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Balance of Power

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Part 2: Gentleness and Curiosity

Bright.

Hot, bright light, flooding him. Overflowing with it.

"Mmm..."

Josh tried to brush the squinting harshness away, turning to bury his head back in his bed. Mornings were always the worst time of any day. He kicked a leg out feebly in some half-addled attempt to close his curtains, but to his surprise could not even feel cloth there. Ugh. His duvet must have fallen off. Wonderful.

Oh well... he was still surprisingly warm. The fox squeaked sleepily, nuzzling closer to the warmth he was cuddled into. So soft, so silky... the exotic, oddly pleasant musky scent - faintly reminiscent of some far-off, forgotten lands' spices, the piquant odour mixing deliciously with his own musk of fresh vanilla...

"Morning."

WH-NO! he froze, eyes slamming open. For a second, the low, thrumming tones - deep, purring, unimaginably powerful - conjured up a sense of terror, a wriggling, a frantic, hideous pain as he begged for some tiniest shred of mercy... and then the small vulpine sat up, slipping over on his bed of thick, lush feathery fur, and smiled blearily at the massive, blue-crested head in front of him. "Hmmph. Hello yourself."

He was curled upon the gryphon's massive back, the thick fur just behind the baseball-sized nub of Goldeneye's collarbone a perfect seat - or, evidently, a bed. The bronze wreath sparkled just ahead, and Josh watched it for a moment, still content to laze in the pleasant doze of feathers and pre-slumber warmth.

And he frowned, shaking his head in a vague attempt to clear it. There was something wrong with the thick, blissful sunlight flooding down on them. It was just so intense... so...

Unimpeded.

Josh was certain that he screamed before he even managed to vocalise the thought in his own head, clutching onto his "mount's" back with both paws and nestling back into the silkiness, horrified eyes of gold and violet looking out in absolute terror at the perfect blue sky which hung all around them, including below them - the view completed by several fluffy clouds, looking like ethereal white molehills at this terrifying height. "W-what the - y-y-you're... you're f-flying!"

"And he catches on!" sang the gryphon, his voice the eternal thrumming crazed cackle which against all logic, Josh had almost come to trust over the past month. Almost. "Early morning thermal, my darling. Perfect to get us high - ooh, it must be fifteen thousand now. Come up here and see the view."

"N-no chance!" Josh shivered, still buried firmly in his perch. "I-I... look, I love sleeping on you, but- ...fifteen thousand?"

"And still rising." A slight crackle as powerful vertebrae slid smoothly round, the gryphon's gleaming namesake coming into his gaze and winking right at him. Goldeneye's beak smirked. "Come now, my dear. It's the best way to wake up. And do you really think I'd let you fall?"

"N-no... b-but, look... I...I d-don't like heights... " protested the vulpine weakly, looking round at his captor's massive wings - fully extended and outstretched, the powerful pinions almost exactly the same shade as the sky itself, spanning nearly a full sixty feet in total. He shivered, trying to snuggle further in. "Just take me down, Goldie, p-please!"

Fine.

The word reverberated through Josh's entire body, making every cell seem to charge with energy. He just had time to say "N-no, wait-" and then his body performed a flawless backflip and landed on it's paws atop Goldeneye's back, nearly three miles above the earth. Josh's mouth was silent. His mind screamed.

Silly fox.

He could not even tremble as the gryphon manipulated his limbs easily, carrying his protesting body along the feathery plane to hold onto his great ears. All around was absolute vertigo. And now he could sense a dark inkling of what his playful "tormenter" was about to do next...

Please, please, d-don't...

Shush. Goldeneye uttered a deafening, explosive roar - a strange, unearthly and devastatingly powerful sound which rattled around the clouds, making his rider wish he could at least try to cower into his feathered crest - of harsh, delighted pleasure, and flipped over, corkscrewing in a helter-skelter dive of terrifying proportions. His wreath sparkled as the sun revolved around and around the two of them, gravity seizing up in a blur of forces tugging every-which-way like maddened grasping hands. Josh desperately, desperately wished he could scream. His hindpaws left the strong surface of the gryphon's neck, anchored from the thousands of feet of nothingness by only his grip upon those great, blue-crested ears. AHHHHHH!

"Ahhhh..." Goldeneye spoke physically again as he levelled out at last, freeing his horrified passenger from the mental hold and chuckling as Josh fell forwards, wrapping small, trembling arms frantically around his neck.

The fox swallowed, his teeth chattering almost too much to even speak, and whimpered, "N-never... ever... d-do that again."

