I cant believe that I actually posted something. I've spent alot of time reading ygo fanfics and I've noticed that there werent very many ones with a gryphon in it.
This is my first story so please be nice with the reviews.
This story idea kinda came to me when I saw a picture of a boy and a gryphon, and it kinda exploded on me last night. So this is just the result of me not being able to sleep and my over-reactive imagination.
Notes: I dotn have any warnings yet but I might if I continue this fic. Wait, there is one swear word in this chapter just to let you know. Um, the setting is like midevil times. You know, villiages and power hungry nobles. There is slavery and different levels of society. And this is an ATERNATE UNIVERSE fic. So things will not be the same as he anime or teh manga.
Summary: Yugi is a young teen of fourteen years. He is an orphan and struggles through every day to survive; but he was free and that was good enough for him. Unitl one day the crops failed and the village had no money to support themselves. In an attempt to make ends meet, the villagers try to sell him as a slave. The chase leads them all to teh cliffs near Eagle's Pass, a no-mans land for eveyone. Teh reason for this was very simple, a great creature was rumored to live up there. A Shadow Gryphon.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////A small teen, about fourteen years of age, dashed through the forest's dense undergrowth. Twigs and branches grabbed at his tattered clothes and sharp stones littered his path. Tricolor hair lay matted against his skull and beads of sweat covered his body. Frightened amethyst eyes darted around in search of an escape route.
Loud curses and threats followed in his wake, as five grown men trailed the fleeing boy. They all had the attire of villagers and each one held some type of weapon, one of them had a handful of rope.
The teen didn't slow down as he speed around rocks and trees in an attempt to lose his pursuers, yet they seemed to stay at the same distance neither gaining or loosing ground.
Now, you might be wondering why this teen was being chased through the woods by villagers. He seemed to be innocent and he didn't hold any valuables, so there was no apparent reason for the chase. The reason, to be quite honest, was so that the boy could be sold to the nearby palace since the field's crops weren't fruitful enough to support the village people. The boy was an orphan and wasn't apprenticed to anyone so he made the perfect target for slavery; the boy would be sold to a respectful owner and everyone would be happy.
Only, the teen didn't agree with it.
So here he was, running away from a fate decided for him and trying to escape the hands of people he once knew.
He followed the invisible path he had memorized in his many ventures into the forest, heading for the pass among the cliffs. The pass he was looking for was unique among the others; it was never used for anything even though it would be a great benefit to people and armies alike. Eagle's Pass was hidden in the dislayered cliffs that created a natural border for the main cities and the middle-class villages, and it held multiple paths and dead ends that also doubled as perfect hiding places.
Those hiding places were what he was looking for.
The only problem would be that Yugi hadn't gotten that far before so he could end up lost as well. But that's alright. He convinced himself. At least I won't be sold as a slave.
He tried to block out the commands and curses that sounded behind him as he jumped across a narrow ravine. For once in his life he was thanking his small figure and light weight, since it allowed him to tread on tender logs and rotting branches. Yugi smirked slightly as he heard one of said logs break under the weight of the full grown men. Unfortunately for him, nature's traps made the men angrier and they were probably going to take it out on him if they catch up to him.
Yugi looked up ahead, noticing that he was getting close to the beginning of the cliffs. His memorized path would end soon after he reached those cliffs so he had to be careful.
Another problem was that he was starting to tire. Normally, he wouldn't be running for this long but the men were fast and had more endurance that him.
Man. How am I going to get out of this? He asked no one unparticular. Yugi approached the first cliff with a sudden jump that sent him to the top of a small hill. He quickly scrambled onto another outcropping that wasn't very far away. This type of evading wouldn't last long, but it would have to do until he found a decent hiding spot.
The men were gaining on him in the time it took to climb one outcropping. Because of their height, they could reach the cliffs faster so Yugi was beginning to run out of options.
With a quick look ahead, he laid eyes on the beginnings of Eagle's Pass. Just a few more jumps and he would have a better chance at escaping. Almost there...
Suddenly a dagger shot past his face, just barley missing him. While it embedded itself in the loose ground of his target outcropping, Yugi's focus wavered and his balance was thrown off.
"Ahh!" He screeched as his foot missed its target. Yugi plummeted to the ground, his body hitting various roots and slightly slowing his fall. With a thud, his scream was cut off and he connected with the ground below.
