The Third Nice Thing

by RadBunny

Chapter Three: Rocky Realizations

I made a snap decision to aim for the chicks, trying to land between them and the wolves. I wasn’t a lousy fighter by any means, but one on six when said enemies were made of stone though; Not great odds.

Landing with a bit more force than I intended, I struggled into a low fighting stance, glancing back to the two chicks, one of whom had a rather nasty gash on his leg.

“I take it you’re Filk and Dena?” I asked, trying to not sound too worried.

“Y-yes.” Came the reply whimper from Dena, the young gryphoness trying to help her friend up, but to no avail. The wound on Filk’s leg was deep enough to eliminate any chance of quick movement.

I turned to look back at the wolves, wracking my brain for a way to defend against their teeth. Short answer? Don’t get bitten, and try to hit them hard enough to disrupt their cohesive magic.

My thoughts ground to a halt as I tried to process what exactly I was seeing, but even once I shook myself back to reality, the sight was still absolutely crazy.

It was also absolutely awesome.

Any assumptions about Gelvin being just an egghead were tossed off a cliff. The gryphon was standing over the remains of one wolf, having landed his full weight onto its spine from the dive. The essential rocks rolled away from under Gelvin’s frame, reforming into a cracked rock wolf that sprinted away, tail between its legs. Now facing five more of the creatures, the gryphon held a long staff in one of his claws, the wood wrapped with metal every few claw lengths.

A knurled cap of metal plated the ends of the staff, clearly to add strength to strikes. An odd wooden contraption was wrapped around Gelvin’s throat, and it took me a few moments to realize why he was wearing such an ugly necklace.

It’s like armor, to stop any attacks from the wolves who go for the throat.

Whoa.

He glanced back at me, seeming to relax ever so slightly at seeing the chicks not left alone, before turning back to the wolves.

“C’mon, let’s get back to the wall.” I muttered, scooping up the injured chick with a free set of claws, and ushering the other one along before looking backwards.

Beak parting into a hiss, Gelvin drew a line on the ground with his staff, not taking his eyes off the wolves.

What is he doing!?

Strangely enough, the wolves seemed to understand, not moving for a few moments other than starting to spread out. Their bodies were composed of granite scale-like slabs, their eyes glowing a ghostly blue, and obsidian teeth glistening in the sunlight. As unnerving as they were, it seemed they were keeping their distance….

That didn’t last though.

I was no stranger to violence; nobody who grew up alone in this kingdom would be. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel my chest tightening. Was I about to watch this gryphon be torn to shreds, just to save these chicks?

My answer came as a wolf charged Gelvin from the side, jaws open to clamp obsidian teeth down onto his armored neck.

With a lot more grace than I ever thought possible, the male sidestepped the wolf, his eyes narrowed as a fearsome warlike screech left his beak. The lean gryphon sent the metal-wrapped staff humming through the air, and directly into the face of the wolf.

The granite stone skull was blown to pieces, shards of rock flying everywhere as the animated rocks tumbled to the ground in a pile, their attempts to reanimate crushed by another blow of the staff. The few remaining stones then skittered away, the wolf clearly injured but alive, reanimating a partial form of the wolf a short distance away as it beat a hasty retreat.

“Whoa, he’s cool!” Dena whispered, and I couldn’t think of any reason to counter such a statement.

Two of the four remaining wolves attacked, one actually managing to get its jaws clamped around the gryphon’s neck. The wood armor was torn away, but served its purpose to leave Gelvin’s throat unscathed. The wolf only had time to spit out the wooden contraption before the staff plunged itself through its eye socket, then withdrawing for a punishing blow to the neck.

That left three.

The second wolf to have charged in with its fellow managed to get its teeth around Gelvin’s arm; and the other two uninjured stone creatures began to circle.

Without weapons, what could I do against them to help Gelvin? Regardless, I might have to try-

The rock wolf latched on the gryphon’s arm quickly found itself at odds with a stone that Gelvin began to beat against its own skull. Apparently, it loosened just enough to let him get a glancing blow in with the staff. Once free, he wasted no time in ripping through the creature’s spine with the weapon, leaving it to skitter away in pieces.

Blood trickling down from his shoulder, Gelvin stayed on his feet, lowering himself back into a basic combat stance and letting out a low growl at the remaining wolves, who quickly skidded to a stop. After barking back and forth, they turned tail and ran back into the forested area, clearly not wanting to meet the same fate as their fellows.

Gelvin nodded, making it to the edge of the clearing before slumping against a tree. A few others from the town landed nearby, having heard the commotion after scouring the other areas. The two chicks were quickly whisked away, leaving me the closest to Gelvin, or at least the only one who seemed to care enough to check on him.

Clearly our race was still working on the whole ‘empathy’ part of life. We were a prideful society, so I couldn’t blame them for not wanting to coddle the wounded gryphon, especially since it wasn’t life threatening.

I let out a huff, padding over to the woozy male to check on his wound. I couldn’t help but care. If I didn’t help others, then how could I expect anyone to ever want to do the same for me?

