The dead weight strapped to my hands felt unusually heavy today. Elpis had told me it was necessary to tie my hands together for this meeting, because griffins apparently wasn`t very trusting of humans, or at least less so than ponies. I was in a very short queue on my way to be evaluated; it is where I would be deemed safe as a pet… or food for hungry griffins. But I am getting ahead of myself, you are probably asking what`s going on and why I am rambling about ponies and griffins, and whether I be deemed food or pet. It wasn`t that long ago either that I arrived, maybe about two weeks ago? Anyways…

So wake me up when It`s all over
When I’m wiser and I’m older,
all this time I was finding…

“Shut up.” I mumbled while turning off my alarm. I looked at the time even though I knew what time it was. The cellphone told me it was 07.00 in the morning, but to me it felt like I was being awakened in the middle of the night. I cupped my face in my hands and tried rubbing the tiredness out of me with very little success, but it gave me the little rush I needed to stand up and pack my bag for school. I was going to start off the day with some jolly gymnastics, and then have physics right after. When I first saw the school schedule I wanted to shake some sense into whatever incompetent douche that had decided it was a good idea to start off a day with gymnastics of all things. But I quickly grew accustomed to it, but that didn`t mean I had to like it.

“Monday`s sucks.” I mumbled tiredly, secretly hoping my complaining would magically change the day from Monday to a late Friday evening. But that was just wishful thinking on my part. I double checked that I had everything I needed for school and checked the clock again. 07.35 it read.

“Great fifteen minutes to do nothing.” I laid back down onto the bed again and closed my eyes to relax the best I could before those fifteen minutes were spent.

“Hey sweetie, it`s time to go.” I shot up my eyes at hearing my mother’s soothing voice telling me it`s time to wake up. I checked the clock again and read 07.53. How those fifteen minutes went by so quick will remain a mystery to me, but school was important so I fought through the urge to sleep and took on my new coat and went out into the cold, cold, cold winter of the oh so wonderful country that is Norway.

The first steps into the cold storm were painful, but my quest to get to my school had to take effect at once and so I marched onward into the cold hell. It was still dark outside and lamp post`s was still on to light the road, seeing this did not really help my brain to understand that according to school it was early morning, but there are those things you just gotta deal with. The snow whipped across my face and the cold northern wind blew my coat around making it flap everywhere. I could barely see more than 10 meters in front of me because of the thick layer of snow everywhere. But I didn`t need to see, I knew the road to my school by heart.

On my way I saw some people were up and early and let their cars warm up to their trip to work. I envied them, I had to walk to school and suffer the harsh cold weather while they could just chill in their car and enjoy warmth and maybe a cup of coffee on their way, while the source of warmth I had was my pockets and a cap on my head and a scarf placed tightly around my neck.

“Ey, Victor.” I heard someone shout. I turned around to get an eye on who was shouting. It was Carl, not the most popular guy around but he was okay once you got to know him, though a bit random at times.

“Hey.” I just gave him a tired wave with my hand and slowed down my walking so he could catch up easier.

“Were you at the party this weekend?” Carl asked. I was a bit surprised he wanted to know about the party, He usually didn`t get invited to that kind of thing.

“Yeah… stuff went down to put it bluntly Carl. It wasn`t you kind of party.” Carl just shrugged and kept his gaze forward while I pieced together what I could from last night.

-------------------------

“WHOOOOO!” Oskar stood on the roof right above the pool, dancing and shaking to the rhythm of the music. It must have been a five meter drop to the pool, and much to my surprise he jumped and landed safely in the water with a big splash. This earned him a cheer from everyone in the area, including me. I saw Harold raise his glass to Oskar, and I did the same as well as most other people who had drinks. The crowd erupted “Cheers WHOOO!” and we drank the alcohol in our glasses leaving us with the stinging sensation of having drunk poison. The loud music only getting louder and more earshattering.

-------------------------

“Yeah… definitely not something for you Carl.” I smiled inwardly, knowing Carl didn`t sit well with parties.

===========

The school day was long, and very painful. Mondays were the longest days, so me and my class ended around the four thirty mark. I was on my way back home returning to where I could relax from all the stress I was feeling. Honestly being told that next week we were going to have four midterms was just downright cruel and added to my already sky high stress level. I took my box of snus and placed a piece underneath my lip and let it do its job. I was under age, but honestly I didn`t care all that much. I needed something to relieve my stress and I had found snus to be a beautiful solution to my stress problem.

