When Zaiya arrives at the camp site a few hours later with her carpenter, they again are baffled by the sigh.

As before, the camp appears as a small village of tents with people buzzing around the place, patrolling, scanning the castle, cooking, maintain armor and weapons and more. This time, though, at the southern end towards the castle, there are 4 huge catapults set up with rocks nearly as big as himself just waiting to be cocked, loaded and fired.

Zaiya scans the castle and as she does, she notices two gryphons circling high up above the castle.

"I can only see three of those tree-trunk-throwing-machines. But there is spell casting on both sides. I assumed its to prevent the others from firing or hitting them. The gryphons can easily cancel the enchantments on the castle though. Or should be able to. Do you think the queen is waiting for us?"

The phoenix slowly descents now into the camp.

"I don't know, is that eating-magic-thing exhausting for a gryphon?" He blinks in confusion as the queen emerges from her tent, waiting for them. "How did she know we are here already?"

They land and Zaiya lies down during the process and before Kin can even think about jumping this time.

He is slightly embarrassed "I got it. Promised. No more jumping."

She grins and stands "Good." Then looks at the queen.

"You have been waiting for us?"

She nods, but her smiles is all the same.

"I thought, may be, after the your show yesterday " She nods to Zaiya " you may want to try this again here. My gryphons will take care of spells cast, but the rest of their weapons are still there. Even at mid range, the balistas are a danger to them. If we get closer, then archers will protect the machines. "

Kin frowns. He doesn't feel well, sending in Zaiya to do all the dirty work for Helina. As he still thinks, Zaiya speaks up.

"I can see what I can do. But I need Kin in line of sight at all times, else, I might loose control. One of your gryphons would be good. But he has to stay out of firing range without loosing line of sight. And he should be a good flier, in case something happens – and ...”

The queen laughs “I understand.” She looks around, then stops a soldier, that just walked by them, carrying a pot of water “I need Rachel here, right away.” He nods and sets the pot down, then bows and walks towards the north.

Kin blushes, feeling a bit uneasy “I... would rather come with you and use that spell, but your plan is better, especially if you have magic-eating backup. What are you going to do, though?”

She smiles at him and whispers “I am going to look for our sorcerer.” Then continues for everyone “I will have a bit of fun, hopefully eat a few arrows and see how they react.”

“Be careful anyway, ok? You don't want me to run into the castle, do you?” He grins “And I will!”

“My queen sent for me?” A feminin voice sounds from behind them and all turn their head.

It seems to be the small gryphon Kin and Zaiya saw pulling a wagon earlier. She is smaller then a horse, only slightly larger then a pony. Her feathers and fur have a golden color with her flight feathers turning into dark brown at the end. She bows her head then looks at the queen expectantly with eyes that also match the color of her plumage.

The queen laughs and explains quietly “I need a babysitter for this human. He has to stay close to her.” She motions to Zaiya.

The gryphoness claps her beak twice, unhappy and looks at them for a moment, before nodding.

“He will take command, pick the best spot and distance. I trust, you will keep him safe. Less blood may be spilled if your mission is successful.”

Rachel frowns and Kin wonders which part is the one she didn't like.

“What does that mean?”

Rachel sighs “My queen, he is not trained.... “

Helina nods “That is, why I picked you. You are the best flier we have and I trust your judgment when to overrule any signal he may give.”

Zaiya grins as Kin's distress grows.

“Hey you two.. could you … I mean, my queen, could you explain..?”

Now they turn to him and laugh “Of course. You see, our soldiers are trained in many way. Gryphons aren't just scouts or front line soldiers. They also can carry knights into battle, breach doors or go for quick and stealthy flanking maneuvers. That means, she will wear a saddle in addition to her armor and reins for quick signals. You lack the training, but I am confident in her ability to compensate for that.”

Now both Kin and Rachel frown.

Before he can talk about his thoughts, Rachel speaks up again. “You want me to be able to fly decently or not? Armor and saddle will not just slow me down, but also restrict my wings. We aren't going into battle, we are staying away from it.”

The queen nods “See, that's why I picked her. Not afraid to speak her mind and focus on the mission instead of her pride.” She eyes Kin “You think you can do without a saddle?”

Zaiya laughs “We don't have one and he does just fine.” Then she stares at the gryphoness, who shivers uncomfortably for a moment.

Kin meanwhile turns to the queen, slightly uncomfortable too“I think I can manage, but, I have never really learned about reins and horseback riding. I figure it works similar?”

The queen shakes her head “Not really. You have three dimensions. The basic signals are similar, pull left to go left, pull right to go right. But the strength of your pull already has sever consequences. I have seen gryphons spiraling completely due to the pulling. Admittedly, that was mostly them having fun with the freshling on their back. It won't happen with Rachel, but be mindful.”

“I.. usually just talk to the bird.” He motions back at Zaiya, who is still talking to the gryphoness.

Rachel's eyes go wide a few moments ago and she keeps listening with a huge smile on her face. She seizes up the carpenter every now and then.

Helina states with a smile on her own face “This looks like you are getting sold.”

Kins mouth opens and closes several times, before he can answer “What? ZAIYA! Stop telling everyone about everything!” - whatever she said, it amuses both birds greatly and his complaint even more so.

