Noble and Free

by Kaffeina

Chapter Six: The First Meeting

Chapter Six

The First Meeting

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It is well known amongst the world of the way the flying creatures of each nation alter weather, though the way they each do it is vastly different, however, what is not common knowledge is that, in the long fallen griffon lands, none manage the weather. It is unpredictable, wild, and surprisingly dangerous at times. The sky can go from bright and sunny without a trace of clouds, to dark and grey with the ominous threat of a thunderstorm looming overhead in minutes. So it was that, as she gazed out on the vast plain and the mountains in the distance, the elf watched as clouds rolled across the sky.

Mere moments later, wind whirled through the plain and a crack of thunder rolled through the air. Tensing, she looked around for a place to shelter, and found nothing. In the open, unable to protect herself, the rain fell like waves, intense, hard, and cold. Sheltering her face, she trudged through the mud. She knew this type of weather and hunched down, lightning always struck the highest object around, and at the time, that was her. Her view blocked by grass and weeds, she had no way of knowing where to go, and instead merely moved forward.

That was until a particularly strong gust of wind hit and nearly knocked her back. Forced to stand, she held herself in place, slowly sliding through the mud as lightning cracked. This was anything but a normal thunderstorm, it was far too intense. And right she was, for as hatred and malice draws wendigos, other negative emotions drew other creatures just as dangerous. Hatred and malice were cold and dark emotions. Anger and jealously? They drew something reminiscent of a phoenix, a fire elemental of great danger, a creature that burned the lands and reduced all to a desert. Heliopaths. However, that is not what brought this storm.

Thunderbirds, closer cousins of the phoenix, were the source of this. Drawn by a thirst for revenge, amongst other emotions, they would cross the land and send down intense storms to curse it. What is little known, is that unlike heliopaths and wendigoes, thunderbirds were otherwise gentle and kind creatures, and their storms seemed to alter the very course of fate itself, causing people to ignore their desire and to work together. These storms only struck once, never more, and could last ages.

Of course, beyond causing the storm, thunderbirds could do little to stop it. That, was the reason why a storm of good intentions, failed to acknowledge the heart of one below it, and struck without warning or regret. The last elf, watcher of the woods, was far too distracted in her attempts to escape. A bright white strike of lightning cascaded across the sky as the air shimmered with heat, and crashed down upon the tallest object in the field. The grass was set aflame in an instant, unable to bear it, and the rain struggled against it as the fuel for fire was still dry enough to burn quickly. At the heart of the strike, the sheer force of such a bolt had sent her flying backwards, tumbling through the grass as smoke curled off her.

Raw, stinging, and wincing from pain, she was remarkably still alive. However, she was unable to remain awake and black clung to the end of her vision. Her teeth clenched as she stood, trying keep moving, yet, she was unable to fight the onset of unconsciousness. Exhaustion and pain overtook her as her vision winked out. No mercy was given by the storm as it raged on, eventually extinguishing the inferno that threatened to take her.

The storm eventually passed, though she did not wake. It was, several hours later, when a stunned and confused griffon scout discovered the injured creature, unlike anything she had seen before, in the middle of the field near an enormous burnt area of tall grass. Its clothes were burnt in several places and wet ash coated parts of her body. It was, to the griffon, still obvious this was not a creature he had seen before. He left the creature where it was and took the skies, beating his wings quickly. As dangerous at it could be, leaving the creature injured was something that he felt he could not do, some sort of sixth sense forced him to act against his reasoning.

When he had returned, expecting the creature to have moved or even left, it was far more obvious that whatever had happened to it was more life threatening than he had initially believed. However, the creature was still breathing by some small mercy. With the help of the team he had retrieved, they lifted the cot the creature had been rolled into, and departed from the open plain.

Far off, quite literally in another country, a young equestrian noble was informing the two rulers of Equestria. For once, in many years, Celestia was pleased with the nobility, even if he was yet young and inexperienced. It was rare, and not often, they were told of concerns held for their neighboring countries. The griffon lands were especially uncared for, when one considered the circumstances. As many times as she had attempted them to unite under one banner, no matter what the result was it had to be better than what was essentially anarchy, the griffon warlords had mostly refused. A select few did not object, but their number was considerably lower than the rest.

It was, due to this, Celestia nearly refused to depart to check on the situation. Actually, Celestia did refuse to go herself, there was far too much to deal with, however, she could handle it alone for a few days, and elected to send her sister. Luna had eagerly agreed, for she remembered the griffons from before her imprisonment, and was far better versed in their culture than Celestia had been. The griffons, for all their violence, had been one of the few races that had something resembling respect for the night. They had not loved it, no, but they did acknowledge it was necessary.

And that was the reason a pegasi drawn carriage had departed from Canterlot merely a few hours later, its destination set as what Celestia had insisted was the home of the most agreeable of the warlords. Luna herself had been amused when her sister had informed her that this lord resided in what had, in the past, been the very castle the monarchs of Griffonia ruled from.

Luna considered the history of what had been a proud nation in the past, Celestia had given her a basic rundown of their current history, and couldn't help but wonder what had gone so wrong for them. Centuries had passed since a king or queen of the nation had officially been crowned, though up until a generation ago it had been well known that the royal family lived. Since the last monarch, the kingdom had crumbled into little more than a collection of war-lord driven city-states vying for the most power so as to force the lands under their claws. It was, in her opinion, rather sad and disappointing.

