//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: The Two Avians // Story: Millennial Heartstrings // by The Apologetic Pony //------------------------------// Lealla hesitated then, apparently reconsidering what she was about to say. ‘You know what? Lets just talk,’ Lealla said a little frustratedly. That presented a bit of relief for me, but not one for her, it seemed. I think she had actually thought about trying to ask me to meet her ‘crew’ again, and any period of time spent on that would be a lot longer than I would have liked. She sauntered over to the bench, but the brown tail whipped angrily behind its owner. I followed, perching on top of the backrest, as usual. Lealla lay on it, as usual. Propping her head against the far armrest, claws scraping at wood. While I was, unusually, concerned. For as quickly as her mood could alter, I wouldn't take her for a griffin who'd experience passing malaises particularly often. Maybe this wasn't going to be as a happy reunion as I'd hoped. Maybe not. ‘Let’s just talk.’ Lealla repeated herself, but this time, tone changed, into one of savage hatred, commanded by bitter undertones. She didn’t make eye contact with me, instead choosing to cut deep gorges into the bench, which seemed to be shuddering with her anger. Or it might have simply be objecting to being engraved with new scars that it inevitably acquired with age. I’d never know. Her wings were tensely locked by her sides. ‘That’s what he said, the spoilt brat.’ The sheer venom that oozed out of every word was genuinely frightening. And not in my wildest thoughts had I seen her enraged to such a degree. ‘Fuck him. He didn’t have to break it like that...’ Why hadn’t I seen any hint of this when I first saw her? Was she just that good at concealing emotions? Else I’d somehow reminded her of her troubles. Even though she’d told a tale in fragments, the implication was quite clear. The pretty griffin paused, I guessed she was mulling through what she’d just said and what she was going to say next. If, she was going to say anything. ‘I’d been with him for a while. He seemed like a nice enough guy, well... Until yesterday, when he left me, with no warning, of course. What by Celestia did he think he was doing? Now all I’ve got is a broken heart and no money. Go figure.’ Though most of the fiery anger had dissipated, Lealla still paused on an uncharacteristically sour note. ‘I liked him. He didn’t like me - told me far later than he should have. Thought money could buy him anything. Thought people could be sold. Just another heartless bastard.’ This ‘he’ didn’t sound very nice. Peculiarly, it wasn’t as if she was grief-stricken, only angry, partially at her ex partner; partially at herself, for allowing the situation to come about at all. ‘But what can we do, eh - Phoenix? All I can do is complain...’ She snorted as confirmation to herself at how useless she was, fortunately still mildly amused. Though I thought she was wonderful, myself. I could only wish I was capable of catching such a heavy ball so lightly, not even stumbling at the weight. In actuality- ‘Wishing, hoping, dreaming, is all we have.’ Lealla finished my thoughts exactly. ‘My friends will help me and you’ve already helped me. just by having ears to listen. Although liquidity is a different matter. Maybe he was right in leaving me. I’d promised to find a job at some point, but for as much as he had, he didn’t like sharing it. And being selfish is good for us all.’ Is this what freedom did to us? ‘You must have heard this sort of nonsense more times than I care to imagine, sorry.’ That’s why I exist now right? To make people feel better, however much it hurts myself. However it drains all purpose. However such an intensity of consciousness draws me closer to my end. For a rebellion against my immortality, for dissuading others to follow and in dire hope against a life thereafter. It may be that this world is a pointless joke, but we cannot exist in it so. Well, thats what I told myself. What did she tell herself? I had to remind myself that Lealla couldn’t hear my thoughts, sadly. The silence that followed was apt in tying up any loose strings between us. She hadn’t told me much, but it was enough. We stayed there for quite some time; then left with minimal goodbyes. I met her again the next day, same place; same time, as you’ll have guessed. She appeared just as merry as she had been last time, though, that very last encounter had taught me that, especially for her, appearances could be deceiving. I was drawing so much from the lives of others and this was only the tip of the bird's beak. This time, she really did invite me to see her crew again, but added some much welcomed explanation before I decided. ‘You see, we, er, call ourselves gliders,’ she gave a nervous chuckle. ‘Even though we don’t use our wings. We just find the fastest way to get from somewhere to somewhere else, in Baltimare. Though it’d work in most cities, I reckon! And we try to have a little fun on the side...’ The oxymoron was, curious but I knew that it was typical for their language to amass connotations that could go so far as to alter, or entirely transform the meaning of the word. Ours evolved to, only at a far slower scale, because of the much slower passing of generations (hence customs, including language), in comparison. The boggish rate of attitude changes among phoenixs would be enough to bore anyone who couldn’t stand to be largely solitary. Although, crucially, we were more equal to begin with; perhaps we still are. ‘Just a little.’ In a way that took to be very much like herself, she whispered the final sentence and then went on to make some exaggeratedly silly gestures, all the way from her eyebrows to the arms. ‘If you don’t mind meeting us, care to talk and walk? Or walk and talk? I don’t know what you’ve been through, but you have my sincere word that neither I, or any of my mates will hurt you. I won’t let them, ever, hurt you.’ To my relief, her questions were genuine in giving me freedom in my answer, even if the expectations were high considering what had happened only the day before. But I didn’t mind that, I had high expectations of myself too, at least, I thought I did: I remember having them. She’d gotten strangely aggressive, regarding this, ‘them’ hurting me. Snarling and opening her wings rapidly, in a way typically used for expressing anger, or aiming to intimidate. I’d have thought that she could trust her crew enough for them not to harm some rare, moderately exotic bird. If that was even the ‘them’ she was referring to, quite likely it wasn’t. If Lealla had even been talking to me on that point. After a moment of deliberation, (which was more of a suppression of doubt than actual thought) I agreed to, in concept, meet the crew of ‘Gliders’. A good name, for an oxymoron. I nodded; her eyes widened in unbridled glee. ‘Great! I’m sure they’ll like you. I mean, who wouldn’t like you? A mute would have to do something damn extreme to get people to actively dislike them.’ Which was, in effect, me. Lealla started walking in the direction opposite of her house, I followed, hovering behind her. ‘Hop on me, if it’ll make you more comfortable? Then again, shoulder blades move quite a lot when I’m walking.’ I chose to try perching on her head instead. ‘Oh. That could work.’ As I flew next to her, we saw that, if I was going to land on her head, I would need to be careful not to gouge an eye, or even two out. Understandably, they darted towards the yellow sharp things, trying not lose sight of them. They’d drawn awfully close to a very vulnerable organ indeed. ‘Careful.’ Lealla urged, only allowing her voice to waver with relatively small fluctuations, circumstances considered. From an overhead angle, I think I remember using to use her eyelashes to tell where her eyes were. As hard as I tried, I wasn’t able to find a position where the distance between claw and eye was adequate. ‘Not going to work?’ I flew back to my usual high off the ground as conformation, which was about her neck height, apparently. It’d just seemed higher when she was sitting on the bench. Distances were funny like that. ‘No big deal, its not far,’ she said, shrugging. The Phoenix and the griffin resumed walking to the crew that was, supposedly, not far. ‘As you might have gathered, this is the main port between the Griffin Kingdom and Equestria, so people tend to leave and go quickly. But there are some regulars, who run the place for those passing by. I’m considered one of them, in relation to Gliders.’ We left the park and crossed into narrower streets. ‘Law enforcement isn’t too fond of us, saying we promote an unhealthily rebellious youth, or equivalent rubbish, often swapping their choice of words to fit into a comparison to the most publicly despised culture of the times. They can’t hope to aim for those who don’t stay here too long, instead coming after whoever they deem to be the leaders -- the regulars, for convenience sake. In effect, me and many of my friends. Our only leader is experience, here: not the expeirenced -’ As we rounded a corner, there were a group of around ten or so griffins standing in a ominously silent circle, keenly watching whatever was in the centre. With urgency, Lealla rushed to join them immediately, stranding the sentence into eternal incompletion. Apparently, there was a natural space for her, since she slipped in without a word and didn’t receive much of a response other than a few passing glances. I wasn’t sure how they’d react; I didn’t know the nature of gathering, beyond it not being routine. There was a conveniently low building that looked like it’d offer reasonable vision and I flew up to it. Now at height, I could see just what all the fuss was about. Two griffins were grappling, keenly watching their own movements and that of their opponent, ignoring the unsure stares of the crowd. I