The Dark Age Chronicles: The Fall of Night.
The Waste Plains of Writhia

Ihloden sat staring at theGriffin a long time after the trees had fallen silent. He had gotten up off theground and was sitting cross-legged in front of it. The Griffin stared back athim. The previous deep calm had left him and was now replaced by his own calm andslight apprehensiveness. He knew now after much thought that the barrage offeeling that he experience before must have come from the griffin. There was noother explanation. And once he had figured that out he sat there very stilltrying to wrap his mind around the fact that his brain was being shared byanother creature. It was harder than he thought. He felt that he should be ableto easily accept it since he had the tress and the land already sharing hisbrain. But the fact of it was they were not alive, well flesh and blood. Butthis creature was. He took a deep breath.

“So you can’t speak?” he asked. The griffinnodded and deep assurance filled him. It was profound enough to make him gaspfrom the sheer magnitude of the emotion. He swallowed hard and shook his headto regain control of himself.

“And you communicate by these emotions?” heasked again. The assurance stayed. He nodded back to the Griffin. There was anawkward silence. Then the emotion changed and there was a sense of urgency thatgripped him. “What is it?” he asked.

The urgency got greater andthe griffin got up and walked over to him. It settled down next to him. Hishead barely reached the top of its back. It looked at him and then gestured toits back. Ihloden frowned.

“You want me to get on?” heasked. The same assurance replaced the urgency then just as quickly the fullurgency came back. Ihloden shook his head. “I can’t. Nurilah, she… she’sexpecting me back. My mother and sister. How long will we be gone? And whereare we going?” There was annoyed feeling that trickled over to him from theGriffin. He laughed a little. “Is it really that important?” he asked. The urgencyhit him like a wall. He stepped back a little and blew out loudly to try and stophis heart from pounding. “Alright,” he said, “I’ll go with you.”

It was like nothing he hadever done before. It was hard climbing on the griffin’s back. There were nostirrups like a horse would have so he kept sliding off the slick fur of theGriffin. But the sixth try he had a frown on his face and his anger was aboutto explode, but he got on. Then once he had gotten on, he realized that therewere no reigns.

“How do I hold on?” he askedfrustrated, throwing his hands up. The Griffin gave a low hissing sound and itsfeathers fluffed up rippling like a wave up from its back, up its neck and overits face. There was a pair of longish feathers that now stood a little raisedup from the others. “I hold to these?” he asked incredulously. The profoundassurance washed over him. He gripped the feathers tightly and the Griffin gavea small squawk and stood up slowly. Ihloden let out a yelp as he slid forwardon the Griffin’s back when the Griffin got up onto its hinds legs. Then abigger yelp as he slid backwards as the Griffin rose to its forelegs. TheGriffin projected its amusement to him and he felt his face heat up.

“I thought I was going to fall off again,” hewhined to the Griffin. The griffin nodded and gave a piercing scream. Iholdenjumped then realized that it was laughing at him. He gave a short laugh. Thegriffin tossed its head and looked back at him. There was what seemed to be, amischievous glint it in eyes. Then it reared up and flapped its wings strongly.Ihloden screamed and held to the feathers for his dear life. The griffin jerkeditself forward and rose into the air with thunderous beatings of its wings.

The griffin jerked aboutthrough the trees then out into the bright sun. His stomach jerked about aswell and his breakfast bubbled up to his throat and went back down. He groaneda soft groan and ducked his head against the griffin’s back and instinctivelygripped onto its body with his knees. The beating of the wings was all he couldhear. Then a piercing eagle cry jerked him up and he gasped. The forest ofBehrud was far below them. It looked like two small green slashes against thelighter green of the plains. “Ohhhhhhhh,” he gave another low groan. He felthis head begin to swim and he ducked his head back down. The Griffin swung leftand right and spun tightly around in a circle. Ihloden whimpered as he grippedon the griffin tighter.

“Stop,” he whined, “Please Griffin. Stop. Ican’t take this. Let’s just walk to where you want to go.” A wave to heavyamusement rolled though him as the Griffin flapped harder and the wind blewharder against his face. He bent his head back onto the Griffin.

“I can’t believe you aregoing faster!” he moaned onto the thick feathers, “Please forgive me if I vomiton your back. Alright?” He peered down to the land below and saw a brightstrand of silver, “Is that the Riglen River?” he asked. The griffin squawkedand he took that for a yes. Then suddenly it dawned upon him. A cold fearswirled into his stomach. “Where are we going Griffin?” he said his voice low.The griffin tossed its head and said “Writhia”

The deep voice of theGriffin shocked him. “You speak!” he yelled.

“Raitten,” the griffin said,“Rodilar.”

Ihloden groaned. “I don’tknow what you’re saying!” he whined, “Just tell me when we get there alright?”He bent his head back onto the Griffin’s back. Then Griffin projected itsamusement to him and then with a loud screech it jerked its body forward andthe air cut by him faster. He looked up after a while and saw that the sun wasalready low in the sky.

“We have been flying thatlong?” he muttered to himself. He swallowed hard and then glanced down. Theearth was strangely gray.

“Griffin?” he askedsoftly.

The griffin made no sound.It arched its body up then glided forward gently moving into a nose dive. Thenthey began to drop fast. Ihloden held on, his heart thumping as the windwhistled past his ears. He could hear his heart pounding harder and harder asthe ground got closer and closer. He closed his eyes. “Stop!!!” he yelled. Hebit his lips hard, they were going to hit for sure! Then the Griffin pulled upand dropped down onto the gray earth. Ihloden shakily climbed down from itsback and took deep breaths of relief. But that relief was short-lived as helooked down at his feet. They had sunk into the earth up to his ankles. The sunstreaked the gray earth with sickly yellow shards of light from the dull blackclouds overhead. They had arrived at the Waste Plains of Writhia.