by Karen Frost
~*~
"Grimkell!" A second, familiar voice admonished.
It was female; gentle yet strong. It continued, "We have a duty to protect the younglings from the witch Mirrin. Indeed, we have a duty to all of Devorian's creatures. You have answered Devorian's call; now you must stand ready to defend her."
"I, too, have doubts," said a third voice, silky yet with a low growl. "I have come to hear what is to be said, but it is not for us to interfere in the matters of either humans or animals. Thus has it always been with us."
"It is cowardice to hide behind the habits of the past and use it to justify the inaction in the present," the second voice said again, angrily, and now Jack recognized the voice as belonging to the leopard Alcide. "What say you, Aiglon?"
"For centuries I have made my home in the highest peaks of the Far Reaches and let the ages sweep over me like the winter winds. I have flown from one end of Devorian to the other and watched first mankind, then animalkind grow from its infancy to adulthood. I am happy to remain an observer to the changes that come with the course of time, but this change now unsettles me. It disrupts the natural order of things. I sense a power and a force that I have not encountered in all of my years of solitude, and I mistrust the burning hatred and anger that drives it. Perhaps the danger is not to us, as Grimkell has said, but it seems wrong to allow the suffering of so many."
"Even the deathless have a responsibility to protect those whom death threatens," another voice that Jack recognized as Aldair's muttered in agreement.
"You have always been too tender-hearted towards the lesser creatures, Alcide, but you, Aiglon?" Grimkell snarled. "Let them have their petty wars and rivalries; they do not affect us."
A fourth voice said, "Can you be certain that the damage Mirrin will cause will be limited? Mirrin is powerful in ways that challenge even we who are gifted by magic."
Pandemonium erupted as voices began to chorus in response, and Jack could not hear anything for the next several minutes as the voices argued among themselves, devolving at times into growls of anger and passionate opinion expressed by non-human throats. Finally Alcide's voice rose above the others and she said, "Gildas makes a good point, which we all must recognize. Mirrin is the greatest sorceress Devorian has ever known--what more might she be able to do if she is able to bend wild magic to her will as well as animus magic? Even we magical beasts do not understand wild magic."
"Too few!" Aldair growled in frustration. "Too few have answered Devorian's call. Where are the heroes Drabant, Lansiar, Osgar, Sant?"
There was silence. Jack slowly stretched his neck out so that he could just barely see into the room, taking care not to be seen. Inside, he saw a small group of enormous animals sitting around a round wooden table. Alcide and Aldair, bright white and shimmering gold respectively, he saw immediately, and he felt a rush of relief that they had survived the wargs' ambush. To Alcide's right sat a large black mountain cat, its luminous yellow eyes glowing softly. Its tail, which stuck out of the gap between the back of the chair and its seat, twitched anxiously. Farther to the right sat the most extraordinary bird that Jack had ever seen. It was four feet tall, colored a blazing red that shimmered with hints of orange and yellow. The feathers on its wings ranged from pale orange to deep red, like the burning embers of a fire, and its tail was at least half again as long as its body, with red, orange, and blue feathers.
On the bird's other side was a massive black dog. It was heavier than the largest mastiff, taller than any Great Dane or Irish wolfhound. Its black eyes burned from deep within the folds of skin on its face. Just from looking at it, Jack had the unsettling impression that while the dog was not evil like Mirrin, nor was it was particularly good in the way that Alcide and Aldair were. He guessed that this must be the controversial Grimkell, a fitting name for the forbidding creature.
Next at the table was an oversized eagle. It perched upon the back of a chair, its razor sharp talons cutting deep and careless gouges into the hard brown wood. When it was agitated, the eagle stretched out its earth-toned brown wings and beat them against the air as though the bird meant to take flight. This must be Aiglon, Jack thought, for he could not imagine the bright red bird at home in the snowy mountains of the Far Reaches. The last creature at the table was not any animal found on Earth. It had the sandy yellow hindquarters and tail of a lion, but the long wings and front legs of an eagle. Its head was an unusual mixture of cat and bird, a narrow face with a bird of prey's keen eyes, a sharp, hooked yellow beak, and tufts of brown fur or feather for ears.
"The decision to help the animals of Devorian is yours to make individually," Alcide said upon breaking through the commotion at last. "I can only ask for your aid and hope that you will lend your great strength to turning back this powerful evil. But before you choose, there are other voices you must first hear."
The leopard slipped from her chair like water poured from a cup and opened a door that Jack had not noticed before, hidden as it was in the shadowed wall on the left side of the room. She stepped back and Jack watched as a dusty brown hare hopped through the doorway into the room. It was an old rabbit, with floppy ears and a nose that looked like it had been dipped in white paint. It whistled when it saw the animals at the table.
"So it is true that the magical beasts have returned to Devorian," the hare murmured in a low, awed voice.
"Some," the eagle-lion said evenly, its head cocked to the side as though it listened intently.
Griffin. The word fell into Jack's mind and he knew immediately that the creature speaking was a griffin, as described only in fairytales back at home.
"Why have you brought him here?" Grimkell demanded angrily. "What right has he to speak before us?"
"Let him speak," Alcide commanded. "May you be reminded that power is not without responsibility."
