Grabbing the doorknob leading back into the foyer, I walked through the opening to come face-to-face with a group of kinda well-armed and sorta well-armored griffons.

Welp, my day seems to have gone from a slight uphill climb to a treacherous mountain climb while an utter shitstorm was going on.

Standing in the middle of the foyer was Grandpa Gruff, wearing what looks like a suit of antiquated armor with an equally old as hell helmet sitting on his head, his two workers standing beside him, wearing what looks like hobbled together metal plates on a leather chassis of sorts.

On their right it was Greta wearing leather armor and what looks like two metal plates on her body, one covering chest where her heart is located and the other is on her back where her wings are located. Beside her was a griffoness I haven't met yet, her coloring is almost like Greta's but it a darker shade and that she was a tad bit bigger, my guess her big sister or something. This griffoness was wearing the same thing Greta was but her wings or well the front of her wings had a metal covering on it, I don't know what that does but I can guess that they can act like a set of spare blades if the talons are occupied with holding someone down.

And lastly on their left it was Gilda, she was wearing the same thing Greta and the other griffoness are wearing but she also had a helmet on that was a bit formfitting for her head and that she had a bow in her talons, with her right talons being in some sort of glove.

Looking at this motley crew of griffons I could only wonder what the hell were they doing here but I immediately came to the conclusion that when they saw me all piss and vinegar when I left Griffonstone that they knew that something was up so they got themselves a crew, got geared up and tailed me up until we got to Tazul's manor.

"Sooo......what brings you all down here?" I said as I looked them all over, and after a moment Gilda stepped towards me before stopping just shy of bumping into me.

"I don't know, Gramps over there told me that you were going after some griffon who stole something from you. Now normally I wouldn't give two flying shits if somegriffon stole something from some other griffon, but you did the impossible and gave us hope when you retrieved the idol from the canyon. Tartarus, the griffs up top are calling you a hero and that is tweaking the beaks of every single noble and big wig seeing how none of them came even close to doing what you did."

"Wait, really? They are calling me, an outsider, a hero?"

"Yeah bud, you got the Idol of Boreas back from the abyss! Do you know how many griffons tried and failed to get it back!"

"Umm, lots?"

"Yeah! Lots! And plenty of them died when the abyss messed with their flight by altering the wind currents and sent them crashing into the walls and stopped them from recovering. But here you are, with nothing more than some climbing rope and balls of steel, you climbed down and got it back! Those featherheads kept trying the same methods and they failed each time, but you did something different and you succeeded, they don't like how it took an outsider to get something done let alone something that a griffon could have accomplished."

"So now the griffons that aren't nobles or have their heads up their own ass are calling me a hero or something?"

"Yup! And quite a few griffons are even trying to decide on how to reward you for doing what those idiots up top couldn't do."

"I heard that a few hens are thinking of giving you their thanks in a little more personal way."

"I don't think my pelvis can handle that many griffons..." I said as I thought of that one Futurama episode with the giant Amazonian women, death by snu-snu is not something I want on my tombstone, no matter how awesome it might be.

'Here lies Ian, his last words was 'Yahoooo!', may he rest in piece.'

Rolling their eyes, Gilda, Greta, and the unnamed hen just shook their heads at me, Greta even muttered 'pussy' and sure that made me want to clock her in the face but I restrained myself, it wouldn't do me any favors by hitting someone I consider a good griffon for voicing their opinions.

"Out of all of the griffons out there, even though you aren't one, you would turn down sex for being a hero?"

"No, its not that, I just don't want to be run ragged by hen after hen after hen without a break. Hell, I am more afraid that I might get somebody pregnant on accident! I don't know if my little soldiers can breach that fort!" And as I said that I watched as both Gilda and Greta start to snicker as the two bodyguards that follows Grandpa Gruff around chuckled as well, I don't know if it was because they thought what I said was funny or if they think that I can't knock up hens.

Hopefully it was that they think it was funny.

"Whatever makes you happy, but enough chitchat! We are burning time and we don't want to be here when the captain gets here!" Grandpa Gruff says as he coughed into his talons and made his way to the stairs leading to the second floor.

Leading the group up the stairs was Greta as she pulled out her short sword that she kept hidden from my sight with her wings, and as she braced herself against the door leading to the second floor I waited patiently for them to find what lies on the other side.

