> Patches and Bubbles
>  by loststone
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> Prologue (Fixed Grammar)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

                The bell rang as a short, hooded gryphoness walked into the Blueleaf Inn of Birch Peak. It was a cloudy day for the gryphon city that was built in the trees,  and the warmth radiating from the inn welcomed the traveler like a long lost friend. It wasn't uncommon for it to be cold here, after all they didn't call the city a winters retreat for nothing. It wasn't only because of the bark of the trees was a white color that resembled snow, but also because the the city itself was build so high up in the branches that it was constantly cold. 

The hood moved as she looked around the dingy, grime-filled lobby. There was a bar in the corner of the hotel with one drunk customer sitting on the end of its four seats, singing an incomprehensible tune to himself. There was a small hatchling muttering to himself as he cleaned one of the  multiple tables  that adorned the main floor of the inn.

The barkeep, and Inn owner, noticed his new guest and waved her over to the counter before returning to a glass he had been cleaning. “So what brings you here, lass?” he asked as she took a seat at the opposite end of the stools from the oblivious drunk.         

Two bronze eyes looked up at the barkeep. “I’m looking for a gryphoness named Gilda.” Her voice was a bit gruff and sounded as if she was half way through puberty.  If her immature voice wasn’t enough to give away her age, her height certainly was. She was just glad that  the cloak was able to hide the odd coloring of her feathers and fur. “And I heard that she had stayed at this Inn a few months ago.”         

“Well, just saying that this Gilda stayed here once a few months ago isn’t enough for me to help you. I get many customers, and it’s not so easy to remember all the different gryphons that have stayed here.” He finished cleaning the glass and leaned on the counter top.         

She gave a grunt of annoyance but could understand why he had trouble remembering. “Well, her head and neck are covered in white feathers and the rest of her body is a dark tan color.”        

“Little missy, I really don’t think you understand.” He had a smug grin on his face. “That’s not enough information for me to remember.” She gave him a perplexed look which he just rolled his eyes at. The barkeep clicked his talons together, and once her attention was drawn to them, he rubbed together. It took her a minute to figure out what he was hinting at, and when she did, the young gryphon gave him an annoyed look.        

This time her grunt was a bit more audible as her eyes glared daggers at him. The jingle of coins could be heard as she reached into her small coin purse and pulled out three shiny gold bits. He chuckled as they dropped into his upturned palm.         

“Now tell me what you know about her.” She slammed her fist down on the table, emphasizing the frustration in her voice.         

“Whoa, there’s no need to be demanding,” she rolled her eyes. She was being the demanding one, yeah right. “I`ll tell you what you want to know. I remember this Gilda of yours; in fact she is very hard to forget.”         

“What do you mean by that?”        

“Well, she stayed here for about a week, and every single night she would come back from some club called Birdcage, beat up and drunk. After a few more drinks from this bar, she would pass out, then spout a continuous stream of nonsense about some rainbow-maned Pegasus in her sleep. Then one night she just up and left in a drunken rage.”         

“Are you sure that’s all the information you have about her?” If forced to fork over any more bits to pay for information, she wouldn't be able to pay for a room.          

“Nope, that’s all I know about her.” He went back to cleaning his glass. “Now if there isn’t anything else you need-“         

“Have any rooms up for rent?” She blurted out suddenly. The very thought of being able to wrap herself in soft linens was enough to make her lose her composure for a few brief moments. After weeks of camping with only a cloak and a small saddle bag, the  prospect of a soft, dry mattress stead of a hard rock face or a damp moss bed, made getting a proper room to sleep in like getting an invitation to sleep over at King Grydon's palace.  On top of all that she was also glad that her cloak helped to mask the pungent smell of weeks without a bath.         

“Well I might have one...” He put the glass back down and pulled a large leather-bound book from under the counter. He undid a small lock on its side and opened it to a page marked by a thin, brown piece of cloth. "But I don’t think you will like it.”        

“Why not?”         

“Well, some mare was murdered in it a few years back. They say whomever sleeps in its bed will become cursed, and will have bad things happen to them whenever possible.”         

She considered it for a short moment. “How much is it going to cost me?”         

“Well, it’s our least favored room, so you will have to pay five bits per night.”         

“I’ll take it!” The inkeeper turned around to look for the keys. Taking the few moments while he retrieved them, the gryphoness looked into her coin purse and counted fourteen bits.Okay, I’ll stay one more night after this one and spend the rest of it on more supplies tomorrow. A grin escaped her beak as she though back to the great luck she had been having over the last few days.         

“Are you sure mi-“ He held up the keys which she snatched away greedily.        

“I don’t believe in ghosts and curses, so yes I am taking the room.”         

“Ok then.” He turned the leather book around so she could have access to it, then gave her a quill to write with. “Sign right here and here, and you will be set.” When she was finished, he handed her a small key with a red tag attached to it. “Here, your room is 13-F; it's up the stairs and is the fourth door to the right.”        

She took the key from him and quickly found her way up the stairs to her room. He picked up the book and turned it back around so he could look at it. “Heh. Well, that was half interesting, wasn’t it, Marty?”         

“Uhhg come on Baggy get with the beat. The bare necessities will come too yoo. ”The drunk gryphon pointed to the ceiling before losing consciousness and falling off the back of the stool.         

“Heheh… Huh. Well, that’s enough for you chap. Now, let’s see, what's the name of our mystery girl?” He looked down the page until he found the new name that was scrawled out in still drying ink. “Ah, Anasta Galewind… I have an odd feeling about her.” 





Authors notes: A special thanks to to my proofreaders Meeester, Someperson, Mcyav! God and them only know how bad this was before they got their hands on it.
> Molesting, Meeting, and a Moron(gramatically better vertion)
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	Four dark shadows were cast against the pale bark of a large tree, and were moving towards the forest floor at a rocket’s pace. The smallest of the shadows was out front with the three larger ones in pursuit, and the gap was narrowing by the second. 

“Get back here pretty!” 

A young gryphoness flew downwards as fast as she could towards the base of one of the many great Everwood trees of Gryphonica’s eastern borders. However, her pursuers were catching up to her at an alarming rate. They had chased her all the way from the great city in the trees Birch Peak, high above them. 

She was smaller than the average gryphon, only being three fourths of the size that she should be. She was also very unique when it came to her coloring. Her head, forelegs, and wings were covered in pale ash-blue feathers, and the lion legs that trailed behind her were white with many black rings,  like a snow leopard. 

“Yeah don’t run, all we want to do is show you a good time!”  came a second voice, taunting her. 

Anasta concentrated solely on the constant beating of her heart to help keep her mind off of the burning pain emanating from her tried shoulder muscles. It was a mad dash to see who would reach their goals first; would her pursuers catch her, or would she be able to make it to the base of the tree where she might find shelter amongst its large, tangled roots. She could feel them closing in, and could only hope that she had enough time to make it.

“Oh come on now baby, we promise it won’t hurt… much!” came the third. 

“Heheheh! Nice one!” 

Just as the closest of the three was upon her, she suddenly closed her wings and dropped into a corkscrew dive. The gryphon managed to grab hold of the end of her tail just as she narrowly slipped in between two roots. As he slammed into them, Anasta could feel a few of her tail hairs being ripped out. She flared her wings and grimaced as they struggled to slow her rapid descent. Not bothering to look back up to see if they were close, she quickly darted deeper into the dense tangle of roots. I have to put some distance in between me and those perverts and find a place to hide. It wont take long before they find a way in! But the three gryphons weren't the only things out to get her. The roots became increasingly difficult to keep dodging as they started to block out the light of the sun, and before she knew it she was in complete darkness. Her vision faded due to exhaustion, and before she could react, her left wing clipped a foot thick root. 

Whack!  

“Ahh!” Anasta screamed as she plummeted to the ground. She tried regaining control, but her left wing hit another root on the way down. Her side filled with a searing pain as she spiraled further into the gloom. With a loud thump she hit the ground, hard, and one of her forelegs went numb. Using her right wing, she managed to get herself back up on her feet.“Damn, I have to get out of here.” she sputtered, but the instant she took another step, her foreleg gave out with a loud snap, and she fell back down. The searing pain and its odd angle told her enough, so she pressed the appendage against her chest as she willed herself to continue on. Anasta slowly got back up and placed her right wing on a nearby root to help support herself. Each step was blindingly painful as her eyes filled with stars, but it was nothing compared to what would happen if they managed to find her. 

“Hey there she is, get her!” 

“Nononono!” she whispered as she hobbled away as fast as her broken body would allow her. Her grueling pace didn't help her much and the throbbing coming from her arm and wing were clouding her senses. She knew it wouldn’t do her much good thanks to the slow pace she was setting, but anything would do as long as it meant she would get away from them. Suddenly she felt her good leg snag something and her world was violently forced to the ground. A metallic taste coated her tongue and as the laughter of the three gryphons behind her came closer, a hopeless feeling clawed at her gut. 

“Fleg. Halsp. Grab her legs and hold her down.” Anasta looked back at them and saw a gryphon with rust colored feathers pointing at her. His two companions, a burly white and brown gryphon and a completely grey gryphon, started moving close to her, talons extended. 

A soft green glow from underneath the moss covered ground, caught Anasta’s eye. “ERRRRAAHH!” Her right leg caught under her body as she dragged herself towards the glowing object. She just barely manage to get her talon around it when the first talon gripped her hind leg, and dragged her backwards. Another shriek of pain left her beak as her trapped leg was once more dragged beneath her and gave off a sickening pop. Her right wing pushed against the ground flipping her over, so she could see her captor, and not taking a second to aim, she used what little strength she had left to throw what she had grabbed.   With a sickening crack it impacted the rust colored gryphon on his beak, and he fell over howling. 

“Grydon damnit!” he yelled clutching at his beak. A thin stream of blood started to leaked out from in between his talons.” I thought I told you two to grab hold of her.” 

“Sorry Ulser!”  the grey gryphon replied. Both of the lackeys grabbed hold of their own arm, and lifted her off the ground before the rust colored gryphon, who was observing his prey with lust in his eyes. He had a grin on his face, and using his serpent like tongue, he reached up and licked away some of the blood running from his nostrils. He had a hungry gaze on his face as he rubbed his talons together. 

“You know, you sure as hell gave us quite the chase back there, too bad you didn’t get very far. Now if you don’t mind, I think I am going to take what is rightfully mine.” Ulser whispered to her as he moved downwards, running his tongue over her stomach. 

“No! No! Stop! Please don’t!” He grabbed hold of her hind legs and pulled them apart with ease. “No! Someone please help!” A new source of pain came from her cheek, as her head rolled in the direction of the slap she just received. 

“Just shut up and enjoy it you whore. No one’s coming to save you, so stay still and let me have you.” He ran his coarse tongue against her once again as he moved back downward. 

Tears burned tracks down her cheeks. “Anyone please.” Anasta barely had the strength to even call out for help any more, as her pleads for help became  barely audible. 







“Well now, what do we have  here?” a morbid voice drifted out of the dark. Suddenly the air around the three defilers and young girl dropped a few degrees, and there was a loud panting like an angry bull ready to charge. A looming figure appeared behind Ulser and what little light there was in the cave of roots seemed to to be devoured by the creature. With a gasp the two gryphons dropped Anasta on Ulser’s head and looked up at two glowing green eyes that had appeared. 

“What the hell do you idiots think you’re doing!” roared Ulser, who was completely oblivious to the voice that had scared his companions. He gave them deadly looks of anger as they started backing up in fear… but not of him. “Damn you two, must I do everything? I swear I don’t even know why I hang out with you two bird-brained simpletons.” He said reaching for Anasta once more. 

“Umm boss, I think you might want to turn around.” Fleg said pointing right above Ulser. “What are you talking about? There is nothing down here but roots and mo-“ 

A sickening green and black magic tendril wrapped itself around his neck, cutting off his ability to speak. It lifted him off the ground and pulled him away from the crying and broken gryphoness. “You know, I haven’t had any fun in over two thousand years now,” Ulser heard the voice this time as the tentacle lifted him a few feet off the ground. “and now that I have been released… oh Eden, the possibilities are endless!” The voice was filled with anticipation and sounded as if it had originated from the very bowels of Tartarus. Ulser’s vision was brought around to meet two glowing eyes that seemed to leak green energy. A wide toothy grin, similar to a carved pumpkin’s, spread across the creature’s face as it stared at its prey. 

“After all this time, there are still pedophiles like you running loose in the lands.” Its sharp teeth clattered together as it spoke. A flash of hunger ran through the creature’s eyes as it ran its tongue over those teeth, coating them in saliva. “Oh, I absolutely love the taste of pigeon pie! How bout you help me make some, mate?” Ulser swallowed hard and looked back hoping that his companions would help him, only to find that they had already fled for their lives. 

Anasta put her only good talon over her eyes as Ulser started to scream in terror. She peaked through two talons and watched in horror as Ulser’s rustic figure disappeared into a torrent of dark tendrils that eagerly awaited him. A loud crackling sound similar to a piece of wood popping in a campfire followed, as  the air was filled with the bitter smell of burnt feathers. The room became as silent as a grave, and she could hardly see anything. Was that thing real, or am I just hallucinating?

A few moments passed and nothing happened. I have to get moving and find some help before whatever that this was comes back for seconds.  When there wasn’t any movement and it seemed like nothing was there, she tried standing up on her three good legs again only to have them collapse from underneath her once again from exhaustion. 

“Do you require some assistance?” Came the voice, this time sounding very deep as if it had originated from an erupting volcano. Anasta cringed away from the shadows where Ulser had disappeared.  

Suddenly a green orb popped out of the ground and started to slowly rise towards the roots above. It illuminated the small area under the roots with a warm glow and revealed a monstrosity the likes of which Anasta had never seen. It stood a good seven feet high, up on two back legs that were covered in shaggy brown fur and ended in two gold plated hooves. It had pale, purple skin from its waist up with a stubby head planted on top of two muscular shoulders. Two horns protruded from its head and twisted about each other to form one long twisting horn that pointed straight out from his head like a unicorn’s. From its back sprouted four reddish purple bat-like wings that were folded down due to the cramped space. Long, dark brown hair hung loosely around its head and covered its two pointed ears. 

It reached out a massive hand that could easily ensnare her head, and most likely crush it if it wanted to. This isn't how I thought I would die, but at least its better than what I nearly had to go through. Anasta closed her eyes and awaited her inevitable demise, but it never came. Instead a deep rumbling came from the creature as its chest heaved up and down. “Oh sorry, in this form I must seem quite frightening mustn’t I?” It gave her that same toothy grin as its chuckles died down. “Hold on a second.” 

Its body started to glow with an eerie dark green energy and in a flash of blinding light he started to change. Anasta was forced to shield her eyes until the light died down. The thing began to speak. ”Ah this is much better! Much less cramped now, don’t you agree?” His voice sounded much more light on the ears and a bit like what you would imagine a fat fairy to sound like. 

