The sun shone brightly through a small gap in the trees and lit the entire forest floor. It was buzzing with a variety of creatures scurrying around chatting and talking to each other, completely used to seeing the old man watching them. Merlin enjoyed spending long hours simply watching the fairies and pixies and enjoyed spending time with them. They entertained him with their funny ways and in return he protected them from any danger. He lay down in the grass resting his head on an overgrown brown mushroom staring up at the roof of trees above him. There were hundreds of different birds fluttering around gathering food for their chicks.

Of course, these days Merlin made the most out of these relaxing peaceful times, as the evil in the world was growing bigger everyday. He knew that very soon there would be little good doers left as too many people were being sucked into doing what is easy instead of what is right. However, he tried to shift this thought from his mind for the time being and enjoy the company he had. A small slim pixie began tugging at his robes urgently and pointing into the undergrowth of the forest. Merlin sat up and looked in the direction they were pointing in. He picked up his long cone-shaped hat from the ground and shoved it on his head, and stood up to get a better view. The pixie was squeaking something that was too high a frequency for him to understand so he decided to explore the woods for any signs of danger. Several fairies were now retreating to their burrows and nests, and a couple had decided that they would be safer quivering underneath Merlins hat. He did not mind however and continued walking in the direction the Pixies had pointed to.

Not long later he saw a small pixie lying on the floor in a small pool of blue blood, with a broken wing. It was dead. Merlin looked up towards the canopy of leaves and then back down again towards the pixie. They were normally excellent flyers and he had no idea what had caused this Pixie to collapse. It could only be explained by two reasons. One, the pixie got distracted and crashed into something causing him fall to the floor or two (the most probable reason), he had been attacked in some way which caused him to fall to the floor. There was a small dent in the ground in a simmilar shape to the pixie, a sure sign that he/she had fallen. Merlin wiped away a small tear that was forming in his eye and watched the pixies come out of his hat and start to sob next to their dead relative.

Alas, this did not explain why the pixies were shaking so Merlin scanned the forest for any sign of someone who could have caused this. He could see no guilty looking pixies, there were no birds in sight. Wait! There was a bird in the sky, a fairly big bird. Merlin squinted up into the air and realised that it was a very big bird, and it was turning around and flying towards them. A gryphon was heading directly towards him, it's wings outstretched in a diving position. It was getting very close and very fast, giving Merlin very little time to react. He leapt into the cover of a weeping willow and watched as the gryphon landed and began pecking at the small innocent pixies on the ground.

Infuriated, Merlin pulled a potion out from his bag and hurriedly unscrewed the lid. He flung some of it's contents onto the beast which caused it's beautiful coat of feathers to catch fire rapidly. Panicking, it began ramming it's burning wing into the nearest tree trying to put it out, and Merlin took advantage of the distraction to usher all the surving pixies underneath his hat for protection. But Merlin was tired and not a born fighter. He was a defender and did not plan on killing this creature. As much as he would hate to admit it, he needed help.

A small half-breed name Yumi was walking though the peaceful forest. The sun shone though the tree tops, glinting down at the forest floor. Yumi always had a small and faint smile wherever she went, it showed peacefulness, and gratitude for her surroundings. The small forest noise filled the air, as she stopped pixies floated around this lovely forest. As the pixies flapped their small wings, pixie dust would form and float in the air. It was very enjoyable to hear the small voices of the pixies, giggling, laughing, and just having fun. The half-breed stretched and gave out a low, and calm sigh. Then she slowly folded her hands behind her back and continued to walk, in the peacefulness of the forest.

Then something made her stop, a high pitch screeching noise filled the air. And the number of pixies were few as she kept walking. She could tell that the pixies were going, is the fact that the pixie dust was getting thinner. Maybe something was scaring them, but that screeching noise seemed to come from something that was in great pain. Soon the screeching forced Yumi into running, running towards the creature who was screeching. Maybe I can help it, Yumi thought to herself as she raced though the forest trees. Finally she reached to a curve and found herself clenching on her mouth, to keep from gasping. A bird was on fire! It was ramming itself against a tree, trying to put itself out. Her eyes scanned the area in terror, trying to grasp at how this happened, why this happened. Then her eyes fell on an old man, who was wearing an odd point hat. Could it be, that he started this fire? Quickly, she whipped her head around, looking back at the bird who was going crazy. The sight was pure horror, and her mind raced to see what she could do. Maybe the man could help, but her more then likely set the bird to flames, so it would waste time if she waited for him to help. And that is one thing the bird didn’t have: time.

Her eyes glanced back and forth, between the man and the bird. What could she do? It pained her to see a creature, and creature in such pain, it was tormenting. Her eyes became watery, and all of a sudden she sprinted out towards the bird, until she reached its side. There has to be something that can put the flames out, Yumi thought to herself as the bird screeched again. Then she bent down, grabbed a big handful of dirt, then started to throw on the flames. There were too many flames, so Yumi did threw dirt of the bird again. “Please be still,” Yumi said softly to the bird, who was twitching, turning, and doing other movements that made putting out the flames difficult. Yumi knew the dirt wasn’t working, so she did the extreme. With both hands she started to pat the flaming feathers on the bird! The pain made her cry out, but she didn’t stop patting the flames. Tears flooded her face as she continued to burn herself, and try to save the bird at the same time. Turning her head she looked at the man, while she still patted the burning bird, “Please help me! Please!” Then she looked back at the bird, to focus putting out off the flames.

