These mountains are barren. And places like this are shrinking. Humans always want more land. Soon there will be nowhere left for you or your kind.”
The black griffin was silent for a time. “I want . . . see human,” he said.
The yellow griffin stood up. “I can show you,” she said. “Come with me.”
She flew away over the mountain without another word, and after a moment’s hesitation the black griffin followed.
The yellow griffin flew out over the plains beyond the valley, calmly and openly. The black griffin did not want to follow. Deep down, he was still afraid of the plains. They were unknown. Alien. But he did not want to look like a coward, so he followed her out over the plains, letting his nervousness fall away from him like an old feather.
The air over the plains was warmer than in the valley and it smelt different. Drier and mustier, like grass. Now he could see grass—miles and miles of it, separated into squares and rectangles by thin brown lines. Animals roamed over it, much bigger than any he had ever seen, and here and there clusters of strangely shaped rock stood out from among the greenness.
He caught up with the yellow griffin, circling over one of these formations, and fell in beside her.
“A human place,” she called. “Human nests. This land is their territory. Fly lower if you wish to see them.”
The black griffin obeyed. He circled lower, as if he was singling out prey, and soon he could see the strange creatures that moved among the rocks. They were tiny, only about as long as his foreleg, and they stood on two legs like birds, but they didn’t have wings. He saw them looking up at him. They did not run, but he heard their calls drifting up toward him, and his heart leapt when he realised that they were speaking to each other.
“Humans,” the yellow griffin said again. “They are the key.”
“Food?” the black griffin suggested.
“No—sometimes, maybe.” She fixed him with a steady bright blue stare. “You were a good mate. So I will give you some advice. If you want to live in this world, find a human. Protect it. Keep it safe. Help it. If you do, you will always be safe. Our magic is not enough for us to survive now. Not alone.”
As she spoke—using words he did not know, to express an idea he did not comprehend—the black griffin had a strange feeling in his throat. It wasn’t quite pain, but it wasn’t quite pleasure, either. It felt as if something was lodged in there, something hard and unyielding and burning hot. It made him want to scream.
3
Arren
Eluna’s beak thumping into the wall of her stable woke Arren up.
He stirred and mumbled in protest, but the noise, loud and insistent, wouldn’t let him go back to sleep.
“All right, all right, I’m awake. Just give me a moment.”
The noise stopped, and he rolled out of his hammock and stretched. His back cracked nastily, and he rubbed it as he padded across the room to the table. There was a bowl of water there; he splashed his face to wake himself up. Eluna, growing impatient, bashed at the wall again. Arren hastily dropped his towel and went to the cage that hung from the ceiling at about head height, near the window. He opened the hatch in the side and reached in. The rats inside scattered in fright, but he trapped one and hauled it out by the tail. He held the wriggling creature upside down in his other hand and caught two more before he closed the cage.
Eluna banged on the wall again.
“I’m coming,” Arren called.
He positioned himself next to the door leading into the stable and lifted the latch as quietly as he could. It swung ajar, and he waited a moment and then burst through it.
“Catch!” he yelled, and threw one of the rats as hard as he could.
Eluna’s head shot out and she caught the creature in midair, tossing her head back to swallow it. She turned and gave him a triumphant look.
Arren leant against the doorframe and laughed. “Perfect! I should’ve known you’d be faster than me.”
She chirped at him. “Try again.”
This time he threw the rat toward the opposite end of the room. She made a spectacular leap out of her nest of hay and caught it inches from the wall.
Once she’d eaten it, she looked expectantly at him, fluttering her wings. He held up the last