Anasta removed her talon from her eyes and looked at his new form. He was significantly shorter, only coming up a few inches taller than she was standing, and his skin was pastel pink. He still had the furry lower body and two horns, but they were just little stubs barely pointing out of his head. He was also missing the four bat wings, and while still muscular looking, he no longer looked as if he was made up entirely of muscles. 

“W-what are you?” she was shaking uncontrollably and had a horrified look on her face. 

“Me? You can call me Hexxus, master. As for what I am,” He pulled a thin jade circlet out of thin air and pulled his hair back through it. Now that his hair was in a ponytail and not covering his face, she could see a small braided goatee dangling from his chin. ”I guess you could call me a faun,” he gave her a quick look over, ”but more importantly, what are you? I don’t ever remember seeing your species before I was entrapped inside that damned tooth.” 

“W-what are you talking about?” I don't know what this thing wants, but it doesn't seem to want to eat me... yet. 

“Uhg… well, I guess I should tell you it from the start. Long ago, in a time forgotten to most, I was betrayed by one of my best friends, and the bastard sealed me away in one of his teeth.” Hexxus said waving around a gold plated fang the size of Anasta’s talon. “And so I said to myself in that dark prison, ‘Hmm. Well, this sucks, I guess I could swear to serve whoever releases me out of gratitude.’ The how doesn’t matter now, but what does is that you are the one who set me free, and I am here to do your bidding.” He put a hand over his waist and bowed low. 

“S-so that means you will do anything I say?” 

“Righto mundo me chica!” Anasta couldn't help feeling exposed after what had just happened, and how he was observing her body wasn't making things any better. ”Now if you hold still, I will get about to healing those unsightly wounds of yours.” 

Her body was still tense and she didn't entirely trust this faun but she allowed him to get close to her. Hexxus slowly knelt down next to her, and when she didn’t make any moves to get away from him, he carefully picked up her left wing. He extended it as far as it would go before Anasta let out a yelp of pain. There was an awkward bulge under the feathers where she would bend her wing; the skin on and around the bulge, was broken in a couple of places. 

”So tell me, what is it I am to be calling you since I am going to follow you about til the ends of your days?” he asked in a quirky tone, as he placed one of his hands over the largest of the cuts in her wings. Its underside started glowing green. Immediately after,  everything from her left shoulder to the tip of her wing went numb and fell limp in his grasp. 

“Anasta.” She hesitantly said giving him a peculiar look. Her eye was attracted to the spot where his hand was. What the? She watched in amazement as her skin started knitting itself back together. 

“Ok then, second and third question, Anny! What are you, and why do you sound as if you are a child that is barely able to walk?” 

“Hey, I’m not a kid, and don’t call me Anny; my name is Anasta.” She put her head up with pride. “I’ll have you know I’m thirteen years old.” 

“Pffffbwahahahahaha!” Hexxus dropped Anasta’s wing and fell back, holding his sides as he laughed his horns off. 

“Hey what so funny?” 

“Heh heh heh. Oh sweet Eden that’s funny! HA!” 

“What!?” 

“Imagine that! A child having the power of one of the six great demigods at her disposal. Oh Eden, this is going to be one hell of an interesting adventure.” He cracked as he got back to work on her wing. 

“What do you mean you’re a demigod?” 

“Anny, how can you not understand? I mean it’s exactly as it sounds; I’m a bloody demigod, and you now have my powers at your complete disposal.” 

"That’s not what I mean. You said that you are one of six demigods.” 

“Eden, what do they teach you kids these days?” he said under his breath. “Well, I guess it’s to be expected that you don’t know who or what I am, after all you are just a little kid,” 

“Hey!”Grydon he is annoying!  

“and I have been sealed away for thousands of years. Let me educate you on the history of this endless world of ours. Long ago there were six ruling demigods; Discord the Embodiment of Chaos, Ballahmar the Great Blue Dragon and Watcher of Time, Celestia Princess of the  Sun, Luna Princess of the Night, Starswirl the Bearded Walker of the Nether Plain, and myself…although I don’t know if you can really call Starswirl a demigod; he joined us a few hundred years after we started ruling.” 

“I’ve heard some of those names… Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are the rulers of the southern kingdom Equestria, and that Starswirl guy was some great magician that died a few hundred years ago.” 

“Well that’s interesting, so he kicked the bucket.” Hexxus looked solemn for a few short moments before shaking it off.” Anyway I wonder how Cely and Lulu are doing after all this time. Hay once we are done here, why don’t you and I go and see them? Oh please say yes Anny! Please!” He had a pleading look on his face as he gave her his best puppy eyes. 

“Wait, you mean to say that you-” No, focus Anasta, you're here for a reason. ”No, I can’t get side tracked. I have to find my sister!” 

“Gwah! You’re no fun. Boo boo.” He pouted his face so it would look similar to a fish's, but immediately after Hexxus changed back to his happy peppy self. “So where is this sister of yours?” Hexxus asked with a grin, and it only got bigger when she started giggling. 

“Well, I wouldn’t be looking for her if I knew that, now would I.” Anasta paused and suddenly she grew solemn. ”Her name is Gilda, and she went missing when I was just a little hatchling. When I was old enough, and after some snooping, I heard that she had run off to join some flying school on the border of Equestria and Gryphonica. So I left to go look for her.” It wasn’t a day she was particularly fond of remembering, so many tears were shed by her parents. “But she wasn’t there when I arrived. I was told that she came here to Birch Peak, and after what I thought was a helpful tip from an inn keeper, I was lead to an underground club where I met the guys you saved me from. At first they said they knew who my sister was and they told me to follow them, but they were lying! They led me into an alleyway where they intended to…to.” A shudder ran through her body. “Anyway I escaped, and long story short I ended up here, and then you saved me. Thanks, by the way, for doing that for me.” 

“Hey, no problem, I was following your orders anyway.” 

Tears started to form in the corners of her eyes.”But now I have nothing!” She had left her saddle bags at the inn which contained everything she had to her name. ”I have no leads showing me where my sister went… and I dare not go back into that horrible place.” 

“Well, I think I might have an idea on how we can find your sister,” Eden, I hope she accepts this plan of mine. ”and it will also allow me to do what I want.” 

“Really? What is it?” Anasta wiped away a few tears that had started to form in the corners of her eyes. Please say that he isn't messing with me. I swear if he is I’ll make him realise there are more miserable things than getting trapped for a few thousand years.  

“Well, if we go see my friend Celestia, she can use a special power of hers to look through her sun and find your sister.” Anasta was doubtful that he knew Celestia, but what choice did she have but to trust him? 

“You'd really do that for me?” 

“Well, yeah. Didn’t I just say not five minutes ago that I was going to serve you and do whatever you commanded of me?” 

“Oh yeah… but you don’t have to say that you serve me. Instead just call me a companion.” She smiled at him. “Ow, hey that hurts!” 

“Oh, sorry about that.” He shifted his hands up to her shoulder, and his grip tightened.”Okay, I need to pop your wing back into its socket, so you are going to feel one more sharp jab of pain in three… two,” 

“OOOOOOWWWW!” 

“Jeez, you really are a kid aren’t you?” He chuckled and she shot him a deadly glare. Hexxus folded Anasta’s wing back against her side and moved to her front. Anasta hissed in pain as he picked up her broken arm and ran a hand over it. “Ooo nasty, this may take a while.” 

As Hexxus ran his hand over it he could feel two places where the skin caved in at his touch. Making sure he wasn’t wrong his magic probed at the places, only to have what he already knew confirmed. But what he didn't expect to find was how the center most piece was bent ninety degrees in the wrong direction. Damn, it's not going to be the easiest thing to fix, but I think I can do it without leaving her with any permanent damage. Now all I have to do is get a hold of it... and twist! There was only so much that his magic could do to lessen the pain while he moved the stray shards back into their respective places. 

I don’t know what he is doing to my arm but it’s... Gah I can't even think about it! It's just too weird! She just winced and tried to take her mind off of what Hexxus was doing. “So what makes you think that Celestia will, ow, help me by looking through her sun?” 

“Well, I see no reason why she wouldn’t. It’s not like it’s for anything malevolent, and anyway, if it’s me asking, I’m pretty sure she will do it.” 

“But how can you be so sure that she will help us?” She let out a sudden gasp as the bones in her arm started grinding back into their places. 

“Well, if she does refuse to help us, I can always just blackmail her into doing it. I know a lot of dirt that she would like to keep hush hush from her citizens.”Like that pet shop fetish she has. 

Anasta couldn’t help but wonder if he was telling the truth or not about him knowing the sun goddess, but her mind was pulled away from those thoughts as her arm started to feel as if it was dipped in molten lead. 

“Ow! Hexxus what in Tartarus are you doing!” she let out a loud scream. “AH! It’s like my arm is on fire!” In all hindsight, I guess you could say Anasta was thankful for not having teeth. Because if she did her tongue would have been long gone by now. 

Hexxus had a panicked look on his face as he looked at her arm. “Sorry, your body is starting to reject me, and it’s attacking my magic.” I knew I shouldn't have use the cellular reconstruction method! Wrinkles appeared on his brow as he channeled more magic into his healing spell, making the pain worse for Anasta. “I need you to deal with it for a few more seconds Anny!” 

One last scream of pain escaped from her.Oh Grydon, it hurts! It hurts! IT HURTS!!!... Wait a minute. And just as fast as the pain came, it left, leaving her arm feeling brand new! Anasta sat up shocked, gripped her talon into a fist, and was amazed that it no longer hurt anymore. It was as if the pain was replaced by a cool, soothing feeling that filled her with vigor and made her want to jump for joy. 

“Wow, I feel like a million bits! It’s like nothing ever happened.” She grabbed hold of him and wrapped him in a hug. 

“Oh so is that what they call currency in this new era? See, money was called septims back before I was imprisoned… anyway enough of that. It was my pleasure Anny.” Hexxus said happily as he returned her embrace. 

“Thank you very much,” Anasta let go of him and took a few steps back. I don't know if I like him or hate him. “and stop calling me Anny. My name is Anasta; get it right! An-nah-stah.” She said giving him an annoyed look. 

“Nope sorry Anny. You may be my master and all, but I already have you in my head as Anny, and it’s going to stay that way.” Hexxus gave her a playful pat on the back as he walked past her. “Now what say we get out of here and start on this quest to find you sister ohumm,” he started stroking his gotee, ”wait where are we again?” 

“Uhg you’re impossible! I already told you we are in the Everwood forest.” 

“Yeah, I got that part, but I mean where are we exactly?” he asked giving her a stupid look. 

“Well, I flew into the base of this tree while trying to escape those perverts, but right now your guess is as good as mine.” She started to look around with fear in her eyes. “What if we don’t get out of here and I never get to see my sister?” 

“Whoa there, slow down worrywart. All you have to do is command me to get us out of here, and I will…even if I have to cut this tree down in the process.” Hexxus said pulling a wood cutters ax out of nowhere. 

“Well, I would like you to get us out of here, but there is a city filled with gryphons above us, so no cutting anything down.” She said just as the ax head was about to make contact with the nearest root. 

“Ah Anny, you’re no fun.” The ax stopped an inch away from the root he was aiming for. Well somebody doesnt like to have fun. ”Oh well, I guess I will have to do it the boring way.” 

He walked up to her, placed his arm around her midsection, and picked her up off the ground. When his grip tightened, she blushed violently, and shot him a deadly glare. “What in Tartarus do yo-“ Anasta was interrupted by a sudden feeling like someone had compressed her down to the size of a coin, followed up immediately by a sensation of being pulled apart in every direction. They had just teleported, and like every other newcomer to the magic spell, right afterwards her lunch decided to make its way back up her throat and say “Hello!” to the world. She wiped her beak off. “What the buck do you think…” she trailed off as she looked around. How did we get outside? 

Hexxus and his master were now standing on the forest floor with the great behemoth of trees looming over them. The trees were, to say the least, immense in size thanks to thousands of years of growth. They were all easily large enough to make anyone feel small. Their bases were at least a thousand feet wide and the tops were obscured by the thick plumage up above. Coating their outsides was a pastel white colored bark, and it was at least a few thousand feet off the ground before any of them started sprouting branches. The large teardrop-shaped leaves allowed a small amount of light through the overhead canopy, giving the forest a most serene feeling. 

“Hmm, this place is much more different than I remember it to be.” Hexxus said looking around. “If we are where I think we are, this place used to be a massive marsh that would stretch for miles around. It would also explain why these trees also look how they are.” 

“What the hay are you talking about Hexxus?” she inquired, giving him a puzzled look. 

“Well Anny, you see a marsh is often times filled with a certain type of tree called a mangrove. A mangrove tree has half of its roots sticking out of the ground for some reason that I couldn’t care about… maybe it has something to do with the change in water levels.” Hexxus rubbed his chin in thought for a few seconds. “Anyway, that doesn’t matter as of now. It’s my theory that after I was sealed away, my prison was brought here, and it affected the trees in some way allowing them to grow past their normal sizes into these behemoths we see before us.” 

“I have no idea what you are going on about, but please go on it sounds so interesting.” 

If I wasn't so sure, I'd say that was sarcasm in her voice... Oh well! “Will do Anny… Now just because you seal away a being like me does not mean you can seal away the massive amount of magical powers they have. It goes uncontrolled and affects its surroundings in unknown ways. So when my prison was brought here, my magic probably warped the nature of these trees, allowing them to break the rules of their existence and continue to grow way past their limits.” 

“Once again, no idea what you are talking about.” Grydon he is an idiot. ”Now can we leave? If we have to travel all the way down to Equestria, the sooner we leave the better.” She unfurled her wings and hovered in place next to Hexxus. 

“No problemo, boss.” Just then Anasta’s stomach let out a low grumble. 

“Umm maybe we should eat first… Although I have no idea what your species eats anyway. What was it called again? Grif something.” 

“It’s gryphon, and we eat fish or any type of edible plant.” 

“Okay then, fish it is! I haven’t had fish in… wait I haven’t had anything to eat since before my imprisonment. Hahahaha!” Like I said before. He. Is. An. IDIOT! As annoyed as she was, Anasta patiently waited for him calm down.  “Oh Eden I haven’t laughed that hard since five minutes ago. Hehe. No must stay focused. Is there a stream or river around here that we could find some lunch in… wait I don’t even know what time of the day it is.” He doubled over laughing, once again, and Anasta had to give him a quick kick in the side to get him to stop. 

“It’s about three in the afternoon you buffoon. Now can you please stop acting like an idiot and help me find something to eat!” 

“Yes ma’am!” Hexxus saluted her before skipping off into a bush, like a little girl in skirt looking for Easter eggs. Anasta groggily followed close behind. “So tell me, Anny, why this big search for your sister?” he asked while ducking low underneath a fallen log. 

“Well, I never knew her, and I just want to know who she is and what her personality is like. Who she hangs out with and well you know, I’m sort of hoping we can be like, best friends and all.” That's if I can find her. 

“Well, that sounds just like daisies with rubies on top.” He said in an overly goofy voice. 

