“The Journey Ends”

 

7-7-98

 

by Jade Griffin

 

 

 

 

 

c. late August, 1998

 

     Jade Griffin sat crouched on the roof beside Ithyaka. Their so-far two-month-long journey to locate any information on griffins to get Ithyaka home was proceeding poorly. Having traveled randomly across Asia, they'd ended up here: the coastal city of Madras, in southern India.

     They watched people come and go in the somewhat early night, atop one of several buildings in the immediate vicinity.

     "I'll try not to be too long, even if I do find something." the dark green gargoyle said, donning her disguising cloak as a break in the flow of night-goers appeared.

     "Okay." was the young Imperial Griffin's reply as her friend and self-appointed guardian dropped down the single story to the ground.

     A quick glance around revealed no eyes on her. Jade Griffin looked up slightly, eyes only, to see Ithyaka tuck herself back into the darkness of the double roofing for cover. Adjusting her purposefully over-large robe-cloak, tail and wings and hands and face hidden, Jade Griffin strode into the small bar.

     She could see quite a bit from under her disguise, and her hearing was not hindered much. She _heard_ more than saw all eyes on her. Felt it, too. She never liked going amongst humans but this was for Ithyaka. The occupants didn't look too motley, at

least.

     Aware of everyone's scrutiny, she reminded herself that it was her disguise that labeled her as a strange curiosity and proceeded toward the bar counter. The man bartending looked her up and down and asked a question she could only guess was something like, 'What'll it be?'. Since she did not know more than a few words of the language here, she replied, 'No, thank you.' and asked in American if he spoke that language.

     He nodded, speaking in a somewhat lower voice than she. "You foreign, lady." By his tone, both her being 'foreign' and 'lady' surprised him. "What you want if no drink?"

     His suspicion was not great, but still apparent. Good thing she had an unalarming alibi. "I am an American historian, researching on location for my book 'Myths and Legends of Old Times'. I seek information. Can you help? I pay." She had lowered her voice with each sentence so the last was only heard by the barkeep. The man two seats down only caught half of her speaking, as she had intended.

     The bartender, a round-faced man with dark beard and mustache, eyed her speculatively, weighing the prospect of money with what he might have to do to get it. "What myth and legend?" he asked with shrewd curiosity.

     "Stories of legendary creatures. Dragons, unicorn, or ki-lin, giant birds, half man-half horse people, animals that talk, griffins…." She let her list trail off out of false boredom. The human's hands twitched at the mention of the ki-lin, the Chinese unicorn. "Any tales of these or other ancient mythical creatures will be documented and put with others in my collection, with your permission."

     The man gave it some thought as he polished a clean counter. "How much?" He wasn't about to sell his heritage for nothing, after all. Especially to no American woman 'historian'.

     Jade Griffin pulled something from a robe pocket and, with her hand deeply covered in too-long sleeve, deposited it in the bartender's hand. She doubted he would turn down the white jewel to keep information to himself. Indeed, he was hard-pressed to contain his surprise, or instant greed, as he switched from suspicious to all-helpful.

     "Ah, my friend-lady. I know many stories of dragons, talking animals, singing fishes…" he started, the jewel instantly pocketed, his fingers caressing it in his possession.

     The seat beside Jade Griffin was suddenly filled by the man of previous two seats down. He tossed his coins at the barkeep and barked an order. While the bartender sneered and fetched the drink, the other man leaned closer to Jade Griffin.

     "_I_ know someone who knows many tales, and will not… make them bigger, for foreign ears."

     Yes. That was the problem with humans in this quest-- exaggeration, deception, greed. It tended to fuddle a story if it were a particular person telling, like the barkeep.

     Speaking of which, the mustached smoothly placed her new informant's drink two seats down and must have asked him to go get it and stay because they started arguing.

     She sighed. "Gentlemen, please. I am in the pursuit of knowledge. This doesn't help me."

     That got their attention.

     "Apologies, friend-lady." the barkeep admonished with an overly gracious smile.

     "Forgive us." was the second man's simultaneous prostration.

     "Thank you. Now. I would like to know specifically about griffins, because I have been to China and talked with people there about the ki-lin and dragon. Can you help me?" She kept her tone open but no-nonsense. She did not want a fight.

     "What is… 'griffin'?"

     The second man echoed similar ignorance.

