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What a long ride it had been. For the past four days the caravan had travelled across the countryside hoping to reach its big final destination. Marsis, the caravan’s newest member, had just joined the ride on the third day after having been hired by one of the trading companies that crossed his town. Marsis was quite enthusiastic on being a member of a caravan for the experiences of traveling that the job brought with it, seeing more than just the streets and surroundings of his town was his main reason on joining the company. Some of the caravan members had been welcoming with him, and not long after parting from his hometown, Marsis soon began befriending with some of his new work mates.

Hours passed and the caravan made its way across the land, traveling across plains, and hills; they were heading for a big city crossing a small mountain chain, their destination was about a couple of days length from their position. Eventually the landscape changed so that the hills became ever taller and steeper, as the caravan neared a wall of mountains higher than the rest. Upon beginning the arduous task of riding and crossing the tall mountain chain, Marsis had to start going serious on his work. Helping on watching over the stability of the tiny dirt roads, on carrying goods by hand whenever the path became to dangerous for the filled carriages, and other what nots of traveling in such risky terrains. As the sun began setting, the caravan was still seemingly away from any kind of settlement or population, however, just as the night took over, Marsis noticed the shining lights of a settlement within a tiny valley-like area in between the mountains not too far away. And just some minutes afterwards, the traders had reached the village. The caravan members quickly proceeded on to renting in an inn for the night. Once the carriages had been stored and the horses had been fed, the merchants went on to sleep for the night.

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The following morning was a cold one, constant waves of chilly air blew over the village, reason for which many of its residents had smoke coming out their chimneys. The caravan however, couldn’t let the weather hold them back, reason for which they still had to get ready before parting from the little settlement onwards towards their destination. Marsis was beginning to notice just about how different were his surroundings just after a day in horseback. Noticing and having heard from the rest of the caravan members that things just got worse from this village on, Marsis began forming doubts about joining this one trading route. Sure he wanted to see new landscapes, meet new people, see new buildings, but taking care of materials as valuable as the ones they carried and battling against the weather odds for days in hope of crossing some mountains, seemed maybe as a little too much for a beginner traveler such as himself.

Marsis’s day went from good to bad to good and bad all over and over whenever an unexpected event that required his intervention occurred with the caravan. A few people in the caravan, Marsis noticed, started giving him faces of exasperation at his slow, unprofessional pace and way of solving problems. But Marsis kept on trying to learn through his hardships and mishaps. Joxian, the leader of the caravan, had noticed that even tough enthusiastic, Marsis wasn’t learning quickly enough on how things in the group worked, good thing was, it didn’t matter. Joxian had been told by his superior to accept Marsis into his caravan for one reason: to use him as sacrifice or bait. The caravan’s leader knew profoundly of the dangers of the path, even if this was the safest route, bandits are overrated in it, the true dangers came from the creatures of the mountains and woods. Gryphons, wolves, and some other beings of which nothing but rumors are known about, come as the threats for a portion of the commercial way. Joxian had been told to simply use Marsis as a tool for crossing safely such portion of the trip, portion which was going to be met close to nightfall on this very day, and if not today, then immediately following the morning departure for tomorrow.

Marsis was tired, for the entire day he had helped on making sure the carriages didn’t go off the path and roll down the precipices and helped carrying the merchandise whenever it became too dangerous for a filled carriage to go through a specific zone. He looked up, searching for the sun, however, the setting coolness of the air, the ever increasing shadows and overall absence of the sun higher up than the mountains, told him that the day was close to turning into night. “We’re going to camp in a small clearing a few turns ahead, now quicken your pace everyone, or else it’ll be too dark to even put down our tents” said Joxian from the front of the caravan. Following his orders, the traveling merchants sped up and began preparing their tents and materials needed for the night. Just some minutes later, they had all arrived to the clearing. With the sky turning a darker shade of blue and the orangey glow of sunset becoming obvious, the caravan members set up their little camp for the night within a short time. And while eating dinner before going to sleep, they began discussing on how to evade the dangerous creatures of the mountains and woods on the following day. Marsis was quite bewildered to hear that being a caravan merchant meant traveling often times with beasts such as gryphons above one’s head for even days at times. He had never actually seen one, he had only heard tales about them, many of which didn't have good endings or overall plots.

