The Gryphon Chronicles- Book 1: The Corrupt King

Ch. 12: Aeon Alone

Crunch.

"Oh, I hate this stiff snow," Aeon spat. Frost gruffed in agreement. She and Frost had been headed back through the pass when a snowstorm had hit, and they had been forced to find shelter in a cave. The snow had unfortunately piled up, and they couldn't get down the pass without causing an avalanche. Their food had run out three days ago and they had been forced to hunt and scavenge.

Frost dug at the block of snow, whining. Aeon scratched her head. The wolf was certainly trying, but it would take more than one dire wolf to clear enough of the pass to get through to the point where they could at least hunt successfully.

Aeon sighed and pulled out her hunting knife. She had been chipping away at one tunnel since the storm had ended, and there was no sign of her getting through until some time next May.

The huntress hated having to wait around for things to happen. She wanted to take Frost and jump that impassable wall, but she knew that the only way to do that would be to shift. And Aeon hadn't done that in a very, very long time.

The last time... no. She wouldn't dredge up those old emotions now. There was no point, anyways. Even if she shifted, Aeon doubted she could carry Frost. So for now, she was forced to resort to this. Chipping away at an enormous half-frozen block of snow, trying to get through the mountains to the human kingdom. She didn't even want to go there. She wanted to head to Noralia, but she had to go through Eldrum to do that. Wonderful.

She dug her blade into the packed snow and wedged out another chunk. Frost was digging below, kicking away everything that Aeon dropped down to her. Aeon knew how lucky she was to have Frost, even if the wolf was a bit of an idiot sometimes.

"Come on Frost, think about it. When we get out of the pass, we can get a hot meal and a warm bed," she encouraged. This gave the wolf renewed vigor, as well as Aeon.

But by evening, they were still no closer to breaking through. Well, they were closer, just not by enough. Aeon was beginning to consider heading back to Andaxia, but chances were high that the pass was blocked on both sides, and she was stuck in the middle. Everything around her was a swirling icy haze of white, and she was getting sick of it.

"Next time," she grumbled. "Remind me not to go through here unless it's the middle of July."

A disgruntled woof was all the reply she got.

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Aeon sat by her small fire and shivered. It was big enough to cook the small hare that Frost had caught, but not nearly big enough to keep Aeon warm. At least she could tuck herself into her wolf's fur when it got windy. The canine had enough for the both of them, which was normally a pain, especially in the summer. But right now, it was exactly what she had needed.

"I-I H-H-ate the co-cold" She stammered. Normally, she liked the cold, partly because it was refreshing, and partly because other people avoided it. But now it was just extremely annoying. There was a plus side however. She had kept the Phoenix Gryphon out of King Hawthorn's dirty hands, and kept them from suffering the same fate as...

No. Don't bring those up. Bring her into this and everything falls to pieces.

The Phoenix gryphon would always be in danger, as long as someone who wasn't Simon was running the human kingdom. He might have been the only human in existence who didn't seem to care who was what, only what they did. Somehow, that was exactly why he was currently in another kingdom, trying to depose his brother through diplomacy.

Aeon scoffed. Simon was smart, and he would have made a good king, but the fact was that he never wanted to fight. Aeon knew firsthand that sometimes fighting was the only option, and if Simon kept denying this truth it would eventually smack him in the face.