Island of Illusion (COSAM #3)

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Excerpt

Towering over Yarina’s shoulder, as she tried to direct the, quite honestly, chaos, was an impressive, steely eyed, gryphon who bobbed their head as she delivered her orders with a flourish.

If there had been even the semblance of a flame balancing on the edges of those wings, they would easily have been mistaken for a phoenix. As it was, there was a large, darker red, fluff right about where a lion’s mane should have been, while the rest of the body was a fiery red the colour of a ripe Balmung scorpion pepper.

Of all the gryphons here, he stood at least a shoulder taller, with the broad shoulders to match, which put him, Talenn estimated, at a little over seven feet at the withers.

Smaller than any of his old Guardian Chargers, true. But it was a good thing he kept the absolutely massive wings neatly tucked against his sides. Talenn couldn’t even imagine what amount of power it would take to get something this massive off the ground.

Of course, gryphons, much like dragons, were creatures of the arcane. The standard weight to muscle ratios hardly applied.

Yet, the strong colour was more indicative of a songbird — or, potentially, a forest fire. If you saw him from behind, anyway. Front the front there was absolutely no doubt. The piercing blue eyes alone would have done the trick.

‘Yes, of course, I know, Aelius,’ Yarina responded to the soft chirp. ‘You’re right. This is for the others to decide.’ She turned to Talenn, making shooing motions with her hands. ‘So, get to it.’

Talenn wasn’t entirely sure what he was meant to do. He’d lost sight of most of the others. The entire world seemed to consist of moving bodies, large, clawed, feet and beaks you could break a rock with.

The gryphons already on the ground were milling about, or mingling, though one appeared to have decided to take a nap.

So much for us being exciting, Talenn thought.

The red gryphon, Aelius, raised his head, his call echoing out over the fields and beyond. It brought down the rest of the day’s participants from the sky.

For several, blood-thumping, moments everything became a mix of fluttering wings, drafts, and a general scampering out of the way among two and four-legged people alike.

If it had been a flock of starlings, swooping in, bodies everywhere, it would have been quite enough. As it was, some of them landed, the others darted overhead, close enough that the draft from their wings knocked a couple of people over.

Again.

Though, seeing how they pulled out of the dive and rose up, Farsalos noted that it seemed they were literally putting on a display, once he had gotten back to his feet and brushed off all the loose grass from his vibrant robes, that was.

‘Hard to tell if that’s meant to impress or intimidate,’ Carlise said, reaching out a hand to pull Devan up from the ground.

‘Doing plenty of both, if you ask me,’ Devan replied.

He’d never seen something that could quite convey the same grace. The same power. It was … everything.

Farsalos tried to tell the individuals apart, but while he’d already learnt some of their differences, he did not yet have names to attach to them.

‘Stop gawking, old man,’ Kiras knuckled the wizard, gently, in the ribs. ‘Yer tongue’s about to fall out.’ ‘I told you, no flying!’ Yarina shouted.