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Slayer or Layer 47

For Lorvianne

By Draconicon

It didn't take long to pick up signs of the griffons catching their trail. Lorkos noticed it first, but Lia wasn't far behind. The squad was keeping low as they followed, but he could see the shift in the trees and the air behind them while they were still a few miles off. He pulled his robe a bit tighter around his face and body, shaking his head as he remembered how powerful they had been when he'd been stuck in his feral form.

And they're probably stronger now. That failed patrol would have gotten word back to high command by now.

Which meant that they would probably be less vulnerable to the curse, to Mastar's magic, and to everything else that they could bring to bear. He didn't like their odds of success in a fight; the only option was to try and lose them.

So, he took them off the road, back to the more cluttered, if still sparse, woods to the side of the road. It wasn't as good a cover as the woods that had sheltered them before Morton, but it would have to do.

Once Lia noticed what he was doing, his daughter moved up to whisper to him. He tilted his head to the side, gesturing for her to keep her voice down.

"Griffons?" she asked.

"How'd you guess?"

"Probably the same as you. So...are we doomed?"

Lorkos looked over his shoulder. They were probably a half-hour off, now. Not that much time to get a lead, even if they could somehow outpace their pursuers. He winced, shaking his head.

"Depends on how merciful they're feeling."

"And if they're not?"

"Well, I'm dead. Probably Mastar. You...might last a little longer."

"...That sort of thing?"

"That sort of thing."

She winced, and he didn't blame her. After all the indignities that he had gone through with mammal hunters, he knew how it felt to be raped. He knew the pain and humiliation that would come with it, and he knew that he didn't want that for his daughter. He would fight as hard as he could to keep that from happening.

Of course, considering that would be a mortal 'dragon' fighting against feral griffons and their riders, that didn't mean much. If he was particularly lucky, he'd be able to take down one of the gryphons, maybe two riders, but that would be if they were stupid and rushed him the wrong way, or...or, well, anything else that might give him an advantage. More likely, they'd have arrows ready to pepper him and Mastar from the heights, and then the griffons would take them down after they were wounded.

And then they'd have their way with Lia...

The growl that followed that thought no longer surprised him. He had stopped being surprised at being protective of her some time ago. All that he felt was some happiness that it no longer felt out of place.

Shaking his head, he nodded for her to keep moving. Maybe something brilliant would come to him before the squad of griffon riders caught up with them.

Or maybe I can find a place to stash Lia...

Nothing came to him. When the griffons were a handful of minutes off, he called them to a halt. Mastar had picked up what was happening, and the first thing out of his mouth was:

"What's the plan?"

"There is no plan," Lorkos muttered.

"What? There - you have to have a plan."

"Not this time."

"So...what do we do?"

"Fight as hard as we can. Hope for the best." He shrugged. "We don't have enough cover to keep the griffons from landing, and we can't hide and hit them from cover. They have the height advantage, and the numbers."

"...And?"

"And that means that there's nothing that prior planning can do in this situation. We'll just have to play it by ear."

'Play it by ear' was the worst thing that a soldier could do, but Lorkos couldn't think of any intelligent sort of thing to do to turn the odds to their favor again. They didn't have any cover, didn't have anything that would take away the advantage that the griffons gave the kingdom's forces. The one thing that they had had going for them, the curse and Mastar's magic, would be less than useless in this case if what Lorkos feared came to pass.

He needed more information, and waiting for the enemy to make the first move was the only thing that they could do. If they were caught...then they were caught.

"Hide...and hope..."

The once-wolf leaned against one of the wasted trees, suiting action to words. Lia and Mastar did the same thing after they were sure that he was firmly decided on that course of action, and Lorkos leaned his head back and let out a long, slow sigh.

Just hope that we get lucky...

They didn't. Two minutes later, the wind beat down on them, and he looked up to see that the griffon riders were hovering just over their hiding place. They'd formed themselves into a triangle shape, a wedge with one rider pointing at him, and the other two holding their position twenty feet back. The ones behind had their bows pointed at him, arrows pulled back and nocked, while the one in the lead had a blade in hand. The rider, a cheetah, pulled off his helmet and looked down at Lorkos with a severe expression.

"So, you're the one causing all the problems around here."

"Well...kind of."

"Two forests were half-burned to the ground because of you."

"I'm not really capable of fire magic."

"But you travel with one who is."

"And that's my fault, then?"

"It is, if you don't keep a leash on them. But that's besides the point, reptile."

"Ah."

They were going to get to that point eventually, he'd assumed. Lorkos stepped away from the tree, keeping his hands in the air. No point in reaching for his sword, and he didn't have something that would reach them. Not when they were thirty feet in the air, at the very least. He looked from one to another.

Best case, they want to take me alive, and they'll be stupid enough to all land. He doubted that very much. Likely case, they'll shoot my legs to paralyze me from above, then land, and if they want me alive, they'll bind the wounds and tie me up, and then throw me over the back of a griffon.

