Gryphon Guild: The Mission
Day Two

The relay Tsurieths kept up their incessant beeping; all through the night and into the dawn, the Watch had slept on the remains of the Guild ramp to relieve those inside of their sounds.

"Urr . . . Aura, your shift," mumbled Ursula, jabbing the black gryphoness with a chubby paw. "C'mon," she prodded as Aura murmured something incoherent and turned over. With a sigh, the polargriff ripped the heavy quilt from Aurora's form, sending the weather magess into a pair of Guilders working on construction.

"Knock it off!" one of them snapped as Aura shot to her feet.

"Sorry," she apologized, ducking her head in embarrassment; scrambling, she gathered up her equipment and went to join Keo and Felio on the platform. Among the six of them, they had decided to split themselves into two pairs of three, one pair per every 12 hours. Unless something called for them to combine, this was how they would work.

Bounding over a hastily-assembled supply lot manned by the irrepressible Acyd Arcoiris, Aurora waved to the confettigryphoness, who lifted her head briefly in acknowledgment. Trotting up to her partners, she set aside her gear. Keo passed her breakfast and she sat beside the blood bay lupogryph.

"What's on the agenda?"

Felio rummaged for their clipboard; one of the three monitored the main Tsurieth, taking notes down as to what needed to be accomplished. "We have a forest fire in Pendrake -- the one Stormy called in last night, Sylvar marked."

Aura blinked, a bit perturbed. "Why wasn't it taken care of then?"

Felio flipped her ears as she shook her head. "Because the front we need wasn't collecting at the time. Sylvar couldn't bring it in any faster."

Aurora nodded. "Can we use them now?"

"Aye. Ready when you are."

Keo fell in first, then Aurora, followed by Felio. The two former would anchor the felinoid gryphoness, who would take over where Sylvar left off. Locking their legs, each slipped into themselves.

Felio's inner eye snapped open, allowing her to view the strands of the currents. Racing along a particularly deep blue-grey that signified a storm-potential, Felio followed it to its source. Once in the midst of a swirling ovoid of bluish-grey, she extended her own powers, nudging the energies into a raging fury. Blue-grey soon became black-grey as Felio angered the winds. Back on the ramp, her body twitched, paws gripping the stone as her ethereal form clenched at elemental strands.

Keo and Aura caught the storm's frenzy, adding their own influence. Darker and darker the clouds stirred as Felio pushed them. She "looked" below her to see in the rosiness of dawn the burning trees of Pendrake.

**Here,** she sent, keeping the clouds in place by ensnaring them in a ring of wind.

The gryphonesses "dove" in, scooping dormant droplets up and making them heavy. The clouds shuddered with the tampering and thunder rolled below. A bolt of lightning sparked the area under Keo, who instinctively darted away, her corporeal flinching on the ramp.

With a huge groan, the clouds released their prisoners. Rain fell upon beleaguered Pendrake, sending up a huge wall of steam. Felio raced about to capture the evaporated substance, herding the steam back towards the parent cloud. Over and over they danced this round until all of Pendrake smouldered and not a coal was left burning.

"Ok, Caly, you're next."

Calypte peered at Diana's vanishing tail and then at Muse. The smokey-blue gryphon nodded. "Here, you'll need this," and passed her a bright magelight.

Holding the magelight in front of her, Caly wiggled her way through the collapsed hallway. She could see the rope that bound her to Diana's harness; that ran through a ring attached to her's and that was attached to a pulley manned by Ary and Muse.

Diana's magelight bobbled on its own accord, the tiny red dragoness not having to maintain contact with her own construct, unlike Caly, who was "borrowing" this light. They both breathed lightly, the air thick and stagnant after five days without circulation.

