Getting tackled into the ground by twelve fully armored, heavy-weight griffons is one thing, but to have twelve of them tackle you into the fucking ground the same way a NFL Linebacker grinds the one dude carrying the football into the dirt, it really leaves a mark on you that you can't quite wash out with hot water and a squirt of Oxy-Clean.

With my face being pushed into the cobblestone road I felt several spears poking my neck, back, arms and legs while the griffons that were on top of me slowly getting up, making sure that I am not going anywhere and with an angry glare I stare deep into the soul of one such guard and he just snorted before reaching down and grabbing the Idol of Boreas from the floor and placed it into a burlap sack before moving onto my backpack that was stripped from me.

Seeing my neck being pressed on by a heavily-armored talon, I dared not to move unless I wanted to invite pain from the royal guards and I didn't so I did what I was told and not moved a single muscle. If I know my police like I think I do, as long as I don't do anything too stupid or unreasonable then the ass-whooping that I will receive will be reduced tremendously...so as long as these are lawful law enforcement guards, otherwise my ass is fucked and I am on my way to Pound Town.

I didn't do anything as I let the royal griffon guards poke and prod me with their spears and talons and as soon as they were satisfied they pulled me off the ground, placed heavy-iron wrist-clamps and led my disgruntled ass along with Scrawny, who has been muzzled, had his wrists bound and was being led behind me.

"Can't fucking believe this shit..." I muttered to myself but to the griffon in iron platemail heard my muttering and stopped the entire column just to hit me in the gut with the pole of his spear.

"Be quiet you stupid mutt! You will only talk when spoken to! Do you understand maggot!" The royal guard shouted in my face, spittle flew and splattered everywhere and for the record, I did not shout 'Fuck the Police' before head-butting the bastard, I instead nodded slowly to the bastard before I resumed going forward.

There are times and places for such thing but when I am already captured and placed into a position where I can't even defend myself, it isn't in my best interest to anger the special police force and get killed.

I may have just rescued the idol from certain doom of being lost to the darkness of the abyss for the foreseeable future, and I may have just left their princess in the hands of a corrupt politician, but for the time being I rescued the idol and that is all that should matter to these griffons.

Sheesh they should be giving me a god damn hero's welcome! Yet here I am being led away in chains, my stomach is sore from that spear and my body is aching from the tackle.

Today is not a good day for me.

As I am being led away I can see griffons actually trying to get my attention, almost all of them trying to reach out to me but for what purpose? I don't know and I can only hope that they want to shake my hand for retrieving the idol and not to claw my eyes out for being a thief who 'stole' the idol.

Shuffling my foot in front of the other I slowly yet steadily made my way down the main road towards what I can only assume is the royal castle that the griffon king resides in, but as I shuffled my sad ass what must be my way off this mortal coil, there was a commotion to my right that catches my attention, along with the attention of my would-be executors.

Looking at the source of the commotion I saw a few griffons push and shove the ones in the front out of the way and as I saw the griffons doing the pushing I immediately recognized the two who cleared a path for the third griffon.

"Just what in the hell do you think you are doing!" The elderly griffon said as he slowly made his way up to the royal guard that was in front of him, I was busy trying to signal him to not do anything stupid but due to my current state of being chained up, it had little to no effect.

"Get back behind the line you old fool!" The royal guard said and for a moment I thought he was going to strike the old griffon down but when he didn't I could only let a sigh of relief out before being pushed by a guard from behind to keep on walking.

"I would watch your tone if I was you sonny, if you talk to me like that again I will put you in your place." The old griffon said and for a moment I couldn't help but mentally face palm at the bold audacity of talking in a such a manner to a royal guard.

I mean seriously, if you are an old fart, would you be talking shit to a guard who is armored enough to not even feel a shriveled up and hitting you? And to top it off said guard is armed and is more than likely to kill you if you so much as step out of line?

The royal guard that was to my right, finally had enough of the elderly griffon and immediately went to knock some sense into him but as I was expecting the old man to get his world rocked by a spear upside the head, I instead witnessed the old fart do something incredible.