Luckily, the cliff was only twelve feet above said ground.
Ouch...That really hurt. He moaned as pain lanced through his body. Bruises starting to from across his back and side, which had taken most of the hit. That's defiantly going to leave a mark...
Ironic laughter found its way into his ear as he slowly regained his senses.
"Well, finally you've stopped running. You had us worried when you took that drop so unrepentantly." One of them said, obviously the leader.
Yugi tried to get up, pointedly ignoring the pain that throbbed loudly in his head and spine, but was prevented from doing so by a booted foot placed in the small of his back. He let out a pained whimper as pressure was applied and grimaced when the man laughed.
"You lead quite a chase, Yugi." The man sneered, all compassion gone. "At least now we can get you to the trader and see just how much your worth."
"Namik." One of the other villagers called. The man that was keeping Yugi on the ground, now known as Namik, looked up at the one who addressed him. "We should probably get back. That ridge over there is a part of Eagle's Pass, who knows whets lurking in all those outcroppings." The man seemed nervous, seeing as how he was trembling and all. The other villagers seemed to agree with him so by unanimous decision; they tied Yugi up and made their way back down the choppy hill.
There was one problem though...
"Where the hell are we?!"
In there rush to catch Yugi, they forgot to mark their path and were now undeniably lost. The villagers looked around, bewildered, at the change in scenery and tried to agree on which way they should go. At least, that was until someone got the bright idea to go up so that they could see above the trees, they figured that there was a spot around here that would overlook the entire cliff.
Namik slung Yugi, who currently had his hands bound behind his back and his ankles tied together, over his shoulder and began the climb up. Yugi was sure that they were suicidal and he told them so. Climbing up to the top of the cliffs by Eagle's Pass was just a stupid thing to do. There could be multitudes of wild carnivores up there; bears, wolves, raccoons, you name it. But even those animals couldn't compare to the one creature that was rumored to nest up there, and it was by far the most feared one of them all.
Unfortunately for Yugi, Namik just hit him over the head, told him to shut up and threatened to gag him. Now on top of his certain death he had a headache.
"Look!" One of the younger villagers, an eighteen year old by the name of Kuikle, called. "There's a clearing just up ahead!"
"You hear that, Yugi?" Namik whispered to him. "A little bit more and then we can go home. Well, we can go back home, but you're going to the traders." Yugi whimpered, he didn't want to be sold, he liked his life the way it was. Well, apart form starvation and getting beat up, but that could change. If he got sold, then he could be considered to be even lower than he already was.
I w-wont cry. I-I wont. A single tear fell from his amethyst eyes as they neared the clearing.
They reached the clearing without meeting any of the before mentioned carnivores. Namik tossed Yugi onto he ground over by some boulders, ignoring his gasp of pain. The villagers went over to where they could see the surrounding area and discussed how they should proceed.
Yugi gave up trying to loosen his bonds; they were so tight that they were starting to cut into his skin even if he didn't move. He did change his position so that he wouldn't cramp very quickly, but that just made the throbbing inn his spine more noticeable. Hissing is pain; he stopped moving all together and simply let his mind wander.
His eyes were still red from trying not to cry and even through his efforts a stray tear fell every now and then. It wouldn't help anything if he started crying, it would probably only make things worse. He already looked as if he was ten, he didn't need his actions proving it.
Yugi tried to distract himself from the situation, since he couldn't change it. He thought back to the stories his parents used to tell him before they died. Stories of warriors and heroes and challenging riddles, not to forget the villain who would always give way to the hero and the battles they would go through. The majority of the kids in his old village loved to hear the stories of knights, medians and dragons, but Yugi was different. He thought that those stories were too predictable. The knight would always win and the dragon would die, while the maiden would pronounce everlasting love to her savior.
No, Yugi didn't like those stories. He liked the ones about Gryphons.
Gryphons, the half lion half eagle. They were so majestic beautiful, with their sharp talons and precise beaks, powerful wings and long tails. They were fierce in what they protect and they are cunning creatures. To a lot of people they represented pride and nobility and to others they represented power and savagery.
But to Yugi, they represented freedom.