Once everyone had finished dinner, each trader went on to their tents to sleep off, with just a couple of guys staying up to guard the horses and merchandise. Marsis went to his little tent, got in his comfy clothes and inside his sleeping bag to finally rest after a long arduous day of work.

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The following day in the early morning, the traders were woken up by Joxian: “Up, everyone up! We must continue!” he loudly yelled for a few times. Eventually, once the traders had shaken off their sleepiness, and packed their tents onto the carriages, the caravan continued on its way. Marsis was quite tired, even though he couldn’t recall his dreams he did know that they had been bad nightmares; tiredness still had a strong grip on him because of this. This was most probably going to be a long day for him.

“Come on, Marsis! We need that merchandise to reach the next market intact, not as pieces of broken junk!” yelled one of the traders to Marsis. As he had expected ever since they moved out from the clearing, the day had been slow, tiring and exhausting. Traveling for hours with a headache, killer sun rays and a delicate job wasn’t ideal for anyone, specially if said anyone had few hours of sleep causing his headache. Marsis was even becoming unsure if he was actually fit for the job he had dreamed of for so long. And his coworkers’ annoyed looks he received from time to time weren’t any supportive either.

As the day went on, the caravan got ever closer to dangerous grounds, until at last Joxian saw what was known as a mark for the begging of such grounds for anyone: the mountains housing the area’s beasts. This time the mountains also signaled something else: that Marsis’s time with the caravan was nearly over. Deciding that their bait would work better if deeper in the unsafe grounds, Joxian continued the trip as if everything were to be normal.

Time passed, maybe half or a full hour, and the caravan was now definitely deep in dangerous grounds. Joxian decided that Marsis’s moment had arrived. Joxian told one of his men, a beefy one, to make use of the caravan’s bait. Giving him a pair of handcuffs, he simply asked for Marsis to be send to the ‘sacrifice grounds’ as he called them, and to be left there. Obeying, the beefy man went to Marsis’s carriage. “Hey, Marsis, come with me. We’ve been send to check the upcoming parts of the path for any major obstacles, since it’s under an unstable cliffside, they’re quite common.” Said the man, “Right then…” said Marsis while looking at him, asking with his eyes for his name, “Brutus” “Right then, Brutus” continued Marsis as he left his carriage and stood next to Brutus. “Follow me” said Brutus as he began walking towards the front of the caravan.

For some minutes, both men walked ahead of the caravan, eventually loosing it from sight after taking a sharp turn due to the curvy mountain path. Having crossed the curve, they continued on the path, eventually doing some other secondary turns, until the reached a small clearing near the path. “Well, that was the part that’s always blocked, but now we must see if it is in danger of collapsing! ‘cause that’s happened some few times as well… come on, follow me” said Brutus as he walked to the edge of the clearing and began half-climbing and half-walking down onto the steep mountain terrain next to the trail. Marsis, being a total newbie, followed Brutus, who was heading ever more downwards from the path.

Every now and then Brutus would say something like: “no danger here, steady ground here, all right over here”, which only made Marsis skeptical about this hole “checking for dangers of collapse” thing. Eventually however, he was called on by Brutus. While having his back faced towards him, Brutus asked him to come close him, Marsis neared him, Brutus was very close to a tree with low branches. “Closer, closer!” urged Brutus, was Marsis just half a foot away from him, Brutus turned, grabbed his hand, cuffed him and quickly gave some steps away from the now cuffed-to-a-tree Marsis. “What the hell!” Marsis exclaimed, “What are you doing! Let me go!” he continued, “I’m sorry, but we must present a sacrifice to get across these mountains safely!” apologized Brutus. “What!?” exclaimed-asked Marsis. “The beasts, they demand sacrifices if one wants to cross their territories safely! I must go, or else I’ll be left here too…” said Brutus while slowly making his way up the steep mountain side. “What do you mean beasts? What kind of beasts?” yelled Marsis while trying to shake free of his handcuff, “Hey, hey! Answer me! Let me free!” he continued, but his commands were answered by Brutus simply throwing the handcuff’s keys down next to Marsis. Looking at him angrily, Marsis then tried to bend to grab the keys, but they were too far away form his reach.

