Child of the Gryphon

by David Lugsden

  The Grandmaster swung the huge door open with alarming ease and ushered Gabriel into his chambers. Gabriel reluctantly stepped into the office, refusing to meet Bysonn’s eyes, fists still clenched tightly. He stood in the centre of the room, before the Grandmaster’s massive wooden desk, the splintered fist imprint untouched from their first encounter. Bysonn strode back and forth across the room behind Gabriel, his hands locked together behind his back, clicking his tongue loudly, arrogantly. The air was thick with mutual revulsion radiating from the two individuals like a vile stench.

  Breaking the silence this time was Gabriel, ‘I’m not responsible for Master Tigris being in the infirmary. If it weren’t for me, he’d be in the morgue.’

  ‘Did I give you permission to speak?’ Bysonn snapped.

  ‘No... but-’

  ‘But nothing, you cretinous slug! You will speak only when spoken to and only when I allow it!’

  ‘I have a right to defend myself!’

  ‘Your arrogance really knows no bounds does it, boy?’

  Gabriel clenched his teeth. ‘I saved Master Tigris from the Reptilian – you weren’t there!’

  ‘I didn’t need to be to know precisely what happened.’

  ‘You’re wrong.’

  ‘NO! YOU ARE!’ Bysonn roared so loudly the entire room shook.

  ‘I am not!’ Gabriel said defiantly, refusing to look up. He felt just as much as he heard, Bysonn’s thudding footsteps rounding the desk.

  Back behind his desk, Bysonn gripped the edge tightly. The wood creaked and groaned under the strain of his iron grip. He spoke quietly through gritted teeth in his most frightening voice yet, ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Yes! I went back to save him!’

  ‘Indeed you did. But was that not against his explicit orders?’

  ‘Well... yes... but, you can’t possibly blame me for that! I saved his life!’

  ‘What you did was disobey a master’s direct order, an act that is punishable severely by itself. However, had it not been for your actions to begin with, your teacher would never even have been placed in jeopardy!’

  Gabriel was dumbfounded. ‘How can you possibly believe that?’

  ‘It is not what I believe. It is about what I know. You provoked the attack.’

  ‘What! How can you say that?’

  ‘Watch your tone, cub. I can do and say whatever I like. But that is not the point in question here. You provoked the attack because you attacked the Reptilians first.’

  ‘THAT’S A LIE!’ Gabriel exploded.

  ‘DON’T RAISE YOUR VOICE TO ME!’ Bysonn roared, his bowling ball-sized fist smashing down into the desk again. The legs of the table’s right hand side buckled and splintered, sending the table’s contents tumbling onto the floor. Bysonn continued, ‘Did you or did you not initiate an attack on a Reptilian patrol in the forest?’

  ‘I... but... they would have killed my friends if we hadn’t intervened!’

  ‘We...? As I understand it, you struck first. That mindless drone you associate with was simply following your example. I will deal with him in due course.’

  ‘Are you defending the Reptilians?’

  ‘I do not care for your line of questioning. Your friends were trespassing on Reptilian territory. Those patrolling guards were well within their rights to intervene, yet it was you who attacked them! It is no surprise then that they would have been seeking revenge.’

  ‘You are defending them! You... you... you traitor!’

  ‘HOW DARE YOU!’ Bysonn exploded again, ‘This time, cub, you have really crossed the line! Two weeks detention!’

  ‘Two weeks...?’

  ‘A month! You’re lucky I don’t expel you for such blatant insubordination! Every day after school, starting today, you will learn some proper manners, you arrogant little toad. Now get out of my sight!’

  Without saying another word, Gabriel started out of Bysonn’s office and slumped off to Anthropology. He arrived after the lesson had already begun and Master Delphinus was well underway lecturing the students on the many uses of a television. Delighted that his star student and resident expert on all things human had finally arrived, Master Delphinus instructed Gabriel to come to the front of the class and assist in delivering the lecture. With reluctance he obeyed.

