(Adventures in Myth) Gryphons war, book 1 gone missing, Chapter 3

                                                                                         

CHAPTER 3 FEATHER 

Feather strained his eyes to see, he had just woke up and the sun was beaming in his face. The whole village was a mess, mountain peaks got smashed, some trees where still on fire, and lots of gryphon’s got either wounded or killed. It was rough for him the other day, stuck in a crammed hole. Feather padded over to the prey den, hoping to find a rabbit or two, but their was only a mouse. Which another cub snatched before he could. Feather sighed, what else could possibly happen? It was already hard enough for him to catch prey, now their wasn’t any more? At least the morning hunting party should be back soon, he thought staring at the empty circle of rocks. He heard someone walk over to him, then they said, “nothing left eh?” then he saw Star-fighter beside him with her sister River-flow behind her. “No, another cub took the last mouse…” Feather explained. “It’s alright, I’ll find some fish in the lake” River-Flow suggested before diving into the lake. “I don’t get that girl, always wanting to get her talons wet” Star-Fighter said, shaking her head. “that’s Flow for ya!” Rock said padding up to them, “foowie! I wanted to get a deer leg!” Rock complained, “but there’s not even a mouse!” before Star-fighter flew away she said, “the hunting party will be back soon, you can be patient!”                 

                 Feather, Rock, Flint, and Flow all had to use their free time to help patch up dents in the mountain peeks. Feather decided it was a good time to tell them what had happened to him. “hey guys?” he waited intel his friends looked at him, “I’ve been meaning to tell you…” he paused when flint starred him in the eyes. “You know I wasn’t in the safe den with everyone else? When I noticed we where getting attacked I ran down the tunnel.. and I crashed into a Diamond- Destiny, who tried to grab me, but I ran under it and it chased me Intel I got cornered in a dead-end”- he paused to take a breath –“ then these gryphon fighters appeared out of no where, grabbed me and stuffed me in a hole where they said I’d be safe.” Rock stood up, “wait, so your saying you where stuffed in a hole, for however long the battle went on for?!” Feather’s ears drooped, “yeah, but that’s not all, I don’t think I was supposed to hear or see this but, they rapped this weird chain like stuff around the dragonet and said, ‘this one will do,’ and then dragged it away.” Everyone was silent, Feather didn’t even know what to think about it either. He just grabbed a rock and some of the mud mixture, and stuffed the rock in place. Then the others started doing the same, Intel Flint stopped and walked over to Feather. “Meet me at the lake at twilight,” she whispered in his ear, then went back to work.                                                       For most of the day Feather and his friends were just grabbing mud, stuffing rocks, grabbing more mud, stuffing rocks, so on and so forth. The morning hunting party hadn’t even come back yet so Feather had to bare with flow’s fish. He missed the taste of mouse. He padded up to Rock, “when do you think the hunting party will be back?” Feather asked him, “I don’t know, maybe their having a harder time finding prey?” Rock answered. “But, how would they have troubles? We’re definitely not low on prey?” Feather said, why wasn’t the morning hunting party back when it was noon? He thought. “I’ll be right back, Rock,” Feather told him, “I’m just going to the cub den real quick.” Feather gave him a quick look, then flew toward the cub den. But he wasn’t staying there, he was going to tell Storm-Breaker the hunting party hadn’t come back yet.                                

                He was about to turn the corner when a cub blocked his way and asked “excuse me! Before you go, Feather, um.. can I ask you a question?” the cub asked, she has a honey colored pelt with golden colored stripes, and a fluffy cat tail with a tan brown tint at the tip. She has honey, tan brown, and golden colored wings, and pastel yellow talons and beak. “have- er- you- um,”- she looked away, he could see worry on her face, but the way her feather’s where ruffling up and down, and the way her tail was swaying told him she was thinking of something different. Then she blurted out “have you seen Bark-Tail? I couldn’t find her ever since the dragon’s attacked! I’m worried sick…” Feather’s beak opened to say something, but he didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry, Honey, I wish I knew, but I haven’t seen her since yesterday at the hunting party.” Honey’s ears drooped, “ok, thanks for telling me…” her beak opened to say something else but it quickly closed, “see you later, Feather.” She said then padded over to a different cub.                                                    

Feather finally made it to the tallest mountain peak, the leader’s mountain. He took in a deep breath, Feather wasn’t usually the most talkative gryphon around adults. And he was going to see the leader! Or he could just tell flash-Wing and then he could deliver it to Storm-Breaker. Feather felt like a bug next to the mountain, the mountain was HUGE with a waterfall cascading down it’s gravely layer, into the river that met with the lake. The mountain had flowers covering dirt here and there, with tree’s and moss covering the surface.   

He began to fly up the mountain when he heard a grunt, he looked behind him and saw an adult gryphon. It was a male with incredibly sharp talons and claws, he had deep gashes on his ear’s and talons. He even had a couple on his tail, the gryphon was a wheat color like himself but with more of a brunet brown tint. He had large wheat and brunet brown wings and a brunet brown tail tip. The gryphon cleared his throat, “do you need something, Feather?” Feather choked on his own words, “I’m here to see Storm-Breaker-” Flash-Wing held up his talon, “and what do you need to see her for?” he asked. “I-um…” Feather paused, letting himself take deep breaths as Flash-Wing intently stared at him, “the hunting party hasn’t come back yet and I-“ Flash-Wing cut him short, “and you think were not aware of it? Now I suggest you go back to the cub’s den and leave this for the adults to handle,” He said giving Feather a warning glare before he flew away, leaving Feather by himself next to the leader’s towering mountain.          

