Chapter 18-3

The creature did something with its face. Zakhin'Dakh looked at it curiously. After a moment, it made some more noises.

“You lived here long?”

Again the griffon understood the meaning of the sounds, but he had no idea how to respond to the question. So he just looked at the weird creature, a bit confused. 

“Nod your head like this,” the creature moved its head up and down, “To say yes. And shake your head like this,” it moved its head from side to side, “To say no.”

It took Zakhin'Dakh a moment to figure out what the thing was saying, and then a moment more to figure out what it wanted. Then he moved his head up and down quickly, then realized he wasn't quite sure that was right, so he stopped and screeched a bit uncertainly at the creature standing in front of him.

“So yes, you have lived here a while,” it said, again doing something with its face. 

Well, it seemed like the moving-head-up-and-down thing was right, so Zakhin'Dakh did it again with more enthusiasm this time, screeching to emphasize his increased assurance.

The creature made some noises again. “Well, were you this big when you got here?” 

He thought the question over for a bit, then shook his head with a negative screech.

“Hm...” The creature was quiet for a moment. Zakhin'Dakh looked it over again. It really was a funny-looking thing. It was scaly like a lizard, but stood on two feet like those big things he'd seen before. It had wings, but didn't use them, which seemed weird.

“Wondering what I am?” It asked.

Zakhin'Dakh moved his head up and down—a nod, it had called the motion—and screeched happily that it had asked for him.

“'m a half-dragon. Father was a bronze dragon, mother was a human.”

Zakhin'Dakh screeched uncertainly, a bit confused. He'd seen a dragon once, he thought, a long way away. Some big winged thing. A human, though... he oddly had some image of what a human was, even though he'd never seen one as far as he knew. 

The creature... the half-dragon made a series of noises. Zakhin'Dakh looked at it, a bit more confused. “t'd take a while t' explain,” it said.

The big griffon screeched sadly. That sounded like he wasn't going to explain. Which was sad, because he wanted to know. Then the half-dragon spoke again.

“Want t' know what I was doing?”

Brought out of his sadness, Zakhin'Dakh nodded and screeched excitedly, taking a step toward the half-dragon.

“Was just looking at your tracks.”

That didn't really mean much of anything to him. He had some vague idea from somewhere—probably wherever he could understand the sounds from—that tracks had something to do with marking the ground when you walked, but he still didn't really understand what 'looking at tracks' meant.

The half-dragon spoke again. “This 's going t' take a while...”

******

So now you know what Zakhin'Dakh was thinking when he met Almonihah. I'll be going into a bit more depth about their first couple of months together than in the previous chapter. Then we'll continue on with what happens when they leave this valley.

Chapter 18-2

It was a deer... or at least it looked like a deer. The odd thing about it was that it was nearly as big as he was. As far as Zakhin'Dakh knew, that was a very unusual characteristic in deer. Of course, that meant it was probably too big for him to hunt, which was unfortunate. It seemed like something he should investigate, though, and so he started looking around the area more closely.

All the animals he found seemed to be similarly giant compared to their normal size, which meant that a rabbit or two was just about right for him. Zakhin'Dakh rather happily verified this fact. His belly full, he explored more, finding a couple streams and more signs of giant animals, including some terrestrial predators—but he saw no sign of aerial predators of his size, much less bigger. And so he started searching for a good nesting site. 

He found a good-sized cave in a cliff not far from one of the streams that seemed just about right. It even had a nice ledge for launching off of and landing on. And so he decided to settle in and make it his territory.

Hunting was rather... difficult at first, as he had to go for different kinds of animals than he was used to, but Zakhin'Dakh was a fairly clever griffon, so he adapted. After a while he started really feeling at home, and slowly, to his delight, he found himself growing to match the size of the other inhabitants of the valley.

Zakhin'Dakh was quite happy in the valley. He enjoyed being big, even though everything else was big, too. Sometimes he'd think a bit gleefully about meeting one of those big two-legged things again, but for the most part, he was content living in the valley, feasting on giant prey. The only thing that disturbed his contentment was a nagging curiosity about what the two-legged things were doing and how they were heading toward his lair. And maybe just a bit of general curiosity, too.

That curiosity was awakened full force one day when he saw a two-legged thing in the valley. Even considering his now much greater size, the two-legged thing seemed smaller than the other ones, and it was all bronze-colored, while the bigger ones had been whitish-bluish. Not only that, but this one had wings. He seemed to be looking at the ground the way the others sometimes had before, though. Zakhin'Dakh stood up and got ready to take off when it looked up at him. For some reason, he just looked back at it. Then it started walking toward him. Curious, Zakhin'Dakh settled back down to watch.