  ‘Now, Gabriel,’ Master Delphinus chirped in his high-pitched voice, ‘maybe you can start by informing the other students on the history of television. Who invented it and in which year?’

  Gabriel’s mind was a blank. He was sure he’d heard the name mentioned in passing at some point, but it wasn’t part of the normal course of study he’d followed in his previous school. He could feel droplets of sweat forming on his brow. On the front row, Finn, who had been scowling at him since he had entered the room, leant back on his elbows, a large smug grin plastered across his face. Marina began nervously twirling her hair, chewing on her bottom lip and glancing back and forth.

  Master Delphinus, noticing he was struggling quickly cut in, ‘OK, maybe you can start with something a little easier. How about you tell us just what humans use their televisions for?’

  ‘Oh... yeah, they watch them.’

  ‘Yes... well I covered that just before you arrived. What else do humans use them for?’

  ‘Erm... I’m not sure what you mean...’

  Finn couldn’t contain himself, ‘So much for the big human expert, what a los- Oof!’

  He was cut off by a swift elbow to his ribs from Marina which promptly knocked all the wind out of him.

  ‘That’s enough, you two!’ Master Delphinus scolded the mertwins, ‘Gabriel why don’t you go and take a seat. Unfortunately, it seems, there are gaps in everyone’s knowledge.’

  Wholly embarrassed, Gabriel slunk to the back of the class to join Seth, Sattan and Tamera. Ever the ones to capitalise on another’s misfortune, he heard Victor and Fungus snickering to each other as he passed.

  ‘What happened?’ whispered Seth as Gabriel sat down.

  ‘You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,’ Gabriel whispered back.

  ‘Mr. Millar!’ Master Delphinus called across the classroom, ‘As your knowledge of the television is currently rather limited, may I suggest that you listen and pay attention so that you may in fact learn something?’

  Gabriel felt his cheeks flush as the rest of the class tittered in amusement. What a horrible start to the day, Gabriel thought, punished by Bysonn for saving a life, now humiliated in my favourite lesson, and the day has barely even started!

  Things worsened further in Old World Languages when Madame Psittacidae set the class an assignment for the following week whereby the students would each have to stand up and recite, in Akkadian, a ten minute description about themselves. Having made little improvement, ten minutes may as well be three hours, Gabriel and Seth whispered to each other. Tamera on the other hand was delighted and actually asked if they would be allowed to speak for longer than the ten minute slot if they wanted. The two boys groaned.

  Lunch was equally as uncomfortable as all students other than those in Gabriel’s class believed Bysonn’s insinuations. Students purposely barged into Gabriel, glared at him murderously and made derogatory comments about him whilst intentionally stood within earshot. Even some of the teachers were reluctant to admonish this behaviour.

  After lunch, the majority of the class had their replacement Physical Potential lesson with Master Procyon and yet more work on improving their fledgling senses. The mertwins worked again with Master Octus on the perfection of their underwater senses. Master Procyon had arranged a different activity for each of the five senses.

  In the first task, the students were informed, all they had to do was to find their partner using sight alone. Master Procyon led the students down a long and winding set of unfamiliar corridors. They stopped outside of a pair of equally unfamiliar double doors, which looked as though they had been in place easily as long as the school had been in existence. The students paired themselves up and were
instructed to each place a clothes peg over their nose and insert a pair of earplugs. Then they each had their hands tied at their waist. One at a time, Master Procyon led the students into the room. From the corridor it looked as though each student vanished into thin air as they stepped into the room and were instantly consumed by the blackness within. With Aures and Victor remaining outside and awaiting their turn, Gabriel was led inside. Seth, who was his partner in the exercise, had been led in some time before. The second he entered the room, Gabriel felt as though he had suddenly gone blind as it was so dark. The darkness descended upon him faster than he was ready for and quite unintentionally he let out a small gasp. Coupled with being unable to hear anything either, the effect was rather intimidating. Gabriel had no idea of the scale of the room, nor how he was ever going to find Seth. Master Procyon tapped him on the shoulder, indicating him to stop just inside the room and shortly afterwards brought in Victor, followed by Aures. The doors closed and the task was underway.