Helina steals his attention again “Kin, you three can save a lot of lives on both sides. Even though, my gryphons crave battle, Rachel here will not give in to it. Thanks to her size, she had to fight and train harder then any other to be on par with the much larger ones. Her discipline and agility easily compensates for her size and strength. Focus on your job with Zaiya. Leave the rest to her.”

He nods slowly, then adds a bit more serious “That's what I usually do and it works well. I am just the passenger, she is the one that knows how to fly.” The gryphoness turns and disappear in one of the smaller tents.

The queen nods. She appreciates Zaiyas effort to warm Rachel up to the idea. She knows, gryphons aren't too keen on having someone 'tell them what to do'. That is another reason why she picked the gryphoness. She has the most patience of her birds. She continuously wants to prove herself and she heard the other gryphons mock her size about not being able to carry anyone. In the end, its a win win situation. Helina knows, the small gryphoness is more then up to the task. PLUS the other gryphons are on the lookout for spellcasters to cancel their shenanigans which the smaller gryphoin can't do.

“You will be fine. She is nice and puts her duty over everything. Just make sure I don't loose myself!”

Kin looks up at Zaiya “That duty-over-everything reminds me a lot of someone else. When should we start?”

“At once. Helina? I will look around the castle and also search for that sorcerer of Eagleholm. What do you expect from me flying in there?”

Helina smiles “A huge drop in moral inside the castle.” She stops for a moment, then continues “And, to be honest with you, they will bring out any possible secret weapons they may have. Your distraction will also bind their sorcerers, so our catapults can take out their balistas and breach an entrance point for us.

Zaiya nods thoughtfully “It will spare your soldiers the bloody breach battle, right?”

Helina nods “Hopefully that too. Yes.”

“Thank you for being honest. I will head out now. “ She turns to Kin “Can we?”

Rachel returned unnoticed and nudges him from the side. She is wearing a beautifully ornamented tack. The brown leather seems to be spiked with silvery metal pieces all through it, like a net embedded into a basin of concrete and only pointy ends on the sides show. They are braided into beautiful flower stems, which form bends to the outer side of the leather strips. They unite with a similar stem-like braid going along the straps which is adorned with tiny, silvery feathers. He adores the masterful craftsmanship as well as he wonders how it actually holds without sliding around her head or neck, since there seems to be no additional leather straps and no bit.

Another, more persistent shove towards her side rips him out of his thoughts.

“Get up there, you can adore the craftsmanship later.” She is obviously VERY proud of this piece of gear and the carpenter appreciating it gives her mood a huge boost.

Helina grins “She saved up quiet a while for this piece of equipment. Gryphons rarely wear it, I think, this might be the first time actually.”

Kin nods slowly, then climbs up on the gryphoness. It is a very different feeling then on Zaiyas back. Much smaller, smaller feathers and a thinner neck. The reins are in the way to hold on to feathers or the birds neck, as he does with Zaiya.

“You have to use your legs. Try to not press against my wings and whatever you do, don't use the reins to hold yourself upright. I will go slow and give you a few moments to adjust.”

Kin is a bit nervous but Rachel does as promised and slowly takes to a sprint, then flaps her wings to get them into the air. She circles for a few minutes and adds a few slight changes to direction to see how he reacts while Zaiya watches them. The gryphoness is positively surprised as he instinctively leans to the right sides whenever she flies a curve. The phoenix trained her human well. Her voice sounds pleased as she speaks “Good, now stop trying to rip out the feathers on my neck and hold the strap on my neck lightly. This is a large part of our training drill, so I will not think when you accidentally tug to any side. Remember that and try to keep it balanced. Mark the middle of it and try to keep it right over my neck if you have to. That should do the trick. And watch Zaiya. Leave the rest to me.”

He gulps nervously and holds the reins like if he balances several eggs on top of the band.

Rachel flies a few more easy maneuvers until she is happy with their performance, then she turns to the south and up – to get closer but stay out of arrow range. She eyes for the balistas, but most of the soldiers around them are two busy staring at the phoenix. Two of the war machines even get turned to shoot at her. Stupid rookies.

“Kin hold on... take feathers..”

One of the balistas is turning to them, then fires their deadly load with pinpoint accuracy.

Kin immediately leans forward to wrap his arms around her neck instead and she ignores the urge to twist left due to the signals. Instead, she flies upward and twists around one-eighty to face the same direction of the bolt. Then her wings REALY start working. Kin feels like his brain slides back into his stomach from her acceleration. A horrible screeching sound appears as she catches the bolt with her talons and claws and tries to slow it down to their speed. The carpenter holds his breath to not disturb her any way possible. This must take a TON of precision.

A moment later, she relaxes and turns towards the castle again, while more balistas take aim at them now. Kin can see Zaiya as she flaps hard on the same spot and stares up at them before diving down to one of the balistas that are ready to fire.

Rachel meanwhile casually flies above and drops the bolt she just caught, aiming on the war machine that shot at them. The carpenter cant help and stare down as the 'bomb' lands at the front side of the wooden construct, demolishing the wooden frame and rendering the machine useless.

“Did you just drop a tree from two hundred meters at a target less then a wagon?”

She smiles and gets them behind the balistas that were turned towards them.