Huh. Being philosophical after watching a fight. That’s a first.

Both out of a duty to my fellow gryphon, and the fact this male was clearly not the egghead I thought he was served as rather big motivational factors in making sure he was ok.
Him being rather cute was NOT a reason. Not at all.

Nope.

“Hey, um, you alright?” I managed to ask, glancing over at his wounded shoulder. If looks could communicate sass, Gelvin’s eyes would have drowned me in it.

“Ok. Stupid question. Do you need any help?” My rephrasing prompted a simple nod, the male standing with a definite limp. His wound had stopped bleeding, but a set of bite marks on his shoulder was certainly nothing that could be ignored.

“That was awesome, by the way. Even if nobody else says it. That. Was. So. Cool!”
I couldn’t help but gush the last few words, thankfully not meeting his gaze, since my face puffed up with embarrassment.

“Thanks. Just wanted to help the chicks, but nice to be appreciated.” He replied, leaning on my shoulder for support as we walked back to the wall, and, subsequently, the gate that led to the main road into town.

Gelvin paused, stopping to lean on a tree. He examined the wrist on his wounded limb, frowning slightly.

“Sprained something too. I am out of shape.” The resulting grumble had me staring with a combination of amusement and surprise.

“Out of shape?! You just took on six rock wolves, and saved two chicks!” I couldn’t help but interject. No way was I going to let this guy downplay himself!

My words finally got a smile, a feat I was quickly becoming a fan of, whether it was him or getting anyone else to at least show some positive emotion.

“Fair enough. I’m glad you were there though. Prevented the wolves from looping around.”
It was only at the simple compliment that I became rather aware of three things.

First, Gelvin seemed rather unable to put much weight on his limb, which meant he was leaning on me.
Two, this was the closest I’d been to anygriffin in a very very long time.
Third, it was rather nice.

Like, really really nice.

We reached the edge of town without incident, and aimed towards the local doctor, not saying much else, at least until we got closer.

“So, Greta huh? I heard she found somegriff special.” He remarked offhandedly, causing me to shrug. I never was good at small talk, instigating it or replying for that matter.

“Yea, guess so. Caught me by surprise, but if it makes her happy, I’m all for it.”

I could have sworn Gelvin seemed to shrink, leaning on me a bit less.

“Ah. Well, I wish you the best of luck then.” He mumbled, seeming rather put-off. I wasn’t sure about what though.
His words did almost cause me to let him fall onto the ground.
“What?! Me- oh! I’m not-she’s-” I stammered, shaking my head.

“She found somegriffin-who isn’t me. I’m, erm, I’m not into females. Guys only.”
I explained, trying to not sound like a total doofus.
Ok, now I know Gelvin’s ears perked up at that.

“Oh! My mistake. I erm, assumed. My bad.” He replied, seeming to be a bit more embarrassed than me. Serves him right, assuming just because I worked with her…

“Really nice gryphoness, but a friend, that’s it.” I concluded, letting out a strangled squawk as an enthusiastic hen embraced both me and Gelvin around the neck.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” She cried, sobbing into our feathers, then pulling away to hold both our claws briefly.

“I don’t-without you two helping-my son-and-they might have.” She stammered, trying to control more than a few tears. I waved a set of claws, nodding to Gelvin.

“No problem, but he’s the one to thank. I just moved them a distance away. He took out the wolves-” I tried to explain, but the hen was clearly too ecstatic to either listen or care, stammering a few more thanks before going off to watch over the two recovering chicks.

One of the doctors (or someone with a bit of medical experience who served as such,) waved Gelvin inside the newly constructed building, and I gestured to the door with a claw.

“Take care, and I, uh, guess I’ll see you round?”

He nodded, a rather bright smile on his beak for someone who had just been mauled by a rock wolves.

“See ya later Gilda.” He called, now being led down the halls to get the wound dressed.

I walked back to my store in a daze, sitting down at the counter to try and process what in the world had just happened.

Saved two chicks, saw a gryphon beat up rock wolves; not a bad way to spend an afternoon. It was quite a sight to say the least.

He thought Greta and I were together? Weird. I wonder why he seemed so- Once the stress of the situation wore off, and I could finally think about what had happened, I felt my face grow hot, feathers fluffing as the full weight of what exactly had transpired slammed into me.

Perky after I told him I wasn’t with Greta? Definitely happier, wait a second. Did that mean?
“Oh tailfeathers. I think he likes me.”

“Who likes you?”
I let out a groan at Greta’s voice, and promptly married me head with the wooden counter with considerable force.

Comments

[Seether00]

Where were the other griffons?

[Grekoy]

Yes! Gryphon fighting action. I love it.

[RadBunny]

7057444
I may want to clarify; they were off searching the other areas; Gilda and Gelvin were the only two who went to the restricted place first, rather than second.

[RadBunny]

7093330
Oh! I need to fix that then, thank you! It actually started out as a third person fic; so had to transition over. Thank you again!