He squirmed into a sitting position, still hunched around his mount's powerful neck, and managed to snatch a peek of the world of sky around them without squeaking. Now that the initial shock (and terror, and screaming exhilarated panic) had faded, he had to admit that there was something to the sheer stillness all around them. The wind whistled softly in his ears, but there was no movement at all, save for the occasional ruffle of feathers as Goldeneye's wings - they really were massive, even bigger than seeing them folded could lead one to believe - made the odd adjustment, letting them soar high and level with ease. Far below, a patchwork of mountains and forest and fields lay like a picture book. The sight was... incredible.

He hesitated, feeling the hot flush of blood spread over his skin again, and nuzzled apprehensively between the gryphon's great ears. "I-I... I'm sorry I was... you know..."

"Oh, don't worry. I knew. I knew you'd react like that." Goldeneye grinned, turning his head the other way now, so that the violet orb instead glittered darkly at the vulpine. "And now I knew you'd try to apologise instead. And blush. That adorable blush..." A soft purr split the silence of the high air, and Josh knew that his mount could feel the warmth through his fur and his feathers. He wriggled up a bit, squinting at the sun as his own mismatched eyes - violet and gold, an uncanny reflection of the great beast's own - caught the dazzling light, and frowned, looking around at the sky.

"H... hang on..." He frowned, nestling against the gryphon's spine. "I-I... I thought it was supposed to be cold up here?"

"Oh, yes." Goldeneye chuckled, raising his long tail - the thing wrapped coyly around his body, tickling Josh's hindpaws and making him squirm with a squeak of protest. "And right now, it is. Very, very cold, really - at least a dozen degrees Celsius below zero. Even an arctic fox will start to appreciate that kind of cold - and especially one who's acclimatised to a temperate climate."

Josh blinked, tugging his paws up and feeling a sudden urge to cuddle closer to the thick feathers of his mount. "It's what? No..." he gestured vaguely at the air surrounding them, the climate pleasantly balmy and warm in that golden sun, "no, that's ridiculous! It's warm! I feel warm!

"Indeed." He could see the eternal manic glitter in the gryphon's eyes - well, the one of the gryphon's eyes available to him. "You do. I couldn't have my little fox freezing up, could I?"

"But then how... did... you... oh."

The vulpine trailed off, chewing absently on his knuckle and staring over Goldeneye's skull at his raised talon. It was a while before he spoke.

"...couldn't you... couldn't you give it back? Please?"

The ring sparkled - amethyst, gold and pearly white, a band of glittering beauty - as the gryphon banked lazily to the left, humming gently in the cold-warm air. "Josh, my darling little fox. Not a chance in hell." He lowered it again, stroking the little thing with an obsidian-black talon. "I just used this to render you completely immune to all this icy cold - not simply stop you from sensing it, but physically restructure your biochemistry to make it perfectly survivable. Don't worry, little one. I'll change you back once we descend. Until then, though, you may occasionally experience a desire for concentrated lime juice sometimes. It's a side effect." He cackled madly, swooping low.

*******

Much like his body had very recently - he swallowed at that, clutching a little closer to the thick feathers - everything seemed to have been turned upside down since that fateful journey and the chaotic, semi-epiphanic events it had held.

In the space of an instant, the massive mythical beast had warped somehow from bitterly delighted tormentor to gentle, soft-voiced friend - a transformation which had unnerved his shivering vulpine captive almost as much as the earlier torture. But it was true, and truly sincere. Goldeneye had suddenly been holding him close, those terrifying claws caressing him gently, tenderly, without hunger or lust or fury behind the soft strokings, and... everything had changed.

He had ridden the gryphon home - Goldeneye, apparently "still susceptible to emotional mutation", had at that time acquiesced to fly a mere hundred or so feet above the ground at the fox's nervously squeaked plea. It was still quite terrifying, but at same time, an incredible experience. True flight.

And the gryphon had talked, his low, dark voice not even strained by those colossal wing beats. He had explained what he was and where he had come from, every word inspiring a mix of awe and fear in his passenger. "A mish-mash composite, formed of billions of pieces of what were once minds. And I rely on life to keep me together, keep me stable. Emotion, you see. Feel, and your soul glows bright. Glow brightly, and I can absorb your waves of being, use them to anchor my own consciousness. Do that, and I am so gloriously alive it burns me."

"And..." the vulpine had snuggled nervously against the thick plumage of his back - the stuff was truly unique, like some sort of downy, feathery fur which was even softer and silkier than his own, and all the while infused with that spicy-sweet, exotic scent of the otherworldly - "...and so... you wanted my emotions? Pain, terror, d-despair... all those things?"

"Good." The gryphon had seemed amused at his perception, and he could feel a low, growling rumble humming through the massive torso at his cuddling. "Yes. Every thought, every feeling, has a different flavour, and what flavour I desire - not to mention, which one is the most fun to inspire - can be decided from the moment I find you. And that time... it was cruelty. Delicious cruelty."

