FSE

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She couldn't eat him, he thought. After everything he had done. After everything she had done. It just wouldn't make any sense. But her grin was convincing. Too convincing, really. Maybe she just liked watching him panic.

He looked up. Her neck was covered in a clump of tan feathers, each rustling individually in the wind. The underside of her beak was a lighter shade of blue than the top. Two fantastic features but no eye contact.

He figured she wouldn't answer his next question if she truly intended to kill him. They moved into a cloudy patch of sky as he opened his mouth to speak.

“We've been seeing a lot of each other lately, haven't we?" She didn't give him so much as a sidelong glance. “I didn't catch your name, though." He wrestled his good arm out of her grip and rested it on one of the talons holding him in place. “I'm Beck."

She blinked and looked in his direction but did not turn her head.

“You probably haven't heard of it, but I'm from May's Landing. Small town a bit to the south of the ridge." He gripped her clawed extremity. “I moved over to the city a couple months back. Didn't have any money, though. Pretty much lived in the arena for a few weeks before Jason found me. He snatched me up and has been looking out for me ever since."

“I have heard of it," she said, her beak opening only as much as needed. “But why would you tell me this?"

Beck tapped her talon. “Well," he said. “I figure we're friends now. What with me saving you and you saving me and all."

She scoffed. “I hardly required your assistance, bug."

“Right. I'm sure you had that whole thing under control. Being unconscious and everything," he said quickly.

Her eyes rolled. If she really did want to off him, he could make it harder. Maybe he could get some empathy out of her. At least, that's how it would work with humans…

“When I awoke, you looked to be the one needing saving," she said. He could feel her chest expand slightly more than usual as she took a deep breath and sighed. “You are… very odd."

“I'll take 'odd,'" he said.

“You may call me Fio," she said, “and we're here."

Out of the cloud cover appeared a wide span of rocky structures. Spires taller than the ridge's most massive towers reached up to the sun. At the base of each one sat a rather crowded conglomerate of what looked like nests. Dotting the horizon and populating the air around the vertical rocks were dozens of winged beasts, each circling what Beck assumed to be their homes.

Beck had tried to remain as worldly as possible. He read books from Jason's library. He spoke with scholars in the streets, or at least, the ones that would give him the time of day. He paid attention to rumors and investigated the ones he could. It's not like he had anything better to do while Jason was ignoring him. Despite his best efforts, he had never heard of anything like this.

An invasive feeling manifested inside him. She must have had her whole family here, he thought. Friends, too. His fingers curled into tight fists. Everyone seemed to have these things.

“You live here," he muttered, happy his scarf and wrappings covered his expression.

Without any warning, she took a graceful nosedive. His heart jumped up into his throat. Bobbing left and then right, she continued the maneuver as the crashing waves approached. Seconds before what should have been a terrible impact with the liquid surface, she adjusted the angle of her wings and pulled up. She tightened her grip on her passenger as she did so to ensure she did not drop him. Leveling out, Fio flapped a bit to get up to an altitude she was comfortable with. A space on the flat rock ahead was undoubtedly a landing area. A few other brown gryphons were sitting in a semicircle around the edge, waiting.

With a practiced motion, she led the ground with her hind paws. The gryphoness let out a loud, excited shriek as she dropped Beck off to the side. Not expecting to be dropped so early, he put his hands out a split second before hitting the solid rock. He and his gear hit the ground with a multitude of clanks and he promptly grunted after situating himself. A few of Fio's kind watched him inquisitively as he reached across his body to grab at his shoulder.

“Fiora! What a surprise," the largest of the beasts said, taking a few steps forward. He had an even more arrogant air about him than Fio, if that was possible. “I thought you said you would not be returning until the month after next."

“Father. I have a very good reason for seeking respite early," she said, touching the edges of her wings against his. A potentially formal greeting.

More winged creatures approached, all looking up to Beck's savior like she was some sort of hero. They were her younger siblings, he decided. He was confident in this guess given their size in comparison to hers, as well as their comfort in their body language. Her father conducted himself like he owned the place, so he was probably the head honcho. Watching as a crowd of more appeared from the skies and surrounding cave structures, Beck began to understand why no one had told him about this place, and why he had never read about it in any book.

