A Griffin Story

Will A. Sanborn

6/6/94

Revised 5/3/97

Alec hummed softly to himself as he walked across the open fields under the moonlight. He was returning home much later than he should've been, much later than he'd planned to, but in the impetuousness of his seventeen years he'd thrown rational judgment into the wind. He'd attended the spring dance in town that evening and had spent most of it with an intriguing young lady whom he'd met there. Afterwards, he was supposed to return straight home but decided that her offer to take a stroll through the orchards outside of town was much more inviting. Finally, much later, he'd walked her home and set off across the fields to reach his family's farm.

Their farm was a good distance from town, especially when taking the roads. Since he hadn't been able to use the horse cart tonight, he was left to cover the distance on foot. Taking the fields would lead him far from the roads for most of the journey, but would allow him to get home much quicker. Considering that he was already very late, he decided to opt for the fields, even if they might not be as safe.

He was about halfway home and still feeling elated from the events of the evening when a faint noise from behind him jerked his wandering mind to attention. Startled, he stopped and slowly turned around, scanning the rolling countryside for any movement. Looking around for a few moments, he saw nothing and resumed his walk home, quickening his pace slightly. Trying to keep his mind from jumping to wild conclusions, he tried recalling his walk in the orchard with his lady friend. That eased his mind a little, but his senses were still jumpy and his ears strained to hear any sound out of the stillness.

He'd gotten about thirty paces and had almost decided that the phantom sound was just his senses playing tricks on him when he heard it again. That time it was louder, like it was nearer to him. The sound seemed to have come from somewhere almost directly behind him, although its position was difficult to pinpoint exactly. It was a weird rustling sort of noise, and its strangeness made it disconcerting, especially out in the middle of the deserted countryside.

Stopping quickly and spinning around, he frantically looked behind him for the source of the haunting noise. Although he would never admit it to anybody, most of the bravado he thought he possessed, was leaving him as he stood there, alone out in the dark wilderness, lit only by the glow of the half-full moon. Again the noise faded as soon as he turned around, and he couldn't see anything on the landscape near him that posed any threat.

He stood like that for a couple of minutes, nervously looking all about him, before he dared to turn around once again and resume his journey homeward. By then he was really spooked by the situation and walked very quickly, trying to keep his pulse from racing out of control.

Every couple of steps he cast a nervous glance backward, fearing for the worst. After several nervous minutes, a movement off to his left caught his eyes. Jerking his head in that direction, he saw something moving low, crawling along the ground. Since the apparition wasn't moving too fast and wasn't too large, his curiosity won out against better judgment, and he slowed his pace and stopped to get a better look at it.

Studying the black form for a moment as it moved slowly toward him, he was confused by the fact that it didn't seem to have any substance to it. Then in a horrible flash of understanding he realized that it wasn't a physical object at all, but a shadow moving along the ground. Suddenly understanding why he hadn't seen the source of the noise before and also remembering wild tales told to him as a child, he brought his head nervously up to look at the sky.

Overhead, still some distance above him, loomed a winged creature, silhouetted by the moon, looking like a giant bird of prey. As he watched transfixed by his fear, for what seemed like an eternity, but must have been only a few moments, the beast began a slow dive toward him. The realization that this animal meant to make him its dinner, finally jarred him into action.

Turning away and wildly running from his pursuer, Alec blindly tried to escape from this ferocious beast as it quickly gained on him. The whole chase seemed to play out incredibly slowly, and his legs refused to move nearly as fast as he thought they should be able to go. Forced by his fear to look behind him, he saw this horrible animal just a few feet away from him, reaching quickly down with its sharp, scaly claws.

As the talons dug into the flesh of his back he screamed out in mortal fear. Quick as lightning the beast wrapped its grip around him, under his arms, and abruptly hoisted him up into the air. As they disappeared into the night sky and he saw the ground retreating quickly below him, he blacked out from the terror and the pain of the claws piercing his flesh.

* * *

His consciousness returned to him as he found himself lying upon straw bedding on the floor of a dimly-lit cave. From what he could see of the view from its opening, the cave must have laid atop the steep mountains to the east of his village. As he stared out at the rocky crags, he numbly realized that in the short time he was out and was carried through the air, he'd been whisked nearly half a days riding distance! As the horrible realization of the creature's power struck him, he heard movement from the back of the cave.