**Whoops, watch your paws, Caly,** Diana told her via mindspeech. **We got ourselves a boulder of DOOM in front.**

Caly felt the rope tethered to her rise, brushing under her chin as Diana scrambled. Lifting her light as she walked, illumination shown on a massive chunk of ceiling. Letting it rise higher, the tigergryphoness looked up and saw into the sixth floor. A cot hung half in, half out of the huge hole.

**Diana -- hold on a minute.**

**?**

**Look here.** She pointed up into the orifice. **Can you get up there?**

Diana's draconic features creased in the magelight. **Rrr. I can try. Give me a boost. I don't trust my wings.** She rounded and came back, rope slacking between them. Caly climbed onto the boulder, bracing her claws into the crevices and hunching so that Diana could get on. When she was secure, Calypte rose, spreading her wings for balance; Diana stood on her shoulders, hind feet clenching at the leather harness the gryphoness wore. There was a shower of plaster as Diana's claws grabbed for purchase, then she suddenly lifted herself and up into the hole.

**More line!** Caly called back to Muse, as the slack they'd had was quickly vanishing.

**Coming!**

As Diana scrambled, fresh line ran through Caly's ring. **What do you see?** Caly asked, tottering on the boulder.

**Chair, desk, 'nother cot . . . oh, no . . .**

Caly peered up and into the hole, even standing on her tip-toes, she barely cleared it. **WHAT!?**

"Kaal-Kaal-Kaal . .." Diana was chanting aloud. "Oh, Kaal!"

The tigergryphoness paled. Kaal was supposed to be out!

**Muse!** she barked along the telepathic line. **Get us a Healer! Now! We got Kaal*tarn!**

**!!!** It almost overpowered Caly, as the smokey-blue gryph's shock resonated.

Huge yellow paws and a leonine face suddenly appeared in front of Caly and she scree'ed, toppling over and landing on her backside in a heap of plaster. She cried out as several jagged pieces bit into her hide. Diana jerked on the ledge, her magelight bouncing. Kaal'tarn Saamyara's still form wobbled on the ceiling/floor edge, paws dangling precariously.

"Watch it!" she called up, cursing.

"Sorry! I have her."

Looking at her bleeding flanks, Caly shook her head. "Dammit." Taking a deep breathe, she regretted it as she collapsed into a fit of coughing. Turning her head, she hacked and spat into a corner, eyes closed to protect them from the kicked-up dust.

"CALY!" Aryante's voice echoed in the hallway.

"WHAT!?"

"We can't get anyone down here; all the Healers are in the Common Room. They're up to their elbows in wounded."

"SHIT!" she snapped harshly, spitting again.

"Muse's got Darkflame on the ready. She's going to teleport Kaal to triage."

"Darkflame?" Diana's voice was full of surprise. It barely carried, so thick and deep they were. "She -- can't! She's pulled a twelve-hour shift already!"

"We can't let her teleport, elf!" Caly shouted back, sitting upright, checking herself and swearing when she found more cuts. "We could lose them both!"

Muse was back. "Either you give her the co-ordinates, Caly, or I have someone take them from you. If Kaal dies, think of what will happen to Illucian and Crystal! Your concern is noted," he said more gently, but still firm, "but either we try or suffer later."

"Either way --"

"Do it, Calypte."

**Darkflame here, ready to receive.**

"Caly -- catch!"

Kaal's body dropped, the huge lioness fell down to the fifth floor. It crumpled onto Caly's back and she sagged to the stone floor with the immense weight. Kaal was huge, almost as tall in the shoulder as Aryante.

"Caly -- Diana!" Muse roared, uncharacteristically angered. As well as he should be, for Kaal was linked to his mate and their soulsister Lux by a phenomenon called the Light Triad bond. They were very aware of the others on a subconscious level, slightly aware on the conscious, more so if they chose to find the other. If something happened to the link, the others would feel it and collapse in excruciating pain -- as seen last year with the corruption of Arkhon. It was unknown what would happen if the one of the Three died, as they were all immortal, and it was a long way off for Crystal to immolate.

