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Prologue2,019 words
The next morning.1,773 words
Awoken!1,630 words
Noble Factions.2,030 words
Alarming Griffonstone2,143 words
The Battle in Griffonstone (Part I)2,536 words

Noble Factions.

It was early in the morning, the sun was freshly out of the horizon, birds chirped as the flew across the trail between the tree lines. Joggers and yoga practitioners did their things as their voices were but murmurs to Rey's ears. She wore a pretty violet jersey, which wick away sweat and kept her cool, with a matching Lycra leggings. She also wore a a white helmet, same colour as her bike. She glanced to her left to find her flatmate, whose auburn hair flew as they both rode through the trail.

Her friend wore a simple yellow-green tank top and a pair of black Lycra leggings. Dribbles of sweat can be seen at her temples and her sharp breathing prompted Rey to stop and take a brake.

"Oh thank God!" Her flatmate cried as she dismounted her bike. She immediately took her water bottle and chugged its contents crudely.

"It wasn't that far, Jessica." said Rey, whilst unclipping her helmet.

Her friend gave the bottle mercy and letted it go, sighing in satisfaction from the rejuvenating water. She then glared at Rey while pointing at her accusingly.

"You twat!" Jessica remarked, "That was from my house in Hampshire to like Southampton."

Rey giggled. "We've just gone 3km, Jessi. How can you be so unathletic? What have you been doing?"

Jessica laid down on the grass, her hands under her head. "Lazying around, playing video games and eating junk – the usual." She shrugged.

"Yeah, I saw how you eat, you eat like a pig." Rey drank from her water bottle before speaking again. "I wonder how you don't get fat."

"My metabolism," Jessica patted her stomach."This monster had me shooting bullets for an hour a day." She smirked.

"Shish." Rey cringed.

"Anyway, " Jessica sat up. "me and my bro are planning to go to a convention this weekend, wanna come?"

"I'll pass, I have a schedule with Brian for a fire team in destiny for the weekend." Rey began clipping her helmet back.

"Well, that sucks. His going all out in his cosplay too..." Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Are we going already?"

"Yup," answered Rey, as she mounted her bike. Her flatmate groaned.

Mara Sov awoke from her sleep, a frown on her face.

"It's that weird dream again." She thought. A week after she woke up in the care of these three, surprisingly, kind griffons. She was given her personal journal by a griffon named Gilda, her saviour, Little Squick's older sister. She does not know how the griffoness came in contact with her journal, but she was thankful nonetheless. If it wasn't for it she would not have known much of who she is. Although, she hasn't seen most of it yet. She had logged a bunch of things that she had thought that might be useful. Blueprints and schematics of weapons, ships, and resourceful infrastructures.

Although, these dreams she had been having left a question in her mind. Why is she dreaming of this? It felt so real and familiar, like she was in that person's body while she did those stuff the persons did.

Shaking her head, Mara took her journal log from the nightstand beside her bed, which formerly leaning by a flower base. Flowers that were plucked by Little Squick, white rays of petals with a yellow disk, a bunch of daisies.

Mara stared at the black screen, caressing it with her thumbs, contemplating of she would watch another one of her video logs. She closed her eyes and sighed, placing the device beside her on the crumpled sheet.

Mara wore her cornflower coloured tank top, and her leather armoured trousers. She had her formal attire in a cabinet, after Little Squick insisted to wash it. She had it reserved for a situation where she would need it, she had to wear a ragged clothe two days ago while the little cub washed her whole attire. Imagine that, the Queen of the Reef in muddy wears?

The Queen stood up and yawned, stretching her arms high, angling the other to pull the other arm to a stretch as her whole body bended. She brushed her hair once, and never bothered to shaved it twice. Her hair was always like that, it does not need any tampering.

She walked over the cabinet to grab a fur coat that the old griffon, named Grampa Gruff, graciously gave. She found the name weird, heck, she found most of the things here weird. But with what the solar system had to offer, based on what she had watched and recalled, being here was a blessing rather than be born in her home system.

The door opened and Mara walked out, headed towards the dining area. As she passed through, now, familiar halls and corners. She found the path that lead to the table. There she found Grampa Gruff sitting with a newspaper in hand, and Gilda preparing their meal. Little Squick was yet to wake up it seems, as there was no force bugging her and enthusiastically smiling at her.

"Good morning, sir Gruff." said Mara.

The old griffon looked up from his paper and smiled. "Good morning, Lady Sov."

"Good morning, lady Gilda."

"..."

"Ah, don't mind her." said Grampa Gruff, he gestured at a seat in front of him. "Come sit." Mara nodded.

She pulled the chair out and sit right back in.

"Say, lady–"

"Sir Gruff, drop the 'lady', I do owe you for your hospitality." Mara interrupted.

"Ha!" The old griffon banged the table with a talon. "Then you could drop the sir too, missy." He reclined to his chair. "Now, may I continue?" Mara nodded.