I wonder what their expressions will be when they go through those doors to find nothing but dead griffons that have been eviscerated. Probably a few might puke all over the floor and on the corpse, I bet one of them will faint at the sight of such carnage. Hopefully, they don't immediately come at me for brutally killing all those griffons, worst case scenario they kill me for being a brutal killing machine, best case they tackle my ass and restrain me or let me go.

Watching the armored griffons move up the stairways and stack up on both doors, I quietly went to the basement door and quietly as I could I steadily twisted the small handle until I and I alone heard the satisfying click that comes with unlocking a door.

With the royal guards no longer a threat to my existence and the bandits now trapped underground, let's just hope that they don't start executing prisoners because they want to deny us our utter victory.

As it turns out the guards weren't gone for long because the moment they saw the number of corpses upstairs that I left behind and the child griffon that I punted they all came back down, the child in the unnamed hen's arms and a bunch of shocked stares at the carnage that I left for them to discover.

"Do you want to explain why there are a bunch of dead griffons lying up there?" Gilda asked me as she had a talon on her gut, trying very hard not to puke all over the floor.

"Uh, would you believe that they all attacked me and my friend and we killed them all in self-defense?" I said while looking a bit sheepish, I mean really would else could I have said at that moment? Not like they will completely believe me.

"I would, but it would seem that you are missing a diamond dog. Where is he?" And this is bad, do I get killed here?

The correct answer is no, I don't die here, instead, when I told her that he was in the room over there, staunching the blood flow to the injury in his chest, the two bodyguards went in and gently pulled him out and began to administer first-aid to the best of their abilities seeing how they never treated a wounded d-dog before.

With that said and done, I looked at Scrawny before looking back at the elderly griffon and started to talk about what we are going to do next.

"Well for starters we are going to be heading downstairs, we know you have already checked the upper floor if your ragged and bloody appearance is of anything to tell by. We will be sticking together to better raise the odds of us staying alive and also find our princess and bring Tazul in to face justice." the old bird said and although I would have told him that I could do this on my own, I would rather not unnecessarily risk my life when I have a group of griffons that are willing to come help me even though they didn't have to.

If this is the power of friendship with griffons that I think I am going to like it here.

That and I bet I can get this done a whole lot faster with them to assist me!

Nodding my head with Grandpa Gruff I let him lead the way to the basement door but when we got there I stopped him and took the lead by opening the door before moving back into formation between four griffons who look like they are just itching to get into a fight.

With the griffons shuffling down the wide stairs into the dark abyss that is the basement I kept my eyes peeled to see if there was anything down here that might try to kill us, but lucky for us the stairs wasn't trying to kill me or the griffons I was marching with.

Step by step the six of us made our way down, eventually we made it to the bottom unharmed.

"Back here again...wasn't really expecting to be walking down these halls a second time...and so soon for that matter."

"Close your beak, hero, we don't know how many of those traitors are down here and I will not lose the element of surprise while we still have it!"

"Greta, the element of surprise was lost when I butchered those griffons on the top floor, I am more than positive that these bandits had someone go top side to check on those that were up there." That and I highly doubt that they don't have a traitor in the guard's ranks and managed to send a message back here that they were coming.

Before the captain had a chance to say something back to me, the sound of something whistling came flying by my head and before I could shit myself that i was almost hit, the object in question impaled itself into the stairs behind me. The nine of us turned to see what it was only to see that it was an arrow, and it was leveled with my head.

Turning my head back down the hall that we were about to walk down I heard another arrow being fired but instead of being aimed at me, it instead pinged off a griffon guard's helmet and bounced off the wall before clattering onto the floor.

We all immediately tried to duck for cover but as it turns out this was the one hallway that had no doors leading into rooms or even small columns on the walls that could be used to get out of harms way. This hall was a deathtrap and we walked right into it.

"Well, well, well! Look who it is, the shaved mutt who was allowed to flee with his tail between 'is legs!" I recognized that voice, it was the same asshat who kidnapped me, Scrawny and the griffons I was traveling with!

And this bastard just took a shot at me! Oh he is so dead!

Hiding behind an armored griffon I shouted over the armored meatshield while giving the bastard who shot me the middle finger.

"I swear to god I am going to fucking scalp your ass the moment I get my hands on you!"