“The winds are good for us. That's my specialty. The thing that non of the larger gryphons can do. It is still dangerous and I should not do it right now. “

She sounds proud of that skill. May be a bit too proud. Kin slightly worries, that she may show off more like that, but the queen didn't promise too much about this gryphoness. Instead of luring more shots, she stays on the blind sight of the balistas, avoiding any other shots.

Rachel's head shots up as Kin gives a surprised yelp and points down.

Zaiya is no longer alone. She has caught quiet a lot of arrows by now, but didn't even bother to switch on her aura yet. She bites and claws at another ballista on the wall as a shadowy figure dives at the phoenix from one of the towers behind her. Rachel stares at them and screeches a warning too – much louder then Kin.

The carpenter didn't mean to warn Zaiya, though, instead, he pulls roughly at her wing. She gives a surprised screech and looses her balance, tumbling down from the wall.

Now he gets a better look at the figure. It looks just like Zaiya, but smaller and pitch black. It leaves a fine, dark smoke in its wake and looks like the light around it is sucked towards it constantly. Zaiya freezes again when she sees the other bird, who just ripped through the rest of the ballista she was working on. Kin doesn't wait for her to get back her bearings and urgently tugs on her wings again. She pulls her wings down against him and ducks forward just in time to dodge another dive attack of the dark phoenix, then flies upwards to get them out of the castle and away from intervening humans.

It is hard to watch for Kin as his phoenix probably has to fight against her hatchling. He notices the first catapult flung projectiles destroy another ballista and the upper part of the wall they are planning to take down.

He also notices a few more balistas on the ground, hard to hit and spot from outside. One of them aims at Rachel and him. While she is still distracted by the two birds fighting above the castle. He lets out another cry and brutally rips the reins to the right. Rachel gives a startled cry herself and immediately rolls right, almost loosing Kin in the process as their position is horizontal to the ground now. Then the gryphon gives another cry – one of pain – as the ballista bolt rips along the inner flank on her right left leg.

She is about to scold the human on her back, when pain clouds her mind. She tumbles for a few moments, but at least, her body following their training and Kin trying to clumsily to guide her back above the castle and ultimately towards their camp. She can feel the blood running through the fur on her leg and dripping down from her paws. Darn it, the others will never let her forget THAT mistake. She grumpily has to admit, that the aim of those down there is more then true. She assumes, that the bolt would have hit her straight in the breast. She gulps, a bit wobbly on her wings as she realizes that she would have nearly killed both of them by letting herself get distracted.

“Thank you, Kin. I am back and focused.”

He can hear the blood pumping in his ears from the Adrenalin as he relaxes his grip on the reins and her body. He looks up for a moment. Zaiya is still fighting with the dark phoenix, but she seems to slowly get the upper hand. She is trying desperately to keep them just above the walls, most likely due to her being afraid to get that urge to fly to the sun again, which gives her opponent the huge advantage of diving down at her over and over again. By now, she twists to block the others dives with her talons at every attack. Her larger size and strength evens out the fight. He blinks and tugs the reins again, when Rachel tries to get back to the castle.

“You are wounded, we have to get someone to look at it.”

She tenses up again and ignores him for a moment, then turns back to the castle, when he starts to talk more “You cant do your job if you are.. wait, what?”

She quickly shakes her head as if trying to get rid of water in her feathers “You are right. Pride cannot stay in my way.”

“Wow. I am.. used to far longer discussions. Most of the time, she still does what she thinks is best.”

Rachel gives a mix between a chirp and a chuckle “May be you should send your mate to some drill training too. May be you both should do that for a year or two. You have the time, don't you?”

“OH CREATOR... what else did she tell you?”

“Everything she deemed necessary to make sure I take extra care of you.” Then she turns her head and shoots him an evil smile “...and then some more, just for fun.”

Kin gulps and is quiet after that.

The gryphoness stumbles when landing. Her rear leg giving in and they both unceremoniously drop on their side.

The healers are upon them the same second, though. They followed what was happening in the sky and immediately start working on the wound.

Kin waves the two that were aiming for him off “I am fine, help her.”

Helina comes running to them. “Are you all right? Rachel?”

The gryphoness, on her side, grins weakly “The others will never let this go. Getting hit by one of those slow, clumsy machines... “

Helina laughs “If that is your only concern right now I know that you are well, but you shouldn't be so sure about the others. I think, you are the first gryphon that actually survived a hit of one of them.”

Rachel stares at the healers grimly “It just graced me. My pride got deeper injuries from this then my body.”

“Then that should be a lesson to be more focused in the future. You are the one I expected least to get hit by these.“ She turns to the healers “How is she?”

Another gryphon lands next to them and quickly nudges Kin towards his side “Come, you still have a job to do.”

“Raut?”

He nods and waits patiently until Kin mounts his back.

He looks back at the gryphoness on the ground one more time and she stares back. Both smile weakly and he thinks he can see something new in there: Respect.

Then they are up in the air and he starts looking for Zaiya. “There she is...”.

The gryphon distracts him for a few moments.

“Kin, I think, I found that sorcerer. The tower on the left. It had an illusion around them, well hidden. There is a small balcony, not large enough for me to land there, but I can get you there.”

The carpenter nods “That would be great. Zaiya seems to be well in control. Her aura is still off. I just hope, she can beat that other bird. If it is the one from her egg, it must be difficult for her.”

