Chapter 9

The sun was setting, painting the sky in brushstrokes of clouds. Yet, I was oblivious to its beauty in my growing anxiety. We were still flying and had yet to encounter the outpost. Though no one said anything, we were all hoping the same things: that we weren't lost, and that we wouldn't have to spend the night alone in the middle of the forest. Even Aiden was quiet, in a unconscious effort to escape the attention of any nighttime creature.

Though just as skittish, Grey wasn't half as tired as me, and I took a break on her back.

"Look," Aiden said, pointing below us. "A light."

We all scanned the area.

"You're right," Autumn said. "I see it!"

"Do you think it's the outpost?" I asked.

"It looks like it could be coming from a small campfire," Chase said.

"That means people! We're saved!" Aiden smiled. "I hope they have food, I'm starving."

"What are we waiting for?" I hopped off my peryton and let myself glide down lower, towards the flickering light. My friends followed me, our spirits lifting.

The light, as Chase had guessed, was indeed coming from a campfire, but there was no sign of buildings anywhere. We slowed.

"That's not the outpost," Aiden voiced our thoughts. "Maybe they sent a search party out for us."

"Or maybe not. There are enemy scouts about," Chase reminded us.

"We should land here and get closer to figure out if we can show ourselves or not," I suggested.

All three of my friends nodded, and we found a spot were the trees were spaced enough to let us land.

"Ow," I heard Aiden mutter. "It's too dark in here." Indeed, the leaves didn't even let the soft glow of the dying sun through.

"Watch your step," Chase warned.

"The peryton need to stay here," Autmun decided.

I made a face, even though she could barely see me. "But Grey never listens to me."

A giggle escaped her. "True, though I can't say Juno is much better. I'll stay here and keep an eye on them."

"Good idea," Chase agreed. "Hailey, you can stay with her, too. We'll come get you if it's safe."

"Excuse me?" Did he think I wasn't capable of scouting ahead? "No way. I'm coming with you."

"Personally," Aiden piped up. "I'd like Hailey and Autumn to come both along. You know, safety in numbers? Also, what if we need Autumn to lasso something?"

"I can't lasso anything with all these trees. Don't worry, I'll be fine here," Autumn said. "You three go together. I'm counting on all of you to make sure the other two don't do anything stupid." She considered this. "Never mind, I'm only counting on Hailey to do that. Hailey, keep them out of trouble, will you?"

"I'll make sure she doesn't trip on stuff," Aiden offered. Chase just grunted, unhappy to have his decision overruled.

"I'm not going to trip." I glared at Aiden, though I could barely see him in the gloom.

"Hails, please." He scoffed. "You'd trip on your own feet in broad daylight."

"Exactly," Chase said. "You and Autumn should stay here. It's too dangerous."

"Says the one who rode a gryphon this morning," I retorted.

"Ah, she's got a point," Aiden said, "but so does Chase. You don't even have a weapon."

"Can you remind me why there was a gryphon for Chase to ride in the first place, Aiden? Now both of you be quiet before I change my mind and make you stay here to keep an eye on the peryton." I huffed. "Follow me."

"Bossy," Aiden muttered.

"Be safe, Hailey," Autumn whispered.

"You, too. Don't worry, we won't take long." I pushed a branch out of our way and started walking in the direction of the campfire.

Chase and Aiden followed me.

"Can I at least go in front?" Chase asked.

"No. It's too dangerous-" I stumbled on a root. Chase instantly reached out to grab my arm. "I'm okay." I kept walking.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I know you're just as capable as us."

Aiden sniggered. "Looks like there's trouble in -Ow!"

"Must have been a branch," Chase said smugly. "Hailey, I just wanted to make sure you would be safe – watch out for the branch! I care for you, and I don't want you to get hurt. That's all. We're straying a bit to the left, by the way – but like I was saying, it's not that I don't think you can't do it. I know you can."

I sighed with as much annoyance as I could muster, which wasn't a lot, and moved to the right. "Okay, you can go in front," I whispered as we were getting close to the camp.

"Thanks, Hailey-bug." He passed in front of me.

"What did you call me?" I blinked in surprise. He had never called me by a pet name before. "Oh, and don't think that doesn't mean I'm not still mad at you." I trudged after him. I knew I was acting stubborn, but I was almost more annoyed he knew exactly what to say to make me forgive him.

"What a stupid nickname," Aiden commented. "Mine is much better."

"Shush, Aiden. We're getting close," I said. "Also, I would like to point out I haven't tripped."

"We're not there yet, so don't get your hopes up too much."

In front of me, Chase crouched on the ground and started crawling closer. With a silent groan, I dropped to the ground and followed him, forcing myself to stay quiet despite the twigs that scratched my arms. Behind me, Aiden did the same, though he was moving much faster. Bree probably made them crawl around all the time when she was mad, so they had extra practice.