“Hexxus, you’re very weird, you know that?” 

“Yah. Well, let’s see you spend a few thousand years in a bottled up place with no one to talk to except yourself and come out of it with your sanity intact.” 

----------- 

They continued to search for a river for five minutes before they came across anything water related. Hexxus let out a squee of excitement, and Anasta just gave a disappointed groan. Pulling a fishing rod out of nowhere, he baited the hook with what looked to be a worm wearing a scuba mask and lowered the little guy into the water. 

“You’re kidding me right?” Hexxus just shook his head with a large grin on his face.”This is just a small puddle! Heck I’m bigger than this thing, and you expect to be catching anything out of this!” 

“Anny, my dear, two things; First, if you just believe, anything can happen. Second, please be quiet; you’re scaring away the fish.” Anasta tried to protest, but he simply put a hand in her face interrupting her, which was odd considering he still had both hands of the fishing rod. 

Well, I doubt I’ll be getting anything from him, so I may as well look for some berries or something to eat. It wasn’t even a minute before Hexxus let out a loud cry of joy from where he was sitting. Anasta rushed back to find him on his hooves struggling very hard to keep the bent fishing pole in his hands. 

“HAHA! I have a bite!” He couldn’t help but snicker at Anasta’s ‘Holy shit I can’t believe it actually worked’ face. With a great heave, he pulled a large catfish twice her length and three times as thick out of the small puddle, sending a torrent of water spraying everywhere. “Hey, master Anny, is this enough food?” he said with a grin on his face as he held it over his head as if it didn’t bother him that it was at least five times his size. 

Half an hour later, the sun was starting to set, and all three of them were sitting around a campfire in between two of the massive roots of the giant trees. Their delectable meal was already finished cooking, and each of them anxiously waited for some fish with their own make shift plates made out of leaves covering a flat stone. They took turns taking strips off the fish that had a large sharpened piece of wood sticking through it, holding it above the fire…and yes you did read that right, I said three. After all, the worm had to eat too after working so hard to bring in this catch of the day.         

Anasta sat back after eating all she could, rubbing her stomach. Well he may not make any sense, but I’m not complaining. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you Hexxus, and why didn’t you tell me you were such a good cook?”         

Belch         

“Hehehe. It seems like Mr. Wormy here agrees with you on that,” he said pointing to the plump purple worm, “and thanks for the compliment. It’s always nice when a chef gets good results from something he makes…especially when he uses poisonous plants to season his food.”         

Is he kidding? Hexxus had a victorious and evil look on his face. Oh my god I don't think he is! Anasta turned pale and tried coughing up her food, which made Hexxus crack up. When she finally got that he was joking about the poison, she started laughing along with him. The two laughed long into the day and past the time that the sun had set. It was completely dark by now, and the only light for miles around came from the fire.         

“Yawn! Mmm…Hexxus can you please tell me a story before we go to sleep?” she asked giving him the best puppy eyes that she could.         

And I though she said she wasn't a kid. “Well I don’t know about a story but how about I play you a song?” in a poof of green smoke, he pulled a dark red pan flute, with pictures of leaves and vines carved into the wood, out of thin air.         

“That would be nice.” Anasta came over and sat down next to Hexxus as he put the flute up to his mouth and started playing mesmerizing and pleasant notes, meant to sooth the soul and melt away the stress of a long hard day. Any animals in the vicinity that were making noise immediately quieted down and listened to the soft notes that came floating from the redwood flute. Eventually the crickets themselves started to chirp in unison to the flute’s song, hitting each note with perfect harmony. Anasta fell asleep in a short amount of time, but that didn’t stop Hexxus’s playing. He wanted to continue and just catch up on all the time that was lost while he was imprisoned. But like everything, the song had to come to an end, and Hexxus was forced to stop when there was nothing left to play. 

He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the tree tops, longing to see the stars for the first time in over two thousand years. “Huh…Luna how I wish your canvas’s beauty wasn’t obscured by these trees this peaceful night.” As the last of the embers of the fire started dying out, he leaned back against one of the many roots jutting from the ground and fell asleep. 



Oh what fun we all have reading these stories! Thank you all for reading my work and I hope you will enjoy it. Also Thanks to the very patient Meeester, a strangely feisty Some Person, and the frosting lover Mcyav. 

Now a fun fact; When I was writing this I made a silly mistake and put in the word plumage where foliage should be. Its just like the time when I called semi-trucks tsunami trucks lol.

POP QUIZ! Can anybrony tell me where Ballahmar is from? 1 point if you name the story, 5 points if you can name the chapter, and 10 if you can tell me his role in the story.

> First Steps are... Stop that Hexxus!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

                 The next morning was anything but quiet for Anasta. Hexxus decided to wake her up extra early at the crack of dawn with music, but it want soothing like the pan flute he had played before. No, this was more like an orchestra made up of only brass instruments. He wasn’t even playing anything in particular, just hitting random notes and startling everything awake in a five hundred yard radius. 

Anasta groggily sat up and looked over to the source of what had very rudely interrupted her wonderful dream of swimming through ice cream. Huh I must have eaten some really weird fist last night. She continued to look at him for a few seconds before laying her head back down on her make shift rock pillow. Hehehe, Hexxus has three heads! Now I know that must have been bad fish if its giving me these types of whacked up dreams. 

Seeing how his efforts weren’t issuing much of an response out of her, he stopped playing and scratched each of his goatees. Darn, its not working... Oh I know, maybe she didn't hear me! Five steps in her direction later and he was ready to start up again. “Uhg! I’m awake! I’m awake! Just stop it with the overly annoying brass; you don’t even have any skill in it anyway.” She yelled over the loud instruments. 

“Ah Anny that hurt.” Hexxus wiped a fake tear from his eye. And my tutor said I was good. In an instant his extra heads and the instruments disappeared in a puff of green smoke. “Well now that you are awake, we can continue on with... THE EPIC JOURNEY TO FIND YOUR SISTER AND OTHER FUN STUFF!” His magic-infused voice boomed throughout the forest as if it were an announcer at a hoofball game, sending nearby animals running in fear. 

“Yeah I get that, but why did you wake me up at this time in the morning? The sun hasn’t even risen yet.” Anasta started to rub the sleepiness from her eyes. 

“Because, my master, if we are going to make up for lost time from yesterday we are going to have to get going extra early!” He struck a dramatic pose, putting one of his legs up on a rock and starting to flex his muscular arms in different ways. 

“Ok.” She hated to admit it, but he was right. They did lose half a day of travel time yesterday dew to their dinner. “Now why are you doing that? This is no time to be acting like you’re a bad ass, cause you’re not.” 

“Why not!? If you’re going to do something, you might as well do it with... dunduhduhdunnnnn stile!” 

She rolled her eyes and picked herself up from where she had fallen asleep. “Whatever lets go.” She was thankful that the previous night’s dinner was enough to keep going good for a while. 

“Yes ma’am! And so starts the traveling montage!” 

At the sound of the word montage, the light disappeared from the sky and was replaced by a series of lit up pictures. In the background of the pictures that passed by was an aged, yellow map that had a red dotted line moving down its center. The pictures themselves were of Anasta and Hexxus doing a variety of different activities. Some were of them trekking through the underbrush of the forest looking for food, while others were of them either having a good time while flying or them scaling a snow covered mountain. 

“Umm Hexxus, I don’t think this is time for a movie. Now can we please get going?” If it weren't for the feathers that covered her face,  anyone would have seen a large veins starting to bulge out of the sides of her forehead. Anasta was giving him a cross look as he turned a crank that was powering an antique-looking movie projector. The picture it was on was of both of them, portrayed as overly cute, smiling cartoons that were walking over a miniature rotating globe. 

“Fine.” He huffed and with a snap of his fingers the world lit back up as it should be, and the projector disappeared in a flash of green smoke. Anasta just rolled her eyes and started walking off into the underbrush, shaking her head ever so slightly. “Umm Anny, what are you doing?” 

“What’s it look like I’m doing? I’m walking.” 

“Yes, but don’t you think it would be much faster if we flew there?” 

“Yeah and how do you think we are going to do that? One of us doesn’t have any wings, and you look a bit too heavy for me to be carrying.” 

“Ha! That’s a good one Anny! You not having any wings! Hahahahaha!” he rolled on the ground as he laughed. “Wait a minute.” He had a hurt look on his face when he realized that she had just called him fat. 

Steam was coming out of her ears from her frustration. “I mean you, bird-brain!” 

“Oh I have wings.” He then stared to glow green and slowly started to grow. He now stood a good foot taller than her and had two large, velvety bat wings sticking out of his back. His horns even grew a few extra inches out of his head, now slightly pointing towards each other. “See!” 

She face palmed. “You know Hexxus, I really hate you.” 

“And I love you too Anny.” 

Hexxus then rolled his shoulders and took a few steps back, facing the clearing that was their campsite. With a little skip, he started running towards the fireplace, and at the last second, before he would have stepped in the ashes, he gave his wings a mighty flap. It only achieved getting him a few inches off the ground, but after he brought his wings down a second time, he shot off the ground and took off towards the foliage above. He did a few cork screws and flips before he felt like he had worked out all the kinks in his back. He stopped a few hundred feet off the ground and let out a triumphant cry of shear joy. 

“Eden it feels good to be in the air again!” he yelled out so all the world could hear. “Anny, you’re the one who knows where we are going, so get up here and lets get on with it.” 

She just rolled her eyes and took off from where she was standing, and soon she ascended to his height. “Like I said before, we need to go south of here. Now keep your eyes open for blue paint markings on the trees so we can find out which way is south.” 

“Wait, why must we look for blue paint?” 

“In the Everwood forest, as you can see, the trees cover up the sky blocking out the position of  the sun  and stars, so a few hundreds years ago, a gryphon king know as Gluckern started a big project to help his subjects navigate in this massive forest. He had his subjects start at the edge of the forest and mark every hundredth tree with four different colors; red for north, blue for south, yellow for west, and orange for east. All we have to do is find the right tree, and then we’ll just go in whatever direction the blue is facing.” 

Hexxus raised his hand. “Umm quick question. Why don’t you just fly above the trees to get your bearings?” 

“Because the average height for these trees is around like, twelve thousand feet high. Only the most well trained gryphons can stand to go that high.” 

“Yeeeesh that is high up.” Hexxus made a quick glace towards the canopy above, and upon closer inspection he saw something that shocked him. When he really strained his eyes, he could see that the trees disappeared into a white blanket of clouds about a mile up. He knew his magic had warped these trees, but he never expected it to have gone as far as granting them the ability to grow that high. “Well if we are going to look for a tree with colorful graffiti on it, I say we start now.” 

“It’s not graffiti.” She stopped looking around when a cloud of green smoke passed by her. So help me Grydon if he is about to do something stupid. “Now what are you doing Hexxus?” 

“OOH OOH!” If hell fire was real, then it could be seen in her eyes as she  looked at what he was wearing. He was in a brown monkey suit that had outrageously large ears and a long curly tail hanging from his rump. “EE AH! Hey Anny, I’m a monkey!” 

She held back the urge to introduce him to her four fingers. “Yes I can see that. Now stop goofing off and wasting time.” 

He grabbed hold of a green vine that hung out of a cloud of green smoke that hovered twenty feet above, swinging away in no particular direction. Anasta stayed back for just a second to cool down before following him as he swung from vine to vine. He hooted and howled, getting the attention of all the animals below them, as he swung in between the trees. 

Other than the annoying sounds she had to put up with, Anasta was enjoying herself and was pretty happy about the pace they were setting. It may have not been the fastest speed they could have moved at, but that didn’t matter much to her. There was a giddy feeling in her gut, and she wanted to enjoy it. Maybe it was because she had a new lead to go off of to find her sister? Maybe it was the fact that she had nearly been raped and most probably killed the day before, and she had a new look on life? Or maybe a bit of both, but whatever it was, she loved the feeling. 

“OOHOOHEE! Anny I think I found one!” Hexxus was hanging upside down from the monkey tail, and was swinging back and fourth in front of a large, orange circle pained on the side of a tree.         

How is that even possible? Its a lifeless monkey suit. She just shrugged it off and inspected the large orange circle.  

It was worn down and partially faded due to age, and even whole chunks of it were gone where the paint had peeled off. It was the middle of three large circles that had been painted onto the great tree, each having a diameter of about thirty feet. 

She sarcastically clapped her hands. “Well what do you know, you actually did something without acting like a complete idiot, this time.” 

“Well what can I say other than I guess I'm just a chimp off the old block.” In his fit of laughter that followed, the monkey tail let go of the conjured vine it was holding on to. “I regret nothiiiiinnngggggg!” and in a flash of light, he disappeared... and reappeared a few feet above Anasta. “Like that time I drank a carton of expired miiiiillllllkkkk!” He appeared above her a second time. ”Or that time I wiped a booger on you while you weren’t lookiiiinnnnggg!” 

“You did what!” on his third time reappearing above her, Anasta socked him in the face on the way down, sending him flying into the face of the tree... and Celestia damnit it felt good. “I swear to Grydon, Hexxus, you are the most childish idiot I have ever met!” 

He pulled his horns out of the tree and looked back at her. “Yah well, I may act like a dum ass, but I'm pretty damn sexy while doing it.” 

“Phht! I don’t know about you Hexxus, but if I had your face, I would shave my butt and learn to fly backwards.” This left Hexxus speechless as he watched her fly past him and around to the other side of  the tree where the blue marker was painted. 

“Wow, and here I always thought you had no sense of humor Anny.” Hexxus said as he followed her around. “Well you’re not the only one in this little group of ours that can pull off a quick joke.” 

“Yah, but that was so unexpected, and quite frankly it was very good for someone as young as you are.” “Well I... I guess I have picked some stuff up over time.” Even if it was all used against me. She said to herself, thinking back to when she would be picked on in school. “Well, now that we have a heading that we can go off of, lets get going.” She turned away from the tree and took off in the direction that the blue paint was facing. 

As they traveled, they were constantly keeping an eye out for the the trees that had the painted-on directions. They would appear around every hundredth tree or so, but thanks to the colossal spans the the trees had, it would be about a mile in between each marker. Hexxus would occasionally let out a fit of joyful laughter every time he saw something new about the world that didn't exist prior to his imprisonment. Which in Hexxus’s case, was almost everything in site. Whenever he would see one, he would ask her a hundred and twenty three different questions about what it was, and Anasta would answer them to the best of her ability. Anasta honestly started to feel like one of those nature show hosts for having to explain so many things to him. 

Time seemed to fly past them in the flurry of trees and the further south they traveled, the more their surroundings changed. By the time the sun had started to set, the trees around them were, while still immense in size, no where near as big as the ones at Birch Peak. The foliage above Anasta and Hexxus had also started to clear up a bit, allowing them to fly up to the peaks so they could see the blurred shadows in the distance where the looming mountains were. 

The ground below them had also started to resemble that of a massive marsh. The roots of the trees disappeared into large lakes that had formed long ago, due to a mixture of monsoon rain storms that happened during the spring and summer, and Hexxus’s magic. 