                What a lovely visit, Feather thought to himself as his talons touched the edge of the entrance of the cub’s den. It wasn’t unnatural for him to get worried, he was still hungry and was wondering why the hunting party was still gone at noon. Plus, he didn’t want fish for lunch. Feather padded over to his bed of moss and curled up in it, shoving chunks of moss with his talons to get his bed more comfortable. Honey was still asking cubs about her friend, she looked so worried. The cubs den was more like a hangout area then a sleeping den, so if Feather ever wanted to rest, he had to bare with the sound of cubs chatting with each other. Someone padded up to him, “hi, um.. can I talk to you?” Feather looked up, only to see a honey colored pelt. “Sure” he answered. Honey sat down next to him, then she opened her beak to say something but nothing came out. “Um…” Feather said standing up, Honey stood up as well “what I meant to say was…” she paused, then her tail started to sway. “Do you wanna go to the pond with me?” she asked looking at the floor, “just you and me?” Honey said looking up at him. Feather didn’t know what to say so he asked, “what time?” Honey looked as if she was scolding herself then said “at twilight maybe?” “Oh…” Feather said, he was already going to meet flint at the lake at twilight. “I’m sorry Honey, I can’t go at twilight. Tomorrow I have battle training and a hunting party, so maybe we could do it at twilight tomorrow?” honey’s ears started to droop, but then she said, “that’s fine I guess.” Then she padded away.

                Feather padded up to the pray den, the hunting party still hadn’t come back yet, which worried feather, but he didn’t have the guts to go back where flash-wing was probably still waiting, besides, it was almost twilight, so he needed to make sure he went to the lake at the right time. “MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC!” a cub yelled flying out of the forest, the cub was struggling to carry another cub on her back. Feather sprinted over to help the cub, she had a couple cuts here and there, she has a pale grey pelt with a couple streaks of light green and brown. “What happened Leaf!?” Feather asked laying the wounded cub’s wing on his back. “A Diamond-Destiny dragonet. It nocked Palm-Tail unconscious by slamming him with its tail. He hit a tree, and it’s really bad,” she explained as they carried Palm-Tail to the healer’s den, Palm-Tail’s face was very pale, and he had several gashes on his back, probably from the tree bark. Palm-Tail had a dirty-blond pelt with a light green main and tail feather’s. “Feather-Pelt and Red-Wing told me and Rose to run for it while they fought the dragonet, but Rose disappeared, and I couldn’t find her!” she began to walk faster, and Feather tried to keep up. “Help! Get a medic!” she yelled again, two adult gryphon’s saw them and gasped, they ran over and the male carefully laid Palm-Tail’s limp body on his back. “Come here sweety, you need to get those nasty scrapes fixed up. We don’t want them to get infected” the female said grabbing Leaf by the scruff, “I can walk!” she complained, but the gryphons ignored her as they launched themselves into the sky. I hope everyone will be ok, Feather thought, then flew back to the cub’s den.                    Feather had just slept for the rest of the day, he was starving, not latterly. He had only ate one fish at lunch time, and fish wasn’t so filling. But it was almost twilight and he had to keep himself awake, so he got some bitter herbs, ate them, and waited.                                                 Feather wanted to sleep SO badly! He longed to curl up in his bed of moss, and fall fast asleep. As he made his way to the lake, the sun was just setting, which ment he had to go faster. “Ugh! Stop letting your eye lids droop, Feather!” he scolded himself. Feather lifted his wings to fly, gave him self a running start, and launched himself into the sky. But someone grabbed his tail and pulled him back down to the floor, he couldn’t even see who did it! What if it was another Diamond-Destiny!! Fear filled his mind as he scrambled under a bush. “gosh! Relaxe Feather! Its just me, your friend… the one who told you to come here?” Feather slowly crawled out of the protection of the bush, and in front of him was his friend Flint. Know wonder he couldn’t see her, with her black pelt, dark grey main and tail fluff, and navy-blue stripes she was almost invisible at night. “sorry, Flint, I didn’t see you, and I’ve been very cautious ever since the attack-” “yeah, shooting off into the sky is VERY cautious.” Even though Feather couldn’t see it, he was sure she rolled her eyes. “haven’t you ever payed attention to your battle training? Remember to lie low.” Feather’s ears drooped “oh, I guess I wasn’t thinking right..” Flint stared silently padding away “fallow me.” She said. Feather fallowed her to a grassy area next to the lake, the mud was solid there. Flint sat down, and so did Feather. “So, what did you bring me here for.” Feather asked. “So. I’ve been thinking, several cub’s have gone missing.” Feather was shocked “I only knew Bark-Fur and Rose was missing…” Flint stood up, “when did you figure that out?” she asked “ Honey asked me if I had seen Bark-Fur anywhere, and Leaf came back saying the hunting party got attacked by a Diamond-Destiny, Palm-Tail got slammed into a tree real hard and Rose went missing. Have you realized Red-Wing and Feather-Pelt never came back!” Feather took in a deep breath. Flint’s face was shocked, “I think we’re getting somewhere! Cubs went missing during either battle training or hunting parties, and I last saw Bark-Fur before the dragons attacked…” she turned her head to look at Feather “I think the dragon’s are taking cubs as prisoners..”