     In a small sack she carried on her belt opposite her clan's relic pouch, Jade Griffin dug out a pencil and scrap of paper and sketched an adult griffin for the men. "This."

     The bartender's mouth was set akilter, disgruntled. He'd obviously found himself at a dead end.

     "I have seen such a creature." the other said, frowning in thought.

     "You've seen this?" Could he really mean… a live griffin?

     "Yes. Five little blue statues, this tall." He hovered a hand over the bar about six                 inches. "The man I spoke of owns them, and many other little treasures. He collects."

     Jade Griffin brought both concealed arms to the countertop. She slid one hand to the human beside her. "Where is this man?"

     She'd surprised him a lot with the slip of a ruby she'd passed. He recovered pretty well.

     "I…I will take you. I have a boat."

     "No. Where does he live?"

     "Sri-Lanka. The biggest tea plantation there." He rose from his seat. "I will take you."

     He'd grasped her by the arm lightly and she decided that that was enough. The gargoyle grabbed his wrist in a similar way with her other hand and proceeded to push her hidden talons into his flesh through the cloth she wore. Not too much to hurt him but

she wouldn't tolerate this.

     He let go almost immediately, startled. He looked his wrist over and found two red marks, one on either side. Eyeing Jade Griffin with certain fear, the man took a step back. The bartender saw it all.

     "Thank you, both, very much, but my research continues."

     She handed each man another small gem, which they cravenly accepted, before sweeping out of the small bar.

     Still the curious sort, the barkeep went out to see where she was headed but found no cloaked stranger outside.

     Their flight/glide over the ocean to the island of Sri-Lanka was not long. By sunrise, Ithyaka and Jade Griffin had found a nice haven for the day. As the bright sun rose higher, the little griffin curled around a stone Jade Griffin, her hope rekindled as she fell

asleep.

 

     'The biggest tea plantation there' was not as helpful as she'd thought, Jade Griffin complained inwardly. Every plantation grew tea here! It took them several more hours than anticipated to find it but, as Jade Griffin peered through one of many wall-sized

windows, she knew this was the place. Mythological creatures were the staple of the mansion's décor, from tapestries to rug pattern, to table design, as well as the hundreds of acquired objet d'art placed on shelf, mantle, table, and pedestal.

     Whoever this guy was, he had a lot of money. Tea must be good business to afford all the security she and Ithyaka had to pass over (effective enough deterrent for ground-goers). The trick now was to get inside without setting off alarms. She tried to explain to Ithyaka what to look for as they searched from the window for signs of alarms but the little griffin needed more experience with humans to be able to pick out such things.

     "There's one."

     "Where?" Ithyaka couldn't tell what the gargoyle was pointing at.

     "See that grey box on the wall with the little wires running down from it?"

     "Yeah. Is that a noise-maker?"

     They'd had run-ins with alarm systems before. Ithyaka had an uncanny knack for tripping the devices.

     "Yep. We have to figure out the best way in around it. It should be the only one."

     "Do you know where it could see us?" She'd been told that the noise-makers started screaming when they saw intruders in buildings and houses. And they were intruders, by human terms.

     Jade Griffin scanned the placement of the box and wires, thinking. "I think so. We can't use the windows or doors, and the roof is likely to be attacked to it, too."

     "What about the floor?"

     She glanced over at the young griffin, a smile at her lips. "You thinkin' of digging?"

     Ithyaka passed her an innocent smile.

     "Okay, but only to get to the alarm. Once I disable it, we can go in from anywhere."

     As she and Ithyaka started their small tunnel, Jade Griffin mentally reviewed the plan. Get in, smash the alarm, take a peek around, and question the master of the house face to face. Before they'd left Madras, she'd folded her garb and stuffed it into a convenient sack, planning all along to confront the man inside in person. A collector of myth and legend may know something on the reality end of it.

     Their digging went easy for claw and paw. In moments, Jade Griffin, the thinnest, squeezed in and punched up a square of the wood floor, pushing aside carpet to reach up and slash the wires coming from the alarm with a two-talon swipe. That done, she

crawled back out, dusted herself off, and opened the sliding glass door. No alarm sounded.

     Ithyaka trotted after her inside but went to look at this and that in the very large room. Jade Griffin took a better look around, as well. She could tell that many of the objects were of archaeological interest and could be museum pieces. Or perhaps they were from pilfered archaeo sites… Several pieces looked straight from the pages of an Egyptian historia book, and there was one of those crystal skulls that humans were mystified over.

