35
A Night Out
“Holy shit!” Sam still sat in the middle of the circle, her hands high in the air, framing the portal that shimmered in the space between them.
Sketch had been right. The gryphon was not as big as a full-grown lion, for which Rush was now exceedingly grateful. He lay on the floor, rubbing his chest where the creature had torpedoed into it. Then he sat up slowly, all the while staring at the gryphon, which had rolled playfully off his chest after crashing with him to the ground and now stood staring at him, cocking its eagle-like head this way and that, as though trying to decide exactly what sort of creature Rush was.
“This… is really cool,” Kaitlyn said.
“Be careful,” Mackenzie warned. “We don’t know what it might do if it gets scared.”
“Oh, come on. Look at it. It’s just a baby.” Kaitlyn crouched low anyway, trying not to scare it as she made her way toward it cautiously.
It had the body and rear legs of a lion cub, but its front legs ended in thick talons, shaped like a bird’s, with feathers running from the shoulder to the knee. Its chest and neck were as broad as a lion cub’s would have been, but they were covered in feathers as well: white near the top, transitioning to a tawny golden color before blending almost imperceptibly into its fur. Its head looked vaguely like an eagle’s, but it had golden, furred ears, long and tufted, more like a lynx than a lion. Its broad beak was the same tawny gold as its fur.
As Kaitlyn came closer, it stood up on its hind legs and spread its wings wide, screeching at her, making Kaitlyn gasp. The feathers on top of its wings were white, like its head, but the feathers underneath were golden, like its fur.
“It’s beautiful,” Sketch murmured, and the gryphon turned its head to stare at him, bobbing its head up and down once.
“It’s like it understood you,” Kaitlyn said. “Can it understand us?” She directed the question to Rush, who looked at her like she was crazy.
“How should I know? Do I look like a mythological zookeeper to you?”
But Kaitlyn just shrugged back at him. “Hey, you called it here.”
“No way,” Rush protested. “You called it here. With that circle thing over there. Remember? Miss I-know-how-to-make-that?”
“I never said I could make a gryphon. And anyway, Tick-Tock was the one who opened the portal.”
“Yes. Yes, I did. So nice of you to remember me,” Sam retorted. “I’m not sure why you guys don’t want to take credit for summoning magical creatures here on planet Earth, but I’ll be happy to take full responsibility for all amazing feats and wonders if someone could please just come hold this portal open for me. My arms are getting tired.”
“How do you know it’s magical?” Mackenzie asked. “Just because it got here by magic doesn’t mean it is magic.”
“Here on Earth?” Daniel said, knitting his eyebrows together in puzzlement. “I don’t think it came from space…”
“Not really the point,” Sam said, rolling her eyes. “A little help, please?”
“I don’t think you have to hold your arms up anymore,” Sketch interjected, staring at the circle.
“Really?” Sam asked hopefully. “Are you sure?”
“Well, the things on the floor are all glowing, and the ones around the portal are lit up now too, so I think the circle is holding them open,” Sketch said.
“The ones around the portal?” Sam asked.
“Yeah,” Sketch confirmed. “In the air, around the edge of the portal, just like on the floor. You guys don’t see that?”
“Just looks like a hole to me,” Sam said, shrugging.
“Oh,” Sketch said, taking that in. “But you guys see the lion-bird thing, right?” he asked, turning to Rush. “I mean, that’s what you guys are talking about?”
“Yeah,” Rush said, grinning. “Definitely see that.”
“So, uh, what do I do?” Sam asked Sketch.
Sketch shrugged. “Whatever you want, I think. Just don’t mess up the ones on the floor.”
Sam moved her arms a little bit farther from the portal, watching the gryphon the whole time. It cocked its head at her inquisitively, watching her as she watched it, but otherwise nothing happened. She dropped her arms to her lap gratefully and started rubbing each shoulder in turn.
“Thank God,” she muttered.
Rush reached out a hand toward the gryphon, moving slowly, so as not to frighten it. At first it moved away, but when he stopped moving his hand, the cub moved back toward him, stretching its head out and grazing his fingertips.
