The Gryphon's Goal: Chapter 1, Part 3
#3 of The Gryphon's Goal
Freddy's a bit of a bully and a jerk, but he doesn't really mean to hurt his little brother.
Larry rolled his eyes. "As if. You know I'd beat you up."
"Maybe in Fantasyland you would." Freddy winked up at Larry, then saw Sampson. "Hey, Sampson. Where's your mutt? I'm hungry."
Sampson's mouth opened in shock as he looked at Larry, his eyes filled with accusation. "You told him?"
Larry shook his head rapidly, his neck ruff slowly puffing out in panic. "N-no! I swear I didn't."
Sampson and Freddy suddenly laughed at the sight of Larry's nervous-induced fluffiness. "Relax, Larry," Sampson said. "I know you didn't. Freddy and me set you up good."
Larry glared at Freddy. "You jerk!"
Freddy took a step back, a fore claw pressed on his chest ruff. "Hey, why am I the bad guy? Sampson was with me on this."
"Well...you're my older brother. You probably bullied him into going along with it."
Freddy snorted. "Whatever. I never bullied anyone in my life."
"You bully me at home all the time!"
"I said anyone. You're a nobody."
Larry moved past his brother, his long ears flat against his skull. "Jerk," was all he could mutter.
"Love you too, little bro."
Larry, admittedly, could not stay mad at his older brother or Sampson, and by the time he reached the entrance to Pirate's Pizza, his anger had drained away from his heart. He turned around to face his friend and his brother. "All right, you two are still jerks--"
"Deja vu," Freddy said before he preened at one of his raised wings briefly.
"--but I guess I should chill out. I'm sorry I got upset."
Sampson grinned as he patted Larry's shoulder. "No problem, dude."
"It's not like you don't go emo on me all the time anyway," Freddy said.
"I don't...no, you know what, Freddy? You're a mega jerk."
Freddy opened his beak in a wide gryphon grin. "I've been promoted!" His beak then clacked shut as he squinted his eyes in a smirk. "No, seriously, can you either get your fuzzy butt inside or step away from the door? I'm starving, and Dad would be pissed at me if I tried to eat you."
Larry entered the pizza place, defeated. He couldn't put even a chink in his brother's ego no matter what he said, and Freddy always managed to turn things around to confuse and frustrate Larry.
"That's a good biped," Freddy said as he trotted inside, almost knocking over Larry as he moved past. He weighed somewhere in the range of five hundred pounds, being a quadruped, but he was usually more careful.
Larry managed to catch himself on the edge of a table, but still rattled the silverware that was placed on the surface.
Freddy looked over his shoulder. "You okay?" he said, the smirk carried in his eyes was gone. Instead they were wide, as if he'd expected Larry to be on the floor.
"Yeah, no thanks to you."
"I'm sorry, Larry." The apology sounded genuine, and Larry had no doubt it was. "Next time I'll bump into Sampson instead. I wasn't trying to knock you down."