Normally Cyra would wake Zephyr up as soon as she was coherent enough to flop out of bed. Today, however, she was salty. She was salty because it had been an entire day since Zephyr had refused to explain her lesson with Simon. Cyra didn't enjoy secrets and lies being traded without her involvement, and so she had decided to ignore Zephyr as a result. If Zephyr wanted to communicate, she could start by spilling whatever secret that Simon and Zerrin were making her keep.
On top of that, neither of them had seen Aeon since she'd left abruptly a few days earlier. Simon and Zerrin had stubbornly refused to explain that too, and at this point Cyra was getting fed up with the both of them. On the bright side, the little crystal-wolf-dog thing really seemed to like her. It had followed her to the previous day's magic lesson, against Simon's rather insistent wishes. She still didn't have a name for it, but she'd discovered that the creature was a female and a juvenile, thanks to Zerrins identification. She'd also found out that the gems and crystals glowed in the dark.
Today, Cyra was supposed to be having a lesson with Zerrin, but given her saltiness and Zephyr's odd mood, both Simon and Zerrin had agreed that they could have a free day. Cyra decided she would wait until Zephyr woke up, and then drag her out into the woods to show her the stone pillar. If she could, maybe Cyra would even convince her sister to climb it with her.
It took another hour for Zephyr to wake up. Cyra still stubbornly refused to do it herself as usual. Once they were both up, though, Cyra brought up some toast for them to eat. As they had breakfast, the little gemeke wriggled her way into Cyra's lap.
"So," Zephyr said, finally breaking the tense silence. "You mentioned you had something you wanted to do today?"
Cyra nodded. She considered putting an icy edge in her voice, but decided against it. "Yes. I'm gonna take you out to this place I found in the woods. It's pretty cool."
"Sounds good. Have you named that rock-dog yet?" Trying to change the subject, is she?
"No, not yet. It's gotta be something good. I can't just pick something dumb and have it end up sticking, but it can't be something over-the-top either."
"Sounds like a 'you' problem."
"Yeah, kinda."
After they'd both finished eating, Cyra grabbed Zephyr and pulled her out to the middle of the woods. They went on the same path they had taken to the now worn in track, and then went past it. Once they had reached the pillar, Cyra began trying to convince Zephyr to climb it. Zephyr refused, saying that she was sore and not a good climber to begin with.
Cyra scaled the side of the cliff just as quick as she had two days prior, grabbing onto ledges and handholds with superhuman speed. As Zephyr watched her from below, she was struck by how small and fast her sister was. She remembered how she had once said that Cyra was scarier because she was tiny and her anger was more condensed, and in her mind that point still stood.
Pulling herself onto the top of the rock stack, Cyra stood up and called down to Zephyr.
"You gonna come up here or what?"
Zephyr looked up at her. "No, you have fun. I'll stay here, catch you if need be."
"Come on! It'll be fun! It's super cool to see the whole forest from so high up!"
Zephyr shook her head, then moved to the tree line for some shade. When she sat down, she saw a black dot circling
Just a bird.
Then it got bigger
Much bigger.
Cyra sighed. Apparently, Zephyr was still being difficult. She turned to climb back down when she felt a gust of wind and a pair of razorlike claws digging into her torso and tearing her shirt. She heard Zephyr yelling in the distance, probably her name. The bird flew higher and higher, and Cyra grew dizzy from the thin air at such an altitude. Then, everything began to fade out.
Zephyr watched in horror as the enormous bird latched on to her sister with its black talons, carrying her off like a rag doll. It turned its path towards the mountains that bridged Andaxia and Eldrum.
No. No, no, no.
No.
NO!
Zephyr began to feel something boil up inside her. She raced to the pillar, and began to climb. Once she was high above the ground, she turned so she was only holding on by one hand and one leg. She scrunched up like a spring, and then launched herself off of the stone surface. As she rushed through the air, she felt a prickling in her muscles, like pins and needles. She glanced down at herself and saw that there was fur and feathers growing out of her limbs as her form melted into that of a gryphon. She had thick white fluff smoothed down into a streamlined shape, a round face with a pale crescent shaped beak, powerful legs with enormous paws and a long whip tail, a fluffed-up ruff around her shoulders, and grey spots over the fur on her back half, like those of a leopard. She couldn't see them very well, but she could feel an enormous set of tawny feathered wings connected to her shoulders and back, large enough to carry her through the air.
She didn't have time to question what had happened. She launched herself off the pillar about half way up. It was almost natural to fly. She pumped her wings at the colossal golden bird. She was smaller, but she was also angrier. She slammed into the beast with her full weight. It swung its head to snap at her. The rider upon its back turned, then grabbed a whip.
