Eternal Beasts

Vision

  Jared sighed as Sam stepped close to butt into his kneeling body from the side.

- I think something momentous just happened to us! - she said over the bond as Jared stared at the empty sky, still kneeling on the forest floor, his head spinning with the speed of past events. Out of the south a light breeze lifted to tousle his hair, enough of a shift for him to tear his eyes from the heavens to look over at Sam, who had lowered her head enough to put her great yellow eyes level with his head. He then reached out and tenderly touched her beak as he pulled out of his trance-like state enough to slowly nod.

- Something wonderful! - he finally replied. Then, mentally shaking himself, he sprang to his feet to put his arms around as much of Sam's head as he could manage.

- Mm, I like that, - she whispered before she said, a little more strongly, - What do we do now, my Jared?

- What we are destined to do, Sams, - Jared replied firmly, giving her another squeeze. Then, stepping back, he gently ran a hand over her cheek and her eyes half closed with pleasure.

- And what do you say to us getting on with it? - he asked lightly. Immediately Sam's head came up and she rustled her wings with excitement.

- Indeed, my beloved, - she exclaimed into his mind with a rush of excitement and, with a laugh of delight, the newly anointed, and now completely official Lord of Griffons sprang onto his mount's back.

Between the flow of emotion and thought over the bond, and her own observations, Sam could tell the simple but powerful ceremony had continued the process of Jared evolving to fit his destined role as Lord of Griffons. No, not just of the Griffons, but of the Eternal Beasts! And that difference, that evolution she could feel in him, in his mind, his thoughts and actions. In his very being! And that change exited her like few things had. They truly were going to save the world!

"Let's grab some sky, Sams," Jared said with a lopsided grin and, with a great spring and a downward thrust of her wings, the griffon used brute force to hurtle them into the air. Then those powerful wing strokes were vaulting them into the clouds, taking no time at all to reach a comfortable cruising altitude of 1500 meters.

Leveling off there, Jared used the bond to turn Sam south. While he wanted to immediately go southeast and make hard for Findias and Nikeera, something was telling him to stay in the west. As Sam smoothly cut through the late afternoon sky, Jared leaned forward over her neck to tenderly run his fingers through her neck feathers, the signet ring warm on his finger, and the medallion warm against his chest. As he gently stroked her feathers, he let the events of the day slowly work their way through his mind, starting with the ritual pushing them sixteen hours into the future, Sam's abrupt return to her griffon form, the summons, calling out Karluran, and assembling the Allies and finally finishing with Kurtis passing the authority over the griffon flights to him in a ceremony. 'Holy shit, what a day!' he mused silently.

They had been flying for perhaps five or ten minutes when Jared's golden left eye began to suddenly tingle so fiercely that he straightened up to slap a hand over it.

"Uhhh," he groaned out loud. "What the hell, eye? You can't stay good for like a hot minute!"

- What's happening, my love? - Sam asked over the bond, her mental voice filled with sudden concern and fear for him. - I can feel your eye giving you trouble! Are you okay? - As she did, she slowed to a hover so she could crane her neck as far as it would go to put an eye on him.

Yes, there he was, sitting up in the saddle and clawing at his eye. But he still wasn't answering her calls over the bond as he rubbed frantically at the hard orb to try and stop its wild throbbing so close to his brain. But the extra physical pressure only seemed to make it worse; as he rubbed, the throbbing turned into a sharp, stabbing pain that made his entire head ache. He couldn't seem to reach the source of the irritation. Rubbing harder only produced more pain.