A few minutes later, Brutus emerged onto the clearing near the path, just as the last carriage of the caravan was passing it. “Hold on!” he said while jogging towards the merchants. “Oh, you did come back, I thought both of you had been taken or died” said one of the traders, “not funny” Brutus said. Meanwhile, Marsis was still trying to break free from his predicament, shaking the branch in hopes of breaking it off hadn’t work, it was too tough. It was then that he noticed it: several marks on the bark, with the shape of lines, next to his own handcuffs’ position. It was then that he realized that he wasn’t the first to be tricked into this sick “sacrifice” thing. And the more Marsis struggled and moved the leaves and dirt below him, the more proves he saw to his theory of not being first. Some shoes, cloth pieces and belts laid before and around him, making him more nervous and frightened than he already was.

From time to time he would re-spark his struggles on breaking free, however none of them were effective. Suddenly he heard it, a flapping sound, far from his position yet incredibly powerful and loud. Confused he tried to take a look at what was making them, but the tree’s foliage blocked his view. It was then that that same foliage swayed and shook as waves of air pressed them form above, the waves even reaching Marsis himself. He saw a shadow, a big one, moving towards the direction of the path. Fright engulfed the man’s mind, that was one big bird. The flapping stopped, silence took over the scene, except for the occasional natural wave of air that shook the branches above Marsis. A crunch in the ground’s leaves was then heard coming from somewhere in front of him, making Marsis’s eyes widen, the first crunch was followed by another, then another, until eventually he saw it: in front of him, a few meters forwards, was the silhouette of a creature, a giant creature.

Freezing in place out of instinct and fear, he saw the creature going around the trees in front of him, it was moving towards a more cleared area. As it did so, it came to light, and Marsis knew he was absolutely done for. A gryphon, gigantic compared to him, was nearing him; this was most surely the beast that Brutus had mentioned. Within a few steps, the gryphon was standing before him, it then lowered its head and crooked it to look closely at Marsis with its right eye. Marsis was frightened beyond belief, he looked at that eye, probably the size of his head, he saw the pupil focusing in him. Silence and tension held the atmosphere between both beings, then, the gryph put its head straight again and above Marsis, forcing him to look up to not break the eye contact. Then, as if amused, the massive predator seemed to smile, almost even making a chuckle, before launching its beak wide open onto the human’s hand cuffed to the tree. The gryphon’s action made a small scream escape Marsis’s mouth. He then felt an extreme pressure against his right arm, the cuffed one, before screaming not in terror but in pain. He felt as if a saw where pressing on his forearm with the pleasure becoming impossibly tighter, he didn’t dare to look up, he simply shut his eyes and continued screaming and grunting. With the pressure leaving then returning on his forearm, he finally looked at it and immediately wished he didn’t. The gryphon had been biting onto his arm, and with a final strong bite, Marsis’s bone snapped and he stayed connected to his forearm only by his flesh. Marsis let out a scream so powerful, even the gryph seemed to narrow its eyes at it as it faintly echoed across the canyon in between the mountains he was in.

Huffing in disbelief he saw as the gryphon took one last, strong bite at his forearm, completely separating his body from it. Marsis then fell to the ground, his entire arm covered by his blood, his eyes focused on his now exposed bone coming out his arm. “Don’t worry about it” said the gryph, “it will be good for you, you’ll die much faster that way, I’m being merciful” the beast continued. Marsis looked at his apparent to be killer with a questioning look combined with fear, but ultimately the human’s instincts took control of him. Turning on his side, Marsis simply began rolling down the mountain side, with adrenaline kicking in because of his arm’s injury, he didn’t feel anything on his way down. The gryph was taken by surprise by his suicidal action, and it quickly tried to grab its human with its front claws but failed on doing so. It could only watch as the human literally bounced on the steep ground while rolling down. Rolling its eyes, the gryphon simply jumped from the small place where both it and the human had been and began flying in search for the human.

Marsis had no idea of what happened, he remembered the beast looking at him, than having it biting off his arm, making one last eye contact before feeling as if he were falling and then… blackness. Marsis groaned, he felt as heavy as a giant rock, his vision was blurry and he couldn’t hear anything. Trying to push himself up, he then saw his situation: he was laying on a pool of his blood, his arm still gushing the vital liquid. Panicking, he couldn’t scream but only groan loudly. With his remaining force, he tried to grab his own belt, hoping to use it to make a tourniquet on his remaining upper arm to stop the bleeding. Managing to take hold of his belt and taking it off his robes, he then began to try to wrap it around his upper arm, but doing so half-conscious and with only one hand and his mouth proved to be almost impossible. He then heard it: the massive crunching of branches and leaves. The beast had come back.

