We take turns helping each other scrub the Oni’s scent from our clothes, then return to the riverbank, doing our best to dry without towels in the warm sunlight. I drip-dry for what feels like forever, laying there on the smooth river stones. I guess I’m at least getting a tan out of this.
“Hey, Aurelio, why don’t we—”
“AH! LOOK OUT!” Lief screeches.
My head snaps to where Lief is sitting, only to find him pointing up in horror. I turn around, and the sight that meets my eyes is even more nightmare-inducing than the Oni slashing at Aurelio.
There’s a griffin pouncing on us. Its ten-foot wingspan is so large that at this close distance, it blots out the sun. With the head, wings, and talons of an eagle, and the body and tail of a lion, the massive monster is intimidating enough, but it’s even more terrifying to see it bear down on its prey. Its talons are outstretched, its steely eyes locked on its target—
“AURELIO!” Lief shrieks.
I don’t see it until it’s too late. I thought the griffin was pouncing on a fish, but those talons snatch up Aurelio, and before I know it, he’s being carried away into the sky, growing smaller and smaller as the griffin flies away. It lets out a great screech that sends chills down my spine.
“No. No, no, no! AURELIO!” I scream.
“ALESSIA!” he shouts.
Aurelio struggles, but there’s nothing he can do. He grows smaller and smaller until his voice fades on the wind. The griffin soars effortlessly toward the mountaintop, far out of my reach. My heart palpitates in my chest. My vision goes fuzzy as I forget how to breathe. Everything is a whirlwind of panic, screaming thoughts, and—
“Alessia! Snap out of it!”
Lief’s tiny hand smacks my face with surprising force. I stumble backward, gripping my cheek.
“What the hells, Lief?”
“Aurelio is in trouble! Don’t just stand there, we have to rescue him!” he shouts.
His words are like a kick straight to the ass. My body and mind remembering how to function again, I’m seeing red as I’m snatching up my gear and taking off like a bat out of hell toward the mountains. Lief catches up and perches on my shoulder as I run.
“I didn’t know there were any griffins this far south!” I shout.
“I didn’t, either!”
“What is it doing snatching up a human, anyway?”
“It’s probably desperate! With that nomadic orc tribe in the area, its prey has to be limited! Plus, with the Oni scent washed off, the griffin wouldn’t be afraid to attack anymore!”
“Damn it!” I growl.
The Eastern Mountains are only a few miles away, but the miles seem to take forever when I’m trying to catch up to a griffin. The creature reaches the mountain before I can even get halfway there. In the air, it has to be flying at least three times as fast as I can run, and that’s putting no effort into the flight. I make note of where the griffin heads off to as it crests the mountain and takes a sharp left, landing at the top of a cliff.
“There! Don’t take your eyes off him, Lief!” I order.
“I won’t!”
With Lief concentrating on the griffin’s nest, I can focus on getting there. My lungs burn in protest to the near-sprinting pace I’ve been keeping up, but the adrenaline douses the burning sensation before it can force me to slow down. I don’t care how much this hurts my body. That’s my man that the griffin stole. I hope it’s satisfied, because that’s the last meal it will ever catch, and it will not lay a single talon on Aurelio.
After a few more miles of dodging trees, I finally break away onto the mountain pass. The steep hills of the mountain tower above me, their sleek, gray sides stretching straight up into the clouds. I don’t see any clear path up. My chest tightens more and more the longer I search for a way up. It’s not like I can fly my way up there like the griffin or Lief; I’ll have to scale the mountainside hand and foot if there’s no path, which is a great way to slip and fall to my death, if I’m not careful.
My head is fuzzy from the powerful emotions surging through me as I desperately run along the mountain pass. A tingling starts up in my limbs, like a numbness that isn’t quite numb trying to overtake my body. Panic is seizing me in an iron grip. If I don’t just figure something out and go for it, I’ll panic down here long enough for Aurelio to get eaten, and all of this will have been a futile effort.
“I’m not losing him!” I shout.
Seizing the magic energy flowing through me, I punch my fists into the side of the mountain, encase them in rock, and climb, one step at a time, one reach at a time. The incredibly steep incline will become a ninety-degree angle only twenty feet up, but I don’t care; I’ll either make it to the top and save Aurelio, or I’ll run out of magic energy and fall to my death while he’s being eaten. Either way, I’m going to get him back, come hells or high waters.
“Alessia, do you want me to distract the griffin?” Lief asks.
“No, they’re extremely territorial, from what I’ve read. I don’t need you dying on us,” I insist.