     "These are griffins, aren't they?"

     Jade Griffin turned at the child's hushed question. They were, indeed. She nodded, walking over to get a better look herself.

     Arranged on a tall pedestal all their own, the five rampant griffins, carved from a beautiful blue crystal, stood on their hind legs and faced inward to create a loose ring.

     "Beautiful…" the gargoyle breathed.

     Ithyaka held a similar opinion. "I hope he'll tell us where he got them."

     "Me, too. I'll try not to scare him too bad but we don't know what kind… of…." She trailed off, her eyes catching sight of a particular set of objects on the fireplace mantle.    "No…"

    "What's wrong?" Ithyaka asked, her eyes following Jade Griffin's dash to the fireplace. But then she saw, and she knew.

    An arm, part of a clothed thigh, and most of a head-- stone pieces of crushed gargoyles… She was immediately thrown into the memory of seeing her real clan kinsmen, crushed in their home. These were from at least two separate gargoyles, Jade

Griffin saw, teeth clenched as she fought to hold her anger and instant sadness.

     "Are you okay, Jade Griffin?" asked a concerned Ithyaka, peering into the hurting eyes of her friend. Could… could there be such a thing as crying without tears?

      A third, startled voice rose up to break their discovery. As quick as they were to look, neither caught more than a glimpse of the retreating form of a human woman babbling hysterically as she ran into the adjacent hall.

     She'd forgotten to take into account that he may have servants, or family. Jade Griffin berated herself that slip, glancing down at Ithyaka. The kid didn't look too worried.

     "You ready?"

     "But I thought there'd only be one human. And why wasn't she asleep?"

     "I don't know." She didn't have time to puzzle over it. "Go over by the chair, just in case there's trouble."

     Ithyaka complied, and she moved to the arch-frame leading to the hall the woman had just been in, crouching down to all fours. Light footsteps were picked up by her keen ears and she readied. But it was not the barrel of a gun she saw emerging first from the archway. The tip of a short three-pronged weapon came first, followed by the hand, and the rest of the man.

     As he turned toward her, Jade Griffin reacted. She grabbed the weapon hand tightly, lifting the slightly smaller man. He let out a yell upon being hefted and the weapon fell from his grasp, clanging to the floor. She twisted her wrist to turn him around so that

they could see each other. She was surprised to see he was also a foreigner to this land.

     "I don't wish to hurt you." she started, to stay his panic and fear. "I only want to talk. Do you understand?"

     He could not find his voice yet but nodded urgently.

     Jade Griffin let him down but kept a hold of him. He didn't try to break free or run, too afraid. "What is your name?"

     "H-Hiro, Kenjin Hiro. Y-you are the kapa!"

     She had to do something to calm him down. "Can I trust you not to run? I only want to talk with you."

     He nodded repeatedly, sort of bowing each time.

     She released him and pointed to a large chair well away from Ithyaka. He scuttled over to the seat and she took one as near to across from him as possible.

     "I am not a kapa, Kenjin Hiro. I am a gargoyle. I have come from America."

     "Why are you here?" he dared to ask.

     "I originally came to talk about griffins." She stood and went to the mantle to retrieve the three pieces of dead gargoyles.  Holding them up, she asked, "Where did you get these?" She was unable to keep back all of her anger. Some seethed into the question.

     Kenjin shrank back against his seat cushions, well aware of the emotions in the voice, but seeing her holding the pieces made him ease forward for more of a look. "They look like you."

     He sounded very surprised. He obviously didn't know a thing about what he possessed.

     Before she could respond, he asked with brave curiosity, "Do you know what culture they come from?"

     She was so fused with anger, her eyes lit bright white and she placed the stone arm in her lap to pound the chair arm with a free hand.

     Kenjin was immediately sorry he asked.

     "I ask only for the reason that no archaeologist can-"

     "They aren't man-made objects. They were alive, like me. Gargoyles turn to stone during the day, to sleep. These were killed, crushed, as they slept. I believe you can see why I'm angry. Where did you get them?"

     "F-from a black market dealer. I didn't know! I did not know."

     Jade Griffin controlled her anger, eyes losing their glow. "I believe you." She took a moment to calm herself down. Remember, I'm here for two things.

     "Kenjin Hiro, I need your help."

     His thin brows arched in surprise. "Yes?"

