:: http://www.geocities.com/dragynmistress ::
:: By Jennifer Vromant			   ::
:: jen_vromant@yahoo.com		   ::
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Aerdancer - Chapter 02

Mythopia was a beautiful place.  For a young gryphon, as I was back then, a typical day was heaven.  My nestmates and I would awake at dawn.  Our mother would come with a sheep or deer and feed us.  Since there were only three of us, a typical hatch, we were content with having each a third of the prey.  Soon she would have to go on longer hunts more often to feed us.  And then we would learn to hunt and fly ourselves.  But that was still a long time off.

The three of us would climb up the cliff with our claws, careful not to fall, because the long fall would mean certain death for untrained flyers like us.  We would slowly peek over the ledge, as not to startle any unicorns or pegasi that might have been grazing on the lush green grass.  We would watch the newborn colts take their first shaky steps in Spring and the elder males fight for mating priveledges in the Autumn.  Eventually, the herds got used to us, and they tolerated our rough play nearby.

We would play near the herds until the sun would reach its zenith.  Then we would climb back down to the nest.  We would take a nap and our mother would go hunt.  When she came back we awoke and fed.  Then we would go back up the cliff to watch the draclings play, as they would stay young longer than us.  A dracling didn't become a dragon for several decades, as they can grow to be centuries old.  We would play until the evening mists would come and shroud the land in mystery.  We would climb back down and fall asleep next to our mother.

Then the humans came.  We had slept longer than usual that day.  The sun was chasing away the last of the morning fog and the sun was getting hot.  We climbed up the sliff, but didn't see the herds.  We ventured out into the clearing looking for the familiar beasts, but we couldn't find any.  We ventured into the enchanted forests, looking everywhere, wondering why the unicorns and pegasi should suddenly disappear.  We came into a clearing yet unexplored by us.  In this clearing we caught our first glimpse of man.

They had captured more than a dozen unicorns and pegasi with nets.  They were keeping the young ones away from their parents, and the parents were devastated.  They called to their young, and the young answered, but neither could see the other.  We could only watch as the humans brought out whips and started using them, trying to gain control over the situation.

We fled as fast as we could and climbed back down the cliff.  We waited for our mother to arrive with our food, but she never came.  We sat in the nest, and waited and waited.  But she never came back.