The Girl and the Griffin

" Come on, Amanda!" Klark yelled. " Hit it harder!" Eveything hurt from doing exercises all morning, and we were now at the possibly most exhausting part of the day: hitting the giant scarecrow in front of us with a ridiculously heavy sword. Panting, I grip the handle of the sword to hit the Scarecrow once more. Just a few more hits. I hit the Scarecrow one, two, three, four times before it came crashing down. This was the last exercise of the morning routine. There were also the Noon and Evening workouts. What monster came up with this!? To be honest, this was not how Imagined being a Rider was going to be like. I should have expected it, but I didn't. Whisked back to the memory, I give my Body a break and workout my mind.

That fateful Morning was nothing special. We all woke up, ate breakfast porridge, and then just sat around doing a lot of nothing. It became Interesting when the Griffins were spotted.

" They're here! The Griffins! They're flying by!"

someone yelled. Immediately the Whole Orphanage was running towards the door, all 84 of us, to catch a Glimpse of the Griffins. I became part of the wave of kids that swept through the entrance way and out onto the cobblestone street. Lifting my head towards the Sky, I see a Wing of Griffins flying Northwest, most likely to the Capital, and probably coming back from an exploration expedition. Behind them, also heading northwest, a huge storm was brewing, with dense, dark grey clouds. It was as if they were following the Griffins, which meant it would arrive here soon.But everyone was too Fixated on the Griffins to notice.There was a total of five Griffins, flying in a near perfect V formation. Three of them were Common griffins, which were flying at the back of the formation, since they're typically not as fast as other species of griffins. They were, as all Common griffins, different shades of brown and smaller than other griffin species, but usually more agile,since they had adapted to living in the forests, and needed to fit into all the nooks and crannies. That was probably why there were so many of them on this expedition, even if three wasn't a lot. The other two were Royal griffins. The one at the very tip of the formation was a shiny Silver, which meant she was a female, also called Queen griffins. Glittering gold against the sky, the King griffin wasn't hard to Identify. A male royal griffin was also called a King griffin. There were also Emperor royal griffins, but there were only a total of three or four in Aklava. Royal griffins are the largest and strongest griffin species, but not the most durable, though more so than Common griffins. I pulled myself out of my thoughts just in time to focus on them flying by right over us. And with a loud whoooosh they were already gone again. After longingly staring after the griffins in the distance for a little, i shift my attention to the upcoming storm clouds. The very outer ones have reached here (Hincklepluff, to be exact) already, spraying us with lots of little droplets. I spread my arms and close my eyes, enjoying the cool drops of rain falling on my face. At times like these, I can Imagine that I am a griffin rider, soaring across the sky on my very own griffin. Then I have to bring myself back to reality by reminding myself that being chosen is as likely as being hit by lighting. Then, with comical timing, a metal plated wagon, 35 meters away from me, is hit by a lighting bolt. I stumble backwards and fall, my head tilted up to the sky. And there's something in the clouds. Something really big.