It seemed as though any human's journey here was a one way trip…

“Sister!" a smaller gryphon said. He jumped up and down with excitement before colliding with Fio's side. He looked up to her with a joyful grin.

She laughed and then pulled him closer with a wing. “You've grown while I was gone, Tavrey. Eating too much fish, I would think."

The young one blushed before rubbing his face against her. A second later, he was joined by the rest of his brothers and sisters.

“There's enough room for all of you. Come, come," Fio said, now both wings outstretched. Her siblings accepted the invitation, all joining her in a group hug. Beck bowed his head and examined his gloved hands.

“My daughter," he heard another voice say. Just as quickly as he had averted his gaze, Beck looked up to witness the mother's descent into the reunion. With a thump, she landed and immediately embraced her child. In his silence, he observed them all exchanging greetings, physical displays of familial affection, and finally, stories of what Fio had missed in her absence. They spoke for quite a long time.

Fio had apparently left the roost to gather information about the desert and a few other locations, though he could not make out every word clearly over the scratching of talons on the rocky surface and the squawks and caws of the happy group. There wasn't anything else of substance that could be gained from of his eavesdropping, he decided.

He rose to his feet and turned to the ocean below. He wondered if any of them would even notice if he were to jump over the edge and greet it. Though, he couldn't decide if that would more or less unpleasant than being devoured.

The water was certainly alluring. It was gorgeous in the sunlight. Rays refracted off each particle, the foamy liquid ramming the base of the craggy spire he stood upon as if it knew the next wave would be enough to topple the structure. Unyielding, the rapids swirled and morphed this way and that, the noises its crashes made against the tough rock soothing to his ears. Especially after he had tuned out the birdbrains behind him.

His gaze hovered where the spires on the horizon met the water. For a split second, he thought he saw an oddly shaped silhouette in the distance.

“Oh, yes. He is mine," he heard. The words pierced the mixture of sounds as though he was meant to hear them. Gritting his teeth beneath his maroon scarf, Beck turned his head away from the ocean to see at least two dozen of them looking directly at him… just staring. No noise came from the crowd any longer, each and every soul listening to the returned sister. “And he is the reason for my return."

The father made a distinct noise of disapproval. “You came back to dine? Surely you could have done so out in the field."

Fio shook her head. “Dear Father, you misunderstand." She padded towards Beck. Towering over him, she looked down with a smile. “He is my guest."

A few confused chirps could be heard from the sizable group. She brought a wing down to him and pulled him in close. “He was hurt in his efforts to protect me from an ill band of poachers. I mistook him for one of them, but his persistence made me realize the error in my judgment."

Some still wide-eyed, a few of the gryphons turned to each other and exchanged whispers.

The gryphoness looked to her mother. “May I take him to the den? He requires rest, and a great deal of healing."

Blinking twice, the matriarch frowned. “I- I do not see why not."

Before he could fully comprehend what was occurring, Beck felt something grabbing at the back of his cloak. He then found himself being hoisted up from above. Fio had pinched the back of his cloak with the tip of her beak, and in doing so had lifted him slightly off the ground. She began off in the direction of a nearby cave etched into one of the walls of a the jagged stone. As she progressed forward, her peers looked on, dumbfounded. This did not seem to be the normal way for a gryphon to treat a member of humanity.

After a few long moments of awkward hanging, she gently placed him onto a bed of tan leaves and twigs. They had entered a cavern. Some light from the outside was sneaking in through a crack above, but other than that, the place was decently dark. He wondered if Fio's race had any trouble seeing in the blackness.

He watched as Fio sighed, and he flinched just a bit as she sat down next to him. The branches shifted and snapped under her as she adjusted herself. “I apologize," she chirped. “I have not visited home in a long while."

The change in her posture was like night and day. Gone was the prideful and deliberate grace she carried herself with during the days before. Instead, a tired and relaxed aura enveloped her. It was quite the jarring transition.

“It's alright. They must've missed you," he said.

Reaching over to remove his wrappings evoked a tinge of pain in his shoulder. He tried his best to hide it. Focusing on uncurling the cloth was easy enough even with the discomfort.

