The Gryphon's Heir Part one The Wild Princess

14 years later...

Marigold ran.
Her legs were stinging with pain,but she still ran on.
Something or someone was chasing her. They were shouting insults.
"Savage girl!"
"Dirty little urchin!"
She didn't stop to look around, but she could see fleeting images of a human kingdom.
She then felt something impale her in the back.
Marigold fell and looked behind to see soldiers shaped like cards, holding heart tipped spears like the one in her back.
She saw a human in black armor brandishing a sword waltz up to her.His only eye staring evilly.
He raised his sword.
Just as he killed her, Marigold awoke.

She was drenched in sweat.
Marigold had fortunately been awoken by her grandmother.
The older gryphon had her ears facing Marigold.
"You were breathing loudly,did you have a bad dream?"
Hera sported her tied back golden feathers and her scarred eartips that had been taken away by hunters long ago.
Marigold pushed aside her blankets and began to weep. She leaned up and hugged Hera's golden feathers.
The gryphon held the human girl close and shushed her.
"It's alright, it was only a dream."
Her grandmother's smooth voice was enough to reduce Marigold's weeps to mere sniffles.
"Did you dream about the red knight again?"
Marigold nodded.
"This time he killed me,raised his sword and spilled my blood 'sniff'."
"It was only a bad dream.It's a swell day outside, there are dragonflies out and Paleamon is waiting for you by the creek."
Hera smiled warmly.
Marigold got up and carefully stepped over the pile of her still sleeping aunts and uncle,one of her two aunts yawned as her 'niece' slid down her unfurled wing.
As Marigold's feet touched the dirt floor of the roost, she heard a series of high pitched chirps. She looked down with a grin on her tanned face to see her hedgehog running up to her.
She scooped Rolly Polly up and stroked his prickly back.
She'd gotten him after her and Paleamon had left on a short flight for her thirteenth birthday. He wanted to show her the Red Queen's hunting lodge in the Tugley Forest. While sneakily touring her around the walls, a hedgehog with its legs bound flew over and landed at her feet.
As she was picking up her stolen soldier's spear,she heard larger, clumsier sounding footsteps coming towards her, she turned to see her few month old jabberwocky tripping and shaking his little frilled head free of dirt.
She bent down and helped Jackal onto his feet, he had a big smile on his face.
"Well good morning to you too."

Her family as well as other gryphon, were not keen on having a jabberwocky within a wing's distance, but she convinced them to let her keep him.
The three of them climbed up the exit of the roost and came into contact with the sweet forest air.
The roost was nothing more than a natural chasm in the ground large enough to fit Paleamon, but it harbored so many fond memories.
She saw the brown,eagle-like bulk of Paleamon
sitting next to the ditch that formed the creek he'd watch her fish from.
With her choppy black hair slapping her cheeks, she ran up and climbed up the gryphon's back.
She easily scaled it and stopped once she reached his head.
"Good morning Marigold."
He picked her up with one taloned hand and placed her in front of him.
He easily dwarfed her uncle and aunts,he could barely fit into the entrance of the roost.
Paleamon then noticed her sweaty skin.
"Marigold, I saw you jumping in your sleep.Did you dream about the red knight?"
Marigold nodded.
"It..felt so..real,humans and animals were screaming, and the knave killed me."
Jackal cocked his head and Rolly Polly comfortingly rubbed her hand.
Ever since she'd first seen the red knight attack a group of humans, nearly killing one, and bring them back to the Grums in chains, she couldn't help but think about if he'd used that sword on her or any she cared about, along with the rising tensions that had been floating  around.
"Do not worry,no red soldiers will dare near Marmoreal or the roost."Paleamon nuzzled her"And if they do..they'll regret it."
Marigold giggled and held his massive head.
"Now see if you can catch me a bass."
She nodded,feeling a tad better.
She slid down his smooth back and ran along his tail before jogging to the muddy creekbed.
Marigold stripped off her furry pelt, leaving behind only her haphazardly stitched toga Hera had made.
Jackal held her heart-tipped spear in his still maturing maw,while Rolly Polly was perched on his head. The two of them watched as Marigold waded into the clear,flowing water and bent her hands into the water.
Marigold still felt thrown off by that dream..no..nightmare she had, it had felt so real and it felt just like the knight himself was standing over her. She was so deep in thought, that she barely felt the sliver of a slippery surface between her palms.
The girl jumped and fell once, even dunked her head into the water before grasping the tail of a tough sturgeon.
Paleamon lightly applauded her.
So much had changed from the royal baby in a fanciful cot, that had once been in the arms of a malicious tyrant. He recalled the time she had defended her newborn jabberwock, and befriended the white gryphon from the mountain.
She threw the sturgeon and it went flying.
Paleamon opened his beak and the fish went in.
"Good now find another for aunt Ruella."
He referred to his oldest sister.
Marigold energetically dove in once more, she came up and shook her head from before catching a breath and going in.
Jackal and Rolly Polly both were ecstatic.
Paleamon turned from his human daughter, and to the faraway tip of the castle. He'd heard wonderful stories about Marmoreal but despite The White Queen's strict laws against hunting gryphons, he knew for a fact if he showed up with Marigold, there would be nobody in the streets and the window shutters closed tight.
Ignoring Marmoreal..and the tears on his face, he'd seen Marigold with three fish.
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He reined his horse to a stop and the rest of the convoy followed.
He dismounted and a guard came to hold his horse.
He walked up to a stump. He noticed it had not been cut, but torn down.
Something glistened amongst the brush in the corner of his eye. He leaned down and picked up a snow white feather.
This was one of the longest to write cuz of delays and cuz I'm lazy🙃