The Gryphon Generation Book 2: A New Era

by Alexander Bizzell

  “Did Matthew have them grafted on?” Thyra asked sternly.

  “No. I have them long time.”

  “And Matthew set you up to do it? All of it?” Thyra asked as they glided together on wing.

  Anfang looked over to Thyra and his mind flashed back to images of her younger self in the labs. The way she had smiled to him in the past always made him feel much better, but he searched for happiness in her eyes now and did not find it. “Yes. Matthew make Anfang kill. But…”

  “You enjoyed it though, didn’t you?” Thyra finished the sentence for him.

  He felt shame at her accusation, though he still didn’t completely understand why. Anfang looked away from her and down at his blood-stained talons. His training told him that he had done was not wrong and yet, he knew she would disagree. He never wanted to hurt her or disappoint his friend, but he could not lie to her.

  “Yes. I like it, but you like to kill too. We all do,” Anfang responded, searching her face once again as he repeated what the humans in uniform had once told him. “Gryphons are meant to kill. It is nature. Humans same way.”

  She let out a sorrowful sigh. “It is natural to hunt, yes, but Anfang, this is different. We can’t kill people.”

  “Why not? People kill people. People kill animal. People want to kill us. They hurt us. They hate us. Why…”

  “Because we have to be better than them!” Thyra interrupted again, her voice filled with sadness and anger.

  Anfang blinked and cocked his head curiously. Thyra took a deep breath and looked forward to the sky ahead.

  “We are creations of man. So in that aspect, we are evolutions of them. Do you know what that means? Evolution is an improvement, something greater than what was. If we act like those who hate us, than we become what they loathe. Do you understand? It lessens us. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”

  Thyra looked to Anfang, hoping to see understanding. He was clearly confused, but something clicked in his mind. A spark of recognition went off and his eyes opened wide. He was starting to understand the philosophy she was trying to teach him.

  She stared into his similar green eyes, the same way she used to years ago when they were back in the lab. “My friend Aadhya taught me that.”

  “Who is Aad…adha?” Anfang asked and saw a slight beakgrin appear on Thyra’s face. Immediately, he felt better than he had in years. He wanted to see her smile all his life, and would do anything to keep her happy.

  “A friend with a difficult name, but that’s not important. Anfang, I…” Thyra’s beakgrin disappeared as she thought hard for a moment. “I don’t know what to do. I want to believe that somewhere inside you you’re still the same gryphon I knew. The one that had heart and love for the little things in life. The one that would wake up every day with a new sense of adventure. I want to think you are just lost, and confused, but…”

  “I am lost, Thyra. I need help…” Anfang pleaded, watching Thyra look to him with concern. “I not know what right, what wrong. I just want to be with you,” he admitted and folded his eartuft against his head. “Please teach me.”

  Thyra thought for a moment. He seemed to understand what he was doing was immoral. Perhaps there was still some good in him. She sighed deeply and closed her eyes.

  “Damnit! John is going to kill me.”

  Chapter 23 High Hopes

  “Are you out of your mind, Thyra?!” Johnathen began with his voice rising. Thyra’s eyes widened and she waved her foretalons in front of his face to quiet him down, then looked over her wingshoulders to glance at Anfang in the kitchen.

  “Keep your voice down!” Thyra demanded in a whisper, relieved to see that that Anfang had not heard Johnathen. The beast gryphon was a too busy tearing chunks out of a well-marinated steak to notice their conversation in the living room. “Listen, I know I should have called you and told you, but…”

  “Yeah, no shit! You know what you’ve done?” Johnathen exclaimed and motioned over to Anfang. “You brought a fugitive into our house!”

  Anfang looked up from his steak and perked his one eartuft. “Fu..fu..gi...tive. What is this, Thyra?” Anfang asked curiously.

  Thyra glared at Johnathen and then fake smiled at Anfang to calm him. “Oh, it’s nothing! It just means…um… a finely cut steak.” Thyra lied, not knowing what else to say.