Something gripped Calypte's mind; she cried out, as did Diana.

**We are sorry, Caly, sister,** a double mindvoice said, wrapped in tones of gold and iridescence. **For Kaal, we must do this.**

"No!" Diana lunged out of the hole, diving to the floor. She rushed at Caly and knocked her, jolting Lux and Crystal's presences. The small red dragoness threw up a hasty shield and ushered Calypte, carrying dead weight, towards the hall opening. "Go! I can't hold them off for long."

Calypte shuffled awkwardly and finally reached the hole. Ary's head stuck through, war braids swinging. His usual joyful face was set hard. "Give."

Kaal's fore shot through; Caly set her back into the flame lioness' hind and pushed. Kaal popped through like a cork, exploding to the other side to lay as a dull red rug.

Muse's smokey-blue face with its huge golden eyes met Caly's grime-streaked visage. He turned and issued orders to the three Guilders holding a stretcher. "Rest and eat," he said shortly to the two of them as Diana's head peered over Caly's shoulder. "We go back in to finish in an hour."

He turned and went to their workstation, to pour over a lay-out of the Guild.

"She would've died, brother," Diana whispered.

Muse's sides heaved. "I know, little one, I know."

Anger, too, flared in Caly's breast. "And you'd let Darkflame take her." She spat. "With the amount of sleep she's had!?"

"Don't say that about Darkflame," Muse murmured, keeping his back to them.

Ary paced by the planks holding up the collapsed hallway. "She knew the risks, she knew them very well."

Caly's sides heaved and she flopped onto a pallet laid out for them; from her position on the floor, she leveled a glare at elf and gryphon. Diana wisely stayed to the side, creeping up to her soulbrother's shoulder, head down, wings drooping. "I don't get your logic," Caly continued, snatching a bowl of water from another Guilder with tray. "We had a better shot taking her out ourselves than with teleportation."

Ary shrugged, looking over to his partner. Muse's shoulders hunched and the map slipped on the table. His tail flicked as a cat's does when something gets to it. Low: "What effects Crystal effects me, Caly. We are tied like no other. I cannot live without her -- and if Kaal is to die, well, then, so fall the dominoes." He sighed and shook his head, still not facing her. "We took this option as what was best for the Guild."

Caly snorted. "Even overpowering our minds."

"Even so."

A tiny red hand touched Muse's shoulder; the gryph flicked an eartuft and turned his head slightly. Up and out went a mobile paw, to rub Diana's head. "I don't blame you, brother," she whispered into his ear.

"But I do, little one."

The kitchen was a swirl of activity. Guilders who were serving in excavation and building poured in by the tens, overloading the staff. Local gryphon and dragon clans were coming in by the hundreds, filling the halls to bursting capacity. They had not suffered as devastating losses as the Guild or villages, as they were nomads.

Hunting had been restricted for meals only and the only food currently available was prepared in the kitchens. To eat, one must go there and present an assignment card for notification. Teams created specifically for the hunting purpose ranged far and wide to supply the population explosion each day. Working kin were hungry kin.

A huge striped male gryphon from the Silvertops gave over his card to Tagia. "Urguile," he said shortly. The large Lupodracan nodded and punched the card with her right canine, making a gesture to Nightsinger with a wingclaw. The other male gryph who was sharing this station with her acknowledged and turned around to pick up a laden tray.

"If you can't find a spot in the mess, try the hall."

Urguile sniffed at his food; he wasn't used to preparation, being a creature of the mountains. "Why's it so crowded?"

Tagia leaned on the station's countertop. "Look around -- we got people crawling all over this mountain, inside and out, to save others." She let loose a short bark of laughter and turned back to the book she'd been reading.

Urguile was startled and he backed up a bit. Nightsinger made a gesture of peace. "Don't worry about Tagia -- she's all right." The striped male bobbed his thanks and made a dash from the station.

