Chapter 1: Part 2

Burning The Ashes

2

Oh sweet mother nature, what do you behold that I cannot be aware of yet.

Why do I have to suffer for you enjoyment, left alone, robbed of everything but knowledge, to fend off children of the earth and sky whose existence were all thought to be in man’s dreams.

Not even having full control of myself.

How pitiful.

I guess this is a little game for you, to break whatever rational I have engraved on my mind.

I am not stupid. I will outrun whatever you sent after me. I will outsmart every plan you think off.

It has always been like this after all.

***

I sat in the snow watching them and I wonder if things could have gone differently.

riends, maybe I just could have stopped and have them detain me. I wouldn’t have made such a big of a scene and things would not have turned out for shit. But no, instead I didn’t control my instincts and the worst had now come.

“Δεν είναι εδώ πέρα, καλύτερα να προχωρήσουμε με τους άλλους! ΓΡΗΓΩΡΑ !”

Great, they are leaving the area.

I watched as the griffins took flight to scan another sector, totally unaware that I was under their  nos- eh... beaks or whatever. No sooner then three hours after our little incident and they’d already went full metal on me, sending packs of twenty at a time to hunt me down.

Once they left, I picked myself off the snow. I was surprised how burying myself in the snow worked so well.

  Stop talking, keep moving.

  I cleared the snow off myself and tried to make out were I was supposed to go. This was the third patrol by the griffins and the cold now was getting unbearable. Snow must gotten beneath my clothes as I was shivering like hell. I tried as much as I could to remove as much snow as I could but try as I could, there was always a tiny amount that nugged me. I thought that I could withstand the pain, but it would take a toll on me.

  I began heading off to the north, but each encounter with the patrols was making me go slower and slower. I had the energy to go on, but my left leg was killing me. I figured that if I move around blood would circulate faster and stop the pain, but it was just getting worse and worse.

I just need to get there as fast as I can. I won’t let this happen to me, damn it!”

 I was fearing necrosis, but there wasn’t a lot I could do. Starting a fire was out of the question, and even if I could start one it would give away my position. Desperation quickly settled in my mind.

 What if I don’t get there fast enough to diagnose it? What if they got there first or if it's now a griffin stronghold? And what if I had to...amputate the...no, I still have time to treat it.

Seeing the structure off in the distance, dead concrete and marble mocking me as I gazed from afar, infuriated me. Horrible relic of time it seemed. It was also hanging by the side of the mountain so I figured maybe I could make a hole in the snow with the shovel and treat the leg there. But damn it, the structure was only an hour’s trek if I took the highway. With that, through, comes the chance that I could be seen by one of the packs. But again if I moved down a lower level it would take more time-

 And you know what, I don’t even care anymore. My left leg hurts like hell and I am not moving until I diagnose it.

I prepare myself, taking out my shovel, as I move down the dreaded mountain top in search of a new shelter.

***

Come on, almost done... there...

Checking my work for the last time, I realized that I had enough space for me to fit in comfortably. The other hole I made was so rushed, I don’t even want to know how I managed to fit in there. Regardless, my left leg was still in pain, so I set to check on that.

I sealed the entrance with some snow, enough to not be seen from the outside but not so much that it blocked all incoming light. After all, I still had a couple of hours till the sun set in.

Removing the boot and my sock, I take a look at my foot. It looked discolored and swollen, probably because I had let so much snow into the boot.

I swear, next time I’ll just hide behind a rock instead of bothering with this shit.

Removing the backpack I pulled out the medical supplies, which I observed were not much. A first aid kit for treating wounds or burns, a cream for the skin and some medical alcohol. Standard stuff. Figuring I couldn’t do anything better, I used some of my cream and put the socks and boot back on. I was thinking of moving out, but I didn’t want to strain the leg. After all, it would be a shame to let this little shelter go unused.

Speaking of which, I’m hungry...

***

Here I was, cramped in my shelter, eating military rations from a place long gone, enjoying the year old food as I tried to keep my thoughts coherent. Yet, I could not hold back it back any more. There were questions, and I wanted the answers. Finishing off the leftovers, I stored the empty packages in the backpack before laying down to think. I didn’t realise it before, but I kinda liked this moment. The moment where I was philosophizing about the nature of reality, there was this certain appeal of being alone with my mind, asking myself questions I could not hope to answer.