     "Because of this find," She tapped the dead gargoyle pieces. "I must find out what happened to them but first, would you possibly know the whereabouts of any live griffins?"

     "Why would you want to find such a creature?"

     "Because I'm here with a friend and she wants to go home. Ithyaka?"

     At Jade Griffin's call, the little griffin padded cautiously over. The man's eyes nearly popped from his skull as he watched the 'mythological' creature approach and sit beside the gargoyle. Wonder upon wonder this night has revealed!

     "…I'm an Imperial Griffin. My name is Ithyaka." She introduced herself bravely, then queried, "Did you kill those gargoyles?"

     Recovering from his introduction to a live griffin at that shocking statement, Kenjin answered, "You would believe that I would

kill them?"

     The child nodded, leaning into Jade Griffin.

     "We both know that humans don't usually treat non-humans as people," Jade Griffin told him. "Because of appearances, and fears."

     The man nodded, knowing this as truth. To Ithyaka, he said, "No, young griffin, I did not kill them. I… I thought they were statues made by humans."

     "And the blue crystal griffins? Where did you get them?" Jade Griffin brought them back to the first topic.

     "The same place. I go to one particular man who keeps an eye open for such things. They area very old. Mesopotamian."

     Then he does take things pilfered from archaeo sites… But that was a human concern.

     "Do you know if there are any real griffins alive here?" Ithyaka beat her to the question.

     "Unfortunately, my collection of relics and tales is all I have found, and none speaking of real griffins today. But then, you are here."

     That did not comfort them, because neither was very sure what had brought Ithyaka to the 'cyberverse'. And Jade Griffin could see the effect of this news in the little griffin's eyes. She sat on her haunches, shoulders sunk, eyes to the floor.

     A loud thump startled them. Rising, they saw it was the same woman as before. She'd fainted upon seeing the impossibility of her master talking to a monster and a little griffin.

     Ithyaka was the first one at the woman's side. "Is she all right?"

     Kenjin checked on the woman; nodded. "I told her to wait in her room!" he spoke angrily.

     "This is better." Jade Griffin told him. "Now you have proof that she was imagining the whole thing. She was walking by this same spot when she saw us the first time."

     The human threw on an appreciative smile at such logic. "Ah, yes."

     "Are you certain you don't know of any griffins, living or dead, anywhere?"

     "I have been hearing and telling stories for a long time. I have heard very few where someone says they have seen such a creature. Only two in my lifetime. And both I have researched myself. I have always believed that myth creatures exist, somewhere, but I found nothing."

     "It's… It's okay." Ithyaka managed a half-hearted smile of gratitude. "We'll just go look someplace else."

     She moved away from the unconscious woman and sat herself on the beautiful carpet as Kenjin picked his servant up to carry her to her room.

     Jade Griffin hated seeing the kid so downstruck. Kneeling before the little griffin, she put an arm around her. "I know it seems like we'll never find them but we will. Remember how I promised I'd help you find home? I won't give up. Please, don't give up

either."

     "I know. I'm trying, but everywhere we go… Maybe I should just go live with Tagar and Nambroth and Keeta and the other griffins in the Tower. They aren't Imperial Griffins, or any other type of griffin I know, and their home isn't like mine at but… but

they are griffins."

     Jade Griffin sighed. Ithyaka's mood brought her own down. She began to doubt herself. "I'm sorry, Ithyaka. I'll try my hardest and do better, if that's what you want. If you want to stay with Clan Gryphon, I'll be behind you on it, but if you want to find

your family, I will never stop looking and I really believe we'll find them. We've only been talking to humans and those gargoyles we've seen but there are so many more people to talk to… It's up to you, kid. What do you wanna do?"

     The child did not need to think about it. Her silence was an attempt to stop unstoppable tears. "I wanna… go home!" she sobbed.

     The dark green gargoyle held her close. "Okay, kid. No matter what, we're gonna find your home. Alright? But first, I gotta talk to this guy a little more. He doesn't know anything about real griffins but I can't leave without knowing exactly where the

dead gargoyles came from. They're coming with us, too. Okay?"

     Ithyaka nodded, sniffing back tears.

     With a gentle pat on the head, Jade Griffin rose and met the returning human.

     "I need to know more about this person you bought the remains from. A location, an address, a description of him, anything else he had with him when you bought them, and if you have anything else you bought, I need to see it."

