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It was a windy night, but the skies were clear. The moon was out, but it was on the other side of the sky from the opening of a certain cavern, so the outside still looked very black. The tops of trees were visible as they swayed in the brisk breeze. It was a good night for hunting, and it was also the best time of year for it. Many winged predators were roaming about the forest and cliffs, including the pair of gryphons who laired inside of this cavern.

Inside the cavern it was still very dim, and would be until the moon had moved across the sky. However, the four individuals inside could operate in extremely low light by touch, scent, and listening carefully. Three of them were very familiar with the surroundings, having spent all of their short lives there; their parents had taken on the strategy of hunting together tonight because they could afford to leave the nest, thanks to the fourth occupant.

This individual was a dragon, larger than the small gryphons' parents but not by much. According to the chicks' father, this dragon had visited the cave previously, on a special occasion. Tonight, he had appeared on the lip of the cave while their mother had explained that she and their father would be back with a feast; they should try to get some sleep until then. And she left, leaving them alone with the dragon to guard against other individuals who wouldn't be above raiding nests. He introduced himself as Jaeghi.

"So," said Jaeghi to the three gryphon chicks as they huddled together. "You think a story will help?" The bold gryphon looked like he didn't want to admit to anything, and the two more cautious fledglings didn't say so, but looked as though they might agree. "What kinds of stories does Areth usually tell you?"

"Mostly hunting stories, "Shadraman said as he batted at his sister Abrescia's tail. "Dad tells us how to hunt, and says he'll show us places to wait for the bisonmen to catch and eat once we've gotten our flight feathers."

"He also yells "It's rude to watch!" when he's mounting mama," Meschraman added quietly. "But we watch anyway."

"Eh...yes. It is," Jaeghi said as he looked around the aerie. Were Arethusanen and his mate Runzastara planning on having a second clutch so soon after these three? In his opinion, it'd be a little crowded--but that would mean more business for him. Turning back to the nest, he could spot the outlines of the chicks, but little else. It was always surprising to him that an egg he had held in his claws to paint only a few months before could grow into active little fledglings like these so quickly.

The nest, on the floor of what used to be a mine tunnel that had come to close to the face of a cliff, took up most of the room in the small area. Outside, the gryphon's lair opened to a sheer drop. A tunnel went off into the deeper parts of the mountain, but the dragon was too big to fit there. He came and went by climbing. Since the loss of his wings, he'd become good at climbing and walking. It made hunting somewhat difficult.

Nearby was Jaeghi's bundle of brushes and paints for eggshells. Normally it was attached to a crude harness the dragon had fashioned for himself to move his belongings with him. Abrescia kept pawing open and feeling through the bundle, occasionally testing a brush with a bite from her beak. "A story about climbing," she said. "Like you climbing in here."

"I can't believe you did that," Shadraman said.

Jaeghi rumbled, amused. "Shad, do you think your dad carried me? He's strong, I've seen him carry cattle--but I'm a bit more than he could handle." Jaeghi leaned away from the gryphons, showing off the big scars that ran down his back. Even after all these years, the scales in the center of the scars were darker than the rest of the scales on his back, the long streaks very rough. "Feel those tracks? Either side of my spine, where my wings would be attached? I haven't flown since I was your age. Of course I climbed up here, like the first time I met you. You wouldn't remember it--I climbed in to paint your eggshells." He rolled around, facing them. "I know Runza told you about that."

Abrescia, who had been playing with the bundle of brushes, chirped. "Yes. Mine was painted with 'Fortune' and mom kept it, because it's the only painting that wasn't broken in half when we hatched." She opened the bundle and began sharpening her beak on a brush handle.

"I know a story," the dragon said as he laid a hind claw across the bundle to keep the little gryphoness from ripping apart anything important. Uncorking a jug he had traded some stories for earlier that year, with the strange "human" apes, he leaned over the nest and said "It has climbing, and it has gryphons. I just remembered it now! My teacher told it to me, and my teacher knew a lot of gryphons, even more than I do. Now listen, do you know what a crocodile is?"

The little fledglings settled down as he began speaking after a long swig of the liquid in the jug. "Well, crocodiles...they're like a dragon in a lot of ways. You might think I was a crocodile if you didn't know better, because they don't have wings either. They used to run around in forests and catch foxes and unicorns and horses and fauns and sometimes even bisonmen, all the same things that you like to eat. I'll tell you, there was even less prey to go around back in those days.