I watched as he ducked under the wide swing from the guard, he moved forward fast enough to knock the guard off-balance and before that same guard could recover I saw the old griffon grab the spear that was in his talons and removed it from his grip. With the spear now being held by the old griffon I waited patiently for him to either impale the guard with it or to bring it to his throat as a warning to not mock his age, or he could just be sagely and give it back as a warning.

No, instead I watched this old griffon sweep the legs out from underneath the royal guard, whack him upside the helmet before hitting him in the balls with the other end of the spear to further humiliate him.

Now that is one badass grandpa, has wisdom and can kick a royal guard's ass in mere seconds.

"Now then, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, let the two pups go. They are in my employment." The old griffon said with a thin smile on his beak, it took me a while to figure out and piece it together to know who was talking, but as soon as my brain stopped getting clogged with confusion blobs, it spun into high gear as a face and a name came together for the old griffon that saved my ass.

"Grandpa Gruff?" I muttered out, I was astounded that he was here let alone coming to my defense.

"Aye, it is me youngling. I see you got yourself into a bit of a pickle here." Grandpa Gruff said as he eyed the guards with his one good eye.

"You could say that, I mean all I did was return the Idol of Boreas back to Griffonstone and in return I get tackled by these assholes. I mean is this what griffons do to people that go out of their way to retrieve their long lost relic from a bottomless pit? We do something good for you and we get roughed up for our troubles?" I said as I tugged at the bindings, it was starting to chaff and it was beginning to annoy the hell out of me.

"Wait...did you really retrieve the idol?" Grandpa Gruff gasped out loud, apparently he was ready to believe that I had failed in my quest.

Jokes on him, I succeeded.

"Yeah, I did, but the dickhead up front leading this shame parade has it now." I grunted as I tried to get my hands out of the shackles but all it did was rattle the chains, the royal guard on my left was about to smack me upside the head with a spear but he thought against it when he saw what happened to the guard that was on my right and withheld on giving me a whack.

Grandpa Gruff put a talon to his beak, rubbing it in a thoughtful motion for a moment before grinning widely at me before slowly walking with a bit of a hobble towards the leader of the shame train. I know that he is a retired badass but even I have to worry that he might pull something and get himself killed along with myself and his two grandsons in the process.

Turning my head to look at the guard on my left, I can see that under that armored beaked helmet of his I can clearly see that he is bored out of his mind, either that is because he had something better to do, or that he was off-duty and was called in to apprehend me, or that he was already bored to begin with because he was standing watch over a hallway or something.

Nudging him in the wing with an elbow I waited for him to say something or to even acknowledge my attempt at communicating with him and when I thought he wasn't interested he nudged me back, an eye was looking at me in a bored manner, guess I was right about him being bored at this moment.

"What do you want mutt? Can't you see I am trying to not fall asleep here?" The royal guard said in a bored tone, his voice says it all, he is young, probably his first real bit of action since joining the royal guards and much to his dismay it wasn't even called for and that it was just a false alarm. It may have even been his first day on the job to begin with, which would make it even more demoralizing to him.

"I'm just checking to see if you were still alive, I can't imagine this is very entertaining for you, right?"

"Yup, just wish I was called in to escort the princess to the palace, but sadly that isn't the case." The griffon said before letting out a yawn, my guess that he is bored out of his mind is correct.

"First day on the job?"

"You can say that...just wish I wasn't given the post of the eastern halls. Nothing ever happens there."

"I can imagine, I was just an adventurer who was wandering around until I pulled a job from that old griffon over there. I thought it would be another easy job and easy coin but...I guess nothing is easy when it comes to ancient relics and backstabbing nobles is there?"

"Eeyup...wait...what do you mean by backstabbing nobles?" The griffon guard asked me as I went back to watching the griffons up front squabble even more.

"Well you know how it is, all the nobles are only out for themselves, they can care less about the common griffon and those that they employee into their service. If a noble can come out ahead and hurt another's reputation, they would do it." That and I have an inkling of memories about European history, that shit is violent when it came to nobility and royalty.

