Thud. Flap. Thud. Flap.
It kept running. The sounds of guns shooting off made it's heart race as it leaped from tree to tree.
Keep going! Push through the pain!
Bullet holes leaked with fresh blood from a large, golden wing. Adrenaline dulled the pain, but it would not bother pretending the pain wasn't there. It just had to escape the thick forest. The sounds of poachers were getting nearer.
"Don't lose it!" the cry of a gruff man was heard, cocking his gun.
It spread it's large wings and took flight, ignoring the searing pain in its right wing. This was it. They were going to make it. They could see their destination right in front of them. Over the small town of Royal Woods, they flew as fast as possible. Just a bit more!
"Fire!"
It felt as if their whole wing exploded into bits. It cried in pain and started plummeting towards the ground. It was a rocky and very painful landing, landing right on their wings and rolling to a stop. Right in front of it were the two poachers. It shakily stood up and flattened it's ear tufts, hissing with pure rage. If it were to go down, at least it'd die trying.
The honking of a car horn honked, catching the attention of all three. It spread its wings and dashed away from the road, the two poachers fleeing as well. The car screeched as it hit the brakes, almost running the two men over.
"Jesus, what the heck?!" the man in the car exclaimed, shaken from the near death experience.
"Harold, what's going on?!" the man's wife worriedly cried.
"I-I saw something, Rebecca! It looked big and feathery!" Harold replied, rolling down the window to check the scene.
"Hey! Watch where you're going, jerk!" one poacher screeched.
"Yeah! We're trying to hunt something ya know!"
"Hunt?! It's too late out to be hunting!" Harold retorted.
Harold sighed, "look, I get you like hunt, but this is a neighborhood for Pete's sake! Everyone can hear you! If you keep shooting those damn bullets I'll arrest you for invading property!"
It could hear the arguing as it escaped, painfully limping to safety. Maybe if it tried, it could still possibly be feasible to make it to home. Oh, but it was still a couple of miles, and it was so tired. Maybe finding a resting spot would be nice.
A tree caught their eye. It was a medium sized tree, but better than nothing. Its talons gripped onto the bark as it made its way up the tree. It lied on the most stable branch and curled up, falling into a deep slumber.
(Time skip brought to you by Bun Bun)
"Two men were arrested for having guns in the streets of 1216 Franklin Avenue. A man claims he had seen a gigantic bird like creature in the same area. Describe what you saw, Harold." A news lady stated.
"I-it was crazy! I've never seen a bird like that before! It had the head of an eagle and the body of a lion or something!" Harold anxiously said into the mic.
"Wait, the head of an eagle and the body of a lion?"
"Yes! It's true I swear!"
"Wow, folks! It looks like Harold has found a griffin, a mythical bird of Greek mythology! Surely something that'll start up a ruckus in Royal Woods, Michigan! This is Brianna Auburns, goodbye!"
Lana practically bounced in her seat, pausing the news to think of the new information.
"Holy cow! It's real guys, it's real!" Lana squeaked with excitement.
"What's real?" Luna asked, tuning her guitar.
"The griffin! Some guy found one on the news!" Lana replied.
Lisa had her doubts, scoffing quietly in the background.
"Oh dear sibling, griffins are just made up creatures of Greek Mythology. They aren't real." Lisa commented.
"Yeah they are! The news said so!" Lisa's sister pouted.
"Lana, you can't believe everything that's happened on the news, unless there's data collected and physical proof."
"Lisa's right, and I hate to rain on your charade." Lincoln butted in, making himself some cereal.
Lisa hopped down from the dining room table and headed towards the door, "if you'll excuse me, there's igneous rocks to be collected."
Lisa hopped onto the ground and started picking up some rocks, either mumbling 'yes' or 'nope'. As she kept collecting the rocks she needed, she noticed a red liquid trail on the walkway.
"That's odd…" Lisa mumbled to herself.
She crouched down and touched the red liquid, sniffing it. It was blood. Lisa quickly wiped her finger to rid of the blood and shuddered. Her stomach twinged with anxiety as she continued her search for rocks in the backyard. There was more splotches of blood scattered in the grass dried up. Did one of her siblings cut themselves?
"I don't understand. Nobody seemed hurt inside the house. And this blood is borderline fresh…"
Lisa glanced at the tree in the backyard. There were scratch marks. Somebody was here last night, but who? Lisa gulped as she continued picking up more igneous rocks, until she discovered a single, gold feather. It was a big one too. The prodigy picked up the feather and inspected it. Crusted blood was laced on the tip. It was golden as the sun when it shone in the light, a beautiful feather nonetheless.
"Possibly some felid caught a bird and killed it in our yard, but what bird feather is this iridescent?"
Lisa put the feather in her pocket for further analysis, while taking the rocks back inside. She took the dried blood from the feather and did a DNA test, but nothing came up from the DNA test. Lisa was skeptical if she found a new bird species.
"I call dibs outside!" Lana screamed happily, but tripped over her twin sister, Lola.
"Watch where you're going!"
"Sorry, Lola."
Lana headed outside with her pet frog, Hops. She bounded over towards a large mud puddle, but froze as she spotted a rather large animal print. Her eyes went up from the print and looked up the tree, and what she saw shocked her.
Everyone froze as they heard a loud shriek outside coming from Lana. Lincoln almost had a major heart attack, recollecting himself before rushing outside.
"Lana?! What's going on?!" Lincoln yelled for his sister.
Lana could only do nothing but shakily point, "L-L-Lincoln…?!"
Soon after, eight sisters came rushing to Lana with worry.
"Lana what the heck is going on-"
All the sisters froze when they saw what Lana saw. It fell out of the tree, it's body limp on the ground. All nine siblings screamed in shock as they saw what was right before their eyes.
"It's a-"
"What is that?!"
"Touch it!"
"Ew! I'm not touching it!"
Lisa, hearing the commotion outside, finally stepped out her room to see what the problem was.
"Dear siblings, what in the world is…"
She couldn't believe what she saw. She knew it wasn't real, but what laid before her eyes completely threw her train of thought off track.
It was a griffin. A real griffin.