The Gryphon Generation Book 2: A New Era

by Alexander Bizzell

  She assessed the opposing players, her eyes darting between them quickly. She mentally went over Victor’s teachings on the new defensive plays as she looked to the other opposing players and tried to read their movements and think of corresponding actions against their defense. Then her eyes locked onto Phera’s and anger rose within her. She was going to beat this gryphon fair and square.

  The whistle blew, pulling Thyra out of her thoughts. Nathanial, the ground forward, hiked the ball into the air as Rachel quickly took the skies.

  “And the game is on!” yelled the announcer.

  Thyra pushed with all her might against the earth and beat her wings hard. She watched as Rachel clutched the ball in her talons, and avoided Phera’s first poor attempt at a tackle. Thyra could see that he was overcome by his temper, and unable to think clearly. Rachel read into this as well, and easily avoided his hasty attack, leaving her wide open to progress down field. Thyra followed behind, having trouble keeping up with the much quicker falcon.

  One of the air guards rushed Rachel, leaving her no choice but to pass the gryphball backwards to Thyra. Thyra’s eyes widened and darted between the two, watching the ball fall in slow motion. She caught it and tucked her wings to avoid the air guard as he dove to intercept.

  “A smooth pass and Redtails’ thirteen avoids the guard for the Jays!”

  Thyra looked down below, and saw that Nathanial and Jason were both covered by the Jays’ guards. She flicked out her wings into a steady glide and checked her front; there was only the last guard and the goalie to take care of. Making her decision, she beat her wings hard and headed straight towards the last defender.

  She heard a shout from below and looked down to Nathanial pointing to the right. An opening, if she needed it. She felt determination well up inside of her. She had the chance to prove herself in her first minute of the game. If she made a goal right now in this semifinal game, it would silence anyone that questioned her abilities.

  Thyra’s eyes narrowed as she approached the last defender headlong and braced herself. She rotated left, and felt the defender’s beak slide along her chest, taking a couple feathers with it but ultimately the tackle had no effect. The crowd screamed in excitement at the near miss.

  “The Jays’ sixty-eight guard missed the tackle! Redtails’ thirteen is clear for an air goal! Can the goalie hold his ground, I mean air?” the announcer shouted as she beat her wings hard towards the goal.

  Her eyes focused on the hoop behind the hovering gryphon, and she remembered the strategy she was taught. Thyra dove, confusing the goalie and then faltered right. Clutching the egg-shaped gryphball in her talons, she brought it over her head and tossed it underneath the goalie.

  The goalie tried to correct, but his talons missed the ball by inches. Everybody held their breath as the gryphball struck the side metal pole, then bounced in. A loud whistle erupted from the referee falcon, and the crowd went wild.

  “An air goal by the Redtails’ thirteen! What a play from the rookie!”

  Thyra screeched with excitement. The band played as the fans jumped to their feet and yelled, clapping their hands and chanting. She flew a victory lap around the field, feeling the energy from the fans as they celebrated another goal.

  “With that score, it’s Redtails six, Jays nothing.”

  Thyra wore a big beak grin and pumped her fist in the air to get the crowd riled up even more. She looked back Phera, and could see the anger on his red face. Laughing, she flew up to Rachel.

  “I knew you had it in you!” Rachel yelled and bumped wings with her. They glided down together to their side of the field and landed softly. Jason and Nathanial jogged up, both looking very pleased with the performance.

  “Not bad, Redtail. Not bad at all. You keep playing like that and I’ll consider you a teammate,” Nathanial said with a slight beakgrin. He bumped wings with Thyra as she took in the rare compliment from the caracara.

  “You got it,” Thyra replied. Nathanial turned to head towards the center of the field, talking to Victor in his headset.

  Jason listened to the conversation in his headset and nodded in understanding. He relayed the instructions. “Victor says good play. Keep your formation and adjust with Rachel as needed. You’ll be guarding the other vulture if they advance past midfield. Conserve your energy as much as you can, but take any openings you get.”