Raut has no idea what he is talking about, but he focuses on the last few balistas and flying anyway.

As if they heard him, the dark phoenix dives at the carpenters fire bird again and she twists and grabs the talons again. Instead of using that to her advantage, she uses her larger body and weight simply to toss him away from the castle for him to catch his balance and fly up as she did so often already.

Raut flies beside the balcony and plants all talons and claws into the wall and it looks like he stands on it with talons and claws savagely biting into the stone to stay in the gravity defying position as long as possible, while Kin uses the gryphons wing to jump on the small balcony safely.

“Call me, when you want to leave again.”

Kin nods, then gets interrupted by another voice.

“And who might you be?”

He turns and bows lightly “Kin Woodsmith. Are you Michael from Eagleholm?”

The small room at the top of the tower only has a bed, a table, a char and a bookshelf with a hand full of books in it. A feather and ink lies on the table beside a few sheets of paper.

The other person has stood up and is standing two arms lengths away from Kin now. He has pretty messy white hair that partly block his face from view. The sorcerer wears a simple, dirty robe that probably was white at some time and scratches his head with an ink stained hand. The turquoise colored eyes stare at Kin through the felt-like looking hair in the sorcerers face.

“It has been a long time, since I heard that name. What do you want from me?”

Kin smiles “We want to get you out of here – and we need your help. I.. there is a young phoenix, a white phoenix, that has a curse interwoven into her. The gryphons cant help her, but may be you have an idea?”

He frowns sadly “If you really want to free me, I will gladly help you. But.. it depends on how strongly interwoven the curse is. The only person I knew, that could manipulate enchantments easily is dead. I will try my best, nonetheless. I..look behind you!”

The tower next to them seems to move – no, fall. Kin takes a leap into the room as the highest tower, at least three more men's height, slowly falls towards him. It may only grace 'his' tower, but on the same side he is standing on. If they were lucky, their tower would be fine with both of them inside.

The problem with that is: Kin jumps against an invisible wall with his back. The impact pushes the air from his lungs and he coughs and slides forward.

“Its a force field.. to hold me, I cannot let you in.” He goes quiet, when he sees the falling building coming towards them.

Zaiya appears a bit away from them, now chasing the dark phoenix away towards the south. The dark one barely can hold its balance with its missing tails and tail feathers.

A loud screeching sound followed by the sound of breaking bricks appears. For a moment, the carpenter thought he is safe. Then a part of the wall and the balcony break and he falls, surrounded by the rubble from both towers.

Zaiya casually flies towards the castle, ignoring the archers and ballistas completely. She searches for the real danger for her: Sorcerers. There are four gryphons circling above the castle, probably looking for the exact same thing.

The phoenix feels somewhat safe if she ignores her fear of the gryphons above. Her aura stays down as she flies a full round above the wall. After three quarters of her round-trip, she sees a ballista aiming away from her and follows the direction. Its the small gryphoness with her carpenter.

Her eyes go wide, as the ballista fires – but surely, there is no way for those machines to hit a gryphon at that distance, right?

She tenses and hovers in place, ignoring the arrows flying at her as she watches the gryphoness twist and turn and catching the bolt with her feet – that's insane. She has to talk a serious word with the bird once they are back on the ground. Strangely enough, there are no spells flung at her. Either the gryphons prevent them from having any effect or the sorcerers used their power to keep enchantments up on the wall or the ballistas. The ballistas... may be that's why it's shot was aimed so well?

She has to get rid of them. ASAP.

The phoenix dives at one of the balistas that are taking aim at Rachel to take it apart, then tries to jump another of the large war machines.

That's when something roughly pulls her left wing away from her. She gives a surprised squawk and tumbles off the wall into the inner courtyard.

She stares up at the sky wondering why he did that, then she freezes as the black phoenix crashes into the ballista she just wanted to destroy. The fury with which the bird takes the wooden frame apart is fear inducing, especially since the humans around are taken apart as if they are part of the frame. It lets out an angry screech and turns to Zaiya once more, staring at her for just a second – then it dives down.

Another tug on her wings wakes her from her stupor and she barely manages to duck down and forward, before the dark phoenix can hit her.

“Are you... Do you remember me?” she asks as she flaps her wings to get above the castle, quickly followed by the other bird.

There is no answer, just more direct attacks with talon and beak. She takes quiet a few harmless hits and scratches without fighting back. Zaiya then flies higher to get at least this advantage as she thinks frantically what she can do. This is most likely her first hatchling, but she cant rise into the sky forever or else she might loose herself again.

Soon, the fire bird gets the hang of dodging or blocking the dark ones attacks and even manages to get it off balance a couple of times. The silent phoenix returns relentlessly every single time, though. She had to think of something and quick. Too busy to watch Kin on the gryphoness, she completely misses them getting hit and shot down. The firebird continues dodging, grabbing and tossing the other phoenix for several minutes, but he doesn't slow down one bit.

She has to find another tactic. Go on the offense. After a few more dives and blocks, she manages to bite and rip some the the dark phoenix tail feathers and tails, just when she dodges his dive attack.

The result is visible at once: While trying to fly a nimble curve around one of the towers, it tumbles against it full force taking a huge junk of wall with him. The tower wobbles as the dark phoenix fights its way out of the rubble. The firebird screeches another challenge and dives at the dark one now, not to strike but to intimidate? May be it will work!