A minute later, Tathramakan presented her work card, the only part of her being her face and talons. She tipped her white head and grinned. "Excavation work," she explained when asked where she'd been. "Me'n Aeris got ourselves a real doozy up on the tenth."

"Really?" Tagia wondered as she punched the Auroragryphoness' pass. "We've been getting construction and repair all day. Not one excavation."

"Ah, well, that's because we're doing more delicate work than they are," Tath explained. "We take our meals in the area where we are -- so's not to be away if something happens. Dragon we're working with let us come down here because we've cleared our section."

"Ah, one of the nomads then."

"Yeah, I'd rather have stayed, but Sulinkartharis let us go."

"Find anyone?"

Tath jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Not us, but word has it Calypte and Diana pulled Kaal'tarn from the sixth."

Nightsinger's tufts perked. "Is that so?"

"Uh-huh. Stretcher brought in a huge dusty lump not too long ago; passed it on my way down here. Had a flaming tail -- or what's left of it. Only one 'round here is Kaal'tarn."

"I hope she'll be okay," Tagia murmured as she passed Tath's tray.

The Auroragryphoness nodded, the pendant around her neck bouncing. "Aye, me too; saw Lux and CP hauling it to triage right behind 'em."

All three nodded solemnly. Then Nightsinger spoke up, asking something of the white gryphoness. "Hey, Crystal still have that bandage on?"

Tath and Tagia looked at him, quirking brow ridges. "Ye-es," Tath replied, a bit surprised. "Why?"

Nightsinger shrugged. "Just curious. I saw her when they were organizing this whole thing and she still had it on. Thought by now she'd done whatever fancy Vahazayi thing she usually does when she comes back from practice. I don't get it."

Tagia snuffled. "I do. It's called 'compassion.' "

The male gryph nodded; just then, a shouting match broke out between a clan dragon and another gryphon. Fire blossomed from the big spotted male's maw, alighting a nearby trash can. Guilders and out-members alike called for water, trying to beat out the flames while others tried in vain to separate the two combatants. Their attempts went unnoticed, for the gryphon and dragon broke free and rolled on the floor, clawing, hissing and spitting. They hit the trash can, knocking the contents free and spreading the blaze to pallets stacked along one wall. Tables, chairs and perches went flying.

Shouts rained down upon them from all sides. "Break it up! Break it up! It's not worth it!"

Tagia, Nightsinger and Tath leapt over bodies, trying to reach the center of the maelstrom. They and others were halted in their bounds by a curious, extremely loud, piercing scream. It shattered all other noises around and broke the concentration of the dragon and gryphon. Eyes swung towards the cafeteria entrance: half in, half out was a smouldering golden feathered form; right beside her, peering over the Phoenix's shoulder with blazing rainbow eyes, was an iridescent dragon angel.

Crystal Shekeira and Illucian.

"What -- is going on here?" the seraph ludrakoni Admin demanded. Her ears were pinned and she spoke calmly, albeit with some anger. Her sister didn't fare as well: Crystal's whole body bespoke of tension wanting to be released. Lux didn't wait for an answer, she caught the combatants with her gaze, but they didn't seem to be looking at her. As if a uni-horned, iridescent dragoness wasn't a spectacle enough for them, they were caught up in the intenseness of Crystal's whirling diamond-shaped grey eyes -- eyes that were pulsing white. Slowly and deliberately, Lux addressed them: "You come willingly into our domain to help rebuild what is lost. To say thank you for your sacrifice, we offer what little we have -- food, shelter, other necessities where we are strapped for. And this is how you aid us? By squabbling on the ground like a pair of younglings?"

They finally tore their gazes away from the angered Vahazaya and took in Lux's words. The gryphon male seemed chastised, but his dragon counterpart did not. He took in Lux's stature and Admin blaze upon her shoulder, hanging from the harness she'd not had time to remove. He decided to be rude.

