Gryphon continued to eat and smiled to her, "Why? My life is a rather boring one...not worth telling"
"I was just wondering," she mumbled.
Gryphon sat there a while, his tail thumping in amusement. "I've always been a loner..." he finally said. "I guess I always will be...the last few years have been very hard on me." he looked at her and smiled. "If you had seen me a few months ago you wouldn't have recognized me as the same wolf...I was thin as a bone, always running, trying to escape from the clutches of a revenge-filled wolf." he sighed and ate some more of the elk. "But something happened...the day came where I could no longer wanted to run...no longer fight this wolf. He chased me down and could have killed me...he should have for what I had done. I was a pup when I made my mistake...my family lived in a sort of pack with a few other wolves. One other family had five pups and used to play with them. One was my closest friend and I had a crush on one of his sisters. His name was Marble...and we used to get into so much trouble!" Gryphon laughed at the memory. "We were born close to snowfall and since Marble was pure white he would hide in the snow, I would cover him up and then lead one of the pups or a grown wolf over...telling them I had found something interesting. Then Marble would jump out and we would make a run for it before the surprised and angry victim had a chance to grab us!"
Gryphon's smile vanished. "But one day, when our parent's were out hunting, we found a fire some hunters had started. Marble and I were so scared but we tried to throw dirt on it to put it out but...there were too many dry things. It raced toward our dens and I froze...i couldn't move. Marble screamed at me to help him as he vainly tried to drag in siblings out of the smoke but I couldn't...I couldn't move....A burning branch fell on Marble and... i fled...I ran far away. I left them to die, Willowpelt...I was a coward. I ran..."
Gryphon's eyes were dull and sad as he stared out towards the mountains. A single tear fell down his nose as he cleared his throat gruffly and continued.
"Marble survived too...I don't know how. But the blow to the head must have also erased most of his memory. But he remembered me and it was months before I knew he was alive. I barely recognized him...he was covered in horrible scars, his eyes cold and hard unlike the happy fun-loving pup I knew. He blamed me for the death of his family...If i had only helped, he said, they may have survived. When I saw him...like a waking nightmare...I ran. I'm a big wolf...were about the same size and I knew I could take him down i he attacked me but...what he said...it was true...." Gryphon sighed. "Anyway...fear made me half the wolf I once was...reducing my powerful form into a thin sniveling coward that I was. And he caught me...I came to him actually. I just wanted him to end it...perhaps, if I died, the anguish over what I had done would die with me. But Marble just looked at me...hate burning from his icy-blue eyes. Then he just turned and walked away.
I've never seen him since. I found a place to settle down...a home where I could enjoy the beauty of life that I took from Marble's family...My guilt will never leave my heart."
Gryphon sat there for a while...pain and sadness contorting his usually happy features...than he shook himself and looked back to Willowpelt. "I told you it wasn't nice...perhaps you will not want to stay with me now you know what a coward I am. And you wold be wise to leave."
(And THAT my friends is a major plot twist....if you didn't catch that....muwahahah!!!)
Blood on egg and weird feathers?
I culled my first cockerel, now what?
*Answer These Questions The Best You Can Please *
