Thyra winced as she watched Phera rise up underneath another gryphon at high speed and elbow his ribs. The gryphon buckled its wings, dropped the ball, and fell to the ground in a heap of feathers. The next scenes were of the refs stopping the game while the gryphon was carted off by human EMS. Another referee gryphon flew next to Phera and flashed a red card.
“This is just one instance of many when Phera went too far. That gryphon, Jifra, was out for the season after this. Multiple rib fractures, a broken radius on his dorsal wing, countless broken flight feathers, and torn ligaments in both foreclaws.”
In the video, Phera lashed out verbally at the referee and turned to glide off of the field. Once he was back in the dugout, the red-faced gryphon threw multiple objects around, which earned with many complaints from his fellow teammates. “The only reason he still plays, is because he’s good, and he knows it.”
Victor walked to the opposite side of the room and turned on the lights, causing everyone to wince. “Now, I have prepared a new playbook that I want everyone to read and practice before tomorrow’s game. I want you all to know them by memory. Most of the plays have remained unchanged, but there are a few that have been modified and renamed.” He pointed at the table stacked with binders. Each one of them had a gryphons name on the front.
“I’m sure everyone is tired from practice today, so go home early and get a good rest. I want everyone here tomorrow morning in top shape for the game. If we win, we will have a chance at entering the first league,” Victor said and turned toward the exit of the room. “You are dismissed. I will see everyone here tomorrow morning.”
With that, the great gryphon left. Immediately, everyone began to converse between themselves. Multiple gryphons stood up and went to the front of the room to sort through the binders to find one with their name on it.
“Thyra,” came Aadhya’s voice from behind her. The vulture stood and walked up next to Thyra. Quietly, she asked, “Did you ever tell Johnathen about our engagement a couple weeks back?”
Aadhya and Antonio had spent most of that evening with the two of them at her house. Johnathen had been surprised to see the other gryphons join them for dinner, and had made an extra trip to the grocery store for food. He made no complaint, though.
Quite the contrary, he had seemed excited to see them. They had a pleasant evening together getting to know one another, but Aadhya had noticed that the main purpose of them being in town was never revealed to Johnathen.
Thyra shook her head. “No, I never did and I don’t think he needs to know. All he needs to know is that hopefully they will leave us alone for a while. Then again, he rolled over pretty easily for you.”
Thyra replayed the scene in her head. She thought she knew exactly what kind of person Matthew was, but that understanding had been destroyed when she watched him all but crumble to his knees in front of Aadhya. Did Matthew actually hate their kind just because he was afraid of them? Or was it something else altogether? “We may have made things worse.”
“I thought it would have been more of a fight,” Aadhya replied and made her way to the front of the room. “He seemed quite submissive, which is suspicious. Then again, not even great kings challenged lions.”
She sorted through the binders and handed each of her friends their binder. Thyra, Rachel, and Antonio took theirs and flipped it open to glance at the first page.
“I did find it strange that he gave in so easy,” Antonio chimed in. “Perhaps it was a play. Something he has always suspected would happen and had planned how to react.”
They began to read the first page of their binder. Each opening page was directed to the individual player, relating to their starting positions, their positions in the field, and other notes Victor decided to throw in.
“Wait, what are you all talking about?” Rachel suddenly asked. She had been too distracted by everything else to realize what the group was chatting about until now. “Did you all hang out recently or something?” She ruffled her small feathers, feeling left out.
“Well, kind of. We did hang out,” Thyra began “But…”
“But you didn’t invite me?” Rachel said with a huff in her voice.
“You were all the way up in Chattanooga,” Thyra replied. “Plus you said something about concerts and…”
“And whatever! I would have come down if I knew all you all were chilling out!” Rachel started again.
“AND it wasn’t really hanging out. We went to confront Matthew,” Thyra finally said. Rachel froze for a minute and looked to the other gryphons. Her small eartufts folded back against her skull.
“And you didn’t invite me because I’m too small. You don’t think I’m scary enough,” Rachel said and grabbed her binder. She tucked it under a wing before walking out of the door. The rest of them followed behind quickly.
“It is not because you are not scary, it is because…” Aadhya paused, searching for the right words. Rachel continued to walk down the hallway.
“It’s because you all were scared I would get hurt if something went wrong,” she said with another loud huff through her nares.
“Rachel, we..”
Rachel suddenly stopped and turned around. One wing flared open and feathers roused on the back of her head. “Well don’t worry about me! I’ll have your back no matter what! I don’t care what you’re up against.” Rachel’s screech, caused other gryphons to turn and pay them attention. “I don’t give two shits if it’s against the greatest army in the world! I’ll still stand by y’alls side.”
The group stopped and stared down at the small gryphon. Thyra felt guilty for not bringing her along. She had known that Rachel would have been upset about not being there, but thought it for the best at that time.
“I’m sorry, Rachel. Next time, you will be the first one I call.” Thyra promised. The little black eyes of the Kestrel gryphoness looked up at her seriously for a moment more before her beak curved into a smile.
“Good. I want to be there to tear off Matthew’s face next time,” Rachel replied and turned to head down the hallway again as did the other surrounding gryphons.
