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“Are you done with your messages yet?” Alice asked, poking a dying campfire with a stick. It caught fire, and she waved it around a few times until it went out. Then she raised her head, peering at Mr. Skelly who was sitting completely motionless. She lowered her head and continued poking the charcoal. “I guess not.” She sighed and stood up while grabbing her dirty dishes.
“I’ll take those for you,” a skeleton said and retrieved the plates. “The leader is busy communicating with the mistress, a dragon, and the fake emperor. Perhaps the war is nearing its end.”
“A dragon?” Alice asked. “I wasn’t told anything about a dragon.”
“Oh,” the skeleton said and tilted its skull. “Well, the mistress’ best friend is a dragon.”
Alice stared at the skeleton as it walked away with the plates. Then she turned her gaze onto Mr. Skelly. He remained unmoving, his empty eye sockets locked onto the tree ahead. “The war is nearing its end?” Alice mumbled and bit her lower lip. A wrinkle appeared on her forehead as she lowered her head. The campfire crackled as a piece of white wood snapped in half.
“Alice.”
Alice turned her head and nearly screamed at the grinning skull that appeared in front of her face. She gritted her teeth and punched the skeleton away, causing a squeaking sound to resound as its bones hit the ground. “Did you just squeak?”
The skeleton sat up and shook its head. It reached behind itself and picked up a cloth sack which it dusted off with its bony hands. “The leader wanted to give this to you as a present.” The skeleton stood up and placed the squirming bag onto her lap. “He had us look really hard for one. We didn’t sleep for weeks, ignoring the hunger of our bellies and the fatigue of our muscles.”
“You don’t need to sleep or eat, and don’t give me any nonsense about hurting muscles,” Alice said with a snort. She glanced at the squirming bag. “If this is a really big worm, I swear on my left foot, I’m going to leave and join the dwarves.”
“Do people commonly swear on their left feet here?” the skeleton asked as Alice pulled on the ribbon holding the cloth bag shut.
“No,” Alice said. Her hands trembled as she pulled the lip of the sack back, revealing an eagle-like head. Her eyes widened as the creature blinked and let out a tiny squeak. A catlike paw stepped out of the bag followed by a sleek body with a pair of wings. Alice gasped and brought her hands to her mouth, lifting her head, her eyes watery. “Oh my lord. You didn’t.”
“We did,” the skeleton said with a grin. “Remember, this little fellow’s the leader’s gift to you.”
“What about its mother?” Alice asked, lowering her hands to grasp the baby gryphon. It mewled and licked her skin with its pointed tongue. She lifted the gryphon up and snuggled it against her face before holding it away from herself to inspect it.
The skeleton froze. “Uh…” It cleared its nonexistent throat. “Like I said. We worked very hard to get you one.” It glanced at Mr. Skelly, who was still motionless, before meeting Alice’s narrowing eyes. “Bye.” The ground broke open beneath its feet, and it dove headfirst into the tunnel that appeared.
Alice sighed as she parted the feathers on the baby gryphon’s forehead, revealing a pulsing rune. “So you do have a mother,” she said and stroked the gryphon’s wings. It yawned and curled up into a ball, snuggling against Alice’s stomach. “But knowing those skeletons…”
“Ah, you’ve received my gift, I see,” Mr. Skelly said, interrupting Alice’s thoughts. He turned his skull and smiled at her before standing up. “I have some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?”
“The bad news.”
“The good news? If you insist,” Mr. Skelly said. “The good news is the gryphon’s mother is still alive and well. She willingly gave my men one of her children after we saved them from a pack of wild cows.”
Alice exhaled and glanced at the baby gryphon on her lap. “That’s good. And the bad news?”
Mr. Skelly scratched his head. “The good news was a lie.”
Alice’s eye twitched. “Couldn’t you have just said you had bad news to tell me?”
Mr. Skelly nodded.
Alice sighed. “Forget it. Then this cub doesn’t have a mother or father anymore?”
“It doesn’t,” Mr. Skelly said. “You can abandon it if you’d like, but I imagine it wouldn’t last long. I knew you’d try to return it to its parents if they were still around, so…” He shrugged.
But leader, its parents are still alive.
Mr. Skelly ignored the mental message and sat beside Alice. He lowered his gaze onto the baby gryphon and poked its side, causing it to cry out. Its eyes snapped open, and it hissed at him. Mr. Skelly patted its head and made eye contact with Alice. “The war is over.”
“Is it?” Alice asked, lowering her gaze. She stroked the baby gryphon and frowned.
“It is,” Mr. Skelly said. He tilted his head. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happier considering how much you detested war.”
Alice scowled. “Who says I’m not happy?” she asked. “I’m happy, got that?”
“If you’re happy, then I’m a ghoul,” Mr. Skelly said. He wrapped his left arm around Alice’s shoulder and nudged her cheek with his right hand’s index finger. “If you keep frowning like that, the baby will think you’re upset with it. Ah, I understand. You’re going to miss me, aren’t you?” Mr. Skelly turned his head away and readied himself to create another skull out of mana for when Alice inevitably punched his current one off. After a few seconds of waiting, nothing happened, causing Mr. Skelly to blink and turn back around. He froze.
Tears dripped from Alice’s eyes onto the gryphon below. She sniffled as her hands balled into fists, scrunching up the gryphon’s fluffy fur into tufts that poked out of the gaps in her fingers. Her face jerked towards Mr. Skelly, and she glared at him as if daring him to say something. She blinked hard, causing another set of tears to fall from her eyes. “What?”
Mr. Skelly removed his left arm from Alice’s shoulder, and he scratched his collarbone. “You know I’m a skeleton, right? I’m already dead.”
Alice stared him in the eye sockets, unblinking. “Yes.”
Mr. Skelly scratched his collarbone again, Alice’s gaze causing him to itch. “Oh.” He averted his gaze. “Oh.” The campfire crackled as another piece of wood collapsed into pieces. “Alice…”
“I had a lot of fun,” Alice said, tearing her gaze away from the skeleton. She squinted up at the clouds and leaned back, hugging the baby gryphon to her chest. “I never thought I’d say it, but conquering those cities with you was fun. I hadn’t felt that happy in a long time.” She used the back of her hand to wipe away her tears before she lowered her head and smiled at the baby gryphon. “It really was a lot of fun.”
“If those dwarves you tricked and beat up could hear you now, I wonder what they’d think,” Mr. Skelly said with a chuckle. He patted Alice’s back. “In a week, there’s going to be a party. The Corrupted One will be there; I’ve told you about her before. She’s like my mother of sorts. I’d like to introduce you to her.”
Alice bit her trembling lip and hugged the gryphon to her chest tighter. “I’d like that too. But promise me she won’t sacrifice me.”
Mr. Skelly scratched his head. “That’s not really something I can promise, but I’ll do my best to not let that happen.”