  Anfang pointed to the piece of meat he had in his beak and thought for a moment more. “So, this a fugitive?”

  “Well,” Thyra began.

  “Honey? Can we talk outside in private?” Johnathen asked and strode towards the back deck. Thyra followed closely behind, but kept an eye on Anfang who had returned his attention to the steak.

  Once outside, Thyra closed the door behind her and watched Johnathen pace back and forth on the deck. The sun was setting behind the trees in the back yard, casting a shadow on the house. He stopped in front of her and ran his fingers through his short black hair.

  “What were you thinking?!” Johnathen began, trying to keep his voice level. She hadn’t seen him this distraught since the night he had punched out that Gathering man at the restaurant.

  “He needs help, John!” Thyra said, her crest feathers rousing up. “He’s lost and Matthew made him kill those people!”

  “It still doesn’t change the fact that he killed those people. He’s a wanted criminal! Not a single lawyer in Atlanta could get us out of this! If anyone found out we were even TALKING to Anfang, we would have the FBI shoving microscopes up our asses. But harboring him under our own roof?” Johnathen put his hands on his hips and looked up at the sky. “With the crimes he committed, including murdering two officers, he’s going away for life and we could get five years.”

  “Well, what do you propose we do? He’s already here!” Thyra pointed out and stood her ground. Johnathen looked down at her with a furrowed brow. They locked eyes for a minute, and Thyra watched the anger leave his. Johnathen let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

  “And no one saw you bring him here, right?” Johnathen questioned.

  “Not a soul, I made sure of that,” Thyra confirmed. She looked over to the door and saw Anfang glance outside at them. He seemed curious about their conversation, and stared at the two of them for a moment before turning away. “We will figure this out after the final game tomorrow.”

  “What are we going to do about him in the meantime? I mean, can we just leave him here alone?” Johnathen pointed out. “He’s basically an untamed animal!”

  Thyra frowned at Johnathen. She hated it when people used that word to describe gryphons. Johnathen immediately changed his expression as she opened her beak to say something but a crash of something breaking made her eartufts perk up. Johnathen heard it as well, and quickly made his way to the door to open it.

  Thyra stepped inside to see Anfang standing in the living room, looking down at a broken vase. There was a pile of gray ashes around the decorative vase, and immediately Thyra knew what it was.

  “Tried to grab that book. But I break this,” Anfang commented and pointed at the pile on the wooden floor.

  Thyra looked up to Johnathen as his brow furrowed with anger. “John, he didn’t know...”

  “Get away from that, Anfang,” Johnathen commanded and walked across the kitchen and into the living room. The great beast looked over to Johnathen as he approached and began to growl.

  “You not command Anfang, human,” the gryphon said and started to spread his leathery wings, readying for a fight. Apparently, Johnathen had already rubbed Anfang the wrong way, and his tone of voice was not helping.

  Johnathen froze dead in his tracks and stared into his green cat like eyes, but anger over came his fear. “I said move!”

  Anfang took a step forward and flexed his talons into the hardwood floor. It seemed the beast would leap at any second. Thyra ran up to get in between the two of them, putting her back to Anfang and looking up at Johnathen.

  “John, please. Go outside. I’ll take care of this,” Thyra
pleaded.

  Johnathen looked down to her and then to Anfang. He gritted his teeth and pointed his finger at Anfang. “Fine. This is your mess anyways, Thyra. After tomorrow, he’s gone!” Johnathen said harshly and headed back outside.

  Thyra watched him slam the door shut behind him and pace on the back deck. She felt a pang in her chest as she realized that this was the first time she had seen him truly angry at her. Thyra turned around to see Anfang slowly relaxing himself now, his feathers laying back down flat and wings tucking into his side.

  “I not like him. Humans, they the same,” Anfang commented.

  Thyra shook her head. “No. They aren’t the same. Johnathen is good. He’s just, upset.”

  Anfang did not seem entirely convinced, but perked an eartuft to what she had to say. Thyra took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to explain this. “That vase was very important to him. It contained his mother’s ashes.”