Josh swallowed.

"BUT." A low chuckle, and suddenly Josh was flipped round as the gryphon lazily swerved in mid-air, folding one wing back entirely to pivot in the air - the most basic (and least terrifying, but only just) of his playful manoeuvres -"But... ah, well... you changed that. You accepted it. You laid back and told me that yes, very well: I might as well be happy. It was just... totally unexpected. And I was attached to your very soul - very enjoyable, but it also makes me very, very vulnerable to surprise attacks."

"So..."

"So you threw me, Josh. You threw my crueller desires entirely out of the figurative window, reshifted my whole consciousness around that one pulse of sympathy. Suddenly you changed me. And I became... this."

And so the gryphon had - quite unexpectedly - become... this. Not just a gentle giant, but before that same day was out, a true friend. Goldeneye still retained a love of making his little fox squeal, but now it was less sadistic (he swallowed fearfully at the thoughts, and yet it was his mount who he found himself cuddling closer to) and more the kind of playful teasing of a demigod with a warped sense of humour. The gryphon was a dedicated guardian, a dazzling conversationalist and a very, very generous giver of gifts. Always the perfect thing: Josh had woken up one morning to find himself nestled in the feathery warmth and a textbook open to the 18th century 5th Rebel War in front of him. Two hours later, his history teacher had announced a spontaneous test - one he had, thanks to his rather smug benefactor, passed with flying colours. Later that week, he had forgotten his lunch money, and been suddenly whisked off the moment the bell rang to a little place which Goldeneye described as "the Alex of takeaway shops" (he had refused to explain the odd colloquialism, but Josh had to assume that Alex, whoever he was, was one of the best chefs on Actura or something similar...) The place had been on the other side of the District, and yet after a truly magnificent meal, he'd been back in time for the next period.

The gryphon was able to appear in public without attracting so much as a glance from anyone except his little vulpine pet, an ability he described as "a broad-wavelength perception filter, tailored to certain physical effects of my manifestation" - in other words, no-one except Josh could see or hear him. Such power had ranged from helpful to distracting to hilariously annoying.

And yet, despite all of it... the fox had somehow no doubt whatsoever that his colossal companion (Five thousand, six hundred and twenty one pounds, Goldeneye had told him absently when asked, chuckling at the small slack muzzle before him. "What? That's pretty light for something of my size. But then again, a lot of my body is more weight-efficient than a normal creature's: the species I've adopted - call us Mathraxians - did, after all, evolve to fly, and there is only so far eighteen solid inches of hyper-dense flight muscle can go..." ) was being absolutely truthful about his pledge not to hurt the little vulpine.

He had however, most emphatically not given up the ring. Now that his life was no longer about to end in an inventive and painful fashion, and now that he had learned how it was a source of immense power which belonged rightly to him, Josh had perhaps hoped the thing might be returned with Goldeneye's newfound kindness. But no. The gryphon, it was apparent, had not changed in some respects: he still absolutely adored the measure of sheer control the uncanny, eldritch piece of jewellery gave him over his little vulpine plaything. And what a measure of control it was. His mind, his emotions, and his body itself - all were clay between the claws of his... well, were their relationship less friendly, he had a feeling it would have been his master.

He shivered, nestling back as the air started to become warmer. No more clouds below them now, thank the Catalyst, just a range of low, secluded mountains, spanning out across like a map of rock and woodland. They'd been dipping for some time - it might have begun at fifteen thousand feet, but with the incredible speeds Goldeneye seemed capable of reaching, they were now perhaps less than a "mere" two thousand. The fox looked down, suppressing a nervous whimper. Then he blinked, and spoke, "...we're on the other side of the world. Aren't we? These... yes, I recognise them! These are the Rashalonians!"

"Oh, very good." Goldeneye was grinning - even if you could not see, it was clear it was inherent in his low, velvet-smooth voice. "They are indeed. It's a high summer over here, you know, and I thought it'd be fun to get away from all that cold."

The fox cuddled close to him, muttering something about the relative cold of home compared to the cold he had recently been experiencing thanks to his mount's "playful" actions, but he could not deny that his tail was wagging slowly behind him, tracing over the thick feathers. Another new world to explore...

"Fine.... so!" He yawned again, still feeling sleepy, and tried to keep away from the sides as the gryphon banked a hard, sharp right, skimming the tops of tall, graceful trees now. "W-where -whoa! D-don't do that! I don't- um... A-are we landing?"

"Well..." Goldeneye grinned evilly at him, and a icy rush of nervous apprehension flooded the fox's belly. A soft chuckle acknowledged his widened eyes, and the gryphon's smile spread. "Let's just say...you are."