It took them a good hour, but Hexxus and Anasta eventually found a small mound of dry land amongst the roots of the trees. It was just inside the jumble of roots that made up the base of one of the  great trees, and it was, to say the least, cosy. It was just barely big enough for one of them to fit on, but Anasta and Hexxus made up for the lack of space by making make-shift hammocks out of branches and strips of flexible bark, hanging the hammocks just a few feet off the ground. Once their sleeping areas were set up, Anasta went about searching for some dry wood for a fire while Hexxus sat on a root and fished for some dinner. 

By the time the sun had set, Anasta had gotten the fire up and running on the patch of dry land, and Hexxus had started playing a whimsical tune on his pan flute. He had already caught two fish, each smaller than the one from the day before but still easily large enough to feed them, both of which Anasta was cooking over the fire. Hexxus continued to fish and play his long lost music while trying to catch a third for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch. 

Anasta hummed happily to the tune of the flute , while occasionally turning the pikes that hung the fish over the fire. Well it may be something that chef Iron Ram would frown at but its not like I’ve got a kitchen and assorted spices to use. Anyway its better than what I used to have to eat to keep going. She shivered at the thought. On one particular night she had gotten so desperate for food, that she had eaten a rather large slug. Then ironically enough, when morning came by and she could see her surroundings, she had found out she was surrounded by bushes of black berries. 

Anasta’s attention was pulled away from the fish when the song Hexxus had been playing was cut off abruptly. The fishing rod, made out of a long six foot stick and some string, jerked downwards suddenly from where it was sitting in between his crossed legs. 

“Oh Eden,” Hexxus was quick to grab hold of the pole before it was pulled away from him, “I can already tell this is a big one!” 

A large slash appeared not twenty feet from where he was sitting, sending water spraying everywhere as the fish surfaced in an attempt free itself from the line. Hexxus let out a growl of frustration as he was forced to get upon his hooves so he wouldn’t be pulled into the water. Anasta could feel her heart beating fast as she watched him with anticipation to see what type of fish he had caught. It was also the curiosity of what the buck could be making Hexxus actually have to try. If he could catch fish that were the size of a small couch without breaking a sweat then whatever this thing was must have been colossal. 

The fish may have been strong, but Hexxus wasn't about to lose to it, and ever so slowly he made one step after the other backwards, pulling the fish closer to shore. With each step the thrashing grew less and less until it stopped all together, and he was able to pull the fish up on shore. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” 

“Heheh... wow Hexxus that's kind of pathe-” 

“Just... just don't say anything. This moment is sad enough as it is without you making me feel worse.” 

They were looking down at the ‘catch of the day’; Hexxus with a look as if he had just lost all of his pride and Anasta with a talon over her beak, but that was to help suppress her laughter. What was lying before them was unmistakably a fish. It had fins, scales, and was gulping for air like a fish, but it had a oddly familiar orange and white coloring. 

“Its a goldfish.” Anasta stated blankly before falling over in a fit of laughter. 

“Oh be quiet, it happens to everyone from time to time.” Hexxus then lifted his head from its shameful position and sniffed the air. “Hay is it just me or is something burning.” 

Burning? What could possibly be... Oh crap I forgot about the fish!“Oh no I forgot about dinner!” Anasta let out a yelp and ran back to the fire where two fish were currently on fire. 

It was a close one, but she was able to get back to the fish in time before they were condemned to the hellish pit of coals known as the camp fire. Not too long after they were in there hammocks, Mr. Worm included, eating away at their fish. 

“So tell me Anny, what do you like to do for fun when you’re not going off on adventures to find your sister?” Hexxus asked while taking off another slab of the jerky style fish meat. 

“Well…I would usually just stay at home and draw pictures and stuff, and when I got bored of that I would read.” 

“Well didn’t you- ERRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEHP Uhhg sorry about that. Didn’t you have any friends to hang out with?” 

“Well no not really. I was picked on a lot during school because the color of my fur is different from most other gryphons, so I couldn’t really make any friends because no one wanted to be my friend.” Anasta looked down with a sorrowful look as she nibbled on a piece of fish. 

“Oh that’s never a good thing, but hey at least you have me as a friend now!” Hexxus beamed a large grin at her. 

“Y-you mean you see me as a friend?”  

“Well of course! What else am I to call you if you don’t like to call me your servant? Maybe something like-” Hexxus was unexpectedly cut off when he found to feathery arms embrace him in a hug. Hexxus could feel her warm tears falling on him as she started to cry. 

“Thank you Hexxus, and not only for calling me your friend, but for also helping me these past few days.” 

“Oh you flatter me. Now stop crying. I’m not one for this mushy girly stuff,” he patted the back of her head lightly before making a weird face, ”and quite frankly, you smell like you could do with a bath.” That comment got him a nice whack on his arm.

After she moved back across the fire to her hammock and started eating her fish again, Hexxus picked up their previous conversation. “So tell me about these books you would read.” 

Anasta pondered for a moment as she thought about them. ”Well some would be the usual school books,” Bleck Hexxus stuck out his tongue. “but the ones I really liked were the stories of a adventurer named Daring Do.” “Oh that sounds interesting, please tell me more!” 

“Well Daring Do is an archaeologist Pegasus that goes and raids tombs for ancient artifacts. My favorite one is Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone.” 

“Well?” 

“Well what?” 

“Well you have piqued my interest, so aren’t you going to tell me what happens in the book?” 

“The story starts with Daring Do galloping through the forest in an attempt to escape her pursuers: a tiger, a panther, a cheetah, a bob cat, and a fluffy white cat.” 

“Oh no!” 

“You see, Daring’s wing was injured so she was unable to fly.” 

Hexxus rolled his eyes. “Of course.”     

“Do you want me to tell this story or are you going to keep talking?” Anasta snapped. He put two hands over his mouth and had an apologetic look in his eyes. Seeing that he wasn’t going to interrupt her any more, Anasta continued on with the story. “Now after Daring Do managed to lose her pursuers, she came across the ancient temple that she had been looking for. She cautiously entered the dust-filled ruins knowing that somewhere deep inside was the Sapphire Stone, but a few steps in, one of the tiles gave way underneath her and set off a series of deadly traps.              

“After successfully evading all the traps that had been in the hallway that lead to the main chamber of the temple, she had finally found the artifact she was looking for. Just as the legend had said, it was made of sapphire and was carved to look like two jackals facing away from each other. Believing that she had earned her prize, she snatched up the idol and quickly stuffed it in her hat. She was about to leave when a small cylinder arose from where the idol had once been, setting off one final trap. All of the floors fell away, and they were replaced by a pit of molten lava, whilst the roof started to cave in. But there was one small opening in the ceiling that led back outside the temple. Lucky for Daring, however, one of the pillars that held up the roof half fell over right underneath it, and using her expert skills, she managed to get over to the fallen pillar and jump up and out of the hole.      

“Daring successfully escaped the collapsing temple with the Sapphire Stone intact and took a moment to catch her breath. But then just when she thought she was out of the woods, a shadow fell over her, and she looked up into the face of her nemesis, Ahuizotl. Daring would have run from him, but he had stolen the Sapphire Stone and had his minions, those cats, surround her. Ahuizotl took her to his secret  lair and strapped her down to a table. After giving the whole taking-over-the-world speech to Daring, he pulled a lever on the wall and set off a trap. He left her to her fate and went out to celebrate. The walls sprouted spider-covered spikes and started moving together. Snakes slithered from the walls, and quick sand began to fall down from the ceiling.      

“When all hope seemed to be lost, a plan formed in her head, and in one quick movement, she flipped her hat off. Using her mouth and back hoof, she managed to shoot it against the walls and into the lever that was controlling the trap, putting it in reverse. The walls receded, and the sand disappeared into the floor, allowing Daring to break free from her bindings and go off to find Ahuizotl. “And find him she did. Outside of his lair, he was sitting in a stone chair, holding the Sapphire Stone out and bragging about how great he was for stealing it from her. Waiting for the right moment, Daring swooped down on him and snatched it from his out-stretched hand. And so she galloped off into the sunset once again saving the world from Ahuizotl’s evil grasps.”     

Anasta let out a huff of air once she was finished. “Well, how did you like it Hexxus?” 

“Hmm, to be honest it was a good story, but I’m my personal opinion, it was far too predictable. Also the fact that the villain never makes sure that the hero dies, just ruins these types of stories.” 

“Well you were the one who asked for me to tell it to you, so stop complaining.” 

“Who said anything about me complaining? I was criticizing, not complaining there is a difference.” 

“No there isn’t!” 

“Yah there is! Just check the Masterful Maestro's Dictionary.” He said holding up a large four inch thick, leather-bound book. 

“Whatever, I’m not in the mood to argue over something so petty.” 

“Yah, anyway that was a good way to pass the time, but I think it’s about time we hit the hay and try to catch some Zs.” Hexxus climbed over to Anasta’s hammock and sat himself down right under it. “Now Anny to help you go to sleep, I will play you a very special tune called  In the Dark of the Night that was written by Princess Luna herself.” With the pan flute in hand, he started to play the mesmerizing song. It wasn’t anything too long, only lasting five minutes, but its purpose was served as Anasta’s eyes slowly closed. She rested her head in her fore arms and drifted off to dreamland. 

He ran his hand over the top of her head as he looked to the black foliage overhead caused by the surrounding trees. “Not long now.” And with that, he laid himself down in his own hammock and slowly drifted off to sleep. 



Authors notes: Sorry for the long wait, I've been have the worst of problems with some of my darned proofreaders. Two of them didn't even look at this chapter, and even after contacting them about it, I was forced to let them go. Then I had to find new ones, and well, its been hazardous. Anyway, enough of my problems.

A big thanks to Meeester for being super duper patient and for sticking with me, a big thanks to Mally for just proofreading for me. I know you haven't done much yet but I look forward to working with you more. Finally a big thanks to you few people that are actually reading my story.
	
> I'm too Sexy for My Skin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                        
Several days went by in a flash for Anasta and Hexxus as they continued to travel southwards. The days themselves were very much alike, starting with Hexxus waking them up at an early time in the morning, then they would eat a quick breakfast before taking off. Then they would fly all day, only stopping once for quick five minute lunch break. At the end of the days, they would set up camp under the trees and get prepared for the night. Anasta would take care of the beds and making the fire, while Hexxus would fish up some dinner, and when it was time to go to bed he would play his pan flute till she went to sleep.        

As they continued to move southward the trees grew smaller, and the mountains in the distance became more visible. The types of trees were also starting to change from giant mangrove trees to smaller, but still big, red barked pine trees that could be found in the mountains. The swampy ground was replaced first by patches of tall grasses, then by rock formations and scrub oak.         

Half way through the six day of traveling, Anasta started to recognize the surrounding area, and was able to find a small village that she had stayed in before called Low Nest. It had been a long time, but when she had last stayed here, it was back when she was around eight years old and she, and her parents stayed with her Uncle.         

“No Hexxus stop!” Anasta pleaded as she tried to hold him back from darting into the village. She could feel the hairs of his scruffy little tail slowly sliding in her grip. I am not giving up the chance at a warm bed because of this idiot! Even though she was forced to double her efforts by flying in the opposite direction, it was doing little good as Hexxus took step after step towards the village.         

There were a collection of about forty or so tree house buildings that were protruding out of seven of the large trees, about a hundred feet off the forest floor. Each building encircled the tree and was held up by a series of wood planks underneath. Most of the houses had a great distance in between each other to make room for the grape vines that hung from the bark of the trees. These vines stretched all the way down to the forest floors at the bases of each tree.         

“Let me go Anny so I can see the world!”         

“No Hexxus, stop now!” Anasta commanded as she continued to lose ground. I must stop him before we’re noticed! “You can’t just go flying up there and-“         

“But why not master Anny?”         

“Because Hexxus, if you go flying up there the way you are now they may think you are a threat.” Anasta could feel him starting to calm down and stop pulling as hard. ”No one has ever seen something like you before and I can guarantee that they won’t take to it lightly.” Hexxus stopped his forward advance and turned back to Anasta, who was breathing heavily. ”Most gryphons are very hostile towards things they don’t know about or understand. We may not be able to stay there if you look the way you are.”         

“Okay Anny, I understand, what do you suggest I do?”         

She pondered on this for a moment. “Well, I was thinking that since you have magic and all you could maybe cast a spell that makes you look like a gryphon.”         

“Well, I can cast an illusion spell that can imitate anything I have seen but that breaks after anything touches me. Will that work?”          

The problem with that isn't keeping things from touching him, its keeping him from touching other things, and with this buffoon that's going to be impossible. “Umm, I don’t think so.”         

“Well, then I can only really think of one other thing that could possibly work.” Hehehe I just know she is going to like this when she sees it, and even if she doesn’t, I sure as hell will! 

Hexxus took a step back and put his hands together as if he were praying, put them up to his mouth, and started blowing into them. His skin started to swell up as if it were a balloon being pumped full of air. He continued to inflate until his midsection had enveloped his arms and legs, and he looked like a awkward beach ball. Just when Anasta thought he was about to explode, a loud hissing came from where a quarter sized hole had appeared in the center of his head. As the air left him, his skin deflated and soon it hung over his new body as if it were a pink wrinkly elephant skin rug. 

Okay whats going on? It’s not moving. Anasta slowly came up to the side of the mound of flesh and gave it a quick poke with one of her talons. 

“Umm Hexxus… a-are you alright?” She gave the lifeless mound another poke. But this time something grabbed her finger through the skin and wouldn’t let go. Anasta screamed in fright as she yanked her finger away from him. 

“Hehehe I got you!” said a feminine voice that was oddly familiar, as something stood up underneath the blanket of skin. A talon poked through the small hole where the air had escaped and started to tear a line down the skin large enough for whatever Hexxus had transformed into to get out. 

“Wahhhh?” Anasta watched in absolute horror and amazement as a perfect mirror imitation of her pulled itself out of the folds of skin. 

Hexxus looked over his new body with a smirk on his face. DAYAM I look nice! “Well, how do you like it Anny?” 

Anasta was equally flattered as she was disgusted that he would choose to transform into her, also hearing him speak in her voice made it just creepy. “It’s a start, but why did you have to turn into me?” 

“Well, this spell only allows me to turn into things I have touched, and well, your one of two gryphons I have ever put my hands on. And I don’t think you would like the other one I have touched.” Hmm, I wonder how I’d look if I did this? 

“Who is the other one... and stop that right NOW!” 

Hexxus stood up on his two back paws, putting one of his talons behind his head and one on his flank. He gave Anasta a seductive gaze. “Mmhmmhmmhmm sex-“ He was abruptly met by a unidentified flying fist, right in the face. 

“You know what, I don’t care who this other gryphon is that you have touched, just transform into him.” He tried to protest, but one hard look from Anasta and he submitted. 