The snow and wind level had gone down significantly during my time in class, but it was still pretty cold, even more so than normal. I felt a small sensation of dizziness overtaking me, and it was from the snus. I was still pretty new to it so not being used to snus makes you dizzy, but you get over it over time. But this time the dizziness lead me to tripping, which was a first. “What the fuck… I have never tripped because of snus…” I thought to myself. I was about to stand up but I lost my grip on the ground and began falling into a white abyss of nothingness. “WHAT THE SHIIIII…” I screamed out wondering what the heck just happened.

I was spinning in mid air trying desperately to get a grasp of something to hold myself with, but nothing. There was nothing I could hold onto. I felt myself falling, but no wind rushed past me, it was dead silent except my screaming, which left me wondering whether I actually was dead or maybe just dreaming in a coma state or something. My train of though quickly got interrupted when I suddenly slammed my face into a tree that appeared out of nowhere. “Uuhhh…” I whined to myself, wondering what the hell just happened. I lifted my gaze from the tree to get an idea of where I was. I didn`t recognize the area at all. There was a hedge surrounding the area I was in, trapping me inside without any clear way out other than a metal door on the far end. There were trees placed evenly out and a very small river running down the middle of the garden like area. The grass was green as well as the trees which confused me, since not more than maybe five minutes ago I was in a snowy cold frozen place called Norway. But now I was finding myself in a hot, green and summerlike place. I took off my backpack and other winter gear and slowly walked over to the river, taking in my surroundings.

Arriving at the river I looked down and saw the still water. I saw my own reflection for what must have been forever. My dirty blonde hair was combed to the left and some of hit hung a bit out of place making some of it cover some of my vision on my left eye. My dark green eyes looked right back at me, my reflection imitating my every movement. I saw a weak scruff making its way on my chin and cheeks. I had bags under my eyes telling me I was tired from last night activities. I smirked at myself wondering what had just happened. I cupped some water in my hands and splashed it in my face hoping it would resolve something. Alas, much was still left to be resolved.

I took in the enviroment once more, just to make sure that it still was the lush green garden which it still was.
I grabbed my cellphone from my back pocket and took a quick glance at the time; it read five in the evening. I sighed and wandered off towards the big metal chunk of a door that was my way to freedom most likely. I tried opening the door several times but it remained locked.

I figured, since I wasn`t getting out anytime soon i could do what any sane person would do in this situation. Call somebody with the cellphone. I tried to call both the police, and my parents and even all the animal control services I could think of. But I couldn`t for the life of me get any signal anywhere, not that a phone call would help me much since I had on some mysterious occasion lost my speech which I figured out after failing to say "fuck my life". I had climbed the trees to get a better view on the outside of the hedge, but the trees weren`t tall enough. Go figure. So I figured I wasn`t going anywhere soon so I just laid my head on my backpack and let sleep overtake me hoping someone would come through the metal door at some point and wake me up and tell me what the hell was going on.

===========

I felt something kick me on my side. I opened my eyes slowly wondering who dared to wake me up when I was sleeping so peacefully. What met me was a completely butt naked man who looked down upon me with a curious glare. I gazed right back, but not at his face, but rather down at his junk wondering what the hell this guy is thinking walking around like that. I broke contact from his ding, ding dong`s and stood up, and surprisingly enough towering him by about a head`s worth of height. I saw behind him was dozens of other naked people stumbling around with no goal in mind from what I could tell. I face palmed, and tough of the ridiculous situation I was finding myself in. "Yup, im definelty dead, or dreaming." I tried to say, but only grumbles and growls really came out.

I’m surrounded by nudists that decided that this pit was a nice place to just pointlessly walk around in. The guy who woke me up was tugging at my arm sniffing at my clothing and scrunching up a bit as the smell reached his nostrils. I reflectively pulled my arm away and tried to say “Is there a problem?” but nothing but a grumble came out. I groaned annoyed at the situation. I couldn`t talk, and all the humans around me were nudists who happen to like sniffing things like animals. The little naked man did not take this well and pushed me while showing off his teeth at me. “Okay seriously what the fuck” I got into a combat ready pose hoping I wasn`t going to go into a fight with a nudist, I really wasn`t keen on fighting in general really, never have, never will be.

