"Half human, half griffin. That is what I am..."
Olivia Linn Davis lives a normal human life by day, but she holds a secret that only she and her family knows of. Olivia can turn into a mythical creature known as a griffin.
Ever since she was nine y...
"We might need another distraction." Diesel notifies me as we ready ourselves to search the rest of this unusual camp at the quarry. Roxanne's two brothers, Kyle and Damon, have been gone for about two minutes now. I eye the armed men through the small camper window, "We can't fool around. Plus, they might get suspicious if too many strange things happen around here. Let's just be stealthy instead." "Okay, that might be a good idea." He nods. We crawl out the broken window that's on the opposite side of the camper. The mysterious guards luckily can't see us right here. Once we're both back outside, we hightail it into the woods for cover. Then we crouch in the underground and make sure we haven't been spotted. So far, the odds have been in our favor. The armed men still patrol with no idea that two crazy teenagers are lurking in the nearby woods. "We ought to check out the other camper over there." Diesel points to the distant RV. "Agreed." Slinking slowly and silently through the trees, we head around to the opposite side of the clearing. Sticks beckon for us to step on them. It seems like every step I take involves some type of accidental noise. Cracking sticks, hitting my head on a branch, stumbling on a root, etcetera. I've always been good at being quiet. All this nervousness is ruining me. With much precision and patience, we make it to the other camper. The first thing I notice are the muffled voices talking inside. The next thing I notice is how old the camper looks. Dingy mildew covers the siding and dried red mud sticks to the tires. The awning above the front door is torn and ragged. A lawn chair lays on its side near the front steps. This place looks as bad as the people running it. The suspicious black barrels and oil well is strange enough. I hope we find Roxanne soon. I jump as the camper door is flung open. An angered man storms outside with a raised voice. A shiver runs through me at his violent tone. Diesel automatically wraps his arm around me for reassurance as we eavesdrop. The man yells back into the camper, "You should have just disposed of those two boys. This whole operation is becoming more complicated each day!" Another man appears from the inside of the RV, "Sir-" "Whatever. You already made your mistake by keeping them. They shouldn't have even been brought here in the first place. Why didn't you just hold them with their sister?" The furious man continues growling at the other. The second man's voice becomes shaky, "I supposed that it would be best to separate the siblings so that we could control their parents better." The malevolent man narrows his eyes, "Wish I never got that family to do my dirty work. I should've just hired some guys myself." So this is the man blackmailing my friend's family?! A sudden hot fury rises from inside of me. It starts at my core and reaches out to every part of my body. My breathing increases at this newfound hate. Diesel squeezes my shoulder as a sign to hold back my anger. The unhappy man goes on, "What'd you do with that girl anyway?" The henchman answers without pausing, "There's an old mansion far outside town. It's safe from any snooping cops. I assigned three men to hold her there." They start to walk off toward the other camper. Their conversation turns into business talk. "They're gonna see that Kyle and Damon are gone!", I alert Diesel who is already aware of this fact. "Let's go before they find out. We know where Roxanne is." He grabs my hand. I hold back and give him a sly look, "Don't you want to do some damage here?" Diesel's face falls, "Sort of. It'd be satisfying to interfere with their illegal work, but it's too dangerous, Olivia." "I insist on reeking havoc here." I go one. He rolls his eyes, "Stop tempting me." "You know you want to." I purposely tempt. "Those dudes have rifles! They want to have a target." Diesel throws at me. I snort and whisper loudly, "And we are teenage shapeshifting mythical creatures!" "You have a point... Okay, we'll do it, but as soon as it gets dangerous we are leaving. No ifs, ands, or buts. Period.", Diesel says seriously. A moment later I hear him mumble, "I don't want you to get shot again." ____________________ Five minutes later Diesel and I have managed to silently make it around to where the black barrels are and have begun tipping then over. This part of the camp has little to no light upon it, and so far we have managed to put three barrels on their sides. We're currently in our mythical forms. I sink my talons into the top of a fallen barrel, and I surprise myself with my own strength when my talons dig straight through the thick metal. Jerking out my talons, thick oil bleeds out of the drum. I do the same with all the barrels in the vicinity. "How's that? Let 'em see what it's like to have their property vandalized.", I whisper evilly to Diesel. Diesel's sniffing the spreading oil. His black nose accidentally touches the liquid gold. He jerks his head back and tries wiping the oil off with his foreleg. I stare at him with amused bewilderment. Suddenly, Diesel sneezes from attempting to remove the oil. My eyes flick over to the guards as they turn toward our direction. Their guns raise in automatic suspicion. I shove Diesel toward the trees' cover, but it's like trying to move a brick wall with giant wings. "Who's there?" An armed man with an extremely deep voice yells in our direction. "Come on." I grumble at Diesel. The embankment is too steep to climb up so we have to head back toward the camper where the grumpy man came from. Without warning, the smell of smoke fills my nostrils. My head turns toward the source. Uncontrollably, my gaze locks onto the orange, licking flames of a campfire in the center of the quarry. That wasn't there before! Did they build that while we dumped the oil? The campfire burns about fifty feet away, and at this distance it doesn't bother me. That is until one of the guards happens to throw a flaming stick in my direction. It bounces off the ground feet away from me and rolls across the dirt toward me. The uncontrollable and mysterious fear locks me in my footsteps. My heartbeat jumps to a much higher speed as the stick stops a few inches before me. The flame grows as the stick ceases rolling. It eats away at the bark of the foot-long length of log. Intense heat pulses from the fiery piece of timber. It singes the feathers running down my front legs.
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I can't move. My legs are locked. I can't snuff out my own fear to save my life, literally. I hate this! I hate this unnecessary fear! Everything becomes a blur. I hear shouting and a bright light is cast upon me. All while I stare at the fire in utter terror. Something hard hits me across the shoulder, and I snap out of it. I turn on my heals and run as fast as my legs can possibly take me. Trees whiz by my vision. Diesel's heavy trampling can be heard right behind me. The distant racket of shouting men slowly fades in the distance. Trees now envelope us in dark shadows. My crazy eagle feet cause me to trip on roots and rocks. I'm sent flying forward. Then I'm thrown head over tail into a creek. I skid across stones and come to a jolting stop. Water splashes me over me as my momentum abruptly ceases. Instead of getting up, I just lay there letting the cool water flow around me. Hoofs thump up to the sandy creek side, and then I hear water sloshing. It comes closer. I surprisingly feel a human hand rest on the back of my neck. Diesel asks, "Are you okay?" Raising my head, I sigh dramatically, "I always run better as a human." I morph back into a human and stand up. The slick rocks in the creek bed threaten to send me down once again. I try wringing out my soaked clothes as Diesel says, "You zoned out back there for a full ten seconds." "Did anyone see me?" "Yes." "How much of me?" He cringes, "A lot more than they should've." "How did you snap me out of it? I only felt something thwack me on the shoulder.", I ask Diesel as we wade out of the water. "With a unicorn horn.", He answer cautiously. Well, at least it has a use. It's great for reviving a friend who is currently under a fear binding spell. I close my eyes, but I only open them when a single thought crosses my mind, "We need to find Roxanne. We know where she is now."