 “Okay, whatever you say Anny.” Hexxus got back onto his feet before walking up to his old skin. He opened it up and climbed back inside, but not without teasing Anasta one last time by flicking his tail up and exposing everything to her. He wrapped the skin around him tightly, and a green glow emanated from it as the rip in it started to close up. Once closed, it started re-inflating much like before, but faster this time. Once it was at the point of nearly bursting a small hole appeared in its top again letting all the air out. But this time when it deflated, the mound under the flesh was nearly twice as large as Anasta was. 

Like last time Hexxus cut a hole in the skin, and stepped out as a large and fairly muscular male gryphon. The feathers covering his upper body were a dark rustic color and his lower body was tan. Of course, it just had to be him, Anasta thought to herself as she looked at a mirror image of the very gryphon that tried to rape her, Ulser. 

“Like I said before Master Anny, I don’t think you will like this one.” His voice was much more low and gruff than before, and sounded as if he were on the brink of anger, even if it was unintentional. 

“Well, I can honestly say that I don’t approve of it, but its not like we have that much of a choise here”. And it’s better than having you parading around as me. She shuddered at the thought. “Well now that we have what you look like down, all that is left is sorting out your attitude.” 

“Why, what’s wrong with my attitude?” 

“Well, think about it for a second, if I can barely put up with you then how do you think everyone else will do? No you need to tone things down a bit and act normal.” 

Hexxus didn’t like where this was going. “Like what things?” 

“For starters, the way you act around others.“ She started counting off her fingers. ”You are too loud, cocky, arrogant, impulsive, silly, idiotic, and the way you insult others, even if it is just for fun, will more than likely get you in trouble.” Hexxus looked as if he had just been struck across the face. “Don’t break out into song randomly, no magic unless it is absolutely necessary, don’t get into fights, behave yourself, etc, etc.” Hexxus fake feinted as she basically denied him his whole personality. ”Also, you can’t go around touching everything that you fancy, some gryphon may think you are trying to steal from them.” 

“So you want me to act like your average, run of the mill, mortal?” He had a dismal look on his face. “Good! I think your finally starting to get what I mean when I say for you to be normal.” Hexxus shifted in discomfort.         

“Hhhnnggeeerrrraaahhh okay I’ll try, but I’ll have you know; you are really pushing my limits here.”         

“Good boy!” She took off, but not before giving him a light pat on his head. “Now, let’s go and see if old Uncle Bill still has that loft on the second level of the third tree.”         

She flew up to the village of tree houses with a small grin on her face. She loved her time in Low Nest when her parents had brought her here for vacation five years ago. Nothing had changed over the years. She would occasionally offer a smile and a wave to any of the gryphon’s that she had recognized, and they would all return her smiles and waves, whether or not they remembered her. Afterwards they would return to whatever activity they were doing beforehand, which was mostly tending to the masses of vines that coated the trees. 

Meanwhile, Hexxus just trailed along behind her clenching his fist multiple times in an attempt to suppress the urges to… well be himself.  His eyes flashed back and forth at houses that they passed, and his curiosity kept making him want to know what most of the things were that he saw in them through their windows. He silently cursed the advances and changes that naturally came with time. Everything was new to him and if it weren’t for Anasta being there he would have been all over everything like a fat kid in a candy store. 

Pretty soon though his attention was pulled to one place when Anasta stopped in front of one of the tree houses that was nearly unnoticeable because of all the vines that had completely covered it. In fact, if it wasn’t for a small circular window half way up part of the wall, Hexxus would have asked why they were stopping. They landed on a small porch, which was also covered in vines, that jutted out a few feet from the house. Anasta walked up to the window and pulled some of the vines to the side, revealing a small grey door that was painted to match the color of the tree’s bark. She gave it three hard rasps with the back of her knuckle. 

After a few minutes of nothing, she gave the door another two knocks, and after another minute of silence Hexxus decided to break the silence. “Anny, I don’t think anyone is ho-“ 

Suddenly they heard a series of very loud locks being undone from the other side of the door, and thirty seconds later it was open revealing a old gryphoness. She had grey feathers adorning her upper body and an even darker shade of grey covering her flanks. She had that old look about her, but it was also the look of someone who held themselves with pride, and were pleased  with how their life was. But the most distinct feature about her was the centimeter thick black glasses that sat on her beak. They magnified her azure eyes to such a preposterous size. 

Oh dear Eden this is going to be hard. Just breathe Hexxus and resist the urge to laugh. But as he looked into those deep blue orbs, it became painfully obvious he was fighting a losing battle. It soon escalated to the point where he had to had to hold his beak shut to keep him from laughing. 

She shifted her glasses up her beak so she could get a better look at the two gryphons at her door. “Ehhh whose there?” Her voice was very high pitched and made her sound like she was whining every word she said.

Oh my Eden. The glasses! The voice! I give up! Hexxus fell over and gave into the uncontrollable laughter. 

“It’s me Antie Robin, Anasta !” Oh please say that she will recognize me... and Grydon damnit Hexxus! While her aunt adjusted her glasses some more, Anasta gave Hexxus a quick kick with her back leg. 

“Anasta?” The old bird adjusted her glasses a few more times before realizing who it was. “Oh Anasta, how’ve you been? Its been so long since we last saw you.” 

By this time Hexxus had went into a seizure, and was foaming at the mouth from laughing so hard at how Antie Robin sounded when she talked. 

Anasta just ignored this and moved to hug her aunt. “I’m fine Auntie Robin, and it’s been too long since we last saw each other.” 

“Indeed it has darling.” She then looked over to the other gryphon on her porch, that was convulsing uncontrollably. “Umm, before we catch up, Anasta dear, don’t you think we should get your friend some help first? It sounds like he’s suffocating.” 

“Oh don’t worry about him he is just a bit weird.” Anasta put one of her back paws on his side and shoved him off the edge of the porch. There that should help him stop being an total jerk. Turning away from the edge she beamed a smile at her aunt, who looked a little concerned about what just transpired. “Now what say you, we go inside and set up a nice cup of tea Antie Robin.” 

Just then a whoosh of air ruffled Anasta’s feathers as a rustic blur flew up past them and landed on the porch. Hexxus had a full recovery and put his A-game face on as he approached Robin. 

“Well Mrs. Robin, it is a pleasure to meet you, and I do hope you can forgive my rudeness from before.” He picked up one of her wrinkly talons and gave it a kiss. 

Oh hell no! Is he putting moves on my aunt? Hexxus continued kissing his way up the limb. Yep, it’s finalized, I’m going to KILL HIM!!! 

“Oh well ain’t you the charmer. Anasta aren’t you going to introduce him?” Robin had a slight blush across her cheeks. 

“His name is-“ 

“I am Hexxus Algra Celbrus,” he bowed his head slightly, before giving the old gryphon a mischievous gaze, “but you can just call me Hex.”

“Oh how exotic! Please do come in. I was just starting to make some lunch, and well, I always have a habit of making a bit too much food for me and Bill to finish on our own.” Robin turned around and walked back into her house, and Hexxus followed close behind, only to be stopped by a hard tug on his tail preventing him from advancing any more. 

Anasta pulled him back till she could look into his eyes with her ice cold gaze. “What in Tartarus do you think you’re doing? I thought we agreed no funny business.” A rattle snake’s poison had nothing on the venom that dripped from her words. 

“What? I’m just being polite.” 

“Being polite, and flirting with my aunt are two completely different things.” She reached up and pulled him down to her eye level by the beak. ”Now promise me that you won’t do it again.” 

“Uhg… okay I promise.” 

“Good.” Anasta pushed past him and entered the house. Hexxus chuckled to himself as he lifted his talons, which just happened to be crossed, up to his face for a few seconds before following Anasta. 

The inside of the house was obviously made using unicorn magic. It went deep into the tree, where at its center there was a single pillar of wood that opened up, revealing a spiral stair case that went up and down into two more floors. Almost everything was made of wood; the tables, chairs, couches, even the plates and silverware.  In fact the few things that weren’t were the glass in the windows, cushions on the seats, and a single iron stove in the far corner of the house, but even that was painted brown to help it match the interior. There weren’t any curtains on any of the windows since there was no need for them, the vines outside took care of that. 

Hexxus and Anasta wiped their feet off on a rough mat  made of some sort of bristly bark before entering. Hexxus let out a whistle at all the wood around him, which Anasta gave him a jab in the side for. Antie Robin disappeared somewhere in the back of the house through two doors that were shaped to look like western saloon doors. 

“Bill we have company!~” 

“Ehh, who is it?” Came a winded voice that sounded as if the user was under a lot of strain. 

“It’s Anasta and she’s brought a friend with her.” 

There was a grunt and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor from one of the other levels, and not soon after the figure of a large gryphon ascending the stairs could be seen. Hexxus could honestly say he was intimidated by the looming figure of the old gryphon that just appeared because of how muscular he was. If it weren’t for the wrinkles on the gryphons face and the grey feathers that covered most of his body anyone would have thought that he was still in the mid twenties. 

Two hard scarlet eyes slowly looked over Hexxus, who was grinning like an idiot and waving slightly at him. Then he turned to look at the significantly smaller Anasta, and that hard look of his softened like butter. 

“Well look here, our little Anny has grown all up, and she has gotten a boy friend!” The large gryphon had a small smile on his face as he rushed over to her and picked her up, easily enveloping her in his big arms. 

Anasta blushed furiously and tried pushing her way out of her uncle’s vice lock grip. “He’s just a friend Uncle Bill, now please I need air!” She said patting him on the shoulder. 

“Oh sorry dear.” He put her down and ruffled the feathers on her head. “Look at you, it’s almost as if you haven’t grown an inch.” He chuckled as a frustrated look entered her eyes. He then turned to Hexxus who was just Dwahhhing at the site of the family reunion. “And who might you be?” 

“Who me?” Hexxus looked around as if someone was standing next to him. “Why, I am the infamously favored idiot of yester year, but you can call me Hexxus sir.” He held out a talon, which Bill hesitantly accepted. 

“Bill,” the large gryphon squeezed Hexxus’s hand a bit too hard and it let out a pop, “it’s a pleasure.” 

“Hehehe I like you Billy,” Hexxus replied by squeezing the larger gryphon’s hand equally as hard, “maybe you and I can hang out later.” 

The two were looking each other in the eyes with the fiercest of looks and the tension in the air could be felt swelling as their heads kept moving together. Bill had an almost angry look on his face, and Hexxus just stared back with an unsettling grin on his face that could scare a manticore shit-less. 

Okay I need to put a stop to this before Anything happens. “Okay you guys break it up, and Hexxus what did I say about behaving yourself.” 

“Oh don’t worry Anny,” Hexxus said, Bill gave him a intrigued look when he called her Anny, “I was just introducing myself like any veteran of war would.” 

“Damn right my little Anasta, we are just two soldiers greeting each other, and I must say it’s been a long time since I have seen someone with enough guts to stare me down like that.” 

“Wait Hexxus how did you know that Uncle Bill used to be in Gryphonica’s militia?” 

“Anny it’s only something a fighter would know, and by Eden judging by your uncles eyes, I can already tell he has been though a great many battles.” He said with a smirk on his face. 

“And right you are lad,” Bill said returning Hexxus’s grin, ”but now I have to ask, what are you supposed to be? Never in my life have I ever seen a gryphon like you before. You have the look of a warrior in your eyes but there is something more dwelling in their depths.” 

“Well let’s just say I’m a veteran form a different time and leave it at that.” 

“Okay I can respect that, but how are you associated to Anasta?” The admiration in his voice was replaced now by concern. 

“Well, umm… ” Darnit what do I do? I cant just say I became her servant after saving her from nearly being raped. ”Anny do you want to cover this one?” 

“Yah I guess I may as well. Well Uncle Bill we met up at Birch Peak. I saved Hexxus and then he saved me, and from then on we have been traveling together.” 

Bill had a small amount of anger in his face when he turned back to Hexxus. “You haven’t done anything to ruin my niece’s innocence, have you boy? Cause if you have I swear I’ll-“ 

“Uncle Bill stop, Hexxus and I aren’t like that,” Ewww, why’d he have to bring that up? Now I'm thinking about it and... ewewewewew! “we are just friends.” 

“Yah if anything I’m more like her bodyguard.” 

“Bodyguard?” Bill raised an eye brow. 

“Well you see, when we met I was in quite the pickle and Anny here help me out, so now I am repaying the favor.” 

“Well now, I never took you to be the brave type Anasta.” 

“Well you know, time changes all things.” She said rolling her eyes. 

Just then Robin’s voice came from the kitchen requesting some help to make dinner. Hexxus was about to volunteer but Anasta knew better that to trust him alone with her aunt so she went instead leaving him alone with her uncle. A few awkward moments passed before Hexxus broke the silence that had befallen the room. 

“So… umm… what was it you were doing right before we came in here? It sounded like you doing some pretty heavy lifting down there.” 

“Well, you are pretty close when it comes to that. Here why don’t we go down and I can show you my wine cellar.” Hexxus couldn't help but to notice a twinkle of pride in the Bill’s eyes. 

“W-wine? You make wine!?” Oh thank Eden, booze! Bill chuckled as he started back down the stairs to the basement. 

“You ain’t from around here are you boy?” Hexxus merely shook his head. “Well to be honest, nearly everyone in this village has some sort of a wine cellar, after all it is our main export and one of the only things keeping this town afloat.” 

He ducked under a low piece of wood that had had grown out into the staircase despite the enchantments in the wood. “Watch your head.” 

Once at the bottom he flicked a light switch that lit up the room in an instant. To any normal gryphon this would have been normal, but to an impossibly old demigod that had been sealed away for a few thousand years, it was some sort of new magic that he couldn’t comprehend. So for less than a second, Hexxus had a momentary loss of sanity, and here are a few things he did in that .823 seconds; ate an unholy churro, sculpted a very very detailed marble statue of Celestia, befriended a retarded horse, climbed a mountain, farted fire, put down the retarded horse when it got rabies, sang ‘Country Roads’ with an elk while wearing a sombrero, fought off a zombie apocalypse that was lead by the retarded horse, and finished up by setting fire to a dress making shop in some distant town far down south. 

But to Bill this all sounded as if it were an excited squeal. “What was that?” He looked back at Hexxus who had a calm face. 

“What? I didn’t hear anything.” He said as he used one of his back paws to push a sombrero lying on the floor out of sight. 

“Right.” Bill narrowed his eyes slightly before continuing on into the center of the basement, where there was an assortment of different wine related objects. 

It was a very large, open basement that had the ceiling go up a good fifteen feet high, to make room for the numerous wine making necessities. Half of the room had barrels stacked up on their sides, each easily larger than the average gryphon, and would require two sets of hands to lift when filled. On the other side of the room was several stations where the actual making of the wine would take place. In each area there was different assortments of tools that would help in the making of the wine. 

“Well, this is where the magic takes place.” He first walked over to a large round stone, that was set up in the same way you would see wheat grinding mill stones, set up in the middle of the room. “This is where it all begins for making great wine; first I take whatever fruit I am making into a wine, which is usually grape, and grind it down to a pulp here.” He pointed to a small trough that the stone wheel went around where there was already some mashed up grapes in it. “This was what I was doing right before you and Anasta came in here today.” There was a thick leather collar, modified to fit a gryphon, sticking out from an assortment of gears and pulleys that made it easier to push the wheel around. 

