The Gryphon's Bond

Chapter Five

   Anna trekked through the parched desert for days, stopping at mid day to rest in the shade of boulders. Starting up again at midnight to walk in the cool of the morning.

  At the end of the fourth day she ran out of food. And on the night of the fifth day her water skins went dry.

Dehydration set in quickly in the desert heat.

  The sixth day she didn't stop at midday to rest, but kept staggering forward. Even as night fell she didn't stop, but kept moving ever forward, one step after another.

  She had no choice, she was out of everything. Death would strike soon, so she would go until she dropped.

She didn't know why she didn't give up, she had come out here to die anyway, why didn't she just curl up and do it peacefully?

  But she couldn't, somehow her feet kept moving. She was moving towards something, pulled forward. She wouldn't stop till she reached it, or died trying.

* * * *

  The seventh day dawned with Anna still stumbling forward. She moved slowly, falling to the ashy sand every few steps.

   Her lips were cracked and bleeding. She had forgotten what it felt like to not feel like her head was being bashed against a rock. Everything, every part of her, was in agony.

  But she kept moving.

  At midday she looked up and across the desert, and saw something. She squinted her bleary eyes.

What is that?  It's too far away to tell, probably just a mirage, whatever it is.

   Anna kept moving, forgetting the sight, keeping her eyes on the ground, guiding her feet.

  About an hour later Anna heard a sound, a strange sound that she felt in her bones. One of pain, and fear, and of dying.

  She looked up again, and froze. The object she had seen earlier was about 100 yards from her, in a patch of tumbling boulders.

  She heard the sound again, feeling it resound deep within her, she launched herself forward again, towards the sound, her eyes still too blurry to make out the object from where she was.
 
   Creeping behind a large boulder, a last reserve of strength filling her.
Anna slowly got closer, the cries getting louder, and more painful.

  She came out from behind the boulder, and saw it. She almost fell to the ground in shock, but the rock caught her weakened body.

  In the midst of the boulders, standing as tall as an elephant, huge wings bursting from its back, its fur the same deep coppery auburn as her own hair, was a Gryphon.

  It struggled, pulling at something, as it let out another pain filled cry.

   Anna looked, and found the source of its pain. It's great front paw was caught in a trap, a silver trap. The only substance that could stop a Gryphon.

  The creatures had spontaneous healing, an ability that had baffled the best of men's scientists for centuries. The only thing that could harm a Gryphon was a weapon made of silver. The metal reacted with the creatures ability, stopping the healing, and poisoning the blood.

  And this creature was caught in a silver trap, the metal cutting into its flesh.

  The gryphon's great strength was useless against the silver.

  Anna knew what she had do, why she had been drug across this desert, what her purpose was.

  She would free the beast, and probably die trying.

   She was already dying, she would use the last of her strength in one last act.

  She got behind the boulder again, pulling her short sword out, if she hit the metal hard enough, in the right place, her blade would go through the softer metal. It had to, because she would have to move fast before the creature killed her.

  She would only have time for a single swing, she had to get it right.

   Anna took a breath, filling her lungs for probably the last time, and crept out from behind the boulder.

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