Ch. 37 Get away!

Sprinting for their lives, Peter and Windson dodged branches and jumped over logs all the while the Griffin had landed and was chasing them with surprising accuracy. When the beast got close enough to nip at them, Peter would whip up a force field that blocked the incoming attack. Unfortunately, the beak of the Griffin was much stronger than the quick field the mage was putting up. Windson tried to keep his calm and took a deep breath in occasionally using all his strength to scream at the bird, which sent sonic screeches that partially slowed the creature down even further. It seemed like forever before they finally saw the dim light of the camp.

Waiting for them was Kaz, who had already woken up the two girls and were preparing to fight whatever was coming their way. Hearing the screeching from Windson had woken up the rest of the party and caused them to be alert while also alerting anyone else who might be nearby to hear Windson. But that did not matter to the two fleeing friends. They continued into the camp, and Perish yelled to them. "What's going on?"

Without stopping, Windson yelled back, "We need to get out of here now, Griffin incoming!" Confused by what he had just said, the two girls looked at each other and then at Kaz. Knowing precisely what a Griffin was, Kaz prepared himself. He knew just how strong those were in the old MMORPG he played, and he knew this party was not prepared for something like that.

"We need to listen to them and start running now!" Kaz commanded as he started running alongside Windson and Peter. Not thinking twice about it, the two girls followed suit, and as they began to, the Griffin came crashing into the camp knocking over the tents and getting caught up in them.

Kaz looked around for something to slow the creature down and distract it and noticed the fish rack full of drying fish and had an idea. He split from the group and grabbed the rack and started throwing fish at the Griffin, who was still a little preoccupied with the tents. It only took a few moments for the creature to get free and notice the fish appearing in front of it. Gulping them up one at a time, Kaz's plan was starting to work. His friends were getting further away, and the monster was not currently chasing them.

Kaz was running out of fish to throw, so he decided to finish up and run in a separate direction from the group hoping to either draw the creature's attention or getaway far enough to regroup with the rest later. Jumping into a bush a reasonable distance away from the camp, Kaz watched patiently to see what the Griffin did. Moments passed, and the monster finished its meal before looking around for what it was chasing earlier. It poked around the camp and began ripping apart bags and tends and beds as if playing with everything. If it weren't for the fact that they needed all that to survive, Kaz might have thought it was cute.

Using this time to get away, Kaz snuck out and headed toward the area he thought the other group ran to. Hopefully, they did not encounter anything else while trying to get away. Kaz used all the skills he had in stealth to sneak through the forest and make his way to his friends. It did not take very long to see them stumbling through the woods, holding onto Perish and windson, who were the only ones in that group that could see in the dark.

He could not see or hear the bird anymore and figured it might be safe to speed up a little, so he went from a careful walk to a slight sprint towards his friends when Perish heard him coming and stopped the other two in anticipation for a fight. She quickly realized who it was and calmed down.

"Where the hell did that thing come from, and why was it chasing Windson and Peter?" Perish whispered loudly with obvious irritation in her voice.

"We can explain!" Windson and Peter said in unison. Perish looked at them with daggers in her eyes. She could already tell what they were up to but wanted to hear it from their mouth.

"Go on." She encouraged them.

Windson started first. "You see..."

"We went to search for the bird on our own." Peter finished.

Perish smacked both of them hard and left welts in their cheeks. They rubbed at them and began apologizing profusely. Sarah looked at them with a hurt expression. "Why would you do that after we agreed not to kill it?"

Peter blushed and looked away in shame. "We weren't going to kill it. I just had to see it for myself. We promise!"

Perish squinted her eyes to look at Peter and stared at him for a good ten seconds while he looked at her and blushed even harder. She looked back at Sarah and sighed. "He's not lying."

Kaz looked at all of them and then back to where the threat was. "We should probably keep going. The Griffin destroyed our supplies, so we are going to need to figure out how we are getting to the border now."

Windson and Peter looked at the ground and felt guilty for causing so much trouble. Sarah looked worried about the news, and Perish began thinking. "We are near a stream at least for another week or so while we travel. So food should not be an issue, but it is getting colder out, and sleeping on the ground might not be the best for everyone."

Kaz nodded and sighed. He knew what this would mean. They would have to stop at a town and resupply with no coins to their name that meant they would have to work for the supplies, which meant more time wasted not getting across the border.