Riccardo's arm was jostled with every step his gryphon took under him. It had taken an hour for it to become unbearable, and gritting his teeth against the pain was no longer enough to get him through. Flying would make for a smoother ride, and he considered it but lost his voice every time he looked at the back of his father's head. His father would not likely take to the idea.

"Our place is at the front," his father told him once. "That is where a leader should be. Would you have someone else take your place at the helm? To do so would show weakness."

His father certainly had strong opinions on what a leader should be, and where they should be, and Riccardo knew asking for the relief flying would provide would only earn him the same comments that were typical of situations before.

There would be no mercy for him, now, either. And so he bit his tongue and rode wearily at his father's flank, thankful that Taizong, at least, had a much smoother gait than the earth-shakingly heavy footfalls of the giant maned elk. Taizong moved much more cat-like, stalking over the ground in light and rhythmic steps. The maned elk were like boulders in the way they simply mowed everything in their path with their large, cloven hooves.

Despite Taizong's smooth gait, Riccardo could feel himself beginning to feel sick at the pain in his shoulder. He didn't have to wonder if anyone else was struggling with the pace, though. His ears turned to face behind him at the sound of soft complaints among their soldiers. Pitiful, little moans of complaint escaped their people at the roughness of the road on their injured bodies. He heard someone in the back complain to another of hunger. They hadn't brought nearly enough blood for how many were injured in the fight.

"Father," Riccardo called. Finding his voice finally. He nudged Taizong to speed up to be right at his father's side. "Will we be making camp at sunrise?"

Demetri looked across at Riccardo, their eyes level from the back of their respective mounts. "No," Demetri answered shortly. "We'll ride through the day."

Riccardo wasn't surprised, but he was frustrated with the short answer. "Can't you hear our soldiers," he asked, lowly, knowing better than to allow too much audience in on this conversation.

"Making camp will not fill their stomachs," Demetri said, eyes narrowing slightly. "Their best chance is to get them home as quickly as possible."

"Traveling will only make it worse," Riccardo continued to argue.

"Until you are king, you do not make decisions," Demetri said, lip curling slightly back over his fangs.

Riccardo could feel the anger rising in his chest, but beyond his father's gaze, he could see the eyes now on him as well. Ivan's and Ruben's both with unreadable gazes, mirroring his father's. It deflated him immediately, and he looked forward again. "Yes, father," he said.

It was enough to end the argument.

Behind the head of the army, Riccardo could still hear the groans and moans of their soldiers, though, and he commiserated with them as his own injury throbbed and complained with every step. Despite this, he didn't dare say another word against his father's decision. Whether he liked it or not, the plan was made with no room for his arguing.

--

Despite everyone's wishes against it, the journey home was not without incident. For several hours, the army made the slow journey over bumpy, poorly tended roads that often were lost to them in the snowy landscape of their homeland. Their only saving grace was that they were less than two days from their home. However, against the cold and bumps of the wagon wheels against the ground, the hungry and injured vampires had poor resilience.

No one questioned Demetri as they continued onward, though. Riccardo rode wearily with them, and even though he had put his fur coat on, the cold was starting to make a miserable ride even more miserable. He was ultimately grateful to be atop Taizong whose warm body and plush feathers kept his legs warm. Even when he hunkered down against his faithful steed, though, the cold wind bit at his face.

"It's getting worse," Ruben murmured nearby. Riccardo looked over to spot the man glancing upwards at the sky. When Riccardo followed his gaze, his heart sank to see the cloud coverage overhead had grown thicker. "We'll be in the middle of a blizzard before too long."

"Not a blizzard... But close," Ivan said, gravely. "We'll still be able to make it, but our travel will be slowed even more still."

"This road's already bloody hard to follow," Luka griped. "Demetri, we ought to make camp and wait for it to clear. Ration the rest of the blood to the injured. The healthy can do without."

"There's a town a few miles out of our way," added Valentin. "They know where their loyalties lie and will harbor us. A few townsfolk could be sacrificed for a few full bellies, too."

