Blood Lust

This is the shorter, sillier story; I wrote these sort of for a school project for which the sole requirement was a flashback. And yes, i kill of Elindomiel, but shes a smelly whiny-ass in here anyway. :P

Blood Lust

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining over the meadow and through the trees, causing the forest to glow a vibrant green. Elindomiel leaned back onto the trunk of a tall, full Atora tree. Just feet above her head its silver grey stem exploded into a mass of ivy green leaves that shaded the elven girl as she listened to the world around her.

She felt as if she could sing, but after a moment’s consideration decided it was not a good idea. She didn’t want to interrupt the singing of the birds or the swish of the wind, and with her voice, she would likely scare off any other creature within miles. Singing was not one of her strengths. The sky was a deep blue, with only a scattering of snow white clouds. Several birds flew across as they soared into the horizon. Everything seemed so peaceful, yet even as Elindomiel watched the birds another shape came into view. She sat up straight as she tried to identify it. It was far too large to be a bird, too small and dark to be a cloud… She froze as she realized what it was. A Gryphon.

Her mind raced back to the first, and last, time she had seen one of these powerful creatures. The experience had not been a pleasant one.

Elindomiel was beginning to get tired. Not physically, for as an elf she had quite a bit of endurance and required hardly any sleep, but emotionally. She had been traveling for over a year now, and she loved it. To climb tall mountains and venture into peaceful valleys, to watch a sunset from a hilltop, to watch tall grass stretch out endlessly before her… But there were no hills here, no river valleys, and certainly no mountains. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much of anything, except the path.

The Old Forest Road, they called it. Elves do not take the term ‘old’ lightly. It was over 8,000 years old. Not that it was much of a road anymore, or that it had ever been. A worn down path through the prairie, it could go on for miles without changing in the least. This was not the kind of traveling Ellie was accustomed to, and she was tired of it. She felt that she would give anything for a change of pace.

What happened next did two things. The first was that it made Ellie a believer in the proverb ‘be careful what you wish for’. The other was that it installed in her a mortal fear of Gryphons.

Elindomiels ears twitched as she heard a sound behind her. It was an odd sound, one like something sweeping through the sky. Diving almost, moving, incredibly fast, and right behind her. She wheeled around, but it was too late. Something hit her, with the force of a boulder except that it was furry, sweaty, and… feathery?

She was too shocked to be scared that first moment, both at her sudden attack and by the attacker. What kind of creature had feathers and fur? She couldn’t tell at the moment, her head was squeezed between the rocky path and sharp gleaming talons. A moment went by. Ellie could hear nothing but the creature’s deep, hot breath as it hit her face. As the creature held her down, she winced in pain as she was pressed against sharp rocks. Already she was bleeding in several places from hitting them, and this wasn’t exactly improving the situation.

Forehead cuts were, at the moment, far from the focus of her mind. This wild beast had knocked her to the ground, and Urùsau-Maat only knew what it planned to do now.

To her surprise, the creature stepped off, and with a groan, Elindomiel pulled herself into a sitting position. She sat there for a moment, forgetting her fear, as she stood transfixed by this creature. It had a beautiful beak, wickedly sharp like a raptors and gleaming ebony black. Behind it were two distinctively intelligent eyes, amber colored, and behind those were ears, of all things. And not just any ears, long, extremely flexible ones that seemed to be appendages in of themselves.

It had an extremely muscular body, with paws on its hind legs and talons on his front and a tail somewhat like a lions, but several feet long. Most impressively, it had wings. Ellie could not imagine how something so huge would ever get off the ground, but if there ever was a pair of wings up to the job, they were these. Feathered, but tipped with hooks, they seemed a far cry from both a doves snow white wings and those of the gigantic True-Dragons.

Elindomiel was amazed enough by its looks, but when it began to speak, she was completely blown away.

“I am sssorrry” He began, quite formally and politely. He spoke with a very strong accent, rolling his r’s and his sibilants. “I wassss in a blood lussst. I attacked the firrrssst thing I sssaw.” It bowed its magnificent head slightly, as if ashamed of itself. It seemed to be quite uncomfortable with the emotion, because before Elindomiel could recover from the shock of this creature and ability to speak, it plucked out one of its feathers, put it in her hand, and flew hastily off.

Elindomiel didn’t know what to think about the attack. The creature had seemed sorry enough, and it really didn’t seem to have had any control over its actions… ‘Blood Lust’, he had called it. She didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. At least it hadn’t attacked her outright, but to think that there were beings that could be completely taken over by a moment’s lust… She shuddered, realizing her people and that of the creature weren’t really so different after all.

She had forgiven the creature quickly, but she had never really forgiven the race. And as this one came towards her, she fought the urge to flee.

It will be alright, she thought, that gryphon was on blood lust, this one won’t knock you down and attempt to eat you. It’s probably very friendly, and it will almost undoubtedly at least be civil.

This is what everyone else had tried to tell her about Gryphons. Her heart leaped within her, but she knew she had to face her fears. Her stream of thoughts continued, repeating itself. This Gryphon is probably friendly. After all, it’s not on a blood lust… It’s not going to hurt you…

Her heart beat faster as she eyed the gryphon coming towards her. Its muscles were tense; it didn’t seem to be focused…. She tried to convince herself that her mind was just playing tricks on her. She held her ground. Too late she heard the death scr’ee, and too late she saw Gryphonic eyes burning red with mad passion……. The Gryphon was far too close. And it was moving far to fast.

Lightening flashed in the sky, a storm had moved in. A low and menacing thunder rumbled across the clouds, matching the deep growl of a satisfied gryphon. A bloody piece of meat hung out of his beak as he savored every bite of his meal. He threw his head back and swallowed this as well, leaving a sticky patch of blood covered grass the only testimony to the young elves existence. Even this would soon disappear, lost to the storm that threatened to break at any moment.

The gryphon sauntered off with a stomach filled with fresh meat and the slowly fading remains of a blood lust. It began to rain.