She stops as the whole tower starts shaking, then leaning to the side. The dark bird fights hard to get to a decent height again without the ability to steer properly and soon decides to flee for now, chased halfheartedly by Zaiya.

She stops the chase at the wall and turns around to watch the tower fall – and to notice Kin standing on a small area near the top of another tower right in the path of the falling one.

She screeches and flaps her wings hard to get down there, but ultimately has no chance to get to him before both towers collide and part of each break to fall. She can see her carpenter fall – AGAIN – this time, surrounded by chunks of both towers.

Raut also appears around the third of the towers, but he is far too slow – slower then Zaiya – and behind her too. He has even less chance to reach the carpenter in time then the phoenix.

He cant help but laugh grimly over the feeling of deja vu. This time, though, he doesn't think she can get through all the bricks to safe him.

He twists and turns to look for a way, but all he sees is the approaching ground. Wait, not all. A loud screech announces the incoming lightning fast gryphoness. Her left rear leg is wrapped in white, but it doesn't seem to impact her ability to fly. He stares at her, as she deftly SOMEHOW dodges through the rubble in mid air, then spins upside down so he would land on her belly. Her talons and legs squeeze him against her as she bends slightly to collide with a larger junk of brick and her wings also pushing away some smaller rocks.

“How can you fly on your BACK? That's.. completely ignoring physics.”

“I don't know, I am just awesome?” She screeches happily as she twists a bit to dodge a few more rocks, then seems to aim to crash into the inner wall of the castle. A few crossbow armed soldiers stare at her show far too long to be able to shoot, then duck as she pulls up over the wall – still upside down.

Kin feels her nibbling at his hair, preening him, just like his phoenix loves to do.

“You saved my life, I saved yours. We are battle siblings now.”

“What does that mean?” The carpenter looks up as Zaiya bursts through the last part of the dropping rubble and after them both. Much less elegant, but with bigger effect on the few soldiers left on the wall. They quickly dive for cover as the rubble rains down on them.

Rachel screeches and climbs higher, still holding Kin against her belly but no longer upside down while Zaiya flies lower. “Don't scream!” Then she lets go.

Kins eyes grow wide and he DOES scream – falling AGAIN, this time his phoenix is there to catch him on her back, though.

His heart is pounding in his ears once more until his phoenix's amused voice rattles in his head again “I STILL need to breath, remember?”

He doesn't relax his grip until they land this time, though. The gryphoness is there before them and lands very carefully with just three legs, then hobbles to the medics to let them check over the bandages.

Zaiya lies down and kin drops to the ground inelegantly.

“You two … that was really mean. If you want me to stop flying with either of you, just SAY so.” He glares at both of the birds, still out of breath from the shock.

She nudges him gently, then stares at the gryphoness for quiet a while, obviously talking.

“How would you feel, if you are about to drown and get fished out of the water, just to get thrown back in!?”

The phoenix's head sinks towards the ground again, staring at him wide eyed as she imagines his scenario. Rachel's ear tufts fold back towards her skull and she sits on her haunches, also staring at him.

“I... would never..”

The carpenter bops both birds beaks and then stomps off to see the queen, who was watching them all the while.

Zaiyas voice is trembling as she says quietly “I am sorry. I will... I will go back to the castle and.. do what we planned.” with that she turns and flaps her wings to fly back.

“You got those two ladies under control, do you? I have never seen Rachel speechless.”

He snorts “No – but that is fine, as long as they aren't trying to... “ He takes a long moment to breath and forces himself to relax. They just saved him, and he is screeching at them like a fury. How could he think, they would drop him? Oh right, he didn't think. Couldn't think, in that situation. He wipes his hands through his hair, then turns to face them – or only the gryphoness, but before he can say something, she stares at the queen and speaks up.

“Asking for permission to go back into the battle with my brother.”

Helina raises an eyebrow. She knows, that Rachel was looking for that for a while now. “Denied. You are wounded.”

Kin stares at the small gryphoness for a moment, before he turns to the queen. “With all due respect, Her wings are still fine and she landed well without the wounded leg.” Then he smiles weakly at Rachel “And I cant go back in there without my sister, can I?”

Now the bird is speechless again, but her eyes seem to drill into him with a mixture of happiness and gratitude.

The queen sighs “And here I thought you were mad at them. Fine. But don't pull a stunt like that before again, Miss butterfly”

Kin blinks and gets pushed onto the gryphoness by her beak, before she quickly gets ready to launch them into the air.

“I am sorry for what I said. I just was scared for a moment, out of balance. I trust either of you to not let me drop to my death.”

Her wings beat hard until they reach a decent height, where she simply circles around the castle this time. There is not a single working ballista anymore and the sorcerer is still in his tower. It seems, one of the gryphons removed the barrier, but for some reason, he doesn't teleport or fly out himself. There are barely any soldiers left on the wall, after Zaiya did her destructive work on the war machines. Most of them fled or ran into the courtyard and probably towards the kings defense.

A large part of the wall has been breached and the first soldiers stream into the castle over makeshift bridges, guarded by two of the gryphons on either side of the breach.

