The Unknown Tales: A Collection of Short Stories, One Shots, and More

London Falls

This was a collaboration for a school project between me and two friends. We had some specific requirements to meet regarding what was in the story. Can you guess all of them?
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In a land of bitter cold and vast plains of frozen sea water a lone figure stood perched upon a low hill littered with the dry bones of countless penguins.  For thousands of years Andy, a magnificent griffin, the last on Earth, had ruled over this frozen wasteland known as Antarctica to the scrawny two-legged humans who populated the world. He sat upon his hill contemplating his latest dilemma; food, for the gamey taste of half-frozen penguin had begun to tire him.

He nibbled on a small bone watching as two penguins brought to him the first-born child of their tribe. Their feathers quivered in fear as they approached his gruesome teeth. Andy slowly lifted his head to track their movements until they stopped a respectable twenty feet away. Quickly they pushed the fluffy grey baby forward and waddled away as fast as their stubbed legs would allow.

Andy roared loudly and the penguins screeched and clamored over each other in a desperate attempt to escape before the griffin could change his mind and eat them and the baby. The baby squeaked in fright and promptly fainted. Andy snapped the little morsel up and licked his lips. He spat the bones out and took to the sky on his great feathered wings.

He wheeled around high in the sky for several hours scanning the ground for any unwary penguins traversing the white plain below. He was just about to head back when he spied something yellow on the ground far below him. Andy dove to the ground, shivering in anticipation for what he might find.

As he landed the wind from his wings blew away a fine layer of snow to reveal a strange yellow brick road. He sniffed the road curiously and sneezed when the snow tickled the inside of his nose. His sneeze blew away more snow and he saw that the strange road continued North.

Curiosity took hold and he cautiously stepped forward. He paused with one foot forward. When nothing happened he took another step. Suddenly snow flew up all around him in a swirling whirlwind of white dust. As suddenly as the snow came it stopped.

Rubbing his eyes Andy saw that the snow had been blown away to reveal the yellow road stretching on for miles and miles. Throwing caution to the wind, though there was none, the griffin bounded down the path.

As he journeyed, stopping here and there to look out across the land, he came upon something he had not seen in a long, long time. Before him lay the ocean. Vast and mighty it seemed, the cool blue of the sky reflected in its watery depths. The yellow brick road arched high above the ocean into the white clouds.

With no small shiver, Andy began the long climb far out over the ocean. His claws clicked a steady beat out on the brick as gulls cried loudly overhead. Many dived at him but were quickly frightened away by his growl. He was tempted to snack on a few but decided against it for they looked scrawny and feathery.

He was somewhere to the west of Africa when something truly disturbing occurred. He was thinking about all that he had seen, from small mice to enormous elephants when something landed in front of him; a chicken. He stood frozen in utter fear as the vile creature strutted back and forth across the road before stopping right in the middle. Andy couldn’t move, so terrified was he that he had not the presence of mind to command his body.

The chicken clucked once and ruffled its feathers. Andy screeched and plunged off the road into the empty space below. He twisted in the air and brought his wings up to stop his descent. He soared on columns of wind, slowly rising and falling as he let them lead him wherever they went as long as it was far away from the chicken.

Early into the next day a pleasant sight met his sharp eyes. Land lay below him. He could see the ocean waves crashing against the cliffs and rocky terrain beyond. He landed softly on the ground and smoothed his feathers out. This was where he would begin his domination over the humans and force them to give him one of their own each month to satisfy his hunger. There were many things he would like to do but at present he was hungry. So he set off in search of food.

He walked for some time until the sun was high in the sky when something else halted his path to world domination. A small human figure stood in his path. Andy stared at it for a while with his head cocked to the side. Was this another chicken? He thought. But this thing did not have any feathers.

“Hello, good sir,” the tiny chicken-like-thing chirped happily, “how might I help you this fine day.”

“Do you have food?” Andy asked.

“Oh but of course! Muchkins always have food for hungry griffins like yourself.”

“Good.” Andy said and snapped the poor Munchkin up and swallowed him whole. As soon as he swallowed something shrieked and barreled into him clawing and spitting with frantic fury. Andy fought back just and savagely. Before long they broke apart and Andy got his first good look at his attacker. It was a creature much like himself with the head of an eagle but instead of the body of a lion it had the body of a horse. Andy looked at it. Was it good to eat? He thought, not knowing that the creature was thinking the very same thing.

“What are you?” Andy asked. The creature puffed up its chest and ruffled its feathers.

“I am Ned. Hippogriff of the Britiania Islands! You have trespassed upon my territory and eaten my Munchkin. Therefore I must kill you and consume your flesh!”

“That thing was yours?”

“Well, yeah. Didn’t you see the sign?” Ned said.

“What sign?”

“Curse you, you stupid birds! Always eating my signs.” Ned grumbled. He began to wonder if making them out of seeds was a bad choice. While he was thinking through this Andy began to sneak away. “Hold on! Where are you going?”

“World domination.” Andy said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I gotta eat something.”

“Could I perhaps join you?” Ned asked.

“Yeah sure.” Andy said. “Name’s Andy.” And so Andy the griffin and Ned the hippogriff set out on their quest to world domination. It wasn’t long before they came to and old forest alive with the chatter of squirrels and chitter of chipmunks. They spied a squirrel and chipmunk fighting over a pile of nuts and trotted over. The two rodents saw Andy and Ned and the chipmunk said,

“Could you please help us settle our argument?”

“Sure!” Ned said and snapped them up, nuts and all, and the two unlikely companions continued on. They came to the city of London brimming with delicious looking people. They quickly decided to take over this city but before they could a throng of people pushed past them, completely ignoring the massive creatures as if they weren’t there. Ned and Andy were quickly separated.

Frantically Andy looked for his companion as he ran through the crowded streets. Things were not going his way. He kept running into people, a cat attacked him, dogs chased him, and a flock of chickens forced him into a dark alleyway where he hid for at least three hours while they stalked him from the outside.

Finally he made his way to the center of the city where a huge castle sat. He went inside thinking that he could find the king and queen in the castle and thus force them to give up their sovereignty and provide him with all the humans he could ever eat. He also thought that perhaps there was a small chance he could find Ned but he wasn’t too worried about that. He could rule the world without the hippogriff.

He was quite shocked to find Ned inside the castle with the king and queen dead at his feet. Attempting to look dignified he walked up to Ned.

“What have you done?” he asked. Ned shrugged.

“I thought, since we were going to dominate the world killing them would be a good place to start.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.” Andy said.

“Besides, I’m not staying here. They sent off some ships to this new land they’re calling New England or something. I’d thought to follow them.”

“Well, I suppose.”

“We wouldn’t even have to see each other. You can live here and I’ll live there and we can eat all the people we want.” And so they parted ways, Ned left for New England with the pilgrims and Andy stayed in London as their new sovereign for hundreds of years until his untimely death at the wings of the chicken from the yellow brick road.
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Weird isn't it?