It took the winged two-legged thing quite a while to get to Zakhin'Dakh's ledge. Even when it got to the cliff, it didn't use its wings, but climbed up, instead. Zakhin'Dakh thought that was really weird, but it seemed like a weird kind of thing, so maybe that made sense. Finally, it reached the top and looked at him.

“You're pretty big,” it said, and Zakhin'Dakh was surprised to find he knew exactly what the weird sounds it was making meant. He screeched an enthusiastic agreement.

********

So, I felt rather bad about how... rushed chapter 17 was. So I'm glad we'll have the opportunity to see much of it from Zakhin'Dakh's eyes. It'll be fun to see the difference between his and Almonihah's viewpoints, too, so I'm looking forward to writing the rest of this chapter.

Chapter 18-1

Chapter 18: Griffon

Zakhin'Dakh hatched the middle of five siblings—three males, two females. He wasn't the biggest and strongest nor the smallest and weakest of his siblings, but he was probably the most curious. He was the first to have to be carried back to the nest after wandering near the entrance of the cave his parents were nesting in, and the first to try to fly. The first to succeed, as well, though that took a bit more work. 

 

In time, of course, it was time for him to leave the nest for good, and he flew off away from his parents' territory, as well as the directions his siblings were going. He flew for a while until he found a good place that didn't seem to be claimed by any other griffons. He found a good place to nest and started to settle in. 

 

Game was fairly scarce that winter, and Zakhin'Dakh had to fly further afield to find something to eat. He wasn't the only one, however—he noticed a few tall things he'd never seen before in the distance. They looked kind of funny since they walked on only two legs, but they looked pretty big, so he didn't get too close to them. 

 

He did, however, see them hunting some of the same deer he had wanted to eat. That was a problem, but he just had to look elsewhere. They noticed him hunting, however, and he started seeing them more frequently. A group of them was slowly making its way in the direction of his nest. They would stop every now and then and look at things on the ground, then keep moving. Zakhin'Dakh didn't really know what they were doing, but the way they kept getting closer to his nest made him nervous.

When the group was only a few miles away from his nest, Zakhin'Dakh decided something needed to be done. Being a territorial griffon, he thought it would be good to fly down and drive them out of his territory. So he flew over and dove at them, shriek-roaring a challenge at the intruders. Then one of them threw something at him. He didn't want to get hit by it, so he dodged to the side. It nicked his back leg just enough to draw blood. The others started throwing things, too, and after a little bit, he decided it was best to fly away instead.

He started back toward his nest, but the thought occurred to him that they might be headed there with their sharp things. A little more debate brought him to the decision that it was time to find a new territory. And so he flew away.

Zakhin'Dakh flew for a long time, stopping only when he needed to eat, drink, rest, or sleep. He didn't really keep track of where he was going, except it was into more mountainous areas. Eventually he flew up and over a ridge and saw a valley below him. Deciding it was time for a meal, he descended into the valley to see what he could find. 

 

He could hardly believe the first thing he saw.

*******

Finally, Zakhin'Dakh gets his own chapter! Garkhen has to wait still, but he's much more patient. 

He doesn't have very clear recollections of the earlier parts of his life, given that he wasn't that unusual of a griffon in terms of mental capacity or size back then, and it shows in the detail (or rather, the lack thereof) of this section.

Book I Interlude

Book I Interlude

Zakhin'Dakh—not so big right now inside the Archives, apparently due to some magic item he had—perked up at the mention of his name and screeched excitedly. His half-bronze dragon friend laughed a bit, and I asked what he had said.

“He asked 'f it's his turn now,” Almonihah replied.

I thought for a bit, and decided that now was as good a time as any. I started to explain that I didn't know Great Eagle, even though I'd intended to learn it at some point despite it not having a written form—really most unfortunate, that. From what I've heard, Great Eagles are quite the noble, intelligent creatures—but Almonihah informed me he'd be willing to translate.

I thanked him for the offer, then turned to the griffon. It was rather odd to see him shrunk down as he was, more the size of a large dog than an elephant, as he had been outside. I could certainly see the same enthusiastic energy in him that Almonihah had just been speaking of, though.

He screeched something, which Almonihah translated as “Where do we start?” After a moment of thought, I replied that starting with what he knew of his birth would probably be best. He started to speak, and a moment later his bronze-scaled friend started translating.

“I hatched with a bunch of brothers and sisters... I think two and two, two of each...”

(I should here note that I've decided to make the griffon's story simply a chapter in this book, rather than a book of its own. I suppose I should have realized that he wouldn't have quite as much of a tale as the others.)