Thyra took a deep breath and followed after her. “That’s what I was afraid of,” she muttered as they entered the locker room. The sounds of gryphons conversing and lockers swinging open filled the room as everyone went about their business to end the day.
Aadhya walked up next to Thyra and sat on her massive haunches. “As much as I love Rachel, I am relieved you did not bring her along.”
She was right. Even if Thyra did feel guilty about leaving her small friend behind, the scene would have escalated more so if Rachel was there. “Yeah, I thought that was a good call. She will get over it.”
Feeling better about her decision, she opened up her locker. There was a fresh uniform hanging up for tomorrow, already cleaned by the staff and ironed out. “But we have more important things to think about, like how we are going to kick ass in tomorrow’s game,”
Aadhya gave her a warm beak grin in return and nodded. “I can not wait to see how you perform. Have you already memorized most of the plays?” Aadhya asked and watched as Thyra removed her uniform from her body.
She twisted this way and that, struggling to take off the tight spandex material. Aadhya assisted, using a talon to bring the back of the uniform over Thyra’s wings and head.
“Yeah. I mean most of them are no brainers, just common plays used in gryphball, but I’m sure Victor has a couple curveballs in the book.” Thyra tossed the dirty uniform into the hamper at the center of the room. She withdrew her cellphone from the locker and turned it on.
“I was thinking of inviting the others back to the apartment tonight,” Aadhya said as she began to work her own uniform off. It tugged and pulled at her white and peppered plumage until she peeled the clothing from herself. “I began a stew inside the slow cooker this morning. There should be plenty food to feed all of us. We can study the plays and go over them together. That is, unless you desire for more
peace.”
“No, I think that’s a great idea! I’ll run by the store and grab some beer,” Thyra replied and started to put on her more casual clothing.
Aadhya looked to her with a raised eye ridge. “Do you think that is advisable? Alcohol can interfere with one’s performance.”
Thyra waved Aadhya’s concerns off with a foreclaw. “I’ll just buy a six pack. That won’t do us any harm. Plus the extra calories will give us energy, right?” Thyra laughed and slammed the locker shut. “I’ll get us something light.”
***
“Bishop, sir, she is ready,” a well-dressed man said as he stood at the entrance of Matthew’s office.
Matthew looked up from his computer screen and nodded. “Very good. Just give me a minute.”
He finished a message on the keyboard. His typing was painfully slow, pecking away at the letters on the keyboard as the man patiently waited by the door. Finally, Matthew stood from behind his desk and straightened his crinkly white button down shirt. There was a faint five-clock shadow on Matthew’s wrinkled face, and his usually bald head had grown patches of short hair from lack of upkeep. He followed the man out of his office and down a hallway, hands behind his back.
“So, she finally agreed to talk?” Matthew asked his hired hand.
The well-dressed man nodded in response and stopped by a door that had a deadbolt on it. “Yes sir. Says she wants to negotiate,”
The man knocked three times. The deadbolt unlocked and the door swung open, revealing a small, dark room. Matthew entered and looked to the woman sitting in the corner on a sofa chair, restrained and accompanied by another well-dressed man. There was not much else in the room besides a lonely sofa, and another chair that had been placed directly in front of the woman. She looked rough, but not beaten and abused.
Matthew calmly approached and sat before her in the dim light. He took a deep breath and folded his hands while he leaned back, staring directly into the woman’s eyes. “They have told me you wish to speak to me, Sandra?”
“Yeah. I’m tired of this shit. I don’t care what you are doing anymore. I just want to go home,” Sandra replied and straightened out her fingers. Her wrists were red from the restraints rubbing the skin. “You mind removing these?”
Matthew looked to one of the men and nodded. The man walked over and undid the restraints, letting them fall to the floor. Sandra immediately began to rub her irritated wrists and grabbed the water in front of her. There was silence for several seconds as she downed the water glass and sighed.
Matthew leaned forward now and watched patiently. “Where is your group?” he asked calmly.
“What group?” she snapped back.
Matthew’s face turned into a frown and he slammed his fist down on the table in front of him. Everyone looked surprised at the unusual display of loosing his temper so easily.
“Damn it, woman! Don’t play games with me. I want to know the name and location of your group!” he yelled before snatching another water glass and curling his long, bony fingers around it. “You said you wanted to talk. Don’t toy with me.”
Sandra took a deep breath and put her emptied glass down. “Ok. Fine. Ill tell you everything only on two conditions,” she began. “First, you let me walk free. I forget about this, you forget about me, and I’ll never go to anybody with this information. I give you my word and you can check on me if you want.”
Sandra stopped to gauge Matthew’s reaction. He sternly looked at her for a moment then nodded his head.
“Fine. What is your second condition?” he asked suspiciously.
“Second is . . .” She paused and bit her lip. Matthew raised an eyebrow at the pause. Surely she had been thinking about what she wants for her information. Why did she not want to say it? “Second, you don’t harm the gryphon.”
Matthew was stumped by this comment. He sat back in his chair and intertwined his fingers once again. “What gryphon?”
