“Thyra?” the woman said.
Thyra made eye contact. “Yes?” she asked curiously.
“Your husband is here to see you.”
Thyra quickly walked over to the doors and stepped outside the locker room to see Johnathen standing there with a smile on his face. Thyra got up on her hind legs and wrapped her foretalons around the back of his neck to rub her beak against his face.
“So glad you could come!” Thyra smiled and pulled back to look into his brown eyes. Johnathen laughed and ran his fingers through her almond brown cheek feathers before placing a kiss on her beak.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’ll always be here to support you,” Johnathen said.
“I mean I may not even play today. I’ll just be sitting on a bench probably the whole game,” Thyra said.
Johnathen shrugged his shoulders and played with one of her eartufts. ”And you’ll look beautiful doing it. But I don’t care if you sit on the bench all season. I’ll still be here every game.”
“I hope I don’t have to, but thank you,” Thyra replied and gestured back at the brunet. “How did you convince her to let you back here? I told coach you would probably stop by, but I didn’t know who else to talk to.”
“I had to show this lady my ID because she didn’t believe me when I told her that I was your husband!” Johnathen said with a chuckle. “She just kind of looked at me like I was crazy.”
“Well, she’s not wrong. You are crazy.” Thyra beak grinned and brushed his long black hair back with her talons. He shrugged and tugged playfully on her beak.
“Yeah. Crazy for you,” Johnathen said. Thyra huffed through her nares and took a step back to sit on her haunches.
“You’re being overly sappy today! Is everything ok?” Thyra jested and noticed Johnathen freeze up for a minute. She raised an eye ridge at the sudden break in his mood and grew concerned. “John?”
“Yeah! Yeah, everything is fine. Just a bit tired, and it kind of sucks sleeping by myself, but everything is fine.” Johnathen rubbed the back of her neck. She could see dark circles under his eyes and his stubbly beard was misshapen. He was lying.
“Redtail!” Caracara! Let’s go!” Victors booming voice rang out, interrupting Thyra’s train of thought. She stood up again to get another kiss from Johnathen and looked him over one last time.
Thyra smiled and backed away. “Ok. I’ll see you after the game.”
“I will. Good luck!” Johnathen waved as she trotted towards the door.
Thyra wing-waved one last time and entered the room, finding the gryphons all gathered around Victor. She wondered what had happened to have Johnathen flustered, but she could just be overthinking things. Victor gave her an admonishing stare as she sat between Aadhya and Rachel. She forced herself to concentrate.
“This is our first game as a team. I want to see a strong start to this season and put our name on the board. No mercy,” Victor said as he paced back and forth in front of the team. “If we can keep them at zero the entire game, then we do it. I want the league to know we mean business. We are not here to play around. We are here to win.” Victor said and sat down in front of them. His black eyes looked to each player before him before spreading out his gigantic gray wings. “We are the Redtails! We will bring victory to this city and our fans. We will destroy any and all that get in our way!”
The team screeched in agreement and stamped their foretalons on the ground. Victor looked around the room and nodded approvingly at their excitement. “Well? What are you waiting for! Get out there!”
Every gryphon stood up and started towards the door, pouring out of the locker room. Thyra followed Aadhya out the door. She could hear heavy electronic music playing over the stadium speakers as they walked down the hallway.
The announcer’s voice came across the speakers. “Good evening ladies, gentlemen, and gryphons alike, it’s gryphball time here in Athens!”
The team stopped right before the exit of the hallway, and Thyra could see out into the field with the stands in the background. She took a deep breath as nervous tingles filled her body. Rachel nudged a wing against Thyra’s side.
“It’s exciting, isn’t it?” Rachel asked, her tiny wings twitching with excitement. The cat-sized gryphoness moved in place, unable to keep still.
“Yeah, I haven’t felt this nervous and thrilled in a long time. Not since my wedding,” Thyra admitted and roused her feathers, forcing her tail to keep still.