Mythical beasts whose existence I am sure are diminished as a work of fiction. No clue if there are humans around here.” My thoughts wandered off  “No memories; either I lost them, or they were taken away from me. Can I even be sure that I am on the same planet as...

I hadn’t realised it before, but some very important questions needed answering. Questions I had asked myself but had taken very little in mind of their implications.

“Maybe, just maybe this is all unreal. My mind screams “foul”  every time it sees stuff like these, telling me that this is not happening. There, something’s inside me screaming that griffins don’t exist, that everything I’m seeing and experiencing is wrong. Maybe this is simply the product of my mind. The manifestation of my knowledge into a living realityinside my head... but I still feel pain, I still feel the cold air breathing and blowing against me. Can I even trust my senses? How can I attain knowledge when I cannot be sure of the reality of the world.“

It seemed that the nature of my rational made me form some startling ideas. I knew I was in trouble when I reached the point where I began questioning the tools at my disposal for experiencing the world. I thought I was being deceived, that my senses had been disturbed and my mind hacked. I mean, who could blame me; I was an amnesiac all alone in the middle of nowhere with griffins running around for my blood.

“And yet, I must be willing to accept the possibility of this reality. Crap, maybe this is real. Maybe I am just lying in what obviously Is what I am experiencing, yet I deny it because... I don’t know.”  And that was the point it pained me to admit.

I did not know anything.

I was alone, with no memories, cursing at who could have done this to me. 

The only thing I could safely conclude at the moment was that there is at least an objective reality where all of this is happening. Whether or not that reality was a product of my mind or was a separate entity I could not be sure off, and if this reality was subjectively affected by my actions and I was affected by it. The idea of maybe some kind of projection of my inner senses unconsciously impacting my collective experiences was also a possibility...

         But...

         You know what, I have nothing to lose.

Even if I think that I am being deceived, I still feel pain, I still can be hurt, and I still can be killed... And now thinking about it, I won’t prove anything worthwhile by proving if this is real or not. It doesn’t affect me right now, so I should be fine.

Frustration builds as more questions pile up, questions I could not answer.

 “I just appeared in the middle of nowhere, not even with any clue as to where I came from. Hold on, does it matter where I come from, as opposed to why I am here.”  I muttered to myself.

 “Which, wait, why the hell am I even here, why? I have no objective, no purpose. It's obvious that I have some military background, evident from the equipment I am carrying.“  I was getting more enthralled with this.

 “This couldn’t have been an assassination. No assassin would throw his victim into his death with the tools to escape from it. The thoughts of an experiment also crossed my mind but got quickly dismissed. I would have been armed to the teeth if that was the case...”

More thoughts, more conclusions. It was dawning on me that this search for who did it was futile. A single question topping all others in the end...

Are there any other people like me in this place... Or am I alone?

My thoughts wandered off again. This was getting my mind tired. As fascinating as it was to think about the possibilities, the pain on my leg coupled by the warm air circulating inside the hole was making me pretty sleepy. It took me another five minutes before I drifted off to sleep.

***

*shunn*

...

*shunn*

The flying hell... oh man, is it mor-

*Shunn*

*Shunn*

Oh shit, footsteps

*Shunn*

*chick chink*

*chick chink*

 Ok, rifle’s ready, please be an animal.

*Shunn*

Please don’t be a griffin, I don’t want to murder anyone.

…

Just leave...

Damn it, don’t be stu-

“ Ποιος...?”

“ FUCK! “

The nighttime peace was shattered by the shrieking of three bangs.

***

“DAMN IT, Fucking safety was off.“

I was standing in the middle of the night, standing above the dead body of a griffin. Just... standing there. I panicked, I didn’t know what to do, not wanting to kill him but not wanting to give away my position. I didn’t check the rifle, I could have... I should have...

I...

“Damn it, just... ”

He was still wearing his helmet. It was gold, the reflection of my face looking back at me. One of the bullets pierced him right inside of his chest, at the middle covert. It shattered the coracoid as it passed through the air sac, creating a hole into Its lungs for blood to fill in. The bullet finally stopped as it hit the spinal nerve lines, rendering him incapable of moving. One of the blood vessels was also hit near the lungs and, so as he opened his mouth to scream he realised he couldn’t as he spit out blood. His cranial thoracic was filled with blood and he had chocked to death. Blood was still running through his brain before he died. Still conscious. Witnessing every second of it. Removing the helmet, I inspected his face. It had an expression that spoke of horror. One of his eyes open, the other closed. I took my eyes off him, the unfairness of his death too much for me too bear.

