The Marines were placed into the same training regimen as the newest Gryphons. Communication was sure to be a trick, thankfully Razor Wit had seen it coming and had prepared hundreds of flashcards for the Marines during her time with them in the field the previous week. She distributed them among the Sergeants and Lieutenants for them to use when their Marines needed to speak to any Gryphon. For the Marines, it was like Basic Training all over again. The Sergeants and Lieutenants had to be given time to use the flash cards to translate, but the active practice was sure to help the Marines learn the basics of Areophene quickly and the Gryphons were understanding of the situation. Darryl had insisted on training with the other Marines, siting that 'it's only right'. Artex didn't understand his reasoning, but he respected his friend's decision.

Artex spoke one final sentence into the communication crystal as he stood on a balcony overlooking the emptying training ground, "Alright Chris. This is going to take a few minutes so no major rush. Just be sure that it's safe."

Chris's voice came back over the crystal, "Tested it already. A dragon fly ended up being with one of the piles of dirt you sent back by accident. If the bug was fine, the Sorcerers will be too. Full Spectrum, Catalyst, and Starburst are coming as well. Celestia already sent letters so the Gryphon King knows about the Bloodmages and Starburst is just coming to watch anyway. Catalyst is coming to make sure there aren't any problems."

"I'll send the signal in a few minutes. Talk to you later Chris. Artex out." He placed the crystal back in its wooden box and made his way down to where his the Marines were clearing the training grounds.

The training grounds were empty by the time he arrived. The Gryphons apparently gave their recruits four hours of free time before the sun went down. Artex had already spoken to Major Heartford about bringing in the Sorcerers to tutor his people. He had agreed quickly though it was obvious he felt no urgency for the tutoring. In fact none of the Marines seemed particularly excited about being trained with magic. They were surprised sure, and they thought it was neat, but that was the general extent of their feelings. To them it was just a bunch of tricks that might be useful to somebody at some point. They could admit that the crystals were good for moving necessities but they used tactics in warfare and saw magic as an unnecessary and unknown element that they could probably not incorporate into their established tactics.

The Marines and the newest Gryphon recruits were congregated in a large group at the far end of the massive training grounds, close to the cliff atop which sat the castle. Artex thought about his mares as he made his way out the the center of the training grounds, 'We're going to be visiting Razor's family when we get back.' He ran his right hand through his hair, 'Oof, that's going to be weird. I wonder what Rose's family is like? I already met Oriana's Grandmother and Mom... I hope the rest of her family is equally as nice.' He turned his head and looked upward toward the castle where Razor and Oriana were getting to know Rose better. They claimed that the Marines would have to get used to being on their own with the flash cards and they needed some downtime to do 'girly things'.

Artex knelt down and placed one of the teleportation crystals on the ground then turned and counted forty long steps away from it. He turned and opened his screfula. Holding out his hands in the proper form, he pushed magic through the crystal and waited.

He did not have to wait for long. In a bright flash of light there were suddenly fifty-six Humans and two Ponies standing where the crystal had been. Full Spectrum was the first to speak, "DAYYYYUM! I didn't feel a thing!"

Chris himself stepped out from behind Night Flare, "Well what did you expect? All the spell does is exchange space, it swaps the space of the two locations. That's all it does, no biggie."

Artex' face lit up as he saw his brother in-law, "Good to see you Chris! I didn't know you were coming."

Chris broke away from the group. He ran up and hugged and picked up Artex, 'Damn he's strong now.' Artex thought. Chris set him down and clapped him hard on the back, "Good to see you Dannnnnn!" he said elongating the word while making a goofy face.

"I guess that's them?" Night Flare asked walking up to the pair and pointing toward the Marines, "They don't seem very excited."

Artex crossed his arms and huffed, "They aren't." At Night Flare's puzzled look he clarified, "They don't see it as anything too important, they just think it's neat."

Night Flare pursed his lips and looked down at the dirt, "Did you happen to tell them about the kinds of things we can do with magic?"

"Darryl and I both did. Let's just get this going man."

* * *

Artex, Darryl, Chris, Night Flare, and Major Heartford sat around a large square wooden table that evening. King Myrmidon had asked that the humans not attend dinner in any of the Mead Halls. He had some sort of surprise, but it was one of the ones which required a vote from the Council. Night Flare and the Sorcerers had examined and cataloged the Marines's magic and the results were confusing. Everybody spoke in plain American English for the benefit of the Major.

