"Again, allow me to apologize for my brusque introduction."

The loosely hanging chin flapped like a poorly fastened flag in the headwind, catching it like a sail. There was a noticeable slowing effect which had the wind slashing gentler on the Monster Mage's cheeks. If it was due to the large, flappy pouch under the long beak acting enough like a sail or if it was due to the Griffon Commander slowing down so that the Monster Mage on his back could hear him speak, Cter did not know.

She was too busy trying to keep herself steady enough not to fall off and or panic which would then lead to her falling off and plummet through the clouds which were below here which she had only really seen when there had been fog during early spring and late autumn when looking out her window at Jarasevo Castle but when seeing the fog she was also able to see the ground too and know that it was there which was slightly different from not being able to see any ground at all and while she knew that they had to be above the clouds not to be spotted and so that the Griffon Commander can save his strength and speed for when night time comes and he can fly lower and much faster it still did not really change the fact that Cter still could not see the ground even though it had been quite a while since she had looked although she was not really in the mood to look again because she was still feeling the effects of the first time she looked which had her clinging hard enough against the Griffon Commander's gray and spotty fur hard enough to tear off chunks of it clean of which she would have done had–

"Monster Mage?"

"I'm fine!"

That was a lie.

The wide, slow, and deliberate flaps of the large wings eased into a glide, further decreasing the airspeed of the laden griffon. "And allow me to also again apologize for causing you such discomfort." There was an understanding sympathy on the griffon's old, weathered visage. There was a similar look in his wide eyes that spoke of experience, and vast sums of it to boot.

Wisdom that was drawn from that plethora of experience was painted too on the Griffon Commander's look, albeit with fewer wrinkles than on Sir Gerson face. There were scours through the plumage of his face, and in the headwind his feathers seemed to comb over them. The change as his expression shifted from apologetic to sympathetic was enough for Cter to notice though.

Despite her growing inner and external panic.

Again the scours and the overlapping feathers changed as the Griffon Commander smiled with his eyes. "Does it feel better if I talk to you some?" he asked with soft eyes meeting the Monster Mage's nervous ones. "Do not feel poor for feeling this way, I should say too. It is not the first time I have had a passenger, nor one that has found the concept of flight understandably foreign." A quick, fidgety wing flap followed a slight glance to the side. "It might not be my most preferred role, but I have seen enough of this war to be able to swallow my pride on that."

Cter could not help her eyes moving down and staring at the large, flappy, orange pouch hanging underneath the Griffon Commander's beak. "Yeah," she agreed with a timid nod while her building panic was briefly shunted aside by her embarrassment from being prompted to stare so easily.

As she stared, she noticed a golden ring pierced through just underneath the Griffon Commander's lower beak lip through his flappy pouch. There was a small chain attached to it going into…

His mouth?

Sudden gags coiled and sprung the soft neck, and just as sudden as the wise, experienced, wind-tufted visage had descended instantly into possessed neck spasms, it had returned without any real acknowledgment that it had actually happened. Emerging from below the wide wings came a large paw which rummaged a claw into the pouch, revealing a monocle held in a soft pinch between two of the paws toes.

"It is easier to keep it inside my pouch than it is in my dress pocket," the Griffon Commander explained with the golden chain connecting the ring on his lip to his saliva-moistened monocle waving around as he spoke. "I have lost more of these than I am willing to concede due to the long chain down into my shirt snapping off during flight." Feeling that the explanation was enough, the Griffon Commander swallowed back his monocle and tucked back his paw underneath his large body.

The feeling was not mutual with the Monster Mage, who looked down at the coat that covered the upper half of the Griffon Commander above his large wings. It was similar to what Sir Gerson had on him when the situation called that form was more important than function. The deep-purple color of its rich, expensive fabric was highlighted with accents of gold, and stood out more against the Griffon Commander's gray, spotted fur than it did Sir Gerson's green, leathery skin. It was more tightly worn compared to Sir Gerson by the Griffon Commander, and did not flap in the wind like his hanging chin did.

