Ch. 60: The Man and the Snake

"You're putting a lot of stock into the idea that us proud gryphons are weak in frontal combat, boy. Hal's right. We chased off your little girlfriend once before, and we can chase off a hundred thousand soldiers just like her with ease, should the mood strike us." Maximus Chase declared to Adrian.

"Yes, you chased off a weak, poisoned and injured girl. I heard that she could barely stand upright by the time she actually made it to the city proper, yet she still managed to attack a few of you and escape without being captured. How many of your 'strong, proud gryphons' were injured in that attack, huh?" Adrian asked.

"You shut your mouth, boy! Us here at Gryvus have been feared and respected by the rest of the world for centuries! When people speak of gryphons outside of these mountains, they do it with respect and awe in their voice, because we tower over them as superior beings! Ack- ack!" Patrick Kale, the one that Adrian had figured would likely be the hardest to convince, shouted, jumping out of his chair. Unfortunately, with how old he was, getting that worked up was not good for him, and he couldn't resist collapsing back into his chair, coughing violently. Adrian ignored the old man's problems, addressing his statement instead.

"Gryphons. Centaurs. Drakes. Foggards. You four types of demi-humans have a lot in common, you know. A long and storied history. Respect and fear from common people, who have by and large never managed to catch a single glimpse of you. And finally, you never leave your communities, choosing to distance yourselves from the rest of the world. It's been this way for all of recorded history, as far as Rosy's told me, you know. Thousands upon thousands of years..."

"What's your point, boy?" Asher Frian asked with a scowl.

"When I was young, my teacher once told me a story. It was called the man and the snake. You see, this man once had a garden. He cared for this garden quite a bit. It was his passion.

One day, the man was watering his garden, when he came across a snake. Naturally, knowing of how deadly snakes can be, the man dropped his pail and ran away in terror, before the snake could bite him.

That night, the man was thinking about his garden. He was wondering 'what will happen to my pretty flowers, if that snake doesn't leave my garden? I can't just allow them to die!' 

The man formulated a plan and acted upon it the next day. He caught a mouse, killed it by hand, and placed it in his garden, near the snake's nest. He then used a string that he had tied to the mouse to lead the snake far away from his precious garden.

His plan a success, the man went back to his garden, to tend to his flowers once again, when he heard a loud 'HISS!' You see, the snake had also gone back to its nest, and was not happy to see him in the garden with it.

Gathering his courage, the man decided to stand his ground. He would not allow a snake to keep him from his precious garden. So, he grabbed the snake by the neck, and choked it to death.

After the man killed the snake, he rejoiced. He'd protected his precious garden from the snake, after all. He was ecstatic, so he quickly dissected the snake to eat the meat. When he dissected the snake, he found that the snake had never been a danger to him at all. As it turns out, this particular breed of snakes did not even possess a venom pouch. Had it bitten him, it would have been a minor annoyance at best. He'd been terrified of the snake for no reason at all.

A few days later, the man died." Adrian ended his story with the twist. When he'd originally heard the story and his teacher had ended the story with that, he'd been incredibly angry. He'd asked his teacher 'why did the man die?'

Naturally, the twist got to the gryphons, too. It was Johnny Tyler, the youngest one in the room, who had been quiet up till now, who asked it. "So, why did the man die? If the snake wasn't deadly, was the meat bad or something?"

Adrian shook his head. "No. The meat was fine. The snake was a great, filling and healthy meal for the man. Eating it had nothing to do with the man's death at all. You see, when he caught the mouse, before he had managed to kill it, it had managed to bite him. Just a tiny bite, without him even realizing that it had happened right away. That bite had transmitted a fatal disease from the mouse to the man, leading directly to his own death. He had been so terrified of this non-threat that was the snake, that he'd died a stupid death due to his own over-the-top attempt to get rid of it. He had overreacted, because he hadn't known about that particular breed of snake." Adrian explained.

The message was obvious. The unknown is scary. Learn about it, or face the consequences of your own ignorance. The people of this world were only scared of the gryphons as a whole, because they hadn't had the chance to meet any of them. That being the case, their reputation outside of Gryvus meant absolutely nothing. 

"Times are changing, you old fools. Soon, the fear of the unknown will not be able to protect you. The Shadowborn King has already mostly captured or killed the Foggards. Rosy personally killed the Wulfic Alpha, and the Vampires are already being oppressed by him en masse, ignoring the fate of the Aqua clan, which you already know. What do you think will happen next? You don't get to sit here, remembering how powerful and prideful you used to be, while people are dying outside of these mountains. It will catch up to you, and you will all die a dog's death, just like the snake in my story." Adrian declared to the Gryphons, trying to tell them that their centuries of pride were meaningless in this coming age. They needed to grow... to change... and he wasn't going to settle until that happened, even if he had to tear down every single conviction that those old fools had.