     “Yes, of course." He went to the fireplace.

     She followed and he pointed out a long spear that could have belonged to the gargoyles. It was intricately painted with tiny patterns and had a length close to ten feet. His finger went also to a beautiful 'cawry' shell comb.

     "Either or both could be gargoyle-fashioned." She commented. "Did he say?"

     "Yes. According to him, they all came from one place. He does not always tell the truth but I believe he was of that. He knows I can tell where artifacts are from and would not want to lose a valuable customer by lying."

     "Okay. What else did he have when you bought the remains, and how long ago was this?"

     "Three months. He wished to sell me other items like this, and a few smaller pieces of… of remains. And there was an egg he claimed was found at the same location but I-"

     "Egg?" Jade Griffin jumped at the word. "Describe it."

     Ithyaka, alerted by the anxious voice of her friend, padded over.

     The man frowned at the gargoyle, confused. "Large, this color, with dark spots." He showed the two-foot length, one-foot width with his hands and pointed out a lavender color on some tapestry flowers.

     The gargoyle's eyes lit bright, once again awakening fright in the human. The rising growl issuing from deep in her throat was punctuated by the sinking of her black-tipped talons into the walnut mantle. 

     "Jade Griffin?" Ithyaka's worried face turned up to her. "What's wrong?"

     "The egg," she began on a growl. "is a gargoyle egg."

     A little gasp escaped the child. "It is?"

     "I- I did not know! I… I would have purchased the egg as well but he wanted a very large sum and I know nothing of ornithology…" His only comfort was the fact that the gargoyle's silent rage was not directed at him.

     Jade Griffin removed her hand from the mantle, some chips coming up with her sharp talons, and pinned the small human with her white-lit eyes. "Where is this man?"

 

     Kenjin Hiro was very precise in his directions. After calling the black market dealer to make certain the egg was still there, they arranged to meet later the following evening. Jade Griffin declined spending the day in Kenjin's home and she and Ithyaka left to find a secure place to sleep. The dealer was back in Bangalore, India, so they had a ways to go.

     "You don't have to go in with me." Jade Griffin told Ithyaka that evening as they neared the meeting place. "I might have to get a little rough on this one, and the situation may not stay in my control."

     "I understand. You can get the egg and I'll wait nearby."

     "Sounds good." The gargoyle veered left, toward the building on the map Kenjin had made. Ithyaka followed.

     "Are you going to wait here?" she asked the young griffin as they settled on the roof.

     The child nodded.

     "Okay. It's a tall building but lay low anyway. And I'll need you to watch these for me." She handed her the sack containing the gargoyles' stone remains, which the griffin took in her beak. Jade Griffin left her cloaking robe as well before making a round of

the building.

     It was a small warehouse and Kenjin had told her that the dealer, a blonde Canadian man, kept his best stuff in the basement. While she scanned the layout and best possible entrance, she looked in each window. They were very dirty and obscured practically everything but one had a small hole she could peek through. The blonde man was waiting in a chair behind a desk. Well, this was as good a place as any. Pushing the window open, the dark green gargoyle slipped through and landed softly behind the man. She crept up behind him as he read a magazine. Whirling the chair around to face her, she grabbed him by the collar and hoisted him up, her eyes burning with white light.

     "I hear you have an egg that belongs to ME." She began, growling. The man trembled in her hands. "Where is it?"

     Her demand was met with hesitance so she shook him a bit. "Where!"

     He pointed an unsteady hand at a door. Hefting him along, tail thrashing behind her, Jade Griffin made sure he saw her tear the lock off with a swipe. She opened the door and proceeded down the steps, human in tow.

     With her nocturnal eyesight, she saw a switch and flicked on the lights to see better the great collection amassed in the one-room-sized basement. It was a horde of stacked, piled, and placed beauties she knew many humans would pay greatly for. Off to one side, resting on a deep red velvet cloth, sat the egg. Next to it, stone chunks of fist size.

     Jade Griffin hauled the man over to the egg and pieces. "You see this? This is a gargoyle egg, and I am a gargoyle. And these? These pieces are the remains of our dead. Crossing us brings instant wrath; understand?"

     He nodded vigorously.

     "Where did you find the egg and remains?"

     "I… I…" He was very sly about it. The weapon must have been concealed on his back somewhere because he suddenly pulled a gun on her.

