Griffin Tale

Chapter 5

The Great White Lie

"Don't worry 'bout a t'ing, Yugi." Ernie said, smiling evilly. "Sykes, he like you, mon. Him say take it easy on you."

"Ooooh." Bernie opened his eyes wide. "But Sykes is not here."

"True!" Ernie nodded. He smiled again.

Yugi's heart sank. These guys were clearly not going to take it easy on him. Not at all. He was far away from the city at an old abandoned warehouse that was all in peaces. He was tied to a tree with a piece of tape over his mouth.

Zzzzzzap! Ernie touched him on the arm with one of his stingers. Yugi jumped. It was going to be a very long night…

About two hundred yards away, Bruce was barrelling through the air. Harry lagged behind. Harry always lagged behind.

"Bruce, why can't pop just listen to me for once?" Harry called to his older brother. "You know I can't do this. It's ridiculous!"

Bruce looked back, "Look, Harry if you wanna make pop happy then you gotta kill something!"

"Or I could find a very old sick person and just wait." Harry suggested as he caught up with his brother.

"Yeah." Bruce looked at Harry. "But you gotta change, Har. It's getting' around, your thing the other day in the restaurant. You know how people love to talk…this, that, the other, then how ya doin' – boom! Forget about your dead."

Harry cocked an eyebrow at his brother, "Okay, seriously, I can't understand wise-guys so you'll have to be more pacific."

"Pacific?" Bruce growled. "Oh, you want pacific. Be a griffin for once in you're life!" Bruce swatted his brother.

"Ow!" Harry groaned. "Oh, what am I gonna do?"

Bruce looked at his younger brother and his eyes softened…slightly. Bruce sighed, "Look. Forget about it, okay? We do a couple of practice runs, you're a griffin, pop's happy, life goes on. Capisce?"

Harry nodded, "Okay, okay. Capisce."

Bruce looked around for a likely victim and there, just feet away, was Yugi. Bruce grinned evilly. "This is too easy."

"Bingo!" he breathed as he landed a few feet away behind some bushes. "Right there. Dead ahead. You see it? TV dinner. Don't get no easier than this."

"All right." Harry squared his shoulders. He was determined to prove to that he could run the city. "I can do this." He suddenly deflated. Harry still didn't like the idea of eating creatures smaller than himself. "Bruce, what if I can't do this?"

Bruce looked at him, "Then don't bother comin' home."

Good point." Harry turned and stared to hover towards Yugi.

Yugi, in the meantime, was in the middle of getting some shock treatments from Ernie and Bernie. Yugi made a face as Ernie zapped him on his nose.

"Hit him in the nose again!" Bernie laughed. "I like the funny face he makes." Bernie suddenly spotted something behind Yugi that made his jaw drop down to his waist. "Erine!" he cried, pointing.

"BLOW OUT!" Ernie cried. They were gone before Yugi could blink.

"Gotta get outta here! Gotta get outta here!" Yugi thought. Yami and Mai had told him to never be this far away from the city. Griffins and other creatures were always wandering through the countryside. He tugged at the rope and freed one arm. He ripped the tape off his mouth.

"Hey, guys..." Yugi called after the dragons, not even noticing that Harry was intches from him. "Come on, don't leave me out here! There could be griffins out here!"

Yugi suddenly felt a beat of wings behind him. Yugi felt his heart skip a beat. He slowly turned around. The open mouth of a griffin was right on top of him. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed. Yugi tried desperatly to run away. But he was still tied to the tree.

Harry stared down at Yugi in concern. "Oh, no! Wait! I'm sorry – no, no, I'm not gonna hurt you - "

"Harry!"

Harry turned to see his brother, sitting about twenty yards away.

"Like this!" Bruce called, chomping down with his strong jaws.

"Oh, boy..." Harry turned back to Yugi. He took a deep breath. He stuck out his tongue and licked Yugi. It tasted yucky. Harry made a face.

"Eeew! Yuck! Griffin drool!" Yugi groaned. He pushed Harry's beck back with his free arm, "Don't eat me! If you do, don't chew me and I hope you choke!"

Harry stared at Yugi. Chew him? He doubted that he could even lick the little guy again without upchucking. Harry looked down at Yugi with gentle eyes. In a way, he liked this kid and he certainly didn't want to eat him. Harry suddenly had an idea.

"Listen, I'm not gonna eat you." Harry whispered, leaning close to Yugi so Bruce wouldn't hear. "I'm not even gonna lick you again."

"What?" Yugi asked, opening his eyes which he had closed when Harry had leaned over. Yugi couldn't believe what he was hearing. This griffin wasn't going to eat him. Was this some kind of trick? "How do I know you're not trying to trick me?"

Harry stared Yugi in the eye, "You have to trust me."

Yugi looked into the great creature's golden-yellow eyes. In Harry's eyes Yugi saw that he was telling the truth. His eyes were kind and gentle with no sign of hunger or hatred. Harry saw very much the same in Yugi's amethyst-violet eyes. For a moment, they held each others gaze then Yugi nodded, letting Harry know that he trusted him.

"Don't move until I tell you." Harry said through gritted teeth as he quickly glanced over his shoulder at his brother. He opened his mouth, showing rows of razor-sharp incisors as he made a huge lunge towards Yugi.

"Ahhhh! Back it up!" Yugi yelped. He closed his eyes.