She nodded her great head towards the hare to encourage him, and it said with an increasingly bold voice, "So long ago my father used to tell stories of the lost beasts of Devorian; magical creatures that walked the earth long before animals could speak--Aiglon the fearsome; Alcide the brave; Aldair the noble; Shamaraan the elusive; and many more. Their tales were legend throughout Devorian, for though they were few in number, they were powerful without measure. Some even said they were the first living creatures in all of Devorian. Then one day, they suddenly disappeared from the land and were nevermore seen again.
'Stories of their adventures remained, but became little more than fairy tales passed down from generation to generation. Only the young believed them. After all, it had been a thousand years since the last magical beast had been seen in Devorian. Still, always the stories said that in times of great trouble, the magical beasts would come again to protect Devorian."
"Fantasies," Grimkell scoffed. "Are we to be held responsible for the fanciful imaginings of storytellers? Get on with it, for this tale bores me."
Alcide growled at him and he sniffed and looked away.
The hare continued less confidently, "One hundred years ago, the age of man came to an end and the age of the animals began. Yet just as we inherited the ruined castles and broken roads of men, so, too, did we inherit a most dangerous prisoner, one that we knew would one day be set loose in Devorian once more. She is not an animal, nor is she from our time. She is out of place here. She is the last human in all of Devorian. And though she has no reason to threaten us, we who have never done her harm, still we fear her, for she is not just any human. She is more powerful than any human ever born in Devorian.
'We know not her plans for Devorian, but this much is clear: darkness will follow wherever she goes. Her stone army is on the march, relentlessly descending from the Far Reaches like a cascading avalanche. Even now, terrible and frightening monsters gather outside the gates of Tarah with weapons of war. All the evil of the world she calls to her. To what end?"
"Passionate words," the mountain cat remarked in a silky voice that Jack recognized as having spoken before, "but tell me, what do you
seek of us?"
The animal had the casual grace of a cat at rest, but tension that could snap it into immediate action kept its muscles taut under its shiny black coat. Its yellow eyes stared intensely at the stag even as its voice sounded aloof and careless. The hare looked anxiously to the other animals to see how they had reacted to his words, but their faces were unreadable to Jack.
"We are peaceful creatures," the hare replied. "We cannot fight, if it comes to that. Not tooth and claw against steel and spell. Without your help, we are at Mirrin's mercy. But what help you may give us in particular, I cannot know."
"I see," the mountain cat said coolly. "But the danger is not mine. It is not our place to intervene now."
"Shamaraan, you did not always feel that way," Alcide admonished.
"I was younger then," black Shamaraan replied. "The world was younger then."
"We who are deathless must embrace the deaths of others as a natural part of life," Grimkell said.
"I see I was mistaken to come here seeking help," the hare said stiffly. "My father's legends were indeed fairy tales and lies, for I find here cowards, not heroes."
"You know nothing of us," Grimkell growled angrily.
"I know enough," the old rabbit retorted hotly. "All the years you have lived have taught you pride but not compassion. What would it cost you, an immortal creature that cannot be killed by sword or flame, to defend those who cannot defend themselves? Yet you prefer to slink away and sleep away the centuries until there is neither human nor animal left in Devorian."
"Not all of us believe as Shamaraan and Grimkell believe," the griffin said in its strangely shrill voice, "and few though we may be, we stand ready to defend Devorian in whatever way we can. We, too, have a part to play in what is to unfold, for our history is intertwined with that of both men and animals."
There was silence among the beasts for a moment as they contemplated the griffin's words, then Alcide ordered, "Enough. Aiglon, fly north and track the progress of Mirrin's army. We must know where she is at all times and whither she intends to lead her forces. You others, stay in Tarah and help fight in the battle to come or be gone, for we will have only friends here. Gildas, will you go and see what these monsters are up to beyond the gates?"
"I will show him," the hare said.
The griffin Gildas jumped from his chair and joined the hare, his long tail twitching behind him and the large talons of his front feet clicking against the stone as he walked, terrible and sharp. The two left together by the door on the side of the chamber through which the hare had entered. Once they had gone, the other magical beasts began to disperse as well. The eagle Aiglon sprang from his perch on his chair, flapping his great wings and soaring from the room by way of the open door on the opposite end from where Jack watched. He was quickly followed by the bright red bird, whose wings trailed behind it like pennants when it flew. Shamaraan slipped from his chair and flowed like black water out of the room. Grimkell looked from Alcide to Aldair, then shook his great black head and followed, leaving the leopard and the golden stag alone at the table.
Alcide sighed, hanging her great, furred head for a moment, then said, "You may come in, children."
Maude, who had been peering into the room from beneath Jack's chin, squeaked and rushed to the two beasts, catching Alcide in a fierce hug and burying her fists in the leopard's thick white coat. Alcide closed her ice blue eyes and leaned into the embrace wearily. Jack followed awkwardly into the chamber, embarrassed at having been caught evesdropping. Archipel came last, his tail tucked nervously around the giant beasts.
"We thought we'd never see you again!" Maude exclaimed.
Aldair laughed, the sound unexpectedly bubbling from him like water in a brook.
"Fate has a way of bringing people together again quite unexpectedly," he rumbled warmly.
"There's going to be trouble, isn't there, Alcide?" Jack asked quietly, concern in his voice. "In the forest after we were separated we were chased by a ghost that Mirrin sent after us, and we've seen the trolls out there. Now not even the other magical beasts will help."
"Have faith," Alcide said reassuringly. "The human Prince Aitor was encircled during the battles for Arres with no hope of rescue, but that became the turning point for the entire war."