     It was luck alone that she took his movements as threatening. He fired. A split second too late would have put a bullet in her chest. With her dodge, he barely missed, and with a sweep of a foot, his came out from under him and he landed hard on his back. Quicker still than he, she took the gun arm and squeezed, catching and crushing the weapon in her other hand as she pulled the human roughly up and off his feet.

     "Do you know how easy it would be for me to kill you?" she asked, a talon poking up on his throat painfully. "For all I know, you killed these other gargoyles."

     "No! No, I didn't!" He floundered in her grasp but that only tightened her grip.

     She removed her talon from his throat. "Then who did?"

     "I don't know, but it wasn't me!"

     "Where were they found? Tell me and I promise I won't kill you." She wouldn't kill him either way but fright and threat had always worked well for her.

     "Ch-china. Tibet. There were some big caves in the Mangu Basin. I went up on a hunch to take a look and found the… the statues. What was left of 'em. Way in the back, in a little section, I found that." He pointed at the egg.

     She released the man to his own unsteady legs and, placing the small stone remains on the velvet, picked up the whole bundle and headed out. The dark green gargoyle paused, turned to the human. "I hope you remember this lesson for many years to come."

     The blonde man stood and half-followed her up. "Wait a minute. Kenjin sent you here, didn't he." The man was certain.

     But Jade Griffin expected this. "Who?"

     Her cover sounded genuine and, from the Canadian's face, enough to fool him. She left him on the stairs, climbed one-handed up the wall, and made her way out to the roof with the egg.

     Ithyaka spotted her and trotted over. "Was there trouble? I couldn't hear anything."

     "Not too much. I think I scared him sufficiently." she answered, swinging her bundle to the front from her back.

     "Is that it?" Ithyaka lay a paw gently on the makeshift sack.

     "Yes, and-"

     Loud yelling from below cut in, silencing them in the name of caution. Jade Griffin recognized the Canadian's voice, yelling orders to find that monster and why didn't they see anything?? It could have killed him! And what was he paying them for? Go after it!

     That was all the gargoyle and griffin needed to hear.

     "Let's get outta here." Jade Griffin told her unnecessarily, quickly attaching the sack of remains to her belt.

     They both took to the air, the gargoyle carrying the egg bundle in hand.

     "Do you thing they can follow us?" Ithyaka asked.

     A speeding vehicle approaching from below gave the answer. One man leaned out from the window and fired two shots.

     The first went through the base of Jade Griffin's left wing membrane and right into her upper arm. Both attack and pain were unexpected and Jade Griffin let go her hold on the egg bundle as she frantically corrected out of a spin. She then watched for a horrified second as the egg in cloth fell, just before Ithyaka caught it-an amazing feat even for a full-grown griffin! The gargoyle expelled held breath and landed quickly on a three-story building before more shots were fired, Ithyaka right behind her.

     Jade Griffin wrapped the young Imperial Griffin in a right-arm hug of gratitude as she set the egg down gently.

     "It's kinda heavy, but I couldn't let it fall. Are you gonna be okay?"

     "Yeah. I'll be fine, once the sun comes up."

     "But that's a long time from now, and you're bleeding a lot."

     It was true, she saw upon inspecting her arm and wing. It also hurt like a *beep boop!* , too.

     The sudden silence alerted them to the fact that their pursuers had parked and were coming up to 'greet' them.

     "I can't glide like this and we wouldn't get far enough away before they shot at us again…" Jade Griffin dug in an inner pocket in her top clothing and pulled out her PASS card. She passed a grin to Ithyaka. “So we’ll just hafta cheat and use some magic.”

 

     When going to the ‘cyberverse’ by herself, the PASS card portal usually deposited her smack in the middle of open sky, and with Ithyaka with her, they were generally placed right at the castle’s front gate, so to speak. It was funny that way. But Jade Griffin wasn’t in the mood to appreciate its sense of humor as it let them in atom the main room’s kitchen counter.

     A quick glance around the room revealed two occupants.

     Beedoo! waved in greeting. “Hey, don’t you usually use the window?” the dragon teased. She then pointed to Ithyaka. “Who’s your friend there?”

     It was Brookline who noticed something was wrong. “Jade Griffin, you’re bleeding!”

     “I know.” Holding the wounded arm with her good one, she hopped down from the counter and took the sack from Ithyaka, who also leaped down.

     “Aren’t you going to do anything about it?” Beedoo! asked, concerned.