We could now hear voices from the encampment, but the conversation didn't make any sense to me.

"I don't think they're speaking English," I whispered.

"They're not, but they could be speaking one of Aeolus' sixteen dialects, so it doesn't mean anything," Chase answered.

"Well, we can rule out Nauster," Aiden said. "Because I don't understand them either."

"Why would they be speaking Nauster all the way up in the Peraz forest? Plus, that still leaves fifteen."

"That made no sense to me," I informed them. "What do we do know?"

"Get closer so we can take a look at them," Chase answered.

We followed him, crawling in the darkness. My skin prickled with excitement and anticipation. At the moment, I didn't care about the mud dirtying my clothes, or the twigs and leaves tangling in my hair.

Chase stopped behind a thick log. "Stay down," he instructed, and proceeded to do the opposite, before quickly ducking back behind the log.

"They don't have Aeolian uniforms. They have no uniform at all, actually, but they're wearing animal pelts. They're outlanders, that's for sure."

Aiden blew air through his teeth. "Then we can hardly stroll out and ask for a bite to eat, can we?"

"I wouldn't recommend it."

"Do we go back, then?" I asked, flicking a bug off my arm with a shudder.

"Looks like it." Chase risked another look at the camp. I wanted to look, too, but I was too afraid I would get caught. When Chase dropped back down, he had a frown on his face.

"What?" I asked.

Aiden nudged me. "Let's move."

"No," Chase said.

"What?" Aiden and I asked a bit too loudly. We shut our mouths and exchanged wide-eyed looks as we held our breaths, but nothing indicated we might have been overheard.

"They have the gryphon," Chase answered.

"They have a gryphon?" Aiden repeated, as lost as I was.

"The gryphon. They captured him."

"Serves him right for attacking us." Aiden started crawling away.

"We were on his territory. He was just defending it."

"Can we have that conversation later?" I suggested. "Preferably away from the camp of scary men?"

"We can't leave him here," Chase decided.

"Oh, boy," Aiden sighed. "Is Autumn starting to rub off on you?"

"Autumn doesn't like gryphon," I reminded him. "They eat peryton."

"Look," Chase was starting to get annoyed. "You guys can go if you want, but I've got to free him. I just can't let these men use him as a slave."

"They're probably just going to eat him," Aiden said.

"Not helping," I hissed.

"A creature like him doesn't deserve to end up in a plate either," Chase said.

"Okay, I get it." I relented. "He has earned your warrior respect, and you two now share a holy cave-man bond. How do we free him, then?"

"Most importantly," Aiden asked, "how do we free him without getting spotted by these guys or getting eaten by said gryphon?"

"He won't eat us, and he's tied to our right, at the edge of the clearing they settled in. I'll just crawl over there and cut his ropes."

"Can I take a look?" Aiden asked. Chase nodded, and Aiden peeked out above the log. Since he was allowed to do it, I didn't see why I couldn't, and risked a look as well.

A bit father off, the forest opened into a small clearing. On our right, half a dozen men were sitting around a fire. One man walked by them, exchanged a few foreign words, headed towards my left near two tents, and walked into the first one. Even further to the left, I spotted the gryphon on the ground, his limbs and beak bound by thick coils of ropes.  His wings, too, were tied to his body, so tightly that he couldn't move them. When a man walked past him, he would raise his head and glare at him, but otherwise he laid there with his eyes closed, defeated.

"You're right. We have to help him," I decided. My heart ached at the sight of this fearsome mythical creature being treated like dumb poultry. I mean, it was a gryphon. I didn't even know gryphons were real before today.

Aiden sighed. "Okay, I guess we're saving the lion, then. Hey! I have plan." Despite the growing darkness, Chase and I exchanged a look. "No, really. It's a good plan."

"Go ahead, then," Chase said.

"I run in there, fire arrows everywhere, and distract them. Meanwhile, you two run to the gryphon and free him."

"And after that?" Chase was understandably skeptic.

"Well, we leave, I guess." He shrugged.

"You know, that's not such a bad idea," I said. "I'd just like to perfect it a little bit, if you don't mind."

"As long as I get to fire arrows, you can change whatever you want," Aiden said. He and Chase turned to me to hear what I had to say.

------------

Guys, this was a close one you almost didn't get a chapter this week, because my Wattpad app decided to be stupid :(

My app pretended I hadn't saved a draft of this (nice try, but I know I did). Just as I was about to give up, I though "hey, let's try the website. It seems unlikely, but let's at least try." And guess what, here it was: today's chapter. Because it seems there was still a flicker of hope. (I came up with the chapter's title two days ago by the way.)

And that's the story behind today's upload.

The lovely media for this chapter was made by Flutter996 :)