//------------------------------//
// I Blame Luck 
// Story: The Wind King 
// by Talon19912 
//------------------------------//

	You know how people say it doesn’t hurt to teleport, well… THEY’RE LIERS!!! After the initial shock of teleportation wore off I found myself lying on my back, staring at the sky through a screen of white. I couldn’t see a thing and I could barely hear over the bells that were ringing in my ears. My body was numb below my neck. I don’t need to tell you I wasn’t having fun.

After laying there a while, I soon began the numbness in my body to recede and my vision began to clear. I slowly sat up and tried to take a decent look around which was kind of hard considering I found myself laying in the branches of an enormous elm tree, I swear I must have been at least twenty feet up. I tried to shift my weight a little to get the circulation going to my lower body, well as I shifted I felt a shifting in my coat, I couldn’t very well do anything because my hands were busy holding onto my only handheld within reach. All of a sudden I felt something slip out of my jacket. I looked down only to catch a glimpse of my pistol falling to the ground and shattering on the only rock within fifty feet of my tree. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” I yelled.

This is when I decided I was getting down one way or another. I reached into my coat and unsheathed my knife, an eight inch piece of extremely sharp steel; this is the time that I tell you the name of my knife, well too bad for you, it doesn’t have a name, so there. Anyways, I shimmied close to the trunk of the tree and sunk my knife as deep as I could into the wood, after testing it and finding it stable I swung off the branch with nothing but my knife to support me, now this is the part where any sane person would be having second thought about what they were about to do, of course I too was having my fair share of second thoughts. Then the knife started to slip and down I went, landing face first into a massive mud puddle, needless to say I survived the fall with only a few bruises, luckily. 

So there I was lying in a mud puddle went up to my shins deciding what my next move was going to be, when out of nowhere I heard shouting in the distance. 

“She’s getting away, after her,” One voice shouted. 

“Not on our watch, Lord Magnum will have our hides if she escapes again,” another shouted. 

Magnum? Now that was an interesting piece of info. I stood to my feet from the place I had been sitting in, still covered in mud. 

I followed the voices, which were steadily growing closer. All of a sudden something, or rather someone collided into me. I fell back into the mud. “Really,” I half shouted towards the sky. Then I looked at who collided with me. Sitting across from me was a young woman, or rather half woman. I instantly recognized her features, the predatory eyes, the large golden-brown wings, the trademark lion tail, she had incredibly fine feathers covered her chest and snaked their way to the borders of her face. Her brown hair was bob cut in a seemingly untidy way, however it really seemed to work. She wore a white tank top underneath a short black leather bomber style jacket; she also wore tightfitting denim jeans and what seemed to be dull black leather boots. Despite everything her clothes seemed to accentuate her feminine athletic build.
She stared at me with her golden eyes, I don’t know what happened but I was hypnotized by her eyes, we just kind of sat there staring at one another. I quickly shook myself out of my dazed state. 

“Are you alright,” I asked quickly standing up. 

“Yeah, I’m alright,” She replied. I pulled her to her feet. “Thanks,” 

Before we could introduce ourselves. “There you are, you little traitor,” A gruff voice called. I looked over to see two more people just like the woman. The girl stood up quickly. 

“I told you I’m not going to be Magnums’ spy, even I have my pride,” She shouted. I stepped up next to her. 

“You don’t have a choice,” another voice called. I looked behind me.

“Classic pincer maneuver,” I said out loud. “So how do you want to do this,” I asked the woman. 

“There’s no other option than to fight,” I said. 

“I know,” She replied. “But If I go down you will be punished as well, guilt by association,” She explained. 

“Screwed either way, huh,” I said. 

“Seems like it,” she replied. 

I put myself into a combat stance. “Well we can’t let that happen now can we?” I said. With that we charged at our individual targets. 

Now If you’ve never fought a Griffon let me tell you, unless you know what you are doing don’t bother. Something I didn’t know at the time, they are resilient fighters, and can hit pretty damn hard. Now I’m no slacker when it comes to fighting, though I lack any real formal training. I can hold my own against a trained fighter, It’s because I am so used to it, I can react on reflex, which dumbfounds my opponents. 

I quickly dodged a blow to the head that was meant to knock me out in one hit. I retaliated with a fierce kick to my opponents side, which lands a glancing blow to his ribs. He staggers back, obviously out of breath. He uses a wing to trip me while I make a dash towards him, I land in the dirt. He pounces towards me obviously looking to subdue me just as he was about to land on me I brought my foot up using it as a guard causing my opponent to topple over me. As my opponent lies stunned on the ground I pounce on him putting him into a fierce head lock constricting his airway, eventually he falls unconscious. I stand up and rush to the woman’s side and we gang up on the on the guy.  She dives for his feet causing him to trip forward getting caught in the face with one of my haymakers. With both assailants dealt with we make a hasty retreat from the area.