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Reel123 — Old Emergence 13. Changing Times (tf)
Published: 2014-01-21 17:56:25 +0000 UTC; Views: 6401; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 0
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“Annn-ver- ath.”“Anferaff.”
“Ann- ther- aff.”
“Ann- feh- Seriously Lorcan, why’d you just make a word up!?” Karen snapped impatiently and slumped backwards on the feathery pile of blankets. She was fed up of this preparation, and she’d been veiled for so long, there was the little pressure in her bald head, the little twinge winding her up.
“Because.” The tan skinned teenager rolled his eyes, leaning against the garage wall, “You have to avoid saying it by accident or you’ll make a big mess. Now come on, you were almost there, anverath.”
“What is it? A v, or a th?” She scowled, “An-ther-ath. An-ther-ath.”
“Good. And?”
“Denrol.” She said obediently, “But why does it need an incantation? When I do my trick I didn’t need magic words, and I’ve never used them when I changed on before.”
“Well, your so-called trick is just messing with the veil for a millisecond. And the words aren’t for you changing, they’re… they’re like settings for the Stone.” He tugged a bangle out of his pocket and threw it over to her cheerfully. She caught it and held it up, it was basically a cord of stretchy fabric fastened onto the black shiny Miracle Stone, “Denrol is charging, if you like. It’ll sap any magic from you, or over-ambient stuff like the dragons, and it should stop you using any magic to shapeshift by accident. Anverath is release, it lets you use its power to change form and stops draining everything.”
“Denrol. Anverath.” Karen repeatedly, and slipped the bangle up her arm, enjoying the weight slightly. “Wait, why’d you use words? I can’t talk when I’m a gryphon, so, it’ll just stay in release mode?”
“Cos I’m fifteen.” He grinned, “Yes, I am incredibly talented and that is amazingly powerful and magical, but I in my youth and room to err, went with words gryphons can’t say.”
“Fine, fine, thankyou!” Karen replied guiltily. It wasn’t fair of her, she forgot that he was her own age sometimes, “It’s awesome. As long as it doesn’t turn me into a chick.”
“You are a chick.” Lorcan muttered dryly. “But it won’t, it’s just like a magic battery. You’ll need to use magic either way when you shapeshift, whereas with veil you change back automatically when it wears off.”
“And how do I shapeshift?”
“Dunno. You said you managed to turn into your gryphon form on your own, what did you do for that?”
“Imagined it, I guess, made it happen.” She said, and glanced at the watch on her other arm, just a couple of minutes left. She tied a scarf around Lorcan’s eyes and then set him down facing a corner of the garage.
“Seriously, you don’t need to be so paranoid.” He complained, voice muffled by the fabric, “I’ve been dealing with veil and shapeshifting all my life, I know what discretion is. Can’t I just leave you to it and go get a drink?”
“Anverath. No, I want you supervising in case I me-“ She groaned and fell onto her hands and knees under the sheet she had grabbed, feeling the changes begin, her body start to grow larger and larger.
“Yeah, supervising. I’m not sure you know what that word means.” Lorcan pointed out, and she hissed as her spine elongated, reaching out into a long narrow tail. Her ribs grew deeper into an ark like shape, the organs shifting inside, and her skull reformed into a predatory shape like putty. “Ah, no more talking from you? Nice timing at least, well done on that, you've now mastered the basics of veil. Just in time to learn to shapeshift. Course, biggest problem with trying to learn to shapeshift, practicing even, it really, really hurts. I am not jealous of you.”
She screeched as enormous pinions surged out of her shoulders, muscles forming around them, and her limbs changed to support the increased weight on her body. Feathers and fur burst out in waves of pins and needles, covering her up with a dark grey coat. In a couple of moments she was finished and climbed to her claws, wings hugging close to herself as she turned around.
“Right, stage one done.” Lorcan said, peering out under his blindfold. “Now, the Stone’s power can be used by you, so you just need to figure out how to change to human form, that’s the only obstacle.”
Karen turned her head to look, the bangle had stretched around the upper, feathery part of her foreleg. It matched the feathers too, black on dark grey, with its bubbling dragon magic hidden away inside. She sat down and screwed her eyes shut, trying to find her other body.
This was it. This would be her power, her ability. Two real forms, a hybrid, able to switch between them. She gathered the image in her mind, human Karen, who she was, who she’d be. Slim, narrow, straight face. Slightly rounded nose. Hazel eyes, not as strong as these ones. Black hair around her head, chin length, passed down from the gryphon. Thin fingers, she thought of it all, building the picture in her head, every detail she could think of. That slight scar, all of the damage too…
Her body started to shrink again, pain flaring up and she lost the image immediately. It didn’t matter though, her feathers were shedding or vanishing beneath skin, her ribs were becoming shallower and more human, her claws smaller and blunter nails. Her paws shortened massive, the ends less so, to become distinct toes without hard pads, and the thighs and shins straightened out. A crack came from her pelvis, aligning it for bipedal stance, and her shoulders rolled to be more flexible and dextrous. The thick gryphon neck shrunk massively and her head reformed into a human skull, black hair blossoming from the scalp and teeth forming within her mouth. Smaller and smaller, her skin turning smooth and limbs slipping into a crosslegged position, instead of the strange catlike pose.
