Chapter 19-1

Chapter 19: Two

They headed roughly east-northeast. Almonihah had some vague idea that they should go to the coast, though no specific idea of where. He didn't really think about why, it just... seemed right. Certainly Zakhin'Dakh seemed happy enough to head that way. He wanted to see these strange people things Almonihah talked about, and their funny city-things. 

Almonihah continued teaching Zakhin'Dakh along the way. More Great Eagle was the most important lesson, of course, but the griffon could only take so much of that, so Almonihah often talked of other things. Places they might go, or different ways of hunting and tracking, or the animals and plants he had seen in his journeys... Zakhin'Dakh listened rapturously. The one thing that still bothered him was that Almonihah insisted on walking around, when it was so much slower than flying. He kept asking his little friend why he didn't use his wings, but the half-dragon steadfastly refused to answer.

One day, Zakhin'Dakh simply stopped and screeched, On!

Almonihah looked at him blankly and grunted.

You, he pointed a talon at the half-dragon. On.

Suddenly Almonihah laughed. It's not that easy, Zakhin'Dakh, he replied.

Why?

Almonihah switched back to the Common Tongue. “Can't just hop on your back and ride. I wouldn't have anything t' hold onto, and my scales'd rub your neck raw.”

The big griffon screeched disappointedly and started dejectedly walking along. Shaking his head, Almonihah followed.

“Just need t' get a saddle,” he called after Zakhin'Dakh. “When we get t' a city.”

Zakhin'Dakh perked up. City! he screeched.

By the time they reached the Orc Hills, Zakhin'Dakh could sometimes string together a complete sentence, though the words often weren't in the correct order. Almonihah started to ask him the occasional question, trying to get an idea of what his view on the world was. He quickly gathered that it was rather simplistic, but more complex than an animal's. He wasn't quite sure if this was normal for a griffon or if it was related to whatever it was about that valley that had made him so large. Almonihah's suspicion was that it was a little of both, combined with a bit of Zakhin'Dakh just being an unusual griffon.

One conversation surprised him, however. He asked one day what Zakhin'Dakh most wanted.

More big! was the griffon's enthusiastic reply.

It took Almonihah only a moment to interpret the reply. It brought another laugh. Oh, but it felt good to laugh. He didn't remember when the last time he'd laughed before meeting Zakhin'Dakh was. The thought brought a bit of an odd twist to his smile, though it cleared a bit as he thought of who might have been behind his meeting the griffon.

“Why would you want to be bigger, Zakhin'Dakh?” Almonihah asked, still smiling. “Don't think there's a griffon around who's bigger than you.”

It took Zakhin'Dakh a while to think of how to answer the question. He hadn't really ever thought about why he wanted things, just that he wanted them. 

Big better! Big happy! Big not run away small thing.

Almonihah's grin grew broader. “Don't think there's much that won't be afraid of you, Zakhin'Dakh. Except dragons.”

The griffon raised his head and puffed out his chest. Dragons scared too more big!

The only response this brought was another laugh.

Nothing bothered them when they crossed the Orc Hills. Almonihah wanted to think it was because he'd been careful not to attract attention, but he was pretty sure it had as much to do with nothing wanting to attract Zakhin'Dakh's attention. Despite their reputation among most of their neighbors, orcs generally weren't any more stupid than the average human, and it would've taken a lot of orcs to kill the both of them. More than generally wandered the areas they traveled through. 

They reached the other side of the Hills in the late evening. There was a fair-sized town not far from here, if Almonihah recalled correctly from when he and Zrathanzon had gone through this area. It wasn't long before he could see the smoke from their fires in the distance.

As they neared, he frowned. That was... too much smoke.

******

Zakhin'Dakh is one of the few things on all of Draezoln that can get Almonihah to smile and laugh.

This section was a bit hard for me to sit down and write, because I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to cover what happened during this time between Almonihah and Zakhin'Dakh without bogging down. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, but I may change it in that mythical future in which I come back and revise all of this.

Chapter 18-4

Hours later, the half-dragon—he'd said to call him “Almonihah”, though Zakhin'Dakh didn't really understand how that mattered when he couldn't say anything—said he had to leave. Suddenly the griffon realized he didn't want his new friend to go, and so he decided to keep him from going. He made a funny noise when Zakhin'Dakh trapped him under one of his taloned feet.

He tried to talk, and after a bit Zakhin'Dakh got the impression he couldn't say anything when he was leaning on him. Zakhin'Dakh eased up a bit. 

“I'll come back tomorrow,” Almonihah gasped.

With a disappointed screech, Zakhin'Dakh let him all the way up, then watched as he started climbing back down. It seemed silly that he didn't use his wings when it would be so much faster. Then he realized he was rather hungry, and forgot about watching the half-dragon in his haste to do something about that.

The next day was a good day for flying, but somehow Zakhin'Dakh didn't feel quite as happy as he normally did. He did have a lot to think about, though, like wondering where Almonihah had come from and what else he might be able to talk about. Just talking with the half-dragon had given Zakhin'Dakh the impression that there was a whole lot he didn't know that he'd never imagined there even was to know. It didn't occur to him that a thought like that was unusual for a griffon.

He really hoped Almonihah would come back soon.

He had just taken to the air again after eating in the morning when he saw the half-dragon. With a joyful shriek, he dived down and landed in front of Almonihah. 

Almonihah did something with his face again. “Glad t' see me?”

Zakhin'Dakh nodded and screeched enthusiastically.

