At the eye of the terrible storm, Crescent sat ever so peacefully. How she loved these hurricanes and tornadoes. They were just like her stormy gray heart, furious and demanding at the edges, but calm and reasonable on the inside. Peering upwards, she glanced at the edge of the foggy Ether, far, far, above. Flapping her feathery wings for a good take off, the hurricane would propel her upwards in a cold vortex of mist, elongating her flight time.
“Three, two, one!” Crescent exclaimed happily as she rocketed skyward like a bullet made of ice. When she reached the peak of her air height, she spread her mottled blue wings and let them buffet the air. The bleached white landscape flowed out from under her, the chilly wind embracing her limbs. Crystalline glaciers speared the ground and reached for clouds, glimmering in the dim glow of the fourth Sun.
Crescent’s bright fluorescent violet eyes hungrily scoured the thick blanket of snow that covered the desolate land in all directions. Not surprisingly to her, this place was still devoid of all life, with the exception of herself. Tired from all of the excitment, Crescent gently landed in a soft snow drift. Plodding over to a hidden burrow, she crawled inside. Limestone stalactites dripped water from the ceiling, moisture condensing in every possible place. It was impossibly warm and humid for such a cave. A stone ledge hung over it all, where a tiny pool of collected water had carved an indentation in the granite itself. Crescent curled up, a speckled turquoise orb forming around her as she slept. Falling into a deep slumber, she felt as if she floating away on a cloud.
Meanwhile, in the beautiful Ether, a much younger gryphon who went by the name Shadow Talon, was desperately clinging to the edge of the Crystal Chasm.
The Crystal Chasm was a one way trip to the blank whiteness of the Mid-lands, and where the crystalline waters of the Ether poured endlessly in iridescint torrents over the precarious lip. Most gryphons that were unlucky enough to fall over the rocky yet beautiful edge would just gracefully fly out, but Shadow was only seven, and thus not of age. His brother, Solar Flame, tried futilely to save him over again and again but failed each time he tried.
Paws slipping, Shadow felt warm breath of his brother on his beaked face. Behind them, the newly elected ambassador to the king, Nyx the Eternal, loudly declared,”He is a lost cause. Unhand him and let him fall to his inevitable doom.”
“But-” protested Solar Flame indignantly.
“I said unhand him!” Nyx boomed threateningly.
“Okay…” replied Solar Flame sadly.
“Thank you, and off you go.” replied Nyx dismissively.
As Solar Flame limped away, Solar Flame did not notice his brother was coming closer and closer to tumbling away.
Finally letting go from pure exhaustion, Shadow flailed and thrashed in the air in a vain attempt to fly, not willing to accept his fate. “NOOOOOOOOO!” he shrieked louder than a chorus of cackling ravens and crows, plummeting through layers and layers of the thin air.
TO BE CONTINUED…