Part-Time Griffin

Inferno

I dart around the corner of my house. A light breeze ruffles my brown and rusty colored feathers. A moonless sky currently yawns overhead. These are the best nights to prowl through the neighborhood like a dark antagonist ready to strike.

That's not what I'm actually doing though. I'm not an antagonist, the bad guy. I'm the protagonist, the good guy, here.

I'm always happy. I could never imagine myself being anything more than slightly sad. Being a dangerous night creature isn't a reputation I wish to live up to, even if no one knows I exist.

I'd rather pretend to be a superhero who roams the town at night in order to properly bring justice to those who deserve it. Or maybe I just secretly want to be Batman.

Every single night I go outside, and basically frolic all over the place as if I was a feathered unicorn. It's the only thing a girl like me can do when she requires only three hours of sleep each night.

I quickly glance at the dark glittering lake behind my house. Lake Jah is as calm as ever.

Quickly, I start toward the road and then I gallop across the warm asphalt. Three seconds later I'm in my neighbor's back yard. Then I effortlessly reach the woods, my refuge.

It's sometime around midnight. The distant branches overhead sway back and forth in the near silent breeze. Scents and distant sounds are magnified by my 'special abilities'. A damp forest floor lies beneath my two front eagle feet. My hind lion paws press firmly into the soil.

I'm good at running in my human form, but I'm not as graceful when I'm decked out in fur and feathers. Something about these two bird feet cause me to easily trip and stumble.

There's one square mile of woods here in the town. The rest is surrounded by the residential houses that border Lake Jah. The woods seem to except me better than the neatly cut backyards and hard curbsides.

Usually, at night, I just explore the woods or forest surrounding my hometown. Even though I know where every single log and boulder is located, I still enjoy the outdoors much better than sitting in my living room watching late night reruns.

I have wings, but I don't fly. My parents think it's dangerous, and I have my own personal reasons not to. Even at night someone might see me prowling or flying. My parents are really strict on where, when, and how I do things in my griffin form.

The trees pass by me as I skip through the woods. I quickly slide to a halt as the recognizable scent of smoke fills my two nostrils. My beak clamps shut as I inhale more of the tangy smell. It's coming from the north. That's where most of Lake Jah's residents live. Smoke shouldn't be coming from that direction in the first place.

I move my legs as fast as I possibly can. The scent grows stronger, and I start to see an orange light glowing off the clouds.

No one burns leaves at midnight. Neither does that smoke look grey like a normal smoke cloud.

I burst into the floral backyard of someone's home. Two houses down from where I stand is a house lit up in an inferno of flames. Local neighbors are running onto the streets while desperately calling the fire department on their cellphones.

My feathery ears swivel toward the house as a faint noise makes itself known over the deafening roaring of the fire. I find myself sprinting toward the house without realizing it. The sound repeats itself, but I stop fearfully when the bright orange firelight washes over me. Intense heat waves blow out past me. I step back fearfully.

The searing heat, the wild licking flames, the roar, the smoke, and all that is happening lessen my bravery.

The noise, which I now know is screaming, comes once again. There's obviously someone trapped inside there.