Griffin Tale

Chapter 3

A Dream and a Disaster

Yugi sat out on a bench on Mhairi's balcony – supporting a big black eye. Ernie and Bernie had zapped him right in the eye and it was now swollen quite badly. After his meeting with Sykes Yugi had told Yami and Mai about the money, and they weren't very happy. Yugi had decided to go to Mhairi's place since his older siblings were angry with him.

Five minutes later, Mhairi came out holding a large chop of beef. Thou Mhairi was Yugi's most loyal friend, she was angry with him. "Five thousand dollars!" she fumed as she slapped the chop onto his eye. "You borrowed five thousand dollars from Mr Sykes! Oh, Yugi why do you get yourself into these situations?"

"I don't know, Mhairi." Yugi sighed, placing the meat on the bench. "It's – It's just hard you know? I'm a little kid in a really big town. The city!" He walked past her with a sad expression on his usually cheerful face, "And I'm a…a…a nobody."

Yugi pointed upwards, "I want some of that."

Mhairi turned to look. She arched an eyebrow, "Mrs Sanchez?"

Yugi followed her glance. Sure enough, there was Mrs Sanchez, brushing her teeth, wearing curlers and a ratty old rope.

Yugi was grossed out, "Ewwww! No." He pointed higher, at a little sliver of open space between two nearby buildings to the shimmering lights beyond. "That. The top of the city. Where the somebodies live. I wanna be rich and famous like them, but I'm…stuck down here."

"Well, what's wrong with down here? Everyone loves you here and at the Draco Wash." Mhairi asked. Why would Yugi wish to be anywhere else, but here? This was his home. This is where she, Yugi and all their friends had grown up together.

Yugi stared at her, "I'll tell you why. Remember my dad?"

Mhairi nodded.

"He had lived here all his life." Yugi gazed off into space, remembering. "He had grown up here, he had met my mom here and he had brought up me, Yami and Mai here. He used to own the Draco Wash, but in those days it was the most popular disco in the city!"

"To me, working at there was the coolest job in the city and I wanted to be just like my dad. But then there came that day that will never forget…" Yugi remembered the day of the crash. A truck had crashed right into his parents car. Yugi, Yami and Mai had survived the impacted, but his parents had been killed. Since they only had their grandfather, Solomon Motou, they went to live with him.

But then when their grandfather became too old to look after them, they moved out and Mai gave up collage to work at their father's old place which was now the Draco Wash since their father had left no will and Sykes had been his old business partner so he changed it. When Yami became old enough he left high school to help his sister. Yugi gave up school early to help his older siblings even thou they wanted him to stay at school and have a good education. But Yugi didn't want to go back because he didn't fit in. His schoolmates teased him because of his size and he had gotten into quite a few fights because of it.

Yugi looked bitterly at Mhairi, "My dad was the greatest. But nobody loves a nobody. I want to be a somebody."

"Yugi, you don't have to live at the top of the city to be a somebody." Mhairi told him softly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Yugi sighed. "Aw, what's the difference, anyway?" he sighed, sitting on the bench. "If I don't pay Mr Sykes back by tomorrow, I'm dead anyway."

Mhairi looked at Yugi. Her heart melted. He was just so adorable! She made a decision. "Wait here." She told him as she went back inside the house.

Yugi looked back up at the lights. He sighed. It would take a miracle to make his dream come true. He wanted to be up there, he wanted to be like his father, and he wanted his brother and sister to be proud of him.

Mhairi came back, she was holding an oyster shell.

"What's this?" Yugi asked. Mhairi flipped it open. Inside was the most beautiful pink pearl that Yugi had ever seen. "A pink pearl?" he gasped. "Where'd you get that?"

"My mom gave it to me before she died." Mhairi explained. Like Yugi, Mhairi's parents had passed away when she was young. "She said it started from a tiny grain of sand…but after a while, it grew into something beautiful. Dreams can begin small too…" Mhairi handed the pearl to Yugi.

"Oh, no," Yugi began. "I couldn't. I mean-"

"Take it." Mhairi said. "It'll get you the money you need for Mr Sykes." She smiled.

Yugi returned her smile. For the first time in a long while, Yugi couldn't think of anything to say. He took the pearl.

Somewhere on the other side of the city, in the big glamorous restaurant on Lino's old abandoned ocean liner, Lino sat at a table with his two sons, Bruce and Harry. It was feeding time, and the whole restaurant was crowed with griffins and other dangerous magical creatures.