“Can’t say I know what that feels like, but if its anything like this, then I’m going to love it!” Rachel squawked out as Victor walked past them all to stand at the front of the group, Jason moving up next to him.
“Let’s meet this year’s Athens Redtail’s, led by coach Victor himself!” The announcer said, and Victor led the march out onto the field. The crowd cheered and clapped their hands as the team ran out towards the center of the field.
Thyra looked out at the crowd and saw many seats empty but, there were still hundreds of fans in the stands. She had always wondered what it was like to be down there on the field surrounded by excited fans, but she would never imagine it would feel this good.
The announcer began to call out each of the players one-by-one as they ran across the field, waving a wing to the audience. Thyra glanced around the front rows until she saw Johnathen standing and waving to her. She smiled, immediately feeling more confident with her husband’s support at her back.
The gryphons grouped up in the center of the field as the announcer gave quick backgrounds for each of the players. “…and this year there are four new players to the team! Aadhyea, number three. Bearded vulture and rear air guard. She played in the Middle Eastern league before transferring here. Antonio, number eleven. Harris hawk and air center. He was best known in the South American league where his team took the red amulet home in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Rachel, number eight. American kestrel and air forward. Best known in Tennessee as the fiercest and fastest Kestrel in the state. And last but not least, Thyra, number thirteen. Redtail hawk and reserve air center. She’s a complete rookie without previous experience in gryphball, but rookies have shocked me before! Let’s hope this is the case for her.”
The crowd cheered for their team as modern electronic music played over the stadium’s loudspeakers. Now that the announcer had finished up the introduction, Victor led the team over to the dugout. Thyra and the rest followed while the announcer started to call off the players from the opposite team.
A small portion of the crowd cheered for the away team while they walked onto the field. Thyra did not recognize any of the names. They all seemed to be the average run of the mill gryphons from other gryphball teams, more redtails, such as herself, a couple eagles, other hawks and falcons.
Once in the dugout, a young human male with short red hair walked over to the starting with an open case. Thyra watched as Rachel stood up on her hindlegs and took a small teardrop shaped device from the human. She sat down and started to fit it to her eartuft, making sure it was snug.
“How does your earpiece fit?” Aadhya asked while fitting her own. Rachel flicked her eartufts a couple of times to test it.
“Perfectly! I was worried it was going to be too big, but it looks like they got the measurements right.” Rachel reached up and pressed a talon to it. “Testing, testing. The quick brown gryphon jumps over the lazy dog.”
“I hear you. Unfortunately,” Nathanial chimed in as he walked by. He huffed and flicked his tail, then grabbed a water bottle that was offered to him by the young human and downed the contents before tossing it to the side. “Your voice is even more annoying through a speaker.”
He grabbed a gryphball to tuck it under a wing and walked out onto the field. Rachel clicked her beak with agitation but did not retort back.
“What? You don’t have anything to say?” Thyra asked curiously. Usually she always snapped back to him.
“Nope. I’ll just show him how good I am on the field. That will show him.�
� Rachel replied and headed out onto the field with him. She took to the skies and chirped down to him. Nathanial tossed the ball up and let Rachel swoop down to catch it. They repeated the throws, getting their muscles warmed up before the game.
“Their tongues are sharper than their talons. I think they will play well together,” Aadhya said.
Thyra watched them continue their practice throws and nodded. “Yeah. They are just both hotheads.” Thyra looked up at the bearded vulture. “Kind of made for each other, don’t you think?”
Aadhya let out a gentle chuckle and adjusted her wings. “I agree. Perhaps we will see them grow closer together over time.”
“And the clock is ticking down! Grab your drinks and hot dogs, we have three minutes until launch!” the announcer called out over the loudspeakers. Victor whistled to the gryphons and motioned with his wings for them to go ahead and take their positions on the field.
“Good luck out there,” Thyra said to Aadhya and Antonio. Both gryphons looked back and thanked her before heading out onto the field.
