//------------------------------//
// Castle Climb, Two 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

Valey peered down from the shadows of her ballroom balcony, taking stock of the situation as three guards and an angry chef argued about searching for her.

"Foolish imbeciles!" Moriarty berated, waving his cleaver at the blue-armored trio. "Do your jobs and arrest the urchin so that I may return to craftin' great masterpieces for tomorrow's feast!"

"You see the size of this room, right?" a guard questioned, slinking back unhappily. "It's dark, huge, has hanging cover, and did I mention is dark? We don't even know where she is! And there's only four of us!"

"Three of you!" Moriarty furiously corrected, dancing a jig of rage. "You guard! I cook." His facial hair drooped in a stern frown.

"Make that two, because I'm off-duty," another guard added, rubbing the back of his neck. "Just let it go, cook. It's just a sarosian!"

The third guard spread her wings, interrupting and seizing the floor. "No, hold on, I think we can do this. If Moriarty's too angry, he'll ruin whatever he cooks, and I was counting on not having to go grocery shopping tomorrow because of the free meal. Besides, this is almost funny. Funner than listening to my kids argue at home, at least! Everyone's watching the sky, right?"

Much muttering ensued, along with another angry rant from the chef, but the speaking griffon continued. "All we need to do is turn the lights on, and that'll pin the sarosian wherever she is and flush her out. Moriarty, you go get the lights. The three of us will fly around and make sure she doesn't try to fly away before we pinpoint her."

"No!" Moriarty snapped. "You will flee while my back is turned! I guard!"

"But didn't you just say...?" a guard protested feebly.

Valey silently groaned. Was it worth waiting to see if they'd go away? She was hidden for now, but if they succeeded in turning on the lights while she was still in the ballroom, it would be much easier for her to get found. But where was the right way out?

Her balcony had an access door to a hallway that ran outside the ballroom, but a quick peak underneath told her the hall was patrolled by an earnest-looking guard with a light who somehow hadn't heard the commotion outside. Not that way. Sizing up her options for leaving the balcony, there were several nearby marble support columns, a lengthy drape hanging from the ceiling... That would be her best bet, even if her cutie mark warned her that someone might see. Valey dove into the fabric, feeling it swish and betray her with movement even as she sank into its shadowed folds, swimming upward as hard as she could.

"Ahoy!" Moriarty howled from below. "I saw a curtain move, up above! Guards, stop slacking!"

Bananas. She had been seen. Valey doggedly continued her climb, keeping watch for anywhere else she could hide. If only she had a distraction...

"It's just a draft, you blowhard," a guard droned from midair, and Valey winced, realizing at least one was wheeling in search of her. That meant someone else had gone to get the lights... She dropped out of the shadow, flapping and hovering behind the curtain's cover, checking her saddlebags for anything that could act as a distraction. She needed... fruit!

Licking her lips and murmuring a silent apology at the waste of a potentially fine meal, Valey pulled out an apple, kissed it, and hurled it as hard as she could towards one side of the room.

Blash!

The apple exploded against the floor with a crispy splat, instantly attracting Moriarty's attention. "Guards!" he caterwauled. "Stolen evidence! I told you she plundered my stores! She must be this way! Arrest her!"

"It's a distraction," the flying guard boredly said, stopping to watch Moriarty as the enraged chef nevertheless flew straight up from the apple's landing site, vengeance in his eyes. "That means she's anywhere but in that curtain!"

Ironic, Valey thought, because the guard staring at Moriarty meant he was looking the one place he knew she wasn't. She took wing, darting out and streaking for a banner laced along the rooftop, right next to a grand chandelier. The room's highest balcony ran across three exits on the far side, meaning she could slip past any lone guard patrolling them even if he had a light. She just needed to get into that banner and hide... Her cutie mark flared, and she pumped her wings harder, realizing that someone was about to look.

Then the chandelier came ablaze with light.

With a whump of fabric, Valey collided with the now-brightly lit banner, plowing straight through and taking it with her. She hissed, tumbling, trying to throw it off so her wings could get free, her cover thoroughly blown.

"See? There she is," the hovering guard said calmly, folding his forelegs in triumph and not giving chase. "I told you she wasn't in... Hey, what are you doing?"