Rachel's voice is calm, quiet and sad when she speaks up to him. “I.. would never hurt you or let that happen. You see, what I said before is not the whole truth. Its not about saving each others lives, its about how well two or rarely more gryphons work together.” She takes a break, as if to wait for courage to return before she continues “You have to be able to rely on your partner, if you are in trouble. More then on any other warrior. I can not cancel magic like the others. I can twist magic a bit, change it, but it will still be there. And I am small and weak, compared to the others. So, no one wants to rely on me. You did not mention my size or strength and you did not even hesitate to put your trust in me. When I saw that other tower bend, I went over to make sure nothing happens. But then.. I promised to do nothing to interfere with the bond with your mate too, so, when she was in range, she.. I mean.. I decided to drop you for her. I should have given you a warning.”

She coos like the phoenix usually does as Kin starts scratching the area around her ear tufts.

“It is embarrassing, to get scared like that. With both of you watching out for me. I just had accepted to fall to my death this time. Finally. Then you saved me and when I was about to recover, you dropped me. It switched of my rational thinking.”

The phoenix ahead of them was surrounded by her fire aura now, burning the hand full arrows that are fired at her before they even get close. The last few soldiers flee before her, but she pays them no heed and lands in the courtyard, in front of the heavy wooden door, that leads into the building where most of them disappeared into. Probably towards the throne room.

Zaiya is devastated. He has never been angry with her before, not seriously at least. Not even when she burned off his face. She doesn't want him to stop flying with her, but what can she do now? May be promise him, that she wont do that again? It would be sad to keep this in mind from now on, constantly wondering if it is ok to do whatever she is about to do. She blinks as she feels him tugging her head feathers lightly. That calms her down, tug by tug. She tunes down her aura with every gentle touch on her feathers, the less agitated she is, the cooler her aura gets. When he tugs one of her tails, she stares up at them. May be he recovered? And he is flying.

She fixes her gaze on them both. “Kin, I am sorry that I asked Rachel to hand you over. I should have let you know too. It.. was a bad idea for a bad joke.”

Her carpenter is too far away to answer but more quick tugs on her tails makes her smile. It distracts her greatly as usual, but it shows her, that he recovered and that's enough for her to peck and claw at the door with renewed vigor.

The queens soldiers have her surrounded, shields and weapons pointing in her direction, but it doesn't bother her one bit. When the door only slowly gives in to her effort, her fury gets the upper hand. That insolent worm attacked her village and killed one of her humans. She told him, she would rip him apart. And that she will do. There are some quiet groans of discomfort around her and the wooden door turns darker in color.

She blinks, when her head gets tugged again.

“Fine. No ripping him apart. He will wish I would have, though.”

She finally breaks through the door and squeezes into the narrow corridor. The soldiers right behind her wiggling form.

“Stay back! If I use more of my fire, you will get injured. Come in when this... tiny.. cave is clear again.”

That 'tiny cave' easily can accommodate the king and two guards beside each other, with still plenty of space above – Not enough for her to walk decently, though. Her voice gets through to the ones in the back, that were pushing eagerly against the soldiers in front of them. It still takes a few moments for them to clear the corridor behind her, but she pays them no heed. Her goal is the 'king'.

She arrives at the end of the corridor and her path is blocked by another beautifully ornamented door. Near white wood silvery strains seem to randomly 'grow' along it with several 'blossoms' made of different colored gemstones.

Due to her size in the small corridor, she cant do much but peck pathetically against the door.

As expected, no one opens for her, so she turns up the heat, bit by bit, to make sure the soldiers behind her REALLY are out of range.

The white wood soon turns dark and the metallic parts start running down the quickly blackening door until the whole construct bursts into flame.

Her pecking resumes at that point and soon she breaks through. She quickly scans the room while wiggling her body through the burning door.

Her gaze focuses on the King, cowering behind the throne, while half a dozen heavily armored knights take position in front of it. A lot of arrows flies towards her from the sides, painting her head bright red from the magical power leaking from the 'wounds'. She doesn't want to turn her aura up more... yet.

Once she freed herself from the corridor, the rain of arrows stops as most of the archers start scattering.

The amount of two small buckets of water splash over her not-quiet-hot-yet form and she fixes her gaze on one of the mages.

“Pathetic. Go and practice more. This honorless waste of air is not worth dying for.”

The sorcerers take a step back. With no visible result of their spells, her threat is worth twice as much, but the knights stand unmoving so she turns her aura up and takes more steps forward and hisses at them “Move out of the way, lay down your swords and your families will see you alive.”, she doesn't care much about them either and just waddles along her path to the king. Her heat alone makes them back up enough for her – she is ready to push them out of the way, as she continues on towards the king.

He falls backwards when her face comes down at arms length to his. The heat increases more and more as the king speaks.

“Traitor! Teaming up with the enemy! I will have put you in chains!”

“Oh, that threat AGAIN. Can't come up with new ideas, can you?”

The knights finally got back their composure and advance on her, but again get stopped by her aura.

“I told you, I would be back and rip you to shreds, if you would harm any of my humans. Your goons injured many.”

Her beak comes down close to his face, nearly gracing his cheek and gripping the shoulder of the kings robe ripping it off his arm when pulling back.

Erthonas tries to speak more, but only scared whimpering comes from his mouth.

