//------------------------------//
// 3: Waking the Hippogriff 
// Story: Benefits of Being a Hippogriff 
// by Appleody 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3

For the next few seconds, a blinding blue flash was all Gilda could see, until almost at once, it stopped. The reason for this was pretty evident, as she opened her beak in a yawn. Currently, she was quite snuggly curled up within a makeshift campsite, the fire of which was just starting to burn down. 

After a moment of lazing, she began tilting her head around in search of the mysterious Princess who’d visited her. Sadly for Gilda, there was no sign that she had ever been present. Figures I’d have a dream about getting what I want. What a shame, that Princess probably doesn’t visit griffons. With that disappointing realization, Gilda didn’t see any point in getting up, so returned to snuggling her beak near to her dark blue furred legs. Today wasn’t going to be very good.

Even with the almost exhausted fire and the steadily rising sun, her eyes steadily started to shut once more hoping for, a this time, peaceful rest. This was not to be the case however, as the griffon’s eyes suddenly opened wide with a much brighter expression. She then appeared to take a second look at her surroundings, before getting to her talons and wandering over to the nearby stream.

On first glance, it appeared like she was about to take a drink, but she stopped just a couple of centimetres short and gazed at her reflection. For the longest time Gilda stared into her piercing, light blue, predatory eyes as a small smile seemed to grace her beak. As she looked, her eyes went to the white feathers across her face, prompting a taloned claw to raise and run through them. This promptly caused them to stick out. I suppose, I could use a preen. Ah, I’ll do it back home.

As the talon entered her vision, she immediately stopped her fondling and instead switched her focus to her large sharp talons. The talons of a powerful predator. Turning them over a few times, Gilda inspected them before opening and closing them in apparent experimentation. Once complete, she looked at her beak once more and opened it to have a look inside. After running her tongue along the sharp protrusion, she gained a quizzical look and seemed to ask no one in particular, “how would one eat with such an appendage?” What a stupid thought, the same way I always have. 

Ignoring her stupidity, she leaned in to take her sort after drink. The water from Ponyville’s river was delightfully clean and refreshing. You gotta love pony lands, they really know how to make a nice place. With her thirst satiated, she was about to turn back to the fire before some hint of curiosity over took her, causing her to look at her full body in the river.

What met Gilda’s sight was the griffon she’d always known. Obviously, there was the already inspected eagle qualities, but there was also something else. Where her white feathers ended, there was the stark contrast of her midnight blue coat. This continued down her form to her legs that felt strangely lither than usual. Strangely she felt the desire to look further down, her eyes settling upon her usual pristine hooves, somehow appearing much more well-kept than the rest of her. Almost instinctually she raised one of the hooves off the ground and made an attempt to flex it, like one would a paw. Strangely, the appendage had no reaction. Something feels off about all this.

Her final bit of self-exploration was to look upon her rump, which possessed her faintly billowing stary tail. It was all so normal and expected but… Gilda couldn’t help reaching a talon out and rubbing it along a rear leg. Why is everything so smooth? Did last night’s dip in the river really do my fur this much work? Shame it didn’t work on my feathers.
 
As she was lost in thought, now scratching at her hoof, her tail flicked out at her beak bringing the griffon back to reality. “Do We not think We have leered enough for one day?” Gilda said as she lost interest in her strangely clean appearance and decided to head back towards her fire. The improvement wouldn’t help, dash would still hate her.

That thought stung her brain as she threw a couple of sticks onto the fire, hoping to make it last another half an hour. A light sigh escaped her as the sun continued to rise, meaning the day was clearly coming whether she wanted it or not. Not caring about that for now, Gilda stretched out like a cat pony, to get a couple cricks out of her back. Once done, she tried her best to curl up. It was strangely more difficult than usual. “Bleh, why do legs have to get so stiff in the mornings?”

After eventually giving up and lying flat on her front, Gilda took one last look at the sun and tried to gauge something. “Hmm, probably have an hour before that train’s due,” she absently considered, before moving to rest her head on her ready talons.

Just before her head met its desired talon pillow, she once again found herself bolt upright. Before she could even think about what she was doing, she’d already turned around and used a hoof to kick dirt over her fire, extinguishing it. As her brain started to catch up, she looked in the direction of a certain pegasus’s house. Her wings then began to unfurl of their own accord as she vocally thought, “We wonder if young Rainbow hast awakened yet?”

For the briefest time her eyes opened in fear, before she found herself rocketing skyward far faster than any griffon had ever managed previously.