Well, now I have its attention. The beast screeched, and the rider turned and swung the whip at Zephyr. The Roc then let go of Cyra with one claw to slash at her. But Zephyr had claws, too. She pumped her wings, pulling herself above the bird, then slammed down on its back. She dug her claws in, both front and back. The rider screamed, her claws in his lower leg.
"Zeph..."
She glanced down at Cyra, who was near lifeless in the bird's claws. There were dark spots on her tunic where the bird's claws had latched on. It had stopped pumping its wings. She must have hit its spinal cord, and it could no longer fly. She let go, then moved under the bird and fell with it. She pried the talons apart, then grabbed Cyra. Kicking the beast away, she flared her wings, gliding on the air currents. As the bird fell, she saw the rider upon its back begin to brace for impact. She watched them fall until they disappeared beyond the trees. A muffled boom echoed soon after.
She began descending back to the clearing, and Zerrin and Simon had just run in with panicked expressions. As soon as she hit the earth, the adrenaline rush started to fade, and she nearly fell on top of Cyra. Laying down, she folded her wings and collected her thoughts and caught her breath. There was blood on her claws and a scratch on her shoulder where the whip had hit true. She hadn't noticed. Zerrin moved to her but she shook him off, and looked to Cyra.
Cyra, on the other hand, wasn't looking too good. The dark blots on her tan shirt seemed to be growing, and she wasn't moving. The only sound she made was a tiny groan as she shivered, too weak to try and sit up. Zephyr felt sick. The shock factor at what her body had just done caused her body to shake. Seeing her sister's barely moving chest made it even worse.
Anger began sweeping through her again, and before Zerrin or Simon could say anything, She launched herself back into the air. Flying over the broken tree tops, she found where the Roc had crashed, and landed.
Both Roc and rider had survived, barely. Being further from Cyra made her magic swell, filling her with even more hot fury. She prowled around the Roc as it screeched in pain. Its wing was completely shattered, and many other bones were fractured. She approached it, seething. She shot forward, biting down on the Roc's throat. As the last breath shuddered out of its body, she dropped the carcass, then turned on the rider.
It was then that a small squad of walkers burst through the trees, weapons aimed. They hesitated as they took in Zephyr's rage, and what she had done. One of them, a buck with light skin, stepped forward, but one of the others stopped him, shaking his head.
Zephyr pounced on the rider, slamming him into the ground. She wanted to kill him. She really did. Her beak itched to be around his throat, to show him exactly what happens when someone hurt Cyra. But before she could, Zerrin, along with two lion walkers stepped through the tree line. Zerrin approached slowly.
"Zephyr, it's okay. Cyra will be alright. The healer is on her way to patch her up, and she'll be good as new soon. But you need to calm down." He had the vial clutched in his hand, betraying his calm demeanor.
One of the lions spoke.
"Gryphon, if we want answers, we need to question the rider, not kill him. You can have him once we learn his intentions." As they spoke, Zephyr's mind began to come back to reality. She stepped off the rider, then walked over to Zerrin. The walkers seized the rider, checking for any weapons, or sucide methods. They escorted him out of the tree line, while others stayed and began planning to get rid of the Roc.
Zephyr stood off to the side, watching intently. As soon as her adrenaline started to fade and she realized just how exhausted she was. Blood still dropped from the slice the whip had cut, and her feathers were stiff with dust.
Feathers...
As she stood, she could feel her body rearranging, shifting back into a humanoid form. Her clothes were miraculously intact for the most part, but they were ragged and dusty. Apparently, the damage transferred over. She was upright for just a moment, swaying, until her body gave in and she started to tip forwards. Zerrin was there, and he caught her with one arm before she could fall.
Zerrin led Zephyr back to the tower. They were silent, not that Zephyr was sure she could talk even if she wanted to. When they reached it, Zerrin went inside and grabbed bandages. As he cleaned the wound on Zephyr's shoulder, he said nothing. Once finished, he went back inside. Zephyr lay there for a while, a million thoughts coursing through her mind.
But what scared her was that she had been so ready to kill, not just an animal, but another human being. She began to understand that that was what the danger was. When the shadows grew long, Simon finally came outside, but Zephyr barely noticed him. Somehow she managed to struggle up the steps to her room, where she collapsed on the bed and sank into a deep, deep sleep.
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Zephyr awoke violently, jerking upright, feeling like she was about to be attacked. Alita, who had been on the bed next to her, jumped. The room was completely dark, thick blankets covering the windows. Alita hopped off the bed, then walked out of the room, beckoning Zephyr to come with her. As Zephyr sat at the kitchen table, Alita made some food.
"Alita, how long have i been out?" Her own voice sounded strange to her, rough and small.
Four days. Alita said simply. Zephyr balked at the number.