*******

I've been sitting on this one for a bit, and just hadn't posted it up. Bet you'd forgotten all about the frame story now, hadn't you? Well, it's still here!

Chapter 17-6

A few days later, Almonihah entered a hidden valley. He knew as soon as he started to descend into it that there was something special about it. It had that... feeling about it, the same one he'd felt so long ago in Llinos's valley. There was something a bit... different here, though. The feeling wasn't quite the same.

A short while later, he saw another thing that was different about this valley—the animals here were much larger than normal. His first clue was some deer tracks that were more the size of a warhorse's hoof-prints. Then he saw the deer themselves, and they removed all doubt as to their size.

After that, he saw many other giant animals—eagles, wolves, rabbits, even a bear that must have been three times Almonihah's height. The strange thing was, the half-dragon felt completely safe among them, and they seemed to completely ignore him, despite evidence that the predators still preyed normally on their giant prey.

Almonihah found some of this evidence in a clearing. There wasn't much left of the deer that had been taken down—just some scattered bits of flesh and bone, as well as some bloodstained earth. What really caught his interest were the tracks. There were both lion paw-prints and eagle talon marks in the ground here, both of similar, massive size. A griffon, fully twice the size of an average adult griffon, judging by the size of the prints.

The Ranger grunted softly in appreciation of the size of the beast as he stood back up, looking up the nearby mountainside as he did. A slight movement caught his eye. It was the griffon. Or at least a griffon. He seemed to be looking down at the half-dragon just as Almonihah was looking back up at him.

With just a hint of a grin, Almonihah started walking toward the mountain, looking up every now and then at the griffon watching him. Normally, he'd think it was stupid to walk closer to a griffon. Wild griffons were ferociously territorial, and if this one was twice the size of a normal griffon, he wouldn't go down easily, even if Almonihah had wanted to try. Here, though... here, the half-dragon was sure that the griffon was no threat. While even his draconic eyes couldn't pick out much detail from this distance, he somehow felt that the griffon was just... curious. Almonihah wondered when the last time someone had come here was.

It was a hard climb to reach the griffon's lair. Part of the way, the Ranger could walk, though carefully, picking his way up the mountain. Other parts he had to climb, digging his claws into cracks in the stone as he pulled himself up. Once he almost spread his wings to fly the rest of the way, but the memory of how he'd gotten them was too fresh, too painful... and he couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was a whisper of a voice in the wind when he flew.

The whole time, the big griffon up above just watched, curiously. Almonihah would meet his eyes occasionally as he climbed up to his perch, and the half-dragon could almost feel the intensity of the griffon's inquisitiveness when they did. Finally, Almonihah reached the edge of the ledge the griffon was on. Said griffon backed up to give him space to pull himself up, and he could finally see the beast properly.

He was a huge male, at least two feet taller than Almonihah at the shoulder. Even standing level with him, Almonihah had the unusual feeling of having to look up at someone. His feathers were a dark brown, with just a hint of lighter color at the tips, and his fur was a tawny golden-brown. Overall, he looked fit and well-fed, maybe even a bit chubby. Clearly, the griffon had been doing quite well for himself.

Of course, his most obvious characteristic was his size. Almonihah had seen dragons before, and of course he'd 'lived' with Galindakherithan for about a year, but you expected dragons to be massive. To stand in front of a griffon this size...

“You're pretty big,” Almonihah said, again with a little bit of a grin, feeling like he needed to break the silence. The griffon responded with a screech that made him wince just a bit—his hearing felt a bit more sensitive since he'd gotten back from the Madlands.

Almonihah nodded to himself a bit once he finished suppressing his wince. He'd known griffons were more intelligent than normal animals, and that they could generally understand a bit of the Common Tongue, just as all creatures of some intelligence could. Which made him wonder...

“You lived here long?” He asked the big griffon. He just looked back at the strange two-legged creature in front of him, seeming a bit confused.

“Nod your head like this,” Almonihah demonstrated, “To say yes. And shake your head like this,” he again demonstrated, “To say no.”

The griffon stared at him for a long moment. This was something Almonihah had wished he'd tried with Varack'Nara, because he'd always felt the griffon had more he wanted to communicate than he'd known how. Or at least, now that he was older he felt that way as he thought back on those times. Now was his chance to find out if a griffon really could think well enough to communicate more than a normal animal.

Suddenly the griffon started nodding his head, then stopped with an uncertain screech, looking at the half-dragon again. Almonihah grinned back at him.