"What say you in our quarrels?" he hissed, spitting flame. "Aye, we chose to come here, but not me -- not to this unholy place! I care not about your impure ways of living, creatures of different races mixing, breeding --" he shot a look at Crystal as he said this.

Mouths dropped open, including ludrakoni and Phoenix.

"How DARE you!" Guilders roared as one.

A tic moved in Crystal's jaw and near one eye. She swallowed hard, clearly and deeply offended. "Ei vaer," she whispered, softly and low: deadly. "Ei vaer, vendictaren!!" Before the male dragon could respond to the Phoenix words, the golden immortal was upon him, lashing out with a roundhouse kick to the head with one balled-up taloned foot. He dropped like a stone, blood oozing from a broken nose.

"Remove this filth!" she crowed, perched upon his fallen body. Smoke rolled from mouth and nares. "Remove him from my sight, from this Guild before I well and truly kill him! And I will!"

Guilders crowded about Lux and Crystal, Tath, Tagia and Nightsinger among them. Lux waved them off. Putting a wing about her sister, the ludrakoni ushered her out of the mess.

Crystal still limped.

RESCUE THREE

Children peered out from under Tephroliah's wings; two under each snow-white side. A few sucked their thumbs, but they seemed unafraid.

"Why's it raining so hard, miz Tephra?" little Gishan asked.

The gryphoness smiled and pointed towards the Guild. "Well, little one, Tephra has friends that live in a large mountain who are making it rain so that we can save the village and the forest."

"Wow," breathed eight-year-old Elisha. She turned a serious, questioning gaze to Tephroliah's right eye. Tephra swivelled one ear, intent. "Yes?"

"How is it done?"

"What is, lovey?"

She pointed to the rolling stormclouds; while it positively poured over Pendrake, it showered gently over Canfin's village. "That; how can you make it rain on command?"

"Well, you can't exactly call up a storm on command. We have a team of Guilders working on it together. It's not easy, even for the most adept at weather magic." A bright flash arced across the sky, even though there was blue everywhere else. All the children, even Tephra, flinched; but she raised her head long enough to discern that the source was not natural. She'd been at the Guild long enough (and watched many demonstrations her fellows put on now and again) to pick out ethereal energies come to corporeal. "Don't worry, dears, that was a Guilder."

She shouldn't have said that. It elicited a thousand questions from the younger three and Tephra herded them back into the hall, trying to explain how someone can separate their mind from their body.

SilverMoon chuckled as she watched them go. Tephra was being so good to the tots, she thought as she tied off the brace of a human farmer.

"Alma, can you finish for me? This is too fine." She had considered shapechanging to do the work her trueform could not handle, but whatever put these people at ease she would not jeopardize. A silver dragon her size took up much space, and if that space were suddenly filled with an elven maiden, well, there'd be chaos. Almalthia nodded and the large dragoness ambled off to check her other patients.

"How're you feeling, Ian?" she asked the man who'd had his arm shorn off. Ian's limb had been reattached with no problems that very afternoon they'd arrived, but he'd only regained consciousness this dawn.

"Better than when that rock hit, marm," he confessed, propped up on a covered hay bale. "Will it work like always?"

"We won't know for a long time," she replied truthfully. "There's no chance of it going dead -- we made sure of that -- but the odds of it coming back fully . . ." She shook her head. Ian nodded, accepting SilverMoon's words. The bare honesty and trust this man had in her nearly drove the moonlight dragoness to tears.

She reached out with a finger and patted Ian on his uninjured arm.

Nambroth slipped up out of nowhere as she turned. "Silver, Crayder is on the Tsurieth; he wishes to speak with you."

SilverMoon's head swung around, the membrane stretching between her triad pair of horns flushing. "Where is it?"

"With Stormy. In the main hall. I can take over for you, if you need it."

Surprise. "You sure, Nam?" as someone on the far end threw up into a strategically-placed bucket. Nambroth's cere paled as she quickly averted her eyes.