They were unpredictable and they didn't allow anyone to boss them around. In the stories they could be the hero or the villain or even both, helping one minute and harming the next. They couldn't be tamed and they were extremely intelligent. Gryphons were solitary creatures so you rarely saw more than three at one time and they were very territorial. They came in all shapes, sizes, and colors thought some are rarer than others.
Yugi always wished that he could see a gryphon, even if it was just once, that was why he couldn't be sold. If he was sold then he could never search for that one gryphon, he could never be free.
His amethyst eyes roamed over the ground, not really searching for anything but taking note of what he saw anyway. This would probably be his last time to be this close to the Pass and his favorite cliffs. A lifetime of being chained behind walls awaited him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The sudden fluttering of something caught in the corner of his vision. He turned his hear in the direction that he saw it and gasped at what his eyes met.
A lone feather settled on the ground not too far from where he was sitting. It was really big, bigger than any bird he had ever seen before. It was about the size of his forearm and half of his bicep put together, a small fuzzy tuft was at the base of it and the entire feather was smooth with precise edges.
What kind of bird would be big enough to leave behind a feather that huge? Yugi asked himself. He was so preoccupied that he didn't notice the rather large shadow that passed over the sun.
An earth shattering shriek pierced the air, causing Yugi to jump and a frightened squeak to pass his lips. The village men did the same thing, except that they yelled. They were huddling together and Kuikle was shakingly pointing at something in Yugi's direction. Wing beats drowned out all other noise as the men got into defensive positions, weapons drawn and ready. Barley concealed fear was in their eyes and they stood as still as a stone.
Yugi found himself trembling as the wing beats suddenly stopped, leaving the cliff in total silence. A dark shadow loomed above him, hinting that something large was just above him on top of the boulder. The sound of sharp claws scraping against rock sent his heart racing in his chest. He slowly turned his gaze upward, praying that he wouldn't die today by some vicious animal.
A sharp edged beak, pure black in color, attached to the large head of an eagle and a fairly long neck were what his eyes registered first. The head was different than an eagle, with ear-like tuffs on each side of its head and not to mention that the sheer size of it was about the same as a horse.
Yugi watched, spellbound, as the giant creature made it sway off of the boulder. Sharp talons made up the front two paws as the feathered chest melted into the smoothest velvet fur, hind quarters following with cat-like paws equipped with dagger like claws. A long, flowing tail with a feathery tuff at the end swayed form side to side in a predatory like manor. Giant wings spread in a threatening display as the creature advanced on the group of village men, sparing a single glance with the most gorgeous crimson eyes at Yugi.
Yugi saw the strange coloring with intricate detail. Ebony velvet feathers, tipped lightly with gold and crimson gave the creature a more regal look. Black fur and a golden tufted tail made up its rear hide.
It was a Gryphon.
The gryphon stood there, hissing in warning to the humans that dared to trespass on his territory. He personally didn't like the taste of man flesh but if they didn't leave soon they were going to become his next meal.
One of the bolder men, by the name of Tutkle, stepped forward with his hands raised in a placating gesture. He was calmly saying that they were lost and didn't mean to trespass. The villagers followed his lead and they edged across the cliff, staying as far away from the gryphon as possible.
They had almost made it to the path when Namik suddenly remembered the reason for being here in the first place. The soon-to-be slave boy was in the exact same spot as where he dropped him earlier. The teen was staring at the gryphon with a naked look of wonder and awe. Namik would've sneered, but the predicament was more serious than first thought. Yugi wasn't very far from the black gryphon, so retrieving him would be risky.
He alerted his fellow villagers to the situation and soon enough, Tutkle stepped forward.
The gryphon screeched at the approach, wings flaring and talons brandished. Tutkle slowed his pace greatly but didn't stop, that would be a sign of weakness and the gryphon would react to that.
"We just want the boy." He spoke to the gyphon while gesturing to said boy. "Then we can leave. We're not going to harm you."
Yugi's face scrunched up in indignation at being called a boy. He was fourteen years old, only a year from be of legal age! But the implications of what Tutkle said sunk in. He was still going to be sold and it seemed that nothing was going to change that.
Well…at least I got to see a gryphon before I go…
The gryphon looked at the youngest human there; he was rather small with the strangest design in hair that looked nearly identical to his human form and the most unusual color of eyes. The boy looked tired and injured, if the smell of blood was any hint, not to mention that he was tied up. He looked so frightened and depressed at what the other human said.
