It Started with Slime - Part 1

Chapter 67 - Mythical Beasts

So, with that final though and the last bit of pigeon consumed Aarav crawled from the roof, slid down the side of the building and then in the fading light, and cautious to avoid all detection, scrambled over to the gryphon picket line. It was slow going, with having to camouflage over different surfaces but his Skill's ability to adapt to multiple types of terrain came in handy. Whether it was grass and dirt or dirt and tile or tile and brick, everything was possible as long as he had the various textures in his database. Being able to camouflage the area around him also helped. What with the movement of the grass in the strong wind and the small dust particulates. The shadows helped a lot with that as well, it made dodging people that were walking in the square and staying hidden much more possible.

His target, the gryphon, were almost all the way across the square so it was a fair distance to cross, further than his eyes could see even with Piercing Eyes +1 active. Still, he had a good idea of what the location was so even in failing light he knew which direction to head in. He couldn't be too disappointed that the light was fading either because for the first time since being born on this world he could see those gorgeous colours.

The few hundred metres across the square took a little over five precious minutes. He was glancing back at the entrance of the inn every few seconds expecting any moment for the men to come out and take their mounts away, without Aarav getting a proper chance to check them out. He urged his useless, slow body to move and with his legs under him he did manage to coax a little more but it was a pittance compared to flight. Why did I have to get so heavy!? Should have thought of it earlier, no long term thinking is my problem. Now I have to suffer the consequences...hmmm. Anyway, gryphons! How could he be thinking of anything other than the majestic looking creatures in front of him...that were attending to the call of nature...yeah, I guess they are still animals after all, need to do the business just like everything else has to...except me now...hmm, how does that work exactly? The chemistry doesn't make sense, but I am not going to complain about it!

As Aarav closed in on the gryphons' location he slowed down even further making sure not to spook the creatures in the slightest. He needn't have bothered though, with his size being less than one percent of theirs he was as annoying to them as an ant would have been to him. He huffed in a breath and then letting it out softly, quietly, making sure that he did not spook the mounts. Or make them jittery.

He needn't have bothered though, him spooking a gryphon in his current state was tantamount to an ant spooking him by being in proximity. It was laughable at best, deadly at worst. The gryphon did not notice him. That was until he sidled up to one of their legs and attempted to latch on. Oh, it noticed then.

At first it reacted as if to a tick, attempting to twitch the leg to throw the intruder off. Then as it became apparent that this was a more persistent type of parasite, one back leg scratched at the offending limb. Still this parasite, whatever it was, persisted and more than that was climbing up the leg, further up to the calf and then to the knee. It was not an itchy sensation but more cool and soft, like being dunked in soft mud. The gryphon in question tried to turn to look to the side and then underneath to see what had a hold of its leg...nothing...there was nothing to see but it could feel the movement continue to move upward. Now it had left the back paw and encircled the thigh, continuing to move up. Still there was nothing to see.

The gryphon that had become the victim to this strange phenomenon continued to stare and try to understand what this was. Aarav looked away; his Camouflage did not extend to his eyeball after all. The ring of cool phantom material continued up the leg and seemed to become a little nervous, after all it was getting to closer to a rather sensitive part of its body...but lucky it quickly moved away from there and climbed up the side. Don't worry buddy, just want to go for a ride...not that kind... Aarav hurriedly explained...to himself. He was not opposed to those types of relations he just didn't feel that way. Anyway, it was a gryphon! Why did he have weird thoughts? The gryphon was probably just uncomfortable with feeling something crawling on him, anyone would be. Anyway, this was not the point of this whole situation.