from somewhere on the combatants’ right. Thomas lost focus from the comment as Gareth swept his blade aside, then lashed out with a claw.

Blood flew. There was dead silence after the cry of pain from Thomas as Beke stared at them. Gareth looked down at his bloody talons, then up at Thomas’s face dripping crimson onto his new fleece as well as the turf from three horizontal slashes from forehead, across his cheeks and nose, and his chin.

“Ah, *shit*...” was the only thing Gareth could manage. Thomas was silent for a few moments, then he slowly raised his right hand, index finger up.

“Medic?” he offered quietly. Beke started laughing.

“You are simply hopeless! Hold still, you insane idiot!” Poultice said angrily as she disinfected the cuts, while Suture took up needle and thread with a dark look on her muzzle.

“It was an accident, I promise!” Thomas protested, before sea green magic jerked his head to a frozen position.

“I said, hold STILL!” Poultice’s voice was fiercer, and Thomas could only whimper, while Suture began stitching him up. The one small mercy they’d given him was that they’d numbed the cuts along with the disinfection, so all Thomas felt was pressure.

“It really was an accident. I wasn’t thinking in our training session. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s me, ladies. Don’t fault Thomas for my mistake, please,” Gareth said, while Beke just beakclawed behind him. The duo moved onto the second cut, eyes glittering dangerously.

“You promised, Mister Lawrence, that you’d keep medical visits to a minimum,” Suture bit out, and gave an extra hard tug on the stitches for emphasis. Thomas whimpered again, trying to convey that he was genuinely sorry with his eyes. Poultice noticed, and relented, but only barely, the magical grip loosening slightly. The second cut was finished, and they moved onto his forehead slash.

“It wasn’t for lack of trying, I swear it,” he said, before they began stitching.

“We’re aware. Maybe you should be a pony instead, if this is the way things are going...” Poultice murmured, holding him still again. Thomas grunted negatively, and glared at them furiously.

“I think that’s a ‘no way in Tartaurus’, you two,” Beke said, now leaning against the wall.

“Stubborn idiots, the lot of you. By the Sisters, you Gryphons and prospective Converts are crazy,” Suture said, then finished the last stitch, going for the nanites to help with healing again. There was another negative grunt from Thomas before Poultice released him, “What, got something to say?” the nurse asked.

“Yeah... can I keep the scars?” Thomas asked sheepishly. Gareth and Beke both stared at him, then began laughing uproariously. The medics stared at Thomas, then Suture looked at Poultice.

“Remind me again why we took this job?” Suture asked her counterpart plaintively.

“Good Royal stipend for the next decade,” Poultice answered.

“Right... sometimes I wonder if the money’s worth it though,” Suture murmured with a sigh, replacing the syringe in the case, and then waving Thomas off, shooing the three of them out of their domain.

The trio met an upset Tess outside the door, and she looked none-too-pleased.

“Gareth, why’d you cut loose like that?” she groused, falling in step with them.

“I thought he was still focused on our fight, and not on Beke,” Gareth answered. Beke rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“I didn’t think opening my beak would distract him like that, for what it’s worth,” the younger Gryphon offered.

“*I* don’t mind too much. I’m not dead, and I’ll have some neat scars to show off in a couple days!” Thomas said, downright cheery. Tess just beakclawed as the clock chimed one-thirty. “Ooh, four hours until dinner. Wonder if Chef Pepper wants to kill me yet?” Thomas wondered aloud.

“Why do you say that?” Tess asked, shooting the prospective Convert a curious look.

“Because I’m cooking meat... and that smell is going to permeate the entire kitchen, probably the entire cafeteria, and potentially work its way out into the entryway, which means Vineyard Terrace might get mad at me too,” he replied nonchalantly.

“You like courting Death, don’t you, Thomas?” Gareth asked, shaking his head.

“Not intentionally!” was the answer. Beke snorted.

“Well, I think we can safely say practice is over for today,” Gareth said.

“Awwww...” Thomas said, actually pouting a little.

“Okay, maybe we’ve picked up a masochist instead, little brothers...” Tess muttered, grinning playfully.

“Oh good, I’ll have company!” Beke said.

