K o o r i k u m o ' s . S t o r y

The first moments of life were not pleasant for everyone that day. A young ice gryphon found herself buried under several other eggs -- some that were larger than herself -- when she first broke shell. She considered tunneling her way to open air and disdainfully decided it was beneath her, so to speak. She left the option open however, in case she should need to...to dig. So, forced to wait for her brothers to hatch (or for the worst to happen), she could only be thankful that she had ample air to breathe!

Finally, her decision was made for her as one rather large egg rocked and later hatched. Then it was only a matter of pushing their shell out of her way and she was finally free! Unfortunately, she realized as she stretched her gloriously feathered wings and spindly legs, that her fur and chick-down feathers were caked with sand and drying albumin.

That will never do, she thought to herself, finding no reason to speak aloud. She looked around for a quiet section of the sand and made her way toward it.

On her way, she was surprised by the explosion of one egg, out of which spewed forth a flame-and-char colored drak. She squealed in surprise, an utterance that sounded like a cross between a bird's squawk and a cat's yowl. Oblivious to her shock, the flame drak proceeded to shake himself off, sending shards and globules of egg flying every which way. But especially, all over her.

She bristled, arching her back and hissing. "Hey! How rrude!" she spluttered. When he continued on his way without so much as flicking a pupil-less eye her way, she felt deflated. At length, she shrugged and sighed to herself, "Ah, well, cannot be helped, I suppose," and continued on.

Later, she was grooming herself again. Not to clean egg and shell and sand from her still-wet body mind you, but because she was by nature a very clean individual. She happened to glance up from her task and whom should her eyes fall upon but that very same drak from before. The sands -- and the skies -- were nearly empty of their brothers and sisters. She had to admit, however grudgingly, that it seemed kind of lonely without all that noise.

By way of greeting, she said with little pause, "That was quite rrude of you, you know."

"I'm ssorry? Whatever do you mean?"

The young flame drak was taken aback. He was obviously not the sharpest shard on the shell, so it was only fair that she explain. "Earrlierr, when you brroke shell. You shook yourrself all overr me."

"Oh! Pleasse forgive me! I had no idea!" the fiery fuzzball gibbered. She forced herself not to roll her eyes.

"Of courrse not. Nobody had anyone on theirr minds but themselves when they hatched. Myself included. So, apology accepted." She was almost finished, had just one more row of feathers to preen, so she set to work without another thought. When she had finished, he had failed to speak further so she turned on a heel and with a flick of her tail, went proudly on her way. The drak was not a bad fellow at all, just … not her type.

~ ~ ~

No more than a handful of days passed before the young gryphon set about exploring. It was not so much a desire to do so, but a need to be utterly alone. She told herself that she liked seclusion, which in a way she did, for it is always so much easier to think when one is not talking to you or making noise. On the other hand, she felt no attachment to anyone, which was a very lonely feeling, and she felt that the best way to spend it would be in seclusion.

In her travels, the ice gryphon climbed in elevation through woods down narrow paths and along mind-numbing precipices. Finally, in a rocky region far from her place of birth, she found a cave that was completely out of the way. In fact, unless one was looking for it, the cave was nearly invisible.

"Ahh," she sighed in delight when she first saw it, "this will be perrfect."

And so it was, for nearby there was a freshwater stream, and in the woods there were many animals that could support a gryphon's appetite. And there she stayed, until her loneliness became too much to bear.