Hurrying, he tried to drag himself across the ground while tightening his belt on his damaged arm, but he was quickly met with rocky obstacles on his back, stopping his advance. The gryphon once again had to take only a few steps before reaching its prey: the human. “Really now, you should know by now you’re dead anyway you go” the beast said. Marsis simply denied the statement and his predicament by shaking his head, still trying to scooch away from the monstrous bird-hybrid. The gryph, with a couple of more steps, was now mere centimeters away from Marsis, whose terror filled face began tearing up while he began sobbing. “You should’ve just let me be done with you back up there, it would have been better for both of us… but now I won’t get to enjoy you as much, not if you’re already half dead” said the gryphon. The giant predator then lowered its head closer to the human, forcing Marsis to position himself in a fetal form. Then, it happened: the beast opened its beak wide, and closed it over the human’s first half. Painfully crushed by the beak’s sharp edges, Marsis began crying and sobbing loudly. With repetitive motions of quickly lightly opening and closing its mouth, the gryphon continued engulfing more of the human. Once it was halfway through, it lifted its head, aiding on gravity for swallowing such large meal. With its upwards then downwards neck motions, the gryphon continued swallowing, until the human’s feet were only left outside. With a large ‘glurk’ and swallow, the gryphon closed its beak as the feet disappeared into its gullet.

Marsis was going through hell, he was first tightly held by the sharp edges of the beast’s beak. Then he was pressed and sent head first into an impossibly tight hole that began suffocating him. With a repetitive set of tight motions he felt his body passing onto the same tube his head was in. The feeling of his bare arm scraping against the gryph’s gullet was becoming ever more painful as his adrenaline supply was getting deprived. After what seems like infinity to him, Marsis felt his feet entering that same tight space his hole body was now in. He also couldn’t breath, it was incredibly tight in there. Then, his head hit and began passing through an even tighter place, so tight he taught his neck was going to be crushed and his head severed. However, beyond that one tight barrier was a more spacious area, he tried breathing, but there was no air to breath, he panicked and began struggling. His spontaneous struggle helped on making his way faster through that one tight last passage, also allowing the air that had been swallowed with him to accompany him into the wet half-filled-with-a-liquid sac he was now in. Marsis, in his efforts to breath, didn’t quite realize where he was. But his captor did.

Feeling the human’s body leaving its gullet and entering its belly, the gryphon sighed with pleasure. Staying still for a few seconds to feel the afterglow of its feeding, the great predator extended its wings, jumped and took flight. Marsis meanwhile, was suddenly crushed by the place he was in, having now breathed enough air to not feel like he was choking, his mind reminded him on how he had gotten to where he was: he had been eaten. He went into shock. Him, a fully grown human, almost six feet tall, had been devoured in seconds, he was alive inside another creature, he was food. Marsis’s heart sunk, he was truly surrounded by living flesh, flesh that had no other purpose but to nourish with him, turn him into nothing but a forgivable snack as the food he had become. “No… p-please…” he tried to yell, but with no avail, the hungry growls of the stomach, plus the beating heart and endless sounds of the body that housed him made his quiet plead impossible to hear even to himself. With so much loss of blood, Marsis lost his consciousness well before he finished his air supply and before real digestion even began.

Outside, the gryphon had flown for a couple of minutes before arriving to its nest. Right after landing in a clearing on the border of a cliffside, it entered its little cave and walked to its nest safely tucked inside of the mountain. Laying down on its comfortable sleeping place, it curled on its self like a cat, ending with its head next to its belly. ‘Glourrp’ ‘gurrl’ The powerful beast’s stomach growling while working on its latest meal was the only sound to be heard in the cave, aside from the now slowing down breathing of said stomach’s owner. Even if the human had died before the fun life-pleading, struggling and kicking part began, he still had been a good enough meal. Receiving sacrifices from the caravans was quite good whenever one as a predator didn’t feel like spending hours on the hunt for food. Sometimes a little free sentient entertaining snack is just much better than normal forest mindless creatures.