Cter had not noticed the large chin when the Griffon Commander had joined her, King Asgore, and Priestess Frioke, for coffee. Him stretching his wings out as much as he could after having them cramped together within the carriage for almost a month on end had Cter busy enough trying to move her head out of the way so that she wouldn't be clipped by the large, feathery swipes the Griffon Commander let fly just above the ground.

There were a few close calls when she froze briefly while listening to the plan that King Asgore had for Cter's travel back to Jarasevo Castle.

"We will be taking a risk flying back to Jarasevo Castle, both by keeping Aajja and his subordinates out of use for Sir Gerson, and also by possibly revealing to the humans that we have his griffons in the first place. His subordinates are kept hidden a day's flight away from here, and once they see Aajja they will come to bring Frioke and I back as well. We could with good confidence get Aajja's carriage here with us, but we would have had to make it further without drivers had we brought with us his subordinates as well."

That the monster carriages did not have drivers wasn't something Cter had really noticed until King Asgore brought it up. It had all gone so quickly that she had not paid it any mind.

"Manny was the one that suggested that he would sit in front and act as a caravan leader," was explained further to Cter by Frioke. "That way if we were discovered he could use his position to convince the humans that he had escaped and was traveling to Soul's School reunite with the Royal Mages. If the humans would pry further he would just threaten them with the Second Fusion within him. How he would do that I don't know exactly, and luckily it didn't come to that."

A flash of worry ripped through the Monster Priestess' soul.

"We managed through the final week's travel with King Asgore, Aajja, and me magically driving one carriage each. The drivers should have rejoined Sir Gerson by now as we dropped them off nearby an ambush spot at one of the humans' supply lines."

As for why it wasn't King Asgore that went first with Aajja, the Monster King was rather quick to answer. "At this moment it is more important for you to make it home first. You are the priority monster right now."

Cter had never seen both plumage and fur puff up as irritable as Aajja's had. He had shaken his hanging chin like jowls, and then blamed it on the coffee. It was not convincing. Not when his long, fluffy tail had curled equally as irritably as well. All that was missing was his monocle popping out and landing in his cup to complete the image, but somehow he managed to stay composed in that sense. There were plenty of other senses though which he failed to stay composed in though.

Many of which Cter shared when she climbed up onto Aajja's back and seated herself onto the saddle. The Griffon Commander's mix of gravity and stasis magic was assuring and curious in how he applied it onto her to keep her in the saddle securely, but as soon as he sprung off the roof of his carriage it felt as if Cter's innards were about to shoot out her back.

The moment of respite as Aajja's launch faded was enough for Cter to notice that she was above the trees, only for the Griffon Commander to take his first, wide, and powerful wing flap and send him and his passenger even higher up.

Cter had her eyes closed and her body tucked against the Griffon Commander until she felt the aerial climb mellow out. That she only saw clouds below her might have been for the better though, as if she had seen ground then she would have…

Then...she…

...She…

"Monster Mage?"

Blood flowed back to Cter's head, and she blinked away the fainting dark that was about to take her over. "Yes, yes." Singe her soul, she shouldn't be thinking about that! She shouldn't be thinking about–

Her combined braid slapped her in the face as she shook her head hard. "No, no." She shouldn't be thinking about it, dammit!

"It will be better in a bit," calmed Aajja before angling his wings slightly to turn away from some towering clouds in the distance. "Would you like me to tell you about some cloud facts?" He took Cter's clenched silences as a yes.

"The higher the clouds reach up the more they tell of a change in the weather. If you see flat clouds that means that the air is calm, but if they grow upwards then that means that the air is unstable. Us flying monsters have known this for a very long time, and even now I can feel it in my wings' feathers that there might be clear sky later during the day." The Griffon Commander's head looked down, but Cter kept hers perfectly still where his eyes had been. "Might even be for the better that way, I think."

