icy wind that blew over the mountains in winter, the snow and the rain. He stood up clumsily, the chains dragging at his limbs. The other griffins were lying down, either asleep or simply doing nothing. They were silent except for the occasional rustle of a wing or clink of a chain.
The black griffin lifted his head toward the sky and screamed. It was the call, his call, and this time it was a true call. “Darkheart! Darkheart!” He called it again and again, breaking the depressed silence of the cages. It made his heart beat faster and put a wild and wonderful energy into him, which freed him from his lethargy and despair.
This time no-one came to silence him, and he continued to call until he was hoarse. He drank deeply from his trough and lay down to rest. Night was falling. The collar still hurt him, but he did not care. He was going home.
The next day came, and Darkheart spent it sitting on his haunches, watching expectantly for them to come and let him out of the cage.
No-one did.
They brought food at noon, as usual, but they did not give him any. Kraee and Aeya also went hungry and had to watch while the other griffins tore into the freshly killed goat meat provided.
Darkheart began to get angry. “Want food,” he huffed. “Want to hunt.”
“Be calm,” Aeya advised. “This is a good sign: If they do not feed you, it means you will go to the pit very soon. And Kraee and I will go with you. We can hunt together.”
“You come?” said Darkheart, perking up.
“Yes. Three of us together, hunting humans. You will see.”
That made him feel better. He waited out the rest of the day, hunger gnawing at him, and when sunset eventually came he called his name again. He imagined calling it from his cave in the mountainside. Soon, he promised himself. Soon.
And then it was morning, and he was woken up by the sound of human voices. There were many humans in the enclosure, more than he had ever seen there before. Orome was there, with Sefer. The red griffin looked wary but confident.
He could hear scuffling, thumps and clinking chains from Aeya’s cage. A few moments later several humans emerged into his line of sight. They were pulling a griffin along by the chains connected to her collar, and she was following them meekly enough, though she kept tossing her head and flicking her tail.
Darkheart stood up to watch. The griffin was grey, and older than him. Her eyes were blue, and there were hints of blue on her wings and throat as well. He realised that she was Aeya. He had never seen her before now, only heard her voice. He called her name but she didn’t look at him. The humans led her away from the enclosure and out through the gate, which had been opened to let them through. Others were already opening Kraee’s cage. He proved to be brown and quite old. He put up no resistance at all and walked with a slight limp as they took him out after Aeya.
Now it was Darkheart’s turn. He watched closely as a pair of humans came forward and opened his cage door. It swung outward with a loud creak and groan, and suddenly there was nothing in the way, nothing standing between him and freedom. He threw himself forward at once, and screamed when the collar jerked him back yet again. Escape was so close, not even a tail’s length away—
The humans put themselves in the way. He screamed again and lashed out at them, but they were beyond his reach. They carried long sticks in their paws. One of them poked its stick into the cage. Darkheart tried to grab it at once, but the other human smacked him smartly in the face with its stick. He started trying to seize the stick instead, and while his attention was on it, the first human unhooked the chain connecting one side of his collar to the wall, dragged it out and held it. The second human unhooked and seized the other chain, then two others came to help, and between them they dragged Darkheart out of his cage. At first he resisted, but then, realising the chains were no longer holding him to the walls, he rushed at them.
But they were ready for that. They darted out of the way, pulling the chains tight. When he tried to attack