Artex leaned onto the table with a concerned expression, "So the Marines have magic, but it's not in any Nouns and Verbs?"

Night Flare nodded, "Yeah, Catalyst helped us determine that the Marines do have a fully developed Magerium and screfula, but she had no idea what they could do with their magic at first. So we did some experimenting." The young man gestured to Major Heartford, "With you permission Major?"

The Major waved his hand dismissively, "Go ahead. I'M still trying to wrap my head around it."

Night Flare smiled and folded his hands, "The Marines have no Nouns and Verbs, they have... I suppose Buffs and a single Ability would be the best way to describe what they have. It took Catalyst, Full Spectrum, Starburst, and I half the day to figure out what they were and the other half figuring out how to get the Marines to understand enough to try them. Let me start with the Ability. Now these names and labels are on a trial basis for the moment, but it should be easy to pick up. The Ability is Telekinesis and it is just like it sounds. They can move objects around like a Unicorn using levitation except, they have to be able to see the object and it must be somewhat light, nothing bigger than about... one Stone's worth of weight. Now maybe as they practice that amount will increase, but we don't know yet. The Buffs are potent though. We've managed to identify Speed, Feather Fall, Cloud Walk, Silence, and... Invisibility. We also identified that their senses and reflexes have improved as well, but that happens automatically when they open their screfula. The Buffs need to be used individually." Night Flare rubbed his hands together, "I already made the report to King Myrmidon earlier this evening before he told us about this mysterious surprise of his."

"This surprise must be one heck of a secret." Chris said, "He has us waiting in this tiny ass room near what he already told us was the lowest levels of the castle. My Bits are on treasure vault or weapons and armor R&D." Chris clicked his tongue and flashed a cheeky grin, "Luna and I have been working on using those crystals to create this world's first computer!"

"Aww, spending some time with your royal girlfriend huh?" Night Flare teased.

Major Heartford suddenly froze in place staring at Chris. Preparing for a verbal storm Artex crossed his arms and leaned off the table while Darryl pursed his lips and looked up at the ceiling. Major Heartford grunted after a moment, "Does somebody want to explain to me exactly what THAT means?"

Darryl cleared his throat and brought his eyes back down to head height, "Hell we had to discuss this eventually anyway." He locked eyes with the Major and decided to be blunt, "Chris is dating Celestia's sister-NOW... before you get all upset and start yelling about him being a zoophile or something remember that the Kavim are people. They aren't HUMAN people, but they are people. The Gryphons are people, the Zebras are people, hell even the Diamond Dogs are people. Nobody is having sex with animals because none of our allies ARE animals. If you want to get technical about it, they're aliens, which would make Xenophiles out of those of us who are romantically involved with the locals. There is even a procedure we discovered, by accident, that allows a being from one species to have their insides altered so that they can match that of the donor species. It requires a blood transfusion. In a case like that, the two species could have children together so it wouldn't be unnatural at all." Darryl matched Artex' posture by leaning back and folding his arms.

Major Heartford stared at Darryl silently for a few seconds before he began chuckling, "Hehehehe," he looked toward Chris, "You're banging the sister of the broad who controls the SUN!?" He slapped his right hand on the table as he continued cracking up, "Boy, if you break her heart her sister is going to fucking ROAST you! Ahahahaha!" The Major took a breath, "WOO! I sure hope that alien pussy hehehehe is worth the tan from HELL! Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! You'll come out heeheeheehee LOOKING BLACKER THAN ME! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Major Duane Heartford might not have laughed very often, but when he did it was full-bodied and highly contagious. Within moments everybody had joined in on busting a gut. Darryl actually fell onto the floor he was laughing so hard. The five men laughed and hee-hawed until they cried.

As the last of the giggles died off Major Heartford had a more serious question, "Okay... ahem, now that we have that out of our systems, who else has a local for a girlfriend?"

Darryl and Artex both raised their hands while Night Flare just stared. He could not help but to ask, "I know Artex has Razor Wit, Oriana, and Rose, but who the heck do you have Darryl?"

Darryl shrugged, "Backlash."

Had Night Flare been drinking anything he would have performed a perfect spit-take, "The Iron Maiden? The Stone Bitch? The fucking Ice Queen!? Are you serious!? I didn't think she had a SOUL much less a heart."