The pain ended soon, and her hands flew up to her features, checking the nose, checking the finger tips, the nails. they were ehrs! She laughed and threw her head back, shouting "I did it!"
“Can I..”
“No, hang on!” She snapped and grabbed her clothes, struggling to pull them over her head and front and up to her waist, before realising the problem, “Oh, I…. I think I made a mistake…you can take it off…”
There was a second of silence, and then a burst of laughter and the sound of him falling onto the floor. Karen flushed with embarrassment and hugged her wings tight around herself instinctively, furry tail curling up. Those were still there, the enormous dark feathered limbs emerging from her human back, they hadn’t even changed at all. Each one was ridiculous, she was less than two metres tall, and spread out she knew they were around the four metre mark in span each, over twice her height. They were really heavy too…
“You… you forgot…” Lorcan gasped amid his laughter, “You forgot your wings and tail!? Ha ha ha, how did you do that?!”
“It’s not funny!” Karen yelled and lashed out one wing towards him. The sheer weight tipped her over before the limb got anywhere near him, and she breathed out, lying down. At least she was too light to hurt her wings like this, and they weren’t a burden now. “I don’t know, I thought of my human form.”
“Did you think of getting, hahaha, rid of your other apendages?” Lorcan smiled, and walked over, looking down with tears in his eyes, “Actually, don't answer, I guess you didn't.”
“I didn’t know I had to! I thought of a human form, not one with wings and a tail!”
“No, you thought of a human form, you didn’t think of a human form without wings and a tail, or you wouldn’t have them.” He said firmly, and wandered over to sit down on the pile of blankets at the other end of the garage. Just sat down on her nest casually without asking. “You need to think of getting rid of them, or they stick around.”
“Fine, fine, I get it. Just give me a breather.” Karen scowled, shutting her eyes, “I honestly thought I’d managed it first time.”
“Eh, might as well get used to it, you’re stuck now.” He muttered.
“What?!” Karen exclaimed, trying to piece together the image of her gryphon form in her mind, she had to be able to change back, right?
As it turned out, she could, and after a little while under her talons Lorcan admitted it had been a joke and humbly asked her to step off him. She stayed there for a minute longer, much of her weight going to her forelegs to keep him trapped and squirming until she got bored and the shapeshifting lesson resumed.
As it turned out, getting a rough human shape wasn’t that hard, although painful. It was thinking of her entire form, remembering everything that was hard. The second time she was left with the eyes and claws of the gryphon, and after that she had the tail again. The pain made her hesitate too, worrying about the torture that would reshape her every time, and she hesitated for longer and longer, trying to muster up the courage to change. At the end she remained sitting for fifteen minutes, eyes screwed up, grinding her beak, fighting to concentrate, before the boy called it quits.
“You’re getting the hang of it, you don’t really need me around to practice.” He told her, “And I’ve got to go make some veil. All the new mystics will start arriving at the camp in a couple of days, so we need to stockpile a bit.”
Karen nodded and leaned forward to tap him gently with her head. Thankyou.
“No problem. Just keep a hold of that stone, and don’t waste it changing too much.” He said and patted her feathers, “See you tomorrow!”
* * * * *
“Denrol.” She said gently and tapped the Stone, just in case. Then she turned back to the mirror, running her eyes up and down her reflection with a gleeful smile. She looked just like herself, it had only taken a couple of tries after making the tail mistake again that morning. But no, the magic was turned off now, she didn’t have any veil, any more secrets, she could hold this form for as long as she liked!
And fly when she wanted to, that part of her mind said, and somehow her smile stretched wider. Gryphon when she wanted, human when she wanted. “Goodbye baldy.”
“Just when I was getting used to her too.” Dad said behind her, but he was smiling too. “Are you going to spend this long getting ready every morning Karen? You’ve only got a couple of minutes to get out the door.”
“No, I just need practice, get it in one go.” She admitted and hopped up the stairs out of the garage around him. “Tomorrow I’ll manage to get my hair done too.”
“Don’t be too ambitious. Changing into a human’s one thing, but managing your hair? Pfff.” He said, “Why don’t you just sleep like that for a whole night?”