Unsure of what else to say, he scanned the cave idly. Things looked pretty safe at this point. After a display like that, he didn't seem to be on the menu. There was still the simple yet unsolvable problem of being on a rock in the middle of the ocean, though.

So accustomed to the red filter, he forgot that he was still wearing his goggles. He stowed them in his trouser's back pocket. His left hand searched the other compartments, then moved to his ear. The communications piece was gone.

“Ahem," came Fio's calm voice. Beck dropped his hand as he turned his head. “Long conversations are not your forte, are they?"

He couldn't fathom the thought that she would want to talk to him more than necessary.

“Is something amiss?" she asked, playful concern embedded in the question.

He bowed his head to the side. “I'm okay."

A beaked face entered his adjusted view. “Bug," she said, “you need not be nervous. You are safe here. Raiders have no wings and you are among allies."

“I bet you don't even remember my name," he said. His hand went back to his trouser pockets.

The feathers now resting on his back elicited the strangest sensation. “You are not speaking as much as you were yesterday. Your confidence has abandoned you." A smirk rested happily on the gryphoness' face.

She held her gaze as he hesitated. “Surely, you are not afraid of us."

He couldn't look up from the ground much less hold eye contact. “I'm fine," he managed to say.

Her smile faded ever so slightly before she retracted her feathered appendage. “I do not understand. In just the last three days, I have witnessed you risk your life just as many times. Twice for myself, and once with nothing but shrubbery between you and ruthless killing machines."

Beck's eyes explored the floor as he recalled the firefight she described.

“So please…"

She positioned herself such that she was right in front of him. Her wings hung idly, no longer tucked by her sides.

“Tell me what is bothering you."

“I- n- nothing."

All that got was a sigh. She stepped closer. “Tell me."

“Hey, wh- stop that."

Her face was practically touching his.

He pushed at the tip of her beak with a small amount of force. “Stop…"

Fio frowned at her tiny guardian.

“I don't understand either," he said. “I thought you hated humanity. I thought you hated me. The way you're acting doesn't make any sense."

She watched and listened, his free hand now out of his pocket and resting on his leg. “I could have sworn you were just gonna kill me. I guess there's no point if that's the case. It's not like anything I'm thinkin' matters, right?" He continued to unwrap the bandages. “Sure, I'm odd, but, you're so inconsistent. I can't read you. At all. I get it. You seem to like to tease me. You like being in control. But back there, in the sands… You had sincere hatred in your eyes. It was like pure rage. I'd never seen anything like that in anybody I've tried to help. Nothing even comes close."

He shut his eyes and cringed. He decided to stop with the wound for a moment.

“What do you think? Isn't it normal to be terrified of you? You're fucking massive. And I'm in your territory now. I don't even have my ear piece anymore. Can't call for help. Should've just gone with Jason. I'm a sitting duck until you decide to-"

He had never been hugged by a gryphon before. Now that he had a moment to think about it, he hadn't been hugged by anything for quite a while. Probably wasn't healthy.

“Beck." The feathery embrace did an excellent job of calming him. The smell soothed him, too. It reminded him of the willow he would sit under years ago, whenever the trivial events of May's Landing bothered him too much. “I am so sorry."

He just stayed silent, focusing on the feathers' texture against his face.

“You are a warrior of a kind I have never seen. Your deficit in strength does not stop you from doing what you wish. And I forget you have your wit's end as does any being. I have brought you a grand distance from where you are accustomed. It is understandable for you to be worried. I doubt my bullying has helped… Though I could not help myself."

She laughed and tightened her caring grip. “Overpowering your overconfidence is too easy and too much fun. I will cease, if it bothers you so."

More silence. Adjusting her wings, she looked down to scan his expression. He was dabbing his face with the dusty scarf that hung from around his neck.

“And how could I bring myself to hate such an undaunted soul… It may be the way things have been in the past. We have never been at peace with man. Seeing kindness in you gives me this feeling… a hope. You make me think our customs are due for revision."

With that, she let him go and assumed her previous spot next to him. Worry was not something she had predicted to be feeling about a human, especially given what she had heard from her father just months ago. And yet here she was, worrying for the third time in the three days she had known this one.

Her kin would challenge her actions, and she knew this. She just didn't care.