"Look'it here boys! We got ourselves a stray dog!"

Looking up at the gryphon who said that I saw that it was a near splitting image of Robin Hood but with the exception that it was a gryphon instead of a human, he looked ragged and war-torn, scars that can be visibly seen from where I am standing and also he smells like a god damn brewery. He was wearing a red pointed cap with a silver feather sticking out from the back and strewn across his chest was a leather strap holding a sword close to his side along with a quiver full of sharpened arrows.

Glancing around I saw more gryphons steadily appearing from out of the woodwork and I realized that not only was he not alone but this guy brought with him enough friends to overpower and overwhelm our little party.

Each gryphon had a red feathered cap on their heads but their feathers were brown instead of silver, my guess is that it signifies their rank or just that they are mere bandits compared to their leader. I spotted a few more slender and fragile looking gryphons among the lot that showed up but for the most part, most of them looked burly and thick, strong enough to possibly overwhelm me and hold me down while the rest flooded the camp and captured the rest of our little group.

Raising my arms up and my hands open in a sign of surrender I gazed at each individual member of the bandit raiding party and each one had a bow in their talons and some form of melee weapon attached to their side, a few had hatchets and hand-axes, others had daggers and small curved blades, I even saw one with a mace attached to a slender hen's hip.

"So what brings a furless pup like you to our neck o' the woods?" The large bandit leader said as he puts another arrow on the line and aims it right at me, more than likely going to skewer me if I say the wrong thing.

"I am guiding a group of griffins through the woods to Griffonstone."

"Griffonstone eh, and a group you say? Well, then I guess me boys n girls gotta help ye escort dem happy travelers out, right gang?" The head bandit said as he crew cheered out loud, signaling my group that they are not alone and that they are mere seconds away from being ambushed and captured.

Again.

Shaking my head and my hands to try and tell him no that we needed no help I watched as twelve griffins take off from the trees they were standing in and flew past me, heading straight for the camp behind me.

"Now wait for a second! We don't need any-" I attempted to call them off but sadly it did nothing for my cause.

As soon as the first batch of gryphons left their trees and flew behind me I tried to speak out against this course of action but one of the gryphons that flew behind me came back and bashed me in the back of the head with something. I don't know what hit me but all I felt was a flat sharp pain to the back of my head that was quickly followed by me blacking out.

Times Captured: 1 2

Some time later

Throbbing pain was the first thing to greet me when I crawled back to consciousness, darkness was a close second that was immediately followed by even more darkness but this was due to the feeling of a blindfold wrapped around my eyes.

Trying to push myself up I was unable to because I was stuck on my side and that my wrists and ankles were bound and that I was underneath several griffins that were on top of me.

I was expecting those bandits to have me gagged as well but luckily for me, they didn't.

Too damn bad that it doesn't matter because I am under a mountain of disgruntled and angry griffins.

'I swear to god if these fat fucks don't get off of me I am going to fucking kill them all! Lose some weight you overgrown turkeys!'

Grunting in anger I struggled to move underneath the collective weight of at least five griffins and after what feels like an hour of struggling and wiggling I eventually managed to worm my way out from under the princess's honor guards.

Only to alert the bandit on guard duty to my struggling to my presence.

"I see the princess's little guide is awake, good. Bring him to the boss, he would love a word with our friend." I heard a feminine voice from my front before being poked in the forehead with her talon as I heard the sound of shuffling paws and talons clicking on what appears to be a wooden floor just as a pair of thick talons grab me by the shoulders and hoisted me up onto my feet.

Once I was back up I was then dragged out from the pile of captured gryphons before being dragged out of the room and down a hall that was also made of wood, wherever I am currently being held it surely isn't underground, or if it is they sure as shit did their best to make it feel more like home.

Being dragged through several hallways I kept my mouth shut as to not agitate or anger my captors, I rather not get shanked in the gut and be left to die or worse tortured to death by a band of bandits.

"So why do ya think te boss would want to do with hairless runt? Poor bastard already lost his fur an tail, what use is he to us?" The male bandit said as he poked my hairless neck with a talon.