noticed: though grounded, their movements appeared graceful -- largely a matter of a prediction of rotations, since the arms alone would not be enough to shift, or even redirect significant weight. From what I knew, the arms would be used for a variety of chokes locks, else feints of them. The two of them stepped clockwise, then counterclockwise; then clockwise again. Occasionally a flurry of flaring wings would disturb the rhythm of the steps, pushing off the ground allowing an additional burst of speed. They were using them mostly to threaten the wing, which was, as one would expect, a prime target. Much longer than the other limbs, presumably giving them more area to grab onto, as well as more ways to break joints. Instantaneously; one of the avians took it upon himself to swipe with a claw, which was, at the very least, explicitly intending to draw blood. But the gathering would have none of it. Lealla herself was the first to bravely dive in, tackling the designated aggressor to the earth and she was soon followed by several colleagues. They split themselves between holding back the enraged brawler who still stood or the bird who was writhing on the ground, almost escaping the hasty pin until one of the peacekeepers caught a wing, outstretched it and locked his arms halfway up the appendage, threatening to violently twist his upper body. He didn’t need to apply any pressure beyond the vice, as the griffin splayed on the floor was sensible enough to lax immediately in the dreaded recognition of the lock. On the other side, it looked as though the restrainers had been forced to drag he who had still been standing onto his back and was, still struggling a little. It was truly lucky that they’d all reacted in good haste for even now, the fighters appeared to be absolutely resolute to beat eachother up, apparently fuming at their own inability to overcome the insurmountable piles. There’d been potential for this little battle to end in merciless brutality as in, the irreversible kind... For further testament, it was well over ten minutes before they (appeared) to be calm enough so as to not rip each other apart upon release. It took severe chiding to end the red mist. Mainly provided by Lealla, who needed to utter little to convey much, clear in the respect she commanded. Though Lealla was undoubtedly furious herself, it wasn’t for the fact that two griffins may well have killed each other, nor angry at a cruel form of combat that had pitted her friends against themselves. It was for fellow Gliders fighting; the effects on group cohesion. I found that peculiar, irregardless of her natural exuberance, I didn’t think she’d scale everything up like that when faced with such a personal, raw, conflict. In the same position, I’d be trapped in the anger of the two individuals, not such leaderly concepts as the united wellbeing of some dozen people. Somehow, through it the drama I’d remained unseen by all but Lealla. Eventually, both of them were escorted to their respective homes by several others, who surely listened to the great injustices of society on the way back. An exhausted Lealla, another older griffin and of course I, stayed behind. I gave the courtesy of keeping a distance (within earshot mind you) until she invited me over; they’d just overcome a crisis afterall, and she’d been the head of it. The two slumped roughly on a wall that had been heavily grooved by talons, that had launched or run across the surface, presumably. ‘Celestia that was rough.’ ‘I know Nile, I know... What drove them to fight so damn hard? They haven’t even been around that long, Foghorn and Snake, wasn't it? Mad, just, mad.’ ‘Eh, long enough to despise each other over a girl, who sounds like she’s guiltier than either of them.’ ‘Which is, no time at all-’ ‘Necessarily.’ The pause implied a suggestion to change topics, preferably not one so bitter. ‘What took you so long to get here though? We’d been there for half an hour or so and you’re normally the first here.’ Lealla took the opportunity to giggle at the surprised reaction Nile was going to elicit when he heard why. ‘Well, you see, I was talking to a phoenix.’ ‘What?’ ‘Red-’ ‘I know what they are, but what were you doing there?’ ‘I was talking to the phoenix.’ ‘Hello Ms uncooperative Lealla, we’d like to ask you a few questions regarding your mysterious absence this evening.’ ‘Ha-ha. I am amused.’ ‘Oh, I can tell that, the sarcasm is as dry as a toad.’ ‘Says the toad.’ ‘Have you no respect for my rights as a creature of Equestria Misses?’ Lealla and Nile burst into laughter. I wondered on just what level Nile had intended to tell the quip on, there were more than toads in Equestria... ‘Seriously though, she’s right over there,’ She said, pointing at me where I was watching from above. Nile saw me and stared at the “bird of legends” in disbelief. ‘I didn’t believe you!’ ‘Join us, why don’t you?’ Lealla called out after smiling, only a little smugly.