Expect to see lots of Night Crawlers in the next few chapters.


Chapter 26

Roxy was down by the Spirit River when Jace and Clary caught up to her. Skyah had flown down with them and had perched on Clary's shoulder some part of the way. When they got there they saw everyone there, including Stephano the Hellhound.

Oh what is it thine eyes see? Sister of thine blood! Hath thou com'st to bring fair greetings to thy brother dearest?

A voice came, and another Nyryn appeared, only this one was dark green in color with shades of light and medium green patterned all over its body with dark green ear-tips but light colored paws and a barrage of stripes, rosettes and other patterning all in shade of green, its wings were light green at the fore-feathers, but darker on the covert feathers and darkest green on the primary feathers and slightly lighter on the secondaries. Its eyes were the same as Skyah's deep violet.

Dear lord.

Skyah's response was muttered and barely heard by anyone. She put her paw to her head, as if to try and hide her embarrassment.

Sister, come! We will aid thou with all of our might!

The green Nyryn turned to Roxy as the words were made clear to everyone. Skyah growled, an audible growl, not a sound in one's head. Roxy sighed.

"Since Skyah probably doesn't want to admit to having this thing as a brother, I will, this is Timor, Skyah's younger brother, and yes he always talks like that." Roxy explained, "Now, let's go, we have to get to the other side of Icaria by the time the sun comes up, so, pick a Hellhound! Pick any Hellhound!"

"Not Stephano!" Chloe said, appearing for the first time since she had disappeared after giving Clary the feather-stele, but one look at her crazed face, and Clary knew now was definitely not the time to ask Chloe anything.

"I said it once, and I said it again, I am not riding a demon!" Isabelle growled, her tone nearly matching Skyah's. Alec meanwhile, was examining Timor with a look of interest in his face.

"Nyryns are quite rare, I heard their original habitat was Russia, then the Mundies wiped them out." Magnus said, watching Alec's expressions.

"Yeah, what was it, 1765 or something? Leri and me went to gather the remaining members of the species and bring them here, luckily these little guys can adapt easily." Jacob said, patting Timor's head.

Our ancestors made a sacrifice when they decided to accept Nightshade's offer.

Skyah's voice chimed in.

"What happened?" Jordan asked, Simon had just opened his mouth but then closed it, seeing as Jordan had already asked the question.

Nyryns could take the form of a human if we needed to be in disguise, we could speak like any other Downworlder as well, but when we came to this island, those were stripped of us, this island is dark, and in order to survive, you must either be Nightshade, or Night Crawler, they are the only ones who can live here.

A sobering tale Skyah told with her head down. It made quite a few of the New York group look up and take note.

"Wow, that's kinda mean." Maia said, glancing at Roxy, Chloe, and Jacob.

"Hey, you think we made the rules? It's the same for all islands that are home to Doors, you have the group who guard it, then you have the creatures who inhabit the place." Roxy said, putting her hands up in exasperation.

"Somebody wanted things organized, it wasn't us though, we were offered the job and took it, no questions were asked," Jacob explained.

"Who told you guys about it though?" Magnus said, looking up, his cat's eyes zeroing in on Roxy.

"Lerial, she said she found out about it through the grapevine and we didn't ask questions, she's as bad as my kind when it comes to answering." Roxy said with a rueful grin, flexing her clear wings and turning to whack the ground with her staff.

"Once again, the only way to figure anything out is to talk to the chick that is conveniently not here." Isabelle muttered, just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"You can think up conspiracy theories all you want, Lerial may or may not be part of them, we don't know, but I am going to interrogate her when we do bust her ass out of Sebastian's hideout." Chloe said, Roxy turned around and glared at them,

"Shut it! I need to work my magic." Roxy growled,

"Wha-" Alec started,

"Tsh!"

"But-"

"Tsh!"

"Rox-"

"TSH!" All of the sudden there was a shriek, and a bunch of large shapes appeared in the sky, and dove downwards.

Cousins! Thou shalt be welcome to join us in aiding thy warriors of Nightshade!

Timor's voice rang out, and when the shapes got closer, Clary saw the outlines of Gryphons. Giant majestic Gryphons only a bit smaller than the Hellhounds, with the hindquarters of a lion and the tail of a lion. The front legs were that of a lion but were feathered, and giant claws adorned the paws though. The head and neck and chest were feathered, but the head had two tufts of feathers on either side of the head to mimic ears, giant wicked looking beaks shrieked into the night sky as they landed.

There were five Gryphons standing there, flexing their wings and letting out primal cries.

"Gryphons, well isn't this day just full of surprises." Isabelle said; her eyes slightly wide. Clary glanced over at Simon and by the expression on his face, she could see he was trying hard not to fanboy over the whole situation.

"You guys chickened out with the Hellhounds, sooooooooo, Gryphons!" Roxy said, spreading her arms.

"Are we riding them?" Clary asked in awe, the feline-avian creatures were everything that she imagined them to be, Clary had once tried to draw one, but Jocelyn had come in and said that fantastical creatures were a waste of time, imagine what she would say if she saw this…