  “Understood,” Thyra said as she watched the opposing team get into position. Above, Aadhya turned in lazy circles high in the air. She was looking down with a bright smile on her face.

  “Five minutes left in the first half, aaaaaand here’s the launch!”

  A loud whistle went off and the sound of the air cannon shook the stadium. The crowd chanted, “Defense! Defense!” and stomped their feet with the beat.

  Rachel and Thyra sprinted across the field before taking to the skies once again, the opposing air team doing the same. Rachel proceeded forward to intercept, but missed by a small margin. She flipped quickly and took off after Phera, who had possession of the gryphball. Thyra hovered in place, and then backtracked to adjust speed with the Egyptian vulture as he flew by. She kept pace with him as he advanced towards their air goal.

  Rachel caught up to Phera and flared her wings out to stop his progression. He had to bank towards the outside to avoid her. Aadhya dove out of the sky, and Phera looked up to see her fast approaching. He dove and tossed the ball down towards one of his ground forwards.

  “Looks like Jays’ sixty-six doesn’t want to feel that tackle again! A pass to the ground. And it’s caught!”

  A black gryphon wearing number eighty caught the ball and took off down the field, narrowly avoiding an interception from Nathanial. Jason moved in to block his progression, but the black gryphon passed the ball off to another ground forward who was open. A small portion of the crowd cheered for their Jays team.

  “Jays’ eighty is wide open for a ground goal! Only the Redtails’ goalie can stop him!”

  Brandon stood in front of the goal with a wide stance, his black wings unfolded wide. Jason screeched as he picked up the pace, trying to catch up with the gryphon, but it was no use. Number eighty was faster.

  The ground forward scooped the ball out from under his wing and threw it with all his might. Everyone held their breath. Brandon leaped to the left and blocked the ball with a wing, stopping it dead in its tracks.

  “Incomplete! The Redtails have possession.”

  A loud cheer erupted as Brandon tucked the ball away quickly, and everybody turned to head back to the opposite end of the field.

  Thyra let out a sigh of relief and banked to get back into position. Brandon looked to Jason and tossed the ball to him. The golden eagle gryphon caught it and tucked it under a wing, looking to his players and then to Victor who was holding his clipboard in front of his beak.

  Rachel glided up next to Thyra and matched her speed for a second. “Formation Z. We’re going for a ground goal before halftime,” the small gryphoness relayed with heavy breaths. She flew off towards the center, following Nathanial who was jogging underneath her.

  “Formation Z?” Thyra tried to remember her notes. It was a lot to take in for her first game, but when she saw Nathanial head up the middle and Rachel carve left, she remembered. Air center up the middle for fallback. Advance with attempt for ground goal. Ground center right field. Thyra repeated mentally.

  She geared herself up as Jason broke into a sprint underneath her and headed right. Once he passed over the half line, the ground center gryphon went to intercept, but Jason out maneuvered the gryphon, making him trip over his own foretalons. The crowd went wild with laughter and applauded as Jason advanced.

  “Excellent maneuver from Redtails’ twenty-two!”

  Jason moved towards the center of the field while advancing. Nathanial crossed paths with Jason and ran to right field, confusing the rear defender. Jason looked to the ground guard sprinting towards him, and crouched down low. They collided hard, sending feathe
rs into the air. Thyra watched Jason roll out of the impact and proceed forward.

  “The Jays’ tackle is no good! Can anyone stop this Redtail train?”

  The guard that was all over Nathanial abandoned him to intercept Jason. Jason saw the goalie get into position on the ground, and the last guard heading straight towards him. He looked up to see Rachel flying right overhead, right in position. He tossed the ball up, and she caught in her talons.

  The goalie saw the move and quickly leapt into the air to defend the air goal, but it was a ruse. Rachel folded her right wing, and dove towards center as Nathanial moved to the ground goal. She tossed the ball down, and Nathanial hit it out of the air with a balled-up foretalon like a volleyball to send it flying into the unprotected ground goal.

  This maneuver was the gryphball equivalent of a dunk. Nathanial laughed and flared his wings to showboat for the crowd. Everyone stood to their feet and yelled as the band began playing again.

