Chapter 5-1

Chapter 5: Fledgling

After being turned away at the village, the pair headed west again, making for Llinos's valley. They made good time, arriving well before the first snow. Almonihah was glad to see Garekh again, and he had a long list of questions for Llinos.

The winter passed quickly, much as the last one had, with Almonihah learning more of the natural world and the teachings of Naishia, as well as practicing more of his Ranger skills. He was getting to be a decent shot with a bow, and Zrathanzon had him start practicing with a (practice) sword in each hand. He said that Almonihah could someday be a very accomplished swordsman with his natural ambidexterity.

The snows lingered late into the spring that year, so they left the valley later than they had the past year. This time Zrathanzon took Almonihah north through the foothills for a little while after leaving Llinos.

As they were heading north, Zrathanzon suddenly stopped and motioned his pupil to be silent.

“Look,” he murmured in Draconic, pointing at a small cave opening in a nearby cliff face.

Almonihah peered at the cave, trying to figure out what the Ranger was referring to. Then he saw something move in the cave opening. He could just make out a feathered head with a rather sharp-looking beak.

“Probably a mother griffon watching over her eggs,” Zrathanzon whispered in explanation.

Just then the head turned in their direction. With a loud shriek, the griffon took to the air, heading straight towards them.

Zrathanzon said something angry in Draconic that Almonihah didn't quite understand. “Get back into the woods!” He said urgently to the younger half-dragon.

The two hurried back into the woods, but the griffon seemed quite determined to find them, even landing and chasing them on foot. Even though it wasn't as fast on the ground as in the air, it still seemed to be gaining on the pair.

With another angry word, Zrathanzon grabbed his bow, whirled, and in one smooth motion drew, knocked, and fired an arrow. It struck the griffon right in the forehead, dropping it almost instantly. After it was still, Zrathanzon sighed and motioned to Almonihah.

“Hate to do that,” He said. “It was my mistake for letting her see us.” He was quiet for a moment as they reached the dead griffon, then continued, “We should see if she had any eggs. We might be able to save her kids, even if I had to kill the mother.”

They made their way to the base of the cliff in which the griffon's cave was. After taking a good look at it, Zrathanzon told Almonihah to stay behind while he climbed up. It took him a lot of effort and time, but the Ranger made it up to the cave, then disappeared inside it. A couple of minutes later, he came back out, his backpack bulging out a bit more than when he had gone up. He made his way back down the cliff face a bit more quickly than he had gone up.

“Only one egg,” he commented to Almonihah when he reached the bottom of the cliff again. He pulled the egg out of his pack carefully as he spoke. It was certainly much larger than a bird's egg, being perhaps a bit larger than Zrathanzon's head. “That's a bit strange. Usually griffons lay three or four at a time. Now, we've got to figure out what to do with it...” he trailed off as he thought.

Almonihah frowned in thought as well. “Are we going to hatch it?” he asked after a moment.

Zrathanzon slowly nodded. “If we can. Griffon eggs can be a bit tricky to hatch, even if you don't remove them from their original nest. It's what we're going to do after it hatches that worries me. Griffons are more intelligent than most people give them credit for, but griffon hatchlings can be... difficult.”

Almonihah looked at his mentor inquisitively. “Have you tried raising one before?”

The Ranger chuckled. “Can't fool you, can I, kid? I have tried once before...”

“It didn't work so well?” the younger half-dragon asked after Zrathanzon had been silent for several moments.

The half-gold dragon simply shook his head, his lips quirking upwards a bit at a memory. Then he sobered. “I can't say I was ever planning on trying again... but it looks like I may have to.”

“So... what do we do first?”

“First...” Zrathanzon replied thoughtfully, “We'll need some kind of nest for it. It probably won't take long to hatch—griffon eggs usually hatch fairly early in the spring—but it'll be a few weeks more before the hatchling can travel. So we need a good campsite.” He paused for a moment in thought, then continued, “There's a good one just a couple hour's travel east of here. Let's go set up camp, and then we can figure out how we're going to do this.”

It did, indeed, take them only a couple of hours to reach the campsite Zrathanzon had referred to , a small clearing beside a stream that had one of the old fire rings Almonihah recognized from other campsites they had used. After they set up camp, the Ranger instructed his pupil to gather various materials for constructing something of a nest for the egg, while he worked on keeping it warm. Each time Almonihah returned with more nest materials, it seemed the older half-dragon was trying some other way to keep the egg warm.

Once they had built up something that looked like a large nest, Zrathanzon carefully placed the egg in it. Then he sighed.

“I think we're going to have to do this the same way griffons do. Body heat.”

The next couple of weeks were something of an interesting experience. Laying under a blanket curled up with a griffon egg on a makeshift nest was certainly not something either of them had ever expected to do. In time, however, Almonihah noticed the egg wobbling, and then cracks starting to form.

“Zrathanzon! I think it's hatching!” He called out.

The Ranger, who had been fletching some arrows, came over, took one look at the egg, and ordered Almonihah to grab some of the meat they had prepared for exactly this occasion. By the time he had retrieved the meat and returned, there was a small beak poking out of the egg, busily working to remove the rest of the eggshell. Zrathanzon just silently nodded at Almonihah as he returned, then started carefully pulling bits of shell off to help the hatchling out.

Before long, the hatchling griffon was free of its shell. It didn't look like much—a bedraggled mess of damp feathers and fur. It couldn't have been much more than a foot long. Zrathanzon carefully picked up a small piece of meat between two fingers and held it out in front of the hatchling. It considered it for a moment, its amber eyes focusing on the food in front of it. Then it rather eagerly snapped at it.

Perhaps a little bit too eagerly.

Zrathanzon said something rather angry in Draconic that Almonihah couldn't quite understand as he snatched his bleeding finger back. After a few moments of muttering more Draconic under his breath, the Ranger muttered, a bit louder (though still in Draconic), “At least we know what to call him.”

“What?” Almonihah asked, his attention still focused on the griffon.

“Varack'Nara,” was the Ranger's terse response.

Almonihah grinned a bit. Varack'Nara was Draconic for “Razor Beak”.

Zrathanzon glanced at Almonihah's grin. “Why don't you try it?” he said, a little bit jokingly.

“Okay!” Almonihah seemed surprisingly excited at the opportunity given what had happened to the last person to feed the griffon.

Zrathanzon whispered him some instructions, and he carefully selected a piece of meat and carefully held it in front of Varack'Nara—just a little bit further away than the older half-dragon had. The hatchling considered the proffered meat carefully, and then just as carefully bit into it with his beak . Almonihah let go of it, and the little griffon gulped the meat down.

Zrathanzon observed the whole proceeding with an expression of mingled amusement and disbelief. “Maybe you should be the one to feed him,” he said.

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Yes, there's a griffon. No, it's not Zakhin'Dakh yet. This just explains to some degree why Almonihah and Zakhin'Dakh get along so well. You'll also note that all of Almonihah's childhood friends had four legs. I have a feeling this has... had an influence on his adult opinions, shall I say?

Chapter five. This is quite a ways further than I've ever gotten on a work like this before. In fact, I think it's the longest single piece of writing I've ever written. Which is why I know it's rough. So I'd still appreciate helpful comments (Hint, Hint). Compliments would be nice, too.