To Gryphana

They continued to walk below the scorching sun as it reached midday. The two girls and the wolf in front, and Rye left forlorn in the back. All of the sudden the two girls took off running with the wolf in the lead. Rye felt himself panic thinking they were trying to lose him. He sped up his pace but then stopped. They ran strait into the water and began to splash around laughing. The wolf dog paddled around and the girls were diving under and reappearing.

"Doris!" They cried and another head popped up.

"Well, we meet again." She said, "Much sooner than I expected."

"You should be glad you live in the water, it is scorching hot out there!" Cherrie was saying.

Rye walked to the edge and took off his boots. He put his sore feet into the water and sighed. The cold water soothed him.

The girls hadn’t even bothered to remove their cloaks and boots and were starting to have trouble. Followed by Doris they went to shallower waters were they could stand.

Cherrie, with her green cloak pulling downward, reached down and threw it around her neck as you would a scarf. Finally Sybie and Cherrie left the river and lay on the sun dried ground absorbing the warm rays of the sun above.

"At this pace we’ll never get to Castle Gryphy," Sybie said as she pulled her hair up with leather thongs, "but I don’t care that much anymore."

"Good, then we can go home." Cherrie said with hope in her eyes.

"No, I still want to get there. I just want to see it, and Rye wants to go there too. How would he get there with out us?"

"I am perfectly able of getting there myself." Rye said standing above them.

"Sure you are." Cherrie laughed.

"You don’t even have a map." Sybie pointed out.

"Well," Rye said his ears were red, "You would lend me yours right? What need would you have of the map anymore?"

"I don’t know…" Sybie said mischievously, "A map is always good to have around…."

"Sybie, don’t tease the boy!" Cherrie said though she was laughing wildly.

Jolie, who was snuggling next to Sybie, stopped an her ears strained to hear something that could not be heard by the human ear.

Nothing good. Jolie said

"What’s wrong?" Cherrie said when she noticed Jolie and Sybie so silent and staring away.

"We don’t know, but Jolie think there is something bad over there." Sybie pointed to some bushes.

Cherrie started to go closer to the bushes, but Sybie stepped forward and grabbed her. "What are you doing?"

Jolie began to growl and bare her sharp white teeth. Sybie went back and grabbed her bag looking for her bow. When she found it she heard a squeal behind her and swiftly turned around. A man held Cherrie with his hand over her mouth. The clouds above turned gray and thunder began to rumble.