“I’m scared I might change back accidentally and sleep on my wings. That really hurt the last time.” She said and sat down on the staircase to pull her shoes on. Of course, with the stone draining her magic, she shouldn’t be able to do that, but… she slept better after a good flight and just curling up on her nest, it wasn’t like she had to pick only one form to sleep in. “I might try it tonight I guess, just see how I feel.”
“This world is getting extremely odd. I never imagined I would be debating which species my daughter slept as.” Dad said, wiping his brow, and then turned to look into the living room door “Ollie, you come get ready too!”
Her younger black haired brother emerged from the room, a piece of toast clasped in his mouth, and he stopped and stared at her with silent confusion. Karen smiled, “Yeah, I’m going to school like this, I’m not going to change accidentally.”
“It’s nice to see you looking like siblings again.” Dad noted and handed Oliver his bag, “Now, this is just a trial day for you, if you don’t want to go, just tell us and we’ll figure something else out instead. Karen’ll be at school with you too, so look for her if you’re uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, come on, we’d better go.” Karen said and slung her bag over her shoulder, then opened the door and stepped outside. Oliver followed quietly, not actually seeming that nervous, but his silence was still uncanny. A psychologist had said he’d open up eventually, he was just in a state of shock, and maybe getting back into everyday life would help settle him. She felt some nerves herself as they approached the school, and tapped the Stone on her arm again, murmuring “Denrol” just to be sure. The stares were less than usual at least, she spotted a few people looking at them and recognizing the Thomson kids, the ones who hadn’t been at school in ages.
“Hey! Hey Ollie, how are you?” A kid asked as he bounded up, a slightly chubby brown haired boy that Karen half recognized. Bull or something.
“He’s not talking just now.” Karen told him as Oliver looked at him and nodded.
“Has he lost his voice?”
“Something like that. Can you make sure he gets to class okay, and tell the teacher? You’re in his class right?” She said and pushed Ollie forward gently.
“Yeah, alright. C’mon Ollie we’ve been wondering what was up with you, it’s not contagious is it…?” the boy said cheerfully and paced off through the yard with him. Karen smirked and let them go, then continued on through the main doors into a long corridor, crammed with other students. People chatted and moved around, barely noticing her passing by as she wove through the building, heading towards the maths class.
“Hey! Hey, Karen, wait up!” She heard a voice shout, and paused to look at the thin blond teenager chasing after her. Jamie was gasping when he reached her, grinning widely, but she scowled at the sight of the fire starter, narrowing her eyes. “Hey, how’ve, huh, you been? Schools been back for two weeks, what happened to you?”
“Stuff, I got hurt, and was in a bad mood Friday after all that in the forest.” She said quietly, and started to walk briskly, eager to lose him.
“What? Were you, were you in the woods on Halloween?” He gasped. She considered telling him the truth straight forward for an instant; you picked me up when I was tiny and tried to burn me alive later on. No, no point.
“Yeah, that fire was horrible, and all the pigeons and fog too. I thought I was going to die when I saw you and Dan lighting up the gas.” Karen narrowed her eyes and glowered at him, hands closing slowly.
“Huh? Were yo-“ He caught himself and shook his head, “Everyone says they saw me. There are monsters than can change their faces, what they look like entirely, that’ve been hiding for forever, and you all just go for me straight away, convinced that those liars are nice and sweet and innocent.”
“I thought you’d be happy, with how much you hate mystics, try and take your credit.”
“You’re the same as the others. Just loving those monsters, acting like they’re all victims. They’re not humans, they’re beasts.” He said firmly, “How come you can’t see that? You’ve always been sensible and clever, you’re one of the best in cla-“
She lifted a hand and flicked a dark grey feather at him gently, then turned and strode off into the classroom. Behind her she heard Jamie gasp and almost choke, “You’re friends with that freak too!? The bird thing?”
“Nope.” She murmured and went to the back of the maths room to sit down, where she had most days this week. In a different body.
Jamie came in after her, his face taking in where she was sitting, then the dark feather in his fist, and realisation finally dawned on his face. Then utter fear and disgust, “You… you were one of them all along?! You’ve been lying to us all your life?”
“No, it just woke up recently. I didn’t know.”
His grimace didn’t shift and he swung around to sit at the front of the classroom, breathing hard. Karen felt a touch of satisfaction; the idiot knew he’d just been bothering someone he’d been friends with, for the past two weeks without even realising it. More eyes rested on her when others came into the class, some, like Chelsea saying it was nice to see her again. Tony and Emma offered congratulations, and Maddie and Lorcan just smiled. Mark looked pleased but sat down a bit away, resting his crutches against the wooden desk. Then there were the ones Jamie told, glaring at her with a mix of accusation and maybe guilt. Why didn’t you tell us who you were? Because you were too stupid to ask, Karen thought hotly.
