I was in the air, sir. A while. The moon was up by the time we got there.”
“Where did it take you?” said Arren.
“Into the mountains, sir,” said Renn. “Ow! Damn it, that hurt! Sorry, sir. It wasn’t very far into the mountains, sir. Right on the edge. The griffin took me into a valley—couldn’t see it then, sir, but I saw it the next day. There’s an overhang in the side of the mountain; that’s where it lives. It just dumped me in there and left me. I tried to run off, but it wouldn’t let me. Just dragged me back. I stayed there all night, sir. Didn’t know what to do. My arm was hurting and it was cold as anything, and I was stuck there. I think I slept a while. Next thing, it was dawn, and the griffin was still there. Wasn’t doing anything. It was just sitting there and watching me.”
Eluna nudged Arren’s shoulder and muttered to him in griffish.
Arren listened. “She wants to know what it looked like and how big it was.”
Renn glanced at the white griffin. “It was bigger than her. Much bigger. It had black fur on the back end, and silver feathers up front. The talons—they were huge. Longer than my hand. It just kept looking at me, sir. Like it wanted something. I don’t know why it didn’t just kill me. It must have been waiting until it was hungry—oof!” His wife had suddenly flung herself on him and was embracing him tightly. He held her, a little awkwardly. “It’s all right, love. I’m fine. Ouch.”
Arren held back a smile. “So how long were you there?”
“Most of the next day, sir. The thing had—there were bones, sir. In the lair. Human . . . bones.” Renn shuddered. “I—I recognised some of them, sir. The clothes, I mean. It’d carried them all back there and eaten them. There were just bones, scattered everywhere.”
“But the griffin didn’t try to kill you,” Arren muttered. “Why?”
“I don’t know, sir,” said Renn. “It just watched me. And once it came up to me and just . . . sniffed at me, sir. Like a dog, almost. Nudged me with its beak a bit, and then backed off. I hit it once. Picked up a bone and whacked it. It screamed at me, but it didn’t bite me or anything. Just dragged me back again, sir.”
“I’ve never heard of a wild griffin doing that,” said Arren, which was broadly true. He’d never heard about wild griffins doing anything, in fact, but he wasn’t going to admit it. “So how did you get away?”
Renn shrugged a little wearily. “It fell asleep in the end, sir. I climbed up over the mountain and got out of there before it woke up, sir. That’s when I found out it was right on the edge of the mountains, sir. There were paddocks right on the other side. So I just walked home.”
Arren whistled. “You’re a lucky man, Renn.”
“I know, sir,” Renn said quietly. “Oh, I know.”
“It’s odd, though. I wonder why it did that? I’ve never known griffins to hoard food.” Arren looked at Eluna.
The white griffin paused in the act of preening one of her wings and blinked slowly, thinking. “A griffin does not store food,” she said eventually. “We will eat carrion, but a kill is eaten at once. The hunt . . . makes you hungry.”
“But could it have just been teasing him?” said Arren. “You know, toying with him?”
“A young griffin might,” said Eluna. “But this one is my age, at least. Old enough not to risk losing food by keeping it alive.”
“What did she say, sir?” said Renn’s wife.
Arren looked at her. “Uh, she said that as far as she knows, griffins don’t keep prey alive, and only the very young play with it. Hunting should have made it hungry. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Renn shuddered and scowled. “You’re here to kill it, aren’t you, sir?”
“Yes, if I can.”
“But is there only one of you here, sir?”
“Yes. I just arrived.”
“If—” Renn’s brow furrowed. “I’m sorry if this is rude or anything, sir, but where are the others?”
“The others?” said Arren.
“Yes, sir. Shouldn’t there be other griffiners here to help you, sir?”
“What makes you think that, Renn?” said Arren. He was beginning to feel uneasy.
“There’s been problems with wild griffins here before, sir,” said Renn. “The last time it happened I was just a boy, but I remember it. A wild griffin was taking cattle,