"I've been wondering, what are you?" Mara cocked an eyebrow, "I have not seen anyone like you before. You're no Minotaur, or an ape either. I'll ask again, what are you?" Grampa Gruff leaned a bit closer to the table, while Gilda listen closely from her spot in the kitchen.

"I am an Awoken, Gruff." Mara answered, as she sat there, her hands between her legs, her back straight as well.

"Awoken? I reckon that I never heard that before, are there others like you?" Grampa Gruff asked.

"Yes, plenty, we live between the inner and outer solar system. A place we call the Reef, which is hidden between the light and the dark."

"The Reef? I'm sure there's no such place, or else they would have taught it in flight camp." Gilda said, while filling the plates with food to eat, Boar's meat and broccoli this time.

"It's in outer space."

"You mean outside a house?"

"What? No – the, umm..."

"Gilda, enough." said Grampa Gruff. Getting a wide eye look from his eldest granddaughter. "Mara has a memory problem, best not to brandish her too much questions."

The sound of chair grinding the floor cut through the conversation as the awoken stood up from her sit. "I shall wake the little one." And so Mara left.

"Why did you stop me?" Gilda Whispered.

"Better not confuse her much, she has lost and regain some of her memory. We shall not indulge too much yet." He took a sip of his coffee. "Ahhhh..."

"Something's been bugging me." said Gilda, as she unwrap the apron from herself. The bags under her eyes says that she had not properly slept for a couple of days.

"Shoot," Grampa Gruff turned the page of his newspaper.

"Ever since I looked into her eyes, something strange boiled inside me."

"Aye, I have felt it too, when she first walked out of the room." He placed the news paper on the table. "I thought that I will never feel this virtue again. A virtue long lost at the ending days of the old griffon country."

"So you know what it is?" She asked, taking her sit at the dining table.

The old griffon nodded. "It is something each griffon would feel in their lifetime, it is part of our nature together with honour and glory; it, too, is important."

Gilda took a bite off the boar meat. She swallowed. "Can you tell me what it is?"

"No need. It is something that each griffon will come to realise, and it is better that way. Because it will be more real and solidifying."

"Gilda..."

"Gilda.."

"Gilda!"

"Uh... Huh?" Gilda groggily asked.

She was at the site of the Remnants. A bunch of scrap metals lay on her talons, a lot more was in her satchel that was slung over her head. The sun was at its peak but the cold winds from the north has lessened it's burning heat. There were griffons and griffoness around her, picking up all the other remains scraps from the 'Remnants'. The city's populace had scavenged a lot from the debris that fell off from the Abysmal Abyss. Not the once filled craters were nothing but empty with a blackened centre from the fire.

"I've been calling you for the past minute, are you okay?" A young griffoness asked.

Gilda groaned. "What do you want, Greta?"

"Just trying to converse with an old friend. There's no need for competitions here, Gilda. Everyone has gathered enough scraps for living." Greta gestured with an open talon around her.

"Well, bugger off. I'm too tired for your 'conversations'." Gilda began to collect scraps again.

Greta giggled. "Same old Gilda, trying to be a meany."

"Hey!" Gilda pointed at Greta. "I am mean."

"Oh, come on. Everyone in our class in flight camp knows you're a sweetie at heart."

If beaks can grind, which it can cause this is cartoon, then Gilda's beak would, as she glared at Greta. Greta merely smiled despite the eagle headed lion's dagger eyes. Greta knew that those glares would soon changed into an embarrassed look, just like it was in junior high.

Gilda groaned and looked away. "Shut up."

"Aha!" The griffoness, with a head the resembles a finch like a maya bird, interjected. "Same old Gilda." She gave Gilda a smug look.

While Gilda vigorously took more scraps to ignore her friend's smugly grin, she found a weird looking club.

"What the heck?" Gilda thought as she curiously eyed the strange object.

"Hey, Gilda, what are you–"

Hooooooooorrrrrnnmmmmmm!!!

From off the distant a horn blew and was heard around the mountain, birds flew from their nest. The ground shook just a tad bit.

All of the residents of Griffonstone looked in the same direction, from where the blowing of the horn came from.

From their spot at the 'Remnants', Gilda and Greta saw a platoon of armoured griffons bearing a flag with a symbol of a coin with three slashes from top right to bottom left.
Every griffon at the site of the 'Remnants' stopped what they were doing to stare at the platoon with a confused look.

Then, one of the soldiers marched forward bearing an open scroll.

"From the orders," he started, " of Lord Avarice GoldenClaw. We hereby occupy the city of Griffonstone. Under the command of future king, Lord Avarice, we are granted full authority and freedom to shape this city and its inhabitants for the arrival of the future king."

Author's Note:

Am I going to fast? Is the pacing of the story a bit fast?

I wanna know your opinions!

This chapter was not professionally edited and is a rough draft straight from the notes. If you see any typos and grammatical errors please send me a message for I will quickly fix it. Also if you want to clear something up, feel free to ask.

I actually lost the original chapter because I reset my IPad for more space, and then this came to mind and so I worked on it all night. I think this was a fun chapter? I'm still unsure about the pacing though.