My Second Forest Adventure

"Ha! HA! YAAAH!"

"GYAAAAH!"

"AAAH!"

These were not screams of agony. These were the yells of overly enthusiastic children hitting at each other with sticks in counterfeit duels of pretend duels. Three months after our first group session, half of the children had left out of boredom, and the remaining ones were those who thought that having an excuse to hit each other was worth the repetitive motions. Theo led the drills, and then we ended each morning with a sparring match.

Theo and I, as I had predicted, were facing each other with our sticks raised. While the others jumped into it, we learned to patiently watch each other, looking for an opening. Theo had caught up to my level quickly and he turned out to be useful for practice. I would never tell him that, though.

Theo exhaled too quickly; his elbow dropped a fraction of an inch – I stepped forward to strike.

After the first engagement, we threw strike after strike until something landed. We never stopped halfway. After days of this type of sparring, my shoulders were black and blue, while his arms and sides looked similar. He was four years older than me, and his extra height was evident in the location of our bruises. My parents hadn't cared about the marks, but Theo's mother had raised a fuss. When Theo showed up to morning practice with the declaration that he was going to take it easy on me because I was a girl, I beat the hell out of him and told him to go show that to his mother. I was surprised that she didn't resent me after he went home with a black eye and swollen lip.

Today it was my win with a solid knee into the stomach. I hadn't realized before that sword fights required more than just swords, and I liked it.

Theo doubled over (a good look for the brat) as I wiped the sweat out of my eyes.

Was I being petty? Absolutely. Some personalities just don't mix.

Not all of the other children were wildly hacking at each other. Some of the older ones were more serious, including Belen, the purple-haired girl. Belen was a pure demon and an only child, who acted mature for her age. She was one of the oldest, so she often took the role of babysitting. Despite the town being located in-between the human and demon countries, there were fewer demons in the town than humans, and I think she was attracted to me because of that. I may have only been half-demon, but it was still less human.

Not to say that there was any discrimination. Just by looking at the town alone, one would think that demons and humans led a peaceful coexistence. And then every once and a while an outside human or demon would wander into town. Their disgusted gazes were painfully obvious.

Belen walked up to us, her stick carefully tucked under her arm. She patted Theo's shoulder.

"Good job." She said.

He grunted. "I'll win tomorrow."

"Fat chance," I muttered.

"Molly." Belen tousled my hair. "Good job. Don't let him win."

There was a reason why I liked Belen. No matter how sour I behaved, she always took it in stride. With everyone else I felt like I was walking on eggshells, but Belen never expected more than what she observed. She wasn't dumb, but she didn't assume. The other children and adults looked at me and saw a 3-year-old halfling who didn't know the meaning of the word "snark". Belen had never before met someone with as much snark as me, but she never looked confused. I could see her filing it away as another piece of interesting information in her constantly expanding bookshelf. Even this small town could not stop her from growing.

"Theo, you too." Oh, yeah. And that. She grinned at me, waiting for my scowl. She liked to put her new knowledge to practice.

Theo finally straightened, though his hand still lingered over his stomach. He nodded seriously. I found him infinitely annoying with his constant I-know-best attitude, which reminded me of the many men I had worked with in my previous life, but I couldn't hate him. After his mother gave the o-kay, he never suggested holding back again, and he didn't make excuses when he lost or lord it over when he won. He was fundamentally a good, honest kid. I just wanted to punch him once a day.

"You're coming to the forest today." He was looking at me. "You said so."

I think that first part was supposed to be a confirmation not a demand. I think… oh, I wanted to punch him again. Where did all of my adult maturity go?

"Yeah, I'll go. Just for an hour or two, right?"

"Yes!" Belen clapped her hands. "This will be great! You're going to love the sildio flowers! They only bloom this week and just at midday they're so pretty."

"Ok. I'll go wash first—"

"Don't. You'll get dirty again anyway."

I glared at him. "What? Are we going to roll in mud?"

Belen giggled. "Maybe. The sildio flowers are hard to get to. Theo's right, Molly." She turned to call to the rest of the group: "Everyone ready?"

A choir of "yeah!"'s took flight and the rowdy bunch quickly stowed their sticks in the trunk by the stable before rushing out. Belen, Theo, and I ended up walking somewhere in the middle of the group. Belen waved to my mom as we passed the front door. Mom was standing outside chatting to a neighbor.

