A Feather on the Breath of Ellulianaen

by Robert Denethon

  ~

  The gryphons walked out of the stable door, and the humans greeted them, wearing armour and bearing arms, Viv with brass armour and bearing a scimitar, Galt with a broad sword and a helmet, and the two women each carrying a sword and wearing mail shirts that Gothur, Hinfane’s previous husband, had kept locked in the cellar case of trouble. The gryphons each bent a rear talon for the humans to climb up onto their backs.

  Viv climbed up onto Thwyrlyn’s back, Galt onto Milélyn’s back, and Hinfane and Uz both clambered up onto Halomlyn’s back, for both women were wiry and fairly slim from the hard work that they had done in their lives, even though Hinfane was over forty years of age and considered an old woman by the reckoning of northerners, and Halomlyn’s strength was reknowned among gryphons.

  The initial effort of going aloft was a chore for Halomlyn carrying both women, but once he was in the air he found that he could carry the two women without too much difficulty, for Halomlyn was indeed a mighty gryphon with a huge wingspan.

  And again all the men came out of the tavern and the villagers from their homes and watched the gryphons go aloft under the rising half-moon.