The reactions were like that through the day. People piecing together, by rumour or by where she sat, by her jotters, Karen Thomson was the bald girl, the gryphon, a witch, a manticore. She resolved to find out what a manticore was later on, and witch seemed like too great a title for her too.
“Yeah, you know nothing about magic, you’d be an awful witch.” Lorcan confirmed.
“I can do this though.” She said, slightly peeved. She held out a hand and opened it, revealing a dark grey feather.
“Right, if you keep that up you’re going to have none left.” Lorcan commented, “That’s just a trick, stuff going between forms, like the dragons breathing smoke.”
“But it is a magic trick.”
“I thought you didn’t want called a witch?”
“I don’t!” She agreed, “But I don’t know nothing, I can do enough to take care of myself now. Thanks to you and Scevola, I won't need veil. Although it was kinda your faults in the first place. Can you do anything tricks like that Maddie?”
The blond girl frowned, “Not really, I don’t lose scales like you do feathers.”
Karen cocked her head, "What do you do? Do you shed yo-"
“Karen?! Karen, come over here please.” The teacher, Mr Reece called, and she glanced up nervously, then walked over.
“Uh, yes sir?”
The man looked at her curiously, then looked away, back down at his computer, “You’re to go to the nurses office, your little brother’s down there.”
“Right, thankyou sir.” Karen swallowed and turned to hurry out of the classroom. What was wrong with him now? Her mind hurtled back to Halloween suddenly, the panic rising and quickening her pace, what if he was hurt? Or, picked on because of her, or something worse? No, the teacher hadn’t seemed that worried, it couldn’t be that bad. But if he was at the nurses office, if he was there, then something was wrong, bad, that was cause for worry.
She almost walked into the door of the nurses office, before she realised she was there and knocked the door hard.
“Hello? Ach, come in, come in!” she heard the old woman shout, and then screaming and wailing in the background.
“Ollie!?” Karen gasped and rushed in, taking in her younger brother in an instant. He was in a horrible state, bleeding from deep scratches on his cheek, his hands were red and bloody, his eyes were screwed up and overflowing with tears and he shaking and gasping and shrieking, trying to push away the old grey haired nurse. Karen raced over and wrapped her arms around him immediately, holding him tight, “Ollie, it’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here. You’re not going to get hurt, you’re safe.”
“Ah, Karen, right. He’s just got himself into a fit, thanks for coming.” The nurse muttered, taking a step back. Karen ignored her and focussed on holding Ollie down, his hand kept clawing up as though to scratch himself again. His shaking continued, gasping as though it was hard to breathe, and she rubbed his back gently.
“It’s okay, its okay, shush, shush. There’s no fire, the fire’s all gone, all the pigeon’s are gone, we’re out of the woods. We’re in school, it’s okay, nothing to be afraid of, you’re safe.” She cooed, repeating it again and again and again. It seemed to work, barely, at one point he suddenly screamed and flailed and punched her so hard she was winded, and gasped for air.
“…gr…gryphon…” He gasped and shivered, face pulled in a horrid grimace.
“What is it? Here, look, watch this.” Karen murmured, showing him her hand, empty. Then she turned it over into a fist, and reached her other hand over to it, and pulled a feather from the fist, ticking him with the end. “There, that’s a gryphon feathe-“
“NO! No, no-… not you!” He yelled and shook, eyes focussing on her amid the torrent of tears. They looked bloodshot and red, but focussed, focussed for the first time in a week. “… gr..gryphon… kill.. urgh, killed…Cale…”
“What is it? A gryphon killed Caleb?” she frowned, that might explain why the dying teenager had been so terrified of her in that form, “Did you see it?”
Oliver looked at her, biting his lip hard, then lurched backwards, shaking and bawling again. Karen hugged him again, whispering, “It’s okay, you’re safe. Only one gryphon here, and she’s a big softy that makes a good nest, that’s all. Just me and you, nothing to be scared of. Well, there is that nurse, but she’s only scary isn’t she? No, we can deal with her, just us two, we’ll be fine. You’ve done really well, you came to school, I’m so proud. We’re going to get you better, talking again eh?”
She wasn’t sure if she meant half the things she said, they were just words of comfort, words to reassure him when she felt so terrified herself. Was this what her dad felt? Under that relaxed persona and his banter and jokes, was he just as scared and worried as she was now? She didn’t want to know, that’d ruin the point, she’d just pretend that he was so tough and lighthearted and firm.
“Shuush, it’s fine, we’ll be fine. Everything’s alright.” She kept saying, “I actually miss you talking, you know that? You could be funny and cheer me up sometimes, even if you were a bit annoying.”