Struggling against the dull pain in his chest, he pulled himself up and leaned his back against the wall, waiting for the terrible moment to come. Moving slowly into the moonlight, the winged figure walked towards him on all fours until it stood in front of him at an easy striking distance. As he tried in vain to press closer against the wall, the figure before him rose up on its hind legs, stretching its taloned arms above its head and spreading its wings in what surely was a show of aggression.

It stood there almost motionless regarding him with its dark eyes as he stared back in disbelief and utter terror. Very few people had sworn to have seen a fabled griffin and lived to tell about it. Although the view of the beast was certainly awe inspiring, at this proximity, he knew would surely not live to tell this tale around the fireside.

The griffin was a magnificent beast, even in its awful frightfulness. In the brief moments before it made its move on him, he was able to study its body and see first hand the impossible melding of avian and feline bodies into one. The head and upper body was like that of an eagle, with snow-white feathers and forearms of exposed scaly skin, ending in rudimentary hands tipped with very sharp claws. Its wingspan was about seven feet across, and was very impressive and quite menacing. There were a couple of narrow dark strips of coloring running down along the bottoms of the wings, creating an interesting pattern which he briefly noticed in his fear.

At about the midsection of its body, the feathers gave way into fur which was of a light tan color on its sides and legs. Its abdomen, and inner leg regions were white like its feathers. The griffin's legs were much like that of a giant cat, although a little thicker, allowing it to stand up on two legs with seemingly little difficulty. As it continued to regard him with its dark cold eyes, its tail swished lightly back and forth, in expectation of the feast he would soon become.

Finally breaking the moment, the griffin leaned down toward him and brought one of its taloned hands toward his neck. Holding his breath as his heart pounded loudly in his ears, he tried to prepare for the blow and prayed it would be as quick and painless as possible. But to his surprise and bewilderment, the claws just lightly traced his skin of his cheek and neck, trailing down to his collar. Then in a swift moment both hands grabbed the fabric of his shirt and ripped it open, exposing his chest to the death-blow he feared would happen any second.

But again, to his surprise, he was slightly alarmed to find its claws tracing his flesh lightly, being careful to avoid the tender puncture wounds they had caused him before as it carried him to its den. As he stared up at the griffin in horror, his eyes silently pleaded for mercy and for it to end the torture quickly. Still even amongst the fear, the sensations caused by its claws trailing over his skin, started awakening other feelings in the back of his mind.

Opening up its hands the griffin began to touch his skin with its palms. Although the skin appeared scaly, it actually wasn't rough at all, but smooth and soft, almost like leather, but not as tough. Then peering down at him with what looked like a subtle gleam in its eyes, it advanced on him. Moving its legs forward it stepped towards his lap and began to rub against him, pushing its inner thighs up against his crotch. It was then with a blinding flash of realization that he understood that this was a female griffin and her intentions for him were far from that of the culinary realm, at least for the moment.

That realization startled him, especially when he noticed his growing arousal being triggered by her contact with him. Her intentions for him were unmistakable, she wasn't human but he couldn't control his response to her touching him that way. He struggled briefly in vain to get away, but she only held him fast in place. Then as his struggles began to die down, she brought one hand up to slowly stroke his cheek as if to calm him. Her eyes had become softer, and she looked at him with a mixture of desire and compassion.

He was still frightened by the situation, but he found his fear ebbing, to be replaced by his arousal. Noticing this change of emotions, she gently wrapped her arms around him, being careful not to cause any new wounds, and carefully brought him back down onto the straw bedding. Trailing her hands once again down his chest she came to his belt which she deftly undid. With a little cooperation from him, she slowly slid his pants and underwear off of him.

Pressing her body against his, he felt the softness of her fur and downy feathers rub deliciously against his naked flesh. He reached up to stroke her neck with one hand and brought the other around to caress her haunches and tail. Slowly she spread her wings down against them and gently forced him into her.

As they began to move together, she brought her head down next to his and whispered in his ears. Her voice was a little husky, but definitely feminine. With a playful tone in her voice, she spoke the first words to him since their encounter. "If you want to see the sunrise boy, I'd suggest that you don't disappoint me."

As it turned out, the sunrise the next morning was the most beautiful one he'd ever seen, and in the months to come he'd see many more of the same.


Copyright 1994, 1997, Will A. Sanborn - was1@shore.net