And by scalp I mean chop off the top of his head because axes are not that reliable when it comes to shaving skulls of head meat.

The well-protected bodyguards were having a hard time moving up, trying their best to dodge the arrows being shot at them by the one archers the bandits had with them.

Until I was shot in the shoulder when I tried to make my way to a wooden beam that was ahead of me.

You see I was never one to take a hit lying down, but the pain of a sharp and possibly rusty metal arrow in my left shoulder blade was something I have never felt before. It was almost like I was kicked in the balls, but instead of my balls being bruised and needing an icepack to make it feel better, it was my left arm and it was hurting like a motherfucker. And that made me mad, like 'Redneck running out of beer during NASCAR' mad.

I was only this level of mad two times, once when my brother ate all of the dinner that I made for myself when I went to walk my dog, and when I was in the BoyScouts when some idiot shot me in the ass with a pellet gun when I was going down range to replace all of the targets for the next group of kids to shoot. My brother got away with a sore forehead and a bruised sack, the bastard who shot me in the ass got shot in the ass with an entire clip of metal pellets.

We can say that they got what they deserved for their stupidity.

But this griffon though...I hope they do closed-casket burials here.

Releasing my inner Braveheart battle cry I pushed the old griffon that was standing beside me, trying to calm me down out of my way along with the griffons that was in front of me as I charged at the bandits with my ax raised and spittle flying out of my mouth.

Now I know what you may be thinking, that what I did can be seen as the most suicidal thing that I can possibly do in a situation like this, but hear me out. You see, when you see a crazed person running at you with a battle ax raised over their head and yelling, and behind said person was a group of pissed off griffons being led by the old captain of the guard...in short it means that you have just painted a target on your face and that ax is determined to bury itself in that target.

The wall of rusting spears and swords wavered and started to break up as the griffons that was holding them either dropped them to run faster or took their weapons with them as they fled but it had the desired result, an opening in their ranks for me to bust through without getting impaled and being in a dire need of a doctor and a shot.

Griffon after griffon saw me getting closer and closer decided that now wasn't a good time to be working for a noble who was willing to betray his king was a good idea so they decided to flee. With the line broken I leapt through a fresh opening while the griffons behind me clashed and collided with the bandits that held their ground. The bandit who shot me with the arrow was getting another arrow ready but by the time the arrow was nocked and ready to be fired again I was already in front of him swinging my ax downward at him.

Letting out a squawk of fear he dropped the loaded bow which misfired and grazed my check on the right side of my face, earning him another bellowing roar of pain and anger and as my ax came down it just barely missed the bastard but it did manage to cleave his bow in half, rendering it useless and burying itself into the wooden floorboards as the bastard stumbled back and pulled out his slightly dinged longsword from its scabbard.

Yanking my ax from the floorboards I kept my eyes on the bandit leader all the while the bandits that were around me was at the moment too busy to deal with me as they were busy dealing with the royal guards that followed after me and used the hole I made to split the hostile group in half.

The royal guards began to easily pick off the bandits that stayed behind while the bandits that were trying to flee for their lives went deeper into the underground.

Taking a swing at my head the lead bandit missed but his sword managed to slice off a few strands of my hair, sending it fluttering to the ground as I silently thanked the big J man in the sky for not letting this asshole cut my head off. With the bastard recovering from his failed swing I returned the favor in kind, the ax arcing downward at an angle but it missed as he quickly took a step back, his wings flapping to give him some lift to make the retreat faster but it also gave me more space to work with.

"You daft bastard! You just couldn't keep your trap shut could you, just had 'ta flap your lips and tell the king about us!"

Rushing towards the griffon to close the gap I took another swing with my ax, this time clipping his leather armor and leaving a gash through the finely-made material and a warning to the griffon that I was coming for his head.

"Hey man, it wasn't my fault that your boss robbed me of my gold that I had in my backpack and also stole my laptop! That piece of shit lied to my face about not touching anything of mine so he is gonna get what is coming to him!" And I would have kept my mouth shut if he hadn't betrayed me like that, but hey, more loot for me and I get back some good karma for helping these griffons out.

Swinging again I tried to knock the sword out of his talons but he kept moving and dodging my attacks, this one must have been a guard or a soldier at some point his in life because it would appear that he had some form of formal training. That and I probably suck at aiming with this damn thing.

