The Gift of Gryphon Feathers

As told by Lester Pocket

Back when old things were new, and new things were so old that they were not even yet imparted from the land of dreams to the mortal world, the Seelie and Unseelie Kings and Queens sat about in their sovereign courts to decide what manner of creatures should they foster in their glades. The Unseelie Kings and Queens pressed for creatures of dark power and terrifying illumination, that would hunt down the good and just and make of them a meal. But the Seelie King and Queens begged that the creatures of the fey should be kind and caring and seek to help those who are in need of it.
The arguments and debates became raucous and rowdy and the schism of the two conflicting courts almost destroyed the fair folk's royal hierarchy before it even had a chance to begin. Then the Queen of the Seelie, Tatiana the Summer Queen, and the King of the Unseelie, The Man from Umbra, Lord of Nightmares, came together to make a decree unto their own. Each court would be allowed a single creature to offer to the magic of fey, and then a third would be derived from an agreement of the two reigning nobles.
Both groups agreed with glee at this potential to get one over on their conflicting side, even as Tatiana and the Man from Umbra retired together to concoct the creature of their own design. For thirteen long years, a mere afternoon to the designs of fey, the two courts worked until at last they were happy with their designs and turned them out to the King and Queen for judgment and approval.
The Seelie Court showed their work, a creature of beautiful silver hair, the body of a horn, that radiated pure light and life, and a single pure white horn jutting from its brow. They called this creature the Unicorn and said that it would be the first of the many creatures of lineage, for its children would be born with wings and fins and an entire race of good and light creatures would descend from it.
The Unseelie court turned their noses and reveled their own grotesque creation. With wings of a bat, and the long heavy frame of a lion, and a face that mirrored the snarl of the most horrid mortals, all framed by the terrifying tail of scorpion, the Unseelie proudly revealed the Manticore as their chosen creation. Not to be outdone by the light and good, they also declare that the manticore would give birth to other horrors, creatures that took the worst of their parentage and made it more horrible to rip and shred and maim.
The two groups looked at each other with seething hatred and admiration at the horror to the others eyes that had been created, when the Summer Queen raised her hand and bade them all quiet. Then she and the Umbran King revealed their own creation, a proud noble creature, with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle, two massive wings that folded regally at its side. They called this creature the Gryphon and said that it was the perfect balance of the light and the dark of the fey lands. The gryphon would serve as the guardians of the fey lands, and the keepers of the creatures of the Seelie and Unseelie.
Unlike the others, the gryphon needed no additions, no lineage by which to change, for in its design and function it was perfect. Its body was strong allowing it to chase and catch those creatures of the ground that evaded it, and its wings were powerful, making no creature its equal in the air, save the hawks of the mortal realm on whose wings it had been designed. Its mighty beak would serve as its weapon and symbol, for its call would be enough to stir the heart of any who sought nobility and shake any who sought darkness. It would be the protector of the fey lands and the herald of the Courts.
The Seelie and Unseelie kings and queens then departed, the revelry now done and all but forgot about the noble gryphon that they had sired. But the gryphon did not forget its charge. It watched as the beautiful unicorn gave birth the healing powers, and from those powers gave life to the pegasi and alicorn. And when the skys were peppered with these fey equestrians, they gave birth to foals with gills and fins and the hippocampi and kelpie were born.
The gryphon watched as the manticore, soaked in blood of its prey, laid the eggs to deeper monstrosities, like the chimera with their breath of flames, and the simurgh with its terrible howl. But the gryphon did not change, instead watching from its perch and roost as its siblings spread like an illness among the enchanted wood.
Each of the creatures stayed to their own hunting grounds, and the noble gryphon saw no reason to interfere. Until the manticore and its children saw weakness in the herd of the unicorn and decided that it was time to settle old grudges. The first attack was swift, the manticore and simurgh taking to the skies while the chimera set their sights to the unicorn on the ground. It was bloody and violent and over quickly, as no quarter was given to unicorn, alicorn, or Pegasus.
Anger filling the marrow of its bones, the gryphon knew now was the purpose for which it had been designed and launched itself to the sky. While the manticore and its kin glibly committed to aerial acrobatics, the gryphon circled hungrily.
The first to fall were the simurgh, with who the gryphon showed as little mercy as had been shown to the alicorn and pegasi. Its mighty beak ripped and rend the hides of its winged hawk-like cousins, and the gryphon at last tasted the blood of destiny upon its beak. It was so complete in its task, so perfectly designed a hunter of these savage monstrosities, that when it was done the simurgh had been destroyed utterly and was never seen on this world again.
The manticore saw the danger in this creature, now seen to be its match and perfect killer. The manticore fled, across the world and from the wood where it had been born and swore never to return so long as the gryphon held sway over the skies of the enchanted wood. Content with this, for now, the gryphon fell to the ground, catching the burning scent of the chimera, tracking it as it moved to hide from the superior monster.
It did not take long for the gryphon to find the beast, with head of lion, and body of goat, and hissing violent snake for tail. It had run as fast and as long as it could, but was no match for the gryphon that tracked it. When at last it was expended, wheezing from exertion on the floor of the forest, the gryphon stalked up to it, covering it like the shadow of death, and looked upon the depressing creature without sympathy or regret. The creature lifted its head, as if to beg mercy from the creature of which they both were designed, but the lion in the gryphon saw only weakness, a weakness that needed to be snuffed. With a single, sharp, decisive snap of its beak, the chimera lay dead at its feet.
The final task left to the gryphon was the recovery of the first of the three creatures created by the Seelie and Unseelie Kings and Queens. The gryphon searched for many weeks until he found the scent and the trail of silver and blue blood that led it to the last of the unicorn. The first and last of the creature, weakened and wounded, raised its head in pleading to the gryphon.
Approaching as it had to the chimera, the gryphon instead laid its head beside the unicorn, comforting it, and laid a great wing over the burns and gashes that showed across the body of the noble beast. The unicorns breath slowed, and calmness passed over it. As it looked into the eye of the gryphon it knew it had nothing to fear. It lifted up its head, and leaned in as close as it could to the gryphon.
Understanding what it asked, in a way that only creatures as old as they could, the gryphon leaned its head in as well, and feather touched horn as the two creatures communed. A thanks for their assistance, for the revenge that had been delivered for the death of its children, and a promise requested to watch over the lands of the unicorn when it was no longer able. All of these things were accepted and agreed to by the gryphon as it laid its wing across the eyes of the last unicorn.
With tears in its eyes, for even great creatures that are as old as time can cry, the gryphon bowed its head as if to pray, and bit hard and fast, and slayed the last of the unicorn. The gryphon stood, frustration and anger that dwarfed what had begun its task in its breast, and with a mighty beat of its wings lifted off from the forest floor. It had slain the first of the creatures of the fey, and felt that it was responsible for the deaths of all the others. It was no longer a creature of the enchanted wood, and its task was not yet completed.
As it flew away, on the hunt to destroy the manticore, the creature that had begun this terrible ordeal, its wings beating swiftly, a single feather fell from its wing and floated down to the ground. As it sat there, encompassed by the magic of the fairy wilds, it began to grow and change into a beautiful flower, the outside silvery blue and the inner petals red and brown. A thing of the three noble creatures of the fey; the unicorn, the manticore, and the gryphon.