"Boss said he found that shiny golden treasure in this one's bag along with a myriad of other nice things. My guess he wants him to tell the boss where the stash of treasure or else he will cut off his balls." The female said and for that moment I crossed my legs, the mere mention and now thought of my balls being lopped off made me cringe in fear.

"Hehe he, yeah, neuter him as well as humiliate him if he doesn't talk! If he keeps being stupid then we will just feed him to the manticore!"

With the threat of losing my balls and quite possibly my manhood before getting killed, I tried my best to not show any signs of fear...

...but I caved in like a bitch and whimpered.

If I ever lost my balls then there is no point for me to live.

Plain and simple.

If I can't ever have children and continue my legacy, then there is simply no reason to exist. Sure if I ever have any children here it might either be well...well I know it sure as hell won't be human, that much I know. But then again if it is just a full-bred of the mother then I guess I can live with that, I just will be learning to deal with whatever species they are and what they are like as a little infant.

Or I can just go celibate and never have sex ever again...

...fuck that.

But the two carrying me heard my whimper of fear and stopped to look at me or more importantly to laugh at my fear.

"Seems like the dog understands what will happen if he fails to tell us where the loot is! Better be a good little runt or else we will just discard you like what your parents did with ya!" Ouch, my parents did not abandon me! They just merely did a piss poor job paying me any attention, thank the gods that my grandparents were so good at spoiling me with affection and attention.

The pair started to laugh as they went back to dragging me through the halls, eventually, they stopped just as a pair of wooden doors opened up and before I could think about what I am about to witness, I get thrown in just as the gryphons closed the doors.

Assuming that I was alone I quickly rolled over and sat up, my wrists were in front of me and I immediately began to nibble and gnaw on the rope, loosening it up until finally, it got loose enough for me to wriggle my hands out from the rope.

With that out of the way I then proceeded to undo the knot around my ankles before quickly taking off the blindfold that was tied a little too tightly around my eyes, but as soon as I did I came to regret it.

Sitting and lounging all around me was seven griffins, five of them were the same bandits that flew by me, the griffin princess here as well but she had a collar around her neck and she was chained to a desk while the seventh griffin was the head honcho himself.

This motherfucker is big, and I mean really big, he easily is the biggest fucking gryphon I have ever seen or ever will see, he easily tops at least six feet tall, when standing on his four legs, taller if it was his hind ones, and just sitting down he would come up to my chin if he sat on his ass. This griffin had deep brown feathers adorning his body, I would say that he looks this color because he slipped into a septic tank full of shit but I would never say that out of risk for my life and also my balls being chopped off with a rusty fish scaling knife. From the brown feathers covering him from neck to tail, the ones on his head are silvery in color with some white portions sprouting out, the color combinations are strange, to say the least, but I am keeping my mouth shut on this one.

And to top it off this guy was wearing some fancy ass clothes, a first for me cause everyone here besides the occasional bandolier from the bandits earlier, the vests that diamond dogs wear, the gryphon princess and her dirty and possibly ruined dress and myself, everyone else is stark naked...why am I just noticing this just now?

But back to the current topic, this gryphon's clothing, or fancy vest for that matter, is puffy looking like something out of a Shakespeare play and boy does this thing look like it has been embroidered all to hell, I can see the gold colored thread from where I am standing and it is shiny as fuck. He also appears to be wearing gloves but that seems a bit...useless? Wouldn't his talons just tear right through that fancy fabric and leave them ruined, or does he just keep a bunch of them stockpiled in that desk of his so in the event he ruins a pair he can just pull out some new one's.

When I finally noticed that he was waiting for me to stop appraising his appearance he clapped his gloved talons together as he sat straighter before starting off by opening his beak and talking in an eloquent and well-educated tone.

"I am terribly sorry for the way my employees have treated you but it is sadly necessary to bring you before me and in a timely manner no less. I hope they haven't injured you too badly when they found you let alone injured your companions upon retrieval." Placing his talons on top of the table, each individual talon interlocking with its opposite I watched as he stares at me with a trained eye, reading my every detail and taking it all in, as if I was some piece of meat.

Stretching before my captor and his henchmen I felt my spine pop in quite a few places and as that happened I saw out from the cracks of my eyes that the head honcho winced ever so slightly from each pop and when I was done I can see that he does not like that at all.

