An inkling of unease.

That's what ripples just beneath my feverish skin, wavers and twists behind my closed eyelids.

It's nothing substantial; certainly nothing to tell the others about. But it worries me all the same.

It's the same feeling that wakes me in a frozen sweat from my recent nightmares. And, being a demigod, I know dreams are never really just dreams. We can't pass them off like mortals can on something bad we ate the night before.

They're as much prophecies as anything that Rachel spits out.

But the sensation is pushed to the back of my dusty mind as the reality of my situations sets in. And when Jasper shoves me aside so that I'm not bitten in two by one of the gryphons prancing in front of us.

Yes. Gryphons.

I've never actually seen one before now (my only experience with flying creatures being with our very own Pegasi back at the camp stables) and I have to say, they're not at all like how I used to picture them. Sleek, lithe, sporting the black body of a panther along with the face and feet of a raven, they're a far cry from the majestic critters with a lion-eagle combo I'd been promised in my bedtime fairy tales. But they're every bit as ferocious, and it takes the considerable skill of a Hunting Goddess to keep them under control with so much fresh meat around.

"Uh.." is the most articulate thing I can muster, given the circumstances. Artemis sends me a wry smile over her shoulder.

"Be at ease, young archer," she says calmly, bravely reaching out to stroke her long fingers over the offending gryphon's beak; it shivers in delight, nudging against her hand, demanding more.

Alright... that man-eating thing is acting like a tiny kitten with her... that doesn't mean it isn't thinking about taking my arm off for a nifty little sample.

So you can see why I might be a bit hesitant about letting Andrena (the lovely gryphon's charming name) carry me from sea to shining sea.

"She's pretty~!" My jaw drops as Isaiah hops forward and scratches just behind the gryphon's tufted ear, earning high-pitched squawks of pleasure that are more frightening than any howl, shriek or screech I've heard in all my fifteen years, demigod or not. "I didn't know demigods did things like this! I am so freaking happy my mom turned out to be Iris!"

I bit my tongue, restraining myself from pointing out that no, we don't normally do things like this because really, there's no point to dampening this kid's spirits. Two seconds'll pass and he'll be back on his feet, chirping about the fluffy white clouds or the dewdrops on the grass swamping over our feet.

Even so, I'm regretting telling Jasper to forget about our plane tickets. I would rather have taken my chances twenty-thousand feet in the air in a shiny metal contraption, but Artemis vehemently refuses to use such human inventions, so she called down her (partially trained) flock of gryphons to be our rides.

Jasper's near-silent sniggering is not helping my mood. At all.

"C'mon, Lyra," Thalia huffs, shoving against my shoulder and sending me tumbling into Andrena's sleek hide with quite the undignified squeak on my part. "It's not so bad! And you know I can't stand heights!"

The gryphon dips slightly, shaking me off with the barest of bucks, and I fall gracelessly onto my ass in the dew-stained grass.

I am having so much fun right now, you quite literally have no idea.

I can't even put it into words.

Well, at least she didn't eat my hand. That's something.

Jasper and Isaiah mount their somewhat-trusty steeds with relative ease, which prompts Jasper to smirk mockingly at me when he notices I've yet to pick myself up from the ground and am currently staring deep into the soul of my soon-to-be murderer.

I wonder if death-by-deranged-chicken will earn me a spot in Elysium...

My guess is no.

So, to ease my conscience, I fold my legs beneath me and smoothly jump to my feet, arms out to steady me. But I sharply pull my arms to my chest when my fingetips brush over Andrena's beak and she shifts, like she's about to nip my pinky clean off.

Then Thalia picks me up by the waist and safely deposits me atop the gryphon's furry back.

Gods, this is a problem.

"T-Thalia, wha--" My spluttering is effectively cut off as Andrena rears, causing me to let out yet another hysterical squeak and throw my arms around her neck for fear of being thrown off.

And everyone just starts laughing.

"I" - buck - "hate" - squeal of terror - "all" - more bucking, more yipping - "of" - blank face of fear - "you!"

Thalia, now straddling her own ride, gallops past me, making sure to slap a hand to Andrena's side as she does so, setting the rambunctious into a frenzy, rushing forward, wings extending.

"Just like riding a Pegasus!" she calls back while I'm trying not to die in the first few seconds of take-off.

"That means nothing coming from you!"

"Deal with it, Katniss."

"Jasper, I'll kill you if I don't fall off this thing first!"

"Wah, don't call her a thing, Lyra! You'll upset her!"

"Whose side are you on, Isaiah?!"

"Such a lively group of demigods..."

_______________________

I haven't lifted my face from Andrena's (surprisingly) fluffy neck for the last hour, and I don't plan to anytime soon. With the wind whipping round so badly up here, I feel like my face is going to peeled off if I expose it to the elements for more than a few seconds. Plus there's the fact that every time I've locked eyes with someone (except for Artemis because she's cool like that) they look like they're about to explode from holding in their obnoxious laughter.

I've gotten somewhat used to riding the gryphon; at the very least, I don't feel like she's suddenly going to barrel-roll and let me fall to my death.

I call that progress.

Artemis says we're bonding, but I think it's more along the lines of us just deciding the other one isn't worth the effort of killing.

(I'd be too scared to try and do anything to Andrena anyway, so it's more like she's tolerating me at this point)

"Will these be able to take us all the way to California?" I hear Jasper ask, raising his sober voice above the stinging wind.

"No," Artemis calls back, in all aspects apologetic, though she doesn't really have a reason to be, "I am afraid not. They are young; they would not be able to survive a journey as long as that. Most likely, we will land somewhere in the Mid-West."

That's... still about an hour more of flying I'll have to endure. Hades' gym shorts, this is going to be a loooong ride.

_______________________

I'm doing some unorthodox breathing techniques, trying to keep the bile threatening to crawl up my throat from surfacing, when I catch the smell of something burning.

I jolt into an upright position, half-standing, my knees hugging Andrena's back tightly. Jasper casts me an inquiring glance over his shoulder but I pay it no mind. A few more important things to think about at the moment, I'm afraid.

It's only when I see Artemis subtly tense, reach a steady hand for the bow slung across her back, that I begin to panic. Then Thalia stirs, drawn from her height-induced stupor by the same sense of dread I'm feeling.

And then it happens.

The smell of sulfur hits the air, sneaking up my nose and pooling across my tongue, wrinkling my nose in disgust. But my distaste quickly dissipates as Andrena takes a sharp turn, tucking in her raven wings and spiralling into the glaring sun, forcing me to once again throw myself around her neck as a high-pitched shriek tears from my lips.

I catch the barest glimpse of all the other gryphons rolling into stunning evasive maneuvers, dodging what I think look like flying Chia Pets.

....Wait. Flying Chia Pets?

One of the fuzzy green balls comes close to brushing Andrena as she snaps out her wings, pulling us from an unprecented fall that had me screaming bloody murder; my eyes widen as the fresher, sharper scent of fire curls under my nose.

The Chia Pet singed Andrena's feathers.

Magic.

The word burst through my mind, blowing away all other nonessential thoughts in the process. Magic. We're being attacked by magic. And it's magic that catches Andrena off-guard, shooting up from directly below us and crashing into her stomach with enough force that we're tossed up into the air like a child's forgotten plaything, only to droop, sag, fall straight back down as the crackling green sparks zigzag through Andrena's fur, across my bare skin - rendering us completely paralyzed.

"Holy Hera!" are my parting words before we sink through enough cloud layers that our quest-buddies can't hear my screams anymore.
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This chapter was written by Arctic_Sky