  Stumbling around in the infinite blackness, his arms useless, Gabriel strained his eyes desperately trying to see something, anything. He expected his eyes to slowly become accustomed to his environment and objects start coming into focus. Except they didn’t. The darkness was complete. Several times he stumbled, and twice he fell over, his chin bouncing off of the floor which sent a stinging sensation spreading out along his jaw. One time he even found the wall of the dark room. Unfortunately he found it with his nose, which resulted in a warm, metallic-tasting liquid oozing over his top lip into his mouth. It didn’t take him long to realise it was his own blood seeping out from his throbbing nose.

  On occasion, one of the doors would open as a pair of students whom had found each other exited. However the blackness of the room was so powerful that the light would never make it more than a few feet inside the room before being eradicated again as the doors closed.

  After what seemed like an eternity, both of the doors were flung wide open. Light, so bright it was painful to look at, poured into the entrance of the room. Silhouetted in the doorway was the portly figure of Master Procyon. Their teacher waved over the remaining students in the room, whereby he untied their shackled wrists. Gabriel pulled off the clothes peg, wiped away the last few remnants of dried blood from under his nose and pulled out his earplugs.

  ‘-ry harder next time,’ Master Procyon was saying, ‘Unfortunately our time is up for this task and we need to move onto our next one. Those of you who failed to find your partners will just have to keep practicing your night vision.’

  Gabriel glanced through the throng of gathered students, most of which had left the room after having been called out by Master Procyon. Only two pairs had completed the task successfully: Tamera and Verbera (werecats possessed astonishing night vision due to their traditionally nocturnal lifestyles), and surprisingly Victor (imps also had excellent sight in the dark due to them evolving in caves) and Fungus. Seth pushed his way through the crowd to join Gabriel. His chin was grazed and his right cheekbone was red and swollen.

  ‘What a stupid task,’ Seth said sulkily, ‘How in the name of all the signs of the Zodiac were our eyes supposed to get used to that?’

  ‘Had a few stumbles as well?’ Gabriel asked.

  ‘No, I just thought it would be fun to stand there and repeatedly knee myself in the face,’ Seth said sarcastically.

  ‘Alright, alright, keep your hair on! I didn’t have it easy in there either!’

  ‘Keep my what on? What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean calm down.’

  For the second task, Master Procyon led them into an incredibly long, narrow room which for all intents and purposes looked more like a corridor. He ordered the students to stand in total silence.

  ‘For this exercise,’ Master Procyon explained, ‘we shall test out that age old human adage of “it was so silent you could hear a pin drop.” This room is insulated such that no sound can enter into it or escape from it. The acoustics will channel even the slightest sound from one end of the room to the other. I will stand at one end with the pin. You will each in turn stand at the opposite end and raise a flag only when you hear something. I will not tell you when I’m dropping it and you will each stand with your back to me so don’t think you can cheat.’ He looked towards Victor and Fungus.

  Master Procyon continued, ‘You will each have three attempts, if you prove you have heard the sound twice, you will pass.’ He stepped aside and motioned to a small stool that had been concealed from view behind his ample bottom. Laid on top of the stool, was a ragged, red handkerchief, tied to an even grubbier-looking stick. ‘When you think you have heard the pin drop, raise the red flag.’

  Alae was first up. Master Procyon walked halfway along the room and dropped the pin. No reaction. He picked it up and moved three quarters of the way along the room. As he did so, Alae raised the flag. He dropped the pin for a second time. No reaction. He reached down to retrieve the pin and Alae raised the flag again. Finally, Master Procyon dropped the pin at the far end of the room and once again Alae failed to react.

  ‘Three fails. More practice needed. Next!’ Master Procyon called to the students.

  Aire followed. Master Procyon repeated the same procedure. After the first pin drop, it was clear that Aire thought she had heard something, but raised the flag with a great deal of uncertainty and caution. Unfortunately the second two drops were completely inaudible to her as she failed to raise the flag at all.