"Hey watch it, I'll still kick your ass." Darryl warned, "She has a soft...er side. She just isn't... in touch with it that often... at all."

King Myrmidon chose that very moment to enter the room, "The surprise is ready. Follow me please."

Artex translated for the Major, "He said the surprise is ready and for us to follow him."

The men followed behind the King with Artex acting as translator for Major Heartford as they went. The King spoke to Chris first, "The Council has reviewed the plans and offer you delivered to us about your 'Shipping Centers'. We accept your terms and we will pay the amount you are asking. Considering the perishable nature of many of the items we hope ship to other nations, it is a very fair price for the convenience to say nothing of the guarantee of the goods arriving in a timely manner and still being viable for sale. We have never shipped any significant quantities of meat to Equestria before so we will have to determine the taxes and sales prices for the various quantities and qualities we have available to us. Gryphonvale has always been a very self-sufficient nation and we have found it to be a good thing. We do not often trade with other nations because on the occasions that we do have to deploy and we deploy to a country with which we have a trade agreement, we do not wish to have any nation try to use leverage to manipulate us. It is a precarious balance we have here and it requires hard work from every citizen to maintain that balance."

King Myrmidon shook his head, "For years I have been attempting to persuade the Council to open free trade with a single country to have as an ally in times of need. In all of history Equestria has never been an aggressive nation. The Ponies only take up the call to arms when there is a direct threat against them or a nation they are allied with, such as what happened when King Sombra overthrew the royal family of the Crystal Empire. Sombra declared war and started with attempting to commit genocide against the Zebras. Once we Gryphons heard the news we took up arms and marched on the Crystal Empire. We were not the only nation to do so though. Equestria also answered the plea for help from the Zebras. Had we failed, the Ponies would have succeeded, this we know. The reason I have been trying to convince the Council to break tradition and name Equestria as an ally is for this very reason. They are defenders, like us. The Princesses do not go to war over lands or riches, they go to war to preserve the citizens of other nations or their own. As of earlier this evening, I finally succeeded."

He led the group of five men to an unobtrusive wooden door deep in the passages under the castle. The door was guarded by two Gryphons wearing steel armor. The Gryphons opened the door for the King and closed it as soon as the last person was inside. The chamber beyond the door was elongated and resembled a firing range. There were ten 'lanes' and a series of targets down at the far end of what must have been all of half a League, by Artex' best estimate. The targets were wooden and each was painted with white 'x' in the center to contrast the dark brown wood. Each of the lanes had stone divider walls set between them and upon the floor of the lane directly in front of the door was a strange looking spear.

Artex did not get a good look at the spear before King Myrmidon began speaking again, "Gryphons have always placed ourselves in between quarreling groups to protect civilians and often we are caught in the middle and many of us have died honorably while protecting innocents. However recently, with the emergence of first Nightmare Moon and later Discord, we determined that we were entering perilous times. The Equestrians have a method of dealing with such threats but they are the only ones... until now. In ancient times beings from all over the world had wielded weapons of enormous power. Most feared was the fabled Shock Lance. King Sombra created his personal Shock Lance to be powerful enough to kill even an Alicorn if the need arose. His Shock Lance was destroyed during the battle for the Crystal Empire, however many of our warriors brought Shock Lances back to Gryphonvale before the Princesses destroyed them. We do not make a habit out of revealing our last resort weapons, but today the Council has granted permission for Equestrian Humans to not only study, but to keep a pair of ancient weapons." He gestured to the spear lying on the ground, "Behold one of the fabled Shock Lances."

Artex' eyes grew wide as he relayed the King's words to Major Heartford. The Shock Lance was a length of metal about twice the length of a Pony's body with a dull yellow crystal head about two Hooves long and a full Hoof wide. There was a second crystal, about a single Hoof long, on the rear half of the weapon.

"The Council will not allow me to say how many of these we have, but rest assured, we can spare this one. Allow me to demonstrate how it works. Watch carefully please but I warn you not to get too close. This is a weapon of unequaled power." The King picked up the Shock Lance and tucked the side of the shaft containing the smaller crystal against his side while pointing the business end down toward the targets, "Send in the condemned." He spoke loudly.