As I took my eyes off the dead griffin and looked up, I was awestruck by the beauty of the night time sky.Millions of stars littered outer space, illuminating their brilliance for all to see. Then I took a look at the moon.

Almost instantly my mind screamed to me, again, that this was not real. The moon was the size of a small planet taking so much of the night sky that I could see it’s craters with exquisite detail. It's so big it almost seems like...

“Holy hell, It's brighter then I thought. I think I can travel safely here. I mean, It's nowhere near the brightness of the sun, but I wont get lost.”

Taking a look around me I take notice of as a couple of seemingly brown dots in the sky close in, probably trying to find the source of the bangs.

With no time to spare I took the body and tried to stuff it in the cave, shedding a small “I’m sorry“ before stoically taking his body and shoving it in the snow cave I dug. It was a lot to take in but I had grieved enough for my fallen enemy as I loaded up on equipment, taking only one of the bags the griffin was carrying. I took a wild guess and thought that the griffins probably form their society rules like a warrior culture. I didn’t know much but a small nag on my head said it could be disrespectful to take any of the armor or weapons.

After that I wasted no time as I covered the entrance with snow and started heading out for the structure in the North.

***

“Damn it, another patrol up ahead.“

I cursed once more, as another pack of griffins passed through. They were now scanning and flying lower due to the night time. It won’t be long before some of them notice me.

“Camo’s great for night time at least. Won’t have to bury myself in snow just to avoid detention.“

Off in the distance a pack of griffins all hopelessly tried to find their target. They got closer to the mountain tops, but to no avail. I was simply too well camouflaged and hidden that, even with the light emitting from the moon, their search was fruitless. They got the idea that I had outrun them and tried heading off for the structure.

 “Crap, they are heading where I am heading too.“

The pack had changed direction, flying to the same destination as I was going.

 “This is going to be hard.“

***

Discipline

That’s what I need, It's discipline.

 To control my emotions, my body, not to act like a beast who can use firearms.

I made this mental note to myself because I find myself in a real hazy situation.

 It's been one hour since the last patrol and the griffins had proven themselves smarter than I had initially suspected. I noticed this first when I took a downwards path down to a small canyon between the mountains. The structure, of course, had an unguarded entrance in the bottom level with the other one, higher on the structure under too heavy of a patrol to evade.

When I got there I realised why they stopped the patrols one hour ago. They had placed a line of griffins on foot, searching and stabbing every inch of the snow with their swords. Behind them stood a line of archers. I also noticed that they wore differently colored plate armor. Those were silver and had a small fancy pattern on the helms from what I could tell. If I were closer I would inspect them since they seem to be taking their time with the search.

 “Clever thinking, their numbers reach at about twenty from what I see,“ I muttered.

 I begun thinking of what to do. I was military, so my mind would pick on something strategic. Lets see, I couldn’t evade them since they spent so much time just searching the snow for me, I couldn’t kill them all since by the time I take them out with the rifle the other patrols would have picked up on me, making this even a bigger of a clusterfuck so...

“Warfare is based on deception. Shock and awe are my tools.“

I knew exactly what to do.

***

On the other side ...

“Indeed, they found Polynice’s carcass in a hole. If it was burial, it was a poor one, more of disposal. Thankfully, the beast didn’t loot his arms or armor,” conversed Theseus.

 “At least he died a hero hunting down a beast. You know how much this will anger his mother Argea?” continued Ageleia.

 “It's a shame too, he had some unpaid debts he was going to repay me.” ends Theseus.

We continued on, speaking of the fallen Polynice, whose time had come to early, hunting down a beast of legends. Steadily but slowly, the line moved, no inch of snow left unchecked. We had been informed that we were dealing with a ground target but the air patrols had come up unfruitful in the last twelve hours.

Now here we were, in the middle of the night, trying avenge the death of one of their closest and youngest soldier. A snowstorm was picking up but we were not worried about, We had supplies and had dealt with far worse situations before. Exhaustion was what we were trying to hide, to tell and self deceive our bodies that we could do this.

 “At this rate reaching the point of Polynice’s burial will take ‘till morning. We won’t be able to even fly by that time. I need to speed this up.” I muttered                               

 “THESEUS!”

 “Yes, commander?“ replied Theseus.

 “Inform both sides of the line to speed up the progress. We can save more time and energy while we are at it.“

 “I will, commander.”