Which would mean that they'd then take him back to the capital, where he'd be interrogated before he was killed. They'd want to know everything, and that would expose Lia's siblings, the village, and so much more that didn't need to be destroyed. The only thing that he might get for himself was eventual revenge on Ashin, getting the griffons to go and take her out. Or, at least, try. He didn't know if they'd be strong enough for that. He didn't know if anything was strong enough for that.

And he wanted to be alive for that revenge, not dead. That wasn't negotiable.

The griffon leader pushed closer, now about twenty feet off the ground.

"You'll surrender, then?" the cheetah asked.

"That depends. Do I get to live?"

"..."

"That's what I thought."

"All scalies are a danger to the realm. You've proved that."

"I think fire proved that."

"Regardless."

He sighed. So, they were going to kill him. But they didn't seem to see anyone -

Snikt. The sound of a bowstring loosing was the only warning before an arrow caught the back-right griffon in the hind leg. The griffon shrieked, and the rider turned, loosing his own arrow. Lia screamed, and the sound ripped through Lorkos's ears.

No.

As his daughter fell from behind her tree, Mastar leaped from behind his. The once-wolf threw up his hands, casting fireballs at the griffons. The spheres of flame fizzled, falling apart as they reached five feet from the beasts. Spells on the harnesses, likely, something to keep the griffons from being affected by his spells. Another arrow flew, catching the other wizard in the knee.

"Any other allies, reptile?" the cheetah asked.

Lorkos stared at his panting daughter, watching as she bled from her shoulder. Not deadly, but an inch lower, and it would have been. The other riders were already turning, one holding an arrow on Mastar, the other on Lia. They were ready to kill them, all because of them trying to help him.

Idiots...morons...

He didn't know if he was thinking about his companions or the riders, and he didn't care. Raw fury was rising up beneath the wolf anger that he had always felt. This was...this was something quite a bit deeper. It was like what he had felt in the tavern, except stronger, worse, something that begged to be unleashed on those floating in front of him.

He whipped his head from his daughter, clenching his fists as he felt the curse warping again. This time, it was pulsing through him, running through him to the beat of his heart. Everything ached, throbbing with the fury at someone daring to touch his family. His daughter. His Lia.

"Well, reptile?" the cheetah asked. "Anyone else?"

"You...shouldn't...have done that..."

"You aren't going to surrender peacefully, are you?"

"Would you?"

"I wouldn't be in this situation to start with."

As the cheetah snapped his fingers, Lorkos felt something break. The disdain, the sneering, the everything just snapped whatever was left for sympathy for his own people out of his system. He looked up, and he roared.

As the sound echoed from his throat, his body cracked. His shoulders hunched as he fell to all fours, his spine rippling as he grew rapidly. His arms and legs cracked, snapped, pushed outwards and elongated, thickening in the joint and then pushing out further still. Claws at the tips of his fingers and toes became bladed weapons, and he slammed his hands - now forepaws - against the ground, sending shockwaves through it.

"What - what is this? What are you?!"

Answering with a roar, Lorkos leaped into the air. His wings ripped out of his back, snapping free and flapping. The lead griffon rider dodged, but the one behind him couldn't. Lorkos was in a fury, his eyes red, his scales shining as they grew stronger. He ripped out the throat of the griffon, then kicked its belly, sending the rider into the sky. Flipping over in mid-air, he twisted around, grabbing the rider and carrying him further into the sky.

The other griffons followed, their riders trying to get a bead on him, but Lorkos was already responding to instincts. He rolled, throwing the screaming, mountless archer back over his back. The cheetah slammed into the other archer, and they both went falling to the earth below. The soft smack-crack that followed told him that they had probably died.

That left the leader and two griffons, and the latter two were the more dangerous opponents. Lorkos climbed, flapping his wings for everything that he was worth. The griffons were the faster flyers, but they couldn't reach the same elevation that he could. He could cruise higher, bring them down from above.

Snikt.

The arrow caught him in the hind leg, but it didn't matter. The blood rolling down his leg didn't matter. The pain, the twisting muscle around the barbed arrowhead didn't fucking matter. Not when this still needed to be done.

He climbed over the clouds, then rolled. As the griffons followed, struggling to flap in the higher air, he came falling right back down on top of them. The riderless griffon took a body-slam to the face, skull cracking before it started falling to the earth below. The other one, with the leader, managed to spin to the side, only taking a mild tail-scrape to the flank. It rolled and spun, the rider turning with another arrow nocked.

"I don't know what you are, beast, but you are dead."

"Nnnngh..."

"You will not escape unscathed. Others are already coming...see?"

Lorkos turned. All around him, the skies were filling with other griffon rider squads. Four more triangles were zeroing in on his position. He could not fight all of them. Nobody could have fought all of them.

Yet, the rage in him burned. The curse, the core that created him and turned him into this, burned hotter and hotter until -

"RAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Lorkos roared, and as he did, a pulse pushed out from his body. It filled the air with a deep red light, a red that reminded him of Ashin, a red that hit whatever magical defenses that the griffon rider had...

And shattered them.

The End

Summary: Lorkos is ambushed, and it goes very, very, very, VERY badly.

Tags: No sex, injury, transformation, fight, fantasy, series, dragon, griffon, cheetah, various species, air fight, combat, magic,