"Yeah I know that much, but what do you mean backstabbing? Ever since the damn beast came in and stole the idol, the nobles have been quiet and have been keeping to themselves, even more violent houses have been silent."

"You do know that it is only a matter of time before they go back to it, they always do." I said as shifted my weight to my left foot, trying to keep my legs from crapping out on me so I decided to put my weight on one foot before shifting it to the other.

"You can say that again..." The griffon guard said again but this time he started to lean against his spear, clearly bored and is now trying to get some shuteye.

As he was doing that I was watching Grandpa Gruff talk it out with the leader and from here all I can hear is mad squawking and angry gestures being made but from what I can tell from here, he is doing either a really good job in getting me out from these shackles, or is about to get himself put into a pair.

The mad squawking and angry gestures soon enough died down, the two griffons eventually reached an agreement of sorts as I watched the two shake talons and for the moment I thought I was about to be released.

But when the leader of the shame parade came back he said that I am to be presented before the king, not in chains but under constant watch by the guards surrounding both myself and Scrawny.

At least I will not be in chains anymore...right?

Turns out I was only partially true, I won't be led away in chains, but Scrawny will still remain in chains but only until after his name is cleared of the crime of stealing from the Griffon Kingdom. I guess being part of the clan that has been robbing the griffons for lord knows how long still leaves a mark against you, sure hope I can fix that.

Feeling the chains and shackles being removed from my neck, wrists and ankles was a great feeling, as if a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders, but the same cannot be said for Scrawny, he was still chained up like a common criminal.

Stalling myself as the rest of the royal griffon guards marched on I stopped beside Scrawny and reassured him that when this is over he will be free from those shackles and be free like I currently am, after all if I am to learn anything about the diamond dogs then I might as well learn it from a source, such as the very person who is one. My reassurance seemed to have the desired effect on him as he brightened up a bit, not as much as I would have liked but it was still enough for him to not be so sad and have a slight pep in his step.

Our escorted walk back to the griffon castle was at least a ten minute stroll, we walked by several large yet slightly ruined manors and mansions that lined the inner section of Griffonstone, my guess is that these must be the noble houses that tend to fuck one another over with their schemes and plots. As I look at each individual building I can tell that they are almost all remotely the same in design and color, the only clear differences that I can tell that separates them are their banners, their sigils on said banners, and also the griffons protecting their homes.

The griffons protecting the noble houses are wearing what looks like chainmail armor with a chainmail mesh protecting their heads, only leaving their face and beaks unshielded from any blows that might come their way, their wings are exposed as well and I could guess that the only reason why they aren't protected is so that they can fly and pursue their prey if they are to spot an enemy of the house approaching or fleeing their estate. Almost all of these guards are either holding a halberd in their talons or had their talons on the hilt of their swords, as if they are expecting a fight to break out at any minute.

Walking past the noble houses I saw that past those was what looks like a church of some sorts, my guess they worship either a god of war or one of flight or something, I don't really know griffons all that well but if I am going on what I have seen so far, they almost remind me of Ishgard from final fantasy xiv, I am just happy that they aren't racist against me and Scrawny, they just seem a tad bit suspicious.

Soon enough we arrived at the main gate to the griffon's royal castle and I must say the brick wall surrounding it makes me feel that if I had to escape for whatever reason, I would either have to find a way to get past the main gate or to jump over the side and risk breaking both of my ankles, but I know I did nothing wrong so I should have nothing to worry about. I mean honestly, who would punish the very person who risked his life to retrieve an ancient artifact from a deep canyon and returned it to its rightful owners? Only an asshole would, and I am praying that this king isn't an asshole.

Because if he is, then I can say that I had a good run and that I should have let myself get captured by those ponies back in the dog warrens.

Going up the steps leading into the main foyer of the griffon castle/palace I looked around at everything that I could see while remaining within the escort's perimeter and I must say that for a bunch of griffons that lost their ancient ass relic that kept everything together for them, this place still looks pretty much intact. Sure everything in here is either covered in dust, cobwebs or both, but it is still intact and not falling over on itself, well maybe some of the things here are falling on themselves such as the old chandelier that is lying in the middle of the foyer.

