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Legend

Gallus waited expectantly at the entrance to his alleyway. It’s been a few weeks, and Gabby had been visiting him on occasion. He noted that she seemed to always come around noon, so he made a point to stay near his box until then. If she didn’t show up, he’d be on his way.

Familiar wing beats filled the air, and Gallus turned to look to his left. A larger grey griffon landed gracefully on the ice, before messing up by slipping and falling flat on her face.

Gallus stifled a giggle. “So, how’s the ice?”

“Very funny, Gallus,” Gabby said sarcastically, before breaking down laughing. Gallus joined in on her laughter.

Gallus wiped a tear from his eye, looking at the grey griffon with curiosity. “So why are you here today?” Gabby shook out her fur and feathers, dusting the snow off of her. She smiled and pulled out a little paper bag.

“I brought you lunch!”

Gallus looked at it, making a face. “I still have a lot of leftovers from the other times you’ve given me lunch...”

Gabby jaw gaped. “I didn’t realized made that much. Uh....do you still want it?” She held the bag towards Gallus’s face, to which he promptly snatched it out of her claws.

“I’m not saying no to food!” Gallus walked back towards his box, placing the bag next the the rest of unfinished lunches. He bounced back towards the older griffon. “So is that all?”

“Oh actually I was hoping you’d like to go to the library with me!” Gabby said excitedly. “Gilda dosen’t go to the there with me anymore, and I really want a new reading buddy!”

“Li....brary?” Gallus tried the new word on his tongue. “What’s that?”

“Y’know, the place were they organized the books into an area so you can find it easily!....Well, it used to be organized, now it’s all broken down an all over the place.”

“Right...” Gallus said, still not comprehending. Gabby must’ve missed the tone in his voice, because she started dragging him towards somewhere.

“You’re going to love it there! It’s my favorite place, and learning all the history of Griffonstone is much fun!”

Suffice to say, it wasn’t what Gallus was expecting.

He had imagined a broken down building with shelves and cobwebs.

Instead he got no building, a shelf and cobwebs.

Eh, I was close.

“It looks...”

“I know, it’s messy, but the books are in good shape!” Gabby grabbed one of the books from the shelf, only to have it crumble into pieces. She gave Gallus a nervous laugh. “Heh heh....for the most part at least.”

Gallus wasn’t paying attention to the books anymore. Instead, his eyes lead him to a large white statue, carved from what looks like clay. It had the shape of a griffon, with an open, almost falling apart, jaw and a crown. His eyes were hallowed out, and lots of his limbs were missing.

“Gabby? What’s this?” Gallus asked, pointing toward the broken down statue.

“Oh! The the Statue of King Grover!” Gabby exclaimed, flying over to the statue. She perched atop the head of the griffon.

“Who’s King Grover?” Gallus asked. He’d never heard of this griffon before. And who names their kid ‘King Grover’ of all things?

Gabby gasped, looking around to see if the coast is clear. She glided down towards the fledgling, pressing her face closed to his, her gaze intense.

“You’ve never heard of King Grover?!” Gallus gulped, before nodding. Was he supposed to know? Is it treason that he didn’t know? What kind of trouble is going to get into because he didn’t know.

Gabby looked around again. “Do not, let Grampa Gruff know about your lack on knowledge about him, or he’ll have your head! Or worse, you’ll have to listen to his hour long speech about the tragic tale of Griffonstone!”

Okay, now Gallus had several questions. One- why did Grampa Gruff take this so personally? Two- who is King Grover? And Three- what’s this about a speech?

Gabby dragged the little griffon behind the statue, signaling him to stay there. The grey griffon Flew over the a broken down shelf just behind the statue, looking for something. Books and scrolls where tossed about, before Gabby settled on something.

The book Gabby brought back was old. It’s leather cover was worn down, covered in scratches, and the the contents of it looked just about to fall apart.

“Here, this is everything you need to know about Griffon history, so you don’t have to suffer Grampa Gruff lecture.”

Gallus stared blankly at the book, picking it up in his tiny claws. The cover was blank, and when he turned the book pages, all he saw here weird scribble and crudely draw pictures. He looked up at Gabby, confusion written all along his face.

Gabby nudged the book towards him. “C’mon! Read it.”

“...read?” Gallus parroted back. What was this ‘read’ thing?

“Don’t you....know how to read?” Gabby asked nervously. Gallus shook his head, still not understanding.

“Of for Grover’s sake, ok I’ll just tell you,” Gabby composed herself. Her bristling feathers calmed themself.

