The forest was silent- and it was unnerving. Pheona looked around warily as Lir walked behind them silently, still shaken from the events of the day before.
"I don't like this. Something's happened recently." Keisin whispered to Pheona, who nodded carefully.
go north Keisin heard Prism whisper against Pheona's shoulder, which was near enough to hear the butterfly from.
He turned in that direction without hesitation, Pheona surprised when she realized she had thought north was another direction. Stupid lack of direction.
Keisin stopped when he heard a small strange chirping noise from the trees nearby. He walked in front of Pheona protectively, holding up his hands as he searched the forest around him for any signs of the poachers.
Instead something fell on his head.
Keisin shouted in shock as feathers and fur flew into his view, tackling him to the ground as it clung to his head, chirping happily. Keisin managed to tug the creature away from his face, only to see a small gryphon chirping at him cutely, tilting its red feathered head.
"Oh my- it's a cardinal gryphon!" Pheona said in surprise, walking over to look at the small hatchling, who watched her warily, the feather crest on top of its head rising with alarm.
"Where's its mother? They usually don't let hatchlings get too far away." Lir said uneasily, watching the small creature twitter in Keisin's grip.
"We should probably look around. She can't be far, and I really don't want to meet an angry mother grpyhon." Keisin said, setting the hatchling down, who instead decided to cling to his leg, digging its small claws into the cloth of his pants, its small red wings flapping as it chirped.
"Wow, it likes you quite a bit." Pheona chuckled, kneeling down and picking the hatchling up, which protested with loud growls and chirps, struggling in her grip. She yelled in surprise when one of its talons on its front bird legs caught her arm, scratching her so that she let go of it. It flipped and landed on its feet, running over to Keisin and running beneath his robe.
"How do I get this thing to go away?" Keisin lifted his foot, afraid he would step on the creature and hurt it.
"I'm afraid you can't." Lir said from around the other side of a tree. Pheona followed him and looked to what he was staring at, gasping and covering her mouth in shock.
A large gryphon lay on the ground, its throat slashed. Blood stained the snow around it, brown feathers littering the ground. The hatchling looked at the body momentarily, its eyes widening as it jumped off Keisin's leg to bump the body with its beak, chirping softly.
"This is going too far." Keisin growled, walking over to the small gryphon and picking it up gently. It looked down at the body from his arms as Keisin walked away, looking over to Pheona and stopping in his tracks at her dark expression.
"Stay here, I'm going to go see if anyone is around." She said through clenched teeth, holding her hands to her side and bursting fire from her palms, the flames shooting into the ground beneath her until she lifted above the trees from the force of the fires' blazes.
Keisin watched her with shock as she directed the flames forwards and backwards, looking to the ground beneath her before lowering back down in the same spot.
"No one's around still." She said in frustration, looking down at the ground. "I feel like they're just toying with us. What if our presence is making them be more ruthless?"
Keisin was still trying to get over the fact that Pheona could use her fire to fly. He opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again when he lost the words.
She glanced to him and saw his shocked expression and smiled wryly. "I learned that from my old mentor. He was a fire magi too. I can't do it for very long, though."
Keisin couldn't do anything other than nod, the gryphon looking up at his shock and chirping once in concern. He looked down at the small creature, who tilted its head at him and chirped again.
"I'm fine." He said absently, looking back at Pheona. "I doubt that they know we're here. It's a big forest, and we haven't been out here for more than a couple of days. They probably acted like this before we even got here."
Pheona bit her lip nervously. "That's what I was afraid of. What kind of people are we dealing with?"
"People with no morals." Keisin hoisted the small creature onto his shoulders. The gryphon looked at the perch skeptically before settling around his neck, its wings folded gently against the back of his neck.
"At least this little guy will still have someone to take care of him." Keisin said, tentatively reaching up to the gryphon and petting its red feathered crest, making the hatchling purr happily.
"I thought you said you didn't like creatures- that they were just animals." Pheona watched him dote over the small gryphon in amusement.
"I'm not heartless, you know." Keisin said defensively. "Besides, he needs someone to take care of him- we can't just leave him here in the middle of winter. He would probably die within a week."
Pheona nodded sadly, wondering how many hatchlings had died in these forests without their mothers to care for them. The thought made her choke with anger.

Centurion ignored people's stares at his horse legs as he walked through the large human city of Synara, looking up at the signs of the buildings, trying to read the humans' strange scribbles on the wood. He had never bothered to learn human script- now he was learning to regret it. He looked down at the parchment in his hand, memorizing the shape of the word rather than the actual text in Alabast's neat and tidy writing. Finally he found the place- if only from the familiar smell of stables enticing him in that direction. Centurion stopped in front of the door, wondering what to do next. He had never gone inside a human building before. He opened the door slowly, peering inside before stepping onto the wooden floors, wincing as his hooves making loud clamping noises against the planks. Well, so much for being subtle.
"I thought I told you to stay in the stable- I'll get you oats in a minute." He heard a voice call out from the back of the building, making Centurion grin. His creatures must have free reign of his home, and he surely had equines of some sort to recognize the sound of hooves on wood from so far away.
"I am not here for oats, though that would be welcome." Centurion said uneasily, moving further into the room and shutting the door behind him. Luckily the door was large and wide enough for his body, though he had to duck to avoid hitting his head.
"Who-" A man looked over from around the corner, his eyes widening in his plump face. "Well I'll be a lemur's uncle. What's a centaur doing in Synara City?"
"I am Pheona's ally." Centurion said, looking around with interest at the decorations of elk around the shop. It was obvious this man had a soft spot for the northerly cousins.
"Pheona? I thought she was going to look for poachers with Lir." Conintor walked into the room, holding up a bowl of oats to the centaur, who took it with a nod of thanks.
"We are beginning to worry, and hoped you had heard word of how she and Lir were. Amalthea has lost contact with her mate for quite a few days now. Usually they hold a link with each other, even when separated."
"Unicorns never cease to amaze me." Conintor whispered absently. "No, I haven't heard anything from them for over a week, now."
Centurion frowned at the news, knowing Alabast was right. Something was very wrong. Usually Pheona would at least send someone a message that she would be absent.
"Now that you're here though, would you mind taking a look at someone for me?" Conintor said, motioning toward the stables next door.
"Of course." Centurion said without hesitation, looking in that direction.
Conintor led him out the door and into the stable, greeted by a large female elk who stood guard at the door, moving aside when she saw Conintor and staring at Centurion as he passed by. The centaur nodded in greeting to her and she nodded back quickly, following them to the back of the stables.
"I've been trying my best, but he seems to be getting worse." Conintor motioned toward the furthest stable in the dark corner, where labored breathing continued to come from the fresh hay.
Centurion peered into the stable and startled, a long string of foreign words coming from his mouth as he moved beside the unicorn.
"How long as he been like this?" Centurion asked, opening one of the eye lids of the unicorn to see glazed eyes as the creature labored for breath.
"Since Pheona left. I found him in the forest, unable to walk. Brought him here because I figured it was better than leaving him out there alone."
Centurion looked to the man with respect and nodded, holding out one of his gray hands over the unicorn, muttering softly to himself before sighing in dismay.
"There is nothing physically wrong with him. Something must have happened with his magic to make him act this way, and I cannot heal that. I don't have nearly as much magic as a unicorn."
"Do you know anyone who would?" Conintor said desperately, hating to see such a creature die.
Centurion scoffed. "The only other being with as much magic as a unicorn is a sorcerer, and we all know they would sooner kill a creature than help it."