Guardians of the Gryphon's Claw

by Todd Calgi Gallicano

  “It was my only prototype and I don’t remember how I built it.” She sighed.

  “Oh, I didn’t—” Sam started, but Penelope waved him off.

  “Don’t worry. It wasn’t your fault. I’m just glad it helped when you needed it to,” she said. “I’ll take it up with Dr. Knox when I see him again.”

  “If you see him again,” Sam reminded her.

  “We will,” Penelope assured him.

  When Sam told her about the chupacabra attack and the sudden sight, Penelope was insistent that she get a sample of his blood at the lab. The ranger postulated that whatever was giving him the sight now might have been preventing the Magnapedaxin 13 from working properly.

  All caught up on the adventure, Penelope looked into the rearview mirror at Tashi, who was sitting silently in the backseat.

  “How are you doing back there?” she asked the Guardian. Tashi didn’t respond. “Is she always this quiet?” Penelope asked Sam.

  “Depends,” Sam replied. “She yells at me a lot.”

  “I do not yell at you,” Tashi interjected. “If I raise my voice, it is out of concern for your safety.”

  Sam whispered to Penelope, “Her concern sounds a lot like yelling.”

  They arrived at the cabin to find Trevor waiting outside to greet them. He pulled Sam into a big troll hug.

  “Sam!” he exclaimed. “I want to hear all about your adventures!” Then the troll noticed Tashi and couldn’t contain his excitement. “You must be a Guardian,” he said with boyish wonder. Tashi nodded and Trevor bowed his head.

  “You do not need to bow to me, troll,” Tashi informed him. “I am not the gryphon.”

  “Oh, right,” Trevor replied, now slightly embarrassed. He offered his hand. “My name is Trevor. Pleased to meet you.” Tashi shook the troll’s hand. “I make a very good friend,” he added.

  “He does,” Sam confirmed with a smile.

  “Okay, enough,” Penelope announced. “Everyone inside.” The group entered the cabin and Sam spotted Chase standing in the kitchen.

  “Chase!” he said excitedly.

  “Sam London, I presume much has happened since last we met?” Chase inquired with a knowing smirk.

  “That’s an understatement,” Sam replied. He slipped off his backpack and unzipped it. He was just about to open the bag when Tashi intervened.

  “Sam!” she said with a scowl.

  “What?” Sam responded, as if surprised by Tashi’s reaction. “It’s just Chase, for goodness’ sake.” He pulled back the fabric at the top of the bag and exposed the claw. Trevor immediately gasped at the sight and leapt back several feet. He hit the wall behind him and caused the painting that doubled as the lab door to spring open.

  “You’ve got the claw!” Trevor exclaimed in disbelief. “The gryphon’s claw!”

  Chase’s ears pricked up. “May I?” the cynocephalus asked as he reached for the relic. Tashi interceded and placed her hand on the bag in a protective manner. Chase got the message and backed off. “I’ll just observe from a distance.”

  “That would be best,” Tashi said.

  Sam informed Chase and Trevor about the aswang’s proposal—the gryphon’s claw in exchange for the lives of Dr. Knox and Dr. Vantana.

  “Then you must give it to them,” Trevor insisted. “You’ve got to!”

  “Let’s be cautious, now,” Chase interjected. “We can’t be certain they would even hold up their end of the bargain. Perhaps there is another way?”

  “What other way?” Sam inquired.

  “We could travel to Hérault, find where they are being held, and see if we can stage a rescue,” Chase suggested. “If not, we can consider trading the claw, but only if it is dire. Of course, I believe Dr. Knox would not want us to surrender the claw under any circumstance.”

  “But they could be—” Sam started.

  Chase nodded solemnly. “It is part of our commitment to the cause,” he said. “We must be willing to give our lives for the protection of all magical creatures. Unfortunately for us, we can be harmed, unlike Guardians.”

  “This is true,” Tashi affirmed. “And it is the reason why I must go and rescue them. I will call upon my fellow Guardians if necessary. It is our life’s purpose.” She looked at Penelope, Trevor, and Chase. “Can I trust the three of you to protect Sam while I am gone?”

  Trevor nodded. “Sure thing.”

  “Wait a minute,” Sam interjected. “If you’re going, I’m going.”

  “It is much too dangerous,” Tashi protested.

  “So was finding Kustos,” Sam reminded her. “Plus, the claw was given to me. I’m not letting it out of my sight.”