"What about-"
She's fine. The healer had been seeing to her everyday. She still hasn't woken up, though.
"I want to see her."
Alita nodded solemnly. Zephyr took her plate and followed Alita through the tower. She led her to another wing that Zephyr hadn't been in before. It must have been the medical wing, judging by all of the healer supplies. A deer walker in a white collared t-shirt looked up when she noticed Zephyr.
"Oh, you're awake!" She trotted over with a black bag in her hand. "Sit down here and I'll check your wounds."
"I want to see-"
"Don't worry, she's just in there. You'll have to wait a few minutes, though."
Zephyr allowed the healer to check the cut on her shoulder. When she was done, the worried girl immediately made a beeline for her sister.
Cyra was laying in a pristine white hospital bed. Her dark hair was spread out like an aura of shadows around her head, and her arms and torso were wrapped in white bandages. Even unconscious, there was still a ghost of a pained expression on her face. Zephyr felt sick.
Zephyr sat down in a chair placed at Cyra's bedside. She heard someone else enter, but she didn't look up.
"What in Alcreia happened?" Simon knelt next to the hospital bed. "That looked like an elder Roc out there. How did you do that?"
"I-I don't know," Zephyr stammered. "One moment she was on the pillar, the next she was in the Roc's claws. And then I was in the air. And... I don't know." She covered her face with her hands. Simon placed a comforting hand on Zephyr's back.
"Hey, it's ok. I shouldn't have gotten loud."
Zephyr slid her hand into Cyra's and held it tightly. She felt guilty, like she shouldn't have let Cyra go up on that pillar. She should have been the one to get caught, not Cyra.
"You know, when we were younger, I would always be the one who got the worst injuries. Broken collar bone, twice, and a broken wrist, not to mention countless other bruises. I would always joke that Cyra had magicked the injuries she was supposed to get onto me. But I would rather have that then to watch her like this."
Simon chuckled a bit at the story, but said nothing else.
"I wonder if this is what she felt like when our mother had to knock me out and reposition my collar bone. One of my favorite things was to flick things at her, then pretend I was still asleep." Zephyr gave a broken laugh at the memory of how Cyra would tackle her once she figured it out, followed by their mother's scolding voice, saying that Zephyr was still healing.
The healer came in once more, and changed the bandages. She pulled up a curtain around them, shielding them from Zephyr and Simon's view. Once she pulled it back, Simon pulled the healer aside. When he came back he sat and hugged her.
"She'll be fine. The Roc that the guards found was indeed part of King Hawthorn's fleet. It's cut her up a bit, but she should be fine."Even though she didn't want to, Zerrin and Simon told her to get some more rest and they'd figure it out later. When she didn't comply, Simon threatened to use the sedative from the vial and make her rest. Once Zephyr had laid down however, she felt exhausted, and mentally thanked them for not letting her pass out on the floor. She was still worried, but she knew greeting everything with a clear head was better. She drifted off to sleep.
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The next morning, Cyra still hadn't woken up. There were still bandages wrapped around her arms and torso where the roc had pinned her with its talons. Zephyr could see the faint outline of a dark red stain starting to seep through the soft white gauze, and she pointed it out to the doe healer, Juniper, who said it must have been some run off from a different wound.
Juniper reassured Zephyr that she would keep an eye on Cyra, so she headed to the library to see Simon for a few minutes. She made sure to say that she wouldn't be more than twenty minutes, though. After a scare like that there was no way Zephyr was leaving Cyra on her own unless she was forced to.
Simon and Zerrin were both in the library, poring over the Alcreian bestiary. Zephyr recognized it as the same book she and Simon had been reading three days ago. It was open to the page about rocs.
To make matters worse, the king and queen of the walkers were not best pleased about the fact that a Roc from King Hawthorne had found its way past the mountains and city guards. They considered this an act of war on the part of the human king. The queen, Queen Harath, wanted to send a return attack as soon as possible , but King Tarian wanted to make sure there was no alternative to all out war. They might have been stronger, but without the fae by their side, they would lose many people. The fae at this time seemed to be on the side of the humans, as they had lifted the ban about a decade ago, but after an insult like this they would surely switch sides.
Thankfully, none of the adults seemed to be mad at Zephyr or Cyra. In fact, they all seemed upset with the humans.
Zephyr took a shaky breath. "Is- do you know if Cyra will be okay?"
Simon looked up from the book. "As long as all the wounds get treated regularly, she'll be all right, and Juniper should be doing that as we speak. I'm sure she'll be back to her bouncy self in a week or two."
Zephyr nodded.
Queen Harath and King Tarian were pacing back and forth in another section of the library, trying to figure out how to counter this threat. Zephyr could hear them discussing.