Valey's cutie mark burned with an even higher spike of danger. "You shall pay for defilin' my kitchen!" Moriarty roared, and she got the tapestry under control just in time to see him charging her face with his cleaver brandished. Making use of the only weapon she held in her hooves, she flung the heavy sheet back at him like a net, entangling him and sending him tumbling groundward.

As he fell, she prepared to run again, eyeing the guard and noticing he was far more interested in Moriarty than her. "Yo, cook..." The guard pointed a talon. "Charging people with a chopping thing like that is a little more against the law than trespassing is. I'm going to need to ask you to calm down..." His eyes widened as Moriarty hacked the ruglike banner to shreds, emerging with his beak open in a screech. "And so is vandalism! I'm pretty sure that was art... Uh, backup?"

Valey saw the other two griffon guards approaching, but Moriarty was fast enough to make her take matters into her own hooves. Readying a zucchini she had taken even though they weren't her favorite, she reared back and flung it like a boomerang, skillfully nailing the chef in the face.

Pow! A double-door at ground level burst open, and a platoon of six much-better-armed griffons with more decorations on their armor marched through. "What's going on in here!?" the leader bellowed, a tall, pompous feathered hat that made Valey green with envy denoting his rank.

"She plundered and defiled my kitchen!" Moriarty rasped, voice hoarse from screeching. "Arrest! Arrest! Arrest!"

"He, uh, just shredded a tapestry and looks like a crazed axe murderer," the hovering guard added. "Don't you guys do background checks when hiring cooks?"

The new squad's leader nodded. "Two troublemakers. Right. Spread out and secure the exits! You there! Surrender immediately!"

"Wuh-oh." Valey glanced to the nearest balcony, which was still a ways away, and briefly contemplated dropping the chandelier on the new squad... but there was no way that could end well, and Moriarty was still on her tail. Folding her wings and diving, she abandoned all pretenses of stealth, aiming for the nearest door out of the ballroom and hoping it led higher into the keep.

Swooooosh! A female griffon in sharp-edged armor cut her off, metallic wing enhancements on the suit looking designed to boost the thrust of anyone strong enough to use them. She was smart enough not to waste her breath on a challenge, and hovered loosely, ready to intercept a feint.

Far too prepared for that trick, Valey bulldozed straight into her. The griffon's heavy armor gave her far too much inertia, and the impact legitimately hurt even though Valey had dodged the sharp edges, but the griffon was unprepared and she was able to flip away and dart past. She didn't try any fancy combat maneuvers to confuse or disable; they would be a lot more interested in hunting her if they thought she was a dangerous fighter as opposed to a fleeing miscreant.

"Hey, this way's out, right?" she asked the griffon, turning around and trying the door... only to find it locked. Her heart tightened; with the lights on, she couldn't shadow sneak through! "I really wanna leave you guys alone and just chill out! Isn't that cool?"

"You'll be given justice and due process," the griffon assured her, realizing she was trapped and waiting for backup to corner her for good. "Please come quietly. This will go a lot better for you if you're innocent and don't resist!"

"Uh huh..." Valey swallowed and nodded as another joined her. She still needed a way out... and then one presented itself in the form of Moriarty barreling at them from behind with his cleaver, intent on her alone and somehow having given his own pursuers the slip. "Yo, behind you!" she warned, trying to sound as earnest as possible.

"We're not-" CLANGGG!

"Do your jobs and arrest her, imbeciles!" Moriarty panted, looking far more exerted than was healthy for a griffon of his constitution. "Or get out of my way!"

The hit guard toppled, stunned by the ringing in her helmet after contact with the back of Moriarty's now-dented cleaver, a fact which didn't seem to bother the chef at all. The other guard hesitated, glanced at them with clear surprise, and chose to catch his comrade, leaving Moriarty charging at Valey.

Planting herself expertly, she rolled out of the way at the last second, and the choppy griffon hit the doors instead. The locks and hinges were designed to withstand only polite company, and they splintered, the wooden panels tearing themselves from the walls as Moriarty became entangled in his own mess. That was Valey's cue to leave.

"Okay! Bye!" She slipped through a hole in the wreckage he had created, grabbing his cleaver and hurling it to the side along the balcony for good measure. Best he choose between getting that back and following her if she stood the chance of running into civilians later on.