"There was a particular crocodile named 'Tetho Isles of the Handsome Scales and Upright Scutes'. It's a fancy name for a crocodile, and that's because Tetho wanted to be a dragon. He wanted to be like us, but there were two problems. One, he couldn't even puff a tiny amount of smoke, let alone fire. And two, he couldn't fly--but that hasn't stopped me, has it!"

Jaeghi smiled to himself for a moment, and the chicks made themselves more comfortable. "Those were two things Tetho couldn't change," he continued as he shrugged his shoulders unconsciously. "So he tried to compensate the only way he could think of: he started gathering a hoard."

"A hoard?" Meschraman asked shyly.

Shadraman squawked with irritation, and Jaeghi patted his back and answered the other chick. "It's like a collection of things, Mesch--usually gold or jewels or gems. Tetho wanted a collection just like an Eastern Mountain Dragon would have. He was always skulking around lairs here, climbing into caves there, looking for things he could steal. It had taken him a while, and he didn't have much to show for himself. No dragon leaves his hoard out for anyone to just take, unless he's trying to trap you!" He tickled Abrescia as she reached for the bundle of brushes, making her giggle and chirp.

"He one day heard something absurd from the hunting apes. They have all kinds of crazy ideas about how the world works, and they don't understand things they see very well. They can't tell the difference between different beasts by scent and their hearing is awful.

"Anyway, the apes were saying to themselves that if you found a gryphon aerie, and you were to carefully climb up and peek into it, you wouldn't find little gryphons, and you wouldn't find eggs...you'd find agates."

"Agates?" Meschraman scratched his pointed ear. "What're those?"

"A kind of gem," Jaeghi answered. "The story Tetho heard was that gryphon eggs are made of agate!"

"That's stupid," Shadraman said.

Meschraman grabbed Shadraman's hindquarters and bit him. "Quiet!"

Shadraman batted at his brother and hissed. "Stop it, Mesch! But it's stupid! How could eggs be gems?"

"Stranger things happen," rumbled the dragon as he sipped the brew from the jug given to him by the humans. "I never said the apes were smart. They make good drinks, they make interesting musical instruments, but they've got some strange ideas, I told you.

"Tetho was desperate to get rich quick, so he believed it. He looked all over for a gryphon nest where he knew there'd be eggs. He listened for mating calls..." Jaeghi fell silent.

Meschraman sat up and gave a high-pitched imitation, a low warble that ended with a very feline "rawwl."

"Very good," Jaeghi said. "Your dad's showing you the most important things, I see!" He stroked the back of the shy young male's head, behind his eartufts. "It didn't take long for him to find a pair, because you gryphons are always rutting and building nests. I have to walk all over creation to keep up with you, you breed so fast. And I'll tell you--it isn't easy!

"Well, Tetho waited until he thought the time was right; after the night he heard that song from the gryphon, and heard the gryphoness singing. He then waited a little longer, just to be on the safe side. He was an excellent climber, almost as good as I am. These gryphons were a lot like your mom and dad but this was a long distance away. They were a different type of gryphon--they don't have as much fur on their backsides, their feathers go all the way to their butts."

"Heh, butts," Shadraman snorted.

"He climbed and climbed and climbed to a cliff a lot like this one! He was very quiet, and was climbing in the dead of night, and he finally reached the top of the cliff. He could see the edge of the nest where he thought the precious stones would be sitting...he sneaked closer, and closer, and closer!" The dragon leaned down, resting his jaw on the floor of the cave so only his eyes and horns showed, reflecting what small amount of light came into the lair.

"He growled 'At last, my hoard!' and he stood up." Jaeghi set his chin on the edge of the nest, and smiled, exhaling a little smoke over the gryphon chicks. "And what do you think he saw?"

"Gryphons!" Abrecia said, calmly grooming herself. The males had reacted to the dragon's playful stalking, but she was too intent on getting into his bundle of brushes to worry about some silly game, and she had fished something out of Jaeghi's bundle.

"You're right, Abre." Jaeghi sighed with relief when he realized she was chewing a blunt stick that he hadn't spent any time carving or adding bristles with glue. "Well, in any case, there were three of them, two gryphons and a gryphoness, with barely any feathers anywhere. They were a lot like you! They were all awake, and they were all looking right at Tetho! That wasn't what he was expecting at all."

"What did they do," Merschraman asked with a quiver in his voice.

"They weren't afraid because they could see their dad coming back. They looked over Tetho's shoulder, and there he was. Tetho was so busy looking at them that he didn't notice the big 'woosh!' until their dad landed right behind him. You know what? I think his name was Arethusanen, just like your dad's is.

"Well, this other Areth was angry. 'What are you doing here,' he roared at Tetho.