“Before the Idol of Boreas, is griffons where a lot like how when we’re today. Mean, cold, and greedy. Griffons used to fight each other everyday because no one got along, that is, until King Grover,” Gabby seemed to have fond memories while she told the story. “King Grover was the first griffon king, uniting the griffons under his lead with the Idol of Boreas, a ancient treasure that was said to bring wealth, protection, and good health to whoever came before it. It gave griffons an identity, it gave us our pride. The Idol of Boreas made our kingdom stronger than ever.”

Huh, so ‘King Grover’ wasn’t his actual name.

“What? Why would you think that?”

“Oops, I said that out loud, didn’t I?” Gallus checks turn a light shade of red. “Uhh nevermindthat, umm so why isn’t it like that now?”

Gabby grimaced, “I’m getting to that. Well, the Idol of Boreas was passed down in the royal family, from one king to the next, all the way until the reign of Guto. King Guto was in his castle, the Idol of Boreas sitting on its pedestal, when.....it...showed up.”

Gallus frowned. “Don’t expect me to know what IT is.”

“Sorry, just this part of the story aways scared me! It gives me nightmares thinking about it,” Gabby shuttered, her feather ruffling.

“Seriously, what so bad about it?”

“It...Arimaspi...came to the castle. Arimaspi was a large, one-eyed creature, with large horns decorated with gold rings. It had large claws, capable of tearing down the whole castle, teeth so sharp it could cut through diamond. Arimaspi broke through the widow of the castle, and even though King Guto tried to stop him, it managed to get the Idol. The griffons all chased him, and managed to get him trapped on a bridge that lead over the Abysmal Abyss. Before they could stop him from escaping with the Idol, lighting came down and struck the beast, breaking the bridge, and sending Arimaspi into the Abyss, along with the Idol of Boreas. They say that when the treasure fell into the Abyss, our pride went with it, and ever since then we’ve gone back to ways of the old.”

Gallus cocked an eyebrow. “That dosen’t sound all that scary.”

“It’s much scarier when Grampa Gruff tells it. I could never match the amount of terror that story gave me when I heard it.”

“So what happen to King Guto?” Gallus asked, suddenly curious to see how the story went afterwards. Gabby just shrugged.

“As far as I know, he was the last recorded King in history. There was rumor at one point that King Guto, ashamed that couldn’t protect the Idol, left Griffonstone. It was never proven to be true, all we know is that King Guto just mysteriously vanished one day, and nobody’s been able to find out where he’d gone or were his remains are.”

Gallus, disappointed, turn the books pages. He looked over to the scribbling on the pages, assuming there were words. “Were there any other Kings? Or was King Grover and King Guto the only ones that did anything?”

Gabby snorted, “Of course there were other Kings silly! Someone names were lost to history, but the books in the library contain a lot of history. There was King Gabriel, who ruled with his wife Queen Guinevere, King Gandiss, who went to war with dragons, there was also-“

Gabby started spewing name drops, completely losing Gallus in the process. He continued to stare down at the book, flipping through is brittle pages. All the talk about the history of Griffonstone had sparked something in Gallus, he wasn’t quite what though. Something in the pages of the olden book took some interest to the fledgling.

“Uh, Gabby?” Gallus asked, tugging at Gabby satchel that still laid across her back, gaining her attention. He held the book in his talons, giving a sheepish grin. “Could you read this to me?”

Gabby gasped, the grin on her face turned into a full blown smile. Her eyes widen, grey wings flapped in excitement. “I would love to! You are going to love history, let me tell you,” she opened the book, turning to first page. She pointed to the first picture on the book, “That’s a painted portrait of King Grover, isn’t that neat? Ok, let’s see, ‘King Grover was the first King and founder of Griffonstone-“

The blue griffon listen intently, fascinated by the sheer amount of knowledge the he got never learned. He throughly enjoyed listening to Gabby’s readings, not minding the long tangents that Gabby often went on trying to explain something. By the time they were done with the book, the sun had set low on the horizon, the stars starting to show in the sky.

“Ah, teeth and feathers,” Gabby muttered, watching the sun. “I better get going now, unless I want Grampa Gruff to yell at me.” She glanced back at the fledgling, giving him a apologetic look. “I think you should get back to where you live, too.”

Gallus nodded, picking up the book with his talons. Gabby was just about the leave when she stopped suddenly. “Hey Gallus!”

The blue griffon glanced back at her.

“What I’d I taught you how to read? Then you can go and learn all on your own!”

Gallus eyes widen with that proposition. He nodded his head excitedly, flapping his small wings. Gabby smiled at the young Griffons antics, before waving and lifting off into the sky. Gallus looked back to the book he held. Firmly grabbing the book with one wing, he raced back to his cardboard box.

Author's Note:

Hhhh this was harder to write... I wasn’t sure where I was going with this at first

This was also harder to name

This chapter cause so much problems to me

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