You would be surprised what people are capable of. It's like they say, it's always the quiet ones. The sweetest, most innocent people in the world... all it takes is the right mindset. The proper mix of fear, anger, sadness, and pain, and suddenly when the emotional bartender shakes up the cocktail, a person changes completely. Here I was sitting in a collapsed cave. I had eaten more of the body in the middle of the little space I had available to me, and at the time I began hearing scraping against the walls, I decided to bury what remained.

Trixie... I still couldn't get over it. It happened so fast. She rode around my back, she listened to my inane rants about philosophy, help me understand magic theory, and just like that, gone. Geirmund too. He was always a bit eccentric, and I had always placed him as the crazy grandpa in our little family. Who would make me feel awkwardly embarrassed by flirting with his wife in public? Who would do maintenance on my wing, if I ever got it back?

Still, none of that was important anymore. That was something to worry about after I got out.

This'll work. This'll work. The clan leaders have arrived, all with their escorts. No point in trying to hide it, they saw the bodies and wreckage.

"Welcome to Ancientwell. Don't mind the rubble. We had a little invasion force try to rescue our captive." That's it, play it off. All this ruin is nothing, nothing before Ancientwell's might. It's not even a setback, just a minor annoyance. "Forgive my manners, I'm not familiar with you all, at least face to face."

"Indeed. Fia of the Well. I finally have the honour of meeting you. I am Chief Greywall." The hound in front of me looked like some kind of medieval knight, his armor all fancy steel, with a crest etched into the plate. A real white knight type of guy. At least that's the way he looked. Probably like a sepulchure. All shiny outside, and rotten on the inside. No good.

"I'm Steelheart a Quarry Lake. Don'tchu foget it!" A meaty looking boxer stated while slamming his paws together and flexing. Meh, too self centered, too strong willed.

"I am Sturg... and your beauty is ravishing." The dolt's tongue lolled out of his mouth. "I know something I'd like to ravish later..." Disgusting pig. He'll do. Let's see if I can't find anyone better.

A half dozen more or so lead hound piled in, all flanked by their associates. The way they were looking around, as though sizing up the den, looking for weaknesses, it had me on edge, but I kept my cool. I couldn't blow it in front of them. Once they had all assembled, I organized them and stood before the crowd along with the other alphas.

"We wish to know..." Greywall began. "Where is Griffin?"

"I was getting to that. *ahem*" I cleared my throat. "As you have all no doubt noticed, there was a battle here recently. Mercenaries hired by Griffin came in an attempt to rescue him. He nearly escaped." The crowd of lesser dogs muttered in hushed tones, while their leaders by me looked around, some anxious, some excited, some just stoic. "Nearly." My continuation brought silence. "As expected, he was quite difficult to deal with, but we of Ancientwell have him trapped in a cavern, down in our mines. He had been there for nearly two days now, with no food or water. I decided it would be best to wait for your arrival before retrieving him, in case he decided to make another escape attempt."

"Quite an insightful plan."

"Of course, this changes things slightly. Initially, the plan was merely an execution, but in light of recent events, I have decided to raise the stakes, and make this a little more fun."

"How could killing be more fun?" Sturg asked in a maniacal tone.

"I'm going to let you all decide for yourselves who gets to kill him! And... the one who succeeds, will also win my paw in marriage." Shocked gasps from all. "I am in the prime of my youth, and find myself in need of a companion, a mate. I will only allow myself to be with the strongest! The one who manages to kill Griffin must surely be him. Of course, if you disagree with that, you can always challenge the victor yourself." Under his half faced helm, I saw Greywall's eye lock dead on me. Did he know what I was planning?

"So then... it's a unification gambit?" Said dog stated it rather than asking as a question. "The one who kills Griffin will undoubtably be the strongest among us, and with all the alpha's gathered here, it would be proof to the other clans of their strength."

"That's right.... for far to long have we let ourselves be dragged down by petty infighting! If we were to stand together, we could do anything! The rule of strength is law in the pack, and only a strong leader could make this unity possible!"

"You said that he was trapped in a cave, starved for the past two days?"

"That's right."

"Then this will hardly be a challenge." Wait... WHAT?

"If we are to prove our strength, then we must fight him at his best!" He bellowed as he raised his gleaming sword above his head.

"Steelheart agrees!" He pounded his massive club like paws together and flexed. "Ain't no way ta show mah strength against a starvin beanpole!"

"Sturg doesn't care! Sturg just want kil...kilkilkil." And just like that, they all began bickering among each other, their followers... well.... following their leader's example. Pretty soon, they'd all be at each other's throats.

Heh, perfect.

"First, we have to dig him out of that hole. The tunnel is this way."

Mindset, mindset. I'm just trying to survive, but that won't be enough. Mere survival would mean escape, running away. When you run from a dog, it's their instinct to give chase. I have to make them fear, I have to make them give up on chasing, and doing that means I need to create a monster. Anger, they dared to attack me and my family, pain, they killed Trixie, Geirmund, and a whole slew of others who's names I didn't even know, didn't have a chance to learn, no more. They will not take anything else from me. And most importantly, my crew isn't here. There's nobody who might get in the way, no allies to get caught in the crossfire. There's only me... and TARGETS. No love, no joy, no empathy...

I heard the scratching getting closer and began to pool my magic. Having recharged all my gems, I was prepared, as as the rocks and rubble began to shift from their efforts at digging me out, I tried something I had never done in human form. I had done it plenty as a griffin, because of the increased wind control, but with that body now lacking a wing, it would prove impossible.

"Condense ventus." I went through my usual routine. condense the air, suck out the heat and store it as a ring of fire, and I held it at that stage for some time, waiting for the right moment. I pushed the compression further, till a little gleaming sphere began to form in between my hands, like a precious, fallen star. I reverse the flame, drawing it back into the ball as the rocks fell to the work crews on the other side. Aiming my tiny little ball of death at the entrance to the cave, the dogs who had just been filled with jubilation at having done their job suddenly wore expressions of horror.

"... No mercy. Ramex." They turned and ran, clamoring down the tunnel they had cleared, tripping and falling over the workers that had fallen in behind them, screaming as they were engulfed by flame. The shot wasn't particularly big, and used about a quarter of the magic I had saved up. I hadn't even reached the liquid state, but the effect was the same. A wind so hot it would set flame to whatever it touched filled the tunnel, incinerating those within it. Their cries of pain fell on deaf ears. Once released, I couldn't call it back. Not that I would.

They should be in the chamber any minute now. It is troubling that Greywall and Steelheart actually want me to feed Griffin and let him recover so they can face him at full strength. Hopefully Sturg or one of the other, more enthusiastic ones get to him first. They stood in the nearest chamber to the entrance as they waited for the work crew to haul Griffin out.

"Do you... hear that?" Steelheart asked. It took the rest of us a moment to pick it up, but it sounded like... screams.

"RUN!" One of the workers burst from the hole and tore off down the corridor. I immediately shielded my eyes as a gout of flame burst from the hole in the alcove, licking around, trying to reach out but unable to leave the little inlet. Soon, it subsided, leaving only blackened dirt and... the smell of burt meat.

"What happened here! Did some moron ingite a gas leak?!?"

"I don't knooohohohoooow." The gamma dog blubbered. "Just as we broke into the chamber, the head of the line told us to run, and everything caught on fire." He wept.

After sending him back home so he could relax for a little after the traumatizing incident, we waited for a little while at the entrance, unsure of what to do about it. Such a tiny little hole, and it suddenly had everyone unnerved. We backed away from it, but still kept watch. It couldn't be a coincidence. Griffin would be coming out of that hole, we just didn't know when.

That's when Sturg started sniffing the air.

"I smell.... blood."

Invisibility, mute, the only thing I left was scent. I was absolutely drenched with blood, but it would take a particularly good nose to smell me out, considering all the charred corpses that filled the tunnel, which I had stepped over to get out. When I reached the hole at the end of the winding tunnel, I poked my head up and found nobody around. I carefully climbed out, meaning to disturb the area as little as possible. There's no way they abandoned it, they had to be nearby.