"Wha- oh no." Josh clutched frantically at his mounts neck, trying to hold on with all his strength. "Nonono! It's fifty feet down! You wouldn-"

There was no chance whatsoever of holding on this time. Goldeneye drew his wings in close, spinning round and flipping over easily with a deranged, joyous cackle, and the vulpine was snapped off from his feathers like a stone from a slingshot. For a second, he arced out over the mountainous plateau, watching as if in slow motion a fat lazy sun cresting some far-distant peak... and then he was falling. The exotic trees met Josh with glee, branches lashing at him as he flailed past and bounced, hitting the ground in a ball of fur and wailing. The impact must have shattered his ribcage at least...

But it hadn't. Josh finally slumped to a halt, sprawled untidily, and realised that he wasn't even aching. He finally drew in a breath, groaning from disorientation rather than injury as he sat up and examined his small body.

The thin shirt he wore was ragged and tattered now, exposing a deep gleam of soft, lustrous violet chestfur beneath it. His fur was thick and dishevelled, fluffed out with the instinctive terror. But Josh was himself wasn't even scratched.

"I told you - "

WHAM.

"- it'd be fun."

The gryphon landed mere feet from him, provoking another squeak of alarm as Josh threw himself frantically backwards. Goldeneye ignored the yelps, hindpaws and foreclaws smashing into the ground in perfect, earth-shaking unison as he folded his titanic wings back neatly, examining the mouse-like creature who lay at his feet, dazed and trembling.

"Oh, don't be so silly." The vast creature grinned, nuzzling his small vulpine pet into a sitting position. "I wasn't going to hurt you."

"B-but..." Josh shivered, patting nervously at the great beak as his playful tormentor buried it in his lap, "b-but... how did I... e-even survive that?"

The mismatched eyes sparkled. "Guess."

The fox frowned, shrugging helplessly... and then he groaned. "Oh. That."

"Yep." A soft cackle as a claw - the ringless one, as always - reached around behind the little vulpine, pulling him closer in. "Good old body restructure, hm? I just had to toughen you up a bit...and you were laughing."

Josh sighed wearily, but let his small body be clasped closer, unable to suppress a gentle purr of satisfaction as his fur met the thick, silky warmth. He snuggled closer, managing to suppress the little thrill of fear at his contact with such a vast creature, and leaned against the gryphon, looking out at their landing site.

Here, of course, it was young summer, and the white-gold light flooding down created a blissful warmth on their fur, or, in the gryphon's case, feathers - feathers which seemed somehow to absorb more warmth than the rays even carried, already heating up to a wonderful silkiness of temperature. The world around was lush and verdant, just beginning to enter an almost tropical bloom. He whistled, looking over the gleaming emerald riot before them in the thick, jungly forest. "It's beautiful."

There was a quiet, rumbling purr from behind, and Josh felt instinctively that his happiness was soothing his titanic friend's inflamed mind. He smiled, looking up at Goldeneye's huge beak - seen from below, leaned against that massive chest, the deadliness of such a sharp-edged, hooked thing could oh-so-easily be terrifying - and cuddled a little closer, helplessly pleased by the soft snarl of pleasure. "So, um... do you have anything planned here?"

"Honestly?" Before Josh could so much as squeal, he was lifted up by a single claw, deposited neatly on the great curve of the gryphon's chest as Goldeneye rolled lazily over, huge pinions folding beneath him. "No. I just liked this place, and decided to bring you. The Nara'chi valley: no inhabitants for miles around in any direction." He smiled lazily, looking at the little vulpine as Josh squirmed into an upright, seated position, knelt comfortably in the thick feathers. "I fancied a day of doing very, very little, really."

"Mmm...well, after all that,... it sounds good to me." Already the warmth was proving irresistible, and the fox slipped forwards with a gentle purr, nuzzling up to the hollow between Goldeneye's chest and his beak. Here, avian blood ran closest to the skin, and he was perfectly safe in the soft warmth of the gryphon's throat, already feeling drowsy. Still half-asleep... let's laze about for today.

Exotic insects chirped, and Josh vaguely thought that he couldn't ever remember being happier.

***

Mmmm...

Although he would never, ever admit it, and certainly not to the little vulpine who dozed idly against his chest, humming a quiet melody to himself in the breezy warmth, Goldeneye did have to admit that it made a tremendously pleasant change to be nice for once.

He looked out at the skies above, and back down at his tiny vulpine plaything. Plaything. The word had so many times been one of cruelty, despair and destruction. And yet now Josh lay snuggled up to him, almost totally unafraid - there was and always would be a twinge of fear, and the gryphon still retained his old sadistic playfulness in exploiting it: but that was all it was. Playful.

