(http://jackle-app.bandcamp.com/track/summer -N64Fan)

"Where did she go? Crazy gryphoness, just flying off randomly to meet an 'old friend'." The voice belonged to a gryphon who was bobbing and weaving between trees of a forest looking for the tell-tale sign of white feathers that would give away his target. As the male predator pitched wildly through the tight spaces in between the trees his tie flapped wildly but was held in place by the folded piece of stiff fabric that composed a collar. He had left his top hat back at the camp so he didn't lose it in this crazy flight.

There was no sign of what he was hunting but that didn't stop the gryphon, rather it increased his flight speed. The air was crackling and snapping about the form of the part lion, part bird, predator. The trees were darting past his vision but the skilled flyer managed to keep his flight stable and avoid the pillars of bark that would occasionally block his path. Mere seconds after a near miss with a tree a group of them appeared seemingly out of nowhere and the hunter pulled tightly into the air, he managed to break the treetops but felt a snap as he reached the top.

With a cry of pain the gryphon began a heavy and quick descent to the ground he glanced quickly towards the ground and noticed a small clearing in the plantlife. With another screech the predatory creature managed to catch air with his wings and land himself safely on the dirt that had only seconds ago been rushing towards him to end his life. With a wince the gryphon folded his wings against his side and began to berate himself as he began walking in what might have been considered a random direction.

The woods were creaking loudly around him due to the incoming wind gust that had been stirred up by the forest. The gryphon continued his trek into the permanent shade under the trees, unaware of the impending danger. After a few minutes the predator noticed the whistling noise as the wind picked up speed and his feathers stirred. “That’s not a good sound.” he said as he slowly turned his head. Just in time to catch the brunt of the gust in the face.

The powerful wind flow was enough to knock the griffin off of the ground as it carried him through the forest, the wind beat against his sides and smashed him into trees. The pain was excruciating as his already damaged wing was most definitely broken and his wing that had been perfectly fine no longer was. His screech was carried off in the whipping winds and the near blacked out gryphon was close to death.

A flash of light caught the powerless gryphon’s eye and he noticed that he was almost out of the woods, all that was left in his way was a large thick tree that marked the threshold from his current world of pain into a world of mostly open ground. With a forced beat of his injured wings and a self contained exclamation of pain the gryphon managed to dodge the last obstacle and he crashed across the grass. When he finally came to a stop he thought he heard several voices calling panickedly, he had little time to think about it as he passed out in the pile of surprisingly comfortable dirt and grass he had drug with him.

The dream of the gryphon was one of the more common dreams he had had recently, he walked through the town with his regal top hat on his head, his feathers recently cleaned, and his tie freshly pressed. It would have been a dream anyway, if it weren’t for the fact that all the gryphons were pointing and laughing at his attire. It had been a reoccurring theme with the gryphon that chivalry should be alive and well, something the majority of his feathered race didn’t entirely agree on. The belief was that unless you were covered in war scars or you worked for one of the warlords specifically that you weren’t to be noticed.

The gryphon drowsily awoke from his dream to get a look at the white sky above his head, after a pause to think he realized it was in fact a ceiling that he was looking at. He attempted to roll to his side to get a better look of the room when a pain shot up his wing and he fell back into his original position. Deciding instead to look out of the corners of his eyes he managed to deduce that he was in a hospital, the surroundings had been changed slightly to admit the significantly larger bulk of the gryphon, the beds that normally lay on the bed sat forlorn in the corner and the bed itself appeared to be much older then the hospital.

After a few silent moments of laying on the larger bed that the ponies had placed in the room for his convenience, the door opened at the far end of the room and a white mare walked into the room. Unlike most of his race this gryphon had actually taken a liking to ponies. They were much more refined than his peers were and the chivalrous predator admired that about them. In fact the gryphon suspected that the reason for dislike in regards to the ponies was jealousy, a feeling that he himself had refused to feel about the situation.

The gryphons, as a race, lacked any real connection to one another, whether through community or elsewise. Ponies had tightly packed towns where they could chat, assist, and get to know one another. In addition to this they also had a stable system of government that allowed them more connections and advancements. Gryphons had sparsely populated areas that might be drunkenly construed as towns where no one talked to anyone else and groups were split into factions that were in a constant power struggle.

The unicorn mare hesitantly approached the wound gryphon, he smiled toward her as she approached causing the nurse to shirk away, Ugh, I completely forgot, these ponies aren't used to seeing gryphons on a regular basis, I'm sure seeing a predator smile at you isn't considered the best sign. He thought to himself before trying another approach.