  “Goooooooaaaal! Incredible! What a maneuver! Let’s see that replay!”

  Thyra laughed while circling back and watched the giant jumbotron played multiple replays of Nathanial’s dunk from different angles. The scoreboard changed from six to ten for the Redtails. Victor clapped his foretalons in celebration as the team did their victory lap. The timer ticked down to zero, and a loud siren erupted over the stadium.

  “And that’s halftime! I would hate to be heading to the Jays’ locker room. Their coach does not look happy!” the announcer proclaimed as Thyra flew down to the sidelines near the reserve bench. Rachel was right behind her and landed with the rest of the group.

  “Where did that come from, Thyra? I think you were just holding out on us all this time.” Rachel chuckled and they began walking with the other players towards the fields exit. Aadhya, Nathanial, and Jason jogged up next to them and Thyra could see the cocky grin on the star golden eagle’s beak.

  “I just kept the ball moving. What about y’all and that play back there? That was incredible! It worked out perfectly,” Thyra commented as Nathanial pushed past them.

  “Yeah, you did a decent job. You all played good enough so I could steal the show. Plus those ground defenders are terrible! I’ve seen gryphlets run faster than them,” Nathanial said and bumped wings with Jason as they made their way to the front of the group. “Those gryphons are nothing but overgrown feather dusters.” The cheering behind them slowly died out as they walked through the hallway and piled into the locker room.

  Rachel fluffed up her feathers and sat next to the larger gryphon. “You couldn’t have done it without my awesome pass though! Don’t forget about that, Nate.”

  The caracara huffed through his nares, but nodded his head. “Yeah, yeah. Have your moment there. But all the cameras were on me when I slammed that gryphball into their wide-open goal!” Nathanial made the motion again with his talons and laughed.

  “And are you two just going to forget about my stunning offensive maneuver that made all of it possible?’ Jason chimed in.

  The three continued to compare one another’s performance as Aadhya sat down next to Thyra and rearranged her long wings. The burly red dusted gryphoness joined her in watching the team compliment each other and celebrate.

  “I do hope Antonio is ok,” Thyra said.

  “I know he will be, and I know that you have made all of us proud, Thyra.” Aadhya said in a low tone, a warm smile on her beak. She looked so calm despite the events not a half hour ago. The blazing fury that Thyra had seen in Aadhya’s eyes were gone, and she was back to her old caring self.

  “He did look alright when I walked past him,” Thyra said to reassure herself and turned to watch Coach Victor finish his conversation with Carol, the therapist.

  Victor walked out in front of the group to look at everyone with a stern face. The team fell silent and waited. Suddenly a rare beakgrin appeared on the massive gryphon’s face and Thyra felt the mood in the room rise to a new high.

  “Now this, this is what I am talking about! Great performance out of everybody. Good hustle all round. Not once did I see someone where they weren’t supposed to be, and even when the play had to change, everyone adapted and overcame. I couldn’t be happier,” Victor praised as the group all ruffled their feathers.

  “I want to point Thyra out in particular,” Victor said with his large grey crest feathers rousing. Thyra felt a mixture of pride and fear as all eyes were on her. “I had high hopes for you and I thought it would take a little while longer for you to shine, but with the unforeseen circumstances, I had to put you in. You performed as skillfully as any seasoned player and the audience saw that. We all did. Let’s all give her a round of applause.”

  Victor sat on his haunches and started clapping his foretalons together. The room applauded along with him. Thyra felt like her nares were about to catch on fire from blushing so much, and her feathers stuck up on end.

  “Now, for the bad news. I just received an update on Antonio,” Victor said, and everyone fell silent once again. “His injury is not as bad as it looked, but with his pre-existing wing injury, we need to be more cautious than usual. He’s out for the game, but Carol assures me that he will make a full recovery. For the time being, Thyra will act in his place until he is fully healed. We will have to play it by ear.”