Thyra sat down on the soft padding on the bench and looked at the other gryphons that were on the bench. There weren’t very many: a peregrine falcon, a female osprey, and one of the corvid twins, Braden. All their eyes were on the field, except for the osprey gryphon Thyra was sitting next to. She had bright golden eyes that shone in the light. The top of her head was white with a black mask across her eyes that streaked down to her neck. The osprey looked in her direction, but did not make eye contact. Her chest feathers were a bright white that was decorated by streaks of shiny brown.
Thyra perked her ears and beak-grinned to the osprey, but the gryphoness flattened her eartufts nervously and puffed her chest feathers out.
“I’m excited for this first game, how about you?” Thyra asked the Osprey. For the life of her, she could not remember her name despite being introduced once. All she remembered was that she was quiet, and still remained quiet. “So what position are you going to play today? Well, if we get to play at all,” Thyra joked.
The osprey simply looked away, putting focus on the field. Thyra saw her bright brown crest feathers rouse slightly in the wind, and she cleared her throat. She was incredibly confused, has she offended the Osprey or something?
“Don’t mind her, she’s just incredibly shy,” the peregrine said. She had a neutral American accent and snow-white chest feathers with completely black eyes. Thyra reached out and shook the gryphon’s yellow talons and roused up her crest feathers as the peregrine continued, “I’m Priscilla and that’s Viola. She doesn’t mean any disrespect, but it might take a while for her to warm up enough to talk.”
“Well that’s good! I was worried I offended her or something. I remember meeting all of you all at the beginning of training, but it’s been a crazy month. Sorry, I’m just not good with names,” Thyra responded and looked over the gryphoness.
The peregrine was relatively the same size as herself, but her body was less bulky. While Thyra had slight bulk and muscular structure to her, Priscilla was thin, built for speed instead of bulk. Black feathers dominated the top of her head and her beak was gray.
Thyra perked her eartfuts as a loud buzzer went off on the jumbotron overhead, signaling for the players to line up. She watched the team walk into their positions, getting ready for the launch.
“Not at all. She may be quiet now but don’t let that fool you. She’s one hell of a player, isn’t that right, hun?” Priscilla said before leaning over to preen the ospreys white crest feathers. Viola slowly closed her piercing golden eyes and emitted a low happy trill in acknowledgement. Priscilla looked back up at Thyra and sat up straight once more. “I’ve seen you practicing around the field the past couple weeks. You’re pretty good!”
Thyra shuffled in her seat as she took the compliment and readjusted her wings. “Ah, thanks! I’ve been really training hard to try to prove myself. I know I’m a rookie and have a lot of ground to cover, but I hope to be a good addition to the team.”
Priscilla chuckled and nodded her head. “I understand that completely. I was the same way when I started my first gryphball team. Well, you have a lot of talent! Don’t let anyone tell you that you cant do it. Keep at it.”
The announcer cut off their conversation as his voice boomed over the loudspeakers. “I hope you all are ready because it’s time for the launch! Let’s count it down! Three, two, one!”
The sound of a large air cannon shook the stadium. The fans stood to their feet and cheered as the white egg-shaped gryphball flew across the field. The opposing team’s rear air guard caught the ball and started to advance through the sky towards their goal.
Immediately, Thyra could tell that there was a big skill gap between second league players such as themselves and the first league teams she had watched all her life. They tossed the ball clumsily to their air forward who fumbled the ball in their talons. Rachel easily read into their movements and tackled one of the air forwards to steal the ball from them.
“An easy tackle and possession from Redtails’ eight,” the announcer called out. “That kestrel hit him hard enough to make his wings flail like spaghetti! And away she goes!”
Rachel easily out maneuvered the rear air guard and tossed the ball down to Nathanial, who was left wide open. Nathanial tucked the ball under his wing and advanced towards the ground goal.
“A clean pass from air to ground.”
