Much to Birch's disappointment, Dianthus gave the wake-up call to his friends at the very break of dawn.
"Come on, we gotta go," Dianthus said, nudging Cassidy softly.
"What—" she yawned, "—time is it?"
Dianthus nudged Birch too. "Time to go. Hop hop!"
"What the hay, kid!" Birch blurted out, turning away. "It's too early, go back to sleep already..."
"You don't understand," Dianthus chirped with a leap. "Wisp's back! It showed me another piece of Leirion's past!"
Those words managed to jolt Cassidy awake at once. "It did?"
"Indeed! In my vision, she was at least one year old, and Griselda was just leaving Willowglade. You know, I think we made the right decision going to the griffins," Dianthus said.
"Why, did you have any doubts before?" Birch replied sarcastically.
Did I? Dianthus couldn't say. Right after the first vision, he had been certain they were to check the griffins out, but he couldn't deny, at least to himself, that the discussion with Chief Flare did manage to mitigate his resolve. If anything, it made him pause and think...To question their route? Not yet.
Uhm? What's up there?
"Do we really have to go now?" the fawn complained.
"Well, you are not going to find breakfast here," Cassidy informed him, gesturing to the wasteland around them.
"Got it." Birch yawned and stretched his legs. "So, where do we head to, Captain?"
But Dianthus was stone still out of the shade of the rock, with his ears straight up.
"Gee, he's doing that again..." Birch commented earning a wing bump from the pegasus close by.
Dianthus ignored him and kept staring at nothing.
"In the shade," he murmured.
"What?"
"Back in the shade!" the unicorn commanded as he retreated under the rock so quickly that he stumbled and tangled his hindlegs.
"Oh, good..." he tried to free his legs from one another, but then a sudden commotion exploded in the sky right above them.
"Who's there?" came Cassidy's quivering voice. Dianthus, still with his legs tangled, felt her body shiver, pressed against his own.
"I can't tell," he said, nosing out of the shade enough to get a glimpse of the scene developing but to no avail. "Whatever they are, they're flying straight into the sun." Finally, he managed to free his hindlegs.
"Could they be griffins?" Birch ventured, listening to the battle cries and screeches scratching the ether.
"I fear we're going to discover it all too soon." Squinting his eyes against the sunlight, Dianthus could count four figures engaged in a deadly dance. Even from afar, he could determine that two out of the four were slightly smaller, but nothing more. He couldn't tell if they were all griffins either.
"I think they're done," he said after watching the two smaller silhouettes recoil under the bigger ones' assault until they yielded and flew away, croaking curses foul enough to prompt the unicorn to flatten his ears. Those surely did not sound like griffins. The other two avians, instead, started circling the very rock under which the three friends were hiding.
"They spotted us," Dianthus said sternly. "It's no use staying here."
"Are you saying we should just go out and greet those carnivores?" Birch asked with a snort.
"If they wanted to eat us, we would have been supper already," Dianthus pointed out. He gave the example and stepped into the open, immediately catching the attention of the two flying figures, who landed. Those were griffins: one was considerably old and reminded of an albino raven with his white feathers, pink beak, and red eyes; the other was a younger, coalish, well-built figure. They both sported the signs of the recent melee.
"You kids," addressed the younger one. "What are you doin' here?"
"It's what I've been asking myself for a while now," Birch muttered, but hopefully low enough not to be heard. Better leave Dianthus to do the talking.
"We must get to the griffins' kingdom," the unicorn answered in all honesty. The griffins were caught off guard and blinked at him...or at least, that's what Dianthus thought, for the confused look of a griffin was but a deeper frown. Dianthus held their piercing glares and smiled a little.
The coalish-feathered griffin spoke again: "Look, kid, this really ain't the place for ya. Did ya'll see what just happened?"
"Who were those?"
"Harpies," the griffin scowled in disgust. "Always haunting these lands, them filthy buzzards."
"Is he really talking with those griffins?" Birch whispered to Cassidy.
"Griffins are not barbarians," Cassidy said. "You've never met Madame Griselda."
"Oh yeah, the old griffin with razor-sharp metal claws who fended off the dragon with Sir Chrysantos?" Birch snorted. "She's only an old granny."
"The old granny saved your sorry butt!" Cassidy hissed back, wing-poking him in the side.
"Whatever," Birch relented, turning his attention upon the unlikely trio before them. "Why do I have the feeling that they're talking of us?"
"...We cannot leave 'em here, can we? Commander asked for anything suspicious and what's more unusual than a unicorn, a pegasus, and a deer frolicking in the middle of the desert?" the coal one asked his companion.
Dianthus came back to Birch and Cassidy. "They say they can take us there! Isn't that wonderful?"
"How do they plan to do that? We cannot fly," Birch said.
"Oh, they'll carry us," Dianthus replied.
Birch gave him a blank look. "They what now?"
~◊~
"Mark my words, furball: once we land, I'm oh so gonna give you a piece of my mind and my antlers!"
"Come on, Birch, relax and enjoy the flight!" Cassidy tweeted, performing a loop the loop. Ah, it was so good to fly again at full speed!
Birch couldn't quite say the same. The air slapped his face furiously, and his hides ached a little where the griffin's claws had their grip.
"I would enjoy it better if I didn't have someone's claws digging in my ribs!"
"Quit the struggling, young'un, lest you try and fly by yourself," the albino griffin admonished him, renewing his grip around the squirming deer. "I'm barely holding you."
Dianthus was indeed enjoying the flight. He had always wondered how it would be to defy gravity like that, and what he was experiencing couldn't be too far from the truth. The coalish griffin's flight was steady, his grip around Dianthus' barrel secure, and the griffin was careful not to pierce his skin with his needle-sharp claws. Dianthus watched amusedly their huge shadows running over the ground below them, skimming hundreds of deer leaps in mere minutes.
Who would have thought I'd fly with a griffin?
The coalish griffin looked down at him. "You okay down here, kid?"
"Yessir," Dianthus confirmed. "Are we almost there?"
"Indeed we are. You gal, there!" the griffin called out to Cassidy, who turned. "The currents here are gonna get wild soon. Get behind us and follow our trail. We're about to descend!"
Cassidy obeyed and slowed her wing beats, taking her place behind the two greater avians.
Soon after, the griffins began to dive toward the maze of rock that was their domain. Dianthus wondered who else could ever live down there and as they descended, he could already spot other griffins here and there with their beaks stuck up to watch their arrival.
Dianthus was gently placed down on all four hooves while Birch escaped the older griffin's grip too soon and fell face-first to the ground. Cassidy landed nearby.
"Wait here," the griffins instructed and flew deeper into the canyons.
Cassidy ruffled the reddish dust off her wings and noticed her collapsed deer friend. "Is he alright? He looks sick," she asked, sending the fawn a look that flickered between concerned and amused by the scene. Birch remained stubbornly there for several moments, growling into the dust with his legs splayed in every direction.
"I'll try," Dianthus offered. "Birch, you okay?"
"Grrrr..."
Dianthus turned to Cassidy. "The stag lives."
Birch somehow found the strength to lift his face from the ground only to glare at the unicorn.
"What are you complaining about, Birch?" Dianthus said with a teasing smile. "We saved at least two more days of travel!"
Birch just growled again.
The two griffins returned.
"Our commander will receive you immediately, kids," the albino one announced. "We have a few questions for you."
Dianthus nodded. "So do we."
"Fair enough. Now, please follow us."