"Tarian, this means war. He attacked a child under our sanctuary-"
"And we may lose many more children if we attack now. We need to gain allies first. Perhaps the fae-"
"Would immediately drag our messengers or us to Hawthorne's court? They wouldn't listen to reason, especially on this matter. The only reason these children ended up in Eldrum at all was because the fae don't want to deal with their gryphons."
"The tricksters have been dumping changelings on everyone's doorsteps for centuries, Harath. Nothing here is new."
"And what happens when Hawthorne attacks again? Do we ignore it, and pretend that we are too weak to fight back? Or do we strike now, before he can plan his next move?"
"I agree with you, but the fact is that whoever has the support of Noralia and all its fae will win this war. Gendria and Kember have no obligation to fight in this war, and we'd have a difficult time convincing a Kembrian to join an army or fight in a war."
"This is true. Gendria is powerful, but they will refuse to fight if they don't have to. The only way to win, then, is to win over the Noralians."
"Exactly. We must plan a diplomatic mission at once."
King Tarian and Queen Harath both walked over to where Simon, Zerrin, and Zephyr were. Zephyr hadn't really looked at them before in the clearing when she was in Gryphon form, but they certainly did look regal. Both had very dark skin and golden jewelry. Queen Harath had her dark curls up in a braided bun, while King Tarian's numerous braids hung down around his head. Each had a golden circlet with white gems set into the three points at the front, and they also both had matching white marks painted onto their faces. Queen Harath had a vertical stripe on her bottom lip and two more stripes over her eyelids, while her husband had one on his lip and two horizontal lines on each of his cheeks. They were both lions, contrary to their son. Zerrin was the prince, after all, although he didn't have all the same adornments. Still, it was odd that the king and queen were lions, but the prince was an okapi. Maybe Zerrin was adopted, like Zephyr and Cyra. Zephyr was sure her sister could figure it out when she got better.
Upon seeing his adoptive parents, Zerrin stood up and judged Simon to do the same.
"What's the decision?" asked the prince.
Queen Harath spoke. "We are going on a diplomatic mission to Noralia. You are going to stay and manage affairs here, and make sure that the two gryphon changelings are protected. Allow them to continue their studies with Prince Simon."
Zerrin nodded and started to close up the creature compendium and stuff the notes into the front cover. Meanwhile, King Tarian turned to Zephyr.
"You are the Phoenix gryphon, yes?" He asked. Zephyr nodded. "Then I have a task for you. You must stay within the walls of the capital until the queen and I return. It's not safe outside for you or your sister. If the huntress, Aeon, returns, tell her to report to Zerrin first and to stay within the city as well."
"Yes, your majesty." Zephyr gave a small bow and left to go back to Cyra.
"Hey, Zephyr, wait." Simon jogged up to where Zephyr was standing, holding a few books and pencils.
"Since you figured out how to change, I would like to do some research on it. We haven't had gryphons here in a very long time, and what we have is outdated. Do you mind?"
"No, not really. I dunno how i'm going to change into it though."
"We can figure it out. Come on"
Simon led her to a clearing not far from the tower, and began opening books to certain pages.
"All right. Now, I want you to try and shift using any means you deem necessary."
Zephyr shrugged and moved to the center of the clearing. Closing her eyes, she tried to think about what she did to change.
Well, I was angry, and scared.
She focused on those feelings, imagining Cyra in the talons of the Roc. She pulled up every moment she could think of where Cyra was being hurt or threatened. Distant yelling sounded somewhere to her right. Opening her eyes, she saw Simon with a big grin on his face.
"You did it, Zephyr." Looking down, she saw the now familiar form of a Gryphon. Simon approached, carrying one of the smaller books.
"Ok so, you are a Barn owl and.... Snow leopard combination. About 8 feet tall, wingspan.." Simon kept muttering to himself for a while, stretching parts of her here and there. Once he was finished with the measurements, they began to test different things, like speed.
They kept this up for a good while, learning Zephyr's limits, as well as getting her used to the Gryphon form. At one point, they tried to use magic, which ended up in a large rock wall going halfway around the clearing. The nearby walkers on guard were not pleased with the interruption.
They had filled up two books worth of notes by the time they were done, and though she had been in Gryphon form all day, she wanted to stay in it for a while longer. She leapt into the air, flying above the treetops. When she began to feel the overflowing of magic, she would turn skywards, and go up as hard and as fast as her body would allow, then glide down.
She finally landed as the sun dipped below the horizon, and shifted back into human form. She hurried inside, wanting to check on Cyra again. Nothing had changed while she had been out. As she sunk into the chair, Zerrin came in and pulled her to her feet.
"No way. You are not sleeping in the chair again."
Zephyr offered no protest as she collapsed into bed, not bothering to change.