Good to know.

"Other than a mildly annoying headache and throbbing pain in the back of my head, nothing to truly complain about. But was the ambush and kidnapping truly necessary?" I asked as I rubbed at the soreness around my wrists, my eyes not leaving the big bird for even a moment.

"Unfortunately it was necessary my boy, cause you see somegriffon in Griffonstone needs our little princess out of the picture for a while and I couldn't rightfully fail my friend so I took the necessary actions to stall her progress back home and seeing how you were guiding her back home I had to stop you as well." The head honcho said as he reached under the table and grabbed a bottle of what looks to be red wine and placed it on the table before reaching back down to grab two silver chalices.

Removing the cork from the wine bottle he let it breathe for a few seconds before pouring it into both chalices, and almost on queue he placed one on the opposite side of the table before grasping his own and raised it half way to his beak.

Giving me a stare that just shouts 'take the chalice' I did as I was silently instructed and walked up to the table and grabbed the chalice and I must say I am thoroughly surprised by the recent turn of events. A classy noble from Griffonstone staying out here in the middle of the forest at the bottom of the mountain city, surrounded by his hired bandits, and that he is offering me a glass of red wine.

What can possibly go wrong with this situation?

"Can I make an educated guess as to why you had to stop us?" I said as gave the chalice a whiff, praying to the gods old and new that this wasn't poisoned beforehand but to my fortune, it wasn't so I took a sip. Just a sip to make him feel better along with me getting a bit of liquid courage inside of me.

"You may Mr...?" The griffin said as he rolled his right talon at me, his left balancing the chalice as he takes another sip.

"Wilkinson."

"Odd sire name but I am not one to judge, Mr. Wilkinson, you may begin to guess."

"You are stopping us from returning to Griffonstone within the allotted timetable because if the princess does not return home soon then the nobles up there will call for a vote to remove the king from power and either install someone else to be their figurehead and puppet or that the top wealthy nobles will be put in charge of the entire nation?" I said as I took another sip from the chalice, the fruity flavor of it caught my attention but for the time being, I was watching the gryphons to see what their reactions are.

And to say that they are caught off guard is something I was completely expecting. I played enough Civilization games to know what to expect from sneaky backstabbing nobles, especially those that employ the scum of the planet to do their dirty work.

"Hmm...you are smarter than you look for a diamond dog. Tell me, which clan do you hail from?" The gryphon said after glancing at the goons around the room, apparently, he doesn't like it that I am smart enough to figure out his plans.

"I come from no clan nor do I hail from any of their shitty shanties they call warrens," I said as I tell the gryphon lord that I am not from any clan or anything originating from the diamond dog race.

"So you are clanless...interesting. Were you guiding them because of a promise of payment?" I only had to nod as he brought a talon to his beak as he rubbed it slowly, contemplating something.

"Yes, although they didn't specify how much I would receive at the end of all this." And I sure as hell hope that I do get paid for my services.

"Hmm, I do believe fair compensation should be given to you for delaying your duty. Undertalon, give our friend here his fair pay, he deserves it after all for leading them half way to their destination, and if from what our little princess said is true, also rescued them from a diamond dog clan while a batch of Equestria's finest laid siege to the same warrens you were fleeing from." The head honcho said as he raised a hand to the one griffin called 'Undertalon', don't know why that is their name but eh, bandits probably needed codename to conceal their true identities.

But anyways the one designated as 'Undertalon' was actually the only female bandit in the room and when she got up she grumbled about being disturbed during her relaxation break but when she glanced back towards her boss she received a chilling questioning stare that quickly straightened her out as she walked over to the table and grabbed an innocuous sack off of it before walking over to me and threw it right at my chest.

Glaring at the hen I look at the sack in my hands and ever so cautiously I undo the weak rope knot holding it closed and as soon as I opened it all I saw was the glittery goodness that was a bag full of gold coins.

Is this truly the world's currency? Gold coins? Cause shit man if that is the case then this fucking planet is just filled with gold, if not then my ass is just getting lucky on these jobs. First Diamond Dog Alpha Thane paying me handsomely to tutor his son, now this? At this rate, I can live the American Dream and be a lazy fucker for the rest of my life!