"We'll be going to the forest, ma'am." Belen said.

"Very well. Be good, Molly. Listen to what Belen tells you and do not stray."

"Yes, Mommy." I waved too and we left.

For an adult it would take about fifteen minutes to walk from my house to the edge of the town. For the excitable group of 9 kids, it took an hour. Almost everything distracted them, from the common bird to seeing their parents. Each time, Belen would patiently gather them up and set them moving again.

The forest was within the human territory. My dad had judged it to be safe after inspecting it, and had announced quite proudly over dinner that it couldn't hold a candle to the forest we had previously lived next to, which was in demon territory. I guess they bred different animals over there.

It was still a big forest, though, and it would be easy enough to get lost if we strayed from the paths the town hunters had created. I had seen a bit of it from where the stream touched its boundary, but this would be my first time entering it. Maxine excitedly pulled at my earlobe.

The forest felt different. It felt tamer, and I certainly wasn't expecting an adult Lamlan to pop up out of nowhere. In fact, it seemed boringly safe. Maxine would have given me an earful if she could read my mind.

Once we were in the forest, the kids were careful to not leave the path and Belen didn't have much work to do. The adults were fastidious about teaching their kids to act carefully as soon as they left the town borders; my parents weren't the only ones trying to avoid attention. Although outsiders didn't normally enter the forest, no one could plan for all possibilities. There were also the usual dangers of a wild area.

There was also a lot of mud.

"Why?" I moaned as I plodded behind Belen. My legs were too short, and each step was a tug of war.

"There's too much leaves," Theo said. "It doesn't dry quickly."

I wanna go home… This was too tiring to be fun, especially after morning drills. Even worse, the path was starting to slope up. My legs were burning with each step. No flower could be worth this effort.

The kids didn't have the same reluctance or decreasing energy. If nothing else, they seemed to have more. Their chattering got louder and louder and then –

It stopped. So had Belen, and I ran right into her before I realized. Rubbing the pain away from my nose, I peered around her.

Ahead of us the path opened up into a clearing. I couldn't see more than a few feet in, but there seemed to be something interesting, because the whole group hadn't stepped a foot further and just stared in a clump beyond my sight.

"What's wrong, everyone?" Belen carefully maneuvered around to get to the front, with Theo and me behind her.

The interesting object quickly became apparent. On the other side of the wide clearing filled with what I presumed were sildio flowers, a large gryphon stretched out in the sun. I had never seen one before and I hadn't known that they even existed in this world, but the eagle-like front and lion-like back were undoubtedly a gryphon. Its feathers were a slate blue, except for its head and its chest. Its chest was a pale red, the same color as its lion body. Its head was white with three black stripes, one from its beak over the top of its head to its slate blue back, the other two passing over its eyes on the way to its back.

Its eyes were black ringed by a bright yellow. I could tell because it was looking straight at us.

I caught Belen's wrist.

"Are gryphons dangerous?" I whispered.

She slowly shook her head. "I don't know." Her voice was shaky, which was uncharacteristic. I glanced at her face. Her expression was contorted in worry, confusion, and a little bit of fear. "I never heard of that before. Do you know what it is?"

She's never heard of gryphons before. Maybe they go by another name?

"Everyone, slowly come back. We're going home." Belen began herding the children away from the clearing. Or at least that was her intention.

"I'm going to go closer!" This was, you guess it, a boy.

"Me too." Oh, wait, sorry for my sexism. This one was a girl.

Several of the kids dodged around Belen and entered the clearing. No matter how much parents prep their children for danger, unknown animals are difficult ones to anticipate. Especially when they look like a cute bird.

Not so cute. I flinched as the gryphon gracefully stood. It was far bigger than Tibi and Ulna. Its head easily reached the lower branches of the towering trees. In some ways it dwarfed the trees, because I couldn't imagine any of the trees being able to support its weight. As its beak cracked open, I was drawn to the sharpness of it.

"No!" Belen started to go after them.

"Theo, stop her!" I pushed Belen back, and raced after the kids. I wouldn't be able to physically force them to go back, but I could stop the gryphon from hurting them if I was close enough to bite it. It would be a pity to kill the gryphon, which I would have considered beautiful if I wasn't so worried about its danger level, but I didn't have many options.