He then picked up a scraper and took out a mound of mashed grapes. “Now if you look underneath all this mashed up fruit, you can see these small holes under the trough.” He pointed to the holes, each were the circumference of a pencil. “These let the mash fall into the glass bowls below. And then once enough mash has been acquired,” he picked a half filled bowel up and brought it over to what looked like a meat grinder, “we put it in here.” He dropped the mash into the top and flipped a switch making the machine come to life with a little whirring sound. “This device is used for two different things; removing the juice from the mashed up grapes,” another bowl underneath a tap connected to the machine started to fill with liquid, “and filtering out all the seeds from the leftover mash so they can be replanted.” 

“You know Bill, I would have never taken you for a guy that makes wine.” Hexxus said with a cheesy grin on his face. 

“Yeah I know, but there isn’t much that a guy can take passion in doing after retiring. Anyway the wine business isn’t half bad paying, if you know what I mean. Plenty of bits and all the booze you can drink.” He let out a hearty chuckle. 

“Well, I do enjoy someone that knows how to live and certain-“ 

“Boys, lunch is ready!” Anasta yelled down the stairs. “Come get it while it’s still hot!” 

A wide smile spread across Hexxus’s face as the thoughts of food entered his mind. “Joy!  Come on Sarge, last one there doesn’t get seconds.” He darted up the stairs in the blink of an eye leaving behind a gryphon shaped cloud of smoke that had a slight tint of green to it. 

The old gryphon let out a sigh. “These younger gryphons are starting to make me feel old.” Suddenly came a loud thunk, and Hexxus came rolling down the stairs with a red lump on his forehead from hitting that stray branch in the hall way. “Then again, this one is a bit of an ignoramus so I guess that makes up for it.” He then stepped over Hexxus, who was seeing wine bottles and corks doing cartwheels around his head. 






This fictional piece was brought to you by the letters B and O, and by the number 2232. You know it =). 


Now I would like to hold a small memorial for all the lives lost in the making of this chapter.
Brain cells 232-641(2003-2012)
You guys won't be missed. 


Opelesence(???-2012)
Such an annoying cat.


Retared horse(1765-2012)
The only one I really cared about.	


The Frontier Phychiatrist(1968-2012)
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!


Kenny McCorrmick(???-???)
Those mother f***ing bastards.



But really thanks once again to my proofreaders Meeester, Mally, and Ex-Nihilos. Also big thanks to all of you who are following this story, it really means allot. 
> He Can Hold it, She Cannot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lunch consisted of three mushroom quiche pies and a large bowl of boiled cabbage. While not the most appetizing meal ever, Hexxus and Anasta ate their food without any complaints.         

“Well, this is just a complete joy to eat, Mrs. Robin. Anasta never told me you were such a good cook!” Hexxus said as he dug into  the last half of his pie with a blissful smile plastered on his face.        

“Dear, you’re welcome to take as much as you want.” And Hexxus wished he could, but thanks to a prior agreement, he was bound by words that he wouldn’t take seconds. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t think about it.         

“No, Mrs. Robin, as much as the idea appeals to me, I don’t think I could eat another bite.” Oh Eden, why did I have to make that stupid bet? Even after he had finished with his pie, he had to keep wiping his mouth, else he would drool all over the table cloth.         

“Well, suit yourself dear, but don’t forget it’s here if you do want more.”         

“So, Anasta,” Bill wiped off his beak, “you never really went into detail on how you two met, and I would really like to know. I would also like to know why you are out here alone, without your parents.”         

Anasta looked worried for a moment. “Umm, well, I am looking for Gilda.” She was surprised suddenly when both her aunt and uncle dropped their silverware and looked at her with shocked expressions.  “What?”         

They looked at each other for a moment before Robin took one of Anasta’s hands in her own. “Darling, Gilda came to us not long ago.”         

Her face immediately lit up, “Really?! How long ago was it, and did she say where she was going?”         

“Anasta, before I tell you what happened, know this; your sister, Gilda, is a very troubled gryphon.”  Robin paused and looked down at the tablecloth as she tried to find the right words. “One night, around six months ago, she showed up at our doorstep. She was drunk and looked as if she just went through nine rounds with a manticore. It was so bad, we didn’t think she would last the night.” Robin nearly choked on her last words, as she held back her tears. Bill put his hand on her, gripping it reassuringly, and whispered something to Robin before she slowly started to nod.   

Bill then looked up with eyes harder than Anasta had ever seen them. “Gilda stayed with us for about a month, as we helped nurse her back to health. We would often ask her what was going on, but she would always find some way of interrupting or changing the subject. Pretty soon I got fed up, and decided if she wasn’t going to willingly tell us what had happened, then I would force it out of her. 

“Somehow, she must have found out what I was going to do, because the very next day when I was about to confront her, I caught her in the cellar stealing from us.” Even though his voice spoke with anger, Bill’s eyes only had sorrow in them. “When I found her, she had a good thousand bits on hand that could have only come from my personal safe. I tried talking some sense into her, but she kept repeating that she needed the money or she would be hunted down. I tried questioning her further, but before I could get the chance, she set fire to the cellar.” 

Anasta let out an audible gasp. I always knew Gilda had some problems, but I never thought she would go as far as trying to destroy Uncle Bill’s house. 

“Thankfully, I was able to put it out before it caused any serious damage, but thanks to the fire, she was able to get away with the money.” As Bill finished, tears started to escape Robin’s eyes. They made small pattering sounds as they hit the wood plate beneath her.         

“It’s alright, Aunt Robin,” She looked up and was surprised to see Anasta smiling, “this just makes me want to find her even more, so I can find out what’s the matter with her, and help her back onto her feet. If I can just talk to her, I know I can get her to change her ways, then we can all go back home to mom and dad and be a family again.”         

“Oh, Anasta, you are such a good girl, and I hope you are able to-“         

“WAAAAHHHHAHAHAHAH!” They all looked over to Hexxus who was bawling his eyes out. “Oh Eden, sniff, that is the sweetest thing I have ever heard, sniff, and yet, it’s the saddest. I hate it when tragic things happen to families.” They just ignored him as he continued wail.        

 “Well, moving back to the subject at hand, you were about to tell us how you and Hexxus met.”        

“Umm, well you see… while I was in Birch Peak, I got a tip from an innkeeper that Gilda went to this club every night. So, going off his word, I went to the club where I met a group of horrible gryphons that said they knew my sister.” Anasta’s voice filled with venom as she spoke of them and having Hexxus in one of their bodies right across from her wasn’t helping matters. “They took me out to an alley, where they tried to… well you can figure that out.” Both her uncle and aunt let out audible gasps of shock. ”They nearly had their way with me, but I managed to escape and fly downwards in the hopes that I could hide amongst the roots of the tree. I got there and entered the tangle of roots, but I couldn’t shake them, and that’s when I met Hexxus.” 

Hexxus had a large grin on his face as he chuckled and waited anxiously for his introduction. Here comes the part where she meets me; the masculine, the strong, the devilishly handsome hero! Haha I can’t wait for the part where I swoop in and save the dams-         

“I have no idea how it happened, but his head was trapped between two massive roots, and he was unable to get out.”        

 What, no Anny, that’s not a heroic entrance at all... Hexxus gave her a hurt look which she returned with one that said, Ha! Payback, beeyotch! 

Anasta hated to lie to her relatives, but at least it was relatively close to the truth. “I didn’t trust him at first, but he said if I let him go, he would help me in return. There wasn’t much I could do to help get him out with the little time I had, but I guess it was enough because those monsters caught up to me soon after. Just when they were about to get what they wanted, Hexxus came out of nowhere and… well, I have trouble remembering anything after that.” 

“How come you couldn’t remember it?” Bill had a small amount of disbelief in his voice that was well-hidden under all the concern. 

“I must have blacked out, cause the next thing I remember was waking up to the sight of a campfire that Hexxus had set up. After a bit of small talk I told him why I was in the situation I was in, and after that he said that he wanted to travel with me, and...” Anasta tapped her chin in thought, ”Hmm. Hexxus, what were the words you used?” 

“That a helpless and tiny child,” Anasta silently growled at his choice of words. Hexxus knew she hated it when he called her a kid, ”like yourself shouldn’t be traveling alone in this messed up world of ours.” 

“Yes, that.” Hexxus swallowed a lump that suddenly formed in his throat when he saw the sadistic look in her eyes. 

Oh, the things I am going to do to you after we are done here. Pictures of different ways she could torture him later started drifting into her mind. ”After that, it’s pretty obvious what has been going on. We travel together, and I have to say, it has been much better with him around.”         

Bill was about to voice some of his concerns about the story, but Robin could see it coming and spoke up before he had the chance. “Well, Anasta I am just happy that you are safe and that you found a nice friend that would be willing to go so far for you. Isn’t that right Bill?” She gave him the drop it or no sex for a month look, while still being able to maintain her smile.         

“Mmhmm, yes dear.” Hexxus snickered and Bill shot him an angry look.         

The four of them quickly changed the topic, and before they knew it, all the food was gone. The rest of the day consisted of Bill showing Hexxus more about making wine and Anasta catching up with her aunt while they cleaned around the house.         

---------------------         

Hexxus had his trademark maddening grin on his face as he returned the foolish look of his opponent that was waiting for him to make his next move. There were at least a dozen sets of eyes on Hexxus, watching, waiting to see if he could take what had been dished out and give it back twice as hard. He outstretched his left talon, trying to find his target, only to bump into the edge of the table. He swore under his breath as he made another reach for the miniature container filled with that amber gold, this time accidentally whipping his talon across the face of one of the onlookers. 

He had already put three others to shame, two male gryphons and one gryphoness, and they were each lying unconscious in their chairs. One had a long line of drool running down his neck from his open beak; another was snoring loudly and muttering in his sleep, while the last was contently sucking on her thumb. 

Hexxus broke eye contact with his opponent for a brief second so he could get his bearings and locate his target. Once in sight he squinted hard at it, and slowly reached out a third time, this time finding the small glass of liquid. Everyone in the room held their breaths as he carefully lifted the shot to his beak. He wavered for just a second when it was a few inches away, which was enough to put a smile on his opponent’s face, and for some reason it was getting more and more… attractive. Seeing this smile gave him just enough willpower to lift the glass those glorious few inches left to his beak, and bending his head back, he drained it into his mouth. Everyone around them let out their breaths, and a portly bar maid came up and prepared the next round of shots for the two.   

About an hour and a half before this happened, Bill had invited Hexxus and Anasta to the local pub for some drinks and fun. It was the second highest building in the town and judging by appearances, it wasn't the most respectable of places. The Amber Sparrow was printed on a loosely hanging sign just above the entrance of the incredibly run-down looking bar. But once inside, there were seven or so round tables, each packed with both male and female gryphons, all laughing and having a merry old time. 

Hexxus took a long, deep sniff of the air. “Ah, I missed the familiar smell of liquor, puke,” He inhaled deeply again, “and is that a hint of urine?” 

Bill chuckled while Anasta covered her beak. “Ugg, how can you two find this to be a good smell? I can hardly breathe in here.” 

“You’ll get used to it, Anny,” Hexxus put an arm around her neck. “just think of this as the smell of growing up.” 

Bill chuckled and patted her on the back before moving towards a certain group sitting in the back of the bar composed of four older gryphons. Upon seeing him, their faces lit up with joy, and they got up to embrace him with outstretched arms. 

“Bill, it’s been a while since we last saw you in here!” the nearest one said in a Manehatten accent as he wrapped his arms around Bill. He was an average-sized gryphon whose feathers where a dull, orangey brown; his fur was mostly grey, and atop his head he wore a black beret. “Why have you been such a stranger lately? Was it because of that little incident with the corkscrew and the light bulb?” 

Bill’s eyes shrunk a little, and he coughed loudly, trying to get his friend to drop the subject. “I... Uhh... No,” He didn’t sound very convincing, “it’s not because of that. I-I’ve just been kept really busy lately with this year’s harvest is all.” 

“Sure you have… anyway, have a seat, get a drink,” He guided Bill to an empty chair, “and maybe you could tell us about that fine young thing that has been following you around since you entered.” 

Anasta had turned red, and Bill shot his friend a very angry look, and was about to get up and beat some sense into him when Hexxus spoke up. 

“Sorry buddy, but I ain’t into that kind of thing, and anyway, you aren’t my type.” He finished by flicking the lid of the beret that the confused gryphon wore. The three gryphons still sitting at the table started snickering to each other and soon enough the laughter caught on and that corner of the bar echoed with their merriment. Some seats were stolen from other tables, and soon everyone was closely packed around the table. 

“So Bill, why don’t you introduce us to your friends here.” 

“This is my niece Anasta, and her friend Hexxus. They just got into town today and are staying with me and Robin for a few days.” Anasta waved shyly while Hexxus just grinned at them and gladly accepted their extended talons. While he shook them, Bill introduced his friends. “The one with the ebony feathers and bushy eyebrows is known simply as Gumbo.” 

“How’s it goin’?” His voice was very coarse like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. 

“The short one next to him, with the smoking pipe, is known as Everest.” 

“Mmhmm, it is a pleasure to meet you both.” He was indeed very short, only just taller than Anasta. He was covered in grey feathers and a tan coat. 

“The one next to you, Hexxus, is Gabe.” 

“Eh.” he said lazily while lifting two claws to his brow and doing a mini salute. He waved from side to side slightly, and there were two empty pint mugs in front of him. Gabe was solid dark brown from feathers to fur. 

“And finally, there is Jackson, whom you have already met; although, everyone just calls him by his nickname Mary.” 

“Why’s that?” Anasta asked, giving her uncle an intrigued look before taking a small sip out of a small glass of white wine. 

“Well, lass, back when your uncle here and I were positioned in the eastern front on the border of Gryphonica and Equestria, the small fort that we were assigned to protect came under attack from a pack of diamond dogs. They called themselves the Blood Hounds, and they were well-equipped. Soon, we were overrun and captured, then sent to their nearby caves to mine for gems. 

“But I wasn’t about to submit to them that easily, and on the third day we had been there, right as those mutts were putting us in our cages for the night, I hatched a brilliant plan to escape. I waited until the change of guards and quickly used the spikes of the collars that they had put on us to make a cut in the palms of my talons.” He said, uplifting his talons to reveal a scar on each. “I cupped my talons together and allowed the blood to gather in them until it spilled over the edges. Then I used the blood, poured it over my head, and finally I kicked the bars of the cage as hard as I could getting the guards attention. 

“When they got there, all that they would see was what seemed to be a prisoner who had killed himself. While they removed my dead,” he emphasized by scrunching his talons, “body from the cage, I surprised them and slew them before setting all my fellow soldiers free. After that it’s basically history; we found a small cache of weapons, and taking the Blood Hounds by surprise, we gave them what was coming to them. Somewhere during the battle, the dogs called me Bloody Mary, and I guess the nickname just stuck.” 

