To Gryphana

When she looked at Rye he was glaring furiously at the two men who stood behind Cherrie.

"Hello children." The one who held Cherrie said with his sinister deep voice.

"If you have any gladness in life, you will let her go." Sybie said her voice was a soft growl.

The man laughed and played with Cherrie’s hair, "And what could you do about it?"

"You sure you want to know?" Sybie said and in her fury she snatched up an arrow and aimed for one of the men behind her.

The two men stiffened, but they didn’t seem to be very afraid of her.

Sybie glowered, "Then you’ll have it." The arrow left the bow and planted itself in the mans neck. With a choking sound he fell to the ground and died. Cherrie jumped away with blood on her clothes she ran to Rye and Sybie.

The other two men just stood there staring at their dead leader. All of the sudden a flash of light filled all of their vision and a large scorch mark was left in between the men and the children. The two turned and fled into the forest.

Cherrie was sobbing into her hands. She had been trying to act as if it was nothing but it was. Sybie patted her friend’s back and spoke soothing words.

"I guess you know how to control the weather now," Cherrie said to Rye after she had stopped her crying.

"Yeah, I guess." He said trying to hide his pride.

Cherrie spared on last glance at the mans corpse then announced that she would like to leave this place.

Once again they began to travel this time silently. All the happiness had drained from them. For days they walked mostly in silence like ghosts traveling endlessly and tirelessly. The silence continued until they reached the mountains that they had looked at every day for a week. Now, the mountains right before them, they looked larger and rougher then ever. Cherrie’s attitude had changed now that they were there, in front of the mountains.

The Southern Griffin Mountains to be exact. When they saw them from up close, Sybie groaned and sat down. Rye sat down beside her but looked as if he would have groaned as well if Sybie hadn’t already done so.

"The mountains!" Cherrie said and for the first time in days, sounded truly happy, "Gryphons live in the mountain, you know."

"Yeah, but it is the climb that I am not looking forward to." Rye said and Sybie made no response.

Cherrie ignored him and went on, "Gryphons and elves are supposed to get along well, do you think I might meet one?"

"I hope not," Rye said, "I heard that if you really anger one they can rip you to shreds."

"They wouldn’t," Cherrie sounded sure, "Seeing as there are two elves among us."

Sybie laughed, "You mock me."

"She does not," Rye said looking down at his hands.

"I guess I could pretend…." Sybie mused, "But how?"

"Well, you’ve got an elves bow," Cherrie said, "Why don’t we make your hair like the elf girls would?"

"If I do, so do you." Sybie said.

Cherrie hesitated, "But I already look like an elf, heck, I am one!" but when she saw the look Sybie gave her she said, "Okay, I’ll do it."

Cherrie had Sybie stand up, "Do you have leather strips? That’s best for pulling up your hair."

Sybie nodded and pulled them out from her satchel.

Cherrie let Sybie’s hair down and began to comb out the knots while Sybie pulled away. This took a while because Sybie had really long hair. Rye grew impatient; he didn’t like watching this girly stuff and went off on his own.

When Cherrie finally finished the unknotting, she parted two locks of hair on each side of Sybie’s head and set to braiding this. She’d obviously done this before, because she did it quite quickly. When done, Cherrie led Sybie to the lake where she could see her reflection.

"This is how the elves make their hair?" Sybie said, toying with the two braids that lay over her shoulders. The rest of her chocolate brown hair fell down her back.

"Yep, and you look even more like an elf now.