<h4>Chapter 449: Prolog: The griffin (3)</h4>
Cranberry, Mary, and Roan followed Arion for a while going through the forest until they reached a particrly overgrown thicket until the ck wolf suddenly stopped and tensed up while sticking his head through the brushes.
"What is it, Arion?"
As they all stopped behind Mary''s familiar, and the brown-haired girl herself asked him in a tense voice.
"Raor..."
The wolf growled back quietly without trying to look back at his master.
"That''s good, then, right, let''s go...!"
"Raor!"
"Eh...?!"
Mary perked up and tried to walk by Arion but the ck wolf growled a bit louder and in a very harsh manner, making the brown-haired girl flinch and tense up.
"What is it about?"
Cranberry exchanged surprised looks with Roan and asked the brown-haired girl.
"We found the nest – but Arion says it might be toote for imprinting."
Mary turned around to her friends and exined with concern.
"Toote for imprinting - what does that suppose to... ah..!"
Roan shook his head before he gasped in a morbid realization.
"...you don''t mean that the chicks hatched but they... ate each other...?"
The blond prince became pale and asked in a hushed voice.
"...we need to check... be careful whatever it may be – be ready to attack just in case."
Cranberry instructed the other two, changing the grip on her baseball bat so that it would be a scepter and already activating a skill to be used at any moment.
With that, the trio all slowly approached the brush and peeked leaned in to peek at what was on the other side...
"!!!!!"
What they saw, was arge nest with a mostly rotten corpse of an adult griffin leaning against an edge of a cliff.... and a lone griffin chick covered in soft yellow baby-feathers... slick with blood.
"...scree..."
The little cheek screeched pitifully while looking down at the bloody corpses of five other cheeks, and limped out of the nest.
The chick''s little talons werepletely dyed red, with yellow feathers sticking all over them, and its tiny wings were hanging limply on both sides of its bloodied body, all scratched and mangled.
The only part of the little griffin that wasn''t bloody, was its beak.
"...horrible...!"
Mary gasped, covering her mouth with both hands.
"...look''s like the young monsters had a deathmatch in the absence of their parent..."
Roan gritted his teeth and looked away.
"Yeah, and the one who didn''t try to eat the others won – what the fuck are you waiting for, Mary?! Go to them!"
Cranberry frowned furiously at the act of the other two and put her hand on Mary''s shoulder.
"...eh...?"
The brown-haired girl looked at her in disbelief and furrowed her brows.
"The imprinting might be a bust, but you still might try to tame it normally – here."
The red-haired girl said calmly while pushing a fistful of dried meat from their rations into Mary''s hands.
"It''s either the most bloodthirsty chick you can find or the one with the strongest survival instinct – depending on which one of them started the fight. Either way, it would make a great familiar. GO!"
Cranberry looked Mary straight in the eyes before pushing her out towards the baby griffin limping away.
"...scree..."
The young monster didn''t even look scared at the sight of a human suddenly appearing – it only let out a very sigh-like screech and lowered its head in resignation, before sitting heavily on the ground.
"...scree...?"
While sitting on its but like a feathered dog – and coincidentally, it was the exact size of a medium-sized dog – it looked up at the brown-haired girl and screeched proudly like a general fallen in battle mocking their opponent why they hesitate with the final blow.
"H-hello..."
Mary stood up slightly and made eye contact with the little monster.
"I don''t know if you can understand me properly, but... do you want some...?"
The brown-haired girl did her best to smile, took a single jerky, and reached it towards the young griffin.
"...!"
At first, there was no reaction as the little monster had no idea what was offered to it, but fortunately, a light breeze managed to pass through the thicket and the smell reached it – causing the baby griffin to flinch as its eyes widened when it smelled the tasty food.
"It''s alright. Do you want it...?"
Mary beckoned it, and the monster looked very interested – but as it tried to stand up, it turned out that it''s unable to...
The little griffin didn''t sit because it was trying to show off, it was simply too weak to continue limping away.
"..."
Mary bit her lips beforeing to the very simple conclusion...
"...alright... Don''t worry, I''m only going to give you this food – I''m not going to harm you."
She said doing her best to make her voice sound as calming as possible and started inching closer.
After a few surprisingly long seconds, once the dried meat was finally within its reach...
*tap*
"!!!"
Instead of hungrily pecking it out of Mary''s hand – as the brown-haired girl fully expected – the little griffin gently grabbed the jerky with its beak...
*munch*
...and started eating while Mary was still holding on to it.
"...h-hey... listen... I''m something called a tamer – I can befriend monsters and we live and fight together... maybe... umm... do, do you want to be my tamed monster, a familiar?"
The brown-haired girl asked timidly.
"...scree..."
The little griffin looked at her and screeched calmly.
"...?"
Mary closed her mouth and blinked in confusion.
"Scree."
The monster looked at her and screeched a little louder.
"Ah! S-sorry, I just didn''t expect you to just... alright!"
She closed her eyes and her body began glowing white – the same white light enveloped the wounded baby griffin and it closed its eyes too.
*munch*
After a few heartbeats, the white light faded, and the griffin returned to politely snacking on the dried meat as if nothing changed.
"...ary... Mary! How did it go....?"
Hearing a whisper, Mary turned around to see heads of Roan, Arion, And Cranberry sticking out between the thin branches.
"He agreed! Cranberry, please, heal him! I don''t want him to suffer through mend!"
The brown-haired girl cried out both happy and extremely worried and called out for her friend.