With that Theseus took off to inform both sides to speed up the searching.

As he left I, Apotheus, took time to think of the news. A human, one of those myths from the folklore, had come from Western Oroi and gravely injured one of the King’s sons, Fortea. Or so claimed Aristi, the other son present at the event. Knowing them, he would assume that they were probably cracking one of their old jokes, for they were known for their tricksterous and aggressive behavior. But the death of Polynices, one of the scouts responsible for tracking down the beast seems to tell otherwise. I myself saw the body wounds as I had been trained under Asclepius’s Sanctuary to diagnose causes of death. From initial inspection it seemed that he was stabbed by a small circular dagger or spear, but the shattered colaroid suggested something far more sinister. Seemed to me that the beast had used a magic projectile, so powerful that it penetrated his flesh all the way to the spinal cord.

I would have most certainly had stayed in the company of the surgeons to get more opinions on the diagnosis. But we could not have spent any second more. The beast was still on the run and we were right behind its track. And while the diligent Tholos and his brave Lerotes may try to hunt their target by flight, he had other ideas. Inexperience is a bad treasure, and a bad trait to those who possess it. Being far from that, I put my mind to work. The son’s report was that he was a earth creature, incapable of flight. More than that, we found Polynice’s body stuffed into a gorge, not a natural one, but one made of tools. He could hide very well in the snow and we would have never realized it.

Taking this into account I set my swordsgriffins and archers into two separate lines, the archers on the back while the swordsgriffins on the front, and ordered them to scout the area starting from the abandoned den, all the way to Polynice’s grave. After all, the beast was said to be travelling North and the only subject of interest to him would be the abandoned den, and such is our luck that the only viable entry for him is through an area big enough that we could monitor.

We had made good process in the hour, even if the snowstorm was picking up. Searching back and fourth we had not left any inch of space go unmonitored, though in my defense, I thought it would have be viable to sacrifice some of the searching in order to save time. I had, after all, a steady streak of victories behind my name, and some times I had to cut corners. Wonder what kind of recognition I will get for getting this beast tamed. The thought of becoming a myth intrigued me, I would get statues and works of art made in my name for ages, along side heroes such as Agape and Minos.

But that thought got derailed. I couldn’t believe how sudden the shift felt from my thoughts into the battlefield. Had I known what was to come I would have flown away as far as I could with my soldiers.

We heard a loud boom off into the direction of the picking snowstorm.

At the same time one of the front swordsgriffins, Demetrius, fell down before letting out a gut wrenching scream. We stood there, totally baffled as to what had happened. Our, blood run cold on those few seconds of silence, our minds trying to understand what was happening.

Almost as suddenly, another similar sound is heard.

No time was wasted after that. Archers readied their arrows and fired wherever they thought the sound is coming. The loud breeze and the picking snowstorm made it hard to hear from where It was coming from but we were no cowards. Some swordsgriffins tried to crouch and protect themself, others with a spirit of aggression charged in in the middle of the picking snowstorm despite their drained bodies.

I was a little further behind of the line when this happened. As I neared in, three more bangs were heard. Three more echos, three charging swordsgriffins falling down, their screams joining with the others.

From the sides, a panicked Theseus appeared.

 “COMMANDER! We are taking heavy casualties, what should we do!” he screamed Theseus.

 “I... we need to... the... “

Few times I had found my self into a situation like this. All of those instances had the same characteristics. Loud noises, confusion and deceptive tactics used by the enemy. I had known myself as a hardened veteran, but even I had some of the initial shock left on me.

But the spirit of the commander had returned again. I stopped. Time slowed, thinking. The target attacked from a distance, pretty good shot, probably a sorcerer, taking flight not a good idea, covering fire, shields, get the injured...

 “...Go tell the Archers to focus on one location at a time and to cover my the swordsgriffins. After that tell the swordsgriffins to focus on getting the survivors and to use shields. Stay low and to bring the injured behind the archers! NOW GO! ”  I screamed, watching Theseus take flight to go inform the troops.

I watched as he took off to inform the sides of my orders. I, too, had been screaming for the more risky of swordsgriffins to take cover and stay low. Once informed, the griffins in the front stayed low and covered themself with shields before attempting to rescue the wounded. The screams of the wounded were now louder then ever with the adrenaline wearing off, as some of them reached out into their bags for any herbs to ease out the pain. Archers tried to cover them, firing arrows, from wherever they can.