“One villager that was dear to my human even got killed by your brutes.”

Her beak comes down on the other side of his face and ripping off his other sleeve and drawing blood on his ear in the process.

By now, she is slightly worried that he would suffer a heart attack, from how scared he looks.

“And you wanted to force me to stay HERE? In this... room instead of my nest with my human?”

Her beak comes down again, this time aiming for his throat. Instead of that, she rips through the rest of his robe and even belt with unbelievable precision.

“You are lucky, that my human wants me to keep you alive.”

“Rachel. We have to get in there, if she looses control.. I mean, I can keep tugging at her, but... “

The gryphoness shrugs “I have no idea what you mean with 'tugging' at her, but if you hold on, I can smash through one of the windows near the roof.”

“You can do that without cutting yourself?”

She laughs and launches them towards the building in front of the towers, the one Zaiya disappeared into. It only takes a few moments to reach the window she was talking about and without slowing down, she folds her wings in and smashes through the glass with talons outstretched. She cant hold Kin, like Zaiya did with her wings, but he just ducks against her neck and holds on. Then they are through and the gryphoness shakes a few shards from her head.

“You know.. that is pretty reckless.”

He gets interrupted as Rachel dives towards the last bunch of archers, that just turned around and raised their bows. One arrow hits her breast, one goes clean through his right leg, then she slams into the lightly armored humans like a screeching and tearing bear.

Kins eyes grow wide as he stares at the massacre that happens in front of him.

In the charge and before landing, she rips at two men's faces with her talons and slams her beak into the head of a third. Before the last two could scatter, her beak pulls free and she pounces on the next, both taloned feet going clean through his body while her beak bites at the throat of the last one. From the expression on the woman's face, she didn't even comprehend what happened. The carpenter doesnt either. The whole charge from smashing through the window to now were no more then 3 seconds. He doesn't understand how they even managed to shoot them in that time. That's when his body's complain about the arrow in his leg finally gets through to his mind. And the fact, that her rear leg is still injured. May be gryphons have some kind of battle rage, where they ignore pain?

“Ow...” He looks down and notices the other arrow embedded in the gryphoness front.

Zaiya's head rises as something smashes through the window and dives down at a few humans on the other side of the throne, that didn't leave the room yet.

She is too focused to pay that any attention, as one of her feet comes down at the Kings chest, carefully keeping the sharp talons away from his body but surely pressing the air from his lungs.

“I remember you saying something about how a king cannot talk to other people like my human had to, when you and your bullies forced my aura. Since you are no longer a king now....”

With that, her talons pull tight around his body. She looks back at the entrance, where the first attacking soldiers appear through the burned door – and to the knights that finally start attacking her.

One manages to slash at her back, cutting deeply, but he lets go of the sword shortly after when it starts glowing red with heat.

The other soldiers can take care of that. Kin screams at her, as the rest of the knights under visible effort try slashing at her again, and a dame manages to hit her leg just bellow her body, cleanly cutting through it. She cant celebrate long, though, as the foot falls right in front of her and against her leg. She quickly tries to get rid of it – and winces from the warmth of the liquid energy pouring onto her leg. Then the knights are surrounded by the soldiers and Zaiya manages to get out through the window. Its barely large enough and the king probably got a few cuts from the shattered glass, just like Kin had minus the arrow. Then she is out and aims for the large market in the southern end of the city with Rachel and Kin right behind her.

The arrow doesn't seem to bother the gryphoness – or she just plays tough – but Kin winces with every beat of her wings. Luckily, she soon goes into a glide and only rarely flaps her wings. The many thermals above the city make it easy for her.

Zaiya tosses the near naked Eorthas into one of the hay stacks in the middle of the open area, then her voice booms over probably the whole city.

“See the former King. Erthonas is king no more. He sent soldiers to attack and slaughter one of the faithful villages, serving to keep your water supply up and running. MY VILLAGE. His soldiers are beaten, his fancy cloths are gone and so are his title and power. This will be more of a lesson then if I had torn him apart. If anyone ever dares to threaten or attack my village again, I will not stop with taking down that persons status.“

Kin stops her with a tug on her wings. She blinks, then watches the former king for a little. She half expected him to run away, but he is still too scared to even move beside fearful shaking.

The crowd that had formed around him makes space as two gryphons carrying soldiers land next to the haystack and lift Erthonas up, then unceremoniously toss him over the back of one of the birds – who doesn't look very happy about it – before taking off silently, They are followed by held back laughter about the former king's disgrace by the people in the area.

“We should head back – I will have to explain yet another injury on you to your queen. Does it hurt?”

The gryphoness giggles “Yes, it hurts so much. I think we might crash!” Then glances at Zaiya for a moment before dashing away, racing through the narrow streets. Her wings often gracing plant pots, open doors or windows and once, even knocking a person over, who looks like he had fins instead of ears and the face looks like that of a fish.

“Sorry!” She shouts and pulls up slightly without slowing down. Zaiya chases after them, but gives up quickly and soars above the buildings. She has no chance against the agility of the much smaller bird.

“What's worse is, that I will have to explain YOUR injury to your mate. I can feel her gaze, drilling holes into my neck already.”

Zaiya's rage isn't that bad, once they land, though. A few head rubs and a kiss on her beak pretty much calm the phoenix down while the doctors treat them a second time this day.

