//------------------------------//
// X - . . . You Could Get Hurt . . . 
// Story: Snickersnatch 
// by SpiralWriter 
//------------------------------//


[Snickersnatch]

By: Quisky





Chapter Ten:

. . . You Could Get Hurt . . .





The busted-down door lead us into a narrow hallway that gave off the feeling of dirty grime upon your skin, making yourself feel unclean just standing in it. A small, swinging lantern hung overhead as the only source of light, illuminating very little opposed to what it should have been. Looks like the Talons had never heard of the phrase 'spruce up the place'.

Our collective of claws, paws, and hoofsteps upon the dirty floor was the only sound save for some muted out shouting up ahead. Sounded like a lot of voices, all belonging to a lot of heavily armed thugs and thieves. I could just tell that this was going to be such a fun time.

As we reached the end of the hall and turned a corner, every last one of us froze in place, muscles locked tense at the sight. A griffin stood ahead, back to us, scratching at himself, seemingly on guard duty. A door laid behind him, probably to the larger part of the warehouse. He was roughly pony-sized, scraggly with brown feathers, either natural-colored or he didn't bother taking a bath, I was guessing the latter given the stench.

I turned towards the two behind me, nodding with my head towards the guard. I tried to mouth the words 'Rush him at the count of three', but when I turned back around, the guard was staring directly at us, beak agape. There was a sudden clatter of movement as we all bum-rushed the poor blighter, ramming into him. Legion had his wings, Goldguard his limbs, and I held his beak shut with my hands. Bloody little prick put up a fight too, squealing and rustling about, sending feathers everywhere.

With quite the struggle going on, the guard had managed to slip quite literally through my fingers, biting my bear hand with his sharp beak and making me wince. Angrily I jerked him right out of the grips of my friends and heaved him forward, sending him slamming into the metal door, taking both it and him into the next room with a heavy clunk. Well, if they didn't know we were here earlier, they did now.

All three of us entered the warehouse area, most of it empty save for the usual stack of boxes here and there, and the dozen or so griffins in the room. Each one eyed us warily as we entered, switching between our menial group and their unconscious, twitching mate on the floor.

"Um . . . hello." I greeted with a weak little wave. "We're uh, just here to retrieve what you guys might've stolen." I continued, Legion beside me and sniffing like crazy, pointing forward. A large crate that came roughly up to my torso stood on the far end of the room, nothing but angry griffins of varying sizes, all looking gruff and armed with a blade, standing us.

"That is what we are seeking, Alpha Oddjob." The diamond dog said in monotone. I nodded before turning back to the griffin group. "Now look," I coughed, trying to look as intimidating as possible, baring my fangs and sizing myself up. "We don't want to fight, but if you do, you might want to rethink that. You have a highly trained Solar Guard, a slash-happy diamond dog, and a jabberwocky with a big stick all at your doorstep. All we want is that package you stole, then we'll leave happily."

They replied by charging forward with weapons drawn and unleashing terrifying eagle screeches. We reacted in the same way, Legion howling, Goldguard shouting at the top of his lungs, and myself roaring, all of us spearheading directly into the center of the warehouse for a clash.

Somehow we divided the dozen of them between us, four each for a pummeling. I rammed my fist directly into the beak of one of them, feeling the full weight of the blow crack his beak and send him flying backwards into some crates, knocking them over. Another had taken to flying over me, swooping in only to annoy the fuck outta me with little blade swipes that left stinging cuts that thankfully healed easily. What surprised me the most was how undamaged I was in this fight. Normally I took a lot of punishment, but the coat and armor seemed to be absorbing what I was too stupid to dodge or block.

While I fended off my three remaining attackers, I glimpsed to the side every now and again to see how my companions were faring. Legion, of course, was doing excellently, not even a scratch on him. He, she, it, moved gracefully around any strike aimed towards the pristine white coat, retaliating with swift blows and claw strikes, dispatching the griffins with ease. In only a matter of seconds, three of his were down and the last was just barely defending himself from Legion's assault.

Goldguard was doing surprisingly well. It appeared that he was a weaponcaster, much like Vorpal. A shimmering blade of gold swung through the air, parrying any other sword heading towards its master. Looked like I really underestimated him, proven by him swinging his magical blade and disarming every griffin around him before proceeding with a quick buck from his backlegs, sending them reeling.

With a deft backhand from me, my armored gauntlet smacked directly into that griffin that had been aerial, pushing him aside and made him wish gravity wasn't so cruel. I took a step back, the last remaining griffin looking so unsure of himself, taking a few steps back. All three of us stepped closer to him, and in return, he screeched, turned heel, and ran smack into a pile of crates, crashing through them and definitely what was stored inside crashing down on him.

I chuckled to myself, allowing such an amusing moment to calm me down after the fight. Eventually the adrenaline wore off. "See, wasn't so bad?" i said with a grin, strutting towards the box, only for something very big overhead to land on the roof, sending a rumble through the building, followed by a roar that sounded very familiar to my own.

I had almost forgotten that the Talons also had drakes in their employment.