I couldn’t have known if it was a complete success. We still got hit but thankfully the shields holded up. Even with that, there were still one or two lucky shots that missed the shields and instead hit the swordsgriffins behind. It was complete disarray and we would have had more casualties had it not been for one moment.

For a moment, the bangs stopped.

It was the perfect opportunity, almost like a wish from the Gods getting fulfilled. Had luck stricken us again and one of the arrows hit the demon? We paid little attention to that as we took this time and bring the injured back from treating. I inspected some of the

Setting my ears free, I noticed the lack of noise. It was silence. And this silence was terrifying. We had no incentive here. Standing behind the shields and of my comrades, unsure of what to do. I was wise enough not to tread right into dead man’s land. Forgetting the years and the sadness of what lead out there, our fear felt manifested through the nature around us. Dead cold air breezing around, the white powder we were standing on gold as ever, a small fire of hope still burning, hoping to the gods for this to be over.

The archers stopped firing, but had readied their arrows, some shaking from the cold or the fear. Some of them took this time to calm themselfs and to rest.

I seems that my plan had worked. One of the arrows must have gotten the beast. Or has it decided to flee? Maybe it was taking its time, powering up to cleanse of his problems. It was hard to see within the picking snowstorm. Even more so with the lack of energy. Had it been earlier this day, we would have had perfect vision. But in the chaotic and brutal nature of a snowstorm, little could be said and done. If it wasn’t for Theseus’s determination to relay on orders, I would have still been shouting orders at my soldiers..

“Did we get him?!” asked one of the archers, Myros if memory served me correct.

As soon as that sentence was uttered, we heard a scream. This one had been different, it sounded different then anything that I had heard before. It was absorbed in it’s own unknown language and it sounded brass and bold.

Bangs now were filling the night time air, getting louder and louder ever second, most of them missing, two of them hitting two of my soldiers. Panic was now settling deep within us as terror and agony had made us forget about the snowstorm. Not only had the Archers failed to hit their target but now whatever had been out there was getting closer. I ordered the archers to fire more shots, but some of them had run out of arrows in the last five minutes.

We fired whatever remaining arrows we had, unsuccessfully to where we thought It had been coming from. The remaining Archers readied their daggers, just in case they have to get close and dirty, while the swordsgriffins moved whatever was left of the injured in the midst of the chaos.

Then we saw it.

The human beast, running towards us with Its two legs, fire coming out of ts hands. Its silhouette painted against the snow in the distance. The archers struggled and tried to flee out of It's way as it fired more bolts at them. The swordsgriffins didn’t even try to face it in the snowstorm, instead taking the injured on their backs and taking flight to the nearest patrol camp. At that moment our heroism had failed. We had reached the situation of being besieged.

It was getting closer. Not wasting any time I withdrew my sword out of it’s holster. The beast can seize its power and bathe in its glory of wild ravenings. He can faint and stray my comrades, killing them in the process. He cannot kill me. He couldn’t kill the Great Apotheus. I will cast his body into the earth and it will become his prison but it will n- Where in the gods was it going?

The beast surprised me when it run past the line, dashing to the directions of the den.

“ COMMANDER, IT'S GETTING AWAY ” screamed one of the griffins.

“ No it isn’t ! “ I told him before rushing to hunt the demon down.

He can run like the Equestrian colt all he wanted, but it would not get him far. I spread my wings and took flight, with one goal in mind. As I charged in for a blow, the beast took a look behind him, only to see a rage filled griffin heading his way at tremendous speeds.

I tried to strike him from the front, but just before I could swipe my sword the human jumped rolled sideways out of his way. I had to admit, I was amazed at Its agility. Striking the ground I turned to face my opponent only for the face of my enemy to be revealed...

...and that sight was truly incomprehensible to me.

The human beast was unlike anything I had ever seen and I had seen plenty of horrors in his life. It's skin, or was that fur, was a mismatch of weird grey and dark colors blending with the environment, it had weird long hair coming from the top of It's head, while It's face was flat, no muzzle or anything. In its pale face engraved the feeling of determination. It had Griffin emotions by the wrath of gods! It truly looked like a demon from the ancient books.

The demon was unimpressed. It quickly pulled a shovel out of its back and with a swipe, stroked it right in my head, making me fall flat on my face. Still in shock from the sight, I picked my face off the ground and tried to face it, only to realise that It was fleeing again.