  Anfang sat down and cocked his head slightly, not understand what Thyra was saying. He processed it for a moment more and pointed as the ash on the ground. “That was his mother? How?”

  “When humans die, their loved ones sometimes burn the ones they loved to collect their ashes. They call it cremation. It’s what they do sometimes instead of burying one another,” Thyra explained softly. Anfang clicked his beak against his teeth again and picked up a small talon full of the ash.

  “Why human do this? People die every day. Why so important?” he asked, letting the ash fall back to the floor.

  Thyra stood up and walked over to the kitchen, grabbing a coffee from one of the cupboards. Anfang stood and walked with her, watching her every move.

  “It’s a way they deal with death. They seem to do better knowing their loved ones can be visited, even though they are not here anymore.” Thyra emptied out the coffee into the trashcan and grabbed a small dustpan off the wall. Anfang followed her back into the living room and watched her scoop up a pile and place it inside the can.

  “It sound stupid,” Anfang said as he watched Thyra clean up the mess.

  She stopped for a moment and looked back at him. His eyes were cold, as they often were. He just did not understand the concept of death and what it meant to people.

  “In a way, it is. You’re right, in a way. But, over the years I have learned what they do is actually nice. It’s a way of respect. And something we gryphons have to learn if we are to live in peace with the humans.”

  Thyra watched the words sink in Anfang’s brain. His eartuft folded back against his head and he looked away for a moment. Thyra returned to her cleaning, sweeping up the last of the ash into the coffee can.

  “Who say we have to live with humans. Why you live with him? He control you,” Anfang said, breaking the silence. “Like a dog.”

  This took her by surprise. Thyra looked back over to the scared face of her friend and then back out the door where Johnathen sat on the patio. She had to consider her next words carefully.

  “Anfang, it’s not like that at all. It’s not like he gives me commands and I obey him. We are a couple. Everything we do is decided together. We are partners.” Thyra put the coffee can back up on the shelf and begun to pick up the broken pieces of vase. “I love him and he loves me equally.”

  “I not believe it. Human control us. Always have,” Anfang said with a frown. He looked out the window himself and readjusted his leathery wings. “I want you, Thyra. I take care of you. We…”

  “I can’t do that,” Thyra interrupted. Anfang stared directly at her and then looked down at the ground. He huffed through his nares and turned away, heading down the hallway.

  “Wait! Anfang,” she called out. He stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder, but not directly at her. “I care for you. You know that, right?”

  Anfang’s tail twitched in response. He seemed to weigh the words heavily and then continued down the hallway. She sighed as she heard his footsteps on the stairs heading to the guest room they had hastily prepared for him.

  Thyra closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing to clean up the broken vase parts. She had to convince Johnathen to allow Anfang to stay for longer if he was going to have any chance to be introduced to society. Unfortunately, that would mean risking their own freedom.

  For a moment, she considered if it was even worth it. Johnathen was right, Anfang was a convict on the run. It would be much easier and quicker if they just turned Anfang over to the police, but it would take years of lawyers pleading his case in order to get him set free. Even worse, the government might just have him executed. The best case would be if he pleaded insane, and was admitted to a mental institution, but that would take a lot of convincing for a gryphon that did not know the difference between right or wrong.

  She would never be able to live with herself if that was his fate. He was practically family. Even though they did not share the same parents, they were two of the first gryphons born from science.

  The closing of the back door called Thyra’s attention from her thoughts and she glanced back to see Johnathen standing in the kitchen. She kept her back to him as she finished sweeping up the last of the vase parts.

  “Where is he?” Johnathen asked calmly.

  “Upstairs. I think I upset him,” Thyra admitted and walked into the kitchen to empty the dustpan.

  Johnathen shut the door behind him and seemed to relax a bit as he did not have to face the gryphon again right now. “And what did you do with my mom?”

