Blooding

The Red Griffon's Flight

A deathly contingent of drakes stamped through the snow. Their giant size accentuated by sweeping tails puffing up powdery white and thick claws digging into the hill. The wind seemed to part when it drifted against them. Afraid of the terror their razor teeth and gnashing maws would bring.

A thrusting cold penetrated her robes and wove in between her feathers and fur. Sprouting tiny icicles in her skin that chattered her beak. The glacier's freezing air became deadly when accompanied with fear. Sharpened it's bite like a whet stone sharpens a spear. The breeze flittered strong against her cowl. She shivered, pulling it tight over her feathery face. Her beak protruded from it like a crescent hook.

Drakes, much smaller, skulking in the misty distance had come to watch. Their glowing eyes slightly illuminated the mist in a multi-coloured haze. Dots of colour pricked into the snowy flutter.

The sea of staring eyes made her recoil. She backed against the tree. Its bark was old, prickling her exposed paws. It almost seemed warm with a knowing caress. Then the wintry howl broke the feeling and her pads clenched with cold. The honey smell of sap and lime tickled her beak, then that too morphed into the dead scent of papery parchment.

The dragons reached the foot of her outcropping and halted. An almost telepathic message bouncing between them. She knew what that message was. How should they kill her? Simply lunge and rend her apart, snapping tendons and splintering bones. Their huge muscles and thick talons could wrench her legs off like a boy pulling the legs off an ant. She whimpered as these viscous images flashed before her. Eroding her sanity and replacing it with a fearful desire for flight. But they were stronger, and they would catch her.

The mist began to thicken as it swirled around their island of snow. A tiny outcropping bobbing out of the fog. Beyond it laid the glacial wastes. A great disk of ice that flawlessly reflected the gunmetal sky above it. The ice plane stretched endlessly to the thin horizon where the looking glass land and its reflection combined into a strange mashing of images. To her eagle eyes they meshed together like forced puzzle pieces. To the drakes and their weaker eyes, it appeared only a sun-spotted band of light.

Soon the perfect ice shelf would be blemished by a single red streak drawn by a limping bird.

Only a frightful whimper escaped her throat, which was closed and clawing for air. Her inner voice squealed for mercy and safety, but the spectres only circled. The dragons skulked, forming an oval like a rope around her hill. They stood steadfast in their positions, their tails were kinked and still. Some crouched low. Her head snapped backed to and fro as she followed them. Surrounded with her escape cut off. There would be no exile this time.

Her back pressed against the prickly shavings of the tree. Her chest rose and fell as she wheezed. Only the sound of a soft, breezy hum and a rasping wheeze floated around the Red Griffon and the dragon brothers. That's when she saw him.

He was the biggest, yet his form was hunched, and his neck slouched forward. His tail was twitching with unease. Her eyes spied the sharp exhale of his foggy breath. The lengthy cowl could not conceal his darting eyes and frowning muzzle. There was no humility left for her, a cowering animal surrounding by rows of razor teeth.

'Lusik.' She said, terror almost heightening her voice to a hysterical squeak.

The wind snatched her plea and tossed it into the mist, cackling.

The dragon called Lusik dipped his head, his tail coiling under his hindlegs. He averted his eyes.

Brothers waited for their errant runt to make his decision.

Silence.

Puffs of snow erupted as the dragons leapt. They bounded up floating like wraiths. The Red Griffon stood petrified, her stomach knotted, and her breath became trapped in her lungs. Her eyes widened and she thought blinking would zip her back into her hut, under snuggly covers with a cushy bed. But when she blinked, a dragon had landed in front.