Instead of swallowing Yugi whole, the griffin bit through the rope that tied Yugi to the tree. Harry flapped his great wings and thrashed his powerful head about furiously as dust and dirt flew around him and Yugi.

Yugi crashed to the ground and opened his eyes. He watched as the Headfeathered Griffin chewed on the piece of rope as if his life depended on it. "Better the rope than me." he thought.

In the meantime, from where he was sitting, all Bruce could see was the action of Harry's jaws. "That's it, Har!" he cried. "There you go, buddy! Flap those wings, baby! Dig in!"

"Listen," Harry said out of the corner of his mouth, still chewing and thrashing about. "I'm sorry if I scared you. Now when I turn around you take off."

"Right." Yugi got up, ready to run.

Harry turned around making it look as if he was eating Yugi instead of the rope. "Tastes just like chicken."

But as the dust cleared Bruce saw Yugi running away. "Oh no!" Bruce groaned. "That's it! I've had it up ti' here!" Bruce lunched himself into the air and screeched angrily.

Fear gripped Yugi's heart. He had never heard a screech with so much anger in it. He turned ... only to see Bruce barrelling towards him, his mouth wide open. "Oh no!" he screamed.

"Hurry!" Harry urged. "Run!" He turned towards his brother. "Bruce – wait!"

But Bruce wasn't waiting. He flew past Harry towards Yugi.

"Ahhhh! Help me!" Yugi screamed as he ran for dear life. "Please, someone help me!"

Yugi could hear the pounding of his own heart. He thought about his family and friends. What would his beloved brother and sister do when they found out he was gone? And what about Mhairi? His most loyal and trusted friend. It would break they're hearts. Yugi ran faster than he ever had in his life. He knew that he had to keep on running, for his family and friends sake.

Yugi ran as fast as he could, but the great griffin was faster. Yugi and Bruce passed the old warehouse. The old and rotting building was rusting and slowly collapsing in the wind. Bruce's wings beat faster and faster. He was getting closer and closer -

SMASH!

One of the metal poles holding the building up suddenly gave way and crashed down on top of Bruce.The griffin'sjaws slammed shut and he hit the ground with a thud.

Yugi fell to the ground with the force of Bruce's impact. He crouched down as bricks and rubble fell everywhere, and dust and dirt kicked up. When all the thundering stopped, Yugi slowly rose to his hands and knees. He looked behind him to see what had happened.

When the dust cleared a horrific sight greeted Harry. Crushed and trapped beneath all the rubble was the limb body of his brother.

"Bruce!" Harry raced to his brother's side. With a slash and snap of his powerful teeth and claws, he tossed and threw the rubble aside. Then he cradled his dying brother in his arms.

"Harry...?" whispered Bruce, coughing. "Harry, is that you?"

"I'm here, Bruce." Harry said, soothingly stroking his older brother's head feathers.

"Come closer..." Bruce gasped. He was in great pain.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I feel so cold..." Bruce whispered.

Harry lay beside his brother and wrapped his wings around him, trying to press his body heat to him. "It's okay, Bruce." Harry said, nuzzling his neck. "You're gonna be alright."

Bruce slapped him affectionately. "You know I don't like cuddles..." he said as his eyes rolled back in his head and his breathing stopped. He was gone.

"Bruce, no. NOOOOOOOOO!" Harry cried, tears streaming down his face. He turned to Yugi in despair. "This is all my fault." He turned back to his brother. "I'm so sorry, Bruce." he sobbed. Then he stopped short. "How am I ever gonna explain this to Pop?" he groaned. He flew away crying and muttering to himself.

Yugi watched as the griffin flew away. Once Harry was gone he turned to look at the dead griffin. The sight of the lifeless animal saddened Yugi a little. But on the other hand, this beast had tried to eat Yugi so he got what he deserved. Whoever this Bruce was, he was sleeping with the fishes now... and that was just fine with Yugi.

Yugi was ALIVE! "Hah, got what was comin' to ya didn't ya big guy?" Yugi jumped onto Bruce's lifeless head. "Think you're gonna make a meal outta me, huh?" he chortled.

"Uh, Yugi?"

Yugi turned. There, standing just below him, were Ernie and Bernie, looking terrified. Yugi was terrified too, he didn't want to be stung by they're stingers anymore. He quickly hid behind the dead griffin's wing.

Bernie looked down at Bruce. Then he looked up at Yugi. "Don't hurt us, man! We're sorry! It was all Ernie's idea!"

Ernie nodded. Then he frowned at his brother.

Yugi poked his head out from behind the griffin's wing. He cocked an eyebrow at the two dragons. What was going on?

Ernie pointed at Bruce's body. "Yugi?" he asked.

"Did you kill that griffin?" Bernie added.

Yugi couldn't believe what he was hearing. These two idiots thought that he had killed the griffin! He was just about to tell them the truth when he stopped short. Bernie and Ernie were looking at him with respect. No one had ever looked at him that way before. Yugi decided that he wanted to keep that respect. "Uh, yeah!" he said. "Exactly how it looks is how it is."

"What happened?" Ernie asked, impressed.

"You wanna know what happened?" Yugi said.

"Yeah! You're standing on top of a griffin!" Bernie said.

"Go on, mon." Ernie said.

"Well," Yugi said, thinking fast. "I'll tell you what happened..."