The griffon that I was fighting against saw an opening and took it when he took a jab at me, the sword biting into my other shoulder but it was just for a second before he pulled the blade and tried to gut me but I blocked his strike and deflected it off to the side before kicking him in the gut, my shoe leaving a fairly nice imprint in the leather. I must say that when this is over I am going to have to take that armor off of him and try to get it fitted to fit my body.

A quick step back I watched the griffon tried to gauge my stance and see if he could get the upper hand against me but I know what I am doing, I've seen Troy, 300, and Deadliest Warrior several times so I can handle a griffon that is roughly half my size and weight.

Before I could close in on my opponent, I heard something shuffle close to me and in that moment I felt a pair of talons grab me by the left shoulder as a bandit griffon stabbed me in the back, primarily in the area near my liver. Turning my head to see who just stabbed me I then watched the griffon in question take an arrow to the head as his corpse drops to the side and so I returned to the head bandit griffon.

The bandit leader grinned at my situation, knowing that I had to end this quickly before I bleed out to death. Glaring at the bastard I give him the middle finger, hoping he doesn't know what it means but to my misfortune he does as I watch him start seething in anger that was immediately followed by screeching at me before lunging at me.

With the gap between us made I waited for the royal guards to mop up with the bandits who had the guts to stay behind and try to kill them but as I glanced back to see what the progress was I grinned at the sight of several dead bandits with a few that was still trying to fight back but was losing their ground. With the fight between the two forces decided in my favor I returned my attention to the bandit leader and saw that he was charging right at me, this time using his wings to rapidly close the distance and with the momentum that was created hit me square in the chest with his head.

The impact of the charge knocked me on my back with the griffon on top of me, the sword in his talons was raised but as he was about to impale me I smacked him upside the head with the blunt part of my ax, I wasn't going to kill him just yet.

Dazed and momentarily confused the griffon on top of me tried to make a second attempt at impaling me but as he tried to get his arms raised again I saw my opening by moving my leg into position and kneed him right in the ass. The blow from down below forced the surprised griffon to go sailing over me, dropping his sword in the progress as I quickly rolled over and stood up as my opponent grabbed his sore ass. With my rival at the moment incapacitated I took it a step further and punted him right in the balls to permanently disarm him and render him unable to keep fighting.

A dick move yes, but as they say fighting with no honor means that you have a higher chances of survival.

I think I got the saying right, well at least I think I got it right.

Staring down at the suddenly high-pitched squawking griffon I happily grabbed his sword and looked it over before grabbing his scabbard off of his pained-form and sheathed it before placing it on my pants through a belt loop and my belt.

Looking up to see that my friends have finished dealing with the bandits who stayed behind I was happy to see that none of them were injured let alone dead, their armor had some nicks and cuts from the faulty weapons that was used against them, I saw that Gilda was holding her right shoulder, Greta was nursing her head and the unnamed hen was holding her right foreleg close to her body.

Glancing over to the old griffon I saw that he was wiping his face/beak clean of some blood that splattered on his face and when he looked to see me I then made a motion to the incapacitated griffon beneath me and he knew what I was trying to imply by telling one of his bodyguards to tie him up and to leave him behind for pickup.

Looking at the end of the hall I saw that the double doors were at the end and I realized exactly was waiting for me at the other end.

"Gramps, you go rescue your princess, I'll deal with the traitor."

"Are you sure that would be wise? You are injured, you are bleeding from a wound that looks like it has impaled an organ and that the griffon you are going after might still have some guards waiting for him." And he also might be armed, but fuck it, that asshole is mine!

"Yes Grandpa, I am sure, he stole from me something of great importance along with your sacred idol. He made it personal for the both of us but your princess is a higher priority. You go rescue her, I'll take Tazul on and if I still hadn't dealt with him then you can deal with him." I said as I walked down the hall, holding onto my side and wincing in pain.

As I made it to the door I waited to see if they would burst open and on the other side would be another group of bandits but instead when I grabbed the doorknob and pushed it open to reveal nothing more than a single older griffon noble sitting alone at his table.

Staring at me with a frown I watched the griffon stay in his seat, his gaze never leaving my own as I walked in and closed the door behind me. With the doors closed his attention then turned to my ax, the blood dripping from it was clearly what caught his eye as droplets of the crimson life essence dribbled onto the carpet along with the bits of feathers still clinging to the head of the blade.