That she could hear him even when he had his head turned down and away from Cter did not help with the foreign feeling that germinated within her. They were traveling quite fast above the clouds which she could feel as the wind slashed at her exposed cheeks.

If she was facing directly forwards the wind gripped hard at her hair too. With her combined braid whipping behind her head it was as a scaled-down version of the long, fluffy tail which stretched behind the Griffon Commander like the longest windsock Cter had ever seen.

By all rights she should not have been able to hear the Griffon Commander's thinking hums as he surveyed the gray sea far below which Cter would not join him in. Yet still she did hear him mumbling to himself. "Maybe cirrus will be the best? Can dodge behind one should it be needed while still being aware of their motions." It was a quirk of his combined stasis and gravity magic, Cter guessed.

Not blocking out the wind, as she would have done with her one-sided barrier magic, but more controlling it and slowing it down around him. His magical blend wasn't perfect, that Cter could feel on her cheeks and in her hair when she angled her head in a particular way, but it was still a blend of magic. The Monster Mage let her aura explore the Griffon Commander's magic he had applied to her. It felt secure in its application on her even if he was only able to cover Cter partly with his combined magic.

And presumably he did not have a close encounter with a human soul and took in another monster soul into his in order to achieve it. Sure, he had to sacrifice control and finesse over it, but it was still proof that it could be done, even if it was a very niche and specific application of it. No wonder he was a commander in the Royal Guard.

"That is high praise coming from you, Monster Mage," took Cter out of her aura's curious exploration of the Griffon Commander's magic. She opened her eyes to find a thankful smile aimed at her. "Thank you for taking such interest in my magic."

Oh yeah, Cter was one, if not the, most powerful mage in the world. "It is quite beautiful." After the last year, perhaps even last years plural, there hadn't been a lot that had reminded her that others were looking up to her and her magical prowess. "That you are using two types of magic at once is impressive, Aajja." Actually...when she said that…

"If I were to tell the truth it isn't two types of magic at once."

No, no it wasn't. Not when Cter gave it some thought and feel. There was an ebb and flow to it. "You're alternating?" she asked. "Like...pushing up on one side of a seesaw then walking over to the other side to push that side down to keep balance?"

A small chuckle had the golden chain briefly bouncing out the hanging chin like a noodle strand which Aajja slurped back down again. "I do not know what a see-saw is, but I can hear in your voice and feel in your aura that you're confident in that being correct." He paused for a wing flap to catch an updraft. "I am indeed alternating between dark-blue and purple magic, I think the nomenclature for you mages is gravity, or weight magic, and stasis magic, no?"

The foreign feeling within Cter was as if washed away like she was standing on solid, familiar ground. "Yes. Lifting with your aura and keeping suspended in your aura respectively." A subtle difference, but a difference nonetheless which resulted in different types of magic acting the same, similar to the two types of barrier magic Cter had at her disposal. "You're alternating between the two types of application to achieve something in-between?"

"Close," said the Griffon Commander with an impressed nod. "I am catching the dark-blue magic with the purple magic as it begins to fade, and vice versa. Similar to catching the apex of your wing flap and using it to glide until the next one, in a way."

Cter did not know what that meant, but she heard in the Griffon Commander's voice and felt it in his aura that it was correct. "I see," she punctuated with an inquisitive knuckle under her nose.

"You see, saw?"

"What?"

"What?"

...

Anyway… "How did you figure this magic, pray tell?" Cter leaned further down to hear better as the Griffon Commander's excitement in telling her about his magic had loosened up his concentration a bit. "It can't have been long ago otherwise us Monster Mages would have heard about it."

The following beat of the large wings were weak, half-committed. Aajja eyes grayed as his head tilted down and the reflection of the sea of clouds dampened the luster which had shone as he was explaining to the Monster Mage.

