Part-Time Griffin

Allies

A huge black mass lands on the opposite side of the street. Hooves clomp heavily on the asphalt road. Loud snorting and the flapping of wings prove that it had been a strenuous flight for the creature. The strong scent of freshly cut wood washes over me like a powerful wave.

His three foot black horn reflects the dim glow cast by the street lamps. The alicorn's equally black eyes were set directly upon me.

"Who are you and why are you vandalizing people's property?" He states furiously with the same voice of the teenager who had been at the sawmill.

I feel like I faintly recognize his voice, but I push aside the preposterous thought so that I can answer.

"You are mistaken. I am not the enemy here. Don't you remember seeing me at that burning house or is your memory that bad?" I shoot back sharply.

He snorts aggressively and stomps his hoof as he lowers his head angrily, "Then who's doing all these things then?"

I loosen up as I say, "I don't know. I was sorta hoping you knew."

Things between us simmer down slightly. We become less tense as we continue on.

"Maybe... you can help me find this criminal." I tell him while stuttering.

He replies very slowly, "Actually, I was going to ask if you can help me find this guy."

"Whatever. We will work together. Allies are allies, right?" I say friendly.

The alicorn nods, "Yeah. I'll agree to work with you, but only with one condition. Did you see what I looked like in my human form?"

"No... why?" I ask him extremely confused by his sudden question.

"I don't want anyone to know who I am. This... being this freakish misfit is something that my family doesn't even know about. Even if they did know, I wouldn't want anyone else to know who I am as a human." He states clearly.

I attempt to reassure him, "It's nothing be embarrassed of-"

"I just want to know if you saw me as a human."

I roll my eyes, "No, I didn't. Now can we start figuring out who is committing these crimes or are we just going to argue in the middle of the street all night?"

He snorts once again. We walk a bit closer to each other, and we begin to tell one another what we know so far about the person doing these acts.

"Well, it sounds like we both know the same things about this mystery. Nothing more or less than the other." He says pointedly.

"Yeah, that's true, but since we're... 'partners'... we can use this as an advantage. You most likely live on the opposite side of town from me. We can both have a portion of the area. If anything weird happens we can let each other know of it." I tell him.

I quickly add in, "By the way, since I can't know who you really are then by what name am I supposed to call you?"

"Walker."

I smile, "Okay, Walker, since you don't know who I am you can call me Thea."

"Why do you need a code name? It's not like you're trying to keep yourself from embarrassment." He says quickly.

"So you are embarrassed!" I say loudly.

"I did not say that!"

"You most definitely did, Walker."

"No, I didn't."

"Why are you embarrassed to be a black unicorn with wings? That's so awesome." I say excitedly while hoping he would soften up and give me his real name.

"Thea, we're wasting time that we could be using to track the criminal." He abruptly changes the subject.
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An hour later we meet back at the local park. We had decided to scope out the town and search for any unusual activity.

As I am walking out onto the park's wide field, I watch Walker gracefully land a short distance away.

"Do you not like flying?" He points out when he notices that I chose to stay on land.

I shake my head, "I think it's far too dangerous."

"You could get to places faster, you know? I don't know how anyone can keep themselves land-bound when they have wings." He tells me.

"You're midnight black. You are naturally camouflaged while in the sky. Anyway, did you see anything?" I'm the one who's changing the subject this time.

"Nothing. Not a car, a boat, or a plane." Walker sighs as he folds his jet black wings.

I sit on the ground and dig my talons into the dirt, "I didn't see anything either."

We stay in an awkward silence for a few minutes. There's nothing we can think of at first, but I finally come up with something to speak of.

"Maybe the criminal took the weekend off." I say sarcastically.

This time when he snorts he isn't angry, instead he's laughing. We're starting to become a little less tense. There's definitely no hostility between us now.

I continue, "It's probably 2:30 by now. I need to be on my way home. You want to meet here tomorrow night?"

It looks like he smiles when he replies, "Sure."

"Okay. Bye, Walker." I tell him happily.

He returns the farewell, "Later, Thea."

I then watch him jump into the sky and fly away. He easily blends into the darkness. One moment you see his wings flapping, the next moment you see nothing.

I soon return home with my head filled with everything that has just happened. A lot has occurred, and I'm not sure if I can process all of it at the same time.