"A-aye," she replied bravely. SilverMoon reached out and rubbed the pumagryphoness on the arm with the same affection she'd only just shown Ian before exiting.

It still rained, though always more heavily over Pendrake. People darted out of the way as she splashed through the puddles, leaving dragon-sized prints all over the muddied remnants of the road.

Reaching the main hall, with its crew already at work, SilverMoon darted in, giving herself a shake, spraying extra hay bales with water.

"Ah, Silver!" Stormy called out from her languid perch up above in the loft. She had a stylus and a ruler tucked between both ears; sheaves of paper dangled from her secondary pair of hands, a clipboard in the main right. "Here." SilverMoon held open her hand as Stormy dropped the Tsurieth right into her palm. Giving her thanks, the dragoness grinned and took off to an isolated corner of the hall, practically skipping as she did so. Tucking herself away, she took off the "stand-by" and watched with glee as her platinum mate's face appeared in the light.

"Hello, beloved," he greeted.

RESCUE TWO

The silent scream resounded, echoing and tugging at every heartstring connecting Nauta's heart to her body. Mouth open, tongue protruding, tears streaking her rounded face, the little girl stood half-in, half-out of the collapsing town hall. She and her mother had just been in there when word came that this one had not survived the destruction whole. Somehow, in the rush to evacuate, she got left behind, and was now trapped by the falling timbers.

"Beware!" tens of voices called.

A vocalized scream resounded this time, that of the girl's mother as she was revived. She leapt to her feet and threw herself at the human barricade, breaking free of the fleshy links. Taloned arms shot out to wrap around her waist, holding her back in a grip so strong, the woman gasped, breaking the cadence of her wailing.

She resumed her incoherent screams the next instant, beating upon Luna Star's circle of protection. "Beast! She'll die!"

"Away!" the crew chief barked as the timbers holding up the crumbling town hall began to bend. Men rushed forward on command to lend more strength to the dying lumber. Ropes were thrown to the jutting roof, tied to Khirsah Sinneau's harness. The large red male strained in his place, sinew and cord standing out plainly from his hide.

The child continued to mouth a wordless scream.

Mortar fell inches from her scalp, cutting a line into her tattered smock.

"MOMMY!"

Luna threw the hysterical woman to the cobbled street, pinning her with all her gryphonic bulk. The mother bit and kicked at her captor's joints; lupine tail flayed at lathered quarters, striking the woman unintentionally.

Rope snapped --

-- Khirsah went head over scut --

Time slowed . . .

From out of nowhere, Nauta dove under the avalanche of human construction. The fluketailed blue-grey gryphoness disappeared under a mountain of bricks and slate. Villagers sprang away as it all came down, coughing and heaving. The crowd, shocked at what they'd witnessed, turned and ran in the other direction, away from the rising dust clouds. Luna picked up her charge, and with Aakora's help, slung her on her back, making a beeline for the nearest sanctuary.

For a moment in time, the only roar to be heard was the deathcry of the beleaguered town hall. As the dust settled, up rose another, different roar -- that of a heartwounded dragon.

Faces and hands poked out from the safety of the opposite side. Mouths dropped, jaws unhinging from their sockets. Collectively, the sigh of disbelief made its rounds, flitting as a faerie from soul to soul. Almost as instantly as they had fled the site, people pounded back, the gryphons faster by virtual physiology. They scrambled all over, flinging rock, mortar and thatching in a frenzy. It seemed that the whole village had broken free of all other repairs to assist in the excavation.

Khirsah stood at the base of the pile, ears flat, nostrils pressed to openings and cracks between debris. Aakora and Luna Star waded hock-deep in the dust pile below; stones and other things flew beneath their frantic talons. Nauta's name and the child's brayed from hoarse throats. Every few moments, as if on cue, they all would stop, pause, listen and then go back to work.