He just stared at me while exposing his teeth. I backed away hoping he would take the sign that I didn`t want to fight. But he just took a step forward when I took a step backward making my retreat pointless. This guy seriously wanted to fight. My hands were shaking, and I was actually cold sweating as well because I had forgotten to take out my snus before I went to sleep, making my throat sore from the juice that had been running while I was sleeping. I was also dizzy, which didn`t help all that much. Before the little man could lounge at me he just collapsed and began to spaz out while tugging and trying to rip at his collar off. Collar, how hadn`t I seen it before? I heard the metal door on the far end open and out came a bunch of… Griffins?!

“GET HIM!” I heard one of them shout while pointing a talon somewhere in my direction. It took me a second to realize it was directed towards me.

I stared in disbelief as they ran with chains and restraints ready for use, and they were running towards… ME! My body quickly caught up with my brain and gave me a huge spike of adrenaline making my whole body sting as energy flowed and was ready to be used, and use it I did. I quickly began sprinting in the opposite direction of the griffins running between the nude humans who stared with great interest at the chase that was ongoing in front of them. I jumped over the small river and counted seconds before I could hear the griffin’s splash through it so I could know how far behind they were. But no splash ever came so I curiously looked behind me trying to catch a glint of where they were. Much to my dismay they were up in the air flying after me and catching up quickly.
I looked at the metal door which was guarded by two griffins with a set of restraints themselves, making my only way of escaping impossible. I could feel my body giving up, as it knew this was already a doomed fight. So naturally my body slowed down and It didn`t take long before I was slammed into the ground eating dirt while the Griffins went crazy on restraining my hands on my back and shutting a collar around my neck. Didn`t take long before I felt a huge surge of electricity shoot through me efficiently knocking me out cold.

=============

I awoke being dragged through some orange hallways by two griffins. My knees were being scratched up by them pulling my limp body on concrete. “Well you guys care much for my well-being” I groaned inwardly. My hands were restrained in front of me and I was stripped of all my clothes, and I mean "ALL" the clothes. I looked tiredly up trying to get an idea of where I was being dragged to.

“He is awake.” I heard the griffin to my right say. I cast a glance at him noticing he had a dark brown coat and light brown head and chest. He honestly didn`t look all that intimidating, aside from his talons and his beak, which was a shade of gray and a little hint of black spots.

The griffin on my right turned his head towards me and gave me a smirk which I didn`t quite like. “He sure does look delicious.” I heard coming from my left. That quickly got my brain up and running and I tried to yelp "WHAT?!". Just a loud surprised scream escaped from me. I looked horrified at the griffin silently hoping he would begin laughing the whole remark he made about me off as a joke. But nothing came other than an annoyed glare at my surprised behavior.

“Do you think we will even get to eat him? I mean he came with all those books and clothes which makes me think he is someone’s pet.” Left said

“Yeah I don`t get that, Humans are food, not pets. Not for griffins anyway, just for ponies. Ponies need them after all, they are weak and need protection fwom us sawy gwiffins” Right said mockingly. It took me a moment to catch up to what he just said. “Wait… pets… FOOD. I think this is a nice choice of words for this situation, *gasp* WHAT THE FUCK!”

“Do you think some stupid unicorn accidently teleported the human here?” Left Griff asked to the Right griffin.

Right Griff didn`t answer, instead he chose to look curiously at me as I was still in shock of what I had just heard. My mouth was agape and my eyes were just staring straight forward while my brain tried to reboot what little left of working wires I had left.

“Do you think he is autistic like some of the others?” Left asked?

“Nah… he seemed just fine a few minutes ago, beside he doesn’t show any signs of having any autism`s. I think… never mind, let’s just get to the boss and ask what to do with him.”

I was in shock the whole trip to wherever we were headed, and before I knew it I was standing in front of a griffin who sat behind a desk with glasses on doing paperwork. To my left and right were the two griffins who dragged me here. The griffin to my right coughed to make our presence clear. The griffin behind the desk snapped out of his work and looked at the griffins, and then his eyes fell onto me.

“Yes… what is it Agathon?” The griffin behind the desk asked to Right, or now known as Agathon.

