Chapter Three

Darkear awoke to the sound of Moonfire’s voice cawing throughout the Apprentice Den. He opened his eyes blearily and jumped to attention, shaking himself thoroughly. The other apprentices groaned in their sleep and stumbled to their feet, apart from Moonstar who simply turned away from her mothers calls.

“Up! Up! It’s dawn! Time for training! Up, all of you! Up!” she cried and Darkear looked over as Crowlake approached him. Eventually even Moonstar resentfully sat up as Moonfire walked over to the mossy rock and stood on it.

“Right, now all of us are up! Today you will be split into groups,” she said and uncurled her right wing and held it out, “All the hens come to this side of me.”

The female apprentices wandered over and sat beneath her unfurled wing. She tucked it to her chestnut-coloured side and stretched out the left wing, a few brown feathers falling to floor as she did so.

”Drakes, over here now!” she commanded. The male gryphons looked at each other and shrugged, before stand beneath her wing.

Darkear looked at his group. With him stood Lionpaw, who was grinning broadly and fidgeting, Crowlake, who was staring intently at a leaf on the ground and Iceclaw who looked furious about the gryphons he was stuck with. On the other side he saw Pantherwing and Moonstar chatting away idly while Blackhawk ignored every offer to join in the conversation.

“These will be the groups you will be taught in. They will probably be mixed hunting and foraging groups. Today, I will take the hens out to train and practice for a while; the drakes will remain here and be taught be Darksong. We will swap after a small time,” she explained briefly, clearly impatient to get the training start. Or more accurately, get her daughter’s training started. Darkear couldn’t help but think that there was a little bias on the right side of her.

She turned tail and her and the hens went outside of the Apprentice Den.

“Do you know how long training is meant to go on for?” Crowlake asked quietly. Darkear shrugged silently. Nobody had ever specified that.

”It goes on for however long it needs to go on for!” Lionpaw said loudly.

“We all better keep a pace here, I want to be a Talon as soon as possible,” Iceclaw spat, impatiently fidgeting and watching the entrance to the den. Darkear wished desperately that he was that eager to get the training started. He wasn’t sure if he wanted it.

“Greetings, apprentices,” called Darksong as she entered the den and stood on the rock.

”Greetings Tutor. May the blessings of Goldlight and Silverlight shine upon you,” droned back the assembled drakes, almost automatically. Darkear couldn’t help but notice that Iceclaw finished his greeting before everybody else.

“Well, since this is the first day of real training, I’ve decided simply to go over a story or two you already know. The story of Goldlight and the Forest of the Wolf,” she said as she settled herself. She wound her long, dark tail about the rock and gestured for the drakes to sit in front of her.

“Not this story,” Iceclaw mumbled irritably.

“We have heard it quite a lot…” Crowlake agreed quietly. Darkear stayed silent. He couldn’t say that he didn’t enjoy Darksong’s tales, even though the Forest of the Wolf was an often told one.

“The story began at the very dawn of the gryphon’s age. It was the time of the wolves. I’m sure you’ve all heard about them. Legend tells us they were great beasts, the same size as the average gryphon but with savage rows of vicious teeth. They were fierce and spat venom more deadly than any snakes; their eyes were sharp as a hawk’s and feet as quick as the wind,” Darksong began.

Darkear was listening intently, but he couldn’t help thinking that he was the only one. He glanced at the other gryphons and nervously wondered if he looked stupid paying this much attention to such and often told story.

“The wolves ruled the land tyrannically. They would have eaten the gryphons if it were not for one thing. The Wolf King. He took pity upon the gryphons at first, but quickly saw that they could become a threat to the world of the wolves. So with his magic, he made a deal with a terrified gryphon fleeing from a wolf predator. The gryphons would live in peace forever, safe from wolves. He agreed instantly, but did not realise what he had done. The gryphons became little more than giant kits, flightless, helpless and blind. They stumbled through the forest they lived in, though they remained completely safe and unharmed from the Wolf King’s curse.

Eventually this curse became known as a blessing. Every gryphon in the forest was thankful for the Wolf King’s protection, and desired nothing more than to live away from harm. Years past, gryphons did not die of old age though. They were eternal, though they did not eat and did not sleep. They simply survived, living on the Wolf King’s curse.

As years turned into centuries, one gryphon was growing weary of his monotonous life. He began to wonder if there was more to life than just…staying alive, so to speak. His ideas were shunned, as the others were very content with the simple safety from the wolves and all other threats that might end their lives. This gryphon was Goldlight, and whether he was a hero that thought outside the box or a selfish fool is debatable.

He decided that he would speak with the Wolf King himself and ask if he could be broken away from the blessing and protection. However, he could not see. But luck, it seems, was on his side. As he stumbled in the dark, he heard the song of a bird. He spoke out to it. He said, “Bird, do you know where the Wolf King lives?”

The bird was shocked, as it had never been called out to one of the strange, silent gryphons before. It wasn’t even aware they could speak. It fluttered down to the blind creature and said in his ear, “Yes I do. Why would you want to got to him though? He’s a vicious creature, and would simply devour you if you stood before him.” “

“Wait, how can the bird and the gryphon talk to each other?” Lionpaw interrupted. Darksong smiled knowingly at the sandy-coloured gryphon.

“Simple, this was a time when all creatures could understand one another,” she explained. Darkear nodded, that made sense. She cleared her throat and continued with her story, “Goldlight was not discouraged easily. He pleaded with his unseen acquaintance, “Please, you must take me to the Wolf King.” The bird sighed and gave in.

“I can take you, though I will not stand by you when you speak. Him and his wolves will simply devour you, as well as me if they can catch me,” the bird said. Goldlight only nodded in agreement and said, “I am blind, so guide me with your song.”

The bird agreed to this and led Goldlight to the den of the Wolf King, fluttering high above the trees from fear of attack from one of the Wolf King’s beasts. Eventually he was lead into the den and the bird said, “I have led you, now I must go. It is not a bird’s place to fly among gryphons and wolves.”

Goldlight nodded and said his thanks before the bird departed as he walked towards the Wolf King, going by the sound of the beast’s breathing. It is said that the Wolf King was truly a horrific sight to behold. That he was three times as big as the biggest gryphon, and that he spat fire from his nostrils and the swish of his tail would be enough to kill a lesser wolf. As Goldlight approached, he heard the Wolf King laugh hoarsely, his old age showing in his very voice.

“So a gryphon has left my forest, has he?” the beast said. Goldlight breathed in and ignored the fear that gripped his entire body. He stepped close to the Wolf King, so close that his talons almost treaded on the giant beast’s paws. I’m sure you can imagine that though Goldlight couldn’t see him, tales of the Wolf King was enough to frighten him so that the bravery required to step forward and speak was quite a lot,” Darksong said and paused briefly. Darkear could not agree more. He needed insane bravery to step forward and speak to anybody at all.

“The Wolf King was very old now,” Darksong continued, “But that did not stop him being feared and still more powerful than that helpless gryphon. But it was near his death, and he knew that when he died the gryphons would be freed. In his own greed, he had sabotaged his empire. He had not wanted an heir, in case this wolf killed him and took over before his time and he had not told any of the wolves the magic required to keep the gryphons suppressed. And now it was just too late

“My name is Goldlight. I ventured from your forest to speak with you,” Goldlight said bravely. He could hear other wolves’ paws treading steadily towards him but the Wolf King barked at them to stay way they were.

“I knew this was coming soon,” the Wolf King wheezed with a short laugh and Goldlight was quite shocked – he had not known anything about this.

“You are quite the gryphon Goldlight, no other gryphon would have left the forest I believe,” he said to the young gryphon. Goldlight was, at this time, the same age as you apprentices. Young, curious and foolish. He had been that age when the Wolf King’s curse was laid upon them, and so he had stayed that age both physically and mentally for years and years, as there was no need to progress.

“I have come because…I wish for the gryphons to be truly free. I want to see, I want to be able to do something with my life. I would rather have a short life, than stay eternally inanimate,” Goldlight said. The Wolf King laughed loudly and Goldlight forced himself to stay in place and not flee. He was determined not to give up.

“You are courageous yet strange. The forest should be something you are thankful for. You will never die, never grow old. You needn’t eat nor sleep. You can live in eternal contentment,” the Wolf King said, clearly challenging Goldlight’s quest, “You wish to give that up to see the danger and terror around you? You cannot want to live outside of my blessings. I have created a paradise for you, and you reject it?”

Goldlight almost faltered. The Wolf King’s words were almost enough to make him turn back and return to his eternity in the forest but the young gryphon stayed where he was and simply said, “Your paradise, my oppression.”

The Wolf King gave a mighty barking laugh and said, “Fine, as you wish Goldlight. But know this; you will have to kill to survive. You can die. You will fly among the birds, but you will not be able to speak with them. And of course, you alone will have to keep the others gryphons in the forest under control…lest anarchy be unleashed.”

Goldlight nodded. He wasn’t sure if he understood, but he was willing to take anything simply to actually live. The Wolf King laughed again and then howled loudly. Goldlight jumped at the mighty sound and all throughout the forest, gryphons screamed as a barrage of sights and light attack them at once as their blind eyes could see. The bird song around them suddenly became lyric-less, and as Goldlight’s eyes took in the sights around him he was standing in a grassy land on the north shore of the Shining River with other strange creatures staring at him. These strange creatures were exactly what he was; gryphons. He laughed joyfully, despite the lost, confused expressions of the others.

“Fellow gryphons,” he said, suddenly full of energy as he stretched his wings and tossed his head back to stare at the beautiful blue sky above him, “Today, we are reborn. Look around you and remember what it was like all those years before. Today, begins the age of the gryphons. It is a new time, and a new order will be put into place.”

That is how the Order of Gryphons began, and later ran out the wolves who had once oppressed them,” Darksong concluded. There was a dull silence and Darkear ran over the familiar story in his mind.

“Wait, the Northern Order beyond Shining River is the remnants of that flock, right?” Iceclaw said, his head on his talons, staring up at Darksong indolently.

“Yes, that’s right,” Darksong replied patiently, awaiting Iceclaw’s question.

”Then where did Black Valley flock and Whisper Forest flock come from?” he asked. Darkear looked at Darksong expectantly. He had never really thought that one over. Darksong smiled in her usual weird, cheeky manner.

“Oh, that’s a long story. I’m afraid that one will have to wait, it gets quite complicated. Anyway, I expect Moonfire is going to be back with the hens soon anyway,” she said.