The gryphon had seen this boy before, quite a few times actually. The boy would always be wandering through the forest near the edge of the cliffs, but since he never caused any disturbance he was spared form being chased out like everyone else.
Tutkle had made it to Yugi while the gryphon was thinking and was trying to get a hold of said boy. Yugi fought back, even while the ropes bit into his already tender skin and made him bleed, landing a few good kicks and head buts.
Normally, Tutkle was a patient man, but he was tired of being in this forest when he could be at home sleeping. He roughly grabbed Yugi by the collar of his shirt and whacked him over the head; a pained yelp escaped his lips before Tutkle dragged him toward the other villagers.
A low pitched growl was the only warning anyone got. A large black blur streaked by and collided with Tutkle, sending him sprawling forward. Yugi was suddenly dropped and he hit the ground with a quiet thud. He spent a few minutes to catch his breath and when he did he was surprised at what was occurring in front of him.
The men who were standing just a few seconds ago were now piled on the ground, groaning and clutching whatever body part that had been hit. Only one of them was still standing, but that wouldn't last very long considering just how badly he was shaking.
And the black gryphon was standing protectively in front of him, hackles raised and wings spread wide.
A whimper escaped his throat when he moved his wrist; he must have twisted it when he fell. The gryphon's ears twitched in his direction, and his large head swiveled around to face him. Yugi found himself falling into the crimson pools of the creature's gaze. His breath caught in his throat as the gryphon turned its body to face him and approach his paralyzed form.
The gryphon's beak was mere inches away from his face as the creature sniffed him, before deciding something. It gently nibbled on his hair(1), careful to not accidentally pull any, before moving closer to him. The gryphon pulled back to sit on its haunches and gently grabbed Yugi with its large forefeet, careful not to pierce him with its talons.
Yugi let out a startled squeak as he was picked up, the scales and feathers of the forearm rested lightly against his skin. Shadows seemed to come alive and drift across his body and the gryphon's. He looked up; catching the gryphon's gaze, and could have sworn that he saw it wink.
A gasp drew his attention to the villagers that lay on the cliff. Disbelief was evident on their faces.
The grip the gryphon had on his torso tightened slightly and Yugi could feel the gryphon tense behind him. Its giant wings spread out on either side in order to keep balanced; the gryphon suddenly dove off the side of the cliff with no warning whatsoever.
A scream was torn from his mouth as they plummeted through the air. Yugi's stomach and heart were left somewhere behind them. A strange clicking that sounded suspiciously like laughter flew past him for the gryphon's beak, and the talons tightened around him reassuringly.
With the snap of opening wings they were airborne, soaring smoothly on an updraft and steady wing beats surrounded him. Yugi could feel himself getting dizzy and lightheaded, he knew that he wouldn't be able to stay conscious for much long.
Even though he was hundreds of feet above the ground and in the claws a fierce predator that could just be taking him off somewhere to be devoured, he felt safe. The claws had pulled him up against the warm chest of the gryphon, shielding him from the cold winds of the upper atmosphere. He snuggled as well as he could, since he was still tied, against the smooth feathers. The living shadows from earlier continued to drift over his skin, creating a safe barrier.
His eyes closed as he drifted into slumber, accompanied by the soft sound of wing beats. A single word passed his lips before he was gone. A name for his rescuer.
"Yami."
The gryphon looked down at the sleeping human that was huddled against his chest. He seemed so peaceful and content when he was asleep, so much younger than he actually was. Perhaps he would keep this human. Yes, that's what he would do. The gryphon purred slightly, watching as the human snuggled further into him with a small smile on his lips.
/My Aibou./
To be continued?
(1): I think that is a sign of affection for a bird. I cant seen to find any place on teh internet that lists bird's behaviors and such so I'm going off of what I've read before.
I hope you enjoyed my first story. I dont know if I'll continue it, but if I do I have a few questions. Would you want it to be yaoi or not. I havent really written yaoi before so it might be a challange for me.
Something else. If I do continue this story then I will need a beta reader. I want someone who isnt afraid to critizise and make suggestions.
PLEASE REVIEW!!