“We have an unidentified human, and were wondering what to do with him.” Agathon said with a business like voice.

“Why, tag him of course and send him to the other humans where he gets fattened up so we can sell him.”

“What if he has an owner sir? He had belongings with him when he arrived.”

“What kind of belongings” The griffin behind the desk asked. Now curious about the situation.

“Something that probably were books, and some clothes. The books have been mysteriously burnt up tough, and the clothes looked something close to pony design. No collar or nametag were on him. And he isn`t branded either. We don`t know how he found his way in here so...”

He was interrupted by my breakdown.

I lost all control and puked right on the floor, I couldn`t deal with all that was happening. I was food? I was a pet? Humans were branded? Nametags? It wasn`t just reality of the situation hitting me hard either. I still had that stupid fucking snus under my lip for a ridiculous amount of time which I really wanted to get out, but my restrained hands were holding me back. My brain decided this was a remarkable moment to do a second shutdown for the day, officially announcing that Victor.EXE has stopped worki7ng. But not before I heard.

“Get him out of this office this instant, and get him to the vet for the ancestor’s sake.” The griffin behind the desk practically yelled. I was being dragged out of the office and I blacked out for the second time.

===========

The griffin vet was the first one to actually treat me with some decency. She had shouted at the griffins who had dragged me to her that they were being inconsiderate, and just because I was food didn`t mean I was to be mistreated. Although that sentence could do without the food part, it was a nice tough. She had lashed out because of my knees which barely had any skin left after being dragged for so long on concrete. She had fixed them up and bandaged them and then proceeded to do some other examinations. Her coat was a nice shade of brown with some
orange-ish feathers here and there making variation in her coat. Her chest and head were a shade of light gray making it stand out, and her beak was a dark orange, matching her claws.

Say “aaaahhhhh” she said while forcing my mouth open.“let’s have some fun”

“Aaaahhh” I responded. This made her look at me with great confusion probarly wondering what the heck just happened or how I understood her. Since I was supposedly a pet, me being smart might come as a surprise. She shook her head and got to looking at my teeth again. While she fiddled with my teeth I took a moment to look around. The room was a nice shade of light blue, and the walls had nice and shiny tiles covering them. A nice change compared to the orange dimly lighted hallways with concrete walls and floors. The lamp actually provided enough light for the room to feel welcome and light up, while still remaining comfortable and not too bright. There was a table with drawers in it going from one end of the room to the other with a sink and soaps, maybe even different types of medication and sterilization products. I was currently sitting on a bed that had straps ready on the sides, but luckily wasn`t in use… yet. So I mentally noted those down, just acknowledging their presence even if they made me uncomfortable.

“You have remarkably clean teeth” she said with much surprise in her voice while she examined my teeth. I smirked slightly at that remark, thought, not enough to be noticed.

“What is this?” she took a gloved talon and carefully extracted my snus which I was eternally grateful for, I don`t want to know what would have happened should it have been there longer. She smelled it, her face scrunching up into one of disgust.

“Who would give you something so disgusting?” she asked throwing the snus into the closes garbage bin. I put up a smirk again knowing I was the one who placed it there in the first place. The vet however noticed my smirk and looked at me with a slightly confused expression.

She shook her head and said “I’m just being a bit weird today.” She said to herself. I narrowed my eyes in confused. I knew humans were stupid here and acted like animals, at least that`s what I tough and put together using the information at my disposal, but was she referring to my smirk. Can`t humans here do something so simple as to show any kind of emotion? She had her back turned towards me while she looked through the drawers looking for something. When she closed the drawer she held out a syringe with some dark blue liquid in the container. This made me sigh. I hated needles, I didn`t fear them, but I hated them. What was she about to pump into my body anyway? Should I let her? Maybe it was deadly to me?! Should I try and stop her showing her that I am intelligent? How would she even react if she knew I was intelligent?

I snapped out of my trance when she offed me a red apple. Red, juicy, delicious apple. I hadn’t eaten for what felt like an eternity so I greedily grabbed the apple from her claw and was about to take a huge chunk off it. But the vet decided that she would just take the apple away right before I got to set my teeth into it, making me slam my teeth together rather painfully. I gave her my best pouty face. She tilted her head to the right. Why did she do that when I did something with my face? Whether it be a smirk or a sad expression.

