any other kind of animal he had ever eaten. It was rich and sweet, and he loved it.
He finished his meal quickly, aware that there were still others there to catch. If he could kill a few of them, he could store them somewhere to eat later.
Ignoring Kraee and Aeya, he spotted a pair of humans by the wall. They were trying to help each other climb up it. He galloped toward them, wings raised as high as they would go. They, seeing him, turned and tried to run. But he darted first one way and then the other, blocking their escape. He killed one with an easy blow of his talons, but as he bent to finish it off with his beak he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulders. He turned and saw the other human. It was already running, but he lashed out and caught it around the torso with his foreclaws. He dragged it toward him, struggling and screaming, and pinned it to the ground. It lay there, injured but alive, unable to get up.
Darkheart brought his beak down toward it. “You fight?” he asked it.
There was no recognition in the human’s eyes, only fear. It snatched up a rock from the ground and smashed it against the joint of one of Darkheart’s toes. He screeched and pressed down as hard as he could, crushing the creature into the ground. There was a crunch and a wet tearing sound, and when he raised his claws he saw that the human’s torso had been mashed into a pulp. The head lay on the sand, connected to nothing but red mush, and he peered curiously at it. The eyes were still open, but they weren’t looking at anything now.
He lost interest a moment later and turned his attention to the rest of the humans. There were still plenty left. Most of them just ran away. Others, cornered, tried to fight back. They died. Darkheart dragged their bodies to a spot by the wall and kept an eye on the pile. The other two weren’t stockpiling their kills. They paused to eat parts of the humans they killed, but left the bodies lying on the ground and ran on to kill more. Darkheart began taking these, too, until he had a sizeable collection.
It was all so easy.
After a while, as the killing went on and his beak and talons turned red with blood, a strange madness came over him. His killer instinct, left unsatisfied for so long, rose up inside him with a vengeance, blotting out all thought and all semblance of rationality. He was barely aware of what he was doing. All he could see were the humans, dying, and all he could hear were the screams, the snarls and the roar of the crowd over the dull thud of beak and talon in flesh.
And then, at last, there were no more humans left. Darkheart ran here and there, looking for them, but they were all dead. The madness receded somewhat and he withdrew to his heap of corpses and began to wolf them down. His exertions had made him hungry again, and the madness put an insane greed into him.
He saw a beak flash past him to snatch one of the bodies, and turned, snarling. Kraee had come and was eating, too. Darkheart did not think. Nor did he pause. He threw himself at the other griffin, smacking bodily into him. Kraee staggered away but then turned, rearing up on his hind legs. Darkheart rose, too, and the pair of them started to lash out at each other with their talons, screeching and rasping. Darkheart dived in under Kraee’s beak and sank his own beak into Kraee’s throat. It tore through the feathers and left a deep gash, which started to bleed profusely. Kraee screamed again and hurled himself at the black griffin. His front talons struck him in the shoulders and sank in deeply, puncturing the thick muscle. Darkheart howled in agony and began to strike wildly, hitting Kraee in the face, neck and chest. His beak clacked against that of the old griffin with a sound like falling rocks. Then it hit Kraee’s in the eye.
Kraee’s scream was indescribable. He let go and reeled away, still screaming, blood pouring from his ruined eye. Instantly Darkheart sprang forward, foretalons outspread. His hind legs gathered beneath him, kicking away from the ground in a great burst of powerful muscle. His wings spread partway and beat just