“Well, where were we...”

It soon seemed to the big griffon like he'd been looking forward to Almonihah's daily visits his entire life. The Ranger taught him all kinds of new things, like how to look at the ground and tell what had walked there recently, or how to guess what the weather was going to be like. He also talked about a lot of things Zakhin'Dakh had never seen, like people and cities. Zakhin'Dakh wanted to see them, too.

The most frustrating thing, though, was not being able to tell Almonihah what he wanted and what he was thinking. The half-dragon seemed to know that, too.

“There's got t' be some way for you t' talk... 'r at least communicate...” he said one day, looking out at something Zakhin'Dakh couldn't see.

The griffon screeched and nodded in agreement.

“Hmmmm...” Almonihah was quiet for a bit. “I suppose you could scratch some writing with a talon...”

So he started trying to teach Zakhin'Dakh to read and write. It was hard. Zakhin'Dakh didn't really understand how he knew what words meant, much less how to look at something and figure out what word it was supposed to be. But he really wanted to talk, so he tried really hard. After a while he could sometimes scratch out something understandable in the dirt.

It was about then that Almonihah realized something. “You've got an eagle's beak,” he said one day, like it was an amazing thing.

Zakhin'Dakh was a bit confused, and his soft screech echoed that confusion.

Almonihah looked up at the griffon. “'t means I can teach you Great Eagle.”

The griffon screeched happily, even though he didn't really know what that meant.

It turned out it meant a lot more hard work. Zakhin'Dakh had no real concept of language, despite being able to understand the sounds Almonihah made, so learning to speak was slow going. Only his intense desire to communicate kept him going, though he could only do so much each day. When he got tired of trying to talk, he would make his frustration known and he and Almonihah would do something else for the rest of the day.

Eventually, he managed to get down the concept of words, and started screeching them out to try to get across what he wanted or what he was thinking about. His favorite was “Big!” which he liked to exclaim whenever he took advantage of his great size. He still got frustrated when he didn't know the word for something, though he found that he could sometimes use other words in his slowly expanding vocabulary to get across what he wanted a word for. It helped that Almonihah was so smart. Zakhin'Dakh admired that a lot in his friend. 

One day, though, Zakhin'Dakh noticed that Almonihah's face looked different. He'd finally figured out that the half-dragon was happy when his mouth was curved up more, but now he hadn't seen this face very much. It kind of seemed like the opposite of the happy face, though, which made the griffon a bit nervous.

I think I have to go now, he said.

Go? Zakhin'Dakh repeated. He wasn't quite sure he understood what Almonihah had said, since he'd said it in Great Eagle, and he still had trouble understanding it sometimes.

Leave. I need to leave. I have... other places I need to be.

It took the big griffon a few moments to think through exactly what that meant. Then, with an angry No! he jumped on the half-dragon.

“Remember,” Almonihah gasped, “Not to crush me.”

With an unhappy screech, Zakhin'Dakh eased up a bit. No go! he screeched at his friend.

Almonihah shook his head a bit—as much as he could while pinned on the ground. I can't stay here forever, he said, switching back to Great Eagle, And now's the time I need to go.

Why? That was one of Zakhin'Dakh's favorite words, after “big”.

Almonihah was quiet for a moment. Somewhere out there, there's something I need to be doing.

It didn't occur to Zakhin'Dakh to question that answer. With a long, sad screech, he slowly let Almonihah up, then settled down miserably on the ground to watch his friend leave.

“Sorry,” Almonihah said softly as he turned and left. Zakhin'Dakh watched him go with despair, not knowing what he could possibly do with his life now that he knew there was so much interesting stuff to learn and do. 

Then he had an idea.

He stood up and took a step toward the Ranger's back. With! Come! he screeched as he started running toward his friend.

Almonihah turned around. You want to come with me? he asked.

Yes! Zakhin'Dakh screeched happily as he stood in front of the half-dragon. 

Almonihah smiled. After a moment, he said, “Well, if you're going to come with me, I think you need a name. How about...”

Zakhin'Dakh turned his head, looking at Almonihah. He didn't really understand the whole 'name' thing very well yet, but he understood it was important somehow to Almonihah.

“Zakhin'Dakh.”

Zakhin'Dakh sat for a moment, then screeched, Why?

Almonihah laughed. “It means 'Swift Wing' in Draconic. I thought it suited you.”

The big griffon nodded and screeched in agreement. Then it occurred to him that this meant Almonihah had agreed with his idea.

With come! He shrieked happily, rearing up on his hind legs and spreading his wings in excitement.

The half-dragon smiled wider, though he stepped back a bit to make sure Zakhin'Dakh didn't land on him. “Yes, you're coming with me. Now let's go,” he said, then turned and started walking.

Zakhin'Dakh followed, ecstatically happy at the thought of not only staying with his friend but also maybe seeing some of the new places Almonihah had told him about.

****************

This has by far been the most fun part of the chapter to write. It was a lot of fun seeing Zakhin'Dakh's viewpoint on this part of his and Almonihah's shared history, and, well, he's just a fun character to get into.

This is the end of chapter 18, so we'll be mostly returning to Almonihah's point of view for the rest of book one, though I'm sure Zakhin'Dakh will let me know what he was thinking about some of these things. I anticipate it being three or four more chapters until we get to Garkhen and book 2. Which will be a lot different than book 1--Garkhen's history is dominated by one event, so most of the book will revolve around it.

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.