“Well, now I know you aren`t aggressive. But I have seen humans show some semblance of sad expressions, but never something quite like yours.” She said. Why did she talk to herself anyway? Not that I minded. I liked to know what she was thinking so I could have something to work with, but still who talks that much? Maybe it`s just a doctor`s thing to talk about the patient…

I was in deep thought again wondering why doctors talk to themselves, or even if they did on a regular basis, so naturally I didn`t notice her sterilizing my arm with some cold goo. But when she jabbed the needle into my arm I yelped out of surprise and looked at her with narrowed eyes doing a weak annoyed growl directed at her. “You could have warned me first you douche” I thought to myself. I hated when doctors just did stuff randomly or worse, plain out lied to you. I remember being at the school taking a shot against some influenza shit, and the one who gave me the shot assured me that she was going to stab me on the count of three, but she jabbed the syringe in at the first second instead. “I hate doctors” I confirmed to myself.

“You are a different one aren`t you?” she asked me, but I knew she didn`t expect an answer. So I just played dumb, wanting to get a feeling of her before I showed her anything that could potentially put my life at risk. I mean, considering humans are food, and we are dumb animals there were bound to be consequences should an intelligent human suddenly appear out of nowhere. I smirked in response to her question and this earned that confused furrowed brow again. What was it with my smirk she was so curious about? She stepped closer to me, and was practically touching my nose with her beak. I could feel her breath from her nose grace my cheeks. “OOOkay... what are you doing?”

She took her right claw and placed it on my chest. “Oooookayy…?” Then suddenly I felt a small pain growing in my chest. And I could feel some thick warm liquid run down to my stomach. I looked down and saw she had clawed up a small cut on my chest. I narrowed my eyes angrily at the so called veterinarian and gave her my most venomous look I could. She narrowed her eyes back, but with confusion, not anger.

“Why aren`t you turning violent?” she asked confused. She probably had to deal with a lot of violent humans I assumed form her statement and confused expression. But something ticked off in me from the statement as well, and the action.

“I`m done. I`m done playing dumb. You want to know why I am not hostile? I will show you why I am not hostile.” I growled inwardly. I jumped off from where I was seated and marched over to the counter in hope of finding some papers and a pen. She watched me with wary eyes wondering what I was up to, but I didn`t care anymore. I know I was just a few minutes ago telling myself to be careful, but I had had it with being an animal especially if I were to be mistreated. I drew out a tray and found lots needles with blue liquid in them stacked neatly besides each other.

“Nope”

I closed the tray and opened the one beneath and found some apples and something that looked like chewing toys made for dogs.

“I don`t even want to know” I thought tiredly.

“You actually know how trays work. Either you are a fast learner or your previous master has trained you to know…” I heard the Vet analyze behind me. I am surprised she hasn`t tried to stop me from lurking around in the drawers, but I didn`t care all that much, I just wanted to find that stupid piece of paper. I turned around to face the vet and motioned with my hands that I was drawing or writing. “Come on, understand basic motions you little chicken. Please. Pretty, please.” I wished, hoping my little wish would come true. But she wasn`t looking! She was watching the clock hanging on the wall! "Just my fucking luck" I facepalmed. My hands were still restrained so, facepalming proved to be a bit more challenging, but I managed to make a nice loud slap sound.

“Well that`s all the time I had for you, I will check up on you in about a week and we will see how your wounds have healed up by then. AGATHON! IM DONE!” She yelled out. Immediately the griffins who were dragging me in the first place were now showing me the way out.

“No, no, no, no. Please just react to my motions you stupid talking bird!” I desperately cried out to myself hoping my pleads would reach her.

“Thank you for taking care of him Elpis. When will you be seeing him next time?” Agathon asked The Vet, or Elpis.

“Next week would be fine. Don`t fatten him up yet tough! We can`t be sure if his wounds have gotten infected. I used Antibiotics, but I just don`t want to risk it.” Elpis smiled, talking about me like I’m not even here. I shrinked at her remark, but none of them noticed. Agathon just smiled back at Elpis

“Sure thing doc. Don`t let them humans hurt you now.”

And so we left doc Elpis, and Agathon was now in the lead tugging at my newly acquired rope that went nicely with my collar so I knew which way to go, sponsored by your friendly neighborhood doctor Elpis. God how I hated her right now. Don`t get me wrong, It`s better than being dragged around raping my knees to a bloody mess, but it is rather humiliating, not that the griffins would know I though this way.