Oliver sniffed and kept his head on her shoulders, but she thought he was listening at least, “I barely spoke out as baldy. Figured if people were smart, they could just ask who I was, or what I was. Act mature. They just guessed and made rumours for the most part instead, it didn’t help much. You don’t need to talk about Thursday, it’d… it’d just be nice, you know?”
His head shifted slightly in what she thought was a nod, but they stayed still for what seemed like ages, silent as his breathing calmed down. The bell even went, and she realised that was the end of the day. “Huh, way to go little bro, you got me out of biology. Let’s go get my bag, and head home, alright? Well done for coming in.”
She climbed to her feet and helped him up, then passed the nurse who was sitting reading some book by the door. “Thanks for getting me, miss.”
“No problem, thanks for taking a good hand with him, don’t reckon I would’ve calmed ‘im down.” She said, “You’ve got a good sister there, Oliver.”
He smiled and tilted his head with a squint, as if to say, “If you say so.”
“Gee thanks, come on or my bag’ll go to Lorcan’s house or something.” Karen said and started through the school again. Thankfully her bag was still there, and Mr Reece didn’t seem overly concerned at her missing a lesson, saying it was good of her to help her brother. Although she still got homework to catch up with, in addition to that of other classes.
* * * * *
Karen flapped her wings, rising higher and higher away from the clearing with great strokes of the grey pinions. The sun was high up in her sky, an azure blue perfect for flying with a slight breeze from the north. And since it was finally Saturday, she could fly the entire day! That thought made her almost wriggle with excitement, twirling through the air as she rose over the forest.
Her eyes swept over it in an instant. There was a mark from the fire up here, a blackened swathe of trees in the midst of red and green. From above it seemed almost small, a detail amid the vast woodland, but below she knew it was a huge area, the result of only two human’s foolishness. Jamie and Dan. Humans? The name was right, but it seemed strange when she thought about it, people didn’t call people “humans”. It was a gryphon habit.
And so is this, she thought and half closed her wings, plummeting down through the sky. The trees grew larger and larger, zooming up at her, faster. She narrowed her eyes and watched, picking out the branches and twigs on the trees, the whorls in the bark, the veins of dying leaves that had fallen to earth… Her wings snapped fully out and swept down with a huge push, lifting her clear of the hard wooden fate and back up into her heavens.
She danced through the sky playfully for a good time after that, winging her way further northwards over the forest and away from human eyes. She was curious by now, how far could she fly? How high? How fast? Up to now, she had had school or other busy human days before she even started flying well into the afternoon, but not today, she had all of it. She had told dad she might not be back till late so she could fly for as long as she wanted, as long as she didn’t go after a plane or something he had joked. The idea seemed silly, and planes looked ridiculous to her now. Big fat metal birds with immobile wings that couldn’t even do… this!
She slammed her wings forwards and down hard, sending herself backwards and up with mischievous pleasure. Easy. She spread them even wider and opened her beak with an excited screech. Then she flapped a single wing and spun around elegantly, embarking on a series of acrobatics through her sky. Round and round, and up and down again, a twisting tumbling hurricane of dark feathers and fur. A new shape came into her mind, a somersault, and she arched herself backwards and up, aiming so that for an instant she would be upside do-
An encouraging shriek came from below, filling her with pride.
Then confusion took its place and she flailed, upside down and felt gravity take control, dragging her down, closer and closer to the trees. Karen screamed and pushed a wing to right to turn back the right way up. More flaps, fighting for control, out of sync, pushing her this way then that and then she was bumping into a branch that grabbed her tail. Her legs lashed out and she dropped lower, wings scraped painfully off of branches. She closed them to try and avoid it, but then she fell faster and hit the forest floor hard, utterly winded. She winced and closed her eyes, gulping in deep breaths to deal with the pain.
Her chest and belly hurt a ton, and her legs felt cramped which just seemed unfair. Cats were meant to land on their feet, didn’t that extend to lions and gryphons? You were useless there, hind legs. A concerned chirp came from beside her, followed by some hard object, poking at her wings. No, give me a moment, she thought and pulled them in closer. It squawked again and poked her until she opened an eye.
There was a gryphon there, a big one with red and brown feathers covering its front, a tawny tail stretched out behind. Bright yellow eyes were narrowed with concern, and it cocked its head curiously, making a questioning squawk. Are you okay?
Karen clambered upright with a pained hiss, then sat down again and stared at the gryphon in stunned silence. Two pointed ears at the back of the head said it was male, and the beak was an orange yellow compared to her black, the same with the scaly bird forelegs. His hind had faint differences in the sleek fur, small patterns that ran over, and all the way down to the tuft of fur at the end of his swaying tail. He wasn’t much larger than her, not much older either she guessed, not the size of the adult mother she had seen once.
He stood up slowly, taking a step forward and made the questioning noise again. Karen blinked and shook herself, then snorted and glowered at him. He’d distracted her! She would’ve done the somersault if it wasn’t for his screeches! She lifted her head and gestured to the sky through the broken branches, and stamped. Your fault!
The male nodded slowly, as if agreeing he had distracted her. And then started to walk around her without any sign of an apology! Karen screeched indignantly and stood up, spinning around to watch him. Another gryphon! Excitement and curiosity rose in her now that she realised it properly, he was another gryphon in the forest, near home. He paced around behind her again and she turned, watching with wide eyes.
A gryphon had killed Caleb, Oliver had said on Thursday. The thought swam up out of nowhere, and her gaze fell on his claws, sharp and long as hers, albeit a bit muddy. Easily sharp enough to give a human that stomach wound though, just run up to him in the darkness and the fog and slash him, then run off again.
She span around and ran away, dashing through the trees, around them, under branches. Argh, forests! Always branches and sticks everywhere, going for her wings, so many obstacles and so little space, they were just awful. She heard a worried cry from the red gryphon, and steered around a little, trying to lose him in the forest. They were the same after all, both winged creatures of the sky, he was at the same disadvantage as she was down here. Maybe that was safer, she was visible in the sky, and he was older, more experienced, probably born awing. Or hatche-
She stumbled and caught her claw on a branch, tearing gouges through rotten wood before regaining her footing and continuing to run. Maybe she could use size? She was smaller, if she went for the narrower, thicker sections of forest, maybe she could lose him, wait till dark and then fly home, get away, ask Ollie if the gryphon he saw was reddish…
And if he said no? That was a thought. What if the gryphon hadn’t attacked anyone, and she was freaking out and running off after he had… well, complimented her flying? It had sounded like an enthusiastic screech, even if it had thrown her off…
Suddenly the gryphon charged out of the trees ahead of her. Leaves scattered around his paws and he lunged forward, raising a claw covered in black knife like talons. Karen panicked, shrieked and raked the earth with her claws to turn, to try and run, but momentum was so much and just as she stopped, the other one was on her, claws diving close for her neck, her throat.
He tapped her gently and grinned as much as a gryphon could, opening his beak slightly and his eyes twinkling happily. A triumphant look was about him, and he leaped a few paces back, tensing and watching. Karen paused and cocked her head just to check he hadn’t done anything to her feathers, and then back to him. His wings were folded tight by his sides, she noticed now, immobile, just sitting there on his flanks so that they were protected from the branches.
Her own were half spread, like normal, and she took a couple of steps forward, curious now. He could’ve caught her or anything there, instead he’d just tapped her and now… the reddish gryphon bounded back a little more, staying the same distance away. Karen frowned and walked closer, and he retreated again, and then again. The next time, she pushed off with her legs in a run, and suddenly he was running too, away, slipping under branches and over logs easily.
You chase me, tap me, and then start running... oh. Karen blinked as the realisation came, were they playing tag? She skidded to a halt, shaking her head. No, she was a gryphon, fifteen years old, she didn’t play tag.
The red gryphon was apparently keen to play though, he took a couple of minutes to turn and come back, looking at her suspiciously. He jerked his head and pointed into the woods again, still eager to run. She shook her head firmly, and closed her beak as he nodded. Yes. No. Yes. No. No, no no no no. He sighed and then came closer to nudge her with her beak and point in one direction. What do you want, Karen thought, but turned and followed him at an easier pace, nice and gentle and careful. She was half scared, but he was another gryphon! Third she’d met, she couldn’t exactly turn down a chance to find out about her kind. Her half-kind, she supposed, but it was still worth trying, if she ran he’d just play tag again…
Bright sunlight warmed her coat as they emerged out into a huge glade eventually. Long grass danced in the breeze, and the few trees here were tall and almost bare, and far apart. Space! Karen relaxed several notches and stretched her wings out, trotting towards the centre where a stream trickled with a soft gargling song. It seemed like a lovely place, wild and spacious and clear, she should fly back here another day.
The male gryphon cawed and she turned to look. He glanced at her, and then up to look at the sky nervously. Fly? Was that the question?
Karen nodded and knelt, then leaped up into the air, bringing her wings down. In an instant she was in the air again, flapping her wings, and wheeled around, searching for the other one.
He hadn’t moved. He was still standing on the glass, wings spread out, watching her. Karen slowed in the air, flapping her wings hard to maintain level as she looked at him, jerking her beak upwards, he could fly too. That’d be much more fun than tag, playing in the sky where they belonged.
He seemed to hesitate, and looked at her as he crouched down, raising his wings. His tail lashed uncertainly, and he pushed off with his legs, jumping up and forwards. The two wings thrust downwards, lifting him barely, and he screeched as he brought them up and down, but he was falling and hitting the earth head first then. His wings fell down dejectedly and his body slumped, a furious screech coming from his beak.
