Staying Awake

by Elusive Phoenix

Survival

>Tiberius<

I held my attacker's sword above my snout, both my daggers' blades and my hind legs being used to suspend his full weight above me as I lie helpless on the ground

I could imagine my strength failing, and my neck being cut open in a split second. The picture repeated over and over as I held him there.

There was a slit of a moon, giving me only the outlines of everyone. Their bodies were just silhouettes.

"Kismae!" I screamed while our weapons screeched together, sparks occasionally flying. I heard my friends' weapons clang together with our enemies'. But I could only stare into the piercing eyes of the Eagle above me. His smirk was lowering my confidence. I would soon succumb to the pain.

"Kismae!" I attempted to call once more. The Gryphon on top pressed down, bringing my daggers close to my neck. Now I was afraid.

The arrow seemed to fly through my attacker's head, but it remained inside. The attack ceased.

I used my legs to propel the creature off me, his sword still gripped in one claw. I rolled onto my paws, regaining my stance. Glancing around, I could tell that everyone was doing fine.

Zarrus had his sword in one Gryphon's head as he lifted one back leg to kick another in the face. While the Gryphon recoiled, Zarrus ripped his sword from his now dead enemy, and brought it to the next one's face, cutting his jaw, and making the Gryphon collapse in shock.

Zarrus impaled the downed Gryphon, ending his pain.

I looked to Ruffdown.

Standing on his hind legs, Ruffdown, smacked one Gryphon in the face with his shield, disorienting it. With his other paw Ruffdown stabbed a Black-headed Gryphon through the chest, its sword flying off and, out of pure luck, hit its assistant in the head.

Ruffdown brought the sword up through the Gryphon's chest with extreme force, pulling it out the top of its head. He brought his sword over his head, then down and slashed through the remaining Gryphon.

I checked on Kismae.

Wow.

She was standing on her hind legs using her wings to load arrows into her bow. That was new.

The barrage was faster than I could comprehend, launching the arrows almost in a stream. While she used a paw to draw the arrow, one wing loaded the next after she fired it, and while that one loaded, her other wing grabbed another arrow.

Gryphons were charging up to her, ignoring their fellow soldiers as they were mowed down. The hill she stood on almost looked like it was purely a hill of bodies.

I flicked to Niyla.

Okay, she could use some help.

She was being attacked from all sides, and only swinging randomly was keeping the six Gryphons back.

I sheathed my daggers and sprinted toward her. She was slightly downhill.

Perfect.

I jumped at her, high enough above her to clearly see her situation. Each Gryphon had a single short-sword, each one of them standing on their hind legs. If Niyla lifted her hind legs, I could take some of them down for her. I resorted to the well-practiced plan, hoping she could hear well at the moment.

"Fallout!" I yelled from above her. She threw her ax, slamming it into one of her enemies' faces. She stood on her forelegs and lifted up her hindlegs. I landed forelegs first on her hind legs, using my wings to pull out my daggers and throw them to my left and right, impaling two Gryphons in the eyes.

The remaining three Gryphons lunged, their swords sticking forward.. I leaned forward, Niyla leaned backwards, about to land on her legs. Before I landed on the ground, I grabbed Niyla's forelegs, and she blasted her wings with one massive swing. We blasted straight up, and each of the Gryphons accidentally impaled each other with their extended swords.

I heard Ruffdown yell over the commotion, "Fail!" I couldn't help but smile. Even in battle, Ruffdown was a comedian.

I glanced around.

Only seven Gryphons left.

I used my position to push off of Niyla, who did a back-flip to recover from my propulsion, and I rolled to the ground to retrieve my daggers, sprinting to both Gryphons to retrieve them. During that time, I heard a Gryphon screech, obviously one of getting killed.

I plowed through a creature to make my way to the center of the clearing, slicing his neck open in the process, then quickly stabbed his head to finish him off.

As I reached the center, I waited for an enemy attack.