“The gryphon we are holding. He’s, different. Not like the others,” Sandra began much to Matthew’s curiosity. He motioned for her to continue. “A month back, we found out there was a gryphon being passed between labs. He had never been free or had a life to live on his own. When we tried to dig for more information on him, we came up blank. He was a ghost, as far as the government was concerned. Finally, we found the last place he was being held. We broke in late at night, and what we found…” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “We found an abomination.”
“What do you mean? All gryphons are an abomination of man,” Matthew retorted. Sandra shook her head.
“No. Gryphons are just as much human as you and I. But this thing wasn’t a gryphon. He’s something halfway between a beast and a gryphon. He has the upper beak of a bird, but his lower jaw is like a deformed cat’s. There are patches missing out of his fur and feathers too. But even with all that, he’s still a sentient creature. We couldn’t just leave him,” Sandra continued. “We hooded him, snuck him back to our hideout, but once we removed his hood, he lashed out. I don’t know if it was fear, hunger, or just primal behavior, but he killed someone in our group.
“We couldn’t do anything about it. He didn’t respond to any of our calls. He just kept saying, ‘Food.’ This creature dragged the carcass of our man into the confined area we had made for him and devoured the guy.” Sandra looked down to her bare feet, clearly lost in thought. “After that, we didn’t dare get close. We tried to talk to him, but he just kept repeating the same things, over and over again. ‘I want friend’ and ‘I need food’.”
This story piqued Matthew’s curiosity. A feral beastly gryphon that would kill for whatever reason it wanted. He chuckled deeply, causing Sandra to look back up at him with worry.
“Do not fret. I have no plans on harming this… Gryphon… if it is one. But do tell me where it and your group reside. Again, I promise to do no harm to either party if you uphold your word.” Matthew looked to Sandra once more, awaiting her response.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Northeast of here. Old Clinton Historic District. There’s an old abandoned warehouse off the exit of highway 129 and 18. That’s where they all are.”
Matthew clapped his hands together and stood before her. “Splendid. Thank you for the information.” He turned to leave towards the door before Sandra interrupted him.
“Hey! What about letting me go?” Sandra pleaded. “I gave you what you wanted!”
Matthew stopped before the door and turned to face her once more. “You did, but I don’t know if your information is correct. I’ll release you as soon as I confirm this. Now settle in, hopefully you will only be here for one more night.”
Matthew opened the door before Sandra began to scream at him. Both well-dressed men pinned her down to the chair and began to tie her bindings once more. He stepped into the hallway and put his hands behind his back with a smile.
“An insane murdering gryphon. This could be beneficial.”
Chapter 15 Retrieval
Daniel pulled the slide back on his Glock and locked it in place. He pushed the magazine release and pulled the clip from the base of the weapon. “Remember, we don’t kill people and we don’t harm the gryphon either.” He checked the number of rounds in the clip and loaded it back into the Glock again. “We only return fire, but I highly doubt this organization of computer geeks are capable of handling a weapon. We only have these to invoke fear in them. If you have to shoot, shoot to wound.”
Daniel dropped the slide with a loud metallic clack and then pulled it back to check if a round was loaded into the chamber. He holstered the weapon on his side and turned to look at Jack. The short man puffed on a cigarette as he drove down the highway in the sprinter van.
Daniel turned to look at the five other men sitting in the back of the van. “Everyone understand?”
All of them nodded and checked their own weapons. Most had assault rifles of different makes, and all of them were fully loaded out with accessories. Everyone wore black s
ki masks, save for himself and Jack at the moment.
“Good. Because if you kill anyone, then you don’t get paid and you’ll never work for me again.” Daniel said with a scowl to reinforced how serious he was. He did not want blood today, especially when he was going up against a group of innocent civilians who were just standing up for what they believe in. Daniel sighed and pulled out his phone to check the GPS again.
“I don’t like this, Daniel,” Jack said in a low voice. He puffed on his cigarette and threw it out the window. “First, it’s ‘Watch these civilians.’ Now it’s ‘Scatter this Civil Rights Gryphon Group and steal this gryphon.’ But then what?” Jack turned to look at Daniel with his tired eyes. They were permanently baggy and showed dark circles around them. “We’re rushin’ into this without any Intel besides a location. So after we do this, then what else is that insane preacher going to make us do?” Jack asked, his eyebrows knit together in concern. “I don’t want this to get like it was in the war,”
Daniel stared back for a moment and then at his phone again. “I don’t know what he’ll want, but I won’t let it go that far.”
Jack huffed and ran his fingers through the short hair that was cut into a strip that began at his forehead to the back of his head. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”
“We’ll worry about it all later. Let’s just do this. Get in, scare them away, take one for questioning, get the gryphon, and be home by dinner.” Daniel phone dinged with a notification. “Get off the next exit,” he told Jack.
Jack turned on his blinker and drifted into the right lane. “Fine. But if this goes south, then I’m done,” Jack said and pulled of the exit.
“I understand. Now, take a right,” Daniel directed. He checked his phone and then locked the screen. “Go straight for four miles.”
“I still see that kid, Daniel.” Jack said, his voice haunted.
The Gryphon Generation Book 2: A New Era Page 16
