Arryn woke with a start, goosebumps prickling all over.
It was pitch black and something was very wrong.
His instincts screamed that he was in danger, but he couldn’t tell why.
He reached out and grasped the reins of the Gryphon, which was still gliding forward with powerful flaps. Unlike him, the bird didn’t seem to have sensed anything wrong.
How long have I been asleep?
Arryn squinted as his body became more and more alert.
Faint luminescent waves stirred in the darkness and as he focused on them, the magic vision of his eye became clearer and clearer; until he could make out the trees below by how the energy flowed round them.
The feeling got stronger and he could tell he was being watched. Something large was examining him, and not from a distance. He could tell it was close.
Ever so slowly, he turned his head around.
Behind him the waves of energy rippled and converged around a great beast, something far larger than the Gryphon. Similarly to how he could see the trees, he could see the creatures outline from where the magic was pushed aside and it terrified him. The creature had a house sized wingspan and a thick body, with segmented legs hanging down. Its wings seemed to stir the air silently and there was something insectile about the rigidity of its wings and geometric carapace.
It looks like a dragonfly, if dragonflies were the size of dragons.
Arryn quietened his breathing, carefully analysing the situation like how Lezen had taught him. He reckoned it was about thirty feet behind them, though without depth perception it was much harder to tell. He stood no chance against that thing in a fight, and by the way it was moving he would not be able to outfly it on the Gryphon.
The only advantage he had was that it didn’t seem to have noticed that he had woken, it probably could only make out the Gryphon, not its rider. Silently it stalked them, like it was waiting for them to tire, confident that it was invisible to them.
Arryn carefully sat up. Then paused with bated breath. The creature showed no sign of noticing the movement.
So it can see us, and likely tell how big we are, but its vision isn’t good enough to see me moving around on the Gryphon's back.
Arryn turned his head back around, keeping the motion slow. Then he pondered the situation. Going into the clouds probably wouldn’t hinder the thing much, so he would have to escape it by getting to the ground. He would have no hope of saving the Gryphon, however if he jumped off from a lower height, he might be able to save himself.
I have far less meat on me than the Gryphon, so it will probably leave me be and go for the larger target.
He carefully tapped his heels into the sides of the Gryphon, making the beast ever so slightly begin to descend. Falling from this height would be suicide, but how low can I go before it notices?
The Creature didn’t seem to notice the course alteration as they slowly peeled away from the cloud layer, inching closer to the ground. However it still followed them at the same distance.
What followed was the most tense half hour he had ever experienced. Ever so often the Gryphon would level out and he’d have to nudge it a smidgen again. His mind felt razor sharp as he focused on the situation, and his magic vision seemed a bit clearer than it had been before, like focusing on it for such a long time had increased its sensitivity.
The trees grew steadily larger as he neared them. It was then Arryn realised his next problem.
I’m moving way too fast for the trees to catch my fall.
He felt panic begin to rise, but forced himself to stay calm
Then a glimmer in the distance caught his eye. The trees seemed to stop around a large round patch of forest, and the ground there was perfectly smooth, with the odd ripple.
That's water, not land; A Lake!
Arryn judged the distance to the best of his ability, and then carefully began gathering what he would need. It would be impossible to take all the saddlebags, but he could take the more important things. He first took out an empty waterskin, this would protect anything he bought with him from getting wet. Carefully, he stowed the map, compass, a flint and steel, another empty waterskin and as much of the jerky from the month's worth of rations that he could fit.
He would need to hunt for more food somehow, so it was lucky that Lezen had taught him the basics of wilderness survival growing up. It was the only part of the ruthless Sky Warrior training that Arryn’s mother had let him learn prematurely.
The Lake grew closer and closer quite quickly, it was a lot smaller than he had first thought, so he would need to be very careful with the timing of the jump. He extricated his legs from the saddle straps and held on tightly while he crouched, holding the full waterskin in his teeth.
Then his foot slipped on the leather saddle and his weight shifted. He trod in one of the open saddlebags to right himself and it held —but with a loud ripping noise.
Did it hear that?
The creature behind suddenly stirred, its wings making a horrible buzzing noise that it must have been hiding before.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Not waiting a moment longer, Arryn strained his legs and pushed himself off the Gryphons back.
He had misjudged it, the water was too shallow here.
Arryn spread himself out, this was going to hurt, but he wouldn’t be able to survive here if he broke his leg.
Then SMACK —he hit the water— front first. His bones rattled with the impact.
The creature would have heard it, if the splash wasn’t drowned out by the sudden screech and crunch of the Gryphon it had just caught.
Arryn pulled himself to the surface, cringing from the spectacular belly flop. He watched the colossal insectile abomination, even more horrifying looking from below, become silent again and shoot off, unaware of the morsel it had missed. The Gryphon's severed head impacted the ground on the shore.
Cold and wet, Arryn let out a breath that he didn’t know he had been holding. Then he swam to shore, his belly burning.
The first thing he removed was the heavy fur cloak, its comforting layer now completely sodden, He spread it out, beside the full waterskin and the severed Gryphon’s head. Then he began to collect sticks, he would quickly chill off if he didn’t get a fire going, both Elves and Skylarkin didn’t do well when wet.
