//------------------------------// // What in Tartarus... (there's no stupid secondary chapter this time. Unless this counts.) // Story: Road to fame: My new life... As a gryphon. // by lord indisar //------------------------------// I woke from my slumber with a start, my eyes wide open with surprise. I looked out the window from the couch upon which I slept, seeing that it was morning, the darkened light of the gradient dusk sky just slightly coming through the linen blinds. I've had strange dreams.... but hell, at least they made a lick of sense. And I certainly didn't remember them clearly when I woke up. This dream, however, I recalled vividly: The elderly gryphon hen, the fact that 'I' was royalty... even the unspoken things of which I 'knew'. Even as a human, it was very hard to remeber the events in my dreams. Was this one different? "Must of been nothing..." I told myself, before looking around the house. It must of just been that we'd gone to the library yesterday? That would vaguely justify the dream, right? That's the only way that I felt I could picture it. My ears perked at the sound of my talons and paws hitting the carpet floor of Lovely Lights' home, and from the silence, save some singing birds,I quickly figured that Lovely Lights wasn't awake yet, or at least being particularly quiet in an attempt to not wake me yet... Go figure, it was probably, what, the Equestrian equivalent of five AM? If I yelled, I'd probably more likely wake than startle anybody.... ( *slap* no. Bad thoughts. Do not wake the entire damned town). Seeing I was awake, and didn't have anything else much to do, I walked over to the fridge. I was thirsty, and I was hungry. Pulling it open was still after all this time an unexpected challenge, considering my size and physical age. It's like when you go to the fridge and tug the door very lighly, because you honestly can't believe that you are too weak to open a fridge, but then you underestimate how much force you need to pull it open, and you are stuck there for about half a second wondering why you can't open the fridge. Like that, only worse because you actually are weaker than you are used to being. Regardless, it proved simple to open the fridge, which contained an assortment of fruits and vegetables. And very few select choices of meats, mostly cooked, though there were some raw meats inside. Raw meat, I found, was pretty nice. You can usually guarantee it fresh, provided it's refrigerated. Or provided you make the kill yourself. Which I've managed to do with quite a few rabbits and wild birds. Oh yes, great thing about being a gryphon is you can catch birds. They'll always fly up because instincts tell them you are likley a land predator if you pounce them from the ground. And then you prove them wrong. I swiped off the legs of a raw chicken (the best part, in my opinion, even when I was back on earth.) before heading outside. I wasn't supposed to eat raw meat in the house. Cooked meat was fine, but ever since I started to occasionally hunt my own food, Lovely Lights placed a bar on eating anything inside that didn't have the 'red liquids'( as in either mytogoblin or blood. It didn't matter which) dried out of it. I looked around the town, or at least what I could see from where I was. We lived on the last stretch of the town, in the last group of houses before leading to the path that went towards Horseshoe Mountain Woods, the name of the place where I'd first encountered Lovely Lights. Maybe one or two buildings were closer to the woods than us, but those were off to the side for the most part. In any event, I could barely see anything anyways. The sky was gradually getting lighter from beyond the woods as I finished my meal. My thoughts cameback to the dream... of which I still remembered clearly. The memories felt real, as if I truly was there at that instant. As if it was me in that dream, being referred to as Prince Alevrus... Prince Alevrus Ironbeak...I never heard, I just knew. The stirring of sound in the house snapped me out of my thoughts, and I peeked my ears to hear. It seemed that Lovely Lights had awoken, and was likely on her way downstairs to wake me. She'd find me alreadyawake, however. Though I decided to spare her the calling of my name, and went back inside, tossing the bones of the chicken into the trash bin. "Oh... Chirp..." She hesitantly began, having understood my earlier desire to change my name. Which I still, of course, intended on doing. We already went to the library yesterday, even. "You're already awake, then? How long have you been up?" She asked, before heading to the fridge and using her magic to open the door. I nodded, as I tried to measure how long it's been. "About twenty or thirty minutes? I also already ate. " I informed her, closing the front door behind me. "Yes.... I can see that..." Lovely Lights noted, as she looked in the fridge, having likely