Down at the far end of the range a door opened on the right and an older Gryphon was pushed onto the firing range. He was not bound nor gagged. He walked calmly into the center of the range, directly in front of the firing line that the King was within. King Myrmidon addressed the Gryphon, "You were found guilty of the murders of nine Gryphons and condemned to be executed for your crimes. I regret that your death is necessary, but we do not shy away from difficult decisions. If you have any final words for your family or those of your victims, they will be remembered and relayed. Your jailers waiting beyond the door through which you entered are waiting with quills and parchment for you to speak, should you chose to do so."

The older Gryphon spoke calmly, "I know what I did was wrong and I killed them anyway. I do not regret doing so and I will face my death calmly. What you do is just and I would willingly kill again if given the chance. I do not feel any remorse for what I did nor for the families I have deprived. I stand ready."

King Myrmidon lowered his head and sighted along the shaft of the Shock Lance, "Very well. Your death will be quick and painless. I am sorry that you chose this path." Without another word, the Shock Lance spewed forth a short, bright bolt of yellow energy with an accompanying sound of a cracking whip.

The bolt traveled quickly, but Artex estimated that a person might be able to dodge it if they were quick enough. The bolt flew true and struck the Gryphon squarely in the chest. The Gryphon died instantly, his body turned into a fine red mist with an accompanying puff of feathers.

"JESUS!" Artex shouted.

Night Flare was dumbstruck. Darryl stared at the falling feathers with an open mouth and Major Heartford narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms whistling appreciatively. Chris never moved, nor did his expression ever change. His face was as neutral as Switzerland.

King Myrmidon set the weapon down on the ground with the point facing down range and turned to his guests, "The Princesses were right to keep such weapons away from the rest of the world. These should only be used as a last resort and now you can see why. There is no known armor in the entire world that can withstand a direct hit from a Shock Lance. His voice was calm and somber, "The debate of whether or not to give one to Equestria was lengthy and difficult. This is not something we have chosen to do lightly. Do not consider these a gift so much as a contract. In exchange for these weapons to study and reproduce, we demand one thousand be made and returned to us. We do not have the materials to recreate them ourselves but with the recent emergence of the Crystal Empire the resources will be available it should be much easier for you." He spoke the next words slowly and emphatically, "Do not share this knowledge with any other nation. We believe that Equestria is ready to have such weapons, but only to every be used as a last resort and never, ever to be given to standard military or produced in quantities of more than two thousand. You will sign an agreement stating that you agree to these terms and will be responsible for their fulfillment on pain of death. Do you agree?"

Chris nodded slowly, "I do."

King Myrmidon nodded, "Thank you. I will call you to the Council chambers to sign the document. This is the only Shock Lance you will receive. If something happens to it you will not be given a second one." He calmed himself and spoke in a more friendly tone as he continued, "The second weapon carries no such mandatory agreement, but we do wish for only Humans and Gryphons use these." He opened his right wing and out dropped out a rod. The rod was encrusted with gems and roughly four Hooves long but not so wide that it would be uncomfortable to hold in one hand.

King Myrmidon caught the rod in his right talon before it hit the floor and held it up toward the men for inspection, "This is something that our resident citizen Unicorns have come up with. It is based on the Shock Lance, but does not discharge a beam at range. We call these 'Shock Blades'."

King Myrmidon pressed on one of the gems and an envelope of energy formed out from one end of the rod with the roaring sound of rushing wind.

"Hooooooly shit." Night Flare said with a breathy voice.

Darryl could not agree more, "Damn dude, forget the knives and swords, I have GOT to get me one of those!"

Artex, Chris, and Major Heartford said nothing, but all looked concerned. The King held the weapon in his right talon smiling as he gazed at the envelope of energy, "The cutting efficiency of these Shock Blades is not something to be ignored. They can cut through any material fairly quickly, though not instantly. The 'blade' is made out of pure destructive magic. You will notice that the color of this blade is light brown. The Unicorns designed this to draw all the energy to create the blade directly from the magic within your own body, so the blade always takes the color of your magical aura. It will continue until your body runs out of magic or until you disengage the gems. The Shock Lance works the same way. The Shock Blade is something we hope to begin issuing to our regular troops just as soon as we have the materials to do so. Both weapons work by taking the magic from the wielder's body and using it as the power source."

King Myrmidon then slid the blade straight through his own neck. It went in one side and came out the other without leaving any injury at all. The King continued speak to the five awestruck men, "Because the blade is created by your own magic, it cannot harm you. There is no threat of a single wielder injuring themselves with it..."