"Now onto much more pressing matters."

"And that would be...what exactly Mr...?"

"All you need to know is that my name is Tazul and that is where the matter drops for my name. But back to what I was saying, the more pressing matter is that for several years the griffins of Griffonstone has been making several attempts to retrieve the Idol of Boreas and all of them ended in complete and utter failure at the cost of several dozen griffin lives. And yet sitting before me is the very idol that our ancestors treasured with their very lives because it granted their kingdom the power and pride it needed to keep it running." And that was when Tazul looked right into my eyes before smiling with that chipped beak of his.

"And it is all thanks to an outsider like you. Time and time again I have tried to tell others that outsiders have their uses within gryphon society, everyone has a place somewhere within the status quo be it working for the wealthy, for the public or for whoever has the coin for it, outsiders can be a great boon unto us all and yet those arrogant bastards had the gall to dismiss my claim and remove me from the senate! They said that outsiders are nothing but trouble, vagabonds, and liars, whores, and thieves the lot of you, but even without outsiders involved our own people became those very things they feared. Yet today it proves that you are not those terrible things, no you did the one thing that no griffin was ever capable of doing."

"You had the balls to actually climb down into the abyss instead of flying in and you saved the idol from falling any deeper and being lost forever to the darkness below. You did the one thing everyone on the planet thought was impossible and for that, you have my thanks and my gratitude." Tazul said while giving me an overly exaggerated bow, to the rest of his companions this was new to them and they just watched as to what he will do next but when he was done bowing he sat up straight before nodding to Undertalon again but this time she was holding what looks like a rod with a chunk of glowing blue crystal the size of my fist and it was glowing dully at the moment.

Without any hesitation the hen thrust the wand right at me, or more specifically at my leg and when it didn't glow at all she started to wave it around my legs, my torso and when she couldn't reach my head and arms she flapped her wings to do so and when the same result came up she just looked over at her boss and shrugged before landing.

"Strange...normally the magic detector would be glowing a brown hue if you were a diamond dog or an emerald hue for a changeling, yet you glowed neither and nothing at all...who are you and what are you for that matter?" Tazul stutters out as the rest of the griffins in the room, princess excluded, recoiled away from me as I just stood there with my gold in my hands.

Turns out in this world the only things that should have no magic inside them whatsoever are the dead, rocks and water. That's it, nothing else should be magicless, all things living have magic inside them due to their magical core aka their heart or spirit or something, while the undead is just saturated in magic so if that was drained then it will just be a corpse all over again.

But for me? Turns out that I have no magic core, which also means that I can not cast magic nor can magic be used on me. So that explains why the pony princess's spell didn't do jack shit to me but make my shit blue and smell like blueberries.

And I guess that also somewhat proves that one theory of mine, with me having no magic to call upon, the world is granting me a mulligan by making my body steadily stronger than it should be. Now if only it granted me eternal youth, immortality, and a big dick...can't really go wrong with having a bigger dick, unless of course, the universe fucks me over by making it so large that just getting an erection will kill me.

Now that is an ironic way to die, wishing to have a larger schlong only to have said schlong be your cause of death. I don't want that to be on my tombstone 'Death by Erection', the dead will never let me forget it.

"Well Mr. Tazul, I am not from this plane of existence for starters, I came here against my free will by some sort of higher power and as to what I am, I am human and I still got a job to finish," I said as I shifted my weight onto my right foot as I tied the gold sack around my belt on my pants.

I would be really pissed if I lost my belt or my sack of gold...not both because without my belt my pants will most likely drop and without my gold I will be slightly poorer than I already am.

"Ah! Yes, that job...from our illustrious princess she said that you were supposed to find the Idol of Boreas and deliver it back into the hands of our king...I will allow you to complete your job without delay."

"And what about the princess? I took her request because it was convenient at the time and that we were both heading in the same direction."

"Sorry, Mr. Wilkinson but she must stay with me for a little bit longer. She and I have a few things to discuss and you must be going to deliver the idol back to the king. I bet he would be most thrilled to see his precious relic back in his talons again." And just like that the same griffin who scanned me not even a minute ago walked over to the table, grabbed the idol that was sitting there and put it in my hands before going back to her spot on the sofa and laid back down.