  ‘One out of three correct. An improvement, but still a fail over all. Next!’

  Aures was up next. With his astoundingly sensitive hearing, this was the one task where Aures surpassed all of his peers, despite the fact that in recent weeks his massive ears had folded over so much the tips were now touching his shoulders. Master Procyon dropped the pin from the same positions in the room as before, only this time, aware of Aures’ ability, instead of dropping the pin from waist height, he released it only a few inches from the ground. Nevertheless Aures heard the infinitesimal sound every time and raised the flag at the correct moment. Several of the students gave him a round of applause at such an impressive display. Aures, embarrassed by this show of respect, flushed a bright crimson.

  Brutum managed to detect two out of three pin drops and so achieved an overall pass. And then it came time for Gabriel’s turn. He quietly cursed under his breath as he approached the stool. With reluctance he gingerly picked up the flag and held it at his waist. Turning his back to Master Procyon, he let out a long sigh and strained his ears to listen. Here it comes, he thought, another embarrassing performance. Despite all of my best efforts, I’ve made no progress at all in this stupid class since-

  Tink.

  Wait a minute, he thought, I could have sworn I actually heard something then. Was I imagining it, or was it the actual pin? He raised the flag quickly.

  Of course, he rationalised, that had been the closest of the three. There’s no way I’ll be able to h-

  Tink.

  Was that it again? It was definitely quieter than before, so maybe he had heard it, just. Again he raised the flag.

  This is incredible! Gabriel thought. Had he finally connected with his supposed accentuated hearing ability? He strained his ears as much as he could.

  Tink.

  Much quieter but definitely there! He raised the flag for the final time.

  ‘Excellent work, Mr. Millar. Three out of three. A huge improvement.’

  Riding on a high from his success, Gabriel was barely aware that his classmates applauded him too. The feat went unequalled for the rest of the lesson, with some students managing to hear the pin drop once and fewer still managing to hear it twice. It was only Fungus, Sattan and Willow that performed as dismally as Alae, hearing nothing at all.

  Immediately following the hearing task was the touch task. Master Procyon introduced it by referencing another human adage “like trying to find a needle in a haystack.” Leading them into yet another classroom, the students were staggered by a
ten foot high pile of dried reeds, grass and straw. There they were each blindfolded and instructed to feel their way through the stack of dried vegetation until they found one of the three-inch long metal pins hidden somewhere within. Master Procyon had hidden one pin for every student.

  After thirty minutes of scrabbling around on their hands and knees, the floor of the classroom looked like that of a barn. Strands of dried grass and straw stuck out of the students’ hair and stabbed painfully at their exposed flesh when Master Procyon finally called an end to the task.

  ‘Disappointing,’ he said, shaking his head, ‘I would have thought that at least one of you would have been successful. It appears that each and every one of you needs much more practice in this area. So be it, we need to move onto to our next activity.’

  The fourth task of the lesson was a simple taste test. Master Procyon laid out a series of jugs filled with water. Within each he had added a miniscule droplet of different flavourings. It was then up to the students to identify each taste. Much less painful than the previous test, it was still no less challenging to most. It was only Brutum, Rostrum, Tamera and Verbera that were able to distinguish any of the different tastes at all.

  The fifth and final task focussed on the students’ sense of smell and was the least enjoyable task of all. Waiting outside the doors to a small hallway which led to a room labelled as the “Scent Laboratory” the class were informed of their task. At the far end of the hallway was another set of double doors. One at a time, the students would enter the laboratory and attempt to locate the flower of the river blossom plant. Prior to entering the laboratory each student had the chance to smell another river blossom flower that Master Procyon had with him. Gabriel thought it gave off quite a pleasant, sweet perfume, subtle and not over-powering in the slightest.

  ‘Our last task is designed to test your ability to isolate an individual scent amidst a host of stronger ones. You each have as long as you need to locate the flower,’ Master Procyon explained. ‘Or as long as you can stand to be in there.’