Karen gasped and circled overhead, her shadow drawing a sign in the clearing. He couldn’t fly? He couldn’t fly. He tried again and fell to the ground under her gaze, and climbed to his feet a third time, getting ready, raising his wings. Karen continued circling incredulously, how could he fail to fly?! He was a gryphon, born for the sky. He could run so fast that she didn’t notice him overtaking, but he couldn’t fly? The weak wings went up again, and down as he rose, and then back up as he fell, and down onto the earth.
Ridiculous. She screeched furiously and dove down, then landed beside him heavily. Her forelegs almost bucked and she pecked at his wing, screeching and stamping. Get up. Get up and fly! The red gryphon turned away, and pulled his wings up over his head, ashamed.
Karen screeched again and poked at his wing. Yeah, you should get be ashamed, fly! Fly, rise, soar, wing, hover, wheel, dive, ascend! It was stupid, he was a gryphon, he should be able to fly! He must’ve had fifteen years to learn, and she’d had barely two weeks! Two shrieks came, and two jabs to illustrate the point, before he lurched upward and buffeted her with his wing as he did so. It was weak, nothing, and she narrowed her eyes. His wing shoulders, chest, the muscles there seemed less than they should have been…
He noticed her attention and folded his wings as though to hide the weak shoulders, looking at his talons nervously. Karen snorted and lunged to grab and pull one back out insistently, then jerked her head back towards the sky. Fly! She screeched sadly, pointing to the air again and again. You have to be able to fly, if you can’t, then what’s the point of you!?
He shook his head and stepped backwards, tail low and limp, folding the wing back onto his flank. He even shuddered, jamming his eyes shut, and then turned and sprinted back towards the trees. Karen saw the tears anyway and quietened just for a second, unsure what to do. Go and comfort him, her head said, go say sorry and cheer him up. How many other gryphons had she seen? She couldn't afford to make enemies or alienate them, she was half one of them now.
She turned on the spot and leaped back into the air, soaring homewards away from the shameful flightless beast.
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Comments: 48
why do i get the feeling the small male gryphon was oliver?
or maybe his gryphon genes(is that what you would say?) awake eventually?
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They exist in it, yeah, just written quite a bit since then so Harpies dont appear for a while.
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okay. if you run out of characters, Click Here
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Hehe, nice, but I had en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_… as one of my fav web pages, not just greek ones! Hehehehe!
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oh.. cool. that had a lot more.
ps I finished
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Finished? Existence and Growing Up too?
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almost every time you comment, new chapter
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Ooooh, I interpreted that as "No chapter 4", you meant now! Whoops, lol I thought it had disappeared from dA or something!
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nope, just means everytime i reply Im a chapter further
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What is that thing in the picture, anyway? Been wondering about it for a while.
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It's meant to be a glass of veil, green potion. Trust me you're not alone, jost had to remind me what it was when I first got it.
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Good progress with shape shifting, now the only pb is the clothes.
For the new griffon, that's not the reaction I would think from her, I tought she was more considerate. She didn't even seek for an explanation.
The silent dialog is nicely done, clear and instinctive.
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Yeah, shapeshifting, as for clothes... just common sense, you dont need magic for it.
I think Karen let her instincts get the better of her really, gryphons care about flying a whole lot, and so does she now. Meeting a flightless gryphon is like a sprinter with no legs, or a solar powered torch, useless in their minds. And she's a bit disappointed that he can't show her anything, he seems like more of a burden.
Thanks for the feedback, the silent conversations were a bit of a pain.
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I makes sense. and it's worrying she didn't notice her instincts talking.
He could learn her to ryn, he is lot better for that. (Maybe Caleb would ne alive if she had been faster)
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Well I noticed in this chapter that the red gryphon wasn't able to fly. Which just means the character I created might have someone to talk to. if it get's in the story. but some of the myths I suspect will look for the other myths in the town, and lorcan is gonna greet all the new myths (he is the veil maker in the village after all). These are all just guesses.
A story is a window to the writers interests, a comment is a window in how a reader of the story thinks and how their interest drew them to the story. So a story that interests people gets more views in turn getting more comments and that means more views into other peoples minds which can lead to a story becoming better, which in turn draws more people, etc.
This story is getting more interesting with each chaper, and that's what I love about it.
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You're the... "werepyre" guy, aye? Yeah, sorry, I've been going through those characters a ton, drafting and redrafting, he and your brothers ones get in as twins... (well, you both gave the same birthday)
Yeah, I reckon Shiven might like him more than Kevin would. Lorcan's not the mystics veil maker though, his big cousin Matt is the responsible one, Lorcan helps out a lot, but messes about a lot too. Adding another mage too, Ermien's person, Carver.