“So yes, you have lived here a while,” he stated, waiting for the griffon to respond. After a moment, it again nodded, this time with a more certain, positive-sounding screech.

“Well, were you this big when you got here?”

A moment's pause, then a shake of the head with another screech.

“Hm...” Almonihah thought for a moment, then noticed that the griffon was looking curiously at him again. “Wondering what I am?”

A more enthusiastic nod followed by a screech.

“'m a half-dragon. Father was a bronze dragon, mother was a human.”

The griffon screeched softly, looking rather confused. Almonihah laughed just a bit at the expression, then said, “t'd take a while t' explain.”

The griffon screeched again in reply, this time seeming a bit disappointed. After a few quiet moments, Almonihah asked, “Want t' know what I was doing?”

Again the nod and affirmative screech, though this time the griffon moved forward a bit excitedly.

“Was just looking at your tracks.”

Again the griffon didn't seem enlightened by his explanation.

Almonihah paused again for a bit, then said, “This 's going t' take a while...”

He spent the next several weeks mostly in the valley, spending a lot of time with the griffon and then striking out to explore sometimes when the griffon went hunting or whatever else he did. Almonihah himself didn't eat or drink anything from the valley itself, instead going on occasional trips out to gather more food from outside of the valley. His experience in the Madlands was too recent for him to risk eating or drinking suspect things, and besides, he didn't particularly want to be twice his current size. He already had to duck to get in some doorways.

The griffon turned out to have quite a personality as Almonihah got to know him better. He was incredibly energetic, but even more curious. The only way Almonihah could get the griffon to stay still for long was to talk with him about things, and he could always tell when he was getting bored. The most difficult thing was that he clearly wanted to communicate more—Almonihah could already recognize several of the different screeches he made, especially the 'question' screech—but didn't know how. The half-dragon had thought about teaching him to speak the Common Tongue, since he obviously already understood it. On further consideration, he'd decided against it, since it didn't seem like griffons could make the right sounds. Instead, he'd started to teach him some Great Eagle, interspersed with a bit about how to scratch some letters in the ground when the griffon got bored.

While, at first, Almonihah had felt anxious to get going again, it wasn't long before he could feel the peace and... rightness of the place soothing him. Though he'd tried hard not to think about it, his experience in the Madlands had shaken the Ranger deeply. He'd become uncertain about who and what he was, or maybe... maybe he'd just been forced to admit he still wasn't sure about those things. Being here didn't answer these questions for him, but he felt himself cheering up anyway. The griffon's innocent enthusiasm was infectious, and Almonihah found himself grinning and even laughing some evenings while talking with him and trying to teach him.

Eventually, though, he felt it was time to leave. While he still didn't know where he needed to go, Almonihah knew he couldn't just stay here. With regret, he told the griffon he was leaving. The griffon shook his head violently, and screeched No! with the little bit of Great Eagle he could speak. The half-dragon, however, refused to be persuaded to stay, and eventually the big griffon admitted defeat with a long, despairing screech, and collapsed in a miserable-looking heap of feathers and fur.

Looking back, Almonihah almost changed his mind, but his certainty that it was time to go wouldn't leave him. As he turned back, he noticed the griffon suddenly stand up.

With! Come! he screeched, bounding after the retreating half-dragon. Almonihah turned again as the griffon came to a stop right behind him.

You want to come with me? he asked in Great Eagle, looking up at the again cheerful and eager eyes.

Yes! was the enthusiastic reply.

Almonihah couldn't help grinning. After a moment of thought, he said, “Well, if you're going to come with me, I think you need a name. How about...” he thought of the times he'd watched the griffon fly for the sheer pleasure of it, doing acrobatics or just trying to fly as fast as he could.

“Zakhin'Dakh.” SwiftWing.

******

Just in case you hadn't realized before who the griffon was... :D So, this is Zakhin'Dakh's introduction! Next chapter will be all about him, so if you don't know him, you soon will.

Chapter 17-5

He walked down a rather plain, though well-made, corridor for a while, before finally reaching a pair of double doors. He opened one, and saw a large room. He looked around as he walked in, noting that it was made of the same unadorned but tight-fitting stonework, with a row of pillars along either side of the room. A small altar-like thing was in the center of the room, with two large statues of elves wielding swords behind it. Two other statues flanked the door, though they were of unarmed dwarves.

Curious, Almonihah walked up to the altar. Unlike the rest of the place, it was elaborately decorated, with forest scenes flanked by armed elves on two sides, and caverns flanked by armed dwarves on the other two sides. On the altar rested a scabbarded sword, with elven runes on the scabbard. Almonihah had learned enough Elvish from Zrathanzon to read what they said: Eldereth. It seemed like a name. Still curious, he picked up the sword and started to unsheathe it.