Some were Western Dragons. They looked like gigantic, fire-breathing beats with scaly bodies and huge wings. They lived alone in they're treasure lairs and they were very greedy, and unlike the Eastern Dragons that came to the Draco Wash, they were evil and they also attacked and ate people.

Some of the other creatures were Chimeras. They were beats with the body and head of a lion, the head of a goat and a poisonous snake for a tail. These creatures belched out flames in all directions from they're hideous mouths and they also ate humans.

The other creatures were Cerberus'. These beasts were as frightening as anyone could ever imagine. They were huge furious dogs with three heads and three sets of teeth. In ancient times they're jobs were to guard the gates to the underworld, but now they just did what they pleased and they ate humans.

Another type of creature with two or more heads was the Hydras. They were huge snakes with nine heads who lived in swamps, but that didn't stop them from coming into the city to eat humans.

The other creatures were the Werewolves. They looked like a man or woman with the head of a wolf, a tail of a wolf and they're bodies were covered in thick fur. They only came out at night when the moon was full, but like the other carnivore magical beasts they were bloodthirsty creatures – they came out at night to search for and eat any human flesh that they could find.

The last evil magical creatures were the Bunyips. They were the ugliest of all creatures. They had the legs and tail of a reptile, they're bodies were covered in thick fur, they had huge paws and the face of a hideous turtle. They lived in rivers, creeks and swamps and they only came out at night to attack and eat any animal or person they could find.

"You know, you're really giving me agita." he was saying to Harry. "I don't know how else to say this to you, Harry. You see something, you kill it, you eat. Period. That's what griffins do. That's a fine tradition. What's the matter with you?"

Lino waved a paw at Bruce who was sitting beside him greedily eating and getting the food all over his face, "You're brother Bruce here, now, he's a killer."

"Thanks Pop." Bruce said, still eating.

Lino patted Bruce on the peak, "He's beautiful. He does what he's supposed to do. Wipe yer face."

Bruce wiped his face with his paw.

"But you." Lino went on. "I'm hearin' things. You gotta understand. When you look weak, it makes me look weak. I can't have that."

"I know, pop." Harry hung his head. "I'm sorry."

"Harry, Harry." Lino went on. "Look at me. This handin' over the business, it's for you. It's for both of ya. And you're acting like ya don't even want it. I need to know that you can handle it. So…"

Lino pulled out a canary from his cocktail. The canary sneezed, spraying cocktail sauce over the table. "All right. Right here. In front of me. Now. Eat this."

Harry looked at the wriggling canary. He cringed. There was no way he was going to be able to eat it. "Ooooh, yeah, awwww, gee, thanks pop." He stalled. "But ya see. Here's the thing. I'm on a diet, and I read an article about these canaries…they're not good for you. You know how many calories are in one of those things?" he asked, quickly scanning the menu. "A lot."

The canary piped up, "It's true. And the other thing is, my sister had a baby and I took it in because she passed away. It's lost one of it's wings and may never be able to fly but I still take care of it with my wife and it's growing and it's fairly happy, but it's difficult 'cause I've been working a second shift at the factory to put food on the table, but every time I see the love in that little guy's face it makes it all worth it in the end. True story."

Harry wiped a tear from his eye.

Lino frowned, "I'm not asking you anymore, Harry. I'm telling you. Eat the bird!"

The canary gasped and looked over at Harry and saw the hesitation in his eyes. "No!" he cried in his tiny chirpy voice. "Have mercy!"

"Eat!" shouted Lino.

"Don't eat!" yelled the canary and the other canaries began to join in. Begging Harry not to eat they're friend.

"Son, eat the bird!" Lino insisted.

"No! Have mercy!" the canary begged.

"POP!" Harry burst out. "PUT THE BIRD DOWN!" He grabbed the little bird out of Lino's paw. Then he picked up the canary cocktail and tossed all the little birds out the window. "Go on!" he told them. "No one's looking. Get outta here. You're free. Now go go go!"

"Yay! We're free!" The canaries flew for their lives.

One canary turned back. "Thank you. You're a good person." He said to Harry. He glared at Lino and then he was gone.

The entire restaurant went eerily silent as a hundred griffins and other creatures turned to look at Lino's table. Harry turned back to his father.

Bruce broke the silence, "Pop, I can handle the city. It's not a problem-"

"No, no." Lino said. "We're gonna do this as a family." He turned to his oldest son. "Bruce, I want you to take Harry out and show him the ropes."

"Aw, come on pop." Bruce groaned.

Lino turned back to his youngest son and poked him sharply in the chest, "Son, you are gonna learn how to be a griffin…whether you like it or not!"