  “She’s in a coffee can for now. We can go shopping for a better urn in a couple days.” Thyra hung the dustpan back up and walked into the kitchen. She looked up at Johnathen and stood on her hindlegs to face him. “Listen, I’m sorry-.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Johnathen reached out and stroked over her cheek. “It’s his. He doesn’t belong here, and he can’t stay here. He’s…”

  “An animal. You said that already, John.” Thyra pulled her head back and returned to all fours once more. She let her voice grow louder, her head crest rousing with anger. “Then what am I to you? Just another animal like him?!”

  Johnathen held his hands up in defense. “That’s not what I meant-,” he began, but Thyra interrupted.

  “That’s exactly what you meant! Yes, he’s done a lot of bad in his life, but he doesn’t know any better! He and I are the same kind. Deep down, there’s good inside of him and I have to protect him. If you can’t see that…” She paused and snorted through her nares.

  “Then what?” Johnathen asked. They stood facing each other as her eyes searched his. “You’re being unreasonable.”

  “Unreasonable?!” Thyra snapped and readjusted her wings. She growled and turned her back to him, heading to the refrigerator. “Just leave. I can’t deal with you right now,” Thyra said. She listened to the jingle of keys as Johnathen swiped them off the hanger next to the door.

  “Already planned on it,” Johnathen said and exited to the garage, slamming the door behind him.

  Thyra gritted her beak together and opened the refrigerator, pulling out another slab of steak. A loud rumble shook the house as his mustang fired to life and hastily left the garage. She looked out the front window as the taillights disappeared with the sound of screeching tires disturbing the neighborhood.

  She slammed the refrigerator door shut and cursed under her breath as she heard the clangs of condiments falling over inside. Thyra could not remember the last time they had fought like this, but distance usually solved that issue. Maybe he was right, she was being a little unreasonable and hysterical, but she could not get past it.

  “Thyra?” came Anfang’s croaking voice from down the hall. She turned to see him standing in the hallway, eyes gleaming from the kitchen light. “I heard fight.”

  Thyra took a deep breath and forced her feathers to lay flat once again before responding. “Yeah. We had an argument,” she admitted.

  Anfang growled deeply in his chest and walked into the kitchen, long untrimm
ed talons scraping against the wooden floor. “If he hurt you, I kill him.”

  “No, you won’t. And he would never hurt me,” Thyra said while unwrapping the steak. She tore it in half with her foretalons and placed the other half on a plate. Anfang approached the other side of the island table and Thyra slid the plate over to him.

  “That what you think. All humans lie. All hurt us soon.” Anfang cocked his head and looked over to her. She watched him take the steak in his talons and tear a chunk out of it with his beak, but unlike her, he chewed before swallowing. “He will hurt you.”

  Thyra looked down at her plate, staring at the raw piece of meat before her as she took a deep breath. “Not all humans are bad. You have to learn that,” she said before doing as he had, biting into the steak and swallowing a piece hastily. She let the flavor of raw meat and the feeling of it in her crop relax her. “I have to go early tomorrow to play gryphball, and Johnathen won’t be home. I want you to stay here while I’m gone and don’t leave the house. Do you understand?”

  “Anfang understand,” he said before chomping down the rest of the meat. She tossed her plate in the sink and walked over to her bedroom door, stopping for a moment. She turned around and looked at Anfang.

  “Don’t leave and don’t hurt anyone.” Thyra said. “Try to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?”

  He raised his head and stared at her from across the room. She could tell the hospitality was unusual to him. He did not know how to react, and nor did she. Anfang readjusted himself and nodded.

  “Yes. Anfang see you tomorrow.”

  ***

  “We’re outside live at central hospital where another gryphon attack happened hours ago. The Sabertooth Slasher has struck again, claiming yet another victim and putting two other guards in critical care. The victim is Daniel Lions, the same man attacked just yesterday by this killer. It seems the slasher came back to finish the job.

  “There is no video evidence of the Slasher’s attack. But we do have an eyewitness report from Jordan, an on-site security member, who was there at the scene of the attack.”