  “I will go as well,” Chase offered. “You will need help. And I am familiar with that area.”

  “I’m cool with that,” Sam said.

  “I am not ‘cool’ with any of this,” Tashi maintained.

  “We should take a closer look at this place,” Penelope suggested. “See if we can determine where they’re being held.” She gestured for everyone to head through the secret door to the lab. The group moved down the narrow metal steps to a large, sterile room—an entirely different motif than the homey wood cabin upstairs. Sam took a long look around, excited to see the hidden space where Penelope performed her experiments. He saw refrigerators with glass doors filled with different-colored liquids in test tubes, and lab tables with intricate beaker setups and centrifuges. In a far corner there were scientific and metalworking tools, along with a collection of strange-looking weapons and devices that reminded Sam of the holograph projector. Near the front of the room sat a sophisticated computer system hooked up to two large monitors, and the wall closest to the stairs sported a giant flat screen.

  Penelope stepped over to the computer and punched a few keys. The screen on the wall instantly displayed an image of France, then zoomed in on the southern part of the country. An outline wrapped around a large area.

  “That’s Hérault,” Penelope said. “Sam.” She pointed to him. “Let’s get that blood sample, shall we?” Sam nodded apprehensively. Penelope grabbed a syringe from a nearby table as Chase, Tashi, and Trevor studied the image on the screen. Penelope took a vial of blood from a vein in Sam’s arm. He grimaced, but stopped when he noticed Tashi looking his way. He didn’t want to look like a wimp in front of a Guardian.

  When she was done, Penelope grinned. “I’m excited to get you answers.”

  “And I’m excited to hear them,” Sam said.

  Chase pointed at the screen. “Well, if the doctors are indeed in this region, they are more than likely hidden within this wooded mountainous area.”

  “Agreed,” said Penelope. “It actually makes quite a bit of sense now. Those gargoyles that attacked you and Vance, they’re from the Hérault region.”

  “So is the Beast of Gevaudan!” Trevor added anxiously. “It’s a terrible creature. A terribly terrible creature. One scratch of its claws is fatal!”

  “We shall strive to avoid it, then,” Chase said matter-of-factly.

  “I have a weapon I can send you with to help against the gargoyles, and I can put something together for the aswang,” Penelope offered. “But without knowing what else will be waiting, it’s going to be tough to prepare.”

  “Then we must simply prepare for anything and everything,” Chase countered with confidence.

  Sam glanced over at Tashi for her thoughts on the situation, but the Guardian appeared preoccupied. Normally, Sam would conclude she was in one of her meditative states, but in this instance, she wasn’t staring straight ahead; rather, she was gazing at the top of the stairs with a seriousness that concerned him.

  “Tashi? What’s wrong?” Sam asked quietly. The Guardian took a few seconds to answer. By then, Chase, Penelope, and Trevor had shifted their attention to her. She spoke but continued staring toward the lab door.

  “I hear something,” she said in a hushed tone.

  The others exchanged nervous glances as Tashi started bac
k up the stairs. Everyone followed. When Sam emerged from the lab, he found the Guardian standing with her back against the cabin’s front door.

  “Ranger Naughton, do you have a tunnel or passageway for escaping this cabin?” Tashi asked as the ranger entered behind Sam.

  Penelope wasn’t expecting the question. “Uh…no. I’ve never needed one. Why?”

  Chase was at the window. “You need one now,” he said, gesturing outside. “Chupacabras.”

  Penelope’s eyes went to Sam. “They must have followed you.” Sam rushed to the window to get a peek. Sure enough, the cabin was surrounded by hundreds of the little monsters. They snarled and stared hungrily at the cabin.

  “They are waiting to gather an overwhelming force, and then they will attack,” Tashi explained. She remained surprisingly calm, considering the circumstances. Trevor, on the other hand, was in a total panic.

  “Attack? Attack us? Here? In here?” the troll stammered. “What are we going to do?”

  “We cannot win this fight,” Tashi stated plainly. “We are outnumbered and”—she eyed Trevor and Penelope—“outmatched.”

  “I can take care of myself, thank you very much,” Penelope retorted, annoyed by Tashi’s implication.

  “Perhaps,” Tashi replied, oblivious to having offended the ranger. “And though I would prefer to do battle, I cannot put Sam into danger that is avoidable. We must leave.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Trevor asked, practically hyperventilating. “They’re all around us!”