I wanted to take flight again and pound him from behind. I wanted to rip its nerves from the back of its neck before ramming my knife right into its Nape. If it had any toes, I wanted to cut them up and then shove them right back through its eyes. These were curses I had muttered before at my enemies but never had I said them with such vile hate. I had standards but at that moment my I felt immense hate for bruising my reputation, kicking me in the face and then running away from me. I wanted to get up but I feared of getting injured in the middle of the picking snowstorm with nobody to watch my back. And even then, the beast was not here to pick a fight. It was just merely going on a killing spree and wrecking everybody in the group and then running off like a coward.

Before I could make my decision through, a familiar face caught my attention.

“SIR! It's too dangerous go against him, we need you back at the camp to threat the survivors!”

It was Theseus.

He had been injured. A small hole in his chest armor, just below his jugulum with blood dripping from the inside.

“THESEUS, are you alright?!” I posed concerned.

“I’m fine, Commander. Ageleia and the others are moving survivors to the camp. The other patrols noticed us and they will send some of them to hunt the demon dow- ”

“NO!” I interrupted “We will not send anyone against him, especially if he is heading to the abandoned dens. We were lucky enough that he did not try to actively hunt us down. The Palatics will deal with this abomination themselves after we inform them on how he looks and what he is capable of. Now let’s go. ”

“ ...Ok, Commander. ”

With that, the last of the us left the battlefield.

***

“Holy hell, that went better than I had expected”

I was shaking like hell and sweating waterfalls, but I honestly was satisfied that I pulled that off.

That was just...wow. Just wow.

I did hope thought that I didn’t fatally injure anyone. That would not help me with my already shattered image. Now that I put more thought into it maybe firing wildly while charging at a platoon full of enemy griffins wasn’t the most brightest idea today.

But it had worked. And there was a chance it was non-fatal. As long as any of the bullets didn’t hit their arteries they should be f-

“Wow, it looks bigger then I thought.“                              

Interrupting my own thoughts and taking a look at the structure I was amazed at how big this thing was. It was a huge tower that was connected with the mountain. I was in the lowest level and I could honestly say that this thing must had been at least as tall as the mountain which probably, from here to there is about three hundred meters.

Hell the gate itself was probably twenty meters big. Thankfully It was open so I wouldn’t have to break in through another entrance.

“I should move in quick, you never know if they decide to sent another angry pack of griffins against you.”

I headed off to the gate before suddenly remembering something I should have checked in before.

“Oh crap, forgot to reload.”

Yeah, I had blown through the whole magazine while displaying how to do a surprise attack correctly. I still could not comprehend how I had managed to make myself stand and actually run through twenty something armored Griffins. Last time I had tried, I nearly killed one of them. Then again maybe my natural instinct might had been to not, in fact, try and take thirty something griffins at the same time. Plus with that snow storm and their hazy aim at best, I didn’t think they would have gotten me.

Taking a note of the incoming area I noticed that there were a lot of decomposed skeletons under the snow. Clearing it I noticed that It was rusted armor on... was that a horse’s skull?

Was it? 

I took a look around me and I realised that the whole place was filled with horse and griffin bones, as well as some other species I could not classify.

I mean, I highly doubt that griffins needed that kind of transportation, and I highly doubt that they just came upon a strained herd and decided to have a snack. The horses wearing bronze plated armor for earth’s sake. I couldn’t even wear it, since It was so rusted up It was useless.

More things I noticed were the fact that there was also a lot of wood, most of it through decomposed. It looked like it was used for a catapult but most of it was so broken, I could not be sure about it.

I still cannot get over this

 The horses in this world can’t be intelligent like the griffins?

 Right?

Right, maybe my next stop should be horse country.

***

Complete darkness.

That was the first thing I noticed when I took a look inside the tower. It was kinda hard not to miss it, being a twenty meter high open entrance. I hastily made a torch out of the wood that wasn't rotten and some cloth that had not decompose. The cold had preserved a lot of items here, exempt arms and armor, which were unfortunately rusted. I didn’t have any animal skin or fat, so I used some medical alcohol on the torch to make it last.

Now I just had to find a way to light the torch.

 So I sat there again, trying to find a way to light my way through the crumbling abandoned den. My mind raced again to find a way to solve this problem, using whatever tools I had. The unknown knowledge was being revealed to me. When ever I put my mind through strain or serious thought I started remembering Information I could use. I could not use the rifle, since I had no light source and It was the middle of the night. Hold on, I better start from the beginning.