This being the main foyer it was partially well lit by the numerous torches that are placed along the walls at fair distances from one another, the banner of the royal line is hanging far above them and are displayed in such a manner that the light of the torch illuminates the banner to proudly show off the sigil of the royal house that has been stitched into the purple fabric.

Casting my gaze elsewhere I saw that the royal red carpet that leads straight from the main entrance and probably straight to the throne room at the very end, but seeing how badly things have deteriorated over the past decade or two, or three or more, it looks a bit moth-eaten and mangy to the point where you no amount of washing will get this cleaned up in time for any kind of royal meeting or get-together.

And as for the royal guards that would normally be placed within the foyer to act as the first line of defense? Many of them look like they are just itching for an excuse to impale me as I can both see and feel their glares scanning my body as we walked by them. I guess the thought and then act of a foreign being coming into their city and robbing them blind all the while causing reckless destruction has damaged whatever reputation we had beyond repair and now they are just looking at me and Scrawny with barely held-back contempt and anger.

'Just keep walking, don't stare at the guards, just remember that it was you who recovered the Idol of Boreas from its resting place within the deep abyss that was next to the city, and it was me who went through a lot of bullshit just to get it back up here.'

I had to reassure myself at several points throughout the journey towards the castle and even more times within it as I saw several guards that dot the place stiffen up and get into a slightly threatening stance, their spears leaning in our direction and I know that without a doubt that if I did something or made the wrong move, my life would be over in an instant. I am the outsider here, they hate outsiders because one of them turned out to be a savage beast who robbed them of their priceless relic that made the griffons who they are, and yet here I am, an outsider who just so happened to be returning said relic although they are wary as hell about my mere presence.

Stopping at a set of large double doors, printed into the wood was the royal griffon symbol and for a moment I thought that this was it, that this was going to be my last moment on this planet alive and with my head still attached to my body.

But to my surprise it wasn't my last moment.

Oh no, instead it was how I got even deeper into this crazy mess and how I was pushed even deeper down the proverbial rabbit hole that is this world.

As soon as we stopped at the front doors they were pulled open by the two elite looking guards that was standing by them and out came the most decked out royal I have ever seen besides the Queen of England, long live the queen, but this griffon really takes the cake when it comes to making a royal appearance.

This griffon was completely covered in arctic blueish- dark grey fur and feathers with piercing amber eyes staring right at me, he was wearing his royal crown and was wearing what looks like two different scarfs, one was a darker than his fur color while the other was golden and that it held the same symbol that was planted into the doors and banners. Just looking at the guy makes me realize that not only is this the current king of Griffonstone and quite possibly the entire griffon kingdom, but also is probably the same guy that lost the Idol of Boreas in the first place to the beast that took it.

I bet he must be either happy that the Idol is back in griffon hands, or is just happy that somebody around here had the balls to go spelunking into the chasm that has claimed a couple of lives and left even more ruined because they got hurt in the recovery process.

He stared at me and I returned it with a gaze of my own, and I must say having a standoff with royalty is what few people would ever want, but seeing how that if I am about to die I might as well stare down a king and then get executed, maybe God will then put me in a world that isn't as crazy as this one and actually have women that I wouldn't mind sleeping with, the ones here are either crazy, controlling, or are just plain strange.

"So..." the griffon king said as he took calculated, even steps towards me, his eyes not once leaving mine as I did the same. "You are the diamond dog who retrieved the Idol from the abyss...a diamond dog that was hired by my old advisor Gruff...an outsider by all standards or as standards goes for what the citizenry calls it these days."

"But what confuses me the most is not that he would hire help to retrieve the Idol for the sake of Griffonstone, but that he would hire outside help and a diamond dog no less and that it would be the first outsider that Griffonstone has seen since the Arimaspi arrived and stole it from us. Why would my old advisor do something so bold and so brash without first telling me of his plan to find us help, but knowing him as long as I do, he would more than likely tell me it is for the greater good of Griffonstone and that I should mind my manners and not bother an old codger while he naps."