The half-dragon didn't know what tipped him off, but somehow, he sensed the movement behind him just in time to dodge to the side before a large sword sliced through where he had been standing. A glance back, and saw that the statue behind him was moving. A quick glance around the room told him the others were as well.

That was all the time he had before he had to evade another sword-stroke. He tried to move toward the doors, but his way was blocked by the two dwarven statues. One slammed a fist into the ground where Almonihah had just been standing as he rolled to the side. He continued evading the statues' attacks, trying to find an opening. He knew there was no point in attacking stone, but it seemed like he should be able to get past them. The Ranger couldn't find an opening, though—the elf statues kept on him, but the dwarves kept blocking the doorway.

Almonihah was tiring when he dodged in front of one of the pillars. One of the statue's swords struck the pillar, sending chips of stone flying. That gave him an idea. He kept circling the pillar, inviting blows and dodging aside just in time. Once the sword grazed him, drawing blood from his shoulder, but eventually the pillar cracked straight through from one of sword-strokes.

Almonihah glanced up and saw a few cracks in the ceiling, but nothing else happened. Quickly, he ran near the door on the same side as the damaged pillar, just close enough to one of the dwarf statues to draw its attacks. It followed him just far enough to strike another pillar. The half-dragon didn't have to look up to hear the ceiling start to cave.

He rolled forward, toward the statue. It was raising a fist to smash him when a huge chunk of stone smashed its head. It stumbled just enough for Almonihah to slip behind it and to the door, still open from when he had come in. He sprinted back out into the daylight.

Almonihah stood gasping for a while before he turned back around to see what had happened. While he couldn't see all the way back into the room, he could see a faint haze of dust coming out of the door in the mountainside. After a few moments watching for movement, he shrugged and walked off.

As he did, he drew the sword he'd almost died for. It was a surprisingly plain blade, though clearly finely crafted. It was a bit longer and a bit more slender than a longsword, but felt much lighter. It had no visible runes, no identifying marks. Out of curiosity, Almonihah gave it a swing, and was surprised to see it left a trail of sparks behind it.

“Needed a new sword,” Almonihah muttered to himself as he sheathed the sword.

*****

If you've been wondering how Almonihah got his other sword, now you know! I'm not really happy about how this scene turned out... the writing doesn't feel as tense as the situation. Meh. That's why I'm still learning!

We should be meeting Zakhin'Dakh in the next post, so if you've been feeling a distinct lack of giant hyperactive griffon in the story thus far, worry not, for that hole will soon be filled!

Chapter 17-4

Imlloen was surprisingly willing to let Almonihah go, enough that the half-dragon was suspicious of what he’d been told. However, he was too glad to leave and go north to press the issue.

It felt good to be outside on his own again. He’d been getting restless the past couple days. Almonihah had never really liked being cooped up inside, especially not after the whole episode with Galindakherithan. Being so close to the Madlands had just made it worse. Overall, he was quite happy to be headed north.

Almonihah took his time, not really having any particular goal in mind other than getting away from the Line. He really looked around as he traveled, enjoying the little details of life in the Lost Sea Valley. He’d never really paid close attention to the variety of plants and animals here—just enough to not get eaten by any of them. Now that he really paid attention, he was surprised by how many different things lived here. The changes in elevation meant that many different types of plants could grow fairly close to each other, which in turn meant different kinds of animals.

Even as he enjoyed the diversity, however, he made sure to not be eaten by any of them. Not much tried, but he was careful all the same.

In time, he reached the other side of the valley. It was getting colder, and some of the trees’ leaves were starting to change colors on the higher parts of the mountains. Almonihah still wasn’t headed anywhere in particular, so he started exploring the slopes of the mountains, climbing up into canyons and then back down.

Then he found something odd. As far as Almonihah knew, the most permanent structures that had been built in the Lost Sea Valley were the cabins of Ranger Headquarters… and yet here was a door carved in a cliff face, with elaborate decorations carved in the stone around it. Curious, he approached to inspect it.

There was no immediately obvious way of opening the door. It was a large door, almost twice as tall as the half-dragon. He tried pushing it, but it didn’t budge. He started to wonder if it was really a door, or just carved to look like one. Then one of the patterns caught his eye. The center of it looked slightly separated from the rest. He pressed it, and it settled back a bit with a soft click. Then the door slowly started to swing inward. With a grunt of satisfaction, Almonihah walked through the doorway.

*****

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted. I kept planning to add on to this before I posted it, and then never did.