Chronicles of Yugure: Plummeting into Uncharted Depths

Day One

Erickson shakes his head. "I don't know, he didn't tell me. He just said to come and fetch you. We'll find out once we get to his lab."

I moan and throw my head up in distress. "His lab? But that's all the way on the other side of the First Realm!" I may be exaggerating when I say the other side, but it is still a two or so hour flight over this forested realm to his laboratory.

"Yes, lazy bones, his lab. You seriously should get your nose out of the books and go outside more often. Drop the polishing statues and reading history books act and come with me to the lake sometime. All the gryphon ladies hang out there. You might actually snag a date." Erick teases, elbowing me in the arm.

"Not all the gryphon ladies. And b'sides, I prefer m'books." I mumble in reply and go to grab my satchel off the coffee table. "C'mon, let's get this over with. The sooner we get there, the sooner I can come back to m'bed and actually get a decent hours sleep."

"Oh, I doubt you'll be home before noon." Erick walks outside and leans on one of the supporting beams of my house, which just so happens to be suspended in an oversized oak tree- a Dragon Oak to be exact.

"Perfect," I wave my hands in the universal sign of whoop-dee-doo. "Let's just get goin', okay?"

Erickson smiles and bounces out onto the long porch made for takeoffs and landings. He runs down the porch and leaps of the edge. Snapping his wings open, he glides ten feet away and hovers there waiting for me to follow.

'So much f'er a hot breakfast.' I get a running start after closing the door behind me. My wings unfurl and feel the air beneath them. How good it feels to be up in the sky, chasing the tails of the wispy clouds. Nothing could be more perfect.

"Hey mutt face! Whatchya doin' up so early? Actually getting up like the rest of us normal folk?" A blue jay feathered gryphon cuts in front of us, sneering at me.

There is practically only one thing that can set me off. Only one, and that is calling me a mutt. Being that I'm only half gryphon, I'm not particularly the most popular creature around. My mother met my father not too long after Blacktalon successfully set up the portals to the other realms. He was, or is - I'm not quite certain of his well-being - a Kurai dragon who was part kirin himself; and sadly that's all I know about my elusive father.

"My back's getting kinda sore. Do ya mind if I hang my backpack on your coat rack you got going on there, Ignorahmoose?"

I'm not that odd looking. To be honest, I think I look rather dashing. My "coat rack" is actually a fine set of antlers, which have a peculiar quality of being made out of petrified wood. They've grown every year since my birth, and I expect them to be glorious once I reach full maturity. My half webbed, half feathered wings aren't half bad either, if I may add.

'Knowing Skylar, he'll start making fun of m'colors next.' That is all I need right now. I'm up at the near crack of dawn, and I haven't even had my coffee yet. I'm certainly not up to hearing how green my fur is, or how a bush barfed on my dragon scales. Sometimes I really wish I had been gifted with the power to breathe dragon fire, but I guess I was cheated out of that one.

"First of all, 'tis pronounced ig-nore-ay-mus. Secondly, I don't even think you know what that means, let alone how to spell it." I growl my harsh words with a bit of pleasure. If my mum were here, she'd surely whack me a good one and tell me to hold my tongue; luckily, she's not.

"Enoki isn't an ignoramus, he's studying wi-"

"With Blacktalon, I know. Why don't you go preen yourself, Pretty Boy. That's really all you're good at." Skylar laughs so hard he does an accidental flip through the air.