"Their loyalties won't remain with us if we treat them like cattle to sacrifice to the army," Riccardo muttered.

"They know the price of our protection," Ivan responded to the comment.

"I remind you to hold your tongue, Riccardo," Demetri said. "This is the final warning."

Riccardo clenched his jaw, and let out a frustrated breath, but looked pointedly straight ahead again, disengaging from the conversation, or so he thought.

"Do you know the town we speak of," Ruben asked, and Riccardo glanced at him, confirming it was himself being spoken to. He hesitated, throwing another glance at his father, but then nodded. "Demetri, perhaps Riccardo and I should take to the sky. We can ensure we've not lost the path and look for where we should course correct to Jongvale."

"Go," Demetri said with a nod. "May The Watcher be with you."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"I'm sure He will be," Ruben said and then looked to Riccardo again. "Come." It was all the warning given before he urged his gryphon forward with his heels. "Yup, yup," he told it, and the feathery beast took off at a run, wings unfolding as it did.

"Come on, Taizong," Riccardo told his steed who picked his head up at seeing his fellow taking off. "Yup, yup." He nudged Taizong with his heels at the same time and with the hand of his good arm grabbed the handle-like pommel of his saddle as the gryphon picked his pace up.

Despite the bird-like front half of his body, Taizong moved fluidly more like his feline rear end. He tore through the snow, wings flaring and flapping until finally one powerful leap into the sky and a powerful beat of his wings lifted them into the sky. The wind had been biting before, but as they rose up into the sky, it became painful. Riccardo buried his face down into the fur collar of his coat, eyes peaking out above it to make sure he was following Ruben on a white steed, grateful for the contrast of the white fur against the darkening sky.

High above the tree line, the two gryphons slowly leveled out to fly smoothly parallel to the earth. They could see for miles with this new angle, just as predicted.

"Jongvale should be to the west," Ruben called across the air between their two gryphons. "Tell me if you spot it!"

Riccardo looked to his left, but there was nothing to be seen but trees, snow, and grey clouds. "Nothing so far," Riccardo said. He looked over the side of Taizong at the ground below. "I can barely make out where the road is, either," he admitted. Usually, it was easy to see as a line of cleared trees, but there was no such obvious line to be seen. "Are we even anywhere near it?"

Ruben looked below as well, and for a moment, the two stared below at the earth, trying to make out any sign of it. "There," Ruben finally said. Riccardo looked up to see him pointing to their right. He looked out that way. The road was far enough away that he could barely make out that the tops of the trees he was seeing had a part between them and that said part winded like a river northwards. "It looks like somewhere we veered west of it," Ruben said. "Jongvale should still be on this side of it, though, so all is not lost. Keep your eyes open for it."

The strength of a gryphon lay in its flight speed, not so much in its ground speed. The steeds were wasted on ground travel where they were awkwardly shaped for movement across the ground. They had no such hindrance up in the air. As big as these beasts were, they were light of bone, and their feathery plumage on the ends of their tail as well as the sails at the base of it in addition to their wings carried them well on the wind. As such, Riccardo and Ruben each on their mounts were covering a great distance in a very short amount of time.

Riccardo merely had to burrow his face into his coat against the cold and give Taizong gentle cues to keep heading westward. He figured Ruben was likely also feeling the effects of the cold as the other man looked to be bracing himself against it as well, and was as quiet as Riccardo as they both kept scanning the horizon.

"There," Ruben said finally at the same time Riccardo spotted the flickering yellow lights of various lanterns and fires lit in the town of Jongvale.

"A slight correction to keep going left, but otherwise, we're not too far off course to get there," Riccardo said.

"It will still take us hours with the state of things, especially with this storm nearly upon us," Ruben said. "But it's closer than home even if it adds time to our trip back."

"Mm..." Riccardo looked at the flickering lights of Jongvale. The humans there were no strangers to vampires passing through so close as they were to Malatia. It had served as a stop to quarter the troops before, but historically there had been tensions there. Humans didn't exactly like having vampires around. Considering the superiority complex bred into the very fibers of vampire society, Riccardo couldn't blame them.

