After a few hours of travel, the enthusiasm and good humor of Skandranon and Kessrah had evaporated, leaving only two very tried, hungry and grouchy Gryphons.

"Gods... I feel like... Sketi!... I... don't know... how much longer... I can keep up... this pace." Skandranon panted through laboring sides.

:The sun is going to set in about a candle mark... it should take us all night to get back to Lin'shala. : Kessrah's mind-message was heavy with exhaustion. : Unfortunately I don't think I can make it, either. Sketi, we will have to camp.:

"Good! Then we can land... and hunt. I could eat... a whole horse"

:and I know you could make good on that, too. Fine, I smell water; we will camp by that stream.:

Skandranon threw himself onto the cool earth by the stream, sides still heaving. "We are in no condition to be chasing down the meat we need."

Kessrah replied- "Why not just scry for them, like Nell taught you?"

"Well, that's hardly fair to them, the poor dumb things wont have a chance... but I guess we don't have a choice. How does two deer sound?"

"That sounds wonderful!"

"Ill lure them right to you if you make the kill." Skan thought for a moment, and clicked his beak wickedly. "And I get the hearts."

"You get both?" Kessrah glared at him. "Fine, scry-away oh great Mage Feather-Butt."

Skandranon nodded and sat up, his eyes closed in concentration. Every living thing lets off its own signature energy; it was the ability of the Mage to see, control, and channel it. Skan switched to Mage Site, and was momentarily blinded by the amount of life and power in the seemingly quiet forest. He looked through the great network of magical paths and streams that overlaid the forest, and identified the great pillars of green light as the trees, the smaller ones as mere tufts of grass, and the various trials of yellow animal-energy. He separated the tendrils of energy, probing them and discovering their origins. He was starving; what he was looking for was deer.

:There you are...: Skandranon thought happily as he identified the energy traces of a group of deer. He only had to mentally follow the signal a couple of miles before he found the group, and picked out two deer with the weakest energy-output. These weaker ones would put up little fight against his tricks. He connected his minds to theirs, and began to whisper; : come over here, the grass is so nice and green, and there's nice, cool water. You must be thirsty. Its safe over here, and better then where you are.: After a little more coaxing, two faint-yellow shapes separated themselves from the white brightness of the heard, and began moving East.

Skandranon, now completely exhausted, switched back to normal sight and laid down on the moss with a faint 'thud.' "I'm finally glad that I sat through all of those boring, 'identify that energy trail' lessons with Nall. Well, there you go, M'lady, two deer, delivered straight to you; should be coming over that ridge to the West anytime now."

"Thanks Skan, I feel a little bad to be tricking them like that but..." and that was all he heard before he fell asleep.

By Skandranon's recollection, he was woken all too soon by the sounds of Kessrah eating. Gryphons preferred their meat fresh, raw, and with all of the bones and organs intact. They could be quite messy eaters, and the crunching bones and ripping flesh was enough to wake anyone up.

But instead of feeling revolt, his hunger overpowered fatigue, and he thankfully accepted his deer from Kessrah and began devouring it. She finished first, and began moving around in the brush suspiciously.

"What are you collecting wood for?" Skandranon asked mischievously. "The last time you tried to light a fire all you succeeded in doing was lighting my tailfeathers!"

"Ha, and what a great sight it was!" Kess gurgled a laugh, "to see you running around like a headless chicken, while screeching like this;" she bumbled around and did a quick impression, "was worth the trouble I got in!"

Skandranon was preparing a retort, but her eyes lost their humor, and she glance warily into the forest. "No, really, the deer were coming right over that ridge, and when I pounced on them I could swear I saw some weird things that had already been following them..."

"Weird things?" Skandranon's interest was roused.

"Yes, they kept folding in and out of the bush, it was hard to make them out. Very long and thin, with dark coloration. I have never seen anything like them, and I hope to never see them again; the stuff in this forest gives me the creeps."

Skandranon thought about this as he finished his meal; he knew that he and Kessrah were deep within the Pelagiris forest that made up the northern boarder of Ortho's kingdom. It was a largely uninhabited and ancient forest, with trees that could not be encompassed by the joined arms of ten men. There were strange plants that made sounds or moved, and all sorts of horrifying and unidentifiable animals, some of which seemed to have been melded to plants, other animals, or the earth itself. For the most part they were all harmless, but the magically warped land was totally unpredictable, and the stuff of nightmares. He and Kessrah had grown up alongside the forest, and although they did not fear it as greatly as most did, they both knew the stories. : Merchants going into the forest and never returning, bodies found wedged underneath the roots of trees or flayed on branches, as if the tree had intentionally moved to kill them...:

Once he was done eating he placed what intestines, meat and bones that he couldn't finish in a hole outside of their camp. He then put these nasty thoughts out of his mind, curled up for the night with his back to Kessrah's fire, and was careful to make sure his tail was securely between his legs.

Skandranon woke before dawn, and with his meal not yet fully digested in his gut, he took a brief walk to the hole where he had deposited their leftovers, and was surprised by what he found. When Kessrah awoke he insisted that she take a look too.

Kessrah carefully prodded the bones with one talon. "By the gods Skan, I hope we get out of here soon." Although the hole had been dug up, the remains had not been eaten. Whatever the creatures had wanted, it wasn't the food. But this was not the disturbing thing.

"They examined our garbage." Skandranon exclaimed. "Not just examined, they classified it!" The bones, skin, and intestines from each animal had been separated into different piles, and each had been laid out systematically, with the bones arranged by increasing size, and bits of skin placed together to form the torn sections of hide.

"They must be intelligent, and they even bothered to cover their tracks... I say its time to get out of here before they try something."

Agreed on this, Kessrah and Skandranon left at dawn, and by late afternoon spotted the small curls of smoke that identified Lin'shala village. As they got closer, the line of trees abruptly stopped, and they could make out the structures of their academy; it's main building, training fields, barns, and vast obstacle courses that stretched across the grassy hills. Kessrah had apparently forgotten that not all of the young students had left for midsummer break, and no sooner had she landed then two little fur-and-feather balls of energy pounced her on. The two fledgling Gryphon cubs of Belkahn playfully screeched, squawked and growled as little gray feathers flew everywhere, and Kessrah tried her best to fend them off.

:Are you going to circle in the sky forever or could you help me with these daemons?:

:Oh, I don't know,: Skandranon mindsent back, as he surveyed the scene below with humor, :I just love to see how bursting you are with maternal instincts!:

:Brat: Her mindvoice was singed with humor, but also annoyance. :Fine, could you please help me with these adorable little daemons?:

:Why gladly.: Skandranon belted out a roar and came thundering out of the sky. Although he did his best to make a showy landing, the appearance of 'cousin Skan,' caused the two Gryphon cubs to knock him out of the sky. Soon Nall's brood appeared as well, with the six human children running or tumbling after them with yells of welcome and excitement. Nall and his wife, Selah, soon followed. As the human children were literally crawling all over her, Kessrah jokingly yelled, "Why Nall, did you have yet another? You should start a child-farm soon!"

"Yes, yes, I know the joke," Selah laughed. "Us humans could make rabbits look unproductive if we tried hard enough!"

"Yes, if we tried hard enough..." Nall gave his wife a suggestive glance, and they broke out laughing while they greeted Kessrah and Skandranon further and pried their adoring children off of them. :Ahh humans,: Skan mindsent to Kessrah, :always in season- at least they are a cute couple.: