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.She lived to scream unfettered through the great void.A few scales given from time to time seemed a small indignity to endure in order to preserve her easy life.The truth was that the wizards did scare her.Their hunting parties had caused her much suffering before she had negotiated her agreement with the head wizard known as Zaringer.But her pride would not allow her to own up to that fact.“I allow them to take a few scales.It is nothing.”“You must renounce your dependence on hunting.”“Never.”“Please join me in the far mountains.”“I will not.”“One day you will die at their hand.”“Do not concern yourself with that.You might as well worry for these mountains.” The Griffin leapt from her perch and took off into the air with a loud cry.“Goodbye, old friend,” she thought to herself as she watched the Griffin depart.Her senses welcomed the retreat of the other, though her spirit still found some comfort in her company.As she rested her head and closed her eyes, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching from the path leading down to the lands in the west.She realized with another sigh that the very wizards that they had just discussed would soon arrive.She hoped they hadn’t seen the Griffin.A short hour passed as she waited for the wizards.When they finally arrived, she became apprehensive.Something about the timing of these two visits along with the impassioned message of caution delivered by the Griffin disquieted her.But she was hungry, and thoughts of soaring through the stars soon eclipsed her negative feelings.The wizards stood before her.The proud little vermin didn’t even look nervous.She decided to breathe some fire into the air to remind them of their place.But the heat at the edges of the flame triggered a hazy magical aura around their bodies.They had taken precautions against her.Clever, damned wizards.She hated them.The worst wizard of all stepped forward.“Azeoloth, we have come for our scales.I also need to discuss something with you,” said Zaringer.“Do you have my delivery?”“Of course.The slaves are in the usual place.But first I must ask you about the Griffin.”“What of her?”“Did I not see her fly from this place mere hours ago?”“She comes here from time to time to engage me in pointless conversation.”“You must allow us to capture her.We need her for our magical research.”“I will not.She amuses me.”“This is not a request.You will arrange to meet with her when the sun is high in exactly one week’s time.We will take her then.”“Impossible.She would just fly away.”The wizard raised his arms and there was motion all around her.She leapt from her perch with a deafening scream and took flight.But as she rose, something restrained her.She fell back to her perch with a heavy thud, shattering a part of her favorite rock outcropping.Looking around her, she saw at least a hundred figures wearing robes that cunningly blended in with the stone around them.They had their hands raised, holding her in a vast magical netting.They were all wizards! And they had either been there for some time or they had approached her, undetected.“As you can see, stealth will not be a problem.These wizards have been searching these mountains for some time under my direction.You probably were aware of them when they began that effort many years ago; but as they’ve studied the Dead God’s magic, they’ve become masters of stealth and illusion.An unintended but welcome side-effect to their primary mission,” gloated Zaringer.She considered breathing fire on the nearby wizards, who she noticed had an unusually skeletal appearance.But she had already established that the wizards had taken precautions against her fire.And the magical confinement had tempered her pride with an edge of raw fear.Her chief concern now was escape and the eventual destruction of this wizard.But could she manage that? And would she betray the Griffin—her one friend in this world since the remainder of her true kin had fled to the chaos of the outer worlds?Some of her cunning returned, and she asked a question.“What is the true mission of these, then?” She thought about the long history of the mountains and of the City.She had lived through all of it.When Zaringer did not respond, she ventured a guess.“You’re looking for Julius’ tomb?” She laughed softly at the notion.Everyone knew that Julius had spent a decade hiding his tomb with layers upon layers of the Old God’s magic.She had looked for it herself for a few years.It was a dizzying array of illusions, false leads, and secrets—a supreme exercise in frustration and futility.A waste of time.“You are wise.Would you offer your help?” asked Zaringer.“There is no point.It will never be found.The magic is too strong.”“We will find it.I am descended from the Old God, just like Julius was.”“Do not deceive yourself—you are a babe in the woods compared to Julius.”She saw Zaringer redden at that remark, and she worried for a moment that he might have her slain.But he calmed himself and ordered her release.“One week’s time!” he shouted as his robed wizards scurried back into the rocky clearing and dissolved from view.Zaringer strode off with his retinue of other wizards in tow.She felt an urgency to feed that overshadowed all other concerns.As she prepared to fly, the sensation of the magical restraint returned to her.She hadn’t felt this hopeless since she agreed to betray the Creator in favor of the Dead God.She remembered feeling utterly lost in the moments before the magnificence of what she had been transformed into became apparent.She never wanted to feel restrained like that again.She leapt aloft and flew high into the afternoon air.She found a good pocket of smooth air and soared high over the mountains.She thought of the wizards below her, now insignificant ants scurrying around the mountains—her mountains.The Griffin had been right.She had to concede that.But no—those thoughts would be saved for the vastness of the void.The impotence she experienced at being so close to the stars above and unable to climb to them further underscored her need feed—immediately.She gathered herself into a steep dive and began to hurtle down toward her favorite peak and the clearing where the wizards said they had left her intended victims.She roared as she penetrated a deep cloud bank and distorted its frothy whiteness with her passing.Down, down she sped until her great speed became dangerous because of the proximity of the rock below her.At the last possible second, she reared up and used her wings to slow her rapid descent.Her great speed tore at the flesh of her wings, but she almost welcomed the pain.It focused her consciousness and she lost herself in the ensuing frenzy of blood and death.When she had finished, and only the bloody chains and the wrecked bones of the two score she had slain littered the rocky platform, she climbed aloft again.Somewhere inside of her a void had been filled, and a euphoric feeling came over her.Everything was all right in her world again.The wizards were meaningless as she beat her wings and the thinness of the upper air became palpable [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]