Reaching over to enfold the little fox beneath a single claw, he examined the fluffy life beneath his talons. Adorable. And yet so powerful... what would happen if he consciously reconciled the different memories he'd had of this strange creature with these current sweet ones, if Josh became Joshua once more in his mind? Would the old cruel desires return? Would his new affection stand?

For now, at least, he was content for now to leave his emotions as they were - altering one's own mind was, at any rate, a distinctively nauseous experience - and snuggle the tiny creature who knew so little of himself close to his soft feathers. The gryphon smiled, humming gently at a pitch too low for Josh's hearing to pick up.

Time passed peacefully, and for once in his inexplicable life, Goldeneye felt content to let it. He contented himself instead with prowling the infinitely vast and complex cathedral of thought that was Josh's mind, feeling like some ancient and stooped pilgrim at their fabled place of worship - for the ecstasy and pleasure of his focus did have an almost religious quality to it.

Flexing his mental tendril, he returned to a favoured subject of perusal: subconscious memory. Although he found himself preferring not to mention Josh's earlier life, that didn't mean he didn't want to uncover it. Curiosity killed the cat? Well, the cat-bird will do better.

And so the darkness of the Void was riven with spangled lights, a thousand times a thousand shimmers of consciousness sparkling all around him, and Goldeneye in their midst, perfectly at ease in the mind of another.

Josh shifted a little in his doze, a low whimper coming from his throat, and for just one second Goldeneye felt the hunger flare again... but the fox slept on, and both were safe. The gryphon chuckled softly, not even opening his reality eyes , but kept on twisting inside the soul of his dear vulpine. Searching.

And finding nothing.

The fox's life opened up before his mind's eye in all it's exquisite glory, but exquisite as it was, there was nothing unusual. Josh had led a life of kindness, love, affection, and point-blank zero occurrences which could be described as even remotely supernatural.

Drumming his talons - the sound came from the physical world, echoing and distant in his physical ears - he blinked, feeling the ever-present studs circling one. The heat - or at least, the energy manifesting somehow to his perceptions as heat - was always there, ever present. Power.

Power which was, of course, bound to affect one creature and one little creature only.

The gryphon frowned thoughtfully, examining the nova of energy which the ring of Josh Fawkes appeared as in the darkness of between dimensions. He'd tried to search it already, the energy searing and blinding his Voidsight to the point where he could barely grope hopelessly, gaining a flash every now and then of - darkness, darkness and rage... - but nothing he could possibly hope to decipher.

Unless... Goldeneye cocked his great head, thinking. What if...

Slowly, he extended an iridescent tentacle of thought once more into the sparking inferno. The power throbbed everywhere now, easily enough to drive him mad, but one insanity triumphed over another, and he could settle somewhere close to its heart without too much trouble.

Now. The gryphon smiled, feeling ring flex oh-so-slightly upon his talons, and opened his Voidsight fully.

With a difference. He did not look into the light, but out from inside it. Straight at the sleeping soul of Josh.

The vulpine jerked awake, but Goldeneye managed with a supreme effort of will to dodge pass his sudden cascade of awareness, leaping further in and back to that darkroom of forgotten memories. So clear now, so clear, so able to see. The clarity burned him as he buried his beak in a shuddering fox's chest and watched, scrolling through myriads after myriads of memories in a telepathic blur of desire.

AND STILL NOTHING.

Even the faintest memories of Josh's birth seemed to exist - nowhere near on a conscious level, but stored away in the labyrinthine vault of soul. A sudden bright light, a feeling of confusion and blind panic as he struggled to return to the pulsing warmth of home... and then someone smacked him. And upon this a thousand obscure concepts and dreamings and imaginations Josh had once known and never remembered. But there was nothing to suggest that this little fox was unearthly.

He squatted in the midst of a churning mind, sending a tendril of soothing out to quiet Josh's squeaks of mental pain, and considered. It was perfect: not a trace remained of whatever Josh was.

Deflated, Goldeneye let his plaything's physical form slump against him, still feeling unwilling to concede and leave the miasma of thought just yet. Even if he had discovered nothing, the sheer clarity of Josh's head through the lens of the ring did take his unrequired breath away. Evidently the connection between artefact and vulpine was on a very, very total level.

He sighed, toying for a moment with staying distant, condemning his poor little fox to the twinges of pain inside his skull for a while longer... but no. Let us leave.

Or... what was that?

It was nothing unusual in itself, and the memory had certainly not been fabricated: after all, Goldeneye had experienced it with him. Or rather, he had inflicted it upon him. The soft, warm heat, pressing down and crushing him helplessly, pinned beneath a greater creature and quite literally on the level of the dirt beneath his feet...