I looked down at the bag of gold in my left hand and the sacred relic in my right and all I could think about was...

"Just like that?"

"Yes, just like that. You were hired by a griffin to get that artifact back to its rightful owner, and you did the impossible to retrieve it so I firmly think that you should be the one to do it. And besides, I am more than positive that the citizens up there would just love to see the hero come back triumphantly after taking a dive into what they all thought was a suicidal mission." Mr. Tazul said as he finished the last of his wine as he placed the empty chalice onto the table, with me still having well over half still in mine.

Swirling the chalice a few times before downing what was left in my cup and with a shiver as the overpowering taste was forced down, I placed the cup on the table before looking the idol over to make sure it wasn't damaged or scratched during the ambush.

Turns out this thing is in perfect condition but now it is as light as it can possibly get, at least half a pound to me but in actuality, it must be at least several dozen pounds of gold.

"So if I am allowed to leave, can I take my dog friend with me? I rather leave this place...wherever this place is, with a friend so I don't make the journey back alone."

"You would rather leave with someone instead of being alone? Afraid that one of my trusted employees will follow you out and as soon as you let your guard down they will just swoop down and take back the gold and idol from your grasp?"

"Yes."

"Oh, your words wound me!"

"It is not that I don't trust you, its that I don't trust your employees. Bandits tend to care more about gold and their own wellbeing over the wellbeing of those around them or those that hire them."

"Hmm, I see what you mean...although I cannot guarantee that they won't bother you as soon s you leave, I can assure you that they won't be any hindrance to you as you leave my compound. And as for you leaving with your friend...you may, but do know that I am only going to leave you with what you came here with, so do be a good sport and not tell any of the griffins up the mountain of our little business deal hmm? And I shall call us even, wouldn't you agree?"

"Agreed," I said, shaking his hand as he signaled one of the gryphons, Undertalon again, to lead me back to my friend and to get my belongings from their loot room or wherever they threw my crap.

Following the bandit hen out from the office I heard faint whispers coming from Mr. Tazul and some of his cronies, and I can only suspect that they are going to rob me right after I leave. I better get the hell out of here as fast as I can with both my acquired loot and with my buddy in crime Scrawny.

Walking down the hall I followed somewhat behind the hen, my eyes being lured not to the female in front of me but to the surrounding halls, trying to remember anything to off in the event if I ever get dragged back here again. I rather remember my surroundings then get stuck in a corner because my eyes were glued to a sweet piece of ass.

I learned that lesson not too long ago from the griffin princess, no way in hell am I going to fall for that ever again!

"*cough*" Undertalon coughed for my attention and as I looked back at her I saw that she was standing beside the door to some room and as I returned my gaze to hers, all she could do was shake her head at me before muttering 'males' while I muttered 'women' loud enough for her to hear. I swear it's like I either get yelled at for having my mind wander off to Gutterville cause my spank bank is there or I get yelled at just for glancing in their general direction. I just can't win when it comes to the opposite sex, what do I have to do? Slay a dragon? Give a demon lord the middle finger? Set fire to a child's birthday present before their very eyes? Play chess with Death and Satan at the same time while having an arm-wrestling contest with Jesus?

Play Chutes and Ladders with Hitler?

Whatever I have to do to get into a girl's good graces, it will forever elude me and it will never happen, I very well may be forever alone on an alien world where the thing that closely resembles a human is a bipedal dog that doesn't know the concept of a bath nor good hygiene.

Opening the door to the room before her I peered inside to see that there was my backpack again, but this time there was three griffins fighting over it, almost ripping the damn thing to pieces as I heard the stitching in the arms start to come undone.

Rushing into the room I immediately cracked the gryphon that was holding onto the right arm strap upside the head with the idol, the resulting clang that reverberated from the metal object along with it ringing off his skull can be clearly heard by everyone in the room as the gryphon holding onto the left immediately let his side go out of fear of getting clocked next while the one holding onto the middle strap on top of the backpack pulled himself away from the other two, with my backpack in tow.