Right I was. They were holed up in the nearby chamber. Fia, and a whole slew of alpha dogs, each with their own personal guard. One was wearing a full set of steel with an open faced helmet, another was just in leather bands that let his muscles show, a third wore no armor at all, but was busy grinding his teeth on a scimitar, taking small chunks from it, which while weakening the blade, would also make it rip and tear at flesh to cause bleeding.

"I smell... blood."

Shit! How could he pick out that smell even with all the ash around? The scimitar chewer made a beeline right for me. He leapt in the air and dove straight for me, mouth wide open, intent on taking a chunk of flesh out of whatever was there. Now, being very familiar with diamond dog biology from my sessions with Etch, I discovered that when a dog comes at you, looking to bite, there's a very effective countermeasure that you'd probably have to be insane to try.

Dog teeth are curved, and the points go towards the back of their mouth. This is so that when prey struggles and attempts to escape, it pulls out, making the teeth act like little barbs and get hooked in the flesh. Then, when the dog thrashes it's head about, it rips chunks off at a time, causes heavy bleeding, and probable infection, based on the victim's immune system, and the oral hygiene of the attacker. However, if instead of pulling out, you force yourself in further, that goes completely against dog biology. The teeth don't hook in, and instead of preventing motion at all like straight teeth would, they actually allow passage deeper into the mouth. At the same time, it's every animal's natural instinct to spit out something it's choking on, meaning they'd have no choice but to follow their gag reflex and open their mouth, releasing whatever they have a hold on.

This was a diamond dog, and they have much more powerful jaws than their mundane counterparts, but I also have intimate knowledge of protection spells and biology that i could use to minimize his bite force.

In short I shoved my invisible fist straight down his throat.

On contact, my invisibility spell faded, as did my muffling spell, leaving me standing there with a diamond dog choking on my left arm, a look of shock and surprise on his face as he failed to bite down on it. Rather than dancing, or singing a silly song about the ability to wield long blade weapons in slashing arcs, or even saying a quirky one liner, I simply looked at the choking beast and smiled. I pulled my arm out quickly, but before he could breathe or enjoy his relief, I had taken hold of his flopping tongue, pulled it out of his mouth and gave him a sharp uppercut to the jaw, making him bite it off.

"Arrrorooooo! Hheh mah meh bih ohh mah honnngue!" Sturg howled in agony while all others looked on in shock.

"Armas aquas. Sangine Florence." Griffin stood there soaked from head to foot in blood, so thickly coated on him that it shone in the dim torchlight, save for his arm that had been cleaned by the inside of Sturg's mouth, and two misshapen streaks down his cheeks. He drove his left palm into the wounded Alpha's chest and the next thing that happened was completely unreasonable. Sturg exploded. Chunks of meat and bone and brain flew out in all directions, splattering on the faces whoever was nearby.

"Looka dat string bean! He jus punched Sturg so hard he exploded! Dayum!" Steelheart apparently enjoyed the show. Well, that's one down, but that leaves an even bigger problem.

"How! How are you this strong! You should be nearly collapsed from hunger!" I demanded. He tilted his blood covered head to the side and smiled in a way that nearly tore his face in half.

"You... killed Trixie... AND SHE TASTED TERRIBLE!"

Everyone just stood there stunned. He had gone so far as to eat his fallen crew member, just so he'd be strong enough to fight us now? Nearly everyone was frozen by shock. Except for two.

"Heck bro! You's all kindsa intense!" Steelheart... was practically gushing as he flexed again.

"Action in desperation is the sign of a strong soul..." Greywall was calm as ever.

"Will you morons all snap out of it and kill him!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Like the crack of a whip, they set off, both alphas and their underlings, only for Griffin to mutter something under his breath and vanish. They all scrabbled around confused, desperately trying to find him, but to no avail.

I slammed my fist against the wall in frustration, then I caught myself.

"Well everyone! The Griffin hunt has begun! Find him! Kill him! Bring him to me and earn your place!"

Author's Notes:

Fia is clearly unaware that Griffin is going to be using guerilla tactics, as is recommended when in a situation where the enemy outnumbers you. The stress and frustration is starting to get to her, and she also doesn't realize that Griffin is going to unleash the very forces of nature on her.