“Good thing we got you both, else our healers would die of boredom. If only all wars could be won like this. There are less then 30 deaths on each side.”

Queen Helina sounds relieved and stares at Zaiya respectfully. “I can only repeat what I said at your village: I would not want you both as enemies.”

The phoenix shoos some healers away, that were inspecting her severed leg while she stands on the healthy one. Then she notices everyone staring at her “Oh. My leg. Don't worry, it will heal within a few hours. “

Helina inspects it now herself “But. How?”

“Our body reforms itself with enough magical energy.”

Rachel tilts her head, still lying on her side with the healers working on her leg and front. “You certainly cannot get that from your mate. Where does it come from then? I do not see any source beside yourself.”

Kin frowns and gets a nudge from Zaiya. “The sun feeds us. We don't need our humans to do THAT too.”

“What ARE humans good for for a phoenix then?” Rachel keeps pressing her and Zaiya answers with the same patience she always shows for her carpenter.

“Company. We rarely meet other birds of fire and no one else can get near us, unless our human wants us to learn how to switch of the fire aura.”

“I hope other phoenixes are just as amiable as you are. It seems to be impossible to stop a phoenix, once you set your mind on something. Like walking into the castle and destroy the elite guard of a king.”

She hisses at Erthonas “That was HIS OWN fault. We told him to leave us alone.” Talking about the devil, a scared shout comes from behind a tent and the ex-king tries to turn around and run away as he sees the phoenix. Someone had brought him a coat to cover himself with, after which he is quick to follows the guards away from the fire bird.

“As long as you don't make the same mistake, we are on good terms.” She grins at the queen, who laughs in response.

“That's a pretty straight forward deal I can accept. I will have enough work to do to get the nobles under control or replaced in the next months. Far too much to meddle with a village that supported me during our campaign.”

The phoenix waits patiently for Kin's leg to be treated, then nudges him. “Can we go see that prisoner now?”

He nods slowly, glancing at Rachel “Yes, lets get that guy and see what he knows. Will you be ok?”

She gives a snort and nudges one of the medics “With these two legged fleas all over me? No...”

“Those two legged fleas keep stitching your feathered butt together after your reckless adventures.”

She grins and nudges the doctor “You know how I mean that, Kirsten.”

The Medic laughs and playfully punches Rachel's Beak with her fist, at which the gryphoness drops to the ground as if knocked out.

“Did a healer just knock my fiercest gryphon unconscious? May be I should swap those two and send the medics into suicide missions instead.” The queen remarks.

“I didn't get knocked out, I just briefly succumbed to gravity.”

Kin grins at them, then nudges Zaiya “Will you be ok with two people?”

She chirps a giggle and carefully lies down, the missing leg makes it difficult to stay balanced “Only one. My human is a fixture and doesn't count.”

He brushes over the feathers on her head and neck “That fixture can wait here, though.” but the phoenix just coos and stays on the ground until he finally gets on her back. It takes her three tries to properly balance them into a standing position and get ready to take to the air.

He stares at the part of the blackened area he can see where drops of liquid fire from her wounded leg burned the trampled grass. “I think, I will never get used to that part of phoenix anatomy.”

She nudges him and grins evilly “As long as you are fine with the rest of phoenix anatomy, I will be happy.”, when his face turned crimson red, she adds “Like the feathers on my head of course!”

The people around laugh at them, then take a step back as she beats her wings to get them into the air and towards the tower.

Kin points at the mage, still sitting on his chair in the tower “How comes the sorcerer is still in there? I am sure, the gryphons removed the magic barrier by now.”

“There is no spell casting, I do not know. May be he cannot draw upon power or doesn't know how to fly? “ She slows down once they get close to the broken side. The balcony is completely gone as is a good portion of the wall around the opening that was the door outside. It is a miracle – or magical – that the tower is still standing.

“If you get close, I can grab you – or if you jump, I can catch you.”

Michael gets up and near the opening “What? I … am not going to jump. The barrier is gone, but I am still drained. If I stay a few days longer, I will have recovered.....”

His eyes grow wide as Zaiya turns her body parallel to the tower, her good leg reaching into it to grab him, while Kin half dangles from his left leg around her wing joint and some feathers on her neck.

She misjudged the impact that her missing leg has on her, though. Now the phoenix has no limb to push her away from the tower except her wings and those are need to, well... fly.

“Hold on tight.” Is the only warning Kin gets before she slaps the tower hard with both wings as she is already about to get pulled down by gravity, then topples over towards the ground backwards, effectively pulling the sorcerer out of the tower.

The struggle afterwards is scary for her. First, she is trying to fly like the gryphoness did – on her back – but she fails to even catch some air on her wings. Or may be, she just angles them wrong. Not enough time as the ground closes in and she feels Kins arms tighten, now around her neck.

Zaiya twists and turns to get back to a normal flying position, but only manages that, when she bumps her good foot with the sorcerer out and against the tower. She looses a few flight feathers on her left wing, as it grazes along the wall before she gets back control over her flight.

“That was.. not planned, was it?” Kins grip relaxes again.

“I.. um... what if it wasn't?” She chirps a giggle as he bonks her head.

There is only a mumbled complaint from a dizzy sorcerer in her talon and she takes them back to the camp.