seen the now leg-less chicken. "So have you picked out something? For a name, I mean?" Lovely Lights asked, eyeing the book on the kitchen table. The book we had rented from the library was sitting there, still open from when I'd looked over it last night. It was filled with quite a bit of information concerning traditional gryphons, though mainly focused on naming procedures. Gryphons apparently would typically have Romanesque first names (ending is -us for males, -ia for female), followed by a last name that was what I could describe, at best, as a Warriors-styled name, though almost always centered around avian qualities. And last names weren't hereditary, either. They were something to be earned. It was certainly unique. Kind of. Which is bullshit, I'm still going to give my self my own last name. Of course, I wanted my name to be unique as well. If I was going to go by a different name, I was at least going to be creative with it. And so, what better thing to do than to make one up yourself? In my own opinion at least, I always came up with good names for my video game toons, and I don't mean names like 'roflbeartank' or 'kittydeeps'. I'm an avid role player who would be ashamed of even rping with someone ELSE who had that as their in-game name. So that left me with one thing to do, make up a name. As in, I hadn't decided yet... "I'm still... thinking about it?" I answered slowly. I wasn't going to tell her I was planning to make it up, or she'd think I was crazy. Or she'd d at least assume that I would think of something stupid. And I'd like to note I'm only slightly crazy at most. Then again, I was contemplating using the same process I used to make video game names on making a name I'd actually be stuck with... "Are you sure you don't want me to pick one for you?" She ventured, to which I shook my head. I'd kinda already forbidden her to even look in the book, after having her looking over my shoulders for an hour-and-a-half straight trying to help me pick out a name from it, going 'Oh, that one sounds noble.' or 'Are you having trouble? What about that one?'. Like seriously, shut the hell up, I can't even think. " No, I can pick my own name." I insisted, skimming the pages, not really even reading the names. Anything to make it seem like I was looking. Eventually I decided on something. "Anninnicus." I declared, closing the book. "Anninnicus Whitetalon." ..... I swear, I'm not fucking crazy. "An... nin.. " Lovely Lights tried to pronounce, before trotting over to the book. I was done with it anyways. I felt pretty proud of myself, really. Maybe I should of done something easier to pronounce like..... Taladrius... No, Taladrimus... Taladrimus Blackfang. Yes. Yes, yes yes. No. No no. "You mean..." She started, flipping through the A section of the book. "Chi-... I mean... That first name, not in the book at all." She told me, obviously utterly confused. Implying the last name I offered was already taken? "Fine, Anninnicus Ravenfury." I instead offered. My god I'm such a troll. "... That's... not the first... Chirp, that name isn't anywhere in the book at all. Can't you pick something a lot more... Easier to pronounce?" She asked, her voice betraying a hint of annoyance. "Ranimialatrius, then. That's my second choice. Or Gallamandriatus." I said plainly, causing her expression to change into one that I couldn't call anything other than absolute disgust. Best thing about having a beak is you can't exactly smile without opening it. Then again, also means your expression is permantly stuck to the lines of your beak, and whatever you can do with your eyes. And I was a frowny beak. I see so many non-gryphon friends in my future... "Spell it," Lovely Lights requested, catching me off guard. "Spell the name." She asked, to which I ended up finding out the flaw in my strategy. I could easily spending a good portion of ten minutes on whether to use one a or two, and other phonetics, when I made the names I did. "Well..." I began, trying to piece together the names I thought up. "Anninnicus... A...n... n... i... n... n... i... c u s." I listed, somewhat nervously, trying to disguise the pauses as simple breaks. Jesus Christ, that was consonant hell. "And thus shall be how one should spell... Anninnicus." I declared. Is it obvious yet that I'm the type of guy who reads dictionaries? I counted about 20 seconds of absolute silence from Lovely Lights. I dunno, did I break her brain? .exe has stopped working, I guess. "I... wha-... fine. Anninnicus Ravenfury it is... though I'd prefer if you'd change your mind by the time school is out... but if that's what you want, I suppose it'll do... " She finally admitted. "But I hope you remember you're still Chirp until the days over. Now go get ready for school." she reminded me, to which I shrugged. "Right. I will, don't worry." I answered, before heading upstairs. Exit Chirp, enter Ravenfury.