Cter looked down as well, but her heart and soul was not filled with the foreign feeling. She saw the clouds the same as if they were reflecting on the surface of a lake with quiet bobs up and down. Same as a lake there was a world below that she was aware about. However, she did not know about the world that was below the clouds.

Not anymore.

"I discovered it due to the war," said the Griffon Commander quietly. His bravado about it from when his wide wings exploded out the carriage was nowhere with him. That wasn't completely true though as there was some pride and recognition of worth beneath the somber layer that was diffuse and thick in his aura. Cloudy, to be more appropriate.

"My subordinates and I were given the task to disrupt the sleep schedules of the humans so that they would not be as alert during the days. This will allow the hit-and-run tactics to disrupt the human supply lines and communications with greater efficiency and less risk since sleep-deprived enemies are the same as...well...sleepless enemies." Aajja lapped at the ring on his lower beak with his upper one, spinning it slowly and restlessly, aptly enough. "And the simplest way to achieve that was to drop large rocks at their encampments from high up."

Cter could feel wind drying at her eyes as they widened from hearing what the Griffon Commander had said. "Oh..." fell off her tongue, but nothing more.

It was enough for Aajja to nod his head at though. "Indeed." He seemed a bit ashamed in telling what he had figured. How simple and brutish it was. Once he had weathered that downpour, the clouds in his aura began to part away.

"Days with thick, low overcast like today are the best for carrying out our raids, although we almost exclusively do it at night. We have done it during the day on a few occasions before, a few times to keep the humans guessing and looking up when they should be looking to their sides, and a few times to cover escapes for failed strikes at their supply lines. Destroying wheels and scaring away horses carries a much lower chance of any human deaths than having to resort to dropping rocks on moving targets. Stationary ones give us time to be confident in our aim to scare and frighten and not kill."

Not kill…

"Human arrogance is a useful thought to exploit. If they believe that they are only being humiliated by us monsters rather than being directly threatened then their anger will be directed inwards towards themselves rather than towards us," Cter remembered Sir Gerson explaining in his office with a confident smile on his wrinkly lips. "Our highest chance of surviving a war with the humans is if no human die. Their pride and arrogance has them favoring big, boisterous armies that are clunky to maneuver. We might be much, much weaker, but enough droplets on a stone will make it weathered."

With the Second Fusion being the reason for the war it was needed for heavy rain instead, it seemed.

"My subordinates scout ahead by the cover of the lower edge of the cloud layers. Once they have spotted a target, be it an encampment for the night or a more permanent base they fly up to make a hole in the clouds which I then drop the payload through. They know my air velocity when laden, and they can feel how fast the clouds are moving as well. It took a few weeks of practice, mostly due to bad luck with the weather, but we have an effective aim of twice my wing span by now which we have managed to lower down from four times."

The pride and recognition of worth shone through within the Griffon Commander's voice and words, and the beat of his wings became stronger. "The payload I keep in my pouch with my combined magic which my subordinates also keep an eye out for me to easily refill after we have delivered a strike. Clear nights makes for quicker target acquisitions, but we use that advantage to flank wider so that we aren't detected."

A deep inhale seemed to loosen the Griffon Commander's body.

"Our success has allowed Sir Gerson to push advantages and force back the humans at certain villages where ammunition for our nightly raids are plenty. We can chart their movements easier since we know that they are afraid. Sir Gerson has offered my subordinates and I medals for our efforts, but we have declined the medals each time we have been offered them."

Noble of them putting duty before recognition, showing that it is not for glory that the monsters were fighting the war, but for justice. To right was had been wronged, and to make sure that all humans were still alive to feel the embarrassment from starting a war from fear. It were to make fully sure that no such thing happened again, for humility sits deeper than wounds. A wound you can be angry at someone else for inflicting, but humility you can only be angry at yourself for inflicting. It was–

"So Sir Gerson has granted us colored ribbons instead which we can sew on our uniforms without any worries that they might fall off during out flight!"

…

Right then…