  Victor walked over to the large dry-erase board hanging on one of the walls and picked up a marker. He began to talk about new strategies and what they could do if the opposing team decided to become more reckless. The overall message was simple, conserve oneself, play it safe, and burn out the clock while maintaining the current lead. After going over the plans, he left the room to go back to talk with Carol, leaving the team to their own devices for the remainder of halftime.

  The team chatted with one another again as the sounds of the marching band played in the field. Rachel walked back up to Thyra and Aadhya and mumbled something under her breath.

  “What was that, Rachel?” Thyra asked and leaned her head down to the falcon. Rachel waved her off with a foretalon and shook her head.

  “Oh, it’s nothing. Nate just being Nate,” Rachel huffed through her nares and turned back to look at Nathanial as he talked with Jason. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

  “You know, you two do act a lot alike,” Thyra teased which earned the response she wanted from the petite gryphoness. Rachel ruffled her feathers and clicked her beak.

  “Do not! I’m nothing like that dim witted, two-toned, feather mite infested, short winged, stuck up piece of seagull poop!” Rachel steamed. Thyra held up her talons in defense as the little gryphon continued. “Don’t make me tackle you out there!”

  “Ok, ok! Messaged received,” Thyra laughed and nudged into Rachel’s side playfully with her beak. “Now that I got you worked up, you ready to go back out there and kick some tailfeathers?” Thyra asked and saw that spark of determination in the kestrel’s black eyes.

  Rachel sorted out her wings. “You know I am.”

  Coach Victor opened the door to the locker room and held it open. “Times up! Let’s go, Redtails!” the immense harpy eagle shouted, and waved them over with his long foretalons.

  The team chirped together and got up, hustling out the door. Victor shouted at them all and slapped them on the back as they ran out down the hallway. Thyra’s anxiety quickly came back as the music’s volume from the stadium increased with every second.

  The team burst out onto the field in a roar of cheering and Thyra made her way to the center of the field. She looked over to where her husband and friends were sitting and gave them a wing wave. They were on their feet shouting and clapping for her, giving all the encouragement they could.

  Thyra stood behind Jason and Nathanial as they faced off with the other team. She could see anger in Phera’s eyes as he looked over all of them. The balteur eagle must have been lambasted by their coach during halftime. Many of the opposing gryphons’ feathers were flat against their bodies, and eartufts lay back against their skull. Thyra’s eartu
fts instantly did the same.

  “It seems their meeting did not go as well as ours,” Aadhya pointed out, reading the same things Thyra had into the gryphons’ body language. “This could be dangerous as they will not think correctly due to their temper and act out in aggression, or it could mean they are defeated inside and will perform dreadfully. Either way, do take caution,” Aadhya warned from behind. Thyra nodded.

  The aplomado referee flew down between the two teams and turned on his microphone. He could sense the tension as well as anyone else. “This will be your last warning to those who have been aggressive, I will eject you from the game if I see so much a talon scratch.” The referee turned to look up at the gryphons around him. They all nodded in acknowledgement. Satisfied, he referee began again, “The Jays will begin with possession and each team will switch sides. Prepare for launch in two minutes.”

  The crowd began to cheer again as they geared up for the launch. Aadhya stared at Phera with a warning, and then turned to head to the back of the field. Aadhya’s warning was clear, she did not care if she was ejected out of ten games. If Phera hurt another one of her friends, she would rip him apart.

  Both teams lined up on their ends of the field as the countdown played on the overhead jumbotron, then the sound of cannon fire filled the stadium. Thyra leapt in the air to play careful defense, and was able to perform as planned. It seemed the Jays had not adjusted since halftime and continued to play as before, but Thyra was still cautious. Aadhya had read them like a book and knew exactly how they were feeling. She was a seasoned gryphball player, after all.

  Minutes ticked by as possession of the gryphball rotated between the two teams multiple times, with the Jay’s getting a lucky trick play out and scoring one ground goal leaving the Redtail’s leading ten to four.

  Thyra and her team heeded Victor’s commands, playing safe and reserving themselves. They were able to fight off any attack that the Jay’s threw at them, and only made an effort to score when the opportunity presented itself. Thyra was impressed with how reserved Nathanial and Rachel could be when they wanted.