Chapter 4
Stories of griffins
Greathoof surveyed the crowd below him, an army of soldiers all fierce in their hatred of their enemy. Greathoof smiled. An army fit for an Empire, he thought to himself. The ponies below him marched through the Everfree forest, cutting down anything in their path. They left a trail of trampled underbrush and crushed saplings in their wake. Soon actual bodies would lie beneath them, but for now this would do. They marched west for the border, they never stopped moving, they had a mission, and so did another group on ponies to their northeast.
Sothe stirred in the morning light. The fire next to him, long since dead, let off a thin wispy trail of smoke. The soldier raised his head and blinked in the sunlight, surveying the cracked earth around him.
“Morning,” murmured a voice to his right. Sothe turned and found himself looking at the griffin that had joined them the previous night. In the light, Sothe looked at him properly for the first time. He was a small griffin, but with sturdy legs and large wings, he was a lighter brown then most with darker feathers tufting up where his ears would have been had he had any. The most defining feature of Cliff was the streak of white that ran down his back, clashing with his predominantly brown color scheme.
“Good morning to you too,” Sothe replied, “Been up long?”
“Only long enough to talk with your bird for a while,” He replied gesturing to Philomena who sat atop a rock, happy to have company, “she said that she likes it here, lots of lizards to catch.” Sothe nodded, it made sense that a griffin could talk to birds; they were half avian themselves.
“We should wake the others soon,”
“’Okay.” Cliff responded. Sothe had only met a few griffins in his time and not liked any of them, but Cliff was different. He was like a new Private, a bit of a hotshot, but willing to follow orders. He was also relatively curious. Sothe respect him for that, a proper balance of obedience and curiosity was a rare find.
The griffin opened a pouch attached to his waist and pulled out what looked like dried meat. Sothe hadn’t noticed the bag before.
“Want some?” Cliff asked, offering Sothe a strip of the jerky.
“No.” Sothe said; a little disgusted at the idea of eating meat.
“Oh that’s right, you herbivores aren’t you?”
“Yes of course.” Sothe responded.
Cliff shrugged, “Sorry I forget… almost everything eats meat out here.” He motioned to the endless wastes around him.
“What is that anyway?” Sothe asked curiously, he didn’t recognize what kind of meat it was.
“Jerky,” Cliff replied around his mouthful of food, “Well… it’s technically gazelle, but it all tastes the same once you preserve it. You take a strip of meat, salt it, add some spices and then put it in the sun.” He swallowed and continued “The salt keeps it from rotting in the sun, and once it’s dried out I will never go bad.” He then did a strange movement involving bobbing his beak and twitching the skin around it, Sothe assumed this was the Griffin equivalent of a smile. Sothe dug for something to eat, trying to take his mind off of the descriptions of preparing dead animal. After Sothe had polished off an apple from his bag he roused Celestia and Luna and gave Celestia an explanation of the happenings of the previous night. He told her that Cliff was here to guide them. She didn’t seem convinced. Once everyone had eaten (Philomena having caught herself a plump lizard) they set out once again into the wasteland. This time lead by their new griffin friend.
Cliff didn’t like the looks that the white pony was giving him, she kept watching him but when her looked at her she tried to look away. After a time he decided to be forward,
“Why are you staring at me?” he asked.
“I’m not!” She replied, sounding a little embarrassed and looking away quickly.
“Yes you are,” he responded, “Is there something you want to ask me?”
Celestia shook her head “No it just… I’ve never seen a griffin before, and well from what I’ve heard… I mean what books say about you…” She started stammering, but Sothe quickly interjected.
“Tia, you do realize that Greathoof has a good amount of control over Griffin related media.” Sothe said this slowly, “He had been trying to spread a negative viewpoint of them for years now by using the media to… paint them in a different light.” Tia thought about this for a moment. Every account of a griffin encounter she had ever read about had ended in bloodshed. In fact now that she thought about it she had never read one positive thing about a griffin. They had always been depicted as ruthless and cruel creatures, but walking next to her was a griffin in the flesh and he wasn’t trying to rip her throat out, or eat her, in fact he was actually somewhat enjoyable to be around. She took a deep breath and then spoke again.
“I’ve never met a griffin before, and the mental picture I had was very different from you.” She said apologetically to Cliff. Cliff did his twitchy beak smile and replied,
“S’okay, I’ve never met an alicorn before, but from the stories I’ve been told I always assumed you were all evil witches and sorcerer,” He slowed down realizing what he had just said, “I mean… stories tell about you’re people stealing chicks from their nests and tainting water…” Celestia nodded, understanding. It seemed that both of them had been fed some lies.