"That's a big problem." Artex spoke up quickly.

Myrmidon nodded, "Indeed it is. Most wielders of swords learn to be careful with their blades specifically because they can injure themselves while practicing. Any wielder could pick up one of these and do terrible damage, even if they are not trained. As I said before, the decision to trade the knowledge to manufacture these weapons was not made lightly." The King then turned and screeched loudly. The two guards who had been standing next to the door opened it and entered the room, "These two already have knowledge of how to wield Shock Blades and they are willing to train those who are interested. Major Heartford, you will be receiving one to keep for yourself. Flight Leader Heidi has volunteered to go to New Humansville in order to oversee our dealings there and act as one of our representatives. There will be others of course, but she volunteered specifically."

* * *

The Marines settled in quickly with the Gryphons. They had food, shelter, weapons, new partners to train with and a whole country full of winged, aggressive apex predators who thought like they did. In short, the Marines were in Heaven. Much to the surprise of the Humans, the Gryphon public seemed to be aware of the Marines, but they kept their distance. They did not swarm the Marines with warm welcomes, but neither did they give them the cold shoulder. They simply accepted that the Marines were there and left it alone.

In their off time, the Gryphons sought out their new allies to practice and spar with. They pulled no punches except with one thing. They wore talon and claw guards to ensure they did not draw blood. The Marines had trouble using the unusual weapons provided for practice, but some were usable enough. The Marines excelled with bows, crossbows, javelins, slings, throwing knives, and throwing axes, but most of the melee weapons were slow to be picked up. There were more than a few unarmed sparing matches as well. The Gryphons were leery of sparring against beings without natural weapons, but those crazy Marines never backed down. Within a few matches, the Gryphons discovered the technique referred to as the 'body slam'. The Gryphons were fairly light and very quick, but the Marines were strong and dexterous. There were more than a few concussions and cracked bones, but everybody involved agreed that it was good training.

The Sorcerers had an easy time teaching the Marines how to use their unusual magic. All they had to do for the most part was open their screfulas and they were as agile as the Gryphons. The Gryphons gave Starburst a very wide berth once they were told he was a Bloodmage and the poor stallion was informed in no small, uncertain terms that had he not been escorted by the Arch Magister and vouched for by one of the Alicorn sisters, that he would have been executed immediately. Catalyst and Full Spectrum had nearly blown a gasket once they heard the threats. It was already a well-known fact that Catalyst and Starburst were together and Full Spectrum was the next in line for the herd.

There had been more than a little friction between the woman and mare because of the differences between societies, but when their stallion was threatened, they wasted not half a second in stepping up to defend him. King Myrmidon and the Council had to intervene when restaurants denied services to the known Bloodmage. The keg had nearly blown moments after they left the restaurant when a Gryphon decided to throw a rock at the young Pegasus stallion. Full Spectrum had caught the rock with her magic and hurled it back using her favorite Noun. The offending Gryphon was reprimanded strongly and had to undergo surgery for his shattered beak. The trio had departed not an hour afterward with many strong words, and a few raised middle fingers courtesy of Full Spectrum, toward the Gryphons as a whole despite the profuse apologies of the Council and King.

The Marines were also given free range to explore Cha'rheid as they saw fit so long as an officer with flash cards was with them. As such, they tended to go out in groups. There were a few hiccups along the way though. Once Gryphons brought in their mead at dinner. The Marines were surprised that dinner included alcohol of any type, but the idea was to become used to drinking before hard work in order to acclimate to the ordeal in real life. Of course there were drinking competitions as anyone would expect. The first issue sprang up when two Marines ended up in a fist fight. A female Gryphon drill instructor put herself between the two combatants and ended up getting hit by both. Once the Marines realized they had punched a 'lady' the apologies were profuse and frequent. Needless to say, the female Gryphon felt insulted and abruptly challenged the Marines to a two-on-one fight. The Marines were reluctant to do so, since she was a 'lady' but the insult was something they could understand so they went forward with it. They all fought to a stand-still and all laughed it off afterwards.

After that came the issue of fraternization, which the Gryphons actually encouraged. The idea behind it was that everybody would find themselves dealing with many different issues and problems at all points through life. They just had to learn to deal with it. Nobody was forced to do so, but it was encouraged. The Gryphons did have a very strict policy of no sex while in training though. Their take on it was that nobody could afford to train while pregnant since both sexes were trained in the exact same ways.

