Dear reader of this note,

I am the mother of this little chick. She is from a very proud and noble Gryphon clan that I cannot tell of. Unfortunately, my mate and I cannot care for this little one.

My mate was apart of the higher council through his own father. For many years we struggled with producing a living chick, most of the eggs failing to grow or hatch. Then one year, well into our older years past the usual breeding age, we produced a successful egg. For months we anticipated its growth, listening and hoping that it would live. During the late fall to early winter our egg hatched.

Our newborn daughter, squirming in the soft nest of moss, took her first breath and squealed. I looked at my mate and our hearts sank. She had no wings. We waited so many years for a little one of our own to discover that, even though she was alive and healthy, that we would lose this one. The Leader would surely see to that.

Our current leader of the Clan was a tyrannical one. Many chicks were killed in his rule, even the healthy ones, and especially the males. He had this obsession that the males would grow up someday to challenge him as ruler. A wingless gryphon was automatically killed without an explanation, considering them an extra burden. He ruled our Clan in fear.

I protested as any other mother would. My mate knew that I would refuse to give our daughter up. He calmly explained to me that he would try to talk with the council about sparing her life. He thought he might have a chance since he was apart of the council himself.

It took him a day to think it through, and the next morning he went to the cave where the council held meeting. I waited for many fearful hours with my baby snuggling up to my warmth, nuzzling into my side for milk. When the sun was beginning to sink, my mate returned. Seeing the way he looked, exhausted and covered in bleeding scratches, I knew.

He apologized in how he failed me and our chick. She was to be killed the next morning. Yet past the disappointment in his eyes I could also see determination. He stared at me and told me that I must take our chick and escape. I stared back at him in surprise. What about him? He said that he would stay and fight.

We talked well into the night. I wanted to stay and fight with him, or at least come with me, but he insisted that I and our daughter would go alone. He told me of where to go well out of the colony and our leader's reach. Then, a few hours before the leader and the high council were to arrive, we escaped.

I carried our daughter by the scruff of her neck. Thank the stars she stayed quiet. I looked back at the colony grounds, and at my mate standing my his cave, looking at me with loving eyes and sorrow. Then I turned forward with my chick in my beak and ran.

I had this horrible feeling as I ran. So much I wanted to turn back to fight alongside my mate, even if it meant fighting to the death, but at the same time I knew that I had to get our daughter to safety. I ran as far as my energy to take me, well out of our colony's territory. My strength left me after two days of running.

I rested in a large hollow under a tree with my chick. Oblivious to the danger surrounding her, she nursed on. Her eyes opened after a week and she gladly took to the meal of fattening worms and crunchy insects. She peeped happily, her lack of wings not being a problem to her at all.

I still had the guilt of leaving my mate behind. Every night I dreamt that the leader sent out messengers to bring us back. One day two weeks after our escape the nightmare came true. I knew that I would meet my death as well, but I couldn't bear to see my chick being killed. I ran a few miles until I found an abandoned rabbit warren and tucked her inside it. This bunch of bark I am writing right now with some charcoal will be put in with her, along with a couple of pawfuls of worms for her to feed on. I plan on leaving her in this warren and running back towards the messengers to fight themselves with the ferocity of a protective mother defending the life of her babies.

It was the most difficult decision any mother could make. Whether she'll survive this I wouldn't know. Hopefully the messengers will believe me if I say that she had died and that's why I returned. Hopefully she'll live.

I wonder if someone would find her that hopefully won't kill her or eat her. If someone did find her, that was kind and loving as her own parents were, then I hope they will take her in as if she were their own.

If this is you, then please, take care of my lovely daughter. She has no name. Raise as if she were your own. When she is old enough to understand, show her this letter and explain that her parents loved her very much. Unfortunately she will be unable to return to the clan. Most of the colony will believe her dead, and, if the tyrannical leader of the Clan is still alive, will harm her if not kill her.

Her father and I will be long gone by the time she reads this, but we want to let her know that she will be always loved, and that our spirits will watch over her and protect her throughout her life.

Please take care of her.

With much love,
Her parents.