Blooding

Eyes All For Few

The sun had not risen. A gloomy twilight hung over the land as the companions struggled on. Beak and muzzle chattered, feather and scale were stiff, fur and skin were frosty. Hours trudged. Every step more difficult, every breath clammier and every word stuttered. Only the lantern lit the way. Its light tired and grey. The lantern illuminated the gloom with an arc but only the featureless ice stared back at them, it continued onwards, the endless horizon was no longer taunting them, but this conveyor of ice seemed worse. The air was soundless now. Only their light chattering accompanied them. They felt travelling not only through land but also space. As if they were sliding. Down a great incline into a dark sea. One-way. The drake never looked beneath. Despite the reflection smothered by lack of a sky. Still, their shadowy forms flickered.

The drake appeared a face of pale death. But his resolve held. The Griffon was the more wretched. Her face hung low in defeat. She halted. The drake almost tripped and left her in the dark. Her gaze was on him. Sad, tearful. 'It's not here,' She whispered. 'Not here, not here.' Among the sadness hanging over her heart like a weight, was a mocking confusion. 'It was supposed to be. The phantoms. Myself. Where is it.' She looked at the dark. It was forlorn and distant. Then she stared at the deep scar on the side of his head, the stale smell of sizzling scales and his roaring scream echoed inside, his single frill moved with emotion but was incomplete. She was guilty. A victim and a perpetrator. 'Lusik. I'm sorry.' She sat down, ignoring the cold on her haunches. 'I'm a fool of fools.'

He came over to her, his pack and lantern clanking. 'Yes, that may be.'

She looked up at him.

'But we are fools two. I, the cowardly. I left you alone to die in front of me. A horrid act.' He said.

'But you came back.'

'I care about you.'

Her beak curved upwards, 'As I you.' The cold for a moment was warm. 'I shouldn't have made you come out here. It was a fool's flight.' She said. 'I wouldn't think you cowardly. To leave.'

'No.' He said, anger sharpening his voice. 'Don't say this about yourself. I came after you. Don't cast my act in vain. Would you have me trudge back whilst you freeze?'

'This isn't your quest. I manipulated you. You don't deserve this.'

'Deserve what?'

'To suffer.'

'I'd suffer with you.'

The Griffon stood up before him. She brought her talon. And touched his scar. His scales were rough and hewn, cragged and burnt. He didn't wince. 'In pain, in misery. Together – to suffer?' She asked.

'With you, since I found you. And to the end, we will still. Your myths are real, Griffon.' He said, smiling.

'You believe them?'

'You know yourself. Birds are a thing of evil? Not you, not here. Your city is somewhere. And we will find it. And you will be home.'

Her eyes were thoughtful. 'And what of you?'

'Then.' He said. 'We may part.'

To this, the Griffon was silent. Her gaze solemn. She stared at the ice beneath the edge of darkness. She tried to spy malevolent shapes pacing below, with crooked talons and long beaks, reaching up to snatch them away with Lusik's screams echoing on the wind. In a place where they'd remain forever. Mummified in ice. She shivered. 'What did you see?' She said.

Lusik's countenance dropped. His muzzle turned from a defiant grin to a bared snarl. A snarl in fear. His eyes darted around. His frill flared. 'I don't want to speak of it.' He said hurriedly, as if a wraith might leap from the dark at its mention. 'No, no, I can't.'