A Saviour Comes

Something large caught him and flew up straight to the clouds.

Tanaha gripped on the material, it was felt like soft, delicate and fragile feathers, he snapped his eyes shut and held on for dear life as the pressure on his lungs and oxygen changed massively, Tanaha didn't even realize it when he was screaming for as if he had witnessed his family murdered right in front of him.

He screamed until the surface of what he was grabbing on was flat, the oxygen level was at a nice altitude and the wind was comforting his tears, wiping them away by its sheer velocity.

After a while he heard a sudden voice called out.

"What on Earth were you doing kid?" A deep and wise voice startled him, the voice felt like and sounded like Airavata, making his hopes get high before realizing it wasn't him.

"A kid shouldn't do reckless stuff like that." Tanaha finally opened his eyes to see who saved him to see, a huge creature, with two large wings and a tail. The creature was a massive hybrid, its body was like a lion, but it had a head of a bird with a very sharp and long beak.

After minutes of stunned silence—For Tanaha—The bird slowly prepared itself for landing. Tanaha slowly came in view of a beach, a massive beach that stretched longer than the eye can see. He was surprised; he had never seen a beach before, only forests and waterfalls.

Tanaha knew a few things about birds and when they landed, he had read a couple of scrolls about animals and took a fascination towards big bird. They required air to flow smoothly over the top of its wings to generate lift.

Slowly, the creature picked a spot to land, but first, it needed to reduce its speed and cancel the lift and then come to a nice, and smooth stop. Nothing too drastic as there is a kid on board on him.

The creature dove slightly down, nothing too sudden and then began to get into position. It tilted backwards, raising the front of its wings, and stretched it wider than when in the air, it needed to collect the air within its wings to get a air force to stop its speed.

The creature's speed slowed down, Tanaha could see that the angle of where it was landing was good enough, distributes of the flow of air over the wings began to create turbulent that cancel lift. The creature than put its front paws out and landed smoothly.

The creature then lowered its body close to the sand and laid down, waiting for the kid to get off. Tanaha saw how the sand had made room for the creature, would it suck him in, and he would never be seen again? That made him worry.

Tanaha heard the creature let out an amused chuckle, although it sounded like a bunch of 'caws' together. "It's fine kid. It won't harm ya." The creature used such odd wordings too, nothing like Airavata, nothing like him.

"Are....Are you sure?" Tanaha hesitated to ask, but he has never been outside of his home before, so everything around him is new. Way too new for him to be able to comprehend alone. He needed Airavata with him.

"Yeah kid, it's not gonna kill you or anything, it's just sand." Tanaha look at the creature with a dead, confused face. "What's sand?" The creature blinked once, twice, three times before snorting loudly.

"You're really clueless kiddo, you must be livin' in a dark world." Tanaha didn't know whether to be offended or not. He didn't quite understand the language or wording the creature is using.

"Let's see..." The creature thought aloud as it looked around and thought of a good description for sand. "Sand is.... Sand is a material consisting of small, and often rounded grains or particles of disintegrated rock, although sand often consists of quartz, it can consist of any other mineral or rock fragment as well." That was the best description the creature could come up with.

Tanaha somewhat understood, the sand was made out of small materials like rocks and that it possibly wouldn't hurt him. Tanaha tried to get down but the height difference from the ground to where he was made it uneasy for him, would he develop a fear of heights soon?

The creature sighed out of pity and extended its wing that was closet to Tanaha, Tanaha looked at the wing, then at the creature before getting on the wing and sliding down. Tanaha let out a loud, happy yell as he felt like he was sliding down a mudslide or something.

Tanaha landed on the squishy sand on his knees as he couldn't quite time himself for when his feet met the ground. He let out a small gasp as he felt the sand, each of the little particles felt so odd against the palm of his hand, and some stuck to him like glue!

Tanaha felt amazed by how this sand worked, does all sand work like this?

Tanaha pushed his hand deep into the sand, wanting to see just how far it can go until something happens to him, for once he is happy, he is feeling curiosity. Tanaha couldn't reach far, his hand could go down only so far before he struggled. He wasn't a rubber man. He could only extend his limbs far.

Tanaha heard a low, and entertained chuckle from the creature, he forgot he was there with the creature, he's been so mesmerized by the sand that he hadn't remember his surroundings. "Ah....I should thank you for saving me..." He mumbled out loud, the creature nodded.

"That is what you should do kiddo." He responded back unbothered by it, but just making him do it would be nice, he did save the kid and he would like a little recognition from the kid.

"Thank you, sir...or beast...creature?" Tanaha hardly knew what the creature went by, did it have a name, or did it have like a title that it goes by?

Tanaha saw the creature close its eyes and look at the boy with eyes that spoke truth and seemed to have answers for all his questions. "My name is Griffin." The creature that had a name spoke, Tanaha was surprised to know his name wasn't as complicated as he thought.

"Oh! Thank you, Mr. Griffin!" Tanaha said with joy, Griffin looked down at the kid and for a second, he thought he saw someone familiar to him.

"MASTER." He was stern with his tone, he couldn't let anything happen to the man he has devoted his life and soul to. He couldn't risk letting his master get seriously injured beyond repairable.

They were at war. They couldn't risk anything as reckless at this.

"Griffin." The voice belonged to his master, Griffin narrowed his eyes at him, he couldn't risk anything. He couldn't.

"We are doing a good deed...." He muttered out, slowly focusing his attention to the nearest planet they were about to save. This planet had everything habitable for Griffin and his possible mate if they do make it out of this war alive. But they were in uncharted and extremely dangerous territory that not even his master could get out of.

"Master we ain't gotta do this. I got plenty of space elsewhere, let's not be here and piss off somebody." Although he spoke like a rebel as some would say, his master didn't bother in correcting him.

"Master, please." Griffin began to beg for him to get out, he couldn't protect him, he was screwed if any of that man's Beasts find them and attack. Griffin heard his master chuckle softly.

"Griffin. I have long accepted death and when it could come. I am doing this for you, I want this to benefit you." Of course, his master would only think of him and not himself, selfless bastard.

"Please..."

Griffin was close to a breakdown; he couldn't stop him. He couldn't.

"You might want to listen to your pet. Brother."

That voice.... Oh God that voice.