Wonderful point about window's, I honestly always think fav's are nice, they help the viewer find that work again, but comments are what encourage me waaaaay more, so thankyou. This is the best and most feedback on a story I've ever been blessed with!
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I have an interesting question:
When someone is veiled, does it alter their DNA? (The mechanism would be a direct genetic translation, trait by trait relative to the norms of both species, from the source species into the target species. This would make veiling to a species multiple time produce the same form each time, and would explain why veiling to the same species, such as a human drinking human veil, doesn't cause any changes.) The reason I ask is that it could make it more difficult to use DNA evidence, and would cause significant scientific interest in magic, especially veil, once discovered. Well, that and it would indicate whether or not the resulting form is biologically stable. If it isn't stable, that would definitely explain the sickness that comes with remaining veiled for a significant period of time.
It could explain Karen's failure to veil into her birth form. If she has gryphon and human genes in her DNA, the genes specific to the inactive form would lie dormant. Only the active genes would get translated, so veil would translate to human using her gryphon genes while ignoring the dormant human genes, resulting in a different human form. There is a lot of "artifact" DNA that isn't actually used by anything, and therefore shouldn't be used in translation.
I'm sorry, I like to take things apart and see how they work. Or how they might work.
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Something like that yeah. and the naga veil near the start was made from Maddie, so she actually inherited some of her traits into her human veilled form. The blood and stuff doesn't really change, dragon blood remains loaded with magic, and the government takes samples from both forms when they register creatures. Thinking of having a "magic eye" or something that can see through veil and glamour and other disguises.
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What I was getting at was (though looking back, I'm not surprised you didn't see it...I had trouble finding it and I knew what I meant):
Is the sickness caused by being veiled for a long period of time (such as with Hex and Shen, and possibly that new gryphon) a result of long term exposure to veil's magic (DNA altered), or the body trying to maintain the original form rather than the veiled form (change is cosmetic)?
I really should try to avoid posting late at night.
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Sickness... yeah just their "magic" immune system tries to fight off veil and get into their true forms. And they're runty from being confined and coddled for so long, else Hex'd be a fair bit bigger than his sis. Karen on the other hand becomes a healthy gryphon because her form was created around that time, but she had to eat a lot to balance for making mass out of nothing.
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Great chapter!
And did he kill Caleb? Hmm.... I'd say if he did, it was probably either perceived as an act of self defense, or an accident.
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Hmm, yeah, does he seem like the kind to just attack unprovoked? Oh... actually yeah he is, he's not big on empathy.
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Would he though?
Now, I'm dead certain it will be revealed all too soon, but, does this other gryphon think as the dragons do? Sentient, but not valuing the things that humans do?
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Valuing the things humans do?
Me and my sister are both humans. She sees a spider, tries to kill it or catch it. I see a spider, catch it, chuck it outdoors, and then put the paper and cup in her bedroom looking like it's still inside. 
Sorry, chatting with Ermien's made me really long winded XD The red gryphon's not got Karen's values, that's for sure, maybe Lorcan's a bit closer, maybe Nessie too.
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Until right at the ending, I was assuming the other gryphon was Lorcan in veil, wanting to spend more time hanging out with Karen.
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The hair colour normally resembles the creature, Lorcan's dark brown haired, so most of his beast forms would have that colour of fur,not auburn. Good idea though, glad I'm keeping it mysterious.
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I'm wondering... is this a psychological thing...? Is he... afraid of heights?
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Good idea, but not the case. I considered it, went for something more complex.
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Yeah awesome chapter ! I love it
A gryphon playing tag xD That's the problem of the lack of spoken language...
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Gryphn playing tag? Yeah, thats a problem, it'd be much more fun if Karen lightened up, way better with 2 or more people.
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So true... But it's understandable she's not in the mood, with what Ollie just said.
Making him misinterpret her running is such a good idea
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Don't think he misinterpreted, so much as just made the best of it. "Oh, finally found her, wow she is awful at running. Um... tig."
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He has more humor than I do then ^^
And it's unfair, she'll always lose xD
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very good chapter can't wait for John (the Phoenix) to show Jamie how a real fire works . good times
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Burn baby burn! Eech, don't stoop to his level. And are you sure he started the fire?
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I don't know why i wrote his name maybe I was thinking of a part of this chapter, I'm lost, now I have to go back and read it again . and na his level is boring I prefer making things like a shield, made out of steel, in my spear time, in class, it a fun class
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Yeah, uh, the red gryphon kinda stole your character spot, I don't want too many similar creatures, but might still have your guy someplace else. But, finally fixed the shapeshifting thing, hoo boy that took a while.
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i look forward to seeing my guy in the story, if you can find a place. but of course, don't force it
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