“I wonder: how is it you can fly while I can’t? That is something I don’t get.”
“That’s because you don’t have feathers. We Griffins can be easily picked up wherever there is wind. Our feathers guzzled up what wind is gushing by and let the winds carry us up like in the calm of a hand. This is how any beast with feathered-wings can fly in any windy conditions including the wraths of a tornado and a hurricane.”
“Sounds so useful it makes me wish I had feathered wings.”
“Be careful what kind of wings you wish for, Vaeludar,” warned Flarefur.
“Why’s that?” asked Vaeludar.
“Imagine yourself in the form of a dog with all that fur and some invited guests eating away beneath all the fur: fleas. I get those too when I’m not flying. You’ll be itching all day every day. Even the Pegasi could itch themselves to death if they don’t constantly fly once every few minutes.”
“Okay, I’ll take that as a heath issue. Thank you for notifying me on that. Why doesn’t someone climb the ladder and see what is upstairs.”
“I’ll go,” said Marina. The Siren pulled out her bow and held out an arrow in the hand holding the bow. Marina walked over to the ladder and climbed it, peaking her head through the dark hole. Vaeludar walked behind her and spat a fireball to the hole in the ceiling, making light on the second floor.
“Anything?” asked Vaeludar.
“There’s nothing. Looks more like an attic. I only see one small window without any glass on a wall.” Marina climbed down the ladder and back on the ground.
Vaeludar looked up where he spat the upstairs fire and blew out a hard wind, putting out the fire from afar.
“Now that we have somewhere to camp we can… wait!” Vaeludar smelled the scent of an unfamiliar odor he was picking up. It wasn’t human and he certainly knew it wasn’t food being cooked or glazed with light honey nearby; this was the scent of a creature.
“What? What is it?” asked Flavius.
“I smell a creature,” answered Vaeludar.
“I would agree with you, too,” said Flarefur.
“Why’s that?”
“That stench is all too familiar with the Griffins: Hobgoblins!”
Everyone gasped. Hobgoblins were trailing nearby. This must mean they must have been running nonstop through the night they were asleep.
Vaeludar sniffed again to get more of the air into his nose and see how many let alone how far the small creatures could be. From what he was getting, there was a small pack of a few hundred and they were getting closer. He looked to the group, which was definitely not an army. A few soldiers and a griffin scout. There was no way for all of them to get out of there alive expect Vaeludar who was the only one with armored-skin.
“Everyone, get to the second level of the hut now! With this one door and many windows on the walls, they could surround this building and swarm in like a swarm of bees.”
Flavius nodded first and climbed up the latter. Galvin followed after Flavius but Flarefur, Marina, Wonomi, and Monico stayed behind.
“What are you people doing? Get up there now!”
“Why should we? Planning on taking on those creatures yourself and get the glory? I don’t think so. So we are going to join you and—”
Suddenly there were soft scratching noises outside, very close by. Everyone stayed silent and Vaeludar slowly climbed down and walked over to the door as he stopped his breathing. Through the fog, there were many yellow lights glowing. He quickly and softly flapped his wings and blew out the dragon fire and everything went dark.
Vaeludar had his hybrid eyes, which allowed him to see in the dark. He could see in the dark and he saw heat signatures of the bodies around him like having a lizard’s eye. He saw the Griffin hurdling against Wonomi and Monico who had their swords drawn. Marina ran and knelt beside a wall with an arrow drawn to her bow.
Monico was the only person to have walked up to the second floor in the dark and everyone (including the Griffin) stayed on the ground floor.
The group stayed silent; the pack of Hobgoblins was outside their door and they were heavily armed with weapons. Vaeludar drew out the blue sword, ready to fight.
But he knew he didn’t like the odds: he was in command of less than a dozen people, himself included. They were going to go against a big horde of warlike creatures. The chances of them winning were going to be slim.
The many glowing yellow lights, which Vaeludar knew would be eyes of the Hobgoblins, were inching closer and closer to the building they were in. Then the eyes moved away and dozens more came into view. There were sounds of grunts and groans and hissing.
Vaeludar gave a small sigh of nervousness and readied the sword, prepared to fight and kill.
Suddenly, there was another wolf howl and it echoed louder than before. Vaeludar heard more noises and the glowing eyes faded into the fog. Then everything was silent for a few minutes. Even as ten minutes went by, there were still no sound or glowing yellow eyes: darkness only.
Not wanting to wait any longer, Vaeludar charged out and rolled from the entrance and stood out in the wide open. “Come at me. The Minotaurslayer is here and he wasn’t afraid to fight!” He voice shouted loudly to beat the wolf’s howling.
He was in the fog but he didn’t see any glowing eyes around him. He tried to smell the creatures but the air was clear like wind gushing through an open valley with roses and blossoms.
“Wait, Vaeludar!” shouted Marina’s voice.
“Stay inside, Marina. Too dangerous.”
“That won’t be necessary,” shouted Flarefur, “I do smell no scent of those creatures in sight. The Hobgoblins have been driven away it seems. I think by the howl.”
Vaeludar ran back in and spat a single fireball in the room’s center. Light filled the darkness again and no one had to worry
