Paying My Respects

An hour drifts by, perhaps three. This body grows increasingly tired of upright posture and flagging thighs quiver in warning. Though leaning a fair burden of weight against my stick, there is no compensation for true rest and I at last turn my energy to finding a suitable seat. There is a great fallen tree not a long distance from Old Mother’s bed. It has bore my wearying muscles many a time before and it is in the direction of this that my face first turns. The last thing I expect to see, however, is a couple of curious critters, poised in earnest gesture by the glades thinned out skirt. An eyebrow quirks on my face: how peculiar. The Greatwood too, is home to perhaps the most unwary of Caido’s population of animals, and many a fox I’ve crossed paths with previously, lingered just as curiously on the spot as I. This instance is different though. Beside the snowy-pelted canine (another disparity from the norm), is a puny beast built from too many others to make sense. It is a Gryphon as I understand and one clammy hand reaches immediately for my journal and pen. The heap of woven fabric which rests with my company, is not yet apparent. For the moment my fatigue takes a backseat; I am yet to make an entry about this mythical native. I angle my lower arm to rest in the wooden fork just below the elbow and pressing heavily down upon it, hurry, slowly, to find a fresh page near the middle of the book. My fingers fumble then, about the quill’s length clumsily, and it falls into the mulch below with nary even a whisper. I curse silently, green eyes glaring down at it. There is no way for me to retrieve it, a fact that frustrates me further still, and yielding grimly to my predicament I choose to return my focus to the fox - more its companion. That is when I finally notice the bag. Lifting my eyes back to the pair, my tongue clacks boldly against the eerie silence of Ludo’s Woods, volume regretted instantly. Instead, my lips purse into a sequence of gentle kisses and I click softly with lean fingertips extended beyond the hemmed edge of my cloak; as though it might entice one, or both, creatures forward. “Come. Bring it here…” I add for good measure.