After some walking through the dimly lit hallways Agathon opened a door that lead to a room containing three other humans which were currently growling at each other. But they were bound to a pole, the rope just short enough so they can`t reach each other. There were two females and one male, the male looking rather strong and almost like something I would consider an Alpha. Every eye was on me as I was lead into the dimly lit room that smelled poop and piss all over making me gag, so I refused to breathe with my nose.

“Wounds isn`t going to kill me, but disease” I groaned. The place lacked so much of hygiene. I stopped dead in my track making Agathon pulling at my leash harder in an attempt to make me follow. It quickly went from normal tugging and pulling to straight out trying to drag me with the rope into the room.

“Come on you stupid human, you can look at the pretty females while you are here.” Agathon growled while having a hard time pulling me. Agathon must have been weak, because I wasn`t particularly heavy, and I hadn`t any muscles to boast about, so why he was having a hard time pulling me was beyond me. I began backtracking our steps without much of a struggle, out of the doorway, and I had actually managed to pull Agathon with me out to the hallway. Then I sat down right in front of him showing him I wasn`t going in there. Period.

Agathon faceclawed which made it quiet visible he was frustrated by my stubbornness. “FINE, where do you want to go then?!” He asked me. I shot up and went through the hallway maze in an attempt to find the outdoor area where I had first arrived. I wasn`t going to sleep in no shithole literally, I wanted to be alone and left to my thoughts. I surprisingly enough managed to understand the signs telling what were where in which direction. (Try saying that ten times, fast.) So it didn`t take long before I found the door leading to the outdoor area. Agathon did a nice impression of a fish once I stopped at the door, understanding that I wanted out. I guess he was just trying to wrap his mind around the fact that I got there in the first place without much error.

“Y…You want out?” He asked intelligently.

My first reaction would have been to nod, but I held back the urge to. I honestly didn`t want to grow too used to me acting dumb, but if it kept my life safe until I had someone I could trust, or hopefully find a way back home before it came to that even, then I would just keep on playing the role of the dumb human.

“You aren’t actually allowed but…” He sighed in defeat. “I just really want to go to bed right now. It`s been a long day, for both you and me.” He unlocked and opened the door leading outside into the outdoor area where I had first arrived, though the moonlight made it look slightly blue-ish instead of green like when I first had arrived. How long ago was that anyway? I don`t think I have been here for more than twelve hours even, and I have disturbingly fast managed to grow accustomed to griffins?
“Human adaptability?” I questioned myself while stepping out into the cold night air, wrapping a cold blanked around me and my more… ahem… sensitive parts.

When I was fully outside Agathon closed the door behind me leaving me alone with the moon and the stars. I walked over to the small river and cupped some water and began drinking. I hadn`t realized how thirsty I actually was, until I had seen that bowl of water standing beside each pole in the room with the three humans in it. Why hadn`t Elpis done something about the hygiene in those rooms if she cared so much for us humans. I was still a bit down for her not seeing my attempt at communicating. And It was a week until next meeting with her… damn.

For once in the twelve hours or so that I have been here in this crazy wonderland, I was alone, without a griffin hanging on my back, or telling me where to go and what to do. It was refreshing, and allowed me for some time to think. I sat down by the closest tree and looked out into the open area. I resembled something of a small park now that I thought about it. “An encased park of sort?”

My mind began drifting other places, one of which was home. Many things went through my mind, first it was My parents. I was going to miss them during my stay in wherever I was, but I was goin to miss my sister the most. I didn`t even get to say goobye. I closed my eyes, frustrated, tired, angry! WHAT WAS GOING ON?! I let out a luod sigh and felt my emotions tun to sadness. I missed home. I clenched my eys shut further, trying to hold back the tears that were welling up behind them. But it was all in vain as I began sobbing and curling up, trying to make myself as small as possible. I wanted to go home, to wake up and forget whatever this was.

Author's Notes:

Snus is a Scandinavian product that can`t really be found anywhere else. Most of the scandinavian population uses snus instead of smoke. It can be compared to snuff, only you put in into your upper lip intead of the lower and you don`t have to spit all the time.

Here is a link for those of you interested in reading more on the product.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus