The Gryphon's Bond

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lucius groggily opened his eyes, vision bleary and head pounding. He blinked to remove the fog from his eyes, but it didn't help much. He hurt everywhere.

He reached his aching arms up, and rubbed at his eyes with his fists, that helped a little.

He was surprised to find himself looking up at a ceiling... He hadn't been under a ceiling since he left his old hut... almost five years ago.

"He's alive!" he heard the strangest voice say. "Alive and awake!"

He sat up to find a creature he had never seen before, sitting at the end of the cot he was on.

It looked almost like a cat, yet had a longer tail. Its body was tan-ish brown, but its tail was black and white stripes. It had very large eyes, and rounded ears. And it had spoke...

"It's a lemur," he heard a deeper voice say.

A bond animal... He had only heard of them. They understandably were rare amongst the unbonded.. This man must be a descendant.

He looked over at the man who had spoken, he had his back to Lucius.

Lucius ever so slowly sat up, ignoring the pain. He looked around for his knife, it was nowhere to be seen. But that was fine, he didn't need it to take on this old man.

He glanced at the lemur, who winked at him.

Winked at him? Why would it wink? Wasn't it going to warn the old man? Who cares..

Lucius launched himself from the bed, ignoring his aching body. He aimed for the man's midsection, ready to tackle him to the ground.

But without even looking up the man swung his arm around, his staff that he had beaten Lucius with before seemed to appear from thin air to slam into his ribs.

Lucius gasped as he hit the floor, his already bruised ribs burned. But he was back in his feet in an instant, rushing the man.

This time the man turned around, an unconcerned look on his face. He slammed the butt of his staff into Lucius's stomach, sending him back across the room. The man returned to his task, as if nothing ever happened.

Gasping, Lucius turned and charged the lemur, only to find himself on the ground once again as the crook of the man's staff caught his ankle.

The lemur, sitting on his haunches, clapped his hands and made a strange squeaky sound Lucius realized was laughter.

"Titus," the man said, "don't laugh; we have a legend in our house. Isn't it exciting?"

"Oh, very much so," the lemur, Titus replied. "I'm all aflutter with excitement!"

The man turned, placing a plate of something on the table in the middle of the room. "Never attack a bonded from behind, we have two sets of eyes. If they're good then they're always watching; and I'm not good. I'm great. These are things you could learn if you stopped playing around. You have such potential, yet you can never get better because you pick such easy victims. I mean c'mon kid, you know those traders are easy pickings, and you will never get better if you're only hunting them."

"What do you want?" Lucius asked.

"The question is, what do you want? You're the one who came to my house, came onto my land."

"So... I'm free to leave?" he asked

"Of course not, I wish to feed the legendary 'Shadow' a meal! What an honor it would be, right Titus?"

"Such a true honor," Titus replied.

Lucius hated them for taunting him, yet he now knew better then to attack them. It would only cause himself more pain, something he did not want. And he'd be lying if he said the food on the table didn't smell good...

"You're going to share your food with me?" Lucius asked incredulously, sharing food was a foreign concept to him. Food was to be hoarded and violently guarded, not given freely. The only food he had ever shared was with his mother and sister, never anyone else. Was it a trap? There had to be some ulterior motive...

He glanced around, looking for a door... too far away... I'd never make it, this man was too fast.

"Please sit," the man said, gesturing towards the table.

Lucius, his curiosity and hunger beginning to out rank his wariness, ever so slowly stood up. His body groaning in protest.

The man motioned to a stool, and Lucius limped over to it, cautiously sitting down.

"The name's Simon," the man said, looking at him expectantly. Despite the many beatings he had given Lucius, he didn't look to be a cruel man. He had thick wavy gray hair that was almost shoulder length, and a short bushy beard. Any other man would look unkempt, but he looked carefully groomed and almost sophisticated.

"Lucius," he mumbled back

"Well then, Lucius, lets eat," Simon slid a plate across to him.

Lucius glared at the plate, as if it was about to either hurt him or disappear.

"It ain't gonna bite you if that's what you're wondering" Simon chuckled.

Lucius looked up at Simon, then back down at his plate. Then quickly, as if to make sure no one could steal it from him, he pulled the plate in close to himself, grabbing a hunk a meat and biting into it savagely. He used his fingers to scoop the roasted tubers into his mouth, then stuffed the bread in.

After scarfing down a few bites, he looked up to see Titus and Simon staring at him. He grabbed his plate and pulled it closer.

"Such wasted potential," said Simon to Titus. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Wholeheartedly," Titus replied, "he's much too wild. I'd recommended throwing this one out, I would."

"Maybe he still has a chance," Simon countered, "Maybe he can learn, he's still young."

"Learn to do what?" Lucius snapped, mouth half full, but tired of them talking like he wasn't there.

"Learn to be more."