On the edge of this chaos, Blaze sat, fiddling with his watch. No one saw him, or if they did, they found him too peculiar to reprimand.

Too low, he thought as the watch showed him twain pulses of dim red. He looked up to see Khirsah's bulk hovering over a new pile of lumber; a glance at the watch.

Suddenly, a bright orange blur streaked past, weaving between rescuers. Before a stunned crowd, Blaze punched a taloned fist beneath Aakora's beak. Up came a bloodied, spasming dexterous paw.

"Here."

RESCUE ONE

A dragon and four gryphons lounged before a roaring fire in the village square. If reports were to be believed, Rescue One had come upon the least-decimated spot in the area. Most damage had been done to the fields, which were doused with a quick call to the Watch.

Talen spearheaded another steak with his knife. "So, what are the plans for tomorrow?"

Fareme rolled on her side, tail dangling off one black horn gracing Hosea's brown head. The male rolled an amused eye up at his passenger and then looked at Talen. "Well, there's thatching and rebuilding that old stone wall Aidan showed us this morning." He passed a glance at Syris and LunaFlare as well. "Ladies, do we have volunteers?"

Syris chuckled and mock-pouted. "Which would put the least strain on me?"

"Hrm, I'd say thatching. You could carry the bales up to the crews," the small Vulpegryph Healer observed. "If you do choose that, well, in either instance, I want to redo your bandages every few hours." She leveled a no-nonsense gaze at LunaFlare. "You, too."

The grey/white hawk-tiger female twitched; she seemed as if she hadn't expected her wounds to warrant as much concern from Fareme. "Me?" He good hand clamped over the bandage on its partner.

"Yes, you." Fareme motioned to Hosea, and the big male passed up a pork kabob. The villagers had been more than generous, though a good portion of their meal had been taken by the meteorite (and unfit for human consumption). "Don't think that something as," she paused, tipping her head to the side, mimicking, "insignificant as a sprained forearm can be passed off with me around."

LunaFlare nodded mutely; 'reme could be a hard taskmaster when she chose.

"Aye," Syris responded instantly.

Talen smiled, tearing into his steak. "I'll be with the renovation crew," he told them between bites. "They want to see how my tools work."

Eyes bugged all around. Hosea started to guffaw, great, racking blows of his wagon-sized sides; the ground rumbled beneath their bellies, the fire setting up a dance. Talen's mouth dropped a fraction, then recognition dawned in his eyes. He, too, joined in the laughter.

"Really," Luna remarked dryly, "you all are sick."

Syris chuckled again. "It was too good to pass up!" The firefox's twain tails beat staccato on the dirt with glee.

Hawkish head shook and the gryphoness quietly excused herself.

"Prude," Talen muttered with a wicked grin. He lifted his steak to his mouth, only to have it jolted and land in the fire. Hosea's tailtip curled back in towards his body. "Get yourself another," the dragon said, as if the incident hadn't happened.

Snorting, Talen mumbled something and fetched a smaller piece.

Paws twice the size of the anthro's head tucked under a broad chest. "Aversion to the improper is not a bad thing."

Syris and Fareme fixed the errant Rescue member with a glare and went back to their meals. "Prude," Syris scoffed.

"Enough." Hosea tapped his tailtip decisively on his thigh. "Let's all get to bed, folks. Work on the morrow."

<-Incoming to landing field. Point 0-4-2.->

Anti-grav drive kicked in; wings tilted to adjust for the landing. The pistons in both fore and hind legs were activated. One head, truly draconic, looked towards the point of touchdown, the other, raptorine, gazed at the ruins of his home.

"No," the accented voice breathed, as much as a mecha can breathe. "NO!"

Arkhris-Omega had returned.

© 2002 Crystal Shekeira. All Guilders are copyright themselves; the Gryphon's Guild is trademarked to Tserisa Supalla. All other names, places and events are copyright to MH. Do not copy, alter or distribute