     “Not yet.”

     “I’ll be right back.” Brookline said before she rushed out of the room.

     As Jade Griffin came to the center of the room, Ithyaka on her right, Beedoo! left her seat to meet them.

     “That’s a bullet wound! Somebody shot you?”

     “Yep.” Jade Griffin answered the dragon, more worried about the egg than herself at this point. She set the bundle down and opened it up.

     Brookline returned at that moment carrying a med kit. She stopped in her tracks as her eyes fell on the spotted, lavender object.

     “A gargoyle egg!?” both Beedoo! and Brookline chorused.

     “Is it okay?” asked Ithyaka, looking with Jade Griffin for any cracks. The dark green gargoyle also placed an ear to the egg, listening for life.

     “I think so.”

     “What happened to you? And where the heck did you get that??” Beedoo! pointed at the egg.

     Jade Griffin sighed, then took a seat on the floor. “The egg is from China. I took it from a black market dealer, along with some remains of dead gargoyles, so he sent his mugs ta get it back. Hence the bullet in my arm.”

     “Speaking of which,” Brookline kneeled by her wounds. “You’ll need someone to get it out. Do you trust me?”

     Jade Griffin looked over at her. “Do you have any experience diggin’ bullets out?”

     The other gargoyle put up an apologetic smile. “Um… No, but I think I can do it.”

     A glance at Beedoo! told Jade Griffin nobody in the room had any medical expertise.

     “Well, I don’t like doctors anyway. Go ahead, Brookline. I’ll trust you.”

     “Uh, okay. Let’s see…” She dug out some unfriendly-looking tools from the med-kit, along with a bottle and some bandages. She selected a tool and picked up the bottle but paused as she was about to start. “Maybe… you should hold on to something. This is gonna hurt a lot.”

     But there wasn’t much she wouldn’t crush in her grip.

     Beedoo! proffered a green hand. “How ‘bout me?” she asked on a smile.

     Jade Griffin accepted, taking the dragon’s hand in her left as Brookline poured some sort of alcohol on the upper portion of her arm. Gritting her teeth at the sting of the solution, Jade Griffin barely squeezed Beedoo!’s hand. It was when the other gargoyle started digging into her flesh that she really put the death grip on her dragon friend.

     “Whoa! Watch your wing, Jade Griffin.” Brookline warned, for it came close to smacking her in the face. “I can see it. Not too deep.”

     Ithyaka, tail swishing rapidly in her worry, looked from one face to the next to the next and back. The dragon, Beedoo!, looked like she was in pain, too.

     “Yer crushin’ my hand!”

     “Thought dragons were tough.” Jade Griffin’s jibe nearly came out as a shout while Brookline fished out the buried bullet.

     “Got it!”
     Everyone was relieved to hear Brookline’s exclamation, especially Beedoo! and Jade Griffin.

     Putting on a bandage to stay the flow of blood, Brookline said, I’d do the wing membrane but I’m not sure how. It ripped through the lower base but at least it didn’t tear the edging. I wouldn’t know how to fix that.”

     Jade Griffin was lucky. If the base had been torn at the edges, it might not heal properly in stone sleep. Some injuries were like that.

     “Thanks, Brookline.” A pat on the back from Jade Griffin’s good arm affirmed that as she leaned back on a convenient couch leg. “Sorry about the hand, Beedoo!”

     “Geez! I didn’t know you were THAT strong!” the green dragon countered, shaking the offended appendage. “And dragons are so tough. We just have delicate wrists.” She threw on a big, toothy smile.

     “So, do you feel up to telling us the whole story?” Brookline asked, glancing significantly at Ithyaka and the egg.

     Jade Griffin also turned her eyes on the little griffin. “Go ahead, kid. Tell ‘em your story.”

     “Okay..” She looked over at the two friends of Jade Griffin, a little shy. “We were in Asia, trying to find out where other live Griffins are when Jade Griffin saw the dead gargoyles at a human’s house. That’s how we knew about the egg. He didn’t know about any Griffins, though… I’m trying to get back home. I can’t find it, and we’ve been looking for a really long time.”

     “What kind of griffin are you?” Beedoo! asked, getting up to go into the kitchen.

     “An Imperial Griffin. My name is Ithyaka.”

     “Some story.” Beedoo! returned with some juice for Jade Griffin.

     At that point, three more people arrived.