The opposing team’s goalie landed hard on the ground and spread his wings, trying to guard the goal. Nathanial feinted one direction, causing the goalie to lose his balance, and then tossed the ball to the opposite corner of the goal. The ball soared into the net and the stadium erupted with cheers.
“Ground goal for the Redtails! They made it look almost too easy! The Parrots have to pull out their A game if they want to stand a chance against the Redtails.”
Thyra watched Rachel swoop down to touch wings with Nathanial as the team turned to head back to their side of the field. “It looks like they have it in the bag,” she commented. “We may get to play if they keep this up.”
Another loud whistle went off as the thundering sound of an air cannon echoed in the stadium. Thyra watched the gryphball fly through the air, only to miss the talons of one of the rear air guards. The white egg-shaped ball bounced off the ground until it was caught by the Parrot’s goalie.
“Judging how they are playing, it’s going to be an easy win,” Priscilla agreed.
They watched coach Victor snort at the other team’s performance and clap his talons together when the team held off another pitiful offensive attempt. The Parrot’s coach was a human in his earlier years, about the same age as Johnathen. He was stomping back and forth in front of their dugout, swinging his arms and yelling loudly in anger.
“It looks like my brother is getting bored out there!” Braden pointed out. The other corvid twin was sitting down on his haunches in front of their goal, adjusting his gloves as the jumbotron blasted its sirens to signal completion of the first quarter.
“I don’t think he’s had to move the whole game so far,” Thyra agreed, and watched as Aadhya tackled one of the Parrot’s air forwards. “And I don’t think he’s going to have to.”
“Man, these Parrots can’t catch a break! Another firm tackle by Redtail’s three and a pass forward!”
Thyra watched Antonio carry the ball past the first air guard, and maneuver down to pass the ball to Jason. She did not need the screen on the jumbotron to see who it was. Her eyes were strong enough to see the feathers on his back rustle in the wind as he swooped down. Jason caught the ball with ease and dodged a rather poor tackle attempt by a ground guard.
“Redtails’ twenty-two wide open for a ground goal attempt,” the announcer commentated. Jason grabbed the ball from under his wings with his left foretalons and threw the ball past the goalie to score yet another ground goal. “And it’s good! Another ground goal for the Redtails, and with ten minutes left in the first half! Those Parrot
s sure are in trouble.”
“So, Thyra,” Priscilla said, interrupting Thyra’s concentration. “I read about what happened to your hometown a couple weeks ago.”
“Oh, did you?” Thyra asked, turning to look at the peregrine curiously. The conversation had sparked the interest of Viola and her bright yellow eyes were focused on Thyra.
“Yeah. Are those cult members still in your town? Are they still trying to preach about white supremacy and all that noise?” Priscilla asked in a low voice as the crowd cheered on. Thyra glanced up to the field to watch the action for a second, and then looked back at the two gryphonesses sitting next to her.
“Sadly, yes. Johnathen, my husband, and a couple others of us have been trying to open the public’s eyes about it, but they don’t seem to mind The Gathering at all. They put on too much of a good guy church front. Though their last rally and putting my friend Isabell in the hospital did help somewhat as far as waking up the public, it’s still not enough.”
The crowd cheered and then sighed as the Redtails missed another air goal. Thyra watched the team fly across the field to take their defensive positions once more. Priscilla’s talons intertwined with Viola’s as she thought.
“I watched your interview on the news. It was moving. Especially for us.” Priscilla looked over to Viola and they rubbed beaks against one another’s. “We face somewhat of the same thing back home, but without the cult element. It’s just a bunch of shelled-up minded people. People really don’t have respect for gryphons, and lesbian gryphons especially. They see it as completely unnatural.”
A sudden air gust blew across the gryphons faces as Antonio flew swiftly by right in front of the dugout. They all peeked their heads out to watch him bank up with the gryphball in his talons and toss it far across the field. Rachel rose up and caught it high in the air earning another round of cheering from the fans.
The Gryphon Generation Book 2: A New Era Page 10