None came. I glanced around.

Apparently the last five Gryphons had been taken down by the rest of the team.

Well, that was anti-climactic. I didn't even get to do a badass finishing move like jumping over him, then throwing him over me, and right into Ruffdown's sword. I dreamed. God, that would have been cool.

Feathers littered the ground and air, down tickling my nose as it floated by. Blood was still soaking into the dirt and grass, staining red splotches into the ground.

I flicked my daggers to rid them of blood, then stabbed the ground to remove the stubborn liquid. The rest of the team did the same with their respective weapons.

Except Kismae. It's hard to reuse cracked and blunted arrows again. She put a lot of force in those. Some even pass through heads, leaving a gaping hole of gore in its wake.

Zarrus spoke up after checking that nobody was left alive or injured. "Alright. We're done here." He sheathed his sword, as did I. "We obviously need to keep moving."

Our "Camping Site" hadn't worked out too well. We hadn't fought in a week, maybe two, but the attacks were getting more frequent. They were finding our travelling pattern.

The rest of the team sheathed their weapons, and we all began to walk north as a group, panting. A night without sleep was better than dying. Hopefully Equestria would be as safe as they say...

And hopefully we're not the last Cynogryphons left on this planet.

There are five of us left.

There's Zarrus. He looks like a massive wolf, his back fur and top of his wings are grey, and his underside and bottom of his wings are a brilliant white. He's a nice guy, keeping us alive. I'm pretty sure all of us consider him the leader. He gets into leader mode anyway when we get into a fight.

There's Kismae. Her slender green body and golden wings make her the most attractive out of us. At least to Ruffdown, anyway. She's kind of a jerk, but she follows orders and stays alive (and by stay alive, I mean kick ass). Sometimes I wonder if she's better at stealth than I am.

And there's Ruffdown. Joker of all jokers. Seriously, almost every second he has a joke pop into his mind, and will wait for any moment to use it. I bet he has more than four hundred jokes that he remembers that he'll say at some point. But altogether, he's a nice guy. Sometimes I think the brown and red of his fur colors are a bit contrasting to his personality. But that's just me. His Wings were almost as golden as Kismae's. Just another reason he loved her. None of us knows if she feels the same. His massive build isn't from working out. He was just born that way. I'm surprised he lets Niyla use the war ax.

Niyla. I love Niyla. And by love, I mean love. And (like Ruffdown and Kismae) Ruffdown, Zarrus, and I have no idea if she feels the same. Guys have some way of not knowing. Her golden and orange fur and wings are the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. Her body was much larger than Kismae's, and even mine, but she was beautiful. I'm amazed Ruffdown loves Kismae instead of Niyla.

Not that I'd want that.

But Niyla is usually really quiet. She barely ever speaks, only when something needs to be said.

And there's me, Tiberius. My coat was an even mixture of blue and black, never one color, never two. It was perfect for blending into shadows. My wings had a single primary feather (my longest) that was a pure blue, making my friends able to see me. But I'm also silent as a dead vole. Ruffdown and I grew up together. If ever there's trouble, we've got each other's back. Except the last battle. He was obviously busy. And, well, so was I.

The five of us are the last remaining Cynogryphons, persecuted for being half breeds. And by persecuted, I mean hunted down like -- as if we're a plague to the planet.

That's why we're heading to "Equestria". We'd heard from many Cynos before the persecution that Equestria was the safest place on Eques.

So that's where we're headed. Maybe they could help us, or even protect us. I don't know, but I don't want to imagine of any sort of bad outcome. But if there was one, we'd get out fine.

We always did.

So, here we are. Paws on the ground, pushing us on as the pure orange sun rose above the mountains and leaked through the trees of the spring forest. We'll reach Equestria soon enough. And hopefully they'll be on our side.

Hopefully...

Author's Note:

I enjoyed writing this, and it actually gets WAY more plot driven later (heheh, plot).