“Fire, chemical reaction. Needs three things. Oxygen, Fuel, Ignition. Got the first two.

Need something to ignite it. Maybe if I find two object to bang against each other “

I checked the griffin’s bag but I didn’t find anything I could use. It had some bandages and some other stuff but nothing I could use for now.

snowstorm was picking up, and at this rate, my clothes would be totally useless against the cold, Plus my left leg was starting to hurt again.

“Ah, to hell with it, I’ll find something flammable inside the building.”

I set foot inside the den, my only light source being the illuminating night light and my unconscious shattered feeling of hope...

-Down the Madman goes-

TheGreekDollmaker

***

“...after that Theseus and the last of my soldiers, including me, left the scene before returning back at camp. “ explained a tired and worn Apotheus.

“And you say that your Archers couldn’t lay a hit on him, even at times, running out of arrows?”

“Yes my lord, through in my defense it was due to stress and exhaustion. We have been searching the beast since the first warnings arrived.” muttered Prometheus.

“All is understood Prometheus, I hold no grudge against you for not risking your life comforting such a fierce foe. But, tell me, he had no interest in killing you, if I am understood? and in fact, laid his interest in reaching the abandoned dens. “

“Unfortunately, it seems so Prometheus. But tell me, what is that which makes you worry that the beast will find in the abandoned dens? Last time I checked those, haven’t those been not in use for at least a couple of centuries?”

“It is not so much about what the dens contains, but where they lead. I cannot tell you more Apotheus, for this knowledge has been trusted by the King himself. It is not within my power to tell you.”

“...I understand, my lord. ”

“Go rest, Apotheus. The sun doesn’t rise until a few hours. I will learn of the injured in the morning myself. ”

 As Apotheus left, Prometheus could not believe how this situation had played out. It's been twelve hours since the hunt started and already one Scout is dead and about a dozen of swordsgriffins and Archers are being treated by Healers and Surgeons. The human had proven himself to be more capable that he had imagined. Shortly after the hunt began he had hoped that the myths which described the acts of the humans were simply exaggerations, a product of their time.

But it could not be that way. The human had access to magic and he was heading to the one place he had hoped he would not go.

His two sons were still at the Hospitium. The surgeons removed the dagger and informed him that the damage is temporary. Still, the thought that the human may had crippled his son’s ability to fly angered him. He still remembered what they do to griffins that lose the ability to fly.

“ ITHICUS! “

“My lord, are you suggesting we bring her? “

“Ithicus, tell him that we may need Phonitheia on this.“

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Author notes: Part 1.2 of Beneath the fields of heaven is done, and let me tell you this one took some time to think up. It's mostly because of the names, but also because i am trying to tie everything together.

 Im still trying to make sense of the Internal conflict my character goes through but it is honestly a very hard thing to do so. I need to keep track of a lot of things and i will admit that the one thing i have not represented well enough is the internal conflict and struggle Ethos has through out the story, about keeping his emotions at bay and not letting his instincts take over. I will try to fix this in future chapters through.

What else... oh yeah i was genuinely surprised when i found that i had gotten 200+ views and half a dozen of comments in Fimchan. Thanks guys, and if you could , lay out some constructive criticism.

Chapter 3 Link coming soon.

(1) Meaningful name and mention. Cookies if you get the reference and the similarities.

(2) It looks bigger then I thought. : Thats what she said. ZING

(3) Phonitheia: Roughly translates to “Godkiller”.

21/1/12 Revision 1: Rewrote Chapter 1.2 and made it a little bigger. Also I now start keeping dates of my revisions.

Not a lot to say, other then the fact that I need to buy more toilet paper. Some guy called “Satan” crushed into my house last night before blowing through the last role.

Other names for the Chapter: “The Griffons that got shot by a M4: A bard’s tale”

26/1/12 Revision 2: OK, hopefully this will be the last revision. I already have called two reviewers in total to proof read the story as a whole. Two mostly for the grammar and I hope the other reviewer I called coughVimbertcough will mostly focus on any plot related problems, instead of focusing on my grammar.

I hope...

Copyright: I do not own MLP or any intellectual property of Hasbro. This is purely a fanmade work.

Chapter 3 link https://docs.google.com/document/d/15sk2MThbp-j8PM1o9_662ALFqWhT5nMUYp1bwabkFWg/edit

Next Chapter: Chapter 1.3: Cold Fear and Abyss Estimated time remaining: 40 Minutes