Finally returning his gaze to me he saw that I was caked in the blood of his slain employees, my clothes were shredded and ruined, I was leaning to the right a bit as to cover my stab wound and that I was shaking ever so slightly.

"So...you came back." Tazul's voice sounded displeased, but he can go fuck himself, nobody steals from me and gets to try and talk sass with me!

"Yeah, I did." I am also here to rip your dick off and beat you to death with it! And also get my laptop back...can't forget about that. And the idol. And my gold...pretty much I am here to take everything back.

"You betrayed me by telling the king about my little operation." Is he really trying to say that I went against my word? Really now? I would have kept it if you hadn't robbed me blind!

"No, no I did not betray you. You betrayed me by stealing my laptop from me, stole all my gold, and gave me a fake idol while you kept the real one. You are the one who betrayed our little deal, and those that worked for you are paying the price for it." And by paying the price I mean they are either already dead, are about to be dead, or are about to be led away in chains.

Placing his talons on the table I watched as he stood up and started to walk around the table, coming to a stop in front of it before staring at me with the intensity that if I were a weaker willed man I would be shaking in my shoes in fear.

"So this is how it ends." Tazul said with a hint of finality to it, and as he says this I watched as both of his wings start to move in an awkward position that made me pause to wonder what he was doing.

"Yeah, it is. The captain will bring you and whatever cronies that are still alive for questioning, you will be hung along with those that are...less than cooperative." And possibly it means that all of them will be hung for being a traitor.

"I see..." and as he says this I watched as his wings flipped out, two daggers dropping from the feathers before caught them with his talons as he took a swipe at me.

'Shit!'

Stepping back from the sudden swipe at my throat I saw that the bastard was glaring at me, righteous anger roiling within his frame as he lunged at me for another flurry of slashes but I ended up jumping to the side his daggers cutting into the doors as I tried to collect myself.

Bracing myself against the wall I watched as Tazul twirled his daggers around and sliced at me again but this time I reacted too slowly and felt one of the blades slice into my gut, not cutting too deep but deep enough for me to shout in pain as I felt my precious life essence start to seep out of the weeping wound. The bastard gave my belly button the Glasgow Smile, and I am not happy with it one bit.

The stitching I will be needing will suck ass, the pain of even getting those stitches will be worse, but the thing that sucks most of all is that whenever I take my shirt off, I will see the scar of my slowness in the mirror laughing at me.

I'm gonna get even with this motherfucker.

Pressing my hand against my sliced gut I glared at the treacherous noble and sneered at him as he returned the expression before resuming his attacks. Slicing at me in a whirlwind of strikes I kept on backing up until I finally couldn't go backwards any further and instead went on the offensive, right into Tazul's blades.

The griffon wasn't expecting me to go on the offensive so soon after getting gutted but he took it in stride and instead resumed the attack, his knives nicking me in the arms and legs but when I took a swing at his head he ducked, leaving him open to my shoe. Kicking him right in the head with my right foot I sent him sprawling to the floor but he still kept a firm grip on this daggers.

Raising my ax over my head I was about to bring the thick metal blunt portion of it onto his back to leave him in a world of hurt, but as I reached the zenith of ax height, Tazul rapidly turned to face me as soon he got his senses back and threw both of his knives at me.

His left dagger missed me by inches to my face, but his right dagger on the other hand, it impaled itself into my left shoulder and god damn did it hurt. In the movies it showed that someone getting stabbed there and it didn't really phase them much, they would let out a pained grunt and punch the bastard in the face.

The movies were fucking wrong.

I was howling in pain as I nearly dropped my ax and with my right hand I gripped the handle of the dagger and after a few botched tugs to dislodge the weapon but as I did so the bastard noble tackled me to the floor.

Landing on my back I felt my head smack against the hardwood flooring as stars swam in my vision, the pain was very real but what made it even more real was Tazul clawing at my face and everything else he can reach with his talons.

Every slash, every cut against my face, every single fucking talon that raked against my body was like someone was just dumping fresh lemon juice and salt onto my wounds. This shit hurts like hell and for a moment I actually thought that I was going to die here, and in fact I think I did die down here.

