The keet-thief tried to lose her by making many turns down the winding Aerie corridors, but Erin’s smaller size and lack of burdens allowed her to make those turns quicker, and she began to catch up.

Hope flared, but as she got closer, it occurred to her that even if she managed to tackle him, the keets might be hurt or killed. She continued to chase him, shouting for help as often as she had the breath to spare. It wasn’t long before she barely had enough to keep her own legs going, and she began to slow down.

Multiple voices rang out behind her, but none seemed to be ahead to stop him. They had all been focused on Wrath, somewhere else in the Aerie. The entrance was in front of them now, approaching fast. If he makes it outside… Erin let out one last shout, as loud as she could.

As the man passed through the entrance, someone sprinted at him from the side and grabbed him by the hair, causing an immediate, back-wrenching stop. A smaller figure crouched behind him, took him down with a shoulder to the back of the knees, and together they gently lowered him to the ground, making certain the bundled keets were safe. It was Koben and Leslyn.

Erin dropped to her knees and then flopped onto a hip, feeling as if every muscle in her body had melted into pudding.

Others rushed past to gather around the thief. When the circle broke, Koben and Kaleit both escorted him back into the Aerie by an arm apiece, while Leslyn and the Aeriemaster carried the wrapped keets. Erin rose and took Leslyn’s elbow, joining the small gathering as they marched the thief all the way to the flight cage.

When the man saw Wrath looming inside, ruby red bits of her meal coating her beak, he suddenly panicked and thrashed, trying to get away. A few more helpers stepped in to hold him just outside the bars of the cage.

The griffin spotted her children in the crowd and let out a peal of rage. She galloped forward on her wings and then flared them high overhead, thrusting her bloody beak through the bars. Most of the people in the group backed away, but some held their ground—even Leslyn, whose eyes were fearful. Erin suddenly realized what it must look like to Wrath, and what her uncle was risking by holding one of the keets in that moment. She already had it out for him as it was.

Shifting his keet into the crook of one arm, Aeriemaster Gunu took hold of the thief’s collar and pulled him toward Wrath. The prince and Kaleit carried him that small distance, for he was too frightened to even stand on his own two feet. He was limp in their hands, only able to gawk at the rumbling beast that stared right back.

“This man stole your keets while you hunted,” Gunu said simply. “We brought them back.” His hand went toward Erin, and there was a moment of terror as he yanked her toward the cage as well, drawing the mother’s livid green gaze. “This girl alerted us. If she hadn’t, your keets would be long gone now. They are safe, right here, thanks to her.”

Wrath looked from the man to the girl, tilting her head slightly as if she didn’t quite believe the Aeriemaster.

“We’ll return them to the nest immediately, and keep watch while you finish your meal.”

The griffin’s feathers had slowly begun to relax, but she shrilled and thumped against the bars the moment the men began to escort the thief away.

Gunu stepped between them, blocking her view of the thief. “You cannot kill him. This isn’t the wild. You are home now, among friends. We will take care of the appropriate punishment.”

With that, the party save for those escorting the thief retreated back to the nest, trailed by Wrath’s anxious rumblings. Erin stayed close to Leslyn and Gunu, who still carried the keets.

“Why did we have to upset Wrath?” she asked aloud. “We could’ve just put the keets back in the nest, and she’d be none the wiser.”

“She would have known who touched them,” Leslyn said, giving her a sideways glance. “She would’ve smelled me on this one with no context as to why. I’d be a dead man next time she saw me.”

“As would I,” said Gunu. “She would have become quite dangerous to everyone with our trust broken. She doesn’t like that we handled her offspring without permission as it is, but at least she understands that it was necessary.”

“Some ‘lore writer’ you are,” Leslyn said to Erin under his breath. “Still don’t know anything about griffins.”

“I do know things, it’s just that I didn’t write the lore to such detail,” was her defensive snap. “It’s a whole world. It’d be impossible to know everything about everything.” That cold twinge was in her feet again, but she doggedly refused to think anymore about the subject. She watched her uncle and the Aeriemaster carefully place the keets back into the nest, suddenly quite thankful that she hadn’t been in contact with them herself.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Preparations continued through the morning, and around midday, everyone took a break for a meal—a simple ration of water, bread and cheese provided by the Aerie. The redheaded girl and her wereling companion also ate the same, refusing any extra food and drink that the Aeriemaster offered.

Prince Koben and Kaleit returned from wherever they had taken the thief, Captain Tannoran striding in alongside them. Koben spotted the redhead instantly, his sly eyes lighting up. “Queen Katharesa! You’ve arrived safely, I see.”