“Nah, I was just having fun, dang it. Sure, it’s painful, but it’s all a learning experience. I like being able to learn to fight with something more traditional. Swords and bows and spears were used so long in human history that I find actual combat with them in a more modern era fascinating,” Thomas explained. He reached up to fiddle with his new stitches and got a swat from Tess along with a warning look.

“Don’t play with those. I hear if they have to re-stitch, they don’t numb you the next time. As for the weaponry, don’t discount your own species’ advancements. Sure, to us, you can’t hit the broad side of a barn without a firing team and satellite coordinates while we’re used to making multi-mile shots with nothing but our normal eyesight, but the compensations you’ve made with RAC rifles and railguns are nothing to dismiss either. Orbital weapons, for that matter... heh. But yes, you should get used to our way of fighting. Tomorrow ought to be easier. Derani’s asked to teach you. She wants to see how your aim handles from distance, how you deal with weight and pull. She’ll test you with both a bow and an arbalest, see which you prefer.”

“I don’t even have to get asked for preference. I’ve always wanted an arbalest to call my own. The design and penetration power is just too enticing, despite the reload time between shots, but I’ll still try out a bow. Can’t hurt to have the practice,” Thomas said quickly. He wanted to smile, but that tugged at his stitches.

“Taking to this faster than we expected. Very nice to see,” Gareth said with a nod and a smile.

“What can I say? I want this badly... I did some research before I came here, with Barry’s help. I tried to learn everything about being a Gryphon that I could,” the human explained.

“You can’t learn everything from books, you know. I’m proof of that,” said a new voice. Thomas blinked, then looked around. They’d made their way to the entryway while they were talking, where Tiyo was just coming in from outside, brushing a few quickly-melting snowflakes from his feathers.

“That’s common sense, Tiyo. Life experience trumps book learning, more often than not,” Thomas said.

“Hey, check out the newfledge. He learns quick!” Beke snarked.

“Have to, ya featherduster, when you have a third of the life span!” Thomas answered back, smirking. Beke put a claw to his chest.

“Oh, I am wounded. Truly, I am in such pain,” he deadpanned. Tesseth and Gareth beakclawed in unison behind them. Thomas snickered to himself and adjusted his fleece, before nodding at Tess.

“May I have permission to leave the Bureau, Tess?” he asked.

She blinked at him curiously, then frowned. “Can I ask why?”

Thomas flushed with embarrassment, making the black thread of his stitches stand out even more, briefly. “I need to go Hearth’s Warming shopping. Gifts to get before the crowds are really lousy,” he explained.

Tess shrugged, wings included, and answered, “I don’t see why not, but one of us has to go with you.”

“No can do. I’m getting things for all of you, too,” he replied with a shake of his head.

“You’re under the mistaken impression that you have a choice. Think about it. Walking out of a Bureau with stitches across your face? yes, that will endear us mightily to the people of Trenton, most assuredly,” Tess said sharply. Thomas flinched at that thought.

“I hadn’t considered that,” he admitted.

“You have to, at least on this side of the Barrier. Sad, but true,” Tiyo said, Beke nodding agreement.

“All right… as long as whoever comes with me doesn’t peek. I want these to be surprises, please?” Thomas pleaded.

“That, we can do,” Tess answered, nodding her head, “when do you want to leave?”

Thomas shrugged. “Now? If that’s okay?” he asked. Beke nodded.

“I’ll go with you,” the Gryphon offered. Thomas stared at him briefly.

“You. Want to go with me,” he said flatly.

“Yeah. Cabin fever, as you humans put it. I could use getting out for a bit, stretch my wings,” Beke answered, shrugging. Thomas glanced at Tesseth and Tiyo, who both nodded. Gareth was hiding a snicker behind a claw.

Thomas shook his head and sighed, “I only hope I don’t regret this.”

Author's Note

Hey, look at that, chapter six... and only a few months late!

Life's been hectic here. Lost my job, got it back, planning for a trip to Canada next week, trying to get my passport since mid-December... fun times.

Enjoy, guys. I hope you like it.

Music for this chapter:

Thomas alternate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQkBeOisNM0

Tess alternate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4cjdTz1EqI

As a note, I'll be cutting back on the music notes from here on out until a little later in the story. I hope I've linked something someone likes, by now.