In that moment I felt nothing as my mind drifted off into the endless abyss that is death, I saw my life flash before my eyes, all the shit I have done, my 'accomplishments', and I must say I was a bit of a right prick for a good chunk of my life. Hell if this is my review with the Grim Reaper before he shuffles my ass over to heaven or hell then this sucks and I want my money back.

Looking out into the pitch blackness that is the afterlife I could only think that from what people say when they die for a bit and come back that it was supposed to be some sort of paradise. They are fucking liars because all I see is an inky black sea of absolute nothingness.

"If this is the afterlife then I have been lied to! This is nothing like the paradise I was promised!" I shouted to nobody in particular as I looked around, wondering what exactly is my fate going to be since I haven't been the most patron of saints out there.

When nothing responded to me I sort of just stared blankly at the void that was in front of me and did what anyone would have done in this situation.

"Pffft....well this sucks." muttering to myself I looked at the space between the lands of the living and the dead, thinking that I am either in my own version of hell, to be bored out of my mind for all eternity, or that I am in purgatory to await actual judgement.

And it was at that moment of my boredom was about to reach its zenith and I was on the verge of being pissed off because Death was taking its sweet time to get to me, a voice spoke out from the darkness.

"Oh ho ho! What is this! My little pet project shuffling off this mortal coil so soon? After all of the hard work I went through just to bring you here? Oh no no no! That will not do at all!"

Looking for the source of the mysterious voice a bit of a revelation came upon me, this voice just said that I was its pet project, that it went through trouble just to bring me here? What the fucking fuck? I loved my life back home you fucking prick, sure it was a bit boring at times but it was still my life!

"Oh don't be like that now my little mortal friend! Yes I may have took you away from that pathetic life you were so used to living by doing the same thing day after day! So boring! So simple! You always had these thoughts of wanting to make a difference in the world just in those little things you played all day long! And now is your chance!"

And this fucker can read my thoughts, great...just great...wait a minute, if it can read my thoughts then...

"Do try not to strain your poor simple mind on trying to confuse me. Those images and thoughts have nothing on me, but if you insist on trying to resist your fate than by all means, resist away! But it must be easy to fight your destiny when your dead, am I right?"

Stopping my thought process I slumped my shoulders in the abyss as I realized that even if I fought back against my godly kidnapper it would be all for naught. I can't escape this hell and find a way back home if I am dead, well can't really escape now because I am already dead...

"Oh don't be so gloom now! Do you really think I would just let my little project die so easily and in such a pathetic manner might I add? No no no, that will not do at all! Now let me see here...how does this go again..."

This voice was muttering to itself as it tried to mess around with my life force, I felt a series of pokes, prods and even a few stabs all over my body but what did the trick was my heart getting zapped by a bolt of lightning.

Normally that would have made my heart and my chest explode due to the laws of physics n nature joining forces to kill me, but in this instance it did no such thing.

Instead it kept me off of Death's doorstep and was bringing back to the world of the living.

"Now my little minion in crime, remember that this is your one freebie so don't be getting yourself killed now!"

"How the hell am I supposed to get another one in the event I do screw up?"

"Don't worry about that my little agent! I'll let you know when I want you to know!"

And as the mysterious voice said that, everything started to get all blurry and distorted, its voice turning demonic and evil to the point that I thought it was Satan himself that was talking to me, but that would mean that he sent a soul back up instead of torturing the fuck out of it...

I can't tell if what just happened was real or not but I do know one thing is certain.

Some asshole sent me to this magical land of rainbows and bullshit for a purpose and it didn't even have the god damn decency to tell me what my purpose is.

Way to go A-hole!

Anyways...

With Death no longer having any hold over my corpse and that I was given the green light to return to the land of the living, the mortal coil within me restarted itself and as my soul returned to my slashed-to-fucking-hell body I let out a loud gasp before a ragged cough escaped my lips as I immediately felt pain course through my limbs as everything rebooted itself.

Slowly moving my body I felt everything shudder and pop as my body was being reinvigorated with life once more.

Rolling onto my left shoulder I let out a pained-filled groan as I tried to look around to see if the bastard of a griffon fled the room but instead I found him trying to scurry to his table, his body obviously showing signs of damage from what I have done to him and that it was somewhat hampering his escape effort.

Watching the limping griffon noble hobble over to his table to grab my stolen loot for himself I slowly pulled myself up from the floor where he left me and to my surprise he left the dagger that was in my shoulder. Grabbing the dagger by the handle I gave it a tug and with ease it popped out, no pain came from the tug nor did any come from it being removed from my body.

