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