Artex, Darryl, and the Emissary Staff kept themselves busy as the weeks flew by. After more than a month, it was decided that Major Heartford no longer needed any additional training and so he was free to join the Council in changing the local laws. It was sure to be an eye-opening experience for everybody.

Item one to be discussed was the long term accommodations and productive employment for the Marines. It was not the most simple of topics either as there was no need for computer engineers or electricians in Cha'rheid. Staying in the Recruit Barracks was only acceptable in the short term and the Gryphons were understandably not enthusiastic about carving more than two thousand homes out of the solid rock of their mountain especially when the Marines had no way to pay for the labor or furnishings that would be needed. This in turn led to the subject of productive employment. The Marines knew how to work but the manner in which the Gryphons operated was not conducive to the methods with which the Marines were familiar. Major Heartford was the mind behind the solution.

Since the homes did have to be carved out of the rock and could always be used by others later, the Marines would actually be performing a service to Cha'rheid. He suggested that they be paid a slightly reduced wage as would be paid to normal workers for identical labor. The deduction from the wages would be set aside for furnishings to be used once the dwellings were completed. Obviously the Marines had no idea how to work stone in such a way so Gryphon masons would be needed to instruct them. Thus the Marines could learn a highly valued skill and be carving their own homes from the rock as well. The Fleet Marine Force Corpsmen had already earned their weight in gold and Oriana had also secured more than a few significant favors in exchange for one or two of her recipes. The Corpsmen were already trained in the second most valued skill in all of Gryphonvale and they could buy their own homes with the money they already had. They had been making antibiotics and performing life-saving procedures. Two of them had already performed successful C-Sections and were not only drowned in gifts from overjoyed families, but were likewise drowned in requests from Gryphon physicians to be taught the procedure. The Heimlich Maneuver, C.P.R., disease immunization, anti-venom, the list went on.

The second issue was the alteration of the Gryphonvale Code Of Conduct. The alterations were thankfully fairly minimal. Public lashings were a staple punishment for all crimes. The number of lashings depended on the age of the perpetrator, the age of the victim, and the severity of the crime. One part of the Code Of Conduct that did not need to be altered was the penalty for murder: death.

The altered age of marriage, which was also the age of consent, was determined to be twenty-five. It was not ideal, but twenty-five was when all mandatory military service ended so it kept the recruits from engaging in any acts that might be too distracting during their military service. The prior age of marriage and consent had been thirty-five due to the longevity of Gryphons as a species. The average life-span for a Gryphon was said to be around two hundred to three hundred years. Major Heartford explained that Humans did not live anywhere near that long and the Council was willing to amend the law even if they did grumble that it was far too young. Major Heartford attempted to persuade the Council to make the age of marriage eighteen, but the almost violent vocal eruptions from the Council put an end to that idea.

The Humans learned from the discussion that Gryphons found the thought of pre-marital intercourse, though not sexual contact, to be absolutely morally abhorrent. It took the Humans a bit of time to understand the reasoning for the moral stance. The Gryphons viewed pre-marital intercourse of any kind to be an act of infidelity against one's future spouse or spouses. It reminded Artex far too much of the so-called teachings of many self-righteous preachers from back on Earth. The Gryphons' point of view was that any being that had lost their virginity prior to marriage was a moral and sexual deviant, thus rendering them very undesirable. Darryl's argument of 'try before you buy' was met with angry tirades about a lack of commitment and a lack of one's desire to please their spouse.

Their argument was that if two or more individuals of any sex had dedicated their lives to one another that all parties should care enough to want to please their partner. They also argued that there were many other far more important aspects to romantic relationships. They also stated that couples or herds, as they were open to either as well as same-sex relationships, should be encouraged to discuss their fantasies and expectations prior to marriage in order to find compromise and help to ensure willingness in order to minimize divorces and heartache. Supposedly the system worked well. Individuals were, oddly enough, discouraged from pleasuring themselves and instead were encouraged to have a romantic partner assist so long as the situation did not involve intercourse. The idea was to promote both self-control and to help develop trust between partners so that one would see their spouse or spouses as the ones to fulfill their needs. It was also supposed to help individuals develop a greater level of self-control since self-control and personal responsibility were cornerstones of Gryphon society. They were war-like, bellicose, even cantankerous on occasion, but when they made a mistake they owned up to it and did their best to make it right.