“She’s a little young to be Koben’s mother,” Leslyn deadpanned.

“She’s not that kind of queen,” Erin hissed. She was pleased to see Leslyn’s eyes go wide as he took another look at the young woman, recognizing her for what she was. Which was…? Erin had no real idea, other than the fact that she was a noteworthy figure. She put on an awkward grin as Tannoran came to stand in front of her.

He looked down with a measuring gaze that, drawn out as it was, made her fidget uncomfortably. “I commend your actions against the thief,” he eventually said. “Sounding the alarm from a safe distance was the correct response. He was armed.”

It was hard to smile over the withering sensation in her stomach, but Erin tried. “Thank you, sir.”

“Good work. Carry on.”

As the captain paced back over to Gunu and the others, he passed his son. Erin tried not to notice the intense stare Kaleit was giving his father, but the outrage in his eyes was so bright that it was a little hard to miss. Somehow, she was convinced, this would be another offense he'd add to his list.

Tannoran and the older men left the apartment, with Gunu escorting Katharesa and her companion to continue their tour of the Aerie before fetching Wrath back to her nest. Leslyn went with Koben, of course, and Erin and Kaleit were made to remain and continue the work they had started before the incident. She kept her back toward him as much as she could while she swept. Eye contact was going to be a definite no for a while.

Even so, that didn’t stop her mind, and certainly not her mouth, from running. "So, what's your problem with the Queen?"

The rustle of straw was the only response at first. "My problem is that I don't see how anyone would want to take on a quest that's failed before it's even started."

"What quest? How did it fail?"

“I’ll advise the captain that you wish to be enrolled in children’s lessons as soon as convenient.”

He said it with such lofty derision that Erin gripped her broom and gritted her teeth. "Is it really that hard to just tell me?"

"We're at work."

"Obviously, but no one said we couldn't talk! It's not like I'm asking you to sit down and give me a whole history lesson."

She waited. The next bale to be added to the rows of makeshift seats was placed with a louder landing than the last. A second bale. A third. The keets peeped a cheery counterpoint in between each thump.

"The fact is, she's failed to find all of her knights in her past three appearances over four hundred years’ time. I guarantee this appearance will be no different. She’s twenty years old now and hasn’t found another knight since Teryn. That was when she was just a child, and he came to her, here in Nilvar where she’s always born."

Okay, so that was a start, and explained Katharesa’s relationship with Teryn. “What does she need knights for?”

She got no answer, and focused back on her work. A little while later, Erin stopped mid-sweep as it clicked. "That's why you were so rude to her." She turned to look at him. "You thought she was trying to recruit you?"

His eyes flicked to meet hers. "And why should she? I am no knight."

"Obviously. Why would anyone want a jerk like you to look out for her? I'd bet all you'd do is nag and judge her every step of the way of… whatever she’s trying to do."

"And I've much better things to do with my time. Clearly, so have you." He raised his brows and glanced pointedly at the nesting debris that still remained on the floor, along with a fair amount of fresh straw from the stacks that he and the other hands had unloaded.

"I'm getting to it," Erin snipped, and turned her back again to continue sweeping. She mentally grumbled for a while about Kaleit and his rude, stupid self, but it wasn't long before her every thought was about Katharesa again. She considered waiting until evening so she could check the lore pages on her tablet, but patience had never been her strong suit. "So," she ventured again with a glance over her shoulder, "why hasn't the Queen been able to find her knights?"

“Some think the missing knights’ spirits were completely destroyed during the first failed quest, but I say that it’s all thanks to the floods she’s supposed to be reversing.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Has it not occurred to you that every bit of habitable land is on an island? The merfolk only let us sail so far. Her knights must be appearing in unreachable places, and the fact that you haven’t even heard of the Queen before makes it obvious she hasn’t gotten far enough to search other mainlands in generations."

"But the griffins—"

"—Can fly?" Kaleit's gaze rolled toward the ceiling and his teeth flashed in a momentary sneer. "Tell me, did you ever see a griffin before Koben hauled you out of the ocean?"

Did seeing them in her dreams qualify? She couldn’t decide fast enough to provide a timely answer.

"As I thought,” he snorted. “The nearest known island that our ships can't reach is days further out. Do you expect a griffin to fly that far over the sea with nowhere to land to rest? Stupid girl!"

"Stupid boy!" she yelled right back. The words left her lips automatically, and as soon as she realized it, she determined not to regret it.

That would have been much easier, had Aeriemaster Gunu not appeared in the doorway just in time to hear it.