***
This has to be one of the most embarrassing things ever.
The unnamed shifter had dragged her back to the forest, where he’d used some vine to tie her up. Now she hung hog-tied upside down as he carried her through the air in his gryphon form.
The vine was tight, to the point it was nearly cutting off circulation to her hands and feet. She’d tried repeatedly to pull herself free, to no avail. Even if she did, his paws were holding onto the vine, not her. If it parted, she would fall to instant death.
That might be more preferable to what he has in mind before killing me though.
Not that she’d received any sort of description as to what he had in mind, but Quinn knew an evil man when she saw one. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be pleasant.
She began to struggle with the bonds once more. Perhaps she could throw him off balance, force him to land or something. Anything was better than just staying limp.
Rubbing her wrists together to try and part the vines only left them sore and chafed. Trying the same with her legs didn’t have any more noticeable effect.
Quinn started swinging herself from side to side, hoping maybe the motion would rub the vine against his claws.
To her surprise, as soon as she started doing that the gryphon dove for the ground. He dropped her from ten feet up, and then beat his wings to the sky again.
Quinn cried out as she landed on her back on the firm ground, the wind momentarily knocked out of her. She rolled and lay still until she could once again breathe. Immediately her hands worked the vines free. He might come back any second, and she didn’t want to be there when he did.
A high-pitched scream snapped her head upward, just in time to see the gryphon collide mid-air with another figure. All she saw was a burst of white feathers and a sleek, powerful body, and then the two forms intertwined, making it hard for her to see in the dark.
Judging by the size, it wasn’t a dragon. What the hell was it? Another flying species?
The shrieking noise continued as both animals clashed, and she saw bits and pieces of feathers and other parts of them begin to fall from the sky as they vied for aerial supremacy.
The gryphon’s beak shot forward and closed around the leg of its opponent. The sound of bone breaking was audible from where she stood, and Quinn shivered in distaste. She was not a fan of violence, and the sound upset her stomach easily. The combatants spun in the air, and suddenly Quinn knew what the other animal was.
A Pegasus. A flying horse, although to her surprise, this one had a giant horn on its head that it was using to try and skewer the gryphon, though it kept dodging the attacks. The entire effort between both parties looked clumsy compared to what she would have expected. There was no serene grace to their movements. It was wobbly, off-balance, and incredibly unrealistic-looking.
Could this be what Asher meant by most fliers not being experts?
That didn’t stop them from inflicting horrific damage on each other as she looked on, but she suspected neither of them had much experience with this sort of combat.
The Pegasus got lucky and its horn gouged a huge wound along the gryphon’s side, though it failed to actually punch into it, as the other beast was moving away from the attack.
Part of her was fascinated by the battle, but her mind kept yelling at her to do something.
What? Do what?
RUN, YOU IDIOT. RUN.
Quinn jolted upright, looked around frantically to get her bearings, and then took off. The gryphon had been following the mountain north and a little to the east as it carried her, so now she ran full-speed to the west, trying to get back in amongst the cover of the trees. They were a long way off, but perhaps the gryphon would lose, or be too injured to pursue her.
It seemed unlikely, but she had nothing better to do than hope.
Her feet carried her swiftly, and the sounds of fighting began to fade from her ears.
Then there was a last, high-pitched shriek that ended abruptly.
Quinn’s curiosity wanted her to turn around, to see what was going on, but fear had a firm grip on her now and she continued to flee, desperate to escape.
At least if they find me now I’m likely to look bedraggled and out of place enough that any of the border guards might believe my story.
A sudden gust of wind was her only warning.
Something came at her from behind, and pain erupted from her left leg. She looked down to see the massive claws of the gryphon rip an ugly gash in her thigh. Blood began to pour from it and she fell to the ground with a cry, the pain slamming into her.
“Oh shut up,” the same voice said a moment later as the gryphon shifted back to human form. “It’s all your fault anyway. If you had just stayed there, I wouldn’t have had to come after you.”
He walked into view, and despite the blazing agony in her leg, Quinn gasped. He looked terrible. A huge cut bled from his side, stretching from his right hip up to his armpit. Another wound trickled blood down his face, and his entire chest and left arm were black and blue, already bruising from hits sustained in the fight.
“It looks worse than it is, but thanks for the concern,” he said with a wink.
He dragged her all the way back to the pile of discarded vines, her blood leaving a trail through the grass, mixing with his as it continued to fall from his side, though it had begun to slow already. Her leg, on the other hand, was still bleeding profusely, and she was beginning to feel light-headed.
The first thing the gryphon did was tie a vine tightly around her leg, and almost immediately the blood drain slowed.
“There, that should keep you alive long enough,” he cackled, trussing her back up with the rest of it.
Quinn was so dizzy by that point that as soon as she was lifted into the air, she passed out.