... it had been mostly masked by fear and confusion before, but now that he examined the sensations Josh had felt there was no doubt. The fox had also taken a strange sort of pleasure from it.

His focus slavered at the leash, and Goldeneye started to grin.

***

And at last, it was gone.

Josh tried to hold back the tears, but a keening groan of relief still split his clenched lips as the great gryphon who clutched him so close opened his eyes again, looking down at his small vulpine with a strange and somewhat foreboding interest. He swallowed back the wail, snuggling desperately into the thick feathers until the soft, silky heat had nearly submerged him.

"Wh-what... what w-were you d-d-doing? That hurt!"

I know. Again came the body-jangled tones of the ring, and the fox flinched away, squeaking in alarm, but Goldeneye continued speaking normally as if nothing had changed. "I'm sorry, my darling. I was... investigating, and got distracted."

Shuddering a little, Josh leaned further in, burying himself in blue-tinged darkness. "O-okay... well, did you find... whatever it was, at least?"

" Nope!" With a cheerfully avian squawk, the vulpine was dragged back out of the warmth and tossed casually into the air. He scrabbled frantically, trying to grab at nothing - but just before the arc brought Josh back to the ground, he thought he could sense a strange sort of tingling...

....and he could. Hitting the ground with a wham of alarmed, tangled fox, Josh rolled onto his side, panting with disorientation but again, unnaturally unharmed. He looked up, glowering indignantly where he expected his tormenter to be...

And was instead greeted by a somewhat different sight to what he'd been expecting. Goldeneye lay upon his colossal flank, his powerful body angled away from the fox, so that the nearest part to Josh was his hindquarters, which lay, splayed lazily across the ground...

...paws first.

He tried to look away - an utterly instinctual move, accompanied neatly by a powerful rush of blood to the vulpine's skin, turning him red beneath the snowy fur - but they held his gaze impossibly. His small jaw gently slack, Josh stared with quiet awe at the hindpaws. The things had to be easily larger than his entire torso. Each pad - Goldeneye's feet were, after all, feline in nature, so there were four toes, each with its one hub of flesh, surrounding a central sole like islands in a sea of silky soft fur - was utterly smooth, not so much as blemished by the slightest wrinkle or even a single speck of dirt. They were a similar shade of sky blue to his soft chestfeathers and wings, but somehow paler and purer, the soft flesh flexing oh-so-slightly as the gryphon waggled his toes gently, looking at the vulpine over the top and grinning gently. Ebony claws longer than Josh's finger slid in and out a few inches - retractable, of course - from the tips, a Mexican wave of razored deadliness which was utterly alluring.

The fox squirmed nervously, unable to help but keep his gaze fixed there. "They...." He swallowed, finding words difficult all of a sudden. "They're.... v-very nice..."

"Very nice?" Goldeneye giggled gently, the sound emanating like liquid thunder. "Josh, Joshua... don't try and lie to a Voidseer. I'm rather surprised I didn't notice before - this unusual... interest is quite prominent in your subconscious, now that I'm looking at it properly."

The vulpine flushed even deeper, squirming awkwardly to his knees. "I... um, I don't kn-know what you're-"

"Paws, my dear. My paws. " The pads flexed again, stretching with a tortuous languid grace, and Josh almost had to bite his knuckle to keep himself from moving towards them. Goldeneye's grin widened. "I can feel your fascination... curious as it may be, I can certainly see an appeal in it myself." He licked his beak playfully. "Indulge your desire, little one."

"I-" and then Josh's instincts took over and he nearly leapt to his feet, bounding in a few maddened leaps to collide head-on with the unbearable allure of those perfect, worship-worthy paws.

Worship worthy? sneered disbelief. Is he teasing your mind again for his own pleasure? What have you become, you maniac?

_ _

But Josh knew it wasn't so, as with an uncontrollable shiver he embraced the thick, powerful paws, burying his muzzle in the hot silky warmth of the fur which lined the crevasse between each pads. It was perfect, sleek and softer than could be believed, and the scent... it was the normal strange, exotic deliciousness which emanated from the gryphon's sleek fur and yet deeper, a darker undertone, somehow more... forbidden. And overpowering. He felt his muscles weaken, shiver, and collapse, letting him fall into the warmth of it. Heavenly sensation flooded his nerves, a bliss he'd never known before.

The gryphon's great spine arched, far away - all the enraptured little vulpine could hope to perceive was a slight squeeze, those perfect pads pushing their way invitingly onto him - and Goldeneye started to purr once again, the sound seemingly deep enough to make the ground tremble. Certainly, the warmth flesh in front of Josh was vibrating slightly, and with a helpless squeak of satisfaction he nuzzled further into it, now running his own paws - microscopic by comparison - over the soft smoothness of the gryphon's pads, unable to stop himself marvelling at the sheer perfection of it all.