I somehow managed to get in front of the kids. I tried to stop them by stretching out my arms. With my back to them, I stared straight into the gryphon's eyes.

My breath caught in my throat, Maxine trembling on my shoulder, the gryphon was motionless.

And then – and maybe I was just crazy with nervousness – the gryphon grinned.

Faster than I could jump away, it reared on its lion paws, scooped me up in its talons, and swept to the sky. The racing wind mingled with the screams of the kids below. Maxine and I couldn't scream because we were too shocked, and too busy hanging on for dear life.

"Molly, hold on!"

"The problem is that its holding onto me!"

"Hold on anyway!"

"Onto what?!" In daily life, my height was the most persistent reminder of my current age. I was tiny. When I had first seen the gryphon, it was like looking up at a skyscraper. I was smaller than all of the other kids. I barely reached my mom's knees. Therefore, right now I was bouncing freely around in the basket made by the talons. The only possible way to hang on would be to hug a single talon like a koala, and I didn't think my arms were long enough.

"Can you see where it's taking us?" I asked Maxine.

"I don't know, I don't know! I can't leave!" Poor Maxine was on the verge of tears. She probably could have flown through the spaces between the talons, but her panic had her clinging tightly to my collar.

Maybe it was taking us to its nest. Was it going to feed us to its babies? No, wait. The screaming of the kids was getting louder again. It was difficult to get my bearing, but it felt like we might be going down. Was it going to attack the kids while holding onto me? I couldn't see anything, Maxine wasn't going anywhere, and the kids were sitting ducks. On the other hand, I constantly managed to cheat death.

"Maxine, I'm sorry. Be ready to fly."

"What? WAIT!"

[Poison Bite]

I hoped fervently that my spell would toughen my teeth enough to get through the talons as I opened my mouth as wide as possible. I scrabbled to lock onto a talon with my hands and my teeth had almost hit the surface when suddenly –

Not there.

The talons were gone and I was falling with my face up, looking at a bright blue sky and the silhouette of the gryphon framed against the sun. Maxine was still holding onto me, so I plucked her off. It would be better for her to fly than to plummet with me. Now I could see two winged shapes getting steadily farther as the wind whistled past. Since my sight wasn't blocked, I actually felt a bit calmer. Better to know that I was falling to my death than to wonder if I was being carried there. My heart hammered in my ears and it was hard to breathe, but there was nothing I could do. No magic, no wings, no parachute.

We must have been pretty high up still, because I had enough time to muse about whether I could gain an ability from this if I managed to survive.

Leaves and branches joined the passing wind, and I was tossed around as I fell, gathering cuts and bruises along the way. Suddenly I stopped with a large 'CRACK' that rang through my ears, drowning out my heart. Pain? No pain? It was hard to breathe still. I couldn't move.

"MOLLY!"

As expected, I was transparent again. I was floating next to my physical body, which was bent at a grotesque angle around the branch. It must have broken my spine. I don't think that would be enough to kill me, though. Now I was worried that it instead of dying, I would become paralyzed.

A moment later Maxine dove into view and landed on my chest. She didn't bother talking to me, only sparking the connection.

I sighed, scratching at my head. Unlike the last time, I didn't feel any conflicting thoughts. Without knowing anything, it was better to risk my life than risk the lives of the kids below. Looking down, I couldn't see the kids through the dense foliage, and I could no longer hear them. If Belen was smart, she would have had them run away.

Looking up, I couldn't see the gryphon either. Maybe it had flown off. How did it know that I was going to bite it? Some wild instinct? I felt a little proud that I had made it nervous.

"Molly!" Maxine was still crouched over physical me, but she was glaring at me the living ghost. "Get ready to grab onto the branch."

"Okay." Holy magic is pretty amazing stuff! My body was completely straight now, only slightly bent because of the unnatural position on the branch. The wrong movement might send me careening again, so her warning made sense.

As my sight flickered, I hastily thought of something, and thought hard.

'I died because of an ability. I died because of an ability. I died because of an ability.'

I didn't have time to figure out which ability, but I trusted that my magic would fill in the gaps.