The Dark Griffin Read Online Free Page A

as the two of them soared upward and away from the nest, neither one saw the pair of silver eyes that watched them balefully from a branch.

    T he black hatchling did not move for a long time after the strangers had gone. Instinct had made him leave the nest and hide on a branch beneath it, but once the danger had passed he didn’t know what to do next. After sitting on the branch for some time, motionless but for the twitching of his tail, he crawled out along it and climbed back into the nest. His foreclaws were strong and knew instinctively where to grip, and he heaved himself up over the side and tumbled into the bottom of the nest. It was cold and he could smell the sharp, alien scent of the intruders. But he curled up amid the soft tufts of fur and feather that Saekrae had used to line it, and waited.
    Night came. After a while the moon rose. The black chick slept, almost completely invisible in the gloom, his head tucked under his wing.
    He woke up shivering the next morning. Without his siblings to snuggle up against, the nest seemed a lot bigger and colder.
    The black chick roused himself by flapping his wings, and looked around for Saekrae. She wasn’t there. He stumbled around the nest looking for her, but he could not see her anywhere. She was neither in the sky overhead, nor on the branch by the nest where she liked to perch.
    “Food?” he called hopefully.
    Only silence came back. He continued to call loudly, expecting Saekrae to appear and bring him food, but she did not come, and he called and called until hunger and exhaustion forced him to stop. He slept for a while and woke when the sun was well up.
    “Food?”
    Nothing. No Saekrae. No food. The chick found the bones from the last meal she had brought and pecked listlessly at them. There were a few bits of dried meat still clinging to them, and he occupied himself for a while with trying to tear them free. These tiny morsels only increased his hunger, and he called for Saekrae again. This time he gave up more quickly and curled up beside the skull of his dead sister, whimpering softly.
    The day wore on and his hunger kept him awake. At last, both bored and distressed, he got up and began to explore.
    There was no food inside the nest, so perhaps there was some outside it. He had done this plenty of times when Saekrae was away. A griffin chick is built to climb. He dug his claws into the side of the nest and began to haul himself up and over. His hind legs knew what to do; the claws shot out and his toes spread wide to give him purchase as he thrust upward, foretalons gouging the shattered wood, his tail thrashing determinedly.
    He reached the lip of the nest and perched there, peering at the branches near to him. One looked close enough; he stretched out a talon toward it and could nearly touch it. He sat still, judging the distance, and then jumped. His wings opened instinctively in midair and he landed on the branch, claws scrabbling to get a grip on it. He rested there, talons deep in the bark, and clicked his beak triumphantly. Perfect. From here he could go anywhere he liked.
    He climbed out along the branch, wanting to see how far it went. It was a long one, and spread out into several smaller branches partway along. The chick stuck to the main branch but it grew steadily thinner the further along he went, until he could wrap his front claws all the way around it. Then it began to bend under his weight, and he had to open his wings for balance. Not liking this, he started to turn back. But he couldn’t turn around. The branch was too narrow, and he didn’t want to let go of it. He shuffled backward instead, hoping to get to a spot where he could turn, but it was a mistake.
    Unable to see where he was going, he snagged a hind paw in a fork. He stopped and tried to extricate it, but it slipped out of its new gripping place and kicked out wildly, throwing him off balance. He struggled to save himself for a brief moment, wings flapping, but then he