  “I could call on Gus,” Penelope suggested. “He could fly us out two at a time. Maybe he can bring some friends.”

  “I do not recommend that course of action,” Tashi said. “The horses would not survive.”

  “The Guardian is correct in that assessment,” Chase confirmed. “Those creatures out there can jump quite high. As soon as one of your horses came down to pick us up, the chupacabras would attack…without mercy.”

  “I have a better idea,” Sam blurted out. “Chase, Tashi—I’m going to need both of you to pull this off.” Sam’s idea was risky, borderline crazy. But if it worked, he’d be hailed a genius. Of course, at the moment, everyone was just staring at him with a heaping tablespoon of skepticism.

  —

  It was about an hour later when the group was ready to execute Sam’s master plan. The chupacabras had taken the time to continue amassing their army. Meanwhile, inside the cabin, Penelope and Trevor were stationed downstairs, preparing to operate as the first line of defense should the creatures gain entry. Getting into the cabin would prove much more difficult for the chupacabras now that the windows were boarded up and furniture was blocking both the front and rear doors. Sam, Chase, and Tashi were upstairs in Penelope’s bedroom, which occupied the entire second floor. It had a front-facing dormer window that they hadn’t boarded up. The rest of the room’s ceiling was in the shape of the roof, with its two-sided walls slanted to a peak in the center.

  Sam looked at Chase. “Ready?” he asked with hope in his voice.

  “I must confess, I’m feeling a tad silly. All my years with the agency and I never did this.”

  “First time for everything,” Sam suggested.

  “And you’re certain it will work?”

  “I’ve seen it work….Well, I didn’t actually see it,” Sam corrected himself. Chase’s eyes widened at his admission.

  “Wait a minute—we are hinging our lives on a trick you never actually saw succeed?” he asked, incredulous.

  “I know it did!” Sam exclaimed. “Tell him, Tashi.” Tashi nodded once. Chase softened. With that, Sam opened the window and gave the cynocephalus the cue.

  “Here goes,” Chase said. He cleared his throat and started to howl. Softly at first, but soon increasing in volume. The chupacabras gathered around the cabin all stopped snarling for a moment, confused by this strange sound. Unfortunately, the distraction was short-lived—the army of little monsters began advancing toward the cabin en masse.

  “They’re coming!” a terrified Trevor screamed from downstairs.

  “Just make sure they don’t get in!” Sam yelled back. “We only need a few minutes.”

  Chase continued to howl as the chupacabras descended. They were banging and hurtling their bodies against the doors and windows, desperate to get inside. Then they began to climb up the side of the cabin, hooking their claws into the wood siding and hoisting their bodies upward. One of the creatures reached the bedroom window and grabbed for Sam. Chase stumbled back and stopped howling as the creature continued to move into the house. Tashi poked it with the tip of her shekchen. The beast flew fifty feet backward, soaring above its compatriots before dropping to the earth with a resounding thud.

  “Thank you,” Chase said. He returned to the window and resumed his howling.

  Sam gazed anxiously up at the sky. Tashi put her hand on his shoulder.

  “It is a long way to fly,” the Guardian noted. “We cannot expect—”

  “He has to!” Sam declared. He hoped that stating it so emphatically would somehow will the universe to comply. Then he heard the sounds of shattering glass and smashing wood.

  “They’re coming through!” Trevor shrieked.

  “Howl louder!” Sam demanded. The cynocephalus eyed him, then turned up the volume.

  Trevor and Penelope retreated to the second floor, slamming the door behind them. “There’s too many,” the ranger said. “I put out a distress call to the closest ranger station, but it’ll take them a few hours to get here.”

  “We don’t have a few hours!” Trevor said, on the verge of big troll tears. “They’re going to eat us!”

  Sam looked back up to the sky. “Please!” he whispered to himself. “Please!”

  Sam’s plea was finally heard. A massive shadow passed over the landscape, blocking the sun and enveloping the forest in shadow. The chupacabras froze and gazed up at the sunless sky. Even the creatures that had gotten into the house were scurrying out to get a look. What they saw was everything Sam had hoped for….The roc had arrived.

