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"The Chase" (Around the Forest Village) Feather wished many times that day that he didn't have such a taste for pranks. Who could have known the villagers would have taken such offense? But now here he lay in the deep forest, waiting for the villagers to give up the search, he had plenty of time to reflect. It had all started with that accursed villager girl, he knew. His getting involved like he did was the wrong thing to do. Humans were just so unpredictable sometimes, though! Feather had been enjoying an evening stretch of his wings the night before, when he had heard a scream coming from a stand of full-leaved trees. He glided over to investigate, curious. It was probably a human girl, but it had almost sounded like a female griffon's yell too. Strange. So he creeped closer, trying to see without being seen. This was something he had practiced since he was a nestling, since you had to get close to your prey before you could catch it. He nudged a few underbrush plants carefully aside so he could see into the tiny clearing in the stand of trees. What he saw was totally outside of his experience. For some reason Feather couldn't understand, two humans, an oldish man with grey hair and a very young woman with short red hair, seemed to be *wrestling* with each other. Feather couldn't tell much more than their age, sex and hair color, because they were rolling all over the place. Their clothing was in disarray and more than half-off, probably from their wrestling. They both were breathing heavily, and the girl for no apparent reason would scream piercingly. Feather just couldn't understand it. But, he decided that since he was there, he might as well have a little fun. Humans always seemed afraid of him, so he decided to use that fear for his fun. Looking around stealthily, he noticed that he was between two sturdy and close-set trees. That gave him an idea. He reared up on his two hind legs, digging them solidly into the ground, and reached over to get firm claw-grips on the two trees to his sides. Then, he pumped his wings as hard and fast as he could, stirring up quite a wind and carrying not a few leaves and twigs with it, the whole of which nailed the two humans squarely. They hadn't noticed he was there before, but they sure did now. Feather grinned, and decided that now was a good time to scare them off. He opened his beak wide and gave the loudest, most threatening griffon-scream that he could muster. Feather wasn't very big, and he couldn't yell like some of his older nestmates, but he could still blow the eardrums out of a pair of humans at point-blank range. The scream had the desired effect. Both humans gave their own screams and dashed off in different directions. Feather stopped pumping the air with his wings, tucked them close to his body, and settled down to all fours. He lay down on the forest floor, mightily pleased with himself for the prank. Feather listened to the sounds of the two humans running away for a while, then fell asleep. He dreamed of snatching rabbits from the ground, slicing open their necks, and then dropping them down to some human houses so the needy families would have something to eat. Feather liked the feeling he got from helping the poor humans. The next morning Feather heard some humans approaching. He didn't feel like being found, so he concealed himself in the underbrush and waited. The humans appeared, strangely enough, to be carrying weapons. Feather thought that was odd, since this wasn't the hunting ground for the village nearby. Feather waited some more, and eventually a human came by that he recognized. It was the older man from the night before! His face was all red for some reason, and he was telling the men around him that he had seen 'the beast' around here last night. Odd, Feather didn't remember seeing any 'beast' last night. Just the man and woman, wrestling. The other men crept around stealthily, obviously searching for something to use their weapons on. As the man and other humans crept past his hiding place, Feather had a thought he didn't like. What if the man had been referring to *him* as 'the beast'? That might mean that if the other men were hunting for 'the beast', they were actually hunting for *him*? Feather didn't like that at all, so he decided, sensibly enough, to scram. He scrambled up out of his hiding place and shot up a nearby tree, shredding the bark in his haste to be up through the treetops and into the open air. He poised at the crown of the tree for a second, gathering himself, and leaped into the air, shrieking his victory over avoiding being caught by the hunting humans. Unfortunately, Feather had forgotten that the humans weren't really that far away, and neither had they stopped looking for him. A good deal of them had bows, Feather realized, as a solid wall, it seemed, of arrows rose into the air above the treetops, and streaked straight for him. Feather loved flying acrobatics, and this talent served him well now, as he tucked in one wing momentarily, making his body snap a roll to one side and avoid the arrows before he reached out with his wing again and stabilized his flight. He screamed in victory again, and realized too late how stupid a move it was. Another flight of arrows was headed his way, and he decided to outrun them this time. He pumped his wings faster, and just barely managed to avoid most of the arrows. One of them took a bit out of one of his tail feathers, but that was better than it hitting flesh and bone. Feather, silently this time, flew towards a deep patch of forest he knew of, and very carefully and quietly hid himself in the underbrush. It might take a while for the humans to give up, but Feather wasn't all that hungry right now, so he could wait. He tucked his beak under his wing and fell into a light doze.
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