It took him longer than he would like to admit to get the fire going, even sacrificing a corner of the scroll to get it to start. When it finally caught and grew large enough he draped his cloak and sodden clothes off of sticks he impaled around the fire. This would dry them and help hide the fire’s light from the creatures of the night.
Finally he let himself sit down and enjoy the fire. He didn’t feel tired at all after that long sleep on Gryphon back, but he could definitely give himself a few hours of warmth. As he stared into the flickering flames he contemplated his situation.
I’ve lost the gryphon, this will slow down my progress a lot and I also have no idea how far I am from my destination. At least I still have the compass and map, I may be stranded, but I can find my way eventually, even though it may take me a few months.
So long as something doesn’t eat me first…
There was a reason humans lived in the secluded bastions after all.
Long ago humans had been like rabbits, populating the land everywhere, adventuring and killing off monsters before they could reach the higher power levels. That had all changed when three beasts had ascended to godhood in quick succession; Razorwing, Leviathan and the most dreaded of all, Planeswalker. Within a year they had disrupted the order of the world and killed almost all of the current ascended and unascended humans.
The last god of humanity, Harmony, the high concept of order had set up the seven bastions of humanity, hidden away in the cracks of the world, where the beasts wouldn’t or couldn’t roam. Harmony had not stopped in their quest for the salvation of humanity until two more ascended humans had stepped up to aid in the defence of the bastions; Sae of the Twin Suns bastion, and Yulius of the Tundra Oasis.
Born of war, these two gods were stronger than those who came before, and assisted by harmony had struck a tenuous agreement with the beast gods to leave the hidden bastions alone. When all was done, Harmony had left the physical plane and merged themselves with the agreement somehow to strengthen it in a way that no one except the other gods understood. Sae and Yulius took the thrones in their respective bastions. Leaving the rest of the outside world to the beasts.
This balance had remained for the last ten thousand years, with no more creatures or humans managing to ascend to godhood. Mostly because the opposing gods sought them out and killed them before they could even get close to ascending. The only changes that had occurred were the slow evolution of the 7 races to suit the bizarre environments of their bastions.
The age of ascent had generated more stories than one could tell in a lifetime and Arryn had spent his entire childhood collecting them from anyone he could find, Lezen had even assisted him. Now that was all behind him though.
Arryn quietly laughed.
He had probably matured more in the last day than in his entire life before.
Slightly warmed up, he fished some jerky from the waterskin and chewed it. It was as tough as shoe leather. Then his eye spotted the Gryphon head.
Animal brains were a delicacy, if harvested immediately they could even be eaten raw like a jelly. His mouth watered as he remembered the wonders his mother could do with brain.
He approached the head and tried to lift it up, straining his muscles until he was staring at the eagle head that was as almost as wide as his chest. It was a big creature, larger than any land horse. And that dragonfly thing had eaten almost all of it in one bite.
He shivered.
The eyes of the creature sparkled.
Arryn frowned and set the head down, looking at the slight sparkles in its eyes. They seemed to grow brighter. He felt his eye thrum as it seemed to resonate with the sparkles in the Gryphon's eye. Slowly he reached out and touched one.
For a moment he felt a slight squish and was repulsed, then his finger sort of turned slightly see through and entered the eye. Something in the eye was calling him. He put his thumb in as well and they seemed to contact something ethereal. He pinched it between his thumb and finger and pulled, withdrawing a glowing blob of light.
Then he felt a bit silly.
What am I meant to do with this?
He focused on the feeling or instinct that had made him stick his fingers in the eye and felt a slight tugging. It was like it wanted to go towards him. He let go and the blob shot towards his eye.
An indescribable sensation filled him as it entered his eye and he felt soothing electric energy shoot through his being. Then there was a flash and his vision sharpened. Arryn gasped as his night vision increased tenfold, the darkness receding until it felt less like midnight and more like late evening.
The intoxicating feeling vanished, and his fingers shook as he repeated the process with the other eye. It felt almost as good, but the effects seemed to be diminishing the second time around, the darkness only retreating a tiny amount more.
Arryn stared at the Gryphon, slightly stunned as it suddenly withered away before his eyes, decaying at an accelerated rate until all that was left was a white gleaming skull sitting in a pile of ash.
I wish it had more eyes.
The feeling had energised his body and he suddenly wanted to be moving. If he got a head start now, he could make good progress before morning. Not as much progress as flying, but good enough.
He checked the cloak and upon finding the fur dry and smokey, he wrapped himself up again. Then he went down to the lake and filled the spare waterskin, attaching it to his belt, beside the other waterskin and the compass.
Feeling eager to move, he kicked dirt over his fire until it went out. He was about to go, however after a moments thought he took a step back and picked up the Gryphon skull. It was quite big and completely clean.
He curiously put it on his head, finding it fit snugly as a helmet and he could easily see from its eye sockets.
No more distractions around he stepped forwards into the unknown.
Maybe the vale of wizardry is in the next valley?
He was not that lucky.
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