Over the next hour, the five veteran soldiers exchanged stories, got into a big argument, and somehow offended some of the other locals, which resulted in a drinking contest. Now, all that was left was a copper-red gryphon that had a scar on his cheek, and Hexxus, who had a large grin on his face. The bar maid just poured them their next round of shots. 

“Come on, Hezzus hic I know you can hic do it.” Gabe said as he just barely leaned on the table. “Don’t let this hic green-billed pigeon beat yooooooouwhoa!” The drunk gryphon collapsed between the remaining two drinkers and passed out. 

Hexxus reached for his twenty-fourth shot and raised it above his head. “Too everyfffffing fatty and cheesecake!” he yelled before downing the drink. “Ahhhh let’sh shee you beat that beat that beat… huh? Is that a pink elephant on your beak?” 

The competitor glared angrily at Hexxus before grabbing his shot and quickly throwing it down his gullet. He slammed the glass back on the table and signaled the bar maid to refill them. 

“Oh, sho you fink you can beat me; the almosht powerful prinshe of Ponpep.” He wavered for a moment before raising the glass to his beak and downing its contents. 

The other gryphon shook his head a few times while blinking in an attempt to shake off the darkness that was forming in the corners of his vision. With a great deal of effort, he grabbed the little glass that looked as if it were a mile away, and tried to bring it to his mouth. He over shot it though, and instead went too high. In an attempt to right it, he leaned back to try and catch the tilting glass. With a loud crash, he fell off the back of the stool he was sitting in and was out cold before he hit the ground. 

Suddenly the bar was filled with noise, some of them cheers, and some of them groans followed by the jingling of coin purses. Apparently many of onlookers of the drinking contest had placed bets to see who would win, and before Hexxus knew it, he was raised from his seat by some unknown gryphon who was holding his hand up high. Someone put a heavy sack of bits in his free claw, and after whoever it was that was holding his hand up let go, Hexxus soon lost balance. 

“All right there matey, I think you have had enough.” Jackson put one of Hexxus’s arms around his back and helped him up, “It’s time for us to find out where Bill and that girlfriend of yours have gone off to.” 

“Ociffer it wasn’t me I shwear, it was the one-armed minotaur.” Hexxus rolled his head around until he could see Jackson’s face. “Hey, I noticed you noticing me noticing you. What shay we go get a drink, shexxy.” 

Jackson just chuckled as he pushed through the crowd. “And here I thought you weren’t that type of gryphon.” he said under his breath. He soon spotted Bill near the entrance of the bar with an arm around Anasta, trying to keep her from jumping up on the table so she could dance to a nonexistent song. 

“By Ereza’s beak, I just can’t comprehend how someone could get this wasted just by drinking a glass and a half of wine.” Bill said when Jackson came over with Hexxus. “So, how is he doing?” 

“Well, the good news is, he won the drinking contest and was rewarded with at least thirty bits.” he lifted up the bag of coins, “The bad news is that he can barely stand, and I doubt he can fly back to your place, and to be honest, I don’t think she could make the journey either.” 

“Don’t worry, I can handle it. I’m unique and will eat anything I want to; I have a separate stomach just for cake and ice cream!” Anasta laid her head on the table and started licking it. “Mmm your wood tastes sooo good.” 

“Nope, definitely won’t be flying home… huh well Mary, wanna help me back home with these two, and then maybe we can do a bit of catching up? Robin is making deviled eggs and some sort of a fish salad for dinner tonight, and with these two being how they are, I doubt they will be eating anything. So we should have plenty of food.” 

“Eh, why not?” He repositioned Hexxus so he would be easier to fly with. ”It’s been months since I last talked with Robin.” 

The two old veteran gryphons left, carrying the smashed duo on their backs, and when they got to Bill’s house they dropped them off in a spare bedroom before going down and eating some dinner. Afterwards, they finished up with a mug each of ale and a pair of cigars. 

“So, Jackson, I need you to do a favor for me.” Bill said reaching over and lighting his friend's cigar. Jackson raised an eyebrow. “Aye, and what, pray tell, might that be?” 

“I need you to check out this Hexxus character for me.” Bill thought back a few days ago from before Anasta and Hexxus had arrived. Back when he was last in the market, and had seen a particular poster with the strange gryphon’s face on it. ”I swear I have seen him somewhere before.” 




A super thanks once again to Meester, Mally, and Ex-Nihilos for proofreading for me, and a big thanks to all of you for reading this story. 







P.S. The next chapter may ake a bit longer than usual to come out. Sorry.
> I Can't Think of a Serious Chapter Name
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“AHHHH! AHHHH!!!”        

 “Oh, gods, my ears! Hexxus, what are you making all that noise for?” Anasta yelled over his screaming as she shot up in the bed she had been lying in… and that is when the throbbing pain kicked in. It felt worse than a cartoon monkey hitting her in the head multiple times with an over-sized wooden mallet. She looked down at the source of her pain, who was face down on the floor kicking at his blankets. “Hexxus, shut UP!” Ow! Bad idea, shouldn't have yelled.         

“Mwuhhhh no, stay away from me Georgino, don’t hit me with the stage light.”  Anasta felt the bed suddenly lurch away from where he was sleeping. She looked over the edge just in time to see him punch the side of her bed again. “Haha, take that, you damn zompony!”        

 He never ceases to annoy me, even in his accursed sleep. Anasta picked up her own pillow and lobbed it at him; hitting him in the back of the head. “Darnit Hexxus, stop making so much noise.” He only turned around and faced the other direction, trying to find a more comfortable position. “Uhg, whatever.” 

She rubbed her throbbing head, as she groggily slid off of the bed and found her way to the door. She grabbed the handle, and that’s when the true pain overcame her senses. As the door opened, it let out an ear-rending CREEEEEEEEEEEK that made Anasta grind her beak. 

“Uhhhg, Anasta, please stop torturing me with that door!” yelled Hexxus who appeared to be suffering from an even worse hangover. ”GAH! My ears. GAH, not again. GAH!” 

“Shut up, Hexxus!” 

Silence befell the room once again before Anasta started to slowly creak open the door a second time. This time, they endured their unnatural throbbing headaches, and Anasta slipped out of the room and made her way to the spiraling staircase without bothering to close the door behind her. Once on the main level of the house, she pushed her way through the saloon-like doors of the kitchen and was met by a flurry of movement. 

“Goooooood morning Anny~!” sang her cheerful companion’s voice followed by the significantly softer voices of her aunt and uncle. 

“Hexxus, I thought I told you to shut up.” She paused and did a double take of who was in the kitchen with her. Her Aunt and Uncle were both sipping cups of coffee, nursing their own cases of the brown bottle flu. Bill’s friend Jackson, who had also stayed the night, was smoking a pipe, and Hexxus was at the stove, and his arms were a blur as they prepared some colorful dish. “Wait, weren’t you just upstairs in bed? And what happened to your hangover?” 

“Oh Anasta, good morning.” her aunt said in an understandably  hushed tone. “Hexxus is such a darling;  he helped all of us get up, made us these wonderful cups of coffee, and is now making us... oh, what did you call it again?”

“French toast!”  

“But he was just, and I... Oh, forget it.” Anasta just shrugged it off as Hexxus being Hexxus, and sat down at the table. She was in the middle of trying to remember what happened last night, and was halfway through the part where she tried to get the bartender to give her a piggy-back ride, when her thoughts were interrupted by a glass being slammed down in front of her. She looked up at Hexxus, who was grinning like a mad man. Oh, what does he want now? 

“Drink up. This should help clear up that hangover of yours faster than you can say ‘I can’t hold my liquor’.” She looked at her relatives who gave her concerned looks, then to Jackson, who was shaking his head, as if he were saying, ‘I wouldn’t do it if I were you,’ and he was probably right. 

But the expectant look in Hexxus’s eyes and the hope of curing the blistering headache brought on by her first hangover, gave her the courage to reach out to the tall, ominous glass of liquid. As it neared her mouth, she could see over the brim at the sloshing brown liquid inside. It had a pungent smell to it that rivaled even the worst of jock straps. She closed her eyes, and took one final moment, before bringing it to her beak. The smell alone, even though it was making her gag, had already started to ease the pain of her headache and that was all she needed to know before letting it pour into her mouth. 

“Oh. My. God.” she said, bringing the mug away from her to look at the concoction. “This is delicious! What is in it, I’ve got to know!?” Already, her headache had drastically receded, and she quickly started chugging the remainder of the drink. It was like a million mini-miracles of sweet fruit-like flavors exploding in her mouth. How can something so foul smelling taste so good? she thought to herself. 

“Oh, it wasn’t anything really,” Hexxus said as he turned back to what was cooking on the stove top, “It was just some almond paste,  a raw egg, an aspirin, three sardines, and a few lemon slices that were rubbed in my sweaty arm pits.” 

Anasta was in the middle of a gulp when she spat out what was in her mouth over everyone at the table. She grew pale as she looked at what was left of the now vile poison she had just drank. There was silence for a few seconds before someone slammed their fist down against the table. 

“Hah!” Everyone turned their attention to Jackson who was wiping his face off with a napkin and had just started to crack up uncontrollably. “Now that was hilarious! Nice joke there, boy, you’ve got one hell of a personality.” 

Hexxus turned around with a confused look on his face and a few plates piled high with sugar powdered slices of toast. “What do you mean joke? Every single one of those ingredients are what make my hangover cure so good.” 

This time it was Jackson’s turn to go pale. “But, I had one of your cures earlier this morning.” Just then he pushed the plate that had been just put in front of him away. “I think I have lost my appetite.”        

 	~)^_^(~

After the late breakfast, Jackson left to do his own thing, saying to Robin that they all needed to see each other more often. Soon after, they all left the kitchen, until it was just Hexxus who was cleaning the dishes, to attend their own business around the house. Bill went into the basement to make wine; Robin roamed around the house cleaning, and Anasta returned up stairs to fix the beds she and Hexxus had been using.         

Once finished, she enjoyed her first proper shower in nearly a week. As the pleasant feeling of steaming hot water cascaded down her back, she scanned the few shelves that held an assortment of differed hair and feather conditioners. She opted for a white bottle that had a picture of a blushing, pink maned mare with printed on its label. Right above were the words Vous Etes Chaud. Anasta popped the lid and inhaled deeply as the rich smell of butterscotch filled the steamy bathroom. Happy with her choice, she grabbed a scrubby off the wall and started to lather up her body. 

She let off a soft moan as her stress melted away with each stroke of the scrubby against her body. She let in a sharp breath when it softly caressed an extra sensitive part of her body, right were her shoulder met her wing. With small circles the soapy, foam covered scrubby, slowly made its way down her stomach towar- 
















And I am stopping right here and now before someone takes this moment the wrong way and starts making it creepy. 

Anyway...          

One very relaxing shower later, Anasta came downstairs to find that Hexxus had finished in the kitchen and was sitting on a couch with a sewing needle in hand, stitching together two pieces of white latex material.  Where he had gotten said pieces of fabric, she hadn’t a clue, but what he was turning them into looked like something you could only get from one of those more shady stores that could only be found downtown… you know the ones I’m talking about.          

She grabbed a nearby pillow off of one of the stools, placed it on the floor, and took a seat across from him. “So Hexxus, what chah making?”         

He looked up and her and she saw stars in his eyes that went with the devilish grin he had on. ”I’m making us matching outfits!Squee!”         

Oh dear Grydon ”And you are doing this now... why?”         

“I don’t know, but I think you’d look super in black.” He pulled out an already finished black latex suit that looked as if it were a few sizes too small for her. “Would you like try yours on, Mistress Anny?” He unexpectedly appeared next to her and put an arm around her shoulder. “I can envision it now; you in a tight, black latex suit, riding crop in one hand and a leash in the other with-”

"PERVERT!!!” she screamed as she slapped him across the face. “What kind of a girl do you think I am?” Grydon, what is his problem!? Just thinking about it- Oh no, I think I’m going to puke.                  

She was thankful, at that moment, because someone started knocking at the door, interrupting the repulsive image that had started forming in her head.         

“I’ll get it!” Hexxus leaped up in the air, and the next thing Anasta knew he was at the door, leaving a gryphon-shaped dust cloud behind.  

He opened the door and found a rather portly gryphon that was just a few inches shorter than he was, looking off to the side as if he were waiting for something. His feathers were alabaster with white tips and the fur that covered his rear was as white as the purest snow. He had a monocle on one eye and was wearing a pressed suit and a top hat. In his left hand was a black cane that had a large piece of jade on its top.  

“Hi there!” 

Hexxus made a move forward with his arms outstretched, intending to give the gryphon a hug but was stopped suddenly by a thick forearm. A bodyguard, that had previously been standing to the side of the door, revealed himself and let out a low growl. Hexxus considered Bill to be very buff, but this gryphon barring his way undoubtedly put Bill to shame when it came to muscle mass. He stood much taller than Hexxus, and the moss green feathers that covered his face were currently arranged in an intimidating scowl. “No one touches Count Fosco.” Even though the large gryphon’s voice was like rolling thunder, Hexxus didn’t stop trying to walk forwards.         

“Hmmhmmpf! Hasan, I do not veesh to leenger een zees… feelthy  place any longer zan I haf to.” The Count turned his gaze to look at Hexxus for only a moment before looking off to where he had been before. ”Remove zees uncouth peasant, so I may enter.”           

The guard only grunted in response before gripping Hexxus on both of his shoulders. Hexxus’s grin turned into an evil glare.         

“Eh Bub, I wouldn’t do that if I were you…” The bodyguard paid no heed to Hexxus’s warning, and simply moved to pick him up and throw him off the edge of the balcony. As he fell, the grin returned to his face and he yelled out, “Of course you realize, this means war.”         

With the inconvenience out of his way, the Count blatantly walked inside  without bothering to make sure the gryphon he just had ordered to be thrown off the edge was alright.  

Anasta saw the entire display, and immediately after she darted downstairs to get her uncle.         

“Uncle Bill come qui-!”         

WHACK!         

Bill had the large leather harness around his torso and was pushing the large stone, mashing hundreds of grapes for their juice. He stopped what he was doing and rushed over to the staircase when her voice suddenly cut off.  “Anasta, are you alright?” He found her laying upside down, half way up the stairs, dazed from striking the stray piece of wood that branched out there. He helped her back on her feet before repeating his previous question.         

“Don’t worry about me,” Anasta said reassuringly as she rubbed a lump in the middle of her forehead, “But upstairs there’s something going on, a count showed up at your door and-“         

Bill cut her off by putting a talon on her beak. “It will be alright Anasta, just stay down here and let me take care of everything.”         

Anasta was about to protest when a high pitched voice interrupted her followed by the sound of breaking glass.         

~)^_^(~         

“Of course you realize, this means war.”                     