Merlin watched as the girl began to desperately try to put out the fire on the bird, tears flooding out of her eyes. Merlin simply stood there emotionless thinking about the dead pixie. Why had the Gryphon not taking more care with it's flying? Why had it not swerved out of it's way? Why did it simply ignore it once they had collided? He shook himself harshly and forced himself to wake up to the reality. The fire on the bird was very slowly being put out, but the bird was still in considerable pain. Merlin decided that he should do what was right and decided to help out the girl.

He could not think of any water spells that would be sufficient on putting out the fire quickly enough, so decided to prevent the bird from feeling any pain. With a flick of his wand he sent the bird into a deep sleep, making the girls job of putting the fire out a lot easier. He swished his wand through the air again but this time directed his spell at the girls hands and cast the spell minor heal. Hopefully it would lighten the mood a bit, the bird was not going to die at least.

He walked over to the two of them and stood by the bird not putting the fire out. "Forgive me for my apparent sinister behaviour. I would not normally have done anything at all of this nature, but the bird killed a close friend of mine, and it was an easy way to punish it. I hope it has now learnt it's lesson though." he spoke softly kneeling down next to the beast. He raised it's head and fumbled around his potions bag for a healing potion. Drat! He hadn't packed it! He must of left it in his home, no matter. "Do you know anything that would help the bird lose it's pain? A minor heal will not recover what it has been through." he spoke to the girl, looking her directly in the eyes.

(Pah the shortness! I have to go now)

Yumi stopped on impulse with a small gasp when the bird flung its head on the ground, sleeping. Whipping her head around, Yumi saw the man do something with his wand, a sure sign he was a wizard of some kind. In her earlier years, she was taught about wizards, and what they dressed like, but never had the experience to see one. A tear ran down her cheek while she still looked at the man, for she had stopped putting out the fire. It seemed impossible- wait! Yumi blinked as she felt the tear run down her arm, to her hand. And soon she realized she knew a spell that could help put the fire out, and sooth the pain a bit on the bird. Then a flicker of pain tickled her palm, giving out a small cry for flames were slowly burning her hands. She was so frantic to save the creature, that she didn’t even think about the water spell she knew. Taking a small breath, Yumi hovered her hands above the creature.

Soon, cold fluidly liquid covered her hands, then water seemed to drop out from thin air, and on the Gryphon. And a few drops of water landed on the man beside the creature. Yumi lightly smiled to see that two gallons had gotten most of the fire out, but there was a few more flames that could be taken care of. The half breed patted the last few flames out, and looked at her burnt hands. Her hands would have been a lot worse, if the man had not cast a minor heal. But still her wound was bad, and it needed to be treated soon. Yumi took shallow breaths, that spell took a lot of energy out her.

It was her dream, that someday every creature would get along. That there wouldn’t be anymore wars, or crimes. She wished that everything was peaceful, and that even the most aggressive behavior would soon be calm. But of course these were just dreams and wishes from a young soul, that just wouldn’t be right. Everything needs life, and death, for you can’t save them all, but that doesn’t mean you don’t try. Yumi believed that you could overcome just about everything, without violence. Such cases as the griffin, couldn’t the man just take the bird to somewhere else? Why did he have to hurt him so much . . .why? No matter what anyone did, it just didn’t seem fair to kill, what right did anyone have to take a life? Deep down, Yumi was sure that the man would have finished off the creature, if she had not stepped in. She disliked revenge, almost more then she disliked anything else, because revenge took good people, and turned them into monsters.

Yumi’s black eyes widen as she looked up at the canopy, her face seemed quiet, emotionless. Clean lines were on her face, a sign that she had been crying, but now there was just silence. Her thoughts were leaping to one thought to another, as she tried to put the puzzle together, the puzzle was how she was going to help this creature. The gryphon had suffer greatly, Yumi only hoped that there were some herbs. And even if there were herbs here, it would take a lot of time for him to recover. Slowly she whipped her face, “I wish you picked a better way, he is just an animal, he was born with that instinct, to kill. A human goes back to his animal instinct to kill if someone was to starve him, would you hurt the man just because he was hungry and he was after your pet bird?” Yumi said softly, but she wasn’t looking at him, nor did she talk as if she was talking to someone. Then Yumi looked at the man, “I’m sorry he killed your friend, but killing the animal that killed your friend isn’t going to bring your friend back from the grave.” She stood there for a few seconds, then turned her back to him. Yumi’s main concern was to find some herbs to heal the bird, so she walked to a large tree, just a few feet away. She squatted down at he roots, where there were weeds, and other odd plants near the root of the tree. With a small sniff, Yumi began to pull some herbs out that looked like they would help at this time.

((I hope I am able to have enough money to buy a pet gryphon before this topic is over))