"Remember this is your one freebie! Don't squander it!"

The mysterious voice said as I looked around to try and find out where it came from but it seemed to have came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Whoever this godly being is, they sure love to play games with their peons.

Looking over at the dagger in my right hand before looking at my shoulder to see that the wound that the dagger has made was no longer there, just an ugly scar was in its place. If that was this god's freebie then I dread to see what my face looks like when this is all over.

'I am going to look like a fucking abomination of nature, that's what I am going to be looking at in a mirror!' I thought to myself as I had a bit of a reaction to the scar and putting that piece of information to what my face would look like...well...

I sort of flew into a rage.

Going on autopilot I myself hobbled over to Tazul and as he was too busy putting my gold coins into a sack he failed his Listen check and was met with my left fist colliding into the side of his head. And instead of letting my fist leave his head I forced it to stay connected to his skull as I forced his head to collide with the table.

The griffon let out a screech of shock from the punch and of surprise to see me standing back up and alive again.

Removing my fist from his head I reached out to grab him but the griffon turned around with lightning-like reflexes and took a swipe at me with his right talons but he was stopped in mid-strike when my left hand grabbed him by the wrist.

Staring down at the helpless griffon he led out a squawk of fear as he gazed into my eyes, now soulless and empty as he realized that he has royally fucked up.

Twirling the dagger in my right hand I then brought the blade down onto his left talon that was still on the table, impaling it to the wooden furniture piece as he shrieked out in pain.

Looking down to his left talon I slowly forced his right talon back, putting my reinvigorated strength into it and with it I watched as the griffon start to struggle to try and break free but was unable to due to the amount of pain coursing through his system and that his left talon was impaled to the table.

With his left talon inoperable at the moment I moved his right arm onto the table, aligning it with the corner before driving the heel of my shoe onto the center of his right forearm. The resulting crack sound that was followed by a hawkish screech told anybody with a pair of working ears that someone's arm just became broken.

"You bastard! I swear upon the All-Father that when I get my talons on you I will-" I silenced his tirade by clamping his beak shut with the burlap sack he was filling up with my gold coins. I wrapped the coarse bag around his beak, wrapping it around tightly before using the rope that went with the back to restrain his wings to the point that he was having a hard time breathing due to the tightness of the rope.

"You'll swear nothing. All of this could have been avoided if you haven't had robbed me blind. We had a deal and you broke it, what is happening now is karma coming back to bite you in the ass." I said as finished tying him up before yanking the dagger from his left talon and brought it up to his right talon and wrapped it up with another length of rope that was attached to another burlap sack where his talons were now placed in.

Looking over my handy work I gave it a nod before I grabbed him by the lion paws of his rear legs and dragged him out of his room before dropping him off outside of his office.

Turning around I went back in to grab my gold and my laptop, the great mechanical device was relatively untouched aside from a few scratches on its casing but other than that it was still in perfect condition. Placing the laptop into the sack I started to look through the drawers to find the Idol of Boreas and to my dismay and possibly delayed fate of execution, the gold statue of power was not in the drawer.

'Where the hell is it? It has to be here somewhere!'

Digging through all of the drawers I found nothing but old letters, spare parchment, quills and inkwells, empty burlap sacks, gold coins, a few spare daggers resting on hooks, but no idol. Ripping the drawers out from their housing I thoroughly raided that desk to the point where it had no more secrets to give up until finally I came upon something that caught my eye.

The floorboards that was underneath the left side of the desk was not patterned the same way as the rest of the wooden boards. This was a dead giveaway that something wasn't right about this particular spot and with gusto and fear I wiggled the wooden panel loose by using the blood-coated dagger from the table and lifted up the board to reveal a closed wooden coffer.

Lifting the unopened box out from the enclosed space I gave the box a once over, looking it over to make sure that it wasn't booby trapped, and once I found that it wasn't I lifted the lid off and saw the idol resting within. Smiling weakly to myself I grabbed the Idol of Boreas and started to hobble back to Tazul before grabbing him by the rope and started to drag him off but I barely made it pass the double doors before keeling over and blacking out once more.

I am not getting paid enough for this shit.

Times passed out: 3 4

Today my peeps is the day that the college season starts for me, wish me luck.