Chapter 8: Boo Who!
Griselda, I thought, that name sounds familiar…
————
Queen Griselda was an elegant griffon with the uncanny ability to turn everything she touched into gold. This wasn’t literally true, but if you had witnessed the way she was able to influence world events that transformed the small backwater country of Griffle into the sprawling Griffondom today, you might have to think twice about logical impossibilities.
Her court was quite bare for a Queen of her calibre, but it thrummed with the authority of one assured of her status. Contrary to popular opinion, Queen Griselda’s courts were not empty for want of applicants. In fact, the list itself was quite long. No, the courts were mostly empty because she had no need for officials to be there. Her only attendants was a scribe from the remote backwater hometown she had originated from, and a small predatory avian that quite liked to sit on her shoulder and hoot.
The bird, of course, was me.
“Fetch me a scroll, Owl. I require something to draw on.”
I stared at the Queen for a moment, then flittered over to her writing desk, grabbing a scroll in my taloned claw and flinging it on her bed covers with a disgruntled huff.
Griselda eyed me curiously.
“What is it, Owl? Tell me.”
I settled on one of the grand bed posts and stared at her. She wanted to talk? Too bad. Griselda stared back, but after a while she blinked and looked away.
“Is this about the new policies?”
I remained silent, watching her shining plumes of feathers reflecting the ambient light filtering through the clear glass windows. Glass was new technology, recently fashioned by experts of griffon science. The tall transparent opulence reflected the grandiose buildings surrounding the palace, but in the distance I could just make out the dirty grey smudge of the slums clinging the edges, like a steadily spreading mould.
I glanced back at the Queen, but otherwise didn’t react.
It had been a while since the little griffon girl Griselda had emerged from her palace. It felt equally as long since I had found the dirty little puffball as an orphan abandoned by her own village. I promised the little hatchling that I would stay with her. I promised the hatchling…
…But this Queen was no longer a hatchling.
With a sigh I returned to observing the bland, cloudless sky. I found myself wishing that I could fly away, to get out of this stifling palace and see something new.
I did make a promise…
—————
I knew Twilight wasn’t a fan of loving adoration and fame, but this sort of worship was far beyond the relatively ‘simple’ Princess-excitement that had taken over Ponyville a little while before. While I wrestled with my memories concerning the small band of thieves I had encountered in the Saddle Arabian desert, Twilight was trying to draw the conversation topic to somepony else so that she could politely excuse herself from present company.
“Owlowiscious?”
We could have teleported out of here, but I was fairly sure that Twilight wanted to keep in the good graces of our hosts. She was probably trying to think of a way of asking these excited followers to leave the dangerous Everfree forest. I mean I’ve been in the forest, and even with my extensive knowledge there are some things I don’t understand about it. Not knowing about something scares me. So generally I stayed away until I could find a reference text on it.
“Owlowiscious!”
“Huh?”
Twilight was frowning at me, her mouth twisted in annoyance.
“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the last few minutes.”
“Sorry,” I replied absently.
Twilight leaned in closer, her expression transitioning quickly from frustrated to worried. “Are you alright?” she whispered. “You don’t seem yourself.”
“I’m fine,” I mumbled in reply. “I just had a few… memories of the past.”
I waved a nonchalant wing and clacked my beak jauntily. Twilight didn’t seem convinced.
“I’m fine,” I repeated firmly. “Don’t worry about me. We need to figure out these, uh… followers.”
Twilight frowned at the party of followers carousing around a large campfire. There were songs, and dancing, and stories around. It all looked very innocent, until I realised that all the lyrics were about me and my escapades a few thousand years ago. Well it was nice to have someone singing about you, but it does get grating when they're still going even after a few hours.
Evidently, Twilight thought the same, although she already seemed annoyed within the first line of their folksong ditty.
“Do you think that maybe we could convince them to go somewhere else?” I asked.
