She often wondered if there was any meaning to her dreams, but she just as quickly dismissed the thought. After all, her parents and siblings wouldn’t want her falling for such foolish things, right? They had to. Even if she couldn’t quite remember them well enough to know for certain.

So she set out to wander, trying to figure out where her place was.

Turns out that was a lot harder than it seemed, for someone with barely any recollection of what she’d been doing before she set out on this quest.

The town was quite lively, or at least she thought so. Kids walked with their parents, siblings, or friends, talking about anything from some game or event. Couples laughed together. Even those without human companions were out, walking dogs or carrying cats—some even had exotic pets, even if Sera didn’t know what all of them were. There was a proud, wealthy air about the town.

And obviously, rich towns had big gardens, so Sera wasn’t fazed when she wandered into one of them.

She knew just by looking at them that not all of these plants were native to the area, yet still they seemed to flourish here. It was only because of a butterfly fluttering around that she noticed something else other than the flowers and the shrubs, though.

There were a lot of statues here, too, arranged for anyone who walked along the path.

“Caeso,” she read off one of the plaques. The statue that belonged to it matched the description of a gryphon—judging by its head, which was an eagle’s, it must’ve been the oldest. She’d heard something along those lines, anyway.

Another caught her attention. This one was of a human, or at least, someone who looked human. She mumbled the plaque of this one, too, reading, “Simros.”

There were other human-looking ones, but most went unlabeled, aside from one with two people together that read “Zanrel and Elysrainne.” But more sculptures of the gryphons had names—those being “Opiter,” “Drusus,” and “Ninnia.” Opiter had an owl’s head, Drusus had a vulture’s head, and Ninnia had a kestrel’s head; they were the three “siblings” of Caeso. Sera remembered that much, though she couldn’t recall who had told her.

Perhaps it was just one of those things that everyone knew; knowledge so commonplace, that one never needed to be explicitly told it.

As she continued walking, she imagined the placements and poses of the statues had some kind of story attached to them. She recalled more of that inherent knowledge, too; the story every child knew, and one of the fragments of her childhood that she remembered for certain.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“He needs to be stopped,” she imagined Simros saying, wise and confident. Those other human-looking ones nodded in solemn agreement.

“Then allow me and my siblings to help you,” Caeso would then respond.

“Of course. We’ll need all the might we can get if we plan on defeating our ‘Father.’”

Simros and the others went to plan a way to defeat this great evil, their “Father.” Meanwhile, Caeso found the help of two humans—Zanrel and Elysrainne—to be a part of the story.

“We will need the help of regular humans like you,” he explained to them. They were both confident and ready for whatever might happen next. “With your power, we will surely see our ‘Father’ meets the fate that he deserves for all that he’s done.”

Zanrel and Elysrainne, of course, went along with him. They did as much in some of Sera’s dreams, even if she never witnessed the act of sealing the Fallen One away.

In the center of the garden was a statue that made her stop, though. It didn’t tell the same happy story—it wasn’t one of good triumphing over evil.

It showed Caeso, with Zanrel and Elysrainne by his side, victoriously towering over Simros and the others. Simros seemed focused on Caeso’s claws, fists clenched and looking about ready to admit defeat.

Slowly, Sera read this statue’s plaque aloud, too. “Betrayal of the Heralds.”

“That’s right,” she mumbled to herself after a moment. She ran her hand along the edge of the statue. “The gryphons and the Heralds worked together to get rid of the Fallen One… but then it turned out that the Fallen One would eventually return. They all said that it was the Heralds who’d done it…”

Who’d told her that? She didn’t really know. But she knew that it was true. Zanrel and Elysrainne had sided with Caeso; it was those three that had banished demons just like the Fallen One had been sent away. They were the ones that the people knew, the ones the people were willing to trust. The Heralds were mysterious, barely interacting with anyone, and were rumored to have powers no human could even begin to comprehend…

So it was natural, really—just to go along with what made the most sense in the minds of the humans.

Not that Sera had any reason to try to prove or disprove such an occurrence.

She was taken out of her thoughtfulness by a rough voice shouting, “Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing here? This is private property, kid! Go on and get lost!”

“O-oh, I’m sorry!” Sera quickly stepped away. “I didn’t mean to upset anyone! I kinda just wandered in and then I got distracted and—“

As the maid approached her, she took another step back to leave.

And unfortunately for her, she didn’t quite pay attention to where she was going, because she accidentally stumbled into some gardening supplies.

Which fell with such force to break an expensive-looking pot and put a scratch in the foundation of a statue next to it.

“I, uh… really didn’t mean to do that!” Sera said with a bit of nervous laughter, more cautiously stepping back. “I’ll, ah, just be going, if that’s still an option—“

In a blink, the maid was in front of her and grabbing her arm. “You don’t have that option any more, kid. You’re coming with me and explaining yourself. I don’t think the master’s going to be happy knowing that you’re in here and broke his things… and neither will your parents, when they realize how much they’re going to have to pay to fix those.”