“Well, that’s weird,” Rush said.
“You mean the baby gryphon standing in the garage in Middle-of-Nowhere, Wyoming?” Sam asked, still rubbing her shoulders. “Or something weirder than that? Cause if so, we’re really having a banner evening.”
Rush flashed her a look that managed to say ‘Give me a break, already’ without uttering a word, but otherwise he ignored her.
“Its head didn’t feel… well, it didn’t feel like feathers…”
“Really?” Kaitlyn asked, and she crawled up to it slowly, sitting down next to it when she got close enough to touch it and reaching out a hand of her own. The gryphon reached its head out to brush her hand, and Kaitlyn gasped in surprise, snatching her hand back involuntarily and then reaching out to it again.
“What? What’s wrong?” Mackenzie demanded.
“Nothing,” Kaitlyn reassured her. “I mean, it didn’t hurt or anything. Rush is right, though. It’s weird. It’s like… it’s there, but it’s not there.”
“What do you mean, ‘it’s there, but it’s not there’?” Sam asked, finally standing up and moving out of the runed circle, stepping over the chalk outline carefully so as not to disturb it.
“I mean, when you touch it, your hand kind of… goes into it a little,” Kaitlyn replied.
“Huh?” This last was from Daniel, who had moved up next to Kaitlyn, kneeling just behind her and watching the gryphon over her shoulder.
Kaitlyn reached her hand out again, brushing its back slowly with her fingertips, but when Daniel looked closely, he could see that her fingers were, in fact, sinking partly into its back.
“Whoa!” Daniel exclaimed.
“It feels like…” Kaitlyn was clearly having a hard time trying to describe the sensation. “I don’t know… Almost like dragging your fingers through clay, kind of, only it’s not sticky at all. See?” She pulled her hand back out of the creature’s back and rubbed her fingertips against her thumb, showing them that there wasn’t any residue on her hand.
“OK, that is not normal,” Mackenzie declared. “I don’t think anybody should be touching it, let alone… merging with it…”
But Sketch had already started imitating Kaitlyn, only he let his hand push even farther into its back than she had—and then kept right on going.
“Look!” he exclaimed. “You can pull your hand all the way through it!” Demonstrating, he dragged his entire right hand through the creature from one side to the other. He had to struggle a bit to do it, but the gryphon just stared at him all the while, apparently not at all disturbed by this new turn of events.
As soon as Sketch’s hand was clear of its body, however, the gryphon cub shivered all over, its fur bristling and its feathers all puffing up slightly before settling back down. Sketch had pulled his hand away at the first sign of movement, but once the gryphon seemed to have relaxed, he tried to drag his hand through it again, only this time it didn’t work.
“Hey,” he said, sounding disappointed. “It’s normal now.”
Rush’s eyebrows furrowed as he reached an experimental hand out toward the gryphon cub.
“No way! He’s right!” Rush exclaimed, sounding a lot more excited than Sketch had. “It feels like you’d expect it to now. With feathers and fur and everything.”
The cub stretched out its neck and rubbed the side of its head against Rush’s hand, purring like a cat. Kaitlyn reached out and scratched the feathers on the side of its face, and the cub twisted its neck until her fingers were scratching under its chin. The cub purred even louder and then sighed happily, making Kaitlyn giggle.
“You guys are crazy,” Mackenzie muttered.
“Sit, boy,” Rush said to it. “Can you sit?” He moved his hand up in the air over the cub’s head and then toward its tail, forcing the gryphon to tilt its head up to follow his movement. Rush expected the gryphon to sit down on its rump eventually, but instead, the gryphon just continued to bend its neck backward until its head was completely upside down, resting along its own back, making them all laugh out loud, even Mackenzie.
“Well, it works with dogs,” Rush said, still chuckling. “Come on, buddy, sit. Sit.” Rush placed one hand against the cub’s chest and the other on its rump, gently pressing down until the cub suddenly sat.
“Good boy!” Rush said, scratching its chin and praising it enthusiastically. “That’s a good boy!”
