Run, Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Dragon

"No," I said with a sigh, "Having a small team is going to make it easier to get in and out of places before we're detected, and we may need to do somethings that would be morally compromising for a prince."

Eros was going to be mad, but I couldn't take him with, not when I was planning on breaking into the place he grew up. He would be even more mad when he realized what breaking in to the castle required. When I got back he would be relieved that I was okay. If I took him with, he would be mad about what I was planning. 

The note was the best way to go. 

I looked down at the note, rereading it one more time before it was time to put it on the fridge. 

"A note," Sora said thoughtfully looking at the scrap of paper I was holding in my hand, "I should write one for Chayton. Bring your stuff and meet me at the lignum custodire. I am going to run back, write my note, pack a few things and then I'll come get you so you can pick your griffin. We have a few and I do not know which one you would prefer. After you choose your griffin we can leave."

"Okay," I said nodding at her before standing up from my desk and walking downstairs with my backpack on and my note in hand.

I put the note on the fridge quietly before sneaking out the door and starting the walk to the lignum custodire. 

The moon was bright tonight and it reflected off the fresh snow, lighting the way that I'd traveled far too often. 

The royal elf stables were massive, housing at least ten griffins, a bunch of unicorns, and who knows what else. 

"This is my griffin," Sora said smiling at a creature in the stable in front of her, "You can choose any of the others. Someone go with Rosie and saddle whichever griffin she chooses."

Sora waved over a stable boy and instructed him to saddle her griffin, giving him very precise instructions that I didn't feel like listening to. 

I started wandering through the stables, looking at each animal that I passed. 

Some of the griffins were a bright gold color, others were a pure white, there were a few with spots of different colors and a lot of them were just brown. None of them really seemed that interesting, though. Not that it wasn't cool to see a griffin for the first time, they just didn't seem up to the job. 

I'd almost giving up and decided that I was going to take one of the pure white ones when I came to the end of the griffin section and I found an almost pure black one. the only color on the beast was the red feathers circling its beak and going up its face like the blaze on a horse. 

When I stood in front of it, it got up and pawed the ground aggressively. As it stood I could see that I was slightly wrong about the griffin's coloring. It had the same red feathers running up his chest, making it look like it was always puffed out. 

It looked more than capable of flying as far as I needed it to, and it had enough attitude that I didn't think it would be too tired to fight if I ever needed it. To me, it looked like the griffin version of a war horse, proud, defiant, strong and willing to do what it took to get the job done. There wasn't another animal in the stable that seemed to have the same spirit and I liked it. 

"I want that one," I said, standing back from the stall and pointing. 

Sora and the elf she was talking to looked over at me with curiosity. I glanced between Sora and her companion and the guy she told to help me  before I watched all the color drain from my stable boy's face, an interesting sight since he was considerable darker than any other elf I'd really looked at.