******

"What are you doing here," growled the massive gryphon as he loomed over Tetho.

Startled, the crocodile stumbled and almost fell headlong into the nest. After a twist and a thump against the ground with his substantial tail, he instead fell to the side. "I ...I was looking for agates," he said after a reflexive snap of his jaws at Areth.

The gryphon neatly dodged the attack and seized Tetho in his claws. "What in the world is WRONG with you?" He shook the crocodile angrily. "Rocks? What made you think you'd find them up here? I've had it with this! First those worthless humans, then gnomes and dwarves...and now a crocodile? Of all of them, you should know better, having come from an egg yourself!"

"I'm working on a hoard, to be a dragon, and..." Tetho started to explain.

"What? What?" Areth shook Tetho harder and became even angrier at the stupidity and audacity of this reptile. "You climbed up here to steal a bunch of rocks, eh?" He dragged Tetho to the edge of the cliff, and leaped off. After a fall that literally frightened the shit out of the crocodile, Areth screamed across the sky, a rousing cry that attracted his neighbors from their nests, hidden in nearby crevices, caves, and thickets of trees. A small flock appeared...

******

"It's called a 'mob', not a 'flock'," corrected Merschraman.

"No, it's called an 'aggregate'. Maybe that's where that whole 'agate' thing comes from," Shadraman said thoughtfully.

******

A small (ahem) "aggregate mob" appeared, mostly unattached bachelor gryphons. Areth pushed Tetho to the center of the circle as it gathered on a plateau. "This crocodile entered my aerie, threatened my chicks, and if his crimes stopped there I'd have simply eaten him. But it goes further!"

Areth leaned closer and said "He wants to be a dragon! He wants to rule the sky with us, but he screamed in terror and shit himself when I carried him over here. He thinks collecting a pile of precious stones will make him a dragon. His crime is being a fool! And what good is a fool?"

"Good for sport," one of the bachelors said. Unable to find gryphonesses to breed with, they were usually a very randy bunch.

"My thoughts exactly," Areth said as he released the terrorized crocodile, who whipped his head around, jaws agape. One of the gryphons who had alighted on the plateau behind Tetho bit the crocodile's tail, out of reach of the snapping jaws, and hoisted up Tetho's hindquarters. Poking around, he discovered Tetho's cloacal vent.

"Woohoo, this'll be a bit wide for my taste, but..." he grunted as he flipped Tetho over and covered him, entering the reptile with a satisfied groan. "Mmmm, I'll take what I can get."

The pair rocked up and down to the cheers and amusement of the assembled bachelors, as Areth sat back and watched. The first gryphon, whose name was Mocastronon, moaned and held the top of the flipped crocodile's head against the ground, as his hips pumped up and down. "Nice," he squawked and nipped the crocodile's shoulder with his beak.

Another gryphon, whose name was Bicendric, crept closer and purred. "Hurry up, we all want turns." Tetho's eyes went wide, he could count at least six sets of gryphony claws and talons; there were probably more he couldn't see, since his head was pinned to the ground and he was getting an upside-down view of the world.

Mocastronon groaned with a "rowl" and pushed himself in deep, shuddering and flapping his wings a little. "Wait your turn, wait your...mmmmm..." He trailed off and gave a few final plunges into Tetho, and shrieked triumphantly as his wings flattened and quivered as he finished. "That'll make it easier to wait for the right gryphoness to come along," he said with a smile as he dismounted from the unfortunate reptile.

He was quickly replaced by Bicendric. He straddled the crocodile the other way around, tail on Tetho's chest and his talons kneading on the underside of the would-be-thief's tail. "Kinky!" The other gryphons laughed and tried to imagine other humiliating positions and stunts they could do when their turn came.

But it wasn't long before the gryphon grunted with frustration and turned himself around, saying "You can't get any depth that way. It'd only work if you were really short 'n stubby." This put an end to most of the speculation about what fancy positions to take among the other members of the "assemblage mob", since it would call into question the size of one's penis.

One slightly older gryphon, who was holding back as he crouched near Areth, seemed to be pondering something other than the night's entertainment. "The punishment should fit the crime," this quiet gryphon thought to himself as he watched Bicendric finish with a loud yeowl that was echoed by Tetho, though the crocodile's sound was more like a moan. The third in line, whose name happened to be Cuboatus, mounted the crocodile and got down to business immediately, with no banter and no attempt at showing off.