The thrumming, rumbling growl of gentle pleasure only deepened further.

Wriggling dazedly over a fleshy pad, the musky scent overpowering his logic and his senses, the fox leaned forwards, tugging the two hindpaws together: now, he felt his thoughts crowing sluggishly but happily, he could apply the same adoring dedication to both equally.

"Okay..." his tongue sounded slow and lazy, saliva pooling even as it formed words, "this is... heaven."

"Appropriate for a little creature like you, I suppose." Goldeneye chuckled softly, long tail twitching round coyly to tickle Josh's own hindpaws, making him squeak, wriggling and yipping in a mix of helplessness and delight. "Now..." he gestured idly, those beautiful toes teasing the tip of the fox's cool nose,m and put on a mock-pompous voice. "Show them their divinity, small mortal."

Smiling weakly, Josh nodded, and dived into the warm silkiness again. Every stimulation he provided had a slight effect, those massive toes curling just slightly with pleasure at the strokes and caresses, the faintest of creases appearing as the great pads flexed with every nuzzle of warm purple and white fur. The scent spilled over Josh, isolating from the world in a bubble of silky fur, warm flesh, and fantasy. Somehow, somewhere, he was content here.

It was a while before the fox looked up again, his fur ruffled and his pure vanilla scent now accented by the heady, exotic musk which so strongly infused the gryphon's pads. Hoisting himself up with a slight squeak, he leant over the edge, peering past two half-retracted claws of ebony to watch his massive friend.

Goldeneye was laid out on his back, slightly curled, foreclaws in the air like a colossal feathered dog, his great pinions folded tidily beneath him. His eyes were closed, his breathing slow and calm. The tail twitched lazily, splayed out over the ground alongside the sleeping beast, that great blue fluff quivering oh-so-slightly.

Rubbed into a daze? He had definitely been enjoying the vulpine's helplessly enthusiastic affections to his paws, there could be no doubt about that.

The fox leaned forwards, knees hooked into the crevasse between two blue hubs of flesh, and looked thoughtfully at his massive "customer" as a slight smile curled the sharp edges of Goldeneye's beak. Asleep wasn't the right word - Goldeneye, apparently, did not need sleep ("or indeed, food, water, oxygen, a blood supply, or really anything, and close your mouth please, silly little fox. No need to look so amazed - it's hardly the most astounding of my abilities."). However, he had mentioned a state of semi-catatonic meditation which was similar to sleep, existing within the chaotic vastness of his own mind. Who knew where the gryphon was now? Who could hope to conceive at that smile was reflected upon?

Josh shivered, remembering the creature of before, the blaze-eyed sadist who had promised to take everything he had and everything he was, the monster whose clutches he had only just escaped.

And now he lay on that same monster's paws, cuddling at the pads with far too much enthusiasm to be usual. Silly little fox...

The gryphon shifted, a soft chirp breaking the shimmering quiet, and one of his powerful foreclaws flexed and flopped to the side. And in the sunlight of the other side of the world, in the air of a heady gryphon musk, Josh saw it sparkle.

That band of pearl, gold and amethyst, alight with elegant beauty. And power. Even without contact - he hadn't been permitted to touch it at all since the ring had entered the gryphon's service - Josh could sense the raw energy locked so deep away inside that strange ring.

And knowledge equals power. Therefore, power equals knowledge.

The secret of his past was in there. He was certain of it.

He stared at it, then at the sleeping Goldeneye, and shivered. He wanted it back. No matter what the mighty beast himself might tell him, that ring was at heart his property. It was certain. It was his, a fact of the universe.

He couldn't take it back. Not in a million years. But while the gryphon was sleeping, while the wrld was at peace... couldn't he just feel that strange hard smoothness, no doubt warm as sunlight, just as it had been throughout their short time together, one more time?

Couldn't he?

The gryphon had not stirred, still as silent and peacefully quiet as before. Josh looked cautiously at him, and wriggled forwards over the powerful toes, tickling those pads with a tension-twitch of his fluffy tail. Now he was splayed over Goldeneye's claws, having to push on the strong ankles of this feathery climbing-frame for support. A claw scraped against the side of his stomach, jostling him awkwardly. But still there was no response.

Why are you being so cautious, foxie? a voice wondered inside his head as he squealed, about to overbalance with legs pedalling frantically at the air in an attempt to stay in equilibrium. He's your friend. He likes you - and more importantly, he likes you happy. Even if he does... wake up... you'll get a scary ride home, a bit of teasing, but... look, he'll understand.