“It’s okay,” The gryphon said in the most gentlemanly tone he could manage with the pain his wings radiated into his body. “I promise not to hurt you.” The gryphon placed a talon above where his heart was supposed to be and the mare smiled in return before approaching once again, a little more self assured then she had before.

Silence reigned as the slightly nervous nurse went about dealing with the bandages that were tightly bound around the gryphon’s wings, with a glow of her horn she lightly touched the bandages with the illuminescent extension of her head. She stood still for a few moments before she lifted her head away and the glow subsided. After that was done she went around to the other side and performed the same spell, with that finished she approached a table that was set in the middle of the room and set about filling in the paperwork.

“Good thing you gryphons are such fast natural healers, I wouldn’t expect a pegasi to recover nearly as quickly.” The comment seemed more for the mare to try and comfort herself then to start a conversation with him, because of this the gryphon didn’t respond and politely gave her a small grin in an attempt to avoid scaring her any further. “So, what’s your name then?” The unicorn asked with a quick glance out of the corner of her eye to the gryphon before she returned to the work in front of her.

“Jack, and I would just like to apologize for causing so much trouble, I was just searching for a missing gryphoness, rumors said she had headed out in this direction, and I ended up taking up this room in your hospital. I should have been much more careful then I was.” The gryphon said, this response earned a curious glance from the unicorn but she didn’t say anything as she placed the finished paperwork and placed it on a nearby table.

“Don’t fret too much about it. We’ve been having a slow season, thank goodness. You’re the first we’ve had in a week.” The gryphon pondered this response. All the few gryphons who became field medics that had set up hospital in between the eras of large wars had practically encouraged injuries to net them more money. It was one of the many policies that Jack had taken offense to in the towns and had been one of the first reasons he had accepted the chance to get away from gryphon culture on this assignment.

The unicorn turned to leave but paused in the doorway, “You should be healed enough to leave the hospital by tomorrow, I want you to stay off those wings for at least a week though, and even then spend minimal time in the air.” Then as an afterthought she added, “Oh, and if you want to thank someone for bringing you here to the hospital, search out Derpy Hooves when you’re back on your claws.”

“I will remember to do that, thank you very much.” Jack reached up to tip his top hat but found it to be missing, he was about to freak out when he recalled that he had left it behind in the forest. With a resigned sigh as the door closed Jack tried to settle into a more comfortable position. He remained fitfully tossing through the remainder of the afternoon until finally managed to get into a sleeping posture as the moon rose into the sky.

Jack managed an uncomfortable dream sequence once again and woke to the rising sun as well as an obnoxious itching feeling that ran through his wings. He was about to start scratching, and indeed had just reached back to do so, when he felt the solid cast under his talons and decided against it. With a rush of pain through his body the gryphon rolled over one of his injured wings and off the side of his bed onto his feet. he took a quick glance around the room for any other ponies before the gryphon slowly began to stretch his corded muscles. In doing so, he revealed long thin scars that only became visible on the taut flesh over his muscles.

In the middle of his stretching the nurse from the previous day walked into the room, causing him to quickly go into a casual stance, once more causing the scars on his skin to disappear back into his brown hide. The mare frowned when she saw him standing in the middle of the room, “I was going to help you off the bed to minimize your pain, but now..”

“It’s alright, it was only a trickle of pain, really, nothing to worry about.” Jack said as he resisted the urge to finish his stretches. “So, if I remember correctly, then today is the day when I leave?” The gryphon asked as he looked towards the mare.

“Yes, it is, however we ask that you take up residence in Ponyville for a time. Your wings are in worse condition than originally thought and we will need to have a unicorn come make weekly visits to wherever you are to help them set correctly.” She said as her frown deepened.

The gryphon hesitated, he had been sent to retrieve the missing gryphoness and return back as quickly as possible. Of course without his wings the idea of searching on claw to find her would be nigh impossible, and then of course he would have to somehow get home. “It sounds like a plan, I don’t suppose you know anywhere that I could rent for the time being?” The nurse shook her head and Jack sighed, “Oh well, more adventure for me.”

A few signed papers and another unicorn treatment to his wings and the gryphon left the building, his wallet slightly lighter but well worth the kind attitude he had been greeted with. Taking a fresh breathe now that he was outside the medical building the gryphon looked around in an attempt to find a place to stay.

The few hotels around the town all proudly displayed their no vacancy signs to the gryphon as he walked through the streets that were swiftly filling with ponies. A few gave him looks of unsurety and curiosity but all of the ponies gave him space. It was a common fact for these ponies that gryphons had loose tempers. Jack suspected the gryphoness who he was looking for had done little to disperse that stereotype, he knew her quite well and knew that she could rage when she wanted. I just hope no one got hurt like james, poor guy was traumatized for a year. Jack thought to himself.

