"Tale of a Gryphon Kitten, part 1" by S. Alexandra Malmberg

This story begins in a golden eyrie on the cliffs above the Woods of Camael. There were many eyries on that cliff, and every single one harboured a pair of gryphons. In some of them there were eggs or kittens that were just hatched as well, but there were only gryphon nests on the steep cliffside. The same peoples that left fresh meat for us down in that meadow with the great oak removed all other nests. Well, anyway, a small, white gryphon kitten was hatched in one of those nests, her beak was bright yellow with red markings, and the fur on the kitten’s hind was patterned like a snow leopard. Her parents gave her a name, and loved her, and she grew up to be a strong young gryphoness, if just a little bit too nosy and curious.

The fairies that had the responsibility of the gryphons worried about her getting stolen, gryphons born and raised in wild could cost extremely much, especially if they had an unusual pattern. Then one day she came. A fairy, just like the ones that fed them, but she had a jade amulet in her hand, and instead of leaving some meat and walk away she stopped in the middle of the meadow. Looked at the herd, lifted the hand she held the charm in high in the air and cried, with a strong, but anyway soft voice:

"Gryphon of my soul, come to me!"

The white gryphoness got curious and eyed warily at the jade, that glittered in the early sunlight. The green jade caught her eye, and before she knew, she had landed next to the fairy with the amulet in her hand. Her right talon had scratched the lower arm of the fairy, and ruby red blood slowly trickled from the light wound. The woman smiled, and gently slipped the leather thong attached to the amulet over the gryphoness' neck. She wispered quietly into a white, feathered ear:

"DemonClaw. Your name shall be DemonClaw."

That was the day I met my mistress.

TO BE CONTINUED…