"And yet there is you, the outsider, the diamond dog who not only brazenly walked into my city, interacted with my citizens as if they were your friends, and even managed to get my old friend to relinquish unto you a weapon and supplies for a trip down the abyss without nary a second thought or of any consequences that might occur. A diamond dog who went out of his way to recover what we hold sacred that we thought was lost for all eternity, and here it is, in your paws, our past, our future, everything that made Griffonstone what it was and it will be till the end of time."

"But I can't help but wonder something...why?"

"Why what? Why did I help you? Why did I take the job that Grandpa Gruff was trying to hand to me?"

"Yes, I want to know why an outsider like you would risk life and limb for the griffons who at the time and from what I can tell from those that I have picked to be in my elite guard, still hate your kind along with those that are not griffons?"

"Well if I am going to be honest, I was doing it for the money and possibly a place to stay."

It got deathly quiet in that moment when I said that, apparently that was something he was not expecting, or if he was then he wasn't expecting me to say it so bluntly and to the point. I mean who in their right mind would be so straight forward and direct when speaking with royalty? Well, apparently me because I give zero fucks and to me I think that the monarchy is a failed system because they always care about themselves instead of actually caring about their citizens because if it wasn't for them then they would have no food to eat and have nobody to protect them from would-be raiders and thieves.

The griffon king straightened himself out before talking again, seems like it took him a few seconds to get over the shock of my bluntness.

"I see, so you are just a wandering mercenary and you managed to find a job here...now tell me though, why did you take the job even when Gruff has told you of the inherent risks of climbing down the abyss to retrieve the Idol?" The king asked me as he started to circle me, looking me over because apparently he doesn't believe that I was able to climb down a mountain to ring back their sacred idol.

"Like I said, I was doing it for the money and a place to stay. Living on the road is bad enough but when the opportunity to get some money and the chance to sleep in a bed for a change." That and if I know anything about dungeons and dragons, living on the road sucks balls due to bandits, wild animals, bad weather, your equipment crapping out on you and quite possibly an angry god throwing lightning around.

"I see..." He does not believe me, typical.

"When I was told that I was going to be climbing down an abyss to retrieve your lost relic, I thought it was just going to be a short journey down into the chasm, I didn't think that it would be so far down into the earth that the ground and walls would be weak and be unable to support me weight let alone that there would be a diamond dog clan taking up residence beside it." That and I still hate how they not once cleaned up the prison cells since I was there, honestly people, dysentery is a terrible to go and I will not have it on my good mind that the griffons that I rescued get killed from that.

I know dysentery sucks ass because I lost a few people to it on the Oregon Trail, may they rest in digital peace.

"There is a diamond dog clan next to my city?" I couldn't help but give him a stare that just screams 'Are you serious?' because what the fuck, how does someone not know that their is an entire clan living pretty much underneath your city? How does it not explain the raids happening all around you?

"Not anymore." I said emotionlessly, I mean I could have but some spirit into it but I just watch a bunch of people that I could have improved and helped to be better than they once were, but now about half of them are imprisoned and the rest have gone into hiding god knows where.

Probably on the other side of the abyss. Maybe.

"What happened?" The king asked me as I looked at his crown, I wonder if I could put that on my head for a day.

"A pony princess and her guards showed up." I said nonchalantly but apparently that was the wrong answer.

And how did I know it was the wrong answer?

Because the griffon king's eyes widened in shock before glaring at me with the burning intensity of a thousand suns.

"WHAT!" The king shouted with anger and rage that I have only seen in a parent who just found out that his kid just got arrested for committing a crime.

The guards that was standing beside him and all around me sprung into action and in mere seconds I was surrounded with spears pointed at me from all directions. I was one step away from becoming a human pincushion.

"You will tell me everything that happened with you starting the moment you spoke to my old advisor, now!"

Next Chapter: Meeting the Griffon King Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 46 Minutes