He nodded slowly... and the movement tipped him over the edge, falling over the huge hindpaws, to land with an oof on Goldeneye's legs. The fox winced, falling in an uncoordinated heap of fluff and tangled snowy limbs. Slowly, he stood up, watching the rise and fall of the gryphon's chest, and then that glitter of purest mystery curled in his claws. Go on. Just touch it. Just once.

Darting, almost prancing steps, along the cavern-wall of the gryphon's massive body, watching the shaggy blue bellyfur translate to a finer, silkier feather-like substance, fading upwards and downwards to silver. The landscape of this incredible creature passed by Josh as he weaved closer, shivering with tension.

And still it sparkled. How could he have resisted? That strange thing, that ring of power... was it greed, fascination, obsession, desire, curiosity, or some strange emotion which had no name which drew him ever closer? He could not tell. But within moments, he was standing over, looking down at it. Heart-achingly beautiful, a beauty which only those who knew it could see. The beauty of a hidden sun, a darkling glory.

Lord Joshua's beauty.

Slowly, he knelt, watching it while the gryphon semi-slumbered on. Every breath made the glittering jewellery turn and catch the light. A paw reached out, shaking slightly, and he flicked his arm to try and quell it, but somehow the tension and latent emotion was simply too strong. And so it was with trembling fingers that Josh reached out... and brushed the surface of the ring.

And then -

• everything.

***

What?

WHAT?

Impossible. Goldeneye felt his thoughts speeding up to eternity, trapped in a helpless billionth nanosecond, as the world exploded.

Josh was, Josh was - how? How was he there? He'd forbidden the fox to touch his ring, and known that should the opportunity present itself, the little creature would of course ignore his order - that was part of Josh's adorably irresistible charm. _ But there wouldn't be a chance for that, because Goldeneye was not about to let him. He knew what little he could about the ring, and had held what little he desired back from the little vulpine's questions: most of all, that the ring was not belonging to Josh, or made by Josh. For it simply was Josh, in every sense save the physical._

And what would happen if they touched, now that the siphon had been used so often, now that the power had been stirred up by his games? He did not know, and did not at all care to find out.

But suddenly, he felt it. The pressure, the tingle, the touch all the way back in the reality his mortal form lay in, of vulpine fingers against the ring.

Impossible. He had been sensing Josh's own mind all the time - he'd been feeding off it as usual, absorbing the thoughts flying off to fuel his own stability. He had felt the fox nuzzling, cuddling those paws, sinking into the same pleasured daze he had been.

And now, in the blink of a violet or golden eye, Josh was there. And the ring had been contacted.

He felt the power roil, reach out and recoil, slamming right into the galaxy of lights which was Josh's mind. It's original, it's creator. But it's master was another, another creature entirely, and that split, between two defining the channel by which the power flowed, was a confusion which the ring could not stand. The feedback froze and doubled, fractal chains of power lancing off, around and back in tornado-chaos spirals. The tension was too much. Far too much. It was a catastrophe retracing its steps in infinity, reaching back into its source...

And it met it. Stunned and helpless, the gryphon could only watch in the abyssal darkness of the Void as the deluge of thought into Josh's head turned in on itself and broke, snapping and cracking wide open. Hardly any of the power had fled into him before it had gone: just a mere fragmented sliver.

But that didn't mean it was sealed.

His unprepared, exposed soul was next, a wave of boiling energy lashing over it just as the fox began to stagger back. Blazed through him, white-hot and ferocious, unthinking and unseeing, blind to itself and what it did. Glowing. And what was illuminated?

The gryphon, crouched in his mind-palace as it shook around him, felt the understanding burn through him along with the roar of a changing mind. Ah. AH. That was how he had failed to notice the fox's movements. That was how he had been so unprepared for all this.

Of course...

The splinters began to morph once more. The onslaught had been too much. Goldeneye's soul was changing again, forged anew in the darkness of a split-second.

It took less than a second for his kindness, his tenderness, his gentle smile, his perfect companionship, to die once more, subsumed beneath wave after wave of desire, lust, pain and cruelty. Before Josh's body had hit the ground, everything he was was changed.

Slowly, still inside his mind as the chaos faded, he saw the fireworks in the fox's own mind. Sporadic flames billowed in the galaxy of thought, white hot and ice-cold. Knowledge. Josh was beginning to understand what he was. Slower still, they died - for now, still lurking in the darkness. The fox blinked, shuddered, and gasped, staring up at his friend, and his eyes betrayed his innocent, adorable guilt.

The gryphon let the old grin split his beak once more, so much at home there: the grin without mercy, without kindness. The grin of a true Shard.

Slowly, greedily, he opened his own eyes. For a moment, they would have glowed: gold and violet, searing the little fox below him so cruelly and so blissfully. Josh's voice trailed off.

"I want to thank you for that, Joshua."