Watching the third gryphon retreat I climbed over the table they were fighting at and immediately pounced on top of him, with the idol raised over my head I brought it down with a hard enough force that it broke the helmet the gryphon was wearing and rendered the poor bastard unconscious as he dropped my backpack onto the floor with all of my belongings still inside of it.

"What the flying fuck are ye doing you daft bastard!"

"Getting my shit back, what does it look like I am doing you petty purse cutter."

"It looks like you just attacked two of me friends for no reason!"

"Well your 'friends' almost ruined my backpack and you should be glad that only two of them are unconscious instead of all three and that they still are breathing. Back home we either lock up our thieves, cut off their hands or execute them, so be happy that I don't employ those methods against them." I said as I checked the stitching on the arms and I saw that they are damaged but if I could find a tailor or a seamstress back in Griffonstone then possibly they could repair the damages that have been made.

"You're an arsehole, you know that right?"

"Oh yeah, I do know. And I don't give a fuck about what you think about me." I grinned at the angry looking bandit hen as her still conscious friend is just staring at me, unsure of what to do and unsure if he should try to fight me for the backpack or to stay the hell away from me.

With my backpack back in my possession I checked its contents to see if anyone had dared to remove anything and to my surprise, nothing was gone. I would have figured that these griffins being bandits that they would have dumped everything out onto the table and fight over it as if they are the last scraps of food.

"Now then, Undertalon, I do believe that we have a certain diamond dog to release from your holding cells if I am not correct?" I asked as I walked out of the room with my backpack hanging off from my left shoulder as I held onto the idol with my right hand.

"Yeah, yeah, keep yer breeches on...bloody two-legged walker..." Jesus, did someone piss in her cornflakes this morning? Why the fuck is she such a god damn grouch?

Grumbling angry obscurities to herself, I waited for my obviously pissed off guide to get us back on track and the moment we re-entered the hall we immediately went straight to the holding cells, which just so happen to be a lovely five-minute walk from our last stop.

Turns out the holding cells that Mr. Tazul owns are a hell of a lot better and cleaner than the holding cells that the diamond dogs have. Other than being cleaner, nicer looking and also has a nice view of the outside world through iron bars, its only downside is that it still doesn't have any beds for people to sleep in.

I guess beds are considered a luxury here in this world, and if so then fuck that noise.

The angry hen knocked on the door to the cells and for a moment it was quiet but that was broken when a small window on the door slid open to reveal a pair of beady eyes for a good two seconds before it closed itself and the door opened up, a better security system than the ones the dogs have.

A solid door vs a door with a private sliding window to see who is on the other side, genius.

"Undertalon, escorting the shaved mutt back to his cell I take it?" The griffin that was on guard duty, an average looking one if I can be perfectly honest with myself, he had greyish-white fur on his head and neck and for the rest of his body was a chestnut brown. Fairly typical gryphon colors if my brief time in Griffonstone was anything to go by.

"No, the boss said to let this pup go along with the other one," Undertalon said as she walks by the gryphon, said gryphon just shrugs his shoulders and goes back to watching the royal guards who are still sitting where they were when I left. Seems like they haven't tried to escape or even formulate a plan to get out from their bonds.

"Lemme guess, he decided to hire these two as goons?"

"Nope, he is lettin' em go free."

"What! Why the hell would he do that? Has he finally gone senile-" The griffin was going on a tirade but before he could go any further the hen pulled a knife out from under her wing and pressed it against his throat and held it there as she glared harshly at him. I just stood there watching the spectacle unfold and I must say that I am impressed with how quickly that girl went to defend her boss's honor.

The two must be hitting it off when no one is around to witness their escapades.

As I stood there and watched the two griffons yell at each other while one was holding a sharp knife to the other's throat, I was busy wondering if one of them is going to get shanked right before my eyes.

I mean it wouldn't bother me anyways but I sort of need to get my friend out from the prison cell and also get us back home to Griffonstone.

"I swear if you ever talk about Mr. Tazul like that ever again, I'll personally make sure that your corpse is fed to the manticores! Do I make myself clear Twiddly?" Undertalon snarled out while moving the knife steadily away from the scared griffon's throat, the griffon in question slid down the wall, his right talon clutching at his throat in fear, now clearly afraid of his own comrade and afraid that he might have gotten himself into deep trouble with the boss.