The carriage approached the castle, home to Lord Decebal Rindheart, and alighted in the walls of the large courtyard, and in an instant the state of disrepair was notable to Luna. Parts of the wall had collapsed, and large pieces of cobble were scattered across the area. Even more obvious was the lack of green, instead dirt and the corpses of once great trees littered the courtyard itself. The doors of the castle were worn and bleached by years of sunlight, the glass windows cracked or missing large sections. To the lunar diarch, it was extremely saddening. A forlorn smile crossed her face as she remembered this place in its youth, the passage of time had been far less obvious back in Canterlot.

As she stared at the ruin left by time, the large doors creeped open to reveal a griffon whose fur was greying with age and his feathers had lost whatever color they may have once held. When he saw just who his guest was, the griffon lord's eyes opened in astonishment. There had, of course, been many legends passed down amongst the griffons of the alicorn who ruled the passing of the nocturnal hours, for in the past she had been rather good friends with the ancient royal family. Like others, he had assumed these legends were little more myth. Yet, before him stood someone who was spoken of in only the oldest of tales.

"Your majesty," he said, calming himself and following the old unspoken rule of etiquette, "may I inquire what gives me the pleasure of receiving your presence?"

Luna blinked and looked at the griffon, "Ah, yes, our sister has sent us to inquire how affected this land was by the storm, we were worried for we always had good relations with your people in the past."

He nodded, "Of course, please follow me into the hall."

Luna noted none of the guards moved, and none bothered to glance her way as they stood at their posts, "Are your guards not concerned by our presence?"

"Quite the opposite," he said, "they care little for me or any others. Their only reason for being here is payment for doing their jobs. I would not be surprised if some allowed an assassin in, even if it did hurt their living."

Luna's eyes widened as she noted the sad undertone to the griffon's words and the way his head hung heavily, though he forced it to remain upright. "We see..."

They entered the large hall and, to Luna's surprise, Decebal took a seat near the head of the table and not at the throne that loomed over all else in the room. Even in the interior part of the castle, the disrepair only years of disregarding maintenance could bring was obvious. She wanted to judge, scream, shout, do something to remark and scold the griffon, but she knew that action would be wrong, there was little this old griffon could do about the state of affairs. She took a seat across from the griffon lord and he spoke. "As for the state of affairs after the storm... we suffered some damages to the town and the castle, but little beyond what we expected. I've heard that the other lords experienced much the same."

Luna let herself smile, "That is very pleasing to hear, were none lost?"

Decebal smiled back, "Thankfully none here, though..." the griffon trailed off and frowned. He shook his head, "One of my scouts found some creature that no one we know has heard of, or can even identify."

Luna tilted her head, "What kind of creature? Perhaps it is some new kind of one we've seen in Equestria."

Decebal opened his eyes slightly wider, "That may be possible, it was near your borders that it was discovered, though it was heavily injured during the storm."

"While we are not experts, we could take a look if you do not mind our doing so," Luna offered.

Decebal tapped his claw on the table for a moment before finally giving his assent, "I would very much appreciate that, I would rather be certain if it poses a danger or not."

Luna nodded, "We should at least be able to tell you that, if it resembles any we know."

"I shall lead the way," Decebal rose from his seat and gestured for her to follow with one of his wings. Curiosity overwhelming her, Luna rose without a word and quietly followed behind the old griffon. It did not occur to her that this was a trap and later she would curse herself before acknowledging there was little else she could have done. And, so it was, that Decebal lead her into the western wing of the castle, where their closest thing resembling a hospital or clinic was.

Inside the room was a clearer younger looking griffon, who, if Luna's intuition was correct, could barely be out of adolescence. Her coat was a deep brown, far darker than any Luna could remember seeing, and was brightly contrasted by the snow white feathers of her head, still standing strong as evidence of youth. "Adelaide, is the creature awake?"

The young griffon shook her head, "Not as of yet, my lord, it barely stirs. I believe that whatever happened injured it more than we realize. The doctor did say that, while he could not diagnose or treat much of the creature's injuries, it would certainly live."

"That is excellent news," he gestured to Luna, "This is Princess Luna of Equestria, she came to inquire on our state of affairs due to the storm and has offered to attempt to identify the creature."

Adelaide, as the griffon was apparently called, pushed the tattered curtain to the side and looked at Luna who approached cautiously. "Do you know what it is, your majesty?" the griffon asked quietly.

Luna was, for all she had ever seen, awestruck by the creature. It was far more elegant than she had ever seen, and more remarkably, there was no hair on it's body, except for its mane. No fur either, as far as she could tell. The creature's skin, aside from the red areas she guessed were from its injuries, was a pale, almost glowing, white. Its mane was the same color as sunlight or hay, and its ears were sharply pointed. She stared, before speaking ever so softly, "We have never seen a creature such as this..."

The creature's ears twitched and it's eyes opened slowly, causing the lunar diarch to gasp in complete shock as eyes the color of moonlight stared back at her in confusion. The creature stared before opening it's mouth to say something she did not understand a single word of as it slide back in the bed, it's arms raised as if to defend itself. Yet, as she looked, the creature seemed to focus on only the griffons. "What are you?" Luna asked, only to flinch when the creature turned towards her. Panic, of some sort, was evident in its eyes, yet it seemed to react less violently to her. "What could you possibly be?" Luna asked.

There was no answer, no sign of understanding. The creature before her did not know what she was saying.

Comments

[FTR2017]

This is a good chapter that advances the plot, and am happy to have read it.

Also, I really liked how you employed the link between emotions with intentions in regards to the environment-altering entities like Windigoes, Heliopaths and Thunderbirds.

I must learn my lesson - to use the environment itself as a means to show the emotions in a scene.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

One hell of a storm, there. And I think that first meeting's gonna wait until the elf's awake. ;)