  “Yes!” Sam exclaimed, pumping his fist in celebration. Trevor, Penelope, and Chase all cheered. Even Tashi smiled…for a second. Sam caught the Guardian’s eye and she quickly switched to her stoic expression. “I’ll go first,” she announced, and climbed out the window. Once Tashi pulled herself onto the roof of the cabin, she offered her hand to Sam. He took it, and she helped him up onto the slope. The two of them pulled Chase out next, followed by Penelope. Then all four joined forces to get Trevor onto the roof. The troll was deathly afraid of heights and tensed up at the sight below.

  Tashi stood at the edge of the roof, straddling the dormer and wielding her shekchen. She let out a high-pitched screech and the giant bird swooped down. It flapped its enormous wings as it hovered several feet from the house, its head near Tashi. She reached out and communicated with the creature the same way she had on Phylassos’s mountain. After a few seconds, the Guardian turned to the others.

  “He will fly us to Hérault. He says he would be honored to carry Sam London and the great gryphon’s claw.”

  “Awesome!” Sam shouted. He was thrilled that his idea was working; unfortunately, the chupacabras had their own plans.

  The creatures did something no one was expecting: they began to climb on top of one another, forming a pyramid of bodies that rose higher and higher until it finally reached the roc. Three of the beasts leapt onto the giant bird’s back. The roc reared and took to the sky, trying to shake the chupacabras off. Sam was in shock and Trevor had turned to jelly.

  “They…they attacked that bird,” the troll stammered in horror.

  “And now they’re going to attack us,” Penelope added ominously. “Everyone get ready!” She brandished an odd-shaped gun with a disk at its end. During their preparations, Sam had learned this was called a banshee gun—it recreated a banshee scream in a directed manner. Penelope used it to freeze several chupacabras as they climbed up the side of the ca
bin, while Tashi delivered electrical charges to the attacking horde with her shekchen. Sam hung back with Trevor and Chase, who appeared surprisingly unfazed by the situation.

  “Perhaps we should just see what they want,” Chase suggested. “Does that Guardian speak chupacabra?”

  “They want the claw, and I’m not giving it to them!” Sam asserted.

  The chupacabras were relentless. Soon the group was forced back and surrounded on all sides. There was no escape. As they braced for their last stand, a loud roar echoed through the park. But this wasn’t one single roar; it was dozens of voices roaring in unison. The chupacabras halted their advance and turned toward the sound, but they couldn’t get a fix on the source. It was everywhere at once. Sam’s eyes darted to the perimeter of the chupacabra mass to see what had suddenly terrified them: it was an army of bigfoots!

  The bigfoots emerged from the forest and stomped toward the chupacabras with Carl leading the pack.

  “Woo-hoo!” Sam exclaimed. “The cavalry!” He watched the bigfoots make quick work of the chupacabras as they cleared a path to the cabin. Penelope wasn’t pleased.

  “Question is, are they rescuing us or simply coming for the claw themselves?” she wondered.

  Meanwhile, the roc had managed to toss the creatures from its back, and returned to pick up its passengers.

  “Sam! We must go!” Tashi ordered as the roc appeared above them. Sam looked at Penelope with concern.

  “We’ll be fine,” she assured him. “Go!”

  “But Carl…”

  “I’ll figure it out. Go get Henry and Vance.” Sam nodded. “And take this—” She handed him the banshee gun. “It might come in handy.”

  The roc opened its talons just enough for Tashi, Sam, and Chase to climb inside. Once settled, Tashi put her hand on the inside the roc’s talon and closed her eyes. In an instant, they were in the air and headed for Hérault, unsure who or what would be awaiting them.

  For the second time in his young life, Sam London wished he were unconscious. The first had been during a particularly brutal dental appointment. In this instance, it was thirty minutes into his flight with the roc. The last time Sam had flown with the creature, he’d been fortunate enough to be asleep and totally unaware. He concluded that was definitely the best way to travel when flying in the precarious grip of a massive mythical bird. His stomach had become a bundle of extremely nervous butterflies desperately trying to escape. Through the spaces between the roc’s talons, he could see the earth thousands of feet below. If the creature desired, it could easily drop the trio and let them plummet to their deaths. As for his traveling companions, Tashi was perfectly at ease and Chase was actually resting his eyes. Sam couldn’t understand that at all. He could feel the warmth of the roc’s skin and the steady pulse of the creature’s heartbeat. It reminded him that he was at the mercy of this bird, and he hoped it didn’t have any uncontrolled muscle spasms that would cause it to relax its grip.