Then came the inevitable fall, four hundred feet, straight downwards. Everything blurred like a canvas of smeared green and brown paint as Hexxus’s speed picked up. But as all things come to an end, so too did his fall as his downward plummet came to an abrupt halt when he slammed into the tiled roof of a shed that was connected to the base of the tree. He took half of it with him as he crashed into the somewhat soft dirt that made up the shed’s floor.                     

“Whoo, that was a close one.” Hexxus said looking at a short barrel filled with long sharpened, metal poles not two feet away from him. “I need to be a bit more careful the next time I go sky-diving… oh, hey Gumbo!”                    

The bewildered gryphon standing at the edge of all the rubble gave him a small nod. “Hey.” He was holding a pair of clippers in one hand and had a basket of grapes balanced on his back. “Umm, do you need any help?”                     

“Nah, I’m okay.” As he got his back gave off a loud pop. Son of a bitch! “Yes… perfectly fine. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a bone to pick.”                     

“Whoa there, boy!” Gumbo grabbed Hexxus’s tail mid-take off, and even though he was nowhere near as buff as Bill was, he easily made the gryphon disguised fawn slam back down into the rubble.                     

“Ow.” “You aren’t going nowhere til you explain why you just crashed through my roof. “ He dropped the tail in his grip and turned around. “Now pick yourself up, and come on inside so you can explain to me what’s going on.” 

Hexxus reluctantly pushed himself back up and his back gave out another pop. Ow. I need to get back to Anny to make sure she is alright. Wait a minute, if Bill’s there I doubt anything bad will happen, so… Hexxus followed the bushy browed gryphon into his home.                     

Unlike Bill and Robin’s house, Gumbo’s was a bit more ‘up to date’ when it came to décor, and yet it was at least a fourth of the size. Instead of everything being wood, his furniture looked more like what you might find in the house of someone that went to college. A single lazy-boy sofa sat against a wall directly opposite to a half sized fridge and the carpet floor was littered with stains everywhere Hexxus looked. Similarly there was a circular staircase in the center of the room leading only up to another level. The kitchen and dining area were on the other side of the room, and to say the least, it was in worse condition than the living area.                     

But none of that mattered to Hexxus as Gumbo lead him to the dining room’s table. No, instead his eyes were transfixed on a truly strange device sitting in the center of the table.  It was at least a foot and a half tall, and looked like a small white pyramid with a clear pint-sized glass mug where its top should be. On top of the mug was some sort of a shiny triangular sealing device, and below, on the pyramid, he spied five grey, oval deformities protruding from its surface.                    

 “Wait here and I’ll get us some drinks, then you can tell me what happened.” Gumbo went over to some cabinets, looking for some clean drinking glasses that he could use. ”Oh and sorry about the mess, money is a bit tight lately and I have been working nearly nonstop lately just to keep up with all the new taxes the…” 

Hexxus spaced out whatever Gumbo was going on about, too intrigued by the little pyramid, and simply said, “Yeah, okay, you do that.” He took a seat never turning way from the strange contraption. There was a faint magical presence pulsing from its core, reaching out to each of the five ovals. He glared suspiciously at the device, giving its white surface a few experimental taps to see if it would react. Well, it doesn’t look dangerous. What happens if I… 

WHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 

Hexxus reeled back, putting his hands up as if he were about to do Kung Fu. But, after a few seconds of nothing happening, he came back to the table and put his head nearly against the glass. Wow it’s loud! He could barely hear himself think over the racket this small thing was making. Eden it is too loud, how do I turn it off!? He pushed the next button over. Oh no, that only made it louder! Upon closer inspection there was a grey blur from the inside of the glass mug and Hexxus guessed that that was where all the noise was coming from. 

Hexxus made a brash move, and ripped off its top to grab what he thought was the source of this mini-monster’s voice, But just as his fingers were about to dive-bomb the grey blur at its base, something caught his hand when it was just inches from the rotary blades. 

“What the ‘ell do you think you’re doing?! Are you trying to kill yourself, boy?” Gumbo ripped Hexxus’s arm away from the blender’s insides. 

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?”                     

Gumbo turned off the blender before removing it from Hexxus’s sight. “I said, what the ‘ell are you doing, do you want to die?” He glared angrily at Hexxus, like a parent would their own hatchling.                     

“What, I was just trying to get it to be quiet, and that spinning thing in its center seemed to be making all the noise.” Hexxus had as honest of a look on his face as he could muster. “Sorry if I broke it, it’s just I’ve never seen one of those things before, and well, curiosity gets the better of all of us.”                     

Gumbo continued to glare at Hexxus before letting out a long breath. “Well, as hard as it is to believe that you have never seen a blender before, I see no lies in your eyes.”                     

Hahaha! He rhymed.                     

Hexxus watched as the elderly gryphon sat across from him and start rubbing his neck as if it were sore. “So, putting aside that recent act of stupidity, why did you come crashing down through the roof of my shed? Oh, and I will need you to repay me for that, by the way.”                     

“Err… well, I don’t exactly have much money to my name at the moment, but I could fix it up in no time I bet.”                     

“Hmm, I guess that will suffice for now, but I can’t help but to wonder how you fell though it in the first place.” Hexxus felt a bit uneasy as Gumbo looked at his sides. “And your wings don’t look as if they are damaged, so either there must have been some crazy wind that prevented you from correcting your flight, or you just simply let yourself fall.” Hexxus tried suppressing a chuckle of guilt. ”I doubt it would be the latter, but having lived here for over fifteen years, I know that no such winds can exists in this area of the forest. So tell me what happened, and know this, I hate liars.”                     

“Well, I was thrown off of Bill’s porch.” Hexxus said with a large grin.                     

Gumbo raised an eye brow, which really looked peculiar considering how bushy they really were. “By who? Bill or your little girlfriend?”                     

Hexxus cracked up for a moment before Gumbo’s cold, hard stare set him straight. “Umm, no sir. It was a pair of large gryphons, and by large, I mean one was really fat and the other was at least as large as Bill, if not bigger.” Gumbo had a feeling he knew where this was going. “So, I did the only logical thing to do in this situation. I tried to hug the pudgy one to see if he had any candy on him, because my friend Saint D. Clops told me ‘fat guys always have goodies on them, especially the ones in suits.’”                     

Gumbo simply face-palmed. “So, you are telling me that you tried to hug a random guy just to see if he had candy?” Hexxus pridefully nodded his head. “Ugh… Did you happen to catch the names of these large gryphons?”                     

Hexxus reached up to tug at his goatee like he would when he would think, but found that it wasn’t there thanks to his transformation into a gryphon. Instead he opted for just scratching his chin while he tried to remember their names. Meanwhile, Gumbo started tensing up from the anticipation of finding out who they were, hoping that they weren’t the Count and his bodyguard. He knew that Bill had major issues with how Count Fosco ran things, and if the two were in the same room, well, he couldn’t imagine things going over smoothly. 

“Hmm... I think the fat one was called Moscow and the really buff one, Horton.”                      

“Oh, thank Grydon.” Gumbo said under his breath as the concern abated from his features.                     

“What was that?”                     

“Oh, nothing important, just forget about it.” Now that his worries had been eased for the moment he turned his mind to a more pressing matter. “Now that that’s out of the way, I think it’s time we talk about what you are going to do to compensate for breaking my shed.”          

~)^_^(~       

Bill left Anasta where she was and stomped up the stairs with an immeasurable amount of fury on his face. He arrived on the floor of the house to find his wife lying unconscious against a wall with a large gryphon standing over her. The Count stood not too far away.         

“Fosco,” he roared, “what is the meaning of this!?”         

The fat gryphon gave him a bemused look. “Oh, eet vas jost nuzzing really, ve vere jost talking veeth your dear vife.”         

“You dare break into my house and harm my Robin, and you say that it is nothing!” He took a few steps towards Fosco but stopped when the bodyguard walked in front.         

“Now, now Hasan, eet ees eemportant for me to talk to zees eenfedel, even eef hees feelthy ears don’t deserfe to hear my foice.” The bodyguard backed off a few steps, watching Bill in case he tried to harm his master. “Now, eef you veell calm down, I vould like to haf a vord veeth you.”         

“State your business Count, then get out.”         

“Fery vell, I am here about your last few payments zat you skeepped out on.” Fosco inspected one of his talons as he rubbed them together.         

“What do you mean, I have already given you the required amount of money for this and every other month.”         

“Hmmhmph eendeed, no, I am talking about ze veekly tax that I just set een place last month.”        

 “Weekly tax! You have got to be kidding me, you know as well as I that during the off season tha-“         

“I could care less about your petty problems. Now, pay up my forty beets, and I veell be on my vay.”         

“No.”         

“Vat did you say?” Count Fosco raised an eyebrow.         

“I said no.” Bill stomped his foreleg down for extra emphasis. “It’s already bad enough that you make the town pay such a high monthly tax, but adding on an extra weekly tax, the people just won’t stand for it.”         

“So, you’re saying you von’t pay?”         

“That’s exactly what I am saying, Count!”         

“Eef you refuse to pay, zen I guess I weell have to take compensation for your eensolence.” The noble looked around the room before his eye caught the only thing that could be of use to him. “Hasan, retriefe my new maid for me.”         

The bodyguard only grunted in response before slowly walking over to where Robin was lying. Bill’s eyes widened as far as they would go when he realized what he was talking about and in a blind fury he rushed the large gryphon with a fist raised, but the gryphon saw it coming and easily ducked under it.   

In a quick movement he returned Bill’s punch, hitting him square in the chest with enough force to push a cow over. Bill staggered back clutching at his chest, sputtering as he tried to regain his breath, but Hasan was quick to not allow him to recover. The second punch was to Bill’s face, sending him flying backwards onto a coffee table which collapsed under the sudden impact. Hasan jumped on top of Bill, and started pounding his fists into his stomach and face. Bill was unable to lift his arms to defend himself because they were trapped under the bodyguard’s hind legs. While this went on, 
Fosco went off to check something out over by the staircase. He could have sworn that he heard a gasp, but when he arrived there was nothing there. But he quickly lost interest in whatever it was that made the sound, and turned back to Hasan and the elderly gryphon he sicked him on.         

“Mmmhmph Hasan, zat veell do.” Fosco said when Bill’s face looked as if were a cherry that had been stepped on. The large gryphon delivered one final punch across Bill’s blood-covered face before stepping off. Count Fosco walked up to the scene. “Now Hasan, eef you would do as you vere told and retriefe my new maid... I hate haffing to be kept vaiting.”         

Bill could see the bodyguard hastily move to where Robin was through his fading vision and made an attempt to get up, only to be pushed back down by a sharp pressure on his throat. The Count dug the but of the cane into Bill’s windpipe, applying just enough pressure to turn his breathing into wheezing gasps for air.         

“You know, I nefer vanted to come all zee vay down here, but you pheasants need to know your place een zees vorld.”         

“Damn you.”Bill managed to sputter out, but the blood and cane made it sound like an incomprehensible croaking.         

Fosco ignored him and merely watched as his body guard picked up Robin and threw her on his back.         

The last words that Bill heard before blacking out were, “Vell, meester Beell, it has been a pleasure.”         

~)^_^(~

Anasta heard the yelling and commotion up stairs, and ever so slowly she crept up to see what was going on. As she neared the top, she stopped when there was a large CRASH. She quickly traversed the remaining stairs, and arrived just in time to see the large green gryphon that had thrown Hexxus off the porch, tackle her uncle. She let out a gasp of shock when he started to mercilessly wail on the older gryphon.         

The other gryphon heard this and turned his head sharply, only to find an empty staircase. Anasta had barely managed to silently climb back down before he saw her. She held her beak closed, not even allowing herself to breathe, as she waited for him to leave. She could barely hear the thumping of the cane over her own frantic heart, as the Count lost interest and moved away from the stairs.           

Her body trembled in fear as her head tried to comprehend what she saw up there. She stood down in the cellar, staying still as a statue to reduce the chance of making any form of noise. She even tried to force her heart to calm down, out of fear that they might hear its loud pounding. But when she did manage to get some control over it, the resounding beating in her ears was replaced by a soft continuous thumping from up above. She let out a sob when she realized what was causing it.         

She waited with tears running down her cheeks for nearly five minutes before the thumping came to a stop. Slowly, she crept back up and arrived in time to see the Count walking out the front door. His bodyguard was following close behind, with her aunt on his back. She stifled another gasp as they took flight with their captive, not even bothering to look back. Once Anasta was sure that they were gone, she rushed out from where she was hiding to her uncle’s side.         I

Immediately after seeing his state, she was forced to turn away or risk vomiting all over his chest. After her brief lapse in bodily control, she turned back to her uncle fearing he might not be alive. But that was soon dis-proven, as he started to cough up blood in his unconscious state.         

Panic was quick to attack her mind, but she wasn’t about to get the better of her. Getting up she made her way to the kitchen in search of a first aid kit or anything that could be used to help patch up her uncle. As she search many questions plagued her mind; Who where they? What did they want? Why did they take Aunt Robin? Why did they do the things that they did?         

But the most important one that came to mind was:         

Hexxus, where are you?






Well everyone, yet another chapter has been posted. Sorry it took so long to come out but I do have college and a shit load of other things to deal with. The next few chapters will also take a bit of a while to come out for the same reasons and the fact that I have just come down with a very nasty fever and strep throat.

As usual BIG thanks to you guys who are still following this story, and an even bigger thanks to my three proofreaders Meeester, Mally, and Ex-Nihilos.

 
> Now I am really really sorry
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Okay guys I am really sorry to say this, but I am just not good enough of a writer to continue writing this. I feel like every time I try and do anything towards this story I just do more harm than good. So, and I am not happy about saying this, I am canceling this story. 

I will say that part of the reason I am canceling this is because of how it was met in the past. I mean it, when I first started this story I had hoped that it would have been the one that would get me past a thousand views per chapter. I wanted as many people as I could possibly get to enjoy reading my story. My hopes for it were set so high and I did everything I could to get it in top condition. I got a special My Little Pony style faun as its main picture. Hell I even got two very well known writers, Rust and Ex-Nihilos, and one of the proofreaders of Silent Ponyville to help me on it, but they all quit on me in their own ways and what some of them said dealt a heavy blow to the confidence I had in my writing skills. After they left I was forced to find my new proofreaders, which I am very thankful towards. Unfortunately, by then the damage was done. The joy I found in writing was destroyed after that and now it is very hard to see it as more than just a chore.  

But hey, I'm not the kind of jerk that would leave you just hanging with what I have given you. No, instead here is a link to a G-docs containing all of what I had already written for the future after Anasta and Hexxus's adventure in Low Nest. 

This is what you click to get to the G-docs.

Once again, I am really sorry about just leaving it how it is, I hope this will be enough to make it up to you all. Please feel free to comment on what I would have done, and if you feel like trying to pick up the pieces and finishing the story or if you would like to try rewriting it then be my guest. I would love to see its end, and if it were in the hands of a better writer, who knows just how good it could be. Just tell me about it before you do so I can see how it turns out.