Eventually the gryphon found what he was looking for and stumbled into the hotel that flashed a singular ‘vacancy’ message to the passersby. Jack stepped lightly into the moderately prepped building and glanced around for an employee before he tapped the bell on the desk in front of him. A few seconds later and the pony who Jack presumed to be the manager rushed out of a door and up the desk.

“Welcome to the ‘Hospitable Hotel’ where we-” the manager stopped when he realized that a gryphon was the one who stood at the desk front. “I’m sorry sir, but we’re all full.” He said quickly as he glanced nervously between Jack and the door, clearly contemplating making a run for it.

“That’s odd, your sign out front says that you have room, and just now...” Jack caught the glances of the manager and rolled his eyes. “Are you refusing me room because I’m a gryphon?” He said to the pony, he could understand hesitation but blatant racism seemed quite out of character for ponies, then again this guy was deeply scared of him so Jack wasn’t just about to dismiss the notion.

“Of course not sir, its just that we are simply full to the brim right now and we can’t set you up with a room.” Jack glanced behind the pony and noticed that there were at least a dozen door keys hanging from their respective hooks.

“And here I thought that ponies were mostly trustworthy, you should know that if there's one thing I hate more than a barbarian, it is liar.” Jack said as he eyed the manager, the pony’s eyes bugged out and he quickly thought better of the idea to dash out into the front door, instead he opted for the room he had come out of and the gryphon heard the lock set in the door. With a sigh the gryphon left the building, leaving the manager to shiver in fear in his room.

As he left the building he ran into an earth pony mare with a two-toned mane. Jack hardly budged at the collision but was briefly confused as he tried to figure out what happened. After he overcame his own stunned situation he noticed that he had knocked the pony onto her rear, causing her to drop the several items she was carrying. Jack quickly reached out and pulled the pony to her feet.

“Thank you.” The mare said as she accepted the gryphon’s pull and began to set out collecting her objects again, the gryphon helped out and in about a minute the dropped pieces were collected once again and stowed in the mare’s saddlebags.

“No. Thank you.” When that drew a curious look from the mare, he explained. “You're the only pony who is actually treating me like an actual being and not some monster.” The mare smiled and nodded. She was about to respond when a voice called out towards them from across the road.

“Bon-Bon, You’ll never guess what I just bought in the marketplace!” a mint green pony shouted as she approached the duo. “It’s this device that uses a magical power source to blend food into a thick liquid consistency, they’re calling it a ‘blender’.” She looked to the white mare who looked first at her then to the gryphon. “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that you were in the middle of a conversation.”

“It’s all right Lyra, I just met this fine gryphon.” Bon-Bon said with a smile, “One might say we.” The mare pause as she looked to Jack “Ran into each other.” The gryphon returned the smile of the mare.

“Oh yes, I forgot to introduce myself, things must have gotten away from me. My name is Jack and may I say it is a pleasure to meet you both today.” He paused as he looked back towards the building behind him, “If only I could say the same for another pony I met a few minutes ago.”

Bon-Bon looked at his confused but Lyra was already asking the question that was on the earth pony’s mind, “Why the sudden change of mood? Something happen in that hotel?”

“Yes, unfortunately. You see I am looking for a place to stay in town so that I can continue to get my wings treated at the hospital but I am having an issue with that.”

“Well, it says the hotel has a vacancy.” Lyra supplied.

“Apparently such a vacancy can’t be filled by a gryphon though, despite the fact that I know that the room could easily fit me.” This got a glance from Lyra, “I grew up with several brothers, one learns how to be flexible.”

Bon-Bon spoke up “That isn’t fair, you shouldn’t be put out merely because of what you are.” Lyra would have supplied something as well had her face not suddenly lit up.

“We still have the guest room right Bon-Bon?” When she recieved a smile and a nod in return she turned to the gryphon, “You could bunk with us Jack, I’m sure that Bon-Bon would like someone to talk to when I’m out performing at events.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.” Jack said as he looked at the two mares.

“You wouldn’t be, you’ll pay a slightly discounted price and you can assist with the chores,” Bon-Bon supplied, “Besides we can’t have an injured gryphon such as yourself all alone.”

Jack shrugged and was soon being led to the house by the mares, each with a smile on their face. The chivalrous predator thought he saw the two mares kissing before Bon-Bon fell back slightly to walk next to the gryphon as Lyra continued on ahead. The mint green found getting through the tightly back streets much easier and noticed that they were separating to either side of the street to avoid the carnivore. Bon-Bon smiled and Lyra flashed a grin over her shoulder.

“Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be a good year.” Jack said to himself with a smile as the trio walked away down the road to the building where the gryphon would be staying for as long as it took for his wings to heal.