The Night Before Marn

[Jaspenellar]

((OOC: This is a short post of what took place the night before Lo'en wandered into Marn. I was bored, and as I understand it, this board can be used for this kind of stuff, right? If not, i'm sure it will be moved to the appropriate place by the appropriate people))

"I will not accompany you there," the familiar, gruff voice spoke over the half elf's shoulder.

Lo'en was sitting atop a grassy knoll, arms resting folded on her knees, peering down the gentle slope at the city as it gleamed with soft lights and breathed both white and grey smoke into the clear, evening air. During the daylight hours, the city, ever growing in the distance, looked small, a mar on the landscape of grey, dead things. As the natural light faded, it appeared to Lo'en that the city merely slumbered during the day and was blinking its many small eyes sleepily open as night fell. She wondered how so many lanterns could be lit simultaneously as more lights came on, as if the slumbering beast was being roused more quickly as the twilight hours approached.

"What makes you think I won't just pass through and go out the far side? You can't keep watch at all times, over the entire city," Lo'en snorted without looking back at the griffin. Her voice lacked any real assertion, however, and both knew her threat was only part of the charade they continued.

Justin responded appropriately. "I know you won't disappear. I can fly high, soar on the thermal updrafts that city provides, higher than any two-legger can see."

"You are a haughty beast," the half-elf woman grumbled under her breath. "I've heard tales of their mages there, fearsome men with powers, probably far exceeding your master's."

"You let me know when you encounter more 'beasts' gifted with speech so I can know a two-legger as powerful as my master," the griffin shook his wings as he spoke. She was now able to tell this action belied his annoyance with her comment, though his voice lacked the spirit and utter reverence it had once possessed. In the two years since she had first met the red furred griffin, Lo'en had still not been able to draw from him who his master was and she was beginning to suspect that the griffin was harboring his own doubts about his 'master'. She wondered how deep his magic lay in the beast, if he possessed some kind of a magical leash on the beast with which, at any point, he could bid Justin to return.

Unsure why that thought made her uncomfortable, Lo'en tried to steer the conversation from that topic. "And so you are resigned to stay outside the city because you are monstrous and you would scare the piss out of the horses you would stable with."

The half elf heard a sharp clack as Justin snapped his beak together, a sound that was meant to remind her of his predatory nature. At some point in their travels, she had grown immune to the idle threat. "My master gives me specific instructions not to go into that city." His words were terse and he had a habit of clipping them short when he was truly aggravated. He was not ruffled from her insult of equating him to beasts of burden, and Lo'en did not miss the tense change, another indication of the griffin's waning patience in discussing his master.

The two had been travelling since their initial fight in relative amiable company, but over the last week as Lo'en's feet carried her towards the large city of Marn, a tension had sprung between them. As much as she was not willing to admit it to herself, despite his secrets and occasional surliness, Justin had been a good companion. If it weren't a matter of his master or his mission, she would have been willing to call him friend.

"It will take me half a day's walk to get there. I've never been to a place so large before. Maybe it will be exciting." At that, she finally looked back over her shoulder at the griffin who was sitting behind her, his leonine tail curled around his scaly fore-legs. In the deepening shadow of the evening, the red furred beast struck a noble pose. Which he proceeded to shatter by rolling his amber eyes in a very human-like expression.

"You'll hate it. It is crowded like a rabbit warren there, people everywhere you step. There are machines and electricity and nowhere clean to breathe or silent to think."

Lo'en was about to goad him on, ask about how he knew so much about the city if he wasn't allowed to go there, but she caught her tongue. She suddenly felt an odd urge to not spoil their last evening together with an argument that would not be resolved.

The griffin eyed his ward, pretending disdain as she stared openly back at him. Those grey eyes... having travelled so closely with a humanoid, he had learned to pick up some of her mannerisms and to read what lay in what used to be an alien gaze. The half elf was eager and nervous, but there was something overshadowing these feelings- she seemed troubled by something, she was feeling guilty about going into the city. He knew she would not run away from him. And if only she knew why he had been sent to follow her. Justin looked away first, his turn for discomfort, reading the burgeoning trust in the half elven's grey eyes.

"It would not do..." Justin paused, thinking of the words he wanted to speak and the words he did not. "It would not do for you to get into trouble in the city. If you have need for me to rescue your poor bony ass, wave that feather in your cap in some open air. Make it slice like so, thrice" the griffin demonstrated by unfurling his right wing partially and sweeping his long primary feathers in a downward arc. "That damnable griffin's feather you tote like a barbaric trophy in your cap makes a distinct sound the wind will carry to me."

Lo'en blinked in surprise. She figured he just wanted to be able to keep tabs for his master, but why did he leave that part unspoken? Not for the first time, the half elf pondered if all griffins were intelligent and just couldn't speak, or if Justin's brain had been magically altered and enhanced at the same time when he had been given speech. This was also the first time he had confirmed that the black striped white feather in her cap, given to her ages ago by her brother, was indeed a griffin's feather.

"I am sure I will be more than capable of taking care of my own self, thanks," Lo'en muttered, far more comfortable with the easy retort than stumbling over an attempt to express gratitude. Justin nodded curtly, understanding the words and her manner. This was their relationship, their game, with meanings hidden in smart remarks and cheeky insults, and griffin and half-elf both understood this on a subconscious level. With nothing more than a grunt, the griffin launched himself into the night, blowing dry grass into small eddies with strong wing beats. As Lo'en watched his form melt into the night sky, she wondered at how lonely she would be in a city full of people without Justinaryn, the red griffin.