"Now, get off your fat ass and open the prison cell, that diamond dog is free to go." The hen said as she sheathed her knife back into its small holster and as she did so I watched the one named Twiddly scurry over to the iron-barred door and opened it, grabbing my scared friend in the process before coming back out and pushing him into my direction.

"There, happy now Undertalon? Can I now go back to doing nothing or are you going to pester me some more?" Twiddly said and to his relief the hen gave him a nod before leading both myself and Scrawny out the door and back into the hal before leading us to the main doors leading out into the forest.

When we arrived to the front doors there was no one waiting for us nor was their anyone on the outside when the grumpy hen opened the doors and pushed us outside. I do now know where we are nor do I know where exactly we have been taken, but from where we are standing it is at the bottom of the mountain where Griffonstone is located. We were moved closer to home then I had expected and for that I count my blessings.

Signalling Scrawny to follow me I led him around the mountain, crossing the forest that just so happened to be on the west side of the mountain and as we kept on walking we saw that we were making progress on our journey back home, the trees were starting to thin out and the grass was now appearing either dead, dying or was no longer existent and is just a patch of sunbaked dirt.

As we kept on walking I started to remember pieces of the scenery, a field of yellow dead grass, gnarled dead trees that have fallen to the ground, cracked dirt that have been baked by the sun.

We have found where I have first entered this world.

Walking further we foud the exact spot where I woke up, hell I even apparently left an indent on the dead grass.

Getting closer to the spot I saw that there was a black bar on the grass and as I reach down to grab it I recognize its shape long before I could pick it up off the ground. It was my old scouting knife that I used to cut open boxes and whittle wood down during long hours of boredom. Flipping the blade open I saw that it was still sharp and it didn't have any knicks or cuts on it, seems odd because I never bothered to fix it with a whetstone before.

Holding the pocket knife once more I gave it a good once over before placing it in my right pocket before getting back to my feet and went back to walking through the field of dead grass and eventually, I found the broken cobblestone road leading to Griffonstone.

"We are almost there Scrawny, just this one final walk up the mountainside and we are finally home free." I said as I wipe my brow of sweat, my hair is matted to my forehead as the sun finally decides to crank up the heat.

Looking over at Scrawny I can see his inner dog being let out as he starts to pant and let out a happy bark before going back to letting his tongue flop out the side of his mouth, his tail wagging in joy and the two of us started our hike up the mountain, for me once more but for him it was his first time.

The walk up the mountain was just as brutal as it was the first time, and with the boiling sun now overhead it was even more unforgiving. Putting one foot in front of the other the two of us kept on trudging up along the path, crossing passing griffons that are either getting on with their day or are just coming home from their jobs, whatever that may be.

But as we kept on walking we started to hear whispers and loud chatter from the passing griffons and for a moment I thought it was that it was Scrawny following me or maybe they thought it was two diamond dogs coming into town, later did I realize it was because I was carrying the Idol of Boreas in the open.

The griffons were pointing at me and were speaking to one another in a hushed tone, trying hard not to let me hear them but I heard bits and pieces of their conversations and I must say that being the center of their gossip isn't really what I would call nice nor would I call it good, who the hell knows if they are saying that I am a hero for rescuing the idol or a thief for stealing it.

Walking up the road we slowly made our way upwards and eventually we reached the front gate of Griffonstone and much to my surprise and Scrawny's as well, there was a mob of griffons waiting for us at the gates, and they were talking loudly between each other until they caught sight of us both.

Then they started to cheer.

I guess news does travel fast from the base of the mountain to the top, I can only hope this is good cheering and not the type of cheering that becomes an angry mob with pitchforks and torches.

Looking at Scrawny I can tell that this is disturbing him as his ears have folded to the back of his head and his tail went between his legs so I do the only thing I can possibly think of in a situation like this.

I raised the Idol of Boreas over my head and the griffons all broke out into a thundering applause of cheering.

Everything was going great for me that day.

That is...

...until I got tackled into the fucking ground by twelve pissed off royal guards.

Times Captured: 2 3

Bad News: I am sick with the flu and my body feels like shit and my throat is ragged.