Luna felt happy when her sister finally opened up to Cliff. Luna had grown to like him rather quickly, but Tia hadn’t been so fast to. But now that they were all talking openly the trip seemed to go faster. They had been walking for hours when they finally entered the edge of a large expanse of shade cast by the mountain range they had been walking for. The sun was on its way down and its eastward light was fading behind the mountain range.
“Are we going to make it before nightfall?” Luna asked in the fading light.
“Maybe,” said Cliff “I’ve never actually walked to the front entrance before” he said.
“Then why don’t we fly?” Luna inquired.
“Because of the border treaty,” Cliff answered, “Unknown people, especially ponies, are easy to mistake for hostiles in midair and are attacked on sight, so if a guard wants to bring someone in then they have to walk.” He shrugged.
“Well I’d rather walk then get attacked.” Said Luna.
“Yes,” Said Sothe, “Fighting is the last thing we want right now, we’re on a mission of peace to avert a war. Fighting the griffins is out of the question.” His words had an emphasis to them that suggested the statement was final. So they walked until they couldn’t see anymore, and made camp again. They ate, and told stories, and laughed until they all fell asleep.
The army marched through the night and into the next morning. Under the cover of the darkness they had crossed the border and as light returned they found the grass under their feet to have faded into barren dirt. At the border Greathoof turned back and returned to the council building, he had to keep his illusion of compliance to the council’s wishes. He slept easy that night, knowing that by the day after tomorrow reports of his army’s exploits would find their way into his chamber. He spent the next day excited; in fact he found it hard to be his usual grumpy self when he knew that his plan was coming to fruition. Thelia noticed something off about him, his snarky comments lacked their usual bite and he conceded to too many points. Greathoof obviously had something else occupying his thoughts, and she was going to find out what that was.
“So anyway, after the Third Border War my brother and I enlisted. Beakshard managed to get all the way into Scar’s honor guard, and I… I got to be part of the border patrol.” Cliff finished his story.
“So you’ve been a guard ever since?” Luna asked.
“Yeah. It’s not the most exciting job but someone has to do it,” He shrugged, “Besides, I’m not exactly fit for combat anyway.” Celestia looked him over. He was a large creature, not enormous but his head was at least a foot higher than her own when he stood. He had said he was actually rather small framed by griffin standards but he looked rather menacing in his own right.
They had been traveling since sunup and were fast approaching the base of the Diamond Mountain. The Diamond Mountain was part of a range referred to as the cloud ridge, but it earned its own name by towering a good three hundred feet above the others. The ice started about four hundred feet up; there was no snow, just a solid sheet of ice that shined in the sunlight looking like a precious gem and not frozen water. The mountain sported few natural cliffs, and many griffin made ones. Griffins swarmed the air above the alicorns, leaving in hunting parties, returning with goods from traders to the south, some griffins barked out orders, and others kept count of who came and went. At the base of the mountain sat a colossal stone door. The thing looked so heavy that the three alicorns doubted than their combine strength, even with the help of their griffin escort, would budge the thing. Fortunately they weren’t expected to open it themselves; the door was guarded by two griffins so huge that Cliff paled in comparison.
One opened his beak and spoke, “Well, well, well… what have we here? A little guardsman brought in some little ponies.”
The other one smirked and added, “What’s the matter Cliffy? Couldn’t handle them on your own?” Cliff scowled.
“We’re here on a mission of peace from Chancellor River.” Sothe stated coolly, “And if you understand the terms of the border treaty then you will let us pass.” The large guards looked surprised to not be feared by the pony. They stared him down.
“And just who might you be?” One of them growled.
“High Commander Sothe Greatwing.” They paused at this. They realized where his confidence came from; they were dealing with somepony of rank.
“State your business.” The second growled.
“We bring a message to Warlord Scar, a message that will benefit him and all of his people.”
“You’d better let him in,” Cliff mumbled, “If Scar heard you weren’t honoring the treaty then you’d have hell to pay.” The guards looked the alicorns over and after a time sighed and opened the gate.
“Watch your step.” One hissed as the door close shut, but the alicorns didn’t hear the threat, they were entranced. They all stood still, staring into the great cavern that loomed before them. There was a city in this mountain, one of the biggest cities any of the three ponies had ever seen.
“Welcome home.” Cliff said happily.