"Let's turn around to help course correct the troops there," Ruben suggested. As Ruben turned his gryphon about, Riccardo followed suit to return to everyone else.

Once Taizong had turned fully about, Riccardo hunkered himself down again, tucking his face into the fur of his coat and lifting his legs up closer to his body as well. It felt like it had gotten even colder, and just as he had this thought, white flurries started to fall from the sky. It seemed the storm had finally hit, them. They still had visibility at this point, but Riccardo could quickly see how easy it would be to lose Ruben on his mostly white gryphon if the snow started to come down harder. "Come on, Tai, keep on them," he told his mount. Taizong's feathery ears turned back, a clear sign he'd heard the directions.

"Stay close," Ruben also called back, clearly thinking about the visibility if the storm picked up, too.

"I will," Riccardo assured, and scritched Taizong's neck. "Good boy, Tai," he whispered the praise. He kept his hand in the gryphon's feathers, though, soaking up the warmth on his gloved hand.

Ruben and Riccardo lapsed into silence after this assurance. Riccardo couldn't be sure, but he felt Ruben was just as worried about getting back to the troops before the storm got too thick as he was. Ruben stared pointedly ahead, and Riccardo tried to keep his eyes pointedly on Ruben. He couldn't help but sweep his own eyes out over the earth as well, though, looking for signs of their army. Their having not been on the path made it difficult to spot them, though. Not to mention, their people didn't need firelight to see by as humans did. Fire was good to keep warm, yes, but it wasn't easily portable, and so they'd had no reason to set fires.

The snow started to come down thicker in a mere few minutes than it had started at all, and with thicker snowfall came faster winds that blew in, too. They buffeted right at Riccardo and Taizong's faces. He tried to angle his face downwards, looking up through his lashes to try to keep his gaze fixed on Ruben, but even at this angle the wind bit at his eyes. When Taizong shook his head against it, Riccardo felt his body dip to the side a little. Even such a slight change would push them off course, and visibility was getting poorer and poorer. It would be impossible to find the troops like this.

"Ruben! I -" But when he looked up again, he couldn't see anything. He raised his arm against the wind and snow, squinting out into the seemingly empty open air. "Ruben!"

"Riccardo!" He heard the muffled voice calling to him on the wind, and he turned his head, trying to figure out which direction it had come from. Taizong was still flying forward, though, and he grabbed for the reins of the gryphon to pull back on.

"Hold," he commanded the beast, pulling and shifting back to command Taizong to hover. His loyal gryphon tried his best, but when he shifted to do so, the wind caught his wings, and the bird screeched frustration as they were pushed backward on it. Taizong redirected on his own, maneuvering to right himself.

Above, below, and on both sides of them, the snow flurries were coming down so thickly it was hard to see anything but white around them. Riccardo could hear nothing but the wind buffeting at them, now. Taizong's movements left him utterly disoriented, unsure which way they'd come from or which way to go.

The wind was coming at us on our way back, he realized. "This way, Tai," he told his gryphon, using his heels and reins to steer Taizong into the wind again.

Taizong turned and beat his wings furiously. The wind was positively howling at this point, though. Gryphons were strong creatures in their size, but Riccardo felt his loyal mount struggle against the elements. He wasn't sure if Tai would be able to fight it all the way back. It was with this thought in his head that the wind suddenly shifted and Riccardo felt his heart sink.

Who's to say we were even going the right way following the wind, anyway, he realized.

"Down, Tai," he told his gryphon, jutting his hand forward to give Taizong as much loose rein as possible to land safely. "Just go down!"

The gryphon seemed eager for this command, and immediately they angled downwards as he made swiftly for the ground. He had to trust Taizong as they landed, knowing the tops of trees would come up at them too fast for him to react. They came up out of the haze of the storm out of nowhere. Riccardo felt Taizong hit and break a few branches before one flew up at his own face. He dodged it only for another to follow right behind it.

The last thing he heard was the snap of the branch breaking on his head before darkness took him.