Twilight blinked. “You’re right Owlowiscious, it never occurred to me to ask them to leave!”
“Wow, sheesh, I’m only trying to help,” I groused sullenly. “I didn’t exactly ask for a hundred thousand followers. I’m just as shocked as you are!” The last bit came out more snippy than I intended it to. Twilight glanced my way, but I found something interesting to look at in the tree line.
“Oh,” she said softly. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”
“Yeah, well, it is what it is.”
Twilight was silent for a while.
“Sorry,” she said. “I thought you would be all over this.”
I sighed and swivelled back to Twilight. “No…” I replied. “Just some bad memories, that’s all.”
Twilight nodded sympathetically. “It’s all right, Owlowiscious, you don’t have to tell me.”
“I thought you said ‘friends don’t keep secrets from friends’,” I commented wryly.
To my surprise, Twilight merely patted me on the head.
“Friends also know when friends need space,” she said. “And I’ll always be here if you need a shoulder to cry on.”
For some reason a lump in my throat prevented me from giving a timely reply. I noticed Twilight was getting blurry.
“Wha—”
I brought a wing tip to my eyes and examined the beaded droplets that gathered there.
“Huh.”
———————
“Owl!” Griselda called out sharply. “OWL!”
I was perched in the rafters, unsuccessfully trying to erase my presence. Griselda spotted me almost instantly.
“Owl, what are you doing up there? Get down, I need you.”
I remembered sourly when those words were actually true. With a reluctant flutter, I alighted on my perch.
“Good,” Griselda said. “What do you think you’re doing, skulking around?”
I might have told her to mind her own business, but ever since she started ruling over the country, there wasn’t much that wasn’t her business. Still, couldn’t an owl have a moment to himself, and away from unpleasant thoughts for awhile?
Griselda didn’t seem to notice my reluctance, that or she didn’t much care for my opinion either way. It seems like my use as her prophetic pet had come to an end, and all I did around here was to ease her conscience of the things she was doing, or perhaps I was her conscience, and she couldn’t bear to let me go.
“Could you look over these and give me your opinion?” The Queen commanded, rather than asked. “You’ve always been good with these sorts of things.”
I glanced at the proposal to build a great temple in a mostly inaccessible part of the desert. The surrounding area was ringed with treacherous shifting sands that were alive with deadly creatures. Beyond that were steep cliffs and mountain ranges, and even if you managed to get past all that, there was precious little water in the flat plains that existed further along. That was where she wanted to build a grandiose structure?
I shook my head firmly and hopped away. Why would you even consider such a thing?
“I want something to be remembered by,” Griselda replied to my silent question. She took the scroll and held it as if it were her own hatchling. “The difficulty of such an endeavour will show generations to come my mark on this world.”
I didn’t say anything to that, as had been my custom. Not for the first time in the past few years, I regretted my decision to help the Queen. I would have done anything for the kind little Griselda I had found, but this monster was not who I had kept my promise with. Many lives would be lost in her pursuit of immortality, and I didn’t want to be a part of it.
I flittered back up into the rafters and hid in a shadow. In the morning I would be gone. Perhaps fortunately for me, Griselda didn’t notice my departure, her eyes only saw boundless ambition.
—————
“So what are we going to do about your followers?” Twilight hissed.
I clacked my beak, considering the problem. There wasn’t much we could do to dissuade them from their endeavour, but perhaps we could divert them?
“I was thinking,” I murmured. “If we get these followers to focus on something, we can get them out of the forest. The Stars and Signs know that there are plenty of dangers around here.”
Twilight nodded, she glanced around warily. “There’s also the matter of the monster that Fluttershy mentioned. I don’t feel comfortable leaving them here, when there’s something dangerous on the loose.”
“I agree,” I replied. I ruffled my feathers, trying to think of a proper plan that involved getting the followers out, tracking down an unknown beast, and getting both done without us getting hurt.
“Wait a minute,” I said. “I think I’ve got something…”