By the same token, there was an adjustment of the age acceptable for consuming alcohol. By Gryphon standards, it was fourteen, but by Human standards it was twenty-one. The agreed upon age was changed to eighteen. Gryphons were not familiar with any sort of smoke-able plant, so Marijuana and tobacco were non-issues.

The Gryphon mentality on public education was strict but somewhat radical to the Humans. Young creatures in Gryphonvale were taught about morality, reproduction, and mortality from a very early age in order to help them develop a sound basis for making well-informed decisions later on in life. All beings, no matter what age, were encouraged to ask questions about any topic that interested, concerned, or was unclear to them. The discussion led to the Humans discovering a very unique type of occupation: the Wisdom.

Wisdoms were individuals who had obtained a license from the Ministry of Morality to provide information, guidance, and an unbiased opinion about their specialty topic or a situation which involved their area of expertise. Wisdoms were also called upon to act as judges. Any being could walk into a Wisdom's office and pay a small fee to have any question answered openly. On the off chance that a Wisdom did not have knowledge about a queried topic, they were obligated to find a Wisdom who did. Gryphons were likewise encouraged to approach Wisdoms with new ideas or about new ways of doing things. The Wisdoms were obligated to write the ideas down and submit them to the Council and the Council in turn was obligated to seriously consider the new idea. Obviously ridiculous or foolish ideas were not submitted to the Council.

Every citizen of Gryphonvale was required to spend five years, from age twenty to age twenty-five, serving in the Gryphon Central Guard. There were no arguments against the law so it remained unchanged. Major Heartford spoke at length with the Council and King Myrmidon about methods of deployment since the Marines could not fly. It was eventually decided that since the Marines were going to be deploying to fight alongside Gryphons that there should be a change in their titles. Since the Marines greatly enjoyed being flown in harness under the Gryphons and their deployment could be particularly swift as opposed to parachuting which would leave them vulnerable to ground fire, a vote was taken and eventually the Marines were renamed Featherback Marines. Deployment was to be in groups of four with three Gryphons acting as the muscle and the Featherback Marines acting as specialists. Artex interjected that the Gryphons should contact Princess Luna and Chris to develop the armor for the Featherback Marines and used Darryl's armor as an example of what could be done. The mental picture of a Human wearing articulated powered armor and wielding what was effectively a lightsaber was a sobering thought indeed and most definitely would not be an adversary to be taken lightly. Darryl also brought up the usefulness of firearms and recommended that the Gryphons see to an arrangement which allowed them to purchase guns from New Humansville.

* * *

The meetings lasted for more than a month but eventually they were concluded. The Emissary Staff and Darryl were eating breakfast with Major Heartford, recently given the title of Featherback General, on the morning they were scheduled to leave. The Sorcerers and Chris had already departed using one of Chris's crystals and the Sky Carriage had returned for the staff members. They were already packed and were set to leave immediately after breakfast.

Razor was eating a platter of pancakes, Oriana was eating a morning salad, and Rose was charging her way through a plate heaped with fried eggs. Darryl, Artex, and General Heartford were all enjoying plates of bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, and toast when the General spoke, "You mentioned that you found the other groups. How are they doing?"

Artex wiped his mouth before answering, "Well the group Darryl and I came with is doing very well. The group from South America has integrated much more smoothly than we had anticipated. So that brings us to a bit more than fifteen hundred people. The group from India seems to have found kindred spirits with the Diamond Dogs and the two get along well from what we know."

The General nodded along as he scooped up more eggs onto his fork, "That's good to hear. It also makes sense why you kids were set on making sure we survived. The other groups must have starved. Hope they got decent burials, not that those rag-heads from Afghanistan probably deserved it."

Everybody else immediately stopped eating, "General," Darryl spoke quietly and calmly, "We don't know of any other groups."

The General looked up as well, "The 1,493 people from Afghanistan?"

Artex slowly shook his head, "No."

The General wasn't done though, "1,046 from Norway? 917 from Japan? 1,568 from Arizona? 1,767 from Russia? 993 from Germany? 1,981 from Ethiopia? You never found them?"

Artex dropped his fork onto his plate and whispered, "Oh my God."

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