Cassandra's Curse

{17} Plan of Attack

HELLO AGAIN MY LOVELIES LONG TIME NO SEE. 

Don't know how long until this story comes to an end, safe to say we're probably half way through? Give or take? I really couldn't say. Anyway, comments mean a lot to me, it's because of commenters that I got this show on back on the road so show your support if you want to :)

Read On!

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"LEO, ANY BRIGHT IDEAS!?" 

"WHY ME?!" 

"YOU'RE THE HERO HERE, TAKE CHARGE MAN."

"Umm... guys?"

"YOU'RE THE ONE LEADING THIS QUEST."

"I'VE ONLY EVER KILLED FOUR MONSTERS, HOW MANY HAVE YOU KILLED AGAIN?!"

"Hello, you two?"

"IS THAT WHY YOU BROUGHT ME ALONG?! BECAUSE OF MY BRAIN?!" 

"NO IT WAS JUST BECAUSE OF YOUR GOOD LOOKS, STUPID."

"SHUT THE HADES UP AND LOOK FOR A SECOND!"

"WHAT?!" Leo and I both stopped yelling at each other for a minute and looked towards the Griffin, who managed to look both completely terrifying and amused at the same time. 

I reached for my armband, expanding it to a sword, and then activated my shield, hoping that the magic might work on the Griffin as well, "Fine! Zianna stay back you only have a dagger and that's not going to do much to pierce that hide, Leo you distract it and I'll get behind it, sound like a plan?"

"Why am I the bait?" He complained, but still reached into his tool belt and pulled a semi-automatic gun, loading it with bronze bullets. 

"Because of your good looks, stupid." I grinned, and then faced the damn monster, "let's go." 

Leo turned, after giving me a fleeting kiss on the cheek, shouted, "C'MON YOU OVERGROWN PIDGEON!" And started firing shots around it and running around to get its attention.

I crept around the side, trying to get behind it. It was kind of hard though, because the tail kept lashing back and forth with a mind of its own. I ended up having to fight my own battle with the tail, at another talon-like claw resided on just the end, and it kept scratching me, despite how much I dodged.

Parry, parry, duck, roll, shield up, thrust with sword, shield up, ow that one got me in the shoulder, shield up, roll to the side.

This dance continued for quite a while until Leo finally insulted the Griffon enough for the tail to divert from defending the backside for me to swing my sword and cut it off.

It stopped looking at Leo altogether, whipping its head around with a mighty and awfully freaky screech, it was moving faster than before, it’s beady glare fixed directly on me.

“Ummm-“ All I could do was dodge and roll away, the fight with the tail had nothing on fighting those talons. And the wings weren’t helping either.

“UMM- OW!” I couldn’t help but cry out as one of the talons cut through my shoulder and sliced down to my stomach, it hurt like one hell of a bitch, but I couldn’t stop to inspect it. I backed away, coming up from an exceptionally painful roll and shouted at the top of my voice, putting as much force and power into my will as possible, “STOP.”

The Griffon dropped its glare and regarded me with curiosity.

“Let us be.” I tried to command, but the Charmspeak had dissipated from my voice, leaving behind a strangely intelligent beast that somehow knew I’d tried to use magic on it.

 “UMMM LEO A LITTLE HELP OVER HERE.” I went back to dodging like my life depended on it, which of course it did.

“I’M TRYING!” He yelled back.

“TRY A BIT FASTER!” I rolled to the right so I could see over the Griffon to where Leo seemed to be assembling some kind of canon at the speed of someone on red-bull.

The Griffon backed away suddenly, rearing up and using a gust of wind to force me to cover my eyes; when I could see again, the Griffon had grown back it’s tail, and I began swearing profusely in every single language I knew, which wasn’t a lot but I was nothing if not creative.

“LEO…”

“I’M DOING THE BEST I CAN!”

I had had enough at this point, frustrated and exhausted, my muscles protesting and shouting at me that we should stop and put them out of their misery. I wished I was one of that movie-star hero who can keep going and push through anything, but at that point I was just done. 

The sound of a canon going off made the Griffon lose its concentration, glancing off to the side where the canon-ball must have gone.

I heard Zianna yell in the distance, “You missed! How could you miss it was three feet in front of you!”

Taking the opportunity I slash with the sword, cleaving a straight slash through the chest.

The Griffon screeches again, falling onto its back and rolling around like some kind of possessed burrito. Gold dust spurts up from its wound, and with the yowling noise grating in my ears, I kind of felt sorry for the poor bastard.

Then, with another screech it flips off it’s back and lands on its front paws, scratching at the ground with a vein in its neck twitching.

I braced myself for another attack, gripping my sword as tight as possible around my wounds, and unleashed my most ferocious glare on the beast.

But no attack came.

I chewed on my bottom lip, “so … are we gonna get back to business or what?”

A weird screeching noise came in reply, but I had no idea what the hell it was saying, “OI Leo! Zi! Can you come here for a sec?”

They both appeared at my sides, the only reaction from the once dead Griffon was a slight growl.

“Aren’t monsters supposed to do the thing?”

“What thing?”

“The … uh. Attacking thing?”

“Oh … yeah.”

Zianna rubbed her arms, shrugging, “maybe it turned friendly?”

“What do we do?” Leo glanced away from the Griffon to look at me.

I thought for a second, “well if it’s not gonna attack I say we leave-“ as I turned to go the Griffon jumped into action, flying in the air for two seconds before landing in front of me with another screech.

“Maybe it doesn’t want us to leave.” Zianna gives me a hopeless look.

“In Harry Potter, the Hippogriff –basically a smaller version of a Griffon- wanted the person to bow to it.” Leo grinned, probably joking but the Griffon gave me this look and then did what seemed like an eager nod.

I swallowed, “Can’t you just let us leave?”

With a shake of the head, the Griffon beat its wings impatiently, as if to tell us to hurry up.

Then it clicked; this wasn’t an enemy of ours, it was a gift.

A gift from the gods.

With a small grin, I kept eye contact with it and swept into a regal bow, “don’t bite my head off or anything, I’m rather attached to it.”

The Griffon dipped its head and its front paws in a reflecting bow, then pushed itself up.

Leo nearly had an aneurism when I reached up, after putting my sword and shield back to their Mist-covered forms, and started stroking the fur on the Griffon’s head.

I turned back to Leo and Zianna with a full-blown grin, “how do you guys feel about flying?"