“It’s not a dog,” Sam commented, but Rush just grinned at her with a wicked gleam in his eye.
“Hey, Sketch,” he said. “Go get me a blank page from that notepad.”
“OK.” Sketch retrieved the pad from the table and tore a page out of it from behind his drawing, handing the yellow sheet to Rush.
Rush took it and wadded it up into a ball, showing it to the gryphon.
“Look, boy! Look what I’ve got! You want it?” Rush waved the ball in front of the gryphon, which followed its movements with its head. Sam just rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna throw it, OK? Are you ready? Go get it!”
Rush tossed the paper lightly, not wanting to throw it so far that the cub wouldn’t chase it, but the gryphon whipped its neck out to the side quick as lightning and snatched it out of the air as it flew by without moving the rest of its body at all.
“Whoa. That was insane,” Mackenzie said, and even Sam managed to look grudgingly impressed.
“Do it again!” Sketch begged him.
“Give it here, buddy,” Rush said, grinning from ear to ear. “Drop it… drop it…”
The gryphon eyed him curiously for a moment but then dropped the paper ball into his hand, apparently figuring out what Rush wanted.
“You’re a smart one, aren’t you,” Rush’s voice was warm and encouraging, and he scratched the cub’s chin again. “OK, boy, I’m going to throw it farther this time. You ready? You wanna get it for me? You wanna get it? Go get it!”
Rush threw the ball well over the gryphon’s head, but instead of running after it, the gryphon leaped into the air, executed a twisting, mid-air somersault and extended its wings to dive after the ball, snatching it up in its beak before it hit the floor and then landing on all fours—only to keep right on going, thanks to the floor’s smooth surface, its paws and talons skidding wildly on the sealed concrete before it finally slid to a halt, making Sketch laugh out loud.
“That was awesome!” Sketch shouted, forgetting in his excitement that they had snuck out of the lodge in the middle of the night and were supposed to be keeping it down.
“Shh,” Rush reminded him, but Rush was chuckling too.
The gryphon cub shook its head for a moment, regaining its composure, and then jumped into the air again, gliding casually back to Rush. It used its wings this time to brake so that it landed gently, if still a bit clumsily, and promptly dropped the wadded up paper back into his hand.
“That,” Daniel said quietly, “was so cool.”
“Hey, guys, I hate to break up the party, but I think we should go,” Mackenzie said. “We said we were just going to try this to figure out why they want us to do it. Now we know we can do it, but we still don’t know why, and I, for one, really don’t want to get caught out here.”
Rush looked at Sam. “Tick-Tock?” he asked. Mackenzie flashed him a look of annoyance but said nothing.
“She’s right,” Sam admitted reluctantly. “We still have time to clean up in here and not get caught, but we need to get going.”
“OK,” Rush acknowledged. Kaitlyn walked back to the sink to retrieve the damp rag while Rush addressed the gryphon cub.
“Come here, buddy,” he said gently. He scratched the cub behind the ears for a moment before finally backing away from it, but the cub only followed him, trying now to climb into his lap.
“No, no,” Rush protested, chuckling again, and the cub looked up at him, cocking its head questioningly. “Time to go, buddy. Time to go home, OK? Go home.” Rush pointed toward the portal, and the cub looked at it obediently and then looked back at Rush.
“That’s right, boy. Go home. Understand? Go home now. We can play again later, OK?” Rush pointed to the portal again, and this time the cub lifted up into the air, surprising him by whistling a quick little tune and then shivering again, its fur and feathers bristling up and settling back down just like before. The shiver had caused it to fall about a foot through the air, but it caught itself easily with a downstroke of its wings and then glided toward the portal, glancing back at Rush over its shoulder to screech a final goodbye, and then thrusting its beak into the darkness, slowly pushing itself back through until it finally disappeared.
“See ya, buddy,” Rush said quietly.
With a sigh, Kaitlyn knelt by the edge of the chalk circle and wiped the rag across one of the runes. Immediately, the portal shuddered, shimmering in the air for just a brief moment and then vanishing without a sound.