It was very businesslike, the other bachelors felt--Cuboatus must not have been desperate this season! Sure enough, this rutting was the shortest in duration by far. Cuboatus barely even squawked when it was over. He just sighed, sagged and rested on Tetho for a few seconds, then got off. "That'll tide me over for a while," he said before taking wing and disappearing into the night.

The gryphons kept coming, and Tetho didn't struggle so much. The next would mount him, make some comment to those still waiting, and proceed to penetrate him with great calls and growls. At the end, there'd be a roar, or a screech, and after a few seconds, another would start the cycle again. It was taking longer and longer for each individual to finish, Tetho noticed. That was really the only thought that went through his head after Cubo made his deposit and departure. His awareness of the immediate vicinity only sharpened when a longer pause in the parade of humiliation arrived. Several of the first few gryphons were wondering aloud if they should take second turns, but nobody was stepping forward to begin.

In the end, there were only two out of the gryphons who had not joined in: Areth and the quiet gryphon who happened to be called Creesephanon. Cresse stepped forward, staring hard at Tetho, but the gryphon didn't seem aroused, or interested in mounting the crocodile at all.

Cresse said "This amusing little croc gave us all quite an entertaining evening." Leaning in closer to Tetho, he snarled softly, and said "it's only part of the punishment you deserve."

Turning to the gryphons after making sure that Tetho wasn't going to try to bite him, he continued. "Tresspassing is one thing. Delusions of grandeur are another. But what was it that this crocodile had set out to do before Arethusanen caught him and brought him here for us?"

Turning back to Tetho, Cresse sat and stared with his far-seeing, stern gryphon eyes, and waited for a few seconds. "He wanted to steal what he imagined were our offspring. He intended to make prey out of our young. Granted, he was delusional, and thought he was going to gain gemstones--but his intent, his belief, despite being delusional, makes his crime worse than trespassing.

"I think we should make sure he leaves with some stones. He's been mounted, covered, and inseminated; let's stuff him with a prize to console him as he goes on his way." Cresse held up a rock, almost the same size and shape as a gryphon egg.

He walked forward and leaned over the horrified crocodile, who was too stunned to move far. The gryphon started shoving the rock up inside the crocodile's cloaca. Tetho started lashing his tail back and forth and howling. "Since so many have attempted to sire chicks on him, I'm sure he'll have a clutch of record size," Cresse said with a meaningful look at the remaining gryphons.

The others left to collect more rocks suited to this final punishment, each bringing back at least four or five. Cresse shoved each and every one into Tetho's gaping hole, starting with the smallest. More and more kept arriving as he worked; each one was placed against Tetho's cloaca, and with a hard push and a little twist, the egg-shaped rocks would enter the crocodile's vent and disappear after a few extra pushes with the end of Cresse's claw.

The larger stones took a bit more effort and created quite a bit more motion and noise from Tetho. Just before halfway, the crocodile would squirm, wincing and shaking his head before sighing with resignation and defeat as the rock slid inside at Cresse's insistent touch.

In the end, Cresse wasn't sure how many rocks he had inserted. "Climb down the way you climbed up to Areth's aerie, and may you have a difficult labor, you miserable reptile," he spat, and the assemblage left the crocodile alone.

Tetho climbed back down slowly, cursing gryphons the whole way. He had to be extra careful, since he was much, much heavier than he expected himself to be. It was all of the rocks, of course!

The first thing he did when he got to the ground was look for someplace he could work on dumping all those rocks. He probably looked just like his mother did, straining over a makeshift nest--but the rocks were about gryphon egg-sized, which are much bigger than crocodile eggs. She also probably didn't groan and complain even one tenth as much as he did.

He, like Cresse, had lost count of how many rocks had been inserted, and he was never sure he got them all out. He always felt heavier than he thought he should.

******

Jaeghi finished the jug and rubbed Abrecia's shoulders; she had nodded off. "Do you know, he never lived that down. He moved across country to these parts, and he did start a clan here...but they all seemed heavy and awkward on the ground. They started living in water to help support their weight. Their bellies still sag down like they're full of rocks. They can move a little bit but they get tired unless they're in water, when they can maneuver better."

"Oh," yawned Meschraman, and breathed slowly. "That makes...zzzzzz."

Shadraman shook his head. "That's about as silly a story as what dad told us last night, about this rooster that laid an egg from his butt."

Jaeghi chuckled. "Well, sometimes the world is sillier than you might expect." He hummed quietly, rumbling to himself and to Shadraman.

"You